Nunctus

ON ST. NUNCTUS, ABBOT AND MARTYR, NEAR MÉRIDA,

ABOUT THE YEAR 580.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

The memory and acts of St. Nunctus. At what time he came into Spain, and to what religious family he is to be ascribed.

Nunctus, abbot and martyr, near Mérida in Spain. (S.)

BY B. B.

The Acts of St. Nunctus were written by Paul the Deacon of Mérida. Our predecessors noted on the 17th of May, among the Passed Over Martyrol. Hispanum, 22 Oct., St. Nunctus nothing of him

(Paul) to have added about the ecclesiastical veneration which Tamayo asserts is given to him, which meanwhile could be learned at the 22nd day of October. Further, Tamayo announces thus Acta SS. vol. IV of May, page 3.: "At Emerita Augusta in Lusitania of Spain, of St. Nunctus, hermit and martyr, who, slain by barbarians, obtained eternal felicity, and his betrayers, possessed by demons, paid the eternal penalties of their crime." Besides Tamayo, St. Nunctus (in French Noint) is mentioned today by Castellan, whose diligence is well known. By Flórez he is expressly called a Saint España sagrada, vol. XIII, page 321, 322, etc.; by Baronius "a man of wonderful holiness" At the year 589, num. 44, vol. X, page 470.. He is likewise referred to in the Lusitanian Hagiology of Jorge Cardoso and in the ecclesiastical Chronology of Antonio de la Purificación Acta SS. vol. IV of May. Where cited above.. Ambrosio de Morales too celebrates his great holiness Coronica general de España, vol. V, page 566 and following. Madrid, 1791.. Finally Luigi Torelli (whose zeal and erudition Ossinger extols beyond others Bibliotheca Augustiniana, page 897. Ingolstadt, 1768.) at the year 32 of the third Augustinian century, the year of Christ 585, has Secoli Agostiniani, vol. II, page 453. Bologna, 1667.: "A brief compendium of the holy life and glorious martyrdom of the abbot Fr. Nunctus of the order of Hermits of St. Augustine." And a little below: "Someone perhaps may doubt," he says Ibid. page 455, num. 22., "whether he should truly be called a martyr, since he was not killed out of hatred of Christ or of the Christian religion"; and he adds: "Certainly he is to be esteemed such, not only because from time immemorial he is held a Martyr among all Spanish writers; but also because he truly met death for the sake of justice" Compare the Acts of St. Lupentius. Below on this day.. See the Commentary on St. Ursula, page 141, where it was said that those too were called martyrs who, piously and undeservedly, had undergone a violent death. From these things it may certainly be presumed that cult was formerly shown to the holy Abbot and Martyr; nor accordingly are his Acts to be passed over by us.

[2] The Acts; The deeds of St. Nunctus were transmitted to posterity by Paul the Deacon of Mérida in the little Work on the life and miracles of the Fathers of Mérida, which little work D. Bernabé Moreno, a decurion of Mérida, first drew into the light and illustrated with notes, at Madrid in the year 1633 Flórez, vol. III, page 331; five years later, namely in the year 1638, it was given to the press a second time at Antwerp, from eight ms. codices, by the zeal of Thomas Tamayo, who, as at least it seems, ignorant of what Moreno had already accomplished, subjoined these words to the Title of the little book: "Hitherto desired by many, never published" Ibid. page 332.; unless perhaps he understood "accurately enough": for Moreno is very faulty. Tamayo's text and notes are reprinted in Migne's Patrology Vol. LXXX, col. 111 and following.. Bivar prepared a third edition from a new ms. at Madrid in 1651 Flórez, ibid. page 333.. This is defective; some chapters are lacking; Moreno's edition swarms with errors; Tamayo's surpasses the rest Ibid.. From the three preceding ones Flórez prepared a new one in volume XIII of the España sagrada Ibid. page 335 and following.; his text we subjoin to our commentary. Paul wrote this little work of his while Stephen I held the see of Mérida Ibid. page 328 – 330., who presided from about the year 632 to about the year 637 Ibid. page 213.. Whence it is shown that our writer was contemporary with St. Nunctus, or at least near his time, as will be plain also from what is to be said in the following number. Those who have afterwards written about the holy Man all drew their matter from the same source, since besides the things which Paul the Deacon related nothing has come down to us.

[3] His age. The praised Flórez notes Ibid. page 328. that chronology is almost altogether neglected by Paul the Deacon; hence, although he could not have been ignorant of the years in which many of the things he narrates happened, or would easily have ascertained them had he wished, he nowhere assigns an era. Whence doubts frequently arise. There is, however, as regards St. Nunctus, some chronological note: for Paul relates that he came from the regions of Africa into the province of Lusitania in the times of Leovigild, king of the Visigoths. And he, according to the more common opinion, reigned from the year 568 to the year 586 Patrology, vol. LXXX, col. 125, note 6. — Art de vérifier les dates, page 704.. Others differ little. Petavius Rationarium, page 296. Leiden, 1710. attaches the beginning of the reign to the year 564, the death of the king to the year 585. In the Biographie Biographie universelle. Under the word: Leuvigilde. he is related to have begun to reign in 567 and to have ceased in 585; nevertheless elsewhere Ibid. Under the word: Hermenegilde. Hermenegild is read to have been killed by his father in the year 586, which at any rate does not agree with the year 585, in which they say Leovigild died. Henschen expressly assigns the death of St. Hermenegild to the year 586, in which, with the cycle of the Moon XVI, of the Sun VI, and the Dominical letter G, the pasch of the Lord's Resurrection fell on the 14th day of April Acta SS. vol. II of April, page 137..

[4] The years during which St. Nunctus lived in Spain. But it can further be asked in what years of Leovigild St. Nunctus was in Spain. It is probable to me that this happened before the war stirred up by Hermenegild against his father, and the most savage persecution which arose from it against the catholics. The reason is that, as Paul testifies, Leovigild was very well disposed towards the holy Abbot. For when he, not long, as it appears, after his coming from Africa, had built for himself a very mean dwelling in the desert, and was shining there with frequent mighty works, the report coming round to the hearing of Leovigild, he, although he was an Arian, commended himself to his prayers and provided that he should have food and clothing with his brethren from a certain chief place of the fisc. A little after, St. Nunctus having been cruelly slain, the same king ordered the homicides to be arrested. Which things are not easily understood as having been performed by a man whose mind must have been exceedingly embittered against the catholics on account of his son's conversion and the war between them which arose from it. Now, according to Mariana, whom our Henschen follows in the Acts of St. Hermenegild Act. SS. Ibid. page 135., the beginnings of that war fell in the five hundred and eightieth year of salvation, namely one year after the marriage of Hermenegild with Ingund, who had drawn her husband away from the Arians; which marriage indeed had been contracted with the full will of Leovigild. He was not, therefore, hostile to the catholics before the year 580. Wherefore I think his munificence towards St. Nunctus is rather to be referred to the preceding years. Nay, I should think also that the death of the holy Man took place before the same year: for, standing on the context of Paul, St. Nunctus does not seem to have lived a long time in Spain, as the words "for some time," "after some days," "after no long interval of times" suggest. Tamayo de Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology refers the death of the holy Man to the very first times of King Leovigild: "Of the year of his contest," he says, "deep silence. I should believe that the holy Martyr fell about the year of the Lord DLXVIII or thereabouts, since St. Maximus recites his memory at that year." Whatever may be the case with St. Maximus, to whom, as is well known, Tamayo attributes very many things falsely, I should not easily call the aforesaid year that of his death, unless with Petavius we move the beginning of the reign of Leovigild back to the year of Christ 564. For if the death of St. Nunctus be placed in the first year of that reign (since Paul asserts that he came from the regions of Africa into Lusitania in the times of Leovigild), it would follow that all the things which are narrated by Paul must be comprised within the space of one year; which at any rate does not appear probable. Morcelli at the year 367: "Already at that time," he says Africa Christiana, vol. III, page 325. Brescia, 1817., "Nunctus the abbot is thought to have crossed from Africa into Lusitania with some monks, when King Leovigild was reigning there; and, having lived for some time near Mérida with a reputation for singular purity, afterwards to have founded a monastery, the king himself, an Arian, approving and helping, who looked up to the holiness of the Man, and judged that his prayers would be of very much profit. But the life of Nunctus in that monastery was very brief: for the peasants whom the king had ordered to obey him, despising the man, unkempt and rough in very shabby clothing, cruelly killed him by breaking his neck." Mabillon mentions St. Nunctus at the year 569, in these words: "About that time Nunctus the abbot crossed from the regions of Africa into Lusitania with some brethren" Annal. Bened. vol. I, page 141. Lucca, 1739.. He then adds, with only the words changed, what is read in Paul the Deacon. Torelli, but in my opinion wrongly, for the reasons just stated, puts the coming of the holy Abbot in the year 581 Secoli Agostiniani, vol. II, page 414., his death in the year 585 Ibid. 433 and following.. Baronius, at the year 589, when Recared was already reigning in place of Leovigild, writes with a general formula of St. Nunctus, "who likewise flourished in these times," adding almost nothing else Annal. year 589, num. 44. Vol. X, page 470..

[5] "As to the institute of the holy man (Nunctus) there is also a doubtful contention. Bernabé (Moreno) says that he was of the Benedictine order, Torelli says St. Nunctus was an Augustinian by profession, to which Paul the deacon himself belonged, who calls Nunctus OUR ABBOT. Marquez, Herrera and the rest of the band of our writers deny it, and make him an Augustinian Hermit." So Tamayo de Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology 22 October.; and he adds: "Without law and reason I scarcely adhere to either; let the credit and the suit be with them." Which words move astonishment, nay indignation, in Torelli, as to whom there is not even the least doubt but that it has been demonstrated in every respect that St. Nunctus both lived and died under the rule of St. Augustine Secoli Agostiniani, vol. II, page 414 and following., and that for this reason, that he came from Africa when he was already a monk and abbot; and in Africa, in that age, no monks were found except the disciples of St. Augustine Ibid. page 415.. So also assert Padilla, Higuera, nay and all the Spanish writers, as Moreno confesses Ibid., who however himself, as has already been said, thinks otherwise, because, he says, Paul was of the order of St. Benedict and speaking of Nunctus says: "our abbot." But neither of these reasons is very firm. The words of Paul are: "They relate ... that our Nunctus came into the province of Lusitania, an abbot." The word "our" therefore is at least as well referred to Nunctus as to abbot; but "our Nunctus" and "our abbot" differ very much from each other. For it is most usual, and with us it recurs on almost every page, that Saints

or illustrious men of whom we treat are called "ours," that is, those in writing whose deeds we are occupied, without our in any way intending on that account to claim them for our order. Paul too could have called Nunctus "ours" because he had flourished at Mérida, which was Paul's native place, and rested there or in the neighbourhood, having both died and been buried there, and for six hundred other reasons of that kind. Nor does Moreno's other reason avail any better. And first indeed Fr. Herrera in his Augustinian Alphabet thus turns back the former argument: "Certainly," he says In Torelli, ibid. page 416., "if anything can be gathered from those words, it is rather inferred that Paul was an Augustinian than that Nunctus was a Benedictine; because about Nunctus it is certain, by the common consent of authors, that he was an Augustinian; but about Paul it is not certain, namely that he was a Benedictine." Nicolás Antonio Bibliotheca Vetus, vol. I, page 373 and following. and D. Ceillier Auteurs ecclésiastiques, vol. XVII, page 569. call Paul simply Deacon. Antonio Yepes in the general Chronicle of the Order of St. Benedict Coronica general de la Orden de San Benito. Edition of the years 1609 – 1621. nowhere mentions either Paul, or Nunctus, or the monastery of St. Eulalia; which indeed is an argument that knowledge of St. Nunctus is had only from the writings of Paul, which, while Yepes was publishing his seven volumes, had not yet come out into the light. The hinge of the whole question among the praised writers turns chiefly on this, namely whether the church of St. Eulalia of Mérida, to which Paul is read to have been attached at least for some time, was a monastery of St. Benedict or not. Mabillon affirms it, Flórez denies it; both adhering to the little book of our Paul.

[6] Mabillon a Benedictine, And, to begin with Mabillon: "Certain and ascertained," he says Annal. vol. I, page 64., "are the testimonies from the book of Paul the Deacon about the monastery of St. Eulalia of Mérida, who seems to have been a monk of that same place. For he calls him his Abbot, his name being kept silent, towards the end of the first chapter, at the beginning of which he calls the same man the Provost of the cell; and again in chap. 18, the lord who presides over the cell of St. Eulalia, that is, the monastery: for it is not infrequent among the ancients that a monastery is designated by the name of cell." But that it is a question of a Benedictine monastery is shown because, from chapter 1 of the same Paul, "in that church the custom was that in the winter time the morning office was celebrated separately after an interval had been made, that is, that the nocturnal Vigils were separated by some interval of time from Matins, that is, from what we now call Lauds; which rite is altogether assigned by St. Benedict in his rule (chap. 8)." Mabillon brings nothing else in confirmation of his opinion. For as to Florentius, abbot of the church of the monastery of St. Eulalia, being read as subscribed to the XI council of Toledo in the year 675 Compare Aguirre. Concil. Hispan. vol. IV, page 247. Rome, 1754., Mabillon thinks (and Flórez agrees with him in this España Sagrada, vol. XIII, page 237.) that this is not to be interpreted of the monastery of Mérida, but of that of Toledo: "for," he says, "there too was a church of St. Eulalia." There remains, therefore, for the church of the same Saint at Mérida to be ascribed to D. Benedict, this one thing, namely that there was a custom in it that in the winter time the morning office was celebrated separately after an interval had been made. It is by no means a binding reason. Nevertheless Mabillon, who here, somewhat doubting, was numbering our Paul among the Benedictines, elsewhere Annal. Ben. vol. I, page 337. expressly declares that he was a monk of the cell or monastery of St. Eulalia, the ruler of which place he calls his Lord and Abbot. For the rest, except the two places cited, nowhere thereafter in the Benedictine annals is mention made of that church or monastery.

[7] Flórez denying it; As regards Flórez, he denies España Sagrada, vol. XIII, page 236. that it was a monastery, but rather a basilica, in which the nocturnal and diurnal office was celebrated, and youths were educated, dwelling in cells near the temple, as manifestly appears from the story of the boy Augustus which Paul the Deacon narrates in chap. 1; elsewhere Flórez had said Ibid. page 234. that the church of St. Eulalia was built under Constantine the Great, and he adds from Paul (chap. 7) that in the 6th century it was restored by Fidelis, bishop of Mérida, who a little before had restored his collapsed cathedral church, or, as Paul says, the fabric of the ruined see Ibid. page 236.. And if he somewhere [Paul the deacon, On the Lives of the Fathers of Mérida, num. 1 and 43. — España Sagrada vol. XIII, page 336 and 380.] speaks of the cell of St. Eulalia Vol. XIII, page 236., Flórez would have this word interpreted not of a monastery, as Mabillon contends, but of the whole fabric of St. Eulalia, so that in a manner the part is taken for the whole; nor does this, he adds, differ from the style of the ancients, since in the very temples of the gentiles a certain part was called the cella, namely the place in which the images of the goddesses were set. Nor does it favour Mabillon any more that Paul calls his abbot the provost of St. Eulalia: for the word abbot is the same as father, superior; nor is it referred exclusively to the provosts of monasteries. Compare Du Cange's Glossary. Certainly in the II council of Aachen under Louis the Pious, in the year 836, it is prescribed to the abbots of canons that they rule their congregations by word and example and be subject to the bishops Sirmond. Concilia antiqua Galliæ, vol. II, page 582. Paris, 1629.. And these things thus Flórez, to whose opinion I confess that I, after a diligent reading of Paul, greatly incline. Paul speaks of the Basilica (so he almost always calls it) of St. Eulalia no otherwise than of the other Basilicas of Mérida, of St. Mary, of St. John the Baptist, of St. Lucretia, of SS. Cyprian and Laurence, etc., except that of the former he speaks far more frequently; for he often mentions "the reverend man Redemptus the deacon, who presides there" (at St. Eulalia's). So in chap. 3, where he treats of St. Nunctus Flórez, vol. XIII, page 343.; and in chap. 9, where he treats of Masona, bishop of Mérida: "So great," he says Ibid. page 360., "was his care for the troubles of all the wretched, that he gave two thousand solidi to the deacon at the Basilica of the most holy Eulalia, a venerable man named Redemptus, who presided there, from which, as soon as anyone came under the pressure of necessity, a security being given, he might receive as many as he wished without any delay or difficulty." There is certainly nothing in these words (and I could recite six hundred others of the kind) which even in the least indicates a monastery. Paul speaks in an altogether different way when the question is of a monastery, which he does not insinuate to have been such by one or another more or less obscure or doubtful word, but declares in open words. Let what is read in chap. 11 be an example Ibidem, page 440.: "When in the monastery whose name is Cauliana ... the most reverend man of pious memory Renovatus the abbot presided ... and all the monks dwelling there," etc. Certainly whoever compares these things with what he has about the Basilica of St. Eulalia, which only once or twice he calls a cell, will not easily assent to Mabillon. Compare Torelli, who will have it indeed that there was a monastery at St. Eulalia's, but of the order of St. Augustine Secoli Agostiniani, vol. II, page 421., to which he contends at length that that of Cauliana also belonged Ibid. page 420.. See the Annotations on the Life.

[8] but rather he seems to have followed a mixed rule At any rate, with Torelli, I should ascribe St. Nunctus to the Augustinians, if it were established that in fact in his age, that is about the middle of the 6th century, there were no monks in Africa besides the disciples of St. Augustine. But who has proved this, or by what argument? Wherefore it is to be noted, first, that the question was formerly sharply agitated whether the Rule for the servants of God, which is found printed in volume I of his works Col. 789 and following., is altogether St. Augustine's. Whence Morcelli Africa Christiana, vol. II, page 306, at the year 391. Brescia, 1817.: "That might seem doubtful, whether what is now called the Rule of Augustine, and was approved by the authority of the supreme pontiff Gelasius, the second of this name, is to be thought to have proceeded from Augustine himself. Far more deny it." Nay more, says Brockie [Codex Regularum of Holstenius. Brockie's edition, vol. II, Additament. IX. critical observation, page 120. Compare Examen historicum et canonicum, page 137. Ghent, 1847.], "all learned men aim at this, that St. Augustine never wrote a rule for men, although three Rules are customarily carried about under his name." And Hélyot Histoire des ordres rel. vol. III, page 6 and following.: "Letter CIX of St. Augustine (CCXI in the Maurist edition), which is now in place of a Rule in various congregations of both sexes glorying in the holy Doctor as their parent, was given only in the year 423 to the nuns whom he had instituted at Hippo (and over whom his sister presided). But at what time it was accommodated to men; in what region and by whom this change was made, is very much in doubt." And Mabillon was persuaded Gemina apolog. Benedictin. page 10. Constance, 1706. that "no congregation can be shown before the eleventh century, or, if we grant the most, before the tenth, in which this Rule was observed as the foundation of Canonical and Regular life." Secondly, that St. Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe in Africa, who died about the year of Christ 529, founded several monasteries, whether before or after obtaining the insignia, we learn from his Life written by his disciple; without even any mention being made of the rule or institute of St. Augustine. This too the author notes, that the holy man, "admonished and pricked by the discourse of blessed Augustine expounding the thirty-sixth psalm, resolved to publish his vow of leaving the world" Acta SS. vol. I of January, page 33.. And elsewhere it is narrated Ibid. page 36. that, when the monastery of Ididi had been founded, "where, serving the Lord for a short time (St. Fulgentius and his companions), they applied themselves to works of charity; until suddenly blessed Fulgentius, reading the admirable lives of the monks of Egypt ... resolved to seek the said lands by ship: namely for two causes, either that there, the name of abbot being laid aside, he might live under the rule of humility, or that he might be subjected to the laws of a stricter abstinence." To whom, reading these things, would it come to mind that blessed Fulgentius was attached to the institute of St. Augustine, and wished to propagate it in Egypt if he had pursued the journey he had proposed to himself? Nor does any stronger reason move us to say otherwise of St. Nunctus, who flourished about the middle of the same sixth century and accordingly is distant only a few years from St. Fulgentius. Thirdly, in the 5th century Salvian, who, as is known, inveighs so virulently against the Africans, so speaks of the monks or religious or holy men or servants of God that he

in no way insinuates that they were attached to a certain Rule or Institute, as we now say. "The Africans," he says [De gubernatione Dei, book VIII. Migne's Patrol. vol. LIII, col. 156 and following.], "persecuted and hated the servants of God ... in whom they perceived all things rivalling and hostile to themselves: for they lived continually in wickedness, these in innocence; .. they in brothels, these in monasteries... Not without cause therefore was it that within the cities of Africa, and especially within the walls of Carthage, that people, as unhappy as it was unbelieving, could scarcely see a man in a cloak, pale, and shorn to the skin with the manes of his flowing locks cut off, without abuse and execration. And if at any time some servant of God, either from the monasteries of the Egyptians or from the holy places of Jerusalem, or from the holy and venerable retreats of the desert, came to that city in the duty of the divine work, as soon as he appeared to the people he received insults, sacrileges and curses." From the words of SS. Salvian and Fulgentius recited, it is shown in my opinion that in the 5th and 6th centuries there were in Africa monks properly so called, with whom St. Augustine had nothing in common; nor is there anything to suggest that they, no otherwise than monks elsewhere, did not follow mixed rules; and it seems to me beyond doubt that St. Nunctus was of this kind.

[9] [] Which will become still clearer if we note finally, fourthly, that it is established from the whole of monastic history that only one, and not several, monastic Order was recognized at that time. Let us hear Lucas Holstenius or Fr. Poussines Codex Regularum. Preface page XI. Brockie.: "From what has been said thus far," he says, "about the multitude everywhere of those cultivating the monastic life in both sexes, it will easily be persuaded to anyone judging ancient things from present ones that there were in those first times diverse Orders of monks, distinguished by a certain character, as was afterwards instituted especially among the Mendicants, all of whose families, however widely spread, serve God under one peculiar head, with certain offices and laws proper to each. I am much mistaken if already then in the first six or seven centuries of the church that usage had prevailed. Certainly no traces appear to me, who, wherever I look, see everywhere a uniform manner of monkhood, and an easy and promiscuous passage between them, and a mutual intercourse of professions and monasteries. The Eastern monks, when they had come into the West, were reckoned without distinction with those professing the religious life there; in turn the Western in the East... Whence it sufficiently appears that they thought there was one common manner and usage of professing religion for all monks everywhere" Compare Examen historic. page 159 – 161.. And this is the rule which is called mixed or apostolic, namely that expressed in the Gospel and the Acts [Papebroch. Response to the Exhibitio errorum, art. 12, §6, num. 84. Acta SS. vindicata, page 424. Antwerp, 1785.], which for my part I should not doubt St. Nunctus followed. But as regards the Hermits of St. Augustine, these, if they are regarded as a Congregation or Order, are not older than the 13th century. For the rest, this question will be treated professedly below in the Life of St. John the Good.

LIFE OF ST. NUNCTUS

By Paul, deacon of Mérida.

On the Life of the Fathers of Mérida, chap. 3, in Flórez, España sagrada vol. XIII, page 343 and following.

Nunctus, abbot and martyr, near Mérida in Spain. (S.)

BHL Number: 2530

FROM FLÓREZ.

St. Nunctus, devoted to blessed Eulalia, Very many relate that many courses of years ^a ago, in the times of Leovigild *, king of the Visigoths, our Nunctus, an abbot ^b, came from the regions of Africa into the province of Lusitania: who, when he had lived there for some time, for the sake of devotion to the most holy virgin Eulalia ^c, approached with longing the Basilica of the most holy virgin, in which her most sacred little body ^d rests.

[2] and he did not wish to be seen by a woman; But, as is reported, he in all things avoided the sight of women as the bite of a viper; not because he despised the sex, but from beholding their beauty he feared to incur the vice of temptation; so much so indeed that, to whatever place he went, he commanded one monk to walk before him and another ^e behind him, lest on any occasion whatever a woman ^f should see him ^g. He, as we said above, when he had come to the Basilica of St. Eulalia, virgin and martyr ^h, begged with many prayers the reverend man Redemptus the deacon, who presided there, that when he went forth from the cell to the church for prayer by night, he should so set guards that no woman whatever should see him.

[3] yet when he had been seen by a widow, But when he had stayed for some days in the same holy church, a certain most noble and most holy widow, Eusebia by name, longed with all desire to see him; but he would by no means suffer himself to be seen by her. And when various persons often asked him to deign to see her, and he would in no way consent; she, having taken counsel, besought the aforesaid deacon that, when the morning Lauds were finished, while he was returning from the church to his little cell, she standing in a most hidden place, he should order a very bright light of tapers to be made about that most holy Man, that at least she might merit to see him from afar; which was done.

[4] he withdraws into the desert; But when, without his knowing, the sight of a woman befell him, he so prostrated himself on the ground with great groaning, as if he had been gravely struck by the blow of a great stone. Soon he began to say to Redemptus the deacon himself: "May the Lord forgive thee, brother; what is it that thou hast done?" After this, finally, going out thence, he came with a few brethren to the places of the desert ⁱ, and there built for himself a very mean dwelling ^k.

[5] and there, honoured by Leovigild, But when he was shining there with frequent mighty works, the report going round came to the hearing of Prince Leovigild, who, although he was an Arian, yet, that he might commend himself to the Lord by his prayers, directed to the same Man a written authority concerning a certain chief place of the fisc, that he might have food and clothing thence with his brethren ^l; which the Man of God altogether refused to accept. But when he was declining, and he who had come to him, directed by the king, said: "Thou oughtest not to despise the offering of thy son," at length, he compelling him, he accepted.

[6] he is cruelly slain by peasants, But after some days the men dwelling in the same place began to say to one another: "Let us go and see what sort our lord is, to whom we have been given." And when they had been and seen him, dirty in clothing and unsightly in habit, despising him they said to one another: "It is better for us to die than to serve such a lord." And then after some days, when the holy Man had gone forth into the woods to pasture a few sheep, finding him alone, they cruelly killed him, breaking his neck ^m.

[7] whom afterwards a demon tears to pieces. But after no long interval of times the homicides themselves were seized and presented in chains to King Leovigild, to whom it was said that they were the ones who had slain the Servant of God. And he, although he was not of the right faith, yet rightly promulgated sentence ⁿ, saying: "Loose them from their chains and let them go; and if they have killed the Servant of God, let the Lord avenge the death of His Servant without our vengeance." And when it was said and they were loosed, at once demons seized them and afflicted them for many days, until by a cruel death they drove out their souls from their bodies.

ANNOTATIONS.

of Moreno de Vargas, who in his notes on Paul the deacon not only puts the cowl (of St. Benedict) on this one and on St. Nunctus, but also on all the monks who flourished in Spain before the year 516, when at any rate St. Benedict had not yet written his rule... Before the sixth century monastic discipline had been greatly propagated throughout Spain; nor can it be that the institutes of that age (which certainly were not Benedictine) should be said to have vanished in the sixth and seventh centuries, in which St. Nunctus and Paul the Deacon lived." Cardinal Aguirre has similar things in the Notes on the council of Tarragona, celebrated in the time of Pope Hormisdas in the year of Christ 516 Concilia Hispaniæ, vol. III, page 123 and following. "It is established," he says Ibid. page, 127., "from this (canon XI) that at this time there were already monks and their abbots in Spain, who, Morales thinks, book II, chap. 43, were of the order of St. Benedict... But although this be very honourable to my Benedictine religion, I cannot concede to the opinion of the most learned historiographer (Ambrosio de Morales)." And after a few words: "St. Benedict is believed and related not to have written his rule until he passed from the monastery of Subiaco to Monte Cassino, and began to dwell there in the year 529, more or less, that is, thirteen years after the celebration of this council of Tarragona. Wherefore it is most certain that the monasteries mentioned in it in the year 516 were of another institute than the Benedictine: for this began first within Italy only some years afterwards, and it happened that it was propagated to Gaul and Spain when still more had elapsed." For the rest, Paul asserts that this monastery alone, of which we treat here, was founded by St. Nunctus. Wrongly therefore have some written that both that of Cauliana and I know not what other monasteries in Spain had the same holy Abbot as author.

* otherwise Leovigild