ON ST. CERBONIUS OF POPULONIA, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, ON ELBA, AN ISLAND OF ETRURIA IN THE TYRRHENIAN SEA,
MORE PROBABLY IN THE YEAR 575.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Cerbonius, bishop and confessor, on Elba, an island of Etruria in the Tyrrhenian Sea. (S.)
BY C. B.
§ I. The memory of the Saint in the sacred Fasti, his cult in Italy, and likewise in the Gauls, to which some of his relics were translated from there, and among some Canons Regular.
Three prelates, namely Regulus, Felix and Cerbonius, who, exiles from Africa, became renowned for sanctity in Tuscia or Etruria, [The Saint, who seems rather to be announced on the island of Elba than at Populonia,] are commemorated in not a few sacred Fasti. Of the first two we have already treated at the 1st day of September, on which they are honoured. Of the third, because he is inscribed today in the Roman Martyrology, we are now about to treat. Although he is not commemorated today in the Lucca and Antwerp larger Hieronymian apographs in Florentinius, he is nevertheless listed in the Corbie, likewise a larger Hieronymian apograph, in the same Florentinius, in this way: The feast of St. Cerbonius at Populonium. To this Corbie one, further, are added the Florentine and some other auctaria of Usuard in Sollerius (for the Saint is not celebrated by Usuard himself), our manuscript Florarium, the Viola Sanctorum printed in the year 1508, Bellinus, Galesinius, Maurolycus, and finally, besides not a few other more recent martyrologists, Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. And the Saint is announced by all the sacred Fasti or authors of sacred Fasti already mentioned either at Populonium or without designation of the place to which he is assigned. But Castellan, who, following the Roman Martyrology, had likewise marked Cerbonius at Populonium in his Universal Martyrology, afterwards observes in its Supplement, page 714, that he should with better right be announced on the island of Elba; and indeed not without reason; for although Cerbonius was bishop of Populonium, he nevertheless exchanged this mortal life for the immortal not there, but on Elba, an island of Etruria in the Tyrrhenian Sea, as is established from his Acts and from Gregory the Great, Dialogues, book 3, chapter XI.
[2] and is adorned by Ferrarius with the elogium transcribed here, Further, although I do not think it worth while to transcribe here each and all of the elogia with which the Saint is celebrated in the sacred Fasti, whether those already praised or others, I nevertheless set before the reader's eyes here that which Ferrarius supplies from Gregory the Great and the Office of the Canons Regular, in order that he may have some notice of the Saint immediately from the beginning of this Commentary. It is conceived in these following words: Cerbonius, disciple of St. Regulus, came with him and others from Africa into Etruria, and when he had buried him, beheaded by order of Totila (king of the Goths), together with Felix the deacon (rather, bishop), having returned to Populonia he is created its bishop. When he had hidden with himself some whom he had received in hospitality, lest they be killed by the Goths, by Totila's order he is thrown at Merulae, a place seven Roman miles distant from the City, to be devoured by a most ferocious bear: which, led out of its cage, when it had come at a rapid run to the holy Man, contrary to its custom, though pressed by hunger, lowering its head, began to lick his feet, not without the wonder of all and of the king himself, who at once, revering him, dismissed him. And when afterwards the Lombards, arriving, laid waste everything that met them, Cerbonius, escaping with his people to the island of Elba, when, seized with sickness, he understood that he must depart, commanded his clerics to carry his body to Populonia to be entombed in the sepulchre which he had already prepared for himself while living: and when they excused themselves because the Lombards had occupied the region, he answered that there was no reason for them to fear for themselves if, having quickly carried and buried the body, they at once withdrew. When, therefore, he had died on the 6th day before the Ides of October, the clerics carrying out his orders, although a copious rain was falling over that whole space of sea which is between the island and Populonia, not even a drop touched the ship in which the sacred body was being carried. When he had been buried, and they were at once departing according to the precept of the holy Bishop, Gommarus, the most savage duke of the Lombards, immediately invaded the city.
[3] Of the island of Elba, on which St. Cerbonius, having migrated to it while the Lombards were ravaging through Italy, from the Populonian, in which he was buried, is here asserted by Ferrarius to have died, and also in very fact died, as I have already said, Baudrand in his Geographical Dictionary provides the following notice, which I partly transcribe here: Ilva, an island of Italy in Ptolemy, Mela and Pliny, who adds that it is called Aethalia by the Greeks, now l'Elba to the Italians, l'Isle d'Elbe to the French, and it is in the Tyrrhenian Sea opposite Piombino, a city of Etruria, from which it is distant only ten miles, it abounds in iron, and its circuit is forty Italian miles, as I have seen many times, and there are only five parishes in it, besides
the fortresses of Porto Argo and Porto Longo. So the praised Baudrand of the island on which St. Cerbonius died; and as regards Populonium, or Populonia, where the same Saint of ours was committed to the earth according to his own will, as is also rightly narrated by Ferrarius, we have already given at the 1st day of September, in the historico-critical Commentary on St. Regulus, num. 3, a notice of this city, which St. Cerbonius governed with the episcopal office while he lived, also from Baudrand, by whom it is placed only three miles from Piombino, a city of Etruria opposite the island of Elba, as we are taught from the notice of this island just given, presently adding that we suspected that the same geographer strayed from the truth when he affirms that the overthrow of Populonium, which he reports there, happened at the time when Bernard, grandson of Charles the Great, inaugurated king of Italy in the year 813 and taken from the living in the year 817, reigned in Italy.
[4] Occasion for the suspicion was given by the Annals usually cited under the name of Einhard, the city, by the Greeks which at the year 809, in Duchesne, tome 2, page 255, have thus: In Tuscia Populonium, a great city *, was plundered by the Greeks who are called Ὁροβιῶται (that is, dwellers in the mountains). Orlendi, indeed, in the Orbis sacer et profanus, part 2, book 3, chapter 43, num. 6, towards the end, likewise affirms, alleging other writers on his side and by name Biondo and Leandro Alberti, that Populonium was destroyed by Nicetas, the Constantinopolitan patrician, general of the emperor of the East, while Bernard, grandson of Charles the Great, was governing the kingdom of Italy, and consequently in the space of time which runs from the year 813 up to the year 817, afterwards also pronouncing most confidently at num. 8 that this had been demonstrated by him there. But since neither by Biondo, nor by Leandro Alberti, nor by any other writers who write that Populonia was then destroyed by the Greeks, is any testimony or ancient document from which the matter might be established brought forward, I do not sufficiently see how Orlendi could hold for demonstrated a thing supported only by the authority and credit of those writers, who are all more recent. He very probably believed that it had not been asserted without the authority of at least one older document or writer. However that may be, it does not appear probable that Populonia was destroyed by the Greeks under Bernard, king of Italy, that is, in the space of time which runs from the year 813 up to the year 817. For then no war blazed up between these and the Franks, who had handed over Populonium, snatched from the Lombards, to the Roman Pontiff, and would not have allowed it to be overthrown without war.
[5] about the beginning of the ninth century, There arose indeed at that time between those two nations a certain dispute about boundaries in Dalmatia; but that whole controversy, as may be seen in Pagi in the Critica at the year 817, num. IX and the following, was settled peacefully by the mutual consent of the parties without any shedding of blood or war; while on the contrary, since in the year 809, in which the author of the Annals mentioned above, who flourished at that time, hands down to memory that Populonium was plundered by the Greeks, war blazed up between the Franks and the Greeks, as the same Pagi teaches in the Critica at that year, num. 9, I hold it indeed very probable that the destruction of Populonium happened then, and not while King Bernard was governing Italy, and that therefore the said author, who writes only that that city was then plundered by the Greeks, asserted here, as sometimes happens, something less than he wished to be signified. Nor will it have to be fixed only before the year 813, that is, the epoch of Bernard's beginning to reign in Italy, but even long before the year 809, in which, from what has been said, the destruction of Populonium very probably happened, if one must stand by what Ughelli writes in tome 3 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, column 703. For there he has thus: After the departure of St. Cerbonius (to be tied more probably to the year 575, as we shall see below) the Lombards brought destruction on Populonia, as the same Gregory the Great relates, book 1 of the Letters, and that church must have been vacant for a long time, since there was no priest there either who might promote divine worship there, as we have seen above.
[6] and not towards the end of the sixth century by the Lombards, But, says Orlendi, praised above, in the Orbis sacer et profanus, part 2, book 3, chapter 43, num. 8, it is false that Populonia was then destroyed by the Lombards, nor could this be gathered from the praised letter of Gregory the Great; but only that its inhabitants, especially the Catholic priests, were so ill treated by the Lombards that they fled from there, and that there was no one of them who had the care of the flock. For this reason the holy Pontiff commanded Balbinus, bishop of Roselle, to visit the church of Populonia, at that time widowed of its pastor and destitute of priests, and to ordain priests and other sacred ministers who might administer the sacred things of the Christian Religion to the same peoples. So he, who then transcribes the words of which the letter of Gregory the Great praised by Ughelli consists, and most rightly concludes that nothing can be elicited from them for attributing the destruction of Populonium to the Lombards and setting it immediately after the departure of St. Cerbonius, that is, towards the end of the sixth century; which the monks of the Order of St. Benedict of the Congregation of St. Maur, who published at Paris in the year 1705 the Works and Life of St. Gregory the Great in four tomes, also declare, not obscurely, in their Notes on that Letter, tome 2, column 500 and the following, that they thought.
[7] But indeed, someone will perhaps say, to what end are these things about the time at which Populonium was overthrown? having been destroyed, translated to Massa, Ughelli affirms in tome 3 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, column 702, that the body of St. Cerbonius rests in the cathedral church of Massa under the high altar in a marble chest; and since it, as is commonly thought, was translated from the city of Populonia, when this was destroyed, to that of Massa together with the episcopal see, everyone indeed sees that it bears not a little on our purpose here that the time at which that city was overthrown should be known. Wherefore, since that mournful event happened neither immediately after the departure of St. Cerbonius, that is, towards the end of the sixth century, nor while the kingdom of the Lombards was still standing in Italy, nor even, as Coleti, who enlarged the Italia Sacra of Ughelli, relates there in tome 3, column 703, without any ancient surety, in the year 800, but, as appears most probable from what has been said, in the year 809, it follows that the sacred body of St. Cerbonius was then too, or at any rate not very long after, translated from Populonium, where it had first been buried in the sepulchre which the Saint, while he was still living, had, on the testimony of Gregory the Great, ordered to be prepared for himself, to the city of Massa.
[8] Nor does it appear to be doubted that from the time when this was done with a cult there and in other places of Italy, St. Cerbonius has enjoyed, and continues even today to enjoy, a remarkable ecclesiastical cult there in the cathedral church, which, as Ughelli teaches in tome 3 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, column 702, being under the patronage of St. Cerbonius, preserves his sacred remains under the high altar, as has already been said, and, although of ancient structure, is sufficiently ample and beautiful. This cult, moreover, extends itself to other churches too. Florentinius, in whom, as I have already taught, St. Cerbonius is announced today in the Corbie Hieronymian apograph, then writes thus in his notes: The Corbie manuscript adds at the end of this list the memory of St. Cerbonius, bishop of Populonia, which is lacking in ours and in the Antwerp one; although in the church, namely the major church of Lucca, for whose use our books served, the memory of St. Cerbonius is celebrated, and near the city of Lucca there exists a church dedicated to St. Cerbonius, beside which there was long ago a convent of sacred virgins, and now a house of the reformed of St. Francis continues. The Saint, therefore, is honoured with ecclesiastical cult not only at Massa, but also, as everyone will conclude from these words of Florentinius, at Lucca and in its neighbourhood; and that this is also done in other places of Italy, and chiefly of Etruria, is made sufficiently probable to me by the remarkable sanctity of the Man, celebrated by Gregory the Great himself, as may be seen below from his very words.
[9] Nor has his ecclesiastical cult kept itself within the bounds of Italy, where St. Cerbonius is also honoured each year with an ecclesiastical Office by the Regular canons of the Congregation of St. Saviour. This will become plain from what is now to be said. Molanus, in his Martyrology of Usuard printed at Louvain in the year 1568, as also in the Parisian church of St. Mary, to which some of his relics in characters other than those in which he is accustomed to celebrate the Saints mentioned by Usuard himself, announces Cerbonius today thus: Of St. Cerbonius, bishop and confessor; and then at the 17th day of this month he commemorates him in characters of the same kind thus: Of St. Cerbonius, bishop of Populonia, whose relics brother Robert of Pisa brought; and Castellan, when he had seen this latter announcement of our Saint, which Molanus supplies at the 10th day of October with these words whose relics etc. omitted, and then repeats at the 17th day of the same month with the same words added, warns in the Supplement added to his Universal Martyrology, page 714, that these following words be written in the margin beside the announcement of St. Cerbonius which he had supplied there: Some of whose relics were brought from Italy by Robert of Pisa, canon of St. Mary's at Paris, who gave them as a gift to this church, where his feast is celebrated on the next day after the Octave of St. Denis, on which Molanus repeated it in his first edition of Usuard from an extract or copy of the ancient Martyrology of that church, the word NOBIS, which is read there after the word ATTULIT, being omitted, and the word NOSTER, contracted into NR, which stands there and which he could not read; which brought it about that by those who did not see the archetype of that Martyrology that canon was taken for a monk.
[10] were brought, So the praised martyrologist, who, although he does not add, which I should most greatly desire, in what century or in what year some sacred remains of our Saint, as he records, were brought to the Parisian church of St. Mary, nevertheless rightly mentions only the former edition of Usuard by Molanus, that is, the one which came out at Louvain in the year 1568, in which that was asserted or repeated by this martyrologist on the day after the Octave of St. Denis, that is, on the 17th day of October. For in the later editions of Usuard by Molanus, of the years 1573 and 1583, St. Cerbonius is announced at the 10th day of October only, with absolutely no mention of him made at the 17th, in these following words: Of St. Cerbonius, bishop and confessor of Populonia, whose relics brother Robert of Pisa brought to the Gauls. Further, of those who, deceived either by this or by the other announcement of Molanus mentioned by Castellan, took Robert of Pisa, canon of the church of St. Mary at Paris, for a monk, as Castellan in the words
just recited says, Adrien Baillet also seems to have been one. For he affirms, in tome 3 of the Lives, in October, column 154, at the end of the Life of St. Cerbonius, that it is said that, when Populonium had been destroyed, the body of St. Cerbonius was carried away from there and brought into the Gauls through the care of a Religious named Robert of Pisa. Nor does he seem to have wrongly taken only that Parisian canon for a religious, that is, a monk, but also, from the said announcement of Molanus misunderstood, the relics of St. Cerbonius, of which Molanus, undoubtedly following the ancient Martyrology in which, as appears from the words of Castellan just recited, only this was related, intended to signify that only a part was carried into the Gauls, for the whole body of the Saint.
[11] For when he had asserted in the place just cited that the body of the Saint is said to have been translated into Gaul, he at once adds that it is contended that part of it exists in the Parisian church of St. Mary, being to be criticized, as it appears, in this too, that, although he cites in the margin the Parisian Spiritual Calendar of the year, is honoured in the church; which is also done in various dioceses of the Gauls unless I am mistaken, 1703, or certainly of the year 1704, in which he published the praised third tome of the Lives, in both of which it is expressly noted at the 17th day of October that relics of St. Cerbonius are preserved at Paris in the sacred treasury of St. Mary, he nevertheless intimates that it is held by him as doubtful whether this is true. But although it is so, he at any rate rightly affirms that the relics of St. Cerbonius which are thought to be held at Paris, although very probably not brought there from Populonium, contrary to what he intimates is said by some, are the foundation of the particular cult which the Saint enjoys there each year. Certainly that St. Cerbonius, who, as Castellan teaches in the words transcribed here above, is honoured each year in the Parisian church of St. Mary on the day after the Octave of St. Denis, that is, the 17th day of October, which immediately follows it, is then also honoured with an annual cult in the diocese of Paris, is attested by the Parisian Breviary, which I have at hand, and which sets forth an Office of St. Cerbonius to be recited on that day in the simple rite. Further, the praised Baillet also affirms in the place cited that St. Cerbonius is honoured each year in other dioceses of France too at the same 17th day of October. And this, which there is no leisure here to prove by adducing several Breviaries of different churches, is very probably done there, as also in the diocese of Paris, not on the 10th, on which St. Cerbonius is inscribed in the sacred Fasti adduced above and, as I shall teach below, died, but on the 17th day of October, for this reason, that his relics, given by Robert of Pisa, mentioned above, to the Parisian church of St. Mary, were formerly brought into it with solemn rite on that day. So our manuscript Florarium makes me judge, in which there is marked at the 17th day of October: The Translation … of St. Cerbonius, bishop and confessor, into Gaul.
[12] However that may be, that the Saint enjoys no small cult in the Gauls is clear enough and more than enough from what has just been adduced here; and among some Canons Regular, but since it is so, and, as we have seen above, the Saint is also honoured each year in Italy by the Regular canons of the Congregation of St. Saviour, someone will perhaps now inquire whether he is likewise honoured with this honour by the Regular canons of the Gallican Congregation. Three different editions, in which the Proper of the Saints for the use of the canons Regular of the Gallican Congregation came out at Paris in the years 1648, 1666 and 1758, are at my hand; and in all of them St. Cerbonius is nowhere named, much less is it prescribed that he be honoured with an ecclesiastical Office either at the 10th of October or at any other day of the year. Do the Regular canons of the Gallican Congregation perhaps judge that St. Cerbonius is not to be ascribed to their Order? But the Saint, who, as has been said, is honoured each year at the 10th day of October by the Regular canons of the Congregation of St. Saviour in Italy, is expressly called a canon Regular in their Proper, which is at my hand, and the same is also done in the Proper of the Regular canons of the Congregation of Windesheim, which is likewise at my hand, at the 12th day of October, on which St. Cerbonius is honoured by them, St. John of Bridlington and the first translation of St. Augustine occupying the 10th and 11th days. I do not know whether the Regular canons of this latter Congregation were impelled to ascribe St. Cerbonius to their Order by the example of the Regular canons of the Congregation of St. Saviour, who, from what has been said, do so.
[13] although meanwhile the Saint does not seem to have been Certainly in the parchment Breviary of the canons Regular of the Congregation of Windesheim which is extant with us, written in the fifteenth century or somewhat earlier still, Cerbonius nowhere has a place; but however it may be, the Regular canons of two other Congregations, namely the Lateran and that of Holy Cross of Coimbra, since they, no more than those who are of the Gallican Congregation, commemorate St. Cerbonius in their Propers of the Saints of the year 1635 and of the year 1648 which guide me, do not support the Regular canons of the Congregation of Windesheim. Nor, as it appears, does Costantino Ghini, although himself a Regular canon of the Congregation of St. Saviour, favour them much. For although he marks St. Cerbonius today in his Feasts of the Holy Canons, he nevertheless neither calls him a Canon Regular, nor brings forward anything, in the fairly prolix elogium with which he adorns the Saint, by which he would even in any way insinuate that he was a canon Regular, whereas he expressly distinguishes by the appellation of Canon Regular St. John, canon Regular of Bridlington in England, whom he also celebrates today with several other sacred Fasti, and whom we too are about to give here.
[14] a canon Regular. And indeed I find nothing anywhere which supports those who attribute the title of Canon Regular to St. Cerbonius, and anyone will without difficulty confess that the Saint in very fact was not a canon Regular who has attentively weighed what Corbinian Khamm writes about the primitive origin of the Canons Regular in the Prodromus of part 3 of the Hierarchia Augustana. It is indeed narrated in his Life, of which we shall hold discourse in the following §, in Ughelli, tome 3 of the Italia Sacra, enlarged by Coleti, column 705, that the Saint, when St. Regulus, with whom and with St. Felix he had come into Italy, had already been killed by Totila, king of the Goths, served for some time at Populonium, to which he had then withdrawn, the Lord day and night without complaint in the church of blessed Mary ever Virgin under Florentius, bishop of the same city of Populonium, who presided at that time; but although it is indeed thus indicated that Cerbonius passed his life for some time under bishop Florentius, or, if you will, under the government and discipline of this prelate, nothing at all is added from which you might gather that he did this either having taken the vows of religion or keeping some rule from which he could be called a Canon Regular. Nor would you rightly reckon Cerbonius among the canons Regular, since it cannot be proved that he either kept a Rule of this kind or pronounced the three vows of Religion, even though there may be reason why he should be believed to have lived for some time in Africa, before he was created bishop there, under the government and discipline of St. Regulus. But content to have said these things, in order to open in some way my opinion about the title of Canon Regular which is attributed to St. Cerbonius, I now proceed to those things which I have determined to say in the following §.
Annotata* others: maritima
§ II. Which of the Lives of the Saint that are extant is to be published; the certain things in it are separated from others not of equal credit, and some things already discussed under St. Regulus are exhibited in summary.
Of the two, which Orlendi mentions here, as also of another, Orlendi, in the Orbis sacer et profanus, part 2, book 3, chapter 43, num. 7, having first said that various Acts of St. Cerbonius, or (for the Saint is also found called Cerbo and Cerbonus) Cerbo, have already come out, very much adulterated and corrupted, then proceeds thus: His (namely St. Cerbonius's) Life is still extant unpublished in the Vatican Library, codex 6453, which Fioravante Martinelli cites at fol. 99 of his book, whose title is: ROME FROM HEATHEN SACRED. Uberto Benvoglienti declares that this also is preserved in the archive of the Metropolis (of Siena); indeed he would have it that it is better than that which is found in the Vatican library, since the latter seems to have been copied from the Sienese one. Baronius likewise cites another in the Notes on the Roman Martyrology at the 10th day of the month of October, and the aforesaid Benvoglienti judges that it agrees with neither; and he himself published another, excerpted from the archive of the metropolitan church of Siena, fol. 12, marked num. 108, which the continuator of Ughelli recently edited in the Additions to tome 3 of the Italia Sacra under the Bishops of Populonia and Massa. Both Lives of our Saint which Orlendi mentions here, besides the third, mentioned by Baronius, are also preserved in the literary furniture of our Museum. And the former indeed, that is, the one which has not yet been published entire in print, is noted as taken from the same Vatican codex 6453 in which the same Orlendi says here that it is extant, and the latter, that is, the one which is found inserted in tome 3 of the enlarged Italia Sacra from column 703, from the parchment manuscript Legendary F. 284 of the most eminent Cardinal Barberini.
[16] In both this and that almost the same things are narrated, if you regard the matter itself. [The former of the Lives of the Saint, hitherto unpublished, is also extant with us.] Nor do I know whether the Life of our Saint mentioned by Baronius supplies anything very worthy of note which is not likewise read in these two works. Benvoglienti indeed thought, as Orlendi teaches in the words just given, that it agrees with neither of the other Lives of our Saint already mentioned, of which he also makes mention; but I cannot assent to him without scruple in this matter, because, since that work, on the testimony of Baronius himself, in whose Library it was extant, began with the words The venerable man etc., and the eleventh chapter of book 3 of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, which is also called by some the Life of St. Cerbonius, also begins with almost these words, it appears that it should be doubted whether there are not likewise read in it almost all the things which are found reported in this chapter, which contains nothing at all that is not narrated in the two said Lives of our Saint. However that may be, since it has not hitherto been possible to see the Life mentioned by Baronius, omitting more about it, let us now hold discourse only of the two other Lives of our Saint, of which, as I have said, we have the one already published in print and the other in manuscript, and inquire into the age and credit of both, written by anonymous authors. Uberto Benvoglienti, as he himself declares in the place of the enlarged Italia Sacra just cited, thought that the former, which Nicolò Coleti inserted into the enlarged Italia Sacra from column 703, was written before the times of Charles the Great.
[17] [This, and the other already published, which, although perhaps not older than the tenth century, in some things nevertheless] But whether this opinion does not deviate from the truth,
Limpens doubted in his historico-critical Commentary on St. Regulus, given with us at the 1st day of September, num. 20; and indeed not without reason; for in that whole work nothing at all occurs from which it could be concluded without doubt that it was not written some time even after the year 814, the death year of Charles the Great. Nor do I know whether one who should pronounce it not older than the tenth century could be convicted of falsehood. And indeed he by whom it was written himself declares that he was not a little removed from the age of St. Cerbonius, writing thus at the beginning: Blessed … Cerbonius, as the ancient Catholic Men have handed down, was sprung from the region of Africa. But although it is so, and consequently that Life, which must also be said of the other hitherto unpublished (for you could adduce no argument which proves this older than that), was committed to writing not even before the tenth century of the Christian era was already in its course, both nevertheless contain not a few things which either merit undoubted credit or at least are not to be rejected as certainly false. And indeed no less the things which they hand down to memory about the miracle by which St. Cerbonius, thrown to a huge bear by order of Totila, king of the Goths, escaped unharmed, than those about the departure of the Saint from the living on Elba, an island of the Tyrrhenian Sea, to which he had withdrawn while the Lombards were ravaging far and wide through Italy, about his burial made in the tomb which he had prepared for himself at Populonium, and about the miracle which accompanied it, surely merit undoubted credit.
[18] merit undoubted credit, nor from the appearance of truth For each and all of them are taken from Gregory the Great, who flourished in the same sixth century as St. Cerbonius, and had heard them partly from Venantius, bishop of Luni, a man certainly most worthy of credit, partly from eyewitnesses; and as regards the remaining things which are narrated in the same Lives, the authors of these seem to have received them partly from more ancient Acts of St. Regulus, partly from tradition (for I do not think it is to be suspected that they invented anything out of their own head). So I judge, because one of those biographers, who composed the Life already published, when he speaks of the region from which Cerbonius sprang, affirms in the words transcribed here above that the ancient Catholic men handed this down, and because then, when he holds discourse of the martyrdom and burial of St. Regulus, he does it in the following manner: For at that time Totila, the perfidious king, with his Gothic attendants was laying waste Italy with cruel inquisition; and blessed Regulus, as is read in his Digests, he took off * by capital sentence. And Cerbonius and Felix, most holy bishops, wonderfully buried the corpse of their master and archbishop. Although Limpens, as I have already insinuated, doubted whether the Life of our Saint in which these things are read was written before the age of Charles the Great, he nevertheless persuaded himself in the place cited above that the Acts of St. Regulus which are here called Digests are old, and that the things narrated of that holy Martyr in the Life of our Saint of which we speak here, and in the other not yet brought to light, were undoubtedly taken from these.
[19] Nor indeed does it appear unlikely that the things too which are narrated in both the said Lives of our Saint, or in one of them, either about the teaching of the sacred letters imparted by St. Regulus to St. Cerbonius and the latter's subsequent departure with him from Africa, in some others they depart, and some things also or about other matters which are connected with the things concerning St. Regulus, were likewise taken from the more ancient Acts of St. Regulus, or, as from what has been said they are called, Digests; and since it is so, there indeed does not seem to be any reason why they should be thought to exceed the appearance of truth. But what is to be thought of those things which seem to have proceeded, not from those Acts, but from tradition alone? Not one and the same judgment is to be passed on all of these. The things which are handed down to memory in one or the other of the two Lives of our Saint about the withdrawal of St. Cerbonius to Populonium when St. Regulus had already been killed by Totila's order, about his stay with Florentius, bishop of this city, and about his promotion to the see of Populonium when the latter had died, are of such a kind that they do not exceed credit and could easily have flowed down to posterity from the ancient tradition of the church of Populonium itself; and since it is so, and nothing occurs from any other source on account of which they should not be believed, I think that they are not only not to be rejected as certainly false, but even to be admitted, if not as certainly true, at least as very like the truth: but the things which are then reported in the same two Lives of our Saint about St. Cerbonius being accused before Vigilius, the supreme Pontiff, and about the circumstances which immediately preceded and followed this event, are so prodigious and difficult to believe that I think they will only with the greatest difficulty find undoubted credit among the learned who know even in any way the art of even less severe criticism.
[20] Nor indeed do they seem to me to merit it in any way; which exceed credit, they contain. for although I would by no means think that miracles are to be rejected and held for fictions on the sole ground that they are miracles, I nevertheless think it consonant with reason that miracles, if only because they are miracles, should not be believed without doubt unless they are supported by testimonies which suffice to extort assent from a sensible and prudent man; and the things which, as I have already insinuated, are narrated in both Lives of St. Cerbonius as immediately preceding and then following the accusation of our Saint before Pope Vigilius, exceedingly difficult to believe, indeed almost incredible, consist of several miracles which are founded neither in the testimony of Pope Gregory the Great, who nevertheless records other miracles concerning St. Cerbonius, nor in that of any other ancient writer, but in tradition alone, and that, as appears certain, only popular, which is very often accustomed to stray from the truth. Wherefore, although indeed I shall without difficulty be led to believe, on the credit of those Lives, that St. Cerbonius, as is related in his Lives, was accused before Pope Vigilius, and, summoned to Rome on that account, showed himself free of all fault before him, I cannot nevertheless believe with even any firm credit the wonders and other things which are narrated in the same Lives as having accompanied that event, and which may easily have proceeded from the mere licence of inventing; and how deservedly I am so disposed in mind the studious reader will understand from the mere brief summary of them which I subjoin.
[21] St. Cerbonius, having already been made bishop, since he pleased the Lord exceedingly by the holiness of his life, These things are placed here briefly before the reader's eyes, frequently hears angels singing praises to God before dawn. Hence, thinking that he would do a thing pleasing to the Lord, he began to celebrate Mass with chant at first dawn on each Sunday, on which chiefly the heavenly song was accustomed to sound in his ears; and since, when this was finished, he refreshed himself with food and drink together with all the priests of his church, and so those who, the sun having already risen, flocked together on Sundays from the neighbouring places to the cathedral church, to be present at the Sacrifice to be celebrated either by their bishop or by another priest, found then no fasting priest there who might perform the Sacred rites, St. Cerbonius is accused by them, angered on that account, of violating or neglecting his office before Vigilius, the supreme Pontiff; he betakes himself to Rome, to which he is summoned by him through messengers, and, having arrived there, not a few miracles having been wrought on the way, presents himself to the Pontiff together with a multitude of geese which he had ordered to follow him to be offered to him as a gift, and, having inquired and been taught the cause for which he had been summoned to Rome, is honourably dismissed to his diocese by Vigilius, when the latter himself, the Saint bringing it about by his prayers to God, had heard at earliest dawn angels singing praises to God. Such is the summary of the things which in both Lives of our Saint appear scarcely, or not even scarcely, credible; and from the manner in which they are set forth in these they become still less credible, as anyone will easily understand who has turned over, even only cursorily, the same two Lives in the places in which they are contained.
[22] and the reason being adduced why the hitherto unpublished Life is published, All these things are explained diffusely both in one of them, inserted, as I have already said, in tome 3 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, and in the other, hitherto unpublished, which, divided into chapters and numbers according to our custom, we are now about to publish, num. 7 and the twelve following. Nor, as I have already insinuated, do those two works differ much from one another in the other things to be narrated about our Saint which are either beyond doubt true or certainly by no means exceed credit, if the matter itself, that is, the substance alone, be regarded. But although it is so, the one which has hitherto not come to light appears to me to excel the other, which has already seen the light, for this reason, that, unlike what is done in the latter, it sets forth either all or at least most of the things which it narrates of the Saint in the very order in which they were done; and how consonant this is with the truth anyone will easily discover who has compared it with the time at which, as I am going to show in the next following §, St. Cerbonius was promoted to the see of Populonium, at which he then went to Rome to Pope Vigilius, at which he escaped miraculously unharmed from the bear, and at which finally he exchanged this mortal life for the immortal. Since, therefore, the other Life of St. Cerbonius, hitherto unpublished, seems in any case preferable to that which has already come out by the benefit of print, it has seemed good, not to reprint the latter at the end of this Commentary, but to make public the former, with Annotations added where I shall judge it fitting, both that I may discharge the promise given by Papebroch in tome 3 of May under St. Florentius, bishop, num. 5, and that the reader, having thus the means of both those works, may compare the one with the other and in this way be more aptly able to pass his judgment on each.
[23] [some questions are satisfied by answers given here in summary from the Commentary on St. Regulus.] For the rest, in order that I might dispatch what I set myself in the present §, certain questions, to which the Lives of the Saint, already called to criticism, give either material or occasion, would still have to be discussed here; and first indeed, since the persecution of the Arians, as the Life of our Saint to be published teaches at num. 2, compelled Cerbonius to go into exile from Africa, I would inquire into the time at which this happened; and then I would examine whether the Saint, while he still stayed in Africa, was a bishop, and whether, because he did not return to his flock when peace had been restored to the African church, he can be brought under suspicion of fault; but since St. Cerbonius migrated from Africa into Italy as an exile together with St. Regulus, those three questions at the 1st day of September, on which of
the latter Saint we treated, have already been discussed; and to the first indeed the answer has been given that St. Regulus, and consequently St. Cerbonius too, went into exile either in the very death year of Thrasamund, king of the Vandals in Africa, which falls in the year of Christ 523, or in one or another of the years immediately preceding, for the reasons alleged there in the Historico-critical Commentary, num. 34 and the four following; and as regards the two remaining ones, the things which are brought forward in the same Commentary, num. 40 and the five following, clearly show that one must assent to the Life of St. Cerbonius, which hands down to memory that he was created bishop before he fled from Africa, and that the Saint, not otherwise than St. Regulus, was guilty of absolutely no fault in not returning to his flock when peace had been restored to the African church; and since it is not necessary that anything be added here to what was said there, I refer there the reader eager to weigh the same, and gird myself for other questions to be discussed in the following §.
Annotata* extinxit
§ III. To what manner of life the Saint devoted himself in Italy; at what time he ascended the see of Populonium, when he was thrown to the Bear by Totila, and when finally he departed from life.
[The Saint, who, having landed in Italy, the eremitical life together with St. Regulus] Whether our Saint joined himself to St. Regulus as a companion in the solitary life in Italy, as in the flight from Africa, the Life of our Saint, to be subjoined to this Commentary, gives occasion for doubting. For when it speaks at num. 3 of Regulus, who had already landed in Italy together with the bishops SS. Cerbonius and Felix, it employs these following words: But when (St. Regulus) reached the Roman borders, separated from his Companions he began to lead the hermit life and to have the service of Felix; and since St. Regulus is thus related to have separated himself from his Companions and to have begun to lead the eremitical life, and no mention is made of St. Cerbonius as one who then clung to him, there indeed seems to be reason why it may be called into doubt by someone whether the Saint then joined himself to St. Regulus as a companion of the solitary life. But in the other Life of our Saint in Ughelli, enlarged Italia Sacra, column 704, these following words are read of St. Regulus and his two companions SS. Cerbonius and Felix, having already landed in Italy: And coming into the Roman borders they claimed for themselves a suitable place, so that, all things being set apart for the best almighty God, they led * the eremitical life; and thus it is indicated that SS. Cerbonius and Felix joined themselves to St. Regulus as Companions of the solitary life in Italy, nor ought the Life of the Saint to be subjoined to this Commentary to prevent this from being judged to have been in very fact done by them.
[25] led there for about 19 years, For although, when it treats of the solitary life of St. Regulus, it relates that he lived separated from all, and thus seems to exclude from the fellowship of the solitary life which it attributes to St. Regulus St. Cerbonius, whom it does not mention there, its author can nevertheless, and consequently, in order that he may be brought into agreement with the other Life, which teaches that both SS. Cerbonius and Felix and St. Regulus led the eremitical life, ought also to be judged to have spoken thus, not because St. Regulus alone devoted himself to the solitary life, but because the desert in which he did so was some distance away from the deserts into which SS. Cerbonius and Felix withdrew. Let it stand, therefore, that both SS. Felix and Cerbonius and St. Regulus led the eremitical life. Further, since they took this up as soon as they had landed in Italy as exiles from Africa, which, from what has been said above, happened not long before the year 523, the death year of Thrasamund, king of the Vandals, and held to it constantly up to the martyrdom of St. Regulus, which is more probably to be tied to the year 542, as is proved in the Historico-critical Commentary in which the matters concerning this Saint are elucidated in our Work at the 1st day of September, num. 46 and the following, it follows that the Saint lived in solitude together with SS. Regulus and Felix for about nineteen years; and what he did after the martyrdom of St. Regulus, whom he himself and St. Felix committed to the earth, the Life to be published sets forth at num. 4 in these following words: And after the death of his bishop (namely St. Regulus) blessed Cerbonius began to teach all the peoples dwelling in those same parts, admonishing them to persevere in prayers and vigils and fasts and alms, as the blessed bishop himself (St. Regulus) had been accustomed to do. And he baptized the people who were still held in the gentile error, converting them to the right faith and to the unity of the holy Catholic faith, and that they should adore Christ the Son of God.
[26] and created bishop of Populonium about the year 544 But it is far from being the case that the Saint spent as great a space of time in these things which are narrated here as he did before in the eremitical life; for the Saint, when he had already done these things after the martyrdom of St. Regulus, which, as I have just warned, is more probably to be tied to the year 542, betook himself, as the Life to be published reports, to Populonium, and, having stayed there for some time with Florentius, bishop of that city, was substituted in the place of the latter when he had died; and this happened before the year 546, as you will understand from what is now to be said. Cerbonius, when he had already been promoted to the see of Populonium, betook himself to Rome, as we have seen above, to Pope Vigilius, by whom he had been summoned, and there spoke to that supreme Pontiff; and since it is so, and Pope Vigilius was not at Rome in the year 546, as may be seen in Pagi in the Critica, and then, summoned from Italy by the emperor Justinian, betook himself to Constantinople, and was not at Rome any more before his death, which he met in Sicily in the year 555, when he was at length returning from Constantinople into Italy, it follows that St. Cerbonius, since, from what has been said, he spoke to Pope Vigilius at Rome when he was already bishop of Populonium, was promoted to that see before the year 546. Further, since the things which the Saint is narrated in the Life to be published to have done before he was created bishop of the people of Populonium after the martyrdom of St. Regulus and the death of St. Florentius which followed it very probably occupied a space of at least almost two years, as anyone who has weighed what I have already said will easily recognize, it appears probable that Cerbonius undertook about the year 544 the government of the church of Populonium with the office of bishop. Nor, as everyone will gather from what has just now been said about Vigilius, can it have happened very long after that the Saint, summoned, betook himself to the supreme Pontiff at Rome and spoke to him there.
[27] But since the Life to be published, to the things done between Vigilius and Cerbonius which it narrates, presently subjoins the remarkable wonder by which the Saint, thrown by Totila's order to a huge bear, escaped from it unharmed, [from a huge bear, to which, as is reported here in the very words of Gregory the Great,] did this likewise happen not long after the year 544? So I am led to believe, and I shall presently give the reason why I so think; but before I do so, it pleases me to set here before the reader's eyes, in the very words of this holy Pontiff, the deed, very honourable to our Saint, which is reported both by Gregory the Great, Dialogues, book 3, chapter XI, and in the Life to be published, num. 20 and the two following. They run thus: The man of venerable life Cerbonius also, bishop of Populonium, gave in our days a great proof of his sanctity. For since he was very intent on the zeal of hospitality, one day he received in hospitality some soldiers passing by, whom, when the Goths came upon them, he hid, and by hiding them saved their life from their wickedness. When this had been reported to the perfidious king of the Goths, Totila, inflamed with the madness of most monstrous cruelty, he ordered him to be led to the place which is called Merulae, at the eighth milestone from this city, where he himself was then encamped with his army, and to be thrown to bears to be devoured in a spectacle of the people. And when the same perfidious king had also taken his seat at the spectacle itself, a great crowd of people flocked together to watch the death of the Bishop. The bear, then, was let out of its cage; which, inflamed and roused, made for the Bishop; but suddenly, forgetful of its ferocity, with neck bent and head humbly lowered, it began to lick the Bishop's feet; so that it was given plainly to all to understand that towards that Man of God both the hearts of men were bestial and those of the beasts as it were human. Then the people, which had come to a spectacle of death, was turned with a great shout to the admiration of veneration. Then the king himself was moved to pay him reverence; since with him it had been brought about by supernal judgment that he who before had been unwilling to follow God in preserving the life of the Bishop should at least follow the beast to mildness.
[28] Thus far Gregory, presently also adding that some of those who were present at the thing narrated here, had been thrown by Totila's order, more probably in the year 546 and testify that they saw it with all the people there, were still surviving in his age; and since he writes that the same thing, or wonder, which he hands down to memory in the words just transcribed here, happened in that place which is called Merulae, at the eighth milestone from this city, where he himself (Totila) was then encamped with his army, he thus supplies a means by which the time at which it occurred can be determined. For the Benedictine monks of the Congregation of St. Maur who published his Works and Life in four tomes at Paris in the year 1705 judge, in tome 4, page 201, that by the word this, which is read here in Gregory's words, the city of Rome, where this holy Pontiff composed his Dialogues, is designated. With these, further, Limpens assented at the 1st day of September under St. Felix, bishop, num. 5, because, since that wonder happened after the martyrdom of St. Regulus, that is, as you will easily gather from what has been said above, after the year 542, and Totila never after this year, regarding what Procopius relates of the Gothic war, seems to have encamped only eight miles from Populonium, this city cannot be designated by the aforesaid word this in Gregory's words; and since, as it appears to me at any rate, he did this not without reason, and Totila, who, as is agreed among the learned, surrounded Rome with a siege in the year 546, was then not far from that city, I indeed think, with the monks of the Congregation of St. Maur praised above, that what Gregory narrates about St. Cerbonius, thrown by Totila's command to the bites of a huge bear and miraculously snatched from them without any injury, more probably happened then too.
[29] [he escaped unharmed, his last day on the island of Elba, from which nevertheless, by a miracle also,] Hear how those writers, in the place just cited, speak opportunely to our purpose. Gregory, they say, reporting the miracle wrought in St. Cerbonius, bishop of Populonium,
observes that this happened in his days, at the time when Totila, king of the Goths, was encamped at Merulae at the eighth milestone from the city of Rome. Totila, who began to reign in the year 541, twice surrounded Rome with a siege and stormed it, namely in the years 546 and 549. The former siege was protracted into a whole year, during which time Totila was not far distant from the City. Whence it seems nearer the truth that what Gregory narrates (namely in the words already transcribed here above) happened then. So they. Further, since our Saint escaped unharmed, by a wonder which from what has been said they rightly join with the year 546, from the bear to which he had been thrown by Totila's command to be devoured, it remains that we now still consider what he did afterwards while still surviving among the living and at what time he passed from this mortal life to the immortal. The Life to be published, having narrated the wonder into whose epoch we have already inquired, relates at num. 23 that Cerbonius gave admonitions of salvation to the people subject to him, shone forth with wonderful abstinence from food, with pious works, and with sweetness and modesty of manners, and so reached a decrepit age, presently also adding that then, when the Lombards had occupied Italy, he withdrew to the island of Elba and died there, and according to his own will was deposited at Populonium, a miracle also being wrought on the way when his body was being translated there from that place, in the sepulchre which he had prepared for himself there while he was still living.
[30] [as is also narrated here in the very words of Gregory the Great, wrought on the way, was carried out to be entombed at Populonium,] Gregory the Great also narrates these same things in the aforesaid book 3 of the Dialogues, chapter XI; wherefore, in order that I may exhibit to the reader in his very words each and all of the things which the holy Pontiff relates of Cerbonius, it pleases me to set these forth also in them before I inquire into the time at which they were done. Of this Man too (namely Cerbonius) I learned also another miracle (so Gregory proceeds immediately after the words in which he sets forth the miracle reported above), Venantius, bishop of Luni, narrating it. For in that church of Populonium over which he presided he prepared a sepulchre for himself, but when the nation of the Lombards, coming into Italy, had laid waste everything, he withdrew to the island of Elba. And coming to death as sickness came upon him, he commanded his clerics and those who attended him, saying: Place me in my sepulchre, which I have prepared for myself at Populonium. And when they said to him: How can we bring your body back there, who know that the same places are held by the Lombards and that they are roaming about everywhere there? He answered: Bring me back without care, do not fear, but take care to bury me quickly: and as soon as my body has been buried, withdraw from the same place with all haste. They placed, therefore, the body of the dead man on a ship, and as they were making for Populonium, the air having gathered in clouds, an exceedingly immense rain burst forth. But in order that it might become plain to all whose body that ship was carrying, through that space of sea which is twelve miles distant from the island of Elba to Populonium, a very stormy rain came down around both sides of the ship, and on that same ship not one drop of rain fell. The clerics, therefore, came to the place and committed the body of their Bishop to burial. Keeping his precepts, they returned in haste to the ship. As soon as they had been able to enter it, to the same place where the Man of the Lord had been buried came Gummarith, a most cruel duke of the Lombards. From whose arrival it became clear that the Man of God had had the spirit of prophecy, who commanded his ministers to depart in haste from the place of his burial.
[31] Paul the Deacon teaches, in On the Deeds of the Lombards, book 2, chapter 32, that the Lombards, when they had broken into Italy in the year 568, after the death of their kings Alboin and Cleph, [under the beginnings of the dukes who governed the Lombards after Cleph, not in the year 573,] were under more than thirty dukes for ten years, and that then, in the first advance of the same dukes, they plundered Italy as much as possible; and since Baronius had perceived this, and at the same time was persuaded that the most cruel duke of the Lombards named Gummarith, whose arrival at the place where St. Cerbonius had been buried Gregory declares in the words just now recited was not much preceded by the latter's death, was of the number of the said more than thirty dukes, he therefore referred that death to their beginnings, writing thus in his Annals at the year 573: Dukes having been created and dispersed through the various regions of Italy, when the report of their cruelty was running about, there were frequent hidings and flights of the faithful… And among others that great confessor Cerbonius, bishop of Populonium, who in the time of the Goths had fearlessly set himself against them, now that the savagery of the Lombards was overflowing more violently, betook himself with his clerics to the island of Elba in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where also, God helping, he received the end of the present life… This most holy Bishop, then, dies … at the beginnings of the incursion of the Lombard dukes. So the most learned writer praised. And rightly indeed, as appears to me from what has been said, he refers the death of our Saint to the beginnings of the dukes whom the Lombards set over themselves after the killing of their kings Alboin and Cleph; but he likewise wrongly ties these beginnings, that is, the beginning of the decade during which Paul the Deacon writes, in the place just cited, that the Lombards were under dukes after the killing of Cleph, to the year of Christ 573.
[32] For he does this only because he reckons the beginning of their kingdom in Italy, which Paul the Deacon writes in the same book, chapter 28, that Alboin held for three years and six months, but, as from the things adduced here from the year 568 advanced to April, on the second day of which, as Paul the Deacon teaches in On the Deeds of the Lombards, book 2, chapter 7, the Lombards left Pannonia, and hence thinks that Cleph, after whom, killed a year and six months after the killing of Alboin, whom he had succeeded, as is again understood from the same Paul, the Lombards were under dukes, perished in the year 573. But that the beginning of their kingdom in Italy is not to be reckoned from the year 568 advanced to April, that is, from the entry of the Lombards into Italy which happened then, will become plain from what is now to be said. The siege of Ticinum by the Lombards under Alboin was begun towards the end of the year 569 or the beginning of the following, as everyone will conclude from Paul the Deacon, On the Deeds of the Lombards, book 2, chapter 25 and the following; and since that siege, as the same Paul testifies there, lasted more than three years, it follows that Alboin, who, as is also understood from Paul, still remained surviving among the living for some months after the same siege, was not killed before the year 573, already advanced beyond April, and that consequently, if the beginning of their kingdom in Italy is to be reckoned from the year 568 advanced to April, that is, from the entry of the Lombards into Italy which happened then, Alboin held it not only for three years and six months, as Paul the Deacon expressly teaches in the place cited above, but for more than five years.
[33] is proved, to be tied to the year 575, Sigonio observed this in book 1 On the Kingdom of Italy, and Bacchini, when in the year 1708 he published the Pontifical of Agnellus, afterwards reprinted by Muratori in tome 2 of the Writers of the Res Italicae, in the Preliminary Dissertation on the Life of Peter the Elder, bishop of Ravenna, which he inserted into the said Pontifical; and hence, lest they should be compelled to depart from Paul, by whom one must stand here, they distinguished the epoch of the entry of the Lombards into Italy from the epoch of the kingdom begun by them in the same Italy. And the former indeed rightly reckons this from the subjugation of Milan by the Lombards, the latter, which comes to almost the same thing, from the beginning of the siege of Ticinum, begun, as I have said, towards the end of the year 569 or the beginning of the following. Now, since the matter stands so, and the three years and six months which Paul the Deacon writes in the place cited above that Alboin reigned in Italy, reckoned from the end of the year 569 or the beginning of the following, bring us to about July of the year 573, and, increased by the eighteen months after which Paul the Deacon relates in On the Deeds of the Lombards, book 2, chapter 31, that Cleph, Alboin's successor, was killed, to the end of the year 574, it follows that the beginning, that is, the first year, of the decade during which the same Paul affirms there, in chapter 32, that the Lombards were under dukes after the slaughter of Cleph, must be tied, not to the year of Christ 573, but to 575; and since the death of our Saint, as I have already taught above, occurred about the beginnings of those dukes, that is, about the beginning of the decade during which they ruled, it further follows that it likewise must more probably be bound, not to the year 573, but to the year 575.
[34] in one of the latter eight months of this year And it seems to me, moreover, that it should be bound to one of the latter eight, and not to one of the first four, months of this year, because, as Gregory the Great teaches in the words transcribed here above, the Saint did not withdraw to the island of Elba, where he died, until the nation of the Lombards had already laid waste everything in Italy, and this certainly took place when the first four months of the year 575 had already elapsed, as I shall now show. Paul the Deacon, in On the Deeds of the Lombards, book 2, chapter 32, writes thus: By these dukes of the Lombards, of whom we have now treated here, in the seventh year from the coming of Albuin and of the whole nation, the churches having been despoiled, the priests killed, the cities overthrown, and the peoples, which had grown up like the crops, destroyed, except those regions which Albuin had taken, Italy was for the greatest part taken and subjugated by the Lombards. So the historian of the Lombards; nor does Gregory of Tours dissent from him, History of the Franks, book 4, chapter 41, otherwise 35; for he has thus there: Alboin… king of the Lombards… sought Italy with all that nation of the Lombards… Having entered which region, wandering about chiefly for seven years, the churches having been despoiled, the priests killed, they bring it into their power; and thus Gregory here touches on both the things that were done in the first six years after the entry of the Lombards into Italy by Alboin and Cleph, and those that were then done in the seventh year after the same entry by the dukes under whom, from what has been said, the Lombards then were; so that he agrees as well as possible with Paul the Deacon, who teaches in the words transcribed immediately here that Italy was wretchedly laid waste in the seventh year after the entry of the Lombards into it by their dukes mentioned above.
[35] Wherefore, since it is so, and about April of the year 575, [in the months, namely October, died, when perhaps before on the island of Elba, to which himself] in which, from what has been said, those dukes began to rule, the seventh year from the entry of the Lombards into Italy is completed, it follows that what Paul the Deacon and Gregory of Tours declare about Italy subjugated and laid waste by the same dukes was accomplished in the first four months of the said year 575, and that consequently after these the withdrawal of our Saint to the island of Elba, and then, following it,
death occurred. If one were to stand by what Pagi writes in the Critica at the year 571, num. 2, the devastation of Italy by the dukes of the Lombards would have to be marked, not in the seventh year after their entry into that region, that is, as I have already taught, in the first four months of the year 575, but about two years later; but Sassi, in his Notes on Sigonio On the Kingdom of Italy, reprinted at Milan in the year 1732, column 15 and the following, clearly and solidly refutes Pagi in that matter. Since this is so, and consequently the devastation of Italy, after which, as I have said, the Saint withdrew to the island of Elba, undoubtedly happened in the first four months of the year 575, there is no reason why the opinion by which I set after these the withdrawal of the Saint to the said island and the death which followed it should be thought foreign to the truth; on the contrary, that it is true, that is, that the death of the Saint, to be bound, as I have taught, to the year 575, occurred after those four months, that is, in one of the latter eight months of that year, is also proved from the published Life of the Saint, in which, since it is most expressly said towards the end that he died on the 10th day of October, it appears that it must be believed that it in very fact happened then.
[36] For the rest, Silvano Razzi inserted at the 10th day of October into his Work, in which he published towards the end of the sixteenth century the Lives of the Saints of Tuscany written by him in the Italian tongue, had withdrawn, had already led a solitary life for some months. the eleventh chapter of book 3 of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, which is entirely about St. Cerbonius, rendered by him into Italian, and already praised above more often; and he affirms, in an Annotation which he subjoined to this chapter, that there is found on the island of Elba a mountain distinguished by the name of St. Cerbonius, and hence thinks that it can be believed without error that the Saint, when he had withdrawn to that island while the Lombards were ravaging through Italy, led for some time a solitary life on that mountain. Nor indeed would I wish to oppose him much here; for although it cannot be proved by any testimony of antiquity at all that this was done by the Saint, the published Life of the Saint nevertheless supports Razzi in some way, since it has thus towards the end: Blessed Cerbonius … withdrew … to the island which is called Elba, and there he kept in hiding with his clerics; and since it is so, and the Saint, from what has been said, died on the 10th day of October, I would not dare to pronounce undoubtedly deviating from the truth one who should say that it came about that he, when after April of the year 575, in which about the seventh year from the entry of the Lombards into Italy was completed, he had withdrawn to the island of Elba, almost the whole of Italy being already occupied by the Lombards and the places near Populonium also being laid waste, led there for some months the solitary life, to which, as it is easy to gather from what has been said above, he was very much devoted, and then only, when he had done this, being already an old man of decrepit age, passed to the Saints above on the aforesaid 10th day of October, on which, as I taught at the beginning, he is also commemorated in the sacred Fasti, and by name in the present-day Roman Martyrology in these following words, which I also transcribe here before I put an end to this Commentary: At Populonium in Tuscia, of St. Cerbonius, bishop and confessor, who, as St. Gregory reports, was renowned for miracles in life and in death.
Annotata* ducerent
LIFE,
By an anonymous author,
From the Vatican Library manuscript 6453, collated with the other Life, which has already come out.
Cerbonius, bishop and confessor, on Elba, an island of Etruria in the Tyrrhenian Sea. (S.)
BHL Number: 1729
aBy an Anonymous author.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint is handed over to St. Regulus to be instructed, is ordained bishop, withdraws from Africa into Italy, stays at Populonium with St. Florentius the bishop, and, having been made bishop of Populonium, is accused before the Pontiff.
The Arian heresy prevailing in Africa, St. Cerbonius with St. Regulus, At the time when the Arian heresy was sprouting in the whole world, and chiefly among the nation of the Vandals, which was laying waste the African nation, and which cultivated that same heresy as though for the divinity, there was blessed Regulus, archbishop b in that same region, who, inspired by the grace of the Holy Spirit, had begun to preach to the people that they should separate themselves from the heresy, and worship with all their efforts Christ * the Son of God, who is true God: but when his preaching failed with vain labour, holy Regulus himself began to grieve anxiously, because that nation was daily tearing the servants of Christ to pieces. And in those days the father of blessed Cerbonius, coming, when he saw the priest of God himself shining with miracles and preaching to all the sound doctrine which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ, commended him to blessed Regulus, that he might teach him the doctrine of Christ, so that he might learn the sacred Letters of divine worship.
[2] Then blessed Regulus taught blessed Cerbonius by whom he had been instructed in letters and ordained bishop, all the sacred Scriptures, and he became his disciple c. But when blessed Regulus perceived the madness of the heretical depravity, having left the see in which he blessed other priests, having taken to himself blessed Cerbonius and Felix, two bishops whom he himself had consecrated d, having engaged a swift boat for himself, he took to the path of the sea, with three priests and two deacons and other companions travelling with him e, making his journey through the waves of the sea f. But while they were traversing the deep of the sea, the roar of the sea was stirred up, and a violent tempest rose against them and threw all into disturbance; only blessed Regulus it frightened not at all, because he trusted in the loving-kindness of his Lord.
[3] For he besought the Lord, whom he served purely, [thence he comes into Italy, and Regulus having been killed there by order of Totila,] whom all things obey, that amid the storms He would be the pilot of his ship. Whose prayers almighty God at once heard, and the sea became peaceful, and He commanded His Servants to go away in quiet g. But when he reached the Roman borders, separated from his Companions he began to lead the hermit life h and to have the service of Felix; and while he was doing these things and working many signs in that same place, Col. 097B it was reported by certain people to the perfidious king Totila, who sent his executioners and commanded that he should come to him, and, if he refused, undergo capital sentence. Whose words, as soon as spoken, they fulfilled i. But blessed Cerbonius and Felix committed his little body to burial k.
[4] And after the death of his bishop, blessed Cerbonius began to teach all the peoples dwelling in those same parts, he betakes himself to Populonium, admonishing them to persevere in prayers and vigils and fasts and alms, as the blessed bishop himself had been accustomed to do. And he baptized the people who were still held in the gentile error, converting them to the right faith and to the unity of the holy Catholic faith, and that they should adore Christ the Son of God. These things having been done thus, blessed Cerbonius came to the city of Populonium, in which there was a church of blessed Mary, Mother of God, where there was the venerable Florentius, bishop of that city l, praying to the Lord day and night with all devotion.
[5] And the venerable bishop Florentius, when he saw blessed Cerbonius, he stays for some time with Florentius the bishop, rejoiced with great joy, and received him with all love and honour, they dwelling together as long as the bishop lived, serving the Lord with all eagerness and simplicity of heart; and all the people were filled with joy, because they had already heard great and many wonders about him. And it happened in those days that blessed Florentius received his falling asleep in the Lord, whose soul blessed Cerbonius saw carried by angels up to heaven. And the citizens and clerics of the city of Populonium were gathered into one, saying: You shall be our pastor, because we know that you have been directed here by the Lord to rule our people.
[6] And blessed Cerbonius, hearing these things, said that he was not worthy to be bound to this work; he is substituted, unwillingly, in the place of the deceased, but the priests together with all the people began to cry out and say: We know you, holy Father, to be worthy of the Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit, and to have most prudent knowledge, and for this cause you are very necessary to us, that you may be the ruler and teacher of our people and exhorter * before the Lord. But blessed Cerbonius began to excuse himself, proclaiming that he was unworthy. And the people together with the clergy said with one voice: If you are unwilling to have us wretched ones under your protection and are unwilling to be our pastor, may God require our souls at your hand. And when blessed Cerbonius had heard these things, he at once accepted the episcopal chair, and there governed the people for a long time, up to the day of his death m.
[7] he incurs the displeasure of the people of Populonium, For God granted him such grace, while he was still living, that from the hour at which the angels sang Mass he deserved to hear it with his own ears: and the hour at which these things were done was the first hour of the Lord's day n: and having taken up this custom, blessed Cerbonius always on the Lord's day in his episcopal house, at the first dawn of the day, sang Mass upon the altar of holy Mary, Mother of God, and commanded the clerics who were with him to make a charity in love of holy Mary, Mother of God. But the people who lived in the villages could not come to that church so early. And when the sun had already risen, the people flocked from the villages to receive Masses and the blessing; but they could by no means do so, because blessed Cerbonius with the other priests had already been refreshed with food o. When the people heard this, Col. 097E greatly indignant, they said: What is this that our Governor does, who sings Mass at the first dawn of the day, and both he himself and his priests take bread and wine for charity?
[8] he is accused by them before Pope Vigilius, Stirring up thus the murmur of the people among themselves, they all with one mind went to Pope Vigilius to accuse blessed Cerbonius [p]. And on the Saturday towards evening, as was the custom, the apostolic lord himself had come to the church of blessed Peter the Apostle. There, therefore, the people of Populonium, who were parishioners of blessed Cerbonius, prostrated themselves at the feet of the lord Apostolic, saying: Have mercy on us, blessed and most holy father, because the Bishop whom we have does not observe Christianity for us according to his ministry; since on the Lord's day at first dawn he sings Mass, and he himself and all his priests take food as if for charity. But when we, who dwell far off, come to that mother church when the sun has already risen, none of the priests sings Masses for us.
[9] and by him to Rome, to clear himself, And Pope Vigilius, hearing this, was filled with great fury against blessed Cerbonius, and at once sent his legates to him, saying: Col. 097F Go and say to Cerbonius, bishop of Populonium, by the authority of blessed Peter the Apostle, prince of the Apostles, and of the holy Canons, and by mine,
that he come here before me with the greatest haste, that I may inquire whether what * the sons of that church say is true or not; because, if it is so, he sends a great heresy [q] among the people. And the legates go to him with the greatest haste, and, as Pope Vigilius had commanded them, announced it. And it was the Saturday when the messengers came to him.
[10] is summoned through legates. Blessed Cerbonius, then, received the legates themselves with great love and said: Today let us prepare ourselves, so that tomorrow we may go in the service of the lord Pope, as he has commanded: for it was the Lord's day on which they were to take the road. Then, rising at the morning time, he himself and his priests, to sing praises to God, he said to his deacon: Brother, go out and see whether it is yet the time, according to our custom, to sing Masses: and he, going outside and looking, returned saying: Holy lord, it is the dawn * according to your custom of singing Masses. Col. 098A And blessed Cerbonius prepared himself to sing Masses upon the altar of blessed Mary, and received the blessing for charity [r] with all his clerics, as he was accustomed. Then blessed Cerbonius said to those legates: Brethren, in the love of God and of the blessed Mother Mary the Virgin, make refreshment with us, as we also do. They answering said: We are not heretics [s], nor do we wish to transgress the command of the Lord, as you do, who on the Lord's day at first dawn sing Mass, and as if for charity take bread and drink.
ANNOTATA.
p. That the people of Populonium all together hastened to Rome, Col. 099B to accuse St. Cerbonius before Pope Vigilius, is far from every appearance of truth.
q. By this word there seems to be understood here, not an opinion contrary to the doctrine of the Church, but a practice contrary to the practice of the Church, by which it was unlawful to celebrate Mass before dawn and the rising of the sun (see Labbe, tome 1 of the Councils, column 560 and the four following).
r. That is, a meal in testimony of mutual charity.
s. So also, speaking improperly, those are now and then called who, although indeed they do not defend an error with obstinacy, as heretics do, nevertheless, like them, break the precepts or customs of the Church.
* read Christum
* perhaps exorator?
* read quod
* perhaps hora
CHAPTER II.
The Saint sets out for Rome with the legates, works miracles on the way, presents himself to the Pontiff and satisfies him, returns to Populonium, escapes miraculously unharmed from the bear, withdraws to the island of Elba, and, having died there, is carried out to his tomb at Populonium.
Col. 099CCerbonius, making for Rome, to the Pope's legates on the way, Then, taking the road to go to Rome, when they had come across the river Cornia, where it is called Salinolae a, a great thirst began to hold those legates, and they said to blessed Cerbonius: Holy Father, we have a great thirst; show us water, that we may be able to drink. Blessed Cerbonius answered: Believe me, brethren, that in this place we know of no water at all except this sea. And they, going on as far as half a mile, a great thirst weighed them down so that none of them stood on his feet Col. 099D b, and they said to blessed Cerbonius: Holy Father, help us, for we are presently expiring.
[12] he miraculously succours them as they are almost expiring from thirst, The blessed Prelate said to them: Brethren,
why did you not listen to me, so as to make charity with us for the love of God, and were unwilling to take food and drink? I pray, therefore, to my Lord for you; I know nothing else that I may do. While blessed Cerbonius was praying for them, seeing two hinds going before him, he said to them: I command you in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ that you have no leave to go until you wait for me, and at once they stood still. Then he took his little vessel and went to them and milked from them a little vessel full of milk, and, when he had done this, released them, saying: Have the leave of my Lord Jesus Christ to go wherever you wish c. And he returned to those legates who were with him, and found them lying as if dead from the excessive distress of thirst, and he gave them milk to drink, and they were refreshed Col. 099E and restored to health.
[13] shows a rare confidence in God, three men, Then, going on together by the road on which they had begun, and two days having passed, his deacon said to blessed Cerbonius: Lord father, you are going to the lord Pope of Rome: what gift have you to offer him as a blessing from our church? I fear, if you come to him empty-handed, lest his fury blaze up against you more than it now does. But blessed Cerbonius said: Do not be very troublesome to me; my God, in whom I hope, will give me what I may bring to the Pope himself as a blessing. Then, before they came to Rome, three men suffering the affliction of fevers came to meet blessed Cerbonius and asked his blessing.
[14] suffering from fever, he heals, having implored God's help for them, And blessed Cerbonius, making the sign of the holy Cross over them, prostrated himself in prayer, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, who art three and one, I, unworthy, humbly ask Thy mercy that Thou wouldst deign to free these sick men from their sickness, for Thou art God almighty, Saviour and Creator, who forgivest sins and grantest the remedy of Thy mercy to all infirmities; and at once they were made whole d. And those legates who had been sent by the Apostolic lord, seeing the wonders which the Lord did through him, feared greatly and said among themselves: If this Bishop had not been Col. 099F a chosen Man of God, he could not have done such great miracles.
[15] having arrived at Rome, to the Pontiff, by whom he is honourably received, And they came to the valley and came down from the mountain which is named of Joy, and came into the Meadow of Nero e, where the legates themselves took leave of blessed Cerbonius, that they might make his arrival known to the lord Pope. And when the aforesaid legates had returned to the lord Pope, they began to narrate to him the wonders which blessed Cerbonius had done on the journey. And a great fear seized the supreme Pontiff, and at once, calling them together, he arranged all his clergy who were with him, with planetas and dalmatics and incense, and with Litanies and Psalmody he came to meet him at the steps of blessed Peter the Apostle.
[16] presents himself with a multitude of geese, to be offered to him as a gift, And blessed Cerbonius, while he was taking his way through the Meadow of Nero, saw abundant and many birds which are called Geese, gathered after their custom, and made the sign of the Cross against them, saying: Have not the leave of my Lord Jesus Christ to fly into any place until you come with me into the presence of the lord Pope. And they, hearing these things, came near him, and he with his staff led them as far as the steps of blessed Peter the Apostle, where the lord Pope came to meet him, and blessed Cerbonius said to him: Behold, Father, the small gifts which we have brought you from our church. And indeed the Pope gave him great thanks. Then blessed Cerbonius made the sign of the holy Cross against those birds and released them, saying: By the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I bid you fly wherever you will. Then they began to fly in the air and went away f.
[17] Then Pope Vigilius, having seen this miracle, more terrified, began to marvel, and having been taught the cause for which he had been summoned, and kindly and peaceably asked the holy Man to enter with him into the church of blessed Peter the Apostle. And when blessed Cerbonius had entered, they went to the sepulchre of St. Peter and he prayed, and after the prayer blessed Cerbonius questioned the supreme Pontiff, saying: Why, holy Father, have you commanded me to come? Tell me. Pope Vigilius answering said: Parishioners of your church came to me, proclaiming and saying that every Lord's day you sing Mass at earliest dawn, and at once take bread and drink for a blessing and charity g; and when they themselves come to the mother church when the sun has already risen, they do not find there a fasting priest who could sing Masses for them. It is so strange to me why you act so, as no other would be seen to act.
[18] Blessed Cerbonius answering said: Lord Father, to the same Pontiff, a miracle having been obtained from God in his favour, God is mighty to show His miracles to whom He will; but nevertheless I, in so far as I am able, give you counsel. Today is Saturday; I exhort *; that you and I pray firmly this night and do not neglect to beseech the Lord: perhaps before I am separated from you, He will permit you to know how I do such things. In that night, therefore, they did not cease to give themselves to prayers until the morning time came. Then blessed Cerbonius said to the lord Pope: Rise, Father, and let us go, because the hour of matins is already at hand. And when the morning Lauds had been finished, blessed Cerbonius said to his deacon: Go and look out from afar whether our hour has come, as is the custom, of singing Mass. He returned saying: Holy Father, it is the hour, for the dawn has already come.
[19] Then blessed Cerbonius called the lord Apostolic to himself and took his right hand, he satisfies, and, returning to Populonium, and likewise caused his right foot to be placed upon his own, as though he had to hold him at the sign of the holy Cross, and said to him: Father, look into heaven. Then both of them together hearing the Angels in heaven singing Mass h, saying: Glory to God in the highest. The blessed Pope, therefore, said to blessed Cerbonius: Truly I know that the grace of the Holy Spirit dwells in you, because the Lord has revealed His secrets to you; and I, as long as I shall live, will imitate you in the church of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, where I am the guardian, and will do according to your example, and many successors after, who will retain this teaching. And blessed Cerbonius, having received leave from the Apostolic lord, returned to Populonium i.
[20] From that day, then, as often as the holy Man came to him, shines forth with holy works and chiefly with hospitality, the Pope rose from his seat and came towards him, which he also did all the days of his life, and after their death all his predecessors *, who have discharged the apostolic order, keep that same example up to this present day: for it is not the custom of the Apostolic lord of the Roman Church to rise for a king or another bishop, but he rises only for the bishop of the church of Populonium k. And the Man of the Lord Cerbonius was of wonderful sanctity, of whom the blessed Pope Gregory in his Dialogue l brought forward testimony, saying that, since the same holy Man was very intent on the zeal of hospitality, one day he received in hospitality some soldiers passing by, whom, when the Goths came upon them, he hid, and by hiding them saved their life from their wickedness m.
[21] divinely from the bear, to which by Totila, offended by this, When this had been reported to the perfidious king of the Goths, Totila, inflamed with the madness of most monstrous cruelty, to be led to the place which is called Merolae n, at the eighth milestone from this city, where he himself was then encamped with his army, and to be thrown to a bear to be devoured in a spectacle of the people *: and when the same perfidious king had also taken his seat at the spectacle itself to watch the death of the Bishop, a great crowd flocked together. Then the Bishop was led into the midst, and a most monstrous bear was sought out for his death, which, while it cruelly tore human limbs, might satisfy the mind of the savage king.
[22] he had been thrown to be devoured, escapes unharmed, The bear, then, was let out of its cage, and, roused, made for the Bishop; but suddenly, forgetful of its ferocity, with neck bent and head humbly lowered, it began to lick the Bishop's feet, so that it was given plainly to all to understand that towards that Man of God the hearts of men were bestial and those of the beasts as it were human. Then the people, which had come to a spectacle of death, was turned with a great shout to the admiration of veneration. Then the king himself was moved to pay him reverence; since with him it had been brought about by supernal judgment that he who before had been unwilling to follow God in preserving the life of the Bishop should at least follow the beast to mildness o. Of which thing there are witnesses, some who were then present who still survive, and testify that they saw it with all the people there.
[23] [and, being now of decrepit age, on the island of Elba, to which he had withdrawn on account of the Lombards,] Holy Cerbonius, therefore, persevering in the right faith, preached to all the people admonitions of salvation: for he was of wonderful abstinence, strong in pious works, gentle and modest to both clergy and people, reaching to a decrepit age [p]. But when the nation of the Lombards was occupying the whole territory of Italy, he fled to the island of Hylba, and remained there up to the day of his death [q]. And in that church of Populonium over which he presided he prepared a sepulchre for himself while he was still living; and coming to death as sickness came upon him, he commanded his clerics and those who attended him, saying: In my sepulchre, which I have prepared for myself at Populonium, there place me.
[24] [having ended his life, is carried to Populonium, a miracle adorning the funeral on the way,] And they, answering , said: Since we know that the Lombards are roaming about there and holding the same places [r], how shall we take you there ? But he answered: Bring me back without care and do not fear, but take care to bury me quickly: and as soon as my body has been buried, depart from the same place with all haste. They placed, therefore, the body of the dead man on a ship; and as they were making for Populonium, the air having gathered in clouds, an immense rain burst forth. But in order that it might become plain to all whose body that ship was carrying, through that space of sea which is twelve miles distant from the island of Hylba to Populonia, a very stormy rain came down around both sides of the ship, and on that same ship not one drop of rain fell.
[25] Arriving, therefore, at the place, the clerics commit the body of their Bishop to burial, [and he is buried there, the duke of the Lombards, Gummarith, arriving immediately after.] keeping whose precepts, they returned to the ship with all haste; which as soon as they were able to enter,
in the same place where the Man of the Lord had been buried, Gumarith, a most cruel duke of the Lombards, arrived [s]; and from his arrival it became clear that the Man of God had had the spirit of prophecy, since he had ordered his ministers to depart in haste from the place of his burial [t]. This the divine Goodness granted him, that those whose guardian and ruler he had been while he lived, he also preserved after his death by protecting them from the darts of their enemies. Let us therefore glorify the Lord, who is wonderful in his Saints, here and for ever. Amen.
ANNOTATA.
p. Since the Saint, who, as is shown among us at the 1st day of September in the Historico-critical Commentary on St. Regulus, § IV, migrated as an exile from Africa into Italy not long before the year 523, and had already then been consecrated bishop, departed this life only in the year 575, as I showed in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 33, it is surely necessary that he reached a decrepit age, as is declared here in the Life we are publishing, with the other Life also, which has already appeared, agreeing.
q. The published Life has: When the savage tempest of the Lombards was devastating Italy and sparing none of the believers… Blessed Cerbonius, seeing so great a wickedness springing up, withdrew because of the cruelty of the nation of the Lombards to the island which is called Elba, and there with his clerics kept himself in hiding. If, therefore, what that Life supplies be regarded, our Saint betook himself to the island of Ilva not when Italy had already been laid waste, but while it was being laid waste by the Lombards; but the Life which we are publishing declares here that this was done by the Saint when the Lombards were no longer laying Italy waste but were already occupying it; and Gregory the Great, by whom we must stand here, most clearly supports it, writing thus of St. Cerbonius in the words transcribed in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 30: When the nation of the Lombards, coming into Italy, had laid all things waste, he withdrew to the island of Ilva; and from this, and at the same time from the fact that that devastation of Italy by the Lombards took place, as I showed in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 34 and following, in the first four months of the year 575, I concluded in the same place that the Saint died in one of the last eight months of the same year.
r. Namely Populonium, and the district of it in which the Saint had prepared a tomb for himself.
s. Since the Lombards, before St. Cerbonius died, had already occupied the city of Populonia, as is understood from the answer related above which the clerics of Populonia are recorded to have given to him when he wished to be buried in it, and yet did not cause them any trouble while they buried the Saint's body at Populonium, it must be either that they had withdrawn from there for a time, or that by the place into which Duke Gummarith is here asserted to have entered as soon as the Saint was buried, that very district of the city of Populonia in which this had been done is to be understood, and that the same Lombards, while the Saint's body was being conveyed to Populonium by ship, did not keep watch at the port. For the rest, on the miracles related last here, see the Preliminary Commentary, num. 27 and the three following.
t. The published Life, which the one we give does not do, also expressly assigns the death-day of St. Cerbonius at the end, in these words: Blessed Cerbonius passed from this life to the Lord on the sixth day before the Ides of October.
* read exhortor
* successors
* supply jussit
* read respondentes
* thither