ON ST. MAURICE THE ABBOT, CONFESSOR, IN THE DIOCESE OF QUIMPER IN BRITTANY,
In the year 1191.
SYLLOGE.
Maurice, abbot, confessor, in the diocese of Quimper in Lesser Brittany. (S.)
BY S. D.
§ I. The memory of the Saint in the martyrologies: his cult: he becomes a monk of Langonnet, then abbot: he resigns.
By more recent martyrologists only Few martyrologists have mentioned this Saint, and those only the more recent, as in the first place Chrysostomus Henriquez, who in the Menology of the Saints of the Cistercian Order at the 22nd day of September composed the following eulogy of the Saint: In the diocese of Chrysiponensis, blessed Maurice, abbot of the monastery of Saint Martin, whose virtues, signs and miracles, both in life and after death, won for him such an opinion of sanctity that he was honoured by all with singular honour and attended with affection. And when the fame of his admirable virtue spread itself round about, the holy Roman church judged him to be numbered among the Saints. He has almost the same in the Fasciculus of the Saints of the same Order; but that Henriquez had scarcely any knowledge of the Saint whom he announces beyond his name I suspect from this, that he calls the same abbot of St. Martin; for although I am not ignorant that Maurice is inscribed with the same title by some others too, yet that he never was abbot of St. Martin will become manifest from what is to be said below.
[2] Chalemot celebrates this Saint much more fully and clearly at the 13th day of October, the Saint was mentioned, but honoured for a very long time on which I learn that he is also honoured by the Cistercians, from the martyrology which is proper to them, subjoined among other things to the Roman one of Benedict XIV, in which the following eulogy of the Saint is extant at this day: In the diocese of Quimper in Lesser Brittany, of Saint Maurice, abbot of the Cistercian order, who shone forth with very many testimonies of sanctity and glory. The proper lessons for this Saint which I have in hand, almost consonant with those which Chalemot narrates, since they contain nothing besides the things which will be inserted here and there in the course, both from these and from others, I have judged it superfluous to bring forward, thinking it altogether enough that the Saint enjoys a most ancient ecclesiastical cult, which is now done by the Cistercians, by indult of Clement XI, with the rite of a greater double, as will shine forth more from what is to be said below.
[3] for his acts, sent to Angelo Manrique The manuscript Life of this Saint, which in the time of our Stilting, he himself testifying it in the Passed-over at the 22nd day of September, was preserved in our archives, however much we now search, we by no means find, thinking that it has been lost in one or another translation of our museum, which has now been made for the third time. We lament not a little the loss of this treasure; let the kind reader nevertheless know that, although we are not now about to subjoin the Life of the Saint, no labour will be spared by us, so that, if we should perhaps obtain it from anywhere, we may at least print it at the end of this Volume with the usual Annotations. Yet no little solace is brought by Angelo Manrique, bishop of Badajoz in Spain, a most learned man, who in volume 3 of his Cistercian annals, pages 59, 255 and following, narrates various things, and indeed, as it appears, the more notable ones, pertaining to St. Maurice both living and now dead.
[4] When at first Manrique, as he confesses in the place just cited, by Gaudeschius, scarcely knew this Saint, he at length obtained a fuller knowledge of him by the industry and work (for so he speaks) of the very reverend father master brother Joseph Arnolfini, Theologian of Paris, and professor in our college. Further, Arnolfini, as Manrique intimates lower down, in order that he might render him more faithful service, himself also used the work of the most ample father André Gaudeschius, at that time abbot of Carnoët, who described from a very ancient manuscript and from the archives of his abbey the things which Manrique here narrates, and transmitted them, giving assurance that this copy sent, a collation having been made with the original, agreed in all things. The original which Gaudeschius mentions here I think is altogether the same as that which Lobineau cites in his History of Brittany, volume 1, page 157, and testifies that he had before his eyes when he treated of this Saint on the 5th day of October, namely the Life of St. Maurice written about the year 1323 by William, the ninth successor of this Saint in the abbatial dignity of Carnoët: and since I nowhere read any biographer of the Saint older than this, I scarcely doubt but that our copy, which is now missing, was an apograph of the Life written by the aforesaid William.
[5] However the matter may finally stand, since the things which Gaudeschius writes we follow, as far as is permitted; (would that Manrique had related all!) seem almost consonant with the statements of almost all the others whom I find to have mentioned this Saint, if you except a few, and no other firmer foundation is at hand on which we may fix our foot, we shall follow in all things the footsteps of this most ample abbot, unless something compels to the contrary, not however neglecting the things which Albert Le Grand writes about this Saint at page 475 in the Lives of the Saints of Brittany, he likewise testifying that he collected the Life which he describes from the old manuscripts of the abbey of Carnoët and from the manuscript History of the house of Rohan. But the chronotaxis,
which the author just mentioned institutes as altogether singular, I am by no means able to adopt, as neither, generally, that of Gaudeschius, for a reason to be stated lower down, although he advances accompanied, so to speak, by almost the whole column of followers. But now let us hear him in Manrique, beginning thus: Synopsis of the Life of Saint Maurice, first abbot of the monastery of the Cistercian Order of the same name in Lesser Brittany, in the diocese of Quimper, faithfully excerpted from the archives of the same abbey.
[6] At the time when Louis, namely the sixth of this name, surnamed the Fat, by whose account Maurice, in the parish of Ledouac, grandfather of Philip the Magnanimous, most Christian king of the Franks, was reigning, Blessed Maurice, a native of the territory of Saint-Brieuc, in the parish which is called Ledouac (some call it a town), like the morning star rising in the darkness in the west, adorned the kingdom of France with the beginnings of his birth. Thus Gaudeschius about the place and time of the Saint's birth. Le Grand adds that he was born in a certain village set on the river Oust, and thereafter called Saint-Maurice from the Saint's name, in the parish of Loheac of the diocese of Saint-Brieuc, or Briocensis: and this parish is situated not far from the town of Rohan, in that tract of Upper Brittany almost where it is divided from Lower. The time at which he was born Gaudeschius indicates no otherwise than Louis the Fat reigning in Gaul: Le Grand adds further: Paschal II sitting, Henry V being emperor, Alan IV, called Fergent, being duke of Brittany.
[7] But much more rightly would Le Grand have assigned Conan III, surnamed the Fat, as duke of Brittany at that time; he is born about the year 1116, for although in the year 1115, which Le Grand makes the Saint's birth-year, Fergent was still surviving, nay prolonged his life up to the year 1119, yet already three years before, namely in the year 1112, he had ceded the duchy to his son Conan; for in this year at Rennes, seized with a mortal sickness, he resolved with himself to renounce the world utterly, and soon, as he recovered, tenacious of his purpose he consigns the duchy to his son, and, having taken to himself only some household, he enters a monastery in the same city, in which he remained up to his death. In order, therefore, that the remaining three points of time which we have mentioned may cohere, since Louis the Fat entered on the kingdom of France only in the year 1108, and Paschal II ceased to sit at the beginning of the year 1118 (which two points are nearer to each other), it is necessary that Maurice was born within this decade which intervened from the year 1108 up to the year 1118: now indeed, since by the calculation of Gaudeschius, from which both most others and the Chronicle of Quimperlé itself do not dissent, the year 1191 was the last for St. Maurice, and he is thought to have lived about 75 years, as the Acts relate on the testimony of the same Gaudeschius, these being subtracted from 91, it follows that about the year 1116 was the Saint's birth-year.
[8] and in letters Le Grand puts it, as we have said, the year preceding this, erring perhaps little, yet deceived in this, as we shall see lower down, that he believes he died in the year 1185, and so only a septuagenarian. Lobineau, although he probably followed the same Acts as Gaudeschius, nevertheless binds the Saint's birth to the year 1127; but, since he himself writes expressly lower down that he lived about 74 years and finally died in the year 1191, if you subtract 74 from these, you will find not the year 27 of that age but 17; wherefore I judge that this discrepancy of numbers is rather to be imputed to the copyists, to whom it easily happens, than to the author. The middle way being entered, therefore, and the year 1116 being put as the Saint's birth-year, let us now return to the Acts, which Gaudeschius continues thus: Sent by most Christian parents to the studies of letters, he profited much among his contemporaries, not in letters only but in contempt of the world. The names of his parents I nowhere find expressed; but, if we believe Le Grand, our Saint was named Maurice Duaut; whether this was his own or also his parents' surname, I am plainly ignorant.
[9] This all acknowledge, that he obtained parents of middling fortune indeed, being duly cultivated, he becomes a monk of Langonnet but most devoted to piety, by whom, like the younger Tobias, being taught from his infancy to fear God and to abstain from every sin, he was given, when age permitted, to the studies of letters, and profited so much that he easily deserved to be distinguished with the laurel of mastership (so Lobineau writes almost in French); but weighing with himself that many puffed up by their knowledge had fallen into the abyss of perdition, he joined assiduously with the study of letters the contempt of the world; whence, Gaudeschius goes on, renouncing not only temporal goods but also his own will, he said farewell to the world and to carnal friends, and in the monastery of Langonnet of the Cistercian Order took the monastic habit. This monastery of Langonnet had recently been built on the borders of the diocese of Quimper by Conan III, duke of Brittany, when the holy Man, panting wholly for evangelical perfection, and stirred by the most holy norm of living of the Cistercians dwelling there, sought the habit, and put it on in the 25th year of his age, as is commonly believed, which by our calculation was the year of the Lord 1141.
[10] then elected abbot, neither 30 nor 3, And he put forth such examples of virtues in a short time, Gaudeschius goes on, that, three years from his profession not yet completed, he was elected abbot of the same monastery by common suffrages. Counting therefore one year of probation, and about three spent after profession, it follows that this election of his fell about the year 1145. But whether he was the first abbot of Langonnet, or substituted in the place of another, is made doubtful by the fact that in the year just mentioned the aforesaid monastery scarcely numbered eight years from its foundation. Further, being now placed in the abbatial dignity, Maurice governed his monastery for thirty years, says Gaudeschius, with the greatest prudence. Lobineau also writes that Maurice presided over Langonnet for as many years; and hence I should easily believe that thirty years are in fact read in the Acts: but Le Grand, much at variance with the others, thinks that Maurice ruled Langonnet only three years; but whether you say this rule comprises 30 or 3 years, you will not avoid the labyrinth.
[11] as is shown, If you put thirty, since he was elected about the year 1145, as we have said, he would have presided over Langonnet up to the year 1175; and if it is so, since Maurice began to erect the abbey of Carnoët only after he had resigned, as will be seen below, the prelacy of Langonnet, and that while Conan IV, who was called the Little, duke of Brittany and count of Richmond, was living and putting his hand to it, this would have happened at a time when it was no longer Conan the Little, who had already died four years before, namely in the year 1171, on the testimony of Lobineau and others, but Geoffrey, son of Henry II king of England, afterwards Conan's son-in-law, who was governing Brittany. I know that the Chronicle of Quimperlé favours this opinion not a little, writing that the monastery of Carnoët was founded in the year 1177; but what if we should say that this can perhaps be explained of a certain endowment, or completed foundation, of this monastery made about that time by Constance, daughter of Conan, as Lobineau insinuates? For Duke Conan, prevented by death, as will become evident below, could not have accomplished that. But if you altogether wish the aforesaid Chronicle to be understood of the first foundation, which was made under Conan, we judge that one must depart from it on account of the reason just adduced.
[12] Le Grand, and from him Jongelinus, assign an altogether different time for the foundation of the aforesaid abbey, but having presided 25 years, namely the year 1146; and accordingly, since he asserts that Maurice was made abbot of Langonnet in the year 1143, he would have presided over this former monastery only three years; but in this, as I suspect, he was deluded, that, reading 3 years for 30, he ascribed the said foundation to Conan III, duke of Brittany at that time; or conversely, understanding Conan III for IV, he was compelled to contract these thirty years to three; and hence he seems to have seized occasion for disturbing the whole series of the Chronology; for it is scarcely credible that Maurice resigned the rule of Langonnet so soon: on the contrary, it seems rather to smell of the truth that he did not do this except when, as age now grew heavy, and broken by labours, as Gaudeschius speaks, he preferred a more solitary life. Whence, these two opinions being left, entering again with Chalemot on a middle path, we circumscribe Maurice's government of Langonnet to five lustres, or about 25 years.
[13] this dignity being resigned, And how easily the chronotaxis proceeds in this hypothesis will appear from what is to be said: but now let us hear Gaudeschius continuing thus: But wearied at length with labours, and studying to live to himself alone and to God, he substituted in his place another fit workman (Le Grand asserts it was Hervé de Caboçel) to watch over the vineyard of the Lord. He entered on the rule of Langonnet, as we have seen, about the year 1145; adding therefore the 25 during which we think with Chalemot that he presided there, it is found that Maurice renounced that same dignity about the year 1170. Further, at this time (the words are Gaudeschius's) Conan, duke of Brittany and count of Richmond, the IV, of course, and last of this name, having heard the fame of the Man of God, gladly enjoyed his converse, namely while he still presided over Langonnet, and followed his salutary admonitions. Whence, in favour of the Man of God and by his counsel, in the forest whose name is Carnoët, in the bishopric of Quimper, near the mouth of the river Ellé in the parish of Clohars, says Le Grand, he assigned a new place convenient for a monastery; and land capable of various seed, which the brethren might cultivate.
[14] he receives the forest of Carnoët. The charter of this donation, although somewhat mutilated, is read thus in Lobineau, volume 2 of the History, page 308: Be it known to all the sons of the church, both present and to come, that I, Conan, duke of Brittany, count of Richmond, give in alms, for the redemption of my soul and of my parents and also of my successors, to the monks of Langonnet, for making an abbey, the land which I have on the border of the forest of Carnoët, that is, Penfeuntem Kerbadnalen, and as the forest leads to the river Ele, and as the river leads up to Staernadret, where is the Seat of the abbey; and since that land is small, if any of the neighbours in the seven Ploe-Carnoet shall have given or sold to them, or put in pledge, what is of my right I grant. From the forest also let them take what things shall be necessary to them for their uses. Moreover I altogether establish that no one … not alienate, take their substance by force … having been summoned, they shall refuse to satisfy in our court. Likewise in all our land let them be free from every custom on their purchases or sales. That these things may remain ratified for ever, I confirm them with the defence of our seal. The witnesses of this gift are Geoffrey, bishop of Quimper, who also in my presence granted to them what pertained to himself. Rivallon, archdeacon. Glegman, dean. Alan, constable. Alan and Richard, twins. Henry Bertrans. Alan and Rivollo, sons of Elmarc. Alan of Balamboris. This charter of Duke Conan, by himself
seen, Hervé, by the grace of God, as he says, humble minister of the church of Quimper, that is, unless I am mistaken, bishop, testified by circular letters in the year 1259.
§ II. He is set as Abbot over Carnoët, is illustrious for miracles, dies.
This portion of land being received from the duke, the blessed Man, the monastery of St. Mary of Carnoët says Gaudeschius, with 12 monks from his own monastery (namely Langonnet), and very many others, as Chalemot and others have it, flowing together to him, is made the builder and abbot of that new plantation; and at once, putting his hand to the work together with the duke, he willed that the new monastery, built within a short time not for the convenience but for the necessity of the monks, should be dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God, whence it was thereafter called of St. Mary up to the time when at length, on account of the very frequent miracles which Maurice put forth both before and after death, and the concourse of peoples arising therefrom, the original name being obliterated, it was called the monastery of St. Maurice up to the present day. Hence Henriquez, as we pointed out at the beginning, seems to have taken occasion to call Maurice abbot of St. Martin, while perhaps in place of St. Maurice he read St. Martin, or, having seen only the initial letters S. M., which can designate the monastery both of St. Mary and of St. Maurice, interpreted them as St. Martin. This in passing: now let us return to Gaudeschius, who continues thus: And when the monks were already serving God there under Maurice, Conan, before he had conferred the goods which he had thought to do for him and for the Holy place, dies. From these words it can be deduced that Duke Conan did not long survive after the foundations of this monastery had been laid; for, as is clear from what has been said before, scarcely a year having elapsed, he entered the way of all flesh, Maurice and the monks lamenting not a little the too hasty death of so well-disposed a prince.
[16] he founds, and among other prodigies which he put forth But Maurice, says Gaudeschius, serving God with the brethren, trusted in Him. And when necessary things were lacking to the monastery, commending himself and his people more and more to God, he awaited consolation from heaven through patience. If, however, we believe Lobineau, Constance, Conan's daughter, put her hand to this new work no more sluggishly than her father, and indeed that the princess confirmed this donation of her father is proved from the following charter, which is extant briefly thus in the same Lobineau, volume cited, page 323: Constance, etc., duchess of Brittany, etc. Be it known that I have granted to the abbey of Blessed Mary of Carnoët that donation which my father, count Conan, gave to Abbot Maurice and his monks, etc. Witnesses Guyhod, bishop of Vannes, William, bishop of Quimper, Paganus de Malestret, etc. And although (Gaudeschius goes on) he did not see the consummation of the work, namely Maurice, yet he deserved that after his death all things should be most fully completed: God thus recompensing after his death the virtues which had lain hidden in His Servant, and rendering him illustrious with the glory of miracles, which were not lacking even while he lived. Since therefore the discourse here is about the miracles which Maurice performed in life, I have judged it not incongruous to set forth those which Manrique relates as received from Gaudeschius.
[17] The first which I read runs thus: When one day Maurice had made ready to celebrate Mass, he miraculously produces wine, it was announced to him that no wine was found in the whole monastery. But he, full of charity and faith, taking into his hands the empty little jug received from a brother, and having poured out prayers to God, restored it to the brother full of the best wine, and celebrated Mass according to custom with due thanksgiving. "This, I believe," says Manrique, "was the beginning of his signs, because I read that many others followed shortly." The second, which is related in the acts, happened thus: The place of the monastery was at that time, namely when it first began to be built, a place of horror and of vast solitude: whence field mice, coming forth from the banks of the river and the cavernous holes of the earth as if in a body, were incessantly gnawing the granaries and other things of the monastery, and, what was more troublesome, the shoes of the brethren, and were inflicting irreparable harm on the poverty of the holy house.
[18] the wolves, The rage of wolves also in those same parts went so far in fury that they tore with their bites not only cattle, as they are wont, but men themselves. Blessed Maurice therefore, being asked both by the brethren and by the neighbours to curse all the wolves with a sentence of excommunication, (that is, unless I am mistaken, to expel them from those borders) answered with all modesty: It is expedient indeed that there be wolves and all the beasts created by God: because God saw all things that He had made, and they were very good. Nevertheless, those wolves which rage to the slaughter of men may Jesus Christ exterminate, and His Holy mother, whom I serve. Which being said, two great Wolves were found dead near the monastery, having no sign of injury on them. Against the mice and rats he enjoined the brethren that each should guard his shoes vigilantly. But when not even so did the plague cease, having compassion on the losses of the brethren, he poured out a prayer to God that He would remove that plague from His worshippers and servants.
[19] and exterminates the mice, and the demon At once, the prayer being sent to the Lord, two ravens of huge size were seen; which, running about in flight through each of the workshops of the monastery, Saint Maurice and the brethren looking on, were killing all the rats and mice with their beaks, and carrying them out dead with their curved claws. So that thereafter no damage was in any way inflicted any more by beasts of this kind, either on the monastery or on the things of the monastery: nor did beasts of this kind appear any more in the monastery nor in its whole circuit. And how great a command he exercised over demons is proved by the following miracle: In those days, the acts continue, a certain soothsayer was living in that village which is called the place of Romanus de sylva nonati, not far from the city of Quimper-Corentin, who was thought by the less discerning men to have a spirit of divining. When a certain man of Groix had gone to him, to consult him about a certain loss inflicted on him by robbers, returning on the way he was seized by the spirit which he had wished to consult, and was harassed by it for a long time.
[20] Not finding among men by what remedy he could be freed, with wonderful command he is at length led by the hands of his friends to Blessed Maurice, whose fame already resounded in Groix and in other distant islands by the frequency of Miracles. Wonderful to say, recovering health by his prayer, while he acquiesced in his sound counsel, he afterwards felt no injury from the demon. But as often as he went against the admonitions of the Holy Man, and, overcome by carnal concupiscence, transgressed the salutary precept, he was at once harassed by the demon. "These things about the virtue" (I will use the words of Manrique, page 255) "and power of the Saint, while he was still living, even against the demons themselves: which, however, the things that follow show manifestly to have been continued still after death. For when the same man, at Carnoët, fearing a relapse, in order that he might cleave more closely to the Man of God, takes the habit of a lay brother, and solemnly professes the obedience by which he was freed from the wickedness of the demon, not only as long as he lived with the Saint commanding, but also, he being translated to those above, obeying his successor, he was unharmed. With this added, however (which should manifest the virtue of the Man of God), that he should not pass beyond the bounds of the monastery: namely by that very cleaving to the tomb of the Saint publishing the author of his freedom."
[21] restraining, he dies holily "The words of the deeds written by the ancient author, as they have been transmitted to me, proceed thus:" At length, made wholly obedient to the Man of God, he was altogether freed from the pestilent spirit: and leading a Holy life for a long time under the habit of a lay brother in the monastery of the Holy Man, he survived the Saint himself many years. Yet he did not at any time presume to go out of the circuit of the monastery, because he said that he dreaded the seizing of the malignant spirit, which could inflict no harm within the cloister of the Holy Man. "By these and like," says Manrique, "both miracles and merits, Maurice was illustrious, living the seventy-fifth year of his age, as I shall declare at once, more or less, when behold, the acts of his Life continue," heaped with merits, and fortified with all the Sacraments of the church, amid the embraces and arms of his sons he ceased to live on earth, that he might begin to reign in heaven.
[22] He lived in this mortal life about 75 years, as we reckon: about the 75th year of his age which we gather thus: because he is believed to have been twenty-five years old when he assumed the monastic habit in the first monastery: and before the prelacy he spent full three or four years, and with the honour of the prelacy thirty. And in the new monastery he remained fifteen years, and passed to the Lord on the third day before the Ides of October, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1191, there reigning the most Christian king of the Franks, Philip the Magnanimous, son of Louis the Pious, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, the twelfth of his reign, and then besieging the city of Acre in the service of the cross. Since therefore he ruled the first monastery only about 25 years, as we have shown, and at length died in the year 1191, it becomes a consequence that he presided over Carnoët more than 15, nay about 20 years.
[23] Lobineau thinks that Maurice died on the fifth day of October; among innumerable other miracles and I confess that in fact the Missal and some fairly ancient Calendars fix his feast to this day; but, since, as Lobineau himself testifies, the autograph of William expresses in mutilated form that Maurice died on the 3rd … of October, everyone sees that Ides can equally be understood as Nones. I do not know also on what ground Le Grand places the Saint's death on the 2nd day of September; but I suspect that this writer used too-interpolated copies. Further, How great (the Acts continue, embracing a great deal in few words) and undoubted other miracles besides he performed began to be evident, not only in the nearest but also in more remote provinces, where the name of Christ is invoked with his memory. And the miracles themselves so multiplied that neither could a book contain, nor a hand write, nor the heart of man suffice to think. For the blind see, the lame walk, the dumb speak, the deaf hear, the demons flee, diseases, plagues and dangers are put to flight by his merits. "Thus far," says Manrique, "in the ancient manuscript, with which the very Reverend Father André Gaudesche, abbot of the same place, gives assurance that the copy transmitted to me agrees after collation made, on the fourth day of the month of April in the year 1653," about whom we have discoursed in § I.
[24] dead, he raises a boy; "Moreover," says the same Manrique a little after, "among these very many miracles which made illustrious the funeral of the holy Man, celebrated is the resurrection of a certain boy, drowned and swallowed up in the waters, whom, suffocated, the servants first offer to the mother, soon the mother herself to the sepulchre of the Saint, and joyfully behold him restored to life by him. Further, this resurrection is celebrated, as the same father abbot at once subjoins, in the hymn which is sung on his feast, of which these four verses are said to be:
*He restored to the mother the little one Whom bitter death had carried off: And he deserved to enjoy life Whom the channel had swallowed up.*
whence there was no kind of miracles of which Maurice was found to be without share. The body
first buried in the chapter-house, in the level pavement (that modesty seemed to befit the sons), was soon translated from the chapter-house" (the words are Gaudeschius's) "to the church, and honourably placed beside the high altar, whose image also is seen on the greatest altar with the others: and another image of him is carved on a certain great silver cross made a hundred years ago and more, and others on sacred chalices made about the same time.
[25] wherefore Honorius III "In the older missals, moreover, a Mass is contained under his name at the fifth day of the month of October. And among others we have in this house (namely of St. Maurice) a missal written three hundred years ago, which contains his Mass. Several chapels also have been consecrated under the name of the same Saint, both at Loudéac, which is the place of his birth, and elsewhere in all Brittany." From these and other things it is given to gather easily that a most ancient cult of dulia was shown to Maurice, as I said at the beginning, nay almost while he was living: and since he had become illustrious with so many and so great miracles both before and after death, his canonization was treated of under Honorius III, supreme pontiff, the letter of whose rescript, as is read in the Corpus Juris, Chapter 52, On witnesses and attestations, sounds thus: To our venerable brother the bishop and to the chapter of Quimper, and to all the abbots of the Cistercians assembled in the general chapter: † and below. we command your discretion that you take care to examine one by one, with that diligence which is wont and ought to be applied in the receiving of witnesses, the witnesses whom the abbot and monks of St. Martin of the Cistercian Order shall have thought fit to produce concerning the life and miracles of M. (namely Maurice) of pious memory, abbot of the above-said monastery. Thus far the text of the chapter, rather mutilated.
[26] being asked to canonize him, There is subjoined the letter which is 36th in order, in this manner: [† and many other bishops and religious, together with the abbot and convent of the monastery of St. Maurice of the Cistercian Order, of the diocese of Quimper, formerly intimating to us that Maurice of pious memory, abbot of the aforesaid monastery, shone forth [] by divine gift with illustrious miracles, so that the monastery itself, by a certain usurpation of usage, or rather by a certain anticipation of the future, obtains its title from his name, and humbly beseeching that we would cause him to be numbered in the catalogue of the Saints, so that what the people now, by devout presumption, so to speak, usurps, or also by divine instinct anticipates, calling him Saint and venerating him without the authority of the apostolic see, it may at length do duly by apostolic command to the glory of Christ and of the Christian name, we, assenting as far as was fitting to their devout prayers, gave in command to our venerable brother the bishop of Léon and to our beloved son the abbot of St. Lupus of the diocese of Quimper that they should inquire most diligently into the truth of the life and miracles of the aforesaid Man, and faithfully intimate it to us, so that, this being more fully ascertained, we might be able to assent more fully to the desire of the suppliants.*
[27] The same bishop and abbot transmitted to us a certain page, he orders the witnesses to be accurately examined; fortified by the appending of their own seals, in which many and great miracles indeed are contained, done, as is said, by the Lord through the merits of the said Man, which, although they are intimated [] as proved by witnesses sworn and named in that page, yet it does not appear by the oft-mentioned page that they examined those witnesses one by one, and that they questioned them about those things concerning which they testified, and the circumstances, with that diligence which is wont and ought to be applied in the receiving of witnesses. Whence, although human devotion ought to honour with prompt affection those whom the condescension of the divine benignity honours, yet we judge it safer to defer this business than to pronounce sentence in it less considerately. But not wishing to be wanting to the gift of supernal grace, but to be present to it, (thus far in the Corpus Juris; but the things that follow Raynaldus supplies entire, in the Annals, volume 13, page 355) we command your discretion by the authority of these presents that you take care to examine prudently and to question diligently, as is the custom, the witnesses whom the abbot and monks of the said place shall have thought fit to produce concerning the life and miracles of the said Man, and to transmit faithfully to us their depositions enclosed under your seals, that we may proceed in this business with due diligence and maturity. But if not all, etc. Given at Rieti on the Kalends of September, in the 10th year.*
[28] You have here why this most prudent pontiff abstained from the canonization on that occasion; yet nothing was effected, although his tomb but what obstacle arose afterwards I have not found out. The long war between Henry III of England and Louis VIII of France, not yet laid to rest under the holy son of the latter, will truly have brought very little progress to this business; and on the other side the great solicitude of Honorius, entangled also in other very grave affairs, for the holy war: nor was this canonization, begun under Honorius, completed either in Chalemot's time or in ours, so far as we know. It remains, says Manrique, about the concourse of peoples to his sepulchre, continued and prolonged up to this day: which, however, happens for the most part not on the memorial of his death but on the feast of Pentecost, as an argument for which there is that on that day the translation is celebrated, or recalled, which was made from the chapter-house to the church. And that by greater acclamation and frequency it has obliterated the day of death, as sometimes happens. Which, however, I would say conjecturing, but not affirming.
[29] Truly, concerning this concourse and frequency, and concerning the special patronage of children which the Saint is commonly believed to enjoy, was always frequented with the greatest concourse perhaps on account of the little one restored to his mother, the same Reverend Father says these things at number 9: "On the feasts of Pentecost so great a multitude runs from the surrounding places to the monastery of Saint Maurice that it can scarcely be believed: all hastening to the sepulchre of the Saint" (Chalemot asserts, and from him, unless I am mistaken, the proper lessons, that the body of the Saint was raised from the earth and exposed to public adoration) "both that they may be freed from present languors and that they may be protected from impending ones. All the little ones also of the surrounding regions, before they reach four years, are offered three or four times to the Saint of God, that they may be freed from a disease which in those provinces is wont to vex little ones about that age; and the vows which the parents daily offer show sufficiently how much relief they receive from the Saint." This disease of the children is perhaps no other than those convulsions or spasms which infants too in our Belgium are very often seen to suffer.
Annotata[] read: coruscare*
[] read: innuantur*