Eliphius

ON ST. ELIPHIUS, MARTYR, NEAR TOUL OF THE LEUCI IN GAUL,

PERHAPS IN THE YEAR 362.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Eliphius, martyr, near Toul of the Leuci in Gaul. (S.)

BHL Number: 2483

§ I. Of the name of St. Eliphius, his memory in the Martyrologies, and his biographers.

St. Eliphius, whose name is not Greek but Germanic, St. Eliphius, who in the district of Toul is called by the people in the French idiom Eloph, in the diocese of Chartres Elis, and elsewhere Aloph, as Claude Chastelain in his Universal Martyrology and its Supplement is a suitable witness, but who in books and old documents is written Elifius, Elyphius, Elisius, Esitius, Alophius, derives his name, according to some writers, from the Greek word ἔλαφος, which signifies a stag. But that name belongs to the old northern peoples, as may be gathered from many ancient records; of which

it will be enough to have adduced one, carved in runic letters and reported by Peringskiöld among the Monuments of Uppland Folio 209.. This stone pillar is inscribed with these words: Ailifr auk Siguidur litu raisa stain iftir Vifast fadur sin; which in the present Swedish idiom runs: Elof och Sigwed läteo resa steen til æminnelse efter sin fader Wifast, and in Latin: Eliphus and Siguidus caused a stone to be raised after Vifastus their father; nor is there reason why the letter r, common to the old Swedish and the present Icelandic language, with which the name Ailifr ends, should create any doubt that Ailifr is the same as Eliphius; since the next stone pillar exhibited by Peringskiöld gives the name of Vifastus' daughter as Ailif. Whether, however, that name is compounded of ee or e, which Wiarda in his little work on German Names Page 47. interprets as law, right, what is lawful, faith, as in Ewald, which indicates one powerful in right; or of aa, a, ea, ee, ei, etc., which denotes water, and of lib, liub, leof, lef, laf, which in names, according to all, signifies dear, friend, as in Theodleof and Freotolof, the reader himself will judge. The former etymology would make the name of St. Eliphius the same as friend of justice, the other friend of water. Since Egiluf, according to Wiarda Ibid., also signifies friend of justice, Egiluf seems to be the same as Eliphius.

[2] he is announced on various days by various martyrologists, Further, this name of St. Eliphius is absent both from the pure Bede, and from Usuard, and from Ado, in a word from all the ancient Martyrologies; and so too the memory of St. Eliphius is absent from the Calendar of the church of Cologne of the fourteenth century, which the celebrated Binterim edited Part I of the Ecclesia Coloniensis nova et antiqua, page 353.. In more recent ones, however, it appears at various days. First of all, at the 21st day of June, the Cologne and Lübeck edition of the Usuardine Martyrology mentions him, as do the Martyrology of Greven, the third which is attributed to Canisius, and finally the Cologne Calendar compiled by Gelenius; which memory perhaps arose from the deposition of the body in a silver casket, to be explained at more length elsewhere. At the 11th day of October Du Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology weaves a broad elogium of St. Eliphius, relying on absolutely no reason that would attach the memory of the holy Martyr to that day. The 17th day of the same month, again, is adorned with an encomium of our Saint by the Usuardine codex of Hagenau, cited by Du Sollier; nor is error absent here, since it is certain that St. Eliphius is venerated both at Cologne and at Toul on the 16th day, as his natal day in heaven. Free from blemish therefore are the Usuardine codices of Utrecht and Leiden, that of Anchin, the edition of Molanus, and other Auctaria adduced by Du Sollier; no less than the codex of Der augmented by a later hand and adduced by Dom Rouillart in the edition of the Usuard of Saint-Germain, the appendix of Ado edited by Domenico Giorgi, the Martyrology of Galesini, and the German Martyrology called that of Canisius; in which St. Eliphius is celebrated on today's date. Surius also, Baillet, and Butler have bound the life of the holy Martyr to the present day in their hagiologies.

[3] [in the Roman Martyrology he has obtained a memory, which some would wish corrected.] The Roman Martyrology, which it is proper for us chiefly to follow in assigning to each Saint his own day, likewise celebrates the memory of St. Eliphius today in these words: At Cologne, of St. Elyphius, Martyr, under Julian the Apostate. Claude Chastelain would prefer to say near Toul in place of at Cologne, since it was here that the holy Martyr merited the heavenly crown, while there only his principal Relics are preserved. For the rest, for many centuries now there has been great variety in the Martyrologies when it comes to St. Eliphius; for most of the Auctaria of Usuard which were in use in Germany and Belgium agree with the Roman Martyrology: but the Gallic ones follow the mind of Claude Chastelain, and bind the memory of St. Eliphius to the district of Toul, or to Pratum amœnum. The Archbishop of Otranto, De Aste, in his annotations to the Roman Martyrology, wishes above all that these latter words be struck out: under Julian the Apostate: with what right he wishes it will be seen below.

[4] All who from the beginning of the sixteenth century have discoursed on the deeds of St. Eliphius, such as Baronius, Ruyr, Gelenius, His old Passion, which was reckoned by several to have been lost, Ussher, Baillet, Tillemont, Calmet, and very many others, seem not to have had in their hands older Acts than those which Rupert, abbot of Deutz, wrote about the year 1130; nay rather, Tillemont in his Ecclesiastical History Volume VII, page 353, and note XII on the persecution of Julian. and Baillet in his notes to the life of St. Eliphius seem to have supposed that the life which Rupert, in his prologue in Surius Volume V, page 246, Cologne edition 1618., testifies that he used had long since perished; he testifies it in these words: He who first, and long before our times, wrote the martyrdom of the precious Martyr Eliphius laid the foundation: but you, dearest Brothers, you, Father Alban, and with you your spiritual sons, compel my littleness to build upon it. But in what error they were involved was shown long ago by our predecessors Constantine Suysken, on the life of St. Libaria at the 8th day of October Volume IV of October, page 232., and Jacques Bue, on the life of St. Menna, which was printed at the 3rd day of October Volume II of October, page 150.. Nor was that task difficult for them, since they had preserved in their Museum a twin copy of the passion of St. Eliphius, one copied from an old manuscript codex of St. Vitus at Gladbach, and collated with a manuscript codex from the monastery of St. Magnus of the Order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine at the foot of the bridge of Regensburg in Bavaria. We have found these and other copies partly in the royal Burgundian library at Brussels, partly in the abbey of Tongerlo; and indeed the same was presented to us in print by the appendices which were added to the Golden Legend printed at Cologne in the year 1483 and at Louvain in the year 1485. From the same source, and not from Rupert's writing, were drawn the lessons on St. Eliphius which the Cologne Breviaries printed in the years 1481 and 1498, and a third, of Utrecht, published in the year 1518, contain; and the same must be affirmed of the Life of St. Eliphius which is inserted in the very rich German Legendary printed at Cologne in the year 1485 by Ludwig van Renchen. Nor is there reason to doubt that this Life of St. Eliphius is the same that Rupert calls the foundation of his little work: since it displays all the characteristics by which the abbot of Deutz distinguishes it, calling it not pleasing enough, nor suitable enough because of its excessive simplicity: which not only does not adorn the deed with its own splendour, but even somewhat obscures it as though with a kind of smoke. Moreover, since by the same Rupert nothing else was found … pertaining to the memory of the same Martyr … besides that writing*, it must altogether be that no other existed at Cologne than that very Passion which they used in chanting the Office, as is clear from the former Cologne Breviaries. And these things make it sufficiently certain that the much-desired Life of St. Eliphius, which lit the way for Rupert, has not perished.

[5] it was written not long after the year 1036, Since, moreover, at number 2 of this Passion St. Menna, a sacred Virgin and nun, is said to have been buried at Porses, Bue in the cited commentary on St. Menna tried to inquire into the age of this writing; these are his words: Since therefore the body of St. Menna was first translated to Portus suavis under Bruno, bishop of Toul and afterwards Supreme Pontiff, in the year one thousand and thirty-six, as will be seen in the course of this, it follows that the anonymous author did not compose his writing before this year, and so surpassed Rupert in age by one century only, although the latter called him far more ancient than himself. Nor yet is he to be placed much later, both because Rupert, who departed this life in the year 1137 according to Le Mire, could not otherwise with any appearance of truth have called him far more ancient than himself, and because the antiquity of the Regensburg codex in which the Life of St. Eliphius is inserted suggests it, which whoever it was that, in our Regensburg copy, noted the place from which we received the Life of St. Eliphius conjectured to be easily 700 years. Nor is it right to oppose to these weighty reasons of Bue that this Life was at some time interpolated or augmented; that this is established from the codex of St. Maximin of Trier, in which there is not to be found what is asserted in others about the Cologne cult of St. Eliphius; and that it is therefore earlier than the year 963, in which the body of St. Eliphius was translated to Cologne. For these objections are overturned by this very Trier volume, which, no less than the rest, mentions the translation of St. Menna. From this variety of the manuscripts, therefore, it is easy to conjecture this one thing: that the people of Cologne added to the Passion of St. Eliphius, received from the district of Toul, those things that pertained to their own city; and that thence that patchwork was admitted into most codices; while the people of Trier used a manuscript of Toul or elsewhere from which that addition was absent. For the rest, who wrote that Life of St. Eliphius cannot be gathered from any indications; this one thing appears from the accurate knowledge of the district of Toul, that the author belonged to this district and by no means to the city of Cologne. How slight, moreover, is the credibility of that whole document will hereafter be sufficiently clear to the reader.

[6] [and lit the way for Rupert about the year 1130 in composing a more polished Life.] The second Life, written by Rupert, Surius faithfully published at the 16th day of October, in no way reshaping it by his own style, as he commonly does: which indeed is established by its collation with the Cologne manuscript which is now preserved at Brussels in the royal Burgundian library under number 2381. In what year it was written cannot be very precisely determined. At the beginning of the prologue he testifies that he was induced to write by the abbot Alban and his monks. Concerning this Alban I shall excerpt a few things from the Catalogue of the abbots of St. Martin's at Cologne, which, among many chronicles and instruments of various kinds, was procured for us by Ant. Binterim, a man most highly deserving of our hagiographical enterprise. Now according to this Catalogue that Alban had been requested as abbot from the monastery of Brauweiler in the year 1110. In the year 1124 his name occurs in an instrument of donation, and in another, which he himself had obtained from Frederick, archbishop of Cologne, in the year 1130, indiction VIII, in the reign of Lothair the Most Pious, the third king of the Romans. To these the writer of the Catalogue adds: Nor does Alban seem to have survived long, having been translated to those above in this or the following year. On what foundation he relies for asserting these things, however, he does not indicate; indeed, in the article on the following abbot William, he reckons that in the year 1136 the abbatial staff was in no one's hand: since there is no reason to dissent from him, it seems that it must be determined with him that the Life of St. Eliphius was written by Rupert before the year 1130. What sort of work Rupert performed may be learned from his own prologue. For since the Life, to the Monks of Cologne and

used by Rupert of Deutz, was reckoned not pleasing enough nor suitable enough because of its excessive simplicity, inasmuch as it not only did not adorn the deed with its own splendour, but even obscured it as though with a kind of smoke, he attempted to build upon this narrow and slender foundation a firm and splendid edifice; for which purpose, so that poverty of eloquence might not impoverish the beauty of the matter, but rather that the composition, or the fitting arrangement of the sentences, might as it were crown and encircle the dignity of the things, he trusted in the pious prayers of the people of Cologne.

[7] [Rupert, whose sincere work Baillet wrongly despised, was followed by Baillet himself,] This he says of himself: to which it may be added that his style is in truth more polished, sometimes bound up in periods, and much more pleasant to the reader. The order of the history and the deeds themselves he illustrated somewhat, so far as the fables put before him allowed. According to the custom of the time, sacred Scripture was called in for ornament; and the Tripartite Ecclesiastical History itself, Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History, and the Life of St. Martin provided the material of the commentary, and supplied those facts by which the Life of St. Eliphius might be bound together with the whole of Ecclesiastical History; finally, the former little work on St. Eliphius was put to use by Rupert in such a way that, if you except one or two circumstances of the least moment, Rupert's writing does not differ from the earlier writing as regards the deeds done by St. Eliphius; indeed he transcribes almost word for word the very sayings which are attributed to St. Eliphius by the anonymous author, a most praiseworthy procedure surely; since the words of the Martyrs are in the highest degree venerable, as Ruinart in the Preface to the Acta sincera Martyrum, and Benedict XIV in book I, chapter III, On the Canonization of Saints, and many others have explained. For the rest, Rupert's work is not to be called purer than the Life which lit his way; although Baillet, who had never seen this Life, did not hesitate to assert it. What is more surprising, however, is that, although that same writer in his preliminary notes to the Life of St. Eliphius had declared that Rupert's offspring lacked all authority, yet he himself uses no other instrument for constructing a quite long Life; in which indeed he sometimes departs from Rupert, but so as to substitute doubtful or false things for doubtful or merely supposed ones; nor is Rupert's writing therefore of less authority than Baillet's. There are also other hagiologists who have followed Baillet; but the blind guide led his followers into the ditch.

[8] and other biographers, who are reviewed. Before Baillet several other Lives of St. Eliphius had already been composed; of these Calmet speaks in his history of Lorraine Volume 1, column 198 and following.. The first, which has fourteen chapters, seems to Calmet to have been written by Cl. Machon, whose manuscript codex he writes exists in the library of Cl. Séguier; it was published at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and has scarcely anything which does not occur elsewhere. Of the rest the same Calmet speaks thus: I have seen a Life or Historical Encomium of St. Eliphius, written by Father Adrian, Capuchin, and printed at Nancy in the year 1721; this is said to have been culled not only from the abbot Rupert and Surius, but also from the Lives of this Saint which Cl. Vici, Doctor of Sacred Theology in the Faculty of Paris, and Jacques Trigeon, Doctor in the Faculty of Reims, had entrusted to the Paris presses in the year 1578, and from a third which François Henri had had printed at Nancy in the year 1629. But I found nothing in these but certain less certain circumstances which had been superadded to Rupert's narrative. Thus Calmet. I have at hand that writing of Father Adrian, and in addition another, of which the historiographer of Lorraine was ignorant: it was published at Pont-à-Mousson in the year 1602, and its author is inscribed M. P. M. C. D. S. E.; by which sigla is undoubtedly signified: M. P. M. Curé de St. Elophe.

§ II. St. Eliphius seems not to have been condemned to death by Julian, nor by the prefect Sallust, but by an unknown man courting Julian's favour.

Julian, who is said to have condemned St. Eliphius to death, Now, as we turn our pen from these remarks on the Lives or Passions of St. Eliphius to the deeds of St. Eliphius themselves, it seems that in the present commentary we need only discuss who was the author of his martyrdom. There are, namely, those who assert that St. Eliphius was condemned to death by Julian the apostate himself, and the old Passion and the rest drawn from that source fully support them; there are also others who determine that the holy Martyr was slain by the prefect Sallust, a very close friend of Julian, and they think St. Hilary of Poitiers favours them; finally there are also a third group who refer the martyrdom of St. Eliphius to the times of Julian, although they profess that they cannot assign which prefect of Julian ordered the holy Martyr to be slain; and among these we wish to be counted. The first opinion, however, which is spun out at greatest length in the old Passion, it is helpful to set forth more briefly, employing the elogium of St. Eliphius which in the Lübeck-Cologne Usuardine Auctarium, at the 15th day of October, runs thus: In Pratum amœnum above the river which is called the Vair, between the cities of Grand and Toul, the natal day of St. Eliphius, martyr; who, when he had fervently preached the things that belong to the Christian faith to Jews and gentiles, was at length held under Julian the apostate, and, being required to deny Christ, answered: "Enemy of the truth and adversary of your own salvation, in these matters use my counsel, and repent of having erred, that you may be able to escape eternal death." Hearing this, Julian raged and ordered him to be beheaded, saying: "Now I shall see in what your God prevails"; and, his head cut off, he preciously completed his martyrdom with glory and honour. When this was done, the lifeless body raised itself from the ground, and, embracing the severed head with both hands, carried it nearly a mile to a lofty mountain which he had earlier chosen for his burial. But now he rests, by translation, at Cologne Agrippina, in the monastery of St. Martin the bishop. These things are abridged from the Life to be published.

[10] [in the year 361 he was still openly a Christian, and did not afterwards come into the district of Toul.] But this whole narrative is gravely shaken and overturned by Ammianus Marcellinus, the companion and historiographer of Julian. For by his testimony, when Julian at the end of the year 360 had returned from conquering the Attuarii, and with his forces had come to Vienne in Gaul, and was wholly intent on gathering strength for himself against Constantius; then that aspirant to the empire, in order to entice all to his favour with no one hindering, pretended to adhere to the Christian worship, from which he had long since secretly fallen away, with few sharers of his secrets, being intent on haruspicy and auguries and the other things which the worshippers of the gods have always done. And that these things might meanwhile be concealed, on the day of the festival which the Christians, celebrating it in the month of January, call the Epiphany, he went forth into their church and, having solemnly prayed to the deity, departed. So Ammianus of Julian in book XXI, relating the deeds of about the beginning of the year 361; and Zonaras, cited by Tillemont Volume IV, page 188, Histoire des Empereurs., agrees with Ammianus. And from these testimonies it surely becomes manifest that St. Eliphius suffered nothing from Julian, since the latter had set out into Germany in the preceding year, as the same Ammianus relates in book XX. But it may be investigated whether Julian condemned St. Eliphius to death when he himself, after Libino had been killed, set out in the year 361 against Vadomarius, who was laying waste the banks of the Rhine. The answer is ready: that barbarian, namely, was laying waste the borders of Gaul toward Rhætia: and so I trust no one will easily be persuaded that Julian, who knew well how much promptness avails in resisting, strayed so far from the more direct road as to proceed to Grand, Toul, or Soulosse, when he had to set out from Vienne and make for the district of Basel. Moreover, when, the summer already well advanced and the forces of the barbarians beyond the Rhine settled (as Zosimus Book III, chapter X, page 137, Bonn edition. relates), he was equipping his whole army as for a distant expedition, he had not yet laid aside the mask of hypocrisy. Which Ammianus in book XXI also teaches us in these words: Uncertain of the loyalty of the soldiers, having placated Bellona with a MORE SECRET rite, and having summoned the army to an assembly by the trumpet, standing on a stone platform, and now, as appeared, more confident, he discoursed these things more clearly than usual: "Long since silent," etc. And there follows a little speech in which he twice speaks of God, nowhere of the gods, and of a few other things which savour of a Christian, not an idolater. From this time Julian did not return to Gaul any more, but went straight through the Alps to Illyria: whence the capital penalties sought against St. Eliphius are not to be laid upon him.

[11] In vain does Baronius oppose to this opinion Julian's letters, But the adversaries press from every side: Baronius, namely, observes in the notes to the Roman Martyrology that, regarding Julian while he was in Gaul with the army, two periods must be distinguished: the earlier, when he not only professed himself a Christian (as Ammianus Marcellinus writes) by attending the sacred assemblies of the Christians, but (as St. Hilary writes against Constantius) favoured the Catholics against the Arians; and the later period, when, acclaimed emperor by the army, putting off his hypocrisy, he openly worshipped the gods of the gentiles, as he himself testifies in epistle XXXIX to Maximus the Philosopher, which he wrote then while he was still in Gaul, and which among other things has this at the end: "We worship the gods publicly and openly, and my whole army loves piety; we openly sacrifice oxen," etc. But Francesco De Aste, Archbishop of Otranto, in his disquisitions on the Roman Martyrology, rightly observes that the aforesaid letter to Maximus was not written in Gaul, but when he had come from Gaul itself to the Illyrians, as is gathered from Baronius himself at the year 362, number V, in the Annals, the matter having already been disposed on both sides toward open war.

[12] the assertions of De Aste from Zosimus, But the same Archbishop of Otranto, while he frees us from the authority of Baronius, binds us with another bond of his own, when he affirms that Zosimus in book III establishes in these words that Julian sacrificed publicly in Gaul. But with the good leave of that most learned man, let it be permitted to resolve this objection. The distinguished man erred, namely, in that he copied these things not from Zosimus, but from Baronius, who in the Annals recites the words of Zosimus less than faithfully. For behold what Zosimus, book III, chapter IX, adds after he has narrated that it was announced to Constantius that Julian had been named Emperor Augustus: Κωνστάντιος δὲ εἰς τοσοῦτον ὀργῆς τε καὶ ἀλαζονείας ἠνέχθη, ὥστε πρὸς τοὺς πρέσβεις εἰπεῖν, ὡς προσήκει Ἰουλιανὸν τοῦ ζῆν ἀντεχόμενον ἀποθέσθαι πρὸς τῇ βασιλείᾳ καὶ τὸ τοῦ Καίσαρος σχῆμα, κατάστάντα δὲ ἰδιώτην ἑαυτὸν τῇ προαιρέσει τοῦ βασιλέως ἐκδοῦναι· μηδὲ γὰρ πείσεσθαι τι δεινὸν μηδὲ ἄξιον ὧν ἐτόλμησε. Ταῦτα ἀκηκοὼς Ἰουλιανὸς παρὰ τῶν πρέσβεων εἰς τὸ ἐμφανὲς ἔδειξεν ἥν εἶχε περὶ τὸ θεῖον προαίρεσιν, ἄντικρυς εἰς ἐπήκοον πάντων εἰπὼν ὡς τοῖς θεοῖς· ἄμεινον ἤ τοῖς Κωνσταντίου λόγοις ἑαυτόν τε καὶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον

ἐκδοῦναι. Which I render thus in Latin: But Constantius was carried away to such anger and arrogance that he told the envoys it was fitting that Julian, if he cared to live, should lay down the dress of a Cæsar together with the command, and, embracing private life, give himself up to the will of the emperor: for he would suffer nothing evil, nor anything worthy of what he had dared. When Julian had heard these things from the envoys, he openly showed his opinion about the deity, saying in public, so that anyone could hear, that he would rather entrust himself and his life to the gods than to Constantius. But there is nothing in this testimony of Zosimus from which Julian may be convicted of having publicly sacrificed victims in Gaul; but this only is gathered from it, that in anger or alarm words escaped him from which it would appear that at that time he was not a Christian with a sincere mind, such as he seemed outwardly and openly. For the rest, since Julian loosed his tongue in these imprudent words in the year 361, and did not afterwards make for the district of Toul, there is no need to dwell on them longer.

[13] Bue St. Jerome, But the acts of the Saints themselves give no breathing space: for our Bue, in the life of St. Menna at the 3rd of October Volume II of October, page 155., tried to prove at length that Julian was publicly a worshipper of idols in Gaul: and he makes St. Jerome a witness of this opinion, writing these things in the Epitaph of Nepotian: Julian, the betrayer of his own soul and the slaughterer of a Christian army, felt in Media the Christ whom he had first denied in Gaul. But even if the authority of St. Jerome ought to excel that of Ammianus (which, when the deeds of Julian are concerned, may not be admitted), yet nothing could be concluded from this testimony of St. Jerome; since St. Jerome was not in this place professedly setting out the history of Julian, and above all since this denial could have been made secretly. But Bue insists, asserting that the denial was public, since he had made a private one already twelve (rather ten) years before, as he himself wrote to the Alexandrians when he had recently (rather almost two years after, as Baronius teaches at the year 361, § III) departed from Gaul to seize the empire, his stay in Gaul not having exceeded six years. This proof would be excellent if it were established that Julian's letter and what it contained were well known to St. Jerome when he wrote this, and that St. Jerome is not alluding to the words which we reported from Zosimus in the preceding number, or to something similar which is hidden from us. Besides, who knows whether St. Jerome counts Switzerland as part of Gaul, just as Zosimus Book III, chapter IX. calls Paris a little town of Germany? Which indeed I very gravely fear, since that part of the same phrase in which Julian is said to have felt Christ in Media is somewhat suspect: for if I compare the statements of Tillemont, resting on genuine foundations, with the chorographical maps of Asia made by the most celebrated Klaproth, it seems that Julian must be said to have felt Christ in Assyria or southern Armenia rather than in Media. And let this suffice, since there is confidence that no one will use an obscure testimony of St. Jerome to deny the clear authority of Ammianus Marcellinus, who professedly describes the history of Julian.

[14] and Julian's letter to the Athenians. But Ammianus is not to be listened to, writes the same predecessor, to be revered by me, and he adduces four weighty reasons for this assertion, of which, for the sake of brevity, I shall review only one, but the gravest: Julian, namely, in the letter to the Senate and People of Athens, written while Constantius was still among the living, openly professes his defection from the Catholic faith, so that in this matter Ammianus seems not at all to be listened to, when in book XXII, chapter V, he says that Julian first laid open the secrets of his breast when, Constantius being dead, he alone possessed the whole empire. The accusation is not a mild one, but only in appearance: for Zosimus Book III, chapter X. openly declares that the letter to the Athenians was given only after his departure from Gaul: and this is not out of harmony with what Marcellinus relates in the place cited, where I find these and no other words: And although from the first rudiments of boyhood he was more inclined toward the worship of the deities, and as a youth gradually burned with desire for it, fearing many things, he nevertheless carried on certain things pertaining to it as secretly as could be done. But when, the things he feared having been removed, he perceived that a free time had come for doing what he wished, he laid open the secrets of his breast: and by plain and absolute decrees he ordained that the temples be opened, victims brought to the altars, and the worship of the gods restored. Where two things must be noted: the first, namely, that in this place Marcellinus is engaged in depicting the character of Julian; wherefore these things are by no means to be referred to the last times of Julian, of which this book is already speaking, but as it were to the whole life of Julian. The other is that the words the things he feared having been removed are wrongly rendered by Bue with these words: Constantius being dead; since, while that would hold if someone other than Marcellinus were in question (for very many historians derive Julian's fear from Constantius), it can by no means be admitted in Marcellinus, who, as is evident from the words recited at number 10, declares that Julian's fear arose from the fact that most of the soldiers serving under him were Christians. The rest of what Bue objects is easily refuted both with the help of a geographical map and by what we have brought forward in the preceding numbers. And this I think is enough for this first opinion, that St. Eliphius was condemned to death by Julian himself, to seem one to be abandoned, and for what the anonymous author of the Passion wrote about a law against the Christians issued by Julian while he was staying in Gaul, and about the interrogation of St. Eliphius, to be judged most worthy of being struck through with the pen.

[15] Nor can it be asserted that Sallust raged against St. Eliphius; In the Ecclesiastical Annals At the year 362, § CCLVI. the most celebrated Cardinal Baronius, dismissing the first way of thinking which he had once championed in his notes to the Roman Martyrology, puts forward the second in these words: In Gaul, where Sallust held the prefecture, of all men the dearest to Julian, and for that reason a most bitter enemy of the Christians, we find that four siblings suffered: Eliphius, a man of Toul, his brother Eucharius the Bishop, and the sisters Libaria and Susanna, as the acts of these same martyrs (namely Rupert's) signify: but wrongly, in my opinion, they are said to have consummated their martyrdom while Julian was still staying in Gaul with the army. Such is the opinion of the most learned Cardinal, which below, at number 260, he tries to confirm from St. Jerome, asserting that St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, in a little book now lost, attacked this Sallust, or Dioscorus who acted in his place. But Tillemont must be heard, who altogether weakens and undermines this opinion of the annalist, which Adr. Baillet and Butler have followed, or at least renders it highly uncertain. Baronius, says the French critic, was induced to believe that Sallust, prefect of the Gauls, or Dioscorus acting in his place, persecuted the Christians by the testimony of St. Jerome, who asserts Jerome, On Illustrious Men, chapter 100; Epistle 84. that a writing was published by St. Hilary against that prefect or against a physician named Dioscorus. This proof is weak, since the condition of a physician has nothing in common with the office of one acting as deputy, so that they should be confused into one, and since St. Hilary may have had other causes for complaining of Sallust besides the persecution of the Church: moreover the Christians do not seem to have been accustomed to provoke with writings the gentile magistrates who were striving to abolish their faith. Besides, where others have read in the writings of St. Jerome "against the prefect Sallust, or against Dioscorus," Le Mire published [Page 30. Compare Fabricius' annotations on the cited place of St. Jerome, Hamburg edition 1718, page 188.] "to the Prefect." And indeed it would have been much more natural to write "against Sallust and Dioscorus." The Greek version, moreover, supports Le Mire's edition, πρὸς Σαλούστιον, ἤτοι κατὰ Διοσκόρου, to Sallust, or against Dioscorus. St. Jerome, making mention of the same writing of Hilary, says it was composed against Dioscorus, being silent in that place about Sallust. And so Tillemont, dissolving the Sallustian persecution.

[16] [who nevertheless must be judged to have suffered martyrdom in the times of Julian.] But although Julian himself did not inflict on St. Eliphius the death of the martyrs, and it is altogether doubtful and uncertain whether a general persecution against the Christians was set in motion by the prefect Sallust, it seems nevertheless that we must adhere to the most ancient tradition of Toul, which Tillemont himself by no means despised, and refer this martyrdom to the times of Julian. For it is probable that there were several among the magistrates and commanders of the forces, left by that emperor in Gaul or destined there afterwards, who, in order to earn the favour of the prince, thought it well to put on his hatred against the Christians and to inflict on them the utmost torments. To this opinion weight is added not only by whatever records of St. Eliphius survive, but also by the popular traditions about several other Saints; such as St. Bolonia, of whom we must speak immediately after St. Eliphius. And indeed the sword of persecution seems at that time to have raged chiefly in Champagne and Lorraine, to which tract of land the district of Toul belongs. For nowhere are more Martyrs found whose contest is referred to Julian. On the strength of these conjectures, therefore, it must be determined that St. Eliphius obtained the crown of martyrdom in the year 362 or the following one. No doubt, however, can be raised about the place where the athlete of Christ laid down his life for God; since countless indications of it survive, which the sacred rites of an immemorial cult have produced, as will become more than sufficiently manifest in the following §.

quod* which

§ III. Of the cult of St. Eliphius in Gaul.

In the parish of St. Eliphius there is a notable church of his name, As I am about to speak in the present § of the cult of St. Eliphius, it seems that the beginning must be taken from the very place where the sacred remains of St. Eliphius were first laid. This place received its name from the Saint himself, and is commonly called in French St.-Elophe, and lies on the right of the Vera (le Vair), where this stream is cut by the old Roman military road and by the new royal road which binds Neocastrum (Neufchâteau) to Nanceum (Nancy). At present this parish comprises four villages: the first, named after St. Eliphius, having 125 inhabitants; the second, Brancourt, of 400 citizens; the third, Solimariaca (Soulosse), populous with 150; and finally Fruse, consisting of 140 inhabitants. The church, which rejoices in our holy Martyr as patron, and which is in the first village, was formerly celebrated by Ruyr in the Sacred Antiquities of the Vosges Page 296., by Father Benedict, the Historiographer of Toul Histoire de Toul, page 212., and in the Breviary of Toul of the year 1748. Of its present condition, however, no less than of other records, we have learned more from the most learned letter which the distinguished Aug. Digot of the Stanislas Academy of Nancy recently sent us. First of all, in this church of St. Eliphius, which is built on a hill, there exist several carvings in which the Saint is shown crowned with a mitre; it is commonly believed that St. Eliphius

is represented; but the opinion is preferable which holds that St. Eucharius, who they relate was the brother of Eliphius and bishop of Grand, is portrayed in this form. In the choir is the tomb of St. Eliphius, to which one may descend by several steps. Above it rises, supported by seven smaller columns, a statue of the holy Martyr, clothed in a priestly vestment or rather a dalmatic (for they will have it that he was an archdeacon), and carrying in his hands his severed head; which is the one manner of portraying him. He presses a staff to his side with his left arm, and has a lion lying at his feet. The tomb is inscribed:

SEPULCHRUM

D. ELIPHII MARTYRIS

AN. 459.

This inscription, however, raises a twofold doubt in my mind. For in place of an. 459, as it was copied out, it seems that an. 359 should be read, in which year Julian passed through the district of Toul; next, that stone seems by no means ancient, since that D., by which Divus is designated, belongs to more recent times, as may be gathered from Benedict XIV in the work On the Canonization of Saints Book I, chapter 37, number 7. and from Cardinal Bellarmine in the review of his books Near the beginning, volume I.. But it will be enough to have noted these things about the weak authority of this monument. On the columns, moreover, by which we said the image of Eliphius is supported, are carved reliefs in which are shown the brother and sisters attributed to St. Eliphius: Eucharius, Libaria, Susanna, Menna, Oda, and Gontruda. The seventh is perhaps one of the parents. That church of St. Eliphius was formerly adorned with very many pictures painted on the wall; of which the one that survives by the baptismal font presents St. Eliphius bringing very many men over from the worship of idols to the rites of Christ. This inscription is set beside it:

Julien Empereur apostat fait camper son armée à Soulosse où il apprend que St Elophe par un seul de ses sermons avoit converty à la foy de Jésus-Christ 236 payens.

[Julian, the apostate Emperor, has his army encamp at Soulosse, where he learns that St. Elophe, by a single one of his sermons, had converted 236 pagans to the faith of Jesus Christ.]

And so much for that once most beautiful church, which has suffered somewhat since the end of the last century.

[18] the shrine of the chair of St. Eliphius, In the neighbourhood there survive also very many other monuments, which I think it sufficient to have reviewed, since from the Passion to be published below it will be easy for anyone to determine whence arose the popular traditions attached to them, and how little these themselves are, I will not say safe, but even credible. In the churchyard, then, lies a huge unpolished stone, on which Father Adrian, the Capuchin of Nancy Éloge Historique, page 73., asserts that our Blessed Martyr sat when he was carrying his severed head up the hill, and from which pious pilgrims have been accustomed to break off little fragments. It is surrounded by a little building, which is called the Shrine of the Chair of St. Eliphius. A little lower down is seen a rock marked with the year 361, which they thought the year of St. Eliphius' death; in which the old Passion relates that the Saint hid himself after his death, because, as the biographers add, Machon, cited by Calmet Histoire de Lorraine, volume I, column 198., the parish priest of Saint-Eliphius Vie et Martyre, etc., page 12., and Father Adrian, the Capuchin of Nancy Éloge Historique, etc., page 49., Julian had ordered his soldiers to follow him and to hand over his mutilated body to the fire.

[19] the spring of St. Eliphius and the chapel of the sacred sword, About the middle of the slope of the hill, between the church of St. Eliphius and Solimariaca, which lies at the foot of the hill, there is another place, to which a little popular story is also attached, omitted in the old Passion but set out in the remaining biographies. That spring is said to have been drawn forth by the staff of St. Eliphius as he went up the hill with his severed head. Beside it there still lies a triangular iron plate, which Father Adrian the Capuchin already mentioned in the year 1721, and which is said to cover some drops of Eliphius' blood. It is the custom among pilgrims to go around it; whence the rock round about has gradually been hollowed out. At the foot of the hill, beside the stream Vera, rises a little building which the same Father Adrian calls the Chapel of the beheading of St. Eliphius, but which the people call Sainte Espalotte, Espaiotte, Epagnotte, Epéotte. The people believed, when the biographer Machon was writing the Passion of St. Eliphius, that a maidservant of St. Eliphius was so designated; but Calmet Histoire de Lorraine, volume I, column 198. seems to have rightly observed that that word is derived from sacra spatha (sword); and indeed the praised Mr. Digot has written to us that that chapel is also called there la chapelle de la sainte épée. On this little building is inscribed the year 1614, in which it was built, and it contains a stone relief two metres long (if this word may be tolerated) and a metre and a half in height. One may see carved on it the church of St. Eliphius, the chapel of the sacred Sword, a virgin or angel holding a palm in her hand (whence perhaps flows the rumour about St. Eliphius' maidservant), and bearing that sign of victory to the holy Martyr; then St. Eliphius, provided with his staff and going up to the slope with his severed head in his hands; the same afterwards on his knees and undergoing the stroke of the sword; and finally, sixth, the tribunal of the emperor Julian, before which stands St. Eliphius, guarded by four soldiers.

[20] and also the ruined dwelling of St. Eliphius, most of them pious stations. Thence, if we turn our steps to the left of the rivulet Vera, we come upon Solimariaca; where even in these times a place is shown which the local people call the ruined dwelling of St. Eliphius (Masure de S. Elophe), and which they think was the house of the parents of St. Eliphius, whom they will have it were named Baccius and Lientrudis Ruyr, Antiquités des Vosges, page 295.. This place, however, is excluded from the number of the stations at which already in the year 1721 (as Father Adrian is witness) pious pilgrims were accustomed to pour forth prayers, and at which Mr. Digot informs us that they still pour them forth at present. The first station, namely, is the chapel of the holy sword; the second the spring of St. Eliphius; the third the rock in which the holy Martyr was hidden; the fourth the little building of the chair of St. Eliphius; the fifth is made before the sacred Relics of the Patron; the sixth, finally, at his tomb.

[21] There is a celebrated pilgrimage there, The pious custom of making pilgrimage to the principal church of St. Eliphius has flourished and flourishes from time immemorial among the inhabitants of Lorraine and Champagne who desire to be divinely freed from gout, the stone, fever, and other diseases, as Ruyr Work cited, page 296. and Father Adrian Ibid., page 60. are witnesses; and formerly Ibid., page 59. and even now very many profess that they experience heavenly help there, as the distinguished Digot has written back to us. I find, however, only one instance of this divine aid which is set out at greater length by the biographer of St. Eliphius whom we have more than once said was the parish priest of the village of the same name. He testifies that he produces it from a record which, signed by a public notary, was preserved in the archive of the church. In the year 1463, namely, a man named Remigius Petit, alias Senot, born in the village of Gray on the river Saône, had suffered for seven years from an incurable disease. When he had heard of the many miracles that were taking place at the tomb of St. Eliphius, he bound himself by a vow to undertake a pilgrimage, and immediately felt himself better, and saw himself wholly healed when, having entered the church of the holy Martyr, he had lain down upon his tomb, which is in the choir, and had finished his prayer. The same man, when he had returned home, found his little daughter dying; wherefore, having pronounced a new vow of pilgrimage, he immediately saw the girl well.

[22] which the people of Rupt once shared. The neighbouring parish of Rupt was formerly a participant in this pious concourse of the neighbours. Every year (on what day I do not know), with the consent of the bishop of Toul, the people of Rupt used to come in the order of supplicants to the church of St. Eliphius, to seek the Relics of the Blessed Martyr. The leading men of Rupt became sureties for their restoration, and in their presence the sacred remains were examined, the seal renewed, and a record of the proceedings written. The pious pledge was then carried into the church of Rupt, where for a whole octave it was exposed to the piety of the peoples: when this was completed, the reliquary was carried back by the column of supplicants, and once more examined with much solemnity. The often-praised distinguished Digot has written to us that these things are no longer done, and that the bands of pilgrims, which we commonly call processions, now go to the church of St. Eliphius alone; which takes place most of all when some calamity befalls the neighbouring region.

[23] [The sacred relics of St. Eliphius are diminished, twice violated by heretics, and often] The sacred Relics, however, which are preserved in the church of St. Eliphius, consist only of some smaller bones, which were left there when, about the year 963, as we shall make manifest below, St. Gerard, bishop of Toul, granted almost the whole body of the holy Martyr to St. Bruno, prelate of Cologne and brother of Otto the Great; how great a longing this grant created in all the people of Toul a native writer who collected the miracles of St. Aper about the year 978 will testify below. The little bones that remained, however, had been enclosed in a pyx, which the heretics breaking into Lorraine from Germany first broke in the year 1587 and stripped of its silver ornaments, as Father Benedict has related in the History of Toul. The sacred dust, however, was left by them in the church, and they afterwards enclosed it in a new case. These and other things had the effect that the neighbours of the church of St. Eliphius thereafter omitted nothing in order to keep the sacred treasure intact for themselves. Wherefore, when in the year 1612, so writes Ruyr Antiquités des Vosges, page 296 and following., the bishop of Toul, Jean Porcelet de Maillane, a man distinguished by many merits, was visiting his diocese and wished to learn what the reliquary chest contained, the common people, roused by indiscreet zeal (they feared, namely, that something of the sacred remains would be carried off), raised a great tumult in the church; so much so that the prelate was forced to hide in the pulpit lest he be exposed to the mad fury of these men: which shameless audacity of the people of Saint-Eliphius was punished with an interdict. Ruyr adds that these things were told him assertively in this way. Certain other circumstances omitted in Ruyr's account, which explain the fear and fury of the inhabitants, were supplied to us by the distinguished Digot. While the bishop was in the church, namely, there came by chance to St. Eliphius a column of supplicants from Neufchâteau; supposing that these were going to seek particles of the holy Martyr's Relics, the people of Saint-Eliphius and Brancourt attacked them with stones and put them to flight.

[24] are juridically visited. The same zealots for their patron, however, could not repel an injury inflicted on his Relics some years later. For the Swedes in the year 1633, as Father Benedict relates in the History of Toul, while they were in Lorraine, again stripped the sacred reliquary of its silver, without, however, destroying the bones of the holy Martyr. The pious treasure was examined in the year 1688 by the bishop-designate of Toul, Thiard de Bissy, and he ordered that the little bones be put into a pewter pyx clothed with red silk cloth; in which they lie hidden to this very day. They were afterwards often examined; but it will be enough to have spoken of one examination. On the 14th day of November of the year 1690, namely, the pious pledge was to be placed in a very rich reliquary which Simon Sallet, Lord of Lifou and Vilouxel, treasurer general

of Lorraine, had given as a gift; wherefore the capitular Vicars General of Toul, de l'Aigle and Menget, ordered that the remains of the holy Martyr be examined anew. For the bishop-designate Thiard de Bissy had not yet received canonical institution from the supreme Pontiff, on account of the very well-known disputes which were then burning between the Roman see and Louis XIV: whence the diocese of Toul suffered that confused administration. So much for the monuments of the holy Martyr which survive in the very place of his passion.

[25] Some sacred dust of Eliphius was formerly kept at Neufchâteau and Toul; By the testimony of Father Benedict Histoire de Toul, page 212., the town of Neocastrum (Neufchâteau) was once eminent for its piety toward St. Eliphius, whom it invoked chiefly in public necessities. This devotion was very probably promoted most of all when, in the last century, as the distinguished Digot has written, some sacred particles were sent to a noble lady, a kinswoman of one of the last archbishop-electors of Cologne, and named, as it seems, Dessolles, which were afterwards given to the parish of St. Nicholas at Neufchâteau. These things seem to have been done in the year 1763, since in the Cologne Breviary of the year 1780 (for we shall see below that most of the bones of St. Eliphius were once carried to Cologne) one reads: The chest … opened anew in the sixty-third year of the eighteenth century, and the fibula of the left foot extracted to be carried to Lorraine … But now, as the distinguished Digot has written back, that cult at Neufchâteau is almost nil. In the former cathedral church of Toul, from about the year 963, there were preserved before the French tumults, by the testimony of Father Benedict Ibid., pages 212 and 318., some particles from the body of St. Eliphius; but now, as I understand from a letter of the parish priest and archpriest of this church, nothing of them survives there any longer, not even the old instruments concerning them. But more about the sacred remains of St. Eliphius elsewhere.

[26] and several churches under his patronage, Besides the parish of St. Eliphius there are also several other churches which rejoice in St. Eliphius as patron. The old Index of ecclesiastical benefices and civil offices of the diocese of Toul Pouillé ecclésiastique et civil, volume I. gives Grafiniacum (Grafigny), Claretum in the deanery of Saintois (Clerey), and Punerotum (Punerot); to which the distinguished Digot informs us that Graux, Viviers-le-gras, and Fécocourt must now be added. Outside the former diocese of Toul there were also some churches which enjoyed the same auspices. On the 14th day of October of the year 1685 Claude Chastelain wrote to our Papebroch in these words: At Rampilo (Rampillon) in the district of Brie I admired a magnificent church built in the Gothic order, which is sacred to St. Eliphius, martyr of Toul, and is now parochial, but was formerly a church of the Templars. There are besides in the district of Perche two other churches consecrated to this Saint. So he: to which it may be added, from the Index of benefices of the diocese of Chartres of the twelfth century, inserted by the distinguished Guérard in the cartulary of St. Peter of Chartres, that there once existed in the diocese of Chartres a parish named Vallis Pillonis (Vaupillon) of which St. Eliphius was patron. The editor adds in a note that in the present Index of benefices this place appears as a church annexed to the parish of St. Eliphius Cartulaire de Saint-Père de Chartres, page CCCXV..

[27] and places and families enjoyed his name. Nor did the cult of St. Eliphius confine itself within churches only. For the author of the cited Index of the Benefices of Toul Page 424., who is also copious in praising the antiquity and beauty of the church of St. Eliphius and the concourse of the venerating people to it, asserts that certain revenues were once assigned there to the parish priest, which, borrowing their name from St. Eliphius, were called the field of St. Eliphius. This name also became a family name, as is clear from an instrument printed in the Premonstratensian Annals Volume I, column 552., where a certain Theodoric de Sancto Elepho is signed; moreover in volume XIII Columns 1027 and 1134. of the new Gallia Christiana mention is made of the land and lord of Saint-Eliphius. So far of the churches, chapels, and other things to which the cult or name of St. Eliphius chiefly adheres: before, however, we set foot outside Gaul, it remains that we speak of his ecclesiastical Office.

[28] [The divine Office of him is celebrated in places belonging to the former diocese of Toul.] There is no doubt that this Office was celebrated most anciently of all in the parish which enjoys the Saint's name and tomb. I do not know whether this custom at any time ceased after the tumults of the French republic; however that may be, it is now celebrated with most solemn rite, by concession of Benoît Costaz, bishop-designate of Nancy, who on the 27th day of February of the year 1813 granted this faculty to the curate or parish priest of St. Eliphius; which parish was at that time included in the diocese of Nancy, as belonging to the tract which we commonly call the Département des Vosges, and of which the diocese of Saint-Dié consists at present. From the parish of St. Eliphius the cult of this Martyr passed to the whole former diocese of Toul, about which a few things must be said beforehand. Before the year 1777, namely, the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishop of Toul extended very widely, comprising the Duchy of Lorraine and the southern parts of Bar, together with the tract which lies between them and between the Meuse and the Moselle, as our Limpens notes in his commentary on the Acts of St. Mansuetus under the 3rd day of September. But Louis XV, King of France, judged it worth while to establish two bishoprics in the Duchy of Lorraine, one in the city of Nancy, the other in that of Saint-Dié. Louis XVI approved the design of his grandfather on the 12th day of the month of March 1775; and the supreme Pontiff Pius VI gave the bull of erection on the 13th day before the Kalends of December 1777. Whence the diocese of Toul suffered the greatest diminution, inasmuch as the territories of two bishoprics were torn from it alone. But in the year 1801, when the concordat with the French Republic was sanctioned, the see of Toul was suppressed and united to that of Nancy. Further, that our Saint was venerated most anciently in the former diocese of Toul is clear from a manuscript and very old (inasmuch as it mentions neither St. Louis, King of France, nor the Patriarchs Dominic and Francis) Breviary of Toul, which has this in the prefixed calendar: On the 17th day before the Kalends of November, St. Eliphius, nine lessons; with which agrees the Breviary of the year 1535, setting down in the Calendar: On the 17th day before the Kalends, of Eliphius, Martyr. Since, however, neither Breviary has an office of our Saint, it must be reckoned that the office was said from the common of a Martyr. In the Breviary of the year 1626, however, as the Rev. Mr. Marchal, parish priest at Heillecourt, has written to us, the third lesson is proper, and taken from Rupert's Passion of St. Eliphius. In the Breviaries of the years 1684 and 1695 there is an office of nine lessons, of which the fourth and fifth were likewise taken from the Passion of the holy Martyr; which, since they have nothing that could illustrate any historical or liturgical matter, we pass over. As we have learned from the same Rev. Mr. Marchal, for the feast of St. Eliphius the Mass from the Common of one Martyr is prescribed in the Missals of Toul of the years 1508, 1537, and 1551; a proper one, but by no means remarkable, is set forth in the Missal of the year 1686; but in more recent ones the Mass from the Common was brought back. In the dioceses which we said were torn from the old diocese of Toul, the cult of St. Eliphius seems to have persevered. At least in the liturgical Calendar of Saint-Dié of the year 1830 the feast of the holy Martyr is prescribed under the semidouble rite. The cult of St. Eliphius in the diocese of Cologne and in other places remains to be explained.

§ IV. Of the translation of the body of St. Eliphius, almost all of whose sacred bones the people of Cologne received.

[The people of Cologne contend that almost the whole body of St. Eliphius was brought to them,] The Cologne Breviary, printed in the year 1780, sets forth in a few words what pertains to the Relics of St. Eliphius kept in the Monastery of St. Martin at Cologne. Since, however, a disputation about them is to be undertaken in the present §, it seems that the whole of the fourth lesson, which alone concerns St. Eliphius, should be inserted here, so that the reader may know at a single glance what concerns these sacred pledges. It runs in these words: Eliphius of Toul, slain under Julian the Apostate for the faith of Christ, obtained the palm of martyrdom. In the tenth century Bruno the first, Archbishop of Cologne, translated the sacred body to Cologne: and it was religiously laid in the Church of the Monastery of St. Martin. In the fifteenth century Hermann of Hesse, archbishop, having found the seal intact, opened with great reverence and solemnity the chest in which the sacred Relics had been enclosed in the tenth century under the seal of Archbishop Warin; and he found the bones of the sacred body, and the head entire, a part of the jaw excepted. The chest, however, closed with the seal of the same Archbishop Hermann, was opened anew in the sixty-third year of the eighteenth century, and, the fibula of the left foot having been extracted to be transferred to Lorraine, was again closed and secured with the Archiepiscopal seal. To the same Church of St. Martin, in the eleventh century, St. Anno added twin towers in honour of Eliphius the Martyr. The treasure of the sacred body is honoured there to this present day with great devotion of the faithful.

[30] but the writers of Toul hold that only part of the body was carried to Cologne. From this lesson on St. Eliphius, therefore, it is evident that the opinion of the people of Cologne is that the bones of the sacred body, and the head entire, a part of the jaw excepted, were once carried to them and are preserved in the church of St. Martin; and in that opinion are all the ecclesiastical writers of Cologne. The people of Toul, however, adopt an altogether different way of thinking. Father Benedict Histoire de Toul, pages 212 and 318. relates that St. Gerard, prelate of Toul, moved by the miracles which used to take place at the tomb of St. Eliphius, divided the Relics of the Blessed Martyr into three parts, of which one should go to the cathedral church of Toul, another to the church of St. Eliphius, and the third, namely the head, to St. Bruno of Cologne. Ruyr Antiquités des Vosges, page 296 and following. had preceded Father Benedict in assigning to the people of Cologne the head of St. Eliphius alone; but he had written that the whole rest of the body was enclosed in a beautiful chest which was kept in the church and village of St. Eliphius. Calmet, indeed Histoire de Lorraine, volume I, column 199., obscures this business with many shadows, so that it is difficult to grasp his mind. For he writes: The abbot Rupert declares clearly enough that in his times it was believed that the Relics of St. Eliphius were kept at Cologne in the abbey of St. Martin, and that his feast was kept there as it was kept in the abbey of Deutz. (Rupert, on whom Calmet relies, does not say that the feast of St. Eliphius was kept by his monks, but that his Passion was in use.) In the times of Adso, namely in the tenth century, men were persuaded (I could find nothing of the kind in the writings of Adso) *that the body of St. Eliphius, hidden while the barbarians were making incursions into these regions, had remained buried in oblivion. Widric in the life of St. Gerard affirms that this Saint, raised to the mitre of Toul in the year 963, lifted the sacred remains from the place in which they lay, and

gave the larger bones to St. Bruno of Cologne. Lower down he adds: In the year 1485 Hermann, archbishop of Cologne, held a visitation of the Relics, and found the body entire except the lower jaw, which seems to have remained in the diocese of Toul. Finally the Breviary of Toul, printed in the year 1748, sets out the matter thus: Out of religious devotion toward the Blessed Martyr, St. Gerard, bishop of Toul, translated his sacred Relics, of which he granted no small part, namely the larger bones, to Bruno, bishop of Cologne, brother of Otto the Great: and they were brought to Cologne with fitting veneration; where the memory of St. Eliphius is celebrated.*

[31] [But that the opinion of the people of Cologne is right is proved by ancient writers,] The question is therefore raised whether the people of Cologne are right in reckoning that almost the whole body of St. Eliphius is preserved in their city. The most ancient documents, as well as the more recent, must be examined; of all of which the most ancient is the testament of St. Bruno Acta SS., 11th of October, page 788 and following., made in the year 965, shortly after the sacred pledge was received. In it one reads that St. Bruno gives to the Blessed Eliphius, Martyr; to St. Martin, confessor (patron of the Cologne Monastery) as much (thirty pounds, four palls, as many vessels, two candlesticks, six pounds to the brethren); besides the estate of Solagon, acquired by precarial tenure for our (his) church. I pass over the testimony Ibid., page 777. of Rotger, the biographer of St. Bruno, his contemporary or almost contemporary. And hence it becomes certain that in the year 965 the relics of St. Eliphius were already preserved at Cologne. At about the same time, however, a writer of Toul affirms that his fellow-countrymen were deprived of them. The Collector, namely, of the Miracles of St. Aper, which our Stilting had reprinted at the 15th day of September Volume V of September, page 75, number 28. from Martène and Calmet, complains of this matter in these words: For that carrying off of the body (of St. Aper, made in the year 918) did not profit the men of that age, but us and others who were to come after, so that it should not be deprived of so great a Patron, nay, the whole region. For it is known to almost everyone how we have been deprived of the body of Eliphius, the precious martyr, and of other pledges of the Saints; which the Blessed Aper foreseeing (for he always attends upon Him from whom nothing is hidden), in order that he might continually protect, help, and rule his flock, was unwilling on this occasion to deprive it of the presence of his body; which a contemporary author, in the history of the bishops of Toul, chapter XXX, in Calmet, relates was found by St. Gerard, bishop of Toul, in the year 978. Whence, since Stilting rightly draws out, at number 7 of the cited Commentary on the Life of St. Aper, that the writer of these miracles composed his little work not before the year 978, but not much after this year either, let the reader determine whether from these words of Adso the historiographer of Lorraine rightly deduced that in Adso's time the Relics of St. Eliphius had been hidden for fear of the barbarians, or rather that, some twenty years after they had been translated to Cologne, the common persuasion existed even among the people of Toul that scarcely anything of the Relics of St. Eliphius had remained to them.

[32] the instrument of the visitation of the Relics One need not go beyond the tenth century in order to find an instrument in the wooden casket, which an episcopal seal secured, and which had been preserved for four centuries in the archive of the Cologne Monastery. Surius first brought it to light, appending it to the Life of St. Eliphius at the 16th of October. For a copy of it exists in the letters drawn up in the year 1485 by Hermann, archbishop of Cologne, for the approval of the Relics of St. Eliphius. I shall recite those letters from the copy which the distinguished Binterim sent us, after first, however, collating it with Surius' transcript: Letters of the opening of the tomb and of the approval of the body of St. Eliphius, martyr. Hermann, by the grace of God archbishop of the holy Church of Cologne, Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire for Italy, Prince Elector, Duke of Westphalia and Engern, and Legate by birth, etc., to all the faithful of Christ, both present and to come, to whom these our present letters shall come, greeting in the Lord. God is glorious in His Saints, and wonderful in majesty, and worthy of praise in all His Saints and Elect; but in the glorious merits of the holy and magnificent Martyr Eliphius He is not undeservedly proclaimed glorious: truly the wonderful God has magnificently glorified this Martyr dear to Him, and has made him wonderful to all everywhere, He who deigned to show in the passion of this same Elect of His with how great merit and glory He had predestined him in His kingdom. For all the sick, who were weighed down with divers infirmities, coming to the place of his Martyrdom, were restored to full health; and his body raised itself by the power of Christ, and, embracing his severed head with both hands, carried it for one mile, Angels accompanying and praising Christ, until it came without any stumbling to the mountain of his name; and there, finding a white and flat stone, he sat upon it, whose great hardness yielded to the holiness of the Martyr himself, and opening its own lap it embraced the Saint in its bosom. For the faithful of Christ, aided by his merits, the infidels having been conquered by the gift of Christ, gloriously obtained the victory.

[33] made in the year 1485 We therefore bring to the knowledge of all of you aforesaid, and will that it be brought by these presents, that we, having been more frequently and affectionately besought by the most devout and humble prayers of the venerable and religious Adam, devoutly beloved by us, abbot of the notable monastery of St. Martin at Cologne, of the Order of St. Benedict, concerning the opening of the Tomb of the Relics of that illustrious Martyr, with which the lord Bruno of good memory, formerly archprelate of Cologne, our predecessor, long ago adorned the aforesaid monastery; because it was reported that the body or bones of that most holy Martyr had perhaps not been translated entire to the said monastery, but that his head was placed in the greater church of Utrecht; and we, moved by pious devotion toward that excellent Martyr of Christ, and assenting to the pious desires of the said abbot Adam and his brethren, on the Sunday which was the vigil of St. James the Apostle, in the morning at the hour of Prime, being present in the aforementioned monastery of St. Martin, together with the said Adam of St. Martin's and his convent, the venerable and religious Anthony of St. Ludger's at Werden of our diocese of Cologne and Melchior of Schönau of the diocese of Trier, abbots of the said Order, sincerely beloved by us, and also the abbot of the monastery at Steinfeld of our said diocese, of the Premonstratensian Order, and also the honourable Johann Glappe and Johann N., our chaplains, canons of the collegiate church of St. Cassius at Bonn, being present there, caused the of St. Eliphius to be opened, to the praise of almighty God and the glory of St. Eliphius. When it was opened, we drew out from it with our hands a wooden casket having about the length of the said tomb, with iron fittings suitably fastened, and closed with the seal of the lord Warin of pious memory, also formerly our predecessor; which we, finding it sound and intact, cut away with our hands, and reverently opened the aforesaid casket in the name of God, and therein, with great joy and exultation of hearts, as we had heard, so we saw, the hidden body of that most illustrious Martyr, the venerable head, a part of the jaw excepted, with the other most comely members; and there was found a little schedule laid upon them, in fairly ancient writing, in these words: "The precious Martyr of Christ, Eliphius."*

[34] by the Archbishop of Cologne, O how glorious, and how sweet and delightful it was to see the elegant members of this precious and most holy Martyr of Christ! O how great the devotion of the religious brethren of that monastery of St. Martin, congratulating the divine grace on the joyful sight of so great a Patron, a citizen of heaven and of the household of God, glorious possessor of eternal beatitude! These things having therefore been solemnly performed, we caused the aforesaid wooden casket, found in the tomb as is stated above, closed with Relics of this kind entire and with the aforesaid schedule laid upon them, and sealed with our private seal by our own hand, to be placed in the larger tomb set beside it: and the same brethren of the said monastery proceeded to the singing of a solemn Mass to the praise of the divine name and in honour of that precious Martyr, rendering in the aforesaid monastery what thanksgivings they could to the King of glory and bestower of graces, who deigned to adorn and endow their monastery with so precious a treasure. There were also present the noble and faithful Heinrich, Count of Nassau and Lord in Bilstein, and also the venerable Heinrich of Tegelen, Doctor in medicine and Bachelor of sacred Theology, our beloved counsellors. In faith and testimony of which premises we have caused these our letters to be made thereupon and to be strengthened by the appending of our seal. Given on the day as above. In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and eighty-five.

[35] and above all the schedule of the tenth century, An irrefragable testimony flows from these letters: nor do they need any other commentary than that we should indicate in a few words at what time the schedule was put into the casket which bore the words: The precious Martyr of Christ, Eliphius. I think it was inserted by St. Bruno himself at the time of the translation; but certainly, when Warin was bishop, it was already enclosed in the casket, as is clearly established from the foregoing instrument. Now these things are read about Warin in the Chronicle of St. Martin of Cologne edited by the distinguished Pertz Monumenta Germaniæ, volume II, page 215.: Warin … afterwards made Archbishop …, went to Rome, and having returned thence, improved our monastery and offered it again to the Scots in the year 975; the same Warin was made a monk here, and gloriously adorned the tomb of St. Eliphius; he died in the year 985, on the 11th day before the Kalends of October. I find similar things in several manuscript sheets, one of which is said to have been extracted from a very old parchment formerly preserved in the Library of Great St. Martin. Since therefore Warin obtained the archbishopric in the year 975 (as may be drawn out from this Chronicle compared with what is found in the Gallia Christiana Volume III, column 651.), and met his last day ten years later, you must enclose within this space the age of the aforesaid schedule; unless, as I have already said, it seems rather to be ascribed to St. Bruno. Nay more, the proposed decade must perhaps be diminished by eight years: that Warin began with adorning the church, namely, does not seem a rash opinion: but in the year 977 he had already embellished the cloister of the monastery, as is clear from the following chronogram once fixed to the cloister itself:

hæC saCra CLaUstra noVo DeCora VIt honore GUarInUs.

By testimonies belonging to the tenth century, therefore, I consider that I have more than sufficiently proved that the whole body of St. Eliphius, except the jaw and perhaps certain small little bones, was preserved in the church of Great St. Martin in the tenth century. Witnesses of the following centuries also could be produced. But lest proofs of this kind be more copious than is right, it will be enough for me to refer the reader to the Auctaria of Usuard which are to be found in the Usuard of our Du Sollier, to the Cologne Breviaries which I have already mentioned, to the assertion of Rupert, to the Chronicle of Sigebert of Gembloux, likewise to the Chronicon Belgicum magnum, to the Fasciculus temporum of Werner Rolevinck, etc.

[36] the people of Toul resisting in vain. The writers of Toul, however, who were persuaded that only the larger bones of St. Eliphius were translated to Cologne, object these words of Widric: *He also translated with religious devotion the Relics of the venerable Martyr Elifius: of which no small part,

namely the larger bones, he conferred on the aforenamed archprelate Bruno, who carried them down to Cologne with the utmost devotion, and there they are venerated with the devout veneration of the peoples. So Widric, abbot of St. Aper at Toul, in the Life of St. Gerard, bishop of Toul, which Henschen published at the 23rd of April Volume III of April, page 206.. If, however, what the Gallia Christiana in volume XIII has about this Widric among the abbots of St. Aper be compared with what is printed in the Histoire littéraire de la France Volume VII, page 409., it must be determined that these things were written by Widric about the year 1044. But Widric's statements must be compared with the assertions of the collector of the Miracles of St. Aper, who laments that the people of Toul were deprived of the body of St. Eliphius, with the authentic records of the people of Cologne, and with that request of the noble lady of Neufchâteau whom we saw in the preceding § begging for Relics of the holy Martyr from the people of Cologne, not from those of Saint-Eliphius. Whence it must be determined that no small part, namely the larger bones, was carried to Cologne in such a way that only the cloths, the tomb, the chest, and some smaller little bones remained in the church of St. Eliphius. And indeed the historiographers of Toul seem to have followed popular rumour rather than the truth of the matter or certain documents: certainly the so often praised distinguished Digot, who has accurately investigated everything that pertains to the memory of St. Eliphius, has written back to us that the Relics of the Blessed Martyr which since the year 1688 have been enclosed in a pewter pyx, and have suffered nothing from the French tumults, are few in number: Il est bon peut-être, these are his words, de faire observer que ces reliques sont en petit nombre* It is perhaps well to point out that these relics are few in number. Placed beyond all dispute, therefore, are the Eliphian remains which were granted to the Cologne monks of St. Martin by St. Gerard, bishop of Toul, a native of Cologne, and which have been venerated at Cologne for nearly nine centuries. For from what follows it will be established that they were carried there in the year 964.

[37] This translation was made in the year 964. As I inquire into the year of this translation, several manuscript Chronicles sent from Cologne are at hand, of which some refer this translation to the year 959, others to the year 960, others to the year 962. But there is error in all these years; nor was it corrected by Baillet, who, assigning about the year 960, had the editors of Lille and Louvain of Butler's Lives of the Saints as his faithful imitators. Trithemius almost alone, in the Chronicles of the Monastery of Hirsau, kept to the path of truth, writing these things of St. Bruno at the year 964: Likewise he laid the body of the most blessed martyr Eliphius in the monastery of St. Martin of the Scots, of our order, at Cologne. That this year is right is made out from the following. First of all it is established that this translation is not to be put off beyond the 11th day of October of the year 965, since at that time (as our C. Bue proves at length at this day Acta SS., 10th of October, page 754.) St. Bruno yielded to nature; nay, it is not to be put off beyond the 2nd of February of the same year, since the continuator of Regino relates at this year that St. Bruno went to meet Otto, returning from Italy, at the Purification of the most holy Virgin Mary, as far as Worms; and Rotger, the biographer of St. Bruno, teaches that both together most solemnly celebrated the feast of Pentecost; and from the same and from many chroniclers we have learned that St. Bruno, having afterwards set out into France, did not return into Germany any more. Wherefore, from the feast of the Purification of Blessed Mary to the day of St. Bruno's death, there is no room for sacred relics to be translated from Gaul. But whoever would wish to insert intervals between these various epochs of the year, let him read Rotger, who, discoursing more abundantly about the last times of St. Bruno, would surely not have omitted this journey into Lorraine. But neither can this translation be placed before the month of April of the year 963, since his biographer relates that it was made by St. Gerard, bishop of Toul, as we have more than once noted in this Commentary. For the Gallia Christiana in volume XIII and our Henschen at the 23rd of April, in two places, from the appendix to the Life of St. Mansuetus, who is venerated on the 3rd of April, rightly teach that St. Gerard came to Trier on the 27th of March to be designated bishop, and was soon raised to the see of Toul. But I ask, is St. Gerard to be thought to have immediately translated the Relics of the Saints and given them to others? The year 964, however, is the most opportune of all: for at that time St. Bruno held a council in Lorraine, as Bue, the commentator on the Life of St. Bruno Acta SS., 11th of October, page 750., determines at greater length from the Chronicle of Cambrai Book I, chapter LXXXV.. Since, therefore, the clear testimony of Trithemius agrees with the foregoing, the oft-mentioned translation must most certainly be bound to the said year 964. Let us now pass to the cult paid to St. Eliphius at Cologne.

supply tumbam* tomb

§ V. Of the cult rendered to St. Eliphius in the monastery and church of St. Martin at Cologne, and likewise formerly at Utrecht.

In the monastery of Great St. Martin at Cologne Before we explain the piety of the people of Cologne toward St. Eliphius, however, it seems that a few things should be said first about the monastery and church of St. Martin, into which the remains of our Blessed Martyr were brought. Of its beginnings Gelenius writes thus in the Admiranda Magnitudo Coloniensis Page 375.: To what times its beginning is to be traced back is obscure on account of its antiquity. There survives in the precinct a very ancient chapel, which they believe was built amid the flowing waters around by a Danish Hermit (by Tilmo the Scot in the year 690, others assert); the beginnings, however, are more safely referred to the Blessed men Plechelm and Otger, companions of Saints Boniface and Swithbert, who, with the help of Plectrude and Pippin, converted an island (for it is surrounded by the Rhine) pleasantly planted with trees into a cloister of religious. These things the author of the manuscript Monasteriology of this abbey, which is in our possession, supports with the authority of Bede History of the English, book V.. That same author then ascribes various misfortunes to it, saying that it was laid almost level with the ground by the Saxons, and restored to its former state in the year 779 by Otger, duke of the Danes; and in the year 803 enriched by St. Leo the Pope with privileges and consecrated altars, and finally, falling down from age, restored by archbishop Warin. The rest may be found in the Gallia Christiana Volume III, column 749 and following.. Since, however, the catalogue of abbots exhibited there, which first begins from the times of Warin, is carried down only to the year 1723, I reckon it will be useful to complete that catalogue from a Cologne manuscript: Heinrich Obladen, who rebuilt the whole abbey from the foundations, died in the year 1726; Adrian Valck succeeded him, who closed his last day in 1741; Franz Spix followed, whose place, on his death in the year 1759, Sebastian Schmitz occupied, himself to die in the year 1788. Adam Rosell, Doctor of Sacred Theology, succeeded him, who, dying in the year 1794, gave place to Melchior Syberti, who died in the year 1801. Felix Ohoven followed him; under whom as abbot, in the year 1802, an edict of the emperor of the French suppressed the abbey in fact. He was afterwards the first pastor or parish priest of this church. So much for the abbey.

[39] the Relics of St. Eliphius were preserved with much honour There has also been sent to us from Cologne a manuscript poem on the Annals of Great St. Martin. I reckon this was composed between the year 1505 and 1513, at which time the aforesaid Monasteriology testifies that this monastery experienced a deadly fate at the hands of certain nobles: to this, namely, these almost final little verses seem to allude:

And the riches which venerable antiquity gave to God, a profane crowd now — O heavenly powers! — shamefully squanders in devouring what it has carried off, and lies in wait for more to be consumed.

From this poem we shall draw almost all the rest; thus of the piety of Bruno and Warin toward St. Eliphius:

For then Bruno, the rubble of the bridge destroyed and a new church erected with small effort, laid here the consecrated bones of the Martyr Eliphius which he had once brought hither from the borders of the Franks; and the work which, harassed through the unstable wrath of time, perhaps unsightly with neglect, was languishing with age and years, Warin restored with shining splendour.

After the author of the verses has explained this at greater length, and has sung of the state of monastic life undertaken by the same man, he proceeds in this manner:

And hence he is said, deeming the Saints worthy of sacred honour, magnificently enriching the tomb of Eliphius, which had long been mean, with figures placed on this side and on that, to have represented on one side the statues of a virginal company, patterns of life (which perhaps he imitated in his conduct), to speak in feigned body such verses as it pleased him to attach in writing to the casket:

“Virginibus fatuis decor intus tollitur omnis, Quas ad vana foris trahit inflans aura favoris, Dum quærunt emere, ac oleo sua vasa replere, Stant foris et mœrent, stupefactis vocibus hærent, Ante fores vitæ, quibus inquit sponsus: Abite.”

[“From the foolish virgins all inward beauty is taken away, whom the puffing breeze of favour draws outward to vain things; while they seek to buy, and to fill their vessels with oil, they stand outside and mourn, they stick fast with stupefied voices before the doors of life, to whom the bridegroom says: Depart.”]

On the other side he placed around the images of the men whom I lately mentioned, the first beginnings of our race, born of Scotland; to whom it pleased him to add verses:

“Præcones isti juxta vestigia Christi Omnibus exuti vere studuere saluti, Adstruxere fidem contemptu mortis iidem, Quorum dogma sonum dedit in fines regionum Unde salutari jam cœpit ab imbre rigari Cordis ager, multum referens cum fœnere fructum.”

[“These heralds, following the footsteps of Christ, stripped of all things, truly laboured for salvation; the same men built up the faith by contempt of death, whose teaching sent its sound to the ends of the regions, whence the field of the heart began now to be watered by a saving shower, bringing back much fruit with increase.”]

On this side and that he fixed other Saints (heavenly Powers!), companions of life and witnesses of labours, disciples of Christ, and placed these verses beneath them:

“Cives æterni Genitoris in arce superni Florent ut palmæ mercede sua sibi salva *, Testes ante boni, modo sunt in plebe coloni, At finis mundi cum venerit, hora secundi Adventus Christi, velamine nubis amicti Censores æqui venient cum judice sæcli.”

[“Citizens of the eternal Father in the citadel on high, they flourish like palms, with their reward kept safe for them *; formerly good witnesses, now they are settlers among the people; but when the end of the world shall come, the hour of the second Advent of Christ, clothed with the veil of a cloud, they will come as just assessors with the judge of the world.”]

As regards these Leonine verses inscribed on the sacred casket, however, beware of accusing our poet of having referred this kind of verse to more ancient times, understanding literally Horace when he sings:

Painters and poets have always had an equal licence to dare anything.

For I reckon it is now agreed among critics that the opinion of Pasquier, who in his Recherches de la France attributes the origin of these verses to a certain Leo, is erroneous, and that of Du Cange in his glossary at the word Leoninus, who refers the same origin to the times of Louis VII or Philip Augustus (from the year 1120 to 1223). For this kind of verse was already in use long before: for the Acts of St. Pelagius, Martyr, printed in our Work at the 26th day of the month of June, prove invincibly that metre of this species was already in use in the tenth century; behold the opening of the author addressing the saint:

Inclyte Pellagi, martyr fortissime Christi, Et bone regnantis miles per secula Regis, Respice Hroswitham miti pietate misellam, Me tibi subjectam miti pietate famellam, etc.

[Renowned Pelagius, most valiant martyr of Christ, and good soldier of the King who reigns through the ages, look with gentle pity upon wretched Hroswitha, me, your little handmaid subject to you, with gentle pity, etc.]

So the whole composition: I forbear to bring forward many other examples; I shall only note that in this very volume, at number 17 of the Commentary on the Holy Moorish Martyrs, a Cologne specimen occurs which overturns Du Cange's statements. See in the same place number 8 of the Commentary on St. Cannatus.

[40] by the archbishops Warin and St. Anno Of the tomb, however, which no longer exists at present,

and its ornaments I have already made mention at number 35 from the printed Chronicle; a manuscript Chronicle mentions emblems; another manuscript likewise praises a new tomb; Gelenius in the Admiranda Magnitudo Coloniæ Page 377. mentions a silver casket; I pass over the other Cologne writers, since the matter is sufficiently certain. In this place, it seems, must be inserted this memory of St. Eliphius which Henschen rightly placed among those passed over at the 21st day of June: "The commemoration of Blessed Eliphius, Martyr, at Cologne, in the Monastery of St. Martin" is inscribed in the Martyrology of the Cologne edition (year 1521) and of the Lübeck edition of the year 1490; likewise in Greven, Canisius, and Gelenius; who says that this is the deposition of the body in a silver casket. I have traced these statements back to their sources: but in the Cologne calendar of Gelenius I do not find it very clearly expressed that this memory arose from the deposition of the body; but some other testimony of Gelenius, I know not what, may have gone before Henschen: and if this is so, the double Cologne feast of St. Eliphius will have to be referred to the times of Warin. But let us carry our steps further. St. Anno occupied the archiepiscopal chair of Cologne from the year 1056 to about the year 1076. Of him that poet of ours sings thus:

Then, moved with like zeal, the bishop Anno adorned the walls of the church with lofty towers;

which two towers, Gelenius writes in the praised work Page 375., rise in front of the sanctuary. A manuscript Chronicle agrees with Gelenius; and another manuscript Chronicle likewise assigns about the year 1060 to their construction. As I gather from the newspaper called Die Kölnische Zeitung, Beiblatt, of the 15th of December 1816, one of the towers, in the year 1482, when the church of St. Brigid was enlarged under the care of Heinrich von Lippe and connected with the walls of the church of St. Martin by means of a vaulting, was joined to the church of St. Brigid. One of these little towers I think is designated in a manuscript sheet in which it is related that one little tower fell on the 29th of January in the year 1539. It must, however, have been rebuilt, unless the view of the city of Cologne deceives me. The cause of this construction, however, is explained thus from chapter XVIII, book III of the life of St. Anno, in our manuscript codex formerly of Eisendorp, which, inasmuch as it is very accurately written, is not without praise:

[41] were kept; Eliphius also, a Martyr of great merit, who after the cutting off of his head ran over the space of a very long road with it, standing by the blessed Man in a vision, reproved his negligence toward him, reproaching him that he greatly discredited in his case that devotion of mind which, as a religious man, he displayed toward the other patrons of his city; in that, knowing him to be second to none in merits, he had held him in this extreme place after all, so that he had never betrayed his goodwill toward the enlargement of his church by even the least indications. When he answered that, if any new foundations were laid, the flood of the river Rhine would undoubtedly soon bring about the overthrow of the whole Monastery, the other persisted, demanding some work of his devotion, however small, and so vanished. But the priest, shaking himself from his bed after his rest, went to the monastery of St. Martin, which the same Martyr had under his patronage, to inspect the site of the place, and, having taken counsel, ordered two towers rising in front of the sanctuary to be raised into the air, without doubt possessing the praise and merit of the widow who brought the two mites. What is at some time to be thought in our Work of this vision, he will be able to examine who shall illustrate the Life of St. Anno at the 4th of December. Here it will be enough for us to have noted St. Anno's piety toward St. Eliphius. Gelenius, moreover, relates Admiranda Magnitudo Coloniæ, page 312. that St. Anno was somewhat engaged in composing Litanies of the Saints; whether, however, the very old Litanies which were formerly accustomed to be sung in the church of St. Mary in Capitol at Cologne in the three vigils, as Bolland inscribed on our copy, are to be referred to the same author is entirely hidden from me; this one thing I can testify, that they are very old because of the absence of more recent Saints; and, what serves my purpose, that the name of St. Eliphius is marked in them. Gelenius also mentions our Saint in the little Work Page 43. which he entitled Colonia supplex, and in which he described the eight-day supplication of the people of Cologne: in it, in the fifth place, after two standard-bearers and five angels, the tomb of St. Eliphius or Elaphius, M., was carried forth. I pass over what Winheim writes of the same Blessed one in the Sacrarium Agrippinense Page 153. and in the Peregrinatio Romana Page 88..

[42] and since before the year 1789 they were kept under the High Altar, We have already mentioned a twofold translation of the Relics of St. Eliphius: a third remains to be indicated from authentic instruments: In the year of the Lord 1789, in April, under the most reverend, most illustrious and excellent Lord, the lord Adam Rosell, most worthy abbot of this monastery of Great St. Martin, the renovation, alteration, and magnificent adornment of our church was begun, on which occasion all the altars, eleven in number, were destroyed; of which only five were rebuilt, and in the year 1791, on the 10th of the month of July, were consecrated by the most reverend and most excellent Lord, the lord Karl Aloys, Count of the Holy Roman Empire of Königsegg, bishop of Myrina and suffragan of Cologne, on account of the indisposition of the most reverend lord abbot, as the schedules written below, placed in the capsules of the Relics and the sepulchres of the altars, testify:

[43] this year they were enclosed in another altar. Of the High Altar. In the year of the Lord 1791, on the 10th day of the month of July, the third Sunday after the feast of the Holy Trinity, the most reverend and most excellent Lord Karl Aloys Königsegg, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, etc., etc., consecrated this altar in honour of Saints Martin, Ursula and her Companions, and enclosed in it the authentic Relics found in the destroyed altar (there follow the names of twenty-one Saints), granting to each of the faithful of Christ visiting it today one year, and on the anniversary of this consecration forty days, of true indulgence in the customary form of the Church. — In faith — Anton Midderhoff, secretary of the suffraganate of Cologne. — N.B. This high altar had before this been consecrated by the most reverend lord Franz Spix, abbot of this monastery, in honour of St. Martin, St. Eliphius, Ursula and her Companions. — In this, therefore, nothing has been changed, except that the memory of St. Eliphius has been attached to the altar of St. Catherine. Likewise a note as to the location. — The first altar at the Gospel side, toward the sacristy, commonly the altar of St. Catherine. In the year of the Lord (as above) he consecrated this altar in honour of the Holy Cross, of Saints Eliphius, Catherine, Brigid, Wolfgang, and Maternus, and enclosed in it the authentic Relics of Saints Wolfgang, Cunibert, and other Saints found in the destroyed altar, and to each, etc., as above. N.B. This altar before this destruction had been consecrated by the most reverend Father in Christ Adam, bishop of Hierapolis, suffragan of Hildesheim, in honour of the Holy Cross and of St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr, in the year 1661, on the 4th of May; but in today's consecration the honour of St. Eliphius, Wolfgang, and Maternus has been added. The rest does not concern St. Eliphius. That there were also certain Relics of our Saint in the college of Saints Boniface and Willibrord, syntagma CIX, Gelenius teaches us, where in the Sacrum Thesaurum Page 616. he has these words: Of Eliphius, Martyr, from his head.

[44] the Cologne cult of St. Eliphius still continues; That at least at some time piety toward St. Eliphius greatly flourished at Cologne is somewhat clear from the Martyrologies of Germany written at various times, and from what we have brought together in the preceding numbers. Let another specimen of this piety be the following distich inscribed on one of the bells when it was recast (for in the year 1378 the tower had burned down):

Sum campana pii, qui nos defendet, Eliphī Anno milleno C ter L et simul X ter.

Present-day piety, however, seems not to be commended with any greater praise. Yet the altar of St. Catherine, of which I made mention in the preceding number, is now rather called the altar of St. Eliphius: at least it is honoured with this name in a more recent writing. The feast of our Saint is kept with the semidouble rite. Apart from the lesson recited at number 29, his present Office and Mass have nothing proper. That there were formerly other lessons, taken now from the anonymous biographer of St. Eliphius, now from Rupert, has been noted elsewhere. In the year 1481 this proper Prayer existed besides: Mercifully bestow upon us Thy mercy, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Blessed Martyr Eliphius interceding , and be propitiated toward us sinners by his suffrages. Through, etc.*

[45] But that of Utrecht, perhaps arisen from an error, has been suppressed. From number 33 of this Commentary, where we recited the Cologne charter, the reader has understood that about the year 1485 the people of Utrecht had persuaded themselves that the head of St. Eliphius was preserved among them. Whence it is no wonder that in the Usuard of Utrecht and of Leiden, as may be seen in our Du Sollier, the memory of St. Eliphius is made with an elogium. Nor did this persuasion cease among the people of Utrecht after the year 1485. For we have in our Museum four old Utrecht Missals; of which the one printed at Antwerp in the year 1540 announces in the Calendar at the 17th of October Florentinus the bishop, Elisius the Martyr, and Martha the Virgin, sister of Magdalen, and at the same day exhibits a proper Mass with the inscription: Of Elisius, Martyr, whose head is in the church of Utrecht. This Mass is as follows: Introit: Lætabitur justus. Psalm: Exaudi Deus. Collect: Misericordiam tuam, as at Cologne. Epistle: Justum deduxit. Gradual: Domine prævenisti. ℣. Vitam petiit. ℣. Lætabitur. Gospel: Si quis vult venire. Offertory: Gloria et honore. Secret: Receive, O Lord, we beseech Thee, the gifts graciously offered: and, the merits of Thy Blessed Martyr Elisius interceding, grant that they may come to the help of our salvation: Through. Communion: Qui vult venire. Postcommunion: May the heavenly mystery, O Lord, be to us a restoration of mind and body: that we may feel the effect of that whose action we perform. Through. Of the three remaining Missals, of which one, a manuscript, belongs to the fourteenth or fifteenth century, the second was printed in the sixteenth century, and the third is older still than this, only the last adds in its prefixed Calendar the memory of St. Eliphius to the feast of St. Gall. The Utrecht Breviary, however, printed in the year 1518, has lessons on St. Eliphius much longer than those in the old Cologne Breviaries; and they were taken from the anonymous writer of the old Passion of St. Eliphius. But the Utrecht Breviaries more recent than the year 1623 have the feast of St. Eliphius struck out. Which is less surprising, since Surius in the year 1618 made public the diploma of Hermann, archbishop of Cologne, which overturned the Utrecht tradition; unless perhaps, while they had only a particle of the head, they called it the head, as was often formerly done. I shall at once give the older Life of St. Eliphius; which, although it is fabulous, deserves to be printed chiefly on this account, that it has so often been desired by learned hagiologists.

[46] The life copied by Zonsbeck and collated with many others will be published. I copied it from a manuscript codex on which a more recent hand noted these words: *Book of the Monastery

of Great St. Martin within Cologne, written by the Rev. Father Heinrich Zonsbeeck of Cologne about the year 1480. Concerning him, Hubert of Straelen in the Necrology of his time. Heinrich himself, at the end of the Life of St. Eliphius to be published, and of the other, Rupert's, designated himself by me, Heinrich the captive. The Bibliotheca Coloniensis of Father Hartzheim testifies of him: Heinrich Zonsbeeck of Cologne, professed in the abbey of Great St. Martin of the Order of St. Benedict under the venerable Adam Mayer, a man of most excellent genius, a distinguished musician and flute-player, and a most elegant scribe. He died of dropsy in 1533, in the 76th year of his age, on the feast of Blessed Mary Magdalen, by whose present consolation he is said to have been often refreshed in his troubles. He wrote on parchment almost innumerable volumes, namely Graduals, Psalters, Missals, Breviaries, Diurnals, and others, both Latin and vernacular, comprising Lives of the Saints, Homilies of the Fathers, and ascetic Treatises, of which some survive in the Library of St. Martin, others in that of Brauweiler, several in that of Laach, some in that of St. James at Mainz, and in other places. Concerning the same, more in Hubert Holthuyzen in the manuscript catalogue of the Illustrious Men of St. Martin's. From the commentary of Oliver Legipont, a Benedictine of St. Martin's.* From these things it is clear enough that the captivity in which Heinrich writes he was bound is to be interpreted either in a pious or at least not in a bad sense. The elegance, or rather the neatness, of his writing is rightly praised. Before the Life of St. Eliphius with which I am dealing are placed several items on St. Martin: such as the Life by Severus, the Sermon of St. Martin on the Trinity, etc. After it, however, is placed the Life of St. Eliphius by Rupert. Without doubt this codex was formerly preserved in the Hagiographical Museum at Antwerp; but now it constitutes numbers 2376–2381 of the Burgundian Library at Brussels. I have collated this Life with the Gladbach, Trier, and Regensburg copies, of which I spoke in the first §, likewise with two legendaries printed in the fifteenth century, and finally with several old breviaries, which I likewise dealt with in the Commentary.

perhaps salvæ*

The people of Utrecht read intercedente*.

PASSION OF ST. ELIPHIUS, MARTYR.

From the Cologne manuscript codex, now at Brussels, collated with the Gladbach, Regensburg, and Trier manuscripts, and also with very many printed copies.

Eliphius, martyr, near Toul of the Leuci in Gaul. (S.)

BHL Number: 2481

By Julian the apostate Julian the apostate, instructed from boyhood in the divine letters of the sacred word, and moreover advancing to the honour of the subdiaconate ^a, proved a most faithless worshipper of our Lord Jesus Christ. For, without doubt the most wretched of all mortals, he forsook Christ, namely the Saviour of the faithful worshippers, and, as his deserts required, fell in with the devil, the deceiver of the human race. For, having been made Cæsar, the most impious man cruelly gave a cruel law ^b that all Christians everywhere should give up all their possessions. How great a slaughter of the worshippers of Christ, then, the most cruel tyrant made almost throughout the world, neither human tongue can declare nor the pen of any writer write. After no small space of time, the most foul tyrant, leaving Italy, caused himself to go to Gaul; with the intention, beyond doubt, of erecting idols, building temples to the demons, laying waste the churches, inviting Christians to the worship of demons either by rewards, or , if by higher counsel they despised him with his gifts, of killing them with carefully sought-out punishments.

[2] entering the district of Toul, He came therefore to a city very great in length and breadth, at that time most strongly fortified with towers and walls, named Grand ^c. At his coming the Pagans were lifted up through pride, the Jews were armed ^d through hatred and enmity; both , agreeing to persecute the Christians, were united in an incredible conspiracy. When therefore the most cruel storm of persecution, beyond doubt, was laying waste the Church of Christ everywhere in Gaul, a man glorious according to the dignity of the world ^e and, what is of greater praise, a most faithful Christian ^f, Eliphius by name, shone in the city of Toul with truly great constancy. Those who are not ignorant of his lineage say that the man full of God had four siblings, most like him in all things in every perfection of holiness ^g: namely a most holy bishop named Eucharius, who with the palm of Martyrdom was received into paradise. His most sacred body was laid in the stronghold at Liberdum ^h; and also three most chaste virgins devoted to Christ in all things, whose names it pleases us to insert in the reading. The first is called Menna, a sacred Virgin and nun, laid to rest at Porces ⁱ; the second was named Libaria, a nun and Martyr, buried in the city of Grand ^k; the third, likewise a nun and Martyr, by name Susanna ^l, was buried in Champagne *. These things having been thus briefly said of the kinsfolk of the ever-memorable holy Martyr, let us turn the course of our discourse to the critical moment of his most glorious passion.

[3] when St. Eliphius had preached with the Jews, The faithless and ever most cruel Jews, then, who persecuted Christ even to death, He without doubt willing it and coming for this very purpose, seized the most valiant soldier of Christ, I mean St. Eliphius, and put him in prison. There were indeed thirty three Christian men shut up in the same prison for the name and faith of the Saviour. It came to pass, however, by the working of divine providence, as we believe, that the thirty-three , of whom we have already spoken, went out of the prison in one night; who afterwards, remaining steadfast in the Christian faith, merited through martyrdom to possess the starry kingdoms. St. Eliphius, however, having come out of the prison, entered the city of Leocha ^m and buried his mother, who had yielded to nature. Meanwhile the athlete of Christ was being diligently sought not only by soldiers or Jews but by the kings themselves, that he might either rather sacrifice to idols or demons, or be slain by the sword. Wonderful to tell, the most valiant champion of Christ, stripped of fear, firmly armed with faith, after the example of Him who, when His passion was drawing near, offered Himself to those who sought Him, returned of his own accord and entered, namely, the city of Grand, where Julian was at that time. Having stayed there two days, he bestowed many benefits on no few sick. For as many as were held there by various ailments of their bodies, the grace of God working together with the blessed man, all received without delay the most perfect health.

[4] and had expelled a demon Still the holy man strove to apply to them more excellent gifts. For he at once took up the work of an evangelist, and preached the word of preaching to those freed from their infirmities and to other pagans present. And those who, receiving the word of God with joy, believed, were, women and little children excepted, two hundred and twenty-six in number. All of them, in short, whose breasts faith had cleansed unto justice, and confession unto salvation, the water of sacred baptism happily washed unto sanctification. The man often spoken of and ever to be spoken of, going out of that city and crossing, namely, the river Vera, came upon Jews ⁿ worshipping shrines of demons. It was the Sabbath, the feast day of the Jews. Behold what wicked things the Jews do on their Sabbaths: they despise Christ, the wisdom and power of God, and worship demons to their own perdition. The demon, therefore, who was a liar from the beginning and the father of lying itself, speaking to the Jews through images, was pouring out the responses of his deceit. For, as the deserts of their faithlessness required, they refused the oracles of the Prophets and the proclamations of the Apostles; but they willingly lent their ears to the demons. Blessed Eliphius, indeed, rebuking the demon, said: "O unhappy one, and murderer of the human race from the beginning, you seduced man, made to the image and likeness of God, and cruelly put him to death with the poison of your faithlessness." Again the Blessed one, threatening the devil in many ways, spoke thus: "Most impure demon, go to your prince: for you shall no longer have a dwelling in this image, and you shall enter it no more." The insolent demon, answering, said: "How long shall I be removed from the service of my prince who sent me here, since you do not permit me any longer in my dwelling?" The Saint, full of the grace of God, said: "Go, Satan, to your fellows who are in hell," and in that very hour the earth swallowed him up with his idols.

[5] and had converted many gentiles, Then the elect of God, about to preach the word of salvation to the pagans, standing in a higher place, said: "Wretched and mortal men, you are wrapped in many, nay in all evils , and bound, whom the devil goads on through innumerable errors, who, ignorant of the living and true God, maker of things visible and invisible, neither receive the sacraments of His faith nor adore Him. Leave, therefore, the devil, the apostate who is to be pitied. Come and believe the Creator, that you may receive the forgiveness of your sins and find everlasting rest for your souls." By these words of Eliphius, then, the Holy Spirit wonderfully illumining them , the hearers were pierced to the heart by the grace of God, and six hundred and twenty men, confessing with all devotion the Saviour of the world as true God , believed. But the women devoted to Christ had not been counted. In the name of Christ, therefore, they were baptized with great gladness and were united * with great joy to the body of Holy Church. O man truly praiseworthy in all things! apostolic in all things in signs and miracles, who bestowed perfect health on human bodies and no less granted true salvation to souls!

[6] and when a gentile had reported these things to the emperor, After these things the ancient serpent, the devil, grieving that his vessels were being snatched from him, entered one of the pagans, who diligently informed Julian of all the things that Blessed Eliphius had done by the grace of God. He took this as the beginning of his speech: "Do you not know, Julian, that one Christian, named Eliphius, has destroyed your gods, and, beyond doubt to your confusion, has reduced them to ashes? Consider, I beseech you, that he prophesies to you and your seed not prosperity but adversity, and without any fear of you boldly rebels against you and your power, and today exalts himself above you, as it were, in your own kingdom." Then the king, troubled with excessive fury, said: "If he does not with all haste adore the immortal gods, my sword shall now cut off his head." And the profane Julian, rising quickly, hastened with rapid step to the bank of the river; there he found the glorious Eliphius whom he sought. But the most constant Martyr, not fearing the coming of the emperor, ministered to all with a clear voice the words of salvation. Nor did the valiant athlete of the Saviour fear the torments of the judge, but wished through many tribulations and labours to come with the crown of martyrdom to the heavenly kingdoms. Then the king, speaking out, said *: "Eliphius, why have you cruelly scattered the gods by your discourses, and brought them to nothing by wicked incantations? But this too above all you have done, that you have taken from me a devoted people, and separated it from the worship of the gods."

[7] Gladb. St. Eliphius was seized; and when he had resisted threats, * The holy man, pre-eminent in charity, said: "Julian, accept my wholesome counsel; renounce the devil and the images of the demons; believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, true God from true God, born according to the flesh of the Virgin Mary, and you shall find forgiveness of your faults

and you shall have everlasting life in the kingdom ." The savage king, moved with great anger, said: "By the gods and goddesses I swear to you, Eliphius, unless you obey my command and restore my gods and worship those whom you have broken into small pieces, my sword shall divide your head piece by piece." The holy Martyr, answering, said: "King Julian, do not err; neither you, God helping me, nor your father the devil, who rules over you, will be able to separate me from the faith and charity of Christ. For Christ, innocent and pure without any stain of sin, mercifully suffered for us sinners. It seems indeed most just that we should die for the faith and confession of His glorious name, that we may happily rejoice with Him in eternal life." The tyrant, gnashing like a roaring lion, said to the thrice-blessed Martyr: "Bend your knees to the ground, stretch out your neck, and receive, as I foretold you, the stroke of my blade." To him the most valiant Martyr of Christ said: "I beg you, king, by the terrible name of my God, that you give me at least the space of one hour in which I may pour forth devout prayers to my Lord." And the king, although he was a most cruel pagan and a most hostile enemy of the Christian name, said to the Saint of God *: "Pour forth and stretch out your prayer, as you will."

[8] and had prepared himself for death by prayer, The precious Martyr, after he had received leave to pray, prostrated himself on the ground and, raising his voice, began his prayer thus: "Lord God almighty, who didst create heaven and earth and all things that are in them, and didst place in paradise man made to Thine image and likeness, and didst reform him after his fall, at the persuasion of the devil, through the Incarnation and Passion of Thine Only-begotten, and didst send Thy saints and elect not to the joys of this world but to labours and tribulations, hear the suppliant prayer of Thy servant, for I fear Thee alone and love Thee with all the eagerness of my heart: now for Thy name I desire to undergo not only all the torments of the flesh but death itself; command that my soul be received by the hands of the Apostles , to be placed in Thy heavenly paradise with the crown of martyrdom. To these men now , by whom I am to be slain, grant forgiveness of all their crimes, and a portion with all Thy saints in Thy kingdom; who livest and reignest, God , with Thine Only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit *, one and true God, for ever and ever."

[9] And when the faithful who were present had answered: "Amen," the most valiant Martyr of Christ rose from prayer and stood in the midst of the multitude and said: and had chosen for himself the place of his tomb, "King Julian, since I do not doubt that I am to be slain by you, I ask at least that you permit my corpse to be committed to a tomb, and grant me a place of burial." The king answered the man of God: "Whatever place you choose, in it let your tomb be made." Let it move no one that the most illustrious Martyr took care about the burial of his body. For we read that the Patriarch Jacob asked his son Joseph to bury him in the double cave, and exacted an oath from him that he would place his body in that place. Joseph also, when he was a hundred and ten years of age and was coming to death, asked the sons of Israel that, when they went out of the land of Egypt, they should carry his bones with them into the land of promise and bury him there with the other Patriarchs, that is, with his brothers. Certainly it is read in many ways, either in the books of the blessed Martyrs or in those of the holy Confessors, that they took great care [p] about their tombs. Meanwhile the most valiant athlete of Christ, lifting up his eyes and looking round about, saw from afar a mountain lofty by his merits, which today is called the mountain of St. Eliphius [q]. Then the precious Martyr, full of spiritual gladness, said to Julian: "Behold , Cæsar, you see the place in which, Christ showing it, I shall have my tomb." After this, turning to the multitude of the faithful, he said: "I admonish you who believe in Christ and adore Him that you often keep my memory, but above all on the day of my passion, and I will knock at Christ's door with prayers for your faults and frailties." Having returned to the king, Eliphius, the friend of God, wept only for great joy, not for fear of death. For he who had frequently been accustomed to offer himself of his own accord to persecutors, how could he fear torments or death? But because he ran through many punishments and despised the threats of impious men and finished his palm-bearing course, he desired with his whole heart to see Christ, and bore it heavily that he did not see Him more quickly. Let the most holy man therefore say with the Apostle Paul, let him say: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ; for it is much better ." Let him plainly say again with the same: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished a good work , I have kept the faith; therefore there is laid up for me a crown of justice."

[10] and had been tempted anew with blandishments, The crafty and profane evil counsellor Julian, whom he could not separate by threats nor break by many punishments, hastens to corrupt him with persuasive words, and tries to deceive him with vain blandishments. The cruel and savage beast, therefore, lightly burst forth into such words: "Illustrious man Eliphius, be our friend. Accept dignities and honours, gold and silver, and possess all good things that are precious to men. Then by worshipping the gods make them propitious to you, and you shall always be renowned in our kingdom." To this the Martyr of Christ answered: "Cæsar, you have been seduced by the devil, and you do not cease to seduce Christians. For you have deserted the true faith of the Christians, and defiled the sacred font of holy baptism, and denied the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the faithful, and you worship and have worshipped the devil, the seducer of the human race, to your own destruction. You use various evasions without cause: for, Christ helping me, I shall not be seduced by your promises or gifts. Therefore I say to you confidently what Blessed Peter said to Simon Magus: 'Your money and your gifts be with you unto perdition.' For you promise earthly things in order to take away heavenly ones, and you offer a transitory life in order to withdraw the eternal one, and finally, without doubt, you urge perishable joys in order to remove the things that are eternal. What therefore you are going to do, do as quickly as possible, for I never obey you, nor do I adore your idols nor your parent the devil. For I believe in and adore the true God, one in the essence of His substance , three in persons, creator and governor of the whole world, having neither beginning nor end, whose kingdom remains incorrupt for ever. I believe in the Only-begotten Son of God the Father almighty , consubstantial, coeternal, and coequal with Him, conceived in Mary by the working of the Holy Spirit, true man born of her without corruption of her virginity, crucified under Pontius Pilate, rising from the dead on the third day, ascending into the holy heavens, who in the day of judgment will judge the living and the dead and render to each according to his works." When the hateful * Julian the Apostate had heard these things, he was suddenly filled with great anger, and, having called the executioners, he commanded them to behead the magnificent Martyr Eliphius without delay.

[11] at length he was struck down by the sword, and carried his head in his hands. But the most wretched enemy of the human race, mocking, said to the acceptable victim of almighty God: "Now I shall see whether your God, whom you worship, will come and free you and make you rise and walk on your own feet [r]." The attendants indeed did as they had been commanded, and cut off the honourable head of St. Eliphius. But the Lord Jesus Christ willed to show in the passion of His Martyr with how great merit and glory He had predestined him to be in His kingdom. For all the sick who were seized with divers infirmities, running to the passion of the glorious martyr, were restored to health by his merits. Eliphius, the friend of God, was martyred, namely, in Pratum amœnum [s], which is situated on the bank of a little river whose name is the Vera. But the wonderful God glorified the Martyr dear to Him and made him wonderful to all everywhere. The body of the glorious Martyr therefore raised itself by the power of Christ, and, embracing his head with both hands, carried it for one mile, Angels accompanying and praising Christ, until it came without any stumbling to the mountain of his name. Then he went up the mountain chosen for himself long before, and, finding there a white and flat stone, as the natives of that land assert, he sat upon it *. A thing quite unwonted had now happened in the rock; the great hardness of the stone yielded to the holiness of the martyr, and, opening its own lap, it embraced the Saint in its bosom, and gave, indeed, in its own hollowness, a hollow and fit place for sitting. If anyone, which God forbid, is incredulous of the words of the one dictating, let him give credence to the signs of the stone, which does not speak. The most blessed Martyr Eliphius was buried beside that place in which the man of God, full of desire, sat [t]. Over his most sacred tomb an oratory was built by the faithful, where the benefits of miracles are bestowed on those who ask faithfully.

[12] By his intercession the Christians gain the victory. The mountain on which St. Eliphius was buried lies midway between Frumentosa [u] and Grand, six miles distant from each, having the city of Toul to the north and Grand to the south. It is pleasing to recall to mind at the end of the work how God willed speedily to avenge the injury of His servant. For He promised to His faithful, and Himself faithfully fulfilled: "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay." When, therefore, the passion of the most illustrious Martyr had been consummated, the sun was going to its setting after its manner, night gradually succeeding the day. Meanwhile a battle arose between the Christians and pagans, and a very bloody slaughter of men was carried out. For the faithful, aided by the merits of the magnificent Martyr, the infidels having been conquered by the gift of Christ, gloriously obtained the victory [v]. The bodies of the slain pagans, further, the Christians threw into the river often named before. Let holy Cologne, I beseech, venerate Eliphius, who is to be venerated; let it love the Patron destined for it by God *; let it provide him for itself as advocate in this life, that it may firmly have him as defender here and in the future. The most venerable Martyr Eliphius suffered, indeed, on the 17th day before the Kalends of November [x], under Julian the apostate and tyrant, but in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

the youths, he retained the same doctrine. Fearing Constantius, however, who through fear of usurpation was killing his own kinsmen, he was enrolled in the number of the Lectors, and recited the sacred books to the people in the church assemblies. I pass over the Greek text. Socrates Scholasticus declares the same things more broadly Ecclesiastical History, book III, chapter I.. In volume III of the Observationes selectæ ad rem litterariam spectantes*, printed at Halle in Magdeburg, it is denied that Julian was a Lector: but the whole ninth observation, in which this view prevails, must be banished altogether among the paradoxes. See the Trévoux memoirs of the year 1708 Volume I, page 448., where this new criticism, attacking all the records of history, is deservedly overthrown: the reason or pretext for the author of this observation's denying that Julian was ordained Lector is that no one in those times was promoted to this order before the twentieth year of age. But surely the moderns of the eighteenth century are not to be listened to, when there are at hand writers of a much more ancient age narrating things done in their own times, such as St. Gregory Nazianzen, Sozomen, Socrates, Theodoret, etc.

p. On the care of burials, both their own and others', taken by the Patriarchs, let the reader consult Sponde on cemeteries, book I, chapter V. The same author below begins a whole chapter on the solicitude of the Martyrs, before and after their passion, about their burial; you have Confessors mixed in there.

q. This mountain, adorned with a church sacred to St. Eliphius, was spoken of at number 17 of the preliminary Commentary.

r. Whatever words are ascribed to Julian are altogether foreign to his character. Emphatic threats and promises of this kind have been unjustly regarded by Tillemont as arguments of fiction when the most atrocious persecutors are in question; but they may rightly be so regarded when the question is of Julian.

s. This meadow lies at the foot of the old Solimariaca, now Soulosse; about which more especially in Father Benedict Histoire de Toul, pages 13 and 150.. Solimariaca is separated from the Mount or Village of St. Eliphius only by the stream Vera.

t. For more on the cephalophore Martyrs, as they are called, see the commentary on St. Bolonia, where this kind of miracle is somewhat weakened. The old German Life, which I mentioned at number 4, and which is the best of all, altogether omits this miracle and others which follow.

u. All the geographers, or writers on the district of Toul, whom it has been possible to employ, agree in saying that Frumentosa is the village which is now called Fruse. But this village is not six miles distant from the Mount of St. Eliphius, but not even half a league, and is certainly much nearer to this mountain than Grand is. All the codices, however, have: The mountain … lies midway between Frumentosa and Grand, six miles distant from each. It is therefore much more probable that another place is indicated here, which I reckon to be Framont, lying near Vicherey.

v. In the preliminary Commentary, number 5, we have already noted that this whole ending is absent from the codex of St. Maximin of Trier.

x. All the Lives agree in assigning the slaying of the holy Martyr to the 16th day of October, or of the month of St. Remigius, as the German Life puts it. As to the year, however, the writers waver much, turning about between the year 350 and the year 363. For what reason we referred the martyrdom of St. Eliphius at the beginning of the Commentary to about the year 362 was explained at length in § II.

Regensburg and Gladbach: ubique*

* In the Cologne codex this phrase is omitted.

elsewhere exarare*

read paululum*

in place of vel, Gladbach and Regensburg ut*

Gladbach and Regensburg viri*

elsewhere better copulati*

* which Regensburg omits

Regensburg and Gladbach in urbe fulsit*

Regensburg societatis*

Regensburg castro*

Regensburg tumulata*.

Regensburg adds et*

Regensburg adds viri*

fortiter* is lacking in Gladbach

Gladbach ab, Regensburg et*

Regensburg utrum*

Regensburg utrum*

Regensburg ducentium*

Regensburg exiens*

Regensburg adds in littore*

supply ait* from Surius.

Regensburg quia*

Gladbach ero*

Regensburg adds esse*

Regensburg gratia Dei*

* lacking in Regensburg

Regensburg unum*

Regensburg ejus sacramenta*

elsewhere mirabiliter*; which is better.

Regensburg Eliphium*

Regensburg Dominum*

Regensburg adjuncti*

Regensburg dixit*

* Which Gladbach places before.

Regensburg adds cœlorum*

Regensburg adds et*

Regensburg possim*

Gladbach esset*

Regensburg and Gladbach omit Dei*

Regensburg terramque*

Regensburg jube meam*

Regensburg Angelorum*

Regensburg autem*

Regensburg omits tuis*

Regensburg omits Deus*

Regensburg Spiritu Sancto*

Regensburg quia*

Gladbach adds insuper*

Regensburg certe*

Regensburg quia*

Gladbach adds a Deo præordinatum*

Regensburg Ecce,*

Regensburg montem cernis ipsum*

Regensburg semper*

Regensburg Eliphius, Dei*

elsewhere percurrit*

Regensburg adds et*

multum enim melius* is lacking elsewhere.

Regensburg cursum*

Gladbach; for the rest, Regensburg omits ideo*

read tentat*

Regensburg Tantum*

Regensburg, omitting essentia, has in sua substantia*

Regensburg omits omnipotentis*

Regensburg adds Deo*

Regensburg sanctissimi*

Regensburg adds erat, Gladbach est*

* This phrase is somewhat confused in Regensburg

Regensburg adds sibi*