Bertrand of Comminges

ON ST. BERTRAND OF COMMINGES, ARCHDEACON OF TOULOUSE AND BISHOP OF COMMINGES, IN GAUL,

About the year 1125.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Bertrand, bishop and Confessor, at Comminges in Gaul. (S.)

§ I. That the feast of St. Bertrand is properly to be celebrated on the 16th day of October; his biographies and their sources; on the beginnings of the monastery of l'Escaladieu.

St. Bertrand, to be celebrated in the Martyrologies on the 16th of October, The Roman Martyrology is silent on the present day about the name of St. Bertrand; nor does it break that silence on any other day. Nevertheless his cult flourishes through almost the whole southern part of Gaul, and indeed it had formerly prevailed among the canons regular of one or another Congregation, and had long ago penetrated into Spain itself and Germany. At the end of this Commentary, where we shall treat of the cult, we shall try to review these dioceses and other places so far as may be possible. Here we shall only note that in certain places he is venerated on the 15th, in others on the 17th day of October, mostly on account of other concurring feasts; whence it is to be explained why du Saussay, the Martyrologies of Paris and Évreux, no less than Baillet, treat of him at the 15th of October. But that Ferrari in his general Catalogue of the Saints and du Saussay again speak of him at the 19th of November, we shall see below is an error. (See at the end of this Commentary.) Peyronnet, doctor of sacred theology and parish priest of Toulouse, in his Catalogue of the Saints, Chastelain in his universal Martyrology, and Charles de Caylus in the Martyrology of Auxerre are the only ones among the martyrologists who come my way who attach the feast of St. Bertrand to the 16th day; which it is beyond doubt is rightly done by them, since on this day St. Bertrand died, and in the town and church, formerly his episcopal see, he is celebrated with much honour. We now transfer our pen to his biographers.

[2] he has obtained several biographers; To say nothing of the lessons wont to be recited in his Office, which we have in quite large number, four biographers are known to us, among whom we do not number the writers of ecclesiastical history: Baillet and Butler, who has here made very great use of him, are commonly well enough known. The third is very obscure: his name is Jean Lastrade, priest and prebendary of Comminges: and his little work, a copy of which we obtained from our Fathers of Paris, escaped the editors of the Historical Library of France. And it has this title prefixed, which I render from French into Latin: "Account of the translation of a part of the Relics (une relique a relic) of St. Bertrand of Comminges, revised, corrected and enlarged with a compendium of the Life of this Saint and other chapters": and it was printed at Toulouse in the year 1742. In the little preface the author confesses that he could not obtain the original Life of St. Bertrand: for which reason he uses almost only the MS. and printed Breviaries of his church, Valois's Notitia Galliarum, Baillet's Lives of the Saints, du Saussay's Martyrology, and Oihenart's Notitia of both Vasconias. The dissertations mixed in, which from sermons at the jubilee

and other feasts of St. Bertrand held by him before the people, I judge to have been drawn out, have swelled the little work to a full volume: wherefore we should not much congratulate ourselves on the discovery of this Life, were there not inserted in it some things about the cult of St. Bertrand which we should have sought elsewhere in vain.

[3] one of whom, Vitalis, a contemporary, The original Life of St. Bertrand, however, which we have just heard Lastrade lamenting he lacked, appeared in the Collection of Ancient Writers of Edmond Martène Vol. VI, col. 1021 and following, taken from a MS. codex of Fleury. We then found two copies of the same Life, both transmitted to Bolland by Fr. Pierre Poussines in the year 1649; of which the former, much superior to that which Edmond Martène published, Poussines himself copied with his own hand, whose literary merits the Library of the Society reviews Alegambe, Bibl. S. J., p. 691 and following; the other, which contains only the first part, or the first nine numbers, was copied by Fr. Odo de Gissey, whose works the Library of the Society likewise enumerates Ibid., p. 641.: among which a MS. History of Toulouse is cited; for illustrating which perhaps the praised Father had set aside this writing, drawn from I know not what codex. There is set before it, in the Martène edition and in the copy of Fr. Gissey, the following title: "Here begins the Life of St. Bertrand, bishop, which at the instance of the lord Jacintus, cardinal deacon of the most holy Roman Church, at the command of the lord William , archbishop of Auch, nephew of the same Saint, was published , namely in the time of Pope Alexander, by master Vitalis, notary of the apostolic see, who was a native of the province of Auch, who wrote truly, faithfully, in such a style, the life and miracles of the Blessed Confessor, from the report however of the archbishop, and from others who saw him in his church and fully knew his deeds, and for the brethren of l'Escaladieu of the Cistercian Order." In the excellent copy of Fr. Poussines, however, there is read only: "Here begins the Life of St. Bertrand, published by master Vitalis, protonotary of the most holy Apostolic See"; from which difference it becomes doubtful whether this title is to be attributed to the author or to the copyist. But so that it may be more evident to the reader how great is the authority of this Life, we shall discourse in a few words on the time and occasion of this writing, and on the sources from which Vitalis drew.

[4] he wrote the last part of his work after the year 1170, Various are the opinions of the authors who have spoken of the time in which Vitalis wrote the Life of St. Bertrand. Fabricius in the Bibliotheca Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis, book XX at the word Vitalis Vol. VI, p. 302., affirms that the Life of St. Bertrand was written about the year 1123; Baillet in the critical table of authors prefixed to volume VII of the Lives of the Saints p. XVI. says that Vitalis's writing was made almost forty years after St. Bertrand's death; and he attaches his death to about the year 1126; the Compilers of the Historical Library of France Vol. I, numm. 8093 and following. Ed. 1768. proceed with a bolder step, and refer the work of Vitalis to the year 1166. For my part I think that three times are to be distinguished: for first it is certain that the last part of the Life, at least the last and the last-but-one numbers, was written after the death of William, archbishop of Auch, at whose command Vitalis had undertaken the task of writing the deeds of St. Bertrand, and who died his last day in the year 1170, as the Gallia Christiana teaches Vol. I, col. 986.. For in the last-but-one number there is related a miracle done at Canterbury in England at the tomb of St. Thomas the archbishop; but this Saint, as is related in his Life P. Roger, book II, chap. XX, in the works of Christian Lupus, Vol. X, p. 49., died on the 4th day before the Kalends of January of the year 1170. By the very manner of narrating this part is also distinguished from the rest of the Life; since it begins with these words: "At another time also it happened in France on the Saturday of Pentecost," etc. Which formula, although no less necessary elsewhere than here, appears nowhere else. Care must be taken, however, lest anyone make this added fringe much more recent, since in it there is question of Sancho Parra, who had been contemporary with St. Bertrand, and was probably still living then.

[5] the rest about between the year 1167 and 1170; The remaining part, as Vitalis left it, was written whole or almost whole between the year 1167 and the year 1170; for that it was written after the year 1167 is made clear by the following testimony, taken from number 29 of the Life itself: "I (Vitalis) also, an unworthy servant of Christ, and cleric of the Church of Auch, who received this work of writing by the mandate of the lord William, archbishop of the aforesaid see, made known the holiness and miracles of Blessed Bertrand, in the time of the schismatics, by whom the most holy Roman Church was tossed in the whirlwind of many storms, to Alexander, the supreme pontiff, a catholic man, in the Lateran palace, in the presence of the venerable cardinals." Which words with almost no ambiguity regard the Lateran council celebrated in the year 1167, as will be shown below. But that the said part is to be referred to before the year 1170, the year of death of William III, archbishop of Auch, is proved from another testimony of Vitalis, which runs thus at num. 11: "As the virtue of this Saint (Bertrand), so too the religion of that man (William III), for whose sake we are pressing on with the present purpose, we dare to extol with many true proclamations, but we do not presume to, since it is written: Praise men after death, magnify them after their consummation." These statements are clear enough not to need a commentary, and they cut off all cavils.

[6] but he collected the material chiefly before the year 1167. From the aforecited words of Vitalis, relating that he went to Rome for the sake of setting out the holiness of St. Bertrand, it is clear that already for some time before the year 1167 he had inquired into the deeds and miracles of St. Bertrand and noted them down; and there is no doubt that a great part of this first writing has been inserted here. How great a part, however, and which it is that he first published, can perhaps be determined from the copy of Fr. Gissey, which at n. 9 ends with these words: "It is given manifestly to be understood, and by hidden faith it is established as evident, that St. Bertrand, bishop of Comminges, a faithful and prudent servant of Christ, whose life shone with innumerable miracles, is known to have bestowed greater benefits after he had passed from the world: for in his accustomed manner, and much more frequently afterwards, he flashed with the wonderful power of signs; for at once, all delay put aside, the Lord disposing, the miracles of the holy pontiff are renewed, and signs are declared more abundantly." The Martène edition and the copy of Fr. Poussines have the same; but what is attached after was clearly added afterwards. Rightly, therefore, I think three times have been distinguished by me: the first, which precedes the year 1167; the second, which embraces the three following years; the third, finally, which followed quite near to the year 1170. These things being noted, the contrary opinions set out above fall; above all the opinion of Fabricius, assigning the year 1133, called by some the time of the death of St. Bertrand: for Vitalis himself testifies at num. 29 that, when St. Bertrand died, he had not yet passed beyond boyhood, and was staying in the pastures with certain persons whose care it was to tend the herds.

[7] [he wrote at the instance of Hyacinth, afterwards Pope under the name of Celestine III;] Now what the occasion was of publishing this Life is almost clear from the foregoing: it was not indeed the preparation of a process of canonization, which very probably had already been made before, as we shall see below, but rather the common zeal with which the Lives of the Saints are written, namely of reminding readers that in every Saint they have an example and a protection: that this was the aim of Vitalis is clear enough from the whole little work. Moreover, as we learn from the title, the lord Jacintus, cardinal deacon of the most holy Roman Church, was urging, and the lord William, archbishop of Auch, had given the command: both of which greatly commend the writer, and show to the reader that his credit, approved by these distinguished men, is to be highly esteemed. For that Cardinal Jacintus is the same who in the year 1191 was raised to the chair of St. Peter under the name of Celestine III. Lest anyone call this into doubt, a peremptory argument is at hand. During the whole time in which William III, nephew of St. Bertrand, sat at Auch, there was only one Jacintus, cardinal deacon, and that this same Jacintus was raised in the year 1191 to the Roman mitre, there is almost nothing in the whole history of the Roman Pontiffs more certain: I pass over both what Baronius and his Critic Pagi set forth about him at the year 1191, §1, and what Ciaconius and his enlarger, our Oldoinus, have about him Hist. Roman. Pontif., Vol. I, col. 1018 and 1151.: I shall propose only what our predecessor Papebroch in the Propylaeum of May p. 13*. brought forward about him from an ancient Catalogue of the Pontiffs: the identity of the names will solve the question indicated: "Celestine, a Roman by nation, of his father Peter Bobo, formerly Hyacinth, Cardinal Deacon of St. Mary in Cosmedin, created on the 12th of April, consecrated on the day of the Resurrection, the 14th of the same, in the year 1191; he sat 6 years, 8 months, 28 days, in the time of the Emperors Henry VI and Isaac Angelus. He died on the 8th day of January 1198, buried in the Lateran basilica: and the see was vacant only a few hours."

[8] with whom Vitalis could have dealt at various times, Further, that Jacintus, or Hyacinth, afterwards Celestine III, had been proclaimed cardinal about the year 1144, either by Celestine II, as it pleased Ciaconius, or by Lucius II, as Panvinio and Aubery would have it, or by Eugene III in the year 1145, as Moréri asserts, or by Honorius II in the year 1126, as Novaes in the Elements of Pontifical History Elementi d'Istoria Pontif., Vol. III, p. 134. tries to prove against these and others, relying on a quite good argument. From the time he was adorned with the cardinalitial dignity, however, there were several times at which he could have exhorted Vitalis to write the Life of St. Bertrand: for, to pass over the times which ran before the pontificate of Alexander III, he came in the year 1162 to Montpellier, whence he was sent to Louis VII, king of the Gauls, to stay thereafter almost two continuous years in this kingdom, sometimes with the title of legate; further, it is not unlike the truth that Vitalis was also staying at Montpellier with William of Auch in the same year 1162, when the council was celebrated there, as Labbe notes from various writings in the Collection of Councils Vol. X, col. 1410., and at which without doubt Hyacinth was present, since his name is found at the foot of a bull given there in the year 1162 Hist. du Langued., Vol. II, pr. col. 586.. If these times please less, there remains the year 1167, in which the Lateran council was celebrated, and at which, as we have already seen, Vitalis unfolded the holiness and miracles of St. Bertrand; and since Hyacinth was without doubt present at this council,

and from his stay in the Gauls and his journey into Spain undertaken in the time of Anastasius IV, who had also created him legate Compare Mariana, Hist. Hispan., book XI, chap. III., he must have known well the fame of St. Bertrand, it would not be strange if at that time he had urged Vitalis to write by the instance of which there is mention in the title. Whatever, finally, is to be thought about the time, the assent of Hyacinth is without trouble claimed for the work of Vitalis, and commends it in the highest degree, since that member of the college of cardinals was adorned not only with the greatest dexterity in transacting business, but, as his biographers ready to hand assert, also with singular prudence; which, for the rest, is clear enough from the letters which survive, of which seventeen exist in volume X of Labbe's councils, one in the Supplement of the diplomas of Miraeus, several in volume I of Martène's Thesaurus anecdotorum, and in Dom Bouquet's Collection of the Historians of Gaul.

[9] [and at the command of William of Auch, from whom, no less than from the canons of Comminges and the monks of l'Escaladieu, Vitalis heard many things.] Something not unlike would have to be said of William, archbishop of Auch, and nephew of St. Bertrand: for he was commendable both for his deeds and for the endowments of his mind, as the reader may gather from what is read of him in the Gallia Christiana Vol. I, col. 985.. Moreover he was also legate of the Holy See, with which office William II and Gerald, the successor of this William III in the see of Auch, were also graced. Further, his narratives were the abundant sources from which Vitalis drew, as is indicated in the title and at num. 10 and 11 of the Life. Besides him Vitalis adduces as witnesses the canons of Comminges, or, as the title states, others "who saw him in his church and fully knew his deeds," and finally the brethren of l'Escaladieu of the Cistercian order, as the title and Vitalis himself at num. 11 testify. But these testified only about his miracles, not about the rest of his life, and above all could know nothing about his youth: which I would have the reader note, above all if he has at hand the little work of Lastrade, who wrote Relation de la translation d'une relique de St. Bertrand, p. 15. that St. Bertrand was entrusted by his maternal uncle William II, archbishop of Auch, to the Cistercian brethren of the abbey of Casa-Dei, situated on the borders of the diocese of Auch, to be imbued with good and holy letters and solid virtues. Before we call these things to judgement, we shall warn the reader that these and many other things which Jean Lastrade has are not found in the books which he reviews at the end of his little work, and are drawn without doubt either from the MS. legendary of Comminges or from a version or epitome of the original Life of St. Bertrand, but ill understood: whence it becomes certain that another Life of St. Bertrand exists besides those already mentioned, since he declares that he did not have at hand the original work of Vitalis.

[10] [Yet St. Bertrand had lived with these monks neither as a young man nor as an old one,] But there is no doubt that in place of Casa-Dei Jean Lastrade ought to have said Scala-Dei; not indeed that then all error would vanish, but because allusion is made to these words of Vitalis at n. 11, as they were published by Edmond Martène Ampl. Collect., Vol. VI, col. 1027.: "We have thought fit to write partly those things also which the brethren of l'Escaladieu of the Cistercian Order related, while he was sitting among them, and was taking from the school of their virtues examples of words." But I do not hesitate to assert that this text is corrupt; namely, it ought to be written: "We have thought fit to write partly those things also which the brethren of l'Escaladieu of the Cistercian Order related, while I was sitting among them and was taking from the school of their virtues examples of words": which sense is altogether plain, if only that "examples of words" were absent, although it altogether belongs to the style of Vitalis, which abounds in insipid antitheses. And that the biographer's words are to be restored thus I had already attained by conjecture before the copy of Fr. Poussines came into my hands, which in this place, as almost elsewhere, flows rightly. And indeed that its reading is to be retained is clear on three heads: first, the other is gaping; secondly, it hints that the things which St. Bertrand did while he himself was staying among the brethren of l'Escaladieu are going to be related, whereas Vitalis does nothing of the kind, reviewing only miracles, most worked after St. Bertrand's death, the rest during his life, without time and place assigned; but no deed done by St. Bertrand while he was living in the monastery of l'Escaladieu. Thirdly, it is certain that St. Bertrand did not live with the said brethren in his youth, and it seems no less certain that he did not live with the said brethren even in his old age. For as regards the former part of the aforesaid affirmation, it is beyond controversy that this abbey was not founded before the year 1114, at which time St. Bertrand had already sat almost forty years in the episcopal chair; and as regards the other part, a similar argument is at hand: for the writers agree that St. Bertrand died his last day before the year 1127; and this opinion, if not certain, is most probable. Now it is clear that the abbey of l'Escaladieu was founded not only after the year 1114, but not before the year 1127, in the place called Capadur, at the sources or at the Head of the river Adour: which last we shall declare a little more at length.

[11] since, as is proved against Pierre de Marca, Pierre de Marca formerly wrote a special Dissertation on the origin of the monastery of l'Escaladieu among the Bigerri in the diocese of Tarbes, and Baluze published it among the little works of this most praised writer in the year 1681. He adopts an opinion different from ours: but only a few things are to be noted, so that it may appear from his own words that its beginning was not made before the year 1127: here then are his words p. 396 and following: "There are seen there today" (in the upper part of the Campan Valley on the bank of the Adour) "the walls of the old house; whose foundations had been laid in the field belonging to the count of Bigorre himself, as the faith of an old sheet presently to be produced teaches. From which field, however, Count Centule II had torn away the principal part, broken by the petition of Forto, a noble man. Then after Centule's death, led by shame and repentance, Forto renounced the right ceded to him, for the benefit of the monastery, by the authority and consent of Peter, count of Bigorre, and of the countess Beatrice his wife." (There are many things here which are not confirmed by the instrument to be cited, and are therefore mere conjectures, to me wholly erroneous.) "The words of the old charter are to be produced and weighed, that the time of that first foundation may be rightly established: 'The grange of Cabatur, where the abbey was first made, Forto de Vico, who had obtained that place from Count Centule, with the consent and will of William, bishop of Bigorre, and of Peter, consul of Bigorre, and of his wife Beatrice, gave to Walcher, abbot of Morimond, and to Bernard, abbot of l'Escaladieu, into the hand of William, archbishop of Auch and legate of the Roman Church.'" So far the instrument of l'Escaladieu; about which the Writer reasons thus:

[12] this monastery "If the whole instrument of this donation existed" (it does exist, as we shall see presently), "it would disclose the first origin of the monastery, which however it teaches clearly enough is owed to the benefit of the count of Bigorre, since it shows that it was built on part of the demesne field or grange. For the building of the religious house, indeed even the dignity of the abbey, precedes this donation of Forto, as being conferred on Bernard, already then abbot of l'Escaladieu." In this place I stop the distinguished man: he had at hand, namely, only a fragment of the instrument, and not the whole charter, which was made on the occasion of the translation of this abbey to another place. From the foregoing, however, it is clear that he was persuaded that the cited words were taken from the instrument of Forto's donation; but it is very far from so: for they are excerpts from the instrument of the translation, drawn up in the year 1142, at which time Bernard had long been abbot. See this instrument quite complete in the Gallia Christiana Vol. I, instrum. p. 192.. Hence fall all the conclusions, inductions, indeed even the accusations against Forto, of the most learned dissertator. Let the reader note moreover that nothing is marked in this whole charter about the counts of Bigorre who would have been the founders of this abbey, nor is it said that the grange of Cabadur is restored, but given by Forto: which in the hypothesis of the most illustrious de Marca would have been written quite otherwise, since in these times a donation was not wont to be put forward as a pretext for a restitution: whence it is clearer than the sun that the origin of l'Escaladieu is to be traced to the donation of Forto. And from the following words of Pierre de Marca the time of this donation is discerned; further, they run in this manner:

[13] [was founded between the year 1127 and 1131, that is, after the death of St. Bertrand.] "Since … it is said to have been conferred also on Walcher, abbot of Morimond" (the grange of Cabadur), "its time" (of the donation) "is to be measured from the years of Walcher, who is called Walter in the Cistercian Annals written by Ángel Manrique, where it is written that he died in the year 1131, after he had ruled the abbey of Morimond for five years, namely from the year 1127 up to the year 1131. But it cannot be cast into the first year of this quinquennium, since Count Centule II was still surviving in the year 1127, as the acts cited by us in the History of Béarn, book IX chap. VII, manifestly teach. And the donation of Forto falls in the years of Peter, count of Bigorre, who also possessed the county of Marsan, and of the countess Beatrice, his wife." So rightly the praised prelate. Whence I wonder that Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1260. placed the beginnings of this abbey vaguely before the year 1136. I now retrace the premises in a few words: Centule II did not found the monastery of l'Escaladieu, nor afterwards tear away any part from the territory conferred, to hand it over to Forto; but before the foundation of the monastery he conferred the grange of Cabadur on Forto, who for his piety handed over this grange to Walcher, abbot of Morimond, so that he might found in it the monastery of l'Escaladieu; which latter handing over, and therefore the building of the monastery, took place in the times of Peter, who by right of his wife succeeded Centule II in the county of Bigorre, not before the year 1127.

[14] The same is to be said of the monastery of Casa-Dei. But lest the reader, ascribing the foundation of l'Escaladieu to Forto de Vico and not to the counts of Bigorre (as the archbishop of Paris tried to persuade), should adopt the opinion that Casa-Dei of the Cistercian Order was therefore rightly substituted by Lastrade in place of l'Escaladieu, he must be warned that Casa-Dei, situated in the archdiocese of Auch, was not of the Cistercian but of the Premonstratensian Order, and was founded even later than l'Escaladieu. For Charles Louis Hugo, bishop of Ptolemais and abbot of Étival, must be heard, discoursing thus Annal. Præmonstrat., Vol. I, col. 481.: "With Frelo as founder, or Froco, as Maurice Dupré, the annalist of the Order, writes (and not Peter

count of Bigorre, as Denis de Sainte-Marthe will have it, confusing Casa-Dei with Gratia-Dei Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1031.), this monastery came forth, William d'Andozille (rather de Montaut, as will be unfolded in the following §), archbishop of Auch, transferring it to Walter, abbot of St. Martin of Laon, in the year 1135, in the 13th indiction, epact 4, concurrent 1, as we read in the original diploma, preserved in the archives of St. Martin, but almost eaten away." From which it is clear enough that St. Bertrand never lived either with the inhabitants of l'Escaladieu or with the ascetics of Casa-Dei. To close these matters, however, it is worth while to observe that the brethren of l'Escaladieu could very well have learned of the miracles of St. Bertrand, since from the year 1142 they had their seat in these borders of the diocese of Tarbes which adjoin the diocese of Comminges. From all which the authority of Vitalis greatly grows; but what does most of all to commend it is both his office of apostolic notary and his embassy to Rome to promote the canonization of St. Bertrand. And if his writing was afterwards somewhat corrupted, that is foreign to him: for the rest, writings of this kind are very few. These things having been set out concerning the biographer of St. Bertrand, the deeds of this Saint themselves now call the pen to them.

* lacking in Gissey's MS.

* per through G.

* Guiliermi G.

* scripta written G.

* lacking G.

* S. G.

* dicti the said G.

* eum [him] G.

§ II. On the parents, brothers and other kinsfolk of St. Bertrand. The chronology of the three Williams, archbishops of Auch, is illustrated.

The name of St. Bertrand. As will easily become known from the whole series of the life of St. Bertrand, St. Bertrand was born before the middle of the 11th century, though no certain time can be assigned, both on account of the silence of Vitalis and on account of the almost total absence of other monuments. Likewise there is no leisure to dispute at length about his name, since learned men know that the word Bertrand, to use the phrase of Peyronet Catalogue of the Saints at the word Bertrandus., is derived from Bertchrannus, Bertichrannus or Bertichramnus. For the rest, our predecessors have already spoken of this matter at the 6th day of the month of June Vol. I, p. 776., where at the same time our Saint is distinguished from other namesakes. It does not seem to be admitted, however, that that name is the same as Bernard; by which name we could not but wonder that the Saint of whom we treat was called by some. It will help, however, to note that Bertichramnus, or a name of similar form, no longer obtained in Occitania at the beginning of the twelfth century, when our Saint was flourishing, and that therefore the Saint himself signed Bertrand in councils and elsewhere.

[16] His native place A difficulty occurs, however, when it is to be determined by what name his native place was formerly called. We know indeed from the Life to be published that already in the time of Ato Raymond, the father of St. Bertrand, the castellum in which he was born was changed into a castle, to which the name Insula, and finally Insula Jordanis, was afterwards given; but a grave doubt troubles me whether Martène has published the text in this place corrupt or not; for he writes: "He was sprung from the castellum Setium, which the inhabitants, changing it, thereupon built into a castle which is called Insula." Against this reading, Castellum Setium, stands Oihenart, for the most part a very safe guide, who in the Notitia of both Vasconias p. 533. has these words: "Castellum Ictium Vitalis the protonotary testifies this place was called at the beginning (before it was frequented by citizens and put on the form of a city)." And indeed both in the praised copy of Poussines and in the other of Gissey castellum Ictium is clearly read. Moreover (which is an authority by no means to be despised, since it is examined yearly by very many eyes, and that already for several centuries) there agree with Oihenart and our MSS. both the Office of St. Bertrand, which is found printed among the Toulouse Propers of the year 1647, and other things of which we shall speak below. Lest, however, we cut the knot of the difficulty according to this authority, there stands in the way a fragment extracted from the cartulary of the monastery of Grandselve, which may be read in the History of Occitania, elaborated by Benedictine monks, among the proofs Vol. II, col. 546.; further, these things occur there: "In the year of the Incarnation 1171 Odo of L'Isle, and India his wife, for their souls and that of Arnald Gausbert, give to the same monastery (of Grandselve) and to Pons the abbot whatever they have in the wood of Setes, for 20 shillings of Morlaàs out of charity." But where the wood of Setes is situated, or formerly was, I have nothing by which to indicate; it seems, however, to belong to the fief or allod of the lordship of L'Isle: wherefore I confess that I am in distress about condemning the Martène text. The learned men of Occitania could easily inquire into this matter, for whom many things remain to be discovered about the family of L'Isle, of which I judge scarcely anyone has discoursed at length.

[17] it is examined as distinct from Seticum and Sotia. But lest anyone, since L'Isle-Jourdain lies not far from the river Tarn, should contend that it is the same as Seticum contra Torn, whence Charles the Simple, king of the Franks, in the year 922 gave for the Church of Gerona the charter which you may read in the Marca Hispanica Col. 845. Baluze ed., Pierre de Marca has already guarded against this in the same work Col. 375., where against Catel he shows that this place is beyond the Meuse. Nor, I trust, will anyone champion the antiquity of the castellum Setium from the fact that Caesar Comment. on the Gallic War, book III, chap. XX. often mentions the Sotiates; for they dwelt farther from L'Isle, as the praised prelate of Paris, de Marca, again shows from the historians in his history of Béarn Hist. du Bearn, p. 35 and following, where he clearly makes plain that Sotia is the same as Vicus Julii, or Adurris (Aire). But Setium, or Ictium, now in French l'Ile Jourdain, lies on the river Gerumna, in the district of Auch (Département du Gers). More about this town occurs in topographies ready to hand.

[18] The nobility of St. Bertrand and the power of his family are noted. But whatever be thought of the name of the castle, it is certain that St. Bertrand was sprung from the family of L'Isle, as Vitalis testifies at num. 1 of the Life, and after him the other historiographers. How noble that family was already in the eleventh century is gathered on many heads: for Ato Raymond, lord of L'Isle and father of St. Bertrand, was joined in marriage to the daughter of William, count of Toulouse, who had the surname Taillefer; and the family of the counts of Toulouse was so illustrious that Constance, daughter of the same William by a former marriage, was joined in second nuptials to Robert, king of the Franks, as was shown by the historiographers of Occitania Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, p. 601. and by the collectors of the Historians of Gaul Recueil des hist. de France, Vol. XII, p. 794. against Pagi especially [Crit. Baronii at the year 998, § V and following, Vol. XVI, p. 377 and following. Lucca ed.], who discourses to the contrary on this matter. Nor did that splendour of alliances stop there, as can be seen from the genealogical table of this house which the aforepraised historiographers wove Vol. III, p. 601.; wherefore I do not wonder that in the year 1341 the lordship of L'Isle, for the sake of its antiquity and nobility, was adorned with the title of county by Philip of Valois, king of the Gauls: on which matter see Oihenart Notit. utriusq. Vasconiae, p. 444. and d'Expilly Dictionn., Vol. III, p. 859.. And not unequal to the nobility of the family were its riches, which the lords of L'Isle shared somewhat with the monastery of Grandselve, as may easily be drawn out from the aforecited Grandselve excerpts. If anyone desires an instance of their magnitude, let him see what the Gallia Christiana Vol. XIII, col. 29 and following and Moréri in his Dictionary at the name of this prelate have about Bertrand de L'Isle, bishop of Toulouse. How widely the dominion of the same family extended may partly be learned from the treaty Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. III, instr., col. 169 and following entered into in the year 1196 between Jordan de L'Isle and the count of Comminges, and from the Register De Rozoi, annal. de Toulouse, 'Vol. I, pr., p. 1 and following of the Seizure of the city of Toulouse and of the county of Toulouse, made in the year 1271.

[19] Some lesser errors are noted. But let us now treat a little more at length of the parents and brothers of St. Bertrand. Guillaume Catel, when in his History of the counts of Toulouse he had inquired as diligently as he could into the children of William Taillefer, closes his dissertation with these words, which I render from French into Latin Hist. des Comtes de Tolouse, book I, part III.: "The name of the daughter we likewise do not know; but from the mentioned Life of St. Bertrand we gather that she was married to Otto Raymond; from which marriage there were two children: namely Jordan, lord of L'Isle, who in the year 1132 married the daughter of Godfrey, lord of Muret, as I find was noted by Mr. De Beloy in one of his orations; and Bertrand, who at first was archdeacon of the Toulouse church of St. Stephen, but afterwards bishop of Comminges, and who finally on account of the holiness of his life obtained the honours of canonization." So he; but more unhappily than is his wont, since errors do not seem lacking here. For first there is perhaps a blemish in the name of St. Bertrand's father, which sounds Ato Raymond. Secondly, Jordan was not his brother, but his nephew, as is plain from the time of his marriage; thirdly, St. Bertrand had at least two other brothers, of whom one was Raymond de L'Isle, the other Anonymous, who was perhaps lord of Andohiella or Andofilaeum. Let us now approach the matter. About the father's name there can scarcely be a question: for the Life edited by Martène has: "St. Bertrand, then, illustrious by birth but nobler by faith, shone with virtues: whose father was called Ato Raymond, a man of noble birth"; with which reading agree both the copies of Poussines and Gissey and the text which Oihenart Notit. utriusq. Vascon., p. 535. had read, and the ecclesiastical Office of St. Bertrand: the praised historians of Occitania also generally do not depart from Vitalis; but in the genealogical tree of the counts of Toulouse, enumerating the children of William Taillefer, they assign Otto Raymond as husband to Emma, his daughter, as they say. Of this slip, however, which they have in common with Catel, enough.

[20] A charter pertaining to the family of St. Bertrand is weighed, But since the question has continually been about the father of St. Bertrand, I trust it will not be beside the point to bring forward here a few things about a certain charter in which his name is inscribed, and which I judge to be the most ancient of all that pertain to the family of L'Isle. The historiographers of Occitania drew it out from the archive of the monastery of St. Peter of Curtis, or Mas-Garnier, and made it public among the proofs of their volume II Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, col. 235.. Further, it is related in this instrument in what way a certain monk, Aymard by name, by William

Unald and other lords of estates, obtained for the monastery of St. Peter of Curtis the land in which traces of the church of St. Licerius survived. This charter was drawn up, not in the year 1060, as the historiographers of Occitania would have it, but certainly after this year; as will be clear to anyone who compares the age of Philip, king of the Franks, with what is said in this charter. It is established moreover that it was written on the 18th day of January 1061, as that very thing shows if it is compared with the time of the death of Pons, count of Toulouse. These things having been premised, here are the witnesses who sign there: "S. Atto Raymond de Yla, S. William, Willem-Bernard de Yla, S. Arnald Otto de Cabatui, and Arnald Garsia de Garag Castro." From which signatures three things may be drawn out: first, that before the year 1061 the Castellum Ictium, or Setium, had already been changed into the Castle of Insula, since at this time the lords of castles, commonly at least, borrowed their surname from their principal castle; secondly, that at that time the little word Jordanis had not yet been added to this surname; in which matter the historiographers of Occitania err here and there, although Oihenart Notit. utriusq. Vasconiae, p. 533. had already given warning that Insula Jordanis was so commonly called from the appellation Jordan, familiar in the family of the lords of that town; but the familiarity of this appellation obtained only from about the middle of the twelfth century; and thirdly, finally, and this the chief, that from it there is known Willem-Bernard de Yla, the brother, as it seems, of St. Bertrand.

[21] from which one of his brothers is known, For since, as Vitalis witnesses, the surname "de Insula" was added to the castle of Ato Raymond only in his times, necessarily the father of St. Bertrand himself was the first of his family to be surnamed de Insula; and since it was not the custom for a brother to borrow his title (de Yla) from a brother, it cannot be said that Willem-Bernard de Yla was the paternal uncle of St. Bertrand; but since on the contrary sons commonly assumed the paternal title as long as they did not themselves obtain a lordship of their own, what remains but that that William be reckoned the brother of St. Bertrand? For age does not stand in the way, since it is altogether probable that St. Bertrand in the year 1061 had brothers who were of an age fit to witness; nor does it stand in the way that the surname Bernard is added, which is commonly held as the father's name; for, besides that for the same reason he could not be called the paternal uncle of St. Bertrand (for the father has the surname Raymond), those surnames do not always indicate the father, as is drawn from the ready example of Alfonso I, count of Toulouse: for that Alfonso was called Alfonso-Jordan Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, passim., although he had as father Raymond of Saint-Gilles.

[22] and an error concerning him or another brother is set out, But while we examine that charter we have gradually slipped down to the brothers of St. Bertrand, and have already noted one, namely William-Bernard, whom if Oihenart Notit. utriusq. Vascon., p. 535. had made lord of Andofilaeum, he would have removed his anonymous one; but by what right this would have been done I do not discern. Nevertheless we are not such as to reject Oihenart's opinion when he numbers the lord of Andofilaeum among the brothers of St. Bertrand Ibid., l. c.. The historiographers of Occitania indeed attack this assertion with the following words, rendered from the French idiom into Latin Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, p. 391 and following: "On this testimony (namely of Vitalis, who wrote the Life of St. Bertrand) the authors certainly rely who think that to Raymond, lord of L'Isle and full brother of St. Bertrand, another brother is to be attributed, who was lord of Andofilaeum in the district of Toulouse and father of William III, archbishop of Auch; but it must be confessed that the testimony of Vitalis is not very clear; since not only does that author seem to contradict himself, but we are also taught by ancient monuments that William III was sprung from the family of Montaut; wherefore this prelate will have been the son of a sister of St. Bertrand." So they rise up against Oihenart Notit. utriusq. Vascon., p. 451. and against Ange Hist. Geneal., Vol. II, p. 763., not noticing that that question is most closely connected with this other one, whether William II and III, who are distinguished in the catalogue of the archbishops of Auch, are to be confused into one man, and whether the Sancho who is said to have been between them is to be banished to fables.

[23] and it is dissolved, both by discussing the obscurity of Vitalis, Further, since this question so nearly regards the ecclesiastical history of Auch, we shall try to draw it out more clearly; to accomplish which, before all I must bring forward the testimony of Vitalis which the historiographers of Occitania have endeavoured to weaken: at number 10 he has these words: "Let your affection know , dearest brethren, that what we have set forth we have learned for the greater part from the report of the lord William , venerable archbishop of the see of Auch, his nephew, whom in tender age he brought up with himself, and caused to be applied to the study of letters, and made him a canon in the church of Saint Stephen, of which he himself had been a canon, and whence he was taken up to the episcopal dignity. The archbishop's father is known to have been joined by the line of brotherhood to Saint Bertrand. The mother of the aforesaid metropolitan was the sister of William Bernard , archbishop of Auch, of blessed and revered memory, from whom he received his name, not yet however poured forth into the present light, but shut up in his mother's womb. Which the same man truly teaching, while in the see of Auch I was gathering from the authority of his narration many examples of virtues and was learning, at his command, the purpose of the present writing… We confess at any rate that we have come to write not moved by hope of gain to glory, but for the sake of this * man, who is known to have been joined to St. Bertrand by the glory of being his brother's son." So Vitalis. In these at any rate there is absolutely nothing obscure; and indeed the very reading of Martène is not so corrupt that we do not easily gather from it many things about the kinship of St. Bertrand and of William III, prelate of Auch. It is said first of all that the mother of the aforesaid (that is, he who was living in the times of Vitalis) Vileumus or William, archbishop of the see of Auch, was the sister of another archbishop of Auch: by which it is clearly indicated who the mother was; but it is equally clearly indicated who the father was: for the people knew that the father of the same William, or, as Martène's edition has it, William himself, was joined by the line of brotherhood to Saint Bertrand. And although no one can doubt that this joining by the line of brotherhood is such that St. Bertrand is the paternal uncle of this William, Vitalis himself nevertheless takes care that no one should entertain doubts on this matter, and a few lines below adds that this William was joined to St. Bertrand by the glory of being his brother's son. Which is surely a clear testimony. But Vitalis seems to contradict himself! in what matter, I ask? not surely in the pedigree, as is clear; but in what he states about Bertrand, archbishop of Auch. Let us call it into examination.

[24] and by removing the contradiction, Let this second objection come forward: Vitalis says that on William III was imposed the name of another archbishop of Auch, whom however in Martène's edition he calls not William but Bertrand. A grave objection, I confess: but its gravity is too great to be able to redound upon Vitalis, and not upon Vitalis only, but upon William himself, the prelate of Auch, from whose mouth Vitalis had written. Wherefore the whole error is to be transferred to drowsy copyists, as is clear enough from the copy of Fr. Poussines, which is liable to no tangles. Yet they did not doze in so horrible a manner; I confess indeed that that Bertrand is the same as William I, archbishop of Auch, who imposed his own name on his sister's son: but Martène had already tried happily to solve this difficulty Ampl. Coll., Vol. VI, col. 1027., by supposing that William I had two names; which supposition, commending the accuracy of Fr. Poussines's copy, can be established by the following. Among the instruments of the Gallia Christiana Vol. I, p. 160, col. 1. there exists a charter by which the same prelate and his brothers cede the church of Montaut to Cluny: and it begins thus: "In the name of God the supreme almighty Father and Son and Holy Spirit. I, William, son of Bernard, and archbishop of Auch, and my brothers Raymond and Oddo and Otgar and Girald and Bertrand … give the church of St. Michael of Montaut." Where it is to be noted that William was the son of Bernard; whence according to the almost common custom of the time he was to be called William Bernard; and in fact so he himself signs the council of Bordeaux celebrated in the year 1093 Mansi, Supplem., Concil., Vol. III, col. 125.; here are the words: "Sign of the archbishop of Auch, William Bernard"; and in the same place, when he indicates the principal men of this council, the notary writes: "In the presence of the lord Amatus, legate of the apostolic see and archbishop of Bordeaux, and of the archbishop of Auch, named William Bernard."

[25] [which seems to have arisen from the fact that William I, prelate of Auch, seems to have had two names.] But the surname was sometimes substituted for the name in these times, whence a man came to have two names: a sure proof will make this strange thing credible: the historiographers of Occitania show Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, prob. col. 235. a charter drawn from the monastery of St. Peter of Curtis; and about the middle part of it these words are read: "The country people and the lords of that solitude having been provoked, the industrious bee" (namely Aymard the monk, who had preached) "at length brought the matter to this issue, that he obtained that the middle of that desert, which seemed to be possessed by its lord by right of patrimony, namely by William who is also Unald, should be left to God… And not much time after, the aforesaid William-Unald, a venerable man, had come for the feast of the Chair of Blessed Peter for the sake of prayer," etc. And a similar example occurs in the Gallia Christiana Vol. I, col. 1129.: for there Arnald Roger, bishop of Comminges at the very time when Vitalis was writing, is said to be called Roger in the diploma by which peace is settled between Peter, abbot of Bonnefont, and the Knights of the temple. Since from these things it is established that some were made to have two names from surname and name, no one ought now to wonder if William I of Auch had also been called Bernard. Whence without trouble the Copyists could have made Bertrand of it. Nevertheless, if that manner of explaining does not please anyone, because that prelate of Auch is nowhere else found so called, another solution of the difficulty is at hand, founded also in the usage of these times: for in the middle age the initial letter of names was frequently alone written; whence Vitalis perhaps wrote only W. Bernardi; and hence, the W. having been omitted, the Copyists could easily have fallen into the erroneous Bertrand. For the rest, the field of conjectures is wide; and indeed we should have abstained from running over it, had we not had to vindicate the authority of the Life to be published.

[26] It is shown that two ancient monuments The third objection which the historiographers of Occitania oppose to Vitalis and to his followers Oihenart and Ange is this, namely that it is drawn from ancient monuments that William III was of the family of Montaut.

So they, loc. cit., having too much trust in the Gallia Christiana, as we shall now show. The ancient monuments to which both Denis de Sainte-Marthe and, after him, the said historians seem to allude are two: the former is a charter taken from the archive of Simorre, in which there is treatment of the burning of the town of Simorre and its translation, and which is closed with these words Gall. Christ., Vol. I, instrum., p. 169.: "These things were done in the year from the Incarnation of Christ 1141, in the fourth indiction, epact 11, concurrent two, in the month of February, William de Montaut ruling the see of Auch." The other charter is an old parchment drawn from the archive of the metropolitan church of Auch, which Sainte-Marthe, finding it in Oihenart Notit. utriusq. Vascon., p. 452., published again in his work Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 287.; and it runs in these words: "To Bernard the archbishop succeeded William, who had descended from the lineage of the Montaut family, a man of high blood, excelling in the highest nobility both of manners and of parents, most vigorous in divine as well as in secular affairs, constant in purpose, a lover of religion, who within the borders of Gascony founded and planted ten monasteries of the Cistercian as well as of the Premonstratensian Order, and some of nuns of the Order of Fontevrault, in honour of almighty God, whom prosperity could not conquer nor adversity break, a man of profound sense and counsel, and of singular discretion." Here are both charters by which the adversaries contend their opinion is proved: but neither seems to effect anything, since within a century three Williams occupied the see of Auch, and both instruments are to be referred to William II, whereas in this place the question is of William III.

[27] not to William I or III, prelates of Auch, In the earlier editions of the Gallia Christiana, indeed, as also in the Notitia of both Vasconias, only two prelates of this name are reviewed who sat at Auch in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; but the latter of these is distinguished into two in the new Gallia Christiana, and three therefore are admitted by them: of whom the first is William, son of Bernard, who Denis de Sainte-Marthe affirms came forth from the family of the barons of Montaut on account of a certain donation Ibid., col. 981.. And he was, on the authority of Vitalis, the maternal uncle of William (whom we are wont to call the third), and he sat from the year 1068 to the year 1096 [Ibid., col. 982 and Annal. Ausciens. in Pertz, Monum. hist. Germ., Vol. III p. 171.]. William II, however, had previously been bishop of Lectoure, and sat at Lectoure from about the year 1120 to the year 1126, in which year he was translated to the see of Auch: he still occupied this see in the year 1142 in the month of September, as is gathered from the charter of the translation of l'Escaladieu, of the diocese of Tarbes, in which his name is mentioned Compare these with Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1075 and 984.. The third William is found in instruments from the year 1148 up to 1170. These three, then, being distinguished, let us see what the charters brought forward in the preceding number prove for the question proposed.

[28] but are to be applied to William II, The former in fact openly asserts that a certain William, archbishop of Auch, belonged to the house of Montaut; but it is to be noted that the instrument from which this is drawn was drawn up in the year 1141; and since in this year the William called the third, of whom Vitalis speaks, was not sitting, it is by no means gathered from it that this William the third is to be called de Montaut, or, which comes to the same, the nephew on the father's side of William I, the archbishop. Something similar is to be said of the second charter; for it begins with these express words: "To Bernard the archbishop succeeded William, who had descended from the lineage of the Montaut family," etc. Now William II succeeded Bernard, as the Gallia Christiana openly teaches and as is proved from very many monuments; but William III succeeded Sancho: whence again it can indeed be concluded that William II was a Montaut, but not likewise William III. Nevertheless the writer of volume I of the Gallia Christiana Col. 987 in a note. presses that this charter regards the William whom we call the third; here are the words: "Sancho was archbishop for so short a time that we should not at all wonder that he was unknown to most; and that from the William who preceded him and the other who succeeded him one was made." So he, hinting that it was thence brought about that William II was called a Montaut, while he would have William III sprung from that family. But this conjecture can in no way be admitted, for since the aforecited charter was taken from the very archive of Auch, and seems to have been written immediately after the death of William, this conjecture cannot be proved unless this threefold blindness of mind is supposed in the canons of Auch: I, that they did not know whether the bishop who had just died had lived with them 22 years or 44 years; II, that they had forgotten whether William II and William III were the same; III, that Sancho, who had occupied the see 22 years before, had completely gone from their memory; which things are certainly most absurd.

[29] and are to be explained according to his deeds. But perhaps someone else will press the same opinion from another head, namely from the deeds enumerated in this instrument. For William is there said to be "most vigorous in divine as well as in secular affairs, constant in purpose, a lover of religion": all which things suit William II as well as possible: for he was legate of the Holy Roman See, and helped Ramiro, king of Aragon, so much in civil affairs that he obtained from him a most splendid diploma, given in the era 1168, that is, the year 1130, and which Oihenart published Notit. utriusq. Vascon., p. 452., and after him Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gall. Christ., Vol. I, instrum. p. 162.. Moreover, according to the instrument of Auch, the same William "within the borders of Gascony founded and planted ten monasteries of the Cistercian as well as of the Premonstratensian Order, and some of nuns of the Order of Fontevrault …": and in fact in the Premonstratensian Annals, in the preliminary index of the circaries, I find: I, the monastery of Casa-Dei, founded in the year 1135 in the archdiocese of Auch; II, the monastery of St. John of Castello, otherwise Gratia-Dei, founded in the year 1140 in the diocese of Aire; III, Combelongue, founded in the year 1138 in the diocese of Couserans; IV, La Capelle, whose beginnings, from the charter of donation made by Bernard Jordan, great-nephew of St. Bertrand, are referred to the year 1142. It remains, moreover, that six further monasteries of the Cistercian Order, founded in Gascony from about the year 1120 to the year 1144, be reviewed; the thing is not difficult: in the diocese of Auch alone there occur the monastery of Berdoues, founded in the year 1134; the monastery of Gimont, whose beginnings the year 1142 saw; and the monastery of Pessan (Portaglonium), founded through the cares of our William before the year 1126 itself. At this time Cîteaux was also fruitful in other dioceses of Gascony: for the diocese of Comminges saw the monastery of Bonnefont arising in the year 1136; likewise the diocese of Tarbes saw founded about the year 1127 and 1131, in the field of Capadur, the monastery of l'Escaladieu, which in the year 1142 was translated five leagues nearer to Tarbes. If to these you add the monastery of nuns consecrated to God in the same Cistercian Order, namely the abbey of Lumen-Dei, already flourishing before the middle of the 12th century in the district of Comminges, you will find six monasteries of the Cistercian Order in this part of Gascony which was subject to the metropolis of Auch; and if to these you add the four abbeys of the Premonstratensian Order also situated in Gascony, the number indicated will be found complete. A similar reckoning could be made about the propagation of Fontevrault; but since no number is strictly indicated, it will suffice to have noted that before the middle of the 12th century that Order chiefly grew, and that many monasteries were born to it at this time in these parts which were subject to William as legate of the Apostolic See. On the ample power of this legation see Pierre de Marca's History of Béarn Hist. du Bearn, p. 329.. And here I would have two things noted: I, that these words of the charter, "founded, planted," are to be understood in a very wide sense; for they can indicate nothing else than that the aforesaid monasteries were founded while William sat at Auch, or with his assent as legate, etc.; II, that a similar reckoning cannot be made concerning William III; whence it is proved again that this charter regards William II.

[30] Which things are confirmed by another old testimony, Further, these difficulties of the adversaries having been solved, it remains that the opinion of Oihenart and the rest, consonant with the narrative of Vitalis, be confirmed by an argument of its own: the historiographers of Occitania suspected that Oihenart was moved by the authority of Vitalis to number among the brothers of St. Bertrand the Anonymous lord of Andofilaeum, father of William III, prelate of Auch, and husband of the sister of William I, archbishop of the same see. Let us hear Oihenart: "That the father of William the archbishop was lord of that place which is now called Andohiele (Andofielles) seems to be gathered from the surname Andozilaeus added to him in the Necrology of Casa-Dei of the county of Pardiac: for thus it stands written there: 'William Dandozille, archbishop of Auch and legate of the Apostolic See, nephew of Saint Bertrand, who caused him to be canonized, did many good things for us and pacified many adversaries.'" So Oihenart in the Notitia of both Vasconias p. 453.. From which testimony it is plain not only that the aforepraised historians slipped in memory, which is the least thing, but above all that Vitalis did not err when he attributes to this William not a father but a mother of the Montaut family, and that therefore it is confirmed by a new argument that three Williams sat at Auch within a century, namely the first a Montaut, the second, Bernard's successor, also a Montaut, and the third of Andofielles, successor of Sancho de Fenouillet, as is established from the charter which Dom Claude Estiennot found in the archive of the convent of B. Mary of Le Breuil, and in which at the year 1144 that Sancho, together with Licerius, count of Pardiac, gave the place of Le Breuil to B. Mary of Fontevrault Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 985..

[31] and they are not weakened by the assertion of the Premonstratensian annalist. I do not wish, however, to conceal a grave difficulty against this opinion, which arises from the Premonstratensian Annals Vol. I, col. 481.. For the historian already cited writes thus, treating of the beginnings of Casa-Dei: "With Frelo as founder, or Froco, as Maurice Dupré, the annalist of the Order, writes, this monastery came forth, William d'Andozille, archbishop of Auch, transferring it to Walter, abbot of St. Martin of Laon, in the year 1135, in the 13th indiction, epact 4, concurrent 1, as is read in the original diploma preserved in the archives of St. Martin, but almost eaten away." Further, if we admitted this narrative, Dom Claude Estiennot first of all would have to be condemned of grave error, who brought forward the aforecited charter of Le Breuil, and by which it is openly declared that on account of the intermediate Sancho William the third is to be distinguished from William the second: and since there it is announced that William d'Andozille sat at Auch in the year 1135, at which time we contend that William de Montaut was bishop of Auch, the whole former reckoning collapses. But many things weaken the testimony of the Premonstratensian annalist, which otherwise we greatly venerate

we do not hesitate to declare: for the diploma which he read was eaten away; and then he does not openly indicate whether he read only the time of the writing, or whether he also found there the other things which he brings forward; but I, both on account of the reasons set out above concerning the three Williams, and because in no other charter in which either William is said to have been present at some contract is a surname ever added to his name, I, I say, am persuaded that the praised annalist drew the name d'Andozille from the historical fragment which we mentioned in the preceding number. Nor is it a rash conjecture; for in what follows he openly falls into that fault; for he says: "If we believe the old parchment of the metropolis of Auch" (we published it in part at num. 26 and following), "which briefly relates the deeds of William d'Andozille, it owes its whole endowment and the structure of the whole monastery to William, the lover of the Premonstratensian religion, who within the borders of Gascony founded and planted ten monasteries … of the Cistercian as well as of the Premonstratensian Order." But the reader will have noticed that in the charter invoked William is said to be of the family of Montaut, and moreover that these words, "its whole endowment and the structure of the whole monastery," are exaggerated: wherefore I also have less trust in him when he writes above William of Andofielles. That that surname d'Andozille was added from the aforesaid Necrology of Casa-Dei is further proved by the partnership of the fault in writing: for I think Andozilla will nowhere else be found. Further, that we may retrace the completed road, it will help to comprise this whole excursus in a few words: wherefore, since it is proved from no head that William III had a father from the house of Montaut, we must stand by the narrative of Vitalis, who ascribes to him a mother from this house, but a father who was the brother of St. Bertrand, and seems to have been lord of Andofielles: whether, however, he is the same as Willem-Bernard de la Yla, whom we shook out of the dust at number 20, I prefer to affirm nothing rather than to strike into error.

[32] Another brother of St. Bertrand Another brother of St. Bertrand, whom Catel did not know, but whom Oihenart seems to have discovered Notit. utriusq. Vascon., p. 535., was a companion of Raymond of Saint-Gilles, count of Toulouse, in the war of Jerusalem; whether he himself brought into his house the family arms of the counts of Toulouse (as it certainly at some time enjoyed this honour) is not ascertained by me. For the rest, it is established that he deserved well of Raymond of Toulouse, and was placed in command of some forces in Palestine, perhaps collected from his own lordship. For Raymond of Aguilers relates Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 162. many things about a certain Raymond de L'Isle, who cannot but be the son of Ato Raymond de L'Isle: this is indicated not only by the very name Raymond (which, since it was the father's surname, was perhaps the grandfather's name, and therefore according to the custom of this time was imposed on the son), but also by the very ordinary manner of writing of Raymond of Aguilers, chiefly commemorating the deeds of Raymond of Saint-Gilles, whose chaplain he was, and of his knights: further, the castle of L'Isle was subject to the county of Toulouse. Let the reader see in Bongars these deeds of the brother of St. Bertrand, which seem to be referred to the year 1099. Besides these things nothing else is known certainly about this Raymond: he seems, however, to have had a son Jordan, who, entering into marriage in the year 1132 with Alues, daughter of Godfrey of Muret, continued the line of L'Isle Oihenart, Notit. utriusq. Vasconiae, p, 536.. And this is that very Jordan whom Catel joined to the brothers of St. Bertrand; but how erroneously he did so everyone sees, since he would have married a wife in quite extreme old age.

[33] and some other things about his family, Running through the catalogue of princes, prelates and knights which Jacques Bongars prefixed to the Gesta Dei per Francos, there occur, besides the mentioned Raymond de L'Isle, Wiscard de Insula and Baldwin de Insula; but since in the centuries in which the holy wars were waged the names Wiscard and Baldwin were of less use in Occitania, I do not doubt that these warriors belong to the family of the counts of Lille in the district of Flanders: wherefore there is no leisure to search longer through a huge volume which lacks the customary little indices. Since also nothing is clear to me about the name of St. Bertrand's mother, it has seemed good to keep for this place the few things that are to be said on this matter. In the line of the counts of Toulouse which the historians of Occitania wove Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, p. 538., among the children born to William Taillefer of his second wife Emma, countess of Provence, there appears a girl named Emma, who, as they say, married Ato Raymond. But nowhere in their work have I found any other foundation for this assertion besides the testimony of a more recent writer; and indeed they affirm that it was brought forward by him by conjecture Ibid., p. 176., and elsewhere, where they speak explicitly of St. Bertrand Ibid. p. 361., they are quite content to convert the narrative of Vitalis word for word into the French idiom, by no means determining the name of St. Bertrand's mother.

[34] above all concerning his mother, are noted. But the writers of the work Art de vérifier les dates have departed further than is right from their opinion. For they ascribe only two children to William Taillefer born of the aforesaid marriage, namely Pons his successor, and Bertrand, marquis of Provence, and omit any daughter who would be the mother of St. Bertrand; without however increasing with her the number of the children whom the said William had received from Arsinde, his former wife. They review, namely, only Raymond and Henry, who died in youthful age, and Constance, the second wife of Robert, king of France, and Ermengarde, married to Robert, count of Auvergne. But certainly the mother of St. Bertrand had to be inserted somewhere, since Vitalis testifies to it in open words, who on this head is above all exception. For the rest, whoever desires to know more at length the splendid maternal family of St. Bertrand, let him go above all to the oft-cited history of Occitania Ibid., p. 538., and to the book which is entitled Art de vérifier les dates. The paternal line Oihenart wove Notit. utriusq. Vascon., p. 535., which however is declared more at length in the History of Occitania Vol. III, p. 601.. But this too lacks many names which I would willingly supply from authentic monuments, were it not necessary to run out for several centuries into profane history; which is foreign to our purpose. I shall only note that in the catalogue of the very rich archive of Mr. de Joursanvault Vol. II, p. 48. some unpublished charters are indicated and explained which are suitable for illustrating the family of St. Bertrand, long since extinct. Of the published ones there is nothing for me to say.

* Novit knows Mart.

* et [and] M.

* Omitted M.

* Wilelmi M.

* prima first added M.

* Omitted M.

* Omitted M.

* Omitted M.

* per lineam by the line M.

* Omitted M.

* Beati Bertrandi of Blessed Bertrand M.

* Omitted M.

* hujusmodi of this kind M.

§ III. The boyhood and knighthood of St. Bertrand; it is asked whether he was truly a canon regular in the church of St. Stephen at Toulouse; the beginnings of his episcopate are investigated.

St. Bertrand is piously brought up; As we have already hinted above, Vitalis is brief in unfolding the deeds of St. Bertrand, but prolix in reviewing the miracles: of these I shall treat for the most part in the annotations to the Life; of the former very many things are to be examined in this place. His encomiast Lastrade Relation de translation d'une relique, etc., p. 12. leads St. Bertrand out of his father's house before he had yet passed the age of boyhood, and sends him to William I, archbishop of Auch, maternal uncle of William III, as we have already seen above: which opinions again were drawn from Vitalis ill understood: for he says at num. 10: "We have learned for the greater part from the report of the lord William (namely the III), venerable archbishop of the see of Auch, his nephew (namely of St. Bertrand), whom (namely William) in tender age he brought up with himself, and caused to be applied to the study of letters." Which statements of Vitalis are altogether different from Lastrade's assertions. "And after William I," (so Lastrade continues Ibid., p. 14 and following), "had cultivated his nephew for some time, he entrusted him to the Cistercian monks in the monastery of Casa-Dei, to be instructed in sacred letters." Which new fictions, as treating of a monastery not then existing, have already been sufficiently shaken at numm. 10 and following. From Vitalis num. 1 we know this one thing, that it pleased both his parents "that, according to the Apostle, he should know from infancy the sacred letters, which could instruct him unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus." To what men he was entrusted for this purpose is hidden from us: for the rest these sacred letters seem to be nothing else than the first elements of Christian doctrine and perhaps of Latinity; for having become a young man, he was clothed in arms.

[36] having become a young man, he is clothed in military arms; "But when Blessed Bertrand," (so Vitalis speaks at num. 2,) "had reached the strength of youthful age, he was decorated with military arms": in what year of his age this was done it is difficult to determine, since the time of this solemnity was not fixed. For in the cited words are designated the ceremonies by which soldiers and knights were created: the rites of this celebration Martène published among the ancient rites of the Church Book II, chap. XII. and more on this matter exists in the Dictionary of Trévoux at the word Chevalier, more in du Cange's Glossary at the words Arma, Miles, etc., and in writers almost ready to hand. When the old writers speak of the time at which arms were bestowed, they bring forward only a vague indication of time: "when he had reached youthful strength, the times of adolescence," etc.: but since it was necessary that the knight should be equal to bearing not mock but heavy arms, twenty-one or commonly at least eighteen years were required in creating a knight; let one example, that of Henry, son of William the Conqueror, stand for many; so the short Chronicle of St. Martin of Tours speaks of him Dom Bouquet, Rec. des histor. de France, Vol. XII, p. 65.: "Henry was born in England in the 3rd year of the reign of his father William; in the 21st of the same reign, and the 19th of his own age, he took arms from his father at Pentecost." Orderic Vitalis, book VIII, writes that he was clothed in arms by Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury (as was almost the custom). It is plain to conjecture that something similar obtained in St. Bertrand's case.

[37] in which state of life he cultivates justice and other virtues; What manners the knight put on or kept his biographer Vitalis explains at length, praising him not only for the virtues he cultivated but also for the vices he trampled. And in fact it is no small praise to this man that, although being not of the lowest parents, and in military garb, he could by his strength and power oppress some, plunder the goods of others, and practise much malice, he would not exercise the power of temporal warfare

to the ruin of the good": so Vitalis; which surely commend our Saint the more, the more frequent was then the practice of iniquity and injustice among soldiers or nobles: of which matter a weighty testimony is the Truce of God, often proclaimed from the middle of the 11th century Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, p. 607 and following and passim.; and indeed, if only the Life of St. Bertrand existed, quite enough instances would already be at hand of the oppressions which in these times had passed into custom.

[38] then he becomes canon and archdeacon of Toulouse. How long St. Bertrand served as a knight I cannot determine on account of the silence of Vitalis and other writers. But since he held the episcopal see at least forty years, it is manifest that his knighthood was not so long. Some years, therefore, after taking up arms he must have been made a canon in the cathedral church of St. Stephen of Toulouse, as Vitalis relates at num. 10, and then archdeacon of the Church of Toulouse, as the same Vitalis attests at num. 7. But the question is whether at that time the chapter of the cathedral church was already a college of canons regular; and therefore whether St. Bertrand professed their institute. The affirmative opinion is proposed in the Proper Offices of Toulouse of the year 1647 and in the Proper of the Saints of the Order of canons regular of the Gallican Congregation of the year 1665; but in the Propers of the same Congregation of the years 1758 and 1765, and likewise by Baillet, the difficulty is veiled with these or similar words: "He was canon and archdeacon in the church of Toulouse at the time when regular discipline began to flourish again there under Bishop Isarn." Lastrade, who nevertheless in his little preface warns the reader that nothing will be found in his little book which is not true, brings forward according to his custom from his own store that St. Bertrand was chosen by Isarn, who was to use him as an instrument for perfecting the reform of his clergy. To resolve the question proposed, however, it is necessary before all that we inquire into the beginning of St. Bertrand's episcopate; for if you refer his election to the see of Comminges to the year 1073, as some will have it, you cut off, as they say, every question a priori, and exclude St. Bertrand from the regular chapter of the church of St. Stephen, which most certainly began after the year 1073. First, therefore, the various opinions of various writers about the time at which St. Bertrand was adorned with the mitre of Comminges seem to be set out.

[39] He was made bishop not in the year 1073, Claude Robert, in a work attempted rather than finished, the Gallia Christiana Gallia Christ., p. 315. Ed. 1626., vaguely makes St. Bertrand contemporary with Alexander III; which is to stray half a century from the truth. Riccioli Chronolog. reformata Vol. II, p. 207. and the brothers Sainte-Marthe Gall. Christ., Vol. II, p. 548. Ed. of the year 1656., following Oihenart, shrink from determining the beginning of his episcopate, and write: "He was ruling the bishopric in the years 1085 and 1086"; but Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gall. Christ. nova, Vol. I, col. 1094. discourses thus: "Otger, bishop of Comminges, having died, he is substituted about the year 1073. For in this year he confirmed to Peter, abbot of Simorre, the monastery of Salengolinum." Yet the same column, treating of William, prelate of the same see, calls the Sarrancolin instrument into doubt, warning: "In the year 1078 a council was still held at Gerona, at which William, prelate of Comminges, was present; and if he was our William, what is read from little certain arguments about Otger and Bertrand in the year 1073 must be put off to another time." Baillet Vies des Saints, Vol. VII, p. 243. and Beaunier Rec. des archevêchés, Vol. I, p. 90. attach the beginning of our Saint's episcopate to the year 1076, without noting on what foundation they set so alien an opinion. I pass over the rest who have spoken on this matter, or rather have attached to themselves the opinions of others.

[40] but after the year 1078, as is clear from the council of Gerona, For my part I think that St. Bertrand was raised to the see of Comminges about the year 1083; which seems able to be established by the following arguments: it is certain first of all that he was not prelate of Comminges before the year 1078, since in this year without doubt William was still sitting, who had come to this see in the year 1063. For we gather this openly from the council of Gerona, whose Acts Martène published Thesaur. Anecdotor., Vol. IV, col. 1190. from the writings of Mr. José de Taverner d'Ardenne, canon of Barcelona; but they were published much more accurately in the España Sagrada España sagrada, Vol. XLIII, p. 482. by Antolín Merino. In both editions, however, the penultimate signature is this: "I, William, bishop of Comminges, have signed"; further, this third synod of Gerona was celebrated in the times of Pope St. Gregory VII "in the seventy-eighth year after the thousandth of the Lord's incarnation," as you will find there in so many words. Nor is that the only testimony, which, even if alone, would settle the difficulty.

[41] and from the instrument of the restoration of the monastery of Banyoles; About the very time at which this holy synod was assembling, Bernard, count of Besalú, and his wife, the countess Ermengard, desired to restore the monastery of Banyoles: and so that the instrument of this restoration might be fortified with greater authority, they asked for the confirmation of Amatus, bishop of Oloron, legate of the Holy Roman Church and president of the said council, and of other prelates. The most illustrious Pierre de Marca Marca Hispanica append., col. 1168, Baluze ed. published this very instrument, which has two parts; the latter part ends thus: "And I ask that this my largess be confirmed by witnesses: Berengar, by the grace of God bishop of Gerona. William the archdeacon. S. of William, by the mercy of God bishop of Comminges. S. of Raymond, count. Peter, priest and monk, who wrote this on the day and year as above." Which day and year are given at the end of the former part with the confirmation of Amatus in this formula: "Which was made on the Nones of March in the year one thousand and 78, in the era one thousand one hundred and sixteen, in the first indiction. I, Amatus, bishop of Oloron, legate of the holy Roman Church, praise and confirm," etc. The testimony is clear.

[42] [which chronology is not shaken by the Simorre instrument, which St. Bertrand signed;] But an objection is raised: namely, this chronology conflicts with the Simorre charter, in which Bertrand is said to be bishop in the year 1073: to which objection a twofold solution can be given: for if none of the three monuments is examined intrinsically, credit is rather to be given to the Acts of the council, whose copies, as being more numerous, were less liable to corruption than the instrument of a certain cession preserved in only one archive; then a twofold monument ought to prevail against one. The other solution is sought from the integrity of the monuments: for if we inspect the charters produced, a fault strikes the eyes on one side, none on the other. For although I have nowhere been able to come upon a complete copy of the Simorre parchment, the two lines which Sainte-Marthe reports from it suffice for the blemish to be already disclosed; for he says Gall. Christ. Vol. I, col. 1094.: "Otger having died … St. Bertrand is substituted about the year 1073. For in this year he confirmed to Peter, abbot of Simorre, the monastery of Salengolinum": by which name was called in the 11th century a monastery situated in the diocese of Auch Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1014., afterwards called Sarancolinum, as the Gallia Christiana notes Ibid., col. 1094 in the margin., or Sarrancolinum, as d'Expilly will have it; who calls that monastery a priory. But the blemish which is present is chronological. For in the year 1073 Peter was not abbot of Simorre. For Mabillon shows Annal. Ord. S. Bened., Vol. V, p. 67. Lucca ed. at the year 1073 part of an instrument pertaining to the council celebrated at St. Mary of Orrea in this year on the Ides of August, and in which the cell of Saint Dode was assigned to the monastery of Simorre; and at the foot of the mutilated instrument, in which the name of Pons, bishop of Bigorre, is read, it is related that this Pons at that time held the abbatial office of Simorre together with the episcopal. Against these things Sainte-Marthe does indeed kick Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1015.; but in weaving the catalogue of the bishops of Tarbes he retraces his steps, and affirms Ibid., col. 1228. that Pons, formerly abbot of Simorre, did not abstain from the abbey of Simorre, which he still held in the year 1073, when by the judgement of the bishops the cell of Saint Dode was restored to the monks of Simorre. I know indeed that another exception can be raised from what Sainte-Marthe Ibid., col. 1015. asserts about Bernard, afterwards made abbot of St. Savin of Tarbes, and whom Peter, abbot of Simorre, had previously appointed prior in his monastery; but lest we be compelled again to run out more widely, it will suffice to have invited the reader to examine and weigh the catalogue of the abbots of Simorre and of St. Savin of Tarbes; and I do not hesitate to affirm that both will be found by him to be gaping.

[43] and indeed it is probable that his episcopate began about the year 1083. But although the Simorre charter of which I have just spoken labours under a grave fault, there is nevertheless no reason why all authority should be taken from it: for a drowsy copyist could easily write 1073 in place of 1083; and in fact, if the year 1083 is proved, the principal difficulty is removed. For Pons, bishop of Bigorre or Tarbes, is to be reckoned to have died or left his see in the year 1080 between the month of April and the end of this year, since on the Kalends of April of the same year he confirmed a diploma, and before the end of the year his successor, Hugh, was present at the council of Bordeaux. Pons, then, having died or been translated elsewhere, and the crozier of Simorre therefore belonging to no one, Peter could without trouble be abbot of Simorre in the year 1083. But what is the consequence of this explanation must be admitted, that St. Bertrand had already obtained the see of Comminges in the year 1083. And indeed the beginning of his episcopate cannot be referred to much earlier times either: for we have seen William sitting at Comminges in the year 1078; but between William and St. Bertrand all the writers of any note that I have seen insert Otger: with which opinion the Toulouse tradition, which becomes known from the office of St. Bertrand, and that of Comminges, maintained by Lastrade, are altogether consonant. The beginning of St. Bertrand's episcopate being therefore referred to about the year 1083, a twofold question remains to be weighed: the former, whether the life of canons regular was introduced into the Toulouse church of St. Stephen before the year 1083; the latter, if the former is answered affirmatively, whether St. Bertrand made himself a sharer in it.

[44] [And since the canonical life was introduced into the church of St. Stephen in the year 1077, as is clear not from the instrument which is commonly circulated,] To the former question various answers are given by various persons: I shall bring forward only two opinions: the writers of the Gallia Christiana Vol. XIII, col. 13 and passim and likewise the historiographers of Occitania Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, p. 226, and probat. col. 292 and following state that the charter of reform was drawn up about the year 1077 and inscribed or sent to Pope St. Gregory VII. On the contrary Lelarge, of the Gallican

Congregation of Canons regular, in his disquisitions on the order of canons De Ordine canonic., p. 356., published in the year 1679, reports from Catel's monuments of Occitania part of the said instrument, and ties this reform to the year 1083. So they. To call these things into examination, a few things must first be said about the said instrument: in it Isarn, bishop of Toulouse, first discourses on the wretched state of the church of St. Stephen; then he enumerates his gifts, and William, count of Toulouse, does the same; afterwards the cession of goods made is commended to the protection of St. Hugh, abbot of Cluny, and to the approval of St. Gregory VII; imprecations follow; and finally new gifts are made, among which the fourth part of the offerings of the church of St. Saturninus, the third part of the cemetery of the same church, etc. But if the matter is inspected more deeply, one of the following three hypotheses must be admitted: either the whole charter must have been made about the year 1081; or its end about this year, and the remaining part some years earlier; or the end about the year 1081, the request for approval set in a little before, and the first part when the reform was introduced: so that that diploma seems to have been enlarged once or twice. The reasons for which opinion I seek both from the form of the instrument and from a letter of St. Gregory VII Labbe, Concil., Vol, X, col. 297.; for thus he writes at the year 1081 to Richard, abbot of Marseille: "Whence also the canons (of St. Saturninus) have directed a complaint to us about the clerics of saint Stephen … who … are now trying to take away the cemetery which that place (of St. Saturninus) held quietly through long courses of time before its regular ordering, and to bring the churches belonging to it into their power on unlawful conditions," etc. In which words allusion is certainly made to the appendix of the donation, in which there had been given to the clerics of St. Stephen the third part of the cemetery of Saint Saturninus, and the other things of all the churches of the whole bishopric belonging to Isarn; but among these there were some things about which Isarn and the clerics of St. Saturninus were litigating between themselves. And since St. Gregory VII was prompt in pressing matters, not much space is to be interposed between Isarn's last donation and the Pontiff's letter: whence it is clear that the last part of the instrument is to be referred to about the year 1080: but the first part must have been made when the clerics were invited to the regular life: at what time this was accomplished is not plain from the said instrument, which will often be of use for other purposes.

[45] [but from the instrument of the handing over of the church of B. Mary of La Daurade in favour of the monks of Cluny,] The age of this reform, therefore, is to be sought from elsewhere: I think this can be done from the monument of the donation of the church of B. Mary of La Daurade, handed over to St. Hugh of Cluny by the same bishop Isarn: you have this monument entire in volume XIII of the Gallia Christiana; and it ends thus: "And that the charter may remain ratified, I have confirmed it with my own hand and handed it to my canons to be corroborated. Of the lord Isarn, bishop. Of the lord Raymond, bishop. Of the lord Raymond, bishop of Lectoure, provost of Saint Stephen. Of the lord Raymond Peter, canon of St. Stephen. Of the lord Peter Amelius, prior of the same see… The charter was made in the year from the incarnation of the Lord one thousand and seventy-seven, Pope Gregory VII holding the pontificate of the Roman Church, and King Philip the kingdom of the Franks," etc. Now if anyone notices that Isarn in other charters is accustomed to distinguish canons from clerics, and that when he writes canons elsewhere the canons of St. Stephen, already living according to rule, are understood by him, it is clear from the charter just invoked that in the year 1077 the reform had already obtained in the church of St. Stephen. Moreover the title of Prior, which is attributed to Peter Amelius, is another argument that at that time the clerics of St. Stephen had embraced the regular life. Whence it is evident that St. Bertrand, whom we have said was made bishop about the year 1083, could have been enrolled among the canons regular of St. Stephen. But it is asked secondly whether he was in fact enrolled among them.

[46] [St. Bertrand could have been a canon regular there, and seems in fact to have been one;] Some affirm, others shrink from answering, such as Baillet and the writers of the more recent breviaries of the Gallican Congregation. And in fact there is reason why one might stick in doubt; yet it is pleasing to go into the opinion of those who affirm, for the following reasons: Vitalis, at num. 7, treating of the election of St. Bertrand to the see of Comminges, speaks thus: "They came to the cloister of Blessed Stephen, indicating the election to the bishop and convent of the same place"; where what is meant by cloister, what by convent, is evident, unless anyone, beyond all probability, imagines to himself that unreformed clerics lived in the same cloister with canons regular. And at number 10 the same Vitalis, almost playing on words, and indicating that William III, prelate of Auch, occupied St. Bertrand's place in the church of St. Stephen, writes: "and (St. Bertrand) made him (William) a canon in the church of St. Stephen, of which he himself had been a canon." But William was beyond controversy a canon regular, since in the instrument of reform, of which above, these words occur: "For I have decided, after deliberation held, that whatever cleric henceforth and thereafter shall wish to share in the body of the aforesaid church, let him know that he must bind himself to the rigour of the canonical life," etc. To which is added that St. Bertrand, having been made bishop of Comminges, at once introduced the regular life among his canons, as Vitalis has it at n. 8.

[47] [although the archdeaconry which he obtained is not mentioned in the instrument of reform,] But a twofold difficulty occurs; the former namely that it is established from Vitalis num. 7 that St. Bertrand was archdeacon of Toulouse before his episcopate, yet his archdeaconry is not reviewed among the archdeaconries of the canons who had submitted themselves to the reform: for in the instrument of which more at num. 44 these words occur [Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, probat. col. 292. It also exists, though not so correctly, in Gall. Christ., Vol. XIII, instr., col. 7.]: "I give therefore (namely to the canons of St. Stephen) the archdeaconry surnamed of Agarnum of Peter Emelius, prior of the same see, likewise also the archdeaconry of Bernard Franco from the gate of Narbonne up to the territory of Carcassonne, and besides the archdeaconries of all those clerics who shall wish to associate themselves with this canonical life now and in the future, so that all may render in common the shares which they hold as archdeacons in the lord." But from these words this only could be proved, that St. Bertrand was not yet archdeacon at the time at which we have said this instrument was drawn up. The other difficulty, and much graver, is sought from the fact that St. Bertrand, having already been made bishop, did not give up his archdeaconry. For although there is silence on this matter in the Gallia Christiana, nevertheless approved witnesses of this matter are at hand; namely the historians of Occitania Ibid., Vol. II, p. 391., referring the reader in the margin to Catel's monuments of Occitania p. 906., write these words in French: "Elected bishop, he nevertheless retained the archdeaconry; for in an instrument made in the year 1086 he calls himself at once bishop and archdeacon of Toulouse"; likewise the brothers Sainte-Marthe speak thus Gall. Christ., Vol. II, p. 548. Ed. 1656.: "He (St. Bertrand) was ruling the bishopric in the years 1085 and 1086; in the archives of the Church of Toulouse he signs with the name of bishop of Comminges and at the same time archdeacon of Toulouse, and also in the year 1120." Which statements can be confirmed by these words from the instrument of the restitution of B. Mary of La Dalbade, made in favour of the monastery of B. Mary of La Daurade about the year 1110 Gall. Christ. nov., Vol. XIII, instrum. col. 14.: "This was done by the counsel and will of Amelius, bishop of Toulouse, and of the canons of the church of Saint Stephen, Arnald Raymond the provost, Aicard William, Bertrand, archdeacons, and others who were present there."

[48] [and he retained the duties, not the emoluments, of this archdeaconry during the time of his episcopate.] But from the very monument of the oft-mentioned reform it seems able to be gathered that among these canons offices fell vacant only by death; for to the words of Isarn recited in the preceding number these are subjoined: "And AFTER THEIR DECEASE, whomever the bishop shall wish to be archdeacons with the counsel of the clergy, they ought to elect and appoint according to God": and besides decease no other cause of vacancy is assigned. Moreover, that the common law did not obtain here is proved even from this, that Raymond of Lectoure, who confirms the said instrument, was provost of St. Stephen (see num. 45); but this however is to be noted, that after the institutions of the canons regular had been admitted they did not receive the emoluments of their provostship: otherwise Isarn would not have given to the canons living according to rule under the common life in the aforesaid see "the whole honour, namely, of the PROVOSTSHIP and of the deanery, the sacristy and the precentorship." There is no doubt that likewise St. Bertrand, keeping the archdeaconry in the diocese of Toulouse, is to be said to have reserved to himself the burden and dignity of his office, not however its emoluments. Further, an excuse would be sought in vain from the poverty of the church of Comminges; for the church of Toulouse was no less poor and wretched, as is plain from Isarn's statements. Which archdeaconry St. Bertrand ruled, however, I do not find. When the diocese of Toulouse passed into an archdiocese, many things were disturbed; whence, although it is established that in the time of St. Bertrand several archdeaconries were in the hands of laymen Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, p. 237., and therefore it is known which he certainly could not have possessed, yet so great a mist is spread here that nothing certain can be asserted.

[49] Some laws of the canonical life which St. Bertrand kept are recited, But we must return to the canonical life which St. Bertrand professed. Its principal laws are set out thus in the oft-mentioned charter of Isarn: "For example, that no one have anything as his own, or even (which God forbid) say so; that all dine together, take sleep together, that food and clothing be common to all according to the form of the apostolic institution; that no one have any liberty of going or wandering without the leave of his prior, so that for those for whom there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, there may be one spirit and one soul. And lest the occasion of transgressing the authority of so great a definition wrongly flatter anyone on account of a lack of food, I decree that henceforth they elect and appoint for themselves by common consent, from among their own, if perchance there can be found any who deserve it, a provost, dean, archdeacons, master of the school, sacristan, and that they receive and possess their honours with all the revenues of the honours, both of those converted from secular conversation and of those brought up from boyhood under canonical discipline, through the successions of the succeeding ministers of the church of this kind, with the revenues of the archdeaconries. All things therefore which I have decreed to give to their common life," etc.

[50] [which, although this college of canons was confirmed by the supreme Pontiff only in the year 1105, was truly religious.] As was noted at num. 44, after the donations enumerated in that charter, approval or confirmation is asked of the supreme Pontiff Gregory VII. But I doubt whether this charter reached Rome, both because St. Gregory about the year 1081 Labbe, Concil., Vol. X, col. 297. the clerics of St. Stephen

calls merely clerics, but those of St. Saturninus canons (by which variety of words he seems to have designated that the latter were bound by the precepts of the regular life, not likewise the former); and because the reform of the clerics of St. Stephen is to be reckoned never to have been confirmed by him: for nowhere do letters of confirmation given by this pontiff exist; but from the Gallia Christiana Vol. XIII, col. 75. you have it that letters of this kind were granted by Paschal II in the year 1105, and among the instruments of the same work Ibid., instr. col. 19. there occurs a privilege of Innocent II granted to the same church in the year 1142, and it is related in the same place Ibid., col. 76. that five years before a bull for confirming the rule was granted by the same Pontiff. Further, Alexander III alludes to these monuments in a bull given in the year 1162; for these words meet us there Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, probat. col. 586 and following: "After the example of our predecessors of happy memory, Paschal and Innocent, Roman Pontiffs, we fortify by the privilege of the Apostolic See; establishing that the canonical order and regular life constituted in the same church be inviolably observed there for perpetual and future times," etc. But nothing there about St. Gregory VII. But since St. Gregory did not confirm the rule of the canons of Toulouse, it does not follow thence that St. Bertrand is not to be reckoned among genuine canons regular. For even if it had been a new religious Order (which however it was not, as following the rule of St. Augustine), this would not have stood in the way at all, since, as it seems, it was in the Fourth Lateran council of the year 1215, canon XIII [Labbe, Concil., Vol. XI, part I, col. 169. Compare Hauteserre in the Asceticon, b. I, c. XVIII, p. 44. Ed. 1777.], that the institution of new religious Orders was first forbidden; and as regards founding new monasteries, the approval of the Pontiff began to be necessary in certain cases even half a century later [Chap. Religionum, § Confirmatos, on religious houses, in the Sext, and Chap. Cum ex eo, on the excesses of prelates, same book VI. Compare Benedict XIV on the diocesan Synod, book IX, chap. I, n. 9. Schmier, Canonical and civil Jurisprudence, book III, tract. I, part II, chap. II, sect. I, § III and Ferraris, Canon. Library, at the word Conventus, n. 13.]. While St. Bertrand, however, was living in the monastery of St. Stephen with the dignity of archdeacon, he surely did not enjoy complete peace. Very many quarrels were boiling between the canons of St. Stephen and the canons of St. Saturninus: the facts of which the historiographers of Occitania report in a few words Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, p. 294 and 384..

§ IV. Whether present-day Comminges, built by St. Bertrand, occupies the place of ancient Comminges; likewise, whether the present church was built by this Saint. On the institution of the canons regular of Comminges.

[St. Bertrand was consecrated bishop by William I of Auch, who was neither his paternal nor his maternal uncle.] In the preceding § I think I have made it probable that St. Bertrand was promoted to the mitre of Comminges about the year 1083. "As time went on," Vitalis adds, "he was consecrated by William Bernard, the venerable archbishop of blessed memory, in the church of Auch." Whether he was then first made priest there is no need for me to set out, since in the diocese of Toulouse an archdeacon could be a priest, as is clear from this one head, that St. Bertrand, having been made bishop, did not give up his archdeaconry. William I, prelate of Auch, who is said to have consecrated St. Bertrand, is called his maternal uncle in the Propers of Toulouse and of St. Genevieve of the year 1665; but he was neither the maternal nor the paternal uncle of St. Bertrand. For if he were the maternal uncle, then he himself and the whole troop of his brothers, whom one may learn of from the instrument published in the Gallia Christiana Vol. I, instr. p. 160., would have to be counted among the children of William Taillefer, count of Toulouse and maternal grandfather of St. Bertrand; although William himself, archbishop of Auch, calls himself there the son of Bernard. Nor was William the paternal uncle of St. Bertrand, because at numm. 23 and 24 it was shown that the sister of William I, prelate of Auch, married a brother of St. Bertrand; and therefore according to the Toulouse and Paris Offices a paternal aunt would have married her nephew: which is not to be admitted without certain argument.

[52] It is asked whether, in the place Besides the duties of a good bishop vigorously fulfilled, as Vitalis witnesses, St. Bertrand "gave his effort more vehemently that the church might rise on high, and decorated it with that beauty of ornaments which it requires for the uses of the church, because he loved the beauty of the house of God and the place of the dwelling of His glory. Around the church he built a cloister, as much as the narrowness of the place permitted, the precipice of the rocks hindering: there, as a lover of religion, he instituted canons, who under the rule of St. Augustine should be bound to ecclesiastical services. For on the mount there were no houses, and behold in the times of this Saint, his merits requiring it, men came, and rebuilt a city of habitation on the mount: and according to the prophet, they sowed fields, and planted vineyards, and made fruit of birth; and the place which for many times had been deserted received inhabitants." A twofold question, about which they think variously, is to be discussed in this place: the former, whether ancient Comminges occupied the same place as the city which was built in the time of St. Bertrand; the latter, whether St. Bertrand built the church which is now seen there, or whether it is older or more recent than he. The rest of this § will be chiefly in investigating these things, with lighter matters mixed in as occasion arises.

[53] which ancient Comminges occupied, Since various writers have already gathered a great deal about the beginnings of Comminges, we may be briefer. Pierre de Marca treats learnedly, according to his custom, of the county of Comminges Hist. du Béarn, p 8 and 34.; which praise we also willingly attribute to Dadin de Hauteserre Rer. Aquitanic., p. 69 and following. Oihenart too inserted a very ample and sagacious commentary in the Notitia of both Vasconias p. 517 and following: whom as guide Adrien de Valois above all followed in the Notitia Galliarum: and from Valois almost all is drawn that Denis de Sainte-Marthe has Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1089 and following. But St. Jerome, in treatise II against Vigilantius, an ample witness, is produced by most, though with his words corrupted. These, however, I find in the Paris edition of 1624 Works of St. Jerome, Vol. I, p. 407.: "Assuredly he (Vigilantius) answers to his race, as one who was born of the seed of robbers and convenae: whom Cn. Pompey, having subdued Spain and hastening to return to his triumph, brought down from the ridges of the Pyrenees and gathered into one town: whence also the city of the Convenae received its name. So far let him play the robber against the Church of God," etc.

[54] and which many have mentioned, And since this city was situated on a mount, it was called by many Lugdunum Convenarum: among these are cited Ptolemy, Aethicus and Strabo. On the statements of Aethicus consult the Journal de Trévoux Journ. de Trévoux 1730, July, p. 1313.; De la Porte du Theil, in his learned version of Strabo Strabo, book II, chap. II, Vol. II, p. 40., comments at length on the passage where the Convenae are treated. But I do not wish to digress more widely about the correction which he would wish to thrust in, and which many would surely receive most reluctantly. But that the city of Comminges borrowed this other name Lugdunum from the place to which it was given may be drawn out from the following words of Valois. At the word Lugdunum Clavatum of the Remi (Laon): "But the old Gauls," he says, "called a mount dunum," and at Lugdunum of the Segusiani (Lyon) he pursues the same thought more at length in these words: "An old itinerary interprets Lugdunum as the Desired Mount… The author of the book on rivers says that Lugodunum in the Gallic tongue signifies the Mount of the Raven… lugo designating a raven, duno a mount." He then goes on to confute the monk Heiric, who, writing Lucdunum, derives it from a bright mount: into which error, however, Denis de Sainte-Marthe afterwards fell Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col, 1090.. Charrier Hist. du Dauphiné, book II, p. 96. adopts an opinion, perhaps the most approved of all, and derives Lugdunum or Lucdunum from luc, denoting people, and dun, meaning mount. But whatever may be the truth about the former part of the word, this is certain, that by dunum a mount, or rather a hill, is designated: a hill I say, since in the northern languages the same word signifies the same thing, and almost all cities whose Latin name ends in dunum were built on hills or slopes: the number of which, surely, cannot be hidden from anyone as being immense. From these things it is established in general that Comminges was placed on a mount: but its site must be determined more accurately, and first indeed some principal writers are to be heard.

[55] the little town founded by St. Bertrand stands: The most celebrated geographer Balbi, then, in his Compendium of Geography places the town of St. Bertrand, or present Comminges, near the former Lugdunum Convenarum, discoursing of it in French nearly thus: "The town of St. Bertrand (Saint-Bertrand de Comminges) is a small city, and much fallen off; yet it is still of great importance on account of its marble works… Underground excavations made in St. Bertrand and its vicinity have been useful for discovering many funerary inscriptions and bronze monuments. These, however, with the ruins of a theatre, belonged to Lugdunum Convenarum, which ancient city was situated in its vicinity." Likewise thought a certain Gascon, the author of the dissertation which I noted above is in the Journal de Trévoux. De la Martinière in the Geographical Dictionary Vol. V, p. 222. professes a not wholly dissimilar opinion: "The ancient Lugdunum Convenarum," he says, "was placed at the roots of the mount on which Saint-Bertrand now stands, and that it was larger than Toulouse anyone can gather from the traces of the walls."

[56] many have denied, many have affirmed; Otherwise, and in my opinion rightly, thought Baudrand in his geographical Lexicon, likewise the geographer Mentelle Dictionnaire de Géographie ancienne at the word Comminges, no less than Lastrade, the encomiast of St. Bertrand, and finally, to pass over others, Adrien de Valois, whom it is pleasing to hear: "Scaliger," he says at the word Convenae, "and Masson write that the town of St. Bertrand in the valley of Capraria was built from the ruins of Lugdunum Convenarum …: but on the contrary Arnaud Oihenart, whom, as a Gascon writing about Gascony, I would more willingly believe, writes that the city of St. Bertrand is now on that hill on which Lugdunum Convenarum formerly was." Which opinion the author of the Notitia of both Vasconias p. 517. confirms with the weightiest arguments in this manner: "Nor is the learned man (Sirmond in the notes to Sidonius Apollinaris) deceived in his opinion when he persuades himself that the site of Lugdunum was on that hill on which the city of St. Bertrand is now established; for that this is true is proved by very many ruins,

and the foundations of walls of ancient structure, which are seen today in the fields lying below the hill, and show the traces of a city much larger than that which now occupies the narrow space of the summit of the hill: likewise the old inscriptions of stones, met here and there, of which it is pleasing to show a very few here," etc. So Oihenart: which testimony, joined with the argument sought from the name Lugdunum, although it almost proves the opinion which pleases us more, yet a few things remain to be explained and confirmed from elsewhere.

[57] [but from the description of St. Gregory of Tours, the unfortified part and above all] The diversity of opinions about the former site of Comminges seems to me to have arisen from this, that as it is described by St. Gregory of Tours Col. 359. Ruinart ed.; and Dom Bouquet, Vol. II, p. 306., it is to be reckoned too great to have been able to exist on the hill where the present Saint-Bertrand is seen. But the city consisted of two parts: one which was situated on the hill and most strongly fortified; the other which rose in the valleys below. Wide was its compass; and the fortified part itself was much vaster than the present city. Let us bring forward nothing from our own store: first, then, it must be proved that one part of the city was fortified, and the other unprotected and open. Gregory of Tours, then, in Ruinart Col. 360., brings forward Gundovald addressing the people of Comminges in these words: "But since my brother King Guntram is moving an immense army against me, you must shut up your provisions and all your goods within the fortification of the walls, so that, while the divine kindness increases our comfort, you may not perish of want. They, believing these things, placing in the city whatever they could have, prepared themselves to resist… While he was staying, therefore, at the city of Comminges, he spoke to the inhabitants, saying: Behold, the army now approaches; go out to resist. And when they went out, these men, seizing the gates and shutting them, the people being shut out together with the bishop of the place (Rufinus), subjected to their dominion all things which they had been able to find in the city. And so great a quantity of grain and wine was found there that, had they stood manfully, they would not have lacked the provisions of food for the space of many years." What, I ask, would these snares of Gundovald have availed, unless the city had consisted of a twofold part? For how could the people of Comminges have shut up their goods and provisions within the fortification of the walls, unless one part of the city had been fortified, the other not fortified?

[58] delineating the fortified part, or the mount, compared with the things which That the mount was fortified is to be shown in the second place: here is how St. Gregory describes it, in Ruinart Col. 359.: "Gundovald… crossed the Garonne with … the dukes …, making for Comminges. For it is a city situated on the summit of a mount, adjoining no mountain. A great spring, bursting forth at the root of the mount, is surrounded by a most secure tower: going down to which from the city by a tunnel they secretly draw water." I pass over what the monk of Fleury, Aimoin, in the Deeds of the Franks, and the Chronicle of St. Denis contribute on this matter, since they evidently used the writings of St. Gregory. Lastrade, whose testimony is to be trusted when he holds discourse of the things which he had handled with his hands and seen with his eyes, says of present Comminges Relation de la translation, etc., p. 116.: "It is a mount to which no other mount is adjacent; it could rather be called a little mount, if it is compared with the Pyrenees, at whose roots it is situated." The spring bursting forth may be seen in the picture which, with other documents, the Rev. Fr. Charles Tinseau of our society submitted to us, and which, however imperfect, we have had reproduced here. As the same St. Gregory moreover witnesses, on the eastern side there was a deep valley: for narrating the attempts made on the sixteenth day of the siege he has these words Col. 364.: "And when morning came, the army again rises up for battle, and they make bundles of rods, as if to fill the valley which was situated on the eastern side." Since the apses of churches were formerly almost always turned to the east, there is almost no doubt for me that this valley is the precipice of which Vitalis discourses at num. 8, and beside which St. Bertrand afterwards built his cloister, which surrounded the apse, as may be seen in the mentioned picture. St. Gregory moreover notes Col. 366. that the whole city, that is, the fortified part, was surrounded by a rather deep valley; and Lastrade testifies the same Relation de la Translation, etc., p. 116.. But the man of Tours notes that the precipices were not everywhere equally near, writing: "And when they had gone some distance FROM THE GATE" (namely Gundovald and those who were going to betray him), "as the valley round the city is all a precipice, he was pushed by Ollo and fell"; and that the same holds in the picture brought forward no one will fail to see.

[59] [from what is related about present Comminges, the affirmative opinion is established.] Lancelot, a member of the Academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres of Paris, investigated in the year 1719 the antiquities of Ancient Comminges: he put forth an opinion similar to Oihenart's. He thinks, namely, that within ancient Comminges is to be included the valley of Capraria (Valcabrère), which village lies below the hill or town of St. Bertrand towards the Garonne. Nearer still is the church of St. Just, built wholly of ruins and sculptured stones [Hist. de l'Académie des inscript. et belles-lettres, Vol. III, p. 437 and following and Vol. IV, p. 393 and following]. As the same Lancelot witnesses, the present church of St. Bertrand was built on the summit of the mount (sur la croupe de la montagne on the brow of the mountain). In the picture of the town here added a higher mount rises beside the church; whence the statements of Lancelot seem to be understood no otherwise than as if that mount had several ridges quite far apart, one of which bore the church built upon it. When Lancelot visited this town, it consisted of the cathedral church, the chapter and about twelve country houses: it has grown somewhat since, since La Martinière in the year 1768 assigns to it six hundred inhabitants, and more recent geographers more than seven hundred. Nevertheless Baillet was very far from professing the truth when he said in the Life of St. Bertrand that the mount of Comminges was increased with so many citizens that already in his time it was a city among the largest and most beautiful of Gascony.

[60] [The church of Comminges, destroyed with the rest of the city in the time of Guntram,] There is no need for me to retrace footsteps and set out the war which blazed up in the year 584 between Gundovald and Guntram, and was the cause of the destruction of Comminges. Gregory of Tours treated of it at length in book VII of the history of the Franks: besides whom Fredegar the Scholastic in his Chronicle and in the epitome of the History of the Franks, Aimoin, monk of Fleury, in the deeds of the Franks, the Chronicle of St. Denis, and more recent historians, mostly contracting the statements of Gregory, can be consulted. I pass on, then, to the other question, which turns on whether the church of Comminges was built by St. Bertrand. Here again the opinions among writers are various: nevertheless it must be admitted among all that at the time of the said war everything at Comminges was turned upside down. For St. Gregory discourses thus on this matter Col. 366. Ruinart ed.: "And on the following night" (after the betrayal and slaying of Gundovald), "those who were the first" (elsewhere "sent" is read) "secretly carried off all the treasures which they were able to find in the city, with the vessels of the church. And in the morning, the leaves of the gates having been opened and the army let in, they put all the common people shut in to the edge of the sword, slaughtering also the priests of the Lord with their ministers at the very altars of the churches. And after they had killed all, so that there remained not one that pisseth against the wall, they set fire to the whole city with the churches and the other buildings, leaving there nothing but empty ground. Already before, Bladast… fearing lest Leudegisel" (namely the leader of Guntram's besieging army), "having obtained the victory, should put them to death, setting fire to the house of the church" (the house of the bishop and clerics), "while those shut in ran together to quench the fire, he slipped away in flight and departed." Here in a few words is how the churches and episcopal buildings were consumed.

[61] seems to have begun to be rebuilt by St. Bertrand, Although this testimony of St. Gregory is not at all obscure, Lastrade nevertheless protests, who, as he speaks, thinks that he will not do injury to the glory of Clovis I when he refers the present church to the times of the Romans who served idols; and in fact the description which he published of it would impel everyone to assign it to the Corinthian order, although it is of the Gothic order, as we commonly speak: so deceptive is his description, and the antiquity indicated wholly erroneous. But since Adrien de Valois Notit. Gall., p. 158, col. 2., Beaunier Rec. des archevêchés etc., Vol. I, p. 90., Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1089., Richard and Giraud Biblioth. sacrée, Vol. XXVIII, p. 255. Ed. 1828. assert that Comminges lay in ruins for more than 520 years, so that the bishops of the Church of Comminges were compelled to have another see, they clearly hint that the church did not exist on the mount up to the times of St. Bertrand. And this opinion indeed seems to be embraced; Vitalis says, as we have seen: "He gave his effort, then, more vehemently that the church might rise on high, and decorated it with that beauty of ornaments which it requires for the uses of the church, because he loved the beauty of the house of God and the place of the dwelling of His glory." Which words, "that the church might rise on high," seem to indicate that a church long since destroyed, whose lower walls perhaps survived, was carried up on high by him. For the rest, as the praised Fr. Tinseau wrote to us, the more common opinion now is that this church was built in the 12th century, and according to those skilled in the art the kind of structure does indeed regard this time; but by others it is contended that it is much older; and to him there seems to be something not out of keeping with the truth in both opinions: the bell-tower seems older than the church; the architectural art in the two is not the same, since the windows of the tower borrow their form from the circle (en plein ceintre round-arched), but the windows and vault of the church borrow theirs from intersecting arches (ogive). Whence you would say that the present tower, which is of the same structure as the cloister, of which we show a picture and which was certainly built by St. Bertrand according to the testimony of Vitalis at num. 8, belongs to the times of this Saint; but that the rest of the sacred building was not finished by the same prelate; which for the rest is established from elsewhere. While St. Bertrand, however, was pressing on with this labour, he seems to have performed his sacred duties in the church of St. Just, which still lies quite adjacent to the mount. For although most writers, applying to themselves the statements of Valois, confess that they do not know in what place the bishops of Comminges sat before the end of the 11th century, yet from Vitalis it is manifest enough that this see was within the compass of ancient Comminges. For that biographer says: "The cathedral church of Comminges, bereaved of its pastor, was anxiously seeking a ruler… They lead the elect to the city of Comminges… enthroning him in solemn manner in the cathedral church… When the holy man

(from Auch, where he had been consecrated) had returned to the church of his city, to celebrate the divine mystery there, there was according to custom an immense concourse of those coming… This church, assuredly, the most clement king of the Franks… having cast out the filth of the profane nation, decorated with royal insignia, with the mount and the suburb, and… added this…, that whoever should rule the aforesaid church… should be count…" And since the church of St. Just occupied part of ancient Comminges, and since moreover we read in Vitalis at num. 12: "One Sunday, then, the man of God entered the aforesaid church (of St. Just) to celebrate the solemnities of Mass there"; it seems able quite aptly to be established that the bishops of Comminges had their see there, and that our Saint fulfilled his sacred duties there while he was occupied in rebuilding the church on the mount. (Compare moreover Vitalis n. 22.) But he was far from putting the last hand to it.

[62] but afterwards finished in the 14th century. For that it was finished or completed at the beginning of the 14th century a sepulchral stone is witness. Hugh de Châtillon, namely, who obtained the bishopric in the year 1335 and died on the 5th day before the Nones of October of the year 1352, has in the church of Comminges a splendid mausoleum of white marble, with this epitaph attached to the neighbouring wall Compare the Gallia Christiana, Vol. I, col. 1101 and following: "In the year of the Lord 1352, on the 4th day of the month of October, died the reverend father the lord Hugh de Châtillon, by the grace of God bishop of Comminges, who built this chapel and completed the present cathedral church. May his soul rest in peace." Moreover, concerning the structure of the church it remains to be noted, both from the annotations of the Rev. Mr. Feral, secretary of the most illustrious archbishop of Toulouse, and from the little book of Lastrade, that this church is wonderful on account of the prodigious height of its vaults or arches, which no columns support; indeed, since it is known from geographical books that marble is common in the tract of Comminges, Lastrade the more easily wins credit when he relates that this whole sacred building is constructed of white marble; and finally from the said Toulouse annotations and from Beaunier Recueil des archevêchés, Vol. I, p. 91. we understand that the stalls of the choir, which Jean de Mauléon, who occupied the see of Comminges from the year 1523 to the year 1551, had carved most perfectly Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1105., are an object of admiration to visitors; we have also found them partly drawn in a certain collection of pictures of the principal monuments of France. What pious monuments are dedicated to St. Bertrand will be related below. But let us return more nearly to the deeds of our Saint.

[63] In his church St. Bertrand instituted canons regular First of all, as Vitalis witnesses, "around the church he built a cloister, as much as the narrowness of that place permitted, the precipice of the rocks hindering." The arrangement of this cloister may be conjectured from the drawing of the town; but the peristyle, such as survives, is known from the elevation placed in this place. Without doubt this cloister belonged to the buildings destined for the canons regular whom he introduced into his church, as Vitalis again witnesses at num. 8: "And there, as a lover of religion, he instituted canons, who under the rule of St. Augustine should be bound to ecclesiastical services." And he could teach his clerics the rule of St. Augustine the more easily, the more faithfully he himself had fulfilled it in the church of St. Stephen of Toulouse: for the laws which were reported at num. 49 from the privilege of Isarn pertain purely to the rule of St. Augustine, and can easily be found in the three rules attributed to St. Augustine Holstenius, Codex of rules, Vol. II, p. 120 and following. Second ed.. You must except, however, what Isarn prescribes about the common dormitory, and of which nothing comes my way in the said rules: but several ecclesiastical canons of the middle age on this matter are known; likewise it is known that the precept of the common dormitory was introduced at the end of the 11th century into all monasteries of canons where at that time regular discipline began to revive: see on this matter the rule of the canons of Montfort Ibid., Vol. II, p. 134.; the statute of Alexander II promulgated in the Roman synod of the year 1063 Labbe, Conc. Vol. IX, col. 1176.; the Life of Blessed Berard, bishop of the Marsi Ughelli, Ital. Sacra, Vol. I, p. 966.; the work of Lelarge on the Order of canons Regular p. 350.; and the laws of these times almost ready to hand: for the rest, St. Chrodegang himself had long ago written a whole chapter on this matter for clerics Holstenius, Cod. Regul., Vol. II, p. 98..

[64] perhaps about the year 1114; Concerning the time, however, at which St. Bertrand transferred his clerics to the canonical order, I have been able to find nothing certain: Lelarge De Ordine Canonic. Regular., p. 368. refers this reform to about the year 1104. But he seems to throw the dice, bringing forward no reason for such a chronology. For my part I would willingly add ten years to Lelarge's reckoning; for Vitalis at num. 10 writes of William, prelate of Auch, that he was brought up in his first age with St. Bertrand, "who caused him to be applied to the study of letters, and made him a canon in the church of St. Stephen": now I trust that no one will assert that St. Bertrand provided for the canons of St. Stephen more than for his own, or would have entrusted his nephews to the canons of another church, when he himself had not long before established a college of canons in his own church: whence it becomes probable that the canons of Comminges were instituted after that William, having spent his first age with St. Bertrand and completed the course of good letters, had already been numbered among the canons of Toulouse, that is, when he had reached about the twentieth year of his age. Further, Vitalis relates that he was conceived before the death of William I, who according to the necrology of Saint-Sever at the head of Gascony was laid to rest on the 15th day before the Kalends of May of the year 1096 Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 981 and following. For he says that William III received his name from William I, "not yet however poured forth into the present light, but shut up in his mother's womb." It cannot be, however, that he was born much earlier than the year 1096, since from the Gallia Christiana Ibid., col. 986 and following it is known that William III died only in the year 1170, and at this time, or rather a little before, was equal to undertaking journeys and business: wherefore an age of 74 years is not to be much increased. Moreover, unless this were guarded against, we should make him almost an old man when about the year 1145 he came to the episcopal office: wherefore it seems to be established that the canonical order was introduced into the church of Comminges about the year 1114.

[65] the fortunes of this college of canons. That fervour gradually cooled among these canons may be gathered from the following words of Lastrade Relation de la translation d'une relique, etc., p. 172., rendered by me into Latin: "Benedict XII in the year 1340 prescribed his statutes to the canons of Comminges; and since these were found too severe and difficult to keep, recourse was had to Clement VI, Benedict's successor, that he might reform them. For which cause he sent Bertrand, bishop of Lombez, who, since he was hindered from fulfilling the mandate because he was detained at Avignon on business with the same lord Pope, substituted for himself the provost of Lombez and the dean of the collegiate church of L'Isle-Jourdain, to visit the chapter of Comminges and inquire into the truth of the matter set out. Further, according to their report a mitigation of the statutes was made; which some reckoned laxer than it really is." This mitigation, since Bertrand was made bishop of Lombez in the year 1348 Gall. Christ., Vol. XIII, col. 323. and Clement VI died in the year 1352 Baluze, Lives of the Popes of Avignon, Vol. I, in several Lives of Clement VI, must be confined between the year 1348 and 1352. That chapter, which seems to have been quite rich, was secularized long before the impious tumults of the last century, as the praised Rev. Mr. Feral writes to us; and indeed by virtue of the concordat of the year 1801 the bishopric of Comminges itself was suppressed; so that Antoine-Eustache d'Osmond, consecrated in the year 1785 on the 1st day of May, closed the series of the pontiffs of this see, having been invited in the year 1801 by a pontifical bull to send in the resignation of his see Biblioth. Sacrée, Vol. XXVIII, p. 258. Ed. of the year 1827.. I wonder much not only that Elssius in his Augustinian Encomiasticon and Herrera in his Alphabet do not mention St. Bertrand, but also that Pennotto in his History of the Canons Regular made not even a word about the chapter of Comminges.

§ V. The diplomas which St. Bertrand signed; the councils at which he was present; the consecration of the cemetery of Auch and of the church of the convent of St. Orientius. The death of St. Bertrand.

St. Bertrand was present at the council of Bordeaux in the year 1093; Elsewhere we have already noted some instruments which St. Bertrand signed: it remains that we review, almost in order of time, some others to which he set his name, and insert in that review some councils which he honoured with his presence. First of all, in the year 1093 he was present at the council of Bordeaux, in which the monastery of St. Caprasius was restored to the monks of Fleury: for the rest, this one thing is notable, that the laws in signing were quite well kept Compare Cantel, S. J., Histor. urb. metropol., Vol. I, p. 128.. The archbishops, namely, of Bordeaux and Auch first set their signs; then come those of Agen, Périgueux and Angoulême, belonging to the province of Bordeaux; and there follow those of Bigorre, Comminges, Aire, Bazas and Dax, subject to the metropolitan of Auch; whence, since the bishop of Bigorre or Tarbes, Odo by name, obtained the bishopric in the year 1080, it can again be deduced from these signatures that St. Bertrand was consecrated after the prelate of Bigorre: this argument, however, becomes weaker from the fact that the bishop of Bazas is not in his place in the copies [Compare on this council Mansi, suppl. Concil. Labbe Vol. II col. 125; and Mabillon, Annal. Ord. S. Bened., Vol. V, p. 236 and 296 and instrum., p. 617. Lucca ed.]. The sign of St. Bertrand among the witnesses and viewers of the privilege is couched in these words: "Sign of Bertrand, bishop of Comminges."

[67] and in the year 1100 he was present at the council of Poitiers, St. Bertrand was present at another much more celebrated assembly, namely the council of Poitiers of the year 1100. This we know from the MS. Cartulary of Auch, from which Mr. de Brugelles published many things in the ecclesiastical Chronicles of Auch, and Dom Brial inserted some things into the Collection of the historians of Gaul Rec. des hist. de France, Vol. XIV, p. 321.. Many affairs, namely, were treated there, which are almost all declared in Labbe's Collection of councils Vol. X, col. 720 and following from writers mostly contemporary; from them we select only two, because about the former, which regards the cemetery of Auch, there is silence in the mentioned Collection, and St. Bertrand was afterwards again involved in it, and because the latter gave the same Saint some occasion for Christ and His law

of suffering. Further, for almost a whole century a suit was agitated between the canons of Auch and the monks of St. Orientius of Auch about a certain cemetery, in which at length the monks of St. Orientius lost. Further, although this matter had already been pleaded at Toulouse in the year 1096 before the lord Pope Urban II, who was staying there, and about three years after in the Roman council, an end had not yet been put to the dispute.

[68] [in which he approved the sentence of the legates of the apostolic see concerning the cemetery of Auch,] Wherefore in the council of Poitiers, when a complaint on the same matter had come to the ears of John and Benedict, Cardinals, who then presided over the same council by apostolic deputation and legation, this judgement was promulgated by them thus: "What was judged by our lord Pope U. (Urban) of blessed memory concerning the cemetery of Bordeaux, the same we too judge concerning all mother churches, because we do not find in any decrees, or in any canons, that mother churches, from which orders and baptism and other such things proceed, should lack burial. The church which receives the living, let it receive the dead also." And likewise it was added: "Privileges made against justice and against the universal judgement of our lord Pope U., we judge to be false; the universal judgement of our lord the Pope concerning mother churches, by name concerning the see of Auch, we confirm and corroborate." "Do you all approve?" All sitting in the council said: "We approve. This confirmation of the cemetery of Auch was made in the council of Poitiers by John and Benedict, cardinals, legates of the Roman and apostolic see, on the sixth day of the week, the fifth day of the council" (the 23rd of November of the year 1100), "with the assent and affirmation of the whole assembly, in the presence of the lord R. (Raymond), archbishop of Auch, and (Ralph) archbishop of Tours, (Philip) bishop of Troyes, (Lambert) bishop of Arras, (Morvan) bishop of Vannes, (Peter) bishop of Lectoure, (Bernard) bishop of Labourd, (Bertrand) bishop of Comminges, Enguerrand, bishop of Laon, Marbod, bishop of Rennes, Ivo, bishop of Chartres, and many others, abbots and bishops, as well of the Gascons as of Gaul." Who the rest of these abbots and bishops were is not altogether known: indeed there is a varying opinion about the number, since Hugh, abbot of Flavigny, in the Chronicle of Verdun Ibid., Vol. XIII, p. 624. writes that in the church of Saint Peter of Poitiers on the day of the octave of Saint Martin only 80 bishops and abbots and 35 canons were gathered, and Geoffrey Grossus, the writer of the Life of St. Bernard, abbot of Tiron Ibid., Vol. XIV, p. 169, and in our work at the 14th of April, p. 233., testifies that one hundred and forty fathers were present at this council: which variety seems to have arisen from this, that Hugh has in view the beginning of the council, Geoffrey its end.

[69] [and he constantly adhered to them when, disregarding the threats of the count of Poitiers, they excommunicated the adulterous king of France,] But the principal aim of the council was to induce the adulterous Philip I, king of France, not to retain Bertrada. According, then, to the appendix of the Life of St. Hilary Rec. des hist. de France, Vol. XIV, p. 108 and following, the remaining ecclesiastical causes having been duly dealt with, the cardinal legates intended at the last to publish a sentence of anathema against the king on the aforesaid head. Then William, count of the Poitevins, whom the king had approached through his messengers, came into the church and threatened the assembled fathers with severe threats. "All the others therefore," the said appendix continues, "being terrified at the word of the count (William), and the bishops and abbots of the king's domain having gone out of the session of the council for fear, the lord John the legate alone remained undaunted; indeed, made more constant and more courageous, he cried out and said: 'Hear me, brethren:… Let them fear … and flee at the coming of the wolf, hirelings; let those remain here with us who are good and true shepherds…'" He then stretched out his neck to the count to be struck: which constancy of the man the count having experienced, he went out of the council more quickly, so as not to hear the king excommunicated. The duke having gone out, John continued his discourse, recalling the vision of St. Hilary exhorting him and the rest to fortitude. "At these words all who were present were cheered, and, fear being removed, were made more secure through the promise of Blessed Hilary… Then Cardinal John, lights having been brought and all raised against the king, promulgated the sentence of anathema until he should give satisfaction," the fathers who had remained giving their vote, as we have clearly from Geoffrey Grossus Rec. des hist. de France, Vol. XIV, p. 169. and Hugh of Flavigny Labbe, Conc., Vol. X, col. 722.. And here there is nothing that may turn to the dishonour of St. Bertrand; for only those fled who were of the king's domain, or immediately subject to him; among whom our Saint cannot be numbered, as being of Comminges: and he is therefore to be reckoned among those who, remaining with the legates, proved themselves good and true shepherds.

[70] and they scarcely escaped the hands of the raging people and of the count. But as soon as the people understood that the king had been excommunicated, they were moved with vehement anger and raised an immense tumult; so much so that, when already "the praise of Christ," as Hugh of Flavigny speaks Ibid., l. c., "was resounding in the mouth of those who stood by for the dismissal of the council, as is the custom,… one of the people, being in the upper parts of the church, threw a stone, wishing to strike the cardinals; by whose blow a certain cleric, his head crushed, is laid low. Hence new consternation among the prelates, and new fury among the people. The pavements flow with blood, the house is filled with confused clamour, the ministers of Satan rage with fury and madness within and without. The pillars of Christ remain unmoved, fearlessly awaiting death, if the Lord should command it; and to the flying stones, their mitres removed, uncovering their bare heads; nor ever falling silent from the praise of God and the preaching of the truth: eager to confirm with blood, if need be, what they had pursued with the voice. By whose devout constancy and most constant devotion a repression of those raging was effected and an inclination of hearts to repentance." So Hugh of Flavigny, an eyewitness, who himself had business to be discussed in this council. But while the chronographer of Flavigny praises the bishops for their constancy, Geoffrey Grossus censures them for their cowardice, so that he writes Rec. des hist. de France, Vol. XIV, p. 169. that only Bernard of Tiron and Robert of Arbrissel, the others shamefully fleeing, stood so unmoved and constant that they did not desist from the excommunication begun, but thought it most glorious to suffer death or insult for Christ. But Geoffrey's testimony is to be held of little account in the history of this council, since he seems to have been very badly instructed in the series of the events in it, so that in almost all the circumstances, both great and small, he dissents from the other historians. Nor is there reason for anyone to object that only the cardinals are presented by Hugh of Flavigny as the pillars of Christ; for it is clearly plain from the context that under that name come all the bishops who had remained and with the legates had bound Philip with the bond of excommunication. The commotion of the people being quieted, the danger to life indeed, but not every danger to liberty, vanished. For Count William, having learned of the king's excommunication, vehemently aroused, as the praised appendix witnesses, "caused the gates of the city to be closed, and the outlets of the roads to be watched, lest they should go out secretly. And there was a rumour everywhere that all who had been present at the excommunication would be seized and plundered. They in fear flock to the legate, and ask what they should do. But the lord John comforted all, telling them not to fear, but to await the outcome of the matter securely. While they are speaking these things with one another, a messenger came to announce that the gates of the city were open and free exit given to all. Indeed the count himself, pricked in heart, came, and prostrate on the ground before the cardinals confessed his fault and asked pardon; and promises with an oath that for the rest he will not commit such things. Further, the lord legates… the promises of Blessed Hilary having been fulfilled" (the Chronicle of Maillezais, of the best mark, also mentions these Labbe, Concil., Vol. X. col. 723.), "rejoicing, enjoin penance on the count, and forgive that offence, and send the members of the council back to their own with joy": and so St. Bertrand, having passed through the gravest dangers with much constancy, was restored to his flock. For the rest, if anyone wishes to know more about this whole business, let him go to the commentary on Bertha repudiated by King Philip and Bertrada of Anjou brought in over her, which Dom Brial inserted in the Collection of the historians of Gaul Rec. des hist. de France, Vol. XVI; see especially from p. LXXIX to LXXXVI..

[71] St. Bertrand does not seem to have signed the Lézat diploma in the year 1105. Nor was this the only occasion on which St. Bertrand had need of episcopal constancy; but before we come to that other calamity, two instruments must be examined at whose drawing up they will have it that our Saint was present. Denis de Sainte-Marthe, namely, in the article on him Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1095. mentions that St. Bertrand is read as present when in the year 1105, in the month of October, Garmund gave to Seguin, abbot of Lézat, and his monks the churches of St. Vincent and of St. Beat with a vineyard. But these things are certainly erroneous: first of all in the year 1105 Seguin was not abbot of Lézat, but before the year 1102 had either died or left the abbey, since in this year Gerald II held the government of the abbey Ibid., Vol. XIII, col. 208., and held it, as it seems, up to the year 1105, in which Odo II succeeded him Ibid., loc. cit.. Moreover it is not so easily grasped how Garmund could give to the abbot of Lézat these churches which had long been in the possession of his monastery. For in a diploma of the year 1003 we find these words Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, probat. col. 161.: "I, Sulmus… cede or give the church itself of Saint Beat" (hence made a Benedictine priory and a little town Ibid., Vol. II, p. 131.), "which is founded upon the bank of the Garonne, with all the offering and its appurtenances, in the boundary of Bavartum, in the county of Comminges, and the church of Saint Vincent which is upon the other bank of the Garonne, with the offering and its appurtenances; the whole and entire I give to the Lord God and to Saint Peter of Lézat,… to Hugh the abbot," etc. Afterwards indeed laymen laid wicked hands on these possessions of the monks of Lézat, so that that Garmund, who according to Sainte-Marthe had given to the monastery of Lézat in the year 1105 the churches of SS. Beat and Vincent, wrote in the year 1132 a charter of restitution, of which this is the tenor Ibid., Vol. II, probat. col. 470.: "I, Garmund of Saint-Beat, and my sons make a quitclaim and release of the place of Saint Beat, and of all things belonging to it by ecclesiastical right, to God and to Saint Mary, and to Saint Stephen and to Saint Beat. This release was made and confirmed in the hand of Roger, bishop of Comminges, on the day on which the bodies of SS. Beat and Privatus were translated and the altar of Saint Stephen was dedicated by the same bishop. In the year 1132, epact 1, concurrent 5, moon 19, on Sunday, the 6th day before the Kalends of July."

That these things can hardly be reconciled with the statements of Sainte-Marthe no one will fail to discern. Finally the mentioned instrument of the year 1105 was unknown to the continuators of the Gallia Christiana, as is clear from the catalogue of the abbots of the monastery of Lézat Gall. Christ., Vol. XIII, col. 208 and following, no less than to the historiographers of Occitania, to Mabillon in the Annals of his Order, and to Bréquigny in the review of the diplomas of France. On the other hand I have nothing to oppose to these other words of Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1075.: "Garsias, bishop of Lectoure, is mentioned with Bertrand, the pious prelate of Comminges, in a very old instrument of the church of Toulouse, in the time of Arnald Raymond, provost of the church of St. Stephen. The year is not noted; but Arnald Raymond held the provostship of the chapter, or of St. Stephen, from the year 1093 to 1118."

[72] After manifold sentences of the Roman Pontiffs But the suit about the cemetery of Auch, which we have already seen agitated in the council of Poitiers, again calls us to itself. At Poitiers in the year 1100 it had been established that according to common law the cathedral church of Auch should have a cemetery, and the contrary privilege of Pope Urban II, which the monks of St. Orientius put forward, had been rejected as spurious: and indeed in the year 1099, after the Roman council, the canons of Auch had obtained from Pope Urban II burial for their Church in perpetuity From the Cartulary of Auch, Rec. des hist. de France, Vol. XIV, p. 321.. But, St. Hugh of Cluny, to whom the monks of St. Orientius were subject, intervening, Paschal II in the year 1105 confirmed the privilege granted by Leo IX and Urban II, and established Ibid., p. 322. "that the ancient constitution of the cemetery itself be not disturbed by any harassment of any rivals… Accordingly, neither outside the city nor within, let it be lawful for the archbishop of Auch and his canons to institute a new cemetery; but both archbishops and regulars or irregulars, clerics or laymen, of whom it has hitherto been the custom, shall in future times obtain the place of burial among the monks of St. Orientius." But no quiet was yet born from this: for in the year 1118 Pope Gelasius II gave letters Ibid., l. c. to Bernard, archbishop of Auch, forbidding him to disturb the monks of St. Orientius further over the business of the cemetery. Nevertheless in the following year Calixtus II, commanding that the common law be held, gave at Le Puy Ibid., l. c. a derogatory privilege, by which he thought fit to grant the petition of Bernard, archbishop of Auch, "that he should grant in future free burial to the mother church of Blessed Mary of Auch… and… by the authority of the decree he established that the bodies of the dead should thenceforth be freely buried at the same mother church of Blessed Mary."

[73] [in the year 1119 the cemetery of Auch is consecrated; in which solemnity St. Bertrand is badly treated;] The privilege having been received Ibid., p. 323., "the prelate of Auch, Bernard, appointed the consecration of the cemetery, and called to it his brethren and fellow bishops G. (William) of Bigorre, B. (Bertrand) of Comminges, J. (Jordan) of Couserans, W. (William), then of Lectoure. And while they were performing the solemnities of the consecration, behold the monks of St. Orientius, having laid aside the monastic habit and put on the military, having gathered no small band of horsemen and footmen, suddenly burst in and unexpectedly invade the city; entering not very peaceably the houses near the church, they violently plunder cheap as well as precious things, greedily carry off whatever movable thing can be found. At length they flow together and rush with one mind to the venerable church itself, desiring to invade, violate and burn it rather than to venerate it, but also, as the outcome of the matter itself clearly showed, most ardently thirsting for the blood of the consecrators, and most greedily eager to drink * it." And in fact it is related that the burning of the church was then attempted, that the bishop of Bigorre, while performing the sacred rites, was aimed at with arrows, and that a certain armour-bearer was saved from death only by a miracle: but neither these nor very many other grievances inflicted all too cruelly by the monks could prevent the consecration of the cemetery and of the altar of Blessed John the Baptist and Blessed John the evangelist from being closed with its due end of completion.

[74] [and he is probably present at the council which began at Toulouse on the 8th of July;] Calixtus had given his privilege about the middle of the month of April, since at that time he was at Le Puy Martène, Amplissima collect., Vol. I, col. 651.. And the related consecration of the cemetery must have taken place at the end of the month of June: for thus the anonymous author of Auch continues Rec. des histor. de Fr., Vol. XIV, p. 323.: "And after the course of some days, the lord Pope Calixtus called together and celebrated a general council at Toulouse." Which council Dom Vaissette proves Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, note XLIX, p. 634 and following was begun on the eighth day of the month of July and concluded on the sixteenth. That St. Bertrand was present at this council, in which the privilege of Le Puy was confirmed, is most probable; for Bertrand Guidonis, cited by Catel Comtes de Tolose, book II, chap. III. and by Pagi Critic. Baron. at the year 1119, § VII., no less than the preface of the canons drawn up Labbe, Concil., Vol. X, col. 856 and following, testify that there were present at this council the lord Pope Calixtus, cardinals, archbishops, bishops and abbots of Provence, Gothia, Gascony, Spain and Hither Britain: among which tracts the diocese of Comminges finds its place. See moreover on this council the historiographers of Occitania Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, p. 383.. But even then an end could not yet be put to the dispute of the people of Auch; nor does St. Bertrand appear any further in settling it. Only in the middle of the 12th century was this controversy ended, a compromise being employed, which with the rest may be seen in Mr. Brugelles Chroniq. d'Ausch prob., part I, p. 35. and in the Collection of the historians of Gaul Rec. des hist. de Fr., Vol. XIV, p. 323 and following.

[75] [about the year 1122 with the bishop of Toulouse he dedicates the church of the convent of St. Orientius,] The last business in which Saint Bertrand was involved, and which writers tie to a certain time, is the consecration of the church of St. Orientius. But it must be investigated what church this is. There existed formerly in Occitania and Gascony, namely, several monasteries of which St. Orientius, venerated on the 1st day of May, was patron or titular. A little above we have already treated of the monastery of St. Orientius which was at the gates of Auch; another existed in the diocese of Tarbes or Bigorre, and was distinguished from the former by the name St. Orientius de Regula: the Gallia Christiana Vol. I, col. 1256. and Pierre de Marca in the History of Béarn Hist. du Béarn, passim will teach the reader more about it; and both of these were in the possession of monks. The third, however, held nuns and was built after the year 1098; as is clear from this, that in this year to Emeria de Albias,… a good woman,… who had raised the cross on her right shoulder (scapula) to go to Jerusalem, there was given the church of St. Orientius, which, long destroyed, had remained deserted among thorn-bushes, and counsel was given "that she should build a house in honour of God so that the poor of Christ might be received there"; for the sake of which other gifts were added to the church Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, probat. col. 349.. These things seem to have been done according to the counsels of Isarn: at least in the year 1140 there existed a monastery of nuns with the title of St. Orientius; which was then united with the convent called Vieux-Mur, of the diocese of Albi, of the Order of St. Benedict Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 82.. But the site of that monastery must also be inquired into. Further, in the year 1157, in the month of July, at the plea of Morlaàs, Raymond, bishop of Toulouse, granted some privilege concerning the chaplain; whence it is clear that this monastery was in the diocese of Toulouse; and Bernard, count of Comminges, gave some shillings "to God and to St. Mary and to St. Orientius of the nuns, and to Cecilia, abbess of Vieux-Mur, and to Alazais, prioress of the nuns… in the hand of Raymond, bishop of Toulouse, and of Roger, bishop of Comminges" Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, probat. col. 565.. Whence Vaissette Ibid., Vol. II, p. 292. deduces that the convent was on the borders of the territory of Comminges. Wherefore, since no doubt can be raised that the churches of St. Orientius de Regula and of St. Orientius of Auch had long since been consecrated, and that either the prelate of Tarbes or of Auch had been present at their consecration, these words of the Gallia Christiana about Amelius, bishop of Toulouse, are certainly to be understood of the church of the third monastery of Saint Orientius Vol. XIII, col. 15.: "About that time, namely the year 1122, with Bertrand, bishop of Comminges, he dedicated the church of St. Orientius": the instrument of which dedication I nowhere find published; probably because the Benedictine associates excerpted this notice from the MS. historical fragments of Claude Estiennot Compare the same, Vol. XIII, col. 91..

[76] [and he dies before the year 1132, in which Roger, his successor, was present at the translation of SS. Beat and Privatus.] And this year 1122 is the first limit of the space within which the death of St. Bertrand is to be confined. The other limit is to be sought from the episcopate of Roger de Noé, the successor of St. Bertrand. But various persons fix the beginning of this episcopate to various years: the brothers Sainte-Marthe in the second Gallia Christiana, no less than Oihenart, state that Roger was already sitting in the year 1130; Denis de Sainte-Marthe in the third Gallia Christiana Ibid., Vol. I, col. 1095. testifies that no instruments have shone before him by which his episcopate may be brought down below the year 1136; but his associates Ibid., Vol. XIII, col. 260. confine the time during which he sat between the years 1136 and 1152. But it is certain that Roger was already bishop on the day, as we have seen, "on which the bodies of SS. Beat and Privatus were translated and the altar of Saint Stephen was dedicated by the same bishop" (in the place of Saint-Beat), "in the year 1132, epact 1, concurrent 5, moon 19, on the 6th day before the Kalends of July" Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, probat. col. 470 and compare above num. 71.. Since I have inquired in vain into stricter documents, and have not seen that any old tradition existed among the people of Comminges concerning the death of St. Bertrand, the year of his death must remain undetermined for me within the said decade. On account, however, of the great age of St. Bertrand, and because Vitalis, who in the year 1167 (see num. 5 of this Commentary) was already mature in age, knew in his boyhood a miracle done through the merits of the deceased Saint Bertrand (see Vitalis num. 29), I am impelled to refer our Saint's death to the earlier part of the said decade; and therefore I feel that I stand with a sufficiently firm foot on what was established at num. 10 and following of this Commentary according to the common opinion.

[77] Various opinions about the year of his death are reviewed. For the rest, if anyone should wish to know what the opinions of writers on this matter are, they are now explained in a few words. Catel in the History of the counts of Toulouse Comtes de Tolose, p. 108. brings St. Bertrand's funeral down to the pontificate of Alexander III; Claude

Robert, the writer of the first Gallia Christiana, strays still further from the truth, missing it by almost a whole century p. 315.; Oihenart Notit. Vascon., p. 527. and the brothers Sainte-Marthe in the second Gallia Christiana Vol. II, p. 548. leave the time of his death vague between the year 1120 and 1130; but the new Gallia Christiana Vol. I, col. 1095. and, following it, Butler Vol. XIII, p. 292. Lille ed. prefer to mark about the year 1123; Baillet in the Lives of the Saints Vol. VIII, p. 244. and his followers, Moréri in his Dictionary at the word Bertrand, Lastrade in the Life of St. Bertrand Relation de la translation, etc., p. 43. and others indicate about the year 1126. Vaissette, however, in the History of Occitania Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, p. 391. seems to leave the dispute undecided. Which we ourselves too have done to some extent, since at the front of this Commentary we marked about the year 1125 as the time of the death of St. Bertrand.

* combibere to drink up?

§ VI. The burial, canonization and elevation of the Relics of St. Bertrand.

[St. Bertrand, buried in the oratory next to the choir of B. Mary in the church of Comminges,] Concerning the place in which St. Bertrand was buried Vitalis relates nothing. At num. 9 he hints that St. Bertrand expired in the oratory before the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whose honour the cathedral church was founded; whence Baillet deduced that he was buried in his church before the altar of the Holy Virgin: which Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gall. Christ., Vol. I, col. 1095. without doubt borrowed from Baillet. Vaissette Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. II, p. 391. and Butler Vies des Saints. Lille ed. at the 15th of October. learned the same from both. For my part, since I see the canon of Comminges, otherwise a perpetual follower of Baillet, departing from Baillet in this place, I easily persuade myself that it was not admitted by him without suitable knowledge: wherefore the narrative of Lastrade is not to be neglected, who asserts Relation de la translation d'une relique, etc., p. 43. that the blessed man was first buried in an oratory of his church which is next to the oratory of the Blessed Virgin. And indeed such a place altogether favoured the hanging at the tomb of St. Bertrand of the chains with which very many captives were freed through the intercession of this Saint, of which Vitalis is an ample witness. How long he lay there is not altogether certain; nevertheless it can prudently be asserted that his body was not raised from the earth before the year 1309, as will be declared below.

[79] was he canonized in the time of Alexander III, or in the time of Clement V? Now if it is asked when he was enrolled among the Saints or the Blessed, we fall into a most intricate question. Baillet asserts that it was done by Clement V; the Gallia Christiana Vol. I, col. 1095. refers it to the times of William III, prelate of Auch. The Paris Proper of the Saints of St. Genevieve of the year 1665 had gone before Baillet; and the Propers of the same church of the year 1758 and the year 1765, changed in many other things, kept this opinion. On the contrary Vaissette Hist. du Laeguedoc, Vol. II, p. 391. and Butler agree with Denis de Sainte-Marthe. Lastrade, on the one side pressed by a most weighty argument, on the other too much revering the authority of Baillet, whom he holds almost as a doctor of the Church, adopts a middle opinion, and tries to establish by six arguments that St. Bertrand was beatified by Alexander III in the council of Montpellier and canonized by Clement V: but the reader will not miss these arguments when he knows that the first is the authority of the martyrologist du Saussay; and the last, that the translation of the Relics made by the supreme Pontiff is to be called a canonization Compare Lastrade, p. 52 and following. Let us seek better arguments, setting out, so far as can be done, the order of the whole affair.

[80] He was canonized not indeed before the year 1167, From the title prefixed to the Life of St. Bertrand in the Martène edition and the copy of Fr. Gissey, we know that its author was a notary of the Apostolic see: with which office, although he could have been invested by William III, prelate of Auch and legate of the apostolic see, as Hieronymus Faber thinks On Protonotaries, chap. I, n. 12., it is nevertheless established that he was honoured with this office by the supreme Pontiff himself, since he exercised his office in the Roman curia See ibid., chap. XIII, n. 12.. Further, either on account of this dignity of his, or because he had been deputed by his archbishop, he "made known the holiness and miracles of St. Bertrand, in the time of the schismatics, by whom the most holy Roman church was tossed in the whirlwind of many storms, to Alexander, the supreme Pontiff, a catholic man, in the Lateran palace, in the presence of the venerable cardinals" Compare the Life, n. 29.: which at the present time I see is the office of the consistorial advocate in Benedict XIV in the work on the canonization of the Saints Book I, chap. XXI, n. 9.. And this making known of the holiness and miracles was not made before the 7th day of September of the year 1159, on which Pope Alexander III was elected, nor after the year 1170, in which William III of Auch died, as we have already often said: but from this space there are to be cut off, first, the thirteen days which Alexander III spent at Rome uncrowned in the midst of the tumult; then the time which up to the second year of his pontificate he lived outside Rome; and having returned to that city in the year 1161, he could not remain there long in quiet on account of the sedition of the schismatics; nor did Vitalis surely come to him then, since, apart from a few cities, "the patrimony of Blessed Peter had been so violently occupied and held by the Teutons and schismatics, that Alexander himself towards the end of the year made the passage by sea with his brethren to the parts of Gaul" From the Life of Alexander III in Baronius, Annals at the year 1191, § V.. Thereafter Alexander did not live at Rome before the 23rd day of November of the year 1165 Novaes, Elementa Hist. Pontific., Vol. III, p. 99.; and in the year 1167, in the month of August, he fled thence again Ibid., p. 100., not to return before the year 1171 Ibid., p. 102.. From which it is clear that the life and miracles of St. Bertrand could have been set out at Rome only between the 23rd of November of the year 1165 and the month of August of the year 1167: and indeed that within this space, before the 27th day of the month of April of the year 1167, a council was celebrated in the Lateran palace, Pagi shows against Baronius and Labbe Critic. Baron. at the year 1168, § LIII.. The emperor Frederick was excommunicated in this council: what other affairs were treated in it is unknown on account of the loss of the acts; but I judge that it will be called into doubt by no one that the cited statements of Vitalis are to be referred to it.

[81] but nevertheless under the pontificate of Alexander III. But if from the recited words we have it manifestly that the holiness and miracles of St. Bertrand were declared in the year 1167 in the Lateran council, we cannot thence certainly deduce that he was at that time enrolled among the heavenly ones; but likewise it must be confessed that no prejudice against the contrary opinion is created by the absence of documents pertaining to that business; since there is no one who does not know that very many things in councils were only treated and established orally: among which things our predecessors and Benedict XIV have rather often reckoned the canonizations of the Saints themselves. Moreover the acts of this council have been lost. Be that as it may, it is certain that St. Bertrand was entered in the roll of the Saints before the year of death of William III of Auch, or before 1170, as is clearly evident from the old Necrology of the monastery of Casa-Dei, of the county of Pardiac, published by Oihenart Notit. utriusq. Vasconiae, p. 453. in these words: "William Dandozile, archbishop of Auch and legate of the apostolic see, nephew of St. Bertrand, who caused him to be canonized, did many good things for us and pacified many adversaries." Whence it would be natural to conclude that the canonization of St. Bertrand was performed in the Lateran council of the year 1167 and then promulgated by Alexander III; nevertheless it could be that the Pontiff then only decided that that business was to be examined more deeply, and entrusted that task to Cardinal Hyacinth, who had the declaration of the merits of St. Bertrand so much at heart that he had his Life written by Vitalis, and who certainly was at some time honoured with similar offices; as will be clear from what is to be said.

[82] The legate Hyacinth, who in the time of Alexander III beatified St. Rudesind, For when that cardinal was discharging the office of legate in Spain between the year 1172 and 1174, it is established that Rudesind was then promulgated as a Saint or beatified by him: and indeed, since in the instrument or declaration of beatification it is established that the Saint's Relics are to be translated on the Kalends of September, and it is admitted by many as certain that translations of Relics were formerly made only on Sundays or feast days, this solemnity of beatification, by most certainly wrongly attached to the year 1170, seems to be referred to the year 1174. A synopsis of the affair was published by Antonio de Yepes in his Benedictine chronicle, likewise by Tamayo Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology at the 1st day of September; and from these by our predecessors at the 1st of March Vol. I of March, p. 118.. But Ambrosio de Morales handled the said instrument with his own hands, and with much faith, as he himself speaks, rendered some things from it into Spanish. We shall excerpt a few: "Y tambien por ruegos de muchos nobles varones, por el autoridad del Papa nuestro Señor, la qual (aunque indignos) tenemos en las provincias de España, habiendo tenido sobre ello con mucha gravedad nuestro consejo, quisimos que el cuerpo del sobredicho opispo y Confessor dignissimo fuese elevado y colocado en lugar digno y eminente, y que sea venerado en la tierra como Santo por todos los fieles Christianos." Which in Latin, in the authentic instrument preserved in the monastery of Celanova, must sound almost thus: "And likewise at the petition of many noble men, by the authority of our lord the Pope, which, though unworthy, we enjoy in the provinces of Spain, mature deliberation having been held on this matter, we willed that the body of the aforesaid bishop and Confessor should be most worthily elevated and placed in a worthy and eminent place, and that all faithful Christians should venerate this man as a Saint on earth" Morales, Coron. gener., book XVI, chap. XXXVII, n. 7, Vol. VIII, p. 288..

[83] and, having become Pontiff, he confirmed these his acts, Morales Ibid., loc. cit. asserts that in the said monastery of Celanova there is preserved a bull by which Hyacinth, having become supreme Pontiff under the name of Celestine III, confirms whatever he had formerly done concerning St. Rudesind. Since Morales saw all these things with his own eyes, there is no reason why there should be called into doubt here Tamayo de Salazar's

credit Benedict XIV, On the Canonization of the Saints, book I, chap. IX, n. 7. when he reports part of this bull, of which before him not Morales but many others had already spoken. From Tamayo, then Martyrol. Hispan., Vol. II, p. 40 and following, I copy the following words of Celestine III: "Therefore, so that those things which we accomplished while placed in a lower rank may remain unimpaired for ever, by the counsel of those named above, and at his urgent prayers, after mature and prudent deliberation, being now placed, by God's working, on the summit of the mount, we strengthen by apostolic authority all things then done by Us concerning this, and fortify them with the firmness of the present confirmation. To no man whatever, therefore," etc. This Bull was given on the 7th day before the Ides of October of the year 1195. But although this is a confirmation of a thing long since done, Morales nevertheless, loc. cit., thinks (I pass over Benedict XIV On the Canoniz. of the SS., book I, chap. XX, n. 19. and others who seem to have known from our work only a synopsis of the acts of the legate Hyacinth) that St. Rudesind was beatified by Cardinal Hyacinth, and canonized by the same when he had become Pontiff: which opinion is to be admitted, since otherwise the most approved doctrine on the canonization of the Saints, explained here and there by Benedict XIV in his most praised work of all, would have to be rejected.

[84] perhaps he did the same with regard to St. Bertrand. For this distinguished writer, discussing the question whether a legate can canonize or beatify, openly denies On the Canoniz. of the SS., book I, chap. XI, n. 4., agreeing with Barbosa, Lezana, Castellinus, Centelorius and Malta, that a legate a latere can by the authority of his legation proceed to the act of beatification or canonization; nor do approved writers seem to dissent here. But when it is asked whether he can in commissary form, the most praised writer establishes that he can beatify in this form; but he seems to oppose the opinion of those who think that he can also canonize; and elsewhere indeed Book I, chap. XLIV, numm. 7, 10 and following he vehemently attacks those who, heaping up examples, think that the definition of canonization was sometimes delegated by the Roman Pontiffs to others. But since from these examples it is certainly drawn out that at least the promulgation of beatification, or beatification itself, was sometimes entrusted to delegates, what wonder if a similar power had been given to Hyacinth, a man very well known for his prudence, with regard to St. Rudesind? Nor does anything seem to stand in the way of Hyacinth having acted similarly with regard to St. Bertrand, since he came so often into Gaul discharging the office of legate, provided that he accomplished it between the year 1167, in which the Lateran council was celebrated, and the year 1170, in which William III, prelate of Auch, died. Wherefore we leave it undecided whether St. Bertrand was beatified by Cardinal Hyacinth in commissary form before he was canonized by Alexander III.

[85] [The body of St. Bertrand was not then raised from the earth; but the name was already then given to the city of Comminges;] These things therefore being left in doubt, we seem able to affirm that his body was not then raised from the earth: which ought to seem strange to no one, since in the 11th and 12th centuries the elevation of the body did not always accompany canonization. It will be enough to have brought forward one instance: in the Commentary on St. Henry II, emperor and king of Germany, our predecessors showed Vol. III of July, p. 715. that the bull of canonization was given by Eugene III in the year 1145; but the same prove below Ibid., p. 716. that the elevation of his body took place only two years after. Wherefore, since in the case of St. Bertrand too it could easily have come about that his elevation was put off for some time, and meanwhile, namely in the year 1170, the archbishop of Auch, the vigorous promoter of the whole business, died his last day, it is easily understood in what way the body of St. Bertrand remained buried more than a hundred and seventy years. Within this interval of time, however, two testimonies come our way, by which it is established that already then new Comminges was called the City of Saint Bertrand, and the canons of Comminges were called canons of Saint Bertrand; which means the same as canons of the town, and not of the church, of St. Bertrand, since the church has Blessed Mary as titular patroness. For in the miracle of which Vitalis speaks at num. 41, and which we showed at num. 4 of this Commentary happened after the year 1170, a man and his mother are said "to have come … to the city of St. Bertrand"; and in the instrument concerning the execution of the testament of Arnald Roger, bishop of Comminges, which was written about the year 1180, the canons of St. Bertrand are said to have had the value of three thousand shillings of Morlaàs Gall. Christ., Vol. I, instrum. p. 177.. Which testimonies also prove that St. Bertrand was venerated already before his elevation.

[86] but the body was elevated by Clement V in the year 1309; Further, this elevation was made on the 17th day before the Kalends of February in the fourth year of the pontificate of Clement V. Bernard Gui in the Life of Clement V speaks thus of this solemnity Lives of the Popes of Avignon, Baluze, Vol. I, col. 69.: "And in the same year (1308), about the end of the preceding month of August, Pope Clement with his curia had withdrawn from Poitiers; and he passed through Bordeaux, and the Agenais and Toulouse; and he was at Toulouse on the feast of the Lord's Nativity until the Epiphany. And departing from Toulouse, he turned aside to the see of Saint Bertrand, Confessor, of the diocese which is called of Comminges; where on the feast of Blessed Marcellus, Pope, namely the 17th day before the Kalends of February, he translated the sacred body of Saint Bertrand, bishop and Confessor, whose partner he himself was in name and successor in the see, from the place in which it had formerly been into a precious casket, which the same Pope had caused to be made for this purpose at his own expense. He also granted a great indulgence to those visiting the sacred Relics of the Confessor there yearly." Not dissimilar things are related by Amalric Augier of Béziers in the Life of this Pontiff, also published by Baluze: "Likewise," he says, "that afterwards in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and eight the same Clement … came to Toulouse. And there on the feast of the Nativity of the Lord he remained until the Epiphany. On which feast he arrived in the city of Comminges, in whose cathedral church he translated the body of Saint Bertrand, Confessor, and in a certain casket of gold and silver, and with precious stones newly made in wonderful manner, he himself laid the holy body with the greatest devotion and solemnity to the glory and honour of God."

[87] and the Pontiff gave letters, There exist moreover apostolic letters of Clement V attesting this elevation or translation: these Raynaldus found in book VI of the letters of this Pontiff, as he himself professes in the Annals of the Church At the year 1309, § II.; and their autograph, or at least a copy, was formerly also kept in the archive of Comminges, as I gather from these words recited by Lastrade Relation de la translation, etc., p. 63.: "This city, then, Blessed Bertrand, the glorious Confessor of Christ, formerly bishop of Comminges, raising himself on the wings of virtues, merited joyfully to enter after the course of the present days"; which words Lastrade testifies that he drew from the very letters of Clement, certainly not copying them from Raynaldus, who according to his custom published only part of the letters, omitting the praises of St. Bertrand inserted in the apostolic letters; which he himself teaches us when he says that the narrative of Bernard Gui is confirmed by apostolic letters in which the encomiums of the holy prelate are celebrated; but that the religious pomp with which he translated the sacred relics is described by the Pontiff in these words:

[88] a fragment of which is recited; "Clement, etc.… Desiring to venerate on earth with due honour the same Saint, whom the Lord of lords has exalted in heaven with the prerogative of honour, we have led his most sacred body with due reverence and honour, with our own hands, on the 17th day before the Kalends of February, to be translated from the lowest place to a celebrated and solemn place prepared in your church, there standing by us our venerable brother Nicholas, bishop of Ostia, and our beloved sons Berengar, priest of the title of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, Landulf of St. Angelo, Raymond of St. Mary Nova, and Arnald of St. Mary in Porticu, Cardinal deacons, and also our venerable brothers the archbishops of Rouen (Bernard) and Auch (Amanieu II), and the bishops of Toulouse (Gaillard), Albi (Bertrand II), Maguelone (Peter III), Aire (Martin II or Bernard), Tarivensis (surely the bishop of Tarbes is understood; he was Gerald), and Comminges (Boso), and there being present our beloved sons … (Augier de Montaut) of Simorre, … (Arnald II Novelli) of Fontfroide, … (Augier II or Roger I) of l'Escaladieu, … (Ar. Raymond, or William VII) of Bonnefont, and … (Arnald II) of Bénédiction-Dieu, abbots of monks of the Orders of St. Benedict and of Cîteaux, of the dioceses of Auch, Narbonne, Tarbes and Comminges, and a copious multitude of other faithful," etc. "Given at Comminges on the 17th of the aforesaid Kalends of February, in the fourth year." The names of the abbots were surely expressed in these letters; not likewise the names of the bishops; Raynaldus omitted the names of the abbots too, adding however a sign of omission: I have supplied them from volumes I, VI and XIII of the Gallia Christiana.

[89] but did not at all canonize St. Bertrand. Who, further, would believe it deduced from the recited documents that St. Bertrand was canonized by Clement V on the 16th day of January of the year 1309? The words of Bernard Gui and Augier of Béziers surely do not hint this; these, namely, when they hold discourse about the canonization of St. Peter Celestine, or Peter of Murrone, enrolled among the Saints by Clement V, speak in a wholly different manner; here are the words of Augier Baluze, Lives of the Popes of Avignon, Vol. I, col. 109.: "Likewise that afterwards, in the year from the nativity of the Lord 1313, on the fifth day of May, at Avignon, brother Peter of Morrone, formerly Pope Celestine V, was solemnly crowned and canonized by the said Pope Clement, and under the name of Saint Peter was added to the catalogue of the other holy Confessors," etc. The words of Bernard Gui Ibid., col. 78. are equally clear and manifest. Moreover, of the six biographers of Clement whose little works Baluze published, one, an anonymous Venetian, almost wholly occupied in narrating political affairs, does not mention the canonization of Saint Peter Celestine; but four of this six made no mention of the honour conferred on St. Bertrand: the cause of which silence without doubt lies in this, that it was by no means a canonization but a mere translation. Almost similar things must be said by me concerning the letters of Clement V: for the form of the bulls of canonization which were issued by the supreme Pontiffs about this time is well known; indeed the bull of canonization of St. Peter Celestine has very often been printed See the Codex of Canonizations, p. 117. Roman ed. of the year 1729.; which is the only canonization ascribed to Clement V: but this bull is as different as the whole heaven from the apostolic letters recited above. And

indeed one would object in vain that these letters are not present to us entire; for the answer is ready: the manner in which Lastrade Relation de la translation, p. 52 and following holds discourse about these letters indicates more than enough that they treat of the translation alone; and if Lastrade does not give sufficient credit, there is at hand Odoricus Raynaldus Annal. Eccles. at the year 1309, § II., who saw in it a mere testimony of the translated Relics.

§ VII. An inquiry into the indulgences attributed to the supreme Pontiff Clement V, especially into the indulgence after the manner of a jubilee; on the three feasts of St. Bertrand.

The indulgence which is to be gained at Comminges about every sixth year, For a long time an indulgence in the form of a jubilee has been offered to be gained at Comminges in honour of St. Bertrand, whenever the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross falls on a Friday; to which solemnity there was, and still is, so great a concourse that Bruzen de La Martinière in his geographical-historical Dictionary relates from authentic instruments that men were suffocated there by the crowd, and that once a confessor was pushed from the top of the rock over the precipice by the multitude of penitents; which will gain credit from what is to be said. Moreover Lastrade p. 153., who treats of this indulgence in chapter IX of the Life of St. Bertrand, ascribes its institution to Clement V when he translated the Relics of Saint Bertrand; and I see the same done by others; indeed this indulgence in the form of a jubilee comes my way in La Martinière, Lastrade and others with the bare name of jubilee, although an indulgence after the manner of a jubilee, or in the form of a jubilee, imports nothing else than a plenary remission of punishments, not however the special privileges of the ordinary or extraordinary jubilee, unless these are expressly stated in the diploma [Compare Collet on indulgences, chap. I, n. 10, following Suárez, disp. 50, sect. IV, n. 8, and Theodore of the Holy Spirit, Historical Tract on the Jubilee, chap. I, § III, n. 10.]. That the present indulgence falls in that case is gathered from this, that in the ordinances of the most illustrious archbishop of Toulouse for the indulgence to be gained in the year 1833 and the year 1839, fasts, alms, etc., are not prescribed; which however the French theologian Collet writes are wont to accompany a jubilee [On the Jubilee, chap. I, n. 3, following Suárez, Navarrus, Viva. Compare Benedict XIV, on the diocesan Synod, book XIII, chap. XVIII, n. 9.]. Moreover in this celebration of Comminges priests are not given the power of releasing from vows or commuting them. Sometimes, however, for the sake of brevity we shall call the indulgence after the manner of a jubilee a jubilee.

[91] was not granted in the form of a jubilee by Clement V; Now unless one prefers to accuse of error Benedict XIV, a most learned investigator of sacred antiquity (which God forbid), it must be established that a plenary indulgence in the form of a jubilee, or after the manner of a jubilee, was not granted by Clement V to the people of Comminges or others. For in the diocesan Synod he speaks thus Book XIII, chap. XVIII, n. 9.: "Clement VI, who was created Pontiff in the year 1342, was the first who, contracting the Holy Year from a course of a hundred years to one of fifty, used in the very grant of the indulgence this word JUBILEE. Therefore, if any grant of an indulgence is brought forward bearing inscribed this denomination of JUBILEE, and it anticipates the time stated, a prudent bishop may certainly and rightly hold it doubtful and suspect." Nor does anything harm these statements of Benedict XIV in that St. Bernard, long before the times of Clement VI, in a letter to the crusaders Epist. CCCLXIII. Mabillon ed., Vol. I, col. 329, n. 4. applied to a plenary indulgence the word jubilee, since he did this only tropologically or by allusion, as is clear from his very words: "Blessed, then, should I call the generation which so rich a time of indulgence has seized, which this year, acceptable to the Lord and truly a jubilee, has found surviving." Which allusion of St. Bernard could indeed so please that it passed into common use among preachers, and at length attached itself to a certain kind of indulgences; but it cannot on that account be said that these very indulgences were called a jubilee before the middle of the 14th century. Wherefore, since the term of comparison must necessarily exist and be known before the comparison itself, the celebrated Mr. Binterim Denkwürdigk. der katol. Kirche, Vol. V, part III, p. 500. rightly concludes that before Clement VI plenary indulgences in the form of a jubilee or after the manner of a jubilee could not exist.

[92] whence a certain form of absolution bearing his name does not pertain to him. Wherefore there cannot be referred to the times of Clement V a certain form of absolution which Fr. Poussines attributes to this pontiff in the annotations to the Life of St. Bertrand: it is worth while to have known it: "Absolution of the year of JUBILEE of the church of the city of Comminges, issued by the lord Pope Clement V. May our Lord Jesus Christ through the merits of His most sacred passion absolve you, and I, by His authority and by the authority of our lord Pope Clement the fifth, acting in his stead, and also of the Apostles Peter and Paul, committed to me in this matter and granted to you, absolve you from every sentence of greater and lesser excommunication and from every irregularity, suspension and interdict, restoring you to the unity of holy mother Church, and from each of your sins, reserved to the apostolic see specially and generally, according to the tenor of the letters of the year of JUBILEE, so far as the keys of holy mother Church extend: in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

[93] [The arguments by which they prove that a plenary indulgence was nevertheless granted by Clement V to the people of Comminges;] But if Clement V did not grant to the people of Comminges a plenary indulgence in the form of or after the manner of a jubilee, or according to the tenor of the letters of the year of jubilee, it must be confessed that it does not follow thence that no plenary indulgences were granted by him; which other question it is pleasing so to examine as to set forth on one side the favourable arguments, on the other the adverse arguments, and for the rest to leave all judgement to the reader himself. We have, then, first the testimony of Bernard Gui, affirming that by Clement V, when he translated the Relics of St. Bertrand, "a great indulgence was also granted to those visiting the sacred Relics of the Confessor there yearly." (Compare n. 86 of this Commentary.) There is at hand secondly the mandate of the bishop of Comminges given for the year 1591 to his diocesans; which, since Fr. Poussines asserts that none older exists, we have had printed here from his copy: "Urbain de Saint-Gelais, by the grace of God and of the holy apostolic see bishop of Comminges, and the chapter of the cathedral church of Comminges, to all and each who shall inspect the present letters, everlasting greeting in the Lord. We make known and by the tenor of the present attest that in the aforesaid church of Comminges, in the next and following month of May, namely on the second and third days of the same month, from the first Vespers of the second day, on which day the feast of Blessed Bertrand, patron of the church itself, will be celebrated, up to the second Vespers inclusive of the third day, on which day, which will be a Friday, the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is solemnly kept, in memory and honour of the Passion of the same, who suffered on the altar of the Cross on a Friday, there will be the general indult which was granted, with plenary remission of all sins, by the most holy lord Pope Clement the fifth, formerly called Bertrand, when he was then personally present in that church, and of which church, when he was in the lesser orders, he had been bishop, and afterwards archbishop of Bordeaux, as often as the finding of the Holy Cross should occur on a Friday, and has hitherto been confirmed by our most holy lords the lord Popes; on which days, or on either of them, all and each visiting the said church, being truly confessed and contrite, shall bear away and obtain plenary remission and absolution of all their sins with many other indulgences, as hitherto, as often as the feast of the Finding of the Lord's Cross occurs on a Friday, has been done and practised in the said church of Saint Bertrand of Comminges. Given at Comminges on the first day of the month of March, in the year of the Lord 1591." These in Latin; in French there was afterwards indicated in a few words the beginning and end of the same celebration.

[94] similar indulgences to be obtained at Compostela, Le Puy, Montmajour and Lyons. Thirdly, the form of the indulgences of Comminges, which depend on the falling of feasts on certain days, will perhaps seem to some not so extraordinary, since at Compostela, during the whole of that year in which the feast of St. James falls on a Sunday, a jubilee Ferraris, Biblioth. canon. at the word Jubilaeum, n. 5., or as others will have it [Theodore of the Holy Spirit, who admits only the ordinary and extraordinary jubilee. On the Jubilee, p. 6.], an indulgence, which some refer to the times of Callixtus II Compare Papebroch in the Propylaeum of May, paralipom., p. 69., is celebrated after the manner of a jubilee, and a similar indulgence obtains at Le Puy (le Puy) whenever the feast of the Annunciation of the B. Virgin Mary concurs with the Friday of holy week; which indeed Fr. Gissey Hist. de N. D. de Puy, p. 536. testifies was said about the year 1418 to have existed before the memory of men. Moreover concerning the indulgence of Saint Peter of Montmajour, which Du Port Hist. de l'Eglise d'Arles, p. 395., writing in the year 1690, calls a jubilee, the first Life of Pope Innocent VI shows us a certain document Baluze, Lives of the Popes of Avignon, Vol. I, col. 322 and following: "At the same time (in the year 1353)," says the anonymous author, "there was a great concourse of peoples coming on pilgrimage to the monastery of Saint Peter of Montmajour of the diocese of Arles, where there was said to be a great indulgence, indeed according to some a plenary one. And there is such an indulgence in that year in which the feast of the Finding of the holy Cross occurs on a Friday, as it was in the aforesaid year." Furthermore the canon of Comminges, Lastrade, in the oft-cited little work on St. Bertrand, in order to prove specially the liberality of Pope Clement V, adduces in testimony the jubilee indulgence of Lyons, which Clement V granted, in memory of his coronation, to be gained in the church of St. John at Lyons whenever the feast of Corpus Christi should concur with the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist: which liberality they will have proved also from the indulgences which he deigned to bestow on the church of Bordeaux, in which he had once been cleric and archbishop. Other favourable arguments I have nowhere been able to find. Wherefore it is now the place for the reasons which persuade the contrary to be set forth.

[95] Contrary arguments: the sparingness of the Popes in granting indulgences. The first is the authority of the weightiest writers: Benedict XIV, namely, much praising and contracting the Commentary of the Blessed Cardinal Ludovico Tommasi on the granting of indulgences, speaks in these words On the diocesan Synod, book XIII, chap. XVIII, n. 8, p. 166. Venice ed.: "Finally the Venerable Cardinal Tommasi in the aforecited Commentary, after he has hinted that the very first plenary indulgence of all,

as was related above, is that which Urban II bestowed on those going to the recovery of the Holy Land, and which, after his example, Callixtus II, Eugene III, Clement III and Innocent III confirmed and renewed while the same reason of redeeming the Holy Land from the hands of the enemies pressed; adds that he found no other example of a plenary indulgence thereafter before that which Boniface VIII proclaimed for the first Holy Year; passing over in silence the indulgence of the Portiuncula, perhaps because it was granted as it were immediately by Christ the Lord." Whence, since the Holy Year proclaimed by Boniface VIII ran in the year 1300, and Clement V translated the Relics of St. Bertrand in the year 1309, no one will not wonder that the use of plenary indulgences in a short time became so common that the Pontiff nine years after granted an indulgence to be gained about every six years, scarcely different from the centenary indulgence of the Holy Year.

[96] even in the canonizations of the Saints; Secondly, I do not doubt that many, attended by Benedict XIV, Blessed Ludovico Tommasi and our Papebroch, almost the first investigator of these matters, will oppose to the former opinion of the people of Comminges with how great moderation, as Benedict XIV speaks Ibid., loc. cit., the Roman Pontiffs acted in granting indulgences, which namely they were wont mostly to grant of a few years. And indeed Papebroch Propyl. Maji, dissert. XX, n. 9., collecting the indulgences granted, not in the translation of Relics, but in the very canonization of Saints, found that Honorius III in the year 1225 granted twenty days in honour of St. Laurence of Dublin; Gregory IX in the year 1233 one year in honour of St. Anthony of Padua, in the year 1234 likewise one year in honour of St. Dominic, and in the year 1235 one year and 40 days in honour of St. Elizabeth; Innocent IV in the year 1253 40 days in honour of St. Peter Martyr; Clement IV 100 days in honour of St. Hedwig; Callixtus III, in the letters on the canonization of St. Vincent Ferrer, dispatched by Pius II in the year 1458, seven years and as many quarantines; to which Sixtus IV in the canonization of St. Bonaventure in the year 1472 added a hundred days on each Sunday through the year. I stop here, since Benedict XIV, approving these same things On the Canoniz. of the SS., book I, chap. XXXVI, § V, n. 9., shows that besides the yearly indulgence of 40 years and as many quarantines, a plenary indulgence was granted in the very canonization of Saint Francis of Paola. At the Life of Sixtus IV Propyl. Maji, p. 136*. Papebroch again proves the sparingness of the Roman Pontiffs in granting indulgences, and on this head banishes some Parisian ones among fables.

[97] [the very testimony of Bernard Gui compared with the indulgences granted by Clement V to the people of Bordeaux;] Thirdly, the testimony of Bernard Gui recited at num. 86 and 93, so far from favouring, greatly harms the opinion of the people of Comminges: for first, Bernard speaks of a yearly indulgence, whereas the jubilee indulgence of Comminges occurs about every sixth year; secondly, the indulgence which Bernard knew was to be gained on the anniversary day of the translation of the Relics (for it is clearly evident that it was granted in memory of this celebration), but the indulgence in the form of a jubilee is celebrated at a wholly different time and in circumstances which do not pertain to this translation: and indeed, if Pope Clement V had granted a twofold indulgence, it was more likely that Bernard would have mentioned this extraordinary one rather than that more usual one. Finally, if the yearly and great indulgence granted by Clement to the people of Comminges was similar to the Bordeaux indulgence, they would seem to have been very kindly dealt with. For we read in the Ecclesiastical Annals continued by Raynaldus At the year 1308, § XXXIX. that Clement V on the 12th Ibid., loc. cit. or 13th Baluz. Lives of the Popes of Avignon, Vol. I, col. 222. day before the Kalends of February in the year 1308 bestowed various privileges on the church of St. Andrew of Bordeaux: "and first of all," he says, "he conferred some rewards of indulgences on those who should celebrate the feast day of the translation of the Relics of the same Apostle on the ninth of May, and should visit that basilica on the days next following, since it was adorned with most precious relics of the Saints: 'Considering,' he says, 'that the same church of Bordeaux, built in honour of Blessed Andrew, the glorious Apostle, is a notable metropolitan church, and otherwise shines with the privilege of much dignity; and that in it rest venerable Relics of the most sacred body of the Apostle himself and of very many other Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins, which are to be honoured with much veneration by all the faithful,'" etc. Another part of this bull, from which the devout mind of Clement towards this church is above all evident, Baluze published Ibid., loc. cit. in these words: "For this is the church which from the beginnings of our youth brought us up with its delights as a son, after the manner of a mother. We have sucked the breasts of such sweetness. It cherished us into manhood; and at length, taking us as its pastor, it placed itself as a step beneath our ascent, by which we ascended to the throne of the apostolic dignity." What indulgence, however, was granted by this bull neither Raynaldus nor Baluze indicate, reciting only excerpts of these letters; wherefore we gather it from another bull, given at Poitiers on the Kalends of July of the same year and inserted in the Gallia Christiana Vol. II, Instrum., col. 266 and following: "Lately," says Clement V, "we thought fit to grant to those coming to the same church (the cathedral of Bordeaux) on the day of the translation of Blessed Andrew the Apostle, in whose honour the same church is built, fourteen years and fourteen quarantines, and to those who for twenty days before, and twenty days immediately following the same translation, should venerably visit it, on each of the days on which within such time they should come to it for the sake of devotion, seven years and seven quarantines of indulgence, as is more fully contained in our letters drawn up on this matter. And since we hope that by reason of such indulgence a multitude of the faithful will flow together to the same church from various parts of the world: we, desiring wholesomely to provide for the faithful themselves in the things which pertain to the salvation of souls, so that such indulgence may be the more fruitful to them, by apostolic authority establish that at the times of the said indulgence six penitentiaries, if so many shall seem necessary to the archbishop of Bordeaux who now is and for the time shall be, suitable for this, to be taken from the same church or even from elsewhere by the archbishop himself, shall be present in the aforesaid church for perpetual future times," etc. And this only, yearly indeed and great for the time (as is clear from what we indicated at num. 96), but not plenary, was the indulgence which Clement V granted in favour of the church adorned with most precious Relics, which he loved with filial love as a mother, of which he had been archbishop, and which he strove to decorate with the most notable privileges [See them in Gall. Christ., Vol. II, col. 831 and following and Instrum. col. 262 and following]. Wherefore I confess that I do not dare to condemn those who would interpret the testimony of Bernard Gui of a similar indulgence, or would not believe that more was conferred by Clement V on the church of Comminges, where he had sat as bishop, at the translation of the Relics of his namesake predecessor Bertrand, than on the most beloved church of Bordeaux in memory of the translation of St. Andrew, Apostle of Christ Jesus.

[98] [the very bull of Clement V on the translation of St. Bertrand; and the more recent tradition of the people of Comminges;] And indeed, fourthly, from the Commentaries transmitted to us from Toulouse we have it that, besides the plenary indulgence, other partial indulgences are to be gained in the church of Comminges on the three principal feasts of St. Bertrand, by the grant of Clement V through the bull given at Comminges on the 16th day of January in the year 1309, and by the confirmation of John XXII through the bull given at Avignon on the 16th day of January of the year 1316, and of Leo X through the bull given at Florence on the 5th day of February of the year 1515: where it is to be noted that the bull of Clement V here cited is the same as the apostolic letters on the translation which we could recite only in part above at num. 88 from Raynaldus; which identity is clear from the ascription of time, since the 17th day before the Kalends of February and the 16th day of January are a twofold mark of one day. Fifthly, the tradition of the people of Comminges does not seem very ancient, since no document older than the year 1591 is brought forward, as we saw at num. 93.

[99] an observation on similar indulgences, especially that of Lyons: Sixthly, the indulgences of Compostela, Le Puy, Montmajour and Lyons, similar to that of Comminges, would indeed contribute very much to winning credit for its antiquity if their own origin were certainly established. For, to imitate our predecessors, who said nothing about the antiquity of the jubilee of Compostela in the Commentary on St. James at the 25th day of July (for the opinion of writers on this argument is very various); it is clear that the testimony brought forward by Fr. Gissey concerning the jubilee of Le Puy, by which it was said in the year 1418 to have existed before the memory of men, does not bind much, since this expression is often used in a very vague and uncertain sense. As regards the jubilee of Lyons, however, from which above all Lastrade champions the indulgence of Comminges, several things seem to be noted. First of all, if Clement V had granted it on account of his coronation, as Lastrade will have it, he would have given this privilege to the church of St. Just, in which this celebration took place, and not to the church of St. John; then in the dissertation of Fr. de Montauzan on this jubilee, inserted in the Mémoires de Trévoux Year 1733, p. 1187 – 1223., not even mention is made of Clement V; but the dissertator labours wholly in this, to trace the origin of this jubilee either from Martin V or Nicholas V; and indeed nothing older is known of it than that it was celebrated in the year 1451. But since in this year a jubilee was also offered to be gained in Poland, Austria, Saxony, Thuringia, Westphalia, the tract of Roermond in Belgium, Lithuania, Sicily, Castile and León, by extension of the Holy Year 1450 [Compare Theodore of the Holy Spirit, Hist.-theol. Tract on the Jubilee, chap. II, § III, n. 17 and following], it will come into the mind of very many that the 24th day of June, on which the feast of St. John the patron and of Corpus Christi was to be kept most famously among the people of Lyons, was chosen by apostolic decree, so that then the people might gain the indulgence of the Holy Year; and since men easily cling to circumstances of this kind (such as is the concurrence of the feasts of the patron and of Corpus Christi), the memory of this thing was kept, but the extension of the Holy Year, the genuine occasion of this jubilee, was given to oblivion. Certainly in the year 1546, when this concurrence again happened, there seems to have been a journey to Rome or a supplication sent, since the pontifical arms were printed on the pastoral letters of Cardinal Ferrari, at that time archbishop of Lyons [See Journal des Savants, Sept. 1734, p. 13, where the instruction for the jubilee of the year 1734 is explained.]. Finally, thirdly, how out of keeping with the truth the statements of Jean Lastrade are is further clear from this, that from the time when Urban

IV instituted the feast of Corpus Christi, this celebration and the feast of St. John the Baptist first concurred in the year 1451, then in the year 1546, 1666 and 1734, as Fr. De Montauzan notes Mém. de Trévoux year 1733, p. 1193.; why then should Clement V have granted that privilege at the beginning of the 14th century? Finally, as regards the jubilee of Montmajour, it must be confessed that this favours most of all, since a certain testimony of its antiquity is brought forward. Nevertheless (which is the common defect of such older indulgences), since an authentic bull of a Pontiff reaching to the 14th century is nowhere brought forward, and since the Gallia Christiana Vol. I, col. 603 and following in the catalogue of the abbots of Montmajour is wholly silent about the grant of this jubilee, there is perhaps some danger that quaestors had a hand in this indulgence, who, as Clement V himself says Clementines, book V, tit. IX, chap. II., "not without manifold deception of souls, of their own motion in fact grant indulgences to the people, draw three or more souls … out of purgatory (as they lyingly assert), … grant plenary remission of sins," etc.

[100] the present indulgence in the form of a jubilee is nevertheless safe. And these things, as I professed at the beginning, I willingly submit to the judgement of the reader. But whatever opinion is adopted about the antiquity of the indulgence of Comminges, the present indulgence itself suffers nothing on that account; since it was afterwards confirmed, above all by Pius VII of glorious and happy memory, as may be gathered from the pastoral letters of the most illustrious archbishop of Toulouse, Paul d'Astros, given on the 5th day of April of the year 1833. For these words of Benedict XIV are to be admitted with the whole mind On the diocesan Synod, book XIII, chap. XXXVIII, n. 5.: "It would savour of rashness to represent such an indulgence now as doubtful: for its legitimate foundation is to be placed in the approval of the Roman Pontiffs." So the most learned Pontiff. And the same man further on praises our Papebroch, who in the Propylaeum Dissert. VIII, n. 4., holding discourse about certain indulgences falsely attributed to Pope St. Sylvester, wrote that although the Pontiff cannot bring it about that indulgences were given by Sylvester which were not given, yet it can be brought about by him that they be really obtained there now, just as if they had proceeded from Sylvester himself.

[101] The celebration of this indulgence As is manifest from the episcopal mandate of the year 1591 recited at n. 93, the space of time during which it was formerly allowed to gain the indulgence of Comminges was confined within twenty-four hours; afterwards that time was doubled; which law was already in force in the times of Jean Lastrade, who moreover notes in his little work that the solemnity was begun on the Wednesday, or the first day of May, at first Vespers, a general procession being held; and likewise that an end was put to it on the third day of May, or after the second Vespers of the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross; and that at the close of the celebration the venerable body of St. Bertrand was carried round on a bier: now also, as we gather from the pastoral letters of the archbishop of Toulouse, the solemnity lasts twice twenty-four hours, and in each procession the holy burden is carried. It is almost incredible how great a concourse of people formerly took place to this devotion: for Lastrade affirms that men sixty and eighty leagues distant flowed to it, and that there was scarcely room for anyone to move in the streets; and it has been written back to us from Toulouse that this concourse still continues. And indeed in the Journal which is named Ami de la Religion, in a certain announcement of the coming jubilee of the year 1844 At the 16th day of April, p. 108., it is said that a great multitude is wont to run to it from Aragon, Catalonia, Navarre and the dioceses of France: wherefore, lest inconveniences arise from so great a crowd, the royal government itself takes care that public force be not lacking to hinder the attempts of the ill-disposed, if there be any Ami de la Religion, at the 21st of May, year 1833.. Much less do the clergy allow their part to be missed: the archbishop of Toulouse, to whom the tract of Comminges, almost enclosed in the present archdeaconry of Saint-Gaudens, is now subject in spirituals, directs pastoral letters to the inhabitants of this archdeaconry, and strives to be present at the celebration itself Ibid. in the places cited. And so that the penitents may be satisfied, very many priests from the neighbourhood are present, to whom the prelate of Toulouse grants the power indeed of absolving from reserved sins, but not of commuting vows, as is clear from the pastoral letters of the years 1833 and 1839 transmitted to us. In the year 1833 about fifty priests were present, most of them confessors, and one or two missionaries, to exhort the people with five sermons: to whom, to increase the solemnity, the students of the seminary of Polignan had added themselves Ibid., loc. cit.. In the year 1839 no smaller number of confessors seems to have been present; but then it was forbidden that, as in the year 1833, penitents should be received in private houses and in the cloister of St. Bertrand, and on the contrary it was granted that the confessors should occupy the sacred tribunal in the churches of Vallis Capraria (Valcabrère), Labroquère, Barbazan, Mons Regius (Montréjeau) and Polinianum (Polignan). And these things sufficiently indicate how much that devotion still flourishes.

[102] [and its occasion; other indulgences on other feasts; the confraternity of St. Bertrand.] At the beginning of this § it was said that this jubilee indulgence was to be gained whenever the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross should fall on a Friday. But it is a quite strange thing that this indulgence, which they will have granted in honour of St. Bertrand, depends on the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross, no otherwise than the indulgence of the monastery of Montmajour (compare num. 94), which they assert was bestowed by the Roman Pontiffs in honour of the Holy Cross, whose chapel was held in much veneration there Du Port, Hist. de l'Egl. d'Arles 295.. Yet a certain feast of St. Bertrand is celebrated at Comminges on the day before the Finding of the Holy Cross under the name of the Revelation or Apparition of St. Bertrand, because in it is recalled the memory of the apparition of this Saint which is related by Vitalis in the last number of his Life, and which is held to be the first sign of holiness shown after his death; so that formerly (see n. 93) the indulgence began after the feast of St. Bertrand had been celebrated: whence this whole question is entangled more and more in doubts. There is scarcely need for me to note that besides this feast two others are celebrated; for that which obtains on the 16th day of January in commemoration of the translation of the Relics is sufficiently known from what has been said; nor is the other hidden, which on the day of his death, the 16th of October, is the most celebrated of all. On these three feasts and on the four feast days of the B. Virgin Mary, titular patroness of the church of Comminges, certain indulgences, again, as Lastrade will have it Relat. de la transl. d'une reliq., p. 157., granted by Clement V and confirmed by Benedict XIV, could formerly be gained by the members of the confraternity of St. Bertrand: for the oft-mentioned canon of Comminges plainly asserts Ibid., p. 156. that a confraternity under the name of this Saint existed there already in the times of Clement V; and surely this assertion cannot be overthrown on the ground of the novelty of the thing, since that usage, as good writers have tried to show, was already in force in the 8th century Biblioth. sacr. at the word Confrérie., or in the 9th century [Thomassin, on the old and new discipline of the Church, part I, book II, chap. XXV. Ed. 1725.], or even much earlier Savaron, Traité des Confréries, passim.. Be that as it may, this confraternity is certainly older than the middle of the 16th century, since in the year 1531 it was renewed by pastoral letters by Jean de Mauléon, bishop of Comminges; which almost two centuries after, namely in the year 1716, was done again by Gabriel du Bouchet, as Lastrade teaches p. 157..

§ VIII. On the reliquary caskets and the mausoleum of St. Bertrand at Comminges, and on the Relics kept elsewhere.

The reliquaries and mausoleum of St. Bertrand At num. 86 we heard Bernard Gui and Augier of Béziers praising the casket prepared at the expense of Clement V for receiving the Relics of St. Bertrand; but many other things of this kind remain to be explained. Lastrade p. 140., after he had praised the choir stalls and other treasures of the church of Comminges, discourses at length on the reliquaries of St. Bertrand such as they were in his time; it will not irk the reader to have heard him; here are his words rendered into Latin: "The most precious monument of all that exists there is the magnificent mausoleum in which the remains of St. Bertrand are laid, from the time when the Pontiff had them exhumed to be placed in a more becoming place; behind the high altar this mausoleum has been skilfully built of cut stone; there are two compartments in it, of which one, closed with iron gratings, holds the casket made by order of Clement V in the form of a tomb, covered with gilded copper plates and adorned with some old figures: only at the time of the jubilee, for the sake of making the procession, is this casket carried out or does it appear; on the other side there exists the other compartment, decorated within with green silk cloth and broad silver borders, and containing a silver casket in which is enclosed the head of the holy patron, still furnished with part of its teeth. This casket is shown through the whole day on the greater feasts and on the days dedicated to honouring the Mother of God; and so that this may be done, two leaves of gilded iron are opened, by which the compartment is closed; … on the outside the whole mausoleum shines with paintings, gildings and images, by which the life of St. Bertrand is partly set forth. Before the mausoleum there is a marble altar, on which the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated daily in honour of the holy prelate." So Lastrade p. 141 and following. This altar and mausoleum, as they were before the more recent restoration, we show here engraved in copper according to a lithographic image.

[104] it is described; An accurate delineation of the same restored mausoleum was written to us by the present Rev. parish priest, Mr. Deque: "That mausoleum," he says, "to which an altar is attached, has a quadrangular form, six metres long and as many high, and two wide; it is covered with a roof sloping on both sides. In the middle of the ridge rises a gilded stone statue of St. Bertrand, two feet high, and on each side two similar figures of persons praying. The pictures which appear on the front part were painted on linen cloth in the year 1823 after older ones, and show some deeds of St. Bertrand" (not everywhere quite accurately, as will become manifest from the annotations to the Life of St. Bertrand): "in the lowest on the right, consisting of fourteen figures of men, is represented the exhumation of the body made by Clement V; in the lowest on the left, which has seventeen figures, Clement V before the cardinals canonizes St. Bertrand" (compare however num. 79 and following); "in the middle on the right, where fifteen figures appear, while the Saint is preaching, a mule's tail is cut off; and in the middle on the left this injury is repaired by gifts offered" (of these there will have to be speaking below): "in the uppermost on the right, where eight men are seen, the count of Bigorre restores to the people of Comminges the booty carried off by him and frees the captives; in the uppermost on the left, where five

figures are painted, St. Bertrand appears to the count of Bigorre, whom the Saracens had led captive, and frees him from prison; the intermediate picture shows St. Bertrand making supplication to the Mother of God. On each side of the mausoleum there are four older panels of a better brush: in the lowest on the right, which brings out four men, are depicted obstinate sinners struck by lightning; in the second, where five figures are painted, St. Bertrand in his agony is carried by his clerics before the altar of the Mother of God; in the third, which is of as many figures, dismayed sinners beg for penance to be imposed on them; and at the top of the gable St. Bertrand appears receiving the heavenly crown. On the left side the lowest picture, having seven figures, shows captives who come to his tomb to thank St. Bertrand for their liberty; the second picture represents an adulteress whom the Saint compelled to acknowledge the fruit of her womb; in the third, consisting of four human forms, is depicted an adulterous woman who pays the penalty of a sacrilegious oath; the last, finally, ending in a wedge at the gable, represents St. Bertrand intent on prayer. The gratings which are seen on the front part enclose a bust of St. Bertrand with a reliquary casket, which on his feast days and at the time of the jubilee is offered to the people to be kissed. The back part remains to be described; which is divided into three compartments, closed with iron gratings, formerly gilded. In the middle compartment there remain laid up the reliquary containing the body, and another given, as they will have it, by Clement V; in the two remaining compartments are preserved pyxes containing smaller Relics of very many Saints."

[105] [one reliquary is recent; nor does the older seem to have been given by Clement V.] The Rev. parish priest Mr. Deque had a drawing of both reliquaries of St. Bertrand made at his own expense by the celebrated Mr. Louis d'Ayos. But since the one in which the body now lies is of more recent workmanship, and has nothing notable pertaining to art (for it is a tomb on whose ridge is an image of a bishop, and on the front part episcopal insignia joined in the manner of three trophies), its image did not seem worth engraving in copper. But the other casket, which is made of wood and covered with thin copper, since it has often obtained the praises of archaeologists, seems fit to be represented here. "It is," says the Rev. Mr. Deque, "forty-two hundredths of a metre long, and twenty-four high. The figures, which are stamped and not chased, and show the hunting of a monster, repeated rather often in the same forms, seem to indicate nothing mystical. This casket now contains only the mitre of St. Bertrand, his ring, gloves and shoes, used in performing the sacred functions, but no Relics from the body." From this description, however, above all because the casket is of copper, it is clear enough that the Comminges tradition is suspect by which it is maintained that it is the same one which Clement V gave as a gift; for this, as we saw at num. 86, according to Bernard Gui was precious, and according to Amalric Augier of Béziers was made of gold and silver with precious stones newly in wonderful manner: and indeed Fr. Poussines in the MS. annotations to the Life of St. Bertrand calls it in French un coffre d'argent, artistement elabore et enrichi de pierreries enchassees a silver chest, artistically wrought and enriched with set precious stones, properly distinguishing it from the silver bust of which we have already spoken, and which he relates was also granted by Clement V. But since Lastrade (see above num. 103) brings in mention of this copper casket, and not at all of the silver one, it is plain to believe that the latter was destroyed, I know not for what cause, between the year 1649, in which Fr. Poussines was writing, and the year 1742, in which Lastrade's little book was printed. Likewise, since the same canon of Comminges mentions only the bust and the copper casket, but has nothing about the reliquary in which the body is now enclosed, it seems certain that this was constructed after his times.

[106] The more recent fortunes of the Relics of St. Bertrand at Comminges. And from these things I trust it is manifest enough what the state of the mausoleum and of the reliquaries of St. Bertrand was both in the past century and in these times. To our inquiries, however, as to what fate befell these sacred relics amid the disturbance of the French republic, the answer was made to us from Toulouse that men most worthy of all credit are witnesses that they were religiously preserved; but that it is not known by the men of Comminges advanced in age that they were recognized by an episcopal diploma since that stormy time; and the Rev. Mr. Feral, secretary of the archbishop, adds that he searched in vain the instruments of the archive of Toulouse drawn up in the last fifty years; so that none came his way among them which pertained to these Relics. Nevertheless, as the present Rev. parish priest has written to us, eyewitnesses have affirmed to him that the Most Illustrious Mr. d'Astros, archbishop of Toulouse, in the year 1830 opened the casket, and compared the bones with the old lists and instruments, and that everything was found by him in due condition; wherefore he caused his seal to be impressed on the casket, in which the old instruments are enclosed with the body: "which thing," says the Rev. parish priest, "is a certain testimony (for our most praiseworthy prelate uses such accuracy) that everything was found by him in the state in which it was before the troubles of the last century." At this time, however, we reckon lost the cope of St. Bertrand which Lastrade mentions p. 141., of which the Rev. Mr. Deque truly makes no mention; on the contrary greatly praising the cope which Clement V gave as a gift, and into which the needle wove the whole life of Christ the Lord in detail. On the other hand there is still preserved at Comminges, as we are taught from the commentaries and a lithographic image transmitted from Toulouse, a dried crocodile, which the common people declare was killed by St. Bertrand: but he who should say that it was brought from the East at the time of the holy wars will perhaps come nearer to the truth.

[107] Relics of St. Bertrand kept at Barcelona, at Paris Relics of St. Bertrand were also preserved elsewhere than at Comminges. We learn from Lastrade p. 51. that some relics of this Saint were asked for by the chapter of Barcelona; and although it is not openly affirmed by the canon of Comminges that they were granted, and I find no mention of them among the writers of Barcelona whom we have, I think nevertheless that the requests were satisfied, since the cult of St. Bertrand flourished much in that region and flourishes up to now, as is already established from num. 101, and will also be clear below. Between the years 1675 and 1742 the canons regular of St. Genevieve of Paris also obtained some sacred particles; for they boast of them in the preface of their Proper of the year 1742; but they do not review them among their relics in the Proper of the year 1675; and indeed, since Lastrade does not mention them, it is natural to believe that they were given by the people of Comminges in the very year 1742 in which Lastrade's little work was brought out into the light. But where on earth they now lie hidden (unless they were destroyed in the common destruction of sacred things) is altogether unexplored by us.

[108] and at L'Isle-Jourdain; whither they were translated with much solemnity The things, however, which we have learned about the Relics preserved at L'Isle-Jourdain, the native place of St. Bertrand, from Lastrade, who explains their translation through twenty pages, seem to need very much abbreviating. Pope John XXII, by a bull given on the 20th day of February of the year 1381, had erected into a collegiate church the church into which the holy pledges were to be carried, and the priory added to it Hist. du Languedoc, Vol. IV, p. 173, and Gall. Christ., Vol. XIII, col. 38.; and the place itself, L'Isle-Jourdain, which at num. 16 of this Commentary we said was formerly the castle Ictium or Setium, had already grown into a town in the 18th century; indeed Lastrade pronounces it the greatest of all in this tract and at the same time the most dissolute in morals. In order that a remedy might be brought to this evil, and at the same time that devotion towards the native Saint might be restored, there had long been talk of requesting Relics of St. Bertrand. For this reason at length the canons, the seneschal and the chief men of the town come together, and send two canons of L'Isle to the chapter of Comminges. The canons of Comminges, assembled in chapter on the 6th day of June of the year 1733, granted their wishes. The deliberation held was approved by the bishop of Comminges, Antoine de Lastic, who put off the solemnity of the translation to the 6th day of September. In the absence of Jean-Louis de Crillon, archbishop of Toulouse, the vicars general assented to the reception of the Relics, and decided that the first day on which the sacred remains should rest at L'Isle-Jourdain should be festively celebrated and the Office of the translation of Relics recited; that a becoming place would be prepared for receiving the Relics, and that for three days the Most Holy Sacrament would be exposed to the adoration of the people; and at the same time it was permitted by them that money be raised from alms, whence the expenses might be paid. At the time appointed there were chosen the Rev. Messrs. de Sainte-Marie, Faget, Barreli and Sudria, canons; Broqua, Valent, Becanes, Bernadon, Cembres, prebendaries; Roubineau and Robert, chief laymen, to go with a band of supplicants to seek the sacred treasure. I pass over speaking of their festive arrival and other things of this kind. To stir the devotion of the people, the prelate of Comminges had proposed indulgences, and had granted the faculty of absolving penitents from reserved cases. In the presence of the bishop of Tarbes (the archbishop of Narbonne was detained elsewhere against his wishes), the prelate of Comminges himself offered the sacrifice of the Mass, and enclosed in the case which the men of L'Isle had brought two bones, which the physicians Cousier and Burgalat called a true rib and a thoracic vertebral bone. A twofold instrument was drawn up by Mr. Martin, clerical secretary. These things were done on the fifth day of September.

[109] in the year 1733, On the next day the divine offices were performed before an immense people; and the sacred burden was then entrusted to the men of L'Isle. The whole journey, consisting of 16 or 18 leagues, was made in the manner of a procession: the cross-bearer went before; six or eight canons or prebendaries followed, singing sacred canticles by turns, so that there should be no interruption. In the country and in deserted places the reliquary was placed on a cart, elsewhere it was borne on shoulders; an immense multitude ran together from every side and was constant in accompanying it; from the villages and towns the clergy, monks, confraternities, people, arranged in ranks of supplicants, came out to meet it. At night the sacred burden rested in the churches of the villages or towns, in which in the evening sermons were made to the people, the Most Holy Sacrament was exposed to be adored, and two clerics with four soldiers passed the night beside the reliquary. What was done specially in each place let the reader see in the little work of Lastrade itself. On the 9th day of September they came to L'Isle-Jourdain. The Relics were received by Mr. Betou, vicar general of Toulouse. On the 10th of the same month the verification of the Relics and a fivefold instrument of recognition were made; on the eleventh and twelfth days the solemnities were prolonged. And indeed, since the concourse of the people was still very great, the said vicar general allowed three other feast days to be kept and the Most Holy Sacrament to be exposed. Meanwhile the report of a certain miracle was carried about among the people; namely that a sick man had been healed: concerning which matter, however, Jean Lastrade determined nothing. These things are enough for the reader to know how great this celebration was.

[110] and where, recognized in the year 1838, What further befell these sacred pledges after L'Isle-Jourdain was separated by virtue of the concordat of the year 1801 from the diocese of Toulouse and subjected to that of Auch, we gather from a writing which the oft-praised Fr. Tinseau obtained for us from the Rev. parish priest of L'Isle. Since it is written in the French idiom, we present it to the reader rendered by us into Latin: "The citizens of L'Isle-Jourdain venerated these Relics up to the stormy year 1792. At which time, when the government had ordered the furnishings of the church to be sold, pious hands stole away this sacred treasure. Divine worship having been restored, they were brought back to the church and again honoured by the people. But since no written testimony made their authenticity certain, in the month of June of the year 1838 the archbishop of Auch, Cardinal d'Isoard, ordered an inquiry to be instituted concerning them. This business was committed to the undersigned parish priest; and the instruments collected were transmitted to the said archbishop; having seen which, the following decree came forth:

Joachim-Jean-Xavier d'Isoard, etc. To all who shall see these presents, greeting and blessing in Our Lord Jesus Christ. Having seen the report made by Mr. Taste, parish priest of L'Isle-Jourdain, concerning the Relics of St. Bertrand which he found in the reliquaries; having seen the declaration of Messrs. Saureur and Fontan, attesting on the faith of an oath that the Relics are the same as those which before the overturning of the state were honoured in the parish as Relics of St. Bertrand; considering that on account of the uprightness of these witnesses and their observance towards religion no doubt can arise against the truth of their testimony; we declare the aforesaid Relics, bearing the name of St. Bertrand, to be authentic, and permit them to be shown to the veneration of the faithful. Wherefore we command the parish priest to see that these Relics be placed in reliquaries adorned with silk cloth and bearing the name of St. Bertrand, whose bones they hold; and that their authenticity may be preserved, he shall carefully seal the reliquary, setting his seal upon it, and likewise setting upon it an inscription in which the Saint's name is noted. And our present decree shall be deposited and carefully kept in the archives of the church of L'Isle-Jourdain. Given at Auch under the hand of our vicar general, under our seal, and the signature of our secretary, the third of July of the year 1838. Fenasse, vicar general. By mandate, Mendousse, secretary, honorary canon. For a faithful transcript, at L'Isle-Jourdain, on the 12th day of October of the year 1841, Taste, parish priest."

[111] with special honour, In order to satisfy this mandate, these Relics of St. Bertrand were placed and sealed in a new reliquary casket, and an instrument of the transaction was drawn up, under the date of the 3rd day of December of the year 1839. Further, this casket is kept in a chapel dedicated to St. Bertrand, and on all Sundays, excepting Advent, the Lenten season and the days on which benediction with the Most Holy Sacrament is given, the clergy, after Vespers have been sung, proceed in the order and rite of supplicants to the place honoured by these Relics, to sing there the following antiphon, written and set out in musical notes on an old paper: "Antiphon of Saint Bertrand, bishop of Comminges, born at L'Isle-Jourdain, and also sprung from ancestors who were the supreme counts of the aforesaid L'Isle:

May Saint Bertrand, merciful, and sweet, kindly, Prudent and just, strong, and gentle, modest, Loose the chains of the guilty, and give back light to the blind, Heal the sick, and supply to all what they ask. Prudent and just, strong, and gentle, modest. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Prudent and just, strong, and gentle, modest.

℣. Pray for us, Saint Bertrand, ℞. That we may be made worthy, etc. Let us pray: O God, who alone art good, and without whom none is good or holy, by the merits and intercession of Saint Bertrand, Thy Confessor and pontiff, bid us become such as ought not to be deprived of Thy goodness. Through Christ, etc."

[112] which is also used at Comminges, they are venerated. The men of L'Isle borrowed these things from the people of Comminges, since in the little work of Lastrade p. 174. we find that the beneficiaries who attended the morning hours sang these daily before the altar of St. Bertrand. Which practice of devotion surely still obtains, at least in part. Lastrade moreover shows an antiphon at Vespers belonging to the same kind of devotion:

O kindly one, preserve us, To whom the joined company sings psalms; Overthrow our enemies, Protect us, and govern us.

℣. Pray for us, etc. ℞. That we may be made worthy, etc. Let us pray: O God, who alone art good, etc. The antiphon at the Benedictus:

Blessed be the Lord God, who is called Israel's, Who first made us, Afterwards by redeeming us remade us; By the merits of Bertrand May He give us the gifts of salvation.

℣. Pray for us, etc. ℞. That we may be made worthy, etc. Let us pray: "Almighty everlasting God, who didst give Blessed Bertrand, Thy Confessor and pontiff, as a devout pastor on earth: mercifully grant that he may be a kindly intercessor for us with Thee in heaven. Through our Lord, etc." Further, that the antiquity of several centuries belongs to the form of antiphons of this kind no one will fail to see. But we are gradually slipping down to the ecclesiastical cult properly so called. Before we clarify this, however, another ancient usage is to be set out; which, so far as I can discern, became obsolete from the end of the last century.

[113] The grateful mind of the people of Azun towards St. Bertrand, Lastrade in his little work on St. Bertrand p. 34 and 49. mentions a certain old tradition, about which Vitalis tells us nothing, but which is painted on the mausoleum of St. Bertrand (compare num. 104) and is related to have been the origin of the custom to be narrated. St. Bertrand, namely, was travelling through the diocese of Tarbes, and came at length into the valley of Azun. The holy prelate was preaching the word of God to the inhabitants of the place, who, since they could not bear their manners to be censured by the holy man, held him in mockery, and did not shrink from cutting off the tail of his mule. God punished the ill-disposed, sending a five-year drought; whence the fields and cattle wasted away. They implored at length the holy man's prayers; which, directing them to God from his heart, he appeased the heavenly anger. So Lastrade p. 47.; who certainly is not to be heeded when he makes St. Bertrand an apostolic nuncio, and asserts that this tract of land was laid under interdict by him. Now the following usage had sprung from this: every year the canons of Comminges sent some men to receive in these parts all the butter which was made there within the week after the feast of the Lord's Ascension. And the inhabitants of this valley, either from a vow or from a grateful mind, believed themselves so strictly bound to pay that tribute that, if the canons of Comminges had omitted to send their collectors, they themselves would have seen to it that the old custom was kept. In the times of Fr. Poussines, as we understand from his annotations, this butter, which was said to be incorruptible, men thought so wholesome that Protestants themselves came to seek it, to anoint the diseased parts of the body with it.

[114] and the veneration of the people of Barcelona. Above, at num. 107, the devotion of Barcelona towards St. Bertrand had already to be touched upon: its origin is likewise traced from a prodigy which Lastrade p. 50 and following sets out at length; I shall take it up in a few words: Sancho Parra, a knight, was acting as a plunderer in the valleys of the Pyrenees; but, admonished by St. Bertrand, he had entered the way of justice. But not so long after, in the Spanish war, he is captured by the Saracens and bound in fetters. He then remembered St. Bertrand, already dead, implores his help, and deserves to be heard. On the next morning, therefore, Sancho saw himself free of his bonds and safely at Barcelona: "Hence arose," says Lastrade, "the devotion of the people of Barcelona towards St. Bertrand, and on account of this miracle there was built on Mons Jovis or Judaicus (Monjouy, by others Monjuitch, etc.), rising near the city and the sea, a certain hermitage in honour of St. Bertrand, in which the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated." That the origin of this devotion is to be drawn from this prodigy, which I neither deny nor confirm, I shall with difficulty be persuaded, since Vitalis in the last number of the Life of St. Bertrand affirms that Sancho was carried from prison not to Barcelona but to his castle of Oltia; further, Oltia, as will be said in the annotations, is situated quite far from Barcelona. The other circumstances of the cult I willingly admit. Now if it is asked to what times the beginning of this chapel and of the cult of St. Bertrand at Barcelona is to be referred, I confess that I have found nothing either in volume XXIX of the España Sagrada, where the affairs of Barcelona are set out, or in the work of Fr. Aimerich on the Names and Acts of the Bishops of Barcelona, or in very many others in which Catalonia, Barcelona or Montjuïc itself is illustrated. We have understood, however, from a citizen of Barcelona that that shrine existed at least up to the more recent fights on Montjuïc.

§ IX. Ecclesiastical cult.

St. Bertrand, who at Comminges is venerated with not four but three feasts, At num. 102 we have already treated of the three feasts which are wont to be celebrated yearly at Comminges in honour of St. Bertrand. Du Saussay added a fourth, and attached it to the 19th day of November: and he gave it the name of the feast of the translation of the Relics, not omitting to speak at length of this solemnity; Ferrari copied du Saussay in his general Catalogue of the Saints who are not noted in the Roman Martyrology, and added that he drew it from the tables of the Church of Comminges; but he will deceive only the unwary: Baillet however supported du Saussay. But at n. 86 and following quite enough testimonies were produced from which it is established that St. Bertrand was translated by Clement V on the 16th day of January: whence this feast is overthrown, which Lastrade and others have deservedly not mentioned. There is no reason, however, why discourse should again be held about the three true feasts, about which we have already said very much. Below, however, we shall excerpt some things from the Offices which are wont to be used on these days among the people of Comminges. Now concerning the ecclesiastical cult of St. Bertrand existing in other places.

[116] in the diocese of Auch, Lastrade p. 55., wishing to prove that St. Bertrand was beatified by Alexander III, shows as an argument the antiquity of the cult of St. Bertrand; and he establishes this antiquity by adducing as a testimony of his assertion an old Legendary of Comminges written, as he says, in Gothic letters, and in which the feast of St. Bertrand is proposed to be celebrated with an octave; but the following pertain more nearly to the question proposed; for he adds: "After Alexander III had proclaimed the glory of Saint Bertrand, many Churches celebrated his feast; such are those of Toulouse, Auch, Anicium or Le Puy, Narbonne, Rieux, Tarbes and Lectoure." But these words cannot be so understood as if these Churches had at once taken up the ecclesiastical cult of St. Bertrand: for, to say nothing of the diocese of Rieux, which was created only in the year 1317, I have in my keeping the proper Offices which Just, bishop of Le Puy, ordered to be drawn up in the year 1624 for the clergy of Le Puy, and there I seek in vain the feast of St. Bertrand; which therefore seems to have been instituted among the people of Le Puy after this year; and indeed after the year 1733, in which Lastrade wrote, it was again removed,

since from the liturgical Calendar of the year 1832 I learn that on the 16th day of October the Office of the feria is recited by the people of Le Puy. But since William III of Auch caused St. Bertrand to be canonized, as has been said, I willingly admit Lastrade's assertion concerning the archdiocese of Auch; and since Tarbes and Lectoure looked up to the prelate of Auch as metropolitan, we are not much moved to exclude these dioceses, although in the Proper of the Saints published by the Most Illustrious Mr. Louis La Rochefoucauld, who sat at Lectoure from the year 1649 to the year 1654, this formula, which savours somewhat of novelty, is set before the Office of St. Bertrand: "From the history of the Life of St. Bertrand, which is read in the Church of Comminges." I am wholly ignorant why the people of Narbonne should have venerated St. Bertrand already from the 12th century. As regards the people of Toulouse, it is most probable to us that St. Bertrand was venerated among them at least before the year 1317. The reasons for which opinion it seems worth while to unfold.

[117] [and probably in that of Toulouse from at least the beginning of the 14th century; likewise now also in other dioceses] First, St. Bertrand, as sprung from the diocese of Toulouse, and having lived several years among the canons of Toulouse with the office of canon and archdeacon, pertained most nearly to them; secondly, Gaillard, bishop of Toulouse, had been present in the year 1309 at the Comminges solemnity of the translation of the Relics; thirdly, the feast of St. Bertrand seems to be celebrated in all the places of which the diocese of Toulouse consisted before it was in the year 1317 divided by Pope John XXII into several dioceses, itself being raised to the metropolitan dignity. At least in the Calendar of Carcassonne printed for the year 1826 it comes my way that this Saint is venerated at Carcassonne, at Mirepoix, among the people of Saint-Papoul, and at Alet. And in the Calendar of the year 1828 for the use of the diocese of Auch, in which not only Lectoure but also Lombez are now comprised, the feast of St. Bertrand also appears. Further, the dioceses subjected in the year 1317 to the metropolitan of Toulouse are these, seven in number: Lombez, Pamiers, Montauban, Mirepoix, Lavaur, Rieux and Saint-Papoul. Now since Montauban before the year 1317 belonged to the diocese of Cahors, and Pamiers, formerly indeed belonging to the bishopric of Toulouse, had already been erected into a bishopric from the year 1295 by Pope Boniface VIII, there is nothing to detain us in the present question in the want of the Calendars of both these dioceses. As regards the former diocese of Lavaur, I must confess that the name of St. Bertrand does not come my way in the Calendar of Albi of the year 1827, although Lavaur, which is now included in this diocese, was subject before the year 1317 to the diocese of Toulouse. But it can be, and indeed it is probable, that a particular Calendar is still used by the people of Lavaur, as obtains in most suppressed dioceses. If, then, one may learn the one diocese of Lavaur from the rest, we have it that the cult of St. Bertrand flourished in all the dioceses which at the beginning of the 14th century were separated from the diocese of Toulouse; whence it is natural to admit that this cult existed before the separation itself. For the rest, if this conjecture, however most probable to us, please anyone less, he must nevertheless admit that St. Bertrand was already venerated at Toulouse at the beginning of the 16th century; for we read in the Toulouse Missal of this time a proper Mass of this Saint. Nor does that cult seem ever to have been interrupted, since in the little book of proper Offices printed in the year 1647 by order of the Most Illustrious archbishop Charles de Montchal, proper lessons of St. Bertrand exist; Lastrade p. 82. in the year 1733 maintains the preservation of the same feast in the diocese of Toulouse, and the liturgical Calendar of the year 1824 shows the same Saint venerated with semidouble rite.

[118] of Gaul. In other dioceses too St. Bertrand is venerated or was formerly venerated. For in the ecclesiastical Calendar published in the year 1781 for the use of the diocese of Agde, a commemoration of the prelate of Comminges is prescribed; into the Calendar of Uzès the feast of the same Saint seems to have been brought between the years 1781 and 1786; for in this year his feast is appointed to be celebrated in the cathedral church, not likewise in the year 1781. The older lists of Bayonne are lacking to me; but those printed for the year 1830 announce the feast of St. Bertrand under semidouble rite. The people of Cahors too, as we gather from their Order of the divine Office printed in the year 1831, and those of Saint-Pons-de-Thomières, as the Calendar of the year 1829 attests, celebrate the feast day of St. Bertrand: the cult at Saint-Pons, however, is more recent, since the name of St. Bertrand is absent from the Calendars of the years 1664 and 1681. There are perhaps other dioceses also in Gaul where formerly or even now St. Bertrand is honoured with ecclesiastical cult; but if there are any, their Calendars or Breviaries are not in our keeping.

[119] His former cult among the Canons of St. Genevieve, of Brioude and of Vorau. Since the canons regular of St. Augustine obtained from Pope St. Pius V, on the 18th day of December, an indult prefixed to many Breviaries, by which they may "not only publicly venerate the Saints designated there, but also celebrate the feasts of all the other Saints of the said Congregation and Order even under a double Office; and adapt to each and all of them their proper authentic lessons and prayers, the aforesaid form of the Breviary being kept," etc.; and since on the other side it seems beyond doubt (as was discussed at numm. 38 and following) that St. Bertrand was a canon regular, and it is held beyond controversy that canons regular were instituted by him at Comminges, no one will wonder that the cult of St. Bertrand prevailed in some churches of canons. And first we find the Office of this Saint with three proper lessons in the Breviary of the canons of St. Julian of Brioude, reformed and given to the press in the year 1654. As regards the Gallican Congregation of canons regular, who are commonly named from St. Genevieve, the feast of St. Bertrand was not yet kept among them in the year 1648, as is established for us from the Proper of the Saints printed in this year; but in the year 1665 a double feast with three proper lessons and a proper prayer was already being celebrated, as we likewise gather from the Proper. But I cannot divine why in the following year it was excluded from the Proper published in the year 1666 for the first time by order of the general Chapter. By right of postliminy, however, I see the name of St. Bertrand restored in the Proper of the year 1758, and inserted in his Office a new prayer and revised lessons for the II nocturn, and other lessons for the III nocturn, taken from the 135th letter of St. Bernard. But in the year 1765 a Breviary came forth, by I know not what authority, as distant as the whole heaven from the norm of the Roman Breviary, whose rubrics the canons of St. Genevieve seven years before had rightly been persuaded were still to be kept by them, since this was prescribed by the indult of Pope St. Pius V: so, namely, did they cling to the tradition of their Fathers, as they nevertheless say in their preface! In this Proper, then, St. Bertrand comes with one proper prayer and one proper lesson. Although very many Breviaries of the Congregations of the Lateran, of Windesheim, etc., which enjoyed the privileges granted by St. Pius, are in our keeping, I nowhere find the name of St. Bertrand in them. That name, however, did not remain confined in Gaul; for in the Calendar of the collegiate church of Vorau (Voraw in Lower Styria) of the canons regular of the Lateran, serving under the rule of St. Augustine, printed at Graecium (Graz) for the year 1750, I see that the feast of St. Bertrand is kept by them under double rite.

[120] The lessons on St. Bertrand are omitted I pass over copying out the entire Offices or Masses of St. Bertrand. Not even the lessons which are read in the Lectoure Proper, printed before the year 1654, and savour of high antiquity, as taken from the ancient legendary of Comminges, is it pleasing to report here. For although before the death of Hugh de Bar, who held the bishopric of Lectoure from the year 1671 up to the year 1691, they were reformed (which I gather from a letter of this most pious prelate given to our Papebroch), and the old ones are therefore liable to perishing, yet since they contain scarcely anything which is not set out more at length by Vitalis, there is no reason why we should recite them here. I hope that I shall abundantly satisfy the curious inquirers into liturgical matters by closing this Commentary with the prose and the preface of the Mass, and also the hymns of the divine Office, which the people of Comminges use in honour of St. Bertrand. These again are to be credited to Mr. Feral, secretary of the archbishop of Toulouse.

[121] and the prose is recited Prose:

Lift up above the stars thy holy brow, O proud city; A city conscious of triumph Holy gladness becomes. Here by the contagion of vice It sat in sick minds; Religion in sacrilegious hearts Mourned as an exile. Behold Bertrand flies past The obstacles of the mountains, Treads on the frosts, and triumphing Breaks the barriers of the snows. Hence, flood of crimes, Thrust thyself far from the city; Far, black barbarism, Roll down into darkness. Here God is present: applaud, Devout ranks of men; Ye profane, tremble, The suspended thunderbolts roar. Buried in its own ruins Impiety groans; The hydra gnashes, hisses, roars With its necks broken. The victor, when he has tamed The pest of hell, more brave Lays his laurel at the altars, Even so more worthy of the laurel. How he fulfils the apostolic office With faithful cares! How he waters the gospel seed With devout labours! Long, harder than admonitions, Ferocity cried out against him: At length, grown softer, it follows God; truth triumphs. So he taught to till the iron soil, To soften the bosom, And imbued the thirsting vineyard With the dew of salvation. He lived for all, he dies, Sadder for his own than for himself; But he is not wholly extinguished, His better part lives. Thou who, now companion of the heavenly ones, Beholdest thy wretched sheep; Ah! do not desert thy former flock, O blessed shepherd. Amen.

[122] and the preface of the Mass, Preface: "Truly, etc. Through Christ our Lord. Who for the salvation of the sheep which Christ acquired with His blood didst raise up Blessed Bertrand, and didst set the minister of Thy charity over the ruling of Thy people; that as a faithful and prudent steward he might do and teach according to Thy heart: for he it is whom Thou gavest into the light for us, to feed us with the word of life, to kindle us with the examples of virtues, and to strengthen us in faith with the gift of miracles. Wherefore we bless Thee, O Lord, in Thy works, and suppliantly beseech Thee that the spiritual desires of the Christian people may be solemnly fulfilled; and that the mercy asked of Thee may be swiftly obtained through the suffrages of Thy Saint Bertrand: that when the glory of Thy majesty shall appear over us, Thou mayest grant indulgence for our merits through Christ our Lord; whom deservedly all the Angels," etc.

[123] and also various hymns, Hymn at first Vespers:

How great is he! coming to whose altars Each one feels a favourable divinity for himself, And always returns home, the gift obtained, Glad. Hither every sex, every age flies; It venerates the sacred bones of the shepherd. Throng of the languishing, hasten: he Bestows health. These temples shall tell thy praises without end, Which hide thy ashes, O prelate; may this ash Rekindle the fires which it keeps Buried. How many kneeling clients he has here! How many sweet hymns are sung back to thee! Here thy name sounds; and in the mouth Of all it lives.

From thy seats, if our ills touch thee, Guard the lowly lands; Nor, good protector of our city, Despise thy people. Splendour of the Father's light, only Offspring, O Christ, let the bowed world venerate Thee, Who anointest priests through the Breath Of kindly love. Amen.

[124] in which the deeds of St. Bertrand Hymn for the night or morning office:

Why dost thou shake off the burden laid upon thy head? Yield at length to God; all the people Demand thee for Him, rousing thee with prayers and tears; In vain thou seekest hiding-places. We are heard: he has returned: love bends the father: Trembling he now receives the pastoral crook; The sacred mitre veils his locks: Bertrand becomes The head of a new host. With this shepherd, tender flock of sheep, fear nothing From the cruel frauds or the rage of the wolf: Around thee the provident guardian keeps watch With vigilant solicitude. His one care is to drive back darkness With light poured into minds; And to set under languid breasts The living torches with which he himself burns. His delights are prayers with tears, His riches to suffer poverty; Now, docile, it pleases him to break His limbs in perpetual battles. He takes his sleep on the chill ground, relieves Hunger with black bread, quenches thirst with water: And with a lavish hand he distributes to the wretched What, sparing himself, he withdraws from himself. Highest praise be to the Father, and highest to the Son, Equal glory be to Thee, Holy Spirit, Who anointest with Thy chrism prelates Fit for sacred offices. Amen.

[125] are celebrated. Hymn at second Vespers:

Applaud him received into heaven, ye heavenly ones; He who at his birth had made your joys, Bertrand, now brings himself into your triumphs As partner and companion. While the mind enjoys the God it has attained, The earth holds his venerable remains; Thou dost not wholly depart: surviving In the bones and the ash is power. The band of evils flees far away at command, However the peoples honour thee with vows, As effectual to ward off diseases, And to give laws to cruel death. The citizen comes round thee: whether the crop languishes With withering stalk, or swims in the wet; Him, powerful over both rain and sun, He venerates with suppliant arms. Alas! with how many storms are we girt, O God! How many dire enemies prepare ambushes! Give a body unconquered by perils, Give a snow-white mind without stain. Bertrand, through thee be glory to the Father, Equal to the Son, like too to the Spirit, By whose gift thou shinest with a thousand signs, Our sweet glory and our pillar.

LIFE OF ST. BERTRAND, BISHOP OF COMMINGES, BY VITALIS, PROTONOTARY OF THE MOST HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE.

From the MS. of Fr. Poussines collated with the edition of Martène and the copy of Fr. Gissey.

Bertrand, bishop and Confessor, at Comminges in Gaul. (S.)

BHL Number: 1304

BY VITALIS.

Chapter I. The noble birth of St. Bertrand, his education, knighthood, canonical life at Toulouse, episcopate of Comminges, death and virtues.

St. Bertrand, sprung from a most illustrious family, The life of the Saints is a rule of living for others; and therefore we have received the series of the Scriptures more fully set out: so that while by reading we come to know Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the other just men, we may follow with striving steps a certain path of innocence, as it were, opened for us by their virtue: this Ambrosian reasoning ^b has led us above all to this resolve, that we ought to write the Life of Blessed Bertrand, bishop and Confessor of Jesus Christ. Saint Bertrand, then, illustrious by birth but nobler by faith, shone with virtues. Whose father was Ato Raymond, a man of noble birth; his mother too, drawing her origin from an illustrious title, was the daughter of William count of Toulouse, who was called by the surname Taillefer ^c: whose celebrated fame, marked by illustrious works, lit up provinces placed far away. And he was sprung from the castellum Ictium * ^d; which the inhabitants, changing it, thereupon built into a castle which is called Insula ^e. It pleased both his parents that, according to the Apostle, he should know from infancy the sacred letters, which could instruct him unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus. And while he was in tender age, shining in his works like the morning star, he indicated evidently in the flower how copious a harvest of fruits and how rich a growth of virtues he would produce in the following age.

[2] he puts on arms, But when Blessed Bertrand had reached the youthful strength of age, he was decorated with military arms; and although temporal warfare raises some into the pest of boastfulness, puffs them up and drives them into the fury of pride, drags them to the iniquity of plunder; finally involves them in every shameful crime; who glory in their falls, thinking those things to be matters of praise which are matters of crime; yet the glory of empty warfare could not turn him away from the pursuit of goodness; for with diligent intention he followed the footsteps of Blessed Martin; whence, as a citizen of the heavenly fatherland, labouring at upright manners, he studied to relieve the misery of the needy and the groaning of the poor with his goods: for he flourished with such liberality that nobles, commoners, rich, poor held him most dear: he gave diligence not to do evil to his neighbour, and not to take up reproach against his neighbours; devout, modest, placable at the movement of anger, provoking no one, despising none, swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, according to James the Apostle, he found in each the grace of affection; for it was necessary that he whom divine grace had flooded should also be loved by all.

[3] yet spurning the glory of the world, Not in the uncertainty of riches and worldly power did the most blessed man place his hope; but in the protection of the virtues, which remains wholly stable and immovable, he firmly established his whole mind; according to the sentence of Peter the Apostle, humbling himself under the mighty hand of God; seeking the things that are above, not those that are upon the earth ; following the Apostle , a despiser of his own glory, he gloried in the Lord, without whom the glory of the flesh will be dust. That height of glory alone, then, he sought with ardent desire which stands unfailingly in the mirror of its beauty and the truth of its comeliness, which no whirlwind of change lays low, no chance of things overturns, nor any form of alteration breaks; this he loved, to this he wholly clung, this cherished him, the love of this in no way withdrew from the side of his mind; he did not glory in beauty of body, or in strength of powers, although he himself was handsome and robust; knowing that the dignity of form either withers with disease or is extinguished by age. For the brightness of form is swift and fleeting and * more fugitive than all the changeableness of the flowers of spring; the strength of the body too decreases daily and is diminished, undergoes a fall and succumbs.

[4] and clinging to God; Not in these things, then, did the most blessed man set his glory, nor in fleeting and light goods, which hasten to a headlong course, hurry to a fall, speed to flight, which are borne with such lightness, moved with such velocity, that they know no rest, are ignorant of tranquillity, shamefully confound their followers, and fill them with much havoc of grief and bitterness; whose lovers strength deserts, trouble pricks, vileness casts away, obscurity hides; not, then, in these, but casting his care and glorying in the Lord, he followed the Apostle, who, rapt to the third heaven, like a vehement trumpet, thundering from the Holy Spirit, leaving the earth, speaks according to the height of heaven, teaching evidently in what the friend of God ought to glory: "He who glories," he says , "let him glory in the Lord"; behold then he had prudence according to God, which ruled his warfare, and restrained the boldness of malice; for with much caution and prudent skill he shone with fitting ornaments of the virtues; [ labouring attentively in the pursuit of right living, he who desired that not himself but God should be proclaimed in his works was a pilgrim on earth, but his conversation was in heaven; whom * the hope of future reward led to good work, and he wished Him alone to be the witness of his work, from whom he believed with the whole firmness of faith that he would receive the reward.

[5] he cultivates justice, This man, although he was not of the lowest parents, and in military garb could by his strength and power oppress some, plunder the goods of others and practise much malice, would not exercise the power of temporal warfare to the ruin of the good. This is he who could transgress and did not transgress, and do evil and did not do it; therefore his goods were established in the Lord; who went not after gold, nor hoped in treasures of money; whence he did wonderful things in his life. Under secular arms, then, he served the heavenly warfare, and leaving to posterity examples of virtues by his excellent manners, he took up the glorious contest of the heavenly warfare. For the rest, that for the sake of brevity I may pass over in silence many gifts of divine grace in which the man of God greatly shone, I desire to follow up that prerogative of his virtues, worthy of praise on every side, which is found in very few, especially in the fervour of youth, which is known to be more prone to sinning. He was, then, useful in speech, discreet in silence, not opening the doors of his tongue inconsiderately, tearing no one with the wicked bites of detraction, not exasperating with the bitterness of insults , not sprinkling with black salt, not afflicting with contumelies, fulfilling that oracle: "Blessed is he that is defended from a wicked tongue, that hath not passed into the wrath thereof, and that hath not drawn its yoke , and hath not been bound with its bands; for its yoke is a yoke of iron, and its band a band of brass." For since death and life are in the hands of the tongue, he avoided shameful speech, which corrupts manners. Whence that which is written fitted him: "Hedge in thy ears with thorns, and hear not a wicked tongue"; and: "Make doors for thy mouth and bars for thy ears"; because according to Isaiah the work of justice is silence.

[6] humility and chastity. That also he declined with much effort, pride I mean, which troubles many, and especially soldiers of the world whom empty glory harasses, and casts them down to the lowest. For as some, who do not know themselves, do not love the light, walk in darkness, not knowing what they are, ignorant whence they come and whither they go; whence, the religion of humility being despised, they seek themselves above themselves; and flying farther, they nowhere reach the goal of virtue, nor will they find themselves: for their pride has blinded them; and whence they hunt for the matter of sublimity, they find the culpable cause of their dejection, according to the prophet who says: "Thou hast cast them down while they were lifted up." That the man of God also flourished continually with the lily of chastity was doubtful to none of those who knew more fully the cleanness and purity of his life; the eminence of which virtue, although it is illustrious and praiseworthy at every age, yet its fruit appears more pleasing when it germinates and strengthens its root in that age , which is wont more easily to yield to the snares and falls of Venus.

[7] He becomes bishop While the most blessed man was showing a watchful care in the administration of the dignity committed to him, the fame of his goodness running further abroad, because a city placed on a mountain cannot be hidden, the cathedral church of Comminges ^f, bereaved of its pastor, was anxiously seeking a ruler , who could rule it prudently and watch more eagerly over its necessities. It came about, therefore, by the clemency of the divine disposition, that those to whom the power of electing had been granted, having invoked according to custom the grace of the Holy Spirit, elected as bishop the above-named man, archdeacon of the see of Toulouse, whose virtue his deeds rather than his words declared. They came to the cloister of Blessed Stephen, indicating the election to the bishop and convent of the same place. Elders and younger alike rejoice at the promotion of the just man; grief mingled that their church should send its son far away. What more? They lead the elect to the city of Comminges, a man best known to the best in each thing, who had tempted no one by prayer or price to attain the summit of a higher dignity; they led, I say, a man illustrious with the lily of chastity, placid with the mirror of humility, full of the works of mercy, enthroning him in solemn manner in the cathedral church; the assembly of clerics resounds full of praises, the multitude of the peoples rejoices in much gladness. As time went on he was consecrated by William Bernard , the venerable archbishop of blessed memory, in the Church of Auch, which according to the statutes of our forefathers is known * to be the metropolis of ten cities ^g

[8] After the solemnity of which consecration, when the holy man had returned to the church of his city, to celebrate the divine mystery there, [of the most noble see of Comminges, where he restores the church and institutes canons regular.] there was according to custom an immense concourse of those coming , joy among the clergy, and there was great gladness among the people. This church, assuredly, the most clement king of the Franks ^h, after he had snatched the aforenamed city from the tyrannical rage of the gentiles, after the victory obtained, given him from heaven, having cast out the filth of the profane nation, decorated with royal insignia ⁱ, with the mount and the suburb; and for the greater height of honour he added this to the royal majesty, that whoever should rule the aforesaid church with pontifical authority should be by royal right count of Comminges, and should preside by right of lordship over all, commoners as well as nobles ^k. A church of so great nobility, though less wealthy, the divine clemency committed to Saint Bertrand to rule. He gave his effort, then, more vehemently that the church [ might rise on high, and decorated it with that beauty of ornaments which it requires for the uses of the church, because he loved] the beauty of the house of God and the place of the dwelling of His glory ^l. Around the church he built a cloister ^m, as much as the narrowness ⁿ of that place permitted, the precipice of the rocks hindering; and there, as a lover of religion, he instituted canons, who under the rule of Saint Augustine should be bound to ecclesiastical services. For on the mount there were no houses; and behold in the times of this Saint, his merits requiring it, men came, and rebuilt a city of habitation on the mount: and according to the prophet they sowed fields, and planted vineyards, and made fruit of birth; and the place which for many times had been deserted received inhabitants.

[9] having died most holily, Saint Bertrand, then, mighty in signs with the brightness of virtues, prudently ruled the people committed to him by tongue, mind and life, and cured the infirmities of men by the power of miracles. And while he was visiting the parish churches, the day of his calling came. Incurring a feverish disease, he began suddenly to be deprived of the strength of his body; and understanding the dissolution of his body, he had himself carried to the cathedral church. O man praiseworthy in all things! who was raised to heaven with all devotion, and when the sickness pressed more gravely, had himself carried by the hands of the brethren into the oratory before the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whose honour the cathedral church was founded ^o; where, suspended in contemplation, he gave himself more eagerly to prayer, and commending himself more attentively to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His most merciful mother, he hastened more devoutly to the departure from the present life with full exultation, as one certain of the reward. At length the holy man, after the consolation of his disciples and the teaching and the episcopal blessing shown to them, closed his last day with a praiseworthy end on the 17th day before the Kalends of November; whom assuredly tongue, mind and life, works, virtues and signs faithfully declare to have passed to Christ; and before the throne of the Most High, among the holy and sublime Confessors of Jesus Christ, enjoying unfading glory, he reigns happily : where with the Saints he reigns for ever. Great indeed and very wonderful is the clemency of Christ, who after the passing of the holy man conferred on him even more abundantly the grace of doing miracles and signs: for it is given manifestly to be understood, and by eyewitness faith it is established as evident, that Saint Bertrand, bishop of Comminges, a faithful and prudent servant of Christ, whose life shone with innumerable miracles, after he passed from the world, is known to have bestowed greater benefits. For in his accustomed manner, and much more frequently afterwards, he flashed with the wonderful power of signs; for at once, all delay put aside, the Lord disposing, the miracles of the holy pontiff are renewed, and signs are declared more abundantly [p].

[10] [he is praised for chastity, humility and liberality. The writer drew his statements from the narratives] Among the other insignia of virtues with which divine grace had flooded him, he is known to have had three things which make a saint: the purity of entire chastity, the devotion of true humility, hospitality to all, but especially to those of the household of the faith. He was indeed chaste, not only in body but also in mind, so that by no circuit of guile did he adulterate his sincere affection ; no gesture too soft, no gait too loose, no voice too wanton, so that the very appearance of his body was an image of his mind. Because a good house ought to be recognized in its very entrance, he kept the virtue of humility so faithfully that in nothing at all did he decline to its contrary, nor after the manner of some did he vainly cultivate empty hypocrisy, as very many do, who under a deceitful appearance display humility for show and abjure it in truth. For there are those who humble themselves wickedly, and their inward parts are full of guile; not so he, not so; but without disguise, without fraud, he was without doubt a guardian of true humility. The virtue of liberality is known to have been so great in him that to guests and pilgrims, wards and orphans, widows and lepers, and those for whom it is a shame to seek the help of others, he by no means denied the grace of beneficence. Adorned on account of chastity, exalted on account of humility, very pleasing on account of beneficence, he merited to please God and men. The Church of Comminges, then, by the solicitude of so great a father, advanced in holy conversation, became famous in reputation, grew in necessary things. Let your affection know , however, dearest brethren, that what we have set forth we have learned for the greater part from the report of the lord William [q], venerable archbishop of the see of Auch, his nephew, whom in tender age he brought up with himself, and caused to be applied to the study of letters, and made him a canon in the church of Saint Stephen, of which he himself had been a canon, and whence he was taken up to the episcopal dignity. The archbishop's father is known to have been joined by the line of brotherhood to Saint Bertrand. The mother of the aforesaid metropolitan was the sister of William Bernard , archbishop of Auch, of blessed and revered memory, from whom he received his name, not yet however poured forth into the present light, but shut up in his mother's womb; which, the same man truly teaching, while in the see of Auch I was gathering from the authority of his narration many examples of virtues and was learning, at his command, the purpose of the present writing, I received thus in order.

[11] of William III, archbishop of Auch, whose birth is explained. His mother had borne sons; but, death intervening, she was easily losing them: one day, therefore, when she was speaking with her brother the archbishop about the death of her children, having complained for a long time, she received from him this answer: "My sister, consecrate the fruit of thy womb to the Lord; if it be a girl, thou shalt sanctify her under the vow and religion of nuns; but if it be a male, thou shalt impose my name on him , shalt have him taught letters and shalt offer him to the Lord": which thus the outcome of events, God disposing, indicated more clearly. We confess at any rate that we have come to write not moved by hope of gain to glory, but for the sake of this man, who is known to have been joined to Saint Bertrand by the glory of being his brother's son. And as the virtue of this Saint, so too the religion of that man, for whose sake we are pressing on with the present purpose, we would strive to extol with many and * true proclamations; but we do not presume to, since it is written: "Praise men after death, magnify them after their consummation" [r].

ANNOTATA.

p. Here the copy of Fr. Gissey ends, as we noted at num. 6 of the Preliminary Commentary.

q. Concerning William III, or Vileumus, concerning William I, or Vileumus Bernardi, mentioned a little below, and concerning the variety of readings which exists here in the MSS., we have taught more in § II of the Preliminary Commentary.

r. It is clear that these things were written while William III, archbishop of Auch, was living, who sat up to the year 1170.

* plenam full M.

* speciem appearance M.

* ergo therefore M.

* dictus called added M.

* duxit [led] M.

* utpote quæ as being one who added M.

* veri of the true M. Guiliermi G.

* de [of] M.

* Setio M.

* juvenile youthful M.

* tempore time M.

* evertere overturn M.

* mala evil M.

* enim [for] added M.

* ut non so as not M.

* quærens seeking added M.

* omitted M.

* omitted M.

* que [and] M.

* altercationis of altercation M.

* in added M.

* quia because M.

* est [is] added M.

* in M.

* non [not] M.

* fugitivis fugitive M.

* labilibusque and slippery M.

* de omitted M.

* omitted M.

* militabat he served as a soldier M. and G.

* gradibus steps M. and G.

* What is enclosed in brackets is lacking in MS. P; here supplied from MS. G.

* quod which M.

* temporalem temporal M.

* munia duties M.

* utique at any rate M.

* convictorum of companions M.

* amaritudinem bitterness M.

* aspernans spurning M.

* iracundiam wrath M.

* illius of it M.

* et [and] M.

* omitted M.

* omitted M.

* cognoscunt et know and M.

* ne lest M.

* inveniant may find M.

* omitted M.

* viriditatis of greenness M.

* pastorem pastor M.

* ipsius [its] M.

* igitur then M.

* dispensationis of dispensation M.

* dolentes grieving M. and G.

* penitus utterly M. and G.

* omitted M. and G.

* Præcedente preceding M.

* omitted M. Guiliermo G.

* Bertrando M.

* dicitur is said M. and G.

* viventium of the living M.

* omitted M.

* ac [and] added M.

* What is enclosed in brackets is omitted by M. and G.

* reciperet should receive added M.

* erat [was] M. and G.

* omitted M.

* a fratribus by the brethren M.

* devotionis of devotion M.

* felicitate in happiness M.

* omitted M.

* omitted M.

* occultata hidden M.

* Beatus Blessed M.

* migraverat had passed M.

* coruscant flash M.

* omitted M.

* itaque therefore M.

* et [and] M.

* effectum effect M.

* Adeo quod So much that M.

* non [not] M.

* vero [but] M.

* fallaciæ of deceit M.

* omitted M.

* perfecta perfected M.

* Novit knows M.

* omitted M.

* et [and] M.

* Wilelmi M.

* prima first added M.

* omitted M.

* omitted M.

* omitted M.

* per lineam by the line M.

* Vileumi omitted M.

* B. Bertrandi of B. Bertrand M.

* de omitted M.

* quem utero deportas which thou bearest in thy womb M.

* sacrificabis thou shalt sacrifice M.

* imponas thou mayest impose M.

* et [and] M.

* hujusmodi of this kind M.

* hujusmodi of this kind M.

* ut [as] M.

Chap. II. Miracles of St. Bertrand while he lived on earth.

St. Bertrand frees a possessed woman, The fitting order of instruction requires that we commit to the office of the pen some part of the miracles of Saint Bertrand apart and separately ; since in narrating each of the things of St. Bertrand the opportunity would not be given and the book would grow into an immense work. For it is fitting that the virtues and signs of the holy man should not lie buried in silence; but should live continually in the world through the memory of writing. Partly, then, we received in his church from those who had seen him and had known his deeds more fully, the miracles which we have written; partly we have thought fit to write those things which the brethren of l'Escaladieu of the Cistercian Order related, while I was sitting among them and was taking from the school of their virtues examples of words ^a. At the time, then, when the man of God, raised to the pontifical chair, was ruling the Church of Comminges, there was a certain woman, distinguished by the title of nobility, under whose dominion there were many castles established in the same diocese, possessed * by a demon. The demon harassed her; she spoke things to be kept silent and things to be spoken; with her hair streaming, she rolled on her back over the ground; the movement of her limbs uneven, enormous and disordered; the rolling of her eyes exceedingly horrible; the gaping of her mouth terrible; her face, once beautiful, wholly deformed: there grieved

her parents with excessive grief, because she was a reproach and confusion to all; they led her to the basilica of Saint Just ^b , where she applied herself as much as she could to fasts and prayers . One Sunday, then, the man of God entered the aforesaid church, to celebrate the solemnities of Mass there. The parents and friends of the aforenamed woman ask him to go to her and free the possessed woman. At length the man of God, trusting in the mercy of Christ, applies himself more deeply to prayer; and, overcome by the duty of compassion, attending to the tears and prayers of those asking, in the name of Christ Jesus he rises as a strong athlete into battle against the demon: the demon began to roar more fiercely and to harass the possessed woman more cruelly; but behold the holy bishop sprinkled holy water over her with devout prayer, and, having invoked the grace of the Holy Spirit, commands the demon confidently to go out: and at once the woman was freed from the demon by the power of the Holy Spirit and the prayer of the apostolic man, and immediately, as a proof of greater certainty and a revelation of Christ Jesus, in the very liberation she who had been harassed by the demon vomited forth much blood. And all who saw gave praise to God, who had chosen so holy a pastor in the Church of Comminges, who should both wisely rule the church and cast out demons from the possessed. In the consideration of this miracle, assuredly, all who were present were filled with exceeding amazement, and rejoiced with great joy; but those above all wondered exulting, to whose reproach the infirmity of the lady seemed to pertain. All, then, went away rejoicing, and spread abroad everywhere the power of so great a miracle; and the woman is filled with infinite joy, and says: Thanks be to God and to the holy bishop, through whose prayer the Lord had freed her from the bond of the demon. And she, having received her former liberty, began on the spot to be brought back into the form of health: a more lively colour is restored to her face, modesty to her tongue, comeliness to her eyes , steadiness to her neck , and finally every movement of her limbs with the greatest composure kept the accustomed traces of soundness. This noble woman for a long time bore witness to so great a miracle together with those who had seen and believed, not only while the holy bishop lived on earth, but also after he is known to have happily passed to heaven to the fellowship of the Saints.

[13] he rebukes an unchaste man In a certain estate there was a woman beautiful of face, who by the deceitful snare of Venus had kindled a certain deacon with such ardour of lust that he wished to see nothing but her, seemed to love nothing but her: an unlawful love, a love of perdition and harmful, a love contrary to the vow of religion and separated from the condition of clerics, as the school of virtues persuades, had intoxicated the mind of the aforesaid cleric and had stained his body; and he was bound in her bonds; and he had so submitted his neck to her yoke that by no means could he escape from his wretched captivity. He sought counsel how he could withdraw from the harmful plague of love, and found no one who could free him from her net. Grievous indeed is this madness: not the dissuasion of friends, not the punishment of stripes , not finally the power of medicine for the most part suffice to take away this plague, to cut off this pain, to extinguish this fury. So he was taken, and no one loosed his bonds; he was held bound without hope of liberty, and, unchaste, had departed from the lily of chastity. But behold it came about by divine grace that the holy bishop entered this estate where these things were being done; and, as a solicitous pastor, desiring to lead his sheep back to the Lord's fold, he corrected the deacon, saying: "What is this that I hear of you? You ought to have possessed your vessel in sanctification and purity of life, that you might be worthy of the ministry of God. It was fitting for you, and you were held bound by vow, when you came to holy Orders, to keep chastity, to flee fornication, which binds the soul, stains the body. It befits a minister of the altar to have cleanness of life, and by no means to defile his body with the pollution of lust, nor to incline his heart to the heat of Venus." After the holy bishop's rebuke the deacon answered, saying: "Father, I give thanks to you that a fitting return is paid to my deserts . With a fatherly rod you chastise those whom you love. I certainly know that I have grievously transgressed, and confess that I have acted against the law of my office; but I am dragged unwilling, I am snatched, not wishing it, to the love of perdition, and I nowhere find the grace of liberty: I do what I do not will, and what I hate, I do."

[14] and punishes a wicked woman. Then the man of God, understanding that his heart was wounded more deeply, turned to the woman, saying: "But why do you pursue my son with your blandishments? Why do you torment my minister with the most bitter bitterness of your delights? Do you not fear, wretched woman, to incur the wrath of the supreme judge, who is not wont to leave such wicked crimes unpunished? Or are you ignorant , wanton one , that you commit the atrocity of so great an offence without punishment? Cease henceforth, unchaste woman, cease henceforth, desist from the wickedness begun, and turn away the love of your fury." Then the wicked woman, despising the admonitions of the holy bishop, poured out words of iniquity: and while she was speaking certain vain things, a terrible rod came upon her, sent from heaven , and soon, in the sight of those standing round, grievously harassed by a demon, she expired on the spot, losing at once life and soul. Which having been done, those who were present were filled with great fear and vehement amazement.

[15] He discovers by cold water the father of a boy, A certain woman, not having the means to nourish her son, sought help from the father; who, to remove every occasion of seeking a benefit, said that he had never had a son by her. ^c The woman came, then, to the man of God, and, placed before his presence, set forth a complaint on this matter, saying: "Incline thine ear, kind father, to the groaning of my heart, for I am needy and poor. I, an unhappy woman, exposed to every misery, having lain in the fornicating embrace of concubinage, conceived and bore this boy whom you see present, born out of wedlock, and I cannot nourish him, the straitness of my household means pressing; and the bitterness of grief troubles my bowels more vehemently, and torments my soul more sharply, because his father denies that he is his father, and, stripped of paternal affection, does not acknowledge the son whom he begot, and denies every benefit to his son. I wretched woman, then, see my son dying, because I have not the means to sustain his life; whence my life is in mourning and in groanings, because my son is perishing of hunger; immoderate poverty excuses the mother, and huge want judges her innocence more evidently; the conscience, witness of the truth, accuses the father, which teaches that he has a son, because he denies it as an occasion of withdrawing the benefit: moreover he is to be convicted of a crime who, when he has a son, denies him nourishment, especially since means are not lacking to him. Tell him therefore, lord, to help me, because he has left me to serve alone." Then the holy bishop, having considered the woman's groaning, ordered the man to be placed before his presence, admonished, questioned and rebuked him for having denied due nourishment to his son; and he, according to his custom, brought forth the word of denial, and testifies that he did not beget this boy, saying: "You have heard, excellent father, the complaint of a cunning woman, which she has not blushed to sprinkle with manifest falsehood; like a wicked slanderess she has presumed to bring so false a charge against me, an innocent man. I answer briefly that I by no means acknowledge that I have a son by this woman." From the reasonings of the one charging and the one pressing, even if the same series of words did not run, the same meaning was nevertheless gathered. Then the holy bishop, proceeding to a trial of faith, trusting at any rate in the mercy of Christ, ordered a vessel full of cold water ^d to be brought before him; a stone was placed within; he blessed the water, and said to the man: "In the name of Christ Jesus take the stone out of the cold water; and if you are confident of your innocence, let the signs of innocence appear; but if not, the contrary." Then the man with rashness and the greatest boldness plunged his hand into the water, drew out the stone, and at once by divine power his hand burned with such a scalding that it seemed to have been cooked in most boiling water; and he received as son him whom he had previously denied, and nourished him. The deceitful witness, who had despised the episcopal command, felt the burning of fire in cold water, and fear and amazement seized all, and they magnified the Lord *, who is wonderful in His Saints.

[16] he obtains game for hunters, At Villeneuve ^e, having entered his lodging, he called the servants of the master of the house, saying to them: "Have you anything from your hunting?" They said to him: "For a long time, father, we have taken nothing in hunting, and although we have some instruments of hunting, yet the grace of hunting has long been taken away from us." Soon the man of God ordered the snares to be presented to him, and blessed them, and commanded the servants to go out to hunt; at once the command is put into execution, and after a short space of time the hunters bring a great roebuck: and they knew that the bishop's blessing had not fallen void, and they blessed the Lord, who had fulfilled the will of the bishop so suddenly by His power . For a long time too, as long as the aforesaid snares survived, the grace of hunting remained in the same house.

[17] [he vindicates his companion, seized by an ill-wisher, by darkness sent from heaven,] One day he was providing escort for a certain man; and behold a certain knight, holding that man in hatred, met them on the road, and with profane hand seized him as he was riding behind the bishop to be safer. The man of God asked the tyrant to give back to him the man whom he had violently carried off with sacrilegious hand; but the knight despised his prayers. Seeing which, the bishop groaned, and did not put off exercising the sword of canonical vengeance; and soon the knight felt a stroke sent from heaven in his eyes, and like Cain a sign was impressed on the lids of his eyes, which had a continual motion: whence unwillingly he gave back the man and left him unharmed *

[18] A certain man had a wife , but the grace of begetting offspring was indeed denied them. he averts barrenness from a woman. The man of God entered the estate where they dwelt. They came before the presence of the holy pontiff, set out to him with groaning of heart their barrenness, which old age had not brought on, but a defect of nature. The holy bishop diligently inquired of both whether after contracting marriage they had stained the lawful bed with the contagion of adultery, by an attempt at receiving offspring; both pledged under attestation of faith that they had not passed over to another's bed. Then the holy bishop ordered bread and wine to be brought * to him, blessed them and gave them to them, and admonished them to live soberly and justly and faithfully to expect in Christ that they

would have offspring. It came about, therefore, that that man knew his wife, who conceived and bore the desired offspring to her husband; from whom through the prayer of Saint Bertrand unwelcome barrenness departed , and pleasant fruitfulness came.

[19] he foretells to fishermen a certain number of fish to be caught, In a certain estate, in his lodging beside the river which the inhabitants name the Neste ^f, he commanded a certain fisherman to catch fish in the river according to the number which he foretold to him: according to the number which he had heard, the fisherman without delay drew fish out of the waters; and although he applied himself longer to the labour, in order to catch more and others, yet the river would not give way to the fisherman in the catching of fish except as the holy bishop had said. This miracle too the man of God did once, a second and a third time in the same house, and according to the proposed number, neither less nor more, the catch of fish followed; but on the last occasion the man, magnificent in liberality, commanded the fisherman to catch a copious multitude of fish. The fisherman runs swiftly to the river, now receiving secure faith from custom , as one who at the bishop's command had himself often beheld the grace of miracles in the catching of fish. From the hiding-places of the eddies the fish run quickly to the hook, and in all haste * the fisherman, laden with a multitude of fish, returns to the house where the man of God was, full of alms and good works; and those who saw this wondered greatly.

[20] he renders a barren tree fruitful, In a certain estate a certain man invited the holy bishop to eat with him; and the dishes having been prepared, he made him recline under a tree which they call a walnut. After hunger had been taken away by the viands , and the tables removed, he who had prepared the banquet said: "I ask you, father, that after our blessing you bless this tree also under which you have reclined." Soon the bishop blessed the tree, and it received into itself that grace of power, that afterwards no kind of barrenness takes away from it yearly the pleasant abundance of its fruit . It often happens that trees of its kind , placed round about, lose from the inclemency of the air the fruits which they bear; but this one alone keeping its nuts *, and losing the beauty of its glory by no epidemic of the air or sudden change, rejoices above the rest, a fruitful mother in due time, ignorant of barrenness.

[21] he exterminates darnel, As is the custom, women were clearing the fields, cutting away the harmful weeds with sickles, so that the crop might grow more freely, and the one who entrusted the seeds might gather the harvest more abundantly. While the women were pressing on with this labour, they see the bishop passing by, blessing them according to his custom, and they say to him: "Hear, lord, the voices of thy handmaids: the worst weed, which is called darnel, is wont to grow up in these places, and with its multitude it chokes the crops, does not allow the fields to bear fruit, nor to give back the seeds entrusted; wherefore let thy holiness bless these fields, that it may punish this harmful weed with a curse, that barrenness may depart from the fields, and by thy merits henceforth a not unwelcome abundance of crops may follow." The bishop at once cursed the above-named weed; and thereafter at no time did the harmful plague of that weed appear in the cultivation of those fields. Great indeed and wonderful the faith of the bishop, whose power waters, trees, fields feel: for the waters knew his power when, although they were cold, yet through the bishop's prayer they left traces of manifest burning on the hand of him who rashly drew out the stone. Elsewhere too rivers understood his power, when they sent themselves as many fish as he himself had commanded ; the glades and woods felt his power, when, the snares scarcely spread , they sent game to him without delay; the tree recognized his power, when after the bishop's blessing it was at the fitting time ignorant of barrenness; the beauty of the fields also proclaims * the bishop's power, by whose grace the malice of the weeds departed from them and pleasant abundance came forth.

[22] it is in vain concealed from him that there is plenty of wine, As was his custom, in whom the virtue of liberality flourished in the highest degree, many accompanied him; and one day, when there was great scarcity of wine, he said to his cellarer : "I wish to go out to visit our parishes; and if you can, supply us with food and drink." The cellarer answered him: "Lord, we have no wine." And the bishop said: "If you have wine, and are speaking against your conscience, let the Lord judge and show it." The bishop, then, came down from the mount, and lodged below in the houses established near the church of Saint Just ^g. But meanwhile it came about by divine vengeance that the wine which the cellarer had denied suddenly burst forth onto the pavement of the church; and the wine was poured out, as if desiring to follow the bishop's voice, and all who saw were astonished, and wondered very much, and great fear seized the cellarer who had spoken a lie. In which deed those who understand soundly can rightly gather what has been written by the lovers of Christian philosophy: "That temporal things, when they are given conveniently * for human uses, shine; when they are kept back, grow vile."

[23] he fills an empty vessel by prayer, At a certain time when wine could scarcely be found in those parts, having entered a lodging in one of his valleys, he observed the anxiety of the man and his wife which they had about the frequent service, and said to them: "I see that you are anxious." They say to him: "Our bowels are straitened amid distresses and pressures, because we have no wine except very little, which lies on the lees at the bottom of the cask; and now nothing can be drawn from it which can be taken without turbidity." Then the holy bishop gave himself to prayer, and sprinkled holy water over the cask, and blessed the almost empty vessel; the right hand of the Lord wrought power, who at the wedding in Cana of Galilee made wine from water and filled the water-jars with wine; He filled the cask too with wine through the prayer of the holy man: for in that very hour the wine began to increase, and came to the top with such overflowing abundance that not only was the vessel thereby filled, but also a most abundant wave of wine overflowed outside; and all seeing this understood that the wonderful power of God was in the Confessor of Christ, and the guests rejoiced, magnifying the Lord. This miracle indeed has some likeness to that which the blessed Pope Gregory writes when he speaks of Saint Benedict, father and leader of monks, and declares ^h that through his merits oil grew in the cask and filled it to the top. The man of God Benedict wholly abounded in works of mercy, and therefore through the merits of his faith oil flowed from the cask. Saint Bertrand too, a disciple of liberality and a most ardent lover of all the works of mercy, obtained this from the Lord through the merits of faith and prayer, that wine should overflow in the cask, whose mother had not been an earthly vine, which the vineyard did not know, which no winepress had pressed out; but through the faith of the holy bishop the power of heavenly grace thrust the wine into the cask, the unfailing fountain of all good things by miracles, who says of Himself in the gospel: I am the true vine. From the true vine wine came down into the cask; which openly indicated the holy priest powerful in the power of signs. He who turned the rock into pools of water and the crag into a fountain of waters under Moses the patriarch, leader of the children of Israel , willed assuredly to adorn this bishop also with the power of miracles, and through his prayer new wine increased, not gathered at the time of the vintages, but created by the power of the Most High. We still speak in likeness: as once Elijah, that prophet mighty in signs, gave the woman an increase of meal and augmentation of oil; so too power was given by the Lord to the bishop, that the wine which was remaining in small quantity at the bottom should increase immensely through his faith, and the guests rejoiced, and drinking of the wine they exulted because the Lord had made His Saint wonderful *.

[24] he destroys the house of an unchaste man by his curse, A certain priest, many times rebuked by the holy bishop because he was befouled by the infamy of incontinence, would not, as incorrigible and contumacious, withdraw from his fault; but strove to break out worse into the fury of lust against the bishop's command; at length, after many dissuasions, when the holy bishop saw that by asking and praying he availed nothing, one day as he was passing before the priest's house, he cursed the house as a brothel; and behold divine power, sent suddenly from heaven, struck the house from every corner, and although it was strengthened with much and stony solidity, yet the whole house fell with an immense crash. So, then, through the power of the holy man the Lord struck the priest's house, that at least, such fear being cast upon him, he might learn truly to love the bishop's command and the vow of chastity . To this miracle indeed there occurs a very similar one which the blessed Pope Gregory writes in the Life of Saint Benedict, full of the spirit of all the just ⁱ, where he declares the malice of a certain priest, who, a lover of lust and burdened with the goods of another, as envious and an enemy of God, compelled women to dance in that place from which they might disturb the religion of Blessed Benedict: but Saint Benedict passed from that place to another, and the priest's house fell to its foundation: in the times of Blessed Benedict a house is destroyed for envy , in the times of Saint Bertrand a priest's house is struck for incontinence.

[25] and he has God favouring him when he forbids building in a cemetery, A certain man, greedy of another's possession, was setting up a column, desiring to build a house in the cemetery of Saint Gaudens ^k; it was announced to the bishop that that man was presuming to transfer into his own dominion a holy place, appointed by ecclesiastical authority for the office of burial. The holy bishop, then, a lover of liberty, came to the man and rebuked him, saying: "Why have you occupied land which you know is not of your right? This place in which you desire to build a house is holy, and due to burial. Houses of the dying, not of the living, ought to be built here, and you presume to claim for your uses a place awesome * and free, against human and divine laws, to the ruin of your goods and the detriment of your soul: these are works of iniquity, not to be possessed by hereditary right; flee hence and abandon the malice begun." But the rash man despised the bishop's wholesome counsel, and refused to obey his precepts, and began more and more to press on with the unlawful work. Then the bishop, led by zeal for rectitude, did not put off exercising the sword of canonical vengeance and striking the man with canonical censure. What more? the son of iniquity and distrust, bound with the bond of excommunication, was delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh; and at once, through the merits of the holy bishop, unwillingly

he changed his purpose, falling into perpetual languor: unhappy man, because * he would not believe the bishop, he took to his bed and never recovered again; and fear seized all who saw this, and they glorified God, who had given them such a bishop.

[26] and when a woman swears by him to free herself from the charge of adultery. A certain man ^l in the presence of the holy pontiff was accusing his wife of the crime of adultery; his wife, profane, headlong and rash, desiring with deceitful lips to conceal her fault, came to the knees of the priest, stretching out her hand and saying: "I swear by this Saint that I have not committed adultery." And behold in that same hour the outstretched hand was withered, and never afterwards freed; and the stricken hand told of the adultery committed, which the office of the tongue had fraudulently concealed. This woman concealed her offence and felt the disgrace; who, if she had confessed her fault, would have merited pardon: as that gospel woman did not blush to come before the guests to the feet of Jesus, to be bathed with how many groans in a most abundant fountain of tears, to kiss the feet of the Lord, and water them with tears and wipe them with her hair, until she heard the good word run forth from the fountain of mercy: Because she loved much, many sins are forgiven her. This woman, no imitator of her, would not confess the truth, and did not blush to be a deceitful witness of falsehood, whom conscience disfigured, her act accused; whence on account of the lie she incurred the scourge, the harmful penalty due to the crime . Lying is to be avoided, as is read in the prophet: Speak ye the truth every one with his neighbour, and love not a false oath. Many other miracles and signs too the said bishop did in the present life, which are not written in this book; but these we have written, running over them in brevity, receiving the rectitude of the deed * for the adornment of the Church, and for revealing the religion of the holy bishop and the glory of the Lord, who is wonderful in His Saints.

ANNOTATA.

* surgit rises M.

* demanda remus we should commit M.

* omitted M.

* singulis in each M.

* iis those M.

* quæ omitted M.

* et [and] added M.

* sederet he was sitting M.

* assumeret he was taking M.

* erant were added M.

* stabat stood added M.

* viri of the man added M.

* ubi omitted M.

* insistebat pressed on M.

* conjunctus joined M.

* omitted M.

* aspergit sprinkles M.

* majorem greater M.

* augmentum increase M.

* repentina sudden M.

* omitted M.

* gaudentes et rejoicing and added M.

* etiam also M.

* vividus lively M.

* modestia modesty M.

* oculis to the eyes M.

* venustas comeliness M.

* stabilitas steadiness M.

* cervici to the neck M.

* omitted M.

* dominus the lord added M.

* omitted M.

* et [and] M.

* habere to have M.

* amor love added M.

* colla jugo the neck to the yoke M.

* verborum of words M.

* nam [for] M.

* fugare to put to flight M.

* istud that M.

* monitis admonitions M.

* omitted M.

* quæ which M.

* ut that M.

* cruciaris thou art tormented M.

* ignorat is ignorant M.

* lascivia wantonness M.

* scelerosa criminal M.

* nova [new] M.

* omitted M.

* omitted M.

* omitted [] M.

* pro [for] added M.

* timore fear M.

* in added M.

* quem whom M.

* tametsi although M.

* desunt are lacking M.

* qui [who] M.

* et [and] added M.

* nequam wicked M.

* omitted M.

* tamen [yet] added M.

* misit sent M.

* quod that M.

* Deum [God] M.

* erepta snatched away M.

* jussit ordered M.

* in added M.

* omitted M.

* præstabat was providing M.

* in via on the road added M.

* omitted M.

* sibi to him added M.

* omitted [] M.

* suam [his] added M.

* omitted M.

* cui to whom M.

* coitum union M.

* offerri to be offered M.

* omitted M.

* ei to him M.

* omitted [] M.

* omitted M.

* et [and] M.

* certitudinem certainty M.

* festinanti hastening M.

* epulæ the viands M.

* per through M.

* vestram your omitted M.

* omitted M.

* annuam yearly M.

* omitted M.

* germinis of growth M.

* et [and] M.

* conservabat kept M.

* excresceret might grow up M.

* creditorum of the creditors M.

* hactenus hitherto M.

* crescere to grow M.

* et [and] M.

* fluvia rivers M.

* petierat had asked M.

* extentis stretched out M.

* in added M.

* multi summopere very many M.

* cellerario ubique to the cellarer everywhere M.

* omitted M.

* omitted M.

* commodæ convenient M.

* cum when M.

* aspergens sprinkling added M.

* respersit sprinkled M.

* de [of] added M.

* et [and] M.

* inundabat was overflowing M.

* quam which M.

* vineam vineyard M.

* quam which M.

* operum of works added M.

* factis deeds M.

* is added M.

* collatum brought together M.

* loquitur he speaks M.

* omitted M.

* omitted M.

* mirificavit made wonderful M.

* hortando by exhorting M.

* pertransisset had passed M.

* adjiceret might add M.

* revereri to revere?

* notum known M.

* castis chaste M.

* denuntians declaring M.

* psallere to sing M.

* omitted M.

* omitted M.

* sancti of the saint M.

* invidiæ of envy M.

* quod that M.

* occupas you occupy M.

* tribulationum of tribulations M.

* qui [who] M.

* est [is] M.

* omitted M.

* quæ which added M.

* occurrit occurs M.

* occultari to be concealed M.

* certitudinem certainty M.

* Sancti of the Saint M.

Chap. III. Miracles of St. Bertrand after death.

St. Bertrand after death relieves the calamity of captives, After the passing of the holy man, of the things of which we must speak according to moderation, which is almost the most beautiful of all things, which does not offend even those whom it condemns, and is wont to make those whom it has condemned worthy of release; whence, although not a few things which may profit for the exhortation of living blessedly have been written above , yet, since very many could be added, lest we seem to have left half-eaten the banquet of our words, let us continue the feast begun. Some miracles, then, out of the many which he wrought after the course of the present life, we have taken care to leave to posterity; for we could by no means do each one. These things, then, which we received from the true report of certain persons, whose presumption it is not to mix true things with false out of some light favour, we wished to reduce to writing . It happened, then, in those times in which Saint Bertrand had passed to Christ, that a certain man, known to him and of his household, named Bertrand, was captured by a certain person; and he was shut in the bottom of a tower and bound in the wretched bonds of chains; he was in a dark prison, which is an exceedingly grievous weariness to those who have experienced it; he was confined by chains, which is very troublesome; finally, tormented with hunger and thirst, he was made the food of lice, whose multitude, swarming incessantly, held all his limbs; he was surrounded on every side by a long chain, the aforesaid miseries pressing with continual goads, he could not be freed or cleansed; his days without rest, at night his eyelids found no slumber, and if there was any sleep, it was laborious; the unhappy man cried out, mourned, grieved; what he should do, whither he should turn, he does not know; he now despairs of life, and desires death. At length the ineffable clemency of Christ illumines the mind of the wretched man; the captive rouses his soul, calls Saint Bertrand to his aid; divine grace assuredly did not will that the power of the holy bishop should grow old, not only * so, but that his fame should shine the more.

It came about, therefore, that he invoked Saint Bertrand to his help with his whole heart, saying: "Kindly father, I believe that thou hast passed happily to Christ; help me, and graciously free me from this deadly rage of lice." His prayers were heard; and at once, as if it had felt the command of one ordering, all that aforenamed misery fell to the ground. The wretched man was cleansed from all the contagion by the power of Saint Bertrand, and now, secure of so great a patron, he presses on more fervently with prayer, asks, weeps, supplicates that he may snatch him from his bonds, repeats his prayers more abundantly with tears, sobs and frequent sighs; and while these things were being done, the divine clemency having mercy, the holy bishop came, whom he had loved in the present light , visits his friend in prison, breaks his bonds, frees the captive, draws him out of the tower of that place which is called Castellum Forte ^a; what afterwards ? he who had been captive brought with him the chain ^b, which he hung before the glorious sepulchre of the holy Confessor to the praise and glory of Jesus Christ.

[28] he breaks bonds, The fame of the holy bishop flying far and wide, a certain knight, named Peter, seized a man with violent hand, whom he bound to a log with many and very firm knots with all care, and as if insulting the word of truth, began to break out, saying: "Now let Saint Bertrand exercise what powers he can, who has been wont to release some from the penalty of captivity: and if he can, let him pity thee, and loose the bonds with which thou art held bound, and restore thee to liberty." The bound man grieves, groans, sighs, pours out before the power of the holy pontiff the voice of inward grief: wonderful thing, soon the captive felt the benefit by which the holy bishop suddenly broke the very entangled knots of the bonds, and made the captive go away unharmed, whom the tyrannical hand had presumed to bind with excessive cruelty; he came, then, before the sepulchre of the holy bishop, and after the giving of thanks, he indicated to those standing round the miracle which had happened, and said to the peoples *: "Wonderful is this Saint, who both confounded the insulting knight and powerfully released him who was knotted in bonds."

[29] [and Vitalis, who promoted the canonization of that Saint, says that he is a witness of a similar benefit.] While the holy works, then, were becoming famous, a certain man named Arnald was held in bonds in the castle which is called Campanum ^c; he began to turn over in his silent mind how he could get out of it; he devises many things, meditates more attentively, and does not find an opportunity of flight ; he pours forth tears, draws sighs, cries out from the depths, prays with tears, calls Saint Bertrand to his aid, and behold the kindly Confessor of Christ has compassion on the grieving man, comes to the wretch, breaks the bonds, frees the fettered man, and he who had been a captive came to the sepulchre of the holy bishop giving thanks and hanging up the chains. I too, an unworthy servant of Christ and cleric of the Church of Auch, who received this work of writing by the mandate of the lord William ^d, archbishop of the aforesaid see, and made known the holiness and miracles of Blessed Bertrand, in the time of the schismatics, by whom the most holy Roman Church was tossed in the whirlwind of many storms, to Alexander, the supreme Pontiff, a catholic man, in the Lateran palace in the presence of the venerable cardinals, hold it in memory that I saw in my boyhood a certain young man with iron bonds, relating that he had been captured, and placed in those bonds, and freed through the merits of Saint Bertrand; I saw the aforesaid young man while I was staying in the pastures with certain persons whose care it was to tend the herds, to whom my mother had committed me, that I might go with them under a vow of pilgrimage to the sepulchre of Saint Bertrand, to whose patronage my aforesaid mother had commended me attentively; she herself too was wont to frequent this place diligently, and to urge me more ardently to be an imitator of her devotion; I came, then, with the aforesaid persons to the venerable tomb of the holy pontiff; the aforesaid captive came in our company; and having entered the church, after giving thanks he hung up the iron bonds, among the other things which were kept there, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is wonderful in His Saints.

[30] A certain woman, named Mary, deprived of the use of her limbs, her heels fixed to her hinder part, was held oppressed by a grave and long languor; but when she had lain long in bed, St. Bertrand heals a contracted woman, and gives her a staff, the care of her parents and friends ceased. She became a weariness; there was none to do her good, to look on her with a face of kindness: for long sickness will scarcely find a faithful friend. What then? the wretched woman with deadened limbs lives in the body, already half dead she lives; and she desires death, wishes for death, and cannot die; her impious life draws out long delays, she groans by day, is tortured by night; and, if I may be allowed to take up the Ambrosian words ^e: "Like standing water breeding worms," the wretched woman is wholly despised. At length one comfort remains , wretched yet necessary, that she be cast out of the house like a dead corpse, shut outside, have no comfort, suffer exile: so it happened, she is driven out of the house like a lifeless body; she is placed on a certain vehicle, set in a narrow house; she goes through many places; her calamity is relieved somehow by the bestowal of alms which the pious devotion of the faithful holds out to her; not she herself, but her house runs swiftly by the hands of those drawing it; she goes round various estates; she seeks various lodgings; in what way she can she leads a wretched life, is affected with weariness, tortured with suffering. Amid these things she hears the most celebrated fame of the miracles of Saint Bertrand; she hastens to the mount, faithfully implores divine help, with the whole contrition of her heart asks the clemency of Christ that through the merits of Blessed Bertrand He would restore health to her; and the merciful and compassionate Lord, regarding the prayer of the humble and not despising their prayers, set the woman's tears in His sight. The holy bishop came, then, to the woman, calls back her contracted limbs to right composure, infuses strength, raises the contracted woman, holds out a staff of support, shows the way. The woman suddenly, astonished with so great joy, goes forth from her prison, leaps to the ground, hastens speedily to the sepulchre of the holy man, proclaims the power of the Saint, kisses the sepulchre, visits it more frequently, runs to the people, spreads abroad the miracles; the people exult , wonder very much at so great a power; and when the aforesaid woman lost the staff offered her, she was soon deprived of the strength of her body * and was made contracted. Wonderful thing, the holy bishop gave the staff back to her; and having received it she became sound, rose on the spot and performed her duties.

[31] whose power is explained; But a certain man stole the staff from her; and having entered Spain, he proclaimed the power of so great a miracle, pointed out the staff to the peoples; to which, out of regard for the holy bishop, they showed much reverence; and thence that evildoer received many offerings: he rejoiced at the gain, but the woman mourned, and lay contracted before the sepulchre. At length, after many tears and sighs, her patron gives the staff back to her, many standing by in the church who had come under a vow of pilgrimage; the woman rose more quickly than usual; those standing round wonder, and give praise to God, commending the power of the holy bishop. The woman recovered the staff, and had free gait; yet the power was not in the staff, but in the holy bishop. This woman for a long time spread abroad so great miracles in very many places; and closing her last day, she lies buried beside the basilica of the Mother of God, in which rests the body of the holy pontiff. Let the hearer pardon me if the present narrative seems prolix to him, because * in our judgement so illustrious a power of miracle ought not to be commended to the page in passing.

[32] he frees a woman possessed by a demon, A certain woman, a native of the valley which is called Aram ^f, was possessed by a demon; she was harassed by an unclean spirit, struck terror into those who saw her , was an abomination to her neighbours and acquaintances, a confusion and outcast of men; her parents and friends shuddered at her exceedingly, and, desiring to avoid her company, neglected her, because she had become a vessel of contumely and a habitation of darkness. The woman, therefore, considering that she was brought to so much contempt and exposed to so great reproach, goes out from her house and her valley together; she comes to the cathedral church of Comminges; where, as much as she could, she pressed diligently on with vigils and prayers, and lay before the venerable sepulchre of Saint Bertrand, sighed, commending herself attentively to the patronage of the holy bishop *. It came about, therefore, one day, in the presence of many, that the demon harassed the possessed woman more sharply; and, feeling the power of the holy bishop present, fled from the possessed woman: the woman, then, was freed from the demon, and from that time the traces of that fury did not appear in her, and she gave thanks to God and to Saint Bertrand, and all who saw together with her.

[33] he restores speech to a dumb woman, A certain woman, as the nature of a disease required, lost the use of her tongue; she was tortured within herself in her silent mind as to what she should do, and what she was turning over in the whirlwind of her thoughts she could not set out in words, because she was dumb. For it is a great comfort when anyone tells his friends by the office of speech the anxieties which he suffers; and on the contrary it is the greatest sadness not to be able at least to speak necessary things, and not to have the power of speech, which stands as supremely praiseworthy and necessary, if it is governed by right understanding and defined moderation of mind. This woman, then, finding no counsel for unbarring the enclosure of her mouth, thought in her mind that she should ask help of the holy pontiff: she came before his sepulchre; the tongue is silent, the heart cries out, and after many vigils and long sighs, which she drew from the depths, her prayers were heard, and she spoke, blessing the Lord and the holy pontiff, through whose merit she had recovered the use of speech *.

[34] to a blind and deaf man sight and hearing, The fame of the holy pontiff growing, a certain man, blind and deaf, with a certain son of his and a daughter ministering to him, went among the other crowds of the peoples to the sepulchre of the most kindly father, to implore help. This wretch rolled in many tears and deep sighs, because he had both lost his hearing and remained in darkness. He, then, presses on more fervently with prayer, pours out weeping, sends forth complaints which, uttering them, he himself did not hear, but in the bowels of his heart he turned over with vehement anxiety each thing that he said. At length, when, thence the constancy of his mind being wearied, the labour of asking for light and hearing does not become void, compunction of heart grows , the devotion of integrity is increased, faith receives increase, the physician hastens from the heavenly seat, the holy bishop brings help to the labouring man; quicker than said the obstacle is removed from his ears, the veil is taken away from his eyes; why say more? both the deaf man heard * and the blind man was enlightened.

[35] to three captive boys liberty, A certain knight seized three boys and thrust * them into a tower; who, harassed for a long time, cried out to

the Lord, and He heard them, and they invoked Saint Bertrand very frequently for protection; and our Lord and Saviour, who is nigh unto all that are of a troubled heart and saves the humble of spirit, heard the prayers of the boys; and He who freed those * three children from the furnace, who were in Babylon, snatched these three boys from prison, and sent them Saint Bertrand, who in the power of Christ Jesus freed them from prison, and led them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bonds asunder.

[36] health to a dropsical man, There was a knight of the diocese, and, held by a long sickness, he suffered so great a swelling in his belly that he was believed to have incurred ascites ^g or tympanites; and his life was as much to himself as to his friends a great burden; at length he began to cry out with most ardent desire to the Lord that He would heal him through the merits of Saint Bertrand; and behold, one night, when all his friends were despairing of his life, he himself, in the chamber where he was lying , for excessive anguish crept from his bed to the ground and lay on the face of the earth as if dead; but with the tongue of the mind, as he could, he cried out to the Lord and to Saint Bertrand. And amid the anguish of death medicine came from heaven; and the liquid which had distended his belly, and had made it shining like a drum, found free passages, and, mixed with urine, as it was immoderate , burst forth immoderately through the member, and left on the earth as it were a flood of many waters, and he was cured completely. On the following day those who saw wondered greatly; and he himself in due time, his strength having been recovered, presented himself before the sepulchre of Saint Bertrand, paying more abundant thanks for the health received in the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord .

[37] sight to a blind priest, When, therefore, the fame of so many miracles was lighting up even provinces placed far away, a certain priest of the land of the Béarnais came into the misfortune of that infirmity that his eyes were covered with a mist, and he lost his sight: his soul pines away in most bitter bitterness, because the opportunity of carrying out his accustomed business is denied him. He learned, therefore, from the report of many that Saint Bertrand was affording comforts to many sick persons; infirmity urges, necessity moves him to seek a remedy: help is implored; he came, then, to the longed-for sepulchre of the holy bishop , presses on with all diligence with vigils, hymns and prayers: he studied also to sing more eagerly, with watchful mind and praiseworthy meditation, the sweet and divine harmony of the psalms; he exhorted the clerics of the church with much supplication to help him with their prayers, and to obtain by praying that he might recover his lost sight through the merits of the holy pontiff. Then he offered upon the altar of the Virgin Mary the sacred text of the Gospels, which he had had written at his own expense; it came about, therefore, that he received his sight, and gave thanks to God, and with great joy returned to the noble country of the Béarnais; who, having received so great a miracle, gave praise to God.

[38] a sound mind to a fool, Moreover that notable miracle ought not to be covered with the darkness of neglected antiquity, which goes beyond the borders of the whole province, penetrates Burgundy, Lorraine, enters the Teutonic nations. It happened, then, that a certain German, going to the thresholds of Saint James ^h, fell on the way into the disease of folly; he came, then, with his companions to the venerable tomb of the bishop; he prays, weeps, sighs; soon the bishop hears his prayers, re-forms his sense, renews his reason, restores his understanding , takes away his folly, extinguishes his fury. He who had been foolish allows himself to be handled, does not tear his clothes, does not gnash his teeth, does not clamour vain talk, governs his gait, speaks sensibly, is called back to his senses, returns to himself, fully recovers health, and blessed the Lord, who is blessed for ever.

[39] speech to a dumb man, A certain man, held by a grave infirmity, lay in bed; and when he had been sick a long time, he began to recover a little; but, deprived of the use of his tongue and hand, he presented himself before the glorious sepulchre of the holy bishop, where he dissolved himself into groaning of heart and tears * of compunction; which being done, both the hand, which could not be brought to the mouth, received full health, and the bonds of his tongue were loosed.

[40] liberty to a captive, A certain man was held captured in bonds, and he who had captured him through tyrannical cruelty treated him too * inhumanly; and when the captive saw himself exposed to manifold calamity, he invoked the Lord with his whole heart, that through the merits of Saint Bertrand He would free him from the misery of captivity. The Lord is assuredly nigh unto all that call upon Him in truth; it came about, therefore, that the Lord visited the wretch, and at once sent to him the holy bishop, who with wonderful power broke the bonds, freed the captive, and brought him safe before his sepulchre, with the glory and honour of the most high king, who is wonderful in His Saints.

[41] soundness to a contracted man At another time also it happened in France on the Saturday of Pentecost, evening having already come, that a certain man, in beating cloth , was contracted and deprived of the health of his limbs so wonderfully that his stomach was glued to his knee, his heel to his buttock , and his thumb to his arm . To whom, presently carried by his mother to Canterbury in England, Saint Thomas ⁱ, having strengthened his foot and re-formed his shin, appearing, commanded: "Go hence, and depart at once, because I cannot satisfy thee further; for there is the most glorious Confessor of Christ, Saint * Bertrand, in Gascony near the Alps of Spain; to whom if thou goest, thou shalt be wholly healed, and shalt recover thy former soundness." Having heard this, the man and his mother, departing at once by the public road, came to Saint Mary of Rocamadour ^k, then to Toulouse, from Toulouse by a direct path as far as the city of Saint Bertrand; where, watching by night with their candles before his sepulchre and imploring his suffrages, the man began to grow warm, and, his natural vigour and warmth being gradually recovered, he was made wholly sound and whole.

[42] and liberty to Sancho Parra, captured by the Saracens. Once it came about that Sancho Parra ^l of Oltia ^m with his army plundered all the land around the city of Comminges; in which plunder were oxen of Saint Bertrand; which when the holy bishop knew to have been taken, going there, he asked the oxen of Sancho Parra, who at once said that he would by no means give back the oxen or anything of the plunder unless it were ransomed from him. To whom again the holy bishop said: "Give them back to me, because before thou diest I will repay thee." Having heard this answer, Sancho Parra at once gave back the oxen to Saint Bertrand, and so both departed peaceably ⁿ. But afterwards, Saint Bertrand having already been called to Christ, the same Sancho Parra, captured in war in Spain by the Saracens, lay wretchedly in a dark prison, laden with chains, being due shortly to be carried off beyond the sea with many other Christian captives; to whom Saint Bertrand, coming by night, bright and most shining and lighting up the whole prison, said: "Rise, Sancho, and stand on thy feet." He answering said: "Who art thou, Lord?" "I am," he said, "Bertrand the bishop, to whom thou gavest back the oxen; I am ready now to render thee the repayment which I promised." At whose voice, the iron fetters by which he was bound and tied being loosed, he rose at once. And so both, withdrawing thence, were miraculously at the rock of Squitum ^o in Aspe [p] near Oltia [q] as the dawn grew light; where Saint Bertrand, asking him to honour and visit yearly [r] the church in which his body lay buried, having said farewell , disappeared; and Sancho Parra, after he was recognized, the whole neighbourhood being gathered, told how he had been drawn out of captivity, and all the people gave praise to God and to Saint Bertrand.

ANNOTATA.

Sancho comes down to these times, still less Sancho Parra. This man, however, as is clear from Vitalis, was of a most noble family; and indeed there is scarcely a doubt for me that that Sancho Parra belongs to the house of Bonus Par, who about the middle, as it seems, of the 11th century promised Sancho, founder of the monastery of Madiran, that, leaving his wife and taking the monastic habit, he would take up the government of this monastery; but, Sancho having died, he kept his wife and the monastery; over which, dying, he set his son William Par, although a layman. And he held the government of the abbey, as a semi-father, up to about the year 1115, when he was expelled for his crimes by Pons, bishop of Bigorre or Tarbes, and by Centule, count of Bigorre. For the rest, Bonus Par was a kinsman of Sancho, founder of Madiran; and the latter, before entering on the monastic life, was consul of all Gascony, and enjoyed a fame running far and wide. Nor have we learned more about the family of Par or Parra than these few things, which we have taken from the Beginnings of the monastery of Madiran in the diocese of Tarbes, written by a contemporary anonymous author, and published entire by Martène Thesaur. Anecdot., Vol. III, col. 1203 and following, but in part by the continuators of Dom Bouquet's collection Rec. des histor. de France, Vol. XI, p. 115 and following.

p. The valley of Aspe is conveniently described for us by the historian of Béarn, Pierre de Marca Hist. du Bearn, book IV, chap. I., and by the authors of the universal Dictionary of France. According to de Marca this valley begins at the place Urdos, near which is the rock De Squito, of which we spoke above; but according to the latter it is two leagues longer, and so begins at the borders of France from the roots of Mount Aspe, or from the sources of the Gave or Gabarus of Aspe, which flows through the whole of it: (by the name Gave or Gabarus the inhabitants of the Pyrenees indicate streams, little rivers or torrents;) with the opinion of which writers Cassini altogether agrees, depicting the places graphically. Through this whole valley, beside the Gave of Aspe, a road is laid by which the people of Oloron go straight to Spain, passing first beside the rock De Scoto (Peñe d'Escot), where according to De Marca the valley of Aspe ends, then beside the rock and bridge De Squito; and here about the middle of the road between Oloron and the borders of Spain is established.

q. Olcia, or Oltia, seems to be the same as the present village of Osse, about half a league distant northward from the rock De Squito; which however is on the right of the Gave of Aspe, while Osse lies on the left. No other neighbouring place is written now which comes nearer to Oltia. For the rest, this whole tract is now comprised in the department called the Lower Pyrenees. (Dépt Basses Pyrénées, arr. d'Oleron, cant. d'Accous.)

r. We said at num. 102 of the Preliminary Commentary that the feast of the Apparition of St. Bertrand is deduced from this by Lastrade. These things were already being pressed in the printing-press when we obtained the Proper of the Lateran Congregation, printed at Vienna in the year 1741 and enlarged with new Offices; among which comes the Office of St. Bertrand, with quite erroneous lessons; whence what we said at n. 119 about the monastery of Vorau is to be applied at least to the monasteries of the Lateran Canons of all Germany.

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