Magnobod

ON ST. MAGNOBOD, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, AT ANGERS IN GAUL,

ABOUT THE YEAR 660.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Magnobod, bishop and confessor, at Angers. (S.)

BY J. V. H.

§ I. The memory of the Saint; his cult.

St. Magnobod, whom Ado and Usuard pass over, Angers, formerly of the province of Anjou, now of the prefecture which takes its name from the rivers Maine and Loire (Maine-et-Loire), had very many bishops distinguished for sanctity and miracles: among whom St. Magnobod also comes to be numbered, whom the ancients called Magnebodus or Magnobonus (in French St. Maimbeuf or Maimbeu). The name of this Saint does not occur in the Roman Martyrology; the genuine Ado and Usuard are also silent about him: yet his cult cannot for that reason be called into doubt. For Molanus records our Saint in his Auctaria to Usuard in these words: At Angers, of Saint Magnobod, bishop and confessor, who in the time of Dagobert shone far and wide by his life and signs. Which last words are to be so understood that they say indeed that St. Magnobod embraced the whole age of Dagobert I, but at the same time indicate that the holy bishop long preceded that same king and survived him a long time: otherwise Molanus would have to be charged with the error of falsely insinuating that the beginning of St. Magnobod's episcopate is to be tied to the reign of Dagobert, as will be demonstrated more fully below.

[2] [is nevertheless celebrated in various Martyrologies and in the Breviary of Angers.] The cult of the Saint, moreover, is proven by the Calendars of the Church of Angers, and by the twofold Life of the Saint, written in the twelfth century at the latest, as we shall see below. And both biographers speak of St. Magnobod in such a way that they describe him as distinguished for virtues and miracles, and celebrated by the concourse of peoples. The Martyrology of Auxerre of the year 1751 announces the feast of the Saint in the following words: At Angers, of Saint Magnobod, bishop, who wrote the Life of Blessed Maurilius his predecessor, that by his example he might more vehemently stir up himself and his people to piety. The author had taken the mention of the Saint, as he says below in a note, from the Paris Martyrology and that of D. Chastelain, and the Calendars of the Church of Angers. And in fact, to pass over the Martyrology of D. Chastelain, which only attaches to the holy bishop's name that a collegiate church exists under his invocation in the suburb, the Paris Martyrology of the year 1727 has this worth noting, that it records that notable Relics of the Saint rest at Paris: At Angers, it says, of Saint Magnobod, bishop, a notable part of whose head is venerated at Saint-Magloire in the suburb. The Martyrology of Évreux, published by order of Pierre de Rochechouart in the year 1752, commemorates our Saint in these words: At Angers, of Saint Magnobod, bishop, who, having written the Life of Saint Maurilius, displayed in his morals the form of him whose virtues he had commended to letters. Let the crowning place, finally, be the Breviary of Angers itself, which in the year 1623 Charles Miron (who, having resigned the see in the year 1616, resumed it in the year 1622 on the death of Guillaume Fouquet) published after the form of the Roman, with the rule that all should recite it privately and publicly: yet the Roman, he says in the letter prefixed, we always except in private prayers. This Breviary, then, reports the name of St. Magnobod in its litanies among the Holy Pontiffs, and announces his Office on the Ides (15th) of October under double rite. The prayer is taken from the Common of a Confessor Pontiff: May Blessed Magnobod, thy Confessor and Pontiff, gladden us, O Lord, by his solemnity, and, supplicating thee for us, be heard more abundantly. Through our Lord. And since the same Breviary contains a compendious Life of our Saint, it will not be unwelcome to present it here to readers.

[3] From this Breviary a synopsis of his life, Lesson I. Magnobod was born in the district of Angers of a Christian and illustrious family. Having given from infancy no obscure signs of future sanctity, he was given over to the study of letters and devoted himself wholly to pious works. Thus he easily became known to Saint Licinius, then bishop of Angers: who, perceiving the highest virtue in the youth, initiated him with the clerical tonsure, exercised him in ecclesiastical offices, and at length, consecrated to the priestly order, set him over the monastery of Colonetum. And when Licinius wished to dedicate the basilica of Saint John the Baptist built by him, he treated through Magnobod with the supreme Pontiff, that he would send him Relics from his body for that purpose. While Magnobod was at Rome, ordered by the supreme Pontiff to chant a lesson in the church, he carried on from memory to the end, by divine power, the one begun from the book, when certain of the clerics, envying his virtue, had put out the lamp. Lesson II. Kindly dismissed by the Pontiff with the Relics of Saint John the Baptist, he returned to Angers. There, Licinius having died, when he had refused the episcopate offered him, on the death of Licinius's successor he was elected in his place by the votes of all orders, only two canons, Ambrulph and Leobald, protesting, who straightway, God avenging, were bereft of the right eye. Having undertaken the episcopate, he was intent with his whole mind on the salvation of his people, and had care above all of the poor. Assiduously given to prayer and the reading of the Sacred Scriptures, he restrained his flesh with hair-shirt, vigils and fasts. The holy days of Lent he passed in a little cell, content with a scanty measure of bread and water. Messengers whom the abbot Heracleus had suborned for a price, under show of friendship, to administer poison to him, he received kindly at table when they came to him: and having admonished them concerning their salvation, and given them the kiss of peace, he dismissed them without harm. Lesson III. To the sanctity of his life was added an admirable power of healings. For he is written to have enlightened many blind persons: he freed three possessed persons from the assault of the demon: he drove away grave diseases from many. He was present at the Synod of Reims celebrated by Sonnatius, bishop of that see. He wrote the life of Saint Maurilius in a plain and simple style, in the year, as he himself testifies in the preface, the tenth of his ordination, the thirty-third of the reigning Clothar the Second. He built the church of Saint Saturninus, and established brethren there under a rule, who should care for the poor, the sick and the pilgrims arriving: and he assigned to them the revenues and buildings necessary for that matter. At length, old age pressing on, seized with fever, when he had exhorted his people with most weighty words to the observance of the divine precepts and to charity, praying with hands raised to heaven he rendered his spirit to God on the seventeenth before the Kalends of November. His body was laid, as he himself had ordered while living, in the church of Saint Saturninus, which today is called the memorial of Magnobod.

[4] and his cult is related. Thus the Breviary of Angers. This is not the place to discuss more accurately what is found in the legend; since in the rest of the Commentary they will be called to examination: let it suffice here to have shown a synopsis of the holy bishop's life, which proves at the same time in what honour he was once held among the people of Angers. Today, so far as I can make out from the liturgical ordo of the year 1837, St. Magnobod is venerated in the same diocese with semi-double or simple rite, and indeed on the day before the Ides (14th) of October. And the reason why St. Magnobod is not venerated at Angers on the day of his death, namely the 17th before the Kalends of November, seems to be that, since formerly the Apparition of St. Michael on Mont-Tombe was venerated on the 16th day of October, it was necessary to anticipate the feast of St. Magnobod by one day: but at present, the feast of St. Teresa falling on the Ides of October, the festivity has been anticipated by yet another day, that is, to the 14th of October.

[5] St. Magnobod had two biographers; of Marbod, the more recent, The Acts of St. Magnobod were written by two authors, of whom the former, anonymous, was contemporary with the Saint: the other was Marbod, from archdeacon of Angers bishop of Rennes from the year 1096 to 1123. He, in a more polished style and with a contracted narration of the several miracles, followed the biography of the Anonymous: and on that account we judge that Marbod's composition is to be omitted; although perhaps both the learning and sanctity of that most upright man, and also the very rarity of the work, might urge otherwise, inasmuch as it is found, so far as I know, only in the collection of all Marbod's works appended by Antoine Beaugendre to the edition of Hildebert of Le Mans. Marbod was born in the district of Angers, as his epitaph composed by Ulger of Angers, a contemporary, shows: He was born of the Angevins, whose glory he was: wrongly therefore John Pits in the work On the Illustrious Writers of England p. 185, and those who followed him, Fabricius and others, call him a Breton or a Cambro-Briton. He had as father Robert Pelliciarius, as is established from the Cartulary of St. Aubin of Angers Morice, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la Bretagne, vol. I, p. 455; and indeed from a leading family among the people of Anjou, if the conjecture of Antoine Beaugendre holds, on Epistle 3, Book II, of Hildebert of Le Mans Works of Hildebert, col. 79, note d, in which it is said of Marbod: Fear of you and of yours has lain upon them (the canons of Angers), and while the person is accused, the whole kindred is suspected. By which words certainly, if they are to be understood of Marbod, the supreme power of his family is manifestly insinuated. The remaining things which pertain to Marbod the monks of St. Aubin set forth excellently when they announce his death by encyclical letter and implore prayers for him. As far as they regard Marbod, we subjoin a fragment of it from the Thesaurus Anecdotorum, where many other things occur concerning him Martène, Thesaurus Anecdotorum, vol. I, col. 355.

[6] a brief Life To all the sons of the one most holy Church, these things are read there, the humble congregation of Blessed Albinus, bishop of the Angevins, wishes full victory over the enemy, and the crown of victory. Apostolic authority instructs us that, praying for one another, we bear one another's burdens, and so we shall fulfil the law of Christ. Striving, then, we servants of Christ, to fulfil the law of Christ with pious solicitude, we announce to you the death of the lord Marbod, venerable bishop, ever to be remembered with praise, eloquent of tongue, pre-eminent in religion, distinguished in uprightness, most learned in the erudition of letters, whose speech was always seasoned with salt, and from whose mouth there always flowed discourse sweeter than all honey; and although at that same time all Gaul resounded with various studies, he, the king of orators, held specially the citadel of Gallic eloquence. For on the third day before the Ides of September, weakened in the flesh but stronger in spirit, departing from the world, living in Christ, he bereaved us of his presence, and, wounding us with the dart of his love, wore us out with intolerable grief. Who, after long exercises in the liberal studies flourishing far and wide, in which he shone most effectively in the city of Angers, of which he was a most famous and most renowned master, chosen by the most reverend

Pope Urban (II), in the council of Tours Year 1096, he was ordained, the Lord assenting, bishop of the holy see of the Church of Rennes. Which dignity, or rather burden, girt with the sword of the Holy Spirit, although among barbarians and men armed with a certain natural ferocity, governing faithfully and prudently for twenty-eight years, he subdued the necks of the proud by the censure of justice, and, by arguing, beseeching, rebuking, pacified those at variance.

[7] is handed down: And at length, worn out by long old age, full of days, in holy confession, as was said before, he rested in the Lord. About to enter, then, upon the way of all flesh, and foreseeing that death was near, laying down the pontifical burden, he took up the habit and humility of Most Holy Benedict, and, professed as a monk, gave himself to Blessed Albinus; and so unburdened, himself poor, he followed the poor Christ. Before, indeed, like Martha, he was anxious and occupied about many things, but now, like another Mary, recognising that one thing is necessary, he chose the best part, which shall not be taken from him… For the rest, because the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the mind that muses upon many things, and no one is clean from stain, not even the infant whose life upon earth is of one day, we ask and beseech your charity, most beloved to us, by the bowels of the mercy of our God, that you pour forth prayers to the Lord for them (namely Marbod and Gerard the monk), and set the shields of your prayers against all things opposing them. We admonish besides that you entirely cut off the vanities of the vain and the dirges of trifles, lest what has been very usefully instituted bear the mark of levity. For we ask for vows of prayers that will profit souls, not trappings of words, which profit the dead nothing and are wont very much to harm the living; since it is written that we shall render account for every idle word. Thus the monks of Angers concerning Marbod, with whom the contemporaries who wrote of him agree; as may be seen in the prefatory notice of Antoine Beaugendre to the little works of Marbod which he subjoined to the works of Hildebert of Le Mans. Whence it is not wonderful that du Saussay wove an elogium of the bishop of Rennes in his Gallican Martyrology at the 11th day of September.

[8] the older biographer seems to be a contemporary: The other Life of St. Magnobod, written by an Anonymous, which we shall publish below, is older, inasmuch as Marbod followed it more concisely and elegantly, yet closely, as is sufficiently established from the series of deeds related by both in the same order. Indeed very many of his words clearly demonstrate that the author was contemporary with our Saint. For among the miracles which St. Magnobod did while living he recites three of which the writer himself says he was a witness. The first is of two blind girls healed by the Saint, which begins with these words at no. 31: If, then, the things which we have learned by the report of another are confessed as true, without doubt those things ought not to be judged frivolous which we have beheld with our own eyes. He then narrates that the girls, brought to the bishop, were healed by the application of oil and prayers. The second miracle is of a woman likewise blind and restored to sight, concerning whom the Anonymous says at no. 47: Let us tell, then, that also which we can testify and maintain without the fabrication of falsehood. The Anonymous relates no other miracles, as he himself says at no. 18, than those which have been ascertained by the report of many; since, then, he says here that he can testify and maintain the miracle without the fabrication of falsehood, this is as much as if he himself had again been an eye-witness of the prodigy. The third miracle, finally, by which a woman likewise blind, dumb and paralytic was freed, he narrates in such a way that he himself was present at the prodigy, no. 38: And we judge that this also ought not to be omitted, which was done in our presence. All these things plainly establish that the Anonymous was contemporary with St. Magnobod: whence credence is not easily to be withdrawn from his narrative.

[9] a twofold objection is discussed, the one regarding the time of his birth, They object, however, against his authority, that it is maintained by him that St. Magnobod was born while the war was raging between Clothar and the kings Theodebert of Austrasia and Theoderic of Burgundy; and moreover that the beginning of St. Magnobod's episcopate is joined by him with the reign of Dagobert I; and from both objections they conclude that his testimony can be called into doubt, or certainly that his writing has not come down to us without interpolation. What truth underlies these charges we must examine; and as regards the former, here are the words of the Anonymous: His parents, very conspicuous according to the genealogy of human lineage, held no mean place of dignity among their fellow-citizens, living under the authority of Lothar, son of Chilperic, who, being still within the years of adolescence, was carrying on strife with his kinsmen, namely Theoderic and Theodebert, hailstorms of enmities having arisen on every side. Which words do not absolutely signify that St. Magnobod was born in the time of Clothar II, although Marbod so interpreted them when he says he was born while Lothar, son of Chilperic, was reigning among the Franks: but they can also indicate that his birthplace belonged to the kingdom of Clothar, afterwards king of all Francia. Unless, therefore, the Anonymous said these things not so much to set some epoch before the birth of St. Magnobod as to designate more accurately Neustria as belonging to Clothar, his words, in so far as they indicate the time of the Saint's birth, cannot be reconciled with the rest of his history. For a threefold war broke out between these kings, as Fredegar witnesses, chapters 17, 20, 25 D. Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens de France, vol. II, pp. 420 and 422: first, Clothar himself, his mother Fredegund leading, invaded the Austrasian dominion in the year 596 and inflicted a grave defeat on the brothers Theodebert and Theoderic: again in the year 600 the two brothers, with joined arms, attacked Clothar, and, his army being cut down, wrested from him part of the district of the Gâtinais: finally in the year 604 they crushed Clothar, who was of his own accord stirring up war, and drove him to terms of peace at Compiègne. If, then, we interpret the Anonymous as if he wished to indicate the time of St. Magnobod's birth, it would be necessary to say that he was born between the year 596 and the year 604, as ours insinuated at the 13th day of February in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Licinius, no. 7 Vol. II of February, p. 676, the opinion, which in fact regards this place, not yet having been called to the balance.

[10] as if he had been born in the year 596, But Le Cointe rightly rejects this opinion in his Annals At the year 698, §3: Who would believe, he says, that Magnobod was not brought into the light before the year of Christ five hundred and ninety-six, in which Clothar invaded the kings Theodebert and Theoderic, or had scarcely completed the ninth year of his age in the year of Christ six hundred and five, in which Bishop Licinius passed to God? If Magnobod was born while civil war was raging, when the king of Neustria was experiencing the kings of Austrasia and Burgundy as enemies, he seems to have been born in the year of Christ five hundred and seventy-four, in which Sigebert, king of Austrasia, and Guntram, king of Burgundy, struck a treaty against Chilperic, king of Neustria, as we related from Gregory of Tours [History of the Franks, book IV, chapter 50, in D. Bouquet, Recueil, vol. II, p. 229]. This is not the place to inquire more laboriously into the year of death of St. Licinius, which will have to be treated afterwards in a suitable place; but whatever may be said of this opinion, this is certain, that St. Magnobod ascended the cathedra of Angers at the latest in the year 609, as will be demonstrated below: how then could the time of his birth be joined with the year 596? for Magnobod would scarcely have completed the thirteenth year of his age when he took up the episcopal burden.

[11] which cannot be reconciled with the rest Add to these that the same man as it were rehearsed for the pontificate when he was a sharer in all the counsels of St. Licinius, as the Anonymous expressly asserts at no. 3, and Marbod; whose fragments we prefer to cite, lest the Anonymous be repeated: As time went on, says Marbod Beaugendre, Works of Hildebert, col. 1492, he advanced him through the ecclesiastical grades to the priesthood, judging him surely worthy with whom he ought to share the care of his solicitude, and by whose counsel he might be extricated from the ambiguities of emerging difficulties: for there was lacking to him neither prudence, by which to measure the issues of things, nor constancy, by which to carry out fearlessly what had been well foreseen. Distinguished in chastity, lofty in humility, spread wide in charity, he was able, even with tongue silent, his life speaking, to show the doctrine of morals to those beneath him. But neither did he lack the sweetness of eloquence, nor abundance of things to say, by which he might change the hearts of his hearers from the love of this world to desiring heavenly things rather. For these causes, then, the holy bishop committed to him the monastery of Colonetum to be ruled, so that both the flock of brethren, provoked by the example of their ruler, instructed by his doctrine, kindled by his exhortation, might advance to better things, and he himself, as it were rehearsing in lesser things, might be rendered more practised and fitter by that very use for disposing greater things afterwards. In which stewardship he showed himself so faithful and prudent that he sufficiently ministered to the household of the Lord, over which he had been set, the necessaries of body and soul, and of holy progress he bore before him not his own praise but the glory of the Lord himself. After these things St. Magnobod is sent to Rome to obtain Relics of the Saints from the Pope; and at length, another bishop after Licinius having died, St. Magnobod ascends the see of Angers. Who would not say it is absurd that a youth accomplished all these things before completing the fourteenth year of his age?

[12] chronology: Rightly, therefore, is this epoch, insinuated, as they will have it, by the Anonymous at no. 1, rejected, since it cannot be reconciled with the facts related above. But whether all things are more happily reconciled by the conjecture of Le Cointe we shall examine below, when we inquire into the year of the Saint's birth. It must therefore be said either that these things are said by the Anonymous, as we have already said by way of preface, concerning Clothar, in so far as his reign in Neustria is designated, or that his text has been interpolated here; for a writer whom we have shown to be contemporary could not err so shamefully concerning the history of his own time: although I should not easily admit an interpolation in this place, since the Anonymous simply maintains that the parents of St. Magnobod lived under the authority of Lothar, son of Chilperic, that is, in the kingdom of Neustria.

[13] [the other objection, that the beginning of his episcopate is reconciled with the reign of Dagobert.] But there is another error, much more certain, into which the Anonymous at no. 5 and Marbod, who followed him Ibid., col. 1494, fell. For both say that Magnobod occupied the cathedra of Angers with the consent of the renowned king of the Franks Dagobert, son of Lothar; which again cannot be reconciled with the history of our Saint. For it is certain, as we have already said, that his ordination as bishop cannot be put off beyond the year 609: since, then, Dagobert I first received the kingdom of Austrasia in the year 622, and moreover the city of the Angevins, inasmuch as it was in Neustria, did not belong to the said king before the year 628, it becomes evident that an error crept in upon the writer; which, since it cannot be attributed to a contemporary, seems to be ascribed either to the drowsiness or to the presumption of some amanuensis. For the rest, that both errors existed in very ancient manuscripts is established even from this, that Marbod's narrative also

is sprinkled with these errors. But however much the text of the Anonymous suffers detriment in its integrity through anachronisms of this kind, they are not so great that we should deny credence to the Anonymous in the rest. These things concerning the cult and Acts of Saint Magnobod being set forth, we proceed to other matters.

§ II. The time and place of the birth of Saint Magnobod; his promotion to Sacred Orders; his headship of the monastery of Colonetum.

The year of the Saint's birth is not to be set at 584; In what precedes it was proven that the time of birth taken from the Anonymous cannot be reconciled with the rest of the chronology of St. Magnobod's life. Marbod indeed says that the Saint was born while Lothar, son of Chilperic, was reigning among the Franks, so that it would be permissible to put the time of the Saint's birth eleven or twelve years earlier: for he could be said to have been born in the year 584, whereas some will have it that the Anonymous assigned the year 596. But neither does this anticipation of twelve years sufficiently remove the difficulty which arises from the time at which he took up the episcopate. Suppose St. Magnobod was indeed twelve years further advanced in age in the year 609, in which he was made bishop: yet we shall reach only the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year of his life. But this age, according to the discipline of the Church then in force, and especially in the Gauls, was not suitable for undertaking the dignity of priest or bishop, for which thirty completed years were required, as is established from canon 1 of the Fourth Council of Arles of the year 524 Labbe, vol. IV of the Councils, col. 1622: Let no bishop presume to ordain a deacon before he completes 25 years. But let no layman receive the honour of the episcopate or of the priesthood before a prior conversion, or before thirty years of age. And these things are enacted, as the same canon has it, because in the ordaining of clerics the statutes of the ancient fathers are known not to have been observed entirely, as is expedient. By which words surely it is indicated that it is a question here of a discipline then universally admitted. If, therefore, St. Magnobod was born while Clothar, son of Chilperic, was reigning, that is, not earlier than the year 584, it would follow that he ascended the episcopal cathedra at scarcely completed twenty-five years of age; which, as contrary to the ecclesiastical discipline then in force, if it had happened on account of his remarkable endowments, the contemporary author would probably not have passed over in silence Compare vol. I of October, Life of St. Leodegar, p. 366, no. 46 and following.

[15] but the year 574: These being rejected, therefore, there remains the opinion of Le Cointe adduced above at no. 10, by which he judges that, if St. Magnobod was born while civil war was raging, his birth is rather to be referred to the year 574, in which Chilperic, king of Neustria, experienced as adversaries the kings Sigibert of Austrasia and Guntram of Burgundy. In this opinion we have St. Magnobod passing the thirty-sixth year of his age, and accordingly already ripe for the episcopal office: wherefore, every other indication by which the time of the Saint's birth might be more accurately pointed out being lacking, we must follow the opinion of Le Cointe. A scruple, however, is still raised by the words of the Anonymous at no. 4, in which, after he had narrated that Magnobod, a man of sanctity to be revered, promoted to the ministry of the ecclesiastical order (the priesthood), was sent as legate to Rome, he proceeds: These things being thus accomplished, and the courses of many years having rolled by, St. Licinius dies, and in his place, another bishop, however, intervening, St. Magnobod is elected. These courses of many years, I say, seem to have intervened between the Saint's Roman legation and his pontificate: and hence again we are constrained on account of the age of thirty-five years: for if, made priest in his thirty-first year, he is sent to Rome, how can it be said that St. Magnobod undertook the episcopal office after the courses of many years had rolled by? But these courses of many years do not seem to be referred to the deeds of St. Magnobod, but to the old age of St. Licinius, so that the sense of the Anonymous is: after Licinius had built the monastery of St. John the Baptist and, as the years went on, had come to old age, he began to fall ill. By the help of this interpretation the difficulty vanishes, and nothing seems to stand in the way of our saying that St. Magnobod was born about the year 574.

[16] the day of his birth was the festival of the Epiphany. The Anonymous also noted at no. 1 that St. Magnobod was born on the day of the Epiphany, the 6th of January, in these words: As we have ascertained by careful inquiry, the beginning of his birth took place fresh on the very day of the Epiphanies… and at the very concert of cock-crow, by which the little fire of the coming day is not doubted to be announced, the maternal womb brought forth the Saint into the world. The place too of the Saint's birth is indicated after a fashion when the Anonymous says at no. 2: And so, when the aforesaid parents (of St. Magnobod) were eager to carry him to the laver of regeneration for washing away the original contagions of sins, the confined river Loire cut the passage which afforded the means of going to the basilica; and when they wished to cross the course of the said river with the help of a boat, etc. From these words St. Magnobod seems to have been born across the Loire, since his parents could not reach the basilica in which he was to be baptised except by crossing this river. Whence I cannot approve the opinion of those who say that the Saint was born in the city of Angers itself, and indeed add the name of the street, namely of the Tanners (rue des Tanneurs) Godard, Histoire de l'Anjou, p. 171. The matter would become clearer if the meaning of the word Basilica among the authors of those times were certain: Jean Mabillon in the Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti Book VII, §7, vol. I, p. 161, Lucca edition doubts whether Gregory of Tours ever called episcopal or cathedral churches by the name of basilica, which, he says, he is wont to distinguish by the name of senior churches or simply of churches. Yet Hadrien de Valois, whom Mabillon himself praised splendidly for his excellent disquisition on Basilicas Book V, §28, ibid., p. 114, shows Disceptatio de Basilicis, chapter 2, p. 11, Paris edition of 1657 that the cathedral church also is sometimes called a Basilica by Gregory. Indeed, what properly makes for our matter, the Anonymous himself at no. 9 indiscriminately calls a church what he had a little before called a basilica. Hence it may be that the basilica to which the little boy Magnobod was being carried to be baptised was the cathedral church of Angers itself.

[17] Piously brought up, he is initiated into Sacred Orders by St. Licinius, St. Magnobod had parents distinguished in nobility, as the Anonymous has it at no. 1, with whom Marbod agrees, saying Beaugendre, Works of Hildebert, col. 1491: Magnobod sprang from the territory of Angers… of Christian parents, whom a conspicuous lineage and the dignity of honours exalted among their fellow-citizens. Neither biographer, however, designates our Saint's family more accurately. As his age advanced, to proceed with the Anonymous at no. 3, the aforementioned parents, perceiving the generous disposition of their son, determined to imbue him with the sacred studies of letters. This destination to sacred studies, however, Magnobod did not so receive from his parents as if the matter were done by their sole choice; but, as Marbod says in the place cited, because the faith of his parents, stirred by certain signs, had decreed that he should be given over to divine service, and the heavenly order of providence was disposing that he should be set over the Church of Christ. And so, become a youth, he began to be exercised in more ample studies of virtues, and, not suffering his age, prone to worse things, to be corrupted by shameful luxury or idle leisure, he subjected himself to strict laws of abstinence, so that he indulged nothing to the belly, nothing to sleep, except so much as the necessity of nature demanded. He was continually free for prayer or reading, so that he let no interval of time be lost without spiritual progress. When these things had come to the knowledge of Blessed Licinius the bishop, whose wonderful sanctity was esteemed among the bishops of Gaul at that time, he rejoiced at the largess of the divine gifts, called the young man to himself, tonsured him according to ecclesiastical custom, and, assigning him to clerical offices, ordered him to serve as a recruit of already proven virtue in the camp of Christ. Presently, as time went on, he advanced him through the ecclesiastical grades to the priesthood. If the epoch of the Saint's birth were certain, which we called above, at no. 15, somewhat probable, then on account of the age of thirty years required for the order of the priesthood, St. Magnobod's ordination could be referred to the year of Christ 603.

[18] and he is set over the monastery of Colonetum: although Perceiving, then, says the Anonymous at no. 3, the holy bishop Licinius, his (Magnobod's) industry and the wonderful intention of his mind, determined that he should stand for a while in a higher grade and that he should keep him by him, that he might be his helper in all things, and that by his examples the others might become emulators. For he set him as father over the holy congregation which served Christ in the monastery of Colonetum, that, like a lamp placed on the top of the candlestick, he might illuminate the others the more by the brightness of his light, and by the teaching of divine admonition present a pattern to those obedient to him. Marbod also writes Ibid., col. 1492 that the monastery of Colonetum was committed by St. Licinius to Magnobod to be ruled. This monastery, long since destroyed, our Bolland at the 13th day of February Vol. II of February, p. 679, note c suspects was situated where there is now the prefecture of Chalonnes and an old castle, on the river Loire, four leagues below Angers, on the road to Nantes. From these words of both biographers, then, it is clear that he was set over the monastery of Colonetum; but it is not equally clear by what title he possessed this headship. For in the rest of the Life, whether we consider what precedes or what follows, the monkhood of St. Magnobod is touched on by no word. This headship of the monastery of Colonetum was nevertheless the reason why Hugues Ménard in his Martyrology at the 17th day before the Kalends of November, and Antonio de Heredia in the Benedictine Hagiology written in Spanish under the 17th day of October, numbered our Saint as a pupil of the Order of St. Benedict. A certain probability is added to this opinion by the fact that the monastery of Glanfeuil, from which the other monasteries of the Benedictine institute afterwards came forth, was situated on the Loire near the Angevins, as Mabillon has it in the Annales Benedictini Book V, §10, vol. I, p. 106, Lucca edition. But this reason is not such as moved Mabillon to enrol St. Magnobod among the genuine Benedictines. For in the Acta SS. Ordinis S. Benedicti Second century, Prolegomena, p. 58, after he had said of the Saints whom he judged should be passed over that he had marked with an asterisk * those who seemed genuine Benedictines, no such sign exists at the name of St. Magnobod: rightly, therefore, may it be inferred that Mabillon did not hold our Saint as a genuine Benedictine.

[19] he does not seem to have been a monk, And in fact nothing, as we have already said, occurs in either Life of St. Magnobod by which his monkhood could be confirmed: indeed the contrary is rather insinuated, namely that he was enrolled as a cleric of the Church of Angers. For the Anonymous says in the place cited: He (St. Licinius) determined that he should stand for a while in a higher grade and keep him by him, that he might be his helper in all things: indeed I judge that these words are to be so understood that Magnobod, standing for a while, that is, for a time, in a higher grade, proved himself to the bishop and the rest of the clergy, and was then held by all worthy to be kept by the bishop with him and made his helper in all things. And if the sayings of the Anonymous are to be taken in this sense, it is sufficiently apparent that Magnobod was not a monk in any

monastery: and accordingly that he could by no right be enrolled among the Saints of the Benedictine order. Then, in neither Life is he called abbot of the monastery of Colonetum, but prefect or ruler, in so far perhaps as, since there was then a priest among the monks of Colonetum, Magnobod, already distinguished with the grade of the priesthood, directed them in the way of salvation and perfection by his words and examples.

[20] but a priest set over the monastery, For although at that time monk-priests were frequent, it is nevertheless not to be denied that there then existed also monasteries of monks destitute of the comfort of a priest. Two examples meet us in the letters of St. Gregory the Great which show that a monastery sometimes existed without a priest. Thus St. Gregory, having removed the clerics who neglected the divine offices in the church of St. Pancras outside the City, hands it over to a congregation of monks, over which he sets Maurus as abbot, and adds Book IV, epistle 18, vol. II of the Works, col. 696: But lest, the priests to whom that church had before been committed being removed, it should seem to be empty of ministries (others read mysteries): therefore by the tenor of this authority we command you that you do not cease to employ there a foreign priest, who can celebrate the sacred solemnities of the Masses. Whom, however, it is necessary both to dwell in the monastery and to have from it the supports of life. The Benedictine editors of the Works of St. Gregory the Great regard the lack of a monk-priest as an exception from the common rule, and I will not deny it: but they add that this priest was perhaps from some neighbouring monastery; for if, they say, this priest had not professed the monastic life, how would he have consented to dwell in the monastery and lead the stricter life of the monks? This opinion is propped up by no reason: St. Gregory says indeed that dwelling and the supports of life are to be furnished to the priest by the monks, but by no word does he insinuate that he is to be subjected to the severer monastic discipline.

[21] which not rarely lacked Similarly the same holy Pontiff, writing to Fortunatus, bishop of Naples Book X, epistle 2, vol. II of the Works, col. 1043, says that a church had been built at Naples by Romanus, a man of most illustrious memory, which he orders to be consecrated in honour of Saints Hermes, Sebastian and Cyriacus, and also Pancras; in such a way, the holy Pontiff proceeds, that a baptistery be never established in that same place, nor do you establish a cardinal priest. But as often as the monks dwelling there wish Masses to be held there, let them know that a priest must be asked of your dilection: so that nothing such may in any way be presumed by any other priest. There is no doubt that at that time at least, when St. Gregory was writing, the monks dwelling at the said church lacked a priest of their own who would celebrate Masses and minister the remaining sacraments to them. Which was perhaps not rare in the first times of the monastic institute, since there were some of the first Fathers who preferred their monks to be without a share in sacred Orders; namely so that all ambition might be far banished. Such above all was St. Pachomius, in whose Life at the 14th day of May, chapter 3 Vol. III of May, p. 303, no. 18, an author almost contemporary says: Where, then, it was necessary for the sacred mysteries to be performed, he summoned a priest from some one of the neighbouring churches. For no one among them was found joined to the order of the ecclesiastical clergy; Pachomius so reasoning and often repeating to his own: that it seemed best that no dignity and eminence be sought, especially in monasteries, lest on account of those things it happen that aversions, quarrels, envy, rivalry and other divisions arise among the monks. A discipline of this kind was perhaps the reason why some, notwithstanding the contrary decrees of Councils and of the supreme Pontiffs, especially Siricius, Epistle 1, chapter 13 Labbe, vol. II of the Councils, col. 1021, and Gregory the Great Book VI, epistle 28, vol. II of the Works, col. 814, which permitted monks to be promoted to sacred orders, a discipline of this kind, I say, was the reason why some stubbornly maintained that access to sacred Orders was to be forbidden to monks. Whose audacity Boniface IV broke by a synodal decree promulgated on the 3rd before the Kalends of March of the year 610, in which these things are read Labbe, vol. V of the Councils, col. 1618: There are some, propped by no doctrine, most audaciously indeed, inflamed by zeal of bitterness rather than by love, asserting that monks, because they are dead to the world and live to God, are unworthy of the power of the priestly office, and can neither bestow penance nor Christianity, nor absolve by the power divinely enjoined upon the priestly office; but they altogether slip… Taught, then, by the examples of the Fathers, whom it is most perilous to oppose, we believe that the office of binding and loosing is, at God's command, not unworthily administered by monk-priests, if it befall them to be worthily raised to this ministry… Those, therefore, who strive to keep priests of monastic profession from the office of priestly power, we command by all means to be restrained in future from daring wicked things of this kind. All these things concur to make the frequency of monk-priests less at precisely this time.

[22] a priest of its own: The monastery of Colonetum, then, could also have been destitute of a priest of its own: wherefore St. Licinius, bishop of the Angevins, could set over these monks our Saint Magnobod, in whom he knew (they are the words of the Anonymous, with whom Marbod also agrees) wonderful diligence among his contemporaries, the highest obedience, unfeigned charity, lowly kindness and the other endowments of virtues and knowledge necessary for ruling a monastery. There was besides in the Gauls a custom confirmed by law, that monasteries to be ordered should be committed to clerics of the cathedral church, as is established from canon 18 of the Third Council of Orléans, celebrated in the year 538, to which St. Albinus, bishop of Angers, is found subscribed Labbe, vol. V of the Councils, col. 300: Concerning those persons of clerics, so runs that canon, who from the office of the city church take up for ordering monasteries, dioceses or basilicas placed in any places whatever, that is, whether in the territories or in the cities themselves, let it be in the power of the bishop whether he wishes them to have something or nothing thenceforth of what they had before from ecclesiastical office: because to each the means of the monastery, diocese or basilica taken up ought to suffice in full measure. It may be that St. Magnobod took up a monastery to be ordered by virtue of this canon; without, however, either being himself a monk or even enjoying the title of abbot, which neither writer attributes to him. It is true indeed that this image, as it were, of commendatory abbots was reprobated by St. Gregory the Great, forbidding John, bishop of Ravenna, that clerics be set over monasteries Book V, epistle 1, vol. II of the Works, col. 727, because no one can both serve in ecclesiastical services and persist in orderly fashion in the monastic rule: so that he should keep the strictness of the monastery who is compelled daily to remain in ecclesiastical ministry. But this ordinance of the Pontiff, although afterwards inserted in Gratian's Decree, chapter 2, Cause 16, question 1, was indeed at that time, when St. Magnobod was being set over the monks of Colonetum, some special mandate directed to John of Ravenna alone; by which certainly the proper custom of some region could not be overthrown, especially when there was no corruption in the matter.

[23] probably, however, he professed the canonical rule. These things, however, are not to be so taken as if I wished to exclude every connexion of our Saint with the monastic life: I am only trying to show that from the headship of Colonetum it cannot legitimately be deduced that he was either a pupil of St. Benedict or even a monk properly so called. But I do not therefore deny that Magnobod professed evangelical poverty and accordingly the remaining substantial vows of the regular life. For it is very probable that St. Magnobod, brought up by St. Licinius, imitated his master, who, as is written in his Life at the 13th day of February Vol. II of February, p. 679, no. 9, having become a cleric, strove to please the Lord alone and his spiritual brethren, desiring to lead a poor and common life, spurning the pomp of the world, he placed all his desire in the divine will and its service. Which spiritual brethren, poor and common life, savour of a regular institute, but one joined with the clerical state. And this sense the words of Marbod also confirm in the Life of the same Licinius Ibid., p. 683, no. 7: He laid down the belt of military service and renounced perishable honours, and, giving himself wholly to the service of God, he took up the clerical tonsure with profession. O how great a joy he gave the brethren concerning himself! With what praises of God he filled the mouths of all! How many hearts he moved to compunction, how many eyes he loosed into tears, when they saw that offspring of most noble stock, exalted by the fasces and riches, pre-eminent in beauty, excelling in glory, despising all things, bend his generous neck to the yoke of Christ; and by a spontaneous exchange from rich become poor, from powerful weak, from master servant. No one will easily persuade himself that St. Licinius was not a religious who professed the three substantial vows; but at the same time he must confess that it is a question here of the clerical life, since Licinius is called simply a cleric, no mention being made of monastic profession. That kind of life, therefore, introduced into the West by St. Eusebius of Vercelli and then propagated, which St. Licinius had cultivated before his episcopate, it is very probable that he either introduced into his Church of Angers, or nourished by his care when already introduced. Accordingly it also becomes probable that St. Magnobod followed this mixed kind of life, in which there was, as St. Ambrose says [Epistle to the Church of Vercelli, no. 66, vol. VI of the Works, p. 213, Venice edition of the year 1781], the continence of the monastery and the discipline of the Church.

[24] professed. Nor in these times was the distinction between the various religious orders and their rules so accurately defined as it was afterwards. Mabillon himself confesses this in his Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti Book IV, §11, vol. I, p. 95: What rules, he says, obtained in the aforesaid monasteries we gather from the letter of Sidonius (Apollinaris) Book VII, epistle 17, in Sirmond, vol. I of the Works, col. 1049, in which he admonishes Volusianus to form the fluctuating rule of the monastery of St. Cyricus according to the statutes of the fathers of Lérins or of Grigny: where the word rule is used not for some written rule, as commonly, but for a certain manner of living and discipline received by usage in the monastery; as it is not rarely taken among the ancient writers on monastic matters. Thus, as Cassian witnesses Institutes, book III, chapter 2, in the eastern monasteries there were almost as many types and rules as there were monasteries; which is to be understood of the monastic or regular discipline, which varied at the will of the superiors, not of written rules. Nor perhaps were the statutes of the fathers of Lérins or of Grigny at that time anything other than rites and customs received by usage: such as flourished among the Carthusians without writing until Guigo, fifth prior of the Grande Chartreuse, who first reduced them to writing… Concerning the people of Limoges we know this one thing, that concerning the monastery of St. Aredius at Atane Gregory, bishop of Tours, has handed down to memory

handed down [History of the Franks, book X, chapter 29, in D. Bouquet, vol. II, Recueil des Historiens de France, p. 382], namely that there not only the rules of Cassian, but also those of Basil and of the other abbots who instituted the monastic life, were kept. For there was not then, as I have already said and shall repeat more often, one fixed written rule for each monastery. It was the custom for several to be observed at the same time in the same place: from which a certain manner of living and form of regular discipline was established according to the will of the abbots, the other things in those same rules which pertained to forming morals being reserved for the reading and meditation of the brethren. Whence in those times neither did a change of rules change the state, nor did the form of the state depend upon the rules: which, since they all tended to one aim and purpose, constituted the same state of the monastic order; in the way in which various constitutions, as they call them, upon the same rule do not now hinder the unity of the Order. Thus Mabillon, to whose opinion we subscribe in such a way, however, that we distinguish between monks devoted to the contemplative life and clerics professing a regular institute, who join the active life to contemplation and are therefore called simply clerics, such as in our opinion were St. Licinius and his disciple St. Magnobod.

§ III. The Saint's Roman legation; his episcopate.

St. Licinius sends St. Magnobod to Rome When St. Licinius wished to dedicate a basilica built in honour of St. John the Baptist in the suburb of Angers, he sent his disciple Magnobod to Rome to obtain Relics of the same Saint from the supreme Pontiff: Which (church), says Marbod, agreeing with the Anonymous at no. 4, desiring to dedicate in honour of Saint John the Baptist, he begged Relics of the same Saint from the Prelate of the apostolic see. For this cause, then, Magnobod, sent to Rome, easily obtained from the Pope what he asked; from whom, namely, the sanctity and industry in which the legate excelled could not long lie hidden. For, delighted with his modesty and morals, he ordered him to stay with him for some time; and at length, loaded with apostolic blessing and good wishes, having received the pledges of the Holy Baptist, he sent him back rejoicing to his own home. Adrien Baillet at the 16th of October twists this text wonderfully, whose French words I render into Latin: Then, he says, St. Licinius sent him to Rome to St. Gregory the Great, that he might try to obtain some Relics of Martyrs, with which he might at the same time enrich and consecrate the new church of St. John the Baptist which he had lately built near Angers. He is said to have brought back some, although the holy Pontiff showed himself difficult in a matter of this kind: but it is not very likely that he (namely Magnobod) exhibited these Relics as if they had been taken from the body of St. John the Baptist.

[26] to obtain Relics of St. John the Baptist, Baillet, then, will by no means have it that Relics of St. John the Baptist were brought into Gaul by St. Magnobod, relying probably on this opinion, that the elevation, dismemberment or translation of the bodies of the Saints was scarcely practised before the ninth century: as may be seen in his Prologue to the Lives of the Saints Vol. I, at the end, §11, p. 16, where he says: That century (the ninth) especially can boast of false Acts and corrupt histories of the Saints, whose unbridled licence had reached its highest degree at that time when bodies began to be lifted from the earth, torn limb from limb, and transferred elsewhere, so that the cult of the Saints might be propagated more widely. This is not the place to weave a dissertation on sacred Relics: let it suffice to have said one thing, that the remains of St. Stephen the Protomartyr were already in the fifth century both translated and, as Baillet rather shamelessly puts it, torn apart: of which matter St. Augustine is our witness in Sermon 4 on that same Saint Vol. V of the Works, col. 1269.

[27] and it is shown against Adrien Baillet Let us return, then, to the words of Baillet cited above. First of all he affirms that St. Magnobod was sent to obtain some Relics of Martyrs. This neither the Anonymous nor Marbod says: the former indeed has that he was sent to Rome that he might merit to obtain Relics from the supreme Pontiff, but what sacred pledges in particular he desired becomes manifest from what follows; for, having received what he had gone for, precious Relics of Saint John from the most blessed Pope … he returned. Rightly, therefore, Marbod has it that, since St. Licinius was begging Relics of Saint John the Baptist from the Prelate of the Apostolic see, Magnobod was sent to Rome for this cause. No mention, therefore, is made here of Martyrs: why then does Baillet set up a discourse about them here? No other reason occurs to me than that Baillet preferred that in those sincere centuries, Christianity, as he will have it, not yet being obscured, there should be a translation of some whole body rather than a dismemberment of Relics: yet St. Augustine, cited in the preceding number, refutes this conjecture, who also, reproaching wandering monks for their sacrilegious trafficking, says On the Work of Monks, chapter 28, vol. VI of the Works, col. 498: They sell limbs of Martyrs, if indeed of Martyrs. But by no word does he censure the partition of the body of any Saint.

[28] that also in that century It is true that St. Gregory the Great did not show himself easy in distributing Relics of the Saints; which is established from his letter to the Empress Constantina Book IV, epistle 30, vol. II of the Works, col. 708: Let the most serene Lady know, he says, that it is not the custom of the Romans, when they give Relics of the Saints, to presume to touch anything of the body: but only a brandeum is put in a box and placed by the most sacred bodies of the Saints. Which, lifted up, is laid away with due veneration in the church that is to be dedicated, and through it such mighty works take place there as if their bodies had been specially carried thither.

[29] even by St. Gregory the Great But St. Gregory the Great was not always so content with sending brandea that he never distributed true Relics from the body of the Saints. Let it suffice to have adduced one example: the holy Pontiff sent to Reccared, king of the Visigoths in Spain, various Relics, as he himself says Book IX, epistle 122, ibid., col. 1031: besides a little key in which is iron from the chains of Blessed Peter the Apostle, I have also given to the bearer of the present letter, to be offered to you, a cross in which is wood of the Lord's Cross and hairs of Blessed John the Baptist. Similarly Antonio Francesco Frisi in the Monuments of the Church of Monza Dissertation II, Memorie della Chiesa di Monza, p. 67 shows that not only oils and brandea but also bones of the Saints were sent by St. Gregory to Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards: which fact Giusto Fontanini also confirms in his Dissertation on the Iron Crown Chapter 2, p. 22, Leipzig edition of the year 1719; where he shows at length the liberality of St. Gregory in bestowing sacred Relics.

[30] particles of the body of the Saints were distributed. There is no reason, therefore, why Baillet should call into doubt this bringing-in of the Relics of St. John the Baptist, as if it were a thing exceeding belief: and all the more because he supposes without suitable testimony that St. Magnobod went to Rome while St. Gregory the Great was living: for he was made priest probably in the year 603, and then provost of the monastery of Colonetum; nor is it likely that in the first year after taking sacred Orders he undertook the Roman legation, which nevertheless would have been necessary on account of St. Gregory's death, falling on the 4th before the Ides of March of the year 604. Nothing need be said here either of the excuse, or rather the accusation, as if anyone could suspect that the holy man Magnobod, or his master the most Blessed Licinius, went so far in audacity as to sell Relics of Martyrs, perhaps unknown, as if taken from the body of the Holy Forerunner. For by saying: but it is not very likely (Mais il n'y a pas beaucoup d'apparence) that he exhibited these Relics as if they had been taken from the body of St. John the Baptist, Baillet seems to insinuate that some suspicion clings to the sanctity of Blessed Magnobod: as if his testimony, especially in an obvious matter, did not suffice to assert some historical fact.

[31] He recites a nocturnal lesson from memory before the Pope. Both biographers narrate that St. Magnobod was wont at Rome to be present at the divine offices before the Pope: hence perhaps arose the opinion that that legation took place in the time of the pontificate of St. Gregory: in fact indeed St. Gregory reformed ecclesiastical chant and instituted a school of singers: but since this same school persisted until the times of Charlemagne, it is very probable that the successors of the most Holy Pope, at least the immediate ones, also kept the salutary customs introduced concerning the celebration of the divine Offices, and accordingly that nothing prevents St. Magnobod from having been at Rome in the time of Sabinian, Boniface the Third, or even the Fourth. While he remained with the Pope, says Marbod Works of Hildebert, col. 1493, what befell him I think should by no means be passed over, since it seems to contain both a reproof of malice and an example of diligence to be imitated. When, among the offices of the nocturns, to which the Pope familiarly admitted him, he was reciting a lesson in the pulpit at his command, as is the custom, certain of the palace clerics, led by envy, as human perversity is wont, because a certain foreigner was obtaining the part of the household with their lord and as it were snatching their service from them, took care to put out the light of the candle he was using, so that, his purpose frustrated, he might go away confused and as it were struck dumb. But he, nothing moved, in the same tenor in which he had begun, completed the page from memory. And so it came about that what had been arranged for his disgrace was turned rather to his glory. What Marbod here presents as an example of diligence to be imitated seems to the Anonymous at no. 4 like a miracle; for he says that our Saint flourished not only in carnal light, which lies open outwardly, … but also in spiritual light, which glows inwardly by divine inspiration. Certainly if anything prodigious were to be attributed to the recitation, Marbod would speak rather foolishly about diligence to be imitated. Meanwhile I shall easily persuade myself that Marbod's interpretation is to be stood by, both because it is a natural explanation, and most of all because the phrase of the Anonymous does not absolutely proclaim any miracle.

[32] St. Licinius having died Shortly after the Roman legation was completed, St. Licinius dies, in the year 606, as the authors of the Literary History will have it Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. X, p. 363. And that this opinion is to be held in so far as St. Licinius is to be reckoned to have died about the said year 606, even the very time at which St. Magnobod ascended the cathedra of Angers persuades, as what follows will demonstrate. Our predecessors, at the 13th day of February in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Licinius Vol. II of February, p. 677, no. 1, determine that the said Saint departed from the world about the year 616, because they had found no certain document of his death before the eighteenth year of that same century. But that St. Licinius died some years earlier is clear from the words of St. Magnobod himself, with which in the Preface to the Life of St. Maurilius, to

the 13th day of September Vol. IV of September, p. 72, no. 1, he says that the tenth year of his ordination or episcopate coincides with the thirty-sixth year of the reign of King Clothar, that is, with the year of Christ 619, or, as it pleases Baronius, 613.

[33] about the year 606, Here are the words: In the name of Christ, I Magnobod, bishop, though a sinner, of the church of Angers… have set forth the Life of Saint Maurilius, bishop and confessor, as far as my rusticity was capable, simply and plainly, as much as I could, in the tenth year of my ordination and in the thirty-sixth year of our prince the lord King Clothar, son of King Chilperic. That, then, the tenth year of St. Magnobod's episcopate may be determined more accurately, and accordingly we may come nearer to the time of St. Licinius's death, we must first indicate to which year of the Christian era the beginning of the principate of Clothar II is to be tied. Baronius indeed ties the death of Chilperic to the year of Christ 587 At the year 587, §32, but relying on no suitable testimony which he adduces: whence he is rightly corrected by Pagi, who says Critica Baronii at the same year, §8 that the slaying of Chilperic is certainly to be joined with the common year 584: if, then, we proceed from this year through thirty-five years, we arrive at the year of Christ 619, which, since it was at the same time the tenth year of St. Magnobod's episcopate, it flows of its own accord that our Saint received the infulae of Angers in the year of Christ 609 or 610.

[34] and his successor These things being laid down, it becomes manifest that St. Licinius met his last day some years before the year 616, as ours will have it: indeed it is also probable that an interval of two or three years flowed between St. Licinius's death and St. Magnobod's pontificate: for Marbod in his Life says Works of Hildebert, col. 1494: After the departure, then, of Blessed Licinius, it is to be believed that nothing else intervened to prevent his being at once raised up as bishop, except that he himself, declining the honour, and judging it safer for himself to cling to the leisure of contemplation than to be entangled in the business of government, obtained that another be substituted. This bishop, who immediately succeeded St. Licinius, the old Gallia Christiana Vol. II, p. 115 names Cardulfus (or, as others will have it, Radulfus), whose name alone survives in the ecclesiastical calendars. But, Marbod proceeds thus, when he too afterwards had died by the dispensation of God, it was already clear enough that this man (namely Magnobod) was being demanded by divine judgment. Since, then, it is certain that our Saint took up the episcopate of Angers in the year of Christ 609, I should think a pontificate of two or three years could be attributed to Cardulf: whence it becomes plain that St. Licinius's death is rightly placed towards the year of Christ 606.

[35] Cardulf, Nevertheless in various copies of Marbod there is not one reading of the words which touch Cardulf: Le Cointe at the year 605 [Annales Francorum at the year 605, §2, vol. II, p. 568] reads: And when he too had died shortly after by the dispensation of God; the same words are also in the copy of the former Bollandian Library: whence Le Cointe concludes: We interpret the pontificate of Cardulf, who died shortly after the death of Saint Licinius, as a year. In my judgment, even admitting the latter reading, nothing prevents that "shortly after" from being said to be extended to a space of two or three years: especially because Cardulf was midway between two bishops whose rule was fairly long: then Le Cointe was persuaded that St. Magnobod obtained the infulae of Angers in the year 606: which opinion indeed will be demonstrated false: but if the true epoch of St. Magnobod's episcopate had been known to him, he would surely not have prolonged the life of St. Licinius, against the opinion of all the learned, to the year 609.

[36] St. Magnobod succeeds in the year 609 or 610, It is commonly written that St. Magnobod was made bishop in the year 606: so judge Baillet, Butler and Le Cointe at this year §4, vol. II, p. 576. And this error indeed flowed from a corrupt reading of the Preface of the Life of St. Maurilius written by Magnobod. Le Cointe in the place cited and the old Gallia Christiana Vol. II, p. 115 read: In the tenth year of my ordination and in the thirty-third year of our prince the Lord King Clothar. If, then, to the year of Christ 584, in which he began to reign, thirty-two years are added, we arrive at the year 616, from which ten years are to be taken away, and accordingly the year of Christ 605 or 606 would have to be set down for the beginning of St. Magnobod's episcopate. To this opinion also Jacques Longueval subscribes, History of the Gallican Church, book IX Histoire de l'Église gallicane, vol. V, p. 110, Paris edition of 1826. From these it sufficiently appears that the reading which is found in Le Cointe and others gained credence with most. But, as Thierry Ruinart witnesses in his Preface to the Works of St. Gregory of Tours, no. 80, whom also the authors of the Literary History of France praise Vol. III, p. 574 and following, in the codex of Vendôme, then already, in the year of Christ 1699, written about 600 years before, the tenth year of St. Magnobod's ordination is joined with the thirty-sixth year of Clothar II.

[37] as the reading of the codex of Vendôme shows And that this reading of the codex of Vendôme is to be preferred to others is urged both by the very antiquity of the manuscript, written about the end of the eleventh century or the beginning of the twelfth, and most of all by the fact that in it is found the genuine Life of St. Maurilius, such as was written by Magnobod, whereas in many other codices it is found sprinkled with fables added under Raino, bishop of Angers, in the year 905, as may be seen in Mombritius and Laurentius Surius. By all means, therefore, the reading of Vendôme is to be retained, which our forebears also kept in the Life of St. Maurilius at the 13th day of September Vol. IV of September, p. 72, without even any mark of doubt pressed upon it. Let it remain unshaken, then, that the reading of the codex of Vendôme is genuine, and accordingly that the tenth year of St. Magnobod's episcopate coincides with the thirty-sixth year of Clothar II, from which it is rightly deduced that the Saint ascended the cathedra of Angers in the year of Christ 609 or 610.

[38] in the reign of Clothar II, In the Anonymous's narrative of St. Magnobod's election to the episcopate there occurs this singular thing, that, although a contemporary, he says nothing of the pontificate of Cardulf, as if our Saint had immediately succeeded Blessed Licinius. For he relates the matter in these words at no. 5: He being thus taken up (that is, Licinius having died), the people of the Angevins, both clerical and lay, gathered together into one, with equal mind, together with the consent of the renowned king of the Franks Dagobert, son of Lothar, began to acclaim Magnobod to be made their shepherd, all being of one mind. The pontificate of Cardulf seems of sufficiently great moment, especially since in his election the humility of our Saint shone forth so much that it was held worthy of mention: it is probable, therefore, that the things which touch Cardulf fell out through the drowsiness of copyists; wherefore we supply them from Marbod, who has this Works of Hildebert, col. 1494: After the departure of Blessed Licinius, it is to be believed that nothing else intervened to prevent his being at once raised up as bishop, except that he himself, declining the honour, and judging it safer for himself to cling to the leisure of contemplation than to be entangled in the business of government, obtained that another be substituted. But when he too afterwards had died by the dispensation of God, it was already clear enough that this man was being demanded by divine judgment. By the common votes of all, then, with the assent of King Dagobert, to whom the succession of the kingdom had descended, he was elected. But as regards King Dagobert, as if Magnobod had been promoted to the episcopate with his consent, we have already refuted it above at no. 12: and the text of the Anonymous, which also flowed down to Marbod, must be corrected so far that, the words Dagobert son of being omitted, it read: together with the consent of the renowned king of the Franks Lothar: for by this reading the anachronism is removed by which the beginning of St. Magnobod's episcopate would be thrown back to the year of Christ 622, in which he obtained the kingdom of Austrasia, or rather to the year 628, in which Dagobert possessed himself of all Francia, and in which accordingly he brought Angers, situated in Neustria, under his power.

[39] his rivals being divinely punished. Although both biographers narrate that St. Magnobod was elected bishop by the unanimous acclamation of clergy and people, there were nevertheless two of the clerics who dared to oppose the common opinion: namely Ambrulf and Leobald, or, as the Anonymous names the latter, Leudobaud. These were, says the Anonymous at no. 5, priests excelling in honour … who with excessive obstinacy were striving to overturn this course of the election and the decisions of the people. The cause of this obstinacy Marbod describes more accurately when he says that Ambrulf and Leobald were driven by the goads of ambition and envy. From these words of Marbod it may be concluded that they first of all coveted the honour of the episcopate for themselves, and then contended that this dignity should go to anyone else rather than to our Magnobod, whose virtues they more probably regarded with suspicion and feared. They seem also to have been among the senior priests, to whom it seemed hard to obey and be subject to a young man, since our Saint in the year of Christ 609 had completed only thirty-odd years. But divine vengeance fell upon them: for both, says Marbod, being at once deprived of the right eye, were convicted by manifest punishment of having resisted with a sinister sense. So it came about, says the Anonymous at the same number, that both their crafty cunning was punished, and the election of the man of God was sanctified by the will of God with signs going before.

§ IV. His deeds in the episcopate; death; Relics;

St. Magnobod [fulfils the part of a good shepherd] The illustrious virtues of St. Magnobod in the episcopate Marbod excellently describes, following the Anonymous at no. 6: it pleases us, then, to present some image of them here Ibid., place cited: What kind of man he showed himself in the episcopate can be doubtful to no one, since even before the name he already held the reality of the name. But now, applying himself most of all to it, he heaped himself up with ampler increases of virtues: for a greater burden was to be lifted with greater strength, and a fuller honour deserved a readier diligence. For the learned man could not be ignorant that their own sanctity does not suffice for shepherds unless they have also cared for the sins of their subjects: and that those alone are held to be of most wretched condition to whom the errors of all are imputed, just as on the other hand those are rightly judged most happy who are rewarded for the merits of all. Indulging, then, no time, no room for sloth, he watched anxiously over the Lord's flock, lest any of the sheep committed to him, straying more negligently, should be ravaged by the bites of the lurking wolf. He ministered to all in due time the food of the word of God, according as he saw it suited the capacity of each: and after the likeness of a good leader, for whom it does not suffice to exhort his soldiers by word only unless he also act bravely with his hand, whatever he urged by words to be done, he showed by his morals and life how it should be done. According to the apostolic precept, he rebuked the unquiet, comforted the faint-hearted, supported the weak, and was patient towards all (1 Thess. 5:14), so that he might be lacking to no one's salvation, since he fitted himself to the needs of each. And as another apostle says: he was not as lording it over the clergy, but made a pattern of the flock from the heart (1 Pet. 5:3). Of compassion and mercy

he so abounded in his bowels that he wept with those who wept, was sick with the sick, burned with the scandalised, was afflicted with the afflicted. Nor less, judging the prosperity of others as his own, he rejoiced with those who rejoiced, was raised up with those who recovered, applauded those made glad, was refreshed with those refreshed.

[41] he fulfils excellently, But he had a special care for the poor, to whom very often, being hungry, he ministered food, being thirsty, drink. Then, neglecting his own needs, he served the necessities of all others; full, namely, of the sweetness of charity, seeking not the things that are his own but the things of others, by frequently visiting the colleges of monks, nuns or clerics, having straightway torn out whatever harmful things had sprung up among them, he cast the seeds of virtues that would bear fruit unto eternal life; for both the censure of justice was strong in him, with which to strike the faults of offenders, and he showed the mildness of indulgence, by which he would not deny pardon to the corrected. An invincible lover of justice, but a fervent execrator of gifts, he knew how to swerve from the path of truth neither through blandishments nor through threats. In adversity he was upheld by constancy, in prosperity he rejoiced in humility. But amid these so fruitful businesses of ecclesiastical activity, he did not cease to carry out also the parts of contemplation; for frequently keeping watch whole nights in the churches, he delighted in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, and, offering pure prayers to God with tears, he obtained from heaven protection and peace for the people committed to him: for he could not fail to be heard for the people who had trained that very people to be worthy to be heard; since he had converted them to the love of goodness, cultivated by constant practice and taught by words and examples, and, as on a material already softened and admitting forms, he had impressed upon his subjects the image of his own religiousness… Full, then, of such and so great gifts of virtues, he had spread the good odour of Christ far and wide, and stirred up to his praise the minds and tongues even of those placed far off. There was added to the merit of his life also the power of miracles, so that those who would not be drawn by the example of merits might be convinced by the displays of signs. Marbod then subjoins the narrative of many miracles, which are related in the same order by the Anonymous too. For the rest, it has pleased me to present this image of an episcopal life here, not only that his praise may belong to our Saint Magnobod, but also most of all that it may turn to the profit and edification of readers.

[42] he is present at the council St. Magnobod was present at the council of Reims under Sonnatius, bishop of that same city; in which synod various things were established for the profit of the Gallican church, as may be seen in Labbe Vol. V of the Councils, col. 1688 and following. The superscription of this Council is contained in the following words: The Council of Reims, celebrated in the times of Sonnatius, bishop of Reims, about the year of Christ 630, that is, the 5th of Pope Honorius, the 2nd of King Dagobert. And from Flodoard, book II of the Ecclesiastical History of Reims, chapter 5, the praised collector of the Councils cites the following: Sonnatius followed Romulf in the episcopate of Reims, who is found to have celebrated a synod with forty or more other bishops of the Gauls: where also Saint Arnulf, bishop of the people of Metz, is found to have been present, with… Sulpicius of Bourges, … Senocus of Eauze… Rusticus of Cahors… Magnebod of Angers. But the epoch of the council of Reims, as expressed in its superscription, cannot stand with the age of the bishops praised in it. For in the year 626 Senocus of Eauze was already in exile, as Fredegar teaches us in the Chronicle Chapter 54, D. Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens de France, vol. II, p. 434. Pagi also shows in the Critica Baronii At the year 654, §10 that St. Arnulf abdicated the episcopate of Metz either in the year 625 or later, in the year 626. With which opinion our Forebears agree in the Life of St. Arnulf at the 18th day of July Vol. IV of July, p. 42, no. 329 and following.

[43] of Reims: Finally Jean Mabillon Vetera Analecta, p. 520, Paris edition of the year 1723 proves in a special dissertation that Rusticus of Cahors was killed in the year 629, namely in the 7th year of the reign of Dagobert I in Austrasia. But that the same Council could not have been celebrated much earlier is clear from this, that St. Sulpicius, surnamed the Pious, was present at it, who had first been created bishop in the year 624. There are indeed some learned men, among whom Pagi At the year 631, §9, who would prefer that this Council was celebrated one year earlier, more probably because the second year of Dagobert is indicated in the superscription: but in my judgment there is no reason why we should be troubled by that: for since an error has crept into the years and perhaps into the name of Pope Honorius, far more easily will the writer of the superscription have stumbled in expressing the numbers of Dagobert's rule. For the rest, among the bishops of the synod of Reims praised above, besides St. Magnobod, St. Arnulf is venerated among the Saints on the 15th before the Kalends of August, and Sulpicius, who is surnamed the Pious, on the 16th day before the Kalends of February, as may be seen in the Acta SS. at each day.

[44] he subscribes the testament of St. Lonegesilus, We find the name of St. Magnobod also subscribed to a certain charter by which St. Lonegesilus (commonly St. Longis), priest and monk, in the form of a public testament grants to Hadoindus, bishop of Le Mans, and his successors whatever right belonged to him in the monastery of Buxiacum. The diploma is extant in Mabillon in the Vetera Analecta p. 266; its subscription is: Done at Sagonna in the public mallus. Given on the 8th before the Kalends of December in the 52nd year of the reign of King Clothar. I, Lonegiselus, unworthy priest and monk by will, have subscribed this donation made by me, and have asked that it be affirmed. In the name of God I, Medegiselus, archbishop of the city of Tours, a sinner, at the entreaty of Lonegiselus have subscribed. In the name of God I, Magnobonus, a sinner, bishop, at the request of Lonegiselus have subscribed. In the name of God I, Abbo, by the mercy of Christ bishop, have subscribed, etc. King Clothar held this donation ratified by a diploma given on the 8th day which the month of January made, in the 53rd year of our reign, at the palace of Compiègne, in the name of God happily, Amen. Jacques Longueval in the History of the Gallican Church Histoire de l'Église gallicane, vol. V, p. 11 holds the testament of St. Lonegesilus as fictitious or at least corrupt, because it is dated in the 52nd year of Clothar, who reigned only 45 years in Francia. Mabillon indeed conjectures, says the praised author, whose words I render into Latin, that the forty-second year of Clothar II is to be read in place of the fifty-second, which was written by an error of the amanuensis. But even this being granted, anyone will hardly persuade himself that St. Lonegesilus, who came into the district of Le Mans under the episcopate of St. Hadoindus, that is, in the year 623 at the earliest, could have built a monastery and completed all the things which he sets forth in the testament already in the forty-second year of Clothar, which in the month of December coincided with the year 625. A diploma of Clothar himself is brought forward, by which the above-said charter is confirmed; but it raises a greater suspicion of falsity: for besides that it is dated in the fifty-third year of the reign, the king calls St. Lonegesilus, a priest, an illustrious man, which title was given only to the chief secular nobles, and which Clothar ascribes to himself. Thus our Longueval.

[45] whose authenticity against Jacques Longueval Longueval, then, attacks the authenticity of both diplomas with a threefold argument: first, because the year of the reign of Clothar II is wrongly noted; then because the time of two years which intervenes between the coming of St. Lonegesilus and the foundation of Buxiacum seems rather short for accomplishing so many and so great things; finally because, contrary to the custom of that time, the title of illustrious man is given to Lonegisilus. These things certainly show that the text of both diplomas is corrupt, and accordingly must somehow be corrected: but if on account of arguments of this kind we call old charters false or supposititious, scarcely any will be found that can furnish historical weight. From vitiated chronological notes, therefore, one wrongly concludes to the falsity of a diploma, as Mabillon rightly notes in De Re Diplomatica Book III, chapter 1, §10, p. 221. And as regards the title of illustrious man given to St. Lonegesilus, monk and priest, it is true indeed that it does not befit him, and accordingly it is to be held as an inelegant addition of an ill-curious amanuensis.

[46] is vindicated. There remains the difficulty proposed by Longueval, namely that the time of two years seems insufficient for the monastery of Buxiacum to be founded: but to one considering the diploma itself it is clear that all the things, that is, the acquisition of inheritances, the grant of part of the estate of Lucdunum and the remaining alms, went forward as it were of their own accord: and the building which St. Lonegisilus completed was not so great as to require even two years' labour; for he himself calls his foundation a little monastery, since he either inhabited it alone, as no mention is made of the consent of others, or certainly with a few monks; there is no reason, then, for us to imagine a great mass of buildings; for beginnings of this kind a rough and narrow building capable of holding a very few ascetics will have sufficed. The correction of Mabillon, therefore, is to be approved, by which in place of the 52nd and 53rd years of Clothar he thinks the 42nd and 43rd are to be read. Which must coincide with the years 625 and 626 of the common era. We have pursued these things somewhat more broadly, both that his subscription may remain to our Saint Magnobod, and that we might supply what was omitted by our Bolland in the addenda to the 13th of January Vol. I of January, p. 1119. For the rest, St. Lonegesilus, although according to certain Martyrologies his memory is commemorated on the above-said 13th day of January, is nevertheless better placed on the 2nd day of April, on which he is celebrated in the church of Le Mans, according to the liturgical Calendar for the year 1837.

[47] he heals Agericus, archdeacon of Poitiers; Among the very many miracles which both biographers relate, one is worthy of special mention, inasmuch as it indicates a bishop of Poitiers of whom the catalogues of this church are silent. Marbod narrates the matter in these words: The above-said holy man (Magnobod) had as a familiar friend the archdeacon of the Church of Poitiers, named Agericus, as a man of good simplicity and unfeigned religion; for afterwards, by the merit of his sanctity, he was raised up as a worthy prelate of the aforesaid church. This archdeacon, then, was troubled with an intolerable pain of the teeth: and when this had been anxiously made known to the bishop, he impressed the sign of the cross on the aching places, and at once all pain was calmed and extinguished. If this Agericus was archdeacon of Poitiers, he was more probably the successor of St. Leodegar: and from this dignity, which was the first after the bishop, he ascended the pontifical cathedra. St. Leodegar seems to have discharged the office of the archdeaconry until about the year 651, when, made abbot of St. Maixent of Poitiers, he governed the monastery for six years, being then called to the court of Clothar III, king of Neustria and Burgundy; which last could indeed have happened neither before the year of Christ 656, when Clothar began to reign, nor after the year 661, in which St. Leodegar himself was raised to the infulae of Autun. All these things are explained and discussed at length in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Leodegar at the 2nd day of October Vol. I of October, p. 368, no. 52, and p. 369, no. 59. These things being laid down, Agericus seems to have received the archdeaconry resigned by St. Leodegar about the year 661; for canon 18 of the council of Orléans forbade joining the headship of the monastery of St. Maixent with the archdeaconry

III, which we cited above at no. 22.

[48] on which occasion an inquiry is made into the episcopate But the greater difficulty is in establishing the episcopate of Agericus, of whom all seem to have been ignorant, inasmuch as he is recorded in no catalogue of the bishops of Poitiers. To this is added the further difficulty that scarcely a time can be found at which his see may be fixed. For it is not probable that Agericus preceded Dido in the episcopate: John of Poitiers was present at the council of Reims of the year 625, as may be seen in Flodoard, book II, History of the Church of Reims [Hist. Eccl. Rhem., book II, chapter 5, Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum, vol. XVII, p. 533]. And that Dido occupied this cathedra while Clothar II was still reigning, that is, before the year 628, ours show in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Emmeram at the 22nd day of September Vol. VI of September, p. 458, no. 26. Hence no bishop seems able to be set intermediate between John and Dido, although the authors of the Gallia Christiana Vol. II, col. 1151 have interpolated St. Emmeram, with no probability, as I judge. Compare the Commentary on the Life in the place cited. It remains for us to examine whether Agericus perhaps succeeded Dido. How long Dido presided, says the Gallia Christiana Ibid., col. 1153, is difficult to determine; they nevertheless think that Dido survived until the year 673, if what an ancient writer relates is true, from Urstisius, part II of the Res Alamannicae, cited by them: That King Childeric, when he had reigned some years, was slain in the palace with his pregnant wife by pestilent conspirators: and that Leudesius and Leutheric, with the princes of Francia and Germany, set up his brother Theoderic as king, Dido, bishop of Poitiers, Leodegar, bishop of Autun, and Gerinus, count of Poitiers, his brother, supporting them.

[49] of the same city. Since this change of reign happened in the year 673, it would follow that Dido occupied the cathedra until this year. And since then in the following year Bishop Ansoald succeeded, as Le Cointe will have it At the year 674, §1, vol. III, p. 693, and continued at least until the year 696, as the Gallia Christiana has it Vol. II, col. 1114, no place is left for Agericus. But what has been said above concerning Dido, as if he had strengthened the throne of Theoderic by his support, rests on the testimony of a single Anonymous, ancient indeed, yet of uncertain age: whereas the synchronous authors produced by Le Cointe At the year 673, §18, vol. III, p. 661, omitting Dido, treat only of Leodegar and Gerinus his brother, because Dido had already died before these events. There would therefore be some place or other for Agericus between Dido and Ansoald: unless anyone prefers to set his episcopate after Ansoald, or at least after the year 696; in which case, in order to have been a familiar friend of our Saint Magnobod, who died about the middle of the seventh century, he would have been of advanced age when he took up the burden of the episcopate. But we have now dealt enough with divinations of this kind.

[50] Having built the church of St. Saturninus, in which he chose his sepulchre, St. Magnobod, says Marbod Works of Hildebert, col. 1502, also thought to extend the merit of his sanctity beyond his life. Having considered, then, the opportuneness of place and time, he began to build a monastery in the suburb of his city, namely after the example of his most blessed master and predecessor Licinius, in which he might gather servants of God in as great a number as he could; and to whom he might also assign necessaries from his possessions and revenues sufficiently: so that, since he could not perpetuate the life of this body against the law of nature, he might prolong for many ages the succession of his religion to live on after him. The church, then, built, as he desired, in honour of Saint Saturninus the Martyr, namely the first bishop of the city of Toulouse, he not only enriched copiously with goods and possessions, but also took pains to adorn with the highest comeliness and elegance within and without, so that he could fittingly say with the Prophet (Ps. 25:8): Lord, I have loved the beauty of thy house and the place of the dwelling of thy glory. For he clothed the inner walls of the house in alternating spaces with mosaic and plaster, having painted images and flowers: of which wonderful work, even after so many ruins, traces remain in it to our times; from which it can be manifestly gathered how great was the loveliness of the new work, whose very antiquity appears wonderful. And outside he fenced the whole building with porticoes and columns, and constructed houses necessary for the uses of brethren leading the common life, and also others suitable for receiving guests and refreshing the sick, so that nothing might be proven to have been lacking to the ministry of good action. This monastery, which afterwards, the title of St. Saturninus having become antiquated, took its name from St. Magnobod on account of his burial, passed from the regular to the secular state, a collegiate chapter being established, in which there were three dignities, eight canonries and thirteen chaplaincies, as d'Expilly relates Dictionnaire géographique de la France, under Angers.

[51] St. Magnobod This church of St. Saturninus or Magnobod, says Bodin Recherches historiques sur Angers, etc., vol. I, p. 99, stood out among all the churches of Angers not indeed in size but certainly in beauty. It was destroyed in the year 1793 and its site is today occupied by private houses. The same author relates that the church was paved with red bricks whitening with stone set in between; whether these too pertained to the mosaic and plaster of which I treated in the preceding number I leave to others to judge. The writer already praised affirms that the same ornament is found also in other tracts of the district of Anjou, and conjectures that the whole building was paved with mosaic of this kind. There still survives part of a wall, 5 metres long, 10 high, with a column standing out to a height of 8 metres, embedded in a more recent structure.

[52] dies about the year 660. The day of St. Magnobod's death Marbod sets as the seventeenth before the Kalends of November; with whom the Anonymous agrees, as various copies of the Burgundian library show, although D. Beaugendre in the Works of Hildebert of Le Mans Works of Hildebert, col. 1487, certainly by a fault of the typesetter, put the eighteenth day before the Kalends: for the month of October has no eighteenth day before the Kalends of November. As regards the year of the Saint's death, the investigation is more difficult; since nothing occurs by which we can set a sure foot. Baillet and Butler say that the Saint departed from life about the year 654, without alleging any reason for their opinion: there is no reason, therefore, for us to adhere to their opinion. The Anonymous has only that the holy Pontiff ruled the church of Angers entrusted to him by the Lord through great courses of years: and Marbod, that he reached old age. Since, then, following Le Cointe, we have determined that he was born about the year 574, anyone will easily persuade himself that he not only reached but also surpassed the age of eighty: whence I judge that he rather approached the year 660. If we could be certain of his successor, of the year in which he either was present at some council or subscribed some diploma, the matter would be more easily defined. Those who are now said to be toiling at continuing the work which is entitled Gallia Christiana will perhaps be able to hand down to us more accurate things than those which we bring forward from uncertain conjectures.

[53] His Relics formerly at Paris St. Magnobod was buried, as both biographers have it, in the church sacred to St. Saturninus built by himself, which afterwards, as has been said, was distinguished with the title of St. Magnobod himself. But the old records do not teach us when his body was elevated. Claude Chastelain, canon of Paris, in his letter to our Papebroch given on the 16th day of October 1698, says that on the 7th day of the same month, by order of the archbishop of Paris, who was then Louis-Antoine de Noailles, he visited various Relics of the Saints kept in the church formerly of St. Bartholomew, then of St. Magloire, and among others found there particles of the body of St. Magnobod: the praised writer conjectures that these and other Relics were given to the church of St. Bartholomew in compensation for the returned bodies of the Saints which Salvator, bishop of Alet, had translated from Armorica to Paris for fear of the Northmen [Félibien, Histoire de Paris, vol. I, p. 118, and Mabillon, Annales Benedictini, vol. III, Appendix no. 63]. It is unknown to me whether the Relics of our Saint still survive at Paris today.

[54] [but for the most part at Angers, where they were given to the flames in the year 1793.] The greatest part, however, of the body of St. Magnobod was preserved in the church commonly known under his invocation. But as the century just past was verging to its end, when all things in the kingdom of the Gauls were being turned upside down, namely in the year 1793, not only was the church levelled to the ground, but the body of the Saint, laid beneath the principal altar, was drawn out of its coffin and given to the flames, the ashes then being scattered to the wind. This the eye-witness, the distinguished Blordier-Langlais, librarian of Angers, affirms. Today, as the Reverend M. Morel, canon and episcopal librarian, writes to me on the 1st of March of this year, nothing else of St. Magnobod survives than a certain particle of the sacred body, formerly in a reliquary fashioned in the form of an arm, since the year 1840 enclosed in the base of a silver statue. And for this relic there is no other authority than that it is secured with the episcopal seal of Charles Montault: for no letters were issued. All these documents were communicated to us with the greatest kindness by Fr. Charles Brandicourt, then acting as superior of our residence at Angers, to whom we owe the greatest thanks for his accurate industry.

LIFE OF ST. MAGNOBOD BY A CONTEMPORARY ANONYMOUS AUTHOR,

From an old manuscript worthy of credit, formerly submitted by Fr. Sirmond, and collated with the same Life published by Edmond Beaugendre among the Works of Hildebert of Le Mans.

Magnobod, bishop and confessor, at Angers. (S.)

BHL Number: 5151

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's birth; clerical training; Roman pilgrimage; episcopate.

St. Magnobod, born of noble stock, The glorious, then, and excellent pontiff of Christ Magnobod, nobly brought forth in the district of Angers, divine indications going before, shone with great privileges of miracles. Before he had the use of bodily strength and skill in speaking, admirable gifts of virtues were conferred on him from heaven, as his praises, to be recalled everywhere, testify. His parents, very conspicuous according to the genealogy of human lineage, held no mean place of dignity among their citizens, living under the authority of Lothar, son of Chilperic ^a, who, being still within the years of adolescence, was carrying on strife with his kinsmen, namely Theoderic and Theodebert, hailstorms of enmities having arisen on every side. In their childbearing, therefore, under Christ's auspices, the aforesaid parents, greatly rejoicing, were gladdened in the cradle-tokens of his birth by no small portents. For, as we have ascertained by careful inquiry, the beginning of his birth took place fresh on the very day of the Epiphanies, on which the author of life, begotten of a fruitful and undefiled Virgin, willed to be adored by the gentiles, a star leading the way, and to be honoured with the rites of gifts, and also to be washed in the bath of the Jordan, and to change the liquid of water into the savour of wine, and

at the very concert of cock-crow, by which the little fire of the coming day * is not doubted to be announced, the maternal womb brought forth the Saint into the world, that it might be plainly shown that he would be a lover and herald of light, who by such tokens adorned his birthday in being born.

[2] he is baptised, and freed from shipwreck; And so, when the aforesaid parents were eager to carry him to the laver of regeneration for washing away the original contagions of sins, the confined river Loire cut the passage which afforded the means of going to the basilica ^b; and when they wished to cross the course * of the said river with the help of a boat, a storm suddenly arising took away almost the whole strength of their safety. The clouds of the tempests rise up, and an immense whirlpool of the deep threatens to dash the boat to pieces. The oars are dashed against it, and the rowers, by the driving of the waves, are deterred by the harm of despair of escaping the danger. Horror of fear infects all, and only the image of death is dreaded before their eyes; what the boatmen should do, by what effort they should seek help, the immensity of the waves and the shoals of the eddies denied them, when suddenly, as we believe, by the divine will, the blasts of all the winds being lulled, an unexpected and desired calm came over them; and those who feared they were slipping to destruction in the assailing peril, with a wonderful and unspeakable swiftness freed from all fear, and their souls filled with joy, ploughing the shores of the river, came to the harbour of safety. All things, then, for which they had come being performed and completed according to custom, they returned with alacrity to their own hearths.

[3] piously brought up by St. Licinius, he is set over the monastery of Colonetum: As his age advanced, the aforementioned parents, perceiving the generous disposition of their son, determined to imbue him with the sacred studies of letters. Handed over, then, to the teachings of the school, with all intention, as that age allowed, he gave himself over to divine exercises. Whatever he had perceived with his ear he strove to retain within the secret places of his heart with capacious industry. And when he had passed beyond the courses of infancy and boyhood, the increase of his years now reaching puberty, the hair of his crown being taken away by St. Licinius, bishop of the Angevins, he is trained in the offices of holy Church, and, exalted with the honour of the grades, is commended to the oracles of the sacred order. For there was in him, among his contemporaries, wonderful diligence, the highest obedience, unfeigned charity, lowly kindness; all-night in prayers, voluntary in vigils, made illustrious by the dealings of parsimony, adorned with the privileges of sanctity, learned with heaps of doctrine, illuminated by the lamps of wisdom, anointed with the honeyed shrewdness of speech, bearing continually the yoke of Christ, which is seen to be pleasant to those who bear it, and carrying unceasingly his burden, which is judged light to those who put their necks under it. Perceiving, then, the already aforesaid Prelate his industry and the wonderful intention of his mind, he determined to establish him for a while in a higher grade and to keep him by him, that he might be his helper in all things, and that by his examples the others might become emulators. For he set him as father over the holy congregation which served Christ in the monastery of Colonetum ^c, that, like a lamp placed on the top of the candlestick, he might illuminate the others the more by the brightness of his light, and by the teaching of divine admonition present a pattern to those obedient to him.

[4] he is sent to Rome to seek Relics of St. John the Baptist: Now when the aforesaid blessed pontiff Licinius himself wished to dedicate a basilica built with wonderful work in honour of St. John the Baptist in the suburb of the already mentioned city of Angers, summoning Magnobod, a man of sanctity to be revered, promoted to the ministry of the ecclesiastical order, he directed him to the city of Rome, where the pledges of the Apostles are revered with due veneration, that he might merit to obtain Relics from the supreme Pontiff with which he could consecrate the basilica newly set up for worship ^d. And he, obeying his commands, hastened the journey; and going to the blessed Pope of the city he made known the cause of his journey, and, received gratefully by him, stayed with him for some time. At whose command, celebrating according to custom the divine offices at the solemnities of the Masses, it happened that, coming with the Pontiff to the lauds of matins , he was present at the melodies of the psalms and hymns . And when it came to the point that the Lessons were to be recited in the pulpit according to the rite of the Roman Church, rising with his blessing, he gave his attention to the lesson; and while, held in it rather long, he kept to the work begun without interruption , certain of those sitting round, kindled by the torches of envy (which it is wicked to say), set about putting out the lamp which served the sight of the man of God. But he, seeing the contention brought * against him, made more steadfast, nevertheless carried out by heart the whole of the work which he had for some time carried on with the aid of the lamp, lacking its comfort, and read through the page of the book, that he might prove by the grace of the Almighty that he not only flourished in carnal light, which lies open outwardly, but also glowed most fully in spiritual light, which shines inwardly by divine inspiration ^e.

[5] having returned, he ascends the cathedra of Angers, Having received, then, the Relics of St. John for which he had gone , he returned with prosperous course to the venerable pontiff Licinius at Angers, bearing the gracious pledge. He, receiving it eagerly, as he had conceived in his mind, laying it away within the oratory built with new work, dedicated it with a notable function: in which, gathering a college of monks living together, he established that they should live according to the norm of holy profession, and assigned very many estates for the work * of those serving the Lord there as soldiers, and took care to build hospices and foundling-houses and divers dwellings of lodgings. These things being thus accomplished, and the courses of many years having rolled by, when the almighty Lord wished to release the Prelate of Angers from this toilsome and perishable life, and to establish Blessed Magnobod as shepherd in his Church, sickness compelling him, he began to be bereft of his own strength; and, calling the swarms of brethren to him, he asked for the viaticum, and, having received the Eucharist of the Sacred Body of Christ, he was laid in the earth by his disciples with the greatest diligence, to rise again with glory. He being thus taken up, the whole people of the Angevins, both clerical and lay, gathered together into one with equal mind, together with the consent of the renowned king of the Franks Dagobert, son of Lothar ^f, began to acclaim Magnobod to be made their shepherd, all being of one mind. Only two priests excelling in honour were found who with excessive obstinacy were striving to overturn this course of the election and the decisions of the people, of whom one was called Leudobaud, and the other was named Ambrulph, opposing the merits of the holy man; but the general decision prevailed against their crooked tricks; moreover, the divine judgment blazing forth, they were marked with such a stroke that both lost their right eyes by evident proof, and nowhere merited to obtain hope of recovering their former health. So it came about that both their crafty cunning was punished, and the election of the man of God was sanctified by the will of God with signs going before.

[6] which he adorns with the highest virtues: And Blessed Magnobod, having obtained the priestly infula as the assent of the people bore, is exalted to the episcopal cathedra with the favour of the wish of all. He, as soon as he took up this burden of the sheepfold, at once, as a good shepherd, began to keep watch for the sheep entrusted to him. He admonished the froward to be corrected, he persuaded the good to advance from day to day by increasing for the better. What he taught by words he demonstrated by works; seeking nothing on earth that was his own, but consulting for what might profit the advantage of others, he brought help to the sick, ministered aid to those in danger; visitor of the poor, consoler of the needy, he bore care of monks, clerics and nuns, he showed himself assiduous in solicitude for widows and orphans, he persisted in prayer against the cunning of enemies, and strove to soften them by the bond of charity; conspicuous in eloquence, serene in mind, girded with the arms of piety and mercy, protected with the shield of justice and rectitude, strong in adversity, humble in prosperity, he could neither be terrified by terror, nor broken by a gift, nor seduced by blandishments; prudent in counsel, vigorous in action, understanding in all uprightness of morals; given to fasts, bountiful in alms, inclined to the evangelical precepts, a watchful singer of psalms and canticles, and not unmindful of the whole series of the divine Scriptures: he sacrificed himself daily as a holocaust to the Lord, and offered himself on the altar of a contrite heart as a sacrifice, that he might become a spotless victim and enter alive the temple of God . Adorned with these and similar little gems of virtues, such was Magnobod, set as prelate over the citizens of Angers; whose admirable action, if anyone desires to know it, the following discourse will unfold without the paint of falsehood.

[7] summoned to Paris, he miraculously frees captives: Blessed Magnobod, then, being adorned with the summit of the episcopate by such evident approbation and the assertion of all, the aforesaid King Dagobert, holding the monarchy of the kingdom of the Franks, having learned the fame of his goodness, ordered him to be summoned to him at Paris, where he was staying at that time. Obeying his commands, he set out without sloth. While, then, entering within the city, he was passing the gates, the guilty who were held entangled in crime in the prisons, having learned of his coming, crying with importunate voices, sought the comfort of the blessed man. And when he heard the mournful howling of the wretches and their lamentable doom, moved with mercy, he checked the steps which were in readiness to go to the basilica for the sake of prayer. Going, then, to the judge with lowly mind, he began to ask him to grant pardon to the condemned and to allow them free power of going away. But he, savage as he was, opposing the will of the holy man with a wicked answer, made him go away without effect; and he, entering after the deadly contempt the church to which he was making his way, besought the clemency of Christ that he would grant the guilty power to go, and pluck them out of the thongs of their bonds. While he thus persevered in prayer, suddenly, the fetters being crushed and the manacles shattered, the entrances of the prison, no bar hindering, lay open to the bound. For they leap forth and, cast at the feet of the holy pontiff, began to render thanksgivings. For whose safety he, beseeching the clemency of the prince, obtained the desired absolution, and with threats forbade that they should be caught guilty in so great a crime any further.

[8] he shines with miracles: he restores sight to a blind man, At the same time a certain man, having lost the light of his eyes, hearing of the mighty works of the magnificent man, determined to go, a guide going before, to the city of Angers, trusting with entire hope to recover by his comfort the former health of his eyes. He, entering within the city seeking healing from the Pontiff, was told that within the precincts of the basilica, intent on the divine offices, he was celebrating the solemnities of the Masses. And he, having learned this, going with the guide with whom he had come to the church ^g, found the blessed Pontiff, as had been said, at the sacred mysteries, whom, crying with importunate voice, he besought to restore the light he had lost. The blessed prelate, pitying his complaints, having poured forth a prayer for his soundness, when the office of the Masses was finished, put into his mouth with a blessing the reception of the Sacred Body; and at once, all blindness being driven away, the keenness of his eyes, which through many courses of years had been consigned to darkness, is restored to the light, and, giving thanks to the power of Christ, he returned to his own with alacrity of mind and body.

[9] he heals with blessed bread one labouring with dysentery. Nor do I think that should be passed over in silence which happened to befall a certain priest also given to good works. For when he was labouring under a flux of the belly, and his intestines seemed, through the disease of the bowels, to be slipping to the destruction of life, by what command he could he ordered his servants to go as quickly as possible to the man of God and to bring him the eulogiae ^h which he determined to send. They, obeying the commands of their lord, with the greatest haste brought what their lord had ordered; and, kindly received by him, he gratefully accepted what the sick man had sent, and, recognising the matter from the first things , blessed bread and to those returning

bearers he gave it, and ordered that the sick man should partake of it without delay. And they, returning with quick step, brought the gifts of the Pontiff to their lord besieged by the disease; which being received and taken in eating, at once all pain of the intestines departing, the fibres of the bowels being refreshed, he is restored to his former prosperity, giving thanks to the Pontiff who so * had snatched him from the pernicious calamity.

ANNOTATIONS.

* B. spectabiles

* B. variis, sed

* B. prænunciari

* B. meatu

* B. ante

* B. amarum

* B. adds Licinius

* B. consistere

* B. qui

* B. matutinas

* B. interesset

* B. interpolatione

* B. illatam sibi ab æmulis

* B. adds a beatissimo Papa pretiosis

* B. sanctione

* B. divino

* B. omits hoc.

* perhaps vivi

* B. facinoribus

* B. rei is lacking

* B. ut pontificis medelam quæreret

* B. cui

* B. et is lacking

* B. adds et cruciari

* B. visu

* B. protinus

* B. ita

CHAPTER II.

St. Magnobod works various miracles.

He heals by praying a foul-mouthed boy, divinely punished: The same man of the highest sanctity, then, going round the diocese committed to him to enlighten and admonish it, came to a certain estate which is commonly called Quartiniacus ^a; whom chattering little boys, gathered in a crowd in the street and coming out together to meet him, did not fear to provoke, raving with guffaws and shouts, and kept throwing out insults in play and wicked things; which when he beheld, suddenly one of the boys at play, mixed with the dust, was carried off with all swiftness and was borne hither and thither through the vast spaces of the air in the manner of a ball. Then, his companions with his parents, overwhelmed with sadness and fear, following through all the trackless places, and pursuing the windings of the rocks and valleys, achieved nothing except the labour of weariness: what should they do? The unheard-of and sudden event took away counsel. At length, driven by despair, wearied through pathless and thorny tracks, they find the boy among the thickets of the brambles half-dead and scarcely drawing a slender breath: whom his parents with great groaning, wrapping him in a cloak and almost torn apart in all his limbs, presented before the holy man, and with bended knees began to beseech him that he would deign to have compassion on the sufferings of their son; and he commanded them to place the boy within the precincts of the church and to supplicate the Lord's clemency for him. And when, the crowd again departing, the aforesaid parents went mourning to the church, they found the boy well, whom they had thought * dead. Then the man of the Lord, taking the hand of the boy, raised him up from the entrance of the porch, and gave him back whole and strong in life to his parents, repaying good for the mockery inflicted on him. And they, rejoicing, cast at his knees, paying their vows, returned to their own hearths.

[11] [he relieves one gravely sick, and crosses a river, a ship being wonderfully sent to him.] And a certain man named Theudegesil was labouring under the trouble of excessive sickness, whom no art of physicians nor healthful applications could bring back to the progress of health. And when, thus worn by the disease, he held every hope of recovering his former health abolished, mindful of the benefit of the aforesaid prelate, he asked with feeble voice to be carried to his sight. He, beholding him weakened by the report of the dire sickness, turning to the suffrages of Christ, was zealous to pour forth for him the services of prayers with all instancy. And so, the divine clemency favouring, rescued from every trouble of the body and having obtained health, he who had been carried on a pallet by another's labour returned to his own home by his own free will. It is worth while to relate that miracle also which many assert. For the venerable pontiff, returning with the band of his disciples from the village which has the name Othoniense ^b , to make for the walls of his city, when they had come to the bank of the river, it happened by a divine event, as is to be believed, that there was no help of a boat at hand by which they could safely cross the channel of the river; * a skiff was seen placed on this side of the stream, but there was lacking anyone who, consulting its usefulness, would try to bring it to his presence; he, according to his wonted custom fleeing to the solemnities of prayers, having lingered long in prayer, suddenly the prow, springing from the place in which it was held fastened, without a rower, no one driving it, is borne by swimming to the shore on which he was present awaiting it, obeying the wishes of all. He, rendering thanks to the almighty Lord, who does the will of those who fear him and hears their prayers, going down into it with all his noble company, came rejoicing with prosperous course to the place to which he was making and to which his will directed him.

[12] [he restores to health one labouring dangerously with quartan fever, and a blind woman:] Meanwhile there was a certain sick man named Mummolus, who was afflicted with the trouble of quartan fevers; for daily , since this savage pest grievously troubled the wretched invalid, and he could obtain absolutely no remedies, the disease pressing him, he began to be driven to the confines of death: and, now placed at the extremity of life, he asks the man of God through messengers that he would deign to have pity on him; and he, having compassion on his irremediable pains, directed to the sick man oil hallowed by sacred blessing and ordered him to be anointed; which being received, as soon as he was anointed, all the matter of the sickness being put to flight, made whole, he lived again many years. In that same district of Angers also there dwelt a certain girl named Baldetrude, who was so bereft of the light of her eyes that, given over to every despair, the hope of seeing seemed to be denied her for ever. Her parents, grieving for her bereavement, setting her in the sight of the Holy father Magnobod, asked with suppliant mind that he would deign to confer the help of healing on their daughter. He, lending his ear to their petitions, and seeing their faith, turning to the defences of prayer, bowed down, besought the Lord that he would restore the light of the girl, who had cured one born blind from the beginning of his birth *. While he thus persevered in this prayer, little by little the girl began to blink her closed eyes, until, all blindness being driven away, having obtained the light entire, she reached her parents' doors on her own journey.

[13] he quickens a withered hand with blessed oil: But among these, a certain man surnamed Doniolus, besieged by a long-standing infirmity, was accustomed to bear a withered hand without the business of work; for only the shape of this limb was in it, but the efficacy of strength and the vigour of feeling were absent, and it clung to him like a burden of some material. Presented, then, to the knowledge of the most excellent man, he blessed an application of oil * and enjoined the withered man to anoint himself with it; and, smeared with the healthful medicine, forthwith the strength of the limbs began to return, the veins growing green and the sinews growing together in strength, and, set firmly in every joint of solidity, health accompanying him, he returned to his own exulting.

[14] his money is doubled for the food of the poor, spent in a time of famine: But what shall I relate of the ineffable miracle of the Divinity which the grace of the Almighty deigned to work through him? For when at a certain time, the want of famine pressing, troops of the poor flocked together from all sides out of divers places to the man of God, as was customary to them, and he, according to his wonted custom, as a bountiful giver, making an agape without procrastination ^c, was dispensing necessaries; when he had supplied for their wages no small number of coins *, and did not fail in feeding them, all were refreshed to satiety. And as they went away with alacrity, the little clients of the pontiff, inquiring into the sum of coins which had been distributed in food for the needy, found doubled what they had consumed in dispensing; and, astonished with wonder, coming to him, they made it known as the matter was; for a hundred and fifty more were found than were reckoned as distributed in the expense for the needy. But he, not lifted up with the vapour of elation, ascribing it to his own merits, but imputing it to the clemency of God, giving thanks from the inmost cavern of his heart, ordered it to be covered altogether in silence; for he was guarding against the vice of boasting.

[15] he obtains health for a paralytic woman and a blind man This prodigy, then, being thus made manifest by the merits of the man of God, again another follows. For a certain woman, entangled in the disease of paralysis, is carried on a pallet by her acquaintances to the aforesaid pontiff: who was so dissolved in every joint of her limbs that, all functions being lost, only the vital spirit seemed to breathe without effort: and the man of the Lord, beholding her, moved with mercy, was zealous to offer prayers to the most high king for her recovery; which being completed, going to the woman, taking her hand, he ordered her to be raised from the ground. And she, rising without delay, every sickness being put to flight, was rendered unharmed; and so, needing no one's help, she returned to her own with unexpected joy. Not long after, a certain blind man named Lodoveus, entangled in the knots of the darkness of bereavement, led a toilsome life with ruin, who, given over to such want, demanded with all his effort that he be presented without delay to the sight of the pontiff: whom at last , affected with weariness by his importunate outcries, they were compelled to bring to the physician healing with most healthful application. Applying himself to prayer for him, as soon as * his face was bathed in a shower of tears, the night of blindness being put to flight and the sun coming, he restored to the blind man the desired gift of seeing.

[16] [he heals one labouring with his teeth by the sign of the Cross, a possessed man by exorcism, a withered hand by blessed oil:] Moreover, a certain archdeacon of Poitiers

of the church, a man of the greatest simplicity named Agericus, possessed an exceeding friendship with the blessed man on account of the privileges of his sanctity. He, when he was tormented with an enormous trouble of the teeth, going to the clement pontiff , made known by a mournful account the immensity of the peril which he was suffering within the caverns of his mouth; and the often-mentioned Pontiff, having compassion on his pains, impressing the revered sign of the holy cross upon the jaws of the teeth, freed his mouth from every trouble. Thus fortified with the title of health, he returned eager to the place from which he had come sick: who at length, the reputation of his merits intervening, to be adorned with the summit of the episcopate, is elected by all as pontiff of the people to govern the state of holy mother Church ^d, worthy of God and conspicuous in action, as the event afterwards declared. At about the same time a man who was named Nannenus, born on the estate of Vermemitum ^e, infested by the assault of all the demons, was troubled a long time; who, knotted in his whole body with excessive thongs and a chaining of bonds, is brought to the man of God, thus defrauded of his mind: and he, seeing the creature of Christ redeemed by his blood so besieged by the fraud of the enemy, groaning more deeply, fled to the help of the almighty Lord, suppliantly praying that the obstinate enemy should not exercise the power of his most foul dominion in the man for whom He, coming to earth, had not shrunk from undergoing death. Why do I delay with many words? The prayer being completed, as soon as the holy man threatened the crafty foe wavering in the body, that he should depart more swiftly from the image of Christ , he, at once reduced to nothing in his tricks, departing from the possessed man, the demoniac, his mind recovered, having experienced complete health, returned with the blessing of the Pontiff. Nor do I think that should be passed over in silence which happened to befall a girl from the district which they commonly call Cabariacense ^f. For she, as is held sufficiently ascertained by all who were then surviving, a trouble pursuing her, had lost her right hand; who, bearing this injury to her limbs for a long interval of time, her petition obtaining it, was carried to the blessed, often-mentioned pontiff; who ordained that the girl's right hand be anointed with oil endowed with the gift of sacred blessing: by which, snatched from the bonds of all infirmities, at the command of the pontiff equal to health, she was able to return unharmed to her own, magnifying the power of Christ and such a faculty of the holy man granted by the Lord.

[17] He watches anxiously for his flock If, therefore, we should wish to relate all and each of the miracles which this holy man Magnobod performed while living in the body, they would exceed the measure of a little book by their enormity; but we have thought it settled to elaborate briefly only those which have been ascertained by the report of many, as far as the smallness of our slender spring avails. For, shining within and without with the flowers of virtues, he was strong with great privileges of knowledge: for he was solicitous for the sheep entrusted to him, lest, the sheepfold being laid open to the ancient foe, the flock of Christ, for which He himself had shed his precious blood, should suffer any detriment. Against the cunning of the tricks of the rapacious lion, seeking whom he may devour, he kept skilful watch, and leapt over all his snares with ever-watchful instancy. For, set in the house of the householder, dispensing to his fellow-servants the measure of wheat committed to him, he spent the night assiduously for the safety and increase of the sheepfold entrusted to him, that when the Lord should make known his coming, he might find him not sleeping but watching. And therefore, greatly intent on the supplement of prayer, he besought with unwearied mind that the state of the holy Church of God might be preserved. And among the other works which he exercised daily, it was his special practice to offer the sacrifice to the Lord, in which, unceasingly sacrificing himself on the altar of a contrite heart, he became a living victim to the Lord: and making memory of the Holy Mother of God and of all the Saints, receiving with lowly prayer the gifts of the Holy Eucharist, he thereafter afforded healing to many sick, and salvation to those in danger, nor would he omit it for any obstacle of cold, or of journey, or of any necessity. And to the harmonies of psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles, both in the day and in the night hours, he was so given that without these he seemed to do no work. Nor was he unmindful of the Pentateuch and of the whole history; he retained the series of the divine Scriptures with sagacious mind. Made illustrious with fasts and the observances of parsimony, he increased the norm of abstinence; for in the days of the Lenten observance, shut up alone in a little cell, content with bread alone and water, and taking this by measure of weight, he led his life in great want. His flesh, therefore, he tamed by this grievous want and fasting, so that, assiduously covered with a hair-shirt, he wore a shaggy covering.

[18] keeps watch. He was assiduously mindful of the poor and needy and pilgrims: and orphans called him father, the fatherless and fugitives cried him out as their consoler. For they were fed by his wages, nourished by his wealth and covered with the help of clothing. If anyone oppressed by debt and overtaken by the want of necessity, and every ungrateful person, was compelled to seek his comfort, he merited to find without procrastination the things he needed. The care of the sick above all clung to him, and he cherished their solicitude with a watchful mind. If anyone, death pressing, met his end, he was careful to be present at his obsequies; and if necessity had required it, he was committed to burial at his own expense. And what more? He had become all things to all, that he might gain all. But time demands that we bring back * our pen to the series of the narrative, and return to those things which we omitted in narrating the merits of the holy man, in explaining what lay hidden within.

ANNOTATIONS.

* B. isdem is lacking

* B. atque is lacking

* B. cum is lacking

* B. pertinacitate

* B. semiviventem

* B. remearent

* B. timebant

* B. flebili

* B. tumore

* B. debilitatum

* B. Othomense

* B. adds: siquidem

* B. autem

* B. cum is lacking

* B. suæ is lacking

* B. Domniolus

* B. fere

* B. fomentum

* B. ad alenda

* B. nomine is absent

* B. aditus

* B. affines

* B. sanandum

* B. et

* B. molestia clanculo pontificem

* B. Vermentensi

* B. tempore

* B. omnipotentem

* B. versato nutatui

* B. Dei

* B. adds cuidam

* B. quod

* B. Cabariense

* B. membri

* B. adds a

* B. sanitatis compos

* B. nondum

* B. prævigili

* B. commemorationem

* B. videbatur

* B. reducamus et quæ omissimus … interius is absent

CHAPTER III.

The narrative of the miracles is continued.

He heals a sick woman by prayer and command. A certain nun named Procula had fallen into a grave sickness, so that she confessed herself given over almost to the danger of life. She, well known to the man of God for the religion of her purpose, asked with frequent petition that she might merit to be visited by him; and he, supporting her prayers, after the evening synaxis had been said, determining to visit the handmaid of God, poured forth prayers to the almighty Lord for her prosperity; which being accomplished, at the command of the holy man all the disease of infirmity at once departed from her, so that afterwards she lived many years unharmed.

[20] Heracleus the poisoner is divinely punished: But there are very many so ensnared by the rancour of envy and malice that, from that whence they ought to take an example of good action and purpose of life, they thence become worse to their own destruction, the thistles of their wickedness blazing up. And, to lay it open more plainly, a certain man holding the rule of an abbot, not exercising so great care of that office as befitted, surnamed ^a Heracleus, seeing the distinctions of the virtues of the blessed prelate Magnobod, ensnared by the gall of envy, tried to kill him with a draught of poison, and, corrupting men privy to the malice of his crime, ordered the cup of death to be given secretly to the man of God: whom he, seeing them come to him, understood, divine providence showing it, their deadly tricks, and, mindful of the evangelical precept, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, showed them all kindness in food and drink. And after the refreshment, summoning them to him, he began to apply to them admonitions of salvation, and to persuade them to withdraw from such wicked and shunnable craft, lest, like fratricides, by inflicting an equal ruin they should be punished with the sword of eternal malediction of the abyss. And when with these and suchlike persuasions of speech he exhorted the death-bearers, and admonished them not to imitate the contention of the serpent but the simplicity of the dove, giving them the kiss of peace he made them go away unharmed. And they, struck with shame and fear together, returning to him by whom they had been sent, made known the matter as it was: and he, when he understood that his crooked frauds were laid bare, terrified by a sudden perturbation, went fleeing to the threshold of Blessed Martin at Tours , seeking a hiding-place; but when very often the traitor was accused by truthful men, and the things which he had done were publicly noted, he professed under oath that he was innocent of a crime of this kind, execrable as it was. And so, having slipped into a double guilt, namely into the harm of homicide and the fiction of perjury, he obtained the vengeance of divine punishment: for, struck with a dire ulcer on the forehead, he wasted away so long that no art of physicians could apply healthful remedies, and, thus worn very long by this black wound, * he merited to incur an unexpected death, who had been the lier-in-wait against the life of the holy man. And so, he being freed from his rival, the mercy of Christ favouring, how greatly he excelled in the gifts of virtues was declared by prosperous successes.

[21] he frees a Roman girl from a three-year fever. These things being thus done, a certain girl in the city

of Rome, sprung from most noble birth, was afflicted for three years with intolerable torment from the invasion of fevers; and since this dire pest seemed incurable to all, having slipped down now almost to the end, hearing of the signs of miracles which the power of Christ was performing within the Gauls through the Saint, Magnobod, bishop of the Angevins, she began to cry with wailing that she might merit to be brought to the man of God to be cured: whose importunate complaint her kinsfolk not bearing, undertaking the long journey, having crossed the Pennine Alps, and cutting through the rough and harsh road, they came to the Gauls: and as soon as * they learned that the holy pontiff resided at Angers, hastening to him with swift course, they found him intent on the divine solemnities of the Masses, and forthwith, weary, made known the causes of their journey; and he, receiving them kindly ^b, put into the girl's mouth the mystery of the Lord's Body which he was handling with holy hands: and she, without delay, laying down the poison of her long sickness, and granted her former health, returned rejoicing with her companions to the city from which she had come.

[22] he cures Niulph, a gouty man: In these days there was a certain Abbot, by name ^c Niulph, who strove to rule according to the norm of sacred religion the monastery in which Saint Albinus ^d, formerly bishop of the Angevins, rests in body; who, besieged everywhere by the dire disease of gout, remained exiled from every function of the hands. Wherefore ^e his brethren and little clients, encompassed with sadness, did not know how they might come to the help of their father's pressures. But as soon as it was made known to the bishop, as it was his custom to visit the sick, he set out to go to him for the sake of visiting; and, considering him placed in great anxiety, having completed the vow of prayer, he exhorted the sick man to take eulogiae adorned with sacred blessing: and as soon as he received them with faith, at once all the trouble which had invaded him departing from him, he experienced the health * of his whole body; and, rendering thanks to the pontiff, for many years afterwards he presided over the aforesaid monastery in government, serving the Lord with devotion.

[23] Dodo, an ulcerous man, with the sacred Eucharist, And not long after, a man named Dodo, overtaken from his entering age by an unspeakable sickness, was long afflicted with the sorrow of an ulcerous ^f disease ; who, when he was thus rendered wasted, recalled to memory the things which were daily done by the holy prelate Magnobod, and, summoning one of the home-born servants obedient to him, orders him to hasten to him as quickly as possible, and exhorts him with suppliant effort that he make known to him the cause of his infirmity, and himself bring the gift of blessing received from him. And he, travelling quickly, came to the man of God, and narrated the matter of his coming: from whom, taking bread consecrated with a blessing, returning without sloth, he brought to his lord, for whom he had gone, the healthful gift. Being fed with which he at once felt the divine power present: for the long-standing trouble departing, growing strong in vigour, he was thenceforth fortified with more joyful soundness.

[24] another, Romulus, with a three days' prayer and communion, At the same time a certain man preferred to the honour of archdeacon, Romulus by name, born in the borders of Aquitaine, was held fast for six years by a certain trouble of an impediment. And when no hope of obtaining health smiled upon him, at length, by divine instinct, when he had learned the fame of the excellent prelate, spread far and wide, he did not hesitate with entire mind to go to him at Angers: and, weeping abundantly, he besought the pontiff that he would deign to have pity on him: and he, having compassion on his anguish, as he was in every way given to mercy, admonished him to seek health from the Lord, without whom human medicine could not help him: and he himself, applying himself to prayer with him for three days, daily celebrating the divine mysteries for the weak man, gave him communion of the Eucharist; which done, all the uncleanness of the disease lying hidden within being put to flight, he returned joyfully with thanksgiving by the way by which he had come.

[25] he heals a blind woman with blessed bread; Great are the things recorded above, but still greater are to be inserted. For while the most celebrated fame of the man of God was spread abroad everywhere, magnates and others excelling in the citadel of sanctity, seeking his patronage, venerated him with exceeding affection; or if any necessity of a journey or an incautious mishap had crept upon them, carrying with them as if for arms the eulogiae of his blessing received from him, they trusted that they were protected. Whence it happened that the Father of a certain sacred monastery, named Martin, anxious for the needs of the monastery committed to him, going to the district of Bordeaux for commerce by ship, took care to turn aside for the sake of lodging to the hearths of a certain woman worn out by the bereavement of blindness; and he, considering the woman's losses and mindful of the benefit of hospitality, giving the woman the gratuitous gifts of bread which, as we have said, he had brought with him as a blessing, the evening hour now breaking in, commanded her to receive it with devotion: which being taken, spending the night with her watching in prayer, as soon as the dawn of the day shone, together with the darkness of the night the darkness of her eyes was put to flight; with the flashing radiance of day the light of sight also shone forth openly; the household, seeing which, astonished at the novelty of so great a miracle, a very great clamour arises, praising together the power of Christ and the kindly physician, her guest. Such, then, was he who presided here, as we recite more often in this little sheet without the paint of falsehood: such indeed when absent, such when present in bringing help.

[26] he enlightens two girls, likewise blind. There are added therefore distinctions of miracles which are to be inserted in the page. From the estate whose ^g name is commonly Cabariacense, a certain girl, set in the lustra of childhood, named ^h Baudomella, an irremediable darkness had covered the light of her eyes; she, brought to the blessed pontiff by the comfort of another, it was besought that he would deign to impart the help of mercy. And he, invoking the ineffable sacrament of the Most Holy Trinity, and the trophy of the cross being laid upon her, heavenly comfort favouring, a clearer light is restored to the girl, which she had never obtained from the cradle-tokens of her beginning. There follows thereafter another similar miracle, of which we must discourse, namely of a young girl named Godelena, who, held by blindness within the years of puberty, and with the keenness of her sight darkened, possessed the night of darkness . She, made known by her acquaintances to the priest of Christ, catechised only by the anointing of oil and the image of the cross, received without delay the clear light which had been covered for the course of very many days.

[27] He frees a possessed man: A little after also is declared by evident fame. For a woman who was named Goda was afflicted exceedingly with that same black blindness. Forthwith, therefore, using another's help, she is presented to the sight of the glorious prelate Magnobod; and she began to cry with great voices that the excellent confessor would have pity on her. Moved by her complaints, he anointed the orbs of the woman's eyes with the liquid of blessed oil; which being anointed , the darkness was expelled, the day of unexpected light arriving. At the same point of time also a certain young man, ripening to the flower of youth, the ancient foe lying in wait, who deceives the hearts of men through a thousand windings , seized by him, was exceedingly worn out; who, chafed on all sides by thongs and knots of bonds, is brought to the man of God, thus deprived of his mind: and he, seeing the image of Christ invaded by the robber, and desiring to recover what was lost, ordered him to remain beside the little cell in which, staying, he was free for prayer; and when, keeping him by him for the whole Lenten time, he besought * the Lord for him with prayers and supplications, the power of the Lord helping, the stubborn enemy being put to flight, he was cured; and, his mind recovered, and increased with lively sense, he returned of his own accord to his own home, whence he had come under compulsion.

[28] he restores to paralytics the use of their limbs: I will add also that famous miracle which he did afterwards. For from the estate which they call ⁱ Corniliacum, a girl, having completed three lustra of her age, had fallen into such losses of her body that she was defrauded of the natural function of hands and feet: for she was accustomed to bear awkwardly the aforesaid limbs, the vigour of humour and strength being lost, wasted in the manner of wood: she, brought before the sight of the holy man, with oil hallowed by blessing, began to be cured of every trouble. For, the faculty of the sinews and veins being recovered, at the command of the pontiff returning to her native place, skilled in the art of spinning and walking, she lived again by her own guidance. But neither do I think that is to be covered in silence which is to be explained below. For in the district which is commonly called ^k Gerciacus, a certain dweller had begotten a son who, weak in hands and feet from the very beginnings of his birth, had only the help of crawling. His parents mourning abundantly at whose dire lot, divine providence comforting them, there was present to them in the untimely silence of the night a certain one of elegant appearance, by whom it was said: "The offspring which you lately received so weak, carry to the pontiff Magnobod, and ask of him that he be initiated into the sacred mysteries, vowing to dedicate him in the lot of religion." Awakened, then, by this vision, turning over to one another the matter which they had heard in dreams, they rise as the dawn grows light, they offer to the Church, in the stead of the priest, the one to come, that as his age grew strong he might flourish as a home-born servant of sacred worship. Which done, at once all weakness of the limbs was taken away, and, consolidated in strength of body, he is set in the presence of the prelate: who, cutting off the hair of his head , when he grew up set him over the divine mysteries, serving the Lord with the whole depth of his heart, who admitted him into this order.

[29] he heals a withered hand and a blind man's eyes with the sign of the cross: But what shall I relate of a certain woman named Leta, who so bore a withered right hand that she was known to be fit for no domestic duty. She, coming with all affection of mind to the blessed man, made known with mournful complaint the things which were happening concerning her and the abolished hope of her limb. And he, giving assent to her petitions, invoking the help of the Almighty and making the sign of the cross, rendered the right hand as sound as the left, and all the joints were strengthened with the bond of strength, spinning and twisting threads. That too is to be recorded which, the heavenly grace working, he did concerning a certain man Cariulph. For he, a darkness coming upon him, fell into the density of blindness: using, then, a guide, he took pains to hasten to the man of God: and laid open to him, not without great sorrow, the perils of his body, and asked that he would apply mercy. For whose misery he, pouring forth prayers to the Lord, impressing the admirable sign of the cross upon the eyes lulled asleep in the night of darkness, the filth of bereavement being driven away, light came forth in the keenness of the pupils.

[30] he heals one gravely feverish with sacred oil. But that also which is known to many I think should not be passed over in silence, namely concerning a certain woman called Marcia, who was so tormented by the invasion of fevers that no rest of day and night was granted her. Whence it came about that, afflicted by such hardships, she was compelled to go into the presence of the holy pontiff; by whom, anointed according to his wont with the sacred unction of oil, all the deadly pest at once departed, and she was made possessed of prosperity to such a degree that she who had come with another's support returned with her own protection.

ANNOTATIONS.

* B. et rancoris

* B. tamen

* B. At

* B. Turonis is absent

* B. attrectus

* B. adds: ubi

* B. valetudinis, corporis omitted

* B. morbi is absent

* B. visu

* B. perceptum

* B. est is absent

* B. Addantur

* B. patiebatur noctem

* B. adds: aliud miraculum

* B. delibatis

* B. maturum

* B. meandros is absent

* B. exorans

* B. Adjiciamus

* B. ineptos

* B. eundi

* B. nolentes

* B. silicernio

* B. adds ut moris erat,

* B. oculis … sopitis

* B. pulso … livore

CHAPTER IV.

Other miracles are related: the Saint's death and burial.

He enlightens two blind girls by prayer and the sign of the Cross: If, then, the things which we have learned by the report of another are confessed as true, without doubt those things ought not to be judged frivolous ^a which we have beheld with our own eyes; and, to lay it open more plainly: two sisters, girls, of whom one was called Necteria and the other Theodechild, conspicuous according to the genealogy of human lineage, whether through their own guilt acting, or entangled in the crimes of their parents, which we think ought by no means to be judged, or that the merits of the aforesaid pontiff might be the more often declared, having lost the light of their eyes, had their steps directed by the help of another. They, brought into his sight, as soon as, with an application of oil together with the help of prayer , the boundary of their pupils was anointed, all bereavement being driven away, natural delight shining upon them, they returned to their own dwelling fortified by their own walking.

[32] he builds a basilica in honour of St. Saturninus: When, then, such and so great indications of the virtues of the holy man were shining forth everywhere, and the lamps of his deeds were growing frequent far and wide, his sagacious mind began to premeditate how he might show himself towards the cult of divine religion, and with what increase he might gather together servants of Christ, for spreading abroad the norm of the Holy Church of God, for his own progress and the salvation of others. The grace of the Almighty favouring his solicitude , he determined to consecrate a basilica , namely in honour of the glorious Martyr Saturninus ^b, first bishop of the city of Toulouse, and in honour of all the Martyrs, and of very many separately *. Completing in deed, then, as he had conceived in mind, building a monastery ^c with the greatest preparation, he took care to gather men devoted under a holy purpose, in which also he constructed ^d hospices and foundling-houses for pilgrims, the poor and the progress of many: and that those living there in common under a rule might not lack food, he heaped up all necessaries, assigning very many estates and a great mass of possessions; and he enjoined that after the departure of his sojourning, his body, committed to the earth there, should await the last day of its restoration.

[33] he frees a possessed girl: These things, then, being accomplished with great elegance, and all the little buildings constructed, as he had vowed in mind, a certain very powerful man named Theudebald, having a daughter atrociously vexed, who could be cured by no remedy, weeping and wailing caused her to be brought to the holy pontiff, beseeching with bended knees that he would deign to bring help to his daughter besieged by the enemy. To whom the blessed man answered: That this was not his part, but that of perfect fathers who could obtain this by their own virtue from the Lord: but, overcome by the prayers of the suppliants, he placed pledges of the Saints upon the girl's neck, with the blessing of oil and the sign of the Cross; which done, the wicked robber, put to flight with his tricks, leaving the vessel which he had unjustly invaded, the girl, her sense and mind recovered, is restored unharmed to health. And so the blessed man, adorned with so great an event of miracles, is honoured by all, preached by everyone; and the parents with their daughter return dancing for joy to their own home, whence they had come mourning.

[34] a blind woman with the sign of the Cross This sign being celebrated by the blessed man, a more wonderful one again flashes forth. For a woman called Prisca, brought forth blind from the beginning of her birth, persisted for six orbits of lustra in this toilsome bereavement. Brought, then, to the bishop, she at once felt the divine power declared upon her ^e. For, impressing with his right hand the name of the holy Cross upon the regions where the functions of sight were conjectured to be, she merited without delay to behold the presence of the sun, which she had never seen. At once the clamour of the people is raised, and many rejoicing said that the holy pontiff had done a thing like the Son of God, who had cured one born blind from the beginning of life.

[35] he enlightens another with sacred oil, At the same time also a certain young man who had obtained the name Vinciemalus had incurred such a trouble of body that he lost his eyes, their light being darkened; who, coming to the most serene prelate, was anointed on the pupils with sanctified oil, and presently, the darkness departing, he obtained strong light, which, sick, he had lost. And thereafter enjoying prosperity, he himself, walking on the top of a wall, fell by chance from the height to the depths. He, by the power of the sanctified oil with which he had been anointed by the blessed pontiff working with it, according to the assertion of very many, was found so unharmed as if he seemed not to have fallen at all.

[36] he heals a sick man and a deaf man with sacred oil, Again another is offered, who for the courses of five years was held by a troublesome infirmity; whom the excellent shepherd, led by mercy, anointing him with the liquid of oil imbued with the gift of blessing, and pouring forth prayer, the vigour of his limbs suddenly began to grow green; and so the immensity of pain departing, the man who had come ^f bedridden returned upright, glorifying the munificence of the eternal King, who, wonderful in his Saints, works such great things through them. Thereafter, the point of time revolving, a certain man surnamed Gildoald, a long sickness growing strong, lost the function of hearing. Carried into the sight of the venerable prelate, he besought with what efforts he could to merit remedies. To whom the aforementioned Blessed man, coming, putting his fingers into his ears, at the same time also poured in the grace of oil; from which straightway a gushing corruption leapt forth with a horrible stench, so that those standing round could not bear it: and so the deaf man, having experienced hearing and fitted with a double gift, was eager to return to his own home, taking the path * joyfully.

[37] he restores sight to two blind women. But that too is to be commended to memory which happened to befall a certain woman from the estate which they call ^g Volensis. For she, as she asserted, was burdened with such an impediment that, whenever, domestic business intervening, she was intent on any work, her eyes grew dim, and were closed by blindness for long intervals of time. Therefore, as was the custom of other sick persons, hastening to the venerable man of God, she narrated the things that were happening concerning her unhappiness, and the importunity of her condition. And he, invoking the ineffable power of Christ, made firm and stable the wandering light which the woman possessed doubtfully, and, the darkness being dispersed, made her go away exulting. Let us tell, then, that also which we can testify and maintain without the fabrication of falsehood. Likewise a woman born in the village whose common name is ^h Verciacense, a mishap creeping upon her, was compelled to lose always the desired light of her head; she, called Alloveia, being brought to the most kindly man, he was overcome by the prayers of those standing round to pour forth prayer for her. And he, not refusing the wishes of those praying, invoking the help of the Almighty, sight being restored to the woman through the healthful unction, [she] returning eagerly to her own home whence she had come.

[38] A blind woman is healed, a robber of the church is punished. And we judge that this also ought not to be omitted, which was done in our presence. For a certain woman, having in like manner lost the windows of light, named Arigund , moreover renounced by every joint of her limbs, defrauded of the use of speaking, had in every way lost hope of recovering her strength. She, brought to the man of God from the estate of Conflentes, where she remained born , he, prayers being poured forth for her to the Lord for three days, rendered her unharmed. And, the bases of her hands and feet being consolidated with all soundness, she needed no other's comfort in returning. When, then, the holy man was made illustrious with such dealings of virtues by evident approbation, the opposition of the reprobate also boiled up against him: but he was punished with a penalty who swelled up as an enemy of piety; and, to declare it more openly, a certain man dwelling within the royal court, twisted by the envy of greed, as the outcome of the matter afterwards proved, seized with rash effort a beast of burden which served the uses of the church, and set it to his own uses. This being brought to the ear of the Pontiff, he preferred to hide it rather in silence than to aggravate a complaint. But on the following night divine vengeance struck him. For as soon as he gave himself to sleep, he saw himself in sleep surrounded by balls of fire, and himself rebuked exceedingly terribly by the pontiff . Awakened by his threats, he began to cry with great voices that he was being tortured by the blessed prelate, and to ask that he might merit to be visited by him: to whom he, not refusing to go, admonished the rival with a visit, that he should not be an invader of the holy church of God, but should rather honour the servants of Christ and abstain from their wages. Which done, prayer being poured forth, restoring him unharmed, he ordered the damage which he had inflicted on the church to be restored. And he, without delay obeying his commands, returning what he had unjustly taken away, went away free and safe.

[39] The Saint falls into sickness, The already often-mentioned holy pontiff had ruled, then, the church of Angers entrusted to him by the Lord through many courses of years, under the great honour of evangelical preaching, under excellent devotion of piety, and through that time converted a multitude of people by Catholic doctrine to the sanctity of the Christian faith. The love of the heavenly fatherland burned in the breasts of each, the people ran together on the appointed days to the bosom of holy church, the assembly of the clergy resounded everywhere with hymn-singing odes. The Christian religion was increased exactly to the rule. The stigmata of vices were cut away, the increases of good works were kindled; and, the Holy Church of God flourishing everywhere with such little fires of virtues, the most loving shepherd, hastening by natural course to the due confines of death, his age now ripening ⁱ into decrepitude, began to draw near.

He, the brethren being summoned to him, whom he had taught under holy doctrine, intimating the dissolution of his body, made known that he was passing from this prison-house of the world. And after a very little while, the infirmity of fevers breaking in, he began to be bereft of his bodily strength. At whose departure the clergy and people, gathered together, served their patron with what wishes of visitation they could. And he, admonishing and instructing them with what effort he was able, exhorted them to be careful to beware of the snares of sins, and, mindful * of the precepts of the Lord in all things, to obey his will, to follow justice, to imitate the bonds of charity with the tranquillity of peace, so that when the time of their calling from this toilsome life should draw near, they might not be found as it were slothful and idle, but might be held ready, watching in good works.

[40] he dies on the 16th of October and is honourably buried: The privileges of the commands, then, being finished, with which he instructed his pupils, his hands raised to heaven, amid the words of prayer assiduously invoking the Lord, on the 17th before the Kalends of November, amid their hands, rendering his spirit to the Lord, he left his body to the earth. Whose soul, as we truly profess, taken up by the Angelic hosts, offered to the divine sight, rejoices in glory. At his obsequies many were present from villages and fields, filling the air with weeping and groans. His most holy clod, the clergy and people ^k putting their necks under the bier, carried into the basilica which he himself had dedicated with great diligence, was laid with the highest honour in the mausoleum of a sarcophagus. Where also very many bodies ^l of the faithful, held in worthy veneration, rest, awaiting the day of their renewal and the examination of the judgment to come. In which place many great things take place, the Lord working with him: the blind are enlightened, the lame are cured, lepers are cleansed, demons are put to flight from possessed bodies, paralytics are raised up, and innumerable things which it seems * inconvenient to narrate; of which we judge that one which occurs to memory should be inserted in this page.

[41] he frees two captives, For after the death of the man of God, two men, of whom one was called Gualdo and the other was named Bodechar, from the country of Le Mans, captured by chance by their enemies of Angers, chafed in fetters and manacles, were dashed about with dire maceration. For under a horrid prison-house, hedged about with want and hunger and rags, they appeared a laughing-stock to those who saw them . And when, thus bound with thongs, they were being led through the streets and through the walks for the sake of reproach, with want, it happened by divine regard that they came, not without great guard, to the threshold where the remains of the memorable pontiff were kept. And when they approached the tomb of the aforesaid pontiff ^m, at once, the bonds being unknotted and the fastenings of the chains being thrust out, those who were thought bound appeared loosed. The jailers, seeing which, struck with fear at so great a novelty of miracle, spreading it abroad hither and thither, made it known to all. And when it came to the knowledge of the chief men of the city, ascribing this to the merits of St. Magnobod, they let go the bound men whom they had thrust down with them in hostile fashion, granting them their own liberty. And they, free from every charge of hindrance, returned unharmed to the country of their dwelling, praising together the power of Christ and the merits of Saint Magnobod, who had snatched them from so great a peril.

[42] several sick persons are healed. These things being spread abroad to the ears of the common people, a greater veneration began to grow towards the sepulchre of the holy prelate: so that from distant and foreign regions they brought those besieged with various sicknesses, and, keeping watch there, they were rescued from every trouble of infirmity. Everywhere his memory was celebrated, everywhere his merits were recited without interruption, as they heard and saw the ineffable miracles which were daily done by the glorious prelate.

[43] Epilogue. With devout mind, then, and suppliant prayer, let us beseech the clemency of his piety that, as while surviving in this present life he was zealous to favour the wishes of those who prayed to him, so he also may not disdain to be an intercessor for the sins which are daily heaped up upon us: so that, cleansed from all the crimes of filth, we may be able to be freed from the destruction of Gehenna, and enjoy glory in eternal joy with the Saints, our Lord * helping, to whom is honour and power with the Father and the Holy Spirit through the immortal ages of ages. — Amen ⁿ.

ANNOTATIONS.

* B. reliqua

* B. luminibus … amissis

* B. fomento

* B. mera

* B. Cujus sollicitudini … gratia favente,

* B. construere

* B. sanctorum

* B. orbitas

* B. Elimata

* B. guttam

* B. auditum

* B. carpens is absent

* B. pietatem

* B. repedavit

* B. Carigundis

* B. adita

* B. visu

* B. Pontificis

* B. educaverat

* B. invaletudine

* B. memores

* B. videretur

* B. astricti

* B. ridentibus

* B. adds: Jesu Christo