Anatolius

ON ST. ANATOLIUS, CONFESSOR, BISHOP OF CAHORS, AT THE TOWN OF SAINT-MIHIEL ON THE MEUSE,

PROBABLY AROUND THE YEAR 500.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Anatolius, bishop of Cahors, formerly in the monastery of St. Michael in Lorraine. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ Sole. The sources from which what pertains to St. Anatolius is known. Whether he was bishop of Cahors. The translation of his body in the eighth century. His cult in the monastery of St. Michael on the Meuse.

I would call a happy fault the sacrilegious theft by which perhaps it came about that the memory of St. Anatolius, bishop of Cahors, did not perish entirely. For no fame of him survives among the people of Cahors, The people of Cahors have long ceased to venerate their bishop St. Anatolius, so that his name is not read even in the catalogue of the bishops; while formerly, in the monastery of St. Michael on the Meuse, to which he had been secretly carried, his festival was kept twice a year. The people of Cahors were long ago reminded of this by Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gallia Christ. nov., volume I, col. 117.; yet they seem to have judged that no account should be taken of the matter, since not long ago they brought to Rome a new Proper to be approved by the authority of the Supreme Pontiff. Truly there is in it no memory of St. Anatolius. In truth Sainte-Marthe had implied that what was related about the episcopate of St. Anatolius at Cahors was not to be valued so highly, since it rested on a proper office not so ancient; but since those who patched together that Proper so shrank from the severer criticism that they even took the fictitious Flavius Dexter, a contemporary of St. Jerome, to their aid See the lessons of St. Amator at 16 August., it does not by any means seem to be thought that St. Anatolius was omitted by them because the traditions of the monks of St. Michael were held by them to be not certain enough.

[2] on whose translation a little book was written in the time of Charlemagne, But for whatever reasons St. Anatolius was neglected by the people of Cahors, it is not to be doubted that he belongs to them. For if the proper office which lighted the way for Sainte-Marthe is recent, by no means recent are the things which the monks of St. Michael had ascertained about him. For in the Chronicle of the monastery of St. Michael * in the district of Verdun, whose edition we owe to Mabillon's care Vett. Analecta, page 352, edition of 1723., we read these things: But concerning the abbots who presided over the place before the times of Charlemagne we have found nothing said. But in the privilege by which he confirms the aforesaid freedom after the example of his father Pepin, he asserts that he grants the same privilege to Ermengaud, bishop and abbot: whom indeed we believe to be that Ermengaud who is read in a certain little book of that church to have brought the body of blessed Anatholius from the city of Cahors, having set out on an expedition with the king. When therefore that Chronicle was written, the monks of St. Michael held a little book on the translation of the body of Blessed Anatolius from the city of Cahors. Now it is a ready conclusion that this little book was written immediately after the translation was made. For that chronicler was writing at the beginning of the eleventh century; as we gather from his own volume. Namely, where he gives the reason for the labour undertaken: Asked, he says Ibid., page 351., by the fathers of the monastery of St. Michael, and more by the lord Nanterus, abbot of the same place, my father, the staff of my old age, by whose help I am in some way sustained and supported, I resolved to touch briefly and succinctly on the building of the same place from the foundation, as it were touching the surface. And a little later he adds that he has been staying with the same abbot Nanterus for nearly five years. Wherefore, since Nanterus was substituted for Abbot Adalbert in the year 1020 (for so Gallia Christiana nova has it Volume VIII, col. 1274. and the manuscript catalogue of the abbots of St. Michael which is in my possession), it is manifest that that Chronicle was written about the year 1025.

[3] [as is gathered from the Chronicle of St. Michael on the Meuse, written at the beginning of the eleventh century.] That chronicler was already at that time very old, as he himself implies here and there, and was brought, as it seems, by Nanterus from the monastery of St. Vanne to restore discipline and letters among the monks of St. Michael. And in order to commit the affairs of this monastery to writing, he searched out everything as diligently as possible and questioned the elders Analecta, page 351.. Yet he could not attain to the origin and author of the book on the translation of St. Anatolius, as he openly confesses, calling it a certain little book of that church; which therefore seems to be called already ancient at the beginning of the eleventh century: and if to this is added that it was customary for that kind of writings to be composed as soon as possible, everyone sees how probable it is that that work was composed already in the time of Abbot Ermengaud and of the emperor Charlemagne; especially since studies of letters then flourished there, as the writings of Smaragdus and other documents make attested.

[4] It is not to be doubted that St. Anatolius was bishop of Cahors; It is by no means to be doubted, therefore, that the body of St. Anatolius was carried from the city of Cahors to the monastery of St. Michael. But since the Chronicle of St. Michael does not mention his episcopate, someone will perhaps be pleased to doubt it. But that doubt would by no means be prudent. For from the cited Chronicle and from the lessons to be published below it is manifest that there was no place among the monks of St. Michael for fictions about St. Anatolius; so much so that they did not even have lessons about his life, but only about the translations. Wherefore those few things which were handed down among them seem able to be received with confidence. And certainly Ermengaud had received them at Cahors either from the inhabitants, before he had his bones dug up, or rather had read them on the sepulchral stone; namely that Anatolius was a bishop and died on the sixth day before the Ides of February. For they seem to have ascertained nothing else. Moreover the very form of the festival is a not contemptible argument. For since formerly between the ecclesiastical office of a confessor not a pontiff almost the same distinction was observed that now strikes the eyes of all (you will easily detect this in the ancient liturgical books from a comparison of the office of St. Benedict with the office of a confessor pontiff Cf. Opp. S. Gregorii M., volume III, col. 810, etc.), that very more recent office which the monks of St. Michael performed of St. Anatolius as of a confessor pontiff necessarily compels you to say that it was certain from the beginning to Abbot Ermengaud that St. Anatolius was a bishop, or that his office was changed at some time: which you would suppose by no right. For when changes of this kind are introduced, it is done because the acts of another saint are fastened on one saint, or at least because his devotees no longer know how to praise him soberly. But the monks of St. Michael never stained themselves with either fault, since to the very end they professed that the praises of St. Anatolius were unknown to them. Nor is there reason for you to object that in the most ancient codices, for example in the edition of the Antiphonary of St. Gregory the Great which our Louis Lambillotte not long ago brought to light with singular care Antiphonaire de S. Grégoire, Fac-simile du Ms. de Saint-Gal, pages 47 and 48., the Gradual of St. Felix, priest of Nola, is the same as that of a confessor pontiff, namely Juravit; this is indeed so; yet the introit is different, namely Os justi, belonging to confessors not pontiffs alone. To all of which add that in the eighth century the cult of confessors not pontiffs was still very rare.

[5] probably a little before the year 506. Now if it is asked at what time St. Anatolius bore the mitre of Cahors, there is room only for conjectures. Yet some certain limits of time can be laid down. First of all, from what we shall discuss below about the time of the translation it will be manifest that St. Anatolius is much older than the year 778, and that therefore his episcopate is to be marked before the times of St. Ambrose, who sat at Cahors from about the year 745 to 778 Cf. Act. SS. volume VII of Oct., pages 1034 and 1044.. Indeed, since Ermengaud around the year 778 found the burial-place of St. Anatolius entirely neglected by the people of Cahors, it becomes a ready belief that he had already lain buried more than a hundred years; by which thread we are brought down to the times of St. Desiderius, who was taken from among the living somewhat after the middle of the seventh century. The predecessors of St. Desiderius are very well known as far as Maurilio Gallia Christ. nov., volume I, col. 119 and following., who occupied the see of Cahors from about the year 565 De la Croix, Series episc. Cadurc., page 22.. Leocadius, also called Maximus, was present at the council of Orléans in the year 549; whom three Greek names precede in the catalogues: Alithius, praised by Paulinus the priest; Boethius, who subscribed in the year 506 to the council of Agde, and five years later to the first of Orléans; and Sustratius, who in the year 533, the year 538 and the year 541 confirmed the decrees of three councils of Orléans Gallia Christ., volume I, col. 117.. For my part I would believe that St. Anatolius belongs to about that time. For it is an undoubted fact that men of Greek origin were formerly scattered everywhere throughout Gaul. That men of this kind prevailed in the church of Cahors in the earlier part of the sixth century the very names of the bishops make attested: wherefore, since the name of St. Anatolius is also Greek, it is plain that he too is to be referred to that age. Then the tradition of the monks of St. Michael is not to be despised, by which St. Anatolius is said to have held the episcopate while infidels, who had once taken their origin from the Goths, were laying waste the Church. And these things pertain to the reign of Alaric De Cathala-Coture, Hist. de Querci, volume I, pages 49 and 50., who ruled the Goths from the year 484 until the year 507 Cf. D. Bouquet, volume II, pages 66 and 68., and who, though kinder towards Catholics than his father Euric, yet does not seem to have prevented his people from afflicting Catholics with many calamities. Wherefore one would perhaps not stray from the truth if the name of St. Anatolius were placed in the diptych of Cahors between Alithius and Boethius, and his death marked

a little before the year 506, in which we said that Boethius was present at the synod of Agde.

[6] In the year 778 his relics were translated from Cahors On the time of the translation of the relics Calmet discourses thus Histoire de Lorraine, book XIII, number 29, volume I, cols. 639 and 640.: The writer of the Life of St. Anatolius Office of St. Anatolius, printed at Saint-Mihiel in the year 1625, in octavo., he says, asserts that this translation was made seventy years after the abbey of St. Michael was founded, namely when Charlemagne, returning from the Saxon war, besieged Cahors and took it. Now the seventieth year from the founding of the abbey agrees with the year of Christ 778, in which Charlemagne made war not on the Saxons but on the Saracens, and on the return withstood the attack of the Gascons in the Pyrenees mountains and received a notable defeat at Roncevaux *: so that, if in place of the Saxons we read the Gascons, it will easily be understood what the writer meant. And indeed the error seems to have arisen from this, that when Einhard was passing from the Saxon war to the Spanish one, he spoke thus Life of Charlemagne, number 9, in D. Bouquet, volume V, page 92.: For when the war with the Saxons was being waged assiduously and almost continuously, garrisons having been disposed in suitable places of the frontiers, he attacks Spain with as great an apparatus of war as he could; whence it came about that he made the Saxons a people of Spain. However that may be, certainly the Saxons there occupy the place of the Gascons; for, as Calmet continues, what has a return from Saxony in common with the taking of Cahors? And if there is deep silence among the historians about the taking of Cahors (except however the ancient chronicler of St. Michael), it could have happened because this matter did not seem of so much moment amid so many huge wars, since perhaps the people of Cahors scarcely resisted the arms of Charles. But the rest, which pertains to this translation and to others which followed afterwards, is sufficiently explained in the ecclesiastical Office which we subjoin.

[7] into the monastery of St. Michael on the Meuse, and thereafter venerated there Formerly a twofold feast of St. Anatolius was celebrated in the monastery of St. Michael, one on the eighth day of February, the other on the twenty-first day of October. Denis de Sainte-Marthe places the former on the seventh day of February, but by a manifest error. For in the first lesson St. Anatolius is said to have been presented with the laurel of eternal glory on the sixth day before the Ides of February, and Calmet has the same day Hist. de Lorraine, volume I, col. 639.. On the 7th of February the memory of St. Anatolius, martyr, but otherwise unknown, is recalled in some old martyrologies Act. SS. volume II of February, page 13.. Hence perhaps that assertion arose; but those two saints have nothing in common with each other. I would say the same of the other Saints Anatolius, of whom Gaul numbers and venerates many. They are sufficiently distinguished by the day and place of cult, and also by the episcopal see.

* Saint-Mihiel (Meuse).

* Roncevaux

TRANSLATIONS AND MIRACLES OF ST. ANATOLIUS, BISHOP.

From the office of the monastery of St. Michael on the Meuse.

Anatolius, bishop of Cahors, formerly in the monastery of St. Michael in Lorraine. (S.)

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

[St. Anatolius, bishop of Cahors, after many contests for the faith, was buried at Cahors,] Anatholius, bishop of the city of Cahors in Gothia ^b, held the episcopate while infidels, who had once taken their origin from the Goths, were laying waste the Church. He, after many labours endured for the name of Christ and the catholic faith, full of merits, rich in works, was presented with the laurel of eternal glory on the sixth day before the Ides of February. And since his body could by no means be buried in the church because of the enormous calamities stirred up ^c at that time by the infidels, it was unfittingly buried outside the city among the vineyards ^{d e}. But how long he ruled that church, and lay unknown in that place after his death, He alone knows for whom nothing perishes: especially since he lived and died amid so many injuries of the times and storms of wars with which the Church of Christ was being agitated. Nevertheless, lest he whose death had been precious in the sight of the Lord should be defrauded of due honour, his tomb, shining already from that time with the light of miracles, began day by day to become universally famous.

[2] [and thence, where he lay neglected, in the time of Charlemagne by Abbot Ermengaud] When, therefore, after the Saxons had been conquered ^f, Hermengald, third abbot ^g of the present monastery, had followed ^h Charlemagne returning into Gaul (whom he greatly venerated for his singular piety and prudence in affairs), the city of Cahors having been taken by storm and its former freedom restored to the faithful people ⁱ, at once the pious abbot perceived the odour of sanctity of the prelate Anatholius spread on all sides, and could not bear any longer that the sacred body should lie uncared for among barbarians. And so, having taken counsel by what means he might rescue the most sacred pledge from neglect, by night with his people he took away the desired treasure ^k, and, at once returning home, enriched with the sacred relics, with great piety and equal benefit to the people, the monastery which seventy years before had been built on the mount of Castellio, now called Old Church * ^l.

[3] [they were carried into the church of SS. Cyricus and Julitta, afterwards called of St. Stephen, near the church of St. Michael;] But because the most prudent man knew that, after honour shown to the relics of the Saints, the benefit of souls must above all be attended to, therefore, to assist the devotion of the faithful, whom he knew to be of their own accord religiously inclined to venerating and invoking the saints, he placed the sacred pledges in the church of the holy martyrs Cyricus and Julitta; fearing that, if he brought them into his monastery ^m, which had been built on the mount of Castellio, from which he had long since resolved to transfer it here, the people, deterred by the distance of the sacred things and the roughness of the mount, would be turned away from the pious service of visitation and religious cult.

[4] thence in the year 1253 translated into the church of St. Michael; After, then, Smaragdus, his successor, the fourth abbot ⁿ, a man endowed with notable piety and learning, had by apostolic authority transferred the monastery from the mount of Castellio, or Old Church, into the valley near the village of Godonis Curia, now called the town of Saint-Mihiel ^o, the venerable Peter [p], suffragan of Verdun, in the year of the Lord 1253, translated with solemn pomp the same sacred relics from the aforesaid church of the holy martyrs Cyricus and Julitta, now of the holy martyr Stephen the pope, into the church of St. Michael, and Walter, the twenty-eighth abbot, having most honourably enclosed them in a silver casket adorned with gems and gold, religiously placed them on the altar behind the high altar, in the farthest part of the choir, newly erected in honour of the holy prelate Anatholius.

[5] in the year 1469 solemnly recognized; And in the year one thousand four hundred and sixty-nine, in the presence of Thomas [q], an English bishop, at the instance of a certain pious and noble matron and of Ulric [r], the aforesaid abbot of this monastery, the aforesaid casket was recognized: in which the sacred body was found most honourably wrapped in three silk cloths of different colours, and together with it letters with four seals appended, giving undoubted proof. All of which were found to have remained entire and safe to these times.

[6] and in the year 1619 changed in place. The aforesaid casket was opened in the year one thousand six hundred and nineteen in order to be restored, and to be laid again in a more fitting place and one more suited to promoting the devotion of the people, on an altar newly erected on the right side of the choir [s]: from which a greater accession of honour began day by day to be made, with a more frequent devotion of the people than usual.

[7] Miracles, signs of sanctity, But because miracles pave the way to the faith of Christ as widely as possible, and with them, as with a seal, the same faith was sealed, handed down by Christ and the apostles and propagated throughout the world, how great an indication of faith do we think God gave in the most holy prelate Anatholius; whose sanctity he left attested to us by so many signs that not undeservedly he has disposed by fatherly providence that his sacred relics should be to us as salutary and life-giving fountains, gushing with miracles, and exuding the balm of heavenly graces and a spiritual unction. And indeed the outcome of the matter proved the truth.

[8] formerly wrought at Cahors and afterwards at St. Michael's. For when the sacred body had been placed by Abbot Hermengald in the church of the holy martyrs Cyricus and Julitta, as a long space of time passed by, the people, who are for the most part led only by novelty and advantage, began to grow lukewarm in their first and accustomed devotion and cult towards the relics of the holy prelate, because no signs then took place at his tomb, as it had been related by Hermengald, of undoubted credit, that they had formerly been wrought before in Gothia. But God, the most just weigher of all things, and likewise faithful and most munificent towards his elect, who are to be honoured as manifoldly as sublimely, did not leave his servant a stranger or inglorious in a foreign land.

[9] After a nocturnal din, St. Anatolius appears. For a certain Ailard [t], guardian and priest of the aforesaid church, hearing by night a great din and crash beside the casket of the holy prelate, went to the church itself and explored the cause of the tumult. When behold, a sudden light, brighter than midday, gradually sent forth from the crypt, filled the whole circuit of the church, and kindled all the candles and lamps with its brightness. He saw moreover a great company of men coming forth in white garments, among whom there shone more than the rest a certain magnificent old man, in garments interwoven with gold, with an angelic countenance; whom all who stood by, kneeling round the altar, venerated with most honourable cult: and approaching and looking at the priest: Do you know, he said, who I am? When at this he was dumbstruck, he added: I am Anatholius, whom you neglect. Having said these things, the light vanishing, he withdrew with that whole throng of the blessed. Whereupon the priest, struck with incredible terror, fell to the ground, and the household, hearing his faltering, almost lifeless voice, run up and carry him home; where, when he had been gravely ill for a rather long time, he resolved to embrace the monastic life; which he afterwards professed in this monastery, and at length died happily and religiously in the Lord.

[10] Two thieves of cows punished and freed, the halters being left as a testimony; And when by this miraculous manifestation of the holy father Anatholius the devotion of the people towards him had been aroused anew, and the sacred thresholds had begun to be trodden more diligently, two thieves by night stole two heifers of a certain pious woman, left before the doors of the church (to which she had turned aside to venerate the sacred relics): they go off with the booty, they wander all night about the fields round about, not knowing where they were. On the following day, Sunday morning, they run back to the doors of the church where they had committed the theft; they stand motionless and astounded in the place, holding the cows bound with a halter; but (what seemed wonderful) their hands were held so entangled and intertwined with the same bond that, far from casting the booty from them, they could not by any means extricate themselves from it. Wherefore, paying the penalty of the theft by public ignominy, God avenging, the people beholding the miracle, led by repentance, having implored the help of the holy father Anatholius, they departed free: the halters of the cows being left meanwhile and hung over the door of the church on the lintel to give credence to the prodigy for posterity: where until the irruption and devastation

of the Northmen and the Britons around the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and sixty-one [u] our records testify that they remained.

[11] One who violated the feast of St. Bartholomew is punished. There was also seen there thread, a needle and the coverings of cobblers, commonly called wantes [x], which, when a certain cobbler named Ripald [y] was sewing on the feast-day of St. Bartholomew [z] against the prohibition of the Church, the wantes and needle and thread together with the awl stuck inseparably to his hands, as if sewn on: until ^a he was loosed, God being propitious through the intercession of the same blessed prelate.

[12] St. Anatolius usefully invoked by the possessed; Nor indeed was power against the demons lacking to the most blessed prelate Anatholius: rather it has been found that a great presence of power against them was always in his sacred relics. For as soon as the possessed had approached his sacred coffer [aa], you would have seen the demons, as if struck by darts sent forth from it, or by some terrible brandished spear, roar, and be cast out with much terror and put to flight far away. For they could by no means bear the divine sparks leaping out from his sacred bones; since these were filled with divine blessing and heavenly grace, and contained in themselves the apostolic power by which those most wicked ones were put to flight. And among many others a certain youth Charles, from the neighbouring village of Ham, gave proof, who, terribly and wretchedly harassed by a demon, had been brought by his parents to the tomb of the most holy prelate. As soon as he approached the coffer in which the sacred body lay, he was at once freed from the demon, which could not bear the scourges of the holy ashes and the grace of the Holy Spirit overshadowing them.

[13] [he is held patron against fires because of an altar-cloth wonderfully not burned:] A sick man too, worn out with a most acute pain of the head and teeth, had brought a candle equal to his own height [bb] to be lit at the altar of St. Cyricus before the sacred relics: which, lit by night, when it had fallen onto the table of the altar, was wholly consumed without any, even the slightest, burning of the cloths or ornaments; the sick man meanwhile departing unharmed by reason of his devotion and the merit of the holy prelate. From which it came about that thereafter the faithful are accustomed to pray by the merits and intercession of the same saint to be delivered from fire.

[14] likewise against drought. But the most blessed prelate also once opened heaven, like another Elijah. For when at one time an immense drought was making almost the whole world wither, the fields growing barren, men and beasts wasting away, by the admonition of the venerable and most pious prelate Dado [cc], the faithful were ordered to fast and to put off their linen garments [dd], and to go forth as suppliants to Hattonchâtel to the church of St. Maurus [ee], taking with them the shrine of the most blessed prelate, to obtain rain from God. And when, returning, they had sat down in a field near Hadonville [ff], wearied by the excessive heat of the sun and of thirst, and, broken by the weariness of pain of body and heart, were pouring out pitiable tears with deep sighs, more often and more earnestly, for the suffrage of the most blessed Anatholius, they see a cloud suddenly arisen towards the west, gradually covering the sky, by which the whole land was most liberally drenched with a most abundant flood of rain; not even a drop meanwhile falling on the shrine of the sacred pledge.

[15] The tomb is honoured with a wonderful light and a girl is freed from paralysis. The church too in which the body of the most holy man was kept was seen at one time bathed in an unwonted light, spreading round about rays of such brightness that a pious woman from the neighbourhood related that she had seen from there a candle of wonderful size divinely lit before the altar: God indeed illuminating on earth with so heavenly a light the sacred bones which in heaven are to be illuminated with eternal light, and are to be the eternal furnishings of the heavenly court. A girl too suffering from paralysis came to the same church; who, a cloud having arisen around the altar and a most sweet odour being spread on all sides, was wonderfully healed. Finally God did many other things too through the venerable prelate Anatholius, which abundantly stood as testimonies of his exceptional sanctity.

ANNOTATIONS.

seems to them to have been the author of the things themselves. Hence the territory of Cahors, almost barren of other crops Cathala-Coture, volume I, page 18., abounded in vineyards.

in the year 817 had transferred his monastery to the banks of the Meuse, the former seat was called the Old Church or Old Monastery.

p. Of this translation a few things have already been said at letter l. The old chronicler of St. Michael continues it thus Ibid., page cited.: He therefore (Smaragdus), as a man of prudence and discretion, considering that the dwelling of the aforesaid mount was less suited to human necessities, namely because of the laborious carrying up the heights of water and of the other necessary things, established a monastery not far from the aforesaid mount, namely one German mile, beside the bank of the Meuse, leaving in the upper one as many of the brethren as seemed good to him, to celebrate the daily office of divine worship to God and to blessed Michael the archangel. This had not yet been done in the year 816, since in the diplomas which he obtained on the fourth day before the Nones of June in the ninth indiction and on the fourth day before the Nones of September in the tenth indiction, Smaragdus is called abbot of the monastery of Castellio, which is called Marsupium, or which is situated in the place which is called Castellio Analecta, pages 355 and 356.. But a whole year had not yet passed when the new monastery had already been founded. For in the Charter on the gift and freedom of the cell of Sallona, given on the eighth day before the Kalends of July, in the tenth indiction, in the eighth year of the reign of the lord Louis ruling in Francia and the second year of his empire, there is spoken of the monastery of gracious Michael, the most glorious archangel, which is situated in our empire on the river Meuse, where the river Marsupium enters the Meuse Ibid., page 356.. The eighth day before the Kalends of June, in the tenth indiction, is the twenty-fourth day of June of the year 817. The eighth year of the reign of the lord Louis ruling in Francia seemed to Mabillon to be singularly noted Ibid., page cited.; the second year of the empire is to be changed into the fourth; and indeed in most of the diplomas given by Louis the Pious in the year 817 a similar error is present through the carelessness of copyists Cf. D. Bouquet, volume VI, page 506 and following.. That this translation was made by apostolic authority is by no means credible, since the monastery was royal; but rather by royal authority, which could easily be granted in the assembly of Aachen of the year 817. As in the new, so in the old monastery Smaragdus had arranged that some monks should remain; wherefore in a diploma of the emperors Louis the Pious and his son (which is therefore later than the Easter feasts of the year 823, within which Lothair was saluted emperor by Pope Paschal Ibid., chronological index, page LIV.) we read Analecta, page 355.: We have granted not only to the old monastery which is called Castellio, but rather to the new, which by the Lord's help has been built from the foundations in our time, called Marsupium, which is situated in the district of Verdun on the river Meuse or the brook Marsupium, built in honour of St. Michael the archangel, where at the present time, God being the author, Abbot Smaragdus presides, and to the monks dwelling there through the times … that they may have licence to elect abbots. Moreover, that its own honour might be preserved to the Old Church, Smaragdus, the venerable man, says the chronicler Ibid., page 352., happily entering the way of the fathers, directed that he be buried in the upper monastery, and commanded that the burial of all the brethren thereafter be held there under the threat, as report has it, of anathema; which we see kept unshaken up to now, adds that anonymous writer of the eleventh century, and indeed it was kept unshaken until in the year 1098 Blessed Pope Urban II relieved the monks of St. Michael of that burden [Cf. the letters of Abbot Odelric and the rescript of Urban II in Baluze, Miscell., volume III, page 61.]. Meanwhile, however, the lot of the Old Church had been quite unhappy; so much so that a whole century had not yet passed from the death of Smaragdus when the affairs of the Old Church already lay in ruin. Wherefore in the year 904 Stephen, bishop of Tongres and abbot of St. Michael, approached Louis, king of East Francia, informing him that a certain monk of good devotion, named Uncrinus, of the monastery of St. Michael, had restored by the labour of his means and the work of his hands a certain cell called the Old Monastery, formerly burned and utterly deserted, and asked that for the remaining restoration there be granted to this monk Fraxinum, a township of twenty-four manses, from the goods of St. Michael; which largess Louis made on this condition, that a twofold office should be celebrated there day and night, namely of the canonical and of the monastic order, and that after the death of Uncrinus the township should return to the monks of St. Michael. And these things pertain to the church of St. Michael on the mount of Castellio; near which there were also two others; one a parish church, or St. Peter's, whose memory still survived in the eighteenth century; the other was a small shrine dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for the pious uses of Adalsinda, wife of Wolfoald the founder. And this, no differently from the church of St. Michael restored by Uncrinus, still existed in the century just past [Cf. the Chronicle of St. Michael in Mabillon, Analecta, page 351, and in Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, volume II, proofs, col. XCIII and volume I, col. 469.].

q. The see of Verdun was then vacant, since Jean de Asse Note: d'Aix died on the 10th of August of the year 1252 and Jacques of Troyes, or Pantaleon, received possession of his see only in the year 1254, though designated prelate of Verdun two years before Gallia Christ., volume XIII, col. 1214.. But Peter, suffragan of Verdun, was called titular of Pannadium Ibid., col. 1278.. Of this church Lequien discoursed only by conjecture Oriens Christianus, volume III, col. 965 and following. and, following Charles de Saint-Paul Geographia Sacra, page 233, edition of 1641., placed it in the Latin province of Heraclea. But in the Notitia of churches written by the bishop of Cattaro not long before the year 1350 it is read Schelstrate, Antiquitas ecclesiae, volume II, page 771. that the Latin church of Constantinople has these suffragans: of Selymbria Note: Selivri, of Nachnia, of Spigaca, of Dorhesa, of Panados, of Chalcedon. Now Panados (which form of the name is still read in the geographical Atlas which the distinguished Mr. Philippe Vandermaelen published a few years ago) is situated on the western side of the Propontis Note: Mer de Marmara, some leagues below Rodosdjig or Rodosto (which is the Rhaidestus or Rodestus of the ancients). It was formerly called Panion, Panis, Panedos. From the beginning of the thirteenth century until after the year 1468 it had Latin titular bishops, who are called of Panidum, of Pavidum, of Panadum and (like our suffragan of Verdun) of Pannadium Lequien, volume III, col. 965 and following..

r. Thomas Lyrt is meant, whom Gallia Christiana Volume XIII, col. 1280. calls bishop of Assanum, in place of Asaph, or St. Asaph's in Wales. He is little known to English writers. For Godwin among the bishops of St. Asaph De praesulibus Angliae comment., page 662. has these things: The aforesaid year 1450 not yet being passed, a certain man named Thomas obtained this prelacy, of whom I have found out nothing, except that he did not preside beyond 12 years. For it is established that the see was vacant on the 28th of January of the year 1462; and then he passes on to Richard Redman, who sat in the year 1485. Other things are read in the new Monasticon Anglicanum Volume VI, part III, page 1303.: Thomas I is made bishop on the 27th of January of the year 1450; whom Wharton determines died before the end of the year 1461. Thomas II succeeds him, dead before the end of the year 1471. First of all it is certain that Thomas Lyrt was still alive on the 30th of October of the year 1471, and had already died in the year 1473, since in a royal edict of the 16th of May of this year about

the reform of things attempted against the truces of Scotland Rymer, Foedera, volume V, part III, page 29., the name of Richard, bishop of St. Asaph, is written. Similarly, since Reginald Peacock left the see of St. Asaph not on the 23rd of March of the year 1449 (as the Monasticon Anglicanum relates Volume VI, part III, page 1303.), but was permitted by the king only on the 30th of May of the year 1450 to pass from the see of St. Asaph to that of Chichester Ibid., volume V, part II, page 25., namely after Adam Molins had been killed by certain sailors on the 9th of June 1449 Godwin, p. 559.; the see of St. Asaph was occupied from the year 1450 until the year 1471 or 1473 by one or two men named Thomas: for I would not dare to determine this, not trusting sufficiently the testimony of the Monasticon Anglicanum. However that may be, Thomas Lyrt had already on the 11th of March of the year 1463, by reason of rebellion De Custodia tempor. episc. Assav., in Rymer, volume V, part II, page 129., been despoiled by Edward IV of all the temporalities of the bishopric of St. Asaph, and on the 30th of June of the same year he was called Thomas, lately bishop there Ibid., page 132.: from which it is manifest that he was at that time a fugitive. And on the 30th of October of the year 1471 he received from the same King Edward pardon for all things in which he had offended against the king or in any other way up to the 24th day of the same month. If we put these things together with what we know of the war of the red and the white rose, it appears sufficiently that Thomas Lyrt followed the party of Margaret of Anjou and came with her in the year 1464 into Lorraine. For, as Calmet narrates [Hist. de Lorraine, volume V, col. 117. Cf. Wassebourg, Antiquités de la Gaule Belgique, page CCCCCXIII.], from the year 1464 until the year 1470 Margaret with her son Edward, prince of Wales, had her ordinary seat in the duchy of Bar, in the castle of Coria Note: Kœur, near the town of Saint-Mihiel, to the south. It was a ready consequence, therefore, that, since in the year 1469 Bishop Thomas was in the neighbourhood, he should be invited by the abbot of St. Michael to carry out the visitation of the relics of St. Anatolius. For the rest, when in the following year new hopes shone for Margaret in England, Thomas Lyrt probably again accompanied his queen, when she landed on the 14th of April of the year 1471 on the shores of Weymouth. But when in the following month the affairs of the Lancastrians utterly collapsed, the bishop of St. Asaph submitted himself to Edward IV. And these things about Thomas Lyrt, an almost unknown bishop, seemed fit to be noted.

s. He is commonly called Warricus or Valaricus; La Hière in his manuscript catalogue of abbots also calls him Waricius and Ulric: which are various forms of the same name, namely Udalric. He was by family de Valle, or de Laval. La Hière extends his rule from the year 1455 to 1488; nor does Gallia Christiana dissent Volume XIII, col. 1280.. Calmet relates that an authentic act of the visitation was made by Warricus Hist. de Lorraine, volume I, col. 640..

t. The abbot then was Henry V of Lorraine de Bainville aux Mirouers, natural son of Henry, duke of Bar, who is read to have accomplished very many things for the benefit of the monastery Gallia Christ., volume XIII, col. 1281..

u. Who this Ailard was is hidden; this one thing is established, that these things are older than the year 1253, since in this year the relics of St. Anatolius were translated from the church of SS. Cyriacus and Julitta into the church of St. Michael; as may be read at number 4.

x. When John, king of France, defeated in battle by Edward, prince of Wales, in the year 1356, on the 18th of September, in Poitou, and captured and carried off to England, had been sent back to his kingdom four years later, peace having been ratified; and the soldiers had to leave the garrisons, and their pay had not been discharged, very many of them, English, Normans, Bretons, Gascons, French, Belgians, chose prefects and leaders for themselves and formed a great army, and laid waste Champagne, Alsace and other provinces, some fortresses being occupied. Yet not in the year 1361, as is read here, but only two years later they seem to have come into Lorraine, as Wassebourg has it Antiquités de la Gaule Belgique, fol. V. CCCXXXIII. and Calmet Hist. de Lorraine, volume III, col. 374.; namely when war had broken out between the duke of Lorraine and Henry of Vaudémont: those forces, summoned by him, skilled in handling arms, won for themselves a huge victory, battle being joined at the priory of St. Belinus (by metathesis of letters for St. Benignus). Very many evils then followed, slaughters of men, plunderings and burnings of churches and monasteries, perpetrated by that rabble of soldiers. At length that deadly army was led partly into Italy by the marquis of Montferrat, who was waging war against the Milanese, partly into Spain by Bertrand du Guesclin to bring help to Henry the bastard against Peter his brother, king of Castile, who was raging cruelly against his own people; whom, though supported by the forces of the Moors, they conquered and killed and secured the kingdom to Henry. And this is enough and more than enough about that most celebrated soldiery, which among the French has the vulgar name of les grandes compagnies.

y. Wantis, Wantus, Wanta, Wantum, etc., is a covering of the hand, or a glove [Cf. Du Cange's Glossary, under Wantus, and Schilter's Teutonic Glossary, under Wanta.]; here it is put for a covering of the palm.

z. Ripaldus, Ribaldus, etc., signifies a most wicked man, Ribaut. Here indeed it is put for a proper name; but perhaps the author of the Office of St. Anatolius, reading that some ripaldus had worked on a feast-day, fashioned a proper name out of a common one. Nor is this rare: thus too most recently in many Lives of Blessed Andrew Bobola a certain Assavoula has been brought in, although assaoul is a generic word among the Slavic peoples, signifying the leader of a band. At the beginning of the Church Christians, out of humility of mind, took most shameful names, for example Stercorius, Asellus, Porcellus, etc.: but this custom has long since no longer been seen; and truly no one seems ever to have taken the name of Ripaldus as a proper one. The miracle which is narrated here occurs a hundred times in the old histories.

aa. In the edict which Baldwin, archbishop of Trier (to whom namely the diocese of Verdun was subject), gave in the year 1338 on the feasts to be celebrated in market-place and choir Hartzheim, Concil. German., volume III, page 320., the feast of St. Bartholomew comes. But it was most probably observed long before; since in the thirteenth century it was of precept in the neighbouring dioceses of Cologne and Liège Cf. Binterim, Denkwürdigkeiten, volume V, vol. I, page 304.; indeed the assembly or synod of Erfurt In Pertz, Monum. German., leg. volume II, page 18. in the year 932 had ordered that thenceforth the feasts of the twelve apostles be solemnly celebrated with the highest veneration; and that on the vigils anciently established and hitherto kept by our predecessors the vows of fasts be discharged with all diligence: which cannot be understood of the solemnity of all the apostles, formerly celebrated on the day after the feast of St. Peter: for this did not have vigils.

bb. Locus, loculus, was for the ancients, pagans as well as Christians, a tomb Cf. Lupi, Sepulcrum Severae, pages 2 and 3, and others passim.. But afterwards it was often said of a shrine or reliquary casket: here however it signifies a tomb; so that this healing took place before the year 1353, in which the relics of St. Anatolius were placed in a casket. And the village of Ham, from which that possessed man came, lies almost adjacent to the town of Saint-Mihiel to the south.

cc. In offerings a certain equality was often sought; so that, if a candle was offered, it should be of the same size as the boy, man or woman for whose health supplication was made; but if grain or metals, equality of weight should be attended to: so that a certain redemption seemed to be made. There is no superstition in these things, but rather a certain pious simplicity.

dd. Dado was designated bishop of Verdun in the year 881, and held that see until the year 923. That Dado gave these admonitions seems to have as its cause a miracle wrought around the year 890. Because of drought the relics of St. Baldericus and St. Jovinus too had been carried forth; and on the way an abundant rain had fallen, yet not even a drop wetting the shrines. In memory of which Dado ordered that every year St. Vitonus should be carried from Verdun, St. Baldericus from Montfaucon and St. Rodwicus from Wasloy to the place Gaudiacum: all of which may be seen more fully in the contemporary writer Flodoard See Act. SS. volume VII of Oct., page 925 and note 926..

ee. To lay aside linen garments and put on woollen ones has long since been a manner of penance, especially used in processions and pilgrimages. Nor has it now been altogether abolished. When formerly civil magistrates sometimes condemned guilty persons to undertake pilgrimages, it was quite often added that these were to be made in a woollen garment.

ff. Of Hattonis castrum, commonly Hatton-Châtel, and the church of St. Maurus it has already been said, note m. Hattonis castrum and Hattonis villa lie next to each other, to the north-east of the town of Saint-Mihiel, from which they are nineteen thousand metres distant.

* Vieux-Moutier,