Ruricius I and Ruricius II

ON SS. RURICIUS I AND RURICIUS II, BISHOPS AND CONFESSORS, AT LIMOGES,

ABOUT THE YEAR 507.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Ruricius I, bishop and confessor, at Limoges in Gaul. (S.)

Ruricius II, bishop and confessor, at Limoges in Gaul. (S.)

J. V. H.

§ I. Silence about both saints in the sacred calendars, yet their cult is certain; their most noble family; the life of St. Ruricius I spent in the world, his marriage and children.

While the Martyrologies are silent, the cult is shown both of St. Ruricius I, I had to deliberate for some time before I brought these bishops into the Acta Sanctorum. For the silence about both Ruricii in all the Martyrologies which it was permitted to consult is remarkable. In vain have I turned over the Usuardine and other Auctaria, otherwise not sparing of eulogies; Saussay and Chastelain themselves, diligent investigators of the saints who flourished in Gaul, are silent about the name of the Ruricii; the authors of Gallia Christiana adorn them with no appellation of holiness. But the arguments of public cult shown to both saints must prevail over silence, even obstinate silence. For as regards St. Ruricius I, we have as witness of his holiness publicly celebrated Bernard Gui, a celebrated writer of the 14th century, in his little work on the Orders of Grandmont and of Artige; and there Labbe, Bibliotheca manuscriptorum, volume II, p. 277. he not only calls Ruricius a saint, but also founder of the church and cemetery of St. Augustine at Limoges, where he is also reported to have instituted canons regular: "In that monastery," he says, "twenty-eight bishops are said to be buried, of whom twelve tombs are distinguished, and the bodies of two holy bishops, Roricius and Asclipius, in a reliquary above the high altar, with St. Flavia, virgin and martyr Cf. ibid., p. 267.." The feast day of St. Asclepius is held on the 23rd of December, as may be seen in the Limoges Breviary of the year 1625. But the memory of St. Ruricius I seems to have been effaced among the people of Limoges until, on the witness of the accurate Limoges hagiographer Labiche de Reignefort Six mois des Vies des Saints du diocèse de Limoges, volume I, p. 45., the editors of the new Limoges Breviary of the year 1783 again brought the name and feast of our saint into the liturgical books. From the liturgical Calendar of Limoges for the year 1832 it is established that the cult of the saint on the 20th day of July continues down to the present age. And in the chapel-of-ease of Palatium (Le Palais), near Limoges, the head of St. Ruricius I is held in veneration, as the Reverend Mr. Thézard, secretary to the Most Reverend bishop of Limoges, informed us on the 25th day of August 1848.

[2] and of St. Ruricius II; The holiness and likewise the cult of St. Ruricius II is attested first of all by the above already praised Bernard Gui, who, when he had said that this bishop lies buried in the monastery of St. Junianus Labbe, Bibliotheca, volume II, p. 267., recalls Ibid., volume I, p. 633., among the saints who adorn the diocese of Limoges, "St. Roricius, bishop of Limoges, resting there (in the church of St. Junianus) in a reliquary." The Limousin hagiographer Labiche says Six mois, volume II, p. 250. that Rainald or Reginald, of Périgueux,

bishop, in the year 1102 elevated the body of St. Ruricius II, and, having enclosed it in a reliquary adorned with silver plates, placed it on the left side of the high altar. And the memory of St. Ruricius was celebrated on this day, perhaps as being the day after the feast of St. Junianus, already in the fifteenth century Place cited.. Now, the cult of both saints having been established, the family common to both must be set out, so that afterwards we may treat of each one separately.

[3] the eulogy of both by Fortunatus the bishop, And indeed that the family of the Ruricii was illustrious and ancient is shown both by their ancestral riches and by their marriages and kinship with the Anician family. Venantius Fortunatus, poet and bishop of Poitiers, contemporary with the Ruricii, sings this of them in book IV, poem V Bibliotheca maxima Patrum, volume X, p. 547.:

Envious death, though you threaten with swift-gaping jaw, Yet you cannot hold your rights over the saints. For after Christ, returning, tamed savage Tartarus, You lie vanquished beneath the feet of the merits of the just. Here tombs cover the sacred limbs of pontiffs radiant In the whole world; the spirit dwells among the stars. The Ruricii, twin flowers, to whom Rome was joined By the ancestral summit of the Anicii. Bound in act, in mind, in rank, in first name, in blood, They exult together, here the grandfather, there the grandson. Each in his own time founding holy churches of a patron, This one built that of Augustine, that one that of Peter. This one upright, that one devout, this one grave, that one serene, Contending alike which should be greater than the other. Bestowing very much on the poor from rich wealth, They sent to heaven riches which they might follow. Whom, redeeming the crimes of the world with scattering hand, We believe to be among the apostolic choirs. Happy they who, having thus traded with fleeting nobility, Hold by right their senate in the heavens.

[4] and the nobility of their family. Further, how illustrious was the Anician family, which the Ruricii touched by kinship, besides the arguments brought forward by Baronius in his annotations to the Roman Martyrology under the 31st day of May, Prudentius and Jerome, nearest in age to the Ruricii, show above the rest. And the latter indeed, in Letter XCVII, otherwise VIII Volume IV, part II, of the Works, column 785, Maurist edition., says: "Now must be recalled to me the famous names of the Probi and the Olybrii and the illustrious race of the Anician blood, in which there is either no one or rarely anyone who has not merited the consulship." And Prudentius, treating of the conversion of the Roman Senate to the Christian faith, in his first book against Symmachus, puts forward this about the Anician family Works, p. 277, Hanover edition 1613.:

And now, a few being left on the Tarpeian rock, The Evandrian senate rushes to the pure sanctuaries of the Nazarenes And to the apostolic fountains, The offspring of the Anniadae and the famous pledges of the Probi. For the noble Anicius is said before others to have Made illustrious the head of the City: so glorious Rome boasts. Nay, the heir too of the Olybrian race and name, Added to the calendar, distinguished by the palm-embroidered robe, Seeks to lower the fasces of Brutus before the doors of the Martyr And to bow the Ausonian axe to Christ.

All of which abundantly show how great was the honour and splendour of the Anician family in the sixth century, in which the Ruricii flourished. That Auvergne was the homeland of the Ruricii is demonstrated both by the marriage of Ruricius I with Iberia of Auvergne, which Sidonius, afterwards bishop of the Arverni, sang, and by the dispute of his sons Ommatius and Eparchius with Aprunculus, likewise bishop of the Arverni. Now we return to St. Ruricius I.

[5] St. Ruricius I seems to have been born about the year 430, Very scanty are the arguments by which we may order the series of the deeds of St. Ruricius I, since history supplies us with one accurately defined moment of time; namely, that in the year of Christ 506, in which the council of Agde was celebrated, St. Ruricius was occupying the see of Limoges. All the rest we must fish out by conjectures, and those not in every respect circumscribed. But we know from elsewhere that St. Ruricius was promoted to the see of Limoges in the year 484 or the following; since St. Faustus of Riez, in one and the same letter 9 of book I Canisius, Thesaurus monumentorum, volume I, p. 359, Basnage edition., both thanks our Ruricius for benefits in the time of his exile, which ended on the death of Euric, king of the Visigoths Acta Sanctorum, volume VII of September, p. 703, no. 169., and congratulates him on his assumption to the episcopate: these things therefore happened at about one time. Then another chronological moment is offered us by a deliberation instituted by St. Ruricius with Faustus, in which it was a question of taking up a more austere kind of life. Faustus proposes three ways, of which the middle consists in this, that "it be seen," he says in letter 5 Canisius, volume I, p. 356., "whether any of the sons can be sufficient for so arduous a service," or for the administration of temporal goods; from which it is given to understand that Ruricius, when he was meditating that plan, already had sons fit for managing the family property; which indeed could not have happened much earlier than the year 480. Finally St. Ruricius, in his letter 32 of book II Canisius, volume I, p. 397., in which he excuses to St. Caesarius of Arles his absence from the Council of Agde of the year 506, although he pleads chiefly his infirm health, impatient of the summer heat, yet insinuates his advancing age, to which reverence was due. From all which we seem able to make out probably enough, especially if we attend also to the fact that the marriage was celebrated rather late, that St. Ruricius in the year of Christ 506 was more than seventy, and accordingly was born about the year 430. What we have brought forward here from the letters of SS. Faustus and Ruricius and about the Council of Agde will be explained more fully below.

[6] and married about the year 455. That our Ruricius was at first involved in secular cares and business we have both from the letters of Faustus, to be recited in part below, and from the Epithalamium which Apollinaris Sidonius, afterwards bishop of the Arverni, sang at his marriage with Iberia, daughter of Ommatius. That poem, composed of mere fables of the heathens, shows that Sidonius was by no means at that time deputed to the ecclesiastical ministry, and so that it was written before the year 470. But since we conjecture after a fashion that St. Ruricius was born about the year 430, and we have from the little poem of Sidonius Sirmond, Works, volume I, p. 1242. that that proud Ruricius burns with the torches of love, that the rebel lies conquered, it is altogether likely that he married not in early youth but in a fairly mature youth; and so that he celebrated his marriage at twenty-five years of age, or about the year of Christ 465. Nor can we place the marriage many years either earlier or later without striking on some rock. For if we anticipate the marriage much, we shall have to confess a decrepit age of St. Ruricius in the year 506, which, however, the letter to Caesarius praised above does not indicate, since he promises that he will attend another assembly. But if we delay the marriage much, time will be lacking for the sons to reach an age fit for ruling the family and administering the common fortune.

[7] Iberia, daughter of Ommatius, Now Iberia, as we have said, was the daughter of Ommatius, whose family Sidonius praises in these words Place cited.:

While (Love) prepares the most celebrated festivities for the Gauls, Which the father-in-law Ommatius, greater than his great ancestors, And grandson of a patrician family, adorns for his daughter and son-in-law With happy auspices;

and a little below Ibid., p. 1243.:

Come then, let them be joined: for wealth, beauty and family Agree; your reed has fixed nothing unequal here.

I judge to be the same the Ommatius whom Sidonius, in an epigram set alongside, invites to celebrate his birthday Ibid., p. 1270., and since he excuses the frugality of the food and furnishings, by this reason too he shows that Ommatius was of such a condition that he seemed worthy to be received with some exquisite luxury.

[8] from whom he had sons. Eparchius From the marriage of Ruricius and Iberia at least two sons came forth. This is established from letters 56 and 57 of book II Canisius, volume I, p. 405.. For he calls Ommatius and Eparchius sons, and, when he intercedes for the fault of Eparchius, he says that he does so impelled by the affection of kinship. Eparchius seems to have gravely offended Aprunculus, bishop of the Arverni from the year 482 to 491, without the kind of fault being indicated, which our Ruricius calls ignorance and error. But that this error, whatever it was, was grave is indicated by the father himself when he writes: "Since you have deigned, by the charity which, God being propitious, is between us, to consult my humility, and that I should indicate to you chiefly by my letters whether your severity was just, let my lord know that I both approve and commend your deed and vehemently admire it. Because while to one, by the admonition of the spiritual sword, you have caused pain for the restoring of his salvation, you have conferred health on many who are languishing. For many in the Church who cannot be cured by word are healed by example. It remains that mercy should follow severity, that you may receive with a father's gentleness him whom you have corrected with a pontiff's authority. And according to that one of the Gospel, invoking him whom we must in all things both follow and imitate, who to the son, the squanderer of the paternal substance and confessing his crime, not only mercifully imparted pardon, but also willingly granted his former favour, let us too suffer with the fallen, succour the bruised, embrace the returned, rejoice over the found. Which I am sure your apostolate did for this reason, that you might shut out from his mother a son who was a little infirm, that you yourself after a little while might restore him safe, and might sadden him for a time, over whom you desire to rejoice for eternity." From these it is clear that Eparchius had been placed outside ecclesiastical communion, which penalty St. Ruricius asks to be loosed. Nor does anything else occur about Eparchius.

[9] and Ommatius The other son of our saint, "the name of his maternal grandfather being renewed," says Sirmond Works, volume I, column 1242, note a., was called Ommatius. While his father was still living he was enrolled in the clergy and obtained the honour of the presbyterate, as is plain from the letter presently to be cited, if indeed the two letters among those of Ruricius, namely book I, letter 18, and book II, letter 27 Canisius, volume I, pp. 380 and 396., are directed to him. The former indeed does not of itself plainly disclose it; for that Ruricius the bishop calls Ommatius son, that he gives him salutary admonitions, and invites him to his house, these things are of such a kind that one may easily interpret them of the mutual condition of bishop and presbyter. But what relationship there was between Ruricius and Ommatius the other letter shows manifestly. For, having put first the adage that one should grow old in friendships, "if," he says, "a friend is not to be abandoned, how much more one who taught, who nourished, who, with the Lord's help, led you on even to the priesthood, to whom perhaps even, according to the divine mercy, the enjoyment of this light is owed. But I write to your blessedness, not as imputing or reproaching anything, but as to a most dear son, whom I desire to walk without any blemish in this world of impiety, so as to appear pure and immaculate on that day of judgment before God and the Angels and the congregation of all flesh."

The particle "perhaps," which might offend the reader in this fragment, we ought not at once to take as the word of one doubting; for here "perhaps" (fortasse) is the same as forte, that is, by chance, in Greek cυμάν, as if he said that this too concurred toward winning love, that Ommatius owed to Ruricius the enjoyment of the light.

[10] probably bishop of Tours, There are those who think Dom Bouquet, volume II, p. 387, note m. that this Ommatius was the bishop of Tours of whom St. Gregory of Tours writes this, History of the Franks, book X, chapter 31 Place cited.: "The twelfth (bishop of Tours), Ommatius, of the senators and citizens of Auvergne, very rich in estates, who, having made his will, distributed his means among the churches of the cities in which he had possessions. He himself raised up the church within the walls of the city of Tours, consecrated with the relics of SS. Gervase and Protase, which is joined to the wall. He began to build the basilica of St. Mary within the walls of the city, which he left unfinished. He sat four years five months: and he died and was buried in the basilica of St. Martin." All these things certainly fit aptly to Ommatius, son of St. Ruricius: his homeland, he was an Arvernian; his ordination, a presbyter under his father; his age, for Licinius, who not earlier than the year 506, in which his predecessor had been present at the Council of Agde through Leo the deacon, his legate Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1395.; nor later than the year 507, in which Clovis fought the battle of Vouillé against the Goths Gregory of Tours in Dom Bouquet, volume II, p. 183., held the episcopate for twelve years, which then Theodore and Proculus administered for two years, in place of whom Dinifius was substituted for ten months, whom at last Ommatius succeeded Ibid., p. 387.: whence the beginning of his episcopate falls in the 22nd or 23rd year of the sixth century, which time agrees very well with Ommatius, son of St. Ruricius.

[11] whom he takes care to have excellently instructed by Hesperius. He also took care with earnest zeal for the right instruction of those who had been committed to his paternal trust. Of which thing his letters directed to Hesperius, namely 3, 4 and 5 of book I Canisius, volume I, p. 374 and following., are a clear argument for us. For although Dom Ceillier Histoire des Auteurs ecclésiastiques, volume XV, p. 487. interprets them as if Ruricius had given his daughter in marriage to Hesperius, we prefer nevertheless to understand those letters of the right instruction of his children; for everything aims at presenting Hesperius not as a husband but as a teacher of youth, who must purge the edge of the senses with an assiduous file. Now Hesperius was a lettered man, whom Sidonius called "the Gem of literary friends" Sirmond, volume I, p. 960., and whom he praises on many counts in letter 10 of book II Ibid., p. 896., given to the same; whence it appears that St. Ruricius employed leading men in instructing his children. He writes in the cited letter 3: "Now we burst out into the voice of piety and belch forth words of desire, commending to you our pledge, your deposit, by whose reception you have captured us. For to you I have committed the hope of my posterity, the solace of the present life and, if the divinity consents, the relief of the future; to you alone I have committed all my wishes. You I have chosen as the drawer-out and shaper of noble little stones and searcher of gold, you as the finder of hidden water, who would know how to restore to their own nobility gems hidden in stones, which in so great a confusion of things would surely lose their nobility if they had no judge. Gold too, mixed with vile sands, unless it is washed with waters by the skill of the craftsman and melted out by fires, will be able to retain neither splendour nor worth… So too the edge of still tender senses, besieged by the cloud of ignorance as by the thickness of a rough rust, unless it is purged by the assiduous file of a teacher, cannot of itself become bright. Yours then now, yours it is in all these things to answer both to your reputation and equally to our judgment, lest either you seem to have presumed unlawfully or we to have chosen inconsiderately." And our Ruricius seems to have had regard to the instruction of his children when in letter 5 he asks that he send him "some little flowers from the little branch which he had undertaken to turn from bitterness into a domestic flavour, by whose scent," he says, "I might know what hope of hope I ought to bear; whether the flowers themselves promised buds, or again the buds themselves by the quality of their fruit, and whether again the same fruits could grow mellow under your ripening, etc." What profit, further, St. Ruricius gained from the careful instruction of his children is not established for us. Thus far of the secular life of our saint.

§ II. St. Ruricius I, by the counsel of St. Faustus, bishop of Riez, takes up a more austere kind of life.

St. Ruricius, as guide of a severer life How long St. Ruricius lived entangled in the business and delights of the world we can prove by no argument. This is certain, that our saint, while his wife was still living, as we shall see below, began to take up a more austere kind of life. As guide of a design of this kind he had St. Faustus, bishop of Riez. For in letter 1 of book I Ruricius writes Canisius, volume I, p. 373.: "My soul has cleaved after you, excellent teacher. And may your prayers help me, that I may be able, earthly actions being spurned, to gape after heavenly ones. Because the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, so that it cannot incline its ear to the divine oracles, so that, obedient to forgetfulness of its father's house, it may depart at the command of him who calls from its land and kindred, and rather desire that land which is shown to it. For our littleness is not yet able to expel the fear of a liable condition and to open purged hearts to perfect charity, so that, leaving present things, we may seek eternal ones, and, the handmaid being cast out, we may as free sons obtain the paternal inheritance. Wherefore I hope, my lord, that you will pray for me unceasingly, and, whenever you deign to pour over the dryness of my earth the shower of your eloquence, that you will not suggest to me, as you have now done, being still ignorant of my infirmity, delicate and sweet foods, but more austere ones suited to my sickness; because delights are not expedient for a fool; and that thereafter you will grant a censor's assent to my betrayers, who, after the manner of human nature, hindered by excessive affection, turning aside from the truth of judgment, fall into falsehood for love's sake. Let your Holiness indeed not fear lest the right hand of one who soothes be more welcome to my wounds than that of one who cuts; because, the Lord granting, I already perceive that I can be cured by it and yet that I have gravely festered. And therefore I choose that the just man should correct me with the rebuke of mercy rather than that the oil of the sinner should fatten my head. With suppliant prayer, therefore, I beseech that from that treasure of your inner chambers, from which you are wont to bring forth new things and old, as a most skilled physician, who daily, with the help of God's grace, heal the innumerable and various sicknesses of the languishing, you would send to my languor also the medicines which you know to be suitable."

[13] he employs St. Faustus of Riez In the same manner St. Ruricius also writes to Faustus in letter 2 of book I Ibid., p. 374.: "It is in your power and judgment whether you wish to cut away the rottenness of my ulcer by the rigour of iron or to cure it by the gentleness of medicines." Faustus seems to have responded to the pious invitation in his fourth letter, which, I know not for what reason, is numbered fifth in Canisius. In it, namely, a threefold manner of renouncing earthly things is indicated, without the writer in any way indicating which of these he prefers. Here are the words Ibid., p. 356.: "Concerning that which a certain person (namely Ruricius) has consulted out of love of a challenge, it is a salutary and perfect meditation, that he should relieve the cares of his mind by dividing the management of earthly affairs among several, and after this treat by a threefold deliberation what is better: to lease, or to administer, or to sell off his own portion? The first would indeed be good, that the servant of Christ, wholly poor, should strive to walk the ways of the poor Christ, if it were permitted to seek the perfect school of some great monastery, or at least the island (of Lérins, where Faustus had presided as abbot), the warfare of the Angelic congregation: for to profess the eremitical institute in the middle of the world is as great a difficulty as it is magnanimity.

[14] who proposes various kinds of life; "But to lay the weight of his own on his deputies, a second compendium for the relief of the soul. But it must be foreseen whether any of the sons can be sufficient for so arduous a service… It is best, in the second degree, to stand as an administrator subject to benefices, if either the will is at hand or the means will have fulfilled the necessity of an annual payment. The third is, through chosen helps of faithful servants, offices of stewardship being imposed, to govern the quantity of the reserved substance under one's own and lesser solicitude, and to direct it by the royal road in all moderation. When I advise this, I seem to be thinking either of our utility or of that of the poor. In which order there is no little gain if, the use being reserved, the ownership is sold off. And so, indicating briefly what is first, what second, or what is third, we have reserved the choice to the judgment and possibility of the one consulting. What is more fitting, what can be fulfilled more readily, let him deign to suggest for whose fear and love the consolation (consultation?) itself is being treated. May our Lord multiply his benefits in us by a happy and pleasing longevity, most pious lord and son, in Christ to be singularly cultivated by me with the highest honour."

[15] of which St. Ruricius chooses domestic solitude, And these things indeed we interpret as said to St. Ruricius: since Faustus congratulates his friend in letter 6 in these words Place cited.: "But I have received this first munificence, the Lord bestowing it, that my most pious Ruricius, after the tossings of this life, has turned the prow of salvation to the harbour of religion, the hand of the Most High steering, etc." We have, further, from the seventh letter of the same Faustus Ibid., p. 358. that our Ruricius took up that kind of life when distances of place separated the two friends, namely before the exile of Faustus or before the year 481, in which our Stilting judged that he was driven from his see of Riez, in the Preliminary Commentary to his Life on the 28th day of September, no. 269 and following Acta Sanctorum, September, volume VII, p. 703.. Yet we do not think that St. Ruricius sought the school of any monastery, but rather that he laboured for Christian perfection within the walls of his home. For Faustus in letter 7 openly says that Ruricius persevered in all chastity with his wife, whom he calls Sara: "As a greedy usurer," he says, "through the ransoms of captives you entrust, after the manner of a sower, to the bosom of the Rewarder; you make ownership out of use, and convert perishable things into perennial treasures. Hence it is that, with your most faithful Sara, tending under the one yoke of Christ to a common crown, a despiser of earthly things and a competitor for heavenly ones, a pilgrim of the world and a candidate of paradise, you, a secret soldier of Christ, mock this world, which has no longer wherewith to deceive or seduce; with the partner of the endless kingdom you knock at the gate of life with fasts and prayers and, as it were, a hand of faith, in pious conspiracy, that you may take a double palm from your mutual salvation." What is indicated here about the common dwelling with his wife, and the words of Faustus by which he is called a secret soldier of Christ, plainly prove that St. Ruricius not as a monk in

these beginnings at least took on the monk, but, set apart from secular cares, although he still bore the appearance of a worldly man, lived for God and for procuring his own salvation.

[16] having taken the vow of chastity. For we are altogether ignorant whether our Ruricius afterwards undertook something more perfect, whether with his wife's consent or after her death: although, according to the discipline of the Church then in force, we should not believe that he ascended suddenly to the summit of the priesthood without the intermediate Orders having been exercised [Letter of Pope Celestine to the bishops of the provinces of Vienne and Narbonne, chapter 2. Labbe, Concilia, volume II, column 1620.]. It was also prescribed by canon 43 of the Second Council of Arles of the year 451 Ibid., volume IV, p. 1016. that, according to the institutes of the synod, married deacons should not be ordained unless they had first professed chastity by the purpose of conversion. And although under the name of conversion monkhood very frequently comes, here nevertheless it simply signifies separation and the vow of perpetual chastity, according to canon 16 of the Council of Agde of the year 506, by which it is sanctioned Ibid., column 1386.: "If married young men consent to be ordained, the will of their wives too must be so ascertained that, the bedchamber of the dwelling being set apart, religion having been put first, after they have been converted alike, they may be ordained." If conversion here showed monastic profession, it would be superfluous to speak of the bedchamber of the dwelling being set apart. It is therefore beyond doubt that, if indeed Iberia lived until her husband's episcopate, she consented to a conversion of this kind, nay, as we saw above, even before these times trod with her Ruricius the arduous path of Christian perfection. Now we turn aside to the episcopate of our saint.

[17] King Euric, an Arian, having died, Gregory of Tours, in the History of the Franks, book II, chapter XXV Dom Bouquet, Recueil, volume II, p. 174., relates that in the time of St. Sidonius, bishop of the Arverni from the year 472 to 482 Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 232.: "Evarix, king of the Goths, going beyond the Spanish frontier, brought a grievous persecution upon the Christians in Gaul. He beheaded everywhere those who did not consent to his perversity, he subjected clerics to prisons; and the priests he gave some to exile, others he slew with the sword. For he had even ordered the entrances of the sacred churches to be blocked with thorns, namely so that the rarity of entering might bring about forgetfulness of the faith. Chiefly at that time the cities of Novempopulana and of the twin Germanies were depopulated by this storm. There still exists today, also on this account, a letter of the noble Sidonius himself to Bishop Basilius, which speaks thus. But the persecutor, smitten not long after by divine vengeance, perished." Evarix or Euric, king of the Visigoths, was an Arian, and wished the peoples whom he subjected to his sceptre to become sharers in his impiety. He proceeded, therefore, in the same manner in the subject provinces as the Vandals in Africa, so that, when the deaths of bishops occurred, it was not permitted to ordain others for the cities [Victor of Vita, On the Vandal Persecution, book I, chapter VII, p. 10, Paris edition 1699.]. And as for the persecution being said to have been spread in the twin Germany, the learned rightly interpret it of both Aquitaines, whether by the carelessness of a copyist the word Germania crept wrongly into the text for Aquitania; or, as Valois would have it, the name of Germany was given by Gregory to Aquitaine because Euric reigned there, whom he judges to have been of German origin Cf. Dom Bouquet, volume II, p. 174, note h..

[18] the Churches of Gaul having been widowed, However that may be, that the text is to be understood of Aquitaine is clearly demonstrated by the cited letter of St. Sidonius to Basilius, bishop of Aix, and at the same time it indicates in what way various episcopal sees in Gaul, among which he numbers that of Limoges too, were vacant: "It must be confessed," he says, book VII, letter 6 Works of Sirmond, volume I, p. 1024., "that I fear the aforesaid king of the Goths (Euric), although he is terrible on account of the merits of his forces, will lie in wait not so much against the Roman walls as against the Christian laws. So bitter, as they say, to his mouth, so bitter to his heart is the mention of the Catholic name, that you may doubt whether he holds the principate rather of his nation or of his sect. Besides, powerful in arms, keen in spirit, vigorous in years, he suffers this one error, that he thinks the success of his negotiations and counsels is granted him for a legitimate religion, which he rather obtains for earthly felicity. Therefore learn quickly the hidden sickness of the Catholic state, that you may hasten to apply an open medicine. Bordeaux, Périgueux, Rodez, Limoges, Javols, Eauze, Bazas, Comminges, Auch, and now a much greater number of cities, their high priests having been cut off by death, and no bishops thereafter having been substituted in the offices of the dead (through whom the ministries of the lesser Orders were certainly supplied), have drawn a wide boundary of spiritual ruin." Having then set out the damage brought forth from the widowhood of the Churches, he goes on: "You are found in the middle among the most sacred pontiffs Leontius (of Arles), Faustus (of Riez), Graecus (of Marseille), by city, order and charity." (For Aix was topographically midway between the three cities cited above.) "Through you the ills of the treaties run, through you the pacts and conditions of both kingdoms are carried. Act so far that this may be the friendship, the princely concord, that, episcopal ordination being permitted, we may hold the peoples of Gaul whom the boundary of the Gothic lot has enclosed, by faith, even if we do not hold them by treaty."

[19] provision is made, and St. Ruricius becomes bishop at Limoges. The learned judge that this letter was written in the year of Christ 474 or the following [Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, volume VI, p. 176, Brussels edition 1732. Sirmond, volume I, p. 909, note a.]. Since, further, Euric persevered until his death in the policy of not permitting the ordinations of bishops, the Church of Limoges remained widowed of its pastor for a full ten years. For the death of Euric happened about the end of the year 484 or before the month of March of the following. Then too, as our Stilting has it in the Life of St. Faustus on the 28th day of September, no. 269 Acta Sanctorum, September, volume VII, p. 703., the bishop of Riez was recalled from exile; and scarcely returned to his see, he thanks St. Ruricius for benefits bestowed in the time of his calamity and congratulates his friend on obtaining the episcopate, in letter 9 in these words Canisius, volume I, p. 359.: "To the most blessed lord, to be looked up to with due piety and most worthy of the apostolic see, brother Ruricius, bishop, Faustus. More gratefully to you, while we write to you from our homeland, who made for us a homeland in a foreign region, who with unwearied liberality tempered our longings for our homeland, bringing a certain force upon the divine justice by benefits succeeding one another, that what it had brought upon us for chastisement it should turn to honour, confer to consolation, change to repose of mind, should pass over our affairs that it might heap up yours, forgetting debts and multiplying your gains; exercising the greatness of its goodness toward both sides, it should enrich us by your service, should enrich you by our exile. Whence it came about that, impatient of the future, it dispensed a blessing already in the present, and raised its most faithful servant upon the candlestick of its house, with mercy, justice, sincerity, continence, benignity, that is, domestic supporters, co-operating. Behold at what price my Ruricius bought the high priesthood. That by which he bought is itself what he bought, and, his own witnesses acclaiming, he showed in himself, for the sake of honour, the refuges of honour. So great a gift, therefore, he knows how to guard in the name of Christ who knew how to acquire it… May our Lord preserve your blessedness, to be magnified by me, for the progress of his Church and for our joys with a perfect longevity, most blessed lord, to be looked up to with due piety and most worthy brother of the apostolic see."

§ III. The epistolary intercourse of St. Ruricius I with various persons.

The letters of St. Ruricius breathe piety Scarcely anything has come down to us about the things done by St. Ruricius in his episcopate, although we have two books of letters, from which we have already drawn some notices, and which above all present a most pious man. Of which thing letter 12 of book 2 Canisius, volume I, p. 387. gives us arguments among others, in which he praises the resolve of a secular man, whom he rejoices with that he has at length at some time, the Lord steering, brought to the harbour of salvation the ship tossing on the sea of this world with adverse and divers storms. He then exhorts him that, putting his hand to the tiller, he should ever look intently at the stars. And having adduced various examples as well as sayings of sacred scripture, to whose study the saint's writings testify that he long and much applied himself, he concludes that the fiftieth Psalm, dedicated to penitence and likewise to remission, should be repeated quite often. Thus, when two presbyters of Limoges, Foedamius and Vilicus, had disagreed with their bishop, St. Ruricius writes in letter 13 Ibid., p. 388.: "That I might satisfy desire and open first, as being the senior, the approach to writing, so that no room might be left for excuse in the future, and the matter might be said to be one of distrust and bashfulness of will. I therefore say very much greeting in Christ the Lord to your blessedness, and I hope that you will love me, as befits ecclesiastical men, not with the lips but with the heart, and that you will presume to speak of me with sincere charity in the former address. Because if it had been true, it would have remained; and if it had been changed, it was not. From whose part, however, it was changed, both our consciences know and the knower of consciences knows without an advocate, whom I call as witness to my profession: that neither am I culpable concerning the beginning of the quarrel, nor has whatever was done or said remained settled in my heart; because I know it was said to us by the eternal and true judge that unless we forgive our brethren from the heart, it ought not to be forgiven us. You have therefore my pledge; render me your faith… Nor impute anything to me concerning the judge of the former time, because it is my resolve to preserve concord in assemblies and to hold to censure in judgments, etc."

[21] above all breathe; We could adduce many other letters to show with how great care St. Ruricius cultivated the virtues worthy of a Christian man and a bishop, from citing which we purposely abstain, since below more things of the same argument will recur. With piety St. Ruricius joined love of sacred letters, as many letters show, which aim at his collecting the works of the holy Fathers for himself. Thus in letter 6 of book I Ibid., p. 376. he writes to Nepotian the presbyter that he has received the codices sent, and returns one, which was of St. Hilary of Poitiers, keeping the other for transferring, that is, transcribing, "so that," he says, "what we cannot commit to memory we may at least take care to commit to pages." In letter 7 to Bassulus, bishop Ibid., he signifies that he has returned the books, and prays that he will entreat the Lord that the unfruitful bitterness of his earth may grow sweet by the richness of his teaching. Similarly with his friend Sidonius he excuses his theft Ibid., because our Ruricius had taken care to transcribe the codex which Sidonius had ordered him to receive from Leontius: "When I had as yet tasted a little of his dishes, he so enticed me by the taste of his alluring flavour that, as it were an imitator of the first parent, the Lord being suddenly despised, I strove to come to satiety, and I listened rather to the counsel of the persuader than to the command of the master… Yet I will willingly receive the fine which you impose, because I believe your decree to be my remedy, and I hold your sentence to be a medicine, not a punishment."

[22] they show his ardour for learning; Finally, from Turentius, whom as a sublime Lord

he always calls his magnificent brother, he asks in letter 16 of book 2 Ibid., p. 391. that, as Turentius deigned to promise, he send without delay by the bearer of the letter the book of St. Augustine On the City of God. "By the reading of which," he says, "while you build us up on earth, you may prepare for yourself dwellings of that same city in heaven, to which, however, we cannot otherwise attain unless we ascend by the steps of charity." Nor did St. Ruricius give himself only to letters, but he also took care that the art of painting should be cultivated, which is made manifest to us by letter 14 of book 2 Ibid., p. 389., given to Ceraunia; in which he says that he has sent a painter with his pupil, however busy he was here, because he preferred to take away from his own need in order to satisfy the request of Ceraunia; and thence the holy bishop begins a rather long discourse, saying "that, as the painter paints walls with various dyes of colours by manifold art, so you should cultivate your soul, which is the temple of God, with divers kinds of virtues, so that you may truly say spiritually with the Prophet of your spiritual house: Lord, I have loved the beauty of your dwelling and the place of the habitation of your glory, etc."

[23] they attest his friendship with St. Sidonius But by far the greater number of the letters are monuments of the friendship which St. Ruricius had formed with the leading men of the age and of his province. Among these St. Sidonius, bishop of the Arverni, and Namatius and his wife Ceraunia claim the first place for themselves. We have already cited at no. 21 the letter given to Sidonius in which he excuses himself for having had some book copied without his knowledge. In another letter (book I, 9) he praises Ibid., p. 377. the ancient affection of Sidonius, and asks to be instructed by his preaching, and finally closes the writing by saying: "Pray, and carry back the straying sheep from the pastures of the world to the Lord's folds, because I trust that by your intercessions he can become a lamb who has merited to be your disciple." And from these words it becomes probable to me that this letter was given when Ruricius was still entangled in the world, nay, that it preceded the eighth letter, which treated of the transcription of the book. For it is sufficiently agreed among the learned that the letters of Ruricius were not arranged in chronological order, as is plain from the letter given to Aeonius, bishop of Arles Ibid., p. 879. (book I, 15), which speaks of the death of Leontius, likewise of Arles, to whom nevertheless we find letter 41 of book 2 written Ibid., p. 401..

[24] and with Namatius. St. Ruricius also cherished, as we have said, an intimate friendship with Namatius and his wife Ceraunia, with whom he was joined by kinship. And Namatius, if he is the same as his namesake to whom letter 6 of book VIII of St. Sidonius is directed Works of Sirmond, volume I, p. 1062., was given to hunting, building and country life: he also touched our saint by affinity, as is clear from letters 1 and 3 of book 2 Canisius, volume I, p. 381.. For in the former letter he treats of the wished-for union of the pledges of both, now soon to be made, or of arranging a marriage; while in the latter he says: "We are not only incorporated together by faith in Christ, but are also connected by the union of our children." Which titles of affinity St. Ruricius repeats elsewhere too. From letter 3 just cited we have that Namatius lost a child flowering in youth, but, to excuse his not hastening to him as a comforter, he alleges a great disorder of cares: and from the sequence of the letter he seems to insinuate that a son of Namatius had died. "And truly," he says, "you can take no small solace from the will of Christ, that, since an untimely death awaited him, he deigned to take him up being such as he said the kingdom of heaven is of; so that you might both have a patron in your son, and grieve less for one lost whom you saw taken up by the Lord."

[25] and with his wife Ceraunia, But the following letter 4 Canisius, p. 382. openly speaks of the death of a daughter, whence the sex of the deceased person becomes doubtful. For he seems to allude to the same bereavement when he writes: "Quite often, dearest brethren, on account of the most bitter misfortune of our common mourning, I have arranged to write to you or to come to you, but always infirmity of body has drawn me back from the readiness for the journey, and excessive grief of heart from the office of writing… For I have lost a daughter, whom I rejoiced both that I had received and that you had begotten; I have lost the solace of life, the hope of posterity, the ornament of the family, the joy of the heart, the light of the eyes. Nor am I struck with a simple bereavement; for with the daughter I have lost brethren too, by whose affection I consoled myself, in whose connection I gloried. The bond of our brotherhood, dearest brethren, has been broken, the pledge of mutual charity has been taken away… But whither, unmindful of duty, mindful of grace, am I proceeding, grief driving me? And the wound, closed over somewhat by time, I tear open again by reviving remembrance as by a new incision; and I who desired rather to console you by the divine promises do not myself receive consolation. Yet I shall set out the causes of this relapsing grief, etc." All these things indicate that the grief was often renewed for our Ruricius, and that he often spoke of it with his friends; and if Namatius had lost a son besides the daughter, it would be strange that both his offspring had contracted marriage with the children of St. Ruricius.

[26] whom, a widow, he exhorts to virtue; We have another letter to Namatius, namely 61 of book 2 Ibid., p. 406., in which St. Ruricius invites his friend to come to him more quickly, nor does he allege any other cause of such haste than "that," he says, "you may extinguish the fire of our breast, which you have stirred up by the solace of a short time." But from letter 22 of book 2, already cited above at no. 22, we know that Ceraunia lost her husband Namatius, for with these words our Ruricius concludes his letter Ibid., p. 390.: "The Father of orphans and the judge of widows, when he finds that you hope so much from him, will both grant protection with fatherly piety to your wards and will lead you to the reward by the remuneration of the judge." And from the rest of the letter it is clear that Ceraunia as a widow followed a severer kind of life, and our saint sets out the sum of the virtues to be sought, saying: "Therefore, sister and daughter most dear in Christ the Lord, having laid aside the ambition of your former way of life, you must put on humility of heart, lend mercy at interest to the needy, procure chastity not only of body but of soul; which, that you may be able, with the Lord's help, both to acquire and likewise to guard, you must fast quite often and pray always." And these things are unfolded more fully in the course of the letter.

[27] he wittily rebukes Constantius. From what has been said so far it is clear that St. Ruricius cultivated friendship in a holy way, so that the defects and faults of his friends did not escape him. A specimen of such free rebuke is offered us by two letters of the saint given to Constantius Ibid., pp. 394 and 401., whom nevertheless we do not believe is to be confused with his namesake, the presbyter of Lyon and writer of the Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre [Cf. ibid., p. 394, note a, and Ceillier, Histoire des Auteurs ecclésiastiques, volume XV, p. 489.]: to the latter rather may the letters of St. Sidonius be said to be directed, since he calls Constantius Works of Sirmond, volume I, p. 911. "heavy with age, frail with infirmity, venerable in religion," all of which by no means fit Constantius, the friend of St. Ruricius. For the former letter, 23rd in order of book 2, has this: "Although I know that you are given to Bacchus, to symphonies and divers kinds of music, and also to choirs of girls, yet because it is good, while youth is very much aglow, sometimes to take breath from these things and to give oneself rather to the Lord than to Liber, to attend also to parents rather than to songs, I admonish you to meet me fasting tomorrow, which will be the fourth weekday, at Briva (today Brive-la-Gaillarde), early, however, which I by no means believe you will do." And when Constantius had sent our Ruricius some fowls, he in turn offers a boar's back, in letter 43, with this admonition however: "By whose flesh, however," he says, "I prefer you to be captured rather than by its life, because he who always thinks of secular things and continually meditates [*] on earthly things is rightly compared by divine Scripture to this animal. Because of all the animals man alone was created and made erect, that he might ever look at his author, intent on heaven, not exercise worldly works, fixed incessantly to the ground."

[28] Letters to various bishops, St. Ruricius had an epistolary intercourse with various bishops of his time. Thus he commends himself to Bassulus, a bishop of unknown see, in letter 7 of book I Canisius, volume I, p. 376., that he may defer the severer sentence by praying, until by the richness of his teaching the bitterness, as it were of the earth, may grow fruitfully sweet. He deals most amicably with Lupus, whom Basnage judges to be the bishop of Troyes, in letter 10 of book I Ibid., p. 377., and, having adduced, as he himself says, fabulous examples of Hercules and Theseus and others, "let us serve one another," he says, "in candid charity, not in painted flattery." To Aeonius of Arles too, who had announced the death of his predecessor Leontius and his own promotion, our Ruricius answers in letter 15 of book I Ibid., p. 379. that he had much grieved at the death of Leontius, whom he had never been able to see face to face, yet that he consoled himself with the ordination of Aeonius. Another letter, 8th in order of book 2 Ibid., p. 384., the saint wrote to the same, in which he commends a presbyter, Possessor by name, who poured out what he had for the redemption of his brother, and asks that he not only not detain Pomerius, presbyter and distinguished rhetorician of that time, but even compel him to come Cf. letter 17 of book I and 9 of book II, ibid., pp. 579 and 385.. Finally the third letter to Aeonius is 15th in order of book 2 Ibid., p. 390., which is wholly in commending fraternal charity.

[29] he directs, even in bound style: From letter 17 of book 2 Ibid., p. 392., sent to Sedatus, bishop of Nîmes, it is evident that our saint also exercised himself in bound style: some specimen of his poetic faculty is shown by the little verses affixed at the foot of this letter. But that he also wrote another rather long poem may, in my judgment, be concluded from what is alleged in the same letter, since, he says, "we believe that neither will the length of our page bring satiety to your piety, nor our rustic speech disgust": which length of a poem cannot be understood of the twenty-three little verses previously spoken of. Besides letter 33 of the same book Ibid., p. 392., which is wholly about religion, there is also a third, of which we shall speak below, when the question will come to be examined why our saint was not present at the Council of Agde of the year 506. It will also be worth while to notice that letter 2 of the same book Ibid., p. 398., except for slight differences which concern only grammar and the change of Lupus into Lupicinus, is altogether the same as letter 52, and directed to the same Praesidius, a leading man

Ibid., p. 387.. But these very variations which are sprinkled over both readings are an argument to us that several copies of the letters of Ruricius once existed. Would that they might some day be edited more accurately, of which thing Étienne Baluze had raised a hope, but one not fulfilled Histoire littéraire de la France, volume III, p. 55..

[30] but the letter to Volusianus, unless But among all the letters given to various bishops there is none which ought to excite greater wonder than the last, directed to Volusianus, bishop of Tours Canisius, volume I, p. 407., in which we do not find the known gentleness and kindness of our saint. We present it entire: "Ruricius, bishop, to his brother Volusianus, bishop. So, what is worse, a long forgetfulness has blotted out the ancient charity implanted in us, partly (for it must be confessed) through our negligence, partly through the necessity of the time, partly through infirmity of body, that, having become wholly unmindful of ourselves, we seek you out not only with no offices but not even with letters. I wonder that your nobility sends letters to me as to a son, when, without any regard for religion or kinship, our injuries so please you that you do not wish to avenge them. Whence, had I not considered the esteem of my person or of my office, I should have sent you the bearer of your letters in such a state as not your matron but a wanton and all too unbridled mistress has brought my men to. Whose manners if you for so long a time, with diminution of your reputation, put up with either voluntarily or of necessity, know that others neither wish to bear them nor are content. For as to what you write, that you have become dull through fear of the enemy, he ought not to fear a foreign enemy who is accustomed to endure a domestic one."

[31] unless we say St. Ruricius was deceived, seems doubtful. Further, unless we say that St. Ruricius was deceived concerning St. Volusianus by the whisperings of certain persons, which slip, as is established from the example of other most holy men, is not always foreign to great sanctity, it would have to be asserted that this letter departs altogether from the rest, all of which breathe humility, gentleness and the highest indulgence. Let all the rest, amounting to eighty-one, be compared: nothing similar occurs, especially where injuries done to his own person are treated: let what we extracted above from the letter to Foedamius and Vilicus at no. 20 be read again; Ruricius himself, although gravely offended, nevertheless first goes to meet his presbyters and paves the way to reconciliation. But in the letter to Volusianus he begins abruptly and goes on as it were angry. St. Volusianus is venerated on the 18th of January, on which day Bolland writes of him January, volume II, p. 194.: from being a senator he was made bishop, whence the word "matron" is understood, who ruled the bishop more than was right. He underwent martyrdom under the Arian Goths; wherefore, if on account of the cited letter he should be judged to have suffered something human, it will have to be said that the fault contracted by human frailty was blotted out by martyrdom.

* meditatur? meditates?

§ IV. St. Ruricius I founds the church and monastery of St. Augustine at Limoges; on which occasion inquiry is made into the kind of life of those who inhabited the monastery.

St. Ruricius, having founded the monastery of St. Augustine, set over it "St. Roricius," says Bernard Gui [On the Order of Grandmont, chapter II. Labbe, Bibliotheca manuscriptorum, volume II, p. 277.], "the 24th bishop from St. Martial, is believed to have dedicated in honour of St. Augustine the bishop a place above the river Vienne, where there was a common cemetery, and to have instituted there canons regular under the Rule of St. Augustine, and several chapels… In that monastery twenty-eight bishops are said to be buried, of whom twelve tombs are distinguished." Afterwards Turpio or Turpinus, who held the see of Limoges from the beginning of the 10th century to the year 944 Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 508., "rebuilt," as the praised Bernard has it On the Deeds of the Bishops of Limoges, chapter VI. Labbe, volume II, p. 267., "the monastery of St. Augustine of Limoges, and instituted monks there, which formerly had had secular canons, before King Pepin destroyed the city of Limoges (for he overthrew the churches and monasteries there from their foundations)." That St. Ruricius built the suburban church of St. Augustine we have from a nearly contemporary author, the poet Venantius, whose words we brought forward above at no. 3. But the authors of Gallia Christiana altogether reject what Bernard relates about the institution of canons regular, in these words Volume II, column 575.: "Bernard Gui dreamed that canons regular were placed in this church, in his book on the progress of the monastery of St. Augustine (that is, the book on the Orders of Grandmont etc. Labbe, volume II, p. 277.), whom, however, in chapter VI of the same book he calls secular canons (he does not have this in the same book, but in the treatise on the deeds of the bishops of Limoges). This fable William Cave, treating of our Ruricius in his Literary History, rightly and deservedly blows away. Certainly in the time of Ruricius this distinction of canons regular and secular was unknown; nay, the very name of canons was not yet used, nor did the custom of those times allow colleges of clerics to be instituted outside the cities, but monks, for whom it is established by certain arguments that monasteries were then built everywhere in Gaul outside the cities."

[33] William Cave and others deny the canons regular Thus far the praised authors, who speak conveniently, since they attempt to prove their assertions by not a word. It is true indeed that Cave decisively declares Historia litteraria, volume I, p. 451, Basel edition 1741. that what Bernard Gui relates deserves very little credit with him, "that he (our saint) founded a monastery in honour of St. Augustine in the common cemetery of Limoges above the river Vienne and instituted canons regular in it." But why at length Bernard should deserve no credit he does not touch. Is credit to be denied concerning the building of the church? But Venantius affirms this in express words, nor do the authors of Gallia Christiana seem to call it into doubt. For they call one thing into controversy, or rather place it beyond all controversy, that the inhabitants of the monastery of Ruricius were monks. There is no leisure to resolve at length the difficulty arising from the name of canon, whether secular or regular; for it is not here a question of the name but of the thing. Let it be that Bernard used an imprudent word and one not contemporary enough; suppose these were clerics of Limoges such as St. Augustine wished his own to be at Hippo, and St. Eusebius at Vercelli: this certainly will not prove that monks were introduced into the church of St. Augustine. And if Bernard speaks of the same canons, whom he calls now regular, now secular: this is not to be referred to the same times: he calls them regular insofar as they were instituted by St. Ruricius, but secular such as Turpio found them four hundred years afterwards.

[34] many, after the manner of St. Augustine, And indeed that a regular discipline such as St. Augustine wished in his clerics flourished and was propagated, especially at the time in which he lived, and chiefly in those Churches with which St. Ruricius had contracted greater connection, we have from contemporary monuments. Thus Pomerius, an African but residing at Arles, with whom St. Ruricius himself had epistolary intercourse and whom he invited to come to him Canisius, volume I, pp. 379 and 385., writes this in his work On the Contemplative Life, book II, chapter II Bibliotheca Patrum, volume VIII, p. 64.: "The priest (that is, the bishop), to whom the care of dispensation is committed, not only without cupidity but even with the praise of piety receives from the people the things to be dispensed… He sets himself in the number of the poor out of love of poverty: so that from what he supplies to the poor, from that he himself also lives as a voluntary poor man. The clerics too, whom either will or birth has made poor, living with perfection of virtue whether in their own houses or in community, it is not the desire of having that leads them to receive the necessaries of life, but the necessity of living that compels them." And in the following chapter he teaches what clerics ought to do whose infirmity cannot despise their own goods. This treatise, which the cited Bibliotheca Patrum published under the name of St. Prosper of Aquitaine, Jacques Sirmond vindicates to its author Pomerius Histoire littéraire de la France, volume II, p. 670..

[35] lived in Gaul, There was above all in the Church of Arles the highest emulation of imitating St. Augustine. Thus in the Life of St. Hilary of Arles, written by St. Honoratus of Marseille and published with us on the 5th day of May, it is read that a poet exclaimed Volume II of May, p. 29, no. 14.: "If Augustine had been after you, Hilary, he would be judged inferior." And in fact, scarcely having obtained the episcopate Ibid., p. 28, no. 9., "he at once instituted a congregation, desirous of seclusion, growing in the virtue of continence, which he imbued almost no less by his example than he formed it by his eloquence." Whence it came about that, as his biographer speaks Ibid., p. 33, no. 32., "he did not cease to be reborn not only in his successors but still in the increases of many pontiffs. However many priests have been ordained by his intercession, whether through him by heavenly will or after him by God's providence, strive, grace helping, to correspond to his erudition, his teaching and his growing merits." Such certainly was his fifth successor, St. Caesarius. He, "a bishop following the bishop Augustine in all things" Lelarge, De Ordine Canonicorum, p. 240., first of all conformed his Rule for nuns to the norm of the Augustinian one, inasmuch as he excerpted many things word for word. Let rules XIX, XX and XXI Codex regularum of Holstein, volume I, p. 355. be compared, if you please, with nos. 6, 9 and 10 of letter CCXI, otherwise CIX, of St. Augustine Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1579 — Volume II of the Works, p. 563..

[36] whence St. Ruricius pressed the same footsteps, This being so, who would dare deny that our St. Ruricius too, who lived at this time and dealt with these men either face to face or by letters, followed the same discipline, and so tried to shape his clergy after the image of the Augustinian clergy? By what reason, then, can the statement of Bernard Gui, a most accurate writer, be relegated to fables, who, if he erred in a word, yet set out the thing as it was in the fifth century, namely that St. Ruricius instituted in the suburban church of St. Augustine clerics who followed the Augustinian form? "But, to be sure, there were no colleges of clerics outside the cities": this can be shown by no suitable testimony that I know of, unless perhaps the discipline in force is brought in as an argument, by which, residence in the cities being forbidden to monks, the country alone was permitted them. But from this it by no means follows conversely that the dwelling of the country was forbidden to clerics; nay rather, from canon XXV of the Council of Epaon it is plain that there were colleges of clerics in the country, inasmuch as they served in rural oratories by frequency of psalmody. As regards monks, they seem at the beginning to have been exiled from the cities; St. Jerome teaches this in letter XLIX, otherwise XIII, to Paulinus on the Institution of a Monk Labbe, Concilia, volume VI, column 535, when he says: "If you wish to exercise the office of a presbyter,

if perhaps the work or the honour of the episcopate delights you, live in the cities and fortified towns, and make the salvation of others the gain of your own soul. But if you desire to be what you are called, a monk, that is, one alone, what are you doing in the cities, which are certainly not the dwellings of those alone but of many?"

[37] very many in the neighbourhood of the city: Although these things seem to concern rather the East, where St. Jerome lived, yet that a similar discipline flourished even down to the advanced seventh century is clear from the Council of Autun of the year 670, in which by canon VI it is enacted Roman Breviary, 16th of December.: "That they (the monks) be not found in the cities. But if for the sake of the utility of the monastery, let them be directed with letters of their abbot written to the archdeacon of the city." It is manifest that the question here is not so much of monks who, dwelling within the city, wander through the streets, but of those who inhabit the country, and so come to the city only when necessity compels. Otherwise the observance of the canon would have been too arduous, if the residence of the monks had been within the city itself. And if monks in the fifth century remained outside the city: therefore those were not monks properly so called who, having professed evangelical poverty, were deputed by virtue of their vocation to the sacred ministry under the bishop, such as were the clerics of the Church of Vercelli under Eusebius [Sermons CCCLV and CCCLVI, otherwise XLIX and L, On the morals of clerics, volume V of the Works, column 1379 and following.], and of Hippo under St. Augustine Volume V of the Works, column 1380.; which institute was afterwards propagated to other provinces, especially in Gaul, as we have seen in SS. Hilary and Caesarius, bishops of Arles.

[38] finally it is shown from St. Augustine Nor does it help to say that all who have professed evangelical poverty are monks. For then indeed the dispute would be merely about the name, and even today, since the essence of the religious state is constituted in the three substantial vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, all regulars would come to be reckoned under the name of monks. But as today, so also of old there were men of this kind, upon whom by virtue of their institution the sacred ministry was incumbent. Such certainly were those clerics whom St. Augustine wished to live with him in his bishop's house, and indeed, as far as appears, different from those with whom the holy Doctor had been accustomed to live before his episcopate. For he explains these things altogether openly in Sermon CCCLV, when he says: "Since I was arranging this (having already been made a presbyter), to be in a monastery with the brethren, the old man Valerius of blessed memory, my institute and will being known, gave me that garden in which the monastery now is. I began to gather brethren of good purpose, my equals, having nothing, as I had nothing; and imitating me, so that, as I sold my slender little poverty and gave it out to the poor, so too those should do who wished to be with me, that we might live from the common: and that our common, great and most fertile estate should be God himself.

[39] the distinction between monks and regular clerics. "I came to the episcopate: I saw that a bishop must necessarily show continual hospitality to all who come or pass through; which if the bishop had not done, he would be called inhuman. But if that custom had been permitted in a monastery, it would be unseemly. And therefore I wished to have in this house of the bishop a monastery of clerics with me. Behold how we live: no one in our society is permitted to have anything of his own: but perhaps some have it; no one is permitted; if any have it, they do what is not permitted." Here, in my judgment, a twofold form of monastery appears, namely of those who are perfected in solitude, and to whom a crowd of visitors would have been unseemly, and of those who, living in the bishop's house, are specially called clerics and help the bishop in bearing the pastoral burden, whom we rightly reckon among the regular clergy. There is no ground, therefore, why the authors of Gallia Christiana should so mock Bernard Gui, who wrote that canons regular were placed in the suburban church of St. Augustine by St. Ruricius. For Bernard compiled Lives of the Saints for this purpose, that, as the anonymous writer of his Life says Labbe, Bibliotheca manuscriptorum, volume II, p. 512., since the arrangement of Brother Jacobus de Voragine seemed to him curtailed and in very many things doubtful, he might present the original legends of the saints. Surely no one will easily take away the authority of such a man by bare denial.

§ V. Of the cause of the absence of St. Ruricius I from the Council of Agde.

St. Ruricius excuses his absence from the Council, We have, as we said above at no. 5, one single defined chronological moment in the life of St. Ruricius, namely that, having been summoned to the synod of Agde of the year 506, he did not appear. Our saint excuses this absence of his in letter 32 of book II, given to St. Caesarius Canisius, volume I, p. 397.: "As to what you write," he says, "why I did not come to the synod, as our conversation had held, infirmity did this, not will. For you yourselves can recall how tired you saw me at Bordeaux, and that in winter, when I am usually stronger than usual. Because in the summer days, even in my lodging and in cool places, I can scarcely sustain my accustomed infirmity itself, not to say that I could have borne those gatherings [*] of that region, if I had come. Whence I rather hope that you will deign to pray for me, and, for the other time which you intimate, if God grants life, if you wish me to come, that you will indicate it to us earlier through your man. Because I signify that your letter has now reached me very late. Because, whether for dignity or for age, we ought not to be summoned later than others, we who perhaps (to speak less prudently) deserved to be courted. Because if the name of their cities lends authority to others, the humbleness of our city ought not to take authority from us. Since it is much better and much more eminent for the city to be known from the priest than the priest from the city."

[41] without treating of the omitted embassy of a presbyter; But Dom Jean Liron, a Maurist Benedictine, suspects another cause of the absence of St. Ruricius from the council of Agde. For, as he reasons Singularités historiques, volume II, p. 1 and following., if health prevented our Ruricius from presenting himself in person at the synod, nothing certainly hindered the sending of some presbyter or deacon of the Church of Limoges who would act in place of his bishop; such there are in this very Synod Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1395.: "Avilius, presbyter, in place of Caprarius of Narbonne, Paulinus, presbyter, for Eufrasius of Clermont, Leo, deacon, for Verus of Tours," and many others. Nay, St. Caesarius himself says the same openly in the letter to St. Ruricius, 18th among those of Faustus Canisius, volume I, p. 366.: "While," he says, "my mind was much troubled why we did not merit to obtain your presence at the synod, my holy lord Bishop Verus deigned to tell me that he had sent me your letter at Agde by his deacon, which I do not remember having received, by I know not what chance or what negligence. But yet I most certainly believe my holy lord, your brother, and I prefer to impute this to the negligence of the bearer. But although you sent your holy and desirable letters, yet, as you yourselves know very well, it would have been most fitting that you should send a person who would subscribe in your place, and that what your holy brethren decreed might be confirmed in your person. But because I knew with what holy and frequent and pious desire you wished to be present, I set forth your wish and holy will to all your brethren: for which matter we neither could nor ought to impute anything to your piety."

[42] whence some suspect the cause to have been Hence it is manifest that St. Caesarius grieved not so much over the absence of St. Ruricius himself as over the omitted embassy of some presbyter or deacon. Which latter remonstrance, however, our saint excuses by not a word. In this business, therefore, something lies beneath which is set out neatly and openly on neither side. The praised Dom Liron seeks the cause of the absence in this, that St. Ruricius was unwilling by his presence at the Synod of Agde, which, as the preface of the Acts has it Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1382., had met by permission of King Alaric, to offend the mind of Clovis, king of the Franks, then indeed preparing war against Alaric, whom in the following year, on the field of Vouillé near Poitiers, having routed his army, he killed, as Gregory of Tours relates, History of the Franks, book II, chapter 37 Bouquet, volume II, p. 182.. Nay, Dom Liron suspects that St. Ruricius learned from Verus of Tours, who was then staying at Limoges as an exile by order of Alaric, things which showed that war was imminent at close quarters. To me indeed this conjecture is displeasing: since, if St. Ruricius had learned from Verus the weighty reasons on account of which he should avoid the synod of Agde, how is it that Verus himself sent his deacon Leo to it: for the arguments which moved St. Ruricius seem to have ought to have weighed with Verus.

[43] the fear of imminent war; For a similar reason I cannot approve the other conjecture of Dom Liron, namely insofar as St. Ruricius shrank from the synod in order to avert from himself and his flock the displeasure of the impending Clovis. For the same argument would have moved also the neighbouring bishops, Tetradius of Bourges, Eufrasius of Clermont, Verus of Tours, who nevertheless were all present at the council in person or by their legates, as is established from their subscriptions Labbe, volume IV, p. 1394 and following.. Nothing seemed more to be feared for Ruricius than for the rest; nay, in circumstances of this kind the number of offenders, if not the fault, at least either diminishes or wipes away the punishment. Wherefore there seems to me more probable as the cause of the absence of our bishop the negligence in announcing the Synod in good time. For he asks that, if indeed Caesarius wishes him to come to the council, he indicate it to him earlier, for he signifies that the letters of convocation came very late. And from this slowness of the bearers he scents a certain contempt of his person and of the see of Limoges: "Because," he says, "if the name of their cities lends authority to others, the humbleness of our city ought not to take authority from us."

[44] but all things are rightly explained This I suspect was the cause of the absence of St. Ruricius, if indeed it was other than his health. For in his letter to Sedatus, bishop of Nîmes, 34th in order of book II Canisius, volume I, p. 399,, he pleads no other obstacle than his health. "Through the chief physician Palladius," he says, "I received your letter … which invited us with the wish of the heart to a mutual sight. But what are we to do, since the diverse infirmity of our limbs resists the desires of our minds? While you are hindered by excessive robustness, we by the thinness of a wasted body: while four feet of others cannot carry you, heavy as you are, my own two can scarcely support even me for weakness. Whence it comes about that we cannot fulfil our common wishes. For I (the Lord is witness) that if I had been able, to the appointed synod with all

eagerness I should have come. But, my will for the journey having been arranged, the necessity of weakness prevented me, because I could not bear the airs of that region, especially at this time; which I trust that you too believe so, and I do not doubt that the wicked turn it to something else." From these one may see that already then some had sinisterly interpreted the absence of St. Ruricius, although he himself puts forward a single cause, his health. But someone will say: why did he not at least, like other bishops his colleagues, send a legate? Because, he himself says, his will for the journey having been arranged, he was suddenly overwhelmed by infirmity, so that he could not send even a legate duly instructed. In this way I judge the absence of St. Ruricius from the council of Agde to be explained after a fashion.

[45] a sudden infirmity falling upon the old man. In the letter cited above at no. 45 St. Caesarius indicates that in the coming year a synod is to be held at Toulouse, Christ being propitious, to which the Spanish bishops too are to be summoned. But no trace of such an assembly is found Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1827.. As the Benedictine authors of the History of Languedoc rightly observe Histoire du Languedoc, volume I, p. 213., the wars which broke out in the following year, that is 507, between Clovis, king of the Franks, and Alaric, king of the Visigoths, seem to have prevented every episcopal assembly. For Clovis, says Gregory of Tours, book II, chapter 37 of the History Bouquet, volume II, p. 183., "spending the winter at the city of Bordeaux, carrying off all the treasures of Alaric from Toulouse, came to Ecolisma" (Angoulême). Since, further, it was more to the interest of the Spaniards, as is plain from the letter, than of the Gauls to celebrate a council in the farthest part of the kingdom, it is altogether understood that the bishops did not meet at Toulouse in the year 507.

[46] The topography of the kingdom Since mention of the council of Agde has come up, we think it opportune to advise the reader that from the names of the bishops who were summoned to Agde the bounds of the Gothic kingdom in Gaul can be taken quite accurately, as Sirmond rightly observes Works of Sirmond, volume II, p. 119.. In the Life of St. Florentius, bishop of Orange, to be published also under this day, the same may be observed as regards the Burgundian kingdom. But when the praised writer affirms the same of the First Council of Orléans of the year 511, it does not seem to me certain in every respect; for although various bishops who had subscribed to the synod of Agde in the year 506 passed under Frankish jurisdiction after the disaster of Vouillé in the year 507 and the breaking of the power of the Visigoths, yet others were absent from Orléans, for example those of Reims, Tournai etc.; whence perhaps not only Frankish prelates were present, but certainly not all; wherefore it would be difficult to define rightly from the sees of the Fathers of Orléans the bounds of the Frankish empire such as it then was under Clovis.

[47] of the Visigoths in Gaul. But the Synod of Agde puts no such difficulty in our way. For from the sees of the Fathers one may determine the bounds of the Gothic kingdom in Gaul, which was enclosed toward the south by the Pyrenees mountains and the Mediterranean Sea; toward the west it was bounded by the Ocean at the mouth of the Garonne; then, as we direct our step toward the north, there meet us the Petrocorii (Périgueux) and the Lemovices, to whom were joined the Turones, Bituriges and Arverni: and from here toward the south there meet us the Gabalitani (today Mimatum, Mende), the people of Lodève, of Uzès, and, the Rhône being crossed, those of Avignon, and on the left bank of the Durance those of Arles, Aix, Antipolis (Antibes, afterwards Grasse), Forum Julii (Fréjus), Sanitium (Senez) and Digne. And so from this Synod it cannot be made certain whether Glannateva (Glandève) and Ventium, the farthest towns toward the east, belonged to the Visigoths. There are also two bishops in this Synod whose sees cannot be determined, namely Pappulus, who did not add the name of his city, and Peter, bishop de Palatio, whom some have judged to be of Limoges, inasmuch as the village of Palatium (Le Palais) lies near that city; but what we have so far related about St. Ruricius forbids it. I indeed think that Peter was bishop of the royal court, and derived from his office the name of Palatine bishop; of which thing the probability is made by what Giuseppe Carafa, Clerk Regular, wrote about royal chapels De Capella regis utriusque Siciliae, p. 14..

[48] The death of St. Ruricius, Those who have written of the deeds of St. Ruricius judge [Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 502. Labiche, Saints de Limoges, volume I, p. 45.] that our saint closed his life a little after the Council of Agde, and so about the year 507. Certainly the holy bishop himself, in the letter to St. Caesarius, openly insinuates that reverence was due to him also by reason of age: which reason above all must persuade that our saint did not long survive the council of Agde. The body of the deceased was buried in the church of St. Augustine, built by himself: for this church was the common cemetery of the clergy of Limoges. The said church kept this right of burial down to Aimeric de Malemort, bishop of Limoges, who first, in the year 1272, the monks not contradicting, was carried into his cathedral, for the completion of whose fabric he had left a great sum of money Gallia Christiana, volume II, p. 530.. For when about the year 1086 Guy had met his last day and had been entombed in his principal church of St. Stephen, the abbot of St. Augustine compelled the canons to exhume the body and bring it into his monastery.

[49] and his burial in the church of St. Augustine. Geoffrey, prior of Vigeois (Vigeois, department of Corrèze Labbe, Bibliotheca manuscriptorum, volume II, p. 289.), relates the matter thus in his Chronicle: "Bishop Guy having died, his body was entombed in the monastery of St. Stephen before the altar of the perpetual Virgin Mary by the canons themselves, though in that city the corpse of no deceased person had lain. Then Gerald, abbot of St. Augustine, having summoned [] the count of Poitiers, buried [] the body of the pontiff, taken away from the church, within a few days at St. Augustine's with a great concourse of divers Orders: one of the crowd, however, throwing a stone, struck the head of the dead priest, whence blood came out, not without the wonder of many." And although from the thirteenth century the bishops of Limoges could choose another place of burial for themselves, nevertheless the Benedictine monks even in the seventeenth century contended that the lights employed at the funerals of bishops and canons were owed to their monastery, as is established from a petition presented to the official of Limoges, which right they said rested on solid foundations Labiche, volume I, p. 43 and following, note.. Thus far of St. Ruricius I; now we take a step to his grandson, St. Ruricius II, likewise bishop of Limoges.

* to be read: æstus heat.

* aliis connivente others conniving.

* recommendavit commended.

§ VI. St. Ruricius II, grandson of St. Ruricius I; synopsis of his life, the councils at which he was present; his death.

Among the descendants Of St. Ruricius II, bishop of Limoges, not so many things occur besides those which are related in the Life of St. Junianus the anchorite, and which we shall give below. That this saint was not the son of a brother of Ruricius I, but his grandson through a son or daughter, is plainly shown by the epitaph placed for both Ruricii by Venantius Fortunatus above at no. 3, in which he calls the one grandfather, the other grandson (nepos). For although I think the bare word nepos should not be pressed too much, both because it could be called into controversy, as will be plain to one turning over the Lexicons, whether even among the authors of golden Latinity it had no other signification than son's son, and especially because in the age of Venantius the Latin phrase was not so refined that some σφάλμα slip could not underlie it; yet on account of the correlated words grandfather and grandson the matter seems placed beyond controversy. Especially since it is certain that St. Ruricius I begot children from his marriage with Iberia; for this is clearly shown by letter 5 of Faustus Canisius, volume I, p. 356., in which, when it was brought into deliberation what kind of life Ruricius ought chiefly to follow, he says it must be seen whether any of the sons can be sufficient for so arduous a service. The same argument is drawn from the letters to Hesperius and Namatius, as we showed above at nos. 8, 9 and 24.

[51] of St. Ruricius I enough We have also from letter 36 of book II Ibid., p. 399. that Parthemius and Papianilla were the sweetest grandchildren of St. Ruricius, by whose departure he is greatly saddened, and whom he admonishes to be mindful of his words, "because," he says, "it is certain that you can, according to the saying of Solomon, advance in good things, God directing, if you hold the counsels of elders both in love and act well with apt use." On the occasion of this letter Basnage stands thunderstruck that Parthemius is praised by a bishop: "But," he says, "the bishop is a man, and thinks nothing human foreign to himself." But I see no cause underlying why the Terentian adage should be brought forth with so wide a gape. The letter breathes a fatherly love, but nothing occurs which smacks of praise: Ruricius indeed admonishes his grandchildren, but that very thing shows somewhat that his grandchildren were such as still needed exhortation. Then Parthemius was killed in the year of Christ 547; he was therefore already about forty years distant from the death of Ruricius, in which interval of time his morals, though excellent at the beginning, could have degenerated into the worst.

[52] numbers. The deeds of Parthemius, whom he himself calls Parthenius, Gregory of Tours sketches in these words, History, book III, chapter XXXVI Bouquet, volume II, p. 202.: "The Franks, since they held Parthenius in great hatred, because he had imposed tributes on them in the time of the aforesaid king (Theodebert), began to persecute him. But he, seeing himself placed in danger, makes flight from the city, and suppliantly entreats two bishops that, escorting him to the city of Trier, they would by their preaching repress the sedition of the raging people. As they went, at night, while he lay on his bed, he suddenly in a dream uttered a great cry, saying: 'Alas, alas! Help, you who are present, and bring aid to one perishing.' Woken by this cry, those who were present ask what this was. He answered: 'Ausanius, my friend, with Papianilla my wife, whom I once killed, were summoning me to judgment, saying: Come to answer, you who are to plead with us before the Lord.' For, led by jealousy, some years before he had slain his innocent wife and his friend. 'When therefore the bishops came to the aforesaid city, since they could not bear the sedition of the clamouring people, they wished to hide him in the church, namely placing him in a chest and spreading over it vestments which were for the use of the church.' But the people, entering and searching all the corners of the church, when they had found nothing, were going out gnashing their teeth. Then one, speaking from suspicion, said: 'Look, the chest, in which our adversary has not been searched for.' And when the custodians said that nothing else was contained in it but the ornaments of the church, they demand the key, saying: 'Unless you unlock it quickly, we will break it open ourselves of our own accord.' At length, the chest being unlocked, the linens removed, they drag out the man found, clapping and saying: 'God has delivered our enemy into our hands.' Then, beating him with fists and smearing him with spittle, his hands bound behind his back, they overwhelmed him with stones at a column."

"Now he was very voracious in his food; but what he took, in order that he might be the more quickly moved to eat again, he digested speedily by taking aloe."

[53] St. Ruricius II also comes; These things about the grandchildren of St. Ruricius, among whom St. Ruricius II comes to be reckoned, although we know nothing of his parents, namely whether he drew his origin from a son or a daughter of Ruricius I. Unknown to us also is the time of his birth and of his episcopate; and his deeds, so far as they have come to our knowledge, are comprised in the Life of St. Junianus, published on the 16th day of October Volume VII of October, p. 848., and in the Acts of the councils of Gaul. We give first what is related in the praised Life of St. Junianus Ibid., p. 819, no. 9.: "A certain man sprung of illustrious birth, a noble man Ruricius, who was called by another name Proculus, enriched with an abundance of goods, when he had been lifted up in the arrogance of pride, not undeservedly, the judgment of almighty God dispensing it, is handed over to him who had been the first to lift himself up in pride. Humbled, he felt how much he had lost when swollen; but when by physicians, and also, what is graver, by sorcerers and enchanters, through his faithful ones and even through his own household slaves, he was being treated [*], and had consumed part of his substance through such men, who, while they wished to restore him to health, persecuted him the more grievously, while they wished to cast out one from him, presently, as is reported, a legion entered into him." If the biographer of St. Junianus narrates truly, from this it becomes manifest that St. Ruricius I had sons and grandsons who did not always obey their father's admonitions. Perhaps this too was the cause why he first began to institute a holier life at the time when, as we saw in the letter of Faustus of Riez above at no. 5, he had children already rather grown up, and so not easily to be reformed. We continue our excerpts.

[54] who, converted by the help of St. Junianus, "But when he was being harassed more sharply by more (demons), his people too, returning to themselves, began to think what they should do, namely to bring him to the little cell of the holy man Junianus, so that he who could not before be cured by physicians might be healed by the prayers of the holy man. Having therefore entered on a salutary counsel, they go to the man of God. The man of God exhorted only this, that he should persevere in fasts and prayers and vigils and give out large alms from his substance to the poor, because this kind of demons cannot be overcome otherwise, according to which he also confirmed the sentence pronounced by our Lord Jesus Christ. But when he brought much money in order to merit being cured of so great an enemy, the holy man put this forward in answer, that it was not just that he who had of his own accord left his own things for God's sake should be enriched by the wealth of others: but that what was offered to him he should give out for the sustenance of the poor, because he was powerful to snatch him from so great an enemy who, from the demoniac man coming out, had driven the legion and permitted it to go into the swine. But when he had prayed rather long and besought the Lord for his health with many fasts and vigils, by his merits he is restored to his former health, and so, the divine mercy granting it, he is rendered so sound that now none of that very throng of malignant spirits, at the command of the aforesaid servant of God, presumed to have a return to his little body; but in body and mind he was so restored to health by the prayer and correction of the aforesaid holy man Junianus that after the departure of his paternal cousin, the lord Ruricius of holy memory, formerly prelate of the city of Limoges, he was instituted bishop."

[55] he presided over the people of Limoges about the year 507. There is no need for us to show at length that St. Ruricius I is wrongly called his paternal cousin, or son of his father's brother; he ought to have been called his grandfather. But from this carelessness an argument arises for me that the Life of St. Junianus was written rather long after his death, and so, if it was compiled from more ancient documents, the writer interpolated certain less certain things of his own. If, further, we insist on the words of the praised biographer, it will have to be concluded that St. Junianus lived forty years in solitude after the elevation of St. Ruricius II or Proculus to the see of Limoges, who could not have been promoted before the year of Christ 507, his grandfather the bishop being alive. For having narrated the institution of St. Ruricius II in the episcopal see, he adds in one continuous run of words: "And afterwards too the aforesaid man of God (Junianus), strong in many virtues, led a solitary life in the aforesaid place for the space of forty years." But with this interpretation assumed, the Life of St. Junianus will seem to have to be prolonged by at least twelve years, so as to reach the year of Christ 547; which indeed is less likely. For in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Junianus his death is set about the year 535 Acta Sanctorum, volume VII of October, p. 842, no. 26.: although according to the Chronicle of Comodoliacum, from which we shall excerpt the deeds of both Ruricii, St. Junianus died, according to the Life of Ruricius II, no. 4, "in the fifty-fifth year of his age and the fortieth year of his enclosure, and of the Incarnation 540." From which words it is manifest that the whole course of the eremitical life of St. Junianus is contained in forty years; and so that St. Junianus lived at least seven years under Ruricius I in the solitude of Comodoliacum. And Stephen Maleu, author of the Chronicle of Comodoliacum, seems to win credit for his assertions from the fact that he candidly confesses that he sometimes does not know the day and year of a death. Thus of St. Ruricius I he says at no. 2 that "the day and year in which the soul of St. Roricius passed from the body to Christ are not had in writing today." Similarly of St. Ruricius II, at no. 7, he professes that the day and year of his death are unknown to him. When, therefore, he noted so diligently the time of the death of St. Junianus, it is altogether to be believed that some torch lit the way for the writer.

[56] And he built a basilica for St. Junianus: St. Ruricius II seems to have succeeded his grandfather with no one in between. This is suggested by the documents which survive and by the opinion of the learned Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 503.; and Venantius Fortunatus joins the two in book IV of his poems, which we cited above at no. 3. Further, as our St. Ruricius had blessed Junianus as the initiator of a holier life, so without doubt he followed the same as his guide and master in ordering the rest of his life; all the more because he was near to Limoges, from which Comodoliacum is about six French leagues distant. This is confirmed also from the solicitude which he is read to have shown concerning the burial of St. Junianus. "Wherefore," says the biographer at no. 10 Volume VII of October, p. 842., "the aforesaid man Ruricius or Proculus, far from unmindful of how great benefits he had obtained from the aforesaid holy man, ordered a basilica to be built where the holy limbs of the most blessed Junianus might be placed, in which place also his dwelling had formerly been." The same basilica is described more fully in the already often-praised Commentary on St. Junianus, no. 27 Ibid., p. 850.: at the beginning it was a monastery, which in the course of time passed to secular presbyters; already in his own age Bernard Gui wrote in his Historical Miscellanies Ibid., p. 842.: "To St. Junianus, hermit and confessor, the canons of Comodoliacum make jubilee; for so were they anciently called who are now named canons of St. Junianus." The college of canons continued until the end of the past century, consisting of twenty-four persons Labbe, Bibliotheca, volume I, p. 633.. Besides this foundation there is also ascribed to our saint the church of St. Peter de Quadrivio (du Queyroix) at Limoges, where he is narrated to have rested buried for some time Pouillé du diocèse de Limoges, year 1648, p. 15.. But I do not know whether the present parish church of St. Peter is the same as that which is called de Quadrivio.

[57] he was present at the Council of Clermont in the year 535, in which various These are about all the things concerning St. Ruricius II which have come to our knowledge. To which we subjoin certain things about those councils at which our saint was present, either himself or through his legates. In the year of Christ 535, "with the consent," say the Acts Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 503,, "of our most glorious and most pious lord King Theodebert," son of Theodoric, to whom the kingdom of Metz had fallen, "a holy synod met in the city of the Arverni." In the Acts we read Ruricius, bishop of the Church of Limoges, subscribed in the fifth place among fifteen. Worthy of note in this synod are canons 3, 7 and 8, by which the Fathers provide that the furnishings of the church be not profaned by unseemly uses. Thus canon 3 forbids the bodies of the dead to be wrapped in palls or in the divine ministries. A twofold kind of pall, further, was employed in the sacred ministry, namely the linen cloth with which the whole altar is covered and which hangs down on both sides to its foot, and which with us, according to the General Rubrics of the Roman Missal, no. 20, are called mappae or tobaleae. The other pall is today called the Corporal, and is spread over the altar before the celebration of Mass to receive the Sacrament.

[58] Since below we have a similar prohibition about burying a presbyter, and there it is called "the covering of the Lord's body," I should readily believe that the pall in which the bodies of deceased lay people are said to be wrapped is to be interpreted as the tobaleae. For by canon VII it is forbidden that the body of a priest should ever be covered with the covering of the Lord's body while it is carried to the tomb; "lest, the sacred veil being returned to its uses, the altars be polluted while bodies are honoured." The covering of the Lord's body is the corporal itself, with which the oblations were also covered Labbe, volume IV, column 1803., and it was so large that, according to Ordo Romanus VI in Mabillon Binterim, Denkwürdigkeiten, volume IV, part I, p. 136., the deacon, another deacon helping, spread it over the altar, and of such size that it took up the whole surface of the altar: wherefore it is easily understood in what way the body of a priest might be covered with this covering. Finally, for a similar reason the Fathers of Clermont forbid in canon 8 Museum Italicum, volume II, p. 73. that the divine ministries be furnished for the adornment of weddings. That the priest was accustomed, the nuptial blessing having been imparted, to place a veil on the spouses is attested to us by Pope Nicholas I Labbe, Concilia, volume VIII, column 517, and C. XXX, q. V, canon I.; such probably was the use of the divine ministries.

[59] pertaining to discipline, nay to the civil state; In the same council worthy of note also is the petition of the bishops directed to King Theodebert, "that," they say Labbe, volume IV, column 1805., "your piety would permit no one to be deprived of his own goods or little possessions, and that, while each is subject to the power and dominion of one king, no one should lose by claim, as usually happens, his property placed in the lot of another… Whence, most reverently supplicating, as is fitting, we beseech that your piety, with a view to God, would not deny this to our petition, that both the rectors of the Churches and all the clerics, and also lay people, remaining under the condition of your kingdom, and also to the lords kings, your fathers [*]

belonging to the dominion, you would not permit to be strangers to what is in your lot, to what they have always been seen to have as their own, so that whoever possesses his property securely may pay the due tributes to the lord into whose lot his possession has come. Which we judge to be altogether more useful for your treasuries too." Already then the fisc was claiming great things for itself from adventitious goods of this kind, and not without the greatest danger to the kingdom of Gaul, which, as things then were, was divided among various lords after the death of each king. By similar examples it is clearly shown how effective was the action of the bishops in keeping the kingdom of the Gauls safe and sound.

[60] and both Councils of Orléans: Our St. Ruricius was present at two councils of Orléans, namely the fourth and fifth, in the years 541 and 549, and to the former indeed he himself subscribed fifth among thirty-eight bishops Labbe, Concilia, volume V, column 388.. To the latter Bantaredus, archdeacon, added his name, "sent," he says, "by my lord Ruricius, bishop of the Church of Limoges." To one or the other council is to be referred what Gregory of Tours narrates in the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 6 Bibliotheca maxima Patrum, volume XI, p. 939.: "At the city of Orléans, Bishop Marcus having been accused by wicked men and thrust into exile, a great assembly of bishops was gathered by order of King Childebert, in which synod the blessed bishops, recognizing that what had been muttered against him was empty, restored him to his city and see." This cause is referred rather to the fourth council of Orléans than to the fifth, since in the former the subscription of Marcus is found in the last place among the bishops, but is absent from the fifth; whence it is given to understand that in the year 549 the see of Orléans was vacant. Nevertheless François Le Maire, in the History of the Church of Orléans Histoire de l'Église d'Orléans, p. 149., ascribes the purgation and absolution of Bishop Marcus rather to the fifth Council.

[61] he dies about the year 553, Although we have nothing certain about the time of the death of St. Ruricius, yet the holy bishop does not seem to have survived the Fifth Council of Arles of the year 549 by much: and this would become very probable if it were certain in every respect that Exotius occupied the see of Limoges for fifteen years after our Ruricius. For in the year 576 St. Ferreolus is read in Gregory of Tours, History, book V, chapter 29 Bouquet, volume II, p. 251., to have freed Marcus, referendary of King Chilperic, from the fury of the people of Limoges. And if from the year of Christ 575 we subtract the fifteen years for which, on the witness of Venantius Fortunatus Ibid., p. 492., Exotius sat, we come to the year 560 of the common era: since, further, it is by no means certain that Exotius first received the episcopate at the time when he calmed the commotion of his people, nothing prevents us from putting off the death of our St. Ruricius as far as the year 553, as Labiche has it Six mois, volume II, p. 249.. Wherefore, although the time of his death cannot be determined accurately, it can prudently be set about the year 553. Nor does it seem to need to be prolonged much, since, departing from life in that year, he would have borne the episcopal office for thirty-six years, and so into old age.

[62] he lies buried at St. Junianus, Since, as we saw above at no. 50, the ordinary burial of the prelates of Limoges was in the church of St. Augustine, it is likely that St. Ruricius too was entombed there. Gallia Christiana, however, relates Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 503. that he obtained a sepulchre in the church of St. Peter de Quadrivio, from which at length he was translated to the church of St. Junianus. Labiche narrates Six mois, volume II, p. 150; Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 1461. that he was raised from the earth and honourably placed to the left of the high altar of St. Junianus in a reliquary adorned with silver plates. But here some difficulty occurs, since the praised writer adds that this elevation was performed by Reginald, prelate of Périgueux, in the year 1102, while on the contrary the Reverend Mr. Arbellot Chronique de Maleu, p. 91. contends that Reginald of Périgueux died in the year 1101, and accordingly that this elevation is to be put back to the year 1100. In the Commentary on St. Junianus this question was not altogether passed over, and it was said in general of the Reverend Mr. Labiche's assertion that there was nothing that conflicted with it. In truth the controversy about the succession of the bishops of Périgueux did not escape us; but the matter seemed, and still seems, so perplexed that this series of bishops sheds no light on other historical arguments, but rather must receive it from them. The reader will judge from what is to be said: Geoffrey of Vigeois, in chapter XXXII of his Chronicle, relates under the year 1101 the following In Dom Bouquet, volume XII, p. 430: "William, duke of the Aquitanians, set out for Jerusalem with many others: but he contributed nothing to the Christian name… Then his army was slaughtered by the Saracens together with Radulph, the venerable pontiff of Périgueux. Meanwhile (1100) King Godfrey of Bouillon, ending his life, handed the sceptre to his brother Baldwin." On the contrary, in the Fragment on the bishops of Périgueux, which Dom Bouquet published from Labbe's Bibliotheca manuscriptorum just as he did the Chronicle of Geoffrey of Vigeois Ibid., p. 391., altogether conflicting things are read. Here they are: "After him (William de Montberon) Reynald de Thiviers succeeded in the same bishopric and ruled the church 17 years, 4 months and 21 days. And he died in the year of the Lord 1099 on the eighth day before the Ides of September at St. George of Ramla. This bishop was present at the siege of Antioch, but while one day he was celebrating the divine mysteries, he was beheaded by the Saracens upon the altar… And him William d'Auberoche followed in the same see and ruled the church 24 years, and died in the year of the Lord 1123, on the 4th day before the Nones of April." And to this point also is the inscription which Maleu relates was placed on the tomb of St. Junianus by Ramnulf, at that time provost of Comodoliacum Chronique de Maleu, p. 44.: Hic jacet corpus Sci Juniani in ipso vase in quo sepelivit eum beatus Roricius eps. Rainaudus vero Petragoricens. eps. qui meruit martir fieri, collegit eum in [s]crineis ligneis infra vase positis. [Here lies the body of St. Junianus in the very vessel in which blessed Roricius, bishop, buried him. But Rainaud, bishop of Périgueux, who merited to become a martyr, gathered him into wooden caskets placed within the vessel.]

[63] the bishop of Périgueux raising his body, But in truth, if it is admitted that the bishop of Périgueux died in Syria about the year 1100, who at last is he, Reginald or Rainaud, or rather Radulph? Was he present in the year 1097 at the siege of Antioch, or did he only set out in the year 1101? Did he die at St. George of Ramla, or rather in the parts of Heraclea, where the Poitevin forces were routed?

[64] by Reginald or Raymond. But since these things are so doubtful and can by no means be reconciled with each other, there are other things which suggest that neither Radulph (who never sat at Périgueux) nor Reginald ever went off with the crusaders. For Reginald of Périgueux, in the year 1098, on the third day before the Nones of October, was present with the abbots of his diocese at the council of Bordeaux Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 1461., and he is said in the year 1099 to have consecrated the church of Uzerche Ibid., place cited., although I think this was done by him in the year 1097 [Ibid., column 585, and Mabillon, Annales Benedictini at the year 1095, no. 32, volume V, p. 338.]. Moreover Maleu, who perhaps had before his eyes the instrument of the dedication of the church of his monastery, writes Chronique, p. 41, and below in this volume.: "In the year of the Lord 1102, in the month of October, namely on the 12th day before the Kalends of November, the reverend father lord Raynald himself, asked by the aforesaid provost Ramnulf, came to Comodoliacum to dedicate the church of St. Junianus, etc." In truth I know well enough that in Gallia Christiana Volume II, column 1461 and following. Raymond II comes from the year 1101 to the year 1104; but it is by no means shown that he sat four years at Périgueux, and much less that he was already bishop in the year 1102. I should not wish, however, to oppose it, and if any would have it that the dedication and the translation at Comodoliacum were done by this Raymond, and that Reginald was killed in Syria by the weapons of the infidels, they have arguments with which to defend themselves; if any on the contrary contend that the canon Maleu is to be adhered to, it is plain that these too are not unarmed. It will be enough for us to have weighed the arguments of both opinions. The remains of St. Ruricius did not stay in the church of St. Junianus alone: for we read that in the year 1659 the canons of Saint-Junien sent two legates to the town of Oratorium, formerly of the Scots (Le Dorat, Haute-Vienne, arrondissement of Bellac), to offer relics of St. Ruricius to the canons of that collegiate church, on this condition, that the people of Le Dorat too should depute some from their college to receive the sacred remains to be translated Six mois, volume II, p. 250.. The Mr. Thézard praised above at no. 1 writes to us that a certain matron living in the town of Saint-Junien affirms that certain relics of our saint are preserved at her house: of whose authenticity, however, since she refuses to return them to the parish church, the bishop has not been able to judge down to this day. And these are the things which we have been able to gather, laboriously enough, about both St. Ruricius. We subjoin, further, the Life of both saints, excerpted from the Chronicle of Comodoliacum, or of the Church of St. Junianus on the Vienne, written by Stephen Maleu, canon of St. Junianus.

* duceretur? was being led?

* patruorum? of your paternal uncles?

THE PASSING OF ST. RORICIUS I, BISHOP OF LIMOGES,

From the chronicle of Comodoliacum, or of the Church of St. Junianus on the Vienne, by Stephen Maleu, canon of the same Church.

Ruricius I, bishop and confessor, at Limoges in Gaul. (S.)

Ruricius II, bishop and confessor, at Limoges in Gaul. (S.)

BY STEPHEN MALEU.

St. Ruricius I, having founded a monastery But St. Roricius I, bishop of Limoges, uncle of the Roricius already cured ^b, built and dedicated the monastery of St. Augustine of Limoges in honour of St. Augustine, bishop, confessor and excellent doctor; and there he instituted Canons Regular under the Rule of St. Augustine himself ^c; and the same bishop acquired for the monastery several churches and revenues, from which the canons themselves might be sustained and live. The place of the monastery itself, however, was afterwards in the course of time totally dispersed through the persecution of tyrants and princes, and through the wars of the Normans, Vandals and very many others ^d. The contest, therefore, of the lord Roricius I, bishop of Limoges, having been happily completed, his soul was borne to heaven by Angels; and his holy limbs were honourably entombed by the clergy and people at Limoges, in the aforesaid monastery of St. Augustine, where it was the custom to bury the bodies of the prelates of Limoges; and his holy relics were afterwards in the course of time honourably translated there, together with blessed Asclepius ^e and St. Flavia ^f, in their own reliquary above the altar, and are devoutly venerated by the faithful. For God, by his merits and intercessions, eradicates from the hearts of those who holily and devoutly ask him the rancour of jealousy and melancholy

and plucks them out, and extinguishes the ardour of lust and the incitement of desire ^g.

[2] of St. Augustine, he dies holily. The aforesaid monastery having at length been destroyed, as I said before, through the various persecution of tyrants, St. Turpio, who succeeded in the bishopric of Limoges after several bishops of Limoges, a man illustrious for holiness and miracles ^h, rebuilt the aforesaid place or monastery of St. Augustine and in place of the canons regular substituted regular monks there ⁱ, as is more fully contained in the charters of that monastery which are called Precepts. Because, however, the day and year in which the soul of St. Roricius passed from the body to Christ are not had in writing today, for this reason namely, that the tyrants who destroyed that monastery burned with horrible fire the books of that monastery in which the days and years of the happy deaths of the lord Roricius and of the other bishops of Limoges had been written, it was therefore ordained by the religious of that monastery that one solemn processional feast in honour of St. Roricius himself and of the other saints whose relics rest in that monastery should be kept by the people annually, and should be celebrated by the religious of that monastery on the 13th day before the Kalends of August; which ordinance indeed is still observed in our times ^k.

ANNOTATA.

LIFE OF BL. RORICIUS II, BISHOP OF LIMOGES.

From the chronicle of Comodoliacum of Stephen Maleu.

Ruricius I, bishop and confessor, at Limoges in Gaul. (S.)

Ruricius II, bishop and confessor, at Limoges in Gaul. (S.)

St. Ruricius II succeeds his grandfather, At length, the holy lord Roricius having been thus honourably entombed, as I have related, the lord Proculus, called however by another name Roricius the younger, a man of great abstinence, both a lamp of theology and a mirror of holiness, grandson of the entombed lord Roricius, was at once elected with one accord bishop of that see of Limoges, divine grace inspiring it. But blessed Roricius, who was before called Proculus, attributing such an election made of him not to himself but to the merits of the most holy Roricius, visited that most holy Junianus very frequently in his little cell, and venerated him with fitting honour. In his prayers always giving thanks to God, who deigned to call him to his holy service and to free him from the legion of demons by the intercessions of the most holy Junianus. For he so desired to be always with blessed Junianus that, had not the necessity of the pastoral government in which he stood placed drawn him back, he would have finished the whole course of his life with the most blessed Junianus in the desert. For he did not wish to go against the teaching of the Apostle, who says: "That each one should serve as a soldier of God in that calling in which he has been called" ^a. Although, however, he was distant in body from blessed Junianus, yet in affection and heart he was always with him in the desert.

[2] to his flock by works and For blessed Roricius, after he had been freed from the legion of demons, shone, among the other gifts of virtues, with three signal virtues. For there flourished in him humility toward God, and virginity toward himself, and charity toward his neighbour shone out. For in his sermons he preached to the people that humility was to be pursued and pride avoided; for on account of it the first Angel fell from heaven, and Adam, the first parent, was expelled from paradise; and the bishop himself asserted that on account of pride he had been freed [*] to the angels of Satan. O who is there today who dares to confess his sin in public! For he was not ashamed to confess his deeds in public, mindful of the Apostle, who after his conversion said to the Galatians: "You have heard," he says, "of my way of life formerly in Judaism, that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and fought against it" [b], etc. And elsewhere to the Colossians: "Giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy of a share in the lot of the saints in light, who has rescued us from the power of darkness," etc. [c]

[3] he shines before them by words; And the same St. Roricius taught that virginity, chastity and continence ought to be observed, and that one must resist the temptations of the flesh and lust by prayers and fasts. For lust stinks to God and the Angels and displeases the lustful man himself, takes away modesty, diminishes the goods of fortune, generates quarrels, contentions and homicides, weakens and enervates the flesh and bones of the lustful man, pours out and lays waste the purest blood, and at the last makes the soul fall into hell. These things and things like them blessed Roricius preached, and, as is reported, he was never stained with any dregs of lust in soul or in body. For whatever he had he most willingly gave out to the poor and to pious places, pouring forth most generous alms: and he did many other good things, which, God granting, will be narrated in what follows.

[4] follower of St. Junianus, him And the most holy Junianus, having laudably finished and completed forty years in solitude, giving back his spirit to God, whom he had most devoutly served, fell asleep in the Lord on the 7th day before the Kalends of November, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and indeed, as I said before, in the fortieth year of his enclosure, and in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 540, the lord Vigilius indeed holding the papacy of the apostolic see, and the lord Roricius the younger then presiding at Limoges ^d. And the aforesaid St. Roricius the younger, loving the most blessed Junianus with singular affection, had his obsequies performed with the most generous display, and adorned his burial most fittingly with the presence of noble and excellent prelates, religious, men and women. And beneath the tree which is called the Thorn ^e, in that very place in which, as I related above, it was the custom of the same most holy Junianus to pray, the holy bishop himself fittingly laid his holy limbs. And lest the same bishop could be reproached by the people with ingratitude, if the limbs of the most holy Junianus were left buried merely after the common fashion, therefore the holy bishop, not unmindful of the health restored to him by the merits of the most holy Junianus, at once having a certain oratory built over the tomb of the most blessed Junianus, by which the ashes of the buried body might be covered, ordered an altar to be fitted at the head of that most holy body, and consecrated it in honour of St. Andrew the Apostle.

[5] he buries him honourably And the most blessed Junianus having been thus entombed, as is set out above, his fame carried itself to divers parts of the world, that at his sepulchre so many and so great prodigies of miracles were divinely wrought that, if the earlier testimonies of his life had been lacking, yet by these very miracles it could be constantly and clearly proved that his most holy soul had been exalted in the heavens. For at his tomb the blind recover sight, the lame their step, the deaf their hearing, the demoniacs their freedom, the insane their sense; and as many sick as devoutly entreat him obtain health from God by the merits of the most holy Junianus.

[6] And when the same blessed Roricius, still presiding as bishop, almost four years having elapsed, was arranging for the body of the most holy Junianus to be translated to Limoges into the monastery of St. Augustine, and tried to move and remove it from the place of the oratory in which it had first been placed, it could not be moved from there by any human strength; but it remained in that place like an immovable rock. Seeing which, the holy prelate, not wishing to go against the divine will, had the ground dug deeper; and he laid the body itself within a sarcophagus, and buried it in the place thus dug deeper; placing earth over it, however, and afterwards fitting another stone, he finally placed other earth over it, and upon that earth another, a third

stone he added on top: for this reason, namely, that if the holy relics were approached by stealth or by violence, they could not easily be reached except with great or vain labour ^f. For the sepulchre of the most blessed Junianus and the altar of blessed Andrew stood at that time in the place on the south side which today is opposite the baptismal font ^g. The baptismal font, however, was not in that oratory then, nor did any parochial right reside in that oratory. From that time, however, blessed Roricius began to widen the foundations of the walls and the site of the oratory itself.

[7] and he himself at Comodoliacum, And while he was thus beginning and enlarging it, the same blessed Roricius, being at Limoges in sickness of his own body, making his will, arranged for his body to be buried within that church which he had caused to be begun, without any worldly pomp: and the same bishop wished an abbot and certain canons regular to be set over it; and he bequeathed a great quantity of money for completing the fabric of that church. At length, persevering in the confession of the faith, he rested in the Lord with a praiseworthy end, and his holy body, on a day and year unknown to me, was brought to the village of Comodoliacum and entombed there within that church, as he had arranged in his will while living ^h.

[8] which he had enriched, he orders himself to be buried. And that church of Comodoliacum, after St. Roricius the younger, bishop of Limoges, had happily rested in the Lord, was built up at Comodoliacum from the largess of the holy pontiff himself and from alms, especially of the people of Poitiers and Tours flocking to the sepulchre of the most blessed Junianus, into a noble abbey of canons regular. And it was so enlarged both in its site and in its offices, members, places, possessions, revenues and jurisdictions, that the abbey of that church was held more distinguished than the other abbeys of canons regular established throughout the diocese of Limoges and round about the Limousin. Because, however, the day of the death of St. Roricius is unknown, it was ordained by the abbot and canons of that church of Comodoliacum that the commemoration of St. Roricius himself should meanwhile be celebrated annually on the day after the Invention of St. Stephen, until the body of St. Roricius himself should be raised ⁱ.

ANNOTATA.

b. Galatians I, 13.

c. Colossians I, 12.

* traditum? handed over?