Vincent of Magny

ON ST. VINCENT OF MAGNY, PRESBYTER AND CONFESSOR, IN THE DISTRICT OF NEVERS,

ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 7TH CENTURY.

HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.

His memory in the Martyrology of Usuard, the age of whose first edition is inquired into; his cult increased on account of the victory of Charles the Bald; his relics.

Vincent, presbyter and confessor, at Magny in the district of Nevers in Gaul. (S.)

E. C.

His memory in the calendars on the 13th of March, St. Vincent has already been treated briefly among the Passed Over on the preceding day, on account of what is read in the Franco-Gallic Hagiology in Labbe Nova Bibliotheca manuscriptorum, volume II, p. 699.: "In the territory of Nevers, of SS. Vincent and Salvius, confessors"; but most Martyrologies record St. Vincent on the 13th day of March or the 17th of October. Among the Auctaria of the Usuardine Martyrology, as it was edited by Sollerius Martyrology of Usuard, Antwerp 1714., on the 7th of March the Chambéry codex alone mentions St. Vincent, in these words: "At the city of Nevers, of St. Vincent, presbyter"; but on the 13th day two codices which generally agree with each other refer him, that of the Queen of Sweden no. 130 and that of St. Victor, of which our Henschen had once written: "It seems to have been of some monastery in the diocese of Nevers" Ibid., Preface, p. LXI.. Here is the announcement of these codices: "In the territory of Nevers, of St. Vincent, presbyter and confessor." Similarly, but with the name corrupted, the Martyrology which was made at the end of the 11th century for the use of the Church of Auxerre Martène, Amplissima Collectio, volume VI, p. 694.: "In the territory of Nevers, of St. Viventius, presbyter." From the before-praised sources Maurolico, Galesini, Du Saussay have the same, and finally, somewhat more copiously and at the same time accurately, the enlarged Auxerre Martyrology, which was printed in the year 1751: "In the territory of Nevers, of St. Vincent, presbyter of Magny, whose protection Charles the Bald, king of the Franks, sought in the conflict of the fraternal quarrel, and, having obtained the victory, increased his cult, as he had vowed, and restored his church." In the Calendar and Breviary of Nevers the day sacred to him is likewise the thirteenth of March, but since scarcely anything had become known to our predecessors either about his cult or his life, he was commemorated on the said day only among the Passed Over.

[2] and on the 17th of October. On the 17th of October he has been entered in no fewer calendars. In the Usuard of Sollerius eleven codices refer him, and one of Pistoia in Zaccaria Bibliotheca Pistoriensis, p. 154., everywhere in the same words in which the two codices related above announced him on the 13th of March; but the Pulsano and Florentine copies wrongly call him bishop: "In the territory of Nevers, of St. Vincent, bishop and confessor," which crept in from the carelessness of copyists, and we have found it to rest on no foundation. Further, as to the day of the cult, the Paris Martyrology of the year 1728 followed those Usuardine codices, and likewise that of Évreux of the year 1752, where the same eulogy appears which we have just recited from the enlarged Auxerre Martyrology. And it is made out from all the testimonies adduced that those Martyrologies or Calendars which were formerly in use in the district of Nevers generally assign to his cult the thirteenth day of March, on which day St. Vincent is still venerated at Nevers. Yet if credit is given to the most ancient testimony of Usuard (for that Vincent was entered by Usuard himself will presently be proved), he is to be referred to this 17th of October; whether this day first fell to him in the diocese of Nevers, or for what cause it was assigned to him, is not clearly established for us.

[3] Why Sollerius judged him to have been added to the Martyrology of Usuard. Here now must be brought forward the annotation of our Sollerius, which he subjoined to the original reading of Usuard, drawn out from the codices of Hérinnes and Tournai and the edition of Molanus, in these words: "Here again I have excluded many codices from the number of the pure ones, because they abound in various additions. The one of Saint-Germain-des-Prés first of all subjoins at the end:

'In the territory of Nevers, of St. Vincent, presbyter and confessor,' where Chastelain noted that it was written in the same hand indeed, but not in the same ink. For the rest, the two ordinary followers, the greater Antwerp and the Rosweyde, again subscribe to that of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, although they have omitted the title of presbyter and the former wrongly writes Vincius for Vincentius…: Here, from the authority of the other most approved codices, I altogether judge that the said announcement is a mere addition." That these things may be rightly understood, it must be recalled that Sollerius selected as primary those codices from which the remaining copies, among the thirty-two which he had entire, and almost fifty others, rarely departed. For if he had taken as primary the Saint-Germain codex, which has no other perpetual followers than the greater Antwerp, the Rosweyde and that of Anchin, if, I say, he had taken it as primary, he would have forged for himself a monstrous work; in which so great a multitude of copies would have shown a variant reading, as they say, so constant that the primary reading, sought from only four codices, would necessarily have had to be rejected. Rightly, therefore, did he retain that reading which most codices represented, and called additions those things which were added in others.

[4] J. Bouillart indeed grants this, but Dom Jacques Bouillart, who in the year 1718 brought out the Saint-Germain codex, observes this on the Annotation of Sollerius about St. Vincent: "Sollerius judges that the commemoration of St. Vincent is a mere addition from the authority of the most approved codices of Hérinnes and Tournai (why does he not here add the fifteen other codices which Sollerius recorded among the Auctaria?), although he himself reports ten codices which imitate that of Saint-Germain, and all ours have the same reading. Long now have I restrained myself." Then, indulging his bent, he brings forward many things which do not pertain here. Bouillart therefore judges that that announcement is truly Usuard's, but was added by him when the Martyrology had already been written; and that his mind is no other is clear also from what he discusses in the prefatory letter to Sollerius P. XXI and following., and from what he writes elsewhere on a similar occasion P. 36.: "Nor yet do I deny that the reading of Sollerius was that of the Caroline autograph (let me be allowed to speak so for brevity's sake, to signify the Martyrology offered to King Charles). It was corrected by Usuard in the Saint-Germain one."

[5] he contends that this was done by Usuard himself. They are reconciled. But this way of thinking differs from the suspicions of Sollerius only in this, that where the latter doubts, the former speaks assertively. Sollerius himself, therefore, must be heard, discussing the same argument thus in the preface to Usuard P. LII.: "Certainly … one or the other will perhaps seem able to be made out more probably; either that Usuard wrote different Martyrologies, or varied copies of the same Martyrology, from one of which our Hérinnes codex and others proceeded, just as the greater Antwerp, the Rosweyde and that of Anchin appear to have been taken from some other, similar to that of Saint-Germain; or that the aforesaid Saint-Germain manuscript cannot reach back to the age of Usuard." Whence, for the former hypothesis, since Sollerius commonly calls additions those things which he knew from the most approved codices could not have existed in the primitive work of Usuard, it is clear enough that the present commemoration of St. Vincent was held by him as if added to the original edition, although he did not altogether deny that this addition was afterwards made by Usuard himself; being content to have left that doubtful which neither he himself nor others had been able fully to prove.

[6] Mabillon judges that Usuard was published between 869 and 877, Nothing, therefore, prevents that opinion from pleasing us more by which it is admitted that there were two or more editions of Usuard. For if this announcement of St. Vincent were not Usuard's own, how would it have been written in so many codices in the same words everywhere? For among the 36 codices which Sollerius has at this place, eleven are numbered (to say nothing of the other four indicated above at nos. 1 and 2) in which St. Vincent is entered. Someone will perhaps wonder that St. Vincent is not announced by the original Usuard, since he is commonly said to have published his Martyrology not before the year 869 or even 875, while King Charles, to whom Usuard dedicated his book, had already from the year 859 publicly attested that he owed to St. Vincent the victory won over his brother. But this opinion about the age of the Usuardine Martyrology must here be recalled to criticism. It arose, namely, from what Mabillon wrote about his Saint-Germain codex, which he judges, though with some doubt, to have been the autograph Saeculum IV Benedictinum, part II, p. LXXXVII.: "And indeed we have a very ancient copy of his Martyrology, written at that time (the ninth century, in which Usuard lived), with a Necrology subjoined, in which the death of Queen Irmentrude, wife of Charles the Bald, is marked in the first hand on the Nones of October; but the death of the emperor Charles II on the day before the Nones of October in a more recent hand. This codex was therefore written in that interval of time which elapsed between the year 869, Irmentrude's last, and the year 877, in which Charles the Bald died. The same is confirmed also from the death of Ebroin, bishop and abbot of St. Germain, which happened in the year 868, noted in the first hand on the 14th day before the Kalends of May: while the deaths of his successors Hilduin and Gozlin, on the 16th day before the Kalends of May, and of Ebolus, on the 6th day before the Nones of October, are written in a second hand."

[7] but on a foundation But let us grant that the Saint-Germain codex was written before the year 877, and indeed by Usuard himself, in those things which are of the first hand; it will not follow from this that the primary text or that of the first edition is purely represented there, nor yet that the first edition of the Martyrology was made after the year 869. For the Saint-Germain codex swarms with erasures and additions, mostly, however, of the same hand; from which it is deduced that it was polished at different times, and that the death of Irmentrude could have been added to it by the first hand when the codex had long since been written. And Bouillart too supposed this very thing, writing thus P. XX.: "Whether Mabillon was distracted by greater business when he wrote the conjecture, or I am slow, I altogether do not understand why, from the fact that the death of Ermentrude, wife of Charles, was noted in one hand, that of Charles in another, it must be that this Martyrology was written in that interval of time which elapsed between the deaths of the two. What prevents its having been written two, four, six years before the Necrology? Or because the hand is the same? But a hand does not change with years, especially so few. It could also have happened that, when Usuard was writing the Necrology, there was no one's death to be noted on the Nones of October. For this was the custom, that those who wrote a Necrology first arranged all the days of the year, and afterwards added each dead person to the day on which his death had happened: which is the cause why in the Usuardine Necrology very many days are still today wholly empty; very many also which the more recent Usuardine hand has filled."

[8] not firm enough. In the year 859, Nor indeed can it be said that the Martyrology was dedicated to Charles the Bald when already emperor, and therefore not published before the year 875, in which the empire fell to him; for that error flowed from the corrupted Prologue of Usuard, as it is read in the edition of Molanus and in some codices: but in both editions of Greven, in the most approved Hérinnes codex, in the Pithou one also and that of Montier-en-Der and some others, the title of Augustus is omitted and Charles is called simply "most pious of Kings." It is by no means established, therefore, that this Martyrology was written after the year 869; and indeed, from the fact that St. Vincent is absent from the original edition but was added in the following ones, it is easy to judge that Usuard's Martyrology was first issued in the very year 859, namely when it could not yet be commonly known that King Charles attributed his signal victory as owed to the intercession of St. Vincent. For here are the words in which he attested his grateful mind on the 20th day of December of the year 859, in the Instrument which will be recited below: "Be it known to all the faithful of the holy Church of God, present namely and future, that in the conflict of the fraternal quarrel, when the most notorious contention was driving me, in order that the forces of resisting might be restored to me against my brother, I came to the county of Nevers, to the village of Magny, where the most sacred body of blessed Vincent, confessor of Christ, is honoured with memorable veneration, and there, adoring God the munificent bestower in his commemoration, I besought that by his suffrages I might obtain the bulwark of divine protection, so that through his desirable intercession I might be restored to tranquil prosperity. In hope, indeed, of such an attainment, I bound myself by vows there and promised perseveringly to confer temporal benefits on his ministers; wherefore, having obtained quiet and gained the victory, etc."

[9] or 860 first published, I think, therefore, that the original Usuard was issued before this instrument was drawn up, or before the report of the matter had spread, that is, in the course of the year 859 or at the most 860. Nor can it be objected here that Eulogius, the most celebrated martyr of Córdoba, who suffered on the 11th of March 859 Volume II of March, p. 89, no. 1., was taken up by Usuard; for this is easily to be granted of the later editions, but to be denied of the primary copy which was offered to King Charles and from which the more common reading is drawn. Eulogius, although he obtained martyrdom on the 11th of March, is marked in those Usuardine codices which entered him on the 20th day of September; but for what cause this was done is controverted among the learned [Cf. the Usuard of Sollerius at the 20th of September and H. Flórez, España Sagrada, volume X, p. 461. Or because the place was vacant (below no. 10) and he did not know the day of the martyrdom?]. Further, on this 20th day of September some codices omit the illustrious martyr, nor do they mention him anywhere else; among which is to be recorded that most approved Hérinnes codex from which Sollerius perpetually draws the original reading of Usuard, and which, where it has certain added saints of Gaul, chiefly of the region of Reims, nevertheless preserves all the Usuardine announcements pure, contracting nothing, mixing in nothing.

[10] from the announcements of St. Eulogius That codex, therefore, in place of Eulogius has Eustachius and his companions, who suffered under the emperor Hadrian, as also the Montier-en-Der codex of the 9th or 10th century, if I interpret Bouillart rightly, which he would have taken from the Caroline autograph or another most pure one, wherefore he commonly ascribes its readings to the Caroline autograph At the 22nd of April, etc. Cf. the Preface, p. XXXI.. Then the Saint-Germain codex on this day has four lines erased, and the announcement of Eulogius the martyr written over them; for which cause Bouillart says this there: "The Caroline autograph (as he deduces from the Hérinnes and Montier-en-Der codices) inserts this between the first and second announcement: 'Likewise in the times of the emperor Hadrian the passion of the blessed Eustachius, etc.' Nor has it a word about Eulogius of Córdoba." Finally three other copies in Sollerius lack Eulogius, namely the Utrecht, the Vatican, and the first edition of Belinus, of which the two latter, in place of Eulogius, have Eustachius with the Hérinnes

announce. It is plain, therefore, that Usuard in the original codex announced Eustachius, and then, when he had learned of the martyrdom of Eulogius, erased him, because he is more commonly assigned to the 2nd day of November, and substituted Eulogius. Hence too it came about that some codices announce Eustachius on both days, others on one or the other only. Greven had noticed this, as he writes at the said 20th day of September (editions of 1515 and 1521): "According to some, here of Eustachius and his companions, who are also had on the 4th day before the Nones of November," which Baronius likewise observes in the Notes; nor is it a wonder, since so many copies of Usuard make mention of Eustachius on that day. But it is to be regretted that on the same 20th day of September the Tournai codex is lacking, from which very many leaves have fallen out from the 9th of August to the 26th of September; for it proceeds with equal step with that of Hérinnes on almost every day.

[11] and of St. Vincent is shown; But what we have so far brought forward clearly makes out that Eulogius, the most celebrated martyr, was omitted by Usuard when he first issued his work, equally with St. Vincent (above no. 5 and following). And if Eulogius was not entered in the first edition, this, as we supposed above, could have been completed in the year 859. That this could have been done before this year no one would say; for in the preceding year 858 Usuard undertook a journey into Spain, and, having stayed at Córdoba for fifty-six days and set out from there on the vigil of the Ascension, the 11th day of May, did not reach Acmantum [*], a villa in the territory of Sens, to which the monks of Saint-Germain had then fled for fear of the Normans Volume VI of July, p. 462, no. 14, and p. 465, no. 30., until the 20th day of October, as he himself noted in the Martyrology: "On the same day, the reception of the holy martyrs George the deacon and Aurelius." And these last things are confirmed also from the account of the said translation written by Aimoin, likewise a monk of Saint-Germain, who relates that at the very time of the reception of the remains Louis, king of Germany, furnished with forces, was in the district of Auxerre and Sens, in order to attack his brother Charles and despoil him of his kingdom Ibid., p. 465, no. 28, and 466, no. 33.. And that these things happened in October of the aforesaid year 858 will be made manifest from the Annals of Saint-Bertin presently to be cited (below nos. 15 and 16).

[12] which same In our opinion, therefore, Usuard completed the Martyrology in the following year 859 at the villa of Acmantum, in which at that time, says Aimoin, the greater part of the brethren lived on account of the hostile persecution of the pagans, or perhaps at the villa of Nogent of the same monastery, to which they seem afterwards to have betaken themselves, and not to have returned to Paris until the year 863, on the 19th day of July, as the same Aimoin writes Volume VI of May, p. 804, no. 11, and 805, no. 17.. To this opinion, however, it will perhaps be opposed that within the space of one year time would not have sufficed Usuard to compose his work; which we do not so unwillingly grant, although from the Commentaries of Sollerius Preface, p. XLIV. it is clearer than the midday light that Usuard perpetually pressed the footsteps of Ado, and that the latter, as Bouillart confesses P. XIV., was all but copied by Usuard. "Ado himself, the holy prelate of Vienne," says Sollerius, "or rather his Martyrology, was the perpetual and perennial spring of Usuard, from which our whole Usuardine grew together for the greatest part of itself. Add to this the Hieronymian and Bede enlarged by the zeal of Florus, then certain better-known saints of Gaul and the newly acquired knowledge of the Martyrs of Córdoba" Sollerius, place cited, and p. 570 at the 1st of October..

[13] from elsewhere Although, therefore, it would not be so prodigious that Usuard could have completed that work in the space of one year, I nevertheless think it more likely that it was begun long before the Spanish journey, which he undertook in the first months of the year 858, having received the authority of King Charles Volume VI of July, p. 460, no. 2.. For he brought back from Spain so great a harvest of martyrs, unknown to his forerunners, that unless he had destined them for his Martyrology, it could scarcely be understood how he could have recorded their names so accurately, with various circumstances. Valois composed a long series of them In G. Dubois, Historia Ecclesiae Parisiensis, p. 468., to which I shall add Abundius on the 8th of June and Aemilian on the 17th of September. Nor indeed did Usuard enter the Cordobans alone, but very many others likewise unknown to the more ancient martyrologists, especially of the places through which he had passed on the Spanish pilgrimage [See the Annotations of Sollerius at the 6th of March, the 25th of August, the 11th and 13th of October, the 3rd, 12th and 13th of November.]; where it is to be observed that, in order to mark them in the Martyrology, not only the place of death or passion must have become known to him, but also the day of the cult, the kind of life or death, sometimes the very time of death. From which it becomes likely that before the Spanish journey, for making which he received the authority of King Charles, he had received from the same Charles the command to write a Martyrology. Thus to the work already begun and advanced he added, on returning from there, those whom he had collected in Spain.

[14] is established. For in an instrument of the year 838 which Mabillon mentions Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti at the year 838, no. 12., among the other monks of Saint-Germain who subscribed to it the name of Usuard already appears. What wonder then that almost twenty years afterwards he had reached a mature age, so that the king entrusted the weighty work to him above the rest? And indeed, if he composed his Martyrology long after the year 859, I hardly understand how he could omit not only St. Vincent in the original edition, but also not commemorate St. Eulogius himself, who it is established underwent martyrdom on the 11th of March of the year 859 and whose body was raised from the earth in the same year on the first day of June. For at Córdoba, as is established from the very narration of St. Eulogius about St. Flora, cult was given to the martyrs immediately after their martyrdom España Sagrada, volume X, p. 456.. For Ambrosio de Morales must be emended, who, from a wrongly read codex of his, ascribed the elevation of the body to the year 860, whom Baronius and our Henschen also followed, but Father Enrique Flórez restored the genuine reading of the codex Ibid., p. 455.. Eulogius, further, shone out among the martyrs of Córdoba as father, as master, as the sun among the stars Ibid., p. 456., and Usuard had spoken with him at Córdoba, as Aimoin himself testifies in the praised Translation of SS. George and Aurelius: "Which" (the Passion of the said martyrs) "the memorable priest Eulogius, worthy of God, who himself too was afterwards presented with a glorious martyrdom and, a consummate soldier, sought Christ the King in triumph, set down in letters by a truthful account, very many things (as he himself related to our men) being passed over" Volume VI of July, p. 461, no. 9.. From the omitted announcement of St. Eulogius, therefore, no less than of St. Vincent, in the first edition of the Usuardine Martyrology, and then from the other arguments which we have explained, it is rightly concluded that the same Martyrology was first brought to light in the very year 859 or the following.

[15] Charles the Bald, To return, then, after this digression, to the cult of St. Vincent, no one will wonder that in the year 859, when Charles the Bald ascribed to the same saint by a public instrument (which was confirmed in the synod of Troyes of the year 867) the quiet obtained and the victory won over his brother Louis, this cult, I say, was then greatly increased. Here is how the matter is likely to have happened, from the narrations of the historians compared with the said instrument. Louis, called the German, when he saw that his brother Charles the Bald had attacked the Normans unsuccessfully, hastening to his kingdoms, occupied part of Neustria: "King Charles," says the Annalist of Saint-Bertin at the year 858 [Recueil des historiens de France, volume VII, p. 74 (where at the same year 858 the return of Usuard from Spain is recorded); cf. Acta Sanctorum, volume VI of July, p. 465, no. 28.], "attacks in the month of July the island of the Seine by the name of Oscellus [], to besiege the Danes staying on it… King Lothair too hastens to the same island in the month of August, to bring help to his uncle []: where, staying until the 9th day before the Kalends of October without profit from the siege, they at length return home.

[16] attacked by his brother Louis the German, "Meanwhile counts from the kingdom of King Charles bring in Louis, king of the Germans, whom they had been inviting for five years. He, coming on the Kalends of September to the royal villa of Ponteonum [], came through the Catalauni and the Cupedenses [] to Agedincum [] of the Senones. Thence, going to the district of Orléans, having received those from Aquitaine and Neustria, and the Bretons, who had promised that they would come to him, he returns by almost the same road as far as the Cupedenses. King Charles, having learned these things, goes in haste through the Catalauni as far as the villa of Breona []: where, the leading men of Burgundy flocking to him, he awaits Louis pursuing him. But, messengers going between, since no settlement of peace was made, at length on the third day, that is, the day before the Ides of November, the battle lines having been prepared on either side, Charles, seeing himself deserted by his own men, withdrew and sought the parts of Burgundy." Then therefore I think Charles came to the village of Magny, two leagues distant from Nevers; for if he came there from Breona (otherwise Briona, in French Brienne, department of Aube, arrondissement of Bar-sur-Aube), which is a town of lower Champagne, it can surely be said that he sought the parts of Burgundy (especially as it then was). "In the conflict of the fraternal quarrel," says Charles in the praised instrument of the year 859, "when the most notorious contention was driving me, in order that the forces of resisting might be restored to me against my brother, I came to the county of Nevers, to the village of Magny, where the most sacred body of blessed Vincent, confessor of Christ, is honoured with memorable veneration, etc."

[17] he obtains the victory "But Louis," so the Annals of Saint-Bertin go on, "having received those who had deserted Charles, goes to Augusta Tricorum [], and there, distributing to those who had invited him counties, monasteries, royal villas and properties, returns to the palace of Attiniacum []. Where King Lothair meets him and, the agreements between them having been confirmed, goes back to his own. And Louis, through Durocortorum of the Remi and the district of Laon, enters Augusta Veromanduorum, namely the monastery of St. Quentin the Martyr, to celebrate the feast of the Lord's Nativity." The Annals of Fulda have similar things at the same year, which we omit here for brevity's sake. But the Annals of Saint-Bertin at the following year 859: "King Charles, his forces recovered, attacks his brother Louis unawares and drives him from the bounds of his kingdom; King Lothair hastens to Charles his uncle, and on the Sunday at the beginning of Lent" (12th of February 859, when Easter fell on the 26th of March) "in the palace of Arcae [*], oaths having been publicly given mutually by each to the other, they again confirm themselves." That this victory was obtained at the beginning of the year 859 is plain also from the letter which Hincmar, when Charles was staying in Italy in the year 875, when Louis was said to be about to attack his kingdom again, to the bishops and nobles

of the Province of Reims directed Dom Bouquet, volume VII, p. 546.: "And, other vicissitudes of quarrels about the kingdom between our Princes in our times being passed over," he says, "sixteen years before these, when our King, the lord Charles, and the lord Louis came together at close quarters, troops of armed men having been prepared on both sides and standards raised, near the place which is called Breona, the people who were with the lord Charles for the most part abandoned him; and thus compelled the same King Charles to go away from there on the day before the Ides of November. But in the third month, when Charles returned, those who were with the lord Louis, separated from him, and he being left almost alone, Charles pursuing him, caused him by his destitution to return home from the district of Laon."

[18] by the intercession of St. Vincent, toward whom the same Charles Some months later, toward the end of the same year 859, King Charles, being at Magny, in testimony of a grateful mind for the victory won, issued the following Privilege Gallia Christiana, volume XII, Instruments, p. 304.: "In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, Charles, by the grace of God king. If we incline the ear of our highness to the petitions of our faithful, we shall exercise the custom of our predecessors, namely of the kings our forebears. Be it known therefore to all the faithful of the holy Church of God, present namely and future, that in the conflict of the fraternal quarrel, when the most notorious contention was driving me, in order that the forces of resisting might be restored to me against my brother, I came to the county of Nevers, to the village of Magny, where the most sacred body of blessed Vincent, confessor of Christ, is honoured with memorable veneration, and there, adoring God the munificent bestower in his commemoration, I besought that by his suffrages I might obtain the bulwark of divine protection, so that through his desirable intercession I might be restored to tranquil prosperity. In hope, indeed, of such an attainment, I bound myself by vows there, and promised perseveringly to confer temporal benefits on his ministers; wherefore, having obtained quiet and gained the victory, as hope was panting for, it pleased me to inquire into the endowment of that Church, wishing to know whether it had the series of the same tenor which our memorable grandfather Charles, formerly emperor, ordained to be made for all villages; which, brought before our eyes, we found to be foreign to the said tenor, namely that by diminutions for other benefices the things formerly assigned there had passed to the powerful.

[19] shows himself grateful. "Then it pleased us, by a written instrument of our authority, to reintegrate there the things which had been taken away from there, collected together, with those which remained there, and by divisible uses to make three divisions of them, one for the use of the saving Sacrifice and the repair of the Church, another for the administration of the lights, the third for supplying the necessary uses of the clerics serving there, which we have ordained to be made of fifteen manses and four colonicae, which pay in rent twelve denarii, that is, four solidi; which we have withdrawn from our uses and those of our faithful from the county of Nevers, and have conferred them there, restoring them as it had existed anciently, in honour of Almighty God, and also in veneration of his saints Nazarius (that one whose Acts were given on the 28th of July) and Vincent, whose relics are venerated there, just as may be found in another precept of our authority [Which differs only in a few things from the present one. See Gallia Christiana, place cited, no. VII.], which we ordered to be made on the same account for the honour of the presbytery, the account of the presbytery remaining in its state from its benefice conferred there… And let it be permitted to Adalard the presbyter, by whose labour and zeal we do this, and to his successors, to possess the said things quietly and to hold them perpetually without the obstacle of any hindrance, and to ordain that for my safety and the prosperity of my wife and offspring blessed Vincent, in whose commemoration it is done, may stand by as a devoted intercessor before God… And that the present authority of our largess may be held firmer and kept with more diligent observance, we have ordered it to be marked beneath with the impression of our ring. Sign of Charles, most glorious king. Given on the 13th day before the Kalends of January, indiction VI, in the 19th year of the reign of Charles, most glorious king. Done at Magny, in the name of God, happily."

[20] The Instruments are examined. The editors of Gallia Christiana affix the year 859 to this Instrument, and rightly indeed, as we have demonstrated above; but it must be admitted that the Indiction is defective, which in this year was not the sixth but the seventh. But it is known that errors of this kind are met with in very many diplomas. The year of the reign is accurately set down, as is plain from the beginning of a certain contemporary instrument: "In the year of the Lord's incarnation 858, and indeed of the most glorious lord Charles, most serene King, the 18th" Histoire de Bourgogne, volume I, column 1739.. The year 859, therefore, will be the nineteenth of the same reign, which we also know from elsewhere. Further, the Privilege just reported concerning Magny was confirmed in the Synod of Troyes on the 4th day before the Nones of November of the year 867, at the request of the same Adelard, who is here called a priest of canonical religion: and he humbly asked "that we would corroborate by our confirmation and authority the royal donation … to the churches of the saints which are had in our parish of Nevers, namely of St. Nazarius, venerable martyr, and of St. Vincent, precious confessor, where his most sacred body lying shines with miracles." Of the same Adelard the bishops say this in their Privilege: "The same Adelard moreover gives to the same village of Magny certain things of his own property in honour of St. Vincent, namely of his crypt, where his holy body lies in the church of St. Nazarius, which are in the district of Nevers, in the territory of Magny, in the villa of Lursiacum. The same desire that the canons of that place may be able to pray for the peace and utility of the holy Church of God, and also for the king's safety and prosperity, etc." Afterwards the same Privilege was confirmed a second time by King Louis in the year 878, and in an instrument of Charles the Fat of the year 887 mention occurs of the abbey of St. Vincent at Magny Gallia Christiana, place cited, instruments IX, X and XV.; from which single word, however, it could not be drawn out that monks had then already succeeded there in the place of the Canons Cf. Du Cange under the words Abbatia and Abbas Canonicorum..

[21] Summary of his Life. Now I shall present a historical Sylloge of St. Vincent and his cult, kindly sent to me on the 12th of July 1849 by the Reverend Mr. Crosnier, pastor of Donziacum (Donzy) in the diocese of Nevers, who has composed in the French language Lives of the Saints of Nevers not yet published. This Summary of the Life grew together from the ancient Lessons of the Breviary of Nevers and from certain monuments which the same Mr. Crosnier collected for writing his Lives of the Saints. His words I here render into Latin: "13th of March. St. Vincent of Magny, presbyter. — The Church of Nevers venerates on this day a holy presbyter whose life was hidden in the Lord. He performed the ecclesiastical ministry in the village of Magny near the road which leads from Paris to Lyon, and there his modest virtue shone out so much that the memory of his holiness has endured in popular tradition down to this day. A certain road which leads to the church, and on which St. Vincent is said often to have walked praying, in order to refresh his mind wearied by the ministry, is still called 'the Saint's Road.' Having obtained a blessed death about the middle of the seventh century, he was buried in the crypt of the church of St. Nazarius of Magny.

[22] Miracles and "The cult of St. Vincent. — God is wonderful in his Saints, who destines for each his glory, to be obtained even among men themselves on this earth. The more their life and virtues have been hidden, the more he is pleased in exalting their merits. On account of the fame of miracles rich and poor flock to their sepulchres, and pour forth humble prayers together; kings themselves approach, that they may make the courtiers of the heavenly King propitious to them. So too the holiness of Vincent was revealed by illustrious miracles, at the fame of which the peoples ran together to the church rich in his precious remains.

[23] Cult. "In the year 858 Charles the Bald, when he was being gravely pressed by his brother Louis the German, abandoned by his army, fled into the territory of Nevers, and when he had learned how much the holy presbyter Vincent availed with God by intercession, betook himself to Magny to implore his help. There, prostrate on his knees before the saint's tomb, he pronounced a vow to enrich the church of Magny with splendid gifts 'if through his intercession he should be restored to tranquil prosperity.' His petition was heard: (he obtained the victory at the beginning of the year 859. Above no. 17) and in the same year he fulfilled what he had vowed. He ordered the goods of which the church of Magny had been despoiled by some neighbouring nobles to be restored, and added new ones for the sustenance of the clerics who served the same church. In the year 867 Adelard, presbyter of Magny, in the synod of Soissons (read: of Troyes. Above no. 20) obtained the confirmation of the privileges granted by Charles the Bald in favour of his church, to which confirmation Abbo II, bishop of Nevers, subscribed.

[24] Relics. "The church of St. Vincent of Magny was then served by canons, and in it a splendid altar erected in honour of the same saint remained until the great overthrow begun in the year 1793. A certain bone from the saint's arm was formerly preserved at Nevers in the treasury of the cathedral church. So an instrument of the 13th century has it, in which it is added that it was enclosed in a silver case adorned with gems. In the year 1715 those who were demolishing the altar of St. Lazarus found another bone with this inscription: The bone of St. Vincent of Magny. But it is unknown where these sacred relics have gone, but it is likely that they likewise perished in the mournful commotion at the end of the last century. And the principal part of the body which was preserved in the church of Magny had long since vanished, since it is established that already at the beginning of the eighteenth century the men of the place did not know what had become of it."

* Emans.

* Oissel.

* patruo paternal uncle.

* Pontion.

* Queudes près Sézanne, and environs.

* Sens.

* Brienne-le-Château.

* Troyes.

* Attigny.

* Arches-sur-Meuse.