Aderald

ON ST. ADERALD, ARCHDEACON AND CONFESSOR, AT TROYES IN GAUL,

AFTER THE YEAR 1000.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Aderald, archdeacon and confessor, at Troyes in Gaul. (S.)

A. T.

§ I. The Life to be published here; the age of the Saint; the reform of the clergy of Troyes procured by him.

The Life of the Saint, of which one Nicolas Camuzat, in the Promptuarium of the sacred antiquities of the diocese of Troyes, which he published at Troyes in the year 1610, among the notes on the History of the Finding of the body of St. Mastidia the Virgin, brings forward a fragment of the Life of St. Aderald found by him Folio 56, couched in these words: "The venerable athlete of God Aderald was sprung from Troyes, a city of Gaul, of parents renowned according to the pomp of the world and most devout in the service of God. His father, most noble of the nobles, was called Walo, which in the tongue of the Austrasians is interpreted Good: his mother, not inferior in birth, was distinguished by the name Odrada. He, a little boy of good disposition, taken from the hiding-places of the cradle, is handed over to the studies of letters to be instructed; nor indeed is he commended to secular schoolmasters, but to monks devoutly serving God: by whom, being instructed not moderately, as his then tender age could receive, not long after he is made a partaker of a prebend of the holy see of Peter of Troyes.

[2] and only another fragment "Things being so, Manasses, a holy man, is set over the city of Troyes as bishop, who, abundantly polished with the virtues that befit a bishop and panting for heavenly things, putting aside secular things, began to lend his ear to the admonitions of the holy man. Like loves like; they bestowed mutual love on one another, they exercised themselves in divine conversations and pressed on in continual prayers. To him also the prelate imparted a part of his burden, raising him to the honour of archdeacon; and so the one emulated the other, that you would believe there was one heart in two: they anticipated one another in honour, and in the service of God each strove to excel the other. And, as we have just said" (these words hint that a gap lies beneath), "the congregation of St. Peter of Troyes was still too much given to secular things, and not intent on the things of canons; nor did the blame wholly rest on them, as those who, compelled by want, served secular things, nor had they whence to live in common. Seeing which, Aderald the Saint of God often appealed to the aforesaid pontiff about such things; the bishop, giving assent to his frequent persuasion, applied all his strength to correcting these things: he bestows on them by perpetual right some goods which he held, and added goods to goods. Nor is it wonderful that the man of God Aderald adds a supplement, himself also handing over to them the patrimony which he held in estates or in churches; and these things being established, the congregation of St. Peter of the city of Troyes began to live after the manner of cenobites."

[3] Camuzat had, Thus far that old slip, of which the praised Camuzat, speaking again in another place of his Promptuarium, says Folio 351 verso: "In those notes which I gathered above for illustrating the History of the Finding of the body of St. Mastidia, I added a slender fragment of the History of the same Lord Aderald, because it was not granted me to find it entire. And truly we must lack it with the greater desire because it is most probable that it contains many things worthy of memory: for those things which are recited of his life in the Breviary of Troyes contain only a certain imperfect epitome of the said History." More fortunate than Camuzat, twenty-three years later, was Father Étienne Binet, presbyter of the Society of Jesus, when he wrote a little book in the French idiom on the holy Hierarchy of the Church and on the Life of St. Aderald, archdeacon and canon of Troyes, and also on St. Joseph, proper patron of the canons De la saincte Hiérarchie de l'Église, et la vie de S. Adérald, etc., Paris 1633. For whoever reads this little book will easily see that some entire copy of the Life of St. Aderald lighted the way for the author, and that one written in Latin, as the words here and there inserted from it into the French context demonstrate. But Binet used this old document in such a way that he took from it indeed the actions and virtues of the Saint, but, after his manner and the aim which he had set before himself, adorned them with many probable circumstances and mixed them here and there with ascetic precepts: nay, he very often introduces the Saint and others speaking and deliberating among themselves about the things to be done.

[4] Remi Breyer, canon of Troyes Wherefore those desiring to know the original Life of St. Aderald were better satisfied by Nicolas Desguerrois, presbyter and preacher of Troyes, who, having obtained a Latin copy of it, expressed it fairly faithfully, though not without some paraphrase, in a French style, and inserted it in his work on the Saints of Troyes published in the year 1637 La Saincteté chrestienne, etc., folio 246 and following. A fairly complete Life of St. Aderald also, I know not whether from Desguerrois or from elsewhere, seems to have been added to the French version of the hagiographic work of Father Pedro Ribadeneira, so far as I can judge from the Saint's encomium among the Lilies or Flowers of Holy Gaul, which came out at Dijon in the year 1643

by the author Father Jacques Rinald, who testifies that he received it from the Life joined to the works of Ribadeneira P. 155 and following. The Latin writing meanwhile lay hidden up to the year 1724 among the papers left by Nicolas Desguerrois; at the beginning of which year, at length drawn out from there by happy fortune, Remi Breyer, canon of the cathedral church of Troyes, had it published in print with a Preface put together by himself, with this title prefixed: "Life of St. Aderald, canon and archdeacon of the church of Troyes, by an anonymous author, his contemporary and familiar. Now first brought to light. 1724."

[5] in the year 1724 The little book published by himself Breyer presently communicated to our predecessors with the following little letter written in French, which, although it bears no name of the writer, I for my part conjecture was written in the hand of Breyer himself: "Reverend Father, since labour is given by you or other Fathers of your Society to publishing the Acts of the Saints, someone judged that this Life should be destined for you; which accordingly I offer to you with veneration, that it may be placed among your collections. The festival of the Saint is kept at Troyes on the 20th day of October, as was noted in the Preface. I am most devoted to you." The little letter was addressed to the rector of the college of Antwerp, who was then John Janssens; and he transmitted it together with Breyer's little work to the house of the Professed, to the Bollandian associates, on the 10th of April 1724, as a little note added by Sollerius teaches.

[6] published entire Breyer's Preface is fairly long, and not altogether unlearned, so that it will be of no little use to us for illustrating the matters of St. Aderald. And already now concerning the work itself to which it is prefixed it will not be out of place to have copied the following from it: "We give to the public the Life of St. Aderald, canon and archdeacon of the church of Troyes, translated by Nicolas Desguerrois, presbyter of Troyes, from the Latin, but παραφραστικῶς, into the French tongue, long sought, now at length found among the papers of Desguerrois. He drew out the copy from the old manuscripts of the priory of the Holy Sepulchre, but the name of the author was lacking. That he was a canon of Troyes, contemporary and familiar with Aderald, the work makes plain. For he says in chapter 5: 'Nor do I commit to letters or explain in words all the things which EVEN I MYSELF SAW… For, as he often TOLD ME IN MY EAR.' Chapter 6: 'I greatly fear that credence will not be given me, if I wish to commit to letters THE THINGS WHICH I SAW.' And chapter 9: 'My lords and brethren of St. Peter, I can say this, that at this time OUR PREDECESSORS lived most secularly.'" The same judgment from the same indications Desguerrois had long before passed on the author of this Life, or rather, as he himself already judged, of a panegyrical laudation delivered before an assembly of the canons of Troyes; as may be seen in the remarks which he added to his French version, of which we spoke above Folio 255 verso.

[7] from the codex of Nicolas Desguerrois, Breyer proceeds: "The codex of Desguerrois escaped, I know not how, Nicolas Camuzat, canon of Troyes, who sweated so much in turning over the sacred rubble that he might publish the Promptuarium of the sacred antiquities of the diocese of Troyes. For he could collect nothing but a fragment of the Life of Aderald, which he added to the Promptuarium, lest it should perish by the injury of time. But what is recited in the Breviary of Troyes, since it contains only an imperfect epitome of the History of Aderald, he disregarded. I will say what the thing is. The codex of Desguerrois does not report the Life and History of Aderald exactly, but that it is rather a panegyric is evident to the reader. And that it was spoken in the monastery which Aderald built, before certain canons of Troyes, the things I have reported prove sufficiently, and these words of the anonymous (chapter 15): 'He built a convent of monks… That is it WHICH THE PRESENT CHURCH LAYS OPEN, and which he rendered perfect with the highest sagacity.'

[8] collated with other manuscripts; "The codex of Desguerrois is divided into fifteen chapters, to each of which, if you except the first, a brief title is attached. The fragment of Camuzat comprises the first and ninth chapters, with a certain difference, but a slight one. And the ancient Breviaries of the rite of Troyes exhibit in nine lessons nothing but summaries of chapters 1, 11, 13, 14 and 15 of the said codex. This is confirmed by two Breviaries which we have consulted, of which one is a manuscript of three hundred years, the other was printed at Troyes in the year 1594. But in the church of Troyes there is extant a codex of five hundred years at least, which agrees very much with the codex of Desguerrois. In that codex, which is a lectionary, there are found on the feast of St. Aderald nine lessons, which are put together word for word from chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the codex of Desguerrois, a few words being either omitted or changed. But why in the Breviaries and in the codex of the church of Troyes there is silence about what the anonymous records in chapters 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10 of the fasts, alms, pilgrimages to Rome, miracles and eminent gifts of Aderald; why likewise nothing is recited in it of the reform of the clergy of the church of Troyes and of the troubles which Aderald suffered in procuring it, of which the anonymous discourses fully enough in chapter 9, I leave to others to divine: since that I am ignorant of the cause I willingly confess" (which cause perhaps was no other than that the canons had afterwards again fallen away from the common life which the Saint had restored with so great labour). "From these things," Breyer finally concludes, "it may be gathered that the Breviary of three hundred years and the Lectionary of five hundred support the antiquity and truth of the codex of Desguerrois. Perhaps Rodulf Glaber could be added to them, who calls Manasses I, bishop of Troyes, a man full of holiness, which he seems to have received from the anonymous." Thus far he; but I for my part would think that the argument sought from Rodulf Glaber is of scarcely any weight, since he could equally have been taught of the holiness of Manasses from elsewhere.

[9] which we too shall give. Now we shall reprint the Life of St. Aderald, or, if it please to call it so, the Panegyric, altogether in the tenor in which Breyer brought it forth. Namely we shall not only represent it word for word; but we shall also keep the same division of chapters, which we shall indicate by our usual numbers, and we shall write in the margin those very brief titles which the editor took from the codex of Desguerrois, the title of the first chapter only being lacking, which accordingly we shall supply. The variant readings also which Breyer culled from the ancient Lectionary of the church of Troyes we shall point out in our Annotations. To these Annotations, according to our custom, we also relegate certain brief elucidations which present themselves to be made concerning some circumstances of the Life. But those which require a somewhat more prolix investigation we shall presently undertake, after we have premised a few things on the name of the Saint.

[10] of St. Aderald "In the Breviaries, as in the codex of the anonymous," says Breyer Page 6, "our Saint is indicated as Aderald. But in the Chronicles of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif of Sens [In d'Achery, Spicilegium, volume II, p. 739 of the old edition, and volume II, p. 474 of the new edition] and of St. Marian of Auxerre Chronicon Altissiodorense, folio 74 Adrald; in the diploma of Innocent III In Camuzat, Promptuarium, folio 355 Arrald; in the Lectionary of Troyes Aderold. And in the charter of Manasses, bishop of Troyes, of the year 991 Ibid., folio 83, which Aderald fortified with his signature, he is called ADROLD." But these names fall back to the same thing. And to what they fall back, although I ingenuously confess that I am not so skilled in the ancient tongue of the Austrasians (so the Saint's biographer calls it) that it befits me to settle the question with a decisive answer, yet if it be allowed to conjecture, I shall put forward what seems to me can be said with some probability. The name of the Saint, then, could be Adherald or Adherold, whose interpretation would be "eminent herald"; since, as Wiarda testifies Ueber deutsche Vornamen und Geschlechtsnamen, p. 46, ad, ed, ead, od denote happy, blessed, eminent, and herald or herold, whence also the Latino-barbarous name heraldus or haraldus, as may be seen in Du Cange, signifies a messenger of war and peace and thus any public envoy. But since her has the same value as army or troop, and hold also is hero Ibid., pp. 46 and 50, if you write Adherhold, you have "eminent warrior." But if, as the Chronicle of William Godell, to be cited later, and Rondet, in the Index of persons added to the Bibliothèque historique de la France edited with repeated care Bibliothèque historique de la France, volume V, p. 209, suggest, Aderald were by transposition of letters for Adelrad, it would have the force of signifying nobility Wiarda, work cited, p. 47 joined with counsel or readiness, and would accordingly be the same as Æthelred, that is, noble and prudent or active, or noble in counsel or readiness Ibid., p. 25. But enough now of the name: it was necessary to indicate the various manner of writing it, lest it should cause difficulty hereafter.

[11] not only the birth-year, The question now is of the age of St. Aderald. On it Breyer has thus Pages 7 and 8: "In what year of the tenth century and under what prelate of Troyes Aderald was born, the anonymous passes over. That he lived long is credible: 1st, since he went to Rome twelve times before he was made archdeacon of Troyes; for the anonymous makes mention of Aderald's pilgrimages before he speaks of the election of Manasses, who presented Aderald with the archdeaconry. And he must have spent many years in these pilgrimages. 2nd, When Manasses received the mitre of the holy church of Troyes, Aderald undertook the reform of the clergy of Troyes: and this only a man of middle age can attempt. Finally, he was called pastor and father of the canons of Troyes: and these distinctions can fall only on a man of advanced age. Wherefore it seems certain that Aderald lived with seven bishops of Troyes. These are Ansegisus, chancellor of King Rudolph, who in the year 925 was wounded in battle, and about the year 960 or 963 restored to his see by the help of St. Bruno, bishop of Cologne; Gualo, who in the year 971 was ruling the holy church of Troyes; Hadric, whose acts are unknown; Milo, who dug out the body of St. Mastidia from the sepulchre when he was planning to extend the cathedral of Troyes widely, and was present in the year 980 at the Council of Sens; Manasses, who paid the debt of nature in the year 993; Rainald, whose name only we know; and Frotmund, who is numbered among the Fathers of the Synod of Chelles held about the year 1008, and died in the year 1046" Compare Gallia Christiana, new edition, volume VIII, columns 493, 494 and 495.

[12] but also If by advanced age Breyer understood extreme old age, it cannot be said that he has sufficiently demonstrated it by the reasons he adduced; and the biographer seems to stand in the way (unless his sayings must be taken in an improper sense), who exhibits the parents of Aderald as still surviving (chapter 11) when the latter undertook the journey to Jerusalem, which cannot be removed far from the year 1000, and which the Saint did not survive so very long (as will be evident in what follows). And what Breyer writes, that Frotmund died in the year 1046, he took from the Chronicle of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif of Sens, by the monk Clarius, which is extant in d'Achery's Spicilegium; where at

the said year, the death of Abbot Ermenald being reported, to whom Abbot Gerbert succeeded, these things are written Spicilegium, volume II, p. 475, new edition: "At the same time died Frotmund, bishop of Troyes, to whom succeeded Meinard, archiclavis of St. Stephen's" (namely of the church of Sens). But the words of Camuzat about the same Frotmund must also be held before the eyes Promptuarium, folio 167: "He died about the year 1034, as is written in the old Chronicle of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif of Sens, or precisely in the year 1046, as is observed in the more recent Chronicle"; and the words of the Sainte-Marthe brothers Gallia Christiana, old edition, volume III, p. 1080: "Fromund I died about the year 1034 in the ancient Chronicle of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif of Sens." How far two Chronicles of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif are here to be distinguished, the one old, the other more recent, I have nothing whereby I may discern with certainty. That they are one and the same would be suggested by those words which Camuzat alleges as from the old Chronicle Promptuarium, folio 169, and which are read exactly the same in the Chronicle published by d'Achery Spicilegium, volume II, p. 475: "At this time Pope Leo came to the city of Langres, where he ordained Frotmund" (namely the second of this name) "pontiff of Troyes: and there died Peter, his deacon, and was buried in the chapter of St. Mammes." But it is nevertheless established that two different copies met Camuzat, he himself attesting it in these words Promptuarium, folio 167: "In the same convent of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif I handled two manuscript Chronicles, which seem to be drawn from the slender Chronicle of Odorannus, since in my judgment it is maimed and truncated, nor transmitted to posterity in that integrity in which it was published by Odorannus himself: some things, namely, having been changed and added in it by the monks of that august dwelling, and a series of some years having been woven on." And what he then excerpted about the episcopate of Mainard, both from the one and from the other manuscript, agrees with the edition of d'Achery, if you except some words and phrases here and there. Whence I would think that the substance of the matters and the very diction is almost common to both writings, but the discrepancy is chiefly placed in the order of things and times disturbed by one or other writer or transcriber. Further, as regards the death of Frotmund I, we must stand by the old, not the more recent (as Camuzat calls it), Chronicle; since it is clear that Mainard already occupied the see of Troyes in the year 1035 or 1036 from his charter for the church of Blessed Mary of Rosnay, which the writers of the new Gallia Christiana published from the archives of the monastery of Montier-en-Der Volume VIII, Instrumenta, column 251. For it begins thus: "In the name of God, I Magenard, bishop of the august church of Troyes," and has that note of time at the end: "This was done publicly at Troyes, in the fifth year of Henry reigning as king of the Franks." And the fifth year of the reign of Henry I took its beginning from the 20th day of July 1035.

[13] the death-year The same difference of about eleven or twelve years which is observed between the two Chronicles concerning the death of Bishop Frotmund presents itself also concerning the departure of our St. Aderald from this life. "He breathed out a soul worthy of heaven," says Camuzat Promptuarium, folio 351, "in the year 1004, as is recorded in the old Chronicle of the convent of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif of Sens." On the other hand in d'Achery the death of the Saint is recorded at the year 1015. Namely, it is said there Spicilegium, volume II, p. 474: "In the year 1015 the surrender of the city of Sens was made, and Rainard, abbot of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, died"; and some things being interposed both about the same Rainard and about Leotheric, archbishop of Sens, these things are uttered about our Saint: "In those days died the man of God Adrald, archdeacon of the city of Troyes, and he rests in the convent of the Holy Sepulchre, which he himself built in the same district"; and it is added: "At the same time St. Gislebert, bishop of Meaux, passed to Christ, whose life was renowned for many virtues"; and then there is talk of the wickedness of Rainard, count of Sens, on account of which Archbishop Leotheric, by the counsel of the Roman Pontiff and of the abbot of the church of Cluny, and also of the suffragan bishops and of the best nobles, and especially of Rainald, bishop of Paris, "in the year from the Incarnation of Christ 1016, on the tenth day before the Kalends of May," restored the city to King Robert, rather in the year 1015, as the writer himself said before, and as the Indiction XIII added in other Chronicles shows Compare Bouquet, Rerum Gallicarum scriptores, volume X, p. CXIX.

[14] is unknown. Meanwhile you might not undeservedly doubt whether Clarius the monk, who wrote these things, intended to bind the death of SS. Aderald and Gislebert to no other year than 1015, or rather to refer it only summarily, by the less determinate locutions "in those days" and "at the same time," to the times of Archbishop Leotheric and Abbot Rainard. Truly, that this author was not altogether diligent in designating the times prior to his own age the writers of the Histoire littéraire de la France long ago noted Histoire littéraire de la France, volume X, p. 503. And as for his joining St. Gislebert with St. Aderald, I see the same done, but at the year 1002 or thereabouts, by a monk of St. Marian of Auxerre (some call him Robert), speaking thus [Chronicon Altissiodorense, folio 74, in Bollandus, Acta Sanctorum of February, volume III, p. 717, and in Breyer, pp. 20 and 21]: "There flourished at this time Gislebert, bishop of Meaux, a man of exceptional virtue and distinguished by the glory of miracles, whose Life, published in a most brilliant style, exhibits examples of many virtues to those living and to those who will live through the ages. There flourished also Aderald, archdeacon of the city of Troyes, worthy of pious memory and to be venerated with worthy honour, whose life was the light of the age, the glory of the clergy, the honour of the church and the truest lesson of Christians. He was buried in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in the territory of the aforesaid city, which he himself in his life, kindled with the fire of piety, founded and built." Which same encomia William Godell, monk of St. Martial of Limoges, attributes to both Saints at the year 999, beginning them thus In Bouquet, volume cited, p. 260: "About this and the thousandth year of the Lord there flourished in the city of Meaux the Saint of God Gislebert… At this same time likewise flourished the man beloved of God Adalrad." Since, then, these two writers relate that both these Saints flourished about the same time, and indeed make their memorial at two years different from each other, it is plain to the eye that they have determined nothing about the death-year of either: whereby it comes about that I incline to the opinion that neither did the chronographer of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif wish to fix the year 1015 as common to the death of both Saints.

[15] It is established that he died at the beginning of the eleventh century, There is added that according to the epitome of the Life which our Bollandus copied out from the Breviary of the church of Meaux Volume III of February, p. 718, St. Gislebert, "when he had administered piously and holily for 20 years the church of Meaux entrusted to him, … consummated his angelic life by a happy end on the Ides of February, in the year of salvation 1009, in the time of Robert, most Christian king of the Franks." To which assertion indeed neither Breyer P. 20 nor the historiographer of the church of Meaux, Toussaint Duplessis [Histoire de l'église de Meaux, volume I, book II, no. 2, and note XLVI, pp. 92 and 739. Compare Histoire littéraire de la France, volume X, pp. 404 and 405], have anything to oppose except the very Chronicle of the monk Clarius about which we are disputing; and the writers of the new Gallia Christiana, although they had the History composed by Duplessis before their eyes and indeed cited it, nevertheless, without even making mention of the Chronicle of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, did not hesitate to write Volume VIII, column 1607: "Gilbert died in the year 1009 according to the Acts of his life, after he had spent 20 years in the episcopate." Nor do other documents stand in the way which can teach anything of the deeds of St. Gislebert: since those two which are the latest of all in time, namely the diplomas of King Robert for the monastery of Saint-Denis [In Félibien, Histoire de l'abbaye de S. Denis, pièces justificatives, p. LXXXII and following; in Bouquet, volume cited, p. 591 and following], subscribed by St. Gislebert and other bishops (of which, however, we shall presently show that one seems spurious), only show that he was present at the Synod of Chelles, which is believed to have been held about the year 1008. These things being so, I plainly cannot assent to Breyer, speaking Pp. 19 and 20 as if it were established from d'Achery's Chronicle of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif that St. Aderald prolonged his life up to the year 1015; but, imitating Bollandus treating of St. Gislebert, bishop of Meaux, I have been content to indicate in the margin at the beginning of this Commentary that our Saint died after the year 1000, in which matter all the Chronicles which I cited before agree among themselves.

[16] but it is doubtful under which bishop of Troyes. Then, both from what has been premised and from what is presently to be brought forward, that opinion of Breyer too totters, that St. Aderald lived under seven bishops of Troyes, of whom the first without controversy is Ansegisus, who obtained the episcopate in the year 912 or 913. The matter would be altogether evident if what the writers of the new Gallia Christiana maintain about Frotmund, the last of those prelates, could be proved, that he subscribed the royal precept for the monastery of Saint-Denis "on the eighth day before the Kalends of February, in the 9th indiction, in the first year of the reign of the glorious King Robert," that is, in the year 998. But when they were writing these things in their volume XII in the year 1770, they did not remember what in the year 1751, in volume X, at Baldwin, bishop of Thérouanne, who is likewise read subscribed to the said instrument, had been rightly observed Column [ ]: "It is strange that no mention of this precept was made by Mabillon in the Annals, to which moreover the subscriptions of the bishops can scarcely be adapted, who the same all were present at the Synod of Chelles in the year 1008; whence perhaps someone would deservedly conclude that the precept in question was given in this Synod." Nor had they attended that the same judgment had again been passed in the year 1760 by Bouquet Work cited, volume X, p. 594, who also advises that Labbe had long ago so judged in the historical collection on the Chancellors of France Page 151, and moreover pronounces this about that precept: "Although perhaps more than one reason will persuade many that it is false. For in it many things are expressed word for word from the precept which we said in the preceding volume was to be attributed to Robert, brother of Odo. The same notary in both, the same archchancellor. Both are dated 'on the eighth day before the Kalends of February, in the 11th indiction, in the first year of Robert, in the monastery of Saint-Denis.'" And the first, or rather the only, year in which Robert, brother of Odo, had the royal name assumed for himself began to run from the 20th day of June 922. Since therefore it is established indeed that Frotmund sat in the Synod of Chelles about the year 1008, but it is unknown for how long a time already then the church of Troyes

he was ruling, and since from elsewhere it is doubtful in what year above the thousandth St. Aderald made an end of living, it follows that it is not ascertained that he was still surviving under that man's episcopate.

[17] By Bishop Manasses St. Aderald was above all dear to Bishop Manasses; and, as his biographer or panegyrist says (chapter 9), that holy prelate "imparted to him a part of his burden, raising him to the honour of archdeacon." That honour was in that age by far the most ample, but at the same time full of labour and solicitude, and required a man eminent both for holiness of life and also for learning, skill and dexterity of wit. For the archdeacon did not only watch over and command the other deacons and the clerics of the lower orders, and instruct the younger in the ecclesiastical sciences; but he provided for the affairs of the whole diocese as the eye of the bishop and his vicar in all things, sharing his pastoral solicitude and almost all his jurisdiction both in spirituals and in temporals, so that on this head he presided with power even over presbyters: all which things we have copiously demonstrated for us from innumerable monuments by Thomassin in his work on ecclesiastical Discipline [Ancienne et nouvelle discipline de l'Église, volume I, book II, chapter XVII and following, column 570 and following] and by Luigi Nardi in his treatise on Parish Priests [Dei Parrochi, volume I, chapter XVI, p. 436 and following; volume II, chapter XXVIII, p. 320 and following]. And at the beginning indeed there was a single archdeacon in each diocese; but after, in place of the suppressed chorepiscopi, especially from the ninth century, there began to be set over the rural clergy deans, episcopal missi, missatic presbyters, or ministers of the bishops called by other names (we still now call them deans or vicars forane), the usage gradually prevailed that one or more canons should be chosen from the clergy of the cathedral church, on whom those rural deans or vicars forane depended in discharging their office: and these canons, from a certain analogy which they had with the archdeacon whom we have just described, were themselves also called archdeacons, but lesser ones, as those who were not equal to the greater archdeacon, but subject to him as the bishop's vicar general, as the just-praised Nardi, to whom we refer the readers, explains more widely.

[18] archdeacon of the church of Troyes Concerning the archidiaconal dignity conferred on St. Aderald Breyer writes these things Page 7, in a note: "In the diocese of Troyes there are five archdeacons. As many subscribed the charter of Bishop Philip in the year 1090: for in his age the archdeaconry of the city of Troyes was already united to the chapter of the church of Troyes. But whether Aderald held the archdeaconry of the city, or which of the others, while he lived, is wholly uncertain." In fact, to that charter of Bishop Philip, which is extant in Camuzat's Promptuarium Folios 118 and 119, there assented among others Gisbert, Peter, Guy, Joscelin and Hugh, who are all called archdeacons. Likewise three archdeacons are read subscribed to another charter of the same prelate Folio 117 verso. But earlier, under Bishop Hugh, the names of four archdeacons may be seen in a charter of the year 1063 Gallia Christiana nova, volume XII, Instrumenta, column 253, four again in a charter of the year 1075 In Camuzat, work cited, folio 170, two in a charter of the year 1079 Gallia Christiana nova, place cited. Afterwards in various charters there are designated in the year 1104 Ibid., column 255; in Camuzat, folio 172 verso at least three archdeacons; in the year 1114 Ibid., column 257 four; in the year 1138 Ibid., column 260 two; in the years 1140 Ibid., column 261 and 1145 Ibid., column 165, and Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, column 1407 three, and again in the year 1145 In Duchesne, notes to the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, column 105 four. From which it is evident that already in the eleventh and twelfth centuries there existed in the diocese of Troyes several archdeaconries besides the greater, which Bishop Philip, who ruled that diocese at the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth, in a certain charter calls the archdeaconry of the city In Camuzat, Promptuarium, folio 173 verso. Further, the lesser archdeaconries of Troyes in the settlement entered into with the archdeacons by Bishop Jean d'Auxois in the year 1343 Ibid., folio 205 are designated by the same names by which the polyptych printed at Paris in the year 1648 designates them [Pouillé général de l'archevêché de Sens, etc. Bénéfices du diocèse de Troyes, p. 2], and which I think were preserved up to the end of the eighteenth century, namely of Sézanne, of Arcis, of St. Margaret and of Brienne.

[19] created, But whether in the age of St. Aderald lesser archdeaconries of this kind had already been erected at Troyes, or on the contrary only one even then bore there the name and honour of archdeacon, I have nothing whereby I may define: since no monument of the church of Troyes is available to me by which this matter can be elucidated, and from elsewhere I see that in other churches sooner, as in that of Reims [Marlot, Metropolis Remensis Historia, volume I, book III, chapter XXXVI, pp. 462 and 463. Compare Nardi, work cited, volume I, p. 440], in others later, as also in that of Auxerre Gallia Christiana, old edition, volume II, p. 287, the title of archdeacon was communicated to several. However it be, I would believe it most probable that the office of the greater archdeaconry was entrusted to our Saint, who is declared by his panegyrist to have been most closely joined with Bishop Manasses in the conduct of affairs, and is called by the same the teacher, pastor and father of the congregation of St. Peter, that is, of the clergy of the cathedral church, and expended his chief cares on the reform of that clergy. He obtained that dignity within that space of time which elapsed from the year 982 to the year 991. For in the former of these two years falls the consecration of the church of St. Stephen of Sens by Archbishop Seguin, the bishops Milo of Troyes, Heribert of Auxerre and Roclen of Nevers being present Gallia Christiana nova, volume XII, column 33: whence it is clear that Manasses did not then yet bear the mitre of Troyes. But in the year 991, to the diploma by which three altars are granted to the monastery of Montier-en-Der, namely of Laderciaca curtis, of Dodiniaca curtis and of Requiniaca curtis, there are read subscribed "Manasses, humble bishop of Troyes, Hadric, archiclavus, and Adrold, unworthy archdeacon" In Camuzat, Promptuarium, folio 83, who is certainly our Saint himself. That he had been consecrated in the order of the diaconate either long before or certainly on that occasion we must admit, unless we wish (which it would be wrong to do) to make our Saint and Bishop Manasses guilty of that most grievous abuse against which the Council of Bourges and other Councils thereafter cited by Thomassin Place cited, pp. 586 and 587 rose up, forbidding that anyone should have the archdeaconry unless he were made a deacon. But that he was ordained presbyter the biographer does not even hint, nor does the custom of those times make it credible, of which we have an example in St. Lietbert, who, having been made archdeacon in his manly age and having discharged that office for no brief space, did not receive the order of the presbyterate before he had been already elected pontiff of Cambrai and Arras and was next to be consecrated in the year 1051 Acta Sanctorum of June, volume IV, pp. 585, 589, 592 and 593: nay indeed he who from archdeacon became a presbyter was either reckoned to be degraded, as St. Gregory the Great testifies Compare Nardi, work cited, volume II, p. 199, note I, or certainly, as Sidonius speaks [Book IV, letter XXIV, in Du Cange, Glossarium latinum, under the word Archidiaconus], "to be released from power." Wherefore I judge consonant with truth the old image mentioned by Desguerrois La Saincteté chrestienne, folio 256, which represented St. Aderald clothed in the diaconal vestment.

[20] he effects by his care As regards the reform of the clergy of St. Peter of Troyes, with Aderald as author, of which we must now speak: "It has nothing," says Breyer Pp. 10 and 11, "to wonder at, that after the savage fire by which about the year 889 the city of Troyes was disfigured by the Normans, and in the times of the civil wars, in which in the tenth century all Gaul burned, canonical discipline grew cold in the clergy. That laws are silent amid arms is plain. That Aderald restored the collapsed discipline in his church from the laws which the Fathers of the Synod of Aachen wrote for canons, the words of the anonymous prove. The holy man grieved most that the canons, contrary to the prescription of the Council, were occupied with secular business, and on the pretext of poverty abstained from the observance of the rule. Therefore, as the anonymous testifies (chapter 9), he persuaded Bishop Manasses to bestow on the clerics of the congregation of St. Peter by perpetual right not a few goods; to which the Saint himself from his own goods added no moderate supplement, himself also handing over to them the patrimony which he held in estates and in churches. And these things being thus established, the congregation of St. Peter of the city of Troyes then began to live after the manner of cenobites, Aderald showing the way of right living beforehand in words and deeds, and overcoming by his constancy the obstacles set against the good work."

[21] that the canonical rule Breyer thought it worth while to note the following about the kind of life of that congregation Pp. 14 and 15: "That the canons of Troyes, however, were by no means regulars and (bound) by a vow of poverty, like the regular canons of our age, who abdicate themselves from the dominion of any thing, may be gathered from what has been said; but only that they dwelt together in their cloister and lived in congregation according to the decrees of the Councils of Tours I, canon 23, of Mainz, canon 9, and of Aachen I, chapters 120 and 121. For it is established from a diploma of Bishop Philip that the canons of Troyes are distinguished from regulars. Aderald, long after he was made canon, enriched the canons of Troyes from his own goods, and founded the convent of the Holy Sepulchre. He was not therefore guilty of a vow of poverty. Nor were canons then bound to pronounce a vow of this kind; for the Council of Aachen does not condemn canons possessing their goods, but only those who receive from the church, which feeds the poor, although they are sufficient for themselves from their own." Indeed the writer could have added that this difference between canons and monks is laid down by the same Council, that the latter have left nothing proper to themselves, the former lawfully use their own things and those of the church Chapter CXV, in Labbe, Concilia, volume VII, column 1389, and this even if they live in congregation; in which for this reason it is decreed that food and drink indeed be the same for all, but that portions of alms be given in varying abundance to various persons, according as they have more or fewer or no resources of their own or of the church Chapters CXX and CXXI, ibid., column 1391. But all these things, although they sufficiently demonstrate that those canons need not have divested themselves of all dominion of things whatever by a vow either explicit or implicit, yet do not solve the question whether or not they cultivated that religious poverty which can consist with dominion [Compare Suárez, De virtute et statu Religionis, treatise VII, book VIII, chapter VII], as may now be seen in the scholastics of the Society

of Jesus, and not rarely formerly even in the monks themselves. Truly the canons led a common life under the government and care of a provost or other prelate, assiduously frequenting the choir, eating and sleeping together, inhabiting the cloister, which was unlocked at the proper time and from which they could not go out except with licence, etc., all which things are explained at length in the rule or decrees of the Council of Aachen on the institution of canons [In Labbe, place cited, column 1315 and following. Compare Thomassin, work cited, volume I, book III, chapter IX, column 1376 and following; volume III, book II, chapter XX, column 725 and following]: and this common life, which Camuzat also, to be cited a little later, calls regular and opposes to the secular, how it could have consisted without some one of the four modes of religious poverty which Suárez enumerates Place cited, no. 7, is not easily conceived. To which are added other weights of reasons which Alain Le Large, canon regular of Ste-Geneviève, proposes [De canonicorum Ordine, disquisition I, chapter I, article IV, p. 17 and following; disquisition II, p. 310 and following], to persuade that both kinds of canons using the rule of Aachen, both those having property and those without anything of their own, were regarded as religious, and indeed of the same religion.

[22] be observed there; "But it is established from a diploma of Bishop Philip," says Breyer, "that the canons of Troyes are distinguished from regulars." Namely, in that diploma In Camuzat, folio 117 verso it is set forth that it pleased the brethren of St. Peter, that is, the canons of Troyes, to place in the church of St. George of Gannay regular canons on this condition, that the brethren of St. George should hold their possessions from Blessed Peter, but their rule from Blessed Quentin, namely that which flourished in the convent of canons of St. Quentin of Beauvais, and thus should be subject to the said convent for the observance of the rule, but for earthly things should come to justice in the hand of Peter, that is, should be subject to the jurisdiction of the chapter of Troyes. But it must not be passed over that this diploma seems to have been given about the year 1085 D'Achery, Spicilegium, volume XI, p. 302, otherwise volume III, p. 415, when already (as we shall presently see) the canons of Troyes had begun to decline from the institutions of St. Aderald: whence neither is Breyer's present argument altogether apt for proving his opinion [Compare Thomassin, work cited, volume I, book III, chapter XI, no. 8, column 1410]. On the contrary, the foundation of the regular canonry of St. George made by the chapter of Troyes should perhaps be numbered among those of which Alain Le Large writes thus Work cited, p. 362: "This I for my part have observed everywhere, that the clerics of the principal churches in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when they were falling away from the common and regular life of canons, nevertheless honoured that kind of life in others, so that they assigned from their own the necessary supports of life to all of their own who aspired to the perfection of the canonical Order, or even founded regular canonries, whose clerics in some way compensated by their religion for the secular state of those who nourished them." And the same writer adduces some facts proving this assertion.

[23] which observance about the year 1082 I was saying just now that the clergy of the church of Troyes withdrew from the Aderaldine reform under Bishop Philip. Camuzat narrates it thus Folios 56 and 57: "The aforesaid canons, up to the times of Philip, who took up the episcopal see of Troyes to rule in the year 1082, held and observed strictly the regular manner of living: at which time indeed they embraced the secular life again, and made an equal division of the tithes which they had before possessed jointly with the bishop; and that some traces of this ancient custom of living might remain, the aforementioned bishop and his successors remained bound to receive all the canons of the said church with a solemn feast and banquet" (this feast, as the author writes in the margin, the ancients called comestum) "on the four more celebrated and principal feasts of the year, namely Easter, Pentecost, the Nativity of the Lord and All Saints": in place of which feast a small sum of money is today paid by the bishop to the chapter of that church, namely ten French pounds, as Desguerrois has it Work cited, folio 264. The common life being relaxed, the affairs of the chapter of Troyes gradually fell so much for the worse that Bishop Hato in the year 1145 testified with grief In Duchesne, Notes to the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, column 104: "For the ancient nobility of a more famous church had been given over to contempt, its glory to confusion: the throng of sons, in whose assiduity it had been wont to rejoice, had been turned into solitude, the canons which it had indeed being outsiders, seeking not the things of God but their own, not rendering to their mother the honour of the service due." Wherefore, that he might bring a remedy for the foraneitas, as they called it Camuzat, folio 150 verso, or absence of the canons, in a solemn chapter: "By statute," he says, "we have decreed, with their assent, which we did with the confirmation of the religious and venerable man Alberic, bishop of Ostia, legate of the Apostolic See, that those who henceforth should be made canons in our church, unless they showed themselves resident for the service of the church, should receive nothing of the prebendal benefice except 20 shillings every year." And by this compact he indeed restored the worn-down discipline, yet did not bring it back to the state in which it had been under St. Aderald, as someone might perhaps deduce from Breyer's words Page 11.

[24] began to be relaxed: Meanwhile the canons, although they no longer used their former community among themselves, nevertheless still had their houses in the old cloister: but some houses there were possessed by laymen by hereditary right, and were not rarely let to jugglers, gamblers, innkeepers and unchaste women, not without the disturbance of the clerics and of the people betaking themselves to the divine offices, as Pope Lucius III, who sat from the year 1181 to 1185, complains in apostolic letters given on this matter, which Breyer published at the end of his Preface from the archive of the bishopric of Troyes Pp. 23 and 24. "Wishing therefore," says the Pontiff, "to provide for the common decency of the church, by apostolic authority we forbid that canonical houses be any longer given to laymen, either freely, or even be let on any occasion whatever. We also decree concerning the houses which laymen hold in the cloister by hereditary right, that if they do not wish to inhabit them in their own persons with a respectable household, disreputable persons being excluded, … they be granted only to clerics, freely or for a price." Finally, that the cloister persisted at least up to the fourteenth century Camuzat argues thus Folio 57: "In the book of the capitular acts of that church there is found committed to letters, under the 19th day of November of the year 1364, the decree which follows: 'It was ordained that henceforth Matins, as has been customary up to now, shall be sung at midnight.' Which indeed indicates and is an argument of men placed within closed enclosures: for otherwise they could not so conveniently have attended the Offices before dawn, if their cloisters had not been girded round about with walls, (but) such as are seen today, passable and open to anyone even by night." So he.

[25] yet some restoration of it was attempted in the seventeenth century. To the things which we have said so far there seems to be annexed what Father Étienne Binet recorded Work cited, chapter XXIII, p. 383 and following, when in the year 1633 he was describing the Life of St. Aderald, that some canons of the cathedral church of Troyes had for some time entered among themselves into a pious association which reproduced a certain image of the congregation of St. Peter formed to the canonical life by St. Aderald. And so they all used one roof and one table, at which the mind was fed with pious reading, and they had one chosen from their number who cared for the common temporal property, from which, so far as the account of the treasury allowed, alms were also given to the poor at the door of the house. In frequenting the choir and fulfilling the other duties of canons they yielded to none of their colleagues: but the time which remained free from these duties they spent either in ecclesiastical studies, or in holding sermons and catecheses in the city and in the country, or in hearing confessions, visiting the sick, or discharging other offices of charity; and intent on these holy labours, they strove at the same time to foster the mutual union of their souls among themselves and close familiarity with God. Binet adds that this institute was not only most acceptable to the bishop of Troyes René de Breslay, but also greatly pleased the Roman Pontiff, and thus instilled into other colleges of canons throughout France the desire of embracing a similar kind of life; and that he himself, to foster this desire, composed that little work of his on the Hierarchy of the church and the Life of St. Aderald at the request of the aforesaid canons of Troyes, as he teaches in the Preface to the reader.

§ II. The foundation of the priory of the Holy Sepulchre; the Saint's relics, images, ecclesiastical Office, memorial in the Martyrologies.

The priory erected by the Saint, The last among the memorable actions of St. Aderald was the foundation of the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre. This was preceded and occasioned by the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, religiously undertaken by the Saint, as was very much in the manners of that time, which is described fairly prolixly by the biographer (chapters 11, 12, 13 and 14). Returning from it with many relics, among which was a fragment of stone from the sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ, he planned to build a shrine for keeping these treasures with fitting honour, whose care he would commit to pious monks, a convent being built for them and endowed from his goods. He chose a place in a township or hamlet distant about three leagues from the city of Troyes toward the north, which is watered by the river Melda, drawn off from the neighbouring Seine, to which it afterwards also returns its waters. That hamlet was then called Sambleriae; but, the years gliding by, from the name with which the Saint had wished his convent to be distinguished, it gradually began to be called Holy Sepulchre, and was so called still at the beginning of the seventeenth century, as Camuzat testifies Folio 351, in a marginal note, and also in the year 1648, in which the Polyptych of Troyes was printed Pouillé général, etc. Bénéfices du diocèse de Troyes, p. 16, nor does Chastelain in his Martyrology at this day indicate any other name. "But now," says Breyer, writing in the year 1724 Page 20, "both names being changed, it is called Villacerf," namely from the lordship of this name, which in the year 1670 was erected into a marquisate in favour of Edouard Colbert, by whom it was then possessed Baugier, Mémoires historiques de la province de Champagne, volume II, page 329.

[27] and subject to the abbey of Cluny, Father Étienne Binet Work cited, chapter XVII, p. 281 and following invented many things about the erection of the convent of the Holy Sepulchre from his own genius, as if St. Aderald had had to struggle with the other canons, who bore it less equably that he preferred to assign the place to monks rather than to secular clerics: of which thing not even a trace is detected in his genuine Life. He narrates also that at Aderald's request monks were sent there by the abbot of Cluny (who was St. Odilo) to constitute the priory of the Holy Sepulchre,

which should depend on the monastery of Blessed Mary of La Charité. That they were of the Cluniac family is credible; but Binet's assertion about the monastery of La Charité is absurd: since for two centuries and more it had lain deserted through the devastations of the Vandals, and did not rise from its ruins until after the year 1050 under Goffrid, prelate of Auxerre, who handed it over to St. Hugh, abbot of Cluny Gallia Christiana nova, volume XII, column 403. For Binet had read in the Catalogue of the convents subject to the abbey of Cluny that, among the priories immediately subject to the priory of Blessed Mary of La Charité on the Loire, this one too founded by St. Aderald is recorded in the following words Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, column 1719: "The priory of the Holy Sepulchre of the diocese of Tricassina or Troyes, where there ought to be, counting the sacristan, three monks"; which he himself reports less faithfully thus P. 286: "The priory of the Holy Sepulchre shall be under the priory of La Charité; there ought to be three monks there, counting the sacristan"; and on this foundation he built up his narrative, or rather his fiction, not attending how much later than the age of St. Aderald the subjection in question was.

[28] especially in the twelfth century To weave the history of the priory of the Holy Sepulchre I have neither the intention nor the means. Yet it will not be out of place to have culled some things from the few monuments of it which survive. Of these some may be read in Camuzat, others hitherto unpublished were most courteously supplied to us by the distinguished H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, keeper of the archive of the prefecture of the Aube at Troyes. By a diploma, then, of the year 1114, which Camuzat brought to light Folios 351 and 352, Philip, bishop of Troyes, gave to the church and monks of the Holy Sepulchre, over whom Laudicus the prior presided, the church of St. John the Baptist of Holy Sepulchre (that is, the parish of the hamlet of Sambleriae) and the church of the chapel of Walo with tithes and part of the offerings, and also the church of Villeta with its tithes likewise and the census of the forecourt, with the right of choosing presbyters in the aforesaid churches, who should receive the care of souls from the bishop of Troyes, but should show subjection to the monks in temporal things pertaining to the monastery. Not long after, Pope Innocent II, who sat from the year 1130 to 1143, took the same priory, as is asserted in the Bull of Innocent III presently to be cited, under the protection of St. Peter and his own, I know not whether on the occasion of the injuries with which Hugh de Romeliaco, lord of Sambleriae, and his wife Elizabeth had affected the church and monks of the Holy Sepulchre: on account of which, by the precept of the Roman Pontiff, a sentence of excommunication is written to have been promulgated against the aforesaid Hugh and Elizabeth his wife and against all their land, in the letters of Hugh, count palatine of Troyes, in Camuzat Folios 352 and 353. By these letters, according to the sentence of the Pope and the justice of Count Henry himself, peace was reconciled between the contending parties on equitable conditions in the year 1163, Severic being at that time prior of the monastery, and Alexander III occupying the chair of Peter, by whom likewise Innocent III testifies the priory was received under the guardianship of the Apostolic See.

[29] is increased in possessions, Next there comes to be adduced from the archive of the prefecture of the Aube (where it is still preserved, only the seal being torn off, which hung from silken cords of yellow and green colour) the diploma of Manasses II, prelate of Troyes, given in the year 1179, by which he makes known that "Helisabeth, daughter of Zicharias, sister of Bovo of Holy Sepulchre, wife of Hugh de Rumilliaco, … gave to the church of the Holy Sepulchre and to Blessed Aderald resting there her allod of Valliacum, … except two casements of St. Quentin. She gave also to the aforesaid church the justice of all the men holding the land of the aforesaid allod, whether * they be of the casements or of the men of St. Quentin: adding that the men or women who at that time were joined in matrimony to the men of the aforesaid allod, the aforesaid church should possess the same in peace and quiet. The aforesaid lady decreed moreover that it should not be lawful for the aforesaid church to put the aforesaid gift in the advocacy of any secular power, but it should be in the defence, guardianship and protection of Blessed Peter of Troyes." And among the witnesses there appear "Hugh, prior of the Holy Sepulchre, and Bernard, monk, his chaplain, Hugh, chaplain of the Holy Sepulchre" (that is, the parish presbyter of Sambleriae), "Agnellus, Bernard and Adam, servants of the aforesaid prior." But if this diploma was given by Manasses II in the year 1179, as the information submitted to us has it, the assertion of the new Gallia Christiana must fall, that Manasses succeeded Matthew in the episcopal see of Troyes in the year 1181 Volume XII, column 502; which assertion, however, is supported by a charter concerning the church of Buceium showing the name of Matthew and the note of the year 1180 Ibid., Instrumenta, column 275, and also by Robert, monk of Auxerre, referring Matthew's death to the same year In Bouquet, work cited, volume XII, p. 299, besides that Matthew was also present in the year 1179 at the Third Lateran Council. But I am content to have pointed a finger at these things.

[30] which are confirmed by the Bull of Innocent III In the aforesaid archive there survives also the original of the Bull of Innocent III on the possessions of the priory of the Holy Sepulchre, formerly published by Camuzat Folio 354 and following. The Pontiff declares that after the example of his predecessors of happy memory Innocent and Alexander he takes the church of the Holy Sepulchre, in which Guy the prior and his brethren are devoted to the divine service, under the protection of Blessed Peter and his own, and wills that all the possessions justly and canonically acquired and to be acquired by the same monastery remain firm to them and their successors. Then he enumerates one by one the following, which I shall report in compendium from the edition of Camuzat collated with the excerpts which the praised Lord d'Arbois de Jubainville supplied to us from the authentic copy: "The township of Holy Sepulchre with the churches …; annual prebends … in the church of St. Peter of Troyes …; the church of Mons Suzannus; the chapel of Gued; the chapel of Albaterra; the mill of Gued …; the third part of the offerings in the church of Bulliacum …; the house of Bulliacum …; the vineyards of Lanae; the church of Viasperum, of St. Victor, of Bonavicina; the church of Albiniacum …; the church of Mons Ingonis and the lands pertaining to it …; the tithe of Redelor; the church of Bellavilla and the same township …; the church of Mergi" (this Camuzat omitted) "…; the church of Troannum …, and the third part in the mill of Mediavilla …; in the church of Hanium" (in Camuzat Humum) "two parts of the offerings …; the church of Villeta ..; in the grange of Vulpeleria" (in Camuzat Vulperia) "six sesters of corn …; at Seeleriae the fourth part of the greater and lesser tithe; at Saveriae the fourth part of the greater and lesser tithe; in Fontanae the fourth part of the whole tithe; the chapel of Galo …; at Troyes the site of the house of St. Arrald wholly free, and all the inheritance which the same Arrald with male and female serfs conferred on the convent of the Holy Sepulchre free, all heirs being excluded and without any retention, as is lawfully contained in the instrument of Philip of good memory, formerly bishop of Troyes; at Troyes the house of Theobald the deacon, and another house which you have in the market; the tithe of the revenues of the two fairs which are held at Troyes …; the re-tithe of the wine of the close of the count of Troyes, and four pounds of denarii in the money of Troyes every year, which Hugh, count of Troyes, gave you; the township of Fontanae …; the house of Drotum …; and whatever you have at the other Drotum and at Villare; whatever you have at Sosiacum and Vaucella" (in Camuzat Lintella) "… and at Sézanne, and the tithe of your vineyards of Bulliacum and of Lanae; whatever you shall be able justly to acquire … from the casement of the count of Troyes, from the casement of Geoffrey de Bullepot and his wife Alaidis; the salvamentum of Fractaripa …, of Calciniacum, of Mergiacum, of Chauchiniacum, of Fontenae, of Holy Sepulchre; usages in all the woods of the count of Brienne …; the pastures of Guy de Pedaniae …, and the mills of Espiniacum."

[31] in the year 1207. Then the Pontiff establishes many things about the immunity, liberty and rights of that monastery, and subscribes with twenty-two cardinals, after whose subscriptions is added: "Given at the Lateran by the hand of John, of St. Mary in Cosmedin, Cardinal, Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, on the sixth day before the Kalends of April, in the 9th Indiction, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1207, and in the 10th year of the pontificate of the Lord Pope Innocent III." And when, while reading through this Bull, the desire had come upon me of knowing whether any trace or memory survived of that house which St. Aderald had formerly possessed and had made over to the convent of the Holy Sepulchre, I asked about this matter the Reverend Lord Fliche, vicar general of the diocese of Troyes and superior of the theological seminary, who wrote back these things: "We know nothing of the house which the Saint had at Troyes: it may have been extinguished among the continual vicissitudes which our city has suffered." Which is the opinion not only of himself but also of other learned men whom he deigned to consult for us.

[32] Afterwards it becomes a secular benefice; and finally is destroyed. To the documents premised, which, although they had in great part already become known through the industry of Camuzat, yet it seemed good to review briefly here, the more so because Camuzat's Promptuarium is not today so easily come by, the distinguished Lord d'Arbois subjoined a summary of the revenues of the priory of the Holy Sepulchre from an index made about the year 1375. There were reckoned, namely, every year three modii of wheat with six sesters and seven bushels; fifteen modii of rye, seven sesters and three and a half bushels; four modii of barley, six sesters, ten bushels; twenty-seven modii of oats, ten sesters, four and a half bushels: 136 pounds of money with seven shillings: to these were added forty ells of flax, fifteen and a half pounds of wax, fourteen geese, thirty-six hens, five pints of oil, etc. The Polyptych of the diocese of Troyes published in the year 1648, which I have already cited before, assigns to the same priory for annual revenue two thousand French pounds Page 18; and it relates that the annual revenues of the parish church were equivalent to six hundred pounds Page 16. As regards the papal tithes, the Lord d'Arbois found in a polyptych of the year 1407 that the tax of the prior of the Holy Sepulchre was thirty pounds of Tours, while that of the chapter of the cathedral church of Troyes rose to forty, and that of the abbot of Clairvaux to three thousand pounds. Moreover he notes, which is also evident from the polyptych of 1648, that the prior of the Holy Sepulchre in the seventeenth century had the right of patronage of six parish churches, namely of the Chapel of Walo or Galo, of Mergiacum, of Holy Sepulchre, of Mons Ingonis, of Mons Suzannus and of St. George of Great Troannum; which even now are inscribed among the succursal (as we say) churches of the diocese of Troyes under these French names Almanach du clergé de France, 1851, pp. 601 and 602: Grandes-chapelles,

Mergey, Villacerf, Montangon, Montsuzain and Trouand-le-Grand. Lastly, concerning the state of the said priory in the eighteenth century, I shall say in a few words that the monks had already departed from it, from I know not what time, when Breyer was writing the preface to the Life of St. Aderald to be published by him, and that the monastery had been changed into a benefice which a fiduciary prior held, as that writer reports P. 21; and finally that this very benefice, with its sacred building, was destroyed among the devastations by which religion in France was afflicted about the end of the said century.

[33] The body of the Saint rested there Up to that calamitous tempest the precious remains of St. Aderald rested in the said church of the priory of the Holy Sepulchre, where he himself had probably chosen his burial. They were enclosed in a wooden chest decorated with paintings and gildings, which was seen raised on high behind the high altar, as Desguerrois testifies Folio 256, who moreover reports that together with the body of the Saint there were deposited in it his hair shirt and some remains of SS. George and Victor, and also the stone which the Saint had received from the sepulchre of the Lord. That chest seems to be of venerable antiquity, but at what time it was made I do not see whence it can be gathered; but since Desguerrois at the end of his work, among the feasts of the Saints of the diocese of Troyes, inscribes the 22nd day of May as sacred to the translation of St. Aderald to be recalled (which our predecessors noted at that day among the Passed Over), I suspect that this is the very day on which the bones of the Saint were transferred into the aforementioned chest. Odard Hennequin, who in the year 1527 exchanged the bishopric of Senlis for that of Troyes, and held in commendam the priory of the Holy Sepulchre together with the abbeys of St. Loup, St. Martin, Basse-Fontaine and of La Vertu, and the priories of Joigny and Celles, and is praised because he spent the opulent moneys of his benefices on building and repairing the edifices of the bishopric and on pious works Camuzat, work cited, folio 248; Gallia Christiana nova, volume XII, column 517, among many specimens of his munificence also had the chest of St. Aderald, as Desguerrois likewise narrates Place cited, restored to its former brightness and its upper part covered with a shaggy silken cloth of green colour.

[34] for almost eight centuries: Binet besides reports that the relics of St. Aderald were quite often visited with solemn rite, both by the monks of the convents of La Charité and Cluny, and by the archdeacons of the city of Troyes, and namely in the year 1631 by him who was then archdeacon at Troyes; of all which visitations he says authentic instruments were drawn up Chapter XXI, pp. 355 and 356. From Breyer Pages 21 and 22 we learn moreover that the treasury of relics of the cathedral church about the year 1500 (if I understand the writer's words well) was enriched by Peter Dorigny, canon of the same church and commendatory prior of the Holy Sepulchre, with one of the ribs of St. Aderald; "which," he says, "in the year 1644 was enclosed in the month of December by the Lord François Malier, bishop of Troyes, in a silver reliquary skilfully made at the expense of Louis le Courtois, formerly archdeacon and canon." But the Reverend Lord Fliche wrote to us that this rib still exists in the cathedral church, but so mixed with other relics that it can no longer be distinguished; and that the silver reliquary is no longer there, nor are those writings of which Binet makes mention found anywhere. But the same obtained for us from the episcopal court of Troyes the following instrument on the erection of a monument in memory of St. Aderald within the parish church of Holy Sepulchre, or of Villacerf, in the year 1803, from which it can very well be understood what the lot of the relics of our Saint has been in recent times. But I would wish the reader forewarned that all the contents of this instrument, not excepting the inscriptions, are written in the French idiom; which I shall render into Latin with what fidelity I can.

[35] but now in the church of the parish of Villacerf "We, the presbyter, curé of Villacerf, and now exercising the temporary care of souls there, there being present many ecclesiastical men from the city of Troyes and the neighbouring churches subscribed with us, before the Lord Maudier, mayor of the village of Villacerf, giving us authority, and a numerous assembly of the inhabitants of the village of Villacerf convoked for this same end, by the licence, approval and power granted to us by letters given to us on the 29th day of September 1802 by the Lord de la Tour du Pin, formerly archbishop of Auch, designated bishop of Troyes, and also with the consent of the Lord le Duc, elected to rule the diocese, the see being vacant, vicar general, according to the letters written by him to us on the 7th day of December 1802, have visited the chest of St. Aderald, presbyter, canon and archdeacon of the church of Troyes, founder of the priory of the Holy Sepulchre in Villacerf, which contained his holy relics exposed to public veneration in the church of Villacerf already for eight hundred years, according to the most authentic titles which had been placed in the chest itself beside these holy relics, and according to the history of the diocese and at the same time the constant tradition of the faithful, who through so many centuries had never lost these precious remains from their eyes. We found the chest to be empty, and learned by public voice and the unanimous testimony of all the inhabitants of the village of Villacerf that the same chest in the days of the Terror, under the disturbance of French affairs, had been violated and broken, and that the precious bones which it contained had been thrown pell-mell with other bones into a small crypt of the church of Villacerf situated under the altar of the side chapel to the right of the high altar, opposite the door of the sacristy.

[36] lies in a crypt; "Likewise it was established by the unanimous voice of all that those sacred bones, since they had been thrown into this place, had never been taken away from it. When therefore we had descended there with the witnesses required and subscribed with us, we found there the bones designated, described and named to us, and recognized them; but because others too lay there, we could not with sufficient certainty distinguish the former from the latter so as to insert them in the chest as undoubted bones of the Holy presbyter, canon and archdeacon of Troyes; and, to act more prudently, we left the holy bones outside the chest, without separating or distinguishing them from the rest. Considering, however, that it suffices for the piety of the faithful if they know with certainty that the sacred bones exist in this sepulchre, and that their ashes will always be precious to their faith, when they recall to memory that these are the precious remains of the holy body which living was the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that the same ashes will return gloriously to life; considering likewise that these ashes will always be apt to foster in the souls of the faithful the hopes which faith instils in us, and that a most powerful incitement will come to them from this to invoke with confidence and to the profit of their salvation the Holy protector, who left such monuments of his piety, and especially, not to speak of all the others, by erecting the priory of the Holy Sepulchre in Villacerf, which precious monument was very recently destroyed: we therefore, due honours having been shown them, left the sacred relics indiscriminately outside the chest; but since this chest, although made only of oak wood, is itself also precious to piety on account of the sacred deposit which lay so long in it, moved by the same reasons and considerations, we reverently placed it in the crypt beside the sacred bones.

[37] over which a monument "Everything being left in that state, as has been set forth, by the authority of the Lord archbishop-bishop of Troyes and of the ecclesiastical superiors and with the faculty granted by the Lord mayor of Villacerf, we caused the crypt to be closed and covered over with masonry, so that it cannot now be used for any other end, nor can be opened for any cause whatever without the leave of the superiors: lest the precious ashes of the Holy protector of these places be any further disturbed or profaned, but on the contrary that this sepulchre may be perpetually affected with veneration, reverence and honour according to the mind and will of the Lord archbishop-bishop of Troyes. Further, by his authority and that of the Lord mayor of Villacerf, above the entrance of the crypt, at the height of a balustrade, there shall be erected an honorary tomb in memory of St. Aderald with that epigraph: 'To Saint Aderald, benefactor and protector of these places,' that this monument may be held in the same honour as the very chest of the Saint, in whose place it is substituted. Namely, a petition having been offered by ourselves to the Lord mayor in which we asked that the favour be granted us that that monument be made at our expense, it being granted, we at once ordered it to be built. And of all the things reported above we have drawn up a lawful instrument for the proof of the facts and for preserving their perpetual memory; which instrument, read, revised and acknowledged as true, was signed and subscribed in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1802 in the church of Villacerf, after the solemnity of the Office of the Holy protector of these places, on the 13th day of the month of December, and of the French Republic the 22nd of the month of Frimaire, year XI. It was signed: Saget, parish priest of Villacerf, serving the parish for the time. Maudier, mayor of Villacerf. Coquet, parish priest of St. Julien, and serving for the time the parish of St. Urbain in the city of Troyes. Mocqueris, parish priest of Villiers-le-Brule, serving for the time the parish of St. Urbain in the city of Troyes. Girardin, witness. Barbousat, Pierre Herard, witnesses. Jean Louis Charton. Jean Louis Collot. Nicolas Rousselet of Troyes. Claude Joseph Creney. Denis Mignot. Guy Bard. Nicolas Gouget. Claude Quenant. Jean Chominot. Bazin.

[38] in memory of St. Aderald "Form of the monument of St. Aderald. A square pedestal with its base and border of stone of Tonnerre, supporting a column erected upon it. This column supports a very tall taper, which is passed through a crown. The intention was to represent the priestly virtues of the Saint, by which in the time of his life he was a support, a stay and an edification to the diocese of Troyes, namely faith, zeal, charity, integrity, innocence and the good example which he left to posterity. On the square of the pedestal is read:

TO SAINT ADERALD

BENEFACTOR

AND

PROTECTOR

OF THESE PLACES.

On a shield affixed to the column it is written:

UNDER THIS ALTAR

ARE HONOURED

THE RELICS

OF ST. ADERALD.

Above the crown which passes through the burning taper is read:

SAINT ADERALD,

PRAY FOR US."

[39] was erected in the year 1803. The following attestation was at the same time transmitted to us by the Reverend Lord Fliche from the bishopric of Troyes: "In the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1791, on the first Sunday of Lent, the precious relics of St. Aderald were translated from the church of the priory to the parish church; and in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1803, on the first Sunday of Lent, there was erected, blessed and consecrated in memory of St. Aderald the monument which was built in the church of Villacerf in the chapel to the right of the high altar, opposite the door of the sacristy, above the entrance of the place which contains the precious relics of the Holy benefactor and protector of these places. In faith of which we have subscribed: Saget, parish priest of Villacerf, and many also have subscribed with us. Petitjean. Edmond Mangoust. Quiney. Petitjean. Roux. Jacques Delaune. Laurent. Nicolas Begat. Quenant. Broyard. Denis Laurent.

Edmond Vernier. Edmond Laurent. Jean Mignot. Pierre Herard. Goujet. Edmond Gaudien. Barbousat. Nicolas Sonti. Fleury. Lecorche. L. Massey. Edmond Jacques Feugey. Jean Boyard. Jean Louis Collot. Claude Creney."

[40] Old effigies of the Saint; Thus far of the Saint's relics. Of the images Desguerrois speaks thus Folio 256: "It is worthy of remark that in the cathedral church of Troyes a very ancient image made in relief work, which shows the Saint seated at the altar of the Most Holy Cross, represents him only as a canon clothed with a biretta and a surplice with closed, not hanging, sleeves, without an almuce, and holding a book in his hands; but that far otherwise, both in painting and in relief, he is expressed in the church of the priory of the Holy Sepulchre. For there in the right window he is painted on glass midway between the images of St. Paul and St. Siria, and on the high altar near the effigy of Jesus the Saviour rising he is carved as a deacon clothed in a dalmatic and carrying the book of the Holy Gospels." And these two latter images indeed perished with the monastic church of the Holy Sepulchre itself; while that which existed in the cathedral church at Troyes was likewise removed from there: its appearance meanwhile anyone will easily be able to attain in thought who inspects the effigies inserted in Binet's little book, where however an almuce is seen placed on his arm.

[41] his ecclesiastical Office, Of the ecclesiastical Office Breyer has these things Page 22: "The feast-day of St. Aderald, the 20th of October, is kept in the church of Troyes with double rite according to the intention of the said Dorigny" (of whom above, no. 34) "from the year 1500. But in the priory of the Holy Sepulchre it was formerly celebrated with a whole octave by the Benedictine monks, when they served God in it." What he says of the cult in the church of Troyes seems to regard only the double rite, which would have been introduced from the year 1500. For that the Office of St. Aderald was recited in the church of Troyes, equally as in the priory of the Holy Sepulchre, from a far more remote age the manuscript Breviary and the Lectionary, of which we heard Breyer speaking before (no. 8), openly reveal, even if he perhaps exaggerated the antiquity of both. But if it be asked whether the Saint was formerly venerated in his priory and also at Troyes with a proper Office (as we call it), a ready answer is not at hand for me. Namely, as was written back to us, the Breviaries which survive today at Troyes, even the old ones, assign to St. Aderald the Office from the common of a Confessor with three fairly brief lessons from his life, nor could any other Office be detected there by anyone. Yet from elsewhere there is reason why one might not undeservedly suspect that the responsories, antiphons and prayer which Binet placed in the Latin language at the end of his little book were taken from some proper Office; since they savour of the style wont to be used by our forebears for chants of this kind, nor is a reason seen why Binet should himself have so composed them. That the readers themselves may judge, I shall subjoin them here.

[42] formerly perhaps proper, "Responsory of St. Aderald. Blessed Aderald, having now obtained the triumph, knows how to bestow heavenly benefits on his servants who with their whole heart ask his largesses. To him indeed it behoves us to commit ourselves with entire devotion. V. That with Christ he may help our spirits by his patronage. Another Responsory. Distinguished Father, kindly Aderald, and illustrious in merits, reigning with Christ, lift up our prayers in the court of the eternal King. And protect both orders, of which you were the eminent Levite in the city. V. Unceasingly entreat God for us, that we may merit happily to enjoy the glory of paradise. At Lauds of St. Aderald, Antiphons. The blessed man Aderald desired more to suffer the evils of the world than its praises, to be wearied with labours for God. Antiph. The man of God Aderald was of placid countenance, adorned with angelic grey hairs, and so great a brightness had grown about him that, placed on earth, he dwelt in the heavenly places. Antiph. The glorious Confessor of the Lord Aderald, leading an angelic life on earth, was made a mirror of good works to the world, and therefore now rejoices with Christ without end in heaven. Antiph. Frequenting the thresholds of holy Church, he laid up the sacred commandments in his breast. Antiph. Saint Aderald, intercede for us, that we may merit to be made sharers with you of the glory of the Saints. Collect. Almighty everlasting God, who in the merits of Saint Aderald Thy Confessor art always and everywhere wonderful: we beseech Thy clemency, that, as Thou didst confer on him eminent glory, so Thou wouldst make us to be helped by his prayers to obtain Thy mercy. Through our Lord, etc."

[43] and mention of him among the Martyrologists. It remains that, before we close this Commentary, we indicate the sacred calendars in which we have met with the memory of St. Aderald. In the Usuardine edition which Sollerius calls the Lübeck-Cologne, and in another of Cologne altogether similar, but printed on paper of smaller format, as also in Greven, there is read on this day: "At Troyes, of Saint Arandus, Confessor"; where Sollerius asks: "Is it not Adrold or Alderald?" Molanus in his first edition wrote: "In the city of Troyes the birthday of St. Arandus, Confessor and archdeacon," to which announcement the German words of Adam Walasser, or of Canisius, altogether correspond; but in other editions of Molanus the name Arandus was changed into Araldus. Ferrari in the general Catalogue writes: "At Troyes, of St. Aderard, Confessor," citing the Calendar and Breviary of the church of Troyes. Desguerrois, among the feasts of the Saints of Troyes, records not only on this day the Natal Day of St. Aderald, which was then and still is common to the whole diocese of Troyes, but also on the 22nd day of May the Translation of the same Saint, which was perhaps proper to the priory of the Holy Sepulchre alone. Du Saussay too, Chastelain and François Giry name St. Aderald on his natal day with much praise; and with these agree the Martyrologies of Paris, of Évreux and of Auxerre, in the annotation to which Jean Lebeuf [Compare Mémoires concernant l'histoire civile et ecclésiastique d'Auxerre, by the abbé Lebeuf, edition of 1848, volume I, pp. XXXIV and XXXV], besides other sources, alleges also the Calendars of the churches of Sens, Nevers and Troyes; although from the surviving writings of our predecessors I see that the name of our Saint occurred neither in the Breviary of Sens of the year 1641 nor in the Directory of the divine Office of Nevers for the year 1637. To the Martyrologists cited so far Ménard would have to be joined, if Desguerrois were heard accusing him thus Folio 256: "The present-day Benedictines, and namely Hugues Ménard in his Observations on the Martyrology of the Order of St. Benedict, number St. Aderald among the Saints of their Order, because he founded the priory of the Holy Sepulchre, which is of the same Order, in which Ménard thinks he spent the rest of his life; but that opinion rests on no argument, since not even a little word on that matter exists in the History of the Saint, from which it is clear that he lived and died a canon and archdeacon of Troyes." But the place where Ménard in his Observations spoke of our St. Aderald wholly escapes me. He speaks of an Adrald Page 434, but abbot of Breme or Bremetum, who was a familiar of St. Peter Damian.

* perhaps "nisi"?

LIFE OF ST. ADERALD,

by an anonymous author, his contemporary and familiar, from the edition of Remi Breyer.

Aderald, archdeacon and confessor, at Troyes in Gaul. (S.)

BHL Number: 0078

BY AN ANONYMOUS CONTEMPORARY.

The Saint's birth, boyhood, enrolment in the clergy. The venerable servant of Christ and athlete of God Aderald was sprung from Troyes, a city in Gaul, of parents renowned indeed in the pomp and glory of the world, but most devout in the service of God: whose father, a most noble man, was called Walo, that is, Good ^a, in the tongue of the Austrasians ^b; and his mother, not inferior in birth and nobility, was renowned for her virtue among her neighbours and kinsfolk, who was named Odrada ^c. The boy was of good disposition and hope; and at once from the tender years of infancy he is handed over to the studies of letters, yet he is not commended to secular schoolmasters or teachers, but is committed to monks devoutly serving God ^d: by whom, as that age could receive, being instructed not moderately and imbued with the discipline of a good life, a short space of time having elapsed, he was numbered among the clerics in the church of St. Peter of Troyes ^e, and was made a partaker of a canonical prebend; and in him the light of holiness divinely given did not long lie hidden as under a bushel, but as upon a candlestick it began to shine by works, with which such a little age blessed by God was filled.

[2] His piety as an acolyte. By the Order of the Roman Church ^f, on the day and in the week of the great solemnity of Easter two tapers are carried before the pontiff of Troyes, and this office is enjoined on two acolytes [g]: thereafter, these days being past, what remains of tapers of this kind is granted to the same acolytes. This holy boy, then, already raised to this grade, and discharging this office and duty, at once showed the light of his good intention: for, that wax having been given him and sold, he received from it some return of silver and his own wage, from which he made a phylactery, that is, a receptacle of holy relics, to be carried by himself for his piety. Wonder and see, dearest brethren, the little work and devotion of a most skilful and most simple mind, how he offers the first-fruits of his fruits to the Lord and devotes them to sacred things. Weigh with me whence so great and so good an intention in one so small. Without doubt this was done by the gift of Him from whom all good things shine on earth and in heaven.

[3] The presence of the Holy Spirit in him. Hence, having passed the bounds of boyhood, yet not of those pardons which its neighbour brings ^h, like a sedulous and industrious bee ⁱ he began diligently to inspect the lives of the various Fathers of the Church, and to emulate the riches of the better gifts; and finding, both from the writings of authors and from the living voices of some, that a fast ought to be kept before Pentecost, begun namely by that authority by which we read that its author our Lord put forth such an edict to His disciples: "The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast," the Ascension of the Lord having been celebrated as was fitting, before the coming of the Holy Spirit he began to wear down his body with strict abstinence ^k. Meanwhile, when one night he had given his limbs, wearied with long fasts, to rest and sleep, lying in a certain chamber of his father's with others, behold, a splendour intolerable to the sight of the eyes entered the recesses of the roof, and struck the surrounding place with an inestimable ray: which, when the feeling of none of those standing around could bear it ^l, but each turned his face to the inner parts of his bosom, it sought specially the face of the man of God, and was seen to glide into his mouth; and to all who considered and beheld his subsequent life it was most certainly evident that the Paraclete Spirit illuminated him in this splendour, who on this same solemnity appeared to the Disciples in fiery tongues. Illuminated therefore by this presence of the Holy Spirit and divine illumination, the athlete of God began to set aside transitory things, and with his whole intention, caring for heavenly things, to sigh for the goods that will abide without end.

[4] His fasts, Of his fasts what shall we say? This at least

which brevity of time will suggest, not as reason has worthily demanded. He gave watchful attention to their abstinences, but not in the way we see the moderns and men at present practise them; rather far more, with a more austere rigour, in imitation of the ancient Saints. For the bread which he used was not only of barley and very harsh to the palate, but (what is more wonderful) was mixed with ashes, so that he could say: "I did eat ashes like bread." Nor was he sustained by such once a week, but he made it his daily bread, while the household of the house, by which he was surrounded, no small one, often used delicious foods and enjoyed pleasures: but he himself was sustained by the aforesaid fare once and late in the day, nor was there any man who tried or dared to remove such things from him.

[5] Nocturnal prayers. From fasting let us pass to other things. Few indeed are to be taken from many: for I call to witness the Lord Christ and Truth itself that I rather diminish great things to small than amplify small things to great; nor do I commit to letters or explain in words all the things which either I myself saw or heard from most truthful men reporting to me: namely, that the cock-crow of the night never found him still lying in his bed, but rather keeping vigil in the praises of God before the doors or within the doors of the temple; because, following the Psalmist, he rose at midnight to give praise to the Lord. And then in the quiet he meditated so ardently on the commandments and mysteries of God (studying, when it grew light, the works and satisfactions to which he had applied himself by night) that he appeared at Matins wearied and sweating, as if he had fought hand to hand with some enemy. For it is not here to be passed over in silence how the ancient enemy wished to call him back from his purposed zeal for nocturnal prayers. For, as he often told me in my ear, while in his first prayers he assiduously spent the nights, he was shaken with horrible fear, and was agitated by the seen phantasm of unspeakable monsters, he drank in with his ear voices and unheard-of sounds; nor yet did he desist from his purpose in the ardour of his piety at such snares of the demons.

[6] Alms. Of the largeness of his alms too I greatly fear that credence will not be given me, if I wish to commit to letters the things which I saw. For it did not suffice him to bestow victuals on the famished, to provide garments to the naked, to open hospitable roofs to pilgrims: but moreover he washed those teeming with leprosy, and covered them with his own garments which he used, and cherished them as if born of himself; he kept in memory the places of the sick lying round about; he knew the shelters of the needy dwelling far and near, and supplied to each of them what was necessary. His mouth moreover was never idle from divine praises either going or returning, but he also sowed to each things befitting him; nor did he do this only for individuals, but in the church too he preached the word of God publicly, all hearing ^m. He did not live otherwise than he taught, but his work agreed with his voice, and what he taught by words he confirmed by examples.

[7] Pilgrimages to Rome. Meanwhile it did not suffice him to frequent such things among his own; but for the love of Christ he chose the spontaneous journeys of pilgrimage, as exiles of his piety. The thresholds of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, at Rome, shining before all places, he endeavoured to visit twelve times, having received the will and blessing of his pontiff, but not in one and the same manner and order: for sometimes carried on a horse, many times he relied on his own steps; and when he had come to some river impassable even to horses themselves, then, stripping off his own garments, through the midst of the cold he crossed either by swimming or by what step he could; nor, shod with shoes, did he avoid the cold of the Apennine mountains and the Alps, but he overcame these ridges by divine grace, even with bare feet; nor indeed did he repeat such things twice or thrice, but more than twelve times in the age of his life.

[8] Miracles. After his pilgrimages, when he was staying at home, he resumed his accustomed prayers and the orations of his devout mind: he clung to nocturnal vigils, and after the watches of his prayers and vigils he did not give his time to hearing or reciting stories, nor to wandering runnings about hither and thither; but he fixed the light of his heart on the readings of divine Scripture, and the good things which he had drawn from it he expounded and gave to his confreres in their presence for their profit ⁿ. Nor did such a life lack miracles; but all that he did by God's granting he hid in the highest degree. For it is established that many, incredibly twisted and burned by the burning of fevers, often came to him, and at once returned home sound from him: yet these, after the example of Christ the Lord, he bound with the greatest adjurations that what had been done to them should not be made public through them.

[9] Solitude, and the restoration of the canonical life. Moreover wonder that he was a man so anchoretic that we may say he surpassed all the men of that age. For it is not worthy of admiration that a good man shines among the good, but a good man among the wicked: for, saving the fear of God and your love, my lords and brethren of Saint Peter, I can say this, that at this time our predecessors lived most secularly, still too much intent on business. And things being so, Manasses, a man full of holiness, is set over the city of Troyes as bishop, who, abundantly adorned and polished with the virtues that befit a bishop, panting for heavenly things, putting aside secular business, began to lend his ear to the admonitions of the holy man. Like loves his like, and therefore they bestowed on one another life and mutual love: they clung to the same good studies; they exercised themselves in divine conversations, and pressed on in continual prayers. Therefore that holy prelate imparted to him a part of his burden, raising him to the honour of archdeacon; and so the one emulated the other that you would believe there was one heart in two: they anticipated one another in honour, and in the service of God each strove to excel the other; and, as we have just said, the congregation of St. Peter of Troyes was too much given to secular things, and not intent on the things which were of canons. Nor yet did the blame wholly rest on them, since, compelled by want, they served secular business, nor had they whence to live in common and gathered together. Seeing which, Aderald the Saint of God appealed to the aforesaid pontiff, by whom he was greatly loved, about such things. Giving assent to his frequent words and repeated persuasion, the blessed bishop applied all his strength to correcting these things. By his admonitions, therefore, he bestows by perpetual right on the clerics of the congregation of St. Peter some goods which he held, and to the goods already granted he added other goods; to which (no wonder) the man of God Aderald added no moderate supplement, himself also handing over to them the patrimony which he held in estates and in churches. And these things being thus established, the congregation of St. Peter of the city of Troyes then began to live after the manner of cenobites.

[10] Example of the best life. And many revenues, fruits and goods having been gathered not only for the support of the church but also for the nourishment and necessaries of the clerics of St. Peter, and they having been brought back and converted from the broad way of licence to the narrow way which leads to life, that he might show the way of salvation to all, that holy man and true standard-bearer of God offers himself in the midst, or rather first, and shows them beforehand the way of right living by words and deeds. Nor is it easy for anyone to equal in words how he raised himself on the summit of virtue. Often too, at the persuasion of the devil, he endured intolerable insults, reproaches and injuries from whatever persons contradicted him; nor yet even so did he desert the begun ways of a better life. The rich on this side, the powerful on that, wished to cast fear on him; yet he was not terrified by dread of the rich, nor by the violence or majesty of the powerful. Friends and kinsfolk strove to call him back from that more remote life; yet he was not retarded by the loquacity of flatterers. The athlete of God stood unconquered against all assaults, nor did he fail to go to meet each one who strayed wrongly from the just path. He conquered all at length, and brought the clerics into a peaceful form of common life.

[11] Visit to the places of Jerusalem. The blessed man also, desiring to advance from good to better and to go from virtue to virtue, desired to visit the longest spaces of lands and the holy places of Jerusalem: and when this became known to his pontiff, parents and friends, all are sealed with sobs of excessive amazement and grief; and therefore, lest this should be done by him, then the prelate, who loved him greatly, moved by authority and by what charity he could, because he was dear and salutary to all, forbade him this pilgrimage. His parents also, all his kinsfolk and friends, were tormented with great cares and griefs on that account. The poor bewailed his departure, because he bestowed on them many benefits largely in alms. The middling folk mourned, whom he advised in their affairs. The afflicted grieved, whom he consoled in tribulations. The clergy lamented, not able to bear his absence, because he instructed them with the admonitions of sacred doctrine. But he, firmly rooted in the service of the Lord, and constrained by a huge love of devotion, could be called back by the contradiction of none, not by the sedulous prayer of the pontiff and the brethren ^o, not by the tearful lamentation of his parents, not by the stormy fury of the sea, not finally by the fierce tyranny of the pagans set before him. Wherefore, since he could be deterred by no one's word or grief, having received the prelate's blessing, and also not without divine grace leading, he undertook the journey long deliberated in mind and desired with frequent longing; and patiently bearing all adversities, he came to Salerno, a city and port of Apulia, and there, the fare being paid, he went on board the sea, where he endured perils scarcely to be explained from evil men.

[12] Afflictions on the pilgrimage. Sometimes, a tempest having arisen, the ship, its sailing in vain, not directed by its rudder, gave its side to the adverse sea, and nothing remained to anyone but shipwreck or the expectation of death; but his prayer being poured out, all, led at once to the shore by miracle rather than by rowing, were consoled. Sometimes also barbarian pirates pursued his ship, in which the man of God was carried, that, the men being killed or drowned, they might despoil everything and carry off whatever was there. The sailors are struck with huge fear: they try to flee, nor is time and place for fleeing given: they seek to bend the barbarians with gifts, but there is no feeling in them. The Saracens press keenly, the pirates threaten death: whence, the Eucharist having been received, being now about to be taken by them, they bewailed their death and felt it near [p]. But the blessed man, fleeing to the accustomed defences of prayer, while there was fighting between the barbarians and his people, poured out to the Lord holocausts of prayers. Without delay, behold, the vessel, carried across by a divine impulse, was put at a distance from the pirates, as if it had made a leap, beyond ten miles: they flee from each other's sight, nor do they any longer fear the assaults of the heathen.

[13] Other afflictions and punishments; likewise his silence. At length, after various perils of the sea, by the help of God he is brought into the kingdom of the Saracens. But it goes ill with him from them, nay he runs into worse: for the holy man is dragged, despoiled, beaten, is in peril of hunger, is bitterly tortured with nakedness and cold. What he had escaped at sea he suffers on the solid ground. For see and hear the great virtue of the blessed man [q], which both in other things and in this pilgrimage he always kept continuous. For the rule of monks and of canons has

that after Compline the strictest silence ought to be kept by them [r]. This rule, therefore, of devout taciturnity he held inviolate everywhere, but most of all in this pilgrimage. He could not be changed on the waters or the sea by the fury of the winds, nor on land by the fury of the Saracens. By them he was many times punished with scourges, and asked to break the rule of taciturnity; but trusting in the Lord in all things and through all things, he is rendered insuperable. His companions persuade him with prayers, his enemies compel him with blows; nor even so does the most unconquered man yield.

[14] He enters Jerusalem, and receives relics. Now, having obtained his wish, he entered the long-desired walls of Jerusalem, for desire of which as also at the sight of which he drew great sighs from the bottom of his breast. He flies to the place of Calvary, and there in mind he sees and adores Christ the Redeemer hanging on the cross, who redeemed the whole world by His most holy Passion, and is suffused with so great a shower of tears as if he were seeing Him hanging in person. He uses the prayers of the thief, he is watered with the tears of Simon: as if he were seeing Christ, so he draws the groans of the centurion, and is pierced with the sword of the Blessed Virgin. Thence, creeping, he sought the sepulchre of the Lord, which is believed to have been adorned by His burial: he represents the wailing of the holy women, and moistens the sarcophagus with streaming lips, and with such fervour that he merited to receive from the guardians of that holy place some fragment of the sacred stone from the sepulchre of the Lord as a huge treasure [s]. He runs about hither and thither, and devoutly surveys all the places distinguished by the presence of the Lord. He does not pass by the mangers of Bethlehem, in which he embraces the limbs of the wailing Lord. He went to the streams of the Jordan, sanctified by the limbs of our Lord; which he himself swam across repeatedly to be sanctified. Finally, all the holy places being visited, and prayers most sincerely poured out at each, pledges of many relics being bought, and being enriched with them and with a fragment of the stone from the sepulchre of the Lord, he determined to return to his own home, and, strengthened by divine inspiration from that time, to build a convent fit and worthy for the habitation of monks, where he might lay up all those riches [t]. And when he was hastening to do this, and had not found a ship in which he might be carried with his companions, taking up the journey on foot, desiring the hundredfold crown of martyrdom, he measured and crossed the land of the raging heathen; but, the grace of God going before, at length unharmed and sound he gained his native land.

[15] He returns, and builds a convent. The brethren of the congregation of St. Peter rejoice together that their teacher has arrived: with the right hand of love extended they receive the dove returning from the waves of the perils of sea and land, bringing back with it the peaceful olive of holy relics. Now they fear less the machinations of the fierce wolf, walled about by the protection of their shepherd and father; who without delay built a convent of monks, which, enriched with his own estates and endowed with his other goods, he adorned with the holy pledges of relics: that is it which the present church lays open, and which he rendered perfect with the highest sagacity.

ANNOTATIONS.

tapers; and in the old Ordinary of Vienne De Moléon, rather Lebrun Desmarettes, Voyages liturgiques de France, p. 29 and the Ritual of Angers Évillion, De Processionibus ecclesiasticis, chapter XVII, pp. 211 and 212 we see that it was prescribed among other things that, as often as the prelate on Easter Day betook himself to the Hours and returned thence home, two such taper-bearers should go before him; which indeed had not yet become obsolete at Angers in the century just past De Moléon, work cited, p. 97, where in the solemn escorting of the bishop to Matins, Terce with Mass and Vespers, the same boys sang before, the choir singing in between, that paschal song:

"Hail, festal day, venerable through all the age, On which God conquered hell, and holds the stars," etc.

And by these things indeed I think the office has been sufficiently elucidated which the biographer narrates was committed to St. Aderald as a boy according to the Romano-Tricassine Order.

p. Codex of Troyes: Eucharistia sumpta, vale sibi quisque mutuo dixerat, mortemque dilatam deflebat [the Eucharist having been received, each had said farewell to the other, and bewailed the death deferred]. To these Breyer's observation is to the point Page 12: "That Christians committing themselves to the sea carried the Eucharist with them Ambrose testifies in the oration on the death of his brother Satyrus. That this rite still flourished in Aderald's time is evident from his Life, chapter 12. Nor was it then wholly obsolete: since in the thirteenth century the most holy King of the Franks Louis 'out of his devotion,' as Geoffrey of Beaulieu testifies, 'caused,' with the licence of the legate of the Apostolic See, 'the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ to be placed in the ship for communicating the sick, and for himself and his people, when it should seem expedient to him.'" These same and many other examples of the Eucharist carried on a journey are furnished by Martène in his work on the ancient Rites of the Church Volume I, book I, chapter V, article IV, p. 253, Venice edition.

q. Codex of Troyes: Inter hæc attende, lector benevole, virtutem viri Dei magnam Among these things attend, kind reader, the great virtue of the man of God.

r. Silence after Compline is commanded by the Rule of St. Benedict, chapter XLII, and by the Rule of Canons, chapter CXXXVI.

s. That this fragment of stone cut from the Lord's sepulchre was formerly preserved with the sacred relics of Aderald we have taught in the Preliminary Commentary (no. 33), and it may be that it now too lies hidden with the same in the crypt of the church of the parish of Villacerf (compare ibid., no. 35 and following). Nor shall I here pass over what the Reverend Lord Fliche, vicar general of Troyes, wrote to me on the 20th day of July 1852: "I found several particles of a certain stone from the sepulchre of Jesus Christ among old relics which I had to review in this very year, and which had formerly belonged to some principal monasteries near the city of Troyes: but whether those particles were perhaps taken from the stone brought by St. Aderald I do not know."

t. Codex of Troyes: habile deliberat facere: quod, ut sequens monstrabit pagina et præsens patefecit ecclesia, perfectum reddidit sagacitate summa. Nec cum sociis reperit naviculam, in qua cum sociis veheretur [fit, he determines to make: which, as the following page will show and the present church has laid open, he rendered perfect with the highest sagacity. Nor did he find with his companions a little ship in which he might be carried with his companions]. And the expression "the following page will show" seems to promise somewhat more than we have received here from the biographer about the last deeds of the Saint, and the oration ends fairly abruptly, without any mention of death and burial, without any epilogue, such as is not wont to be absent from lucubrations of this kind. Wherefore, if I said before that we owe to Breyer an entire copy of the Life of St. Aderald, I would wish this to be said both in comparison with the slender fragments of Camuzat, and also because I judge that the Life which we have (nor did Binet either have a more complete one) is mutilated in no part which is of any moment.