Ragenfredis

ON ST. RAGENFREDIS, ABBESS OF DENAIN NEAR VALENCIENNES IN HAINAUT,

About the year DCCCV.

HISTORICO-CRITICAL COMMENTARY.

Ragenfredis, abbess of Denain near Valenciennes in Hainaut. (S.)

BHL Number: 7055

BY J. G.

§ I. A fuller notice of the Acts of St. Ragenfredis, which Du Sollier had discussed in passing: the credit of each: the announcement of the Saint in the sacred Calendars.

Concerning the site of the house of virgins of the Canonesses of Denain, noble ones, as they are commonly called, our predecessors have treated often enough in our Work, [Among the Acts of St. Ragenfredis, concerning which Du Sollier had formerly proposed his doubts in vain,] and in particular in volume 3 of April, page 73 and page 628, and again in volume 1 of July, page 266, so that to go over this same argument again would be altogether superfluous. Nor would it be very necessary either that, after the judgement passed by Du Sollier on the Acts of St. Regina and her daughter St. Ragenfredis, another and fuller notice of them should be supplied here, had not our said predecessor, in the cited volume 1 of July, page 267, number 4 of his Commentary on St. Regina, referred those same Acts, both handwritten and published in print, which he calls longer narrations concerning our Saint, to her birthday, the 8th of October, to be examined professedly. He had, namely, brought himself, I believe, to think that it would undoubtedly come about that to those things which

he had proposed as doubts in his most courteous letters of the 20th day of May in the year 1715 concerning St. Regina and her holy offspring Ragenfredis, some answer would at length at some time be submitted by those skilled in the affairs of Denain, either to himself, or at least in the lapse of time to his successors, by the help of which there might be brought to criticism, or emended, in some way at least by this day, not only those things which are built up concerning our Saint and her mother in the contracted Annals of Hainaut of Jacques de Guise, published in French at Paris in the year 1531, but also all the other things in the fragments, in our possession, of the Annals of the same de Guise written more fully in Latin but hitherto unedited, and in the prolix Gallo-Belgian manuscript work of Jean d'Arleux, much more verbosely than truly.

[2] But Du Sollier was deceived in his hope; nor, after new attempts toward the same goal, has the matter succeeded according to my wishes much better than for him. Which indeed far be it from me [and the things which come to be illustrated here more fully together with the matters pertaining to the Saint,] to ascribe either to the inertia, or to a will averse to the hagiophiles of their nation, of those who ought to have a deeper view of the affairs either of St. Ragenfredis or of her house of virgins; so that on the contrary it is to be attributed solely to the extreme scarcity of ancient monuments, which I found out with toil. These things bring it about that it is not in my power to fulfil in every respect the hope conceived of us up to this day; and also that I am compelled to enter upon a way somewhat different from that which I should otherwise have wished to follow in illustrating the Life of St. Ragenfredis. Not on that account, however, shall I knowingly and willingly leave untouched whatever conducive to the illustration of the deeds and ecclesiastical cult of our Saint, and also, as Du Sollier gave hope, of her house of virgins, has come into my hands from elsewhere after diligent and long investigation, or has been supplied with his highest and wonted courtesy by the most ample and most learned Lord Henri-Denis Mutte, dean of the metropolitan church of Cambrai, and vicar general and Official of the same archdiocese.

[3] [the first place is held by the Life of SS. Regina and Ragenfredis, which is shown to have been written by an author not contemporary,] I take my beginning from the fuller notice of the Acts indicated at number 1. And first indeed, that the Life of SS. Regina and Ragenfredis, or, if you prefer so to call it, the former part of the Legend, which the aforesaid de Guise, doctor of Theology of the Order of St. Francis and an author of the end of the fourteenth century, brought into his Latin Annals of Hainaut, hitherto unedited, book 12, chapter 26 and the 3 following, cannot be reckoned among the monuments contemporary or nearly contemporary with St. Ragenfredis, can be proved even from the fact that in the same book 12, chapter 31, these words are read concerning Fredesendis, who was set over the nuns of Denain, as it seems, at least not earlier than the year 1034: For she herself ordered the Life of saint Regina and the miracles of saint Ragenfredis to be written. Nor is there reason why anyone should contend that that word describi, or the vernacular escripre corresponding to it in the Annals of Hainaut published in French, is to be so expounded as if that life had not been first composed about the middle of the IXth century, but had then been merely transcribed from an old codex, or one of the not much advanced ninth century, into a recent one: for it is not probable that the author of that Life, a cleric of Denain, as appears, if he had been contemporary or nearly contemporary with St. Ragenfredis, would have been ignorant of the names of the parents of St. Regina, whose Life too he was writing, and would have contradicted himself so ineptly as he does, so as to make now Pippin, son of Ansegisel and victor over Theoderic III at Tertry in the year of Christ 687, now Pippin, son of Charles Martel and at length anointed king in the city of Soissons in the year of Christ 752, the maternal uncle of St. Regina, of whom St. Ragenfredis was born about the year 755, and again to call the mother of our Saint the granddaughter of some emperor Pippin.

[4] But why do I linger in relating these and very many other errors? [and accordingly it does not merit the same credit where it treats of the deeds of the Saint,] Since from the Annals of the said de Guise, both the Latin unedited and the French printed, and from the very style of the whole Legend, it sufficiently appears that the author who recounted the deeds of SS. Regina and Ragenfredis is plainly the same who committed to letters the ruin inflicted in the ninth century by the Normans on the house of virgins of Denain, and the restoration of the house of virgins which at length followed in the middle of the eleventh century. The former part of his work, therefore, that is, the history of the deeds of St. Ragenfredis, is not of such great authority, especially in those places in which plainly singular deeds are ascribed to her, or which are not wont to be preserved pure and unblemished by tradition alone over the course of two hundred and fifty years, that it ought to extort credence, much less that it should be printed entire, or at least for the greater part, in place of Acts at the foot of this Commentary. But, as regards the history of the body of St. Ragenfredis, carried from the house of virgins of Denain to Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne in the tenth century, the same anonymous author, as he is far nearer in age to this event, is much more worthy of credit, both because whatever he relates here he could easily have learned either from the common assertion of the elders of Denain, or from the faithful relation of Gerard the priest, to be mentioned more at length in his place below, received from his parents, perhaps eye-witnesses of the event; and because he brings forward nothing in this part of his work which is out of harmony with the customs of the tenth century, and which cannot be confirmed from elsewhere by many examples.

[5] Concerning the things which the same anonymous writer subjoins as having happened under Ermentrude, [than where he treats of the translations of her body and of the things that followed,] abbess of Denain from about the year 1029 up to 1034, and then under Fredesendis, substituted for her after her death, there is even much less room for doubting; since the anonymous could either have seen these things with his own eyes, or certainly have understood them from the mouth of the latter prelate, and, as is altogether probable, understood them to be confirmed in very fact, namely before he put his hand to his Work by order of the aforesaid Fredesendis. But lest a doubt should perhaps arise in anyone concerning the age of this anonymous asserted by me, I am pleased to place here before the reader's eyes certain words of his which make the matter plain, from chapter 6 of his work, but from book 12, chapter 31 of de Guise's Latin Work. Thus, then, he, when he had said that the monastery of Denain had been more fully restored by the care and solicitude of Fredesendis, which indeed seems to have been done about the middle of the eleventh century, presently writes of the same: Of whose industry and talent very many things are held to be related , but they must be spoken of more sparingly, since wisdom forbids praising a person in his Life. For she herself ordered the Life of St. Regina (which is also to be understood of the Life of St. Ragenfredis woven into it, as we hinted above) and the Miracles of St. Ragenfredis (the book of which seems to have perished) to be written, and restored to Denain the body of saint Ragenfredis, so long taken from her church, in such order (as he narrates in chapter 32 and following, to be recited below).

[6] [which also has place in the lessons of her ecclesiastical Office, the Rhythm, etc.] And hence the learned reader will easily gather that the three Lessons of the Office of Denain to be edited below, which recount the bringing back of the body of St. Ragenfredis on the 11th day of June, inasmuch as they are fortified by contemporary testimonies, are worthy of greater credit than the six which narrate the deeds of the same Saint at the 8th of October and the following day, and which rest solely on the authority of a writer contemporary with the abbess Fredesendis, and therefore removed almost 250 years from the death of St. Ragenfredis, or on a tradition not equally approved in all things. Of the latter kind too are the Rhythm, or, as it is commonly called, the Sequence, taken from the former part of that Legend, wont to be recited on this day before the first Gospel of the Mass, and the nine ecclesiastical Lessons on the deeds of St. Ragenfredis of the Breviary of Cambrai published at Paris in the year 1497; since both that Rhythm and those Lessons seem to have drawn their origin from the same not sufficiently unmuddied source. Now let us observe some things also on the Lessons of the Breviary of Denain, different from the former, which commemorate the elevation of the body of our holy Abbess on the 2nd day of September.

[7] [The Lessons, however, on the elevation of her body merit greater credit, at least as to substance.] These, as I find noted at the end of the Breviary of Denain, conformed to the norm of the Roman in the year 1625, are taken from the ancient manuscript monuments of the church of Denain, whose Breviary was written with the pen in the year 1258. But whether those monuments are contemporary or at least nearly contemporary with the elevation of the body of saint Ragenfredis is nowhere indicated there. However these things may be, at any rate enough things concur which win for those monuments, and for the Lessons drawn from them of which we treat here, much greater authority and credit than for the single assertions of the aforesaid anonymous concerning the life of St. Ragenfredis. And first indeed nothing is read in those monuments, or rather in the Lessons taken from them, which is not probable, and which has not been admitted by the common consent of the learned from the thirteenth century up to our times. Add that, contrary to what happens more than once in the narration of the anonymous of Denain concerning the deeds of St. Ragenfredis, nothing occurs in the same Lessons which is adverse to, or less congruous with, either the customs of the eighth or ninth century, or the canons of the councils of that time, or the diplomas of princes, or testimonies of undoubted credit. Finally this also bears on it, that Blessed Ava, mentioned in volume 3 of April, page 628, by whose work and counsel, after the use of her eyes had been divinely received, the body of our holy Abbess is related there to have been duly elevated, really lived at Denain in the grown ninth century, and showed herself munificent toward the church and house of virgins of her Healer; so that the memory of this event, at least as to substance, could most easily both be retained and be propagated unblemished to posterity, either by the perennial commemoration of Blessed Ava in the ecclesiastical Offices or particular Calendars of the house of virgins or by any other domestic documents whatever; and at length was not without reason brought into the very Breviary of the church of Denain; which indeed was done certainly not later than the year 1258, as is altogether proved from the Breviary praised above.

[8] [as also that part of the manuscript Gallo-Belgian History of St. Ragenfredis which recounts some miracles.] I come now to that long manuscript Gallo-Belgian History of 88 pages in folio, mentioned by our Du Sollier in the cited volume 1 of July, page 267, which the Reverend Dom Thomas Luytens, then subprior of the abbey of Liessies and afterwards its most reverend abbot, communicated to our predecessors in the last century. This work can be divided into three parts, of which the first, inasmuch as it derives the origin of the line of France from the Trojan kings down to St. Ragenfredis, must certainly be sent off to the fables; the second, which presents a narration of the deeds of St. Regina and saint Ragenfredis drawn from the Legend mentioned above or from de Guise's Annals, does not everywhere merit equal credit; the third

which comprises the miracles performed in the sixteenth century by the patronage of St. Ragenfredis, is far from fables. The Jean d'Arleux praised at number 1, chaplain priest of Denain toward the end of the sixteenth century, given this name perhaps from his birthplace Arleux, which is situated in the territory of Cambrai, professes himself in our copy to be the author of this last part. Whether this Arleux of ours was also the author of the first and second part of that History, or only the copyist, I have nothing from which to define, nor does it much matter to us to know it. Further, besides the prodigies and benefits obtained by the patronage of St. Ragenfredis both in his own time and in the neighbouring time, the epoch of which he therefore expressed accurately, he also brought some other things into this third part of his work, but nowhere marking the year or day on which they happened, undoubtedly because the monuments of Denain which he had as his guides likewise did not present the epoch of those prodigies.

[9] These things having been set forth first concerning the distinction and credit of the documents which treat professedly of St. Ragenfredis, [The Saint, in the Litanies of the diocese of Cambrai at least from the tenth century] I subjoin her announcements in the ecclesiastical tables or sacred Calendars, both that it may be altogether established in advance concerning her varying name and her ecclesiastical cult, to be illustrated more broadly below, and that not a few things to be disputed in the following § may receive some light from here. And first indeed, although the holy Abbess is not mentioned in the Martyrologies which we call Classical, nonetheless it is now beyond all doubt that she was mentioned and invoked at least in the tenth century in the solemn formulas of ecclesiastical prayers. This I was taught by that notable manuscript codex of the metropolitan church of Cambrai which Hildoard, bishop of Cambrai, in the twenty-second year of his episcopate (for so the inscription itself runs), adorned on the outside with two beautifully carved ivory tablets, and into which, after the Book of Sacraments of St. Gregory, Pope, copied by order of Hildoard about the year 812, there was inserted, and is still found there now, an Order for visiting and anointing the sick, written in a hand of the Xth century, as the experts judge, containing, among other prayers, most prolix Litanies, in which among the holy Virgins are invoked saint Eusebia, saint Ragenfledis and other undoubted saints.

[10] And that this custom of invoking our Saint in the Litanies persisted in the diocese of Cambrai, and thereafter solemnly invoked, even after its separation from that of Arras, undoubted credence is given by a notable codex, written in an elegant hand in the twelfth century, which formerly belonged to the Priory of Blessed Mary of Aymeries in the diocese of Cambrai, but now exists in the library of Saint-André-du-Cateau in the Cambrésis. For in this codex, which comprises various things on the rites of conferring Baptism, of extreme Unction, of burial and other things of this kind, among the prayers to be recited for the dying there exists a Litany to be sung before the death of a brother, and in it likewise our Saint is invoked in this order: St. Aldegund, St. Maxellendis, St. Ragenfledis, St. Rictrudis, St. Amalberga, etc. I should be too long if I were to enumerate one by one the ecclesiastical Calendars by which it can be proved that the cult of our Saint persisted constantly in the same diocese. Yet of the many which became known to me through the kindness and courtesy of Mutte, praised above, I cannot but recount at least four, if only for the sake of testifying a grateful mind.

[11] and in the ecclesiastical Calendars of the same diocese, Accordingly, at the beginning of the manuscript codex of the church of Cambrai marked CVII, and written in the twelfth century, which contains the Collects and Antiphons through the year, there exists a Calendar in which, in the month of October, is read: On the 8th day before the Ides of October, of Ragenfledis, Valeria and Benedicta. Likewise in another codex of the same church, in which the Psalter distributed through the days of the week and other things pertaining to the rites of the Sacraments are written in a hand of the end of the twelfth century, there is found at the beginning a Calendar, in which the rite of the cult then paid to St. Ragenfredis is also expressed, namely in these words: On the 8th day before the Ides of October, of Rainfledis, Valeria, Benedicta, Virgins, III ℞. With these agree the ancient Liber Ordinarius of saint Mary of Cambrai, which was written at the beginning of the episcopate of Godefroy de Condé, prelate of Cambrai from the year of Christ 1219, and also the Calendar of the Breviary of the same church, written about the year 1296 by the care and at the expense of Ubald de Sartis, formerly dean; to which the Liber Ordinarius marked 303 is also conformable, written about the end of the fourteenth century and containing also Additions of the fifteenth century, except that in this an Office of IX Lessons is ascribed by the first hand in this manner: On the 8th day before the Ides, of Ragenfredis, virgin, IX L. ✠; and finally an Office of yet higher rite on fol. 77 in the Additions, in these words: Of Ragenfredis, virgin, a great double is made. At first Vespers, Antiphons and Psalms of the feria… The first six Lessons proper: Beata Ragenfredis; the last three from the Gospel.

[12] and likewise in the Martyrologies, her name however variously inflected, So celebrated and so constant an ecclesiastical veneration of our Saint in the diocese of Cambrai undoubtedly brought it about that her name was continually brought into the martyrologies commonly used there; of which matter a clear testimony is afforded by various announcements supplied to me by the same most distinguished man Denis Mutte, of which the first, which is found in a manuscript codex of the abbey of the Holy Sepulchre of Cambrai, marked XIII. 7: 12, and written about the middle of the XIIth century, has thus at the 8th day before the Ides of October: On the same day at Doneng, of saint Rainfredis, virgin; and the second, which is taken from the Martyrology of the abbey of St. Stephen of Fémy in the diocese of Cambrai, written toward the end of the twelfth century, in this manner: On the 8th day before the Ides of October… The deposition of St. Ragenfledis; and the third finally, which is drawn from the Martyrology of the monastery of Saint-André-du-Cateau in the Cambrésis, copied about two hundred years ago from an ancient exemplar, runs thus: On the 8th day before the Ides of October. At Denain, the birthday of saint Ragenfredis, virgin. And that it may also be manifestly evident that the knowledge of our Saint was not confined within the present borders of the diocese of Cambrai, I am pleased to subjoin the announcements of other Martyrologies too, by which both the things already said and those still to be said about the cult of the Saint may be most firmly established.

[13] as also in other Martyrologies, and in particular in that of Molanus, Of these, the Auctarium of Usuard which is called the Rosweydine, and which was written about the year 1138 for the use of the church of St. Mary of Utrecht, with the name of our holy Abbess inflected somewhat otherwise (which also happens often enough elsewhere), celebrates her on this day in Du Sollier, page 586, in these words: Likewise of St. Regenfledis, virgin; and the Centula one in the same place mentions her somewhat more fully: On the same day, in the territory of Arras, of St. Ragemfledis, virgin and abbess; and more sparingly the Brussels and Anchin ones; the former in this manner: And of saint Ragenfredis, virgin; and the latter thus: On the same day, of saint Ragenfledis, virgin; above the rest, however, our manuscript Florarium makes mention of her on this day most meagrely and at the same time wrongly, in these words: Likewise of the holy virgins Regenfledis and Libaria, martyrs. Greven only mentions Rainfredis, virgin; but the German Martyrology ascribed to Peter Canisius and Jan Molanus at this day, partly following perhaps the mentioned codex of the abbey of the Holy Sepulchre of Cambrai, expressly added to their announcement the place of the Saint's death, situated in the diocese of Arras, which is also called from time to time Denonium, Denaium, Denainum, Domniacum and Diniacum; the former in these, but German, words: In the monastery of Denain, situated between Valenciennes and Cambrai (nay rather between Douai), of saint Rainfredis, virgin; and the latter thus: On the same day (namely the 8th of October) at Donaey, of saint Rainfredis, virgin; and again in the later editions: At Denain, the solemnity of saint Ragenfredis, virgin. From which I should like the reader also to notice how variously the name of our Saint is expressed, so that he may not stick below where he will see it written by some in another way than that in which it is written in the Acts themselves.

[14] The later hagiologists have followed the Molanus just praised almost word for word, who also mentioned the elevation and bringing back of her body, announced, Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, Arthur du Monstier in his Gynaeceum, Lahier, Willot, Du Saussay, Chastelain in his Universal Martyrology, the author of the Paris Martyrology printed in the year 1727, and others whom I pass over, that I may return to Molanus. He, not content to celebrate only the solemnity of St. Ragenfredis wont to be held every year at Denain on this day, also inserted in his Martyrology on the 2nd day of September the elevation of her body, namely in these words: At Denain, the elevation of the body of saint Ragenfredis, virgin; and on the 11th day of June he likewise celebrated the bringing back of her body, namely from Neufchâtel to the church of Denain, concerning which see § VIII and what is to be said below, in this manner: On the same day, the bringing back of the body of saint Ragenfredis, virgin.

[15] There are also other sacred Calendars in which the solemnity of our Saint is celebrated on this day, not without a eulogy. [with a eulogy, but not everywhere accurate, in the Calendars of the Canons Regular] And Costantino Ghini, Canon Regular, announces her indeed in the Birthdays of the Canons Regular, as no slight glory of his Order, in this manner: At Denain, the solemnity of saint Ragenfredis, virgin. She had as father blessed Aldebert, count of Ostrevant, and as mother St. Regina, granddaughter of king Pippin: for these pious parents founded on their own property the monastery of Denain on the Scheldt; over which their blessed daughter Regenfridis presided. She adorned the dignity of her origin by uprightness of morals and the brightness of holy works, and was translated from an earthly kingdom to the kingdom of the heavenly King her spouse: and was buried and elevated at Denain: and although her sacred relics were at one time carried off thence, yet, recovered through the work of two clerics, they are venerated with fitting honour. She flourished about the year of the Lord 790. So he, but not everywhere, as will be evident from what is to be said, equally accurately, although he praises here as accurate the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium published by Peter Louw under the name of Molanus, from which, as from many others, we shall show below that one must depart in more than one matter.

[16] The Benedictine hagiologists, inasmuch as they contend against the Canons Regular that St. Ragenfredis was a member of their Order, and she is also mentioned in the hagiologies of the Order of St. Benedict. did not think she should be omitted in their Calendars, and above the rest Arnold Wion in the Lignum Vitae, book 3, page 334, praises her as an abbess of the Order of St. Benedict. Bucelin likewise wove a eulogy for our Saint as a member of his Order, not much differing from the one already given, and therefore no more everywhere consonant with the truth. Ménard likewise made her a Benedictine at the 2nd day of September, on which he announces the elevation of her body; although, what is quite wonderful, at the 8th day of October, on which her principal solemnity is kept, he does not mention her by even a single word. Mabillon too, in the Third Benedictine Century, part 2, Ragenfredis

he commemorated among the Benedictine Saints, having it, as he writes, for a certain persuasion that she was a nun of his Order, yet among the Passed Over, because her Acts, which he judged could be edited by him, had not become known to him. For the rest, whether St. Ragenfredis, or, as the more recent Breviary of Denain has, Ragemfredis, called in French Refroie, Rainfroi and Rainfroid, in very fact followed the Rule of St. Benedict, as the Benedictines affirm, we shall examine below in its place. Now I set about mentioning and discussing two other ancient testimonies, which, although they treat of our Saint neither at length nor professedly, will yet be of use in this Commentary more than once, and indeed chiefly.

* Perhaps merentur deserve?

* Perhaps etiam also?

§ II. The authority of the Caroline Charter of Denain and of the Chronicle of Cambrai, which mention the Saint and her monastery, is established.

When our Du Sollier, in the cited volume 1 of July, had not only purposed in mind to elucidate the Life of St. Regina by the rules of fair criticism, [The Caroline diploma, which makes the Saint the foundress of the monastery of Denain,] but also wished to pour the long-desired light on the history of the house of virgins of Denain, he took pains above all, in his most courteous letters, as I have already advised at number 1, that some notices should be submitted to us by those skilled in the affairs of Denain, from which he might at least pronounce safely enough of what account the celebrated charter or Caroline donation of Denain was to be made, and of what value were the Acts both of St. Regina and of St. Ragenfredis. But neither for him concerning either matter, nor likewise for me after the greatest diligence applied, did so much light at length shine forth thence as could have been hoped. Lest, however, that which is almost the principal thing in the deeds of our Saint, namely the building of the house of virgins of Denain, should remain uncertain now just as before, and lest present-day writers too, after the example of their predecessors, should continue to ascribe to her parents the praise due to St. Ragenfredis, it has seemed good both not to spare labour and to bring forward things drawn from elsewhere, and so to dispute more laboriously here about the author, epoch and credit of that diploma, so that it may be manifestly evident why in assigning the foundress of that house of virgins I depart altogether from the opinion handed down by Molanus, Louw, Locre, Mabillon and very many others. And since Baldric, the writer of the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras, can add no slight weight to my opinion against the assertion of the anonymous writer of Denain of the eleventh century and of more recent writers on the same argument, it has seemed good to subjoin likewise some things concerning his authority in that matter.

[18] I take my beginning from that diploma. Those who long ago published this celebrated charter, [concerning whose author and epoch various and conflicting things have been written,] which you have entire at number 86 and following, by pen or afterwards in print, went off into opinions so opposed concerning its author and epoch, and so little consistent with themselves, that they deservedly furnished a handle for doubting whether it ever really proceeded from some king of the Franks, and so whether this Caroline Donation (by which name Du Sollier called this charter suspect to him) was not in reality plainly fictitious. And indeed the said de Guise, in the cited book 12, chapter 35, writes that it was given by Charlemagne in the 37th year of his reign in Francia, the second of his empire, and in the year from the Incarnation of Christ 905, and the same chronological marks appear in his Annals published in French, volume 2, folio 49 verso. On the contrary, a certain anonymous writer in Labarre, volume 6, part 2 of the manuscript Collection of the monasteries of Belgium, and perhaps the already praised author of the Collection himself, page 416, determined that that diploma could be referred to Charles surnamed the Simple, king of the Franks from the year 900, as he himself would have it, up to 927. And Locre in his Belgian Chronicle, page 103, asserts that it was issued by Charlemagne in the year of Christ 805, and praises the very Annals of de Guise as witnesses of his assertion; but wrongly and in vain, as will be evident from what has already been said and what is to be said below.

[19] Let us now examine each of the opinions just mentioned in the same order. is shown not to have been granted by Charlemagne or by Charles the Simple; And first indeed, since in the year of Christ 905 Charlemagne had already been dead 91 years, inasmuch as he did not live beyond the 28th of January of the year 814, no one fails to see that, contrary to what is built up in the French Annals of de Guise and in our manuscript fragments of his Latin Work, this diploma, these chronological characters standing, could by no means have been granted by the emperor Charlemagne. Nor indeed can it be asserted with any appearance of truth that that diploma proceeded from Charles, king of the Franks, surnamed the Simple, in the year of Christ 905, the second year of his empire, and the thirty-seventh of his reign in Francia; this is clearly proved even from the fact that this prince, as the learned know, never presided over the Roman empire, and that, even if it were gratuitously determined that he at some time presided over it, still not even so could the 37th year of his Frankish reign, or the 38th marked in the diploma, be reconciled with the year of Christ 905, much less with the Xth indiction expressed in the same diploma, as will be evident to anyone entering on the reckonings. Finally, that, contrary to what Locre contends on the cited page 103, that diploma ought by no means, nor can it at all, be drawn back to Charlemagne and to the year 805, in which he was indeed alive, is manifestly plain also from the very chronological marks of the same instrument existing in de Guise, and from other words of the diploma.

[20] For although, as I have already said, in the year 805 Charles surnamed the Great, king of the Franks and at the same time emperor, was alive, yet, although it has been suspect to some, yet then it was not the second year of the Empire, in which that diploma is noted to have been given, but the fifth year of the empire of Charlemagne, already begun seven months before, that was in course, namely from the feast of the Lord's Nativity of the year 800, as is agreed among the learned. Add to this that in the same year 805 it was not the Xth Indiction (for this, as I have already advised, that charter presents) but the thirteenth that was running; and finally that at that time St. Ragenfredis seems either to have been still alive, or certainly to have died only a little before, and the last hand had been put to her house of virgins only a short time before; so that a diploma in which she is mentioned as long since dead and honoured with the honours of the Heaven-dwellers (see the words at number 87 about the middle), and in which discourse is made about restoring her house of virgins to its former state, can in no way be ascribed to the emperor Charlemagne or to the year of Christ 805. Not without cause, therefore, did our Du Sollier, as I learn from his letters mentioned above, hold that diploma suspect; nor likewise without reason did Le Cointe, since he had not seen any other fragment of it than that which Locre had edited in the cited place, declare in his Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 805, number 108, that the Denain diploma itself, inasmuch as it seemed unable to be reconciled with the chronological characters used in the age of Charlemagne and with documents of approved credit, was to be rejected and was of no authority with him.

[21] it cannot be held for fictitious, since its true chronological marks But what at length, you will ask, is to be determined about the Caroline donation itself, or the celebrated charter of Denain? I answer: although the copies of it already mentioned are undoubtedly very faulty, and the very exemplar of this charter which Le Mire edited in book 2 of the Belgian Diplomas, chapter 12, although much more accurate than the aforesaid, yet does not lack its blemish; nonetheless the charter of Denain itself is by no means to be held for fictitious, but on the contrary deserves great credit, and that by which the building of the house of virgins of Denain is by right deservedly adjudged to St. Ragenfredis. For, as is now altogether ascertained from Le Mire's copy of the same diploma, and from another which was supplied to me by the distinguished man Monsieur Tordreau, royal vice-provost of the city of Valenciennes (called in French Lieutenant Prévôt), in that diploma neither the year of Christ 805 nor 905 is expressed, but these following chronological marks appear: On the Ides of August, in the Xth Indiction, in the XXXVIIIth year of king Charles in Francia and the IInd of his empire; and since these, as is plain even from Labbe's Chronological Concordance alone, suit no Charles, king of the Franks and at the same time emperor, except Charles surnamed the Bald, we have from these alone defined both the author of this diploma and the very time at which it was given, namely the year of Christ 877; with which also all the things which are narrated in the diploma itself concerning St. Ragenfredis and the house of virgins of Denain over which she presided agree closely. Let us demonstrate each in a few words.

[22] agree closely with themselves and with documents of approved credit, In the year of Christ 877, now assigned, on the Ides of August, the Xth Indiction was indeed running, as will be evident to anyone entering on the numbers; likewise in course was the 38th year, there expressed, of the Frankish reign of Charles, namely the Bald, inasmuch as he received the Western part of his father's kingdom in the year 839, as is plain from Nithard in volume 7 of the Writers on Gallic Affairs, page 15. From the Annals of St. Bertin, in the same volume, page 119, it also becomes manifest that in the aforesaid year of Christ 877 the second year of the empire of the same Charles was in course; since in the year of the Lord DCCCLXXV, or, as the reading of those Annals has — which, however (as is well to be noted), begin the years of Christ from the feast of the Nativity — in the year of the Lord DCCCLXXVI, Charles, offering many and precious gifts to blessed Peter on the day of the Lord's Nativity, was anointed and crowned emperor and called emperor of the Romans. Moreover, in the aforesaid year of Christ 877 St. Ragenfredis had already died most piously long enough before that she could most easily have attained in that course of time, namely about 70 years, the fame of holiness and the ecclesiastical veneration which that diploma attributes to her. Finally, not to be too prolix, in that interval of time the house of virgins of Denain, through the frequent incursions of the Normans into the Belgic regions, and partly perhaps also through the insolence of rectors who, as they had done in the neighbouring monastery of Elnone (see volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 257), converted the goods of the house of virgins to their own uses, not only could have suffered, but undoubtedly did suffer, such grave detriments that it greatly needed to be restored to its former state.

[23] But, you will say, although from what has been said it is manifest [and its unusual clause is to be ascribed solely to the unskilfulness of a more recent copyist,] that that diploma can be determined to have been issued by no other prince than Charles the Bald, king and at the same time emperor, and at no other time than in the year of Christ 877, and so one of the principal reasons why that diploma could formerly have been held spurious is hence removed; yet it cannot on that account be called genuine, and be held worthy of credit in those things which it asserts of St. Ragenfredis. But I ask, why so? Because, namely, in most of its copies, and even in Le Mire

in book 2 of the Belgian Diplomas, chapter 12, and in volume 8 of the Writers on Gallic Affairs, page 673, this unusual clause is found: … notary, I have written; and again, because the Pandiacum palace, in which it is noted to have been drawn up, is fictitious; and finally because it has been interpolated in various places. Let us discuss of what moment each of these is. I confess that the aforesaid clause, as it exists in Le Mire and in the Writers on Gallic Affairs, is foreign to the common usage of the diplomas of the ninth century; but that is not a certain indication of a supposititious charter, but the fault of I know not what copyist, who, since he was either less intelligent of the matter he was handling, or did not have sufficiently keen and sharp eyes, could not reproduce entire the formula often used in the charters of Charles the Bald: I, Audacher, notary, in place of Gauzlin, have subscribed, and wrote some dots at his own discretion in place of the other words which he omitted.

[24] Certainly that the name of the notary (and let the same judgement be passed on the other words not expressed there) was not omitted in the diploma itself [as also the omission of the name of the notary, and the faulty indication of the Pandiacum palace,] is concluded from a fairly old copy of this charter which is with us, inasmuch as in it the name of that notary, although not a little altered (for Micater is read for Audacher), is found expressed. Undoubtedly the same not sufficiently great skill of the copyists of this diploma, or the obscurity of the diploma itself, somewhat worn or eaten away by age toward the end, brought it about that for the Pontiliacum palace, the present town of the county of Burgundy, called in the vernacular Pontarlier, as I shall show below, by an easy slip τὸ Pandiaco palatio and τὸ Parisiaco palatio are found written in the copies. But an error of copyists of this kind is not of such weight as to take away anything of its authority from the diploma itself; since in that immense collection of diplomas edited in this and the preceding century very few are found which were not first copied less accurately by some copyist, or did not labour under some similar blemish in the handwritten or first printed copies; which latter, however, having afterwards been restored to their original fidelity by the industry and second cares of antiquaries, deservedly claim for themselves equal authority with the rest.

[25] But you will ask on what reasoning I dare to determine that that charter was issued in the Pontiliacum palace, and the site of that palace, which Mabillon, or rather Michel Germain, the true author of the fourth book On Diplomatics, did not dare to define, [in place of which was to be put the Pontiliacum palace, in which Charles the Bald,] at the town commonly called Pontarlier. I answer that I do this partly on account of the words of the Annals of St. Bertin, volume 7 of the Writers on Gallic Affairs, page 123, now to be recited, partly on account of the very epoch expressed in the diploma in question, namely the Ides of August, the Xth Indiction, that is, the year of Christ 877. I report the words of the said Annals at this year: And the lord emperor Charles, going from Quierzy to Compiègne, and thence through Soissons to the city of Reims, and so making his journey through Châlons and Ponthion and Langres … sought Italy from Francia. And coming beyond the Jura as far as Orbe, he met Adalgar the bishop… And after some things which do not immediately bear on this, the Annals proceed thus on page 124: The same Adalgar announced to the emperor among other things that Pope John (VIII of this name) was coming to meet him at Pavia… And he himself (Charles the Bald) hastened on to him, whom he met at the city of Vercelli, and having received him with the greatest honour, they went on together as far as Pavia.

[26] as is proved from his journey into Italy, Now let us weigh the course of this journey, so far as is necessary for our matter, from the diplomas given by the same. Charles stayed at Ponthion on the 4th day before the Ides of July of the same year, and there confirmed by a diploma, which see in the cited volume 8, page 667, an exchange made between the canons of Chablis and the monks of Autun. He halted at the city of Langres on the 12th day before the Kalends of August, and there restored by a diploma issued the villa Cerecium to the monastery of Saint-Denis. After he had made a stay at Moûtier-sur-Seine certainly up to the Kalends of August, on the 3rd day before the Ides of August, or, to use the now common way of reckoning, on the 11th day of August, he halted at the city of Besançon, as is plain from his diploma for the church of Viviers in the cited volume, page 673; and on the very Ides of August, or the 13th day of the same month, he issued our charter of Denain, namely in some royal Palace which certainly was not distant from Besançon more than a three days' journey, nay rather would have been much nearer to this city, unless it be built up that he issued the aforesaid diploma for the church of Viviers on the very day on which the king departed from Besançon, and likewise the diploma in question for the monastery of Denain on the very day on which he came into that royal Palace.

[27] [and from the site of the place Pontiliacum, he seems in very fact to have halted,] Moreover, as is proved from the words of the Annals of St. Bertin recited at number 25, and from the diploma issued at Vercelli in Italy on the 5th day before the Ides of September, which you have in the cited volume, page 674, that royal palace in which the charter of Denain was issued adjoined the royal road leading through the Jura mountain as far as Orbe and thence to Vercelli. These things being so, I hardly doubt that whoever weighs the position of Besançon and of the present town called Pontarlier, and finally of Urba, or Castrum Orbe in the Transjurane district, and at the same time considers the affinity of the name Pontiliacum with the present vernacular Pontarlier, will without difficulty assent to me that the charter of Denain was really issued in the place just now mentioned, and that in it for Pandiaco palatio one must read τὸ Pontiliaco palatio; which, as is plain from another charter of Charles the Bald in Pérard, in the Monuments of Burgundy, pages 48 and 49, is by no means to be banished to the island of Morbonia. And thus we now have it that by the charter of Denain itself neither is a fictitious palace built up where it was drawn up, nor therefore can the same charter on that title deservedly be convicted of doubtful credit.

[28] Let us now proceed to the third argument, [where he granted this diploma, which is undeservedly asserted to have been afterwards interpolated in very many places.] that is, to those very many interpolations with which someone may object to us, from Michel Germain cited above, book 4 On Diplomatics, page 307, that this charter labours. I do not deny that the aforesaid writer on the cited page accused this diploma of very many interpolations and other blemishes; but I am very much mistaken if he could ever prove blemishes in it other than those which I have already shown are to be imputed to its not sufficiently skilled copyist, the authority of very many diplomas of this kind, which either he himself or his companions edited as genuine, namely remaining safe. Finally the author of book 4 On Diplomatics himself admits in the same place that under very many interpolations (which anyone would have wished to see not merely asserted by him at his discretion but solidly proved) there shines a certain splendour of unpainted antiquity, which insinuates that this charter was not forged by design, but formed on the idea of a genuine one that was perishing; so that, although he otherwise played the severer Aristarchus to this diploma, he nevertheless did not dare to take away credit from the facts related in it; nor accordingly can either his censure, nor a similar censure of others, lessen the authority of this charter of Denain.

[29] And these things have been disputed beforehand a little more fully concerning the credit of this diploma, of the Chronicle of Cambrai, which agrees with that diploma, under Gerard I, so that, this having been once vindicated from the objections of adversaries, we might then run through by a less hindered path the things which pertain to St. Ragenfredis and to the house of virgins of Denain founded by her, as we shall prove below from this diploma. To the same end also bear the things which, as I advised at number 17, I now undertake to dispute concerning the author of the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras. If we listen to the writers of the Literary History of France, volume 8, page 404, the author of this Chronicle, Baldric (concerning whom I wish what our Bosch learnedly discoursed in volume 2 of August, page 670, to be held as inserted here), this same Baldric, I say, in their opinion began to write his Chronicle not by order of Gerard I, bishop of Cambrai, but of his remote successor Gerard II: which things, if they were true, would make it follow that the anonymous of Denain, who a little after the middle of the eleventh century prepared the life of SS. Regina and Ragenfredis, ought not to yield the palm of antiquity to Baldric, since Gerard II, under whom as bishop they would have it that Baldric began his Chronicle, succeeded St. Lietbert in the chair of Cambrai only in the year 1076. They strive to establish their opinion, which they pronounce undoubted, by the letter of Gerard II given in the year of Christ 1082 to Hubert, bishop of the Morini, in which, as may be seen in the Testimonies prefixed to Baldric's Chronicle in Colvener's edition, the aforesaid Gerard II calls that Chronicle Work recent. They add that in the second book of the same Chronicle are contained foundations of churches and monasteries made up to the year 1070; and in the third book the history of St. Lietbert, who died in the year 1076; and accordingly they contend that certainly hand was not put to the Work by Baldric before this last year.

[30] But — be it permitted to say it with the leave of the learned men — or written for the great part before the year 1052, from all these things it is not concluded that Baldric did not undertake to write his Chronicle before the year of Christ 1076; but from this it only follows that Baldric afterwards augmented the Chronicle previously brought down from the beginning of the cities of Cambrai and Arras to the times of Gerard I (which will become more evident below to have certainly been done before the year 1052), and at length joined to it the History of St. Lietbert under Gerard II, who, as we have said, was raised to the see of Cambrai in the year 1076. And certainly, since the author himself in his Preface to the second book of the Chronicle, page 220, openly says that he treated in the former book the deeds of the bishops of Cambrai up to the extremity of the lord bishop Gerard, WHO NOW IS, and that Gerard who was alive when Baldric was writing these things is most manifestly Gerard I, who had been chaplain of the emperor Henry and had succeeded Erluin on his death, as becomes perspicuous from the last chapter of book 1; it is likewise evident that Baldric began to write his Chronicle not under Gerard II, that is, after the year 1075, but under the latter's remote predecessor Gerard I, and, besides the entire first book, also prepared the second for the great part, at least before the year 1052, in which Gerard I had most certainly already departed from among the living.

[31] as is shown by various reasons. And as regards what bears on our purpose above the rest, it does not seem to be doubted that, if Baldric really (which is not the place to examine here) comprised in book 2 of his Chronicle some foundations of churches and monasteries made only about the year 1070, of their number

at least was not the restoration of the house of virgins of Denain, inasmuch as he writes that it was made by the counsel of the lord Gerard and of the abbot Leduin, namely of Saint-Vaast, who had died at least thirty years before the episcopate of Gerard II. And since he subjoins that in modern time, that is, either in the same year in which he was occupied with his Chronicle or certainly in a neighbouring one, the cell of Denain was restored to its former state by count Baldwin by the counsel of the same Gerard and Leduin; who does not see that this was done not after the year of Christ 1036, which was the year of Baldwin's death; and therefore that it could not have been said by Baldric to have been done in modern time, unless he had already worked out at least a great part of the second book many years before Gerard II, and certainly even before the middle of the eleventh century? Nor does it much hinder my opinion that Gerard II in the year 1082 called Baldric's Chronicle recent: for besides that this word recent admits in that place a breadth of some elapsed years, it can not undeservedly be said from elsewhere that it was then called recent by him for this reason, that it had then either recently been completed in absolutely every part, that is, also as regards the third book, or had at length been published: so that it cannot by right deservedly be objected against Baldric, who disagrees with the aforesaid anonymous in some matters, that he is younger than the anonymous, and therefore less worthy of credit.

[32] [ought to be greater than the authority of the anonymous of Denain, contemporary with Baldric.] But indeed, even granting gratuitously that the second book of Baldric's Chronicle, or its chapter 28, which bears on this, was written a little after the Legend of the same anonymous, yet scarcely anything, nay rather nothing, would thence be taken from Baldric of the palm of authority; since he, as is abundantly plain from the letters of most excellent men prefixed to his Work, was a man especially lettered for his century, endowed besides with incredible diligence and untiring industry, who, as he himself asserts in the preface of his Chronicle, and the learned commonly agree, brought forward by asserting nothing doubtful, nothing feigned, nothing finally which he had not received either in the Annals or the Histories of the Fathers, or the Deeds of Kings, or also in the charters which were then in the archive of his own church, or had not received both seen and heard from certain relators; and that so great learning or accuracy is lacking in the same anonymous more than one narration of his, to be subjoined below, will make altogether plain. But enough of these things. I now turn to the Saint herself.

§ III. The most noble birth of the Saint: whether she had nine own sisters is inquired: the foundation of the monastery of Denain is to be ascribed to her.

St. Ragenfredis, from Blessed Adalbert and St. Regina, That Ragenfredis was born about the middle of the eighth century of her father Blessed Adalbert, or Aldebert, count of Ostrevant in Belgium, and of her mother St. Regina, a kinswoman of king Pippin, of whom we treated in volume 3 of April, page 73, and volume 1 of July, from page 266, all the monuments concerning our Saint that survive affirm with unanimous voice, and all the Belgian and French writers who some centuries ago made accurate mention either of our Saint or of the house of virgins over which she presided agree, no ancient one contradicting. Nor is there reason why anyone should adjudge away from her a birth so illustrious for nobility and holiness because the writings of contemporaries which hand this down were either consumed by the fires of the Normans or are certainly hidden even today. For although on account of their lack certain plainly singular circumstances of her birth, and also wonderful deeds attributed to her, can not undeservedly be called into doubt; yet one need not on that account be in doubt about the nobility and proper names of her parents, since these were undoubtedly carefully and exactly inscribed soon after their death on their respective sepulchres and then on the reliquaries into which their sacred remains had been translated before the fatal incursions of the Normans in the ninth century; and finally could most easily have been preserved unchanged up to the middle of the eleventh century even by the religious or grateful memory alone of the virgins and clerics of Denain succeeding one another: at which time at length they were brought, for the perennial memory of posterity, by order of the abbess Fredesendis, into the Life of our Saint and of her mother by the anonymous so often mentioned.

[34] In these things, therefore, as to substance, that Life merits credit, and the beginning of the first Lesson of Denain taken from it, of most noble and wealthy parents, which runs thus: Blessed Ragemfredis, a holy virgin sprung from a noble race of the Franks, namely from her father blessed Aldebert, count of Ostrevant, and her mother saint Regina, granddaughter of king Pippin, ennobled the dignity of her native origin by the uprightness of her morals and the brightness of her holy works. Nor are those things unworthy of credit which are related of the riches and pious munificence of the parents of our Saint in Lessons 1 and 2 of the Breviary of Cambrai printed in the year 1497, in these words: There was, of the most illustrious race of the Franks, a man illustrious in wealth and enlarged by an abundance of estates, named Aldebert, who, moved by the love of begetting offspring, sought as his wife the granddaughter of Pippin, king of the Franks, named Regina, whose conjugal companionship he soon obtained. And since they ministered abundantly from their resources to the oppressed and needy (desiring to please the heavenly commands in all things), from their holy union there was born to them a venerable offspring, namely St. Ragenfredis; to whom the same second Lesson, with the aforesaid anonymous, also attributes nine holy sisters, but, as we shall say below, less probably.

[35] not however shining with the supreme dignity, under Pippin III. There are also other circumstances of the birth of St. Ragenfredis which the same anonymous either himself devised for the sake of adorning the truth, or rather committed to letters, handed down to him by others, with too good faith; of which hear a few. And first indeed, as I also advised before, not under Pippin II, victor over Theoderic III at Tertry in the year 687, as the anonymous builds up, but under his grandson Pippin III, elected king of the Franks in the year 752, whom the anonymous confuses with the former, were the parents of our Saint joined in marriage, and St. Ragenfredis was then born of them. Moreover, the things which the anonymous touches on in a few words concerning the supreme dignity of Aldebert, her father, in the court of Pippin and his warlike valour, although indeed they cannot be convicted of falsehood, are yet of such a kind that anyone would not at once attach credence to a writer of the eleventh century asserting these things without an older witness, and if only because all the things which he writes concerning them, and which I did not think should be recited here, do not seem to have been able to be preserved so unblemished by tradition alone over the space of two centuries without the fame having grown among the people of Denain in the lapse of time and having adorned Aldebert's courtly dignity and warlike valour beyond the truth. I think, therefore, that this was the very reason why the learned man who had the Lessons of Denain on the deeds of St. Ragenfredis, taken from that Life and perhaps also from the proper Lessons of the Breviary of Cambrai, printed in the year 1625, would not make any mention in them of these circumstances which I have already discussed.

[36] with whom the Saint's mother was a kinswoman, she drew her origin, But what is to be thought of the degree of kinship of SS. Regina and Ragenfredis with Pippin commonly asserted? Can it be said safely enough that the former was the granddaughter of Pippin, and our Saint accordingly the great-granddaughter of the same king, as she is called by Chastelain and by the author of the Paris Martyrology? I answer that in absolutely no way can St. Regina be determined to be the granddaughter of king Pippin, or St. Ragenfredis his great-granddaughter strictly so called, such namely as the French call in their idiom petite-fille and arrière-petite-fille; since at the time at which St. Regina is said to have married Blessed Aldebert, namely while Pippin was still flourishing, and certainly before the year 768, the year of this king's death, neither Charles nor Carloman, his sons, were then of such an age as to have a marriageable daughter, inasmuch as neither of them was born before the year of Christ 740, or is read to have entered into marriage in his first youth. But I do not see why St. Regina could not be called the niece of Pippin in another sense, and so our Saint too his grand-niece, namely in this, that the mother of saint Ragenfredis was begotten of Pippin's sister Chiltrude or Hildrude, or of another princess akin to Pippin; the name of which woman, since it was less illustrious than that of Pippin, afterwards king, gradually in the course of time slipped from the people of Denain, the memory of king Pippin as maternal uncle of St. Regina being always retained. Certainly our anonymous, quite probably taught this by the tradition of the people of Denain, by which things of this kind were apt to be preserved, more than once calls Pippin the maternal uncle of St. Regina; nor have I found, as I also hinted before, any writer who denies that she, and accordingly St. Ragenfredis too, was a kinswoman of that king.

[37] Next to these is that we now inquire whether our Saint had nine own sisters, of whom she herself was the eldest. [and piously brought up, she is said indeed, but it is not sufficiently proved, to have had nine sisters,] Just so many (see what was said at the end of number 34) are attributed to her by the anonymous and by the author of the Office of Cambrai on St. Ragenfredis, and with these the Lessons of Denain and various more recent historians agree. Their names, order of birth and pious upbringing are recounted partly by the aforesaid Labarre in the cited volume, folio 388 verso and following, partly by the VIth Lesson of Blessed Aldebert in these words: In the course of time (Blessed Aldebert and St. Regina) begot ten virgins of this lawful and holy marriage, namely the blessed Ragenfredis, Caelestina, Rosa, Ambrosia, Ava, Euphrosyna, Helena, Neptalina, Paulina and Carola, among whom were not five foolish, but all wise: since the most pious parents took care that all these should be instructed from their earliest age in all discipline of virtues, to which was added heavenly wisdom, which surpassed all human study. Thus far that author, with whom I indeed, on the credit of the anonymous asserting it, gladly agree that Ragenfredis, and, if she had any own sisters, they too, were holily brought up by her holy parents and formed to every virtue; but I greatly fear that those whom he affirms to have been begotten of Blessed Aldebert and St. Regina were sprung from other parents than those just mentioned; and that these cannot be called their daughters by any other title than that they were the first of all enrolled in the company of nuns over which St. Ragenfredis, their daughter, presided, and so were her sisters in Christ Jesus and her rivals in preserving virginity.

[38] Nor indeed is there reason why anyone should wonder that the tradition of the people of Denain, and that she had them as own sisters, whom some, but not rightly, which the anonymous seems mostly to have followed, over a lapse of more than two centuries, deflected somewhat from the truth in some matters of lesser moment, and was so far altered that those who were in reality only adoptive sisters, so to speak, that is, her sisters in the religious rule of living, were in the eleventh century at length, and long afterwards, believed to be the own sisters according to the flesh of the same Ragenfredis: for that such conversions of tradition or ancient fame are by no means new,

all know who have turned over even for a short time the Acts of the Saints or of other illustrious men not written by contemporaries or near-contemporaries. However these things may stand, I certainly think there will be no one, however skilled in criticism, who, in order to believe so singular a thing, would not demand that it be confirmed by instruments of older and more certain mark. Further, the aforesaid author seems to have granted the title of Blessed to those nine nuns somewhat too liberally; unless perhaps by this title he wished to denote not their public veneration in the Church, but their holy institute and pious departure from among the living; which also was familiar enough and too much so to some monastic hagiologists of the last century.

[39] And thus indeed I determine in general concerning these nine pretended sisters of our Saint, enrol in the Catalogue of the Blessed. not even excepting the Ava mentioned above, inasmuch as she must be determined to be altogether different from Blessed Ava, who has a place in our Work at the 29th day of April; which is abundantly plain even from this, that Blessed Ava, as may be seen in the cited volume, died and was buried at Denain, whereas the anonymous, and with him the author of the History of SS. Regina and Ragenfredis indicated at number 8, and others, narrate that their Ava went to Rome and died on pilgrimage very far outside her homeland. And what is to be thought further of the Roman pilgrimage of St. Ragenfredis and her nine sisters asserted by these, and of the other not a little wonderful deeds which those authors weave onto it, I shall declare in § V, when I have examined separately the things which the anonymous and others with him build up as having preceded that pilgrimage, and the other things which bear on it have likewise been discussed.

[40] The Saint the monastery of Denain, although the anonymous the contrary Accordingly, after the cited anonymous, in chapter 2 of his Legend, had narrated that from the fruitful womb of St. Regina ten royal gems, or ten virgins, sprang forth, all to one, as he writes, wise, and that these, having first been well instructed in liberal studies and virtues, were inspired to lead a celibate life perpetually, he subjoins that a monastery was built by their holy parents on the river Scheldt, in which these might serve Christ most holily. The words in which he does this are these: There is indeed a place on the river Scheldt which by ancients and moderns has been called Dononium, which the pleasantness and level of its meadows makes commendable to its inhabitants, and the fertility of its fields, the convenience too of the place, and the usefulness of the flowing water render most pleasing; which the holy parents (Blessed Aldebert and St. Regina), foreseeing it to be suitable to their wishes, to establish in it, in place of husbands, a gift for their daughters, think to build there a church in honour of the holy Mother of God, in which through the Virgin Mother the crown of virginal integrity might perpetually flourish… The holy counsel pleases in common; they fit their minds to the labour of building, because the labour was sweet which the love of charity suggested. A church is built, a monastery is instituted, a congregation of nuns is established, that the enlargement of virgins might become the multiplication of crowns, and the edification of the builders. To whom from the copious revenues of their estates so much is assigned as, namely, the cenobitic life would sufficiently require.

[41] and the Lessons of the ecclesiastical Office and various learned men hand down, They busy themselves to build another church opposite in honour of St. Martin, where an order of clerics, being established, should supply the Masses and the other things which the female sex was less able to do; and so, the structure of the churches for the [use] of the virgins being completed, they bestow there as much adornment and apparatus as they wish to receive the reward of felicity from God. Happy the marriage of such persons, whose corruption is made whole again by the integrity of so many virgins, whom also they establish, all of them and their successors, heirs of their patrimony by hereditary right. They rejoice in their works, they congratulate themselves on the sisters of their daughters, whom they daily see serving Christ in the fear of chastity. So the anonymous, in the aforesaid La Barre, cited volume 6, part 2, from folio 395, concerning the erection of the house of virgins of Denain, if you except the words which I have supplied and thought should be enclosed in brackets, either plainly omitted in him or wrongly written. Consonant in substance with these things hand down Lesson IV of the Breviary of Cambrai cited above, and Lesson V of the Office of Denain wont to be recited on this day; likewise de Guise, a writer of the fourteenth century; and of the more recent, Peter Louw in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, prepared from the papers of Molanus, at the 1st day of July; Le Mire in the Belgian and Burgundian Calendars at the same day; Locre in the Chronicle at the year of Christ 764; Gazet in the Ecclesiastical History of Belgium, page 154; Philippe Brasseur in the Origins of the Monasteries of Hainaut, page 124; Mabillon, volume 2 of the Annals of the Order of St. Benedict, page 204, number 73; Denis de Sainte-Marthe, volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 423; and very many others whom, not to be too long, I omit.

[42] But are these testimonies of most learned men, partly so ancient, partly so express, altogether to be believed, founded from her own goods, as the Caroline diploma that the house of virgins of Denain was built or founded by the parents of our Saint, and not by herself? I answer that it seems to me hardly, or not even hardly, to be doubted that, whatever the aforesaid testimonies oppose, the house of virgins of Denain owes its erection to St. Ragenfredis, but ought to hold this as received from her parents, that they transmitted to their daughter Ragenfredis, by hereditary right or by free donation, those goods and estates which were employed by her for its erection. So I plainly judge on account of the most express words of the Diploma of Charles the Bald and of the Chronicle of Cambrai, whose credit and authority was established in §2, which deserve to be recited here. The former has thus: Wherefore let the industry of all the faithful of the holy church of God, both present and future, know that, through the frequent admonition of our dearest sister, namely by name Gisla, and through the suppliant request of our beloved nephew, and moreover also for the perpetual salvation of our soul, we strive to restore to its former state the abbey of the most holy Mother of God Mary, and also of the venerable virgin St. Ragenfredis, which she herself while living built from her own estates and household servants, situated on the bank of the river Scheldt, in the estate which is called Dononium.

[43] Exactly the same the Chronicle of Cambrai also testifies, book 2, chapter 28, in these words: and the Chronicle of Cambrai testify, to which greater credit is to be given, Again also in the village of Duneng blessed Rainfredis founded a cell from the things of her own right, and, nuns having been established, she herself also as abbess held the government. Than which I do not see what could be asserted more clearly. But, you will say, that diploma, although from what was said before it is not fictitious, was yet given only in the year of Christ 877, and therefore almost a whole century after the erection of the monastery; and Baldric, the author of the Chronicle of Cambrai, surpasses the anonymous of Denain in age either not at all, or certainly little. Let these things be so: nonetheless the palm of authority is altogether to be conferred on these two testimonies, both because that diploma is at least 170 years older than the anonymous of Denain; and because it is a public and royal instrument, and therefore much more worthy of credit than the testimony of a private and younger man; and finally because that diploma is near enough to the very times in which the house of virgins of Denain was erected and brought to completion that, without an older public document militating to the contrary, it ought by no means to be believed that either Charles the Bald, who in the year of Christ 843 (see volume 8 of the Writers on Gallic Affairs, page 436) had stayed at Valenciennes and perhaps also in the house of virgins of Denain near this city, or his sister Gisla, or the royal and imperial ministers by whose work the charter of Denain was issued, or the virgins of Denain who had sought it, or rather all of these together, strayed so soon from the truth in assigning the origin of the monastery of Denain; or that the latter again, not without the infamous vice of an ungrateful mind, thrust forward in place of Aldebert and Regina, to whom they would have owed all their possessions, their daughter, who would only have become renowned by the right administration of a monastery already founded before, as the adversaries would have it.

[44] Since these things are so, one must stand altogether by the testimony of this charter alone rather than by that of the anonymous and of very many more recent writers, who may make up a number, but cannot add weight to their sayings on the matter. [testify, and, although the church of St. Martin was perhaps built by her parents,] As regards Baldric, who agrees with the charter of Denain; although he does not have from his age that he by himself renders undoubted the things which he relates as done in the eighth or ninth century, yet from his learning and from the abundance and sincerity of the ancient monuments which he had at hand he certainly has very much and enough authority that credit is altogether to be attached to him when he asserts anything which no one older and more learned has opposed. Hence, however, I should not dare to build up that the church built in honour of St. Martin, concerning which see the cited anonymous at number 41, also owes its origin to St. Ragenfredis; since neither the Caroline diploma nor Baldric in the Deeds of the prelates of Cambrai insinuates this in any way: nay on the contrary I should prefer to believe that that church was originally built by the parents of our Saint, counts of Ostrevant, for the use of themselves and their subjects, and afterwards, after their death, passed to the service of the nuns; and that hence perhaps also arose the opinion which ascribed to the founders of the church of St. Martin the erection also of the house of virgins of Denain itself, which in truth was to be ascribed to St. Ragenfredis.

[45] However these things may be, at any rate from the two documents of the best mark already praised there must be emended the narration of the anonymous of Denain transcribed at numbers 40 and 41, she herself, however, the foundress and first abbess of the monastery of Denain, and accordingly also the other assertion of very many authors from the fourteenth century, by which these not only make Blessed Aldebert and St. Regina the founders of the house of virgins of Denain, but the latter also the first abbess of the same monastery, led perhaps by certain painted images of St. Regina, in which she is shown not only with a crown on her head but also with an abbatial staff: as if indeed panels formed a few centuries ago by artists ignorant of antiquity could take away credit from a royal and imperial diploma many centuries older, and from Baldric, a writer most worthy of credit on many titles, or could in the least stand in the way of the assertion of either. For the rest, in precisely what year St. Ragenfredis erected the monastery of Denain from her own estates or the things of her own right, the ancient documents being silent, it is not easy to define. Ferry de Locre in his Belgian Chronicle determines the erection of that house of virgins at the year of Christ 764, and the more recent writers commonly follow him here. But this opinion of Locre is so much the less firm because, against the testimony of the said diploma and of Baldric, it ascribes the foundation of that monastery not to our Saint herself but to her parents.

[46] built after the year 780, and never translated from elsewhere, is to be called. To me indeed it seems nearer the truth that the foundation

was made quite a good deal later than the aforesaid year 764, say after the year 780, at which time St. Ragenfredis, as having been born, as is commonly believed, about the middle of the eighth century, would then have been of such an age as to be not unequal to erecting a monastery, and indeed a double one, namely of nuns and of clerics, and, to use almost the words of Baldric, that she herself as abbess should hold the government over the nuns established by her. It remains that we also say something about the place in which that monastery was first founded. Denis de Sainte-Marthe, in volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 422, approving, as it seems, the opinion of Monsieur Godefroy, keeper of the archive of the chamber of accounts at Lille in Flanders, hands down that that monastery was first founded at Berzella near Flines on the river Sambre (he meant to say the river Scarpe, plainly different from the Sambre in origin and course), and then translated into the castellany of Bochanium, commonly Bouchain. But since neither produces or praises any document which gives credence that that monastery was founded in another place earlier than that in which it is known to have existed from the eighth century, and was translated thence to the Scheldt, this opinion is denied with equal, and indeed greater, right than that with which it is built up without any ancient witness.

§ IV. Whether St. Ragenfredis and the nuns united by her were Benedictines or canonesses is inquired.

As the Saint, concerning whose kind of Religious life there is controversy, Among the principal authors who have written in the last century or two concerning the beginnings of the monastery of Denain, there is by no means agreement about the Institute of religious life which St. Ragenfredis and the virgins united by her work followed. Ferry de Locre in the Belgian Chronicle at the year of Christ 764, Le Mire in the Origins of the Belgian monasteries, chapter 52, pages 156 and 157, and Le Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year 764, number 16, would have it that the virgins of Denain followed from the beginning of their house of virgins not the monastic but the canonical, or, as they themselves also speak, the Regular kind of life; with whom Costantino Ghini and other Canons Regular altogether agree. On the opposite side Mabillon, in part I of the Third Benedictine Century, in the Index of the Saints Passed Over, writes that he has a certain persuasion that they were nuns from the beginning; on account, namely, unless I am mistaken, of those arguments by which he laboriously contends in his preface to the Second Benedictine Century, § III, that no canonesses existed in the Gauls before the ninth century. Other Benedictine writers agree with him, as may be seen above at number 16, and all would have it that St. Ragenfredis and her companion virgins were not canonesses but Benedictine nuns. Which of these decide more rightly concerning this controversy the learned reader will very easily perceive from what is now to be said.

[48] If in truth, as Mabillon asseverates in the cited Preface, number 32, the Benedictines would make their own, they bring forward various arguments. no canonesses existed in the Gauls, and therefore not in Belgic Gaul either, before the ninth century; if really, as he subjoins at number 33, there were then, that is, before the year of Christ 800, no other monastic handmaids of God (that is, Nuns) than monachae, and indeed, in the judgement of the same Mabillon, Benedictine ones; if, I say, it is true that the name of canonesses had not yet begun to be heard then, all of which things Mabillon holds as undoubted; certainly it will hardly be to be doubted that St. Ragenfredis and her companion nuns embraced the Rule of St. Benedict, and that therefore her house of virgins was rightly numbered from its beginning among the Benedictine monasteries by Mabillon and other Benedictines. But on the contrary, if these assertions, which serve the Benedictines in place of a foundation, stand less solidly, certainly it could not undeservedly be doubted whether those who, as Baldric testifies, book 2, chapter 28, made place for canons after the ruin inflicted by the Normans, were not themselves canonesses from the beginning; not indeed such as the noble canonesses of the present time are, who are free to return to the world and contract marriage, but such as were confirmed under the canonical order in the divine service with perpetual stability. Let us therefore discuss these assertions of Mabillon.

[49] And first indeed, since the council of Ver — not of Vercelli, as the Benedictine writer Corbinian Khamm wrongly has it in his Prodromus to part 3 of the Regular, page 6, [but of which the first, inasmuch as it is contrary to the council of Ver, proves nothing,] but held in the palace of Ver among the Bellovaci in the year 755 — interposes no distinction between men and women devoting themselves to God, and compels all without distinction either to follow the monastic rule or the canonical life under the government of the bishop, as Thomassin rightly observes in Part I, book 3, chapter 43, number 8 of the Old and New Discipline of the Church, page 784; it follows that before the ninth century, nay before the house of virgins of Denain was erected, veiled handmaids of God (see canon XI of this council in Labbe, volume 6, column 1667) existed in the nature of things who led their life under the hand of the bishop under the canonical order. The first assertion of Mabillon, therefore, admitting no canonesses before the ninth century, does not stand. The said Corbinian Khamm saw and weighed these things, and although he fights most sharply there in defence of the pre-eminence of his Order against the Canons Regular, yet he candidly confesses on page 10 that virgins consecrated to God, different from Benedictine nuns, first began about the year 755 (and therefore long enough before the ninth century) to be named canonesses, from the canonical Rule or order.

[50] as neither does that which they form from the council of Chalon, Mabillon also strayed much from the truth when in the same Preface, number 33, he confidently determined that in the year of Christ 813, in which the council of Chalon was held, the Institute of canonesses was still novel, that is, more recent than the beginning of the ninth century, and contends that this is sufficiently proved from Canon 53 of that council. For although the fathers of this council say in the cited canon that it had pleased them to write little admonitions to those nuns who call themselves CANONESSES; yet it does not legitimately follow from this that canonesses did not then exist in the province of Lyon, or 30 or more years before; or certainly, even if it were given or gratuitously admitted that they had not arisen in the province of Lyon long before the year 813, it by no means follows hence that nuns of this kind did not have a fixed dwelling in Belgic Gaul or other regions at least fifty years before. What? That not only the council of Ver in the year 755 mentioned handmaids of God living under the canonical Order; but the council of Frankfurt too, celebrated in the year of Christ 794, in canon 47, manifestly indicates (see Labbe, volume 7 of the Councils, column 1063) that already then some abbesses had been found who had departed from the original norm of living canonically, and whom accordingly, as not living canonically, it orders to be sought out by the bishops and denounced to the king; which things certainly show that the Institute of canonical nuns was not so novel even then.

[51] but neither another, sought from a decree of St. Boniface, But, you will say, although canonical nuns are admitted to have existed in the eighth century in some regions of Gaul or Germany; yet it is not probable that such existed in the dioceses of Cambrai and Arras, then united under the sole bishop of Cambrai, and therefore not in the house of virgins of Denain either, inasmuch as it was situated in the diocese of Arras. Why so? Because, namely, St. Boniface, prelate of Mainz and Apostolic legate, at the council of Leptines, as Mabillon determines, celebrated in the year 743 (at l'Estinnes, a place two leagues distant from the metropolis of Hainaut), expressly decreed that monks and monastic handmaids of God should be zealous to live according to the Rule of St. Benedict: there were therefore then no other monastic handmaids of God than monachae; nor has it the appearance of truth that, in the same eighth century passing, any house of virgins was erected for nuns in the very diocese of Arras under another Rule than the Benedictine. As regards the former consequence deduced hence by the adversaries, I answer that St. Boniface, after the ancient manner and his own, numbered only monachae among the monastic handmaids of God, and that therefore that canon does not stand in the way of the antiquity of the canonesses, as Father Le Large, author of the Disquisitions on the Order of Canons published at Paris in the year 1697, already long ago observed before me, on page 123, where he subjoins these things to our matter: for the canon itself by itself comes to the same as if, the order of canonesses being passed over and reserved for another Canon of Boniface (namely the 13th, which you have in volume 9 of d'Achery's Spicilegium, first edition, page 64), it decreed precisely this, that monks and monachae should be zealous to live according to the Rule of saint Benedict; what has this to do with canonesses?

[52] But if anyone contends that by St. Boniface canonesses too were comprised under the name of monastic handmaids of God, [since that decree, if it could be said to have regarded canonesses, as regards those] I shall not much resist, and with the Author of the Disquisitions praised above I shall likewise reply: But if perhaps Boniface placed the canonesses themselves among the monastic Handmaids of God, and could not bear any longer that they should be estranged from the Rule of St. Benedict, let those who are so persuaded see for themselves how much Boniface achieved in this our cause by his German Decree. Certainly the Blessed Prelate did not prevent canonical nuns throughout the Gauls from continuing by their own right to pass over the Benedictine rule. This is taught by the canon of Ver (of which we spoke above), by which veiled handmaids of God under the canonical order are established in the hand and guardianship of the bishops; but still more plainly the same thing is taught by the examples of many nuns who flourished in the canonical life before the ninth century. So he, whom the curious reader may consult, if he pleases, disputing more on these things.

[53] I observe only these things on those words of Mabillon, by which in the cited Preface, number 32, he affirms that the aforesaid canon of St. Boniface was made in the council of Leptines: who lived regularly under the canonical order, had no more execution, that the most learned man wrongly attributed the seventh canon of the German council, celebrated in the year 742 either at Ratisbon or at Augsburg, to the council of Leptines, which comprises only four Canons; but that neither from canon I of Leptines, in which abbots and monks are asserted to have received the Rule of St. Benedict, does it in any way follow that among the clergy of every ecclesiastical order, which, as canon I of the same council testifies, in Labbe, volume 6 of the Councils, column 1537, received the canons of the ancient fathers and wished to express them in its morals, there were not equally women canonesses, or, as Sigebert calls them at the year of Christ 820, clerical nuns, as men canons, who certainly must be comprised under the clergy of every ecclesiastical order. And there is indeed reason why we should believe that not in a slight space of time, nor like mushrooms, did so many monasteries of canonesses arise in the Gauls as are seen from the letters of Louis the Pious given to the metropolitans of Bordeaux, Sens and others, as it seems, to have already existed there from the year 816, and in particular in the dioceses subject to Bordeaux and Sens, and yet not to have been numbered among those recently founded; which letters

you have in Labbe, volume 7 of the Councils, from column 1438, it is given to gather. Nay rather it is credible that those monasteries of girls and societies of virgins living canonically mentioned in those letters began to arise only step by step, as is otherwise wont to happen, and therefore over the course of about fifty years, one after another; and probably indeed either a little after the Council of Ver, held in the year 755, in which namely it was decreed that veiled handmaids of God should live regularly under the regular order, or under the hand of the bishop under the canonical order.

[54] than Canon I of Leptines, which regarded monks only, not canons. And as regards the other consequence of the argument objected at number 51, I likewise judge it by no means legitimate; since from the cited seventh canon of the German Council, or from canon I of Leptines, by which abbots and monks received the Rule of the holy father Benedict, it by no means necessarily follows that members of the canonical Order too (see also what was said on page 291, numbers 12 and 13) received the Rule of St. Benedict, much less that, after the norm of the houses of virgins which by the cited canon XI of the synod of Ver, held in the year 755, had been ordered under the hand of the bishop under the canonical order, absolutely no monasteries of veiled handmaids of God could have been erected or similarly ordered in Belgium at the same time; so that rather the opposite, if we turn our mind to canon XI itself of the synod of Ver, and to the other things said above and still to be said below, becomes much more probable, and almost undoubted. Accordingly, whatever Mabillon may object, the nuns of Denain, and the brother clerics joined to them, could have been of the canonical Order from the beginning of the house of virgins; nor, because St. Ragenfredis embraced the institute of Religious life before the beginning of the ninth century, does it follow that she was certainly a Benedictine nun, or that her monastery ought to be numbered among the Benedictines from the beginning, as Mabillon, but not sufficiently well-founded in my judgement, held as a certain persuasion.

[55] [Nay rather, that the Saint and her pupils were of the canonical order, from book 2 of the Chronicle of Cambrai,] But you will now ask whether St. Ragenfredis undoubtedly subjected the house of virgins founded by her to the canonical Order, and so was herself also a canonical nun, in that sense, namely, which I indicated toward the end of number 48? I answer that I do not dare to build this up for certain either, because monuments which are altogether express on this matter or undoubtedly old enough are by no means available to me. There are, however, some indications from which you may not rashly gather that our Saint and her companion nuns followed the norm of the canonical life. For since Baldric, an accurate author and most worthy of credit, as we have shown above, in book 2 of the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras, chapter 28, asserts that the nuns of Denain, poverty now pressing, made place for a few canons, and yet nowhere insinuates that these succeeded Benedictine or other monks before the calamity of the house of virgins, but rather hints that the number of the canons, or of the old inhabitants of the monastery, anciently not small, was reduced, under the compulsion of poverty, to a few canons; it can not undeservedly be said that she placed at Denain not Benedictine monachae, but canonical nuns, before the poverty of the monastery, that is, before the destructive incursion of the Normans about the year 880, with not a few members of the same canonical Order. And accordingly, since it does not on any ground become probable that during the first century of the monastery of Denain two plainly different Institutes of Religious life were introduced into it, it is permitted not without reason to believe from the words of Baldric that the monastery of Denain was inhabited from its very beginning by canonical members of both sexes. Certainly, since the author just praised committed to letters in most express words that nuns, namely Benedictines, as we shall see below, were substituted for the canons or clerics of Denain by the counsel of bishop Gerard I and abbot Leduin, it seems hardly to be doubted that, if canons, poverty pressing, had been substituted for Benedictine monks, he would also have made at least some mention of the Benedictines for whom the canons had been substituted; whereas he does not mention them, not even in the slightest, in the cited chapter or elsewhere.

[56] But if, as is by no means foreign to the truth, the house of virgins of Denain before the incursion of the Normans, and from the diploma of Charles the Bald given to the people of Nivelles, and even from its beginning, was formed after the norm of the monastery of St. Gertrude of Nivelles, inasmuch as it was the most celebrated of the other houses of virgins in Belgium in the eighth century too, there will hardly be room for doubting that canons, though in separate buildings, then inhabited the house of virgins of Denain, just as that of Nivelles, with the nuns of their order. And lest what I have said of the people of Nivelles should seem asserted either gratuitously or falsely, I subjoin the very words of Charles the Bald which exist in the diploma granted to the monastery of Nivelles, in Le Mire in the Belgian Donations, page 387, and in volume 8 of the Writers on Gallic Affairs, page 666. Thus the emperor speaks there: Let the industry of all the faithful of the holy church of God, and of ours present and future, know that we, for the love of God and at the entreaty of the empress Richildis Augusta, our sweetest consort, grant for the uses of the brothers or sisters, namely the NUNS and the CANONS (not therefore of monachae and monks of the order of St. Benedict) of the monastery of Nivelles, which was founded in honour of St. Mary, in which also St. Gertrude rests in body, certain things, which are then recounted one by one there, and which I pass over here because they do not bear on this.

[57] And in this opinion indeed, which builds up that before the poverty of the monastery of Denain mentioned by the Chronographer of Cambrai it was inhabited by religious of the canonical Order of both sexes, [as also from the omission of monachae or of the Rule of St. Benedict in another diploma,] it is easy to give the reason why in the diploma of Charles the Bald for Denain, to be presented below, absolutely no mention is made of the Rule of St. Benedict, which otherwise so often recurs in the diplomas granted in favour of the Benedictines; why likewise the names of Abbot, or of monks or monachae, or other words by which the members of the Benedictine Order were wont to be designated, nowhere appear there; but on the contrary the inhabitants of both sexes of the same monastery come under the sole name of Brothers and Sisters: namely because the same inhabitants of the house of virgins erected by St. Ragenfredis were, during the ninth century, no more of the Benedictine Order than the Brothers and Sisters of the abbey of Nivelles in Belgium, whom the cited diploma of Charles the Bald, given in the year 877, in express words calls Nuns and Canons, and not monks or monachae of the Benedictine Institute, and insinuates never to have been monks before. Since, therefore, reason itself dictates, and Mabillon himself asserts in the cited Preface, that those nuns must be determined to be monachae to whom monks, and those canonesses to whom Canons, administered the sacred rites; it follows that certainly before the end of the ninth century the nuns of Nivelles, inasmuch as canons ministered the sacred rites to them, were themselves canonesses too, and accordingly, more probably, so also were those of Denain, nuns established by St. Ragenfredis after the norm of Nivelles, as is probable, whom no one will easily believe, as I also advised at number 55, to have passed so quickly from one Institute of Religious life to another.

[58] From these things one will not rashly bring oneself to think [and finally it can be concluded from the reading of two manuscripts, consonant with the words of Baldric,] that the reading of Baldric's Chronicle, whose autograph has perished, or is certainly hidden, praised by Le Mire and Locre, by which the nuns of Denain are asserted to have been formerly Regulars, inasmuch as it is more consonant with the former sayings of Baldric and coheres more strictly, is to be preferred to the reading of the two manuscript codices which Colvener, in editing the same Chronicle, judged were to be followed in preference to the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître. So certainly Le Mire at one time judged in the Work which he entitled Origins of the Benedictine monasteries in Belgium and published at Antwerp in the year 1606. There, namely, in chapter 52, page 156 and following, he speaks thus: For the rest, the virgins of Denain at the beginning followed not the monastic but the canonical or Regular kind of life: but after the devastation of the Normans, by the counsel of Gerard, the first of that name, bishop of Cambrai, and of Leduin, abbot of St. Vaast, and likewise of Baldwin, count of Flanders and Hainaut, they embraced the Benedictine institute. And lest these things should be said to have been asserted by him not sufficiently well-founded, he produces a reading of Baldric's Chronicle similar to that which the Rouge-Cloître manuscript codex bears, relying on which he says that he has as a faithful witness of these things which he builds up the Chronographer of Cambrai, speaking thus in the cited book 2, chapter 28: In the village of Doneng blessed Ragenfredis founded a cell from the things of her own right, and, nuns having been established, she herself also as abbess held the government. But afterwards, when it was declining with poverty pressing, a few canons inhabited it; but afterwards, by the counsel of the lord bishop Gerard and of the abbot Leduin, count Baldwin brought it back to the former state of nuns, and introduced there nuns of saint Benedict, whereas before they had been Regulars, over whom he set the abbess Ermentrude.

[59] yet in such a way that from the present-day Regular canonesses, in retaining For the rest, when we read in Baldric, Le Mire, Locre and Le Cointe that the nuns of Denain from the beginning, and until poverty pressed upon their monastery, followed the Regular kind of life, that is, were Regular canonesses, these things are not to be so understood as if they and the other canonesses of the same time were to be likened either to the present-day Regular canonesses of the Order of St. Augustine, or to the noble canonesses of this time, since, as will presently be shown, there was a great difference between both. For first indeed, as regards the present-day Regular canonesses of the Order of St. Augustine, these are bound not only by the vow of perpetual chastity and obedience, but also of poverty, and accordingly individually, or in particular, as they say, they are without and incapable of all dominion over temporal goods and of the free use of them at their own discretion. But those ancient canonesses were not such as regards the dominion and use of temporal things, as is manifest from the very council of Aachen celebrated, as I said above, in the year 816. For in it, in book 2, which is entitled On the Institution of nuns, and by which their Rules were brought to a uniform and stable norm, chapter or canon IX, in Labbe, volume 7 of the Councils, column 1427, these things stand prescribed to our matter: Provision must be made for those who for the love of Christ have dedicated themselves to chastity and have asked to be admitted into a college of nuns (namely of canonesses, or of those living Canonically, as is noted in the same place at column 1406 in the Preface), that before they enter the monastery they so wisely and prudently deliberate and dispose of their goods that, tending toward eternal life, they may suffer no disturbance on their account. Accordingly, if any of the nuns has so conferred her own goods on the church that she wishes TO CLAIM NOTHING OF THEM AS HER OWN, but only WISHES TO BE SUSTAINED BY THE GOODS OF THE CHURCH, let necessary stipends be sufficiently bestowed on her in the congregation. But if she has handed them over to the church and WISHES TO HAVE THEM AS USUFRUCTUARY, let the steward of the church defend them as being the church's.

[60] But if she does not wish to confer them on the church, let the abbess and the other nuns, connivance

being applied, the dominion and usufruct of their goods commit them by a publicly confirmed writing either to a kinsman or to any other * friend of good faith, who may defend them by the law of the court. According to this form of the constitution, therefore, let the nuns deliberate about and dispose of their own goods, and commend them either to servants or certainly to others, to whom they please, to manage, AND FAITHFULLY TO ADMINISTER THEIR FRUITS FOR THEM. It was therefore free to the ancient canonical nuns to claim something as their own out of their goods, to retain the usufruct of their goods, that is, to use their fruits faithfully administered for them. And again, by Canon or chapter 13, column 1430, it is left free to those Nuns, if they wish, to have nothing of their own; in which case all necessary things are to be mercifully furnished to them; while for the others, as is drawn from these words by contraries, who retained the usufruct of their goods, that is, wish to use their fruits faithfully administered for them, provision is made in another manner.

[61] Finally, what the same council of Aachen pronounces of canons in general seems to have place also concerning the canonical nuns of that time, they differed very greatly, and in this were like our Beguines, and it is conceived in these words of canon or chapter 115, column 1389: For although it is permitted to canons, because it is not read to be prohibited to them in the sacred canons, to wear linen, to eat meat, TO GIVE AND RECEIVE, TO HAVE THEIR OWN GOODS AND THOSE OF THE CHURCH WITH HUMILITY AND JUSTICE, which is wholly forbidden to monks…: yet in avoiding vices and embracing virtues their life ought not to differ from that of the monks. Accordingly, in retaining the dominion and usufruct of temporal goods, those canonesses differed immensely from the present-day Regular canonesses of the Order of St. Augustine, that is, as regards the vow of poverty, and so those ancient ones were in that matter immensely more like the present-day noble canonesses and our Beguines than the present-day Regular canonesses.

[62] But from the noble canonesses and our Beguines too those ancient canonesses differed very greatly in another matter. from whom, however, and from the present-day noble canonesses, For although in some houses of virgins a vow of perpetual chastity is wont to be made by the abbess and the Officials, as they call them, yet this has not been received in use in all, and it is altogether free to the Official canonesses of Denain, and even to the abbess herself, to return to the world and, leaving the house of virgins, to pass to marriage, as I understood from the very mouth of the most noble Lady Marie-Ernestine-Anne du Chastel de Petrieu, the present abbess of Denain, to whom indeed in this matter more credit is to be given than to certain more recent writers who hand down the contrary; and that it is free to any Beguines whatever and at any time to return to the world is better known than that it should need to be proved. On the contrary, free return to the world was by no means open to the ancient canonical nuns, as is altogether plain from chapter or Canon X of the cited Book 2 On the Institution of Nuns, in the said Labbe, column 1428, from these words: Those who have bound themselves to the Lord by the profession of the name of chastity (namely the canonesses) must remember that they ought TO RESIDE CONTINUALLY IN THE MONASTERIES, and to serve the Lord earnestly with the whole intention of mind and body.

[63] they differed as regards the vow of chastity, Further, this same thing is confirmed in various places, and in particular in chapter or canon XI, by which the abbesses of the canonesses are ordered to take pains with the greatest intention so to surround the monasteries of girls on every side with the firmest defences that no access of entering or going out should be open to anyone except through the gate, and that the nuns should not have the faculty of wandering outside, and finally that all things at home should be rightly ordered, so that they may be able to guard INVIOLABLY, every excuse being put aside, the things which they have vowed to the Lord; and finally in chapter or canon 18, where, among other things which are prescribed to be done to a nun unwilling to amend herself, these things, which bear on this, stand established: Lastly, if, all these things having been applied, she appears incapable of amendment and incorrigible, BECAUSE IT IS IN NO WAY LAWFUL FOR HER TO SEEK THE WORLD AGAIN, let the bishop be called, if necessary… so that she may both salutarily perform the penance enjoined on her by him, and be able to bring the disease of no contagion to the others.

[64] [unlike also in dress both to the present-day noble canonesses and to the Regulars of St. Augustine.] Lastly, to pass over other things of lesser moment, this difference also subsists between those ancient canonesses and the present-day Regulars of the Order of St. Augustine, as also between the noble canonesses of Denain and others akin to these latter: that these latter are not obliged by the prescription of their Constitutions to use black garments constantly; but on the contrary, while they are absent from choir or from the ecclesiastical Office, they are free to be clothed with garments of any colour and after the manner of secular ladies, yet modestly adorned; while our regular canonesses of St. Augustine, both in choir and outside it, are clothed with white garments always of the same form, and besides with a linen wrap, or, as they call it, a surplice; whereas on the contrary those ancient canonical nuns used garments of black colour, as is understood from the words of canon or chapter X of the same council of Aachen, in the cited Labbe, volume 7 of the Councils, column 1428, now to be recited: Those who have bound themselves to the Lord by the profession of the name of chastity must remember that they ought to reside continually in the monasteries and to serve the Lord earnestly with the whole intention of mind and body, and that the veiling of the body alone without the adornment of the mind cannot profit them. Since it profits nothing to veil the body and to stain the mind with the monstrosities of vices. For what does it profit to veil the body and to have a poisoned soul? What does it profit TO BE CLOTHED IN BLACK GARMENTS and not to restrain the tongue from detraction? Thus far the same council; from which words it is rightly and deservedly gathered that the use of black garments was not then first prescribed to the canonical nuns, but, as I already hinted before, being employed by all generally, was duly confirmed. Now, since I seem sufficiently to have discharged in this part the promise given by Du Sollier, I take a step toward discussing the remaining deeds of St. Ragenfredis.

* others read: alii

§ V. The deeds of the Saint, related by the anonymous of Denain and others, are examined: the time of her death is defined in some way.

The anonymous of Denain, having related some virtues of the Saint, The anonymous writer of Denain of the eleventh century, already cited very often, when in chapter 2 of his Legend he had asserted that the monastery of Denain was founded by Blessed Aldebert and St. Regina, but wrongly, as we have shown above, and had narrated that a congregation of nuns was likewise established in it, in which the crown of virginal integrity should perpetually flourish, commemorates certain virtues exercised in it by St. Ragenfredis and, as he would have it, her sisters, here rather in oratorical than in historical manner, in these words: For who can relate the virtues which the royal girls contained in themselves? Whatever I wish first to seize upon in writing will grow cheap by comparison with what follows. Shall I proclaim their fasting? But their prayers and alms will prevail. Shall I praise their humility? But greater is the ardour of their faith with piety. Shall I say that, in condemnation of silken garments, they sought plebeian attire and servile clothing? But it is more to have put off the mind than the attire; for we do without arrogance with more difficulty than without gold and the procuring, that is, the adornment, of gems. That saint Ragenfredis shone with these and many other virtues anyone will very easily believe the anonymous of Denain; but not so will all the things find credence among sensible men which both he himself and the author of the prolix History of SS. Regina and Ragenfredis mentioned at number 8 presently begin to narrate at great length concerning our Saint. I shall contract the narration of each, not to be too long, into an epitome, and shall declare, with observations subjoined, what is to be determined about it.

[66] If we listen to the anonymous of the eleventh century, St. Ragenfredis and her sisters, as he would have it, [he subjoins that she, with 9 sisters, as he would have it, two miracles having first been done, went to Rome;] after the exercise of contemplation which they had shown to the divine majesty up to perfection, after the maceration of the virginal flesh employed in the monastic life, as he wrongly contends, decided by an inspiration made to them from God to leave the house of virgins of Denain and all the other things there, and, the affection of their parents being put after the divine love, to undertake a voluntary pilgrimage and to visit the churches of the Saints everywhere. The faculty of making the pilgrimage being extorted rather than obtained from their parents, if the author of the History already cited is to be believed here, on the day on which they were to set out on the journey a splendid dinner is prepared, toward the end of which there are present before the gates of the monastery two poor men, one mute and at the same time blind, the other a leper, earnestly asking, in what way they can, for some help for their need: St. Ragenfredis and her nine sisters run up, bringing bread, meat and wine, which when one of them, named Ava, had distributed in the name of the sisters, behold, suddenly sight and speech are imparted to the blind and mute man, and entire health of body to the leper. Then, as both writers already cited subjoin, having said farewell to each other not without tears and the sobbing of their parents, Ragenfredis and those nine sisters depart from Denain, and alone indeed, as the anonymous writes, they go, they go with God alone accompanying them, never, with one exception, to return, nor to seek their parents again except before God: and after some things he proceeds thus: They go by a mournful way, they run with piety and mercy … and because … charity has no measure, … they proceed and advance not by a straight path, because wherever they heard of the merits of the Saints they do not bear to pass them by, until at length they arrive at Rome.

[67] but, if she really went to Rome at some time, On this narration of the writer of Denain of the eleventh century and of the other mentioned above, with which the Breviaries of Cambrai and Denain agree in substance, I now observe some things, as I promised. And in general indeed, since so singular a pilgrimage of ten nuns, clothed in such wonderful circumstances, rests on no older testimony than that of the anonymous of Denain, removed two centuries and more from St. Ragenfredis, from this head certainly the truth of that narration can not undeservedly be doubted. But is the very substance of the fact, that is, a Roman pilgrimage at some time undertaken by saint Ragenfredis, to be held as undoubtedly false? I answer: since even after the middle of the eighth century, in which our Saint lived, so great was the ardour of the faithful to visit the holy places, especially those which were consecrated by the blood of the Prince of the Apostles, that not only common men but clerics too and princely men betook themselves to them in rivalry, as is proved among others in Thomassin, volume 2 of the Old and New Discipline of the Church, page 693, by many testimonies; it would not be so foreign to the truth that a Roman pilgrimage too was at some time undertaken by St. Ragenfredis and some women of her condition; but certainly it cannot be said to have been done at that time at which she had already vowed herself to God in the monastery of Denain, and at which, to use the words of Baldric, she held its government; nor likewise in that manner in which it is built up at number 66 to have been done.

[68] she is not proved to have done it at the time assigned by the anonymous, For, as in Labbe, volume 6 of the Councils

column 1666, may be seen, since by the sixth canon of the council of Ver, celebrated in the year 755, it had been established in express words that no abbess (and therefore whether of Benedictines or of nuns living under the canonical Order) should have licence to go out of the monastery except when hostility compelled; who, without the testimony of a contemporary or at least nearly contemporary writer, would bring himself to think that this decree, which both Pippin and afterwards Charlemagne altogether wished to be observed, was violated by our Saint and her nuns, and that she therefore, with nine virgins of her monastery, whom that decree bound even more than herself, with no account taken of it, and with a faculty rather extorted than obtained from her parents, instituted a Roman pilgrimage? For as to what could be replied, that St. Ragenfredis did not preside over the monastery immediately from its foundation; that indeed is both gratuitously asserted and contrary to the words of Baldric recited at number 43. Nay, even if it were admitted that she was not abbess at the time at which some assert that the pilgrimage was undertaken by her, not even so could that pilgrimage have been made by her then, while, as they themselves would have it, she had already begun to serve God in the monastery of Denain under the rule of her mother; since by that canon the nuns themselves were forbidden much more than the abbesses to go out and wander outside the monastery. I know indeed that abbesses and nuns in Italy and the neighbouring regions toward the end of the eighth century could hardly be kept within their cloisters from setting out on the Roman journey; but nothing similar is read to have been attempted by Belgian nuns after the synod of Ver was celebrated, nor ought it in any way to be believed without the testimony of an author of good mark.

[69] And as regards the manner of the pilgrimage undertaken, as they would have it, by our Saint, nor in the manner asserted by the same, the mind recoils from believing an author by no means contemporary, that a most noble virgin, sprung from a royal stock, accompanied by no retinue of servants, turned aside in every direction wherever celebrated churches of the Saints existed, and at length set out thus for Rome with only nine virgins of younger age, with so great a loss to her dignity, and no less danger to her profession and to the chastity of them all. I should prefer, therefore, to think that St. Ragenfredis, if the authors cited above rightly wrote that she at some time set out for Rome to the thresholds of the Apostles, did so only at a time when she had not yet founded the abbey of Denain from her own estates and goods, nor had embraced the Institute of religious life; and that she rather committed herself to the guardianship of nobles of Gaul of most upright life, who burned with the highest fervour for the Roman pilgrimage, as can be gathered from Einhard in the Life of Charlemagne and from the testimonies cited by Thomassin in the cited volume 2, than that she seized upon so dangerous a journey with nine virgins without any retinue, as they themselves would have it, or human companionship, that is, with God alone accompanying her.

[70] Of the two miracles which the cited narration builds up as performed, nor likewise is the twofold miracle performed beforehand undoubted. namely before St. Ragenfredis and her companions set out on the way from the monastery of Denain, there is no need to discourse at length; since prodigies of this kind ought not to be believed which rest only on the testimony of an author two centuries and more younger than the event, and cannot be confirmed from elsewhere. These things alone suffice to prove that no certain credence is to be given to the same anonymous of Denain even if it could be shown from elsewhere that by the monastic life which he writes was previously led by St. Ragenfredis he understood not in general, as it seems, any norm of religious life whatever, that is, any cenobitic life, but only the Benedictine; since it is evident enough and more than enough from his assertions already discussed that it can be said that he was by no means accurate in relating things done in the eighth century, and that he accommodated the circumstances of ancient history to the usage of his own time not without loss to the truth; which also the experts know to be by no means new in other writers not contemporary or nearly contemporary. I proceed to relate summarily the narration of the same writers and of the ancient Breviaries of Cambrai and of Denain, partly consonant with them, intending afterwards to subjoin my observations on it.

[71] Accordingly, as both authors already often cited relate in almost as many words, [The things which, of the companions of the Saint, as having died holily partly in Palestine,] St. Ragenfredis and her nine companions, arriving at Rome, formerly guilty of so much blood, but then, by the blood of so many Martyrs, queen of the whole world, at their first entry make for the church of the Prince of the Apostles. There it was a beautiful thing to see ten daughters of kings (see rather what was said at numbers 36 and 37) seeking Christ the king, and royal girls bending their knees before the tomb of the Fisherman (namely St. Peter). Then, having gone round for some days all the churches of Rome and the sepulchres of the Saints, they sharpened themselves with the fervour of greater desire for the divine service. And when they had betaken themselves with weary bodies to their lodging, after many conversations about their pilgrimage there was made among them a division of the flesh, not of the spirit; for five of them, with not a womanly but a manly mind, resolved to seek the land of the Lord's Passion, that is, Judaea, Ragenfredis with four others remaining at Rome. Those, then, as the author of the prolix Gallo-Belgian History adds, set out from Rome to Brindisi, and thence in the space of seven days put in at Ptolemais (in French Saint-Jean d'Acre). Presently, as the same narrator and the anonymous of Denain relate, those virgins visit with the highest piety the places of Palestine made illustrious by the Lord's dwelling or Passion (which they recount by name in long order), and at length, having returned to the cave of the Lord's sepulchre, which they had visited first, wounded by the Saviour's dart, and crying out together: My soul has found Him whom it sought; I will hold Him and will not let Him go, they rested in peace. And those four who with St. Ragenfredis had not ceased to revisit the sepulchres of the Saints at Rome also flew to the heavenly Jerusalem, our Saint alone being left surviving, who had been the leader of the Roman pilgrimage undertaken.

[72] and partly at Rome, So they, almost word for word, weaving, as no one will fail to judge even if I am silent, a specious fable rather than a true history. Certainly both the pilgrimage to Jerusalem undertaken by those five virgins, and the journey from Brindisi to Palestine completed in the space of seven days, and the death of all of them at the cave of the Lord's sepulchre, and the passing of the four others to the Heavenly ones at one time at Rome among the memorials of the Saints, these, I say, and other deeds of the kind recounted there, are so singular that, even if the Roman pilgrimage of St. Ragenfredis with nine virgins (which however is uncertain) could be admitted as undoubted, nonetheless all those and other circumstances of the kind would become incredible to a sensible man without the authority of an older witness. Further, the things which were formerly believed to have been done afterwards by St. Ragenfredis must be learned from the same author of the Gallo-Belgian History and from the cited Breviaries; for de Guise, praised at numbers 3 and 4, either did not insert this part of the Life of St. Ragenfredis entire into his Work, or at least I have not found it in our fragments of de Guise's Latin Work. But the loss of this narration prepared by the anonymous of Denain is slight, and I thought these things should be mentioned only to this end, lest anyone, finding in other similar fragments of ours these words: As is read fully in the Deeds of her life, should perhaps suspect hence that these are the words of the anonymous of Denain, which in fact are de Guise's, or of him who partly copied de Guise. Let us come to the matter.

[73] and of a miracle performed at Rome Accordingly, if credit is to be given to the testimonies just now cited, partly of the Breviaries, partly of the writer of the Gallo-Belgian History, after those nine companions of St. Ragenfredis had died most piously, Blessed … Ragenfredis (the words are those of the Breviary of Cambrai published in the year 1497), admonished from heaven to return to her homeland, when she was girding herself for this, the son of the prefect began (making many promises) to pant for her embraces. Presently the Spouse of Christ, shuddering at such things, entered a church to pray: but that shameless youth, burning with the ardour of an impatient mind, when he wished to touch her, in the midst of his rash embraces his chin so stuck to his shoulder that, troubled with enormous distress, he was compelled to implore the help of the sacred Virgin, suppliantly asking pardon for his guilt. She, at once pitying him, offering herself as an example of patience, repaying good for evil, restored him to swift health. With these agrees the Hymn or Sequence of Denain wont to be recited before the first Gospel of the Mass, singing thus of our Saint: She sought the head of the world; while she returned from prayer, a crowd going before her, lo, the prefect's son is borne to meet her, led by insolence; he wonders at her beauty, and soothes and addresses the Virgin, ignorant of such things, caresses and embraces her, yet her holiness is not overcome. He attacks her with a kiss once, twice, thrice eagerly; but, the people seeing it, wonders take place. His chin sticks to his shoulder, but the clemency of Christ comes to the aid of His Handmaid. But since neither the name of that Roman prefect, nor of his son, nor the time at which these things happened, nor an ancient or even nearly contemporary writer who hands them down, nor anything else which is apt to give credence also to the other assertions, is brought forward, neither that deed committed publicly in a church by a Roman youth, as being foreign to the truth on other grounds too, nor the twofold prodigy that followed, ought so far to be believed any more than the miracles which have just now been discussed.

[74] Now, since we have recounted these things solely for the sake of investigating the truth, [and of her return to Denain, her government of the monastery, her death, and a vision offered at it] let it not weary us to hear the remaining things too which are related of our Saint either by the aforesaid authors or in the cited Lessons of the Breviaries. Thus Lesson VII of the cited Breviary of Cambrai proceeds: And when the renowned virgin Ragenfredis knew herself bereft of her progenitors (Lesson IV of Denain, wont to be recited on the 10th day of October, mentions only the death of Aldebert her father), returning to the aforesaid monastery at Denain, she is received by all with great joy. To whom she narrated the order of her journey for the imitation of virtue, always opening the leadership to heavenly things. For she was placid of countenance, sweet in address; and she whom the goodness of God had seasoned with every kind of holiness was loved by all. If we listen to the anonymous of the eleventh century speaking here again, and with him to the author of the prolix History, St. Ragenfredis, when on her return from the city of Rome to the monastery of Denain she had again visited the more celebrated churches, by her sudden arrival wonderfully consoled her widowed mother St. Regina, living at Denain, and after a short time saw her happily departing to the Lord in that consolation, and succeeded her (see rather what was said at numbers 42 and 43) in the government of the monastery of Denain. At length St. Ragenfredis herself too, after, as the Lessons of the cited Breviary of Cambrai hand down, she had paid out alms to the needy, succoured the wretched in their necessities, performed the other works of piety, and conferred by her prayers the help of health on almost all the sick, adorned with every kind of virtue, died most piously. Finally, as the author of the prolix History narrates, on the same night on which the Saint

died, a heavenly vision was offered to queen Bertha, in which she saw the soul of St. Ragenfredis being carried by angels into heaven, and presently cried out that two lights of the world had been extinguished, consoling herself only with this, that she would have our Saint and her mother St. Regina, who had died before her, as patronesses with God.

[75] To this narration I subjoin my observations, as I did before. are commonly narrated, are examined, As regards the return of St. Ragenfredis from the City to her homeland, and the divine inspiration preceding it; these, although perhaps not falsely asserted, yet have no greater credit and authority than the very pilgrimage at some time instituted by the same Saint from the place of Denain to the city of Rome, of which we treated at number 67 and following. Nor is it indeed undoubtedly foreign to the truth that at the very time at which our Saint could have been staying at Rome (for that she really stayed there is not sufficiently established), at that very time, I say, Blessed Aldebert her father died at Denain, and that she, afterwards returning from Rome, was received with the great joy of all and the greatest gladness of her mother, and afterwards stood by St. Regina when she was dying; but again I should not dare to asseverate all these things, the testimony of a sufficiently ancient author being lacking, much less to make myself surety for the miracles which were performed by the prayers of St. Ragenfredis in favour of the sick; although it cannot be denied that she, who certainly became renowned for very many virtues, obtained many benefits for the wretched by her prayers.

[76] and the time of her death, which from ancient, Finally, the very day and likewise the year of our Saint's death is uncertain; and it is given to conjecture that she departed to the Heavenly ones on the 8th day of October not so much from sufficiently ancient and approved monuments which are now known, as from the constant opinion of some centuries and from the day of her principal cult fixed from time immemorial. Philippe Brasseur confidently expressed this, taught however by I know not how old an author, in his Metrical Calendar of Hainaut, page 141, at the 8th day of October, in these verses: Today the most renowned Virgin passed to the heavens, entombed together with both her father and her mother. The year of her death, however, this author did not here ascribe, as he is otherwise wont to do, undoubtedly because no monument was available to him from which he might draw it out. Nor indeed can it be determined safely enough from the narration of the prolix History. For besides that the vision offered to Bertha, in which she saw the soul of our deceased Saint being carried into heaven, ought not to be held as certain on the sole assertion of this author; even granted that it truly happened, the time of the death of St. Ragenfredis could not yet be undoubtedly defined from his words.

[77] or from the vision offered, as is said, to Bertha, cannot be exactly determined, For although Bertha, or Bertrada, wife of king Pippin, was not alive after the 12th day of July of the year 783, as is plain from the Petavian Annals of the Franks in Bouquet, volume 5, page 15, the Tilian ones in the same place, page 20, and others edited there, and so, although it would follow from this that St. Ragenfredis died before that same day of the year 783; yet, since the same author of the prolix History asserts that St. Aldebert was still flourishing in the time of Charlemagne in the year 780, and insinuates that a space far greater than two or three years intervened between the death of Blessed Aldebert and the passing of St. Ragenfredis to the Heavenly ones after a happy government; he furnishes a handle for doubting whether he did not wish to designate the daughter of Charlemagne and sister of the emperor Louis the Pious, likewise named Bertha and granddaughter of king Pippin, who was still alive in the year 824 (see Bouquet, volume 6, page 661), and confused her with the older Bertha, by the like error by which he confused the two Pippins and attributed to the younger the things which had been done by the elder.

[78] is assigned in some way approximately from a more probable conjecture. However these things may stand, I should prefer, lest otherwise either too short or on the contrary too long a space of government of our Abbess should be built up, to believe that she died about the year of Christ 805, until monuments of better mark come to light from which the year of her death and the other things bearing on this can be defined more safely. And it has seemed good to discuss all these things one by one, both that it may be evident that of the deeds commonly ascribed to St. Ragenfredis there is hardly any, if you except the erection of the house of virgins of Denain and its circumstances, and the virtues common to all the Saints, which is to be held as ascertained; and also that, if any know that Acts of better mark lie hidden anywhere, I may kindle in them the desire of drawing them out into the light; intending afterwards, where there shall be place, to use them diligently and with a grateful mind for the love of elucidating the truth and of illustrating the Saints of Belgium.

§ VI. The body of the Saint raised from the earth on the occasion of a miracle performed. The diploma granted for the restoration of the monastery of Denain: the devastation of the monastery by the Normans.

The body of the Saint, buried in the church of St. Martin at Denain, That the body of our deceased Abbess was committed to the earth not in the very church connected with the house of virgins, sacred to the Mother of God, but in the church of St. Martin near it, could be testified even by the very ancient stone tomb alone, which I have seen with my own eyes, which is wont to be called that of St. Ragenfredis, erected before the presbytery of the aforesaid church of St. Martin, if only the sepulchral inscription itself, which according to ancient custom was undoubtedly expressed on that tomb, still survived. This defect, however, is at least in some way supplied by the Lessons of Denain on the elevation of the body, worthy of greater credit than those which were discussed in the preceding §, which expressly affirm that the Saint was buried in the aforesaid church of St. Martin; with which also a very ancient tradition and the common consent of writers agree, affording certainly no mean indication of truth, or at least such as is not to be rejected without solid reasons to the contrary. But how many years precisely the body of St. Ragenfredis remained buried in that church of St. Martin cannot be exactly defined for this reason, that, as we saw at number 78, the year of her death is not ascertained, nor likewise is the time at which Blessed Ava, to be mentioned presently, received her sight at her sepulchre found expressed in those Lessons, or in other documents of any mark, at least that I know.

[80] Nonetheless this opinion is settled with me, probably raised from the earth not later than the year 850 that the body of our Saint lay buried in the church of St. Martin at least not longer than the space of half a century, and that even before the year 850 it was translated from the earth into some seemly reliquary, which reliquary was afterwards honourably placed in the church of the Mother of God, enlarged, as will be narrated below. And first indeed the anonymous of Denain is witness, much more accurate here than in relating the deeds of the Saint, and nearer to the event, that the better treasure of the people of Denain, the bodies of the Saints, and especially of Regina, Ragenfredis and Aldebert, each namely enclosed, as the matter required, in its own bier, were carried to safer places for the sake of escaping the hands of the Normans. But this does not seem able to be said to have been done by the people of Denain after the middle of the ninth century, since in the very year of the Lord 850, as is plain from volume 2 of March, page 459, number 9, and from Henschen's annotation corresponding to it on page 460, the Normans, coming into the town of Ghent (the words are those of the writer On the Deeds of the Normans before Rollo), burned the monastery of St. Bavo; then came to Rotumum or Rotnacum, and a little after to the abbeys of Hamage and Marchiennes, situated only three leagues from that of Denain: and so it can hardly be doubted that the people of Denain, after the example of their neighbours, took care that their better treasure too, that is, the sacred bodies of their church, should be carried to safer places, lest perhaps they should otherwise become the prey or sport of the barbarians, at least not later than the beginning of the year 850, nay even some years before, as soon as the rumour of the imminent incursion of the barbarians began to be spread through Belgium.

[81] and into the church of Blessed Mary at Denain, by the work of Blessed Ava, Nay, I do not know whether the body of St. Ragenfredis was not raised from its tomb under Halitgar, bishop of Cambrai and at the same time of Arras, who, as is shown in volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 10 and following, from about the year 817 up to the year 831, permitted, or himself performed, the elevation of other Saints in his dioceses from their old tomb; or whether this did not at least happen under bishop Theodoric after the year 831, yet before the parts of the present county of Hainaut had anything to fear from the Normans. However these things may have been; at any rate, since Blessed Ava, different from the virgin of the same name whom some wrongly make the sister of our Saint, caused the church of St. Mary at Denain to be enlarged and improved with the comeliness of manifold apparatus before the sacred body of St. Ragenfredis, her Healer, was translated into it, and she herself received the sacred habit in her house of virgins, as partly the Compendium of the Acts of Blessed Ava, to be praised below, and partly the Lessons of Denain on the Elevation of the body affirm, no one contradicting; it seems likewise to follow that these things were done in that more peaceful time which preceded the frequent eruptions of the Normans into Belgium, and therefore at least before the year 845. For, as is shown from Malbrancq, volume 2, On the Morini, page 253 and following, at the year 845 and the year 846, so far was it from being the case that cenobites or nuns of Belgium, especially those living in unfortified places, should think, in the calamitous storm of the raging Normans, of building or splendidly adorning sacred buildings, or should wish to elevate in them with great apparatus the reliquaries of their Saints, that on the contrary they anxiously hid these very sacred remains and the precious furniture of their churches in the bowels of the earth, whenever a suitable occasion of carrying them to safer places was lacking.

[82] who had obtained her sight by the patronage of the Saint, I judge, therefore, that I shall not be far from the truth if I say that the epoch of the raising of the body of St. Ragenfredis from the earth and of its first translation is to be placed under the aforesaid bishop Halitgar, or under his successor Theodoric, that is, between the year 817 and about the year 840. Let us now hear the very occasion of elevating the sacred body and the other circumstances of the translation, from the Lessons of the Breviary of Denain praised at number 7, wont to be read at the 2nd day of September, and not unworthy of credit, as we have said. Thus has the first Lesson of the second nocturn: The elevation of the body of saint Ragemfredis, which was made on the present day (the 2nd of September), God honoured with a notable miracle, in that He made her tomb illustrious by the illumination of blindness. There was a certain virgin named Ava, noble by birth, venerable in faith, conspicuous for an abundance of estates and an affluence of many riches: but, it is not known by what hidden judgement of God, whether to declare the merit of Saint Ragemfredis, as may appear, or for another cause, her sight having been taken away, she laboured for a long time under the affliction of blindness. She, by the bestowal of alms and by no small donation of her riches to the places of many Saints, sought round about with fervent faith the remedies of her lost sight; but

by the hidden disposition of God she by no means obtained what she sought.

[83] honourably, as the Lessons of Denain Further, on a certain night (so the following Lesson proceeds), when, necessity compelling, she had given herself to sleep, an Angel of God stood by her and exhorted her in words of this kind: If you wish to obtain from God pardon for your sins and to receive the light of your eyes, do not neglect to seek without delay the sepulchre of saint Ragemfredis and the place of her relics, in the finding of which you will receive your lost light. Having received the clearness of light, do not put off labouring earnestly and intently at whatever you can. And she, rising presently that same night, both on account of the exhortation of the angel and out of desire of recovering her light, taking her attendants with her, as soon as she found the holy relics of blessed Ragemfredis in the church of St. Martin, was so restored to health, the sight of light being received, that thereafter she saw all things clearly. Finally, the third Lesson of the same Nocturn runs thus: For the sake of this benefit received, assigning her estates, men-servants and maid-servants, and all the furniture of her own right to the sepulchre of saint Ragemfredis, she caused the church of saint Mary the virgin at Denain to be enlarged and improved with the comeliness of manifold apparatus. She also took care that the blessed relics of the same Ragemfredis should be translated into the aforesaid church, and there, devoted to God, having taken the garb of the sacred veil, she served God up to the end of her life, and merited a place of sepulchre in the church of saint Martin with the Saints entombed there.

[84] Thus far the Lessons of the cited Breviary, with which entirely agrees and other authors relate, was placed, the Compendium of the monuments of Denain, of I know not how old date, published in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium in the year 1595, folio 79, by no means disapproved by our Papebroch at the 29th day of April, page 628; and also another, which Philippe Brasseur, cited above, composed in his Calendar and Panegyric of the Saints of Hainaut, pages 136 and 52. It has seemed good to recite in this place this last, inasmuch as it in some way illustrates the aforesaid Lessons and is not found elsewhere in our work either, in preference to that which was reprinted by Papebroch in his little Commentary on Blessed Ava from the Birthdays of the Saints already praised. Thus, then, the cited Brasseur, in his metrical Calendar of Hainaut at the 2nd day of September, briefly celebrates the mentioned translation of our Saint:

Behold, the venerable body of Ragenfredis is translated From the urn; Ava proves the merit of the Virgin.

And in his Panegyric, page 52, he elucidates that translation thus:

To make an end, I subjoin a notable sign, For declaring the honours of saint Ragefredis: That you yourself may be able to discern her powerful merit, We set before you at her tomb the holy Ava, Who, while she was blind, sought health everywhere, And yet did not find it, until, upheld by an angelic warning, She approached the monument of the buried Virgin, And had her sight through her vows: which being duly received, Whatever of wealth she had she gave to the urn of her Healer: Thus through wealth she found help, through vows health.

[85] But the nuns of Denain were not long permitted to enjoy peacefully the estates and goods granted by Blessed Ava in honour of her Healer, the abbey of Denain, the relics of the Saints having been carried elsewhere, nor even those which the holy Foundress herself had consecrated to divine worship. For since, as Thomassin rightly observes, those wars had arisen among the sons of Louis the Pious by which the church was plunged again into the same calamities from which it had not yet fully emerged, and Charles the Bald had begun about the year 843 to commend even the abbeys of nuns to laymen devoted to him, with no small provocation, as the council held at Thionville speaks, of God and the Saints to anger; and since at length to this evil other graver calamities had been added, arising from the frequent incursions of the Normans; it came about that the bodies of the Saints of Denain had to be carried to safer places, and that then the abbey of Denain suffered no slight, nay daily graver, detriments, so that Denain itself and at least the principal estates were withdrawn from the dominion of the nuns, while the rest perhaps still lay laid waste by the fires of the Normans. For repelling, therefore, this both long and grave evil, the sisters as well as the brothers of Denain, who are also to be mentioned below in the diploma, found no more efficacious remedy than to flee as suppliants to Gisla, sister of Charles the Bald, and to Rodulf, nephew of the same king (for he was the son of Richard, duke of Burgundy, who was the brother of Richildis, wife of Charles the Bald), and by their patronage to obtain from the king that the damages inflicted on their abbey should be repaired and that it should be brought back to its former state.

[86] having suffered many detriments, Charles the Bald In the year 877 the good emperor assented to the fair wishes of the people of Denain; and since he had already built a good many other places of the Saints, or restored those that had fallen, he decreed to bring back the abbey of Denain too to its former state, issuing to this end, when, about to make for Italy from Besançon, he had come to Pontarlier (see what was said from number 25), the diploma mentioned above, which, inasmuch as it bears as nearly as possible on the posthumous glory of St. Ragenfredis and the house of virgins founded by her, I present here entire from the copy of the said Monsieur Tordreau and from Le Mire's Belgian diplomas, book 2, chapter 12, with the subscriptions added which are partly lacking in these and in the Writers on Gallic Affairs, volume 8, page 673, such as I am persuaded were expressed in the autograph itself, partly from one or another of our manuscript copies, partly from what was disputed in §2. It runs thus: In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Charles, by the mercy of God emperor Augustus. To all worshippers of Christ, peace and salvation. For the fear and love of God we have, God being propitious, built some places of the Saints anew and restored others that had fallen.

[87] to its former state, a diploma having been granted, Wherefore let the industry of all the faithful of the holy Church of God, both present and future, know that, through the frequent admonition of our dearest sister, namely by name Gisla, and through the suppliant request of our beloved nephew, and moreover also for the perpetual salvation of our soul, we strive to restore to its former state the abbey of the most holy Mother of God Mary, and also of the venerable virgin St. Ragenfredis, which she herself while living built from her own estates and household servants, situated on the bank of the river Scheldt in the estate which is called Dononium. We have decreed, therefore, for the sake of the fear of God and also through the entreaty of the aforesaid persons, to give back and confirm these things by our magnificence, for the use of the brothers and sisters serving God therein, that they may possess perpetually the things which are found written below.

[88] We give back, therefore, with all our confirmation, to the brothers and sisters of the said monastery, namely Dononium itself in all its integrity, namely LIII manses with mills and fields and very rich meadows, which is recited here entire, and in the district of Hainaut the villa which is called Halcim, likewise in all its integrity, namely XXIV manses with mills and meadows, and also with all the households dwelling therein. In the same district too the villa which is called Teonis, in all its integrity, namely XXXIV manses; and in the villa which is called Salcem, of the same district, XIV manses with the wood which is called Ambligia; in the aforesaid district too, in the villa named Galdeciatas, VII manses and also arable land. Nay, moreover, by statute we sanction that the entire tithe, both from the villas in demesne and from the benefices, from the whole abbey, be bestowed for ever for the uses of the brothers and sisters. And let the senior of the place himself, before all and above all, according to the love of God, provide whatever shall be necessary for the work of the churches or buildings of the aforesaid monastery, and by providing supply it abundantly.

[89] And that they may be preserved inviolably for ever, we have confirmed it below with our own hand, and is supplied from our copies, he endeavoured to bring back, and ordered it to be marked with the impression of our ring. This was done in the year from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ DCCCLXXVII, on the Ides of August, in the Xth Indiction, in the XXXVIIIth year of the reign of king Charles in Francia and the IInd of his Empire. The sign of Charles, most glorious emperor. The sign of Notbert. The sign of Gerlo. The sign of William. The sign of Rodulf his nephew. The sign of Bernard. I, Audacher, notary, in place of Gauzlin, have subscribed, at the royal palace of Pontarlier. Amen. Thus far that diploma in the copies praised at number 86, if you except the words enclosed in brackets, which, as I advised, I thought should be supplied from the copies of our Museum or changed from elsewhere. Now, besides the things which were disputed concerning this diploma in §2, it will help to subjoin some things for the sake of elucidating it. Accordingly, the manses which are mentioned in it in the district of Hainaut are certain portions of land situated in the province which is now called the county of Hainaut, which were both cultivated and on which there were houses of the tenants; and by villas must here be understood villages, which we read were called at a later time villagia or vilagia.

[90] Such a villa, then, or village, in the ninth century was Halcim, various villas being restored to it, whose situation is set forth; by which name I judge to be designated not the village of Haulchin or Haussy situated on the river Selle, but Haulchin or Hauchin on the Scheldt below Denain; such too was the villa which is called Theonis, which indeed seems to me to be altogether not Tun or Thun on the Scheldt toward Cambrai, as Le Mire conjectures, but Thaonville, which is now only a farm, not far distant from the bridge of Denain; such finally in that century were the villa Salcem and the villa Galdeciatas; of which whether the former is the village of Saultain, adjoining the road leading from Valenciennes to Bavay; and whether the latter is the village which is called Villers-Cauchie and adjoins the road leading from Cambrai to Bavay, I should not dare to declare for certain. More ascertained is the Wood Ambligia mentioned there, inasmuch as it is still today called the Bois d'Amblise, and, as may be seen in the geometrical or triangular maps of France of Maraldi and Cassini, touches the royal road by which one goes from Valenciennes to the metropolis of Hainaut.

[91] [but that diploma, from which some things bearing on the monastery of the Saint are drawn out here,] For the rest, this diploma of Charles the Bald teaches us that the monastery of Denain, which, while our Abbess was living, was called the abbey of the Most Holy Mother of God, began in the same century in which its holy Foundress died to be called also, from her name, the abbey of the venerable virgin St. Ragenfredis: the beginning of which change of name indeed, since in that diploma it is not said to have been recent, is probably to be referred to the epoch of the translation of her sacred body set forth above. Moreover, from the same diploma we hold for certain, what I also hinted above, that the monastery of Denain was at that time double, namely of the brothers as well as of the sisters serving God therein, whose buildings however were wholly distinct by their walls and cloisters; concerning which the curious reader may see Mabillon's Preface to the second Benedictine Century, page XXIV. But whether these as well as those were members of the Order of St. Benedict, as Mabillon in the cited place contends in general of monasteries of this kind in Belgium, was discussed by me in § IV

which the reader may consult if he pleases. Now let us return to the road from which we have somewhat digressed.

[92] [on account of the unexpected death of Charles the Bald, and a new incursion of the Normans] That diploma, granted by Charles the Bald, emperor and king of the Franks, on the Ides of August in the year 877, was so favourable to the people of Denain that, from the sole consideration of it, they could not undeservedly hope that the face of their double monastery would thenceforth be much more joyful than it had been for about 40 years, and that the worship of the supreme Godhead and the ecclesiastical veneration of their Foundress, nay and of her parents, would increase more and more; and this also because for some years now the barbarous nation of the Normans had not seemed to threaten Ostrevant again. But the good expectation began first to be lessened by the unexpected death, in the month of October, of the same Charles the Bald, who had only a short time before been conveyed from Pontarlier into Italy; and all hope of a better lot was at length taken away by the miserable and ruinous dissension among the Franks… which arose from the untimely death of Louis the Stammerer, king of the Franks, which followed shortly after, namely in the year 879 in the month of April, and which the Annals of St. Vaast mention in volume 8 of the Writers on Gallic Affairs, page 80. For, as those Annals subjoin almost word for word, the Normans, situated beyond the sea, hearing of the discord of the Franks, having again crossed the sea in a naval expedition with an infinite multitude, laid waste Thérouanne, city of the Morini, with fire and sword in the middle of the month of July of the year 879, no one resisting them; and, encouraged by this success of affairs, after they had laid waste the lands of the Menapii and of the people of Brabant with fire and sword and had established the monastery of Ghent for themselves for wintering, presently, as soon as the season of the year permitted, they depopulated with iron and fire the city of Tournai and all the monasteries on the Scheldt, and so also that of Denain, lying beside the Scheldt and scarcely seven miles distant from Tournai, the inhabitants of the land who had not slipped away in flight being killed or made captive. So, almost word for word, as I have already advised, the Annals of St. Vaast, altogether worthy of great credit here.

[93] did not have the desired effect; nay, on the contrary, Providently indeed and opportunely, as the author of the same Annals testifies, the monks, canons and nuns dwelling both between the rivers Scheldt and Somme and beyond the Scheldt had taken to flight with the bodies of the Saints before the Normans arrived there again; and perhaps even from the year 845 the better treasure of the people of Denain had remained laid up in a safe place in the castle of Douai, which, from the authors cited by Malbrancq, book 6, On the Morini, page 304, was then certainly an asylum for the bodies of the saints and for the neighbouring people: but, although those who had fled from Denain to the castle of Douai found all things in it safe against the Normans, and had experienced nothing at all sinister from elsewhere as regards their sacred pledges, in which, as the anonymous testifies, they had placed their hope of at some time recovering the place of Denain; yet the abbey of Denain could not be recalled to its former splendour shortly after the Normans, the authors of the disaster inflicted, had been driven out of Belgium; nay rather Baldric, cited above, book 2 of the Chronicle of Cambrai, chapter 28, testifies that this was in some manner put into execution not before the course of almost a century, as we shall say below.

[94] But before we come to that, the reader will not, I think, take it amiss the abbey of Denain was utterly destroyed, namely by the Normans. if he hears the anonymous of Denain narrating in his own words this ruin inflicted by the Normans on the house of virgins of Denain. Thus he, in chapter 6 of his Legend: Those (the Normans) who had settled on the shores of the Scheldt raged very greatly, because the convenience of the places and a most welcome station for ships had made them continual there, whether for wintering or for avoiding any danger of the war undertaken. In which storm, the church of Denain being laid waste, that very great labour perished, but not the reward, of Saint Regina and saint Aldebert (nay, neither of St. Regina nor of Blessed Aldebert, but of St. Ragenfredis, whose work it was, as we showed above in § III). The nuns are dispersed and the clerics flee (to the castle of Douai, as I judge, in which perhaps the relics of the Saints had remained with not a few nuns and clerics from about the year 845). All things are exterminated, that great building is desolated, and its ornaments are plundered; nothing is left over from the fire except the better treasure, namely the bodies of the Saints, which had been carried to safer places (say from about the year 845) for the sake of escape, the sole hope, namely, of at some time recovering the place. Likewise also the other estates of the church itself, which were very extensive far and near round about the Scheldt, were exhausted and emptied in this storm. Thus far the anonymous, from whom chiefly I now proceed to recount in the following § the remaining things which concern the history of the house of virgins erected by St. Ragenfredis and of the Relics of the same Saint.

§ VII. The body of the Saint carried to Neufchâtel in France and sold: the restoration of the abbey of Denain and its various circumstances.

The abbey of St. Ragenfredis, after the departure of the Normans, The said author, after he had set forth, almost in the very words of Folcuin (which you have in volume 6 of d'Achery's Spicilegium, page 560 of the first edition), how, after the ruin of the church of Denain and of very many others, the Normans were conquered many times by Franco, bishop of Liège, and Reginar Longneck, count of Hainaut, or in what way peace was restored to the Belgian church, presently subjoins these things bearing on our matter: The languishing fire of the churches breathes again a little (by the slaying of Godfrey, king of the Normans, killed in the year 885); but so great an oppression, so great a loss of goods, although with affective, yet could not with effective urgency recover the former state (that especially in which the house of virgins of Denain had flourished before the year 849). Yet there is made a gathering of the dispersed, a raising of the cast down, a recall of the holy Relics from safer places, and wherever desolation lingered longer, consolation is seen by a sudden change to come suddenly, and according as the dilapidation of things had been greater or less, the restoration is hastened or delayed. But Denain, utterly overthrown, while those things which had formerly been to it for usefulness and comeliness are turned in the time of persecution into ruin and reproach, namely the nearness of the Scheldt and the ample and pleasant station of meadows suited for a siege *, required a greater space, counsel and help, by which it might be able to repair the degree of its former integrity.

[96] certain clerics inhabiting it in place of the nuns, Wherefore that great devastation of great estates did not allow the cenobitic life to be reformed there on that occasion: but, that the service of God might not be wholly let go for the time, only an institution of clerics IS PUT BACK, so that by their provision and acquisition the restitution of the nuns might at some time take place. Accordingly, as the anonymous testifies, for whom perhaps some older writer, or certainly an approved tradition, served as light here, the immense disaster which the Normans had inflicted on the church of Denain and its goods was an obstacle to its dispersed inhabitants, probably lying hidden in the castle of Douai, being recalled to their former seats after the departure of the barbarians, and to both clerics and nuns following, after the ancient manner, the institute of the canonical life (concerning which see what was said in § IV). The same thing is indicated not obscurely by Baldric too, in the cited book 2, chapter 28, when he writes that the abbey of Denain, having declined with poverty pressing, was inhabited not by Benedictine monks but by a few canons.

[97] and having obtained its government, Further, what was done by these clerics or canons to the place of Denain and to the Relics of saint Ragenfredis the cited anonymous discloses in these words: They at length (namely those few clerics or canons), having obtained the government by necessity, not by the will of rulers (that is, not by the voluntary election of superiors), labour and press on in the repair of the place, under the pretext indeed of the gain (that is, the utility) of the church; but, as afterwards appeared, for their own emolument. Finally, the resources (namely of the house of virgins of Denain) having been so long laid waste, and coming to their help less quickly than they wished, having taken counsel, they seek another solace for their necessities. It pleases them to choose four from among themselves, through whom they decide to carry forth the body of saint Ragenfredis, raised up, toward that part of France which had escaped the aforesaid plague (of the Normans), if perhaps, by God's gift, they might bring back thence consolation for their uses.

[98] they carry the body of the Saint round about, and at length to Neufchâtel, They go out, therefore, traversing round about, and collecting from every side not as much as they wish, but as much as is given them, they come by begging to Neufchâtel on the river Ysa, by which the aforesaid Normans, ascending it, had by no means harmed the region, avoiding the incursions and counter-incursions of the townsmen; where, received honourably for the sake of St. Ragenfredis (namely the same clerics or canons), and greatly delighted by the affluence of those receiving them, they stay there for some days; most of all for this reason, that they find the count of the same castle well disposed toward them. And while they often relate to him the benefits of the holy Virgin, they gradually instil into him a desire of retaining the body, if perhaps he could attain to this, that he might be able to retain it with their consent. Wherefore he shows himself in every way kind to them, compels them with words to accept whatever might be necessary, and so amid their relations he tries whether perhaps they would sell him some part, however small, of the relics. And because poverty has no faith, cupidity persuades them in a little, nor do they avoid the pit of avarice, while he loosens the reins of his largess to them, in accepting a reward at their option.

[99] A bargain is made and a sum of money determined, namely a hundred pounds of pence and twice five, and that to the lord of the place, as the anonymous relates, and in the same place one prebend to each. Thus, the gain of gold being admitted and the gain of innocence lost, the treasure of the holy Virgin being unloaded, but themselves loaded with the treasure of money, lest the selling should be evident, the wicked informers of the church bring back an empty reliquary; which restoring home in the church of the holy Mother of God (now in some way repaired by the canons), they keep for themselves the hundred pounds which they had possessed from the hire of iniquity. And the rest (collected from the alms of the pious), as seems good to them, they distribute with their accustomed fraud to the brethren and to ecclesiastical uses. The deed lay hid for a long time; times succeed times; successions come upon decessions, because the time of having mercy on that place had come; the clerics are deposed and the order of monks is imposed, and these, substituted for a short time and a little after removed, the congregation of nuns is restored. Thus again the cited anonymous, on whose words certain things are to be observed.

[100] The Neufchâtel on the Ysa mentioned by the same they sacrilegiously sell, and carry back an empty reliquary to Denain is today a small town of the region which is called the Island of France, or commonly Île-de-France, and is four greater French leagues distant from Laon toward the South, and about twenty leagues from Denain. This small town, as Monsieur Corneille relates in his Geographical Lexicon, volume 2, page 798, column 2, formerly had the name of Auxenna, and, as Adrien de Valois testifies in his Notitia of the Gauls, page 72, column 2, is situated at the confluence of the Rotumna and the Axona (in the vernacular Aisne or Esne); and today it is called in the vernacular speech Neufchâtel. Hither, then, those four, rather to be called hirelings than clerics, the body of St. Ragenfredis, to be carried not so much for the sake of relieving the poverty of the church of Denain as for the sake of their own gain,

first decided, and at length sold it at an infamous price to the lord of the same castle, presently carrying back to Denain a reliquary empty of its sacred pledges, but, lest they should otherwise betray their crime, well closed; which fraud indeed will seem incredible to no one who knows the corrupt morals of some in matters of this kind at the end of the ninth century and in the course of the tenth, and the excessive simplicity of others.

[101] Further, who that count of Neufchâtel was, or in what year the body of St. Ragenfredis was left in the same castle, about the year, as it is given to conjecture, 933. who would determine for certain, the anonymous, who alone is known to have written on this argument, being silent? For it does not do much toward fixing the epoch of this deed that the lady of this place, as the same anonymous writes below at number 111, asserted to Fredesendis, abbess of Denain, perhaps in the year 1035, that the body of our Saint had been bought by her predecessor for a hundred and ten pounds; since it is not evident on any ground that these words of the same lady are to be understood of her immediate predecessor; so that on the contrary, from our anonymous affirming that times succeeded times after this sacrilegious sale, it becomes more credible that the discourse here is of some remote predecessor of hers, who held the castle perhaps a hundred or more years before. If in this matter, obscure from elsewhere too, there is room for conjecture, I should think that that sacrilegious traffic took place at almost the same time, that is, about the year 933, at which the clerics of the cell of Ursidongus carried and carried back the body of St. Ghislain through the country, that they might fill up the hunger of their beggary through the munificence of the faithful; as was narrated almost word for word in volume 2 of October, page 254, number 135, and page 311, number 43, and will again be said in its place in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Ghislain.

[102] The anonymous relates that monks succeeded the clerics, and nuns the monks, It now remains that we also say something of the words of the same anonymous recited in the last place at number 99; and this most of all because they may seem by no means consonant with the often-praised assertion of Baldric. For he, in his Chronicle, book 2, chapter 28, writes that nuns regularly instituted succeeded those few canons who inhabited the abbey of St. Ragenfredis when the nuns had slipped away in the storm of the Normans or afterwards died out; whereas the anonymous asserts that monks were first substituted for the same few canons or clerics, and, these being removed after a short time, the congregation of nuns was restored. But indeed, if we weigh that the purpose of the chronographer of Cambrai was one thing and that of the anonymous writer of Denain another, we shall find that the one contradicts the other in nothing. For, since the monks whom the anonymous narrates were substituted for the clerics were perhaps not introduced into the monastery of Denain in place of the clerics by the authority either of their bishop or of the prince, or at least made place for the nuns a short time after, Baldric could rightly and deservedly think that he could pass over in silence this momentary substitution of monks in the Deeds of the bishops of Cambrai which he was writing, inasmuch as it was a matter of no, or certainly of the slightest, moment, and one which, lest he should otherwise be too prolix, he could leave to be narrated by those who by their purpose would pursue minutely each thing bearing on the monastery of Denain. The matter, therefore, which Baldric merely passed over in silence, yet did not deny, the anonymous of Denain thought should be commemorated for his own purpose, inasmuch as he could have seen it with his own eyes or understood it most certainly from eye-witnesses.

[103] but that nuns were substituted for the clerics in Denain I indeed do not doubt that the same anonymous would have pursued the restoration of the house of virgins of Denain a little more explicitly too, if he had had equally well perceived its causes and the other things which had been treated concerning the same matter between Gerard I, bishop of Cambrai and at the same time of Arras, and Baldwin, count of the Flemings. But these things the praised Baldric knew much better than the anonymous of Denain, inasmuch as he was secretary to the same Gerard I. With him, therefore, as witness, nuns, and these, as we shall show below, Benedictines, were introduced into the house of virgins of Denain through Baldwin, namely count of the Flemings, and lord of the territory of Valenciennes as well as of Denain, but by the counsel of Gerard I, the prelate praised above, and of Leduin, namely abbot of St. Vaast; and thus what had been from its beginning especially an abbey of nuns, the men who had held it with poverty pressing being now driven out, was brought back to its former state of nuns, with this sole difference however, that, as we said above in § IV, canonical nuns first, but afterwards Benedictines, inhabited it.

[104] through Gerard I, bishop, and Leduin, abbot, I think the whole matter happened in roughly this way. When that truly great and most pious prelate Gerard (concerning whom see volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 18 and following) frequently visited the places of his dioceses, and burned with the desire of restoring Religious, and above all monastic, life in each of his dioceses, he undoubtedly saw and grieved that, after so many abbeys of Belgium had been either restored or reformed by the watchful care and zeal of St. Gerard of Brogne, and afterwards of Blessed Richard of Verdun, the house of virgins of Denain had not yet fully emerged from its ancient ruins, and much less that the divine service was performed there by men with such dignity and fervour as he deservedly persuaded himself it had been performed by the nuns under St. Ragenfredis and thereafter up to the Norman storm; he resolved therefore, lest otherwise the work of the outstanding piety of St. Ragenfredis should perish for ever, to bring a healing hand to this evil, and accordingly to take as partner in his counsel Leduin, abbot of the abbey of St. Vaast at Arras, who, as the chronographer of Marchiennes testifies, was a man truly holy and … of singular wisdom and virtue, and who, as is asserted in the aforesaid volume of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 379, was most active in restoring and maintaining the discipline of morals not only at home but also abroad. Their mutual counsels, therefore, concerning bringing back the house of virgins of Denain to its former state of nuns having been communicated and approved, both with equal zeal diligently work to bring the aforesaid count of the Flemings, lord of the territory of Valenciennes as well as of Denain, to the same opinion.

[105] Count Baldwin received the wishes of those asking not unwillingly, and the count of Flanders, the monastery being restored, as Baldric writes, and obeyed their counsels, since, as the same chronographer of Marchiennes testifies, God had bestowed on him a good spirit for restoring churches, and, as the epitaphs placed on his tomb also relate, he was a man powerful in virtue, a defender and lover of monks, that is, of the monastic Order. However this exposition of mine of the counsels of Gerard and Leduin may stand; at any rate it is undoubted on the authority of Baldric that by the persuasion of the same Gerard and also of abbot Leduin virgins were substituted for men in the monastery of Denain, and that an abbess, named Ermentrude, was set over the same virgins, regularly instituted, by the praised count of the Flemings, as the aforesaid chronographer of Cambrai testifies in book 2, chapter 28, in these words in Colvener's edition: But afterwards, when it (the cell or abbey of Denain founded by St. Ragenfredis from the things of her own right) was declining with poverty pressing, a few canons (whom the anonymous calls clerics) inhabited it: until by the counsel of the lord bishop Gerard and of abbot Leduin, in modern time, count Baldwin restored it to its former state , and there, nuns being regularly instituted *, set over them an abbess named Ermentrude.

[106] There could certainly not have been found a more suitable prelate than Ermentrude, over which at the same time the abbess Ermentrude was set; who would serve to the purpose the pious undertakings of the count of the Flemings and the wishes of both prelates, she who, as the anonymous of Denain, her contemporary, testifies, surpassed the nobility of her birth by the nobility of her morals and by the discipline of the rule. Hear his very words: Over whom (namely the nuns) the illustrious abbess Ermentrude is set, noble indeed by birth, but nobler in morals and in the disciplines of the rule, [who] increased the very goods of the church and advanced them with prosperous successes; girls too born of noble blood she brought up and instructed for the same place in the fear of the Lord and the love of chastity. How truly and deservedly these things were asserted by the anonymous one of her pupils proved sufficiently by her example and her illustrious deeds, named Fredesendis or Fredescendis, praised more than once above, of whom there will be fuller discourse when the other things which pertain to this restoration of the monastery of St. Ragenfredis have likewise been illustrated.

[107] And first indeed let us define closely enough the very time at which the abbey of Denain felt so happy and fortunate a change of its affairs. which are shown to have happened about the year 1029. According to the cited Baldric, the restoration of the house of virgins of St. Ragenfredis was made by the counsel of the lord Gerard, bishop of Cambrai and Arras, and of Leduin, abbot of the monastery of St. Vaast, but by the work of count Baldwin. Accordingly, since that Baldwin, commonly called the Fair-bearded, departed from among the living in the year 1036, as is agreed among all, it follows that the epoch of the restored monastery of Denain can certainly not be fixed later than the aforesaid year. On the other side, since the aforesaid Leduin too, as Hugh of Flavigny hands down in the Life of the venerable Richard, volume 2 of June, page 987, number 46, was set over the abbey of St. Vaast in the year MXXIIII * by the order and obedience of father Richard, it also follows that the restoration of the monastery of Denain, made by his counsel when already abbot, can altogether not be determined before the year 1023. It happened, therefore, in that time which intervenes between the years 1022 and 1037, and probably, as Locre also judged in his Chronicle, in the year 1029, namely after in the preceding year monks of good testimony had been introduced into the monastery of Marchiennes, near that of Denain, by the order of the same count and by the work of the same Leduin, and the rigour of cenobitic discipline had already been renewed there; concerning which matter see the chronographer of Marchiennes in the cited Locre at the year 1028.

[108] of the Institute of religious life then introduced into the abbey, I now proceed to the kind of Religious life introduced into this abbey. If it were altogether certain that all the things which the Rouge-Cloître manuscript codex, praised at number 58, presents are the genuine words of Baldric himself, it would also become certain, even on the sole authority of the same writer, that Benedictine nuns were introduced into that house of virgins: but since the readings of the said chapter 28 of the second book vary in the manuscript codices, and so the reading set forth by us at the cited number 58, although indeed more probable, is yet not to be held as undoubted, it will not be without reason to see whether that same thing which the said Rouge-Cloître manuscript codex hands down for this our matter cannot be proved from elsewhere. And indeed it cannot be doubted that both Leduin, who by his counsel had a great part in the restoration of the monastery of Denain, was an abbot of the Benedictine Order and most zealous for propagating his Rule, and that bishop Gerard too devoted himself wholly with equal zeal to restoring the order of the monastic religion, then certainly Benedictine, as may be seen in volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, columns 19, 20 and 379: therefore, unless the contrary can be proved from an author or monument worthy of credit, it is altogether to be believed that no other than the Benedictine Institute, for the propagating of which both of them were most zealous, was brought by them into the house of virgins of Denain. Add to this that most certainly

in the year 1118, as is plain from the Constitution of Robert, bishop of Arras, given in the same year and to be recited below, the Rule of St. Benedict flourished among the nuns of Denain; and therefore, since it is not read to have been introduced to Denain after the times of count Baldwin and of both the praised prelates, it was undoubtedly that very Rule under which the nuns of Denain were regularly instituted, as Baldric speaks, by the counsel of Gerard and Leduin and the work of Baldwin.

[109] Let us now pursue the history of the relics of St. Ragenfredis and of her house of virgins. While the sacred pledges of our holy Abbess which had been left at Neufchâtel by the four aforesaid clerics were in great veneration there, and of 2 abbesses, under whom the monastery of the Saint and while, now under the happy government of the abbess Ermentrude, the affairs of the church of Denain had begun to be increased and advanced more and more prosperously, as the time allowed, together with the religious cult of St. Ragenfredis, although absent in body, this worthy prelate, as our anonymous testifies, entered the way of all flesh, to receive from God the reward of her virtues and labours; and in her place was presently substituted the Fredesendis already mentioned more than often, aged in morals, as the anonymous subjoins, but young in age, and in other respects not inferior to the aforesaid mother. She, treading in her footsteps, improved in all things with every kind of dignity the place (the anonymous means that of Denain) which she had undertaken to rule, renewed as far as she could the age and ruin of the cloister (not yet fully restored by the canons after the Norman disaster), and laboured in every way that golden times might succeed iron ones for her people *; and she governed and raised up the house of virgins committed to her with such industry and talent, as the anonymous testifies, that that contemporary anonymous openly professed that he would have related very many things concerning her, had not Wisdom forbidden a person to be praised in life.

[110] This is that Fredesendis, or, as she is called in volume 5 of Gallia Christiana, column 342, and of her cult flourishing again, a notice is given. Frisildis or Faisildis, whom the wife of Baldwin, called of Lille, count of the Flemings, named Adela, wished also to preside in the place of abbess over the abbey of Messines near Ypres, begun to be built by her in the year 1060, as Le Mire hands down from the monuments of this place in volume 1 of the Diplomatic Works, page 64, Annotation 1; and who directed and raised up this new plantation too (I use the words of the anonymous) more than such an age and sex permitted. That the Life of St. Regina, into which certain deeds of St. Ragenfredis are also woven, was written by our anonymous by order of the same Fredesendis, there is no need to repeat at length, since this matter has been treated fully enough above. Let the notice of this abbess already given and the certain age of our anonymous assigned suffice, so that we may now proceed by a free path to the recovery of the body of St. Ragenfredis happily accomplished under her and to the increase of her cult among the people of Denain.

* that is, commorationi for staying

* Perhaps praedatores plunderers?

* Perhaps Dononio to Denain?

* elsewhere: sed postmodum but afterwards

* otherwise: statum monialium reduxit brought it back to the state of nuns

* otherwise: ibique moniales S. Benedicti, cum antea fuissent regulares, introduxit and there introduced nuns of St. Benedict, whereas before they had been regulars

* read MXXIII

* Perhaps suas her women?

§ VIII. The larger bones of the Saint recovered by the people of Denain, then also the smaller: these laid in a seemly reliquary: the veneration paid them in various places.

The abbess Fredesendis, when she had turned aside to Neufchâtel, In what order the body of St. Ragenfredis, so long withdrawn from her church, and by what happy event, was restored to her house of virgins the praised anonymous narrates in chapter 7 in these words. It happened that the abbess (namely the aforesaid Fredesendis) was riding toward the city of Reims for the sake of ecclesiastical business (for the dioceses of Cambrai and Arras were then subject to this metropolis), and, ignorant of the past or future event, had her passage through Neufchâtel, situated on the Ysa, of which we made mention above (see number 100), and there, the hour compelling (but God was disposing her journey), she had necessarily to pass the night. Being gladly received, then, into hospitality by the countess of the same castle, after her reception she is led by her to the church to pray. She prayed, and rising from prayer she found there a little Psalter, turning and turning over whose leaves a Litany appeared to her eyes, reading through which she found among the names of the Saints the name of saint Ragenfredis written in a different colour, that is, in red; on which, out of exceeding love, imprinting a kiss (for she hoped that she still had her entire at her monastery), she is asked merrily with leaps by the countess, to which of the Saints she was so sweetly offering kisses with the affection of piety? To my lady saint Ragenfredis, said she, whose presence in my monastery shows many mercies to me and to the petition of all. It is not so, answered the countess; my predecessor (see the things bearing on this at number 101) bought her holy body for a hundred and ten pounds from certain clerics in this country, and without doubt she rests in this church.

[112] [and had heard, not without astonishment, that the body of the Saint was preserved there,] On the contrary, the abbess was busy to affirm her own case with words, but a certain nun named Emma (elsewhere she is called Emina), who was with her, more mature in age, nudging her with her elbow (for she was standing by her), signalled her to be silent. So it was dropped; they went to supper, after supper to sleep, at dawn they departed. The business of the journey being completed, the abbess returns and, not very credulous either of herself or of the countess about the body of the holy Virgin, narrated to her own people, not without sorrow, what she had seen and heard. Dread and fear immediately rushed upon them (the nuns of Denain), and a varying error of belief was in their hearts. For the matter was incredible (namely to the same nuns, to whom nothing had ever become known of the fraudulence of the four aforesaid bearers of the sacred body), and most of all for this reason, that no one wished to believe what she wished by no means to have lost; but the matter, proved by the industry of the abbess, persuaded them, willing or unwilling, to believe *; and they were the more uncertain what they should then do, whether they should conceal or publish it. But lest the place should grow cheap if the neighbours should learn that it was empty of so great a treasure, they began therefore to deliberate whether in any way they could attain to the recovery of the holy body; and because the distress of grief seeks the solace of necessity, the counsel of the supernal disposition was not wanting to them.

[113] by the work of two clerics, first her larger bones, For after some days there came to Denain certain clerics of that region, bearing relics with them for the sake of their relief; for their church had been desolated by the frequent wars . And they, received honourably into hospitality by order of the abbess, the relics being placed in the church, refreshed themselves in the house of a certain Gerard, priest (mentioned at number 4). After food and drink, after many circumlocutions , as is the custom of clerics, the conversation fell for Gerard upon saint Ragenfredis, on whom he was still bending his mind. And immediately, two clerics, Hugh and Henry, answering that they knew the place, and, if a reward were not lacking, could restore the treasure of the Virgin, Go, said Gerard, and return without doubt of the reward, if you bring the promise to effect. And they, having gone round some parts of the province, departed, and, captured by the promise of greater gain, God willing , brought the matter to effect. The relics of the Virgin, received by the will of God, they carried to Senlis , And these having been laid in safekeeping for themselves *, Henry runs back to Denain to exact the promise of his bargain.

[114] When Gerard and Emma (the nun mentioned above) had seen him, anxious with excessive she has carried back to Denain, joy, they sought the secrets of counsel, and, the effect of the matter having been heard, the abbess is called; the amount of money is counted out to him; and, taking with him two clerics, Andrew and Heldinus, he returns to Senlis * with speed; and the more swiftly, the less with security; he discloses to them and restores the hidden treasure, namely the larger bones of the holy Virgin, and having said farewell to one another, swifter in wishes than in steps, with fear and joy each seeks again his own. But the other of the two, namely Andrew, seized by a great infirmity, since, ill-secure, he by no means dared to delay the journey begun, was failing with the greatest prostration of body. But a little after the holy Virgin became for him a staff and a medicine of his infirmity. For when they had arrived at Denain, so that he might at once receive some reward of his labour and fear, when they placed the Relics in the church with praises and hymns, the cleric recovered sudden and entire health from his infirmity; these things having thus been done, there was great exultation in them over what had been brought back; but an imperfect one still remained over what had been left behind; for the cleric who had carried the larger bones, while he feared to be caught, did not persist in seizing the smaller ones, all hope of which being taken away seemed to shut out every way of counsel for the abbess and her people.

[115] Thus far our anonymous, contemporary with Fredesendis, under whom these things happened, as I have advised more than often, then by the industry of a nun, named Emma, who set out for Neufchâtel and well known to her, who presently continues in these words how the smaller bones too of St. Ragenfredis were brought back to Denain: But the omnipotence of God is not lacking, which, that it might be more manifestly evident, is handled by a woman's art. For Emina (that is, Emma), that nun whom we described above as having been with the abbess at Neufchâtel, since no animal is bolder than a woman, plans in her mind to attack and storm the very town (nay, the sacred treasure of the castle), and what a thousand men would not dare to begin, the wit of one little woman begins and accomplishes. She prepares a new expedition, namely a rustic man and a rustic ninina * old in age and rags, who accompanying her on foot, she herself, having mounted a beast, was making for the storming of the town; and she came there on the third day, as if on a journey, the hour of dinner being already at hand, and, received in the place not of an enemy but of a guest (for the matter was still hidden) with the same charity as before by the countess, when she said that she had not yet heard Mass that day, she is advised to go to the church by boat, that she might return the more quickly (for the circuit of the way by land was so great that it was much quicker to sail there and back); she chose however to go on foot, so that, the way being noted by her, she might return there after dinner more familiarly.

[116] After Mass, asked to stay the rest of the day, and, having secretly stolen the smaller bones, which she would have sought even if not asked, she gladly gave assent; but, advised again to rest a little by sleeping (for it was the month of May), she answered that she wished rather to go to the church to chant psalms; and, lest she should be noted with any suspicion, with her rustic man and her ninina she took with her another ninina from the house, the almoner of the countess, with whom, going more securely to the church, she prayed for a long time, and, after prayer, sitting down, began to chant psalms. That woman could not continue so long a delay with them, but, affected with weariness of the psalms (for her poverty needed not psalms but bread), she goes out to see to her own affairs. After her going out, the nun, springing up, having placed her people on guard in suitable places, herself sets about despoiling with bared arms the shrine in which were the Relics of saint Ragenfredis. Her people trembled outside with excessive fear, but she, trembling and burning within no less with joy than with fear, whatever was

in the shrine she swept into her little bag, even the dust with the bones.

[117] and having returned with them to Denain, And when she had called back her people, and, again for the sake of dissembling, holding the Psalter, had sat down with them, glad enough, if secure, a little woman is led into the church who had been feverish for some days, and, as is the custom of the sick, asked the same nun whether she knew anything against the plague of this. And she asks water to be brought, and, saying that she had with her something medicinal which, washed, was wont to benefit such persons, at once secretly washes the Relics of the holy Virgin which she had in her little bag, and, giving her the drink, rejoiced that she went away at once cured. And so, God disposing her journey and her work, the sun now seeking the lower regions, she returns to the lodging, and, lest anyone, if he should observe, might perhaps detect the little bag placed in her bosom, feigning indisposition, she asks only for a place to rest [and] is laid on a bed prepared without delay. A lamp, which she had asked for under pretext indeed of infirmity, but for reverence of the holy Virgin, is lit before the bed; but that night is passed by her sleepless on account of the guarding of so great a treasure. And when morning came, she approaches the countess and, kissing her, says that she does not dare to proceed further on account of the wars * and her indisposition, [and], lest that noble theft should be detected by any sign, asks and receives licence to return to the monastery; and having entered the way which she believed safer, made a bread-carrier of crusts, which she might show if she were asked what she was carrying in her bosom, she was making for Denain, to the revealing of companions, with swift step through a succession of days and nights … And so she arrived at the monastery, exulting in Christ at the prosperity of the journey.

[118] she has the body of the Saint, recovered entire, laid in a magnificent shrine. You would have seen this other Judith received with the joy of the sisters, the abbess rejoicing with the greatest exultation, the clergy and people wondering at the deed, and all in common praising God. So art is mocked by art, and the dispersion made by the faction of clerics is made whole again by the dispersion of clerics. Which thing the abbess, prudently considering that it had been done by God, [and] had happened in her times for the salvation of souls and the glory of life and the increase of the church, by the urging and help of the same nun, namely the aforesaid Emma, caused a shrine to be made of gold and silver, magnificent or at munificent expense, in which with due veneration she enclosed the body of saint Ragenfredis for the protection and security of all posterity; who, set in the middle place between saint Regina her mother, whom she succeeded (see rather what was said at number 45), and Ava, whom she preceded in government, to the glory and honour of the holy Trinity, through the Spouse, the Son of God, by their merits and prayers has protected and made illustrious her place, before and after, with wonderful works. Thus far the anonymous of Denain in our fragment of de Guise's Latin Work, if, besides the things to be said just below, you except some words which, because they were partly lacking in that copy, partly copied less accurately or altogether confusedly, I suggested by conjecture, and, that they might be distinguished from the words of the anonymous, enclosed in brackets.

[119] Now I must give the reason why I substituted some dots at number 117 for a certain little story inserted into the relation of the anonymous already given in de Guise, [The recited narration of the anonymous, from which certain things were deliberately cut,] and why I will not likewise transcribe here another prodigy which follows the relation of the anonymous in the same fragment. As regards that little story, even if it were to be attributed to our anonymous as its author, which however I should not dare to assert, and if that nun had not been deluded by a vain image when she judged that a little animal had been killed by God because it had approached the sacred relics of St. Ragenfredis, and afterwards narrated it to the people of Denain; the matter indeed even so did not seem to me of such moment that it should be recounted in the very words in which it is related in de Guise. And the other prodigy, in which, in the cited de Guise, in the whole of chapter 34, a certain Aldo, a notorious robber, is narrated to have been divinely punished, I likewise did not think should be recited here; both because I very greatly doubt whether the things which are presented at the end of chapter 33 and in the whole following chapter of book 12 of de Guise's Latin Work are also the words of our anonymous; and because Baldric, in book 3 of his Chronicle, chapter 20, narrating the vengeance divinely taken on the same robber, nowhere mentions the injury or insult inflicted by him on the church of Denain; and finally because, as Baldric testifies, that horrible end of Aldo happened neither in the manner in which it is related in de Guise, nor at that time either, but, as the Chronographer of Cambrai testifies, under Wenric, abbot of the monastery of St. Ghislain in Hainaut, who certainly died before the year 1027, as is plain from volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 92, and therefore not after the relics of St. Ragenfredis had been brought back from Neufchâtel to Denain by the work of Fredesendis, but perhaps twenty years before the said abbess presided over the monastery of Denain.

[120] It now remains that we touch on the questions which could be raised concerning the transcribed narration of the anonymous. cannot be convicted of falsehood from the words of the abbess Fredesendis, And first indeed it will seem to more than one that it is to be doubted whether Fredesendis, abbess of Denain, when she asserted to the lady of Neufchâtel that many benefits had been divinely granted in her monastery by the patronage of St. Ragenfredis, did not notably lie, since at that time the sacred pledges of our holy Abbess were preserved not in the church of Denain but in that of Neufchâtel. But I answer that Fredesendis is not on that account to be convicted of falsity, much less of lying, since, as could be shown by very many examples, it was by no means infrequent formerly that at the sepulchres or reliquaries of the Saints, even though the sacred pledges had been taken out of them, the pious faithful experienced from God the same benefits which they would otherwise have obtained by the divine gift if the bodies of the Saints themselves had been present; and that this very thing too really happened at Denain, while only the reliquary of St. Ragenfredis was piously preserved there, God favouring the wishes of the faithful, may not undeservedly be believed on the assertion of the most noble virgin and most pious prelate.

[121] Nor is there reason either why it should be called into doubt nor from the circumstances of the miracle performed on the feverish woman, whether that nun, named Emma, mentioned more than once above, washed some smaller bones of St. Ragenfredis with water and gave it to the feverish woman to drink, not without a salutary and desired outcome. For since, as the anonymous testifies, she immersed the particles of the sacred body in water for a little while secretly and without the knowledge of the feverish woman, and offered them to her to drink off as some secret or special remedy, perhaps even imposing silence on the feverish woman; certainly that nun exposed herself either to no danger, or only to a slight one, of betraying her theft; and, however imprudently one may wish Emma to have acted in that matter, nothing can be proved from this against the probability of that narration, since sometimes not women only, but men too, otherwise sensible enough, from time to time do something over-hastily or less considerately which it would have been much more advisable to omit. Further, lest the same relation of the anonymous should come under suspicion of falsehood with some from elsewhere, or the same nun be accused of superstition because she immersed some smaller bones of St. Ragenfredis in water and offered this to the feverish woman to drink off, I am pleased to bring forward some such prodigy certainly performed by God at almost the same time, which Wibert, archdeacon of St. Leo, Pope IX, an author most worthy of credit, relates among us in volume 2 of April, page 656, book 2 of the Life of St. Leo, chapter 1, in the following words.

[122] inasmuch as they are shown to have been by no means superstitious. There was in him (he speaks of St. Bruno, then bishop of Toul and only afterwards called Leo IX) the highest devotion to visit with an annual return the supreme Pontiff and the first key-bearer of heaven, and with suppliant prayer to entreat his help for the sheep entrusted to him by God. Accordingly, at a certain time, having undertaken the accustomed journey, accompanied by a company of clerics and also laymen exceeding the number of five hundred, who for the dignity of his merits, his affability and his holiness followed his inseparable escort, a dire plague arose for all from the corruption of the Italian air, so that no one infected with this wasting had hope of putting off death till the morrow. But the man of the Lord … found a swift remedy, the divine grace going before. For the relics of the Saints which he carried with him having been dipped in wine with his own hand, and especially the joints of St. Aper (concerning whom see volume V of September, page 55 and following), to whom he commended himself more devoutly; whoever tasted a cup of this kind, however little, presently recovered, however great the languor that had invaded him, if only he was able to taste the flavour of that liquor. See, to pass over here the other volumes of our Work, volume 3 of October, page 436, numbers XI and 16, and volume VI of September, page 266, number 14, by which it is most manifestly proved how frequent formerly in the church and how salutary by the divine gift to the sick, and therefore how foreign to all superstition, was the use of waters sanctified in that manner.

[123] Let us now inquire into the very time at which the recovery both of the larger and of the smaller bones of St. Ragenfredis was made. The epoch of the body of the Saint recovered and laid in a magnificent shrine As the often-praised anonymous testifies, those two clerics of the region of Neufchâtel, Hugh and Henry, who, enticed by the hope of greater gain, promised to restore the body of our holy Abbess to the people of Denain, came to Denain with some sacred relics for the sake of begging help at a time when their church had been desolated by a certain destructive war: therefore, since, as we learn from Mabillon's Benedictine Annals, book 57, number 55, volume 4, page 403, at the year 1035 Henry, king of the Franks, surrounded Neufchâtel, situated on the Aisne, with a siege and at length stormed it, not without great and long labour, as that king hints in his diploma there; it seems hardly to be doubted that on the occasion of this siege, as is otherwise wont to happen in war of this kind, that church of the clerics, situated either in Neufchâtel itself or in its territory, was desolated; so that those clerics came to Denain, and showed the way of recovering the body of St. Ragenfredis, at least not before the aforesaid year 1035. But whether this was done in the course of the same year, or rather in the following one, when times were now a little more peaceful for the people of Neufchâtel, I indeed should not dare to define for certain. However that may be, we have defined closely enough the time at which the larger bones of St. Ragenfredis were brought back to the church of Denain, since, as the anonymous narrates, the same clerics, having gone round only some parts of the province, say of Hainaut, captured by the promise of greater gain, brought the matter to effect forthwith, the larger bones of our holy Abbess being secretly stolen from the church of Neufchâtel, which they carried to Senlis, whence they were carried back to Denain with all haste.

[124] And hence, and at the same time from the words of the same anonymous recited at numbers 115 and 118, it seems that it can be determined about the year 1037, it is not obscurely gathered that in the year 1037 the smaller bones too of our Saint

were brought back to Denain; since in that year, as the author of a fragment writes in Duchesne, volume 4 of the Writers on the Franks, page 86, Theobald and Stephen, his sons (namely of count Odo, surnamed of Champagne), after the manner of their fathers, who were always faithless to kings, rebelled against king Ainric (otherwise Henry), enticing Odo his (Henry's) brother with a false hope of the kingdom. And he, credulous of their promises, became a manifest enemy to his brother. Thereupon slaughters, rapines, fires and depopulations ruined almost the whole of Francia. Since, therefore, our anonymous writes that Emma, the nun of Denain, set out for Neufchâtel at a time at which a war, different, as it seems to me, from the former, was being waged in Francia, namely toward the borders of French Champagne, on the specious pretext of which the same Emma also professed that she did not dare to proceed further, and at once returned to Denain; it is not foreign to the truth that in that very year 1037 the smaller bones of St. Ragenfredis of which we treat were stolen by the same nun; which, carried in the manner which the anonymous relates to the monastery of Denain, were afterwards brought together with the larger ones into the shrine of gold and silver, magnificent and made, as he speaks, at munificent expense, and placed most honourably in the place in the middle between the reliquaries of St. Regina and of Blessed Ava.

[125] Further, if credit is to be given to Henri d'Outreman, author of the History of the city and county of Valenciennes, [at what time the reliquary of the Saint began to be carried every year to the city of Valenciennes,] page 434, it likewise follows that the reliquary of St. Ragenfredis remained there unmoved scarcely one year. For since from the year, as he himself builds up there, 1008, and indeed by the decree of the then count of Valenciennes, it had been fixed and ratified that on the 8th day of September, in memory of the pestilence driven from that city by the help of the Mother of God, all the bodies of the Heaven-dwellers that existed in that territory should be carried every year through the city of Valenciennes with the solemn rite of suppliants; there is no doubt that, if d'Outreman wrote rightly, for augmenting the pomp of that feast and the piety of the faithful, the reliquary of our Saint too was carried there, namely either in the very year 1037, or at least in one or other of the following, at which time the last hand could very easily have been put to it. However it may be with the decree of the procession proclaimed; certainly that religious custom has prevailed for many centuries that on the 8th day of September, sacred to the nativity of the Virgin Mother of God, the body of St. Ragenfredis, with many other Relics of the Saints, is carried every year with solemn rite through the city of Valenciennes and remains there with them for the whole octave for the protection of the faithful, as becomes undoubted from a little book published at Valenciennes on this argument in the year 1614, and from the Litanies of the Saints presented there, page 122 and following. Whether in the year 66 of the eleventh century too, when Baldwin the Pious, count of the Flemings, desired the church of St. Peter at Lille in Flanders to be dedicated to God with the highest splendour, the body of St. Ragenfredis was carried there with the other bodies of the Saints of the whole dominion of the same count, I should not dare to declare without doubt, without older witnesses than those I have found. But most certainly in the year 1070 the reliquaries of St. Ragenfredis and of her holy mother Regina were carried with honourable rite to the solemn dedication of the monastery of Hasnon, situated not far from that of Denain, the abbess Fredesendis accompanying both, the same, unless I am greatly mistaken, who has already often been mentioned.

[126] [and then in the year 1070, for making illustrious the dedication of the church of Hasnon,] It has seemed good to relate this matter, inasmuch as it contributes not slightly to the posthumous glory of our Saint, in the very words of the ancient writers. Thus the author of the Book on the Translation of St. Donatian, archbishop of Reims, into the city of Bruges, in Surius at the 14th of October, page 224: When the renowned Marquis of Flanders, Baldwin (called of Mons), cultivator of justice, lover of peace, among other pursuits of good works had built a monastery founded in the castle of Hasnon, for the sake of dedicating it he employed wonderful preparations from his immense wealth, and ordered all the nobles of Flanders with their people to be present at so great a solemnity, and willed the bodies too of all the Saints of his dominion to be present with the bishops, provosts, abbots and his subjects. The author of the History of the monastery of Hasnon, named Tomellus, agrees, who was secretary to the aforesaid Baldwin, count of Flanders and Hainaut, and was present at the event, writing thus in volume 3 of the Anecdota of Martène and Durand, column 790: to which translation (namely of the Relics of SS. Marcellinus and Peter) and at the same time dedication (of the monastery of Hasnon) he caused the prelates Lietbert of Cambrai, to whose diocese the same place belonged (namely by reason of the diocese of Arras then united to it), Ratbod of Noyon and Rayner of Orléans, having been invited, to be present; and, very many abbots being joined to them, with very many patronages of the Saints, he accomplished the encaenia of the often-mentioned monastery with no moderate solemnities.

[127] was carried with the Relics of other Saints with great apparatus. Then, a few things being interposed, in which he narrates that this dedication was performed by three bishops on the third day before the Nones of June in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord MLXX, he weaves the series of the bodies of the Saints which were carried there from various places for augmenting the pomp of that dedication, which, because I think it will not be unwelcome to Belgian hagiophiles, I transcribe here entire. It runs thus: Of St. Marcellus, Pope, St. Piatus, martyr, St. Salvius, martyr, from Valenciennes, St. Innocent from Condé, St. Amatus from Douai, St. Donatian from Bruges, St. Vaast from Arras, St. Amand from Elnone, St. Omer from Saint-Omer, St. Ghislain from Celle, St. Vincent, count of Hainaut, St. Bertin from Saint-Bertin near Saint-Omer, St. Winnoc from Flanders, St. Wandrille from Blandin, St. Bavo from Ghent, St. Everard from Osonium *, St. Eubert from Lille, St. Landelin from Crespin, St. Hugh from Haspres, St. Aycard from Haspres, St. Eusebia from Marchiennes, St. Rictrudis, the mother, from Marchiennes, St. Aldegund from Maubeuge, and, what bears most on this, the body of St. Raginfledis from Denain, St. Regina from Denain, and finally St. Waldetrudis from Mons. To these the praised Tomellus subjoins by name fifteen abbots who were present at the aforesaid dedication, and finally two abbesses, namely Fredesendis, undoubtedly abbess of the house of virgins of Denain, as I also advised above, by then quite aged, and another, named Gerberga, about whom, because it does not bear on this, I make no inquiry here.

* that is, she held it as her persuasion

* Perhaps jucundis cum salibus with pleasant witticisms, that is, merrily and sharply?

* that is, ordered them, though unwilling, to believe

* that is, guerris, that is, wars

* that is, exeniaverunt, that is, refreshed with food.

* otherwise: circumloquentiones

* Perhaps ad hoc to this?

* that is, not hindering

* Silvanectum Senlis

* that is, placed in safety

* Silvanectum Senlis

* that is, a maidservant

* that is, the maidservant

* supply: loci of the place

* that is, wars

* Perhaps Cisonio Cysoing?

§ IX. How long Benedictine nuns lived in the house of virgins of Denain under the title of the Congregation of St. Ragenfredis is inquired.

[Benedictine nuns from the eleventh century, under the title of the congregation of Blessed Ragenfredis] I have now, I think, discoursed enough concerning the Relics of St. Ragenfredis, concerning the original norm of life of the nuns instituted by her, and finally concerning the fuller restoration of the same house of virgins begun probably in the year 1029 and afterwards continued, that I may now proceed to elucidate the manner of life of the nuns of Denain in the same eleventh century and thereafter. That the nuns who were substituted for the clerics of Denain by the counsel of Gerard I and of abbot Leduin, but by the work of count Baldwin, were not canonesses simply so called, nor, such as there now are, Regular or secular canonesses, but on the contrary Benedictines in the strict sense, the intelligent reader will easily perceive even from the documents and reasons which I brought forward at numbers 105 and 108. Now, therefore, I undertake to discuss in some way how long the Rule of St. Benedict flourished in the same house of virgins, and what vicissitudes the same house of virgins underwent, intending gladly to give more if the documents which have more than once been asked for by us had at length been supplied. And first indeed, that it may be manifestly evident that in the year of Christ 1118, and therefore about 90 years after the restoration of the monastery was begun, those nuns served God under the Rule of St. Benedict, and, which at the same time contributes to the posthumous glory of our Saint, that the title of the Congregation of blessed Ragenfredis, virgin, was given to their company by legitimate authority; I am pleased to transfer here entire, from volume 6 of our manuscript collection of the monasteries of Belgium, part 2, folio 424, the charter of Robert, the second bishop of the diocese of Arras after its separation from Cambrai, consecrated in the year 1115, as may be seen in volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 324, namely either at the end of February or the beginning of March, as is easily gathered from his epitaph in the same place.

[129] Thus, then, that charter, hitherto unedited so far as I know, sounds: up to the twelfth century, as the diploma proves In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one true and supreme God, Amen. I, Robert, by the mercy of God bishop of Arras, satisfying your most sweet petitions and those of the church over which you are known to preside, most beloved sister and daughter Mary, abbess of the venerable congregation of blessed Ragenfredis, virgin, of the monastery of Denain, for the redemption of our sins, to you and to the abbesses succeeding you in the place and order in which you are, serving God under the Rule of saint Benedict, without any exaction of base gain, not only grant the altars of Laugmug and of Proui, but also, by the authority with which we preside, liberally confirm them for ever, saving in all things the right of the bishop of Arras and his revenues, and those of the archdeacon and of his ministers. But if anyone after this our definition shall attempt with sacrilegious hand to take them away from the church to which, God disposing, we have assented, or shall presume to go against them by ingenious machinations, let him be anathema with Simon Magus.

[130] of Robert, bishop of Arras, We add also that the providence of you and of the abbesses succeeding you shall present suitable priests to the bishop of Arras, to whom they shall make possession concerning the uprightness of their life and their chastity, as is canonical, and promise obedience, and then receive gratis from the hand of the bishop the care to be borne among the people of God in the aforesaid churches of Laugmug and of Proui; and let the abbess of the monastery of Denain, namely you, honourable sister in Christ Mary, and the abbesses succeeding you, not neglect to be present at the synod of Arras, unless they shall have been excused with the goodwill of the bishop, or of his archdeacon, if, discharging the office of the pontiff , he shall hold the synod. And that the writing of this our constitution may remain stable and unshaken, we have taken care to note our brethren as faithful witnesses. The sign of Drogo, archdeacon of Arras. The sign of Robert, archdeacon of Ostrevant. The sign of Odo, provost. The sign of Mascelin, dean. The sign of Anastasius, cantor. The sign of Gualbert, deacon. The sign of Bertuld, Bernard, Robert, canons, clerics of the bishop's house, of Guenemar, priest, of Guibert, deacon, of Hugh, acolyte. I, Robert, by the mercy of God bishop of Arras, have reread this donation of liberty, have subscribed ✠, and in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit have confirmed it with my own hand. Done in the year of the Incarnate Word MCXVIII, on the 10th day before the Kalends of October, in the XIIth Indiction, in the IVth year of the pontificate of the Lord Robert, bishop of Arras.

[131] Further, I should like the reader to be advised of two things here: the one, namely, on which some things are observed, lived at Denain with praise; that the XIIth Indiction marked above, inasmuch as the 10th day before the Kalends of October, or the 22nd of September, of the year 1118 is bound to it, is neither the Pontifical nor the Imperial, but the Constantinopolitan; which accordingly, unless we say that the subscription of that charter was wrongly expressed by the copyist in more than one place, it must be admitted was used among the Belgians too in the eleventh century. And the other, which it has likewise seemed good to indicate, turns on this, that in our copy of this charter, after those words, in the XIIth Indiction, with the word year prefixed, the number II is marked; which, if it exists in the autograph itself, either there will be a lacuna in our copy to be filled thus: in the XIIth Indiction, in the Ist year of the pontificate of Pope Gelasius II; in the fourth of the lord Robert, bishop of Arras, namely begun about 7 months before, as is manifestly drawn out from the time of this bishop's death marked in the aforesaid epitaph, namely on the 10th day before the Kalends of March in the year MCXXXI, the XVIth year of his episcopate being almost completed, 16 years being counted in retrograde order; or perhaps, the numbers II and IV being inverted, the subscription will have to be read thus: In the IVth year of the pontificate of the lord Robert, IInd bishop of Arras, namely the IInd of its own after the separation of the diocese from Cambrai.

[132] [nay, although the letter of Eugene III, by which they were most sharply reproved,] But indeed the congregation of the nuns of St. Ragenfredis praised in that diploma, after a course of about 34 years, did not walk on the same path of religious life, or at least did not everywhere enjoy an equally honourable fame of religious discipline, as we understand from the letters of Pope Eugene III, given at Rome at St. Peter's to the nuns of Dinyacum, that is, of Denain, which, inasmuch as they bear on the history of the house of virgins of St. Ragenfredis, I shall recite here from volume 5 of Baluze's Miscellanies, page 430, intending afterwards to subjoin some observations on that monument. It is conceived in these words: Eugene, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the nuns of Dinyacum, greeting and Apostolic blessing. That we greet you with the address of the Apostolic blessing, believe that it is done not from your merits, but from the accustomed benignity of the Apostolic see. For such things are not reported to us of your conversation as would incite our mind to confer on you the grace of the Apostolic blessing; since, as we have heard by the relation of certain persons, you run after your desires with such loose reins that the memory of your vow seems to have wholly slipped from you, and you seem to go backwards, when you ought to strive with all your strength toward the things that are before. Indeed the little spark of charity, which is known to be the kindling and nourishment of uprightness, your sins requiring it, has so grown cold in you that your monastery has been very greatly diminished both in spiritual and also in temporal things.

[133] We, therefore, since we desire your state to be reformed for the better, seems to prove the opposite, the Lord helping, have given command to our venerable brother Godescalc, bishop of Arras, in whose uprightness and religion we certainly trust, since he is known to be more fully instructed in these things, that he should be zealous to reform in you a religion pleasing to God, and to bring back your monastery to the fruit of a better life. And therefore by these present writings we command and enjoin you that in those things which shall pertain to the amendment of your life and the correction of monastic discipline you obey our aforesaid brother with due humility and kindly receive and irrefragably observe his admonitions and salutary commands; knowing that, if for the rest you shall despise to obey his salutary admonitions, we shall, God being the author, hold ratified the sentence which he himself shall dictate against you on that account. Given at Rome at saint Peter's on the Nones of February, in the year, as I judge, 1153, that is, about two months after, as Robert of Torigni testifies, peace having been made with the Romans, he had entered the city, and Pope Eugene … first stayed there with them. Now let us observe some things on these Pontifical letters.

[134] There is indeed no doubt that the nuns of Denain were accused at Rome by certain persons of neglect of their Rule and vows, yet, as is evident from the Letter of Godescalc, bishop of Arras, and were held unworthy to whom Pope Eugene should impart his Apostolic blessing. But so far as I gather from the letters of Godescalc, bishop of Arras, which followed in the year 1157, either certain lighter faults of those nuns were exaggerated beyond measure at Rome, perhaps by those who, asking a canonical prebend in the church of Denain for themselves or their kinsmen, had suffered a repulse; or, if some nuns showed themselves too inclined to pursue the comforts of secular life, or transferred the daily task of singing the praises of God in choir to some canons introduced into their church not without diminution of the goods of the monastery; certainly this evil did not last long; and so far was it from the case that Godescalc found those nuns contumacious toward him, that on the contrary he had them wonderfully obedient to his admonitions and commands, and soon saw all secular pomp banished far from their house of virgins. It has seemed good to subjoin, from the cited manuscript Collection, volume 6, part 2, folio 425, the very letters of Godescalc, bishop of Arras, on which this opinion of mine rests, and which are most honourable to the nuns of Denain.

[135] which is recited here entire, They run thus: In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. I, Godescalc, by the grace of God bishop of Arras, to those present and to come for ever. Although to all subject to us, pastoral solicitude requiring it, goodwill is to be shown as far as possible in those things which they justly seek; yet there is no doubt that the supplication of those is to be especially favoured who, HAVING SPURNED SECULAR POMPS, HAVE PREFERRED TO CHOOSE THE PART WHICH SHALL NOT BE TAKEN AWAY. Wherefore I wish it to become known to all who read that the venerable Bertha, abbess of Denain, inflamed with good zeal, approached our presence and humbly besought that she might be bound by our command and strengthened by our authority so that she could no longer appoint anyone to a canonry in her church, intimating the cause of this request, supported by reason suitable enough: namely, because, when she refused to assent to some secular men, and men powerful in secular things, who desired their prebends to be given to their sons and succeeded one another in turn in asking, she incurred their offence, so much so that sometimes the ecclesiastical office was neglected, while those to whom prebends could be granted with the peace of all were either scarcely or by no means found. Which, although with the gaze of her mind she assiduously contemplates that which is written: * THEY PLEASE MEN, THEY HAVE BEEN CONFOUNDED, yet she is not ignorant, nay has learned by experience, how great detriments, at least in temporal goods, religious persons in modern times suffer from the sons of this world if they disdain to placate them or to have them placated.

[136] and by which every scandal and quarrel is guarded against for the future, Whence, using wise counsel, she wished to add this also to her petition, that with our assent and favour she might substitute two vicars in place of the canons on such a tenor that, if any scandal should at any time arise (which God forbid) through them or on account of them, they being removed, she might freely substitute others. Consulting, therefore, the peace and utility both of her and of the church committed to her, we received her prayer with the more grateful affection the more we adjudged that it did not deviate from the just, nay would be most useful to those desiring to be free for God. Accordingly, with the assent of our chapter and by the counsel of religious persons, we have decreed that the canons are to be removed from the church of Denain, those still surviving having been taken from this light, and we leave it to the discretion of the abbess of the said church to appoint two vicars in their stead, and to change them as often as just occasion shall require. And that this may be preserved firm and stable for ever, every occasion of quarrels being laid to rest, we have ordered the present page to be confirmed by the impression of our seal and by the subscription of suitable persons. The sign of Theodoric, archdeacon of Ostrevant; the sign of Nicholas, dean. The sign of master Frumald. The sign of Hugh, abbot of Saint-Amand. The sign of Fulco, abbot of Hasnon. The sign of Gerard, abbot of Casa Dei, which is at Vicogne. The sign of Herman, of Hugh, canons and priests. The sign of Ghislain, deacon. The sign of Herbert, subdeacon. Done at Arras in the year of the Lord's Incarnation MCLVII.

[137] [those nuns piously, under the Rule of St. Benedict, as from the Letter of Alexander III,] Thus far the letters of bishop Godescalc, from which we understand that Bertha, abbess of the house of virgins of Denain, was inflamed with good and pious zeal, and that the nuns, having spurned secular pomps, then gave themselves earnestly to God under the Institute of religious life. But since the praised bishop did not express that Institute of religious life by name, I am pleased, that it may be evident that it was the Benedictine, to recite here the letters of Pope Alexander III from the cited manuscript Collection, folio 423 verso. They sound thus: Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of God. To his beloved daughters in Christ, the abbess and convent of the monastery of Denain, of the Order of saint Benedict, of the diocese of Arras, greeting and Apostolic blessing. Granting kindly assent to the prayers of your devotion, we forbid by the authority of these presents that anyone, without the assent of the diocesan bishop and your own, should dare to build anew a chapel or oratory within the bounds of your parishes, saving the privileges of the Roman Pontiffs. Let it therefore be lawful to no man to infringe this page of our prohibition or to oppose it with rash daring. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God and of His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Anagni on the 8th day before the Kalends of July, in the fifth year of our Pontificate.

[138] And thus indeed the year of the Pontificate of Alexander III is expressed in the cited manuscript Collection; whose epoch is determined, but that for the fifth year one must read the fifteenth year is concluded even from this, that that Pontiff, as may be seen in Pagi in the Critica at the year of Christ 1163, in the Vth year of his Pontificate was staying not at Anagni in the Roman Campagna but in the Gauls, whereas on the contrary in the fifteenth year of his Pontificate, advanced about six months, he began to stay at Anagni, and remained there to the end of the same year of his Pontificate, nay even longer, as it is given to gather from his Letters 425 and following, and 474 and 478, in volume 2 of Martène's Collection, columns 960 and 993, and also from the preliminary Observation of the praised Martène, columns 624 and 625. Finally, that no doubt at all may be raised about the exact observance of the Benedictine Rule among the nuns of Denain even after the year 1173, I subjoin other letters of the same Pontiff, given in the year 1175, in which he gives altogether notable proofs of his goodwill toward those nuns. They exist conceived in these words in the cited volume of our manuscript collection, folio 419 verso and following: Alexander, Bishop, servant of the servants of God. To his beloved daughters in Christ, the abbess of the church of Denain and her sisters both present and to come, who have professed the regular life, for ever.

[139] To the prudent virgins who, their lamps being lit, [and from the diploma of the same Pope confirming the possessions of the monastery,] desire to come to meet Christ the Lord

and * to please Him with humble devotion through works of charity, we ought the more gladly to bestow the Apostolic support, the less they are able, on account of the frailty of their sex and the purpose of the religion they have assumed, to defend their own rights. Wherefore, beloved daughters in Christ, we mercifully assent to your just requests, and take your church, in which you are bound to the divine service, under the protection of blessed Peter and our own, and fortify it by the privilege of the present writing; establishing that whatever possessions, whatever goods the same monastery at present justly and canonically possesses, or shall be able in the future, the Lord granting, to obtain by the concession of Pontiffs, the largess of kings or princes, the offering of the faithful, or by other just means, shall remain firm and unimpaired to you and your successors; among which we have thought fit to express these by their own names: The villa of Denain with meadows, waters and mills, with lands cultivated and uncultivated, with the altar, tithes and terrages, with men-servants and maid-servants and all the possessions which are contained in it, and another villa which is called Halcinis, and very many others, which, partly because they are faultily written, partly lest I be too prolix in recounting them one by one, I pass over here.

[140] and granting various privileges, Then the Pontiff proceeds thus: We decree also that its burial (that is, in the church of Denain) be free, so that no one may oppose the devotion and last will of those who shall have resolved to be buried there, unless perhaps they are excommunicated or interdicted. Saving, however, the justice of those churches from which the bodies of the dead are taken. Indeed, let no one presume to exact tithes from you of your new lands which you cultivate with your own hands or at your own expense, or of the produce of your animals: and when there shall be a general interdict of the land, let it be lawful for you, the doors being closed, the bells not being rung, the excommunicated and interdicted being excluded, to celebrate the divine offices with lowered voice. And when you, now abbess of the same place, or any one of those succeeding you, die, let no one be set over it there by any cunning of subreption or violence, except her whom the sisters by common consent, or the part of the sisters of sounder counsel, shall have provided to be elected according to the fear of God and the Rule of blessed Benedict. We decree, therefore, that it be lawful to absolutely no man rashly to disturb the aforesaid monastery, or to take away its possessions, or to retain them when taken away, to diminish them, or to harass it with any vexations whatever, but that all things be preserved unimpaired and entire, to be profitable in every way for the uses of those , for whose * sustenance and government they have been granted, saving the authority of the Apostolic see and the canonical justice of the diocesan bishop.

[141] [is sufficiently understood, and they lived religiously even toward the end of the twelfth century;] If, therefore, any ecclesiastical or secular person in the future, knowing this page of our constitution, shall rashly attempt to come against it, and, being admonished a second or third time, shall not correct his presumption by worthy satisfaction, let him lack the dignity of his power and honour, and know himself to stand guilty at the divine judgement of the iniquity perpetrated, and let him become a stranger to the most sacred body and blood of God and our Lord Redeemer Jesus Christ, and at the last examination let him lie subject to strict vengeance. But to all who keep its rights to the same place be the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that they may both receive here the fruit of good action and find with the strict judge the rewards of eternal peace. Amen. Thus far the Bull of Pope Alexander III, issued on the 24th of December in the year 1175, and signed, as the author of the manuscript Collection testifies, by eighteen Cardinals, which at length is concluded in him in this manner: Given at Anagni by the hand of Gratian, subdeacon and notary of the holy Roman Church, on the ninth day before the Kalends of January, in the ninth Indiction, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and seventy-five, and in the seventeenth year of the Pontificate of the Lord Pope Alexander III.

[142] [and now too, although they long ago ceased to be monachae, they continue to live piously.] Here monuments of approved credit fail me, by which I could declare safely enough whether from the year 1175 up to 1272, and therefore also under the government of Mary, abbess of Denain, recounted in the last place in volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 423, the norm of religious life according to the prescription of St. Benedict remained unimpaired there. But whether about the year 1250 or earlier the nuns of Denain shook off the burden of the stricter Rule from their necks, and even then wished to be called no longer nuns but damsels and secular canonesses; or on the contrary only in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, after the custom long since received among the canonesses of Hainaut, wished to admit into their company only the daughters of nobles, who, after their fashion, were clothed in purple and fine linen and grey furs (I use the words of Jacques de Vitry in the Western History, chapter 31) and other garments of their pleasure, surrounded with varieties, with braided hair, and clothed round about with precious adornment, as the similitude of a temple, … but using lambskins, however fine and delicate; whichever, I say, of these is admitted; this at any rate is certain, that even in the sixteenth century, not yet advanced to its middle part, the name of the Order of St. Benedict still adhered to their house of virgins, and at least the name of Religious to the virgins themselves, as may be seen from the royal Statutes and Ordinances given at Brussels in the year 1546, in volume 4 of Le Mire's Belgian Diplomas, page 301; although however, as is drawn out from the same Statutes, those virgins of Denain called Religious seem to have long since ceased by then to live in common, and on the contrary to have had each her own dwelling, prebends and maidservants of her own, so that, at least from that time, their house of virgins ought to have been regarded rather as a seminary and refuge of most noble girls than as a monastery duly ordered according to the constitutions of the Church: in which state it still perseveres today, to the great solace of the most noble families of Belgium, and no less ornament of the Belgian church, on account of the diligence in singing the praises of God, the piety, the modesty and the other virtues of those who inhabit that house of virgins, in which they need yield nothing to those who glory in the name of Nuns strictly so called. These things concerning the vicissitudes of the house of virgins of Denain being dispatched, I undertake to set forth the remaining things which contribute to the cult and posthumous glory of our Saint.

* read: Professionem profession

* that is, of the bishop of Arras

* supply: Qui [who]

* that is, ei to her

* read: tintinnabulis bells

* Perhaps earum of those (women)?

* Perhaps quarum of whom (women)?

§ X. The ancient cult of the Saint even outside the dioceses of Cambrai and Arras: the proper Office of the Mass from the ancient Missal of Cambrai: various miracles performed by the patronage of the Saint.

The Saint, not only at Denain and at Neufchâtel, but also in Cleves, That no mean cult was constantly paid to our holy Abbess, first indeed at Denain before the year 850, then from about the year 933 up to probably the year 1037 at Neufchâtel on the Aisne, and thereafter especially in the church of her house of virgins, is manifestly shown both from the Breviary of Denain written in the year 1258, praised above, and from the things which I have brought forward, in as chronological a series as could be, concerning the vicissitudes of the Relics of St. Ragenfredis and of her monastery. But since her ecclesiastical veneration was propagated at various times even beyond the bounds of the place of Denain and of Neufchâtel, and was again made illustrious at Denain by not a few miracles, and at length in the seventeenth century by an ecclesiastical Office conformed to the norm of the Roman, it has seemed good here to collect into one whatever bears on this, that so I may discharge the promise given at number 2. I take my beginning from the ecclesiastical cult long since paid to St. Ragenfredis in the duchy of Cleves. If credit is to be given to the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, published from the papers of Molanus by Peter Louw, and to the letters of Gerard Busaeus, Canon of Xanten, and of Matthias Hostesius, pastor of Calcar, praised there, some monuments still survived among the people of Cleves in the sixteenth century from which they gathered that their churches at Emmerich, at Rees and in the village of Houepell had formerly been built or endowed under the patronage of Blessed Aldegund, St. Dentlin and St. Ragenfredis by religious Franks, whose highest zeal it was at that time to extend and propagate Christianity beyond the Rhine to the Saxons, who often relapsed into the filth of paganism.

[144] [and even from the ninth century, as some would have it, where her house of virgins too] Accordingly, if only the monuments praised by the people of Cleves are sufficiently ancient and express, the ecclesiastical veneration of St. Ragenfredis would have been propagated only a few years after her death to a region about 50 Belgian leagues distant from Denain, namely either a little after the death of the emperor Charlemagne, with whose assent certain religious princes of the Franks wished in this way to provide that the Western Saxons or Westphalians, previously taught the law of Christ, should not relapse into the rite of the heathen, or more probably under Louis the Pious or the emperor Lothar, in whose age quite a few Saxons were also inclined to the rite of the pagans, among whom those pious Franks desired the Christian religion to be extended and strengthened. In whatever way these things may stand (for the letters which I sent to the people of Cleves to obtain knowledge of those documents lacked their fruit), at any rate it seems undoubted from the same Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium and the letters praised there that St. Ragenfredis was long since venerated with an Office of nine Lessons by the college of canons of Xanten in Cleves, and that she is the patroness of the village of Honepel, situated on the left bank of the Rhine not far from the town of Rees, where also the house of virgins of Denain formerly had many goods and buildings like a monastery, all of which were sold to the neighbouring chapter of Xanten in the year 1240 by Ensilia, abbess of the church of Denain, and by her convent, as is evident from the letters of the same Ensilia and her convent, which, because they contribute to the history of the house of virgins of Denain and to the posthumous glory of our Saint, I transfer here entire from the aforesaid Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, edition of the year 1595, pages 220 and 221.

[145] possessed certain goods formerly, had ecclesiastical cult, They run thus: To all who shall see this page, Ensilia, abbess of the church of Denain, and the convent of the same place, of the diocese of Arras, greeting in the Lord. We make known to all that we have sold to the church of Xanten our goods of Honepele (this village is now called Houpel and Houepell) and of Husen (perhaps Huyswarde near Emmerich, or Huys near Rees), with all their appurtenances, lands, fields, pastures, meadows, men, woods, vineyards, and with all their rights. Which money we profess that we have received in full, and that the money itself has been wholly converted to the utility of our church. And the dominion of the aforesaid goods which our church had we have transferred with unanimous consent to the said church of Xanten, and have put it into true and corporeal possession; and this was done with the licence and consent of our diocesan, namely Asso, raised from archdeacon of Ostrevant to the chair of Arras in the year 1231) a legal warranty * concerning the premises to be furnished. In testimony of which matter we have caused the present letters to be strengthened with the protection of our seals, namely, I, Ensilia the abbess, with my seal, and the convent with the seal of the chapter. Done in the year one thousand two hundred and forty. Thus far the letters

those, from which, as Molanus or Louw testifies, there hangs, attached with silken threads, the seal of the convent of Denain, expressly and distinctly showing these words: The seal of saint Ragenfredis, virgin; in whose name and title, namely, as being honourable to them above the rest, the abbey of Denain and its abbesses had already long before too, as may be seen in volume 5 of Baluze's Miscellanies, pages 265 and 435, greatly gloried.

[146] Nor indeed in the duchy of Cleves only, but also in the diocese of Utrecht, and she was also venerated anciently in the diocese of Utrecht, which before the erection of the new bishoprics in Belgium in the sixteenth century extended widely through Zeeland, Holland, the province of Overijssel, and Friesland both Western and Eastern, St. Ragenfredis anciently had a cult equal to that of SS. Leodegar, the two Ewalds, Francis of Assisi, Dionysius and his companions on this same 8th day of October. This I am taught by a Calendar which is with us, written before the year 1232, as is gathered from the feast-day, added in a later hand, of St. Anthony of Padua, duly numbered among the Heavenly ones in the year 1232; namely for the use of the church of Utrecht, as is abundantly proved both from the feasts of SS. Boniface, Odulf, Lebuin and Radbod, Jeron, Willibrord and others written in red and prescribed to be celebrated with solemn rite, and from the religious and most accurate announcement, on the birthday of each, of the other Heaven-dwellers proper to the diocese of Utrecht. With these agree, besides the Martyrology of the church of Utrecht written about the year 1138 and praised at number 13, the Calendar of the same church written in the year 1374, and another likewise fairly old, written in the Belgic idiom easily 300 years ago; from which the propagation of the cult of our holy Prelate into fairly remote regions and its antiquity become clearly evident.

[147] I return to the source from which the cult of the same Saint flowed out more widely, but in that of Cambrai she had a proper Mass, namely to the dioceses of Cambrai and Arras, united under the one prelate of Cambrai from the end of the sixth century almost to the end of the eleventh. So far as it is given to understand from the Breviary of Cambrai, carefully and accurately enough corrected and printed at Paris … in the year of the Lord MCCCC.XCVII, from which the Mutte praised at number 2 and often elsewhere in our Work, venerable no less for manifold learning than for old age, copied with his own hand and most courteously transmitted to me nine proper Lessons on St. Ragenfredis; there is no doubt that already for not a few centuries the birthday of St. Ragenfredis was celebrated with an ecclesiastical Office, and also with a proper Mass, which is drawn out from the Missal of Cambrai, revised with watchful care and printed at Paris in the year 1527 …. Nay rather, wonderful as it may seem that after the separation of the diocese of Arras from that of Cambrai, begun in the year 1092, no cult of this kind was paid to St. Ragenfredis in the former diocese except in the very church of Denain; so certain does it seem that it continued to be prescribed in the Breviaries and Missals of the church of Cambrai for no other reason than that our Saint had already then been honoured at Cambrai with an ancient ecclesiastical cult of this kind before the diocese of Arras was withdrawn from the prelate of this city, in the year, as I said, 1092, and recovered its own bishop. Those Lessons proper to St. Ragenfredis I do not transcribe here from the praised Breviary of Cambrai, because as to substance they agree with the Lessons of Denain to be edited below, and so I recite from the cited Missal only the Mass proper to our Saint, inasmuch as it differs very much from the present one. It runs thus:

[148] which, from the Missal of the diocese revised in the year 1527, Introit: I spoke of Thy testimonies before kings, and I was not ashamed, and I meditated on Thy commandments, which I loved exceedingly. Psalm: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Collect: Almighty everlasting God, look with serene countenance on the joys of today's solemnity, and mercifully raise up under the grace of Thy goodness those who humbly follow the merits of blessed Ragenfredis, that we who celebrate her feasts on earth may be fortified in heaven by her intercession. Through our Lord. Epistle: O Lord my God (which in the present Roman Missal is from the common of a Virgin Martyr). Gradual: Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity. ℣. Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness. Alleluia. ℣. Grace is poured abroad in thy lips: therefore hath God blessed thee for ever. Sequence:

This Saint, whose solemnities are celebrated today, Now with face revealed beholds the King in glory. There, Queen of virgins, transcending the summit of the orders, May she excuse before the Lord the lapses of our crimes. May the grace of Christ, through her suffrages, After the present misery lead us to the glory of the Saints. Amen.

[149] is recited here entire. Gospel: The kingdom of heaven is like to ten virgins. Offertory: After her shall virgins be brought to the king, her neighbours shall be brought to thee with gladness and rejoicing; they shall be brought into the temple to the King, the Lord. Secret: O God, by whose everlasting beauty the heavenly choirs of virgins are adorned, before the pleasure of saint Ragenfredis hear the prayers of those who supplicate, that by her suffrage, pursuing chastity, we may deserve to have fellowship with her * among the stars. Through our Lord. Communion: Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee. Postcommunion. Collect: May saint Ragenfredis intervene for us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, by suppliant prayer, who was ever pleasing to Thee by the service of holy chastity and by glorious zeal of perseverance. Through our Lord. For the rest, whether the Office of the Mass just copied from that Missal of Cambrai was altogether the same as that which was used anciently up to the year 1625 in the church of Denain, I cannot declare for certain, because only the proper Offices of the Saints of Denain, conformed to the Roman norm in that same year 1625, are at hand to me. However that is, the reader studious of liturgy will easily conjecture from that Missal of Cambrai what kind of memory of St. Ragenfredis was long since held at Denain too in the prayers of the most holy Sacrifice.

[150] Among the ancient miracles obtained by the patronage of the Saint, I come now to the miracles and benefits obtained at Denain by the patronage of St. Ragenfredis and of her holy parents before the end of the sixteenth century, which d'Arleux, praised at number 8, collected in the third part of his Gallo-Belgian work. Some of these happened either in the very time, or certainly in a time near that, in which that writer lived at Denain, the epoch of which therefore he expressed accurately; but others seem to have been performed perhaps half a century before him, which that sincere priest did not distinguish by their epochs, undoubtedly for this reason, that the documents which he had as his guides did not bear the year or day on which each of these was done. I shall proceed in order from the older to the more recent, contrary to what the praised writer did, so that in this way, in presenting the monuments which contribute to the posthumous glory of our Saint, I may proceed in chronological series, so far as the matter allows, up to the end of the Commentary. Have them, then, translated into Latin from the rude Gallo-Belgian speech of d'Arleux, the same simple and candid style in which they were written by him being preserved.

[151] Thus he: On the 21st day of April (he undoubtedly did not find the year marked), in the church of Denain, [d'Arleux, whose words are given in Latin, recounts a globe of fire seen in her church,] in which ladies and damsels serve God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Aldebert, St. Regina and St. Ragenfredis, and in which the bodies of these three exist, a great miracle happened. On that day, then, after the sacred pledges of these had a very long time before been translated from the church of St. Martin at Denain to the church of Denain sacred to Blessed Mary, and yet no lamp burned before them either by day or by night, it pleased God to give a sign of His benignity by sending down from heaven a globe of fire, which, having penetrated the roof and vault of the church, yet leaving them unharmed, burned hanging in the air before those sacred bodies for no small space of time; whereby it should be given to understand that it was not fair that before such precious remains of the Saints, to whom God gave the power of enlightening the blind and curing other sick persons, no lamp should ever burn. This prodigy having been seen, the lady abbess and her damsels (by this name he indicates the virgins of Denain subject to the abbess) decreed that a perpetual candle should shine day and night before those sacred bodies, both for the salvation of souls and for the glory and honour of God, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of those holy bodies. Amen.

[152] D'Arleux then narrates how a certain thief, the sound of a bell given forth of itself, the sudden healing of a wound, clothed in the habit of a penitent and kindly received at Denain, on the fourth day carried off some things thence by theft and was caught; concerning which matter, as being of a nature to happen without prodigy, I copy nothing more from d'Arleux. What the same presently subjoins of another thief has more of wonder, in this manner: A certain thief broke into the abbey of Denain by night, and, a certain chest having been broken open, found nothing but grain; presently, as he strove to carry it off, the bell dedicated to the name of St. Ragenfredis gave forth a sound of itself; hearing which, the thief held back his hands; the bell ceasing, he returned to carrying out the theft; but at length, that prodigious sound being repeated, he was caught, and finally driven to the gallows. Of a plainly different kind are the things which d'Arleux presently recounts in almost as many Gallo-Belgian words. A certain carpenter, named Regnier, was hastily pressing on with his work in the house of virgins of Denain toward evening, when unexpectedly his axe slipped onto one of his fingers and cut it almost entirely off. He, therefore, when he saw the finger hanging by a little skin, most earnestly implored the help and patronage of St. Ragenfredis, whom namely he served justly and faithfully, and, being heard at once, saw and felt that he was wholly healed, so much so that only the scar of the closed wound remained in testimony of the miracle performed.

[153] A certain young girl, whose name was Jolendis, of two contracted women, was so contracted that the nails of her fingers penetrated her palm, and her arms tightly constricted her breast, and besides she was distorted in her whole body. To her St. Ragenfredis appeared by night and asked the wretched girl whether she desired to be healed; and when she had replied that she desired nothing in this world so earnestly, the Saint subjoins: Come, have yourself carried to Denain to the sacred Relics, and you will be healed. She presently obeyed the Saint and on the following day, which was Thursday, placed before the sacred bodies, began to recover in some part of her body; on Friday she was better in her whole body, but her arms were not yet entirely separated from her sides; but this was done on Saturday, yet in such a way that the sides and the bones of the arms were seen bare; and at length on Sunday she was most perfectly healed in every part by the patronage of St. Ragenfredis. A certain contracted woman named Havide, admonished in a nocturnal vision to have herself carried to Denain to the sacred Relics, accomplished what had been enjoined on her, and was most fully cured; she afterwards served for a long time in the house of virgins of Denain, giving perennial thanks to the glorious saints by whose protection she had been freed from so grave a disease.

[154] [of a boy deprived of the use of his limbs, of a mute woman, and of another blind from infancy,] At Denain there was a certain boy wholly deprived of the use of his limbs and almost of his mind, who, placed before the bodies of St. Ragenfredis and her holy parents, was at once cured by the divine indulgence and the merits of those Saints, and was afterwards enrolled among the clergy. A certain younger woman, deprived of the use of her tongue, having heard those notable miracles narrated, came to Denain, and showed by signs what she wished. And when the damsels of Denain had poured out their prayers to God before the sacred relics, as she herself was doing, the bond of her tongue was suddenly loosed, and she began to praise God and the saints of Denain, by whose patronage she had received speech. That mute woman was followed by a certain woman blind from her infancy. She, as she had been admonished, came to perform nine days' prayers at the reliquary of St. Ragenfredis, and by her piety toward God and the Saints merited sight and entire health.

[155] of a girl distorted in her whole body, A certain girl of Denain, named Hersend, distorted in her whole body, when she had been admonished in a nocturnal vision to have herself carried into the church of St. Ragenfredis, that so she might be freed from her evil, was brought there on the day sacred to St. Benedict (that is, the 21st of March). During the whole morning time she poured out tears and prayers there, but, the time of dinner being at hand, carried outside the church, she continued to weep before its closed doors, now not alone, because the Lord God was with her. Dinner being finished, when the damsels (I have already advised that the canonesses of the house of virgins of Denain are indicated by this word by d'Arleux) were returning to the church, they visited their sick girl, and perceived there an odour sweet beyond what can be said, so that each professed that God had been present in that place in a certain singular manner. All therefore began with unanimous prayer to beseech God that by the merits of SS. Ragenfredis and Regina the sick girl might receive health of body; and presently, namely in the same hour, she rose altogether healed, praising God and the Saints; and afterwards she devoted herself as a servant to the house of virgins of Denain, giving thanks to God and those Saints up to her last breath.

[156] of a woman suffering from a foul ulcer, of a girl drowned There was in the very household of the abbey a certain woman named Tresotte, suffering from a foul ulcer on her neck and shoulder, which could not be cured by medical art. She, when she had seen the aforesaid girl healed, trusted that she would find mercy. Every day, therefore, she visited the reliquary of St. Ragenfredis and piously touched it often. Finally in a short time, by the merits of SS. Ragenfredis and Regina, she recovered her former health, so that not even any trace of so great a disease remained. A certain younger girl, born at Denain, daughter of Robert Bataille, by chance slipped into the waters of a certain fountain, where she remained so long until her mother, called, ran up. All who had come there proclaimed the girl already dead; but the mother, pitying the lot of her offspring, piously placed her on the altar of St. Ragenfredis; and after half an hour the girl began to utter cries, and presently was restored to herself and to entire health by the merits of St. Ragenfredis.

[157] A certain woman, servant of the most noble virgin de Landas, [of a woman deprived of sight and limbs, and of another blind woman, and of a youth blinded by lightning,] having lost all use of her body and her sight, was perfectly cured by God through the patronage and merits of St. Ragenfredis. A certain girl six years old, born in the village of Sausoit (this lies on the river Selle, about three French miles distant from Denain), had been deprived of sight for eight or ten days; she was carried by her father, who acted in that village as scribe or registrar (for so I think the Gallo-Belgian word clercq is here to be interpreted), to the church of St. Ragenfredis, and at once, after nine days' prayers had been performed, received her sight from God by the patronage of St. Ragenfredis, to whom she was offered and devoted with great piety. A certain young herdsman, blinded by a stroke of lightning, was brought to the Relics of St. Ragenfredis, and presently, by the merits of the same holy Virgin, received his sight and was fully cured. To these d'Arleux subjoins some things which, because they contribute to illustrating the ecclesiastical cult of our Saint at the same time, I shall mention here briefly.

[158] With him, then, as witness, when that youth had been cured by God, [a cure, on the occasion of which pious veneration toward the Saint was increased;] the abbess of Denain, sprung from the most illustrious family d'Ognies (I do not know whether she whose name was Isabella, and who was abbess from the year 1437 up to 1477, or her sister), ordered the Responsory which is now the seventh of the Office of St. Ragenfredis and begins with these words, Filia lucis, and likewise the Hymn Te Deum laudamus to be sung, while meanwhile the larger bells of the abbey were rung; which was also observed thereafter as often as a miracle took place in the church of Denain. Likewise a custom grew strong, with the same witness, that through the Octave of the feast of the Saints of Denain, and in particular of St. Ragenfredis, the Responsory Filia Lucis should be sung three times daily, and the Antiphon at the Magnificat wont to be recited on the feast of St. Regina, and some others, which I pass over here. There was added also a solemn procession of the virgins of Denain to the church of St. Martin and a religious kissing of the sepulchres of St. Ragenfredis and her parents, so that thus the virgins of Denain might openly testify their outstanding piety toward our Saint and her parents and their grateful mind for the miracles obtained by their protection.

[159] Hear now the other miracles which were expressed by the aforesaid d'Arleux with their epochs either near enough or most exactly. [but among more recent miracles he narrates offspring restored to life, a blind man enlightened,] In the year of Christ MDXII (in present style 1513), on the 30th of January, which was a Sunday, the wife of the scribe of Denain bore twin offspring, but one of these dead before birth. This, placed before the Relics of St. Ragenfredis on the same day toward the middle of the third hour after noon, remained without any sign of life until about the eleventh hour of the night of Monday; but at length, by the divine benignity and the patronage of the most blessed Virgin Mary and of saint Ragenfredis, that offspring gave signs of life for the space of three hours, and was baptized by the midwife in the same church in the presence of many standing by. A certain man of Valenciennes, fifty-five years old, blind for a long time, wished to be led by his young son to the church of St. Ragenfredis and to be set before the altar of the same Saint. There he remained from the beginning of the hour of the ecclesiastical Office which is called Prime until the end of the solemn Mass. His prayers being finished, when the youth according to custom was about to lead him by the hand home from the church, the man answered: Praise be to God and to saint Ragenfredis! Behold, I can return home without anyone's leading, and with his finger he showed the way by which he had formerly come to the church; and at length, half a year having elapsed, he offered a candle to St. Ragenfredis, that he might show himself grateful for the sight received from God. And this great miracle happened in the year MDXXVIII.

[160] and likewise another, and a boy deprived of one eye, A certain youth, surnamed Pelin Pouree, born in the village of Sausoit (concerning its situation see what was said at number 157), had lost his sight for almost a month already; his parents led him to the church of St. Ragenfredis at Denain, and then left him for the space of nine days with kinsfolk, who set him every day before the sacred Relics. And behold, before the nine days' prayers were completed, by the benignity of God and the merits of St. Ragenfredis he receives his sight. From this day, therefore, he was enrolled by his parents in the pious confraternity of St. Ragenfredis, and thereafter came to Denain every year on the feast-day of the same Saint to discharge his vows, up to the year MDXXXVIII, in which he died. A certain boy, named William Carboneau, son of Paschasius Carboneau, had suffered so gravely in one eye that all who looked at him proclaimed it lost, especially since for a long time he had been able to discern absolutely nothing with it. Accordingly the aforesaid Paschasius Carboneau and his wife Joanna Houlonne had their son enrolled in the pious confraternity which has its name from St. Ragenfredis, and presently, after nine days' prayers had been performed together with his parents, he was perfectly cured by the merits of St. Ragenfredis, and for the whole space of his life worked as a tailor at Denain, which place was his birthplace, dying at length in the month of August of the year MDXXXVII.

[161] again another blind boy, and a woman deprived of sight for 15 years, A certain boy, surnamed Hotuma, born in the village of Tritz (or, as it is now wont to be called, Try), had lost the use of his eyes; he, led to the church of St. Ragenfredis at Denain, after two nine days' prayers had been relieved of no part of his evil; yet he remained at Denain until he had performed those prayers a third time; when by the divine clemency, by the merits of the Saints of Denain and by the prayers of the noble canonesses he suddenly received his sight, and kept it fully as long as he lived. Likewise he remained devoted for the whole time of his life to the confraternity of St. Ragenfredis, and at length was called to a better life in the year MDXXXVIII. A certain woman of Denain, named Antonia Forette, wife of Gado * Cathonnet, a tailor of Denain living in the street commonly called DE PRET, had been blind now for about fifteen days, and, if she wished to go anywhere, needed the guidance of her daughter. Accordingly, for the space of nine days she wished to be led by her daughter to the church of St. Ragenfredis, and, a candle being lit before the principal altar in which the relics of St. Ragenfredis rest, she went round it in the manner of a suppliant; which things being done, by the divine clemency and the merits of the holy virgin Ragenfredis she so perfectly received the sharpness of her eyes that she had no need of anyone's guidance thereafter. And this miracle happened in the year MDXLI.

[162] Toward the end of the month of September in the year MDLXIV, the daughter of a certain John, likewise a blind girl, and an infant deprived of sight, were cured by God, surnamed Patre nostre, born half a year before at Haspres (this village lies on the river Selle and is distant from Denain about two French miles), was carried to the church of St. Ragenfredis, since she had lost her sight by a certain misfortune. She, offered to St. Ragenfredis, presently received her sight by her patronage, as soon as the nine days' office of piety had been performed for her. Another infant, ten months old, born in the village of Werchin (this village is about one mile distant from the one just mentioned, toward the East), on the eve of the feast of St. Luke (that is, the 17th of October) in the year MDLXVI was carried into the church of Denain, after she had been deprived of the use of her eyes for three weeks. She, as soon as she had kissed the relics of St. Ragenfredis, began to open her eyes, and was cured by the merits and intervention of the aforesaid Virgin.

[163] A certain woman of Denain, wife of John Gulot, and that offspring dead before birth was restored to life and baptized. brought forth at one birth two living boys and another dead before birth. When the mother learned this, she began to pray to St. Ragenfredis, and ordered the dead infant to be carried to her church and laid on her altar, a great crowd of the inhabitants accompanying it. And behold, when the infant had lain in that place about half a day, it was restored to life and baptized in the presence of those standing by, in the year MDLXXIII, on the 15th day of May. Thus far the praised d'Arleux, chaplain priest of the church of St. Ragenfredis at Denain, concerning whose credit see what was said at number 150.

[164] Further, as regards the pious confraternity of St. Ragenfredis mentioned by him and the nine days' prayers praised above, both the former still subsists and the latter are in use even today, The narration of d'Arleux is partly elucidated. as I understood from the very sacristan of the same church, and they are most frequented by those who are afflicted with any disease of the eyes whatever or with fever. But indeed the remains of St. Ragenfredis do not at this time rest on the principal altar alone, as in d'Arleux's age; but on the contrary her sacred head is exposed to the veneration of the faithful on a lesser, but notable and splendid, altar, which is on the left of those entering the church of the house of virgins and near the choir of the noble canonesses, in a precious reliquary bearing the form of a human head; while the other parts of her body rest in a very magnificent silver reliquary, an image of which I should most gladly have given to our engraver to be expressed on copper, if, as I had expected, it had been transmitted to me in time.

* that is, a security

* that is, with her

* perhaps Godo or Guido

§ XI. The proper Office of the Saint for this day from the Breviary of Denain published in the year MDCXXV. Why a catalogue of the abbesses of Denain has been added.

The Antiphons and Chapter at Vespers of the Office double of the first class, What our Du Sollier did in volume 1 of July, page 269, in his Commentary on St. Regina, I have thought should be imitated in this one of mine, and hence, lest I should withhold from hagiophiles anything which conduces to illustrating the cult of our Saint, I shall likewise transcribe here, from the same Breviary of Denain, conformed to the norm of the Roman in the year 1625, from which Du Sollier recounted the Office of St. Regina, the ecclesiastical Office for this day of St. Ragenfredis, the most holy Daughter of this holy mother; yet in such a way that I do not wish to be held surety for all the things which are built up in it; but on the contrary I earnestly ask that the things which were disputed by me before be consulted and weighed. Behold it now:

ON THE 8TH DAY OF OCTOBER

On the feast of St. Ragemfredis, patroness of Denain. Double of the first class.

At Vespers, Antiphon: Mirabilis Dominus, with the rest from Lauds. Psalms from the common of Virgins, and no commemoration of St. Birgitta is made at first Vespers.

Chapter.

Brethren, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord: for not he who commendeth himself is approved, but he whom God commendeth.

Hymn.

[166] Hymn, Jesus, redeemer of all, Everlasting crown of virgins, Attend to the prayers of the suppliants Who worthily entreat Thee.

We confess with the heart the great deeds Of praises due to Thee, Singing becomingly with pious joys The feasts of the Virgin.

This renowned Ragemfredis, Filled with Thy grace, From the flower of her first time Gave holy examples.

The lineage which she had drawn From royal dignity She ennobled with the best Rewards of upright morals.

Praise, honour, power, glory To God the Father and the Son Together with the holy Spirit For everlasting ages. Amen.

℣ In thy comeliness and thy beauty, ℞ Set out, proceed prosperously and reign.

At the Magnificat, Antiphon.

Prayer.

Almighty, everlasting God, look with serene countenance on the joys of today's solemnity, and mercifully raise up by the grace of Thy goodness those who humbly follow the merits of blessed Ragemfredis: that we who celebrate her feasts on earth may be fortified in heaven by her intercession. Through our Lord.

At Matins, Invitatory.

In the first Nocturn, Antiphon.

Admirable, O Lord, and praiseworthy is Thy name, by whose gift the virgin Ragemfredis ever strove to advance in faith. Psalm: Domine, Dominus noster.

Antiphon. Thy precept, O Lord, is lightsome, enlightening the eyes, which blessed Ragemfredis, a virgin devoted to Thee, kept. Psalm: Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei.

Antiphon. To the mountain of the Lord ascends the innocent and the clean of heart. Psalm: Domini est terra.

℣ In thy comeliness. ℞ Set out.

Lessons of the first Nocturn.

From the first Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians: Concerning Virgins I have no commandment of the Lord. As in the common of Virgins.

First Responsory.

[169] The venerable virgin of Christ Ragemfredis, sprung from a noble race of the Franks, three Responsories of the same Nocturn, * Ennobled the dignity of her native origin by uprightness of morals and brightness of works. ℣ Who, counting royal loftiness as nothing, the joy of worldly glory being spurned. Ennobled the dignity.

Second Responsory.

With fervent spirit blessed Ragemfredis served the Lord, * And, ever devoted to the pursuits of prayer, persevered in sacred vigils. ℣ Rejoicing in hope, shining in faith, she was strong in twofold love. And ever devoted.

Third Responsory.

She was of kindly mind and conspicuous in morals, * Prudent and chaste. ℣ Comely in aspect, and in holy acts she shone glorious. Prudent. Glory be to the Father. Prudent.

In the second Nocturn, Antiphon.

Because of truth, meekness and justice the Lord of all loved her, Antiphons of the second Nocturn, and desired her beauty. Psalm: Eructavit cor meum.

Antiphon. Christ, choosing her as His spouse, consecrated her with the beauty of chastity, and the Most High sanctified His temple. Psalm: Deus noster refugium et virtus.

Antiphon. This virgin is holy and glorious, because the Lord of all loved and received her. Psalm: Magnus Dominus et laudabilis.

℣ God will help her with His countenance.

℞ God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved.

From her Life.

Lesson IV.

Fourth Responsory.

Ragemfredis, most blessed virgin, made light in the Lord, lifting up her hands in the Holy Place, * Walked as a daughter of light. ℣ The work of darkness cast away, made illustrious with the flower of virtues. As a daughter.

Lesson V.

[172] Lesson V and Responsory, When, therefore, her parents had caused a cell or monastery to be built from the things of their own right at Denain on the Scheldt (see rather what was said at number 42) in honour of the Mother of God, and likewise another in honour of saint Martin, she, set over the same monastery, clothed in the garments of holy profession as a nun (see what was disputed in the whole of § IV), preferred to serve the Lord with diligent intention of heart rather than, entangled in the allurements of a falsely flattering world, by the cunning of diabolical fraud to incur a fall from virtues, and so at length to come into the infernal abyss. For the providence of the divine disposition had disposed before the beginnings of the world to keep her, and chose her beforehand by its grace.

Fifth Responsory.

The Spouse of Christ girded her loins with strength and strengthened her arm, * Flourishing both by the merit of chastity and by the working of virtue. ℣ She pleased the divine majesty, persisting acceptable. Flourishing both by the merit.

Lesson VI.

[173] Lesson VI and Responsory, Taking her, therefore, as a spouse pleasing and acceptable to Himself, for the example of many and for the attaining of the salvation of eternal felicity, He irradiated her with the splendour of chastity. She, sprinkling the bridal chamber of her Spouse Himself, namely the Lord Jesus Christ, with the sweet-smelling spices of virtues, merited the society of the angels on high: and, admitted to the jubilations of the holy citizens, clean of heart and body, she beholds face to face the Godhead of the divine majesty unspeakably: and to those who humbly and worthily ask on earth she continually imparts the grace of holy intercession.

Sixth Responsory.

The heavenly Spouse chose beforehand by His grace the consecrated virgin Ragemfredis, mercifully taking her as a spouse acceptable to Himself, * And for the example of many irradiated her with the splendour of chastity. ℣ Marked with the beauty of holiness, the Lord of all loved her. And for the example of many. Glory. And for the example of many.

In the third Nocturn, Antiphon.

[174] In the purpose of virginity dedicated to God she gladly sang a new song to Christ. Antiphons of the third Nocturn Psalm: Cantate Domino canticum novum, cantate.

Antiphon. The Lord kept her soul and delivered her from the hand of the sinner: whence, exulting in God, she was zealous to give praise to the memory of His holiness. Psalm: Dominus regnavit, exultet terra.

Antiphon. Joined to the choirs of sacred virgins, rejoicing in the sight of the Lord, she sings sweet canticles, alleluia. Psalm: Cantate Domino canticum novum.

℣ God chose her and chose her beforehand.

℞ He makes her to dwell in His tabernacle.

Lesson VII.

[175] The Homily of saint Gregory, Pope, on the Gospel: The kingdom of heaven is like to ten virgins; and the Lessons with the Responsories, as in the common of Virgins, with the two following Lessons.

Seventh Responsory.

Daughter of eternal light, blessed Ragemfredis, obtain from heaven the deifying light for thy people, * Thou who didst enlighten holy Ava with the light of mind and body. ℣ Among the prudent virgins kindle for thy people the bridal lamps. Thou who didst enlighten.

Eighth Responsory.

The heavenly gem Ragemfredis, the course of her divine pilgrimage being happily completed, * Today receives the fruit of virginity which she had merited. ℣ Adorned among the thorns of the world with the flowers of heaven, going out to meet the Spouse, her lamp lit with oil. Today receives. Glory. Today receives.

After the ninth Lesson, Te Deum laudamus.

AT LAUDS

And through the hours, Antiphons.

[176] The Lord wonderful on high has made the virgin Ragemfredis safe in His heavenly kingdom. Antiphons at Lauds Psalm: Dominus regnavit. With the rest. Antiphon. The prudent Virgin entered in His sight with exultation, where, exulting with the Saints, she gives praise to Him in hymns. Antiphon. She has obtained everlasting joys, the grace of Christ cooperating, and sees His power and His glory. Antiphon. Blessed be the Lord, who has blessed saint Ragemfredis with spiritual blessing, with His elect in the heavenly places. Antiphon. She rejoices in her king, and, joined to the white-robed choirs of virgins, shines glorious in the church of the Saints.

Chapter, as at first Vespers.

Hymn.

She trod down, and its harmful things: She took care most devoutly To climb the citadel of virtue.

Joined now in heaven To the comely Spouse of glory, She now enjoys with the angels The heavenly mysteries.

By the gift of this Blessed one We most piously beseech Thee: Forgive us all The offences which we have committed.

That after the labours of the world We may enjoy the joys of life Which Thou preparest for the faithful In eternal dwellings.

℣ Grace is poured abroad in thy lips.

℞ Therefore hath God blessed thee for ever.

At the Benedictus, Antiphon.

[178] Antiphons at the Benedictus and at the lesser Hours. The blessed virgin Ragemfredis merited to receive the unfading crown of eternal life, which God has prepared for those who love Him, alleluia.

At Terce, Antiphon.

Introivit prudens. Chapter: Fratres, qui gloriatur. Short Responsory: Specie tua et pulchritudine tua. As in the common of Virgins.

At Sext, Antiphon.

Adepta est gaudia. Chapter: Aemulor enim vos. Short Responsory: Adjuvabit eam Deus. As in the common of Virgins.

At None, Antiphon.

Laetatur in Rege suo. Chapter: O quam pulchra est casta generatio. Short Responsory: Elegit eam Deus. As in the common of Virgins.

At Vespers, Antiphons, Psalms, Chapter and Hymn, as at first Vespers. ℣ Diffusa est gratia.

At the Magnificat, Antiphon.

And afterwards a commemoration is made of St. Dionysius and his Companions, martyrs.

MASS OF ST. RAGEMFREDIS.

Introit.

[179] Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a festival day in honour of blessed Ragemfredis, virgin, The Introit, Prayer, Epistle of the proper Mass, at whose solemnity the angels rejoice and together praise the Son of God. Psalm: My heart hath uttered a good word; I speak my works to the king. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Prayer.

Almighty, everlasting God, of the solemnity

of today look with serene countenance on the joys, and mercifully raise up by the grace of Thy goodness those who humbly follow the merits of blessed Ragemfredis: that we who celebrate her feasts on earth may be fortified in heaven by her intercession. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lesson of the Epistle of blessed Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians.

Brethren: He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. As in the common of Virgins in the Roman Missal.

[180] Gradual. In thy comeliness and thy beauty: The Gradual and Sequence set out, proceed prosperously, and reign. ℣ Because of truth and meekness and justice, and thy right hand shall lead thee wonderfully. Alleluia, alleluia. ℣ Behold, the prudent virgin has departed to Christ; she shines among the choirs of virgins like the sun, in eternal life.

Sequence.

Of the excellent Virgin Ragemfredis today let the people of Denain celebrate the solemnities, And the church too, full of joy, resound. Let the little troop of clerics and the measured voice of the virgins sing, eia. And let it bring forth from the heart what it cries with the mouth, in ringing melody. The renowned Aldebert begot her, he born of the stock of the Franks, And Regina her mother was her nurse with the nourishment of milk. Of this Virgin, therefore, let each, forsaking the contagions of his crime, Strive carefully to sing, and to set forth the great deeds of her virtues. While she flourished in age, she tamed her flesh with wonderful sparingness, She sought the head of the world; while she returned from prayer, a crowd going before her, Lo, the prefect's son is borne to meet her, led by insolence; He wonders at her beauty, and the virgin, ignorant of such things, He soothes and addresses, caresses and embraces; yet her holiness is not overcome.

But, the people seeing it, wonders take place. His chin sticks to his shoulder, but the clemency of Christ comes to the aid of His handmaid. So, all things being accomplished, mighty in virtues, she returned to her own. After this, when she wasted away, sick she fell upon her bed, gave her body to the earth; her spirit in glory Shines before the Lord among the choirs of virgins, and from the Father of lights takes true joys. Behold, a noble virgin, blind, pitiable, comes to the suffrages Of this sacred virgin: she at once restored to her the offices of light. For a dropsical cleric imploring her she draws off the fluid swellings of the belly: And she makes manifest the rustic stealing wheat by the signs of the bell. There comes to her the sound of the plaintive voice of a little woman, saying: Daughter of light, Have pity on a wretched woman; let my weak limbs be speedily healed. She restores to a craftsman the bone and sinews of his thumb cut off by the axe. After other virtues, thou, holy one, openest the mouth of a mute man lacking speech. Eia, celebrated virgin, from the allurements of death transfer to the palaces Of the supreme Father, of the Son, us who seek the solaces of the supreme joy. And us who sing and ask pardon with the diligent voice of the heart, Make, that with the Son of God, as by food, we may feed for ever. Amen. Alleluia.

Gospel.

[182] as also the Gospel, Offertory, Secret, Communion and Postcommunion, The kingdom of heaven is like to ten virgins. As in the common of Virgins.

And the Credo is said.

Offertory.

After her shall virgins be brought to the king: her neighbours shall be brought to thee.

Secret.

Deign, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to accept the gifts of Thy people: and through them, blessed Ragemfredis Thy virgin interceding, mercifully hear the prayers of those who serve Thee. Through our Lord.

Communion.

Five prudent virgins took oil in their vessels with their lamps: and at midnight there was a cry made: Behold, the bridegroom comes, go out to meet Christ the Lord.

Postcommunion.

May saint Ragemfredis intervene for us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, by suppliant prayer, who was ever pleasing to Thee both by the merit of chastity and by the profession of Thy virtue. Through our Lord.

[183] and a notice is given of the other things pertaining to the Office of the Saint. From the Breviary of Denain praised at number 165, or the proper Offices of the particular Saints of the abbatial church of Denain, conformed to the norm of the Roman Breviary, from which that whole ecclesiastical Office of St. Ragenfredis was taken, I proceed to recount the other things which bear on our matter. As regards the recited office of the Mass, its editor notes on page 59 that the same Mass can be said on the Elevation and Translation of saint Ragenfredis, namely on the 2nd day of September and the 11th of June. And at the 9th day of October, which is the second of the Octave of the principal solemnity, in the same Breviary of Denain the Office of saints Dionysius and Companions is prescribed, and at second Vespers the Office of the Octave, to be begun from the Chapter with a commemoration of the said Saints; and finally at the 10th day, with semidouble rite, the Office of St. Ragemfredis, as on the feast itself, except however the Lessons of the first Nocturn, which are from the occurring Scripture, as they call it, and except the Lessons of the second Nocturn, taken from the Life of St. Ragemfredis, or the Legend already often mentioned; which, because, besides the Roman pilgrimage attributed to her and certain eulogies common to almost all holy Virgins, they contain nothing worthy of mention, I have thought could be passed over here, just as all the others through the octave, drawn from elsewhere and easily adapted to all virgins.

[184] For the rest, although indeed it contributes nothing or little to the ecclesiastical cult or posthumous glory of the Saint Why the catalogue of the abbesses of Denain is edited here. at what time and in what order the abbesses who flourished after St. Ragenfredis presided over the house of virgins of Denain founded by her, I nevertheless make public the chronological series, which I have arranged as well as I could, of these, both of those who in any way promoted the cult of their holy Patroness and Foundress, and of all the others who succeeded her in the government of the abbey; both because the other, which was edited in volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 423, is much more accurate and fuller, inasmuch as it is drawn out and arranged partly from the documents recounted in this Commentary, partly from a certain manuscript Catalogue most courteously supplied to me by the most ample Monsieur Mutte, already often praised; and also because I trust that it will be the more welcome to not a few readers studious of Belgian history the less it is known or expected, and the more it seems to me that it will be honourable and useful to certain most noble Belgian families.

[185] St. Ragenfredis, or Ragemfredis, daughter of Blessed Aldebert and St. Regina, counts of Ostrevant, St. Ragenfredis and Blessed Ava governed the abbey of Denain, foundress and abbess of the house of virgins of Denain, as the diploma of Charles the Bald, edited from number 86 of the Commentary, and Baldric in the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras, book 2, chapter 28, testify, concerning whose government this Commentary is to be consulted, especially § III and following. She presided over the house of virgins from about the year 780 up to about the year 805. From what was said in §§ III, IV and V.

Blessed Ava seems also to be numbered among the abbesses of Denain, inasmuch as St. Ragenfredis preceded her in government, as the anonymous of Denain, a writer of the eleventh century, praised at number 118 of the Commentary, testifies, who could have understood this matter from the authentic documents of the house of virgins or at least from an approvable tradition; in which matter d'Arleux, praised above, Arthur du Monstier in his Gynaeceum and others agree with him. She, noble by birth, venerable in faith, conspicuous for an abundance of estates and an affluence of many riches (see numbers 82 and 83 of this Commentary), assigning all the furniture of her own right to the sepulchre of saint Ragemfredis, caused the church of saint Mary the virgin at Denain to be enlarged and improved with the comeliness of manifold apparatus. She also took care that the blessed relics of the same Ragemfredis should be translated into the aforesaid church. Daniel Papebroch, in volume 3 of April, page 628, rightly determined that she died most piously in the ninth century, when it had advanced somewhat.

[186] Ermentrude, noble indeed by birth, but nobler in morals and in the discipline of the Rule, Ermentrude and Fredesendis, began to preside, in the year, as it seems, 1029, over the house of virgins of Denain, partly restored, which had been destroyed by the fury of the Normans in the year 880, and was the first abbess of the Benedictine nuns who were substituted for the canons by the counsel of Gerard I, bishop of Cambrai, and of Leduin, abbot of St. Vaast, and also by the work and authority of Baldwin, called the Fair-bearded. From what was said in §§ IV and VII. She does not seem to have presided over the monastery much beyond the beginning of the year 1035. From numbers 109, 111 and 123 of this Commentary. She increased the goods of the church of Denain with prosperous success, and brought up and instructed girls born of noble family in the fear of the Lord. From number 106.

Fredesendis or Fredescendis, younger also in age, but aged in morals, and of most noble disposition, as the anonymous of Denain, her contemporary, narrates, brought back in all things to a better state the place of Denain, which she had undertaken to rule in the year, as it seems, 1035; she ordered the Life of St. Regina and the Life of St. Ragenfredis mingled with it to be written, and restored to Denain the body of our Saint, long before taken from her church. From what was said in § I, § VII and VIII. She ordered a shrine of gold and silver to be made, in which she had the body of St. Ragenfredis enclosed with due veneration, which she placed in the middle place between St. Regina and Blessed Ava. From § VIII, number 118. She was taken by the most noble countess of Flanders, named Adela, to rule the abbey of Messines near Ypres, yet in such a way that she did not lay down the government of the house of virgins of Denain. From numbers 109 and 110 of this Commentary. The Benedictine writers of volume 5 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 342, call her Frisildis and Faisildis, and assert that she ceased to live in the year 1075. She would therefore have discharged the office of abbess for forty years.

[187] Mary and Bertha, Mary, abbess of the venerable congregation of Blessed Ragenfredis, virgin, of the monastery of Denain, is mentioned in the diploma of Robert, bishop of Arras, issued in the year of Christ 1118, which see at number 129. If she immediately succeeded Fredesendis, she must have presided over the abbey of Denain about 50 years; of which matter there exist other not dissimilar examples below.

Bertha, venerable abbess of Denain, is mentioned in the charter given by Godescalc, bishop of Arras, in the year 1157, in which he, by his episcopal authority, at the request of the same Bertha, substituted two vicars in place of the canons who possessed prebends in the church of Denain. You have that Charter above at number 135 and following.

[188] Helvidis, whom perhaps another Helvidis succeeded, Of Helvidis, abbess of Denain or of Doneig, mention is made in the years 1221 and 1223, as Denis de Sainte-Marthe writes in volume 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 423, and with him the manuscript Catalogue praised above agrees in this matter. But the latter differs from Sainte-Marthe in this, that it determines that Helvidis held the government of the abbey from the year 1188 up to the year 1223; whereas Sainte-Marthe writes that she was already sitting about the year 1185, that is, three years before, and praises as witness of his assertion a Charter of Cysoing existing in the Colbertine library. Perhaps between the Helvidis mentioned at the years 1222 and 1223 and Bertha, who governed the monastery of Denain in the year 1157, there was in between some Helvidis who held the government of the abbey from about the year 1165 up to 1187, and is the same of whom mention is made in the charter of Cysoing about the year 1185; and, she having died at the end of the year 1187 or the beginning of the year 1188, another Helvidis succeeded, mentioned at the years 1222 and 1223, who would therefore be the second of this name.

[189] Eusilia, or Ensilia, abbess of the church of Denain, and the convent of the same place, the goods of the abbey

of Honepele and of Husen, with all their rights, they sell to the church of Xanten in Cleves in the year 1240. Ensilia, Helwidis, Mary, Isabella, From the charter which you have at number 145. Denis de Sainte-Marthe writes that Eusilia is also found in the year 1241 in the Archive of Vicogne. That the name of her family was d'Enghien, the most learned Monsieur Morreau, advocate of Valenciennes and today also counsellor to the abbey of Denain, is the authority in the cited manuscript catalogue.

Helwidis, surnamed d'Estré, abbess of Denain, as the same Monsieur Morreau testifies in his Additions, died in the year 1268.

Mary, abbess of Denain, is mentioned at the year 1272. From volume III of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, column 423, and from the manuscript catalogue of Mutte.

Isabella, abbess of Denain, died on the 4th day of December in the year 1313. From the Catalogue of Mutte, compiled partly from the Epitaphs of Denain collected into one by Jean de Pitpan de Montauban, formerly provost of the city of Valenciennes.

[190] Ermesendis de Ligne, abbess of Denain, died at Valenciennes in the year 1316 and was buried in the church of the Ladies of Beaumont, commonly Dames de Beaumont. Ermesendis, Agnes, Mary, Magdalene, From the manuscript Catalogue of Mutte and the Additions of the praised Monsieur Morreau.

Agnes de Lywerde, abbess of Denain, died on the day sacred to St. Benedict, that is, the 21st of March, in the year 1345. From the Catalogue of Mutte, citing a manuscript book whose title in French is: Le livre des Dames.

Mary d'Oysy, abbess of Denain, died in the year 1365. From the Catalogue of Mutte.

Magdalene, otherwise Margaret d'Aisne, was abbess for thirty-three years, and died on the 6th day of December in the year 1398. It is added in Mutte's catalogue that she was the daughter of the Lord Sausset, Bailiff of Hainaut, as they call it. And Gerard d'Aisne, called Sausset, was bailiff of Hainaut in the years 1333 and 1336.

[191] Aelix or Alix de Molembaix was abbess for 26 years. Alix, Laurentia, Margaret, Isabella, She died on Tuesday, the sixth of May, in the year 1426. From the same Catalogue.

Laurentia de Molembaix, sister of Alix, succeeded her. She died in the year 1427. From the same Catalogue.

Margaret de Vaulx, abbess of Denain, died in the year 1437. From the manuscript Book whose title is: Le Livre des Dames.

Isabella d'Ognies was a scholastic, as they call it, that is, a junior nun, in the year 1401; and she was abbess for the space of forty years; she died in the year 1477. She had a sister named Mary d'Ognies. From the same Catalogue of Mutte. I do not know whether the things which are related from d'Arleux at number 158 are to be referred to her or to her sister, presently to be mentioned. See what was said in the cited place.

[192] Mary d'Ognies, abbess of Denain. From the same Catalogue. Mary d'Ognies, Mary de Werquigneul, Joanna, Sancta, Under her took place the violation of the church of Denain and the plundering of the house of virgins, which I find described in our manuscript collection of the Monasteries of Artois in these words: On the solemnity of the Lord's nativity in the year 1478, while the sister damsels were singing Matins, the French burst into the church of Denain, plunder the house, and carried off many captives with all the cattle.

Mary de Werquigneul, daughter of Jacques and of Joanna d'Ognies, died in the year 1485, when she had only been elected abbess. From the manuscript book whose title is: Livre des Dames, pages 46 and 72.

Joanna de Werquigneul ruled the abbey of Denain as abbess fifty-one years. She died on the 3rd day of July in the year 1536. From the same manuscript book just cited, pages 47 and 72.

Sancta, perhaps Sancia, de Werquigneul was abbess twenty years. She died on the 27th day of April in the year 1553. From the same manuscript book, commonly the Livre des Dames, page 78.

[193] Antonia, Anne, Gislena, Jacoba, Antonia or Antonetta d'Esne ruled the abbey of Denain three years. She died on the 8th day of March in the year 1557. From the same book already cited, pages 71 and 82. Her body was still incorrupt in the year 1751, when the abbess Mary de Lieres, to be mentioned below, was being buried. So the most Ample Monsieur Denis Mutte, dean and vicar general of the metropolitan church of Cambrai, who testifies that he understood this from the most ample Monsieur de Lannoy-Beaurepaire himself, canon of the same church, and a witness worthy of credit.

Anne de la Fosse, called de Givenchi, was abbess 17 years. She died on the 18th day of May in the year 1573, on the feast-day of the Most Holy Trinity. From the cited book whose title is: Livre des Dames, page 85.

Guislena, otherwise Guillielma de Nedoncel, was abbess 21 years. She died in the year 1595. From the same book just cited, pages 79 and 92.

Jacoba or Jacqueline de Locquenghien was abbess eleven years. She departed in the year 1606, on the third day of October. From the same book, page 86.

[194] Michaela, Anne Mary, Joanna Mary, Antonia, Michaela de Habarq was abbess 26 years and six weeks. She died on the 7th day of January in the year 1633, in the 89th year of her age. From the same manuscript book, page 104.

Anne Mary de Bauffremez, as the praised Monsieur Morreau writes, was abbess of Denain. She died on the … day of January in the year 16 … It is a wonder that more certain things concerning the government and time of death of this lady could not become known to the aforesaid gentleman.

Joanna Mary de Bonmarchiet de la Brayello was abbess in the month of February of the year 1650; and she died on the 28th day of January in the year 1663, in the 72nd year of her age. From the manuscript book whose title is: Livre des Dames, and from the Epitaphs.

Antonia or Antonetta Isabella Mary de Nedonchel, as the praised Monsieur Morreau writes, was abbess of Denain. She died on the 24th day of June in the year 1684. From the Epitaphs cited in the Catalogue of Mutte.

[195] Joanna Mary, Mary Caroline, Eleonora, and now Mary Ernestine governs. Joanna Mary Ernestine de la Hamaide was created abbess in the month of June of the year 1689. She died on the 5th day of December in the year 1729, in the 80th year of her age. From the Catalogue of Mutte.

Mary Caroline, or Charlotte Omer de Lieres de Saint-Venant, succeeded the aforesaid Lady Joanna de la Hamaide, and died as abbess on the 23rd day of May in the year 1751. From the same Catalogue of Mutte.

Eleonora Amelia Josepha de Houchin was named abbess on the 21st day of June in the year 1751. She died on the second day of August in the year 1752. From the same Catalogue.

Mary Ernestine Anne du Chastel de Petrieu, abbess, in the month of September in the year 1771 still happily governing the house of virgins of Denain, and most zealous in promoting the cult of her Patroness, and worthy on many titles that she may long be present to the joy of her people and return late to heaven.