ON ST. BENEDICT OF POITOU, CONFESSOR AND PRESBYTER, WHOM THEY CALL A BISHOP, IN THE DIOCESES OF POITIERS AND LUÇON,
BEFORE THE IX CENTURY.
CRITICAL COMMENTARY.
Of the districts of Mauges, Tiffauges and Herbauges. St. Benedict was a presbyter deposited at Asianum, then translated to Quinçay and Tournus. The rest fabulous.
Benedict, presbyter and confessor, in the dioceses of Poitiers and Luçon. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
Lantbert, scribe and priest, began to write on the 11th before the Kalends of April, in indiction VI, and on the Kalends of August, [In the year 800 St. Benedict was called a presbyter and deposited in the district of Herbauges;] in indiction VIII, which is now also the 31st year in the reign of our lord also Charles, most glorious king of the Franks, he finished the Gregorian codex of the sacraments, which (because it was written for Godelgaudus, presbyter and monk, and also dean in the ascetery of St. Remigius at Reims) is commonly called the sacramentary of Godelgaudus. In editing the sacramentary of St. Gregory Ménard used this book, and after him Mabillon Annales Benedictini, book XXVI, num. 105, vol. II, p. 328 and following and likewise the writers of the new Treatise on Diplomatics Nouveau traité de diplomatique, vol. III, p. 194 and 195 have sufficiently illustrated it. All of which it has pleased us to note, since from the calendar prefixed to this volume the most ancient and most certain of all documents about St. Benedict seems to have to be drawn. For in it, not at the 10th before the Kalends of November, but at the 11th (if one may trust Mabillon or the typesetters), these words are read: On the 11th before the Kalends of November, in the district of Herbatilicus, the deposition of Saint Benedict, presbyter.
[2] he is distinguished from St. Benedict of Macerac In very truth, since on the preceding day, or the 11th before the Kalends of November, St. Benedict of Macerac is venerated in the adjacent diocese of Nantes, a threefold question naturally arises here: first, whether St. Benedict of Herbatilicus or Herbadillicus is the same as St. Benedict of Macerac; second, whether he is the same as St. Benedict of Poitiers or of Quinçay; third, finally, whether we have three distinct Benedicts, of Macerac and of Herbadillicus, both venerated on the 22nd day of October, and a third of Poitiers or Quinçay, who long since obtained ecclesiastical honours on the 23rd day of October. For my part, to open my view straightway from the beginning, I judge in the first place that the Benedict of Macerac and the Benedict of Herbadillicus are different. For when the Benedict of Macerac began to be venerated, this was not done on the 22nd day of October, but on the first day of the same month; and so it came about fortuitously, namely on account of a translation, that afterwards his feast was celebrated above all on the 22nd day of October; second, St. Benedict of Macerac was still among the living when the name of the Benedict of Herbadillicus had already long since been inscribed in the sacramentary of Godelgaudus; third, the one is reported to have died on the 1st day of October, the other to have been deposited on the 22nd. And that it can be objected to these points that all the things handed down about St. Benedict of Macerac rest on the lessons of Redon, which are not so ancient, I quite understand; nor will I deny that my mind has been shaken rather often by that consideration; but this observation has always prevented me from changing my opinion or hesitating any longer, that the lessons of Redon have at least this authority, that from them we know for certain that at Redon on the 22nd day of October there was celebrated not the deposition or death, but the translation of St. Benedict of Macerac; and that this translation certainly took place long after the year 800, in which the sacramentary of Godelgaudus was written, is plain from the Life of St. Convoyon, who laid the beginnings of the monastery of Redon only about the year 832.
[3] why the district of Herbauges and others are treated here; To the second question, however, I judge that one must answer in the affirmative, that is, that St. Benedict of Herbadillicus and of Quinçay are one and the same; and accordingly that to the third question one must answer in the negative. But to confirm these things, we must go back to the Calendar of Godelgaudus, in which we are taught that St. Benedict was deposited or buried in the district of Herbadillicus, and it must be investigated before all things what that district was and what its bounds: for on this nearly everything hangs. It will be of use, then, to discuss this matter accurately; and indeed in such a way that we illustrate some things not only about the district of Herbatilicus or Herbadillicus (Herbauge), but also about the districts of Theofalgicus (Tiffauge) and Medalgicus (Mauge), since it was formerly customary to join these. In very truth, not so long ago, namely in the year 1835, the celebrated M. de la Fontenelle de Vaudoré wrote a commentary [Recherches sur les peuples qui habitaient le nord de l'ancien Poitou sur la Loire et la Mer, lors de la conquête des Romains et de l'introduction du Christianisme, in Mémoires de la société des antiquaires de l'Ouest, vol. I, p. 75 and following] on the same matter; but afterwards these his conclusions seem to have pleased him little, since in another commentary [Recherches sur les vigueries et sur les origines de la féodalité, en Poitou, ibid., vol. V, p. 326 and following] he taught plainly different things about the districts of the land of Poitiers, omitting however to establish his statements by certain monuments, because this was no longer his chief argument. He promised indeed in this later writing to write elsewhere of the pacts of Alan Barbetorte with William Tow-Head; by which argument he would have been led into the middle of our controversy; but I by no means find that this was done by him. Wherefore let it now be permitted to an outsider to take up this argument, one which must especially be dealt with in this volume, since below, when St. Martin of Vertou and St. Enochus or rather St. Senochus, born in Tiffauges, will be treated, discussion of the same thing will again be necessary.
[4] from the pact of the year 943 are determined Further, the following words concerning the pacts just mentioned, taken from the Chronicle of Saint-Brieuc, pertain to us (so far as geography is concerned) [In Morice, Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l'histoire de Bretagne, vol. I, col. 28 and 29]: Duke Alan therefore retained for himself the district of Nantes, and also across the Loire recovered the Medalgicus, Theophalgicus and Herbadilliacus, and concerning these places made an end with the count of Poitiers, surnamed Tow-Head, as those districts are bounded, that is from the river Layon flowing down into the Loire, as far as the river Irumna and Petra-fricta and Ciriacum and the river Lay, which runs down into the western sea. In the tenth century, then (for those things concern the year 943 Compare l'Art de vérifier les dates, p. 353 and 894), the northern boundary of these three districts was the Loire; the western was the Ladio (le Layon), mingling its waters with the Loire at the village of Montjean and also partly at the town of Chalonnes; at the village of Saint-Lambert du Lattay the Irumna (Iromne, Ironne, Yrome) flows into the Ladio and becomes the other limit of the district of Mauges. Petra-fricta, which Le Baud Hist. de Bretagne, p. 134 calls in French Pierre-fichée, Guépin now le Château de Pierre-feinte Hist. de Nantes, p. 50, now le Château de Pierre-fite Ibid., p. 62, is unknown to me; for I would not believe it to be Pierre-fite below Thouars, near Saint-Varent, in the neighbouring province of the two Sèvres (Deux Sèvres). In place of Ciriacum Guépin reads Ariacum Ibid., p. 50, for he has Ariac, and similarly Dom Bouquet Recueil des historiens de France, vol. VIII, p. 277; but Le Baud Hist. de Bretagne, p. 134 has Tiriac; none of which forms has met me either in lexicons or in geographical maps.
[5] the bounds of the adjacent district of Mauges, But although both of those limits fail us, yet from another source, namely from the ecclesiastical division, the bounds of the district of Mauges can be found. For the polyptych of the former diocese of Angers shows these parishes assigned to the deanery of Mauges: Jallais, Jubaudiere, Grand Montrevault, Poitevinière, Pin en Mauge, Beaupréau, Gesté, Fief Sauvin, Chaussaire, Puiset doré, Petit Montrevault, Chapelle du Genet, Chaudron, S. Quentin en Mauge, Ville-Neuve, Montejan, S. Remi en Mauge, Chasteau-Penue, Chalonne, La Plaine, Neufuy, S. Christine, Jumelière, Chaudefous, Rochefort, Luigné, Dénée, Meure, Urrigné, S. Lambert du Lattay, S. Foi, La Pommeraye, Andrezé, Maulimart, S. Philibert en Mauge, S. Christophe de la Blonerie and Chapelle Aubry. For brevity's sake it seemed that only the vernacular names should be written. To these is to be added the territory of Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, containing Mesnil, Marrillage, Bouzille and La Boissiere, besides the abbey or town of Saint-Florent: for in the diploma which Charles the Bald gave for this monastery in the year 849 Dom Bouquet, Recueil des historiens, vol. VIII, p. 501, the monastery of Saint-Florent is openly assigned to the district of Mauges: yet in such a way that the western corner of the present district of Beaupréau was not part of the district of Mauges, but of Herbauges; whence before the revolution in France this horn was indeed contained in the land of Angers, yet was subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop of Nantes.
[6] of Tiffauges But the southern limit of the district of Beaupréau seems to have belonged to the district of Tiffauges; and certain traces of this district still survive in the district of Bourbon or Napoléon-Vendée. You have in the first place Tiffauges on the Sèvre Nantaise (la Sèvre Nantoise), and towards the south-south-east S. Aubin-en-Tiffauges and a little lower S. Martin-Lars-en-Tiffauges, villages a few leagues distant from the river Ledius (le Lay), the last boundary of the three districts which we are defining. To the East the district of Tiffauges went as far as the stream called la petite Maine; as is gathered from the Chronicler of Nantes Ibid., vol. VII, p. 219, narrating that the body of Bego, duke of the Aquitanians or rather count of Poitiers [Dom Morice, Mémoires sur la Bretagne, vol. I, col. 21, 138 and 281. See however Besly, Histoire des comtes de Poictou, p. 12], slain in the year 844, was buried at
Durenum, a village of Tiffauges: which is said to have had that name of Durenum, Durivum or even Dureium because two streams flow together there (la grande and la petite Maine); but afterwards it laid it aside, so as to assume the title of St. George near Montaigu (S. George près Montaigu) [Compare the first Benedictine century, p. 374 and Dom Morice, Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l'histoire de Bretagne, vol. I, col. 197]. And hence it is plain that two deaneries must be assigned to the district of Tiffauges, the one of Saint-Laurent on the Sèvre (S. Laurent-sur-Sèvre), the other of Montaigu (Montaigu). The former, situated on both banks of the Sèvre, was so circumscribed that it took within its circuit Chambretaut, Mallièvre, les Epesses, Mauléon, Moulins, la Chapelle Largeau, le Puy-S. Bonnet, la Tessonale, S. Mélaine-des-Sources, S. André-de-la-Marche, S. Macaire, Montigné, Torfou, Tiffauges, les Landes-Genusson and la Gaubretière; and the latter, contiguous to the deanery of Saint-Laurent on the north and West, so that it included the villages of S. Hilaire de Loulay, la Grolle, Rocheservière, Corcoué, S. Christophe de Chartrusse, S. Sulpice, la Copechagnère, Chauché, S. Fulgent and la Barottière-Mesnard. But as to the Alperian archdeaconry, and accordingly all this region which lies at the sources of the two Lays, whether it belonged to another district, traces of whose name still survive in the villages of Mouilleron-en-Pareds, S. Paul-en-Pareds and Chavague-en-Pareds; so that S. Mars de la Réorthe, les Herbiers, Vaudrainne, S. André-de-Goule-d'Oye, S. Florence-de-l'Hébergement, S. Cecile, and what lies either below these places or to the east of the lesser Lay, are not to be referred to the territories of which we treat, I am in some doubt: for probable reasons fight on both sides; the examination of which, however, I forgo, that I may at length come to the district of Herbatilicus or Herbadillicus.
[7] and of Herbauges, which took in the regions of Retz and Clisson, In this was taken all the region which is situated between the Loire and the Lay to the west of the districts of Mauges and Tiffauges, namely, to the north, the deaneries or regions of Retz and Clisson; to the east, the deanery of Mareuil; that of Talmont to the south, and lastly that of Aizenay to the west. From the individual deaneries let us call up examples by which it may be demonstrated that they were parts of the district of Herbauges: the monastery of Déas, which afterwards became a priory of St. Philibert of Grand Lac or Lieu, is established from the polyptychs of Nantes to have been of the region of Retz; and that it was at the same time of the district of Herbauges is expressly taught by Armentarius, writer of the Miracles of St. Philibert Acta SS., vol. IV of Aug., p. 84, by the biographer of St. Martin of Vertou Dom Morice, vol. I, col. 196, and by others. There, moreover, in the village of S. Mars de Coutais, they say a place is shown still called Herbauge [Kératry, in Albert Le Grand, Vies des Saints de la Bretagne Armorique, p. 648, in a note]; yet I must confess that this does not meet me in the Cassini maps. Similarly that the region or deanery of Clisson was within the district of Herbauges is clear even from the Life of St. Viventius alone, in which the monastery of Vertou, belonging to this region, is lucidly assigned to the province of Herbauges Acta SS., vol. I of Jan., p. 807, n. 17, 18, 19.
[8] and also the deanery of Mareuil, That the deanery of Mareuil was also included in the district of Herbauges may be drawn out of the Chronicle of Nantes Dom Morice, vol. I, col. 138; in which the discourse about the battle between Bego and Gunferius, count of Herbauges, and about the burial of Bego, is such that it appears that the Fords of Bleso* (at which the battle was fought, and by which name the village of Boulogne is indicated, just as elsewhere Besly, Evêques de Poictiers, p. 89 by the Ford of Trizay the village of Trizay) were contained in the land of Herbauges, while Durenum (in which, as has been said above, Bego was buried) was in the district of Tiffauges: further, the village of Boulogne lay within the deanery of Mareuil. Similarly from the village of Bessay it seems possible to gather that this deanery was part of the district of Herbauges. For St. Gregory of Tours, treating of St. Vincent the Spanish Martyr, says On the glory of Martyrs and Confessors, book I, chap. XC: But within the territory of Poitiers there is a village in Arbatilicum by name Becciacum, in which his relics are held. Now the people of Poitou are accustomed to change the ending ciacum into say, çay or se, as Quinciacum turned into Quinsay or Quinçay, Mesciacum into Missé, and others make plain; hence Becciacum must have passed first into Becsay, then into Bessay. Wherefore it is to be believed that this whole deanery was at the beginning of the district of Herbauges, although very many of its parishes lay on the southern bank of the river Lay; and indeed I see the celebrated M. de la Fontenelle de Vaudoré [Recherches sur les vigueries et sur les origines de la féodalité en Poitou, in Mémoires de la société des antiquaires de l'Ouest, vol. V, p. 342] holding altogether the same view; yet in such a way that he asserts that the district of Matreventum, or the southern part of the deanery of Mareuil, which took in Luçon, was cut off from the district of Herbauges only in the year 976; but it is manifest from what has been said that this division was made at least thirty-three years before, that is when Alan Barbetorte made a pact about the boundaries with William Tow-Head; and so the celebrated M. de la Fontenelle himself elsewhere Ibid., p. 420 hangs somewhat doubtful.
[9] of Talmont and of Aizenay, The deanery of Talmont, contiguous to the eastern bounds of the deanery of Mareuil, took in within its circuit la Tranche, Angles, S. Benoit-sur-Mer, Lairoux, Curson, S. Cyr-en-Talmondais, S. Sornin and le Champ-S.-Père: and that it was part of the district of Herbauges the river Lay, running to the south, makes plain; but in addition there exists a diploma of the year 1020, by which Ademarus conferred on the monastery of St. Cyprian of Poitiers some goods situated at Hislas at the marches, in the district of Erbadillicum, in the vicaria of Bram and of Talamun, between the rivers Ascentia (Auzance), namely, and Vertona (the stream of S. Martin) from the church of St. Martin of Vertou (now S. Martin-de-Bram) Ibid., p. 413. The same is established concerning the deanery of Aizenay or Asiniacum, lying by the sea between the deaneries of Retz and Talmont, from a diploma of the year 1100, by which Euno, son of Gontardus, granted to the monastery of St. Cyprian of Poitiers the church of St. Ambrose of Riec and other goods; of which is read in the same place: All these things are beside the castle of Riec, in the district of Herbadillicum Ibid., p. 412. And Riec, now Rié, lying in the marsh by the sea, belonged to the deanery of Asinianum. We deem it manifest, therefore, that St. Benedict was deposited and venerated, at least until the year 800, not at Quinçay, but somewhere in the district of Herbauges: if you ask where, I shall answer at Asianum or Asiniacum (Aizenay or Azenay): but of this divination below.
[10] What the people of Poitiers and Luçon relate about St. Benedict; We must come now to the things which the people of Poitiers, of Luçon and others used to report about St. Benedict. In the Excerpt from the sacred monuments of the church of Poitiers, which Du Saussay received in the year 1636 from the bishop of Poitiers and inserted at the end of his Martyrology Gallican Martyrology, p. 1251, and after him Labbe in his Library of Manuscripts Vol. II, p. 729, you have this at the 23rd day of October: Benedict, bishop of Samaria, fleeing with a presbyter and forty companions on account of the savagery of the pagans, came to Poitiers to Blessed Hilary, whom he had heard to be returned from Phrygia, and sought a desert place near the fort, where, serving God in a hollowed-out rock, he remained until his death and was buried there. Similar things are in the Breviary of Luçon of the year 1836, namely: Benedict, bishop, thoroughly adorned with the gifts and privileges of grace, avoiding the savagery of the pagans, came from the city of Samaria with Viventius the presbyter and forty companions to Poitiers to St. Hilary, whom he had heard to be returned from Phrygia. From the most blessed defender of the faith he obtained a desert place near the fort of Gravio, at the river Clain, not far from the city of Poitiers. There, serving God in a hollowed-out rock, he remained until his death and was buried there. And as time came on, a monastery was built there, which was called St. Benedict of Quinçay.
[11] [likewise what Estiennot conjectured, namely that St. Benedict was a bishop of Poitiers of the VIII century;] That pilgrimage of St. Benedict pleased Claude Estiennot, or Stephanotius, less; who after shaking out all the charters of Quinçay came to the suspicion of judging that St. Benedict did not flee from Samaria, but was the bishop of Poitiers numbered XLII in the catalogue of bishops of Besly and of the celebrated Nicolas de Sainte-Marthe; who perhaps withdrew to the same monastery from the town of Samarvia, close to Quinçay on the south. But will it not more rightly be held that no account is to be taken of Samaria or Samarvia? none of St. Benedict's episcopate? none of any dealings with St. Hilary? none of his hermit life near Gravio? none, in one word, of all these things? What then? It must be demonstrated, namely, that a deception is being practised here. For the words recited are only part of those which were formerly recited publicly in the churches, and which so fought among themselves that at last, at some time, one or other part had to be cut away. It was decided that the part we have just reported should be retained; but in what way was it understood that this was of better fruit than that which was omitted?
[12] many other things plainly absurd were formerly added: Further, although Albert Le Grand took particular care to distinguish St. Benedict of Macerac from the one of Quinçay, yet it is worth the trouble to hear what he himself thought of these things. The Breviary of Poitiers, he says Vies des Saints de la Bretagne Armorique, p. 642, edition 1837, printed in the year 1598, presents at the 23rd day of October the history of St. Benedict distributed in nine lessons, but entirely different from ours and in conflict with our chronotaxis: wherefore I hold the Benedict of Poitiers to be another than the one of Macerac. The former is also there called a bishop; and (which cannot stand together) in one lesson he is reported as coeval with St. Hilary, and in a second he is written as contemporary with St. Martin of Vertou: which cannot have happened, since Hilary and Martin of Vertou are separated from one another by two centuries. The reformers of the Breviary therefore cut away everything that pertained to St. Martin of Vertou, but retained other things: but again, what credit do these have? Add, which is the chief thing, that the more ancient lessons of Poitiers and everything else were drawn from the Life of St. Viventius, which Bolland edited at the 13th day of January Acta SS., vol. I of Jan., p. 804 and following, while Castellanus with full right called it fabulous: nor had Bolland himself thought much better of it.
[13] all are drawn from the fabulous Acts of St. Viventius, of which a synopsis Do you see what monstrosities it contains? In the time of Diocletian St. George of Cappadocia had come to Antioch, and there by the sign of the cross of the governor Dacianus
he overthrew the idols; St. Viventius came to the same place, a native of Samaria and still an idolater; who, having seen the miracles of George, was converted to the faith, and then was made a priest and an outstanding preacher. This man, then, having returned to Samaria, first converted his parents; afterwards he secretly left his homeland, preaching everywhere in the apostolic manner; meanwhile by the order of an angel he went on to Thessalonica, approached Dacianus and shattered his fane and idols with the sign of the cross; then, entering the chamber of Cleopatronia, the daughter of Dacianus, he freed her from a demon and converted her to the faith with 200 others, and worked new miracles. Now Blessed Cleopatronia, an angel warning her, sent gifts to Rome through St. Benedict the prelate and St. Viventius the priest, and took care that lodgings should be prepared for herself, who was shortly going to visit the thresholds of the Saints; and indeed in this way they avoided the persecution of Dacianus. In the course of the farewells Blessed Cleopatronia gave a cloak to St. Benedict; and while he was sending for his little son Promotus, St. Viventius with forty companions fled by ship from the henchmen of Dacianus. But shortly a storm arose, the pursuing enemies were drowned, and St. Viventius wonderfully escaped shipwreck. Meanwhile St. Benedict, committing himself to the sea with his son Promotus on the spread cloak, was borne to St. Viventius. Further, the pious band laboured with hunger; but, the deity providing, a great fish leapt out of the sea before them. At last they came to Rome and placed the gifts of St. Cleopatronia at the tomb of St. Peter.
[14] is here shown; And when they had discharged these things and been granted the blessing of the blessed pope, they reached the city of Herbauges; SS. Benedict and Viventius were separated from one another, and the latter with his companions came to St. Martin of Vertou; and while he was conversing with him in most friendly fashion, a boy, dead without baptism, was brought to him. By his prayers Viventius gave back life to him, and there too he heard that Justinian, a most wicked emperor and most foul persecutor of the Christians, had been shamefully slain by the senate. Thence St. Viventius went off with his companions to an island and dwelt in a cave. At the same time it happened that the blessed pontiff Hilary returned from exile; Viventius approached him and obtained from him the fort of Gravio. While he was staying there, he raised a boy killed by the venom of a serpent; he ordered this miracle to be kept silent; and afterwards he healed many others. Later he fled to the island of Oléron; he healed twenty demoniacs; robbers, wishing to kill him in order to obtain the treasures of Dacianus, killed one another; he lived holily at Gravio in a hollow rock; he was sought by his mourning companions, who were killed for the faith by Dacianus and his henchmen in the 65th year of their departure from the land of their birth. Meanwhile Viventius was visited by Gundicarus, formerly his slave; he ordered all the sick to be brought to him and healed them; he foretold his death and asked to be buried at Gravio; he was approached rather often by an angel, and sometimes by St. Maxentius, abbot of Poitiers; in whose presence he gave light to a blind man; on the last day of his life he celebrated Mass, healed the sick and died, the prisons of the fort of Gravio opening of their own accord; and it was by this man that he was finally buried there. There follow then some miracles; the death of Dacianus; the reign of Rictiovarus in India and Asia and his persecution, and other things of the kind.
[15] there is therefore no credit in all these things; And from this farrago, of which we have presented a synopsis such as it is, all the things carried about concerning St. Benedict have been drawn. In very truth, the matter has now been so tempered in the more recent Breviaries that they might no longer appear so clearly absurd; but, I ask again, what authority does anything have which must at last be referred to so infected a source?
[16] But the stay of St. Benedict alleged at Gravio or Quinçay, and what is attached to it, must now be overturned. Namely, although there were already monks at Quinçay before St. Philibert applied his care there, they are also overthrown by the beginnings of Quinçay; as our predecessors have shown from the Life of St. Philibert Acta SS., vol. V of Sept., p. 90 and 93; compare vol. V of Aug., p. 79 and 80, yet it was not St. Benedict who gave them their beginning, but St. Aicadrus; who came there a little after the middle of the seventh century and then gave himself as a disciple to St. Philibert, on his arrival here. And so, though we have sufficiently full narratives of these matters, there is no mention in them of St. Benedict; indeed, Quinçay was previously a profane place; and when it was dedicated to God, this was done not in honour of St. Benedict, but of Blessed Mary the Virgin [Compare the Life of St. Aicadrus, Acta SS., vol. V of Sept., p. 87; and the second Benedictine century, p. 956]. Moreover, when that storyteller wrote the Acts of St. Viventius, the opinion had not yet prevailed that St. Benedict lived at Quinçay or near the fort of Gravio; since in those Acts it is related that the fort of Gravio was given to St. Viventius Acta SS., vol. I of Jan., p. 808, num. 22, when he had long since been separated from St. Benedict Ibid., p. 807, num. 16.
[17] what is the probable cause of these fables; Whence then that tradition? That very many fabulous things are handed down everywhere about the Saints is plain in innumerable places in our work; next, since it altogether seems (as will be explained below) that the body of St. Benedict was translated to Quinçay and venerated there for perhaps twelve years before being carried elsewhere, it was an easy thing for there to happen at Quinçay what has rather often happened elsewhere: namely that it should be believed that he had lived and died here. Do you want an example? In the Life of St. Convoyon one reads that St. Maxentius, a blessed abbot from the territory of Poitiers, once fleeing the troubles of false brothers of his monastery, came to Plélan, afterwards the monastery of Salomon, and there departed to the Lord and obtained burial In Dom Morice, vol. I, col. 233. Yet all these things are exceedingly erroneous; for St. Maxentius never had false brothers to flee nor did he flee, but died in his own monastery Compare Acta SS., vol. V of June, p. 173. But whence were these things thought up? Because, namely, he had been translated there in the storm of the Normans.
[18] how St. Benedict was made patron of Quinçay; But while these men raged so monstrously, it pleased the divine goodness to strengthen the hearts of the faithful by many illustrious miracles. For we know from contemporary and most approved documents that everywhere the bodies of the Saints, while they were being carried here and there, shone with prodigies, and that hence it came about that a huge throng of men was roused from all sides. Who would doubt that similarly crowds flew together at Quinçay to the sacred bones of St. Benedict? And by this another obstacle seems able to be removed from the way: namely, just as we see it happen that the names of St. Philibert and others adhered to many places in which their pious dust had rested for some time, why should St. Benedict not similarly have emerged as patron of Quinçay? Nor did he immediately become the principal one. For one reads Gall. Christ., vol. II, col. 1290 that Isembert, bishop of Poitiers, ruled the abbey of St. Mary, and also of St. Andrew and of the kindly Christ * Benedict of Quinçay in the year 1027: which things have been taken from a charter of the archive of Saint-Jean-d'Angély, which Besly edited Histoire des comtes de Poictou et ducs de Guyenne, proofs, p. 345. Behold the beginning: For the advantage of both parties it has pleased and been agreed between Aimericus, abbot of Saint-Jean-d'Angély, and his congregation, and the monks of St. Mary and St. Andrew and of the kindly Christ… Benedict of Quinçay, that they should exchange their lands between them; which it is altogether manifest they have done, namely through the consent and will of the lord Bishop Isembert, who then by name ruled the abbey. The aforesaid abbot and the monks of St. John gave meanwhile to the party of St. Benedict and to the aforesaid monks a vineyard, etc. By which latter words, namely to the party of St. Benedict, it is signified that even then in common speech the name of St. Benedict was the more celebrated, although his patronage came only in the third place; and indeed afterwards the sole name of St. Benedict entirely prevailed, so that it was commonly called S. Benoit de Quinçay, or de Quinsay.
[19] whether his tomb existed there; But I hear those who finally object that St. Benedict of Poitiers was not deposited in the district of Herbauges, but at Quinçay, and accordingly lived there, since his tomb was shown here behind the altar. But the people of Quinçay knew nothing certain about this tomb, and they discussed it conjecturing rather than affirming. This is indeed plain from the very words of Estiennot or of the writers of Gallia Christiana Vol. II, col. 1290: In the church behind the high altar there exists a stone tomb, which IS BELIEVED to be that of St. Benedict, patron of the monastery. Moreover, even if it be granted that this was truly the tomb of St. Benedict, it may by no means be gathered from this that he was deposited there immediately after his death. For in this age, although before this St. Eligius and others had made precious reliquary cases, yet biers were rare, and so in the eighth and ninth centuries the construction of caskets of this kind seems to have fallen out of use [Rev. Texier, Essai sur les argentiers et les émailleurs de Limoges, in Mémoires de la société des antiquaires de l'Ouest, vol. IX, p. 77 and following]. The bodies of the Saints were thus preserved in sepulchres, even if it happened that they were transferred. Let examples of this be SS. Maxentius and Martin of Vertou, whose bodies had to be conveyed elsewhere for fear of the Normans. For of the former one reads that after the translation St. Convoyon was buried beside him Life of St. Convoyon, in Dom Morice, vol. I, col. 233; and of the latter, although, having dug up the blessed man from the place of burial, they placed him in a golden coffin distinguished with noble gems, coming to the monastery of Ension, they entombed the body of St. Martin beside the limbs of the man of God Jovinus II Life of St. Martin of Vertou, first Benedictine century, p. 688 and 689. Wherefore, as you would falsely argue from the tombs of St. Maxentius at Redon and of St. Martin at Ension that they lived, died and were given to burial in these places, so too you would argue with less certainty from the tomb of Quinçay that St. Benedict once lived and ended his life there.
[20] [when through the incursions of the Normans sacred things were no longer safe in the district of Herbauges,] And to return to where we began, since nothing greatly persuades us that St. Benedict lived at Quinçay, but on the contrary more arguments tend towards this, that not only this tradition should be held to be recent, but that the stay of St. Benedict at Quinçay should be excluded, everyone sees how probable it is made that St. Benedict of Quinçay is the same as the one of Herbauges, or that St. Benedict of Herbauges (as we have already hinted) was translated to Quinçay. And on these things light is shed from elsewhere too. For while the body of St. Benedict rested in the district of Herbauges, its lot became uncertain and full of dangers in the middle of the ninth century. For in the year 843, about the month of July, the Normans demolished the forts of the Mauges region and of Tiffauges and Herbauges, on the testimony of the Chronicler of Nantes
In Dom Morice, vol. I, col. 137; and not long after, by the same author Ibid., col. 138, returning a second time again through the Loire to devastate the cities bordering the banks, with a long stationing of their camp they violently captured and burned it, and in the year 853 Luçon was burned by the Northmen in the month of May, and in the month of June the monastery of Saint-Florent and the city of Nantes, Tours too were burned, as is declared in the Brief or British Chronicle Ibid., col. 150. And similar things nearly in the following years. And at the beginning of these disasters, when the Normans were understood to be approaching, the bodies of the Saints were hidden in the ground, but afterwards they were carried to safer places: of which matter we have said more at the 16th day of October in the Commentary on St. Vitalis Acta SS., vol. VII of Oct., p. 1095. Why then should the sacred bones of St. Benedict, hitherto religiously preserved in the district of Herbauges, not similarly have been carried to a safer place?
[21] the body of St. Benedict, which was later also carried to Tournus, But here again we must stand a little, so that we may direct the rest of the journey according to certain indications. In the cited Commentary on St. Vitalis Ibid., loc. cit. we have given from Chifflet's History of Tournus * the entire catalogue of the sacred pledges which in the year 1562 Col. [ ] the Calvinists, bursting into that very celebrated abbey, destroyed by fire. Among these came the body of St. Benedict of Quinçay, that is, as we have shown there of other Saints, a great part of the body. And from this we gather not only that the body of St. Benedict was carried to Tournus in Burgundy, but that the surname of Quinçay had already clung to it before, and accordingly that it had previously rested at Quinçay. Since therefore on the one hand the body of St. Benedict seems to have been translated elsewhere from the district of Herbauges in the time of the Normans (for thereafter no further trace of it appears there); and since on the other hand a body of the same name seems at that time to have been carried from elsewhere to Quinçay (for we have sufficiently shown that St. Benedict did not live there): what remains but that we firmly hold that St. Benedict of Herbauges was carried in the sad age of the Normans to the monastery of Quinçay, as we have already rather often asserted?
[22] [it seems to have been carried first to Quinçay and then joined with the body of St. Philibert;] But in what year did this happen? I would believe about 858: so at least everything flows easily. Namely, since the Normans offered no hope of quiet, the body of St. Philibert was carried from the district of Herbauges to Conaldum (Cunault) in the land of Angers, and four years later to Mesciacum (Missé), three quarters of a league distant from Thouars in the land of Poitiers; why should not similarly the body of St. Benedict have been carried to Quinçay, near Poitiers? which place was then held so safe that even from Poitiers the bones of St. Radegund were conveyed there Acta SS., vol. III of Aug., p. 65. But since the monks of Herio, or of St. Philibert, rightly held Missé to be not secure enough, and they themselves at last in the year 871 set out from the bounds of Poitou to the little abbey of Saint-Pourçain in the land of Auvergne, and from here five years later to Tournus Compare Acta SS., vol. VII of Oct., p. 1095, it is manifest that Quinçay, lying not so far from Missé, was not immune from danger; and indeed the chronicle of Maillezais testifies that it was destroyed by the Normans in the year 878 In Labbe, New Library of Manuscripts, vol. II, p. 199. Wherefore, since the body of St. Benedict of Quinçay was most certainly preserved at Tournus, and since there was a firm bond between the monks of Herio and those of Quinçay (for St. Philibert had been the father of both), and since finally Falco, an ancient writer, asserts that with the body of St. Philibert there were translated others of very many Saints, whom he fears to insert by name in his little work Acta SS., vol. VII of Oct., p. 1095, everyone sees how probable it is that the sacred remains of St. Benedict were carried to Quinçay about the year 858, conveyed in the year 871 to the monastery of Saint-Pourçain, and five years later to Tournus. If however these things please anyone less, since in the year 868 the monks of Quinçay seem to have carried the body of St. Viventius to the Arverni, and a little later into Burgundy into the county of Amous, and from here to Vergy, a place of the territory of Autun Ibid., vol. I of Jan., p. 813, before he goes off into another opinion, let him reflect how hard it would have been for the bodies of SS. Viventius and Benedict to be thereafter carried separately, if they had at some time been carried together into Auvergne before. Nor does the same argument avail against our opinion, since it could easily happen that first some monks set out from Quinçay with the body of St. Viventius, while others some years later attached themselves to the monks of Herio, bearing with them the remains of St. Benedict.
[23] what Usuard says of him; However that may be, certainly in the year 859 or 860 (at which time one of our college has shown that the first edition of the Martyrology of Usuard came to light Ibid., vol. VIII of Oct., p. 86) the body of St. Benedict had not yet been translated out of the district of Poitiers, since in that first edition of Usuard, or in the Herin codex, his memory is marked at the 23rd day of October in these words: In the district of Poitiers, of Saint Benedict, confessor; which announcement always thereafter remained the same, and also passed into the Roman Martyrology. Indeed, if the distinction between greater and lesser districts had certainly to be rejected, or, to speak in other words, if it were altogether established that at that time matters were not so arranged that one greater district comprised several lesser ones, it would follow from this, not probably only but manifestly, that already before the year 860 the remains of St. Benedict had been carried from the district of Herbauges to Quinçay in the district of Poitiers; but if not, it could be that they were even then still in the district of Herbauges, since as sure as sure that whole tract was at some time called the district of Poitiers.
[24] [at Aizenay in the district of Herbauges a priory of St. Benedict is begun and relics are placed there;] When the monks returned from Tournus to Quinçay, they must have brought a part of the relics with them: this indeed is gathered from the history of a certain controversy which boiled up at the end of the eleventh century between Marmoutier, or the monastery of Tours, and that of Quinçay; and from the same source we learn the beginnings of the priory of Aizenay, or cell of St. Benedict of Asenajum, since the suit had arisen about this cell; and moreover (unless I am mistaken) the very place where St. Benedict lived in the district of Herbauges and was first deposited. Namely, in the time of Abbot Albert, who already from the year 1034 presided over Marmoutier Annales Benedictini, book LVII, num. 41, vol. IV, p. 364, the two spouses Arnulf and Techildes had built this cell and handed it over to him. Nevertheless the monks of Quinçay contended that it was of their right; and that they had possessed it in the time of their abbots Walter and then John, a most holy man, who was then leading the hermit life; and that they had placed in it a particle of the body of St. Benedict the confessor, whose body or rather part of the body rested with them. In the year 1097 and the following, in two synods, the plaintiffs and defendants pleaded their cause, so that Marmoutier won; as Mabillon explains more fully Annales Benedictini, book LXIX, num. 56, vol. V, p. 350 and following: and indeed in the Polyptych of Tours the parish of Aizenay is recorded among the benefices of Marmoutier Pouillé de Tours, p. 106, edition 1648.
[25] [the saint seems to have lived there and to have been first deposited there; what traces of him survive there.] By right of postliminy, then, and before the end of the eleventh century, the monastery of Quinçay had recovered a part of the relics of St. Benedict. A solemn translation of these same sacred pledges was caused to be made on the 3rd before the Kalends of January of the year 1226 by Aimericus I, abbot of Quinçay, as Dom Fonteneau reports from Estiennot [Manuscript collection, vol. LIII, in the Library of the city of Poitiers. Compare Lecointre, Notice sur l'abbaye de St Benoît de Quinçay, p. 9]. As regards the cell of Aizenay, why did it, although it had been handed over from the beginning to Marmoutier, assume the title of St. Benedict? Why did the monks of Quinçay so promptly share with it the relics of their patron? Was it because St. Benedict had once lived and met his death there? It is easy to suspect so. And this suspicion grows and the matter becomes truly credible, if one reflects that Asinajum or Asiniacum is situated in the district of Herbauges, as was shown above; and if then one has before one's eyes that there once lay open at the bounds of the town of Asinajum, towards the south-west, a cave whose vernacular name was Cave or Grotte de S. Benoît, into which the old men of Aizenay still remember having quite often gone down, as the Rev. Collonier, the parish priest, wrote to me on the 23rd day of October of the year 1853; but that it has been closed from about the times in which the public and sacred order was so much disturbed in France. To the same effect the same reverend gentleman suggests to me another argument, namely that until the year 1830 there was preserved in the church of Aizenay a silver chalice, hexagonal and resting on a triangular foot; on which were inscribed these or similar words: chalice of St. Benedict. But that argument pleases less, since nobody will readily conclude from this that St. Benedict himself used this very sacred cup, but rather that this chalice was the property of the church of St. Benedict. For the rest, the cult of St. Benedict at Aizenay now seems to lie prostrate; the former relics have been lost; there is no pious pilgrimage; and the name of Benedict is given to few infants at baptism. And here I would wish the error of Castellanus to be noted, who writes that this St. Benedict is commonly called Bonizet; certainly this is not his name at Aizenay, nor in the neighbouring parish, lying at the mouth of the Lay, which in maps as ancient as recent is called S. Benoît; nor at Quinçay, which place even in the age of Castellanus was called S. Benoît de Quinçay.
[26] The cult of St. Benedict in the dioceses of Poitiers, But St. Benedict was venerated not only in this parish, at Aizenay and at Quinçay; but long since ecclesiastical honours have been granted him in the whole dioceses of Luçon and Poitiers. When in the year 1853 the bishop of Luçon asked of the sacred congregation of rites that it approve a new Proper (as they call it) of Luçon, there were brought forward several monuments, both of Poitiers and of Luçon, from which what I have just affirmed is signally established; namely a Breviary of the fourteenth century, formerly in use in the city and diocese of Luçon, and now preserved in the library of the town of Napoléon-Vendée; in the calendar of this there is inscribed at the 23rd of October the name of St. Benedict with the title of bishop, and an office of nine Lessons is inserted; second, a Breviary of Poitiers of the same age, and likewise a Missal of the fifteenth century, both displayed in the public library of Poitiers, in whose calendar at the 23rd of October there is read the memory of St. Benedict of Quinçay, bishop, or of St. Benedict, bishop of Quinçay; next, a Breviary written
for the use of Anne de Pie, abbess of Holy Trinity of Poitiers from the year 1484 to 1500, stored in the library of the major Seminary of Poitiers and once mentioned by the Maurist writers of the new Gallia Christiana Vol. II, col. 1308; a Missal of Poitiers printed in the year 1526 and a Breviary in the year 1594; in all of which St. Benedict is celebrated at the 23rd day of October and is called a bishop. In the later liturgical books of Luçon and Poitiers the same things were preserved; but what in the more ancient ones was recited from the Acts of St. Viventius as openly fabulous, this was partly suppressed, partly so changed that it could be tolerated to some extent; and in the eighteenth century indeed all memory of St. Benedict of Quinçay was entirely omitted by the people of Luçon, until in the year 1767 it was again restored, to be observed with simple rite. More recently, however, in the lessons of Luçon approved at Rome in the year 1853, a fuller correction has been made; yet the title of bishop has been retained, although St. Benedict is called a presbyter in the Sacramentary of Godelgaudus and plainly a confessor in the Martyrology of Usuard.
[27] of Luçon However that may be, behold what the people of Luçon now recite, with the consent of the sacred congregation of rites; I myself have inserted a few things, enclosed in brackets: Lesson IV. Benedict the confessor, whose sacred memory is recorded on the twenty-third day of October in the Roman Martyrology, has been venerated from ancient times among the people of Poitou as a bishop. Very many relate that he was prelate of Samaria in Palestine, and that on account of persecution he came with St. Viventius and other companions to Poitiers to St. Hilary; from whom, as is said, he obtained a desert place near the fort of Gravio, not far from the city; and that there, serving God in a hollowed-out rock, he remained until his death. Others however confess that his episcopal see and the time at which he lived are undiscovered. [Others finally are rightly persuaded that, before the fabulous Acts of St. Viventius came out, he was held to be a presbyter.] Certain people think that he dwelt in the district of Herbatilicum and there closed his last day, [since in the sacramentary begun in the year 800 is read: On the 11th before the Kalends of November, in the district of Herbatilicum, the deposition of Saint Benedict, presbyter.] Lesson V. He was a stranger to the world, but close to God and his friend: poor in earthly things, but thoroughly adorned with the gifts and privileges of grace, and so, despising transitory things, he arrived at the eternal. In the eleventh century the monastery of Quinçay, situated near the fort of Gravio, [whose foundations in the eighteenth century were still visible in the garden of the priory,] already gloried in his name and patronage. In the same century at Azenay, in the territory now of Luçon, a cell was built under the invocation of the holy confessor; and there even now the parish church is adorned with his title. Lesson VI. From the book of St. Hilary, bishop, on the Psalms, on Ps. 118, letter XVI, num. 16, 17. Above the topaz. MASS Sacerdotes. This office is kept on the 27th day of October, because the 23rd is impeded by the feast (unless I am mistaken) of the Most Holy Redeemer. Before the reform of the Proper, as I was saying a little above, the people of Luçon celebrated St. Benedict with simple rite; now with semidouble: hence it is plain how gravely the writers of the new Gallia Christiana have erred Vol. II, col. 1404 and 1405, when they said that St. Benedict of Quinçay is the patron of the cathedral church of Luçon. In very truth St. Benedict was formerly venerated there with great honour, but not the one of Herbauges or Quinçay, but the one of Cassino: nor is it a wonder, since before the year 1317 that church was an abbatial one, and not a cathedral.
[28] and of Reims. At the beginning of this commentary we said that the name and feast of St. Benedict had been inscribed in the Sacramentary of Godelgaudus, dean in the monastery of St. Remigius at Reims. We do not have the liturgical calendar of this abbey; whence I would not dare to assert that the cult of St. Benedict persisted there. But from the legacy of a noble man, the Baron de Viron, I have at hand the Office of Saints Tresanus, Gumbert and Saint Bertha, now restored to its integrity, and printed with this type as diligently as could be done by the care and expense of Louise de Linange, abbess of the monastery of Avenay, at Reims in the year 1557; to which very rare little book a liturgical calendar is prefixed, in which at this day a commemoration is ordered to be made of St. Benedict, bishop; so that his memory had not yet perished in that region in the sixteenth century, but only by the example of the people of Quinçay the order of his presbyterate had been changed into an episcopate.
Annotations* la Boulogne
* understand: confessor
* Tournus