Donatian

ON ST. DONATIAN, BISHOP OF REIMS AND CONFESSOR, AT BRUGES IN FLANDERS,

AS THE IV CENTURY WAS GROWING OLD.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Donatian, bishop of Reims and conf., at Bruges in Flanders. (S.)

BHL Number: 2278, 2279, 2281, 2282, 2284

BY S. D.

§ I. The frequent memory of the Saint in the sacred calendars: the relics translated from Reims into Flanders: the letters of Ebbo, archbishop of Reims, found with them, impugned.

In the century of the Christian era in which the body of St. Donatian

was translated from Reims, a most noted city of Gaul, to the second metropolis of Flanders, Bruges, the frequent memory of the saint among the Martyrologists, where he is venerated today, the memory of this holy prelate began to be so celebrated, both among the Gauls and the Flemings and the neighbouring peoples, that he deservedly claimed a place for himself not only in the more recent Supplements to Usuard in Sollerius, in our manuscript Florarium and in other sacred calendars, but also in older manuscript codices and in the common Roman Martyrology itself. Let the codex of Centula, or of the monastery of St. Riquier, lead the band, which in its announcement of the Saint is somewhat more prolix, and today has thus: On the same day, the festivity of St. Donatian, seventh bishop of the Remi, whose body is held in great reverence in the fortress of Bruges. Other codices, though older, and more recent Martyrologies, have fewer words, as I have said, except that of Paris at the XII day of October and the Gallican of André du Saussay, which, since it here spreads its sails more widely after its manner and at the same time leads the reader by the hand to the knowledge of the controversies presently to be discussed, I have thought not beside the point to recite word for word, as follows: On the same XIV day of Oct., of Saint Donatian, bishop of the metropolis of Reims and confessor. Who, a Roman by birth, son of Cornelius and Lucina, adorned his first age with the studies of divine wisdom. And on account of his endowments of Christian virtues, sent away into Gaul to promote religion and cultivate the souls of the inhabitants, when saint Maternian, archprelate of Reims, ascended to the blessed Seats, being chosen in his stead, he directed the helm of that most noble church with praiseworthy governance from the year of Christ three hundred and sixty up to the year three hundred and ninety.

[2] especially in du Saussay, And at last, shining with the splendour of admirable deeds and heavenly virtues, a son of light, by du Saussay's memory, a parent of peace, and an outstanding sower and cultivator of piety and justice, his course excellently finished, he hastened to the crown he had earned. Whose tomb huge miracles thenceforth made illustrious. On account of which marks of heavenly glory he was sought, as a powerful helper, by Baldwin Iron-Arm, marquis of Flanders, so that by the protection of his sacred pledges this whole region bordering the Ocean might be fortified against the Danes, the Normans and the rest of the barbarism of the North. With the assent, therefore, of Charles the Bald, king of the Franks, his most sacred body, laid in a precious shrine, was sent by Ebbo, archbishop of Reims, as a gift to Baldwin himself at Bruges: with this admonition, that it should be kept by him with fitting devotion: since it had long since been proved that the man of wonderful sanctity was wont to show himself a pious hearer and a most ready intercessor with God both for those occupied with worldly straits and for those held in the bonds of sins. The body of so great a heavenly one being received therefore by the prince himself with great devotion, it was placed in the basilica of holy Mary with outstanding adornment. And the blessed Guest shone there with so many prodigies that he at length claimed the sacred building for his own patronage and title, and filled it with such glory of merits that at last, on account of his illustrious memory there, Pope Paul IV erected that very church into a cathedral, which still flourishes with the name of this blessed one and glories in his perpetual protection.

[3] But that we should not presently run critically through the recited words of du Saussay, and what others have written of the translation and deeds of our Saint, and his distinction from the synonymous bishops of Châlons-sur-Marne Baronius and Tillemont delay us somewhat, of whom the latter, Ecclesiastical Monuments tome X, page 463, thinks our Donatian perhaps not to be distinguished from Donatian of Châlons of the same name, while the former affirms, in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology at this day, that he was confused by someone with his namesake of Chalon-sur-Saône likewise. But the reason which moved Tillemont to think this is not so well founded as this author believed; for it is much more probable that St. Nicasius, who was the third successor of our Saint, was slain about the year 407 by the Vandals than, as Tillemont thought, in the year 451 by the Huns, as you will find proved solidly enough against the same Tillemont and Pagi by our Jan Stilting in his Sylloge on St. Viventius, the successor of Donatian, at the VII day of September, if only by this single argument, that that irruption of the Vandals in which St. Nicasius was crowned is recorded in the letter to Ageruchia by St. Jerome, who died long before the year 351: whence our Saint could not, about the year 410, as Tillemont suspected, preside over both churches, namely of Reims and of Châlons, but only his fourth successor Baruc or Barucius. Nor did Sollerius doubt, when he brought St. Donatian of Châlons into our Work at the VII day of August, nor will anyone else, I think, who has gone through the deeds of St. Memmius of Châlons illustrated by the same Sollerius at the V day of August, be in doubt that ours was altogether other than the one of Châlons.

[4] and from that of Chalon-sur-Saône. And as regards the one of Chalon-sur-Saône, who, because he is read subscribed to the Council of Agrippina held in the year 346, is indicated by most as the first prelate of Chalon, although Baronius, in the place cited above, writes that someone confused him with our Donatian of Reims, it is yet not worth the labour to demonstrate more laboriously, on account of the assertion of one or another unknown person, that ours ought to be distinguished from him; for it will be clear from what we shall say in the last § that that Council of Agrippina preceded the pontificate of our Saint by a fairly long time. Wherefore, holding it certain that our Donatian presided over no other than the church of Reims, we now transfer our pen also to the first translation of the body, which the more celebrated cult of the Saint in the church and the inquiry into the Acts followed. The first to mention this most celebrated translation, who lived nearly contemporary, was Flodoard, History of Reims, book 1, chapter 5, in these words: Hence (after St. Maternian) Donatian was bishop: whose pledges also, carried into the maritime parts of the bishopric of Noyon or Tournai, are recorded as adorned with the varied splendour of signs. More about him Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, Surius and other more recent writers at this day. But at what time this translation was accomplished could scarcely be determined, had not light been supplied by the letters of Ebbo, archbishop of Reims, which were first found with the body of St. Donatian in the year 1096, when it was transferred from the old into a new reliquary, by Berthulf, then provost of the chapter of Bruges, and laid back together with the body into the new reliquary.

[5] [when the body was carried into Flanders, although the letters of Ebbo, archbishop of Reims, sent to us from Bruges] Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium at this day, Miraeus in the Codex of pious donations, chapter XVI, Surius and not a few others published these letters; but since I perceived that the complete sense which these added was lacking in the manuscript copy, which I have in hand, of the Codex of the Regular Canons of St. Martin at Louvain, I preferred to fish in the very source, and gave letters to the most learned and most distinguished lord Willebrord Joris, S. T. L., Graduate Canon and archpriest of the Cathedral church of Bruges, who, for his love and zeal toward the holy Protector, together with the whole chapter of St. Donatian, performed far more than our prayers; for, having joined with himself as Companions the Rev. Lords Louis Albert Caytan, Canon of the same church, and Jean Herdies, likewise Canon and Secretary, he not only searched the archives of the episcopal curia and of the chapter, but also, coming himself from Bruges to our Museum, of his own accord brought us a copy, very useful indeed, from their ancient codex written entire on parchment and from the capitular acts, testifying by his own subscription and that of the aforesaid that the transcript delivered agreed in all things with the autograph.

[6] and here recited, The author of the said Codex, therefore, presents the matter, as it happened in the year mentioned above, and the letters of Ebbo, thus:

The Translation of Saint Donatian.

In the year from the incarnation of the Lord one thousand and ninety-six, on the VIII of the Ides of January, Philip reigning in France, Radbod being bishop, Robert being Marquis, son of Robert of Jerusalem, Berthulf being provost (of these see the Appendix, num. 4, Annotations l, m, n, o), the body of our Most Holy Father Donatian, Confessor of Christ, seventh archbishop of the Remi, was translated from the shrine in which it had long rested into another prepared for it with the highest skill, artful workmanship and all diligence by the canons ministering in this church.

And the letters subscribed were found in the former shrine with the body:

"I, Ebbo, unworthy archbishop of the Remi, by the counsel of our clerics, send to you, glorious marquis Baldwin, this treasure precious above gold and gems: namely Donatian, seventh bishop of our See, a Man of wonderful sanctity, a pious hearer and a most ready intercessor with God, both for those occupied with worldly straits and for those held by the crimes of sins. Which has been proved evidently enough in our times and those of our predecessors by the signs of miracles. Know that the written lives of him and of Saint Remigius and of innumerable Saints were destroyed in the devastation of the Vandals. Him, with divine attestation, I commit to your faith, so that you honour him with divine service as far as you are able and enrich him with worldly goods. Farewell, most beloved in the Lord." The first translation was formerly celebrated by the people of Bruges on the day on which it happened, the VI of January, or the Epiphany of the Lord, as another, which happened afterwards, is venerated by the same today on the XXX of August.

[7] which again in the year 1565, at a transfer of the relics, Further, these same letters were found again in the year of the Lord 1565 by Pieter de Corte, first bishop of Bruges, as the capitular Acts of the Cathedral church testify, relating the matter as it happened thus: On Thursday the XI of October, at the time of the mass for the souls, the lords being assembled in the sacristy, the lord dean presiding, deliberation having been held on the ceremonies to be observed in the translation of the little wooden chest with the body or bones of our Most Holy Father and Patron Donatian into the new silver bier at present existing in the sacristy, it was ordained that on the next Saturday, the day before the solemnity of Saint Donatian, about the first hour before vespers, the said little chest should be translated and transferred by the bishop of Bruges, to be requested for this and for the celebration, all the habituated ones frequenting the choir being also convoked for this, so that it may thus be carried processionally from the said sacristy through the door toward the nave of the church into the choir, and Vespers be begun at once, with the pittance (a certain portion of the revenues) customarily distributed from of old at the depositing of the bier; as all things were so done, the said Most Reverend placing the little chest in the bier and celebrating only the first Vespers in pontificals.

[8] were found and read, And in the aforesaid little chest containing the body or bones of Saint Donatian was laid back a schedule found there before, and another newly drawn up, of the following tenor: "In the year from the incarnation of the lord one thousand five hundred and sixty-five, on the thirteenth day of the month of October, Philip, king of the Spains, son of Charles the fifth, emperor of the Romans, count of Flanders, etc., reigning, Pieter de Corte, first bishop of Bruges, being bishop and holding the provostship of the cathedral church, the little chest with the body of our most holy father Donatian, confessor of Christ, seventh archbishop of the Remi, was translated by the same bishop from the old and worn wooden shrine in which it had long rested into another, of silver, of the weight of two hundred and twenty-seven marks, with the highest skill, artful workmanship, and most exact care and diligence

procured to be prepared and built for it by those then residing in this church and ministering to him, the dean and canons, namely the venerable lords Nicolas Tordomar, dean, Jacques Kervyn, cantor, Georges de Vriese, scholaster, Alexandre Barradot, Marc Antoine Moscron, François Fiers, Gérard Bachusius, Jean Heetvelde, François Ghaele, Pierre Pardo, Corneille Claysshe, Jean Reffert, François Heede, Nicolas de Heere, Liévin Westerlyne, Antoine Robyn, Arnold Woelaert, Josse Lambrecht, Josse Baersdorp, Jacques Hueriblock, Jean Brant, Antoine Monachi, Jacques Pamele, Laurent de Molendino, Silvestre Veerse, Jérôme de Boodt, and François Cordier." And letters attached to the presents were found in the former wooden shrine of the following tenor: "from the incarnation of the lord," etc., as above at num. 6, with this one discrepancy, that here Baldawine is written, but there Balduine, which is all the same to us.

[9] Those who published these letters kept the same tenor, could show, since nevertheless they are impugned from Meyer, all to a man; whence I think these words are wrongly omitted in the manuscript Codex of the regular canons of St. Martin at Louvain: Know that the written Lives of him and of Saint Remigius and of innumerable Saints were destroyed in the devastation of the Vandals. But before I apply those letters to establishing any chronotaxis, it comes first to be examined whether they were the native letters of Ebbo himself, or are supposititious or of suspect credibility. That they are of the latter kind was the judgment of the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, tome IX, column 5, Guillaume Marlot, and a few others, whose reasons receive thus from the following words of the same Marlot, History of the Metropolis of Reims, book 1, chapter XXX: This translation, he says, must have happened under Hincmar (Ebbo's successor), otherwise the Chronology would not cohere rightly, since Ebbo did not reach to the times of Baldwin, who is said by Meyer to have been inaugurated, and received into fealty as count, in the year 863, that he might be the perpetual champion of the realm of the Gauls against the Danes and all the Northern barbarism; whereas the death of Ebbo, driven from his see perhaps before Baldwin's birth, is referred to the year 855. Whence it comes about that the aforesaid letter of Ebbo to Baldwin, which Molanus and others wove into their Chronicles, is very suspect first on this account, and then because it is falsely said in it that the deeds of Remigius as well as of Donatian and others were destroyed in the devastation of the Vandals, since the irruption of the Vandals, nay and of the Huns, into the Gauls long preceded the age of Remigius.

[10] And these are the palmary arguments of Marlot and his followers, its context, contrary to us in appearance, by which they contend that they render the letters of Ebbo suspect or supposititious; but as regards the first, or the inauguration of Baldwin Iron-Arm accomplished in that year, an answer can easily be made from the same Meyer, if Marlot wishes to stand by him in all things; for although before the year 863 Iron-Arm did not enjoy that most ample dominion which he at length received from King Charles about this year, the same Meyer nevertheless writes at the year DCCCXXXVII that, Odacer, prefect of the Flemings (so he calls him), having died, Baldwin Iron-Arm succeeded in that same year, namely in the county of Flanders, which at that time, enclosed within small limits, was hardly other than the present territory of Bruges, or that tract of Flanders which is called the Franc land or Franconatus, commonly het Vrije, as can be deduced clearly enough from the Acts of St. Anskar at the III day of February illustrated by Henschenius, from the Capitularies of Charles the Bald and Louis the Pious, and from diplomas which it would be long to enumerate. That Baldwin Iron-Arm was set over this maritime tract, then called Flandra, already from the year 837, Meyer indeed first related, but he was followed by Oudegherst, Annals of Flanders, chapter XVI, Malbrancq, On the Morini, tome II, book V, chapter LXIII, Antoon Sanderus, Flandria illustrata, tome 1, page 27; and it has today become the almost common opinion among the learned, founded not only on the bare assertion of Meyer, but on the very letters of Ebbo, which deserve to be commended both for their purity and their antiquity the more because they were found in the year 1096 and in 1565 of the same tenor in all respects; and which accordingly ought to have been to Marlot and his followers, as to any learned men, not a stumbling-block but rather a proof that Baldwin Iron-Arm, when Ebbo was writing to him, did in fact hold the prefecture of Flanders: For it is established, says Mabillon, page 4 of the Supplement to the Diplomatics, chapter 2, by Decrees of the Senate and by the judgment of all who think rightly, that those (ancient instruments) are to be reputed genuine and legitimate whose falsity cannot be proved by any certain and undoubted arguments.

[11] As to Meyer's representing, therefore, that Baldwin Iron-Arm was inaugurated only in the year 863, [hence, the authority of Hincmar, of Ypres, of the biographer of St. Winnoc, and of the Chronicle of St. Bavo being weighed,] and called count of the realm of the Franks, understand it thus, that Iron-Arm, who up to then had presided over the county of Flandra alone, after peace was made with Charles and his daughter taken to wife, obtained from the same king, by title of dowry, not only Flandra itself, from which the king had striven to drive him on account of the abduction of his daughter, but moreover, as is believed, the whole region situated between the Ocean, the Somme and the Scheldt, and afterwards named from the first Flandra. But did Charles grant nothing further to Baldwin? Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, a contemporary writer, in Flodoard, History of Reims, book III, chapter XII, writes thus to the Pontiff Nicholas I: Our lord the king also .. gave an honour to Baldwin solely at your petition, namely after the wedding with Judith celebrated at Auxerre. Jean of Ypres, in the Sithiu Chronicle of St. Bertin, in Martène, tome III of the Anecdota, column 519, at the year 862, speaks thus: The aforesaid king (Charles), out of love and honour for his daughter Judith, authoritatively instituted Baldwin count of Flanders, and commanded that he, his heirs and successors should perpetually be named counts. In the Acts of St. Winnoc, abbot of Wormhout, which were published by Mabillon in the III Benedictine century, part 1, from page 304, at chapter XV is read thus: Charles, surnamed the Bald, was conducting the empire on the sceptres of the Franks; Baldwin, his son-in-law, gloriously held the monarchy of the Flanders. The Chronicle of St. Bavo, cited by the most learned Lesbroussart in his notes on Oudegherst, tome 1, page 125, at the year 867, has this: Charles the Bald … made him (Baldwin) count, so that he should obtain Flanders as a perpetual inheritance, and all the townships around the river Somme, as for instance Arras, Hesdin, Bapaume, Thérouanne, Aire, and Saint-Omer.

[12] thence, of the Diplomas of Charles the Bald, of Charles the Simple, Did King Charles, then, hand over Flanders to Baldwin to be ruled as by hereditary so also by proper right? Did he reserve nothing else to himself but feudal service? I confess that the cited monuments intimate this clearly enough; nor is there doubt that the king, when he had now been reconciled with Iron-Arm and his daughter through the work of Nicholas, granted him something more at the prayers of the same Pontiff, both that he might dower his dear daughter in royal fashion, and that he might draw away from the enemies of the realm, and bind more closely to himself, Baldwin, whose iron arm he feared. But since it is by no means established what Hincmar, the only contemporary author, meant to designate by the honours given to Baldwin by the king, and other more ancient, nay contemporary, monuments stand otherwise, something else too appears to be said: for if you look at the Diploma of the same Charles of the year 877 for the abbey of Marchiennes in the county of Artois, in Miraeus, Notitia of the Belgian churches, chapter XLI, you will find that Charles still disposed of things already situated within the limits of Baldwin's counties as if they lay directly subject to himself; whence Henschenius, in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Adalbald at the II day of February, § III, seems rightly to have inferred that those places still remained subject to the realm of Charles, not attributed to Baldwin Iron-Arm, marquis of Flanders, his son-in-law. Nay, by another Diploma of the following year for the chapter of Tournai, in the new collection of Miraeus, tome III, part 1, chapter VIII, the same Charles confirms to the said chapter one marsh (swamp) in the district of Flanders. So likewise Charles the Simple, there, part 11, chapter XIII, by a Diploma of the year 899 confirms the possessions of the monastery of Elnone in Courtrai, the Mempiscus, and Flanders, no mention being made of the counts of Flanders.

[13] As concerns the cited Acts of St. Winnoc, written about the middle of the XI century, and of the same biographer of St. Winnoc although in these both Baldwin Iron-Arm and his son Baldwin the Bald are called monarchs of Flanders (see num. 18 of the following §), yet how little was permitted to the Bald is clearly taught by the following chapter XVI, which has this: Meanwhile, in the succession of times, there arose in Flanders the best head among thousands, Baldwin, surnamed the Bald … who, led by suspicion of an irruption of the hostile party, which after long fury had now scarcely quieted, had fortified with castles the borders of Flanders, easily accessible and open to the enemy up to that time, and closed them against all attack for the future. Then it pleased him also to fortify with a garrison the place called Bergues … moreover he conceived in mind something honourably useful and usefully honourable, which he accomplished in deed as honourably as usefully, namely to translate there the most holy body of Blessed Winnoc … at that time King Charles (the Simple) held the sceptres of the Franks … whom the aforesaid monarch of the Flanders approaching (for he had very great influence with him), strengthened the counsel of his mind with the king's counsel, and magnified it with a privilege. For as soon as he came to the king's mind upon the mention of the aforesaid place, he found himself master of his own wish: because he easily obtained a royal privilege concerning the same place, and merited the effect of his desire by royal authority. Then at last he proceeded to go to Sithiu, whither (as we have said) through fear of the enemy the limbs of most holy Winnoc had happened to be translated. And although the people of Saint-Omer resisted by what art they could, he carried off the most holy body and translated it to the place Bergues, whither he had destined it: which he had now (as we have said) so enriched with royal privilege and munificence that Flanders has it today as an honourable part of itself.*

[14] You see, therefore, that not only was it not permitted to Baldwin the Bald to translate the remains of saints, is explained. but not even to fortify towns or other places, without the express consent of King Charles: and indeed, as regards the translation of the bodies of Saints, hear canon LI of the council of Mainz held by order of Charlemagne in the year 813: But henceforth let no one presume to translate the bodies of Saints from place to place without the counsel of the prince or of the bishops and the licence of the holy synod. Therefore the Bald, by consulting the king of Gaul, seems to have recognized him clearly enough as his lord and prince. You see likewise from the monuments cited before that the kings of France disposed of lands already annexed to the county of Iron-Arm and his son as belonging to themselves by proper right: whence, since that most energetic collector of them, Olivier de Wree, was able to trace no seal or diploma of the counts of Flanders before the times of Arnulf the Great, it appears certain enough that Baldwin Iron-Arm

and Baldwin the Bald his son administered both Flanders properly so called and the dominions afterwards added by Charles hardly otherwise than in the king's name: so that the honours which Hincmar says were granted to Baldwin were nothing other than the recovery of the county of Flanders, of which the king had deprived him, the title of count of the realm, and the enlargement of jurisdiction which we described above from Meyer. For so also Dadin, page 18, citing in the margin the continuator of Aimoin, book 5, chapters 27 and 37, relates that the same Charles gave the honours of Gerard, count of Bourges, to Boso, brother of his wife Richildis; likewise that Louis the Stammerer divided the honours of Bernard, marquis of Gothia; and I scarcely doubt that Hincmar too understood no other honours than such.

Perhaps better: munitione* (fortification).

§ II. The letters of Ebbo vindicated: the epoch of the translation drawn from the same.

Another, which from the Capitularies of Charles the Bald, The text of Meyer, which Marlot opposed to the letters of Ebbo, having now been explained, I pass to the Capitulary of the same Charles the Bald issued in the year 853 on the Missi Dominici at Servais, both that the small limits of ancient Flanders may again become known to the reader, and (which is my aim) that I may meet another argument which the adversaries could deduce from the same. In this, then, in Miraeus, book 1 of the Belgian Donations, chapter VIII, from Sirmond, and in Étienne Baluze, tome 11, column 68, num. III, there are named Immo, bishop of Noyon or Tournai, Adalard, abbot (not of Corbie, as de Wree and Miraeus assert, who had then died, but of Sithiu or St. Bertin), Waltcaud, Odelric, missi in the Noyonnais, the Vermandois, the Artois, the Courtraisis, Flandra, the counties of Engilramn, and in the counties of Waltcaud. De Wree inferred hence, History of Flanders, part 1, page 494, that the five counties listed here in fact belonged to Engilramn, and thought this was the same as that Ingelrann or Inghelram whom the Flemish Chronicles constantly represent to have been the son of Lyderic of Harelbeke and to have ruled Flanders after him. And since he read the name of Engilramn subscribed to the oath sworn to King Charles at Quierzy in the year 858, the same de Wree further thought that the same Ingelram was not only alive up to the year just mentioned, but also, from the year 853, Nithard having been slain by the Northmen, obtained the duchy of maritime Francia, led by this reason, that in the cited capitulary of Charles the Bald five counties seem to be attributed to him. But if this opinion of de Wree is true, it can be inferred, by his leave, that this Inghelram before the year 853 was only a count; but of what territory, you will say? According to de Wree himself, certainly of Flanders properly so called; and since Ebbo, about the year 840, as will be proved, calls Baldwin Iron-Arm its marquis, the adversaries can conclude that Iron-Arm about that time was not in fact marquis of Flanders, nay perhaps not even born, and that therefore the letters of Ebbo are rendered very suspect.

[16] To extricate himself from this difficulty, de Wree, in the cited tome, page 499, enters upon this way: and which pressed de Wree But now, he says, let us return to our Ingelram, count of Flanders and of the Courtraisis; it is altogether credible that he generally dwelt at Courtrai or Harelbeke, especially as his age was now advancing, and that he had long since, from the year 840, committed to his son Baldwin Iron-Arm, a dauntless youth and of most strong arm, whence he received his name, the whole of Flandra, which contained not only the district of Bruges but also those of Furnes, Bergues and Bourbourg, to be defended in his stead against the onset of the Normans; and that this is that Baldwin the marquis to whom, residing chiefly in the fortress of Bruges, Ebbo, bishop of the Remi, sent the sacred body of St. Donatian, etc. But if the age of Inghelram was already so advancing that it suited leisure rather than command, will it then be credible that after thirteen years, as de Wree thinks at page 494, he was created duke of all maritime Francia? But neither was de Wree able in any way to prove these things. Perceiving moreover that the Annals of Flanders were against him, which unanimously relate that Audacer was the son of Ingelram and the father of Baldwin Iron-Arm, he would have him struck out of the Genealogy of the counts of Flanders, writing thus at page 509: I conjecture that the name was invented from the care of the coast-guard, when, exhorting the guards, they very often pronounce: "Houd" or "Haud u wacker", which signifies to us "keep yourself watchful"; whence was born Odacer and Audoacer, a surname of Ingelram or of Baldwin, and the fable born of Odoacer, Audoacer or Audacer, son of Ingelram, father of Baldwin. Not without reason indeed does de Wree himself call this etymology of the name a conjecture; but before we say more of these things, it is pleasing to return to the cited capitulary of Charles the Bald, and the oath sworn to him at Quierzy, as the palmary foundations of de Wree's system.

[17] The text of the Capitulary, indeed, although to de Wree, the argument is resolved, and to Lesbroussart, praised above, who subscribed to him, it seems evident enough, yet, by the leave of these writers, I would say, can be so explained that, just as the five counties listed were distinct from the counties of Waltcaud, which are not expressed, so likewise they were distinct from the counties of Engilramn, and so it should perhaps be read: Missi in the Noyonnais, the Vermandois, the Artois, the Courtraisis, Flandra, and the counties of Engilramn (these too being unnamed) and in the counties of Waltcaud. But granted even that Engilramn perhaps governed these counties as duke or chief count, this must be another than that Inghelrann or Inghelram who holds a place in the Genealogy of the counts of Flanders; for besides that his name is read subscribed to the oath sworn to King Charles at Quierzy, there mention him, in du Chesne, the Annals of Fulda at the year 964, Flodoard in the Chronicle at the year 870, and the Annals of St. Bertin at the year 875, and so about those times when Baldwin Iron-Arm, by the consent of all writers, possessed the whole dominion of Flanders and the neighbouring places. And had de Wree noticed these things, he would not have had need to strike out Audacer and depart from the Annals of Flanders, and from that Genealogy of the counts which Martène published in tome III of the Anecdota, from column 379, from a manuscript codex of the monastery of Clairmarais, and whose first part seems to the same Martène to have been written by a fairly accurate author immediately after the battle of Bouvines, that is, after the year 1217, and which begins thus: In the year from the incarnation of the lord DCCXCII, the first of the emperor Constantine son of Irene, and the XXIV of Charles the Great, king of the Franks, afterwards emperor of the Romans, Lyderic, count of Harelbeke, seeing Flanders empty and wooded, occupied it. He begot count Ingelrann; Ingelrann begot Audacer; Audacer begot Baldwin Iron-Arm. In the Chronicle of Elnone also, in the same Martène, in the cited tome, from column 1390, and in the ancient Chronicles of the monastery of St. Martin of Tournai, and in Jean of Ypres, Iron-Arm is everywhere called the son of Audacer.

[18] Dismissing, therefore, de Wree's system, which favours Marlot too much, and the said letters, from the Acts of St. Winnoc, I return to the Acts of St. Winnoc cited above, which there in chapter XV have this concerning the translation of this saint: Charles, surnamed the Bald, was conducting the empire on the sceptres of the Franks; Baldwin, his son-in-law, gloriously held the monarchy of the Flanders … in these days the sword of divine chastisement, drawn from its sheath, loosed the reins for vengeance chiefly about the maritime places: for by the merit of its error the people of the land deserved it: for the region of the Danes vomited forth from its bosom a deadly henchman, who swallowed up all things round about with sword and fire, and raged with incredible extermination especially on the border of the Flanders and of the Mempisci. Whence it happened that the most holy body of the Blessed man (Winnoc) was carried out from the place of its own rest, Wormhout, and translated to Sithiu into the church of Blessed Omer. And now, since this irruption of the Danes is said by the author of the Chronicle of the deeds of the Normans before Rollo, first published by du Chesne in tome 11 from page 655, to have happened in the year 846, it follows that Baldwin Iron-Arm, contrary to what Marlot and those adhering to him would have it, held the prefecture of Flanders before this year, whose beginning, unknown from elsewhere, I think should be placed about the year 837 for this reason, that this is not only asserted by Meyer, but has since become the common opinion among the more learned, resting both on the very letters of Ebbo and perhaps on other ancient instruments. Nor ought it to offend anyone that in the cited Acts of St. Winnoc Baldwin is called the son-in-law of King Charles, and gloriously holding the Monarchy of the Flanders; for the first is to be understood by prolepsis, because it is established that Iron-Arm did not carry off Judith the king's daughter before the year 962: and as concerns the word Monarch, whence also Monarchy, the most learned du Cange and Carpentier judge that this title is simply Honorary.

[19] the one being resolved From what has already been said, the other argument that could be forged is easily met, which is of this kind: if, they will say, Baldwin Iron-Arm ruled only a small tract by the sea, why then is he entitled in the same letters glorious marquis, namely by that name by which we read the counts of Flanders addressed only long after these times? But the answer is at hand; for if you look at the etymology of the word Marchio, and at the primitive office of the marquises which corresponded to it, you will not, I think, deny that this title was most aptly attributed to Iron-Arm by Ebbo; for the word Marchio denotes nothing else, in Dadin, du Cange and other etymologists, than the prefect of a mark or border, or, if you prefer, a border count, such as we think, with de Wree and the others mentioned above, Baldwin Iron-Arm in fact most vigorously acted in Ebbo's time on the coast of the Ocean, or the border of western Francia, and won notable glory for his name by deeds bravely done. Hence du Saussay fittingly, when he treats of our Saint's translation at the XXX day of August, distinguished the titles of Baldwin in the following words: At Bruges in Flanders, he says, the translation of saint Donatian, bishop of Reims, whose venerable corpse, buried in the church of St. Agricola, lay there so long, until Ebbo, archbishop of Reims, granted it to the religious wishes of Baldwin Iron-Arm, marquis, and afterwards count of Flanders — Flanders, namely, being now increased by the munificence of King Charles with many dominions, as we have said.

[20] The third argument with which Marlot and his followers attack the often-mentioned letters and by the other argument which they bring forward, are vindicated; they take from these words of Ebbo to Baldwin: Know that the written Lives of him and of Saint Remigius and of innumerable Saints were destroyed in the devastation of the Vandals. How, they say, could the deeds of St. Remigius be destroyed in the devastation of the Vandals, since this long preceded the age of Remigius? But could not Ebbo be excused in some fashion, that, since he knew very well that the Acts of St. Donatian and of very many other Saints had perished in the devastation of the Vandals, he added those of St. Remigius too through some carelessness or inadvertence? Or, what appears more probable, could it not easily have happened that Ebbo wished to designate, under the name of the Vandals — a people still flying about on the lips of all on account of their continual and most dire devastations in Europe, especially Italy and Francia — any other devastators of the realm of Gaul? for in the same manner Arnulf the Great, count of Flanders, in the Diploma to be recited in the following §, uses Vandals for Northmen, as we shall point out there. Bolland too notices, in the Commentary

Preliminary to the Life of St. Anatolius at the III day of February, § II, that all pilgrims throughout the Gauls in early centuries were commonly called Scots: likewise, that by some historians all foreign soldiers, whether Goths, Franks, Alemanni, Saracens or Hungarians, were called Vandals. Whence those words do not involve so great an incongruity that we should, on that account taking these letters away from Ebbo, elicit the epoch of the first translation of our Saint from elsewhere than from the same.

[21] [and from these it is at length concluded that the Saint's body not before the year 840,] Iron-Arm, therefore, was marquis of Flanders by Meyer's reckoning from the year 837, or at least, as de Wree computes, from the year 840; wherefore, since on the other side Ebbo was cast down from his see in the year 835, as Hincmar testifies against Gottschalk, in the councils of Gaul, tome II, page 267, in Sirmond, it becomes clear that his letters were not written, nor the body of St. Donatian carried into Flanders, before the year 840, in which at length Ebbo was restored through Lothair. Nor would you say that Ebbo did this before his deposition, or while it lasted, say in the year 838, as Georges Colvener asserted in his Catalogue of the bishops of Reims, which he subjoined to Flodoard; for before Ebbo was deposed Baldwin was very young, and probably not prefect of Flanders; and Ebbo, once deposed, says the praised de Wree at page 502, neither had access to the relics, nor attributed to himself the title of archbishop of the Remi. Further, restored to his see, as we have said, through Lothair in the year 840, he held this bishopric for about a whole year, as Flodoard says, History of Reims, book II, chapter XX, until Charles, his forces resumed, returned into Belgica: hearing which, Ebbo, leaving the see of Reims, set out to Lothair, never afterwards returning.

[22] That Ebbo held the Chair of Reims a second time for one year only, but, as from Flodoard Flodoard, a nearly contemporary author, relates here so clearly that I plainly do not know why in the Annals of Bruges of Charles Custis, which most recently appeared at Bruges in the year 1765 in the vernacular, tome 1, page 45, Ebbo is said to have been driven from his see only in the year 845: I am not indeed unaware that Hincmar was put in Ebbo's place only in this year; but if the author of the said annals had weighed more maturely the words of Flodoard just cited, as he did a little later, namely at page 47, and the beginning of the following book, I have no doubt that he would have judged this second deposition of Ebbo, or, if you prefer, flight, to be tied to the year 841; for receive the words of Flodoard, book II, page 150, in Sirmond: Therefore Ebbo, he says, after this deposition of his, is said to have dwelt in the Cisalpine regions until the death of the emperor Louis, which happened in the year of the Lord's incarnation DCCCXL, on the XII — as Nithard relates in book 1, in du Chesne, tome II — of the Kalends of July. Which emperor having died, Lothair came from Italy into Francia: Ebbo went to meet him at the city of Worms, and after some days Lothair restored to him the see and diocese of Reims by imperial edict. And this edict of Lothair, a copy of which Sirmond presently subjoins, is said to have been drawn up on the VIII of the Kalends of July, in the public palace of Engilenheim, or in that most ancient town which today is called Ingelheimium or Ingelheimum, commonly Ingelheim, and once adorned with the seat of Charlemagne, which is seen between Mainz and Bingen on the river Selz, not far from the Rhine.

[23] That these things were thus done only on the fourth day after Louis's death and from Nithard we learn, the days preceding the Kalends just noted do indeed indicate, but Charles Le Cointe, at this year, asserts not without reason that the Kalends are corrupt in Sirmond and others; for Flodoard testifies in the place just cited that Ebbo, when he had greeted Lothair at Worms, received the imperial edict not at once, but only after some days; whence, if this had really been drawn up on the VIII of the Kalends of July, it would be concluded that Lothair within four days learned of his father's death, crossed the Alps (for, as Nithard testifies, he had not yet then gone beyond them), and reached as far as Worms much more quickly — which no one, I think, would easily believe. And as regards Ebbo, who is said, as Flodoard speaks, to have dwelt in the Cisalpine regions, and at that time was staying in the monastery of Fleury on the Loire, in the diocese of Orléans, although it is beyond doubt that he went most quickly to supplicate Lothair, for the defence of whose cause he had been cast down from his rank, yet I would believe with Le Cointe that it is equally difficult that he likewise was informed within four days both of the death of Louis and of the arrival of Lothair, and went to meet the same Lothair at Worms. It is necessary, therefore, that these things were done later, and if indeed the month of August seems to Le Cointe rightly to be restored, it will have to be read thus in the edict of Lothair: Done in Engilenheim, the public palace, in the month of August, on the VIII of the Kalends of September. Although nothing seems to prevent these things from having been done on the VIII of the Kalends of August.

[24] at the end of that year or in the next, was translated into Flanders. Ebbo, therefore, thus restored, although illegitimately, to the chair of Reims, was solemnly received at Reims on the VIII of the Ides of December, as he himself testifies in the Apologeticum which he published, which can be seen in tome VIII of d'Achery's Spicilegium, page 175: whence, to reach our goal, since he occupied the see of Reims a second time for about one year, as we noted above from Flodoard, it follows that the same fled with Lothair at the end of the following year, and more probably as soon as Lothair had been vanquished by Charles in that most bloody disaster at Fontenoy, and accordingly that he could not have directed the pledges of St. Donatian to Baldwin in Flanders except toward the end of the year 840 or in the following year. De Wree rightly observes here, to our purpose, that it was very familiar to Ebbo either to direct or to carry relics of the Saints into parts exposed to the invasions of the infidels (they are his words, page 505); for so, when he was earlier apostolic legate to the Danes, he either himself carried the sacred bodies of other bishops of Reims, or transmitted them to the cultivators of the apostolic vineyard there; concerning which matter Master Adam, Ecclesiastical History, chapter 19, says this: "At the same time Blessed Ansgar is said to have carried across the Elbe the bodies of the Saints which he had received by gift of Archbishop Ebbo, and he placed the body of St. Maternian indeed at Heiligenstadt, and those of Sixtus and Sinicius, with the patronages of other martyrs, he placed in the city of Hamburg. And the treasures of Blessed Remigius he kept with great honour at Bremen." So that it ought to seem strange to no one that Ebbo, after his restoration, most speedily transmitted the body of St. Donatian to Baldwin, who had perhaps asked for something of the kind. I know indeed that against this opinion of ours stands the Bertinian Chronicle of Jean of Ypres, which lit the way for Meyer, written after the middle of the XIV century, and which, although it is mutilated here in Martène, yet hints not obscurely that King Charles handed over the remains of St. Donatian to the same Baldwin at those nuptials, as he says, namely of Baldwin and Judith, celebrated at Auxerre: but if the letters of Ebbo, and the epoch at which they could have been written, had been known to Jean of Ypres, a writer otherwise most praiseworthy, I do not at all doubt that he would have set up a far different Chronotaxis.

§ III. The body of the Saint carried first to Thourout, then to Bruges: the cult began to be increased: the chapter of St. Donatian founded at Bruges: the Acts of the Saint begun to be sought.

The body first to Thourout, Another dispute again arises concerning the body of the Saint, already brought to Flanders: for some think it was deposited at Thourout and rested there for some years; others, that it was carried at the same time to Bruges, or to the fortress of Bruges. Now Torholtum, or, as de Wree prefers, Toroaltum, commonly Thorout, is a most ancient town of Flanders, expressed in the Salic law itself, distant from Bruges about three and a half of our leagues toward Ypres, from Ostend about five; from which also the Ghent and Ypres gates, by which one goes to Thourout, were formerly surnamed the Thourout gates. The first, therefore, who represented that the Saint's body had been brought here was Jacob Meyer, already often mentioned, writing thus at the year DCCCLXIII: During that space of time King Charles the Bald and Ebbo, pontiff of the Remi, to confirm the peace of Flanders, and at the same time that the minds of the rude and fierce people might be softened by the cult of religion, sent into Flanders the relics of St. Donatian, formerly pontiff of the Remi; which sacred gift Baldwin reverently carried first to Thourout, then to Bruges, and gave it a seat in the little church of the virgin mother. These words of Meyer, to which Colvener subscribed in the Scholia on Flodoard, book 1, chapter V, although he thinks otherwise in his Catalogue mentioned in the preceding §, num. 21, seem to have given a handle to Marlot and his followers both for attacking the letters of Ebbo, already vindicated by us, and for assigning another epoch of the first translation of our Saint; and to others, who admitted the same letters, for suspecting or asserting that the body of St. Donatian was carried first to Thourout about the year 841, and thence, after about twenty-three years, peace being established between the Flemings and the Franks, at length to Bruges; and so, say these latter, the two opinions of the writers will be reconciled.

[26] but not about the year 863, as Meyer would have it, But I do not indeed know how Meyer, the one and first who asserted these things, could have drawn so many and so great writers with him: for, just as this author, through lack of criticism, often put forth his pen less prudently, so also, in the context just related, in joining Ebbo, prelate of Reims, with Charles the Bald, and that after peace was made between the Bald and Iron-Arm, he commits a manifest anachronism; for in the year 863, in which Meyer relates that Ebbo and Charles accomplished this, Ebbo had already died twelve years before, as his successor Hincmar most expressly writes, in Jean Cordes, letter 11 to Pope Nicholas I, in these words: But Ebbo having died in the year of the Lord's incarnation DCCCLI, indiction XIIII, on the XIII of the Kalends of April, etc. Moreover, considering the letters of Ebbo, and the epoch at which they could have been written, it is altogether false that Charles (for he was then continually fighting with Lothair) could ever have sent the relics of St. Donatian into Flanders by common counsel with Ebbo. Holding of small account, therefore, what Meyer here barely asserts, we prefer to insist on Flodoard, and, to come to the purpose, to repeat his words again: Hence, he says, in the place cited in §1, Donatian was bishop, whose pledges also, carried into the maritime parts of the bishopric of Noyon or Tournai (these churches, as Colvener testifies, were united from the time of St. Medard to the times of St. Bernard of Clairvaux), are recorded as adorned with the varied splendour of signs.

[27] we admit indeed that it was carried, That by these maritime parts of the bishopric of Tournai the fortress of Bruges is designated Colvener seems altogether to think on this passage of Flodoard, writing thus at chapter V: And this blessed pontiff was translated to the notable city of maritime Flanders called Bruges, which was formerly subject to the church of Tournai. De Wree explains the text of Flodoard in almost the same manner, page 505: But also, he says, Flodoard writes clearly above: "that the pledges of St. Donatian were transmitted into the maritime parts of the bishopric of Tournai"

which can be no other than the fortress of Bruges and the whole Franc land situated by the sea, at that time called Flandra. For that Thourout belonged not to the diocese of Tournai but to that of Thérouanne is clear from the mission of Folcuin, bishop of Thérouanne, as can be deduced from the capitulary of Charles the Bald cited in the preceding §, in the fourth place, or num. IIII, where it is read thus: Folcuin the bishop, Adalgar, Engilscalc and Berengar, missi in the county of Berengar, Engilscalc, Gerard, and in the counties of Reginar. On which words consult Henschenius, tome 1 of February, page 396. Although, therefore, I would not deny that the pledges of St. Donatian were deposited for a while in the monastery of Thourout (for Arnulf, count of Flanders, writes this clearly in his letters to be cited below), yet I would not easily grant that they remained there until the peace made by Iron-Arm with the Gaul, twenty-three years at the least; for, besides that ancient monuments which might suggest this are not available, I judge it incredible, with de Wree, that Baldwin left pledges so dear to him for so long in a place not sufficiently fortified, as the fortress of Bruges was, against the irruptions of the barbarians, which were then frequently feared.

[28] This observation of de Wree was indeed well enough understood by Charles Custis, but it seems to have been carried to Bruges shortly after, mentioned above in §11; but I do not know why he so boldly opposes Colvener to the same de Wree in the following words, part 1, page 46, which I put into Latin: Although, he says, de Wree observes that it is not probable that these relics were left so long at Thourout, because the place was open, and they could be kept much more safely in the fortress of Bruges (where Baldwin had his residence), yet the often-mentioned Colvener relates that the body of St. Donatian, already carried into Flanders, was first brought into the church of Thourout and rested there for the space of twenty-five years. And I confess — and it can be gathered sufficiently from what has already been said, if you consider Colvener's Scholion on chapter V, already cited more often, and the catalogue of the prelates of Reims subjoined to it, at Donatian — that this writer is found to wish the translation of the Saint fixed here to the year 838, and there, with Meyer, to 863: but since he does not distinguish the one from the other, nor even mentions the name of Thourout, much less could he have said that the Saint's body rested there 25 years. Moreover, if that treasure remained so long among the people of Thourout, it seems strange that no further trace exists of an annual memory of this first translation having been made, either among the people of Thourout themselves or among the people of Bruges, since the latter, as we said in § I, num. 6, formerly recalled every year the mere transfer of the body made under Berthulf. Much more probably, therefore, I judge that the Saint's body was not left so long at Thourout, but was carried shortly after to the fortress of Bruges.

[29] But here the adversaries will doubtless rise up notwithstanding an argument to the contrary, which is here resolved. and say: if the body of St. Donatian was not sent to Baldwin by King Charles to confirm, as Meyer speaks, the peace of Flanders, or carried from Thourout to Bruges, why then was this Saint, as the same Meyer affirms he found, called Strengthener of the peace in the times of the prince Iron-Arm? But since Oudegherst, whom the more recent generally followed, testifies that in his own age the Flemings still named St. Donatian father and author of the peace, I suspect that the word Strengthener was wrongly put by Meyer, and that in its place Father or Author should be restored, or, as some more recent have it, Pacifier of Flanders. But if it is so, could this surname not have been derived from elsewhere? For since his body, carried into Flanders, shone, as Flodoard testifies, with various miracles, there is no doubt that a huge concourse of peoples took place, crying out for the intercession of the Saint with God in every tribulation, as is wont to happen: let it seem strange to no one, accordingly, that, when war with the Gauls was pressing, the Flemings fled for refuge to the tomb of St. Donatian, and rightly and deservedly called him the father or author of the most happy peace that afterwards followed. The answer given can hold, I say, if in fact the Saint was so called from the times of Iron-Arm: for I think, with Charles Custis, otherwise an unhappy Chronographer, that this surname of the Saint took its beginning only toward the end of the eleventh century, and arose on this occasion, that, when in the absence of count Robert a monstrous sedition had arisen among the Flemings, especially the people of Bruges, the bier of St. Donatian being brought out and carried through the streets, the evil suddenly ceased, as can be seen more at length below in chapter 11 of the miracles.

[30] [Twelve Canons having been instituted in the Saint's chapel, count Arnulf prebends,] Further, Baldwin wished the Saint's body, brought to the borough of Bruges, to be placed in the chapel of the same borough, sacred to the divine virgin; but since he worked huge miracles here, it pleased the same prince to renew and enlarge the said chapel and dedicate it in honour of St. Donatian; whence also Arnulf the Great, count of Flanders, says it was established in honour of St. Donatian in the privilege or Diploma of foundation of the chapter of Bruges, which was given about a hundred years after, and in the old codex of the same chapter which we have mentioned bears this title: Privilege of lord Arnulf the Great, son of Baldwin the Bald, count of Flanders, concerning the goods bequeathed by him to the church of saint Donatian of Bruges, both to the provost and to the XII canons. The Diploma follows, which I shall compare with the edition of Miraeus in the Codex of pious donations, chapter XXXIV, in this manner: In the name of the holy and undivided trinity, father and son and holy spirit. Amen. I, Arnulf, called the Great, begotten of Baldwin the Bald, by the Mercy of God marquis of Flanders, considering that here we have no abiding mansion, but look for one to come, providing in the lord for the souls of myself and of my illustrious Athala, my wife and the consort of my body, so that thereby we may be able to find perpetual salvation and the remedy of our sins, wishing to magnify the chapel established in honour of the glorious virgin and of our lord mother Mary and of saint Donatian the archbishop, by Baldwin Iron-Arm of divine memory , my grandfather, inflamed with the zeal of divine love, and founded from ancient time (by Lyderic, as some would have it, of Buc, or, as very many others, by the one of Harelbeke about the year 801), with the consent and will of the most holy prelates and lords … of Tournai (Hadulf) and … of the Morini (perhaps Wicfrid), bishops, I establish the number of twelve prebends in that church: and I will that XII Canons there prebended in the same chapel, in honour of God and of the same blessed virgin and of saint Donatian, for the remedy of my soul and of my said wife and of our grandparents and other parents, devoutly celebrate the Canonical hours day and night at the fitting hours for the living and the dead, and offer sacrifices.

[31] To which chapel, by the ordination and counsel of the aforesaid bishops, certain tithes of those tithes and other goods which the most holy fathers, the Roman popes, granted in perpetual fief to me and my predecessors in the county or marquisate of Flanders, from lands cultivated and uncultivated, for help with our expenses and the numbers of soldiers, for the overcoming of and resistance against the Vandals (he means the Northmen, as we said in § II, num. 20), who were cruelly and damnably devastating Flanders and other neighbouring lands with the churches built in them, and giving them over to fire. And also certain other goods in the same county for the living of the same canons and the other expenses of the same chapel, I give, hand over, and grant by the present charter. And the names of the places in which the tithes and goods themselves are situated are these : the church of saint Michael in the township of Weinebriga with all appurtenances, tithes, meadows, fields, serfs, tolls, the royal fisc excepted. (Miraeus inserts here: the chapel of the Holy cross in the township which is called Gera, with all the tithes and adjacent lands), the chapel of Wara, and that which is called Ridervorda, with all the tithes and lands belonging to it. The chapel of saint Christopher next to the market; the church of Widisgatis and the church of Kemlis , with all the lands which belong to us there. The bodium (estate, to the Flemings Bodem) of Thicasbusca, the bodium of Formosela, the bodium of Ypres: the church of Esna with its chapels: Dicasmutha and Clare: in the parish of Oostkerke at Budamflit in arable: and part of another, and one flock of sheep with the whole land.*

[32] In the parish of Redenburg the whole land. Likewise in the same parish of Oostkerke VIII weys (pounds or weights) of cheese : he confers, and from the land of Mendal, from the land of Robert Henas, IIII weys of cheese and the pence for calves : from the land of Herrad IIII weys of cheese and all the pence for calves: from the land of Oster VII weys of cheese and the pence for calves: from the land of Wulfras VII weys of cheese and XV rams and XXX fleeces of ewe-lambs , and XV fleeces of rams, and XXX fleeces of lambs: from the land of Frowitte III weys of cheese and the pence for calves: from the land of Werenbald II weys of cheese and V rams and X fleeces of ewe-lambs and V fleeces of I lamb and X of lambs: from the land of Herrad V weys of cheese and XII rams, XXIV fleeces of ewe-lambs, and XII fleeces of rams, and XXIV fleeces of lambs: from the land of Tancrad I wey of cheese: from the land of Everbald and Wulsild, or, as Miraeus, Wulsildis, II weys of cheese: in the parish of Holthawe land in Wegha, about XL day-measures; in the parish of Uitkerke from the land Blidale X weys of cheese: in Oostkerke the land of Tanchrad, L day-measures (Miraeus again adds here: In the parish of St. Mary land of meadows, XXXII day-measures), in the parish of Madkerka the land which is called Hadigaland.*

[33] nor does he provide less generously for their provost: I will also that the aforesaid canons have a head and greater over them, who shall be named provost, whom they may freely elect for themselves; and to this provost I likewise give, hand over and grant these goods; of which the first is: the church of Oorscamp with all the tithes and land situated there: the bodium in the township of Sarra with XIIII bonniers and XVII day-measures; in Lissewege LXII day-measures (Miraeus again adds here: In Uitkerke LXXIX day-measures); in Dudzele LV day-measures; in Michem XIII day-measures; in the Parish of the holy cross XLVI day-measures and I curtile (a kind of farm or holding); in Wulpen about [ ] and V day-measures; in Oostkerke CXXX sheep with land: in Artrika I curtile: at Diksmuide CC sheep with land: in the parish of Lo V day-measures; at Brilazica LXX day-measures; in Jabeke XXX day-measures; in Sarkenghem X day-measures; in Lissewege XVI day-measures; in

Riedsela IX measures; in the parish of saint Mary of Bruges IIII holdings and one meadow: in the parish of Saint Saviour, in the outer castle, II curtiles.*

[34] the chapter being founded, from Hugh, archbishop of Reims, I ask moreover, and order and command, that no one gainsay my aforesaid Donation, or attack or hinder the said chapel of blessed Mary and saint Donatian concerning the aforesaid goods. But if anyone shall wish to go against or gainsay these in any respect, let him pay fifty pounds of gold. And if he be my heir (which God forbid), let him be disinherited, and incur the curse of God and of the most blessed virgin his mother, and of Saint Donatian, and of all the Saints, and mine. But if the Donee be ungrateful, let him both lack my gift and those of mine, and be deprived by my heirs as ungrateful. Done at Bruges on the II of the Kalends of August, in the year of the Lord's incarnation DCCCCLXI. The chapter of St. Donatian of Bruges having been founded in this manner by the piety and munificence of count Arnulf, the fame and cult of the Saint began to be celebrated more and more daily; and since on that account everyone, as happens, inquired more curiously into his deeds, the same count gave letters to Hugh, archprelate of Reims, which in the often-mentioned manuscript codex of Bruges, and in our former Vallicella one, marked PMS. 159, which I shall compare together, sound thus: To the most reverend father, venerable by birth and holiness, lord Hugh, archprelate of the Remi, Arnulf, the last of all the counts in Francia: perennial glory in Christ.*

[35] Although we are occupied with the affairs of the world, contrary to divine justice, the deeds of the Saint, by letters here recited yet we ought to remember the things above, for the obtaining of which our elders in this vale of tears greatly strove to toil: so that both here and in the future, by the gift of the clemency of God, they might thence be religious and glorious. Whence also our grandfather of divine memory, Baldwin Iron-Arm, inflamed with the zeal of divine love, building many churches in his places, took care to enrich them with the relics of many Saints, knowing most certainly that by their help and intercession he could attain to heavenly glory. He also merited to obtain, before the other pledges of the Saints, from Ebbo, bishop of the holy church of Reims (not, therefore, from Hincmar, as Marlot thought), Donatian, the Most Holy former prelate of the same see; whom, honourably received, he carried to the monastery which is called Thourout (founded, as is believed, by St. Amand under Dagobert I, but utterly overthrown by the Northmen about the year 880 by de Wree's reckoning), and thence caused him to be carried with a great choir of psalm-singers to the port of Bruges, where he now rests. Rejoicing indeed in his presence and assiduous protection, but lacking the little book of his Life, when after the cares of the commonwealth we recall him to mind we are filled with the greatest anxiety. Therefore we earnestly beg your kindness that, although you may by no means wish to act for our service, which we are able to render, yet for the reverence of him in whose holy see you now serve the eternal king, you will not delay to direct to us his life: for I would very much wish to know something of that patron of ours; by whose patronage and continual suffrage our land is protected from enemies and gladdened with manifold fruit. For we deem it fitting to have knowledge of him through whose renowned merits we embrace present advantages, he asks, to whom Hugh writes back, and desire to obtain heavenly joys.*

[36] For it seems foolish for anyone to have the remains of some saint, and to not know how to worship him; whose solemnity the whole people, with the priestly order, rejoices in. Let it be the care, therefore, of your charity, venerable father, to fulfil our wishes, so that you may equally with us enjoy his grace, and obtain pardon of crimes. May that most holy priest himself, whose deeds we are eager to know through you, increase your glory in Christ. There follows Hugh's reply to Arnulf in this manner: To the glorious marquis Arnulf, to be venerated with all devotion, most illustrious in nobility, praiseworthy in the valour of arms, Hugh, the lowest of all prelates: the honour of perpetuity with the heavenly king. We wonder abundantly at your Holy zeal in the things of God, in which you prevail above the other senators of our time: since, while in the commonwealth the intention of your mind might well be exceedingly occupied, you strive to obtain for your churches the relics of the Saints, who for their merits and acts have merited to possess Heavenly beatitude. For blessed, most beloved brother, is your inquiry, and a jubilation praiseworthy on the mouth of all peoples; how, while you prevail in the pomps of worldly nobility, you can think so efficaciously of Heavenly rewards. Truly in this business you imitate the admonitions of the excellent preacher Paul, saying: "those who use this world, as though they used it not "; it is therefore very hard and exceedingly difficult that we should be able to know the acts and merits of all the Saints whose memory we desire to have in our oratories; especially since they are unknown through the time of antiquity, and the prelates of our city of diverse ages, intent on earthly occupations, have cared nothing for these things.

[37] that the same had perished, And as is clear to many, by the permission, it can be believed, or the will of the providence on high, which disposes all things wonderfully and provides subtly, the loftiness of secular counts, alas, has very often polluted our holy seat; and by despising its reverence sacred things have perished from the holy place. But by whose guilt this happened, whether of the clergy or the people, or of some one of the earlier prelates, or of a king, we do not know; although, as was said before, we know it happened by the just judgment of God: whence what your industry requires of our littleness we cannot fulfil in full on account of the matters mentioned above. And not only the lives of Saint Donatian, confessor of Christ, and of the others whose sacred pledges we embrace, but even the little book published from the life of the most excellent confessor Remigius, most famous through the world, is said to have once so perished that the apostolic man Hincmar could scarcely find, through most ancient volumes gnawed by mice, a few of his acts which he might write for the benefit of many, for studious readers.

[38] Therefore, since we are not able wholly to satisfy your wishes concerning the blessed confessor Donatian, nor could more than a few things be found. at least what has been disclosed to us by the narration of truthful witnesses we shall take care to lay open to you by the writing subjoined, praying your magnificence in every way, and we beseech the skill of those who shall read these things, that they may rejoice in these until they come to greater things, if such can be found. Nor let them deride the small things of this Saint, who is able by his holy prayers to obtain many things from the lord for those who humbly seek him. May the grace of the sevenfold holy Spirit illuminate the inmost parts of your mind, and by continual suffrage grant victory over enemies, and lead to everlasting glory. Amen. To the Discourse which is subjoined, the authors of the codices prefix this: The Spirit of the holy begetter and begotten aiding , there begin a few things on the Life and Acts of the most holy prelate Donatian, published by a certain bishop of Verona, a monk of Lobbes. This was Ratherius, son of the count of Vienne, bishop first of Liège, then, from the year 934 or the following, as Pagi numbers, of Verona; but since the said discourse is only oratorical, nay even produces nausea, it will suffice to have only made mention of it, the Miracle which follows in our codex being about to go to the press with the others.

[39] Gervase, archbishop, asked for the Miracles by count Baldwin the Pious, And after the course of a hundred years, namely about the middle of the XI century, Baldwin the Pious, or of Lille, he too very desirous of knowing the Deeds of the Saint, pressed Gervase, archbishop of Reims, whose answer in the same codices is of this kind: To his beloved son Baldwin, crowned with the beauty of all honour, Gervase, by the grace of God archbishop of the Remi: greeting in Christ. You have asked of me, most noble prince both in birth and in morals, that, if any writings of the notable confessor Donatian could be found among us, I should find with the greatest diligence the very many miracles which the Lord deigned to work through him, and having found them, should presently transcribe them for your love. Know that I received this petition well, both because for the edification of the holy fathers who preceded religion is to be propagated to posterity; and also because I have thought that satisfaction should be given in this matter to you, occupied with such pure and honourable desires. Since indeed among the Western princes you are found almost alone who hold in mind the reverence or celebration of the Saints, and direct your care to the restoration and building of churches with zeal for probity: who so live in the tempests of this world as to exercise the pursuits of probity more honourably, as with skilful wit to gather the fruits of the present life, as to await those of the future: so with prudent counsel to minister the transitory things, as not to abandon the eternal… He then praises lavishly the countess Adela, the offspring, and the industry of the count in the cultivation of the land, and, having said finally a few things of the abundance of his wealth, he continues thus: On account indeed of the marks of these and your other virtues, and on account of the inviolable pledge of your love, known to me, I ordered our libraries to be gone through, enjoining that it should be studiously investigated whether any writings about Saint Donatian could be found.*

[40] he answers that only certain virtues of the Saint A few things indeed were found about his virtues, although many had been written; but on account of the antiquity of time and very many storms of persecutions they have already been abolished, and therefore deleted from the treasures of memory. Which ought not to seem strange to your love, if oblivion has partly overwhelmed the miracles of so ancient a confessor; since my predecessor of happy memory, Hincmar the archbishop, testifies that in the time of the prince Karl (Martel), on account of the discord and contention over the principate between him and Ragenfred, and on account of frequent civil and parricidal wars in the German and Belgic provinces, the Christian religion was almost destroyed… He inserts here certain things about the deeds of St. Remigius, which you may see illustrated by C. Suyskens in tome I of October, and some others, and finally concludes the letter thus: Among the other disasters of Gaul, who could set forth in fact with how great calamities the church of Reims was afflicted when that most savage persecution of the Vandals fell upon it, in which the precious pontiff of Christ Nicasius, beheaded in the very church of Holy Mary, merited to be crowned with glorious martyrdom. Wherefore if from ancient time the universal church has suffered the loss of many writings, and in the most recent time of the age the Belgic, nay even the Gallican, church laments that on account of savage persecutions it has lost the monuments of many Saints, although it is to be grieved at, yet it is not to be wondered at if, amid these whirlwinds of strife, the miracles of the holy confessor Donatian have disappeared.*

[41] have become known partly from writing, partly from tradition; But now I shall not delay to transcribe compendiously for your love concerning the excellence of his virtues, which we have partly found written, and partly do not doubt were in him by the gift of divine grace, so that you may have whence you may each year give yourself to the celebration of so great a father, and, walking by imitation of him on the path of the virtues, raise up the fruits of good works. The Discourse of Gervase which is subjoined, since it too is rhetorical throughout and contributes nothing to history, I likewise omit, except a few things which, concerning the Saint's death and

burial, he relates toward the end in these words: This, therefore, is the confessor of Christ Donatian, who kept the church of Reims in holiness, as far as the divine clemency granted him, and, the space of this life being completed, departed from this world to Christ on the day before the Ides of October; whose most sacred body was committed to burial in the basilica of saint Nicasius: (he uses prolepsis; for it is established that St. Donatian died long before the erection of the Nicasian church) in which, the lord assenting, we have established an abbey … Blessed Remigius also, who was ninth from him in the pontificate, bears testimony in his testament to his sacred confession, saying that five confessors, the immediate predecessors of lord Nicasius, were laid away with the most holy virgin and mother Eutropia in the aforesaid basilica (the Jovinian one, of which in the following §, num. 57); of whose number it is most manifestly established that saint Donatian is. What follows to the end we omit for the reason mentioned above.

[42] nor did the anonymous writer mentioned here obtain more. There is extant also a third letter on the same matter in our codex, bearing the following title: To the most serene lord and his most beloved father R., with continual tranquillity, the gladness of well-being, and, the course of the present life happily accomplished, the beatitude of perpetual glory. Molanus, in the edition of the year 1573, in the Notes at this day, thought that the author of this letter was a cleric of Bruges and wrote to Richard, archbishop of Reims, and says that this is established from the first letters of the verses; but if it is so, it would have been written as the XIV century grew old; but that this is otherwise is clear not only from the context of the letter, which we shall pursue in the following §, num. 53, but also from the two Miracles which are narrated by the same anonymous writer, worked in the XI century, and which he intimates clearly enough happened in his own time. The beginning of the letter, therefore, sounds thus: To me, searching and assiduously labouring with the highest zeal, placed in the metropolis of the Remi, which the venerable father Donatian, of wonderful sanctity, formerly gloriously ruled as seventh bishop, whether I could find anything of the Life and renowned Acts of the same most pious prince, and finding, alas, nothing besides what we knew before, it has seemed fitting, most beloved father and lord, to insert on the page, although in unpolished speech, the things which the wonderful Deity has deigned to work through him among us and in our times, so that those who come after may have whence they may rejoice in so great a father, and venerate him with more zealous service. The Miracles which he subjoins we shall publish with the usual annotations.

Miraeus adds: Jesus Christ*

* Miraeus omits these two words.

Miraeus Baldwin* only.

Miraeus: of the fathers*

Miraeus more rightly: and of our soldiers.*

* The sense here in Miraeus is somewhat mutilated.

Miraeus: Wemebriga.*

Miraeus: of Kenilis.*

Rightly Miraeus: one plough*

Miraeus always cascorum*

* Miraeus almost omits these.

Wrongly Miraeus: of lambs.*

The same: Frobbine.*

Miraeus: Blidase*

Miraeus: XLV.*

Miraeus: Busarica CXX.*

Miraeus better: curtilia.*

Miraeus: five hundred.*

Ours omits religiosi*.

Ours more rightly: ignoranter* (ignorantly).

Ours wrongly: suppmus.*

Read: reliquias* (relics).

* 1 Corinthians, chapter VII, verse 31.

Wrongly the Bruges codex: ex hasce.*

Ours: amplificus atque philosophus.*

* The Bruges one wrongly omits this particle.

The Bruges one: accumulante.*

* The Bruges one omits this word

Ours wrongly: quæ*

The Bruges one: prima*

The Bruges one wrongly: juvas.*

The Bruges one wrongly: comparte.*

* Seems superfluous.

§ IV. Certain Acts of suspect credibility corrected in the breviaries: in what order among the bishops of Reims, and when, he sat.

The Acts, which Licinia Having looked, therefore, at the letters of the archprelates of Reims which we recited in the preceding §, anyone will easily see that neither in the X century, in which Hugh lived, nor in the following one, in which Gervase lived, however great the care with which they searched, could anything be found of the deeds of St. Donatian, they having been altogether destroyed, as they themselves say with Ebbo, by the devastation of the Vandals or others. But notwithstanding these, a certain modern, I know not who, attacked the matter and fabricated some sort of Life of the Saint; lest I seem to have criticized him too rashly, it is pleasing to bring forward here his whole history, as it is read in the same codex of ours, formerly of the Vallicella, as follows: In the times, he says, of the prince Aurelius, who was eighth after Augustus and seventh before Decius, Cornelius, a certain prince in the city of Rome, most illustrious in wealth and birth, having set out from the City with his wife named Licinia, and by the counsel of the whole senate being destined for the Gauls with a great army to restrain the importunities of certain rebels, after many victories, after many honours acquired by arms and wisdom, came to the city of Venderila, then opulent, situated by the river Marne. Where, a diadem being placed on his head, he is set as king over the same city and also all the surrounding provinces, which through the whole time of his life he vigorously protected with arms, enlarged with honours and resources, and strengthened with Counsel.

[44] miraculously Who was Aurelius, eighth after Augustus and seventh before Decius, or who was that prince Cornelius who set out into the Gauls at that time, perhaps only the anonymous anachronist who wrote these things knew: I wonder indeed, if this Cornelius was so illustrious in the Gauls, that he was entirely unknown to historiographers of most approved note; for the learned know well enough that the sayings of the anonymous writer can by no means be adapted to Cornelius Saloninus, who was created Caesar by his grandfather Valerian and sent into Gaul. And that Colvener was consulted about the city of Venderila I learn from a little book which the archpriest of Bruges, praised in § I, of his own accord handed me, by Jan Jacobs, canon of the same church, printed there in the year 1638, where at page 76, in the Notes on the Life of St. Donatian, the same Colvener is said to have written back that a city Venderila beside the Matrona or Materna, commonly Marne, is nowhere read: nevertheless Adrien de Valois notes, Notitia Galliarum, page 590, that in the manuscript life, edited by Sollerius at the 1st day of July, of St. Theoderic the priest — not the abbot, as he himself says — it is said that King Theoderic, son of the great king Clovis, "conferred Venderae upon the river Matrona on the reverend father Remigius…" and presently he subjoins: This place Venderae on the Marne is today called Vendières, and it is without doubt the same which was formerly called Venderila. But, not to dwell longer on these minutiae, let us return to the anonymous writer, who goes on thus: Since his notable deeds cannot be fully unfolded by the narration of our speech, this one thing at least, the Lord favouring, we desire to bring to light, namely how he begot the glorious prelate and soldier of the eternal king, Saint Donatian, and how wonderful the birth and life and afterwards the end of that same excellent confessor was.

[45] On a certain day, therefore, while the aforesaid king was giving himself to the pursuits of hunting, at one birth seven infants, it was reported to him by one of his men that Licinia, afflicted with grievous pain of childbirth, had borne seven boys, and, being placed at the extremity of life, could scarcely escape death. And he, wondering at the matter beyond measure, swears that he had never from the beginning of the world heard such a thing: he wonders that one father could beget so many infants together at one time: nay, he asserts and imputes that the several boys had several fathers. But what wonder? Nothing is impossible with God; for, as the Psalmist says: "All things whatsoever he willed, the Lord has done in heaven and on earth ": again the same most blessed king and prophet, wondering at the magnificence of the Lord and the excellence of his works, says: "Who is a great God like our God? For thou art the God who doest wonders, who makest known thy power among the peoples. " Truly our Lord made known the wonders of his powers to this king and his people, when, against the natural use of childbearing, she bore seven sons; whereas if she had borne only one, or perhaps two, after the manner of certain women, it would have been judged stupendous enough and wonderful among us (not certainly among us). Therefore the king, as we have said above, stupefied by the wonder of such an event and the novelty of the birth, was thinking within himself how these things could so happen: and now, suspecting that Licinia had other lovers besides himself, he ordered her thereafter to be guarded more closely than usual, and forbade her conversation with all men for the space of one year, so that he might not be able to suspect anything evil of her.

[46] at a second birth nine, among whom St. Donatian, Within which term, as he was wont, he went in to her in the hope of begetting offspring: and so that the more wonderful works of God might become known by more wonderful ones, she bore more sons than the former, namely nine. And when the time of childbirth had come, and the queen had borne them together, the word became known to the king; and turning over in his mind how diligently he had guarded her for the year, and shut her off from every foreign touch, he found that this had been not the vice of adultery but a miracle of divine power. And so it came about by the will of God that he who had before reckoned the birth of seven sons, brought forth at one birth, as a disgrace, now with thanksgiving changed the birthday of the nine newly born into glory; who were Lothair, Patrick, Saturninus, Victorius, Landric, Galbert, Frambert, Gundulf, Donatian. Nor is it without mystery that first seven, and afterwards nine boys were born, because what the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit had once established for his praise and honour, this indeed the Holy Trinity, which is distinguished by the number nine (he uses a rather inept phrase), declared a second time more wonderfully, lest anything should seem impossible with God to the aforesaid king. Jan Jacobs, mentioned above, at the cited page, note 2, produces various similar examples of fertile women from Zwinger in the Theatre of Human Life, book 5, volume 2, but which prove nothing else than that the same could have happened in Licinia; which, however, more ancient or more certain monuments than those of this anonymous writer do not persuade did in fact so happen.

[47] He then continues in this manner: At length, the years of boyhood having been spent at home, and the Saint, cast into the waters by a servant, when the royal offspring was coming to puberty in the flower of its first adolescent youth, and inclining its ready minds to military pursuits, as is the custom, Donatian alone, desiring to savour the things which are above, not those upon the earth, had the eyes of his heart, although still a pagan, always intent upon God, and, although young in age, yet more aged, he diligently sought out wisdom. But because it is very long to enumerate the several praises of his goodness, yet it is worth the labour to set forth for those who do not know it that notable thing, how the divine clemency kept him unharmed, submerged under the waters for three days, and called him back sound and safe to the airs above. For at a certain time, while as a young lad he was still staying in his father's house, and his other brothers had spread themselves through diverse regions, going out once to walk about, as is the custom of nobles, he was crossing a high bridge with a certain servant of his; but, the enemy of the human race envying his good acts, by that same servant into the river

was thrown headlong, and left there for dead: but, the mercy of God protecting him, "the tempest of water did not drown him, nor the deep swallow him up, nor did the pit of death prevail to shut its mouth upon him: the Lord heard him, for his mercy is kind; according to the multitude of his tender mercies he looked upon him, nor did he turn away his face from his child, whom, when he was in trouble, he swiftly heard." *

[48] The anonymous writer begins to exclaim here, and inserts some other things which, because they are not to the purpose, I pass over; but after these he continues thus: For when, from the neighbours and dear parents, there was a huge outcry and very great mourning throughout that whole city over such an event, from these, by Pope Dionysius it happened that the Venerable and Most Holy Dionysius, who was twenty-second Pope after Blessed Clement, and forty-third before Gregory of the Dialogues, was passing that way, who, presently inquiring the cause of so great grief, began himself also to bewail together the misfortune of Donatian. Yet, not distrusting the goodness of the Lord, he ordered a wheel of a wagon to be quickly brought to him with five candlesticks and as many candles placed upon it, and, prayer being made to the Lord, he let it down upon the waves of the swift river. And the wheel with the lighted lamps floated upon the river, and, as if taught by God, finding the place of the sacred treasure, it stuck fast above it as if fixed by nails. Then, by the command of the Servant of God Dionysius, four young men, chosen for this, went down into the water, and brought Donatian up alive, lying under that wheel, sound from the depth of the river, all the people looking on. This excellent young man, deservedly to be compared to a lamp, is fittingly sought with candlesticks, because afterwards in the house of the Lord, shining with wonderful splendour not under a bushel but upon a lampstand, he spread the rays of wonderful sanctity all around.

[49] brought up and consecrated bishop, they represent, What more? There is a concourse from all sides of peoples hastening to so celebrated a spectacle: the great works of God are praised: the envy of the devil grows numb, as he sees that he has lost what that city rejoices to have received back through God. Many, therefore, still entangled in the diabolical error of the gentiles, when they had seen the wonders and great signs which the Lord worked through his faithful Prelate Dionysius, abandoning the superstitions of idolatry, were baptized by him and believed in Jesus Christ; by whose ineffable power and wonderful mercy Blessed Donatian was brought back from the lower regions to the upper. And the said Prelate baptized him in the city of the Remi, and instructed him in the sacraments of the Catholic faith, and afterwards ordained him seventh Archbishop of the same metropolis, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation two hundred and sixty-six, Aurelius Alexander reigning as Augustus, who obtained the imperial sceptre fourth after Aurelius Antoninus. Concerning the wonderful drawing of St. Donatian out of the waters, his baptism and episcopate, related here by our anonymous writer, the same Jan Jacobs and others long ago noted that these could by no means have been done by Pope Dionysius; for besides that it is established that this Pontiff occupied the Roman See not more than eleven years, nor ever travelled through the Gauls, it will be made clear from what is to be said below that his death, which happened toward the end of the III century, preceded the Pontificate of St. Donatian by almost a hundred years. Gramaye indeed relates, part IV, chapter VI, in the Bruges, that these Acts were drawn partly from the book of Heribert, abbot of Hasnon, on the restoration of his monastery, partly from Flodoard; but whether I consult Sirmond's Flodoard, or Colvener's or du Chesne's, I find no such thing at all, and likewise I do not know who that Heribert, abbot of Hasnon, was, for his name is altogether absent from the series of abbots of Hasnon in the Writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana.

[50] they are judged of the lightest credibility, and therefore three here recited But what at length, you will say, is to be thought of these Acts? I candidly confess, attending to those very letters of the Archprelates of Reims which we recited in the preceding §, that, whether you will have them drawn from the ancient Breviaries of the church of Bruges, two of which I have in hand, or these from them, which I rather believe, if they are not invented, at least they appear of so suspect credibility that Hendrik Jozef van Susteren, XIV Prelate of Bruges of glorious memory, in the year XXVI of this age, most prudently ordered, with the consent of the chapter, the proper lessons on the feast of St. Donatian to be read thus: the first: Donatian was born in the Gauls of Cornelius, as they say, a noble Roman, as father, and of Lucinia. And so far did the merit of a holier life grow in him with age that he was worthy to be raised to the summit of archiepiscopal dignity. There is in Gallia Belgica the most ancient and most celebrated church of Reims, over which several bishops conspicuous in holiness presided in order. To rule this Donatian was taken in the seventh, or, as others would have it, the eighth place (of this controversy below), substituted for St. Maternian. In which office he showed himself such that he was a mirror of living and an exemplar of holy conversation to Blessed Viventius and the others who followed him in the same eminence. And indeed how proved a virtue he had, and with how great zeal he applied himself that the food of the divine word should not be lacking to his sheep, can be conjectured from the glorious title of Confessor with which he is distinguished in the ecclesiastical diptychs: from the words also of St. Jerome, who, writing against Vigilantius, and showing himself the encomiast of the bishops of Gaul of that age, says: "Gaul had no monsters, but always abounded in most brave and most eloquent men."

[51] of the Bruges office The second: And of those who so greatly made the Gallican church illustrious by invincible vigour and eloquence, Donatian was certainly one; who heaped up with wonderful sanctity both this praise and outstanding deeds in feeding the sheep of Christ. Nay, the letter of the archbishop of Reims to Baldwin Iron-Arm, sent with his sacred Body into Flanders, proclaims Donatian a Man of wonderful sanctity, a pious hearer, and a most ready intercessor with God, both for those occupied with worldly straits and for those held by the crimes of sins, "which," he says, "has been proved evidently enough in our times by the signs of miracles"; nevertheless his Acts and the chief circumstances of his life are not sufficiently ascertained; because, when the Vandals were devastating the Gauls in the fifth century, it happened that they perished with many others; but they are written in heaven for eternal memory.

[52] the proper lessons, The third: After, therefore, the excellent pastor had thus presided for twenty-nine years (whether this is so we shall inquire below), about to receive the reward of his labours from the Lord, he passed to the heavenly homeland about the middle of the fourth century, on the day before the Ides of October. His body, buried in the church of Saint Agricola, which is now called by the name of Saint Nicasius, one of his successors, shone with various miracles. Then afterwards, sent by Charles the Bald, king of the Franks (see what was said in the preceding §, num. 26), as a token of his friendship and protection, and by the archbishop of the Remi to Baldwin Iron-Arm, count of Flanders, as a most pious gift, and received with the highest veneration, it was first deposited for a while at Thourout, and at length in the borough of Bruges at the chapel of the Virgin Mary: which the same Baldwin raised more magnificently into the basilica of Saint Donatian (which is now the episcopal See, erected in the year 1559 by Paul IV), adorned with the varied splendour of signs by the merits of the same Saint. And so it came about that the Most Blessed Pontiff, chosen patron of that city, and of what is now the diocese of Bruges, with the huge joy of the peoples, is venerated with great religion as the outstanding protector of the whole maritime tract. Almost similar things, but more contracted, are read in the Breviary of Reims published in the year 1630 by the authority of Louis of Lorraine, archbishop of Reims, and of the chapter. But at Ghent, where a Semidouble Office is held on the XVI day of October, it has no other Lessons than from the common of a Confessor Pontiff.

[53] Yet the Acts of the Saint, which the impiety of the Vandals took away, as also the Miracles, in place of the Acts are supplied in some fashion by the Miracles worked at his tomb in later centuries; which we shall give to the press in the order in which they are related in our Codex. Of the first, which happened in the case of a woman made blind, Ermengard, I do not discover the author; but the second and third seem to have been written by that anonymous writer whom we mentioned in the last number of the preceding §, and who, to win credence for what he says, continues thus the letter there begun to be recited: And we write not what we have learned by some common assertion, but what we have received from your truthful mouth. These being set forth according to our small measure, and fully spoken before you, and confirmed by the authority of your testimony, we have purposed to set forth other things which we ourselves, mingled with innumerable faithful, have seen worked through the same most glorious patron, lest they be consumed by oblivion: which if anyone overflowing with Tullian eloquence should happen to hear, we beseech and entreat that he be not indignant at our ragged and unadorned diction, because we do not write these things with any presumption of haughtiness, but, greatly fearing that the marks of the merits of so great a father could be altogether unknown through the negligence of oblivion, we commend them to writing for the time simply and in a humble style; until someone, fully drunk at the fount of philosophy, adorning them fittingly with the flowers of eloquence, may wish to elucidate them. What follows to the end of the letter, since it is only dedicatory, I omit, thinking it enough that the reader can conclude from the words recited that the two Miracles which follow in the codex, and which we shall publish from it, were written by a contemporary author and eyewitness.

[54] The one which is fourth in order, and worked in the absence of count Robert in the year 1097, are published. seems to have obtained a writer not so near to itself, as also that which is related next to have happened in the case of Themard, canon of Watten; for although the author of our codex, or the one whom he perhaps followed here, nowhere hints at the age of the first writer of the latter, it is nevertheless established from the Chronicle of Watten, which Martène published in tome III of the Thesaurus of anecdota from column 798 out of the codex of Les Dunes, that there existed both a contemporary and a spectator of the event, namely Ebrard, canon of Watten, disciple of Odfrid, founder of the same monastery; for the same Martène, in the preliminary observation, at the page just cited, writes thus: Moreover, the codex of Les Dunes, from which we copied it, bears only this title: "Chronicle of the monastery of Watten," the author not being named; but the name of Ebrard, which a more recent hand set on the first page, clearly indicated him, whom we also do not doubt was the author of the following little work on the Miracle which happened at Bruges in the year 1088, when Tamard, regular canon of Watten, was cured of paralysis by the merits of St. Donatian; for the style in both works is the same. Nay, that the writer of this miracle was very familiar with Themard is proved, among very many other things, by these words of his: For the same brother (Themard) related to us, etc. Likewise these: And because, living with them from the beginning, we daily see those things, etc. But these and other things from which the author's age could be noted, and which I shall supply in the annotations, the anonymous writer of our codex studiously omitted, carried away perhaps by the presumption that greater credence should be given to himself than to a housemate and contemporary witness. But whence he sought the last two Miracles, which he narrates briefly, I am not in a position to trace; yet these too, although greater

perhaps (understand this more of the last) than the Acts recited above, may not merit credence, we shall subject to the press with the others, keeping, as we have said, the order of the codex; and we would do so presently, were it not that the time of the Saint's episcopate and some other things must first be inquired into.

[55] As by Flodoard, from the council of Arles, Bethausius, To attain these things more easily, it will help first to present here the series of the prelates of Reims from Bethausius or Ibethausius up to St. Nicasius in the words of Flodoard: Bethausius, he says, who with Primogenitus his deacon is read to have been the first from this Belgic province to be present at the first synod of Arles, reported through Marinus the bishop to the most blessed pope Silvester, Volusianus and Annianus being consuls, which was held in the year of the lord 314. After whom Aper, then Maternian … after whom Donatian was bishop … whom blessed Viventius follows as much by the lofty merits of an illustrious life as by the clear order of the summit of the pontificate … whom Severus succeeded … after the aforementioned prelates blessed Nicasius follows in the cult of the pontificate. But just as Flodoard more probably brought Bethausius into his Catalogue from the council of Arles, so Marlot and not a few others place Dyscholius between Aper and Maternian, likewise relying themselves on the councils both of Agrippina, celebrated after the consulship of Amantius and Albinus in the year 346, and of Sardica, in the following year; for in the former of these Dyscholius is read subscribed as prelate of Reims, and in the latter without the name of his bishopric. I am not indeed unaware that the acts of the council of Agrippina were traduced by many as supposititious and of the slenderest credibility, nay by some as spurious; but how weak the arguments persuading this are has already been shown by the most recent editors of the councils of Gaul, and by our Cornelius de Bye in the historico-critical commentary on SS. Sanctinus and Antoninus at the XII day of October. Wherefore we too, moved chiefly by the authority of this council, and following the old catalogues of Démochares, grant to Dyscholius a middle place between Aper and Maternian in the series of the prelates of Reims.

[56] so also by us, from the councils of Agrippina and Sardica But those who embrace the acts of the council of Agrippina, yet adhere more scrupulously to Flodoard, as Colvener does, think that Dyscholius was only chorepiscopus of Reims, and in this dignity subscribed the aforesaid councils; but although in the time of Dyscholius the power of the chorepiscopi was ample enough, nay too ample, and on that account was entirely cut off by canon 57 of the synod of Laodicea, I would nevertheless wish it proved to me that chorepiscopi were ever permitted to give a vote among the bishops or to pass sentence, as Dyscholius passed it in the council of Agrippina in these words: He who denies Christ God cannot remain in the church, the lord saying: "whoever shall deny me before men, I will deny him before my father, who is in heaven "; and therefore I judge, and certainly hold, that Eufratas should not be permitted to be a bishop among my brethren. Nor ought it to delay anyone that Dyscholius is read subscribed to the synod of Sardica after the bishop of Amiens, a suffragan of Reims, and that barely, without the addition of the word of the Remi*; for in the primitive councils this order was very often not kept in the subscriptions, nor is Dyscholius alone, but all the remaining bishops also, are set barely under the aforesaid council, the names of the places being unstated; but the acts of the council of Agrippina speak so clearly in Hardouin and Labbe that I do not at all doubt that, if Flodoard had known them, he would have admitted Dyscholius into the catalogue of the prelates of Reims equally with Bethausius; for knowledge of the latter, as we said, the synod of Arles alone more probably had supplied him.

[57] Dyscholius is brought into the catalogue of the bishops of Reims, But the adversaries press and object the following arguments: St. Remigius, they say, in his longer Testament says that only four bishops of Reims were buried in the church of St. Xystus, and five immediate predecessors of St. Nicasius in the Jovinian church, or of St. Agricola, so called from its founder Jovinus, prefect of the Gauls; from which they infer that no more than nine are to be admitted before St. Nicasius. Secondly they adduce the letters of Ebbo to Baldwin Iron-Arm, of Gervase to Baldwin of Lille, and the discourse of Ratherius of Lobbes, also brought forward by us above; for in these, they say, Donatian is constantly called the seventh bishop of the Remi, who, Dyscholius being admitted, would necessarily have had to be called the eighth. But all these are evidently drawn from the same source, namely from the longer Testament of St. Remigius, of how slight credibility which is our predecessors have often shown, and all the learned generally know. More worthy of note is the letter of Hincmar to the younger Hincmar of Laon, in which St. Remigius is called the XV archbishop of the Remi; but besides that Hincmar himself perhaps followed the longer Testament of St. Remigius, this difficulty can also be resolved in another way: for the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana strongly suspect that Flodoard made two out of one Baruc, namely Baruc and Barucius, exotic and unusual names, as they themselves speak, both among the Gauls and the Romans … an error arising from this, that some rendered the original name barbarously, others in Latin. Since this appears probable enough, Hincmar indeed rightly called St. Remigius the XV archbishop of the Remi, although relying on a false foundation.

[58] and the epoch of the Saint's episcopate is drawn out in some fashion. A place, therefore, being granted to Dyscholius among the prelates of Reims, and it being posited that he subscribed in the year 346 the council of Cologne and in the following year that of Sardica, it will help, in order that we may attain still more securely the epoch of our saint's episcopate, to attend to the Acts of St. Maternian illustrated by Daniel Papebroch at the XXX day of April; but it does not please me, with the same Papebroch, to place Dyscholius after Aper, both because this is repugnant to the older catalogues of Démochares and others who admitted Dyscholius, and because the Acts of St. Maternian seem not to suffer it, in which the city of Reims is said to have long triumphed under the prelate Aper; for Aper being placed after Dyscholius, Papebroch was compelled to circumscribe his episcopate within eight or ten years, a time, as it appears to me at least, not so long. On the contrary, if you place Aper before Dyscholius, since Bethausius subscribed the council of Arles in the year 314 and Dyscholius that of Agrippina in the year 346, a fairly notable time intervenes for Aper, for nothing forbids that Bethausius died not long after the council of Arles, and that Dyscholius was present at the synod of Agrippina at the beginning of his pontificate; so that in this hypothesis Aper could have presided thirty years more or less. But, not to take these things so strictly, let us grant that Bethausius died about the year 320, and that Dyscholius was consecrated about the year 340; there remain, and suffice, as the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana say, twenty years for that long pontificate of Aper. Since, therefore, St. Maternian, as his Acts reveal, died in the twenty-third year of his pontificate, and did not survive St. Hilary, who died in the year 367, very long, as can be gathered from the same Acts, it follows that his death is not to be removed much from the year 370, and so that Donatian could have been raised to the chair of Reims about the same time. I confess that in this hypothesis of ours only 37 years intervene from the death of St. Maternian to the martyrdom of St. Nicasius (for I have said that he was slain by the Vandals about the year 407), which had to comprise four prelates; but do these not suffice? For St. Nicasius was carried off prematurely by martyrdom, nor is it established of the other three that they lived very long. I would accordingly wish to follow him who should judge that our Saint's death is to be set toward the year 380.

* Psalm CXXXIIII, verse 6

* Psalm LXXVI, verses 15 and 16

Psalm LXVIII, verses 16, 17 and 18

* Matthew X, verse 33; Luke XII, verse 9.

MIRACLES OF ST. DONATIAN

from the MS. codex of the Vallicella, marked with us Pms. 159, and collated with the MSS. of St. Donatian of Bruges and the lectionaries of St. Omer, by anonymous authors and Ebrard, regular canon of Watten.

Donatian, bishop of Reims and conf., at Bruges in Flanders. (S.)

BHL Number: 2283, 2284, 2285, 2286, 2288

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

CHAPTER ONE

Sight restored to a blind woman, and to a certain soldier divinely struck with blindness.

It is clear from the testimony of John the theologian that Christ is the true light, Ermengard, a woman of Ostend, which enlightens every man coming into this world. ^a He, through the minister of the eternal light, Saint Donatian, worked a Miracle splendid enough in itself, and not unworthy of the praise of another light: but because it is fitting to set the works of light before those who rejoice that they are sons of light, therefore we entrust the same miracle to the office of the pen, so that from it both glory to God and the grace of pious devotion to the faithful may increase. There is, then, a district conspicuous among all nations, called by a name known to all, Frisia. ^b Here there is a town situated, surnamed by the inhabitants Osdenne, ^c adjoining a hill by the name of Rorikesberg. ^d In this town, therefore, a certain woman called Ermengard, mingled with the other faithful, was known in those days. She, wonderfully by the permission of God struck with blindness, but more wonderfully by the mercy of God through Saint Donatian was saved. Which has rarely happened, by the testimony of the faithful, with such a prodigy. On a certain day, then, she went with a water-jar to the well called Rorikisput, ^e to carry water from it for the use of the household, when behold, from the aforesaid hill a sound ^f reached her ears, as it were the sound of harps or of those singing with the timbrel, as it were the sound of those in a choir singing psalms harmoniously with sweet melody; and, as it is natural for the human mind to be delighted by the sweetness of song, leaving the jar presently upon the mouth of the well, she went to the hill to be more abundantly filled with the refreshment of so great a sweetness.

[2] Where, when she lay down on a part of the hill to delight her attentive hearing with the musical sweetness, made blind, at the admonition of St. Donatian a soothing sleep, with pleasing rest, fed upon her limbs, loosened by the sweetness of the song; and, as she was given to sleep, someone standing by, by the cunning of the demon, poured boiling water over her, and left her wounded with grievous pain: for from the strong force of the seething water not only did her hair flow down mixed with flesh and blood, but also the gem-like ^g humour of both her eyes so withered that she groaned within herself that the joy of light had been suddenly turned into the horror of night. So for the courses of eight years, sick, she dragged her limbs by another's guidance: with doubtful steps she alternated her footsteps guided by a staff. But, as is clear from what follows, this blindness befell her so that by it the works of God might be manifested in her, and the merit of Saint Donatian made illustrious among the people of God. Eight years having elapsed, therefore, as has been said, in that tribulation of blindness, when the ninth was now presenting to the exulting world the most sacred night of the Lord's Incarnation, behold a heavenly visitation is at hand; for there appeared to her an old man sprinkled with white hairs, clad in white, his hand adorned with a pastoral staff, and he addressed her in words of this kind: Do you bear it, my daughter, with vexed mind that you have been harassed with this bereavement for so long a time? It is natural, Lord, she said, to bear with vexation what is wont to happen vexatiously. Then he: Gird yourself, daughter, and the fortress which is commonly*

called Brugga, ^h go to in haste; for there a heavenly remedy will be at hand for you, and, I being patron, gladness in the recovery of both your eyes as before.

[3] How, she said, my lord, shall I go to Brugga, she goes to Bruges, who am ignorant of the way and the place and of its very name? ⁱ Then the old man, taking her right hand and raising his crozier ^k on high, showed her with great charity the public road by which she might be led to the place mentioned. After this the venerable old man, turning away, began to go: but she, sending a cry after the back of the one departing, asked of him both his person and his name. And he answered that he was an episcopal person, named Donatian. At this word the woman, awakened from sleep, was gladdened not a little by a vision of this kind: but, since traces of doubt had lodged in her heart, it pleased the holy provider of her salvation to appear to her a second and third time in the same manner and order which we have described; and because it is written: "in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word stands" ^l, now, all ambiguity being put aside, supported by the protection of the faithful, she came to the fortress of which we have spoken. In the year, therefore, of the Word made man one thousand and eleven, namely on the day of the Kalends of May, as the brethren ^m were celebrating the sacred solemnities of the masses, behold the woman, entering the church under another's guidance, approached with great devotion and perfect faith the place in which the body of our Most Holy father Donatian is frequented with the due honour of the faithful.

[4] and in the Saint's church her former sight Where, having offered and left the candle which she carried in her hand, she prostrated herself in prayer, asking both pardon for her sins and also the recovery of the lost light. And when she had prayed for a very long time, the regard of divine grace promised by Saint Donatian is at hand; and first indeed, on account of the release of the contracted sinews and the force of nature being changed, she was harassed with a pain brief indeed and as it were momentary, but so great that she would have preferred being refreshed by a small drop of water to all the riches of Croesus. And when she had risen from prayer, her eyes dripped blood drop by drop, and with a great cry of divine praise she began to see everything clearly. In proof of the faith, too, the provost of the sacred church, running with the brethren, and having diligently tested every outcome both by sight and also by touch, faithfully believed the matter and faithfully bore testimony. And both those who were present and had seen this, and those absent who had learned it by hearing, began to magnify God with a great and lofty voice, and to extol Blessed Donatian in so great a Miracle with great harmonies of praises.

[5] These and things like these God is wont to work concerning the sick, she recovers. taking care both of bodies and also of human souls: but of souls the more, in that the dignity of a subtler nature and the ampler nobility of a heavenly substance commend these; by whose ineffable kindness the aforesaid woman merited to be gladdened with outward light. Rather so that from this the eternal light might shine forth in our souls, than that the use of a light soon to perish might cherish her: but you will say: how does the eternal light shine forth in my soul from this? From this, namely, that the matter of divine praise arising from the event of an unusual prodigy both stirs your soul to the praise and love of the creator and kindles your affection. Whence let it be pleasant to us to persist day and night in the divine praises with the angels and Saints, and through the wonderful minister of light, Saint Donatian, to tend to the author of the eternal light, Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit is honour, praise and jubilation through eternal ages.

[6] To the dedication of the monastery of Hasnon ⁿ We have learned, dearest brethren, certain most celebrated things, abundantly confirmed by the assertion of truthful witnesses, most worthy to be committed to the little cupboard of memory, and to be embraced heartily by all the present and succeeding sons of mother church, made public through the glorious patron Donatian with the cooperating clemency of the Holy Spirit. Which, although in exceedingly uncultivated speech, we have preferred to commit to tenacious letters rather than to keep silent, lest they be worn away by negligent oblivion. After, therefore, the most serene marquis of Flanders Baldwin, ^o cultivator of justice, lover of concord, son of peace, under whom in a certain manner that prophecy could be seen to be fulfilled which says: "they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles" [p], among the other pursuits of good works which he cultivated untiringly, had brought to completion the monastery [q] founded in the fortress of Hasnon, for consecrating the same monastery to the most high Lord, to be surnamed in this a second Solomon, he determined that wonderful preparations should be made from the infinite abundance of riches with which he overflowed to the full. And he commanded all the nobles of Flanders with their attendants * to be present at such and so great a solemnity.

[7] To heap up also the honour of so great a dedication, and of a festivity so dear to him, he, wholly devoted and well-disposed in the service of God, ordered the bodies of all the Saints [r] of his whole principality to be gathered together, with the bishops, among others the bier of St. Donatian was brought, provosts, abbots, and those subject to him. Whence it came about that, together with the relics of the Saints, the precious treasure of the body of our father Donatian, accompanied by a great troop of nobles, was honourably translated to the aforesaid place. As soon as they had come there with much sweat, since that place could not hold all without great difficulty, inasmuch as so many thousands of peoples had flowed together there, one counsel sat in the mind of all, that they should pitch tents outside near the town, where, keeping watch over the bodies of the Saints, they might apply themselves more freely to the service of God. And the peoples from all sides hasten in crowds to the bodies of the Saints, and with their offerings and prayers ask that God may be appeased toward them through so many suffrages of the Saints.

[8] at which, while a certain soldier repels an enemy asking pardon Among whom it happened that a certain soldier, in whom our Father of honey-flowing goodness was reposing, entered the tent, and sought the remedy of his sins through so great a dweller of the house of God. And when, prostrate on the ground before the Saint, he had long applied himself to prayer, rising, he approached the bier in which the incomparable treasure was kept, and with exceeding devotion offered his gift: and when he was pressing a kiss on the sacred bier, behold a certain man, against whom the devil, the corrupter of human nature, the author of death, the contriver of fraud, the sower of discord, the inventor of enmity and of all wickedness, had stirred him with the goads of hatred and wholly armed him for his death, rolls at his knees, and in the name of God and of our glorious patron Donatian humbly begs pardon, saying: Against you, the corrupter of souls deceiving me, I have offended; have mercy on me, that God may have mercy on you: but he, enraged, struggles against him, and, unless he lets him go at once, threatens him now with the dangers of death in the presence of the Saint: but this man did not desist from what he had begun; he heaped prayers on prayers that he would have mercy on him, and spoke thus: Pardon me, guilty, rolled suppliantly at your feet, so that from Christ, the unfailing fount of goodness, full remission of all sins may be conferred on you.

[9] he is made blind, Seeing which, the clerics and the other faithful who were present, moved with pity, cast themselves likewise with him at his feet, and try with humble prayers to soften to pity the heart hardened by the devil. But he, as one whom the ancient enemy had wholly possessed, is neither overcome by so many prayers nor changed from hardness of mind by tears, but is stirred much more to greater fury, and, now wholly suffused with the bitterness of gall, through the excessive wrath with which he was seething, no longer bearing them, wrenched himself from them, and with indignation of mind departed from the body of the Saint: but almighty God, not bearing that the contempt of his veteran soldier should remain longer unpunished, pursues the wretch with a worthy vengeance, by which he deprives him of the office of both his eyes. Whence the unhappy man is wholly shaken with a chill trembling, and wonders greatly how so sudden an unhappiness of blindness has come upon him, and at the same time is seized, as is natural, with an inexplicable pain. And now, as the pain and likewise the fear increased more and more, no longer able to cover with silence the misfortune of his unhappiness, he is compelled to make known with wailings no less horrible than pitiable with what and how great anguish he was within afflicted. He also rends his garments, beats his breast with his fists, tears out his hair, strikes his palms together, tears his cheeks with his nails, invites death to come, but, because it delays, accuses it of being so slow to the wretched: and, to finish in few words, so violent was the pain that it struck fear into those of pious heart who were present, lest, out of his mind, he should act furiously.

[10] Wherefore, sympathizing exceedingly with his miseries, they fly quickly to him, but by the counsel of the bystanders asked what was the cause of so great a pain, exhort him to restrain his sadness with patience, and try to soothe so immoderate a pain with gentle consolations. But he, not acquiescing in their words or consolations, between frequent sobs and deep sighs at length, scarcely, burst out mournfully into this utterance: Let it be allowed, my lords, let it be allowed me to satisfy my grief, let it be allowed at least to bewail the misfortunes of my unhappiness, which you see have unhappily befallen. I have lost the joy of the present life, I have lost the light of my eyes by a momentary unhappiness, and what remains for me further but to grieve? O who will hasten sooner death, too slow for me? So that at length with the end of life an end may be given to my sadness. Alas, wretched me above all, who have grievously offended God and the Saint of God; whence I have merited to be unhappily condemned to the night of blindness. Hearing which, the brethren and all the faithful who were present at these things were struck with exceeding wonder, and with ampler love and more zealous veneration toward our glorious Patron they began to praise the just judgment of God, who deigned to be present as a swift avenger of the contempt of his Saint. To the man also, nonetheless condoling with his troubles, they speak thus: Do not, brother, be worn down by such anguish, do not be torn by so violent a sadness, but, knowing that you justly suffer the judgments of God, restrain your pain with patience, and, still having hope of the mercy of God, hasten humbly, with all meekness, to go to the Saint of God from whom you departed proud and full of ferocity of mind, and, weeping for having offended against him, implore pardon from his copious goodness.

[11] Then at last he, coming to his senses, obeyed their counsels, and humbly asked to be led there. invoking the Saint, and reconciled with his enemy, What more? He came under another's guidance to the bier of our pious Father, poured himself out in prayer, asking pardon for his sins, prolonged his supplication with sighs and welling tears for some spaces of hours, and added such things before all: O Saint of God, I forgive my debtor from my whole heart, for your honour, all that he has offended against me; only let your indignation cease concerning me: and rising from prayer, all enmity being cast far away, he entered into a covenant of peace with him in full charity. O sons of peace! O lovers of concord and charity! Let this sit in your mind, to lend your ear with goodwill; let it please you to attend to what a miracle the divine goodness deigned to work for peace through our honey-flowing Father, and to rejoice, and with more zealous diligence to build up the things which are of peace.

[12] he recovers his sight; whence arising And after peace with a holy kiss

he had confirmed, forthwith the divine mercy was present, which restored the light to him so fully as if he had never endured any darkness of blindness. Then, filled with a joy ampler than any tongue can utter, he spread out both hands to heaven, and from the inmost marrow of his heart rendered thanks to the divine goodness and to his glorious rewarder Donatian: and, from the excessive exultation with which he overflowed, giving way to tears, he spoke thus to the people standing round: O my lords and brethren, all with one mind congratulate me; praise the great works of the ineffable mercy of God accomplished in me; proclaim with me the marks of the venerable and lovable father Donatian made clear in me; for I, whom the anger of the Saint had deprived of the office of the eyes, the clemency of the same being again propitious to me, now see all things clearly. As he related such things, the shout of the people is raised to heaven, the clemency of the Saviour, the Miracles worked through his Saint, are praised, the father of copious goodness is blessed by the mouth of all, a canticle of praise to God is jubilantly sung by the clergy with the loudest voices, a memorable joy is celebrated by all.

[13] to the immense joy of all, With the voices of such gladness also they strike the ears of those absent: they wonder greatly what is the cause of so great exultation, and so exhort one another: Let us go, let us hasten, let us run, and learn what has been done there, and let us busy ourselves to join ourselves to those so happily rejoicing. A not small crowd of either sex, therefore, flies there; they find unexpected joys, which the wonderful Deity willed to work through its Saint. Whence they too render praises to God with sweet-flowing voice and most devout mind: moreover they hasten in rivalry to embrace the bier of our Father, and honour the Saint with infinite gifts; and they do not cease to pray that he may be a honey-flowing intercessor for their sins with the divine mercy. How many tears also arose there for joy, how great a salutary exultation was in all, the small measure of my eloquence fails to set forth. To heap up the gladness moreover, the fame of so splendid a Miracle reached the ears of the glorious marquis, and filled him with no small exultation, as being a most vigorous leader, a most constant defender of justice, a most kindly lover of religion and holiness; whence he is suddenly wholly kindled with an ampler desire for divine worship, and in a certain manner called back to the love of peace, blessing with heart and mouth God, who deigned to adorn a festivity so dear to him with the visitation of his goodness.

[14] The Saint's bier is carried back to Bruges. He also worthily honours and venerates the most pious patron Donatian, and, frequenting him, embraces him with greater love. The multitude of the nobles likewise rejoices with the pious leader: and so the festivity of that dedication is celebrated with immense joy; and, all things for which they had come being devoutly accomplished, each returns joyfully to his own: our glorious Patron also is lifted up by the faithful with hymns and canticles, and, a not small crowd of either sex accompanying him, is led back with honour and joy to his own. Let us, therefore, dearest brethren, persist untiringly in the praise of this Father, and keep watch without intermission in his service: let us embrace him, let us venerate him, through whom such shining Miracles are declared to us, and pardon is granted to the penitent: him, I say, let us venerate, and commit ourselves to his patronage with sincere devotion, trusting that we shall be absolved from all the bonds of sins through his suffrages. And if we persevere in good things, that we shall receive the light of eternal brightness and the inheritance of ineffable gladness, in which he himself, equal to the angels, clad in the robe of blessed immortality, crowned with the unfading crown of eternal beatitude, awaiting the unspeakable adornment of the double robe, associated with the choirs of all the Saints, reigns with Christ for ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Isaiah, chapter 11, verse 4.

q. This most ancient and celebrated monastery of Hainaut lies, with the village of the same name, by the river Scarpe, about one of our leagues distant from the town of Saint-Amand toward Douai, of which Jean of Ypres thus in his Bertinian Chronicle: To Baldwin of Lille, count of Flanders, succeeded his son Baldwin, brought up from boyhood in the court of the emperor Henry. He in the time of his adolescence fell into so great an infirmity that his father held a candle in his hand, awaiting his last breath. And behold, suddenly, his strength resumed, he said to his father: Father, I shall escape from this infirmity, if you will give me the place of Hasnon, that I may be able to build a monastery there. These things will be true, because Saints Marcellinus and Peter have just promised me this. The father assented, and the son was made well. The castle of Hasnon, a lurking-place of robbers, being therefore overthrown, he built there the monastery of Hasnon in honour of the Holy apostles Peter and Paul and the Holy martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, and on account of this he was called Baldwin of Hasnon.

r. Meyer writes thus at the year MLXX: I find that there were present at that dedication the bodies of the Saints Marcellus, Piatus, Salvius, Amatus, Donatian, Vedast, Amand, Omer, Ghislain, Vincent, Bertin, Winnoc, Wandrille, Bavo, Everard, Eubert, Landelin, Hugh, Aichard, Eusebia, Rictrude, Aldegund, Ragenfred, Regina and Waltrude. For it was then the custom to carry the remains of various Saints to the dedications of sacred buildings.

Read: mea* (my)

Perhaps: clientibus* (retainers)?

CHAPTER II.

A weak and contracted woman healed: dangerous discords among the Flemings composed by the Saint's help: walking restored to a lame boy: a paralytic woman cured.

A woman at Bruges, wretchedly contracted and weak, We have seen moreover, dearest brethren, another most splendid Miracle declared, by the assent of the heavenly clemency, through the same most glorious Father of ours; which, because we judged it unworthy to be covered with silence, we have undertaken to set forth as we were able. There was, then, in the fortress of this most pious Patron ^a a certain poor little woman, placed in the years of old age, made by the hidden judgment of God so weak and contracted that, her legs being grown together under one skin from the ankles to the joints of the knees, up to the thighs, if she had to go anywhere for the necessaries of life, nature denying every support of walking, the wretched woman crept pitiably on hands and knees in the manner of any reptile. And she was seen by innumerable inhabitants of this place to labour for very many years under so many and so great a force of suffering and pain; and since the pain was long-lasting, and the infirmity one seen before in none of the living, all hope of recovering health had fallen from her; but the infinite mercy of the supreme goodness, at the time disposed, having pity on her long-lasting ills, deigned mercifully to soothe and console her whom it had justly scourged.

[16] And on a certain night, when the woman, wearied with the miseries of so many sufferings, was suffused with a very light sleep, she is admonished in sleep to go to the church of St. Donatian; it seemed to her that a certain one, robed to the feet in a stole of wonderful whiteness, stood by, had come as her kindly visitor, and spoke thus in a gentle voice: It is time, daughter, to put an end to such miseries: labour no longer: but he showed with his finger that she should come to that church, since there full remission of the sins for which you are scourged will be conferred on you by God, and, through Donatian, the patron of the same church, every disease of your body being driven away, you will be enriched with the benefit of perfect health. And, he said, do not distrust this promise, for the wonderful mercy of God has certainly disposed to make clear in you the merits of his chosen soldier. These things being said, the promiser of so great happiness disappeared from the eyes of the one lying there, and left her abundantly gladdened by so pleasant a visitation, perfectly believing the heavenly promise.

[17] wherefore raised up into hope, And she, through the excessive abundance of the new joy, is driven from her gentle rest, and, turning over with herself the things she had seen, wonders greatly whether these were shown to her rather waking than sleeping: God also, with eyes and hands raised to heaven, who deigned to look upon her so great miseries, she praises and glorifies with what voice she can: our lovable Patron, on whom, the grace of the Holy Spirit cooperating, all the joy of the promised health depended, she venerates; and through whom she

hopes to obtain the riches of salvation, she greets: and when morning had come, she explains in order to her household and the other faithful the things which had been seen by her. Whence she made all who sympathized with her miseries more cheerful; and she is instructed by those who were of sound counsel to busy herself to carry out the commands of the heavenly visitation with all devotion and thanksgiving. But because, as we said before, she had to creep to the church on hands and knees (for she would not be carried), since she wished to come there not without her own labour, and since also she blushed to undertake so great a labour in the sight of men, although in this she seemed to put off the joys of recovering health, she decided to wait until night.

[18] by night she creeps there, and to health In the silence, therefore, of the following night, as the bells of the church rang out for the morning hymns, the woman betook herself from her bed, and, creeping slowly and pitiably with much sweat, at length came to the church of the Saint, the morning lauds and praises being almost finished: and there, with deep sighs, tears being poured forth abundantly, she poured herself out in prayer with contrite heart and emaciated body, begging absolution of all crimes for her soul, and the joy of the promised bodily health. And she remained praying without intermission and awaiting the mercy of God until the first hour of the day: but because she asked faithfully and waited patiently, therefore she merited to be mercifully heard, and merited wonderfully to be consoled; for the generous benefits of God are at hand, and the flesh, as good as dead, began little by little to revive: the sinews to draw in the vigour of natural use long taken away: the veins, living blood being resumed, to swell, and new health to creep in everywhere. But in that extension of the sinews, in the intense struggle of health and disease, the woman began to be exceedingly distressed, to be affected with a strong force of suffering, to be bathed all over in sweat for the excessive distress, and, now unable to bear so great a bitterness of pain, she cried out with a loud voice: O saint Donatian, pious father, glorious pontiff, help me.

[19] Hearing which, certain of the brethren and the other faithful, fully, who were applying themselves to prayer in diverse parts of the church, greatly astonished and likewise wondering, betook themselves there as quickly as possible, and, seeing the pious works of the mercy of God which were being done, glorified God, and, lifting her up from the place in which she lay, devoutly placed her before the altar consecrated in honour of our honey-flowing Father. Where, when she had lain for scarcely the space of a very brief hour, the skin by which, as we said above, the legs with the ankles up to the joints of the knees were pitiably bound to the thighs, the blood flowing out, is broken: the legs and thighs, joined together for very many years by vitiated nature, are separated: the sinews with the veins are assigned to their natural uses: the legs are stretched out: the feet are fitted to their proper office: whatever was infirm is restored to health, and the woman is so stripped of all pain of body that not even any signs of the old infirmity remained in her. Except that from the broken skin blood was seen to flow out on the legs. Whence she, as one from whom long-lasting misery had been taken away and to whom new joys had been granted to the full, ineffably gladdened, raised herself on her feet before the most holy altar of our Father, and, tears welling up for joy, and palms stretched to the sky, adoring from her whole heart God, who deigned to show in her such great marks of his mercy, she blessed him, and, with the whole affection of her heart, as far as she could, rendered thanks to the venerable patron Donatian, by whose renowned merits she had been enriched with so pleasant a soundness.

[20] Meanwhile the joys of this praiseworthy Miracle are spread abroad all around: with no small joy of clergy and people the whole city, so to speak, congratulates itself on the praiseworthy deed of the glorious Prelate, and, the bells of the church ringing out, almost the whole gathering of the citizens is assembled in the church of their prince: the provost too of the sacred church, a man of honest life and illustrious, the fount of all liberality, flying there with the community of the brethren, rejoices not a little. And she, using her new steps, all exulting, exultingly presented herself, and showed the great works of God effectively worked in her. Whence she heaped up not moderately the joy conceived by all. For here the clergy jubilantly sing praises to God in the highest with the whole effort of their mind. There the peoples exult with canticles, as they may, all together blessing and glorifying God wonderful in so great a Patron. They enrich the woman also with innumerable gifts: on all sides spiritual joys resound, which if I should presume to set forth to the full, even if the eloquence of Maro were in me, I think I should fail. At length, therefore, after the spaces of some hours, the assembly of those so happily exulting is dissolved, and each, congratulating, is received from the church into his own; and the woman who had lately crept there pitiably weak, now, mingled with the troops of the faithful, sound and happily rejoicing, returns to her own home.

[21] Let us too, therefore, dearest brethren, all with one mind rejoice in the Lord on the birthday of so venerable and embraceable a Father, she is restored. and let the devotion of all dwell on hymns and spiritual canticles: let us deny entry to sadness, because the day of highest exultation and gladness is at hand: far be from these joys every hidden bite of envy, by which the body is afflicted and the soul destroyed: let charity unfeigned be present, by which a neighbour is not harmed, but glory is merited; because then we sincerely celebrate the solemnities of our Father, if we keep entire love toward one another, and do not separate the heart from the praises of the mouth. And that we may merit so to celebrate, and by celebrating be made partakers of the eternal festivity, let us beseech with most humble prayers the help of him who has deigned to enrich us and our place with the incomparable treasure of the body of so great a Patron, who through the glorious merits of the same Father does not cease to defend us from enemy, famine and plague, to gladden us with the marks of miracles, and to water us with all good things, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

[22] A monstrous tumult having arisen at Bruges, ^b It is pleasing nevertheless, dearest brethren, to set forth according to my small measure certain other memorable things also declared through the suffrages of the same embraceable Father, lest, through the negligent oblivion of those who come after, such great marks of the Father should be altogether unknown. At the time, therefore, when the innumerable army of the Christians set out for Jerusalem to drive the sons of unbelief from the place in which the whole promise of our redemption was fulfilled, ^c the marquis Robert also, ^d a man most elegant in form, a soldier most excellent among many thousands of soldiers, to be compared to Augustus Caesar alone in ruling the cavalry in camp, set out on the journey, with the better-born and the knighthood of Flanders and the chief men of his whole county, to fight for Christ: Flanders being widowed of whose rule and protection, the ancient enemy, unceasingly envious from the first origin of the world of the sons of peace, grieving that in those who were absent he could accomplish nothing at his pleasure by any temptations, by any fraudulent cunning, nor find a fit seat for himself in them, sowed so great discords, strifes, frauds and hatreds ^e among those who had remained, especially those inhabiting the bounds of Bruges, that, a great discord arising from a very small one, brother by no means feared to stretch out his hand against brother, and son against father. From the tinder even of one iniquity, alas, intestine wars were begun, which could by no means be quieted without much shedding of blood.

[23] the bier of the Saint being brought out, it is quieted: a lame boy These and similar civil enmities, therefore, growing on all sides, by order of the provost ^f of the church and counsel of the brethren, the body of our most holy Father mentioned above was carried on a certain day, with great devotion and supplication of the people, out of the basilica founded in his honour, in which he kindly shines with very frequent powers, into the street neighbouring the church: and there a great multitude of either sex being gathered, a priest delivering a sermon to the people, the enmities stirred up a little time before by the corrupter of spirits, which could never be brought back into friendship by gold or silver, God deigned to pacify through blessed Donatian, the Holy Spirit calming the minds of all; so that, all the bonds of discord being broken, and the goads of hatred blunted, all with one mind entered into covenants of peace; ^g and to make manifest also to the people that these covenants of peace had been entered into by the assent of the divine clemency, there was meanwhile a certain boy, who had spent all the time of his life lame, ^h held by many distresses of diverse infirmities, placed beside the bier of our Father, earnestly begging help from the blessed Man with what prayers he could (for he had seen in sleep, as he himself affirmed, that he was to be healed by the same Patron), who was restored to health.

[24] and a paralytic girl Which the greater portion of the people of Bruges, as being at variance with one another and very slow to believe, asserted had been made clear not through Saint Donatian but through blessed Ilherus, ⁱ to whose bier that wretched boy had crept nearer. Whence the brethren of the church, grieving more vehemently than can be committed to writing by words or letters, though not openly, with hands and hearts fixed on heaven, besought the clemency of the Saviour that he would deign to declare some sign more evidently to wipe out the unbelief of the people. But when they had all stayed there until the sixth hour of the day, prolonging their prayer to God, and so long a delay promised no hope of a future Miracle, frustrated of their desire, redoubling deep sighs from the bottom of the breast, they carried our holy Patron back into the minster, and the whole assembly of the faithful, each one, returned to his own. But certain of the brethren, although confounded with frequent sighs and much overflowing of tears, yet not distrusting the gratuitous mercy of God, who does not forsake those who hope in him, remained in the church, and most devoutly placed a certain girl, who had spent almost all the years of her little life paralytic, upon the bier in which the venerable treasure of the body of our most pious Father is kept with reverence.

[25] are cured, She indeed was tormented with such troubles as so dire a suffering is wont to arouse, that, her body being almost dead already, the vital spirit scarcely panted in her breast alone. What more? When for a long time she had lain upon the bier, through pain gnawing with her teeth the gold with which the coffin of the most holy Father is adorned, striking it with her palms, and with frequent tears asking that a remedy be granted her, the infirmity growing heavier, she was set down by the brethren on the pavement beneath the bier. You would then have seen her pitiably distressed, constrained by a most violent disease, so much that you would have thought her dead rather than alive: but, the divine clemency assenting, a spiritual medicine followed through Blessed Donatian, for, having become bloodless, after she had been refreshed with a tiny drop of water, supporting her limbs with a staff, she tottered slowly, nodding, from the bier to the altar dedicated in honour of our holy Father. Where, as soon as she had rested, wearied by so great a journey, she returned swiftly to the bier of her physician, spurning the supporting staff. Where in a moment she received full health of her whole body, as if she had never endured any sickness.

[26] And feeling herself freed, and seeing the mercy of God made clear in her, with huge gladness of those standing by and running up. she began to magnify with high-sounding voices, for the liberty recovered, God and pious Donatian, by whose intercession she had obtained this: the grief of the bystanders is changed at once: gladness is renewed: joy is celebrated by all: tears are shed for joy which had before welled up for grief: such shining Miracles to those absent

are made known, so that they may congratulate them with one mind in the Lord: there is at once a great concourse of peoples, praising the working of the divine power, and with the harmonious acclamation of all extolling the most powerful intercession of Saint Donatian: on all sides praises resound to the Lord, the bells of the church ringing out: the clerics devoutly sing jubilantly "Te Deum laudamus," the men and women glorifying God with what voice they could. And she, rejoicing and exulting, runs to meet all, and clearly shows the mercy of God accomplished in her. Truly, dearest brethren, it befits us in every way to venerate, to praise, and assiduously to keep watch in the service of this confessor, now our most holy Patron, through whom such shining Miracles are done for us: since from him whoever prays faithfully obtains welcome help: from him certain indulgence is not denied to the truly penitent; wherefore let us implore the humility of this most holy Patron of ours, that he may deign to intercede for us with the divine Majesty, which he serves untiringly. We have heard just now that this paralytic received, through his mediation, the remedy for her paralysis. Let us too believe that, if we repent from our whole heart, we shall be cleansed through him from all the rottenness of our sins, our lord Jesus Christ granting it, whom the heavenly order praises on high always under the threefold name for ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Themard, canon of Watten, cured of paralysis: a woman freed from the penance enjoined on her, and a certain hermit freed from reproaches, by the Saint's intercession.

BY EBRARD

[28] Of whom, one of the many whom he has made wonderful by diverse arts, so also in St. Donatian; for a certain Themard, a veteran dweller of his house, he has delegated to us, the maritime peoples, the most holy confessor Donatian, a faithful forerunner of the flock, a frugal nourisher, a receiver of vows, a cheerful giver in all things, generous of healing, skilled * in cure, a most skilful guardian of lasting salvation: who not only shines with powers where the treasure of his venerable body is honoured, but has also very often become known by signs of Miracles beyond the bounds of his territory; which not so much the lack of writers as earthly solicitude, ever caring for its own things, not those of Jesus Christ, has deleted by negligent oblivion. Of which we have undertaken, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, to make known certain memorable things which we have learned were worked by the same Patron in the church of Watten, ^c trusting that the gifts of the tongue will be given by him who gives tongues as a gift.

[29] in the district of the Menapii, There is, then, a district between the river Lys ^d and the maritime Flemings, surnamed Menapia, ^e whose inhabitants are called by historiographers by the general name of Menapii, an ancient and rough people, which, as the history of the ancients records, could not be subdued even by the Romans without bloodshed * ^f: it is not found to have been brought in from any foreign blood, ^g but that is their seat and origin: these, formerly divided among themselves by most strong and walled towns, from the beginning subdivided the common denomination of the district by proper names into the Caleti and the Batavi. ^h And the length of the district itself extends from the East, and is bounded on the West, namely the river Aa ⁱ receiving its end; from whose margin, a heap gradually growing up, a hill is born with gentle height, and, carried out with a level descent toward the east from the North and South, the hollows ^k lying low, it is heaped up in height, planted with groves, rich in pastures, so fertile in trees and vegetables of diverse kinds that, if you do not wish to tend useful things, willy-nilly, as if reproving the sloth of the labourer, it sprouts useless things with wonderful increase: moreover so healthily exposed to the blasts of the winds that it does not permit the infected air or the mists, the confluence of which the same channel exhales, to curdle into thickness.

[30] namely in the monastery of Watten, It appears easily, however , how celebrated a place it was in its days for the throng of people; to which public and royal roads meeting from both sides are still pointed out, of which the one which, spread out from the east, is directed there is closed by the channel flowing beneath; but the other, looking toward Britain, ends from the West at a port of the Ocean. On this hill, therefore, by the testimony of the histories, once a colony of the Batavi, ^l but now there is situated the church of Watten *, founded from the root by a certain religious man named Odfrid; ^m the beginning of whose good conversation, which he spread abroad in it among hard and uncultivated men, gave advancement of souls to many: for when, at the first time of his coming, he had seen the place solitary, as he had long desired it he loved it, and the little church ⁿ which he found woven of mean planks among brambles and serpents, not much later he received by episcopal acts, ^o instituted a dwelling of clerics, and began to live according to the rule established under the holy Apostles. And when some, moved by the novelty of the report, and others inspired by devotion and the hidden benefit of grace, flowed together to him, and, from a small beginning, the affair growing daily, he founded a more ample one, and stirred the minds of very many to the purpose of living well, so that they both willingly gave themselves to the common life and, renouncing all the things which they seemed to have in the world, made Christ their heir.

[31] Among whom a certain neighbour named Hermar, made a regular canon, a faithful man, then also offered two little sons, and handed them over to the aforesaid priest to be educated under the yoke of the rule; whom he, receiving them, nourished in fatherly fashion, and, as they lived by the merit of life in the holy society, he promoted them, as that age permitted, to serve under sacred orders; of one of whom, named Themard, God showed by renowned report, through Saint Donatian, Miracles bright in power, clear in brightness, provable in themselves, not needing the testimony of another. [p] He, then, when as a youngster of nine years he had been offered by his parents in the same monastery, lived regularly in that holy society, according to his small measure, under pastoral discipline; he fulfilled the domestic offices readily and obediently: at the nod of the one admonishing he carried out easily what was enjoined; and what a more advanced age was not fitted to do , as is the custom in the house of God to instruct the younger, he came in his lot with those of his age. He spent so a longer time under other scholars, and in that to which he was being trained he profited daily for the better by the providence of God, and passed his age of puberty under regular studies.

[32] He understood even then that it is a safe way to live a safe life under guides, touched with paralysis, safe labour under rulers with labourers of this kind: but under the gaze of the judge who discerns all things, what can be safe, or confident in itself, that lies hidden in any degree from the maker of his work, that escapes the keenness of the divine light? Nothing passes by, nothing succeeds, he sees all things, penetrates all things, searches all things, judges all things; nor has he need that anyone should give him testimony of man, for he himself knows what is in man: he perhaps knew, by invisible judgment, something hidden in this servant of his which he willed to be mercifully punished, lest it pass unpunished; or if he ought not properly to be punished, he enjoined in him a salutary judgment of correction for the brethren *; for his younger age having run its course, as has been said, he now stood out as a rather big lad, he had now reached the bounds of glowing adolescence, when, dissolved by the most acute suffering which the Greeks call paralysis, he lay down, and, the framework of his limbs being destitute, he withered by half [q] from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head: pitiable was the face of one bearing the living with the dead; when, the whole mass of the body still surviving, the suffering had taken away the whole left side, and the dead part had assigned the living limbs to its own office.

[33] and dreadfully tormented, And because there was no health in being without himself, he presented to the eyes of all a wearisome weight, which the disease itself had made solid in him lest it perish: the languid limbs lay empty of service, and presented only the surface of a human body, fit for no use. And whenever, the suffering being remitted a little, he had to go to the church or anywhere, the living corpse, a staff supporting him, tottered slowly and wearily: or, the keeper being absent, when he sometimes moved himself less soundly toward others' affairs, it very often transformed the wretched man into some creeping thing. The tongue was without office, or if he barked out anything stammering, it sounded foreign to understanding and without sense. Long

is it to recount one by one the miseries and the troubles which so dire a suffering is wont to arouse. [r] And when the protraction of a martyrdom of this kind had stretched out for almost three years, and the inveterate affection of the disease no longer promised any hope of recovering , the divine compassion, ever unmoved toward those who ask with faith, was at hand, and showed that the one afflicted with long calamity [s] had not yet been abandoned by its good pleasure.

[34] For when the anniversary birthday of saint Nicholas had come, at length in sleep and the people was flowing together more frequently to the place mentioned above on account of his memory, the same brother, admonished by a certain eagerness of mind in himself amid the very scourges *, asked that he might be present with the other brethren at the common gladness which he knew was to be celebrated. And being led to the vigils of the night, he devoutly fulfilled the office of the lesson, which he had asked to be permitted him, but, not bearing the infirmity, he returned to his bed before the others, the lauds being finished. Scarcely is he loosed in a very light sleep — such that, as is wont to happen, sleeping lightly, you would rather believe yourself awake — when behold the whole couch in which he lay is suffused with a sudden light, in which he unexpectedly sees two magnificent men coming to him, whom a certain elder, going before with dutiful assiduity, seemed to do the part as it were of an attendant before so great a dignity. And they followed behind on either side with the very seemly gait of grave persons. The brother is terrified by the unexpected light, and is wholly shaken by the brightness of forms and dress never seen before, and, uncertain what to do, trembling he wonders only at the presence of those whom he beheld.

[35] he sees Odfrid, SS. Gudwal and Donatian, And he who went before them, approaching nearer as a familiar visitor, stood by the bed, and for some time silently examined the condition of the one lying there; and when he gazed more carefully at him gazing from above, he recognized that this one, splendid in the regular gown, was lord Odfrid, prior and founder of the church of the place , who had departed this life two years before: at once he is lifted up with congratulation, relieved with inward joy, for he kisses the unexpected return of the long-lost father, and, with what nod he could, venerates with reverence that heavenly company. [t] Then the elder: Are you sleeping, son? And he: Do you think, father, that I can sleep, whom you see bound by so eminent and so grave an infirmity? For sleep has fled from my eyes, as health from my limbs. To this the elder: See, he said, son, and he nodded toward those standing at his side, see, I say, and know that this is Saint Donatian of Bruges, and that he has come as your visitor. And do not doubt either that this blessed Gudwal, [x] the preserver and dweller of the monastery of Blandin, [u] stands by.

[36] And while he directed the keenness of his eyes more studiously upon their faces, flashing beyond human measure, and upon their episcopal mitres, by whom, by St. Donatian's help, he painted in his memory their forms and the qualities of their bodies, and set out to the brethren their bearing and characteristics as if of someone still drawing the airs of life: Saint Donatian, he said, was of average stature, which neither exceeded too much in length nor depressed the dignity of the person by its smallness, with broad shoulders, a manly and unemaciated chest, a brawny neck, a round and cheerful face, large eyes lively with brightness , a straight nose, lips moderately marked, a full forehead, ears open and erect, sprinkled about the temples, around the circuit of the forehead, with curls * of thicker grey hairs, but behind a smooth head of hair, with scarcely a rare whiteness shining through the natural colour. But Blessed Gudwal was tall in height, more eminent in the whole surface of his limbs, elegant in form, an old man of much time and mature age, white with snows. These things being said, turning to blessed Donatian, he said: Behold, Holy Man, God has commanded that you heal this canon: who also, at this next nativity of Christ, will come to Bruges to your court, and will bring you as a gift a silver thread of his own measure weighing two English pennies: with which gift also, returning each year at the revolving term, he will honour your altar as long as he lives.

[37] to heal, To whom the Saint answered: I approve. Will you not add, Saint of God, a further word? You are designated physician, and do you conclude the promise of medicine with one single word? You hear the gift proposed, and do you not wrangle in the hope of increasing the gift? You receive the assurance of health to be made, and do you not spurn the two mites offered? You come by so long a way, and do you ask nothing as the reward for the journey? Neither the Arab nor the Indian, nor the rich rod, sends such spices as you carry, and because you have possessed them by gift, do you weigh them as cheap? Physicians, however, profit by diverse gains, physicians acquire by diverse impostures, physicians push themselves forward in diverse ways, promise with many assertions, deceive with many promises; but you, all ambiguity being put aside, do not use much speaking, are not caught by greed of price, but trust to heal the whole man with "I approve," five letters and two syllables. Rich letter, rich sense, rich answer; great medicine in a small word, great salvation in a brief writing *, and therefore you do not need a prolix circumlocution. [y]

[38] And the elder, taking the diseased hand of the one lying there, put it into the right hand of the Saint, and commended him more attentively in words of this kind: and other secrets Receive, he said, O Saint of God, this canon in place of that one of yours whom I name to you, who, unless he quickly corrects his life, I declare is now to be condemned in the presence of God. [z] And the brother wished this to be kept silent for the time; silent, he awaited what of the revelation concerning himself should be fulfilled; and just as he was a sharer in the secrets of the Saints by hearing, so also, cautious, he did not betray the guilty man by disclosing him, because he never wished to indicate to anyone who he was, except to that very man whom the revelation denoted. [aa] The same brother also related to the brethren * that the man, admonished by him afterwards, before his death turned more attentively to lamentations. Meanwhile that heavenly company is dissolved, and, the elder who had come with them being left, each saint turns away. And the elder, by the urgency of his solicitude, about to arrange still certain other domestic matters, remained in that very light, and instructed the disciple further with diligent teaching as to what he should do thereafter.

[39] he is taught. Go, he said, son, to our brethren, and announce that their chamberlain, [bb] removed from human affairs some time before this, is being intolerably tormented; but indicate faithfully that by their prayers, if they act for him with one mind, it will shortly be granted by God, and, lest they be disquieted, let them not distrust of pardon, because through them he will certainly be redeemed from the penalty. Add also to your assertions that they not let the anniversary of Pope Gregory the seventh pass by in negligence for the rest of time, but each year compass the solemnity with celebrated observance, because he confirmed our church with a seal and an ample * decree, and promulgated in it for us, by fatherly tradition, the way of living rightly. And if they will devoutly fulfil this, affirm without doubt that they will not be cheated of remuneration; because he is a holy man, and of great merit, and God will receive with much thanksgiving what I command to be done for him. The vision being thus completed, the elder too departed in the footsteps of the company of the Saints, and left the brother, from distress of spirit, drenched with much sweat as with water, for he could scarcely sustain the burden of the vision on account of its difficulty: but not so much what he saw in astonishment of mind, although it terrified him almost to boiling, as the fragrance of odour and the grace of the hope now of recovering health delightfully revived him. [cc]

[40] awakened, he discloses the vision to the brethren, "Already the sun was hastening in its course to the star-bearing heights, and with rosy light was blinding the lesser stars," when the brother is struck from his gentle rest, and wonders that he is more certain he has seen heavenly ones than that he has slept; who at once, the order being reckoned up again, came as quickly as possible into the session of the brethren to the confession of what he had seen; and he made them, wondering, more eager for joy and for the promised health, and stirred them, of one mind, to great hope from the heavenly visitation of the place. Meanwhile the passing course of time becomes longer, and the saving term, when the nativity of our Saviour should hasten on, is longed for with desiring mind: he greets daily the day of the advent: he greets the pledge of future health: only let the holy station come: already secure, with talkative conscience he boasts of his station: he does not reckon the delay of the long-lasting suffering: let the day dawn which the offspring of the Virgin, and the same son of God, makes sacred: he weighs as nothing the twisted limbs, the contracted body, while the promised day is awaited which will render him erect: but it comes too slowly for his wish, and, being delayed by the ministry of the elements *, it is outrun by the gaping desire of the one sighing.

[41] and by their counsel, while he betakes himself to Bruges, At length, then, by order of the prelate and counsel of the brethren, the journey being prepared, he seized the desired way, and came with much sweat to Bruges, to the place of the Saint, three days before the Lord's nativity; and a certain liberal one of the brethren received him in hospitality the first night; but when the provost [dd] of the church learned the cause, he at once granted him a lodging in his own house. Whence, because it was adjoining the church, he could easily be set down before the Saint. And, offices being arranged for his care, he left with him suitable persons of the brethren, who were present with all goodwill: [ee] he himself, solicitous, went farther away to deal with other matters. [ff] And when, the vesper synaxis being now completed, night had begun to come on (for it was the one which preceded the vigils of the Lord), he went to the church: and, staying there some time, while he paid the vows of his prayers, he suddenly began to fail with so great difficulty [gg] that, when he prepared to return, he could by no means do so by himself; for, a certain horror being poured over him, as soon as he came before the Saint, [hh] a hidden heat ran at once through the inmost bowels, and then, wandering to the outer parts, began gradually to seize each limb. Whence the whole body at once flowed with a most copious inundation of sweat; which also, many days after, the side not yet recovered, could not be dried. [ii]

[42] health, And, twisted for some time, while he could not bear the increasing pain , he was carried back from the church to his bed by the hands of the attendants. You would then have seen the man distressed by diverse windings , turned this way and that wearily by certain hidden promptings, doing nothing stable, nothing certain, seeking a remedy of the suffering by manifold change, [kk] now lying more aptly, now sitting more comfortably; but neither did place for quiet nor bed for rest accommodate the limbs wearied by so many trials; so that the keepers for some time feared lest, tortured by pains, he should act furiously, and yet, overcome, they did not yield to such various motions by which the human framework was being reformed in itself; nay, now they applied warm fomentations, now ministered cool things to refresh him as he scarcely breathed, sometimes vigorously restrained him as he tried for other things, amid all wondering at so great a strength in one who was not strong. Then meanwhile that side, which had long * lain senseless, its rigidity gradually loosened, grew warm, tingled at frequent moments with a rigidity creeping on, the connections of the sinews were restored to their former uses, the hand with the arm, with the foot, by bendings frequently tried, the leg returned from the groin; until health, gradually creeping from all sides, as if after the touch of one healing, made the man whole from top to bottom, and among those sitting with him he raised himself on his feet with a swift leap.

[43] all being convinced of the Miracle, Grief is at once changed into joy, mourning into exultation, and those who a little before had stood around as witnesses in compassion [ll] now flowed together from all sides in congratulation; they test, they touch, and — some still doubting, through excessive wonder at the sign, whether it is so as was done — they vie with manifold proof, some to see what they had heard, others to hear more than once what they had seen, crowding round with friendly curiosity, as if it were ever new. He stands in the middle, and, carrying around the proofs of faith, joyfully sets them forth to each who meets him, and makes them more certain by the signs shown in the things which they saw. Then all, each one desiring, namely, to offer to God through him the fruit of the service rendered, hasten the way to the church with him. But, like the ample Aeneas, trusting in his new steps, he sought not help, he sought not light, nay, through difficult and angular places, alone, he outstripped all the others. The curious follow after, who should have gone before for service, and, because he hurt himself by no knock, [mm] they wonder the more, glorifying God.

[44] he recovers completely. And that a still greater firmness of faith might appear, he himself, from the upper gallery of the basilica, where he had entered, no one guiding him, descended most quickly by the winding stair before the altar which they call the greater, offered at the Saint's body itself the silver thread, as had been enjoined on him, and in the same place afflicted himself in prayer for a short space with many prostrations, [nn] which he could not have made unless he were sound. With proofs of this kind he satisfied those present who were looking on, lest they should believe that it had happened by some momentary impulse; he returned to rest, was present at the Matins of the same night, [oo] and when day had come nonetheless appeared continuously sound in the choir; on the same day he himself, leaping, served as steward at table to those who had carried him, and, all ambiguity being wiped away, on the second night celebrated the Lord's vigils with the full community: and on the very day of the Lord's Nativity the prelate of the church, at the public station, the same brother attesting, discoursed credibly in a sermon to the people concerning all that had happened. It was the one thousand and eighty-eighth year of the Lord's Incarnation, the eleventh indiction, [pp] when in the church of saint Donatian our father this illustrious Miracle was accomplished, and faithfully recited before the body of the same Saint with great triumph of clergy and people, to the praise and glory of God the Father, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who with him and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

[45] [qq] In time of old there was a certain woman, a woman from the penance enjoined on her, who was hindered by many sins, for she had slain her husband and had put her children to death; and since she was so long a sinner, she received from her bishop such a penance, that she should always be bound with chains around her arms and around her side; but, God helping, on a certain night, when she had given herself to sleep, a certain vision announced to her in most humble words that she should quickly go to Venderia, [rr] which city was situated upon the bank of the Marne, and enter the church of St. Donatian the confessor, and hang her neck to the ropes of the bells, and there, the penance being completed, lay down the chains from her sides and arms. And she, rising in haste and praising God, proceeded to the church, and fulfilled what had been commanded her. Hearing which, the people and clergy ran to the church, and gave thanks to God, who had done such great Miracles for Saint Donatian.

[46] and a certain hermit Thereafter, not long after, a certain hermit had stayed within the groves, who had long been a companion of the Most Blessed Donatian, whom the neighbouring people, envious on account of the holiness of his body, were wont to strike with frequent blows of that kind after their manner. And on a certain day the demon, most wickedly, at his prompting, sent to him a most beautiful woman, who should revile the works of his holiness. She, therefore, as she was possessed by demons, weeping, crying out and shouting, hastened to the most holy hermit, and asked lodging of him on account of an excessive tempest: and when the Holy hermit, coming from visiting a certain sick man, saw her, he asked her why, laden with so great grief, she was weeping. And she, answering him, said: My lord, the wild beasts of the wood, wherefore I beseech you that you receive me, your handmaid, into lodging, are pursuing me with excessive terror.

[47] are freed from reproaches by the Saint's help. Then the saint, moved with mercy, commanded her without any delay to come in under the doors of his lodging: and when the devil had seen this, filled with the greatest wrath, he hastened to make the woman cry out with a lofty voice. And the hermit, hearing these things, with a most humble voice ordered her to be silent; but she, at the prompting of the demon, began to cry out the more. And he, wearied by the excessive clamour, ordered the woman to enter his bed with him; and at once, inflamed with love of the woman, he caused a lamp to be lit, and tried, with dire torment, whether he could bear the pains of hell. Wherefore he burned his fingers in the fire, and meanwhile the light of day came on. Then the neighbouring men and mockers of iniquity ran crying out to the lodging of the most holy man, and wished to revile the holy hermit. Hearing which, the Holy hermit sent to Saint Donatian, and they believed his most holy words, and afterwards sang praise to God. Not long after, Saint Donatian died and was buried with great honour and great weeping. [ss]

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Receive from Martène the following, which our writer here passed over in silence on purpose: And because, living with them from the beginning, we daily see those things, daily behold them with our eyes, daily handle them with our hands, we wish also that all the faithful should wonder at them with us, venerate them with us, and, although not present, at least in writing behold them with us. See what was said in § IV, num. 54 of the Preliminary Commentary.

q. He had been seized, therefore, by what the Greeks call Hemiplexia, or semi-apoplexy.

r. Martène adds here the following: For the days without quiet, the sleepless nights, while I recall the greater things continued by the brethren more specially, I pass over narrating the lesser. But I set down one thing quite to be wondered at, that the strength conferred by the aid of so great a suffering so strengthened the living part of the body, which dragged the part as good as dead, that not only did it not fail, but — what is not wont to happen to the sick — sometimes, two or three holding him back, he resisted the more strongly. Which so indomitable vigour neither ever existed before the suffering, nor remained in him further once health was recovered.

s. Martène reads: diuturnitate; but, as it appears, he wrongly contracted into one two words perhaps abbreviated in the codex of Les Dunes after the custom of the time.

t. There follows here almost a whole column in Martène, but I do not recite it, because it is more probably not Ebrard's, but added by the author of the codex of Les Dunes.

u. It is most ancient, and so called from the Blandin hill near Ghent, on which it was built between the rivers Lys and Scheldt, and it is today the abbey of St. Peter, easily the most celebrated of all Flanders, and enjoying a most ample jurisdiction both of the court and of the pole.

x. The Acts of St. Gudwal, bishop, whose relics to the monastery of Blandin about the year 959

were brought, G. Henschenius introduced into our work at the 6th day of June.

y. Martène here inserts the following:

You are called Donatian; from donation you received your name. Give, my lord; set it forth fittingly what you answered; nay, resolve yourself the "I approve" which you said. Did you not say so, O Saint? Do you then assert that the old man was sent to you by God, and do you profess yourself His courtier? "I approve." You confess yourself a heavenly courier; you run to and fro between the highest and the lowest things. "I approve." You bid me become a physician; you lay upon me the cure of this man, "I approve"; you arrange his coming to me; you promise that he will stay among my courtiers, "I approve." You intend that he should not appear empty before God; you weigh out the price of the offering. Therefore this "I approve." It remains, then, O Saint of God, that you now take his hand into yours, and, when he has come to you, send him back healed to his own. It remains that with your life-giving hand you touch the crippled man, and make him able to carry the pallet that carries him. Receive, then, the one lying on his pallet, and give him back to us not, as he is wont, miserably hobbling on three feet.

z. More things here again, which Martène has, I omit for the reason alleged above under letter t.

aa. What I said under the preceding letter is to be repeated.

bb. A cambarius is a maker of beer, or brewer.

cc. Repeat what was said under letter z.

dd. Since it is said below at no. 45 that this miracle happened in the year 1088, the provost of St. Donatian at that time was Rayerius, who was also called Raynarius and Raynardus; for he occurs in the year 1080 in the privilege of Robert, son of Robert the Frisian, and count of Flanders, for the confirmation of the possessions of the monastery of Messines, where he names himself vice-chancellor; but when afterwards, in the year 1089, he subscribed a charter of the same Robert, he uses the title of chancellor absolutely.

ee. Martène expresses this period thus: And having appointed suitable persons from among the brethren to the offices (ministries) of his care with him, who were present to them with all benevolence, he also left him commended; but these penultimate words seem superfluous, interpolating the sense.

ff. I repeat what was said under letter z.

gg. Martène: he fails in strength by so sudden a shock.

hh. Martène omits the word pervenit, writing in its place: hic…

ii. Martène more correctly here: that even after health was received, it could not be dried for many days in the recovered side.

kk. Martène omits this member.

ll. Martène more correctly: tristes; but less correctly: constiterant.

mm. Martène adds: by night and in a dangerous crossing, when they had found it untouched.

nn. Veniae are genuflections, or certain toilsome bowings of the body, which are customarily imposed on religious as penance.

oo. Martène omits these two members.

pp. Meyerus is therefore to be corrected, who refers this miracle to the year 1078, in which the first Indiction was current.

qq. Consult what was said at no. 54, § IV of the Preliminary Commentary.

rr. See § IV, no. 44 of the preliminary commentary.

ss. Whence these things were sought out I do not know; indeed the bishops of Reims themselves were able to find nothing about his deeds.

The Dunes codex better: of what sort they themselves are also by the merit of their life.*

The same: visitant.*

The same wrongly: innititur.*

The same wrongly: utique.*

The same wrongly: Sanctum.*

* The Dunes codex omits these two words.

The Dunes codex more correctly: quoque.*

The same: ad nos.*

Supply: nostra*, from the same.

vicinus.*

The Dunes codex better: poterat.*

Read: laborare*, with the Dunes codex.

The Dunes codex: proprio reatu.*

Read: nostrae*, with the same.

sanitatem.*

The Dunes codex wrongly: in re morata.*

The same adds: Patris nostri.*

Likewise: ad nos.*

tractus*: the same.

The Dunes codex: nostrae.*

The same wrongly: imminenti.*

The same: nobis.*

The same: Micantibus.*

Perhaps: crispos.*

The Dunes codex wrongly: munera.*

The same wrongly: conluctantur.*

* The Dunes codex omits what follows.

The Dunes codex: nobis.*

The Dunes codex more correctly: apostolico.*

The same wrongly: alienus.*

The same: loquitur: in.*

The same: qui alimentum.*

The Dunes codex: defectionem.*

The same wrongly: a fratribus.*

The same wrongly: quamdiu.*

The same wrongly: stupentes.*

The same: Apostolicus.*

APPENDIX

Concerning certain visitations and translations of the relics, drawn from the register of the Acts of the chapter of the cathedral church of Bruges, and kindly communicated to us with the consent of the same chapter.

ACTS OF THE YEAR 1584.

Donatian, bishop of Reims, confessor, at Bruges in Flanders. (S.)

FROM THE REGISTER OF THE ACTS OF THE CHAPTER OF BRUGES.

The relics of the saint are visited and placed in a new casket: On Monday the 8th of October, in the chamber of the archives … the most reverend himself presiding.

Whereas, on account of the civil wars throughout the whole of the Low Countries which arose in these past years, and the movements of rebellion and sedition ^a in the city of Bruges, ^b the greater part of the clergy had been expelled from that same city and dispersed into various provinces, the public exercise of the Catholic religion being forbidden and ceasing, and the churches, monasteries and chapels despoiled and occupied by heretics and rebels, and the altars and images broken; at length by the favour of the divine Majesty (the tumults of Flanders beginning to be calmed) the city of Bruges was brought back to the bosom of holy Mother Church and to the obedience of His Most Serene Royal Majesty, and many of the clergy returned, the peace and reconciliation ^c of the same city having been published on the 25th day of May 1584, to the very great joy of the Catholics; and since, on account of the approaching feast of St. Donatian, patron of the cathedral church, it seemed opportune that the relics of the same St. Donatian, which in past years had been placed and kept outside the church in a secret and rather damp place, should be brought back to the same church and visited: hence it is that in the same year 1584, on the ninth day of the month of October, in the reign of the most serene King of the Spains, Philip, count of Flanders, etc., and the most illustrious Prince Alexander of Parma ^d governing these provinces on behalf of His Majesty, and the most reverend Lord Remigius Driutius, second bishop of Bruges, holding the see, there was visited, in the chamber above the sacristy, an old and worn little wooden chest, with the body, or bones, and relics of our said most holy patron Donatian, confessor of Christ, by the aforesaid most reverend bishop of Bruges, there being present and assisting him the dean and the canons then in residence, namely the venerable lords Nicholas de Heere, dean; James Eckius, archdeacon; Lawrence de Molendino, cantor; Alexander Barradot; Anthony Monachi; Remigius Driutius, official; Matthias Lambrecht, archpriest; James de Heere; and Andrew Bottyn, canon, secretary of the chapter; and it was ordained in chapter that a new little wooden casket be made for the depositing of the aforesaid old little chest with the relics themselves, and that into the same old one should be placed this schedule of the visitation, together with the two translations of the relics, ^e registered here below, which, written on parchment in the year 1695 and placed in the same old little chest, were not now found therein; and also that the same reliquary should be carried solemnly and in procession through the church on the approaching feast itself of St. Donatian. ^f

THE YEAR 1587.

[2] Monday the 12th of October, the most reverend lord presiding.

A part is set apart, and the reliquary is carried round: Then also a part of the relics of St. Donatian was enclosed by the most reverend bishop of Bruges in a crystal ^g adorned with gilded silver, for the devotion and veneration of the people, there being present the lords Nicholas de Heere, dean, and Alexander Barradot, fabricarius. ^h

THE YEAR 1609.

Done in the ordinary chapter on Tuesday, the day after St. Clement, the 24th of November, the lord dean presiding.

The most reverend lord coming in and presiding, it was concluded and ordained in chapter that on the morrow, the festival of St. Catherine, a general procession should be held, as has been observed since the year 1593, in which, on the day of St. Catherine, the rebels and enemies of the Catholic faith attempted to invade and seize this city by force; ⁱ which procession is customarily rendered to God in thanksgiving for the city of Bruges, preserved then and hitherto, with the carrying of the reliquary of the relics of St. Donatian by the greater circuit, if the weather permits, with a station and the celebration of a solemn Mass in this church. This procession, on account of the inclemency of the air and continual rain, was carried through the walk of the cloister, the place called Maelberch, around the Burg, straight to the church, where, Mass having been sung, the canticle "Te Deum laudamus" was solemnly performed with the organ and sung musically, with the Collect at the end by the celebrant at the high altar, the reliquary remaining in the choir until Compline; which being finished, the reliquary was put back above in its place, with the playing of the organ and the singing of "Christo cohaerens concio," with the Collect by the celebrant in his seat, and a motet sung by the musical cantors, and the ringing of the bell Naes. ^k

[3] The relics having first been shown It is to be noted that on the very day of St. Catherine, in the morning between eight and nine, the lords dean and canons being gathered in the chapter-house, and the prelates of St. Andrew's and of d'Eechoute, and the burgomasters of both councils, of Bruges and of the Franc, and various nobles and notable citizens being present, the most reverend lord, after a fitting exhortation, showed the relics of St. Donatian visited the day before, and before all enclosed them, with the letters of his paternity and others of the preceding visitations, in a little ivory chest placed in the principal reliquary; then, the habited clergy having gone out in procession from the choir to the chapter-house by the cloister walk, the reliquary itself was carried by the step of the cloister walk to the choir by the lords archdeacon and archpriest, the habited clergy going before with the singing of the responsory "O most holy Father, etc."; and a little later the procession went out by the lesser walk on account of the rain, as above.

[4] Little ivory caskets are enclosed: Charles Philip de Rodoan, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Bruges, perpetual and hereditary chancellor of Flanders, etc., to all and each who shall see, read and hear the present letters, greeting in the Lord. Whereas, the ancestral religion having been restored by right of return and the persecution of the Calvinists ceasing, the sacred relics of this cathedral church of Bruges had been dug out from various places and hiding-places, and among them had been brought back the greater part of the skull, with various bones of the body, of St. Donatian, patron of this church, and at the same time two letters, sound and whole, cohering with each other and pierced through with these, by which it was established that the first visitation, after their translation from Reims into Flanders, was made in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand and ninety-six, on the eighth day before the Ides of January, Philip [l] reigning in France, Radbod ^m holding the see, Robert being marquis, son of Robert of Jerusalem, ⁿ Berthulf ^o being provost, there being also found in the former shrine an instrument of donation of Ebo, archbishop of Reims, inserted in the said letters; as also the Acts of another visitation which followed, by the most reverend Peter Curtius, first bishop of this city, namely in the year 1565, on the thirteenth day of the month of October, and that under Philip, king of the Spains, son of Charles V, emperor of the Romans; having seen, finally, the Acts of the account made immediately after the reduction of the said city, under the most reverend Remigius Driutius, second bishop; we, having heard thereupon and examined under oath persons privy to the above-written matters, and by name the venerable lord Stephen Davila, aged eighty years or thereabouts, chaplain of the choir of the said church for fifty-three years, the same relics, cleansed, and translated out of the said former shrine or hollowed trunk, with all the aforesaid muniments, in a little chest of ivory of diverse

images in relief, * covered over, and placed in this adorned wooden reliquary, we enclosed them fittingly and with due veneration, in the year of the Lord's Nativity one thousand six hundred and nine, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of November, in the seventh indiction, in the fifth year of the pontificate of our Most Holy Lord Paul V, Albert and Isabella Clara Eugenia, Infanta of Spain, reigning as archdukes of Austria, dukes of Burgundy and Brabant, counts of Flanders, etc.; and that in the presence of the reverend and venerable lords Nicholas de Heere, dean of the said church; Arnold of Mechelen, archdeacon; Andrew Bottyn, cantor; Servatius Quynckerus, archpriest; Hubert Audiantius, penitentiary; Remigius Driutius, official; Michael Inghelmont, Adrian de Croy, John van Blootacker, Adrian Pryeels, Martin Jacobs, John Crocquet, James van Hecke, John Cerezo, Peter Bellechier, James Damhoudere, Maximilian de Croy, Leonard Neyts, John Beltram, Judocus Faignaert, John Morotius, John Jacobs, and Robert Ghiselynck, canons; John Bonnier and John Montanus, abbots respectively of the monasteries of St. Andrew and of St. Bartholomew; Gaspar de la Torre, provost of the collegiate and parish church of Blessed Mary of Bruges; and also of the noble men John de Gras, schout of the said city; Francis Pardo, burgomaster; Francis de Boodt, first alderman; and John van Belle, first clerk of the same; Philip van der Burcht, Charles van Boonen, Anthony de Winnezeele, Luke Wingaert, burgomasters of the Franc; and of other honourable men of both orders; in faith and testimony of which we have caused and ordered the present letters to be made and to be fortified by the appending of our seal and the subscription of our secretary. Given at Bruges on the day and in the year as above, and signed, by mandate of the most reverend lord aforesaid, Arnold Stalpart, secretary.

THE YEAR 1649.

Thursday, the 14th of October.

[5] With the consent of the chapter of Bruges, the bishop of Ghent The lords, being asked by the Reverend Lord Dean in the choir during the act of the solemn translation of the relics of St. Donatian, at the urgent request of the Reverend Lord Bishop of Ghent, consented that from the reliquary of St. Donatian there should be reserved a small joint-bone from the bones of the same holy patron, to be given to the aforesaid Most Reverend Lord Bishop by way of gratitude; [p] and moreover that another part of the same relics should be shut up in the silver head of St. Donatian, to be carried in processions when it will not be convenient to carry the reliquary.

There follows a copy of the act of translation of the relics of St. Donatian from the old reliquary into the new, registered here for future memory.

Anthony Triest, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See formerly bishop of Bruges, now of Ghent, etc. To all and each who shall see the present letters, or hear them read, everlasting greeting in the Lord. We have always zealously attended to the promotion of the cult of the saints, knowing that God, the Holy of Holies, being honoured in His saints, disposes the venerators of the saints more surely to the fellowship of the saints in eternal blessedness, and leads them to it more effectually. Since, therefore, the work of the new reliquary for the sacred relics of St. Donatian, bishop and confessor, the singular patron of the city and diocese of Bruges, having lately been completed through the wonderful liberality of the most illustrious and Most Reverend lord the late Servatius Quinkerus, our successor in the bishopric of Bruges, the very reverend lords the dean and chapter of the cathedral church of St. Donatian of Bruges, desiring as far as possible to hasten the execution of the pious intention of the aforesaid Most Reverend Lord Servatius, seventh bishop of Bruges, the episcopal see of Bruges being now again vacant through the death of the most illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Nicholas de Haudion, called de Giebrechies, also our successor there and eighth bishop of Bruges, very recently called from his peaceful temporal rule to eternal peace, have requested us with due urgency that we would deign to translate the aforesaid sacred relics of the same saint in the same church, with the fitting solemnities and ceremonies, into the same new reliquary:

[6] Having first visited and shown the relics, Hence it is that we, having expressly set out to Bruges for that purpose in the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and forty-nine, on the fourteenth day of the month of October, sacred to the aforesaid St. Donatian, Innocent, tenth pope of that name, sitting in the chair of St. Peter at Rome, Philip IV reigning as king of the Spains, count of Flanders, etc., and Leopold William, archduke of Austria, etc., governing the Low Countries and Burgundy on his behalf, came to the above-said cathedral church, and there, vested in pontificals, with ministers and lights, the clergy and the honourable men named below and a crowded people being present, on a stage erected for this purpose before the high altar of the choir of the same church, the hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus" having first been sung, we ordered to be brought to us the old casket or reliquary of the relics of St. Donatian, exposed in the middle of the said choir before our arrival; which, after a diligent visitation, we found duly closed; and the said old reliquary having been opened by our command, there was found in it a very small ivory chest, skilfully made with many figures from the history of Genesis, with a key hung on a silver ring fixed above the said chest after the manner of a handle, which key was wrapped in parchment; on the side of which chest, at the end, there was a lock; and the chest having been opened with the same key, three letters enclosed in it, written on parchment, together with one of paper, pierced through with the present ones, having first been read aloud, we drew out of the same ivory chest a great part of the skull and many other bones, larger and smaller, of the aforesaid St. Donatian, neatly wrapped in red satin and kept hitherto between two cushions in the same chest; and these having been uncovered and found whole, we exposed and exhibited them to all present for veneration; and we fittingly wrapped with our own hands the aforesaid part of the skull separately in a clean corporal, and the remaining bones joined together in another corporal, also clean, and in our presence we had the same corporals sewn up with linen threads, except a part of the spine of the back, which the aforesaid very reverend lords the dean and chapter asked to be reserved and to be enclosed by us in a small casket, to be shut up in the silver head of the same St. Donatian in the same church; and moreover a small joint-bone, to which we admitted in order the same reverend lords of the clergy of the same church, and the other more notable persons present, both ecclesiastical and secular, to the kissing of the said sacred relics before the high altar of the aforesaid choir.

[7] Afterwards we joined together all the same relics enclosed in the said two corporals, [He puts them back into the same case, there being present, from the secular as well] and wrapped them in new red silk with silk threads of the same colour; finally we enclosed the same wrapping in the aforesaid ivory chest (which we had previously blessed, according to the prescription of the Roman Pontifical, together with the wooden casket surrounded with red velvet and the aforesaid new, larger, silver reliquary), together with our present letters and the others, as aforesaid, pierced through, between two cushions made of red satin on one side and of white on the other; and we placed the same chest within, having affixed our seal impressed in red wax on both sides. These things were done in the choir of the oft-said cathedral church of St. Donatian of Bruges, in the year, month and day as above, there being present at the same solemn translation the very reverend and venerable lords, namely the noble lord Charles van den Bosch, licentiate in both laws, dean of the aforesaid church, chaplain of the oratory of the chapel of His Catholic Majesty in the Low Countries, and one of the vicars of the vacant bishopric of Bruges; the noble lord Anthony of Burgundy, licentiate in canon law, archdeacon, also one of the vicars of the vacant bishopric of Bruges; Lord Bartholomew de Crits, licentiate in sacred theology, cantor; Lord Hubert Waghenaers, licentiate in sacred theology, penitentiary; Lord Christian van den Berghe, licentiate in sacred theology; Lord Peter Knudde; Lord Peter van Volden; the noble lord John Theodore Schotte, protonotary of the Holy Roman Church, licentiate in both laws; Lord Andrew Dath; Lord Bernard van Thienen, licentiate in both laws; Lord Arnold Crabeels, licentiate in sacred theology; the noble lord Peter Courtewille, licentiate in both laws, official of Bruges, also one of the vicars of the vacant bishopric of Bruges; Lord Zeger Strymersch; Lord Caesar van Nieuburch, licentiate in both laws; the noble lord Eugene de Vicq, licentiate in both laws; Lord Donatian de Meyere, licentiate in both laws; Lord Frederick Illewerve; Lord John Baptist van Zype, licentiate in both laws; Lord Alexander de Meulenaer, licentiate in both laws; Lord Anthony van Wambeke; the noble lord John Sucx, licentiate in both laws, priests; the noble lord Conrad Anthony de Haudion, licentiate in both laws, deacon; the noble lord John Baptist van Broucke, subdeacon, canons of the same church; and the rest of the clergy of the same choir.

[8] as from the religious clergy, The very reverend fathers and lords, Lord Henry van Zype of St. Andrew's near Bruges and Lord Nicholas van Troostenberghe of St. Bartholomew's of Eechoute within Bruges, abbots respectively; the very reverend and noble lord James de Bernemicourt, licentiate in both laws, provost of the collegiate and parish church of Blessed Mary of Bruges; the reverend lord John Le Monier, licentiate in both laws, official and canon of the cathedral church of St. Bavo of Ghent; the reverend fathers, Father John Pypenpoy, prior, and Father William van Haecht, procurator, of the Carthusians of Bruges; Father Herman Prevost, prior, and Albert van Watervliet, religious of the Order of the Williamites of the convent of Bruges; Father Francis de Schryvere, prior, and Father James Reyssens, of the Order of St. Dominic of the convent of Bruges; Father Martin van Venne, prior, and Father Cyril van Veken, preacher, of the Order of the Reformed Carmelites of the convent of Bruges; Father Athanasius Alleys, guardian, and Brother Christopher Mussel, religious of the Order of the Recollects of the convent of Bruges; Father Andrew of St. Mary, prior, and Father Julian of St. Peter, lector, of the Order of Discalced Carmelites of the convent of Bruges; and other honourable men of the clergy of Bruges.

[9] and likewise very many from the order of nobles: There being present also the noble and honourable men and lords: the most excellent man and lord Alphonsus, marquis Strozzi, of the military council of His Majesty and superintendent of the soldiery of the province of Flanders; the noble lord Francis van Haveskercke, lord of Watervliet and grand bailiff of the city of Bruges and of the territory of the Franc; the noble lord Andrew de la Coste, lord of Straeten, first burgomaster of Bruges; the noble lord Alphonsus de Gras, lord of Bouchoute, burgomaster of the commune of Bruges; the noble lord Louis van Haveskercke, baron of Wynghene, burgomaster of the commune of the Franc; the noble lord Louis van Haghen, knight, lord of Lembeke; the noble lord Mark Albert T'arasola de Ognati, knight; the noble lord Francis Rorgeley, burgomasters of the territory of the Franc; the noble lord Alexander de Meulenare, former consul of Bruges; the noble lord Peter Ulric de Haudion de Giebrechics; and in the presence of very many other reverend and honourable men of both orders; in faith and testimony of all which we have signed these letters with our own hand, and have caused them to be fortified with our greater seal and the signature of our secretary. It was signed: "Anthony, bishop of Ghent; and upon the fold:" by mandate "of the most illustrious and Most Reverend lord bishop aforesaid, P. Simon, secretary." And there was appended the great seal of the same Most Reverend lord in wax

impressed in red. Written below was: "This copy agrees with the original letters, which I, the undersigned secretary of the Most Reverend lord bishop of Ghent, attest"; and signed: "P. Simon, secretary."

[10] but a part of the same is enclosed in the silver head, Concerning the part of the spine of the back and the small joint-bone that were reserved, you have the following act of chapter:

The Reverend Lord Dean declared that, in accordance with yesterday's resolution in the choir, there has been reserved from the reliquary of St. Donatian a part of the spine of the back, to be put back in the silver head of the same saint, and also a small joint-bone, to be given to the Most Reverend Lord Anthony Triest, formerly bishop of Bruges, now of Ghent. The lords resolved that the aforesaid Most Reverend lord should be requested to deign to enclose the same part of the spine of the back in the aforesaid silver head, with his letters enclosed, as he did today; and they gave the aforesaid small joint-bone to the same Most Reverend lord, fitting letters being decreed thereupon under the seal for causes.

And the act of translation of the part of the spine of the back into the silver head is of this kind: We, Anthony Triest, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See formerly bishop of Bruges, now of Ghent, make known that, the episcopal see of Bruges being now vacant, at the instance of the very reverend lords the dean and chapter of the cathedral church of St. Donatian, confessor and bishop, we have enclosed in this square casket, surrounded with red velvet, on the day of the date of the present letters, the part taken by us, in yesterday's solemn translation of all the relics of St. Donatian, out of the ivory chest in which the same relics had been shut up; and we have also shut up the same casket in the silver head of the same St. Donatian, to be exposed for public veneration in the choir and in processions. In faith of which we have signed the present letters with our own hand, and have caused them to be fortified with our seal and the signature of our secretary, in the aforesaid cathedral church, in the year of the Lord 1649, on the fifteenth day of the month of October.

[11] and another is given as a gift to the bishop of Ghent. There follows the act of donation of the small joint-bone, made to the bishop of Ghent in this manner: We, the dean and chapter of the cathedral church of St. Donatian of Bruges, make known that the sacred small joint-bone, to which the present letters are affixed, was, in accordance with our previous resolution, taken by the Most Reverend Lord Anthony Triest, formerly bishop of Bruges, now of Ghent, in yesterday's solemn translation of the sacred relics of St. Donatian, confessor, bishop, and our patron, out of the case or ivory chest in which the same sacred relics had been shut up. Which sacred small joint-bone we have given, and do give by these presents, to the aforesaid Most Reverend Lord Anthony Triest, who has deserved excellently of our church, by way of gratitude. In faith of which we have caused the present letters to be fortified with our seal and the signature of our secretary, in the year 1649, on the 15th day of the month of October. [p]

Furthermore, to the transcript of the Reverend Lord Caytan, which I have used in this Appendix, these words are subjoined:

Collation having been made with the original, I attest the agreement, this 30th of the month of November 1791, by mandate of the reverend and venerable lords the dean and chapter of the cathedral church of St. Donatian of Bruges.

J. Herdies, canon, secretary.

ANNOTATIONS.

l. Son of Henry I.

p. Besides the small joint-bone granted to the bishop of Ghent, I read that another relic of St. Donatian was translated to Lille, namely an ulna; for Arnold Rayssius, in the Hierogazophylacium Belgicum, writes thus concerning the collegiate church of St. Peter at Lille, page 424: Besides, it shows a greater elbow-bone, or ulna, of St. Donatian, formerly archbishop of Reims, covered with silver, and an arm fashioned with remarkable art. That gift came formerly from Lord Louis Domessent, treasurer and canon of this church.

celato* chased.

praefato* aforesaid.

Perhaps byssinis* of fine linen?

Christiano.*

presbyteris* priests.