Eucharius and Companions

ON ST. EUCHARIUS AND COMPANIONS, BISHOP AND MARTYRS, IN LORRAINE,

IN THE YEAR 362

CRITICAL COMMENTARY.

Eucharius, bishop, martyr in Lorraine. (S.)

Companions, martyrs in Lorraine. (SS.)

BY V. D. B.

§ I. The memory of St. Eucharius in the sacred Fasti; he is held to be the brother of other saints; his parentage uncertain.

In the present month of October there has been treatment of several saints who have long been said to have been joined to one another by bonds of blood in the former diocese of Toul, St. Eucharius, praised on different days in the sacred Fasti, in which they gained ecclesiastical honours; namely on the third day it was spoken of St. Menna, on the eighth day of St. Libaria, on the sixteenth day of St. Eliphius; and also at the eighth day among those passed over St. Susanna was recorded; all of whom, no differently from St. Eucharius, to be illustrated for the present in whatever way we can, are said to have been born of Baccius and Lientrude. Whence it comes about that, since he comes here in the last place, it will be enough that several things relating to him be touched on rather than explained. I have found the name of St. Eucharius inscribed in the sacred Fasti on three different days: on the 20th day of October in the Breviary of Toul, published in the year 1749 by order of Bishop Scipion Jérôme Bégon, and following that in the Ordo of the divine office according to the rite of Toul kept in the diocese of Saint-Dié for the year 1830, likewise in the Ordos according to the rite of Nancy for the years 1838 and 1839 and in the liturgical calendar of the diocese of Nancy and Toul (for these have coalesced into one from the year 1801) for the year 1852; on the 24th day of October in the general Catalogue of the saints of Ferrari, who affirms that the calendar of Toul of the beginning of the 17th century lit his way, and in the supplement of the Gallican Martyrology of Du Saussay, where this is read: On the same day (the 24th of October), the birthday of St. Eucharius, bishop of Toul and glorious martyr, cut down by the impiously raging barbarians in the preaching of divine truth and in the protection of his flock; and finally on the 27th day of October in the Universal Martyrology of Du Chastelain, in the Parisian of Cardinal de Noailles and in that of Évreux of Pierre Jules César de Rochechouart; in which, as also in the universal one of Du Chastelain, who adds the title of bishop, this memorial is read: Near Liverdun in the territory of Toul, of St. Eucharius, who is honoured there as a martyr.

[2] [he was formerly venerated on the 27th day of October, later on the 20th day of October.] Ferrari besides in the general Catalogue has at the 27th day of September: At Toul in Gaul, of St. Eucharius, martyr. From the calendar and tables of the church of Toul. The rest is unknown to us; and hence Du Saussay at the same day in the supplement: At Toul of the Leuci the birthday of St. Eucharius, martyr, noble rather by the renown of his triumph than of his history. But by a manifest error at

the 27th day of September there was reported the birthday of the blessed man, which should have been set down only on the 27th of October. For on this day, before the aforesaid bishop of Toul Scipion Jérôme Bégon changed the Breviary of Toul, the feast of St. Eucharius was held [Benoît de Toul (Picart), Hist. ecclés. et polit. de la ville et du diocèse de Toul, 1707, page 210.]; and that it was held on that day before all memory of men is evident from the very fact that our predecessors had an old Breviary of Toul of the year 1535, in which this was noted at the said 27th day of October Acta SS. volume VII of September, page 378, and volume II of October, page 151.. And the reason for which Bégon changed this practice is not obscure. For in the letter by which he enjoined the use of his new Breviary, he laid down as a principle that Lent, being sacred to the mournful labours of penance, admits the solemnities of martyrs only with difficulty; for which reason, he says, we have transferred the festivals occurring through that time to another more suitable; except however the feasts of St. Joseph and of the Virgin of the Annunciation, for which on account of their solemnity their own place has been religiously kept. And since on the 27th day of October, the vigil of SS. Simon and Jude, there was a fast, it seemed proper to take account of fasts of this kind also, at least wherever in the diocese of Toul the saint whose feast was to be celebrated was a patron: for which reason St. Eucharius, who we shall see below is patron of Liverdun, was ordered to be venerated on the first nearest vacant day, that is the 20th of October.

[3] The lesson containing his principal history. Lesson III (for the office is of simple rite), which Bégon had inserted in his new Breviary, contains most, not however all, of what can be debated about St. Eucharius, and is said to have been taken from Abbot Rupert in the Life of St. Eliphius in Surius, from a diploma of Dagobert I, from a charter of Pierre de Brixey etc. It is the following: Eucharius, brother of St. Eliphius, martyr, is himself also said to have been struck with the axe for the faith of Christ, in the times of Julian the apostate, under Sallustius, prefect of the Gauls, near the village named Pompey, where the Meurthe flows into the Moselle; from which place his body, carried by Christians, was buried in the fort of Liverdun; to which place this sacred pledge was a most secure protection, as Dagobert I, king of the Franks, testifies in these words in a diploma granted to the church of Toul: "The place, he says, in which St. Eucharius is venerated, besieged by the Vandals, remained undestroyed: where God, stirring up his power, saved many; and the Vandals, suffering great ruin, perished on account of their iniquities." In the twelfth century, when Pierre de Brixey had restored Liverdun, a very ancient fort of the church of Toul, for the defence of the place, but above all, as he says, in order to honour the bones of the glorious martyr Eucharius resting there, he built a church under his name. The sacred relics of the blessed martyr, sixty years afterwards translated by Gilles de Sorcy, bishop of Toul, and laid in a more precious case, were burned by the Lutherans, the chest being broken open, in the sixteenth century.

[4] In the Passion of St. Eliphius and other monuments I know of no one, further, who has handed down anything about the life of St. Eucharius before the 11th century, in which the older Passion of St. Eliphius was written; given a better Latinity at the beginning of the 12th century by Rupert, abbot of Deutz. In it are read the following Acta SS. volume VII of October, page 812.: Those who are not ignorant of his (Eliphius's) family report that the man full of God had four siblings, in every perfection of holiness most like him in all things, namely a most holy bishop by name Eucharius, who with the palm of martyrdom was taken up into paradise. His most holy body was laid in the fort at Liberdum ; also three most chaste virgins devoted to Christ in all things, whose names it is pleasing to insert in the reading. The first is called Menna, a holy virgin and nun, laid at Porses; the second was named Libaria, nun and martyr, buried in the city of Grand; the third, likewise nun and martyr, surnamed Susanna, was buried in Champagne. To these the Acts of St. Menna, which are without doubt much more recent, and the inscription of Pompey, which Fr. Benoît conjectures was set up in the 13th century but which seems to be of a much more recent age, add SS. Oda and Gontrude or Gertrude Ibid. volume II of October, page 151., and others Compare ibid. at the page cited. others. The Breviary of Toul, printed in the year 1535, in lesson VII on St. Eucharius agrees in the number of the sisters with the Passion of St. Eliphius and in the name of the parents with the Life of St. Menna and the inscription of Pompey Ibid. at the page cited and in Benoît de Toul, page 211.. These parents are said to have been Bactius and Lientrude or Lieutaudis and to have lived at Solecisium or Solimariaca, commonly Soulosse, in the district of Sanctensis Acts of St. Menna, volume II of October, page 157..

[5] several uncertain things are handed down about his kinsmen. What next? in the said inscription of Pompey they are said to have been of the royal lineage of Catalonia; which did not altogether displease Brouwer Annales Trevirenses, book IV, number 114, volume I, page 247., nor even Bueus Acta SS. volume II of October, page 151., since Ammianus celebrates so many petty kings and royal persons, at that time here and there not only received into the cities, but even gaining the principal honours of the army; from whose race Lientrude perhaps came forth. But, to pass over the fact that Ammianus in the place Book XVIII, chapter 3. which Brouwer had in mind speaks of kings of the Alemanni located on the right bank of the Rhine, that inscription is not of such an age as to deserve any credit; and certainly if the tradition of the royal race of SS. Eliphius, Eucharius and their sisters had already gained strength in the 11th century, it would have been received in the Passion of St. Eliphius. Besides, since the best monuments do not support them, no prudent person would approve royal origins of saints; seeing that the common people, seeing images of male and female saints crowned with diadems, must always have been prone to reckon that they were kings or queens: which could already have been noticed in the Commentary on St. Tryphonia Acta SS. volume VIII of October, page 321., in which several saints believed to be empresses were gathered: and certainly if anyone casts his eyes on the images of holy women which Perret found and painted in the underground cemeteries of Rome, the one surprising thing is that more were not held to be queens and empresses. But why do I pursue these things? already in the Commentary on St. Eliphius Ibid. page 815. I have disclosed my mind, namely that the brotherhood of SS. Eliphius, Eucharius and their sisters, and much more the parentage of Baccius and Lientrude, seem to have arisen from the fact that these saints are venerated in the same region; and there are plainly many examples of this kind, for example the twelve brother martyrs, about whom I disputed at more length at the 24th day of October in the Commentary on St. Felix of Thibiuca. This one thing I shall add, that some names are of Germanic origin, for example Eliphius Ibid. pages 799 and 800., Lientrude, Oda and Gontrude; others Roman or Greek, for example Eucharius; others Hebrew as Susanna; so that those saints do not even seem to belong to the same nation. And by this observation is entirely overthrown the old persuasion of the Irish Ussher, Britannic. eccl. antiquit. page 410. that all these saints were by nation Scots or Irish. But this too cannot stand, since it rests only on the authority of Cratepolius De Germaniæ episcopis et doctoribus, page 52.; who said that St. Eliphius was the son of a king of Scotland, because he was chiefly venerated at Cologne in the monastery of St. Martin of the Scots. But of this matter we have spoken in St. Eliphius Acta SS. volume VII of October, page 815.; and we would have passed over that error untouched in this place, if John Lynch Cambrensis eversus, volume III, page 408, edition of 1851., who is also Gratianus Lucius, had not singularly used the example of St. Eucharius to show that the Irish are not afraid of martyrdom. With better weapons can the Irish defend themselves in this matter.

* Liverdun.

* Le Saintois.

§ II. Whether St. Eucharius was a bishop; whether he is the same as St. Eucharius of Trier; whether he was bishop at Grand, or at Toul. The controversy concerning the archdeaconry of Blois.

[St. Eucharius is read to have been a bishop, and indeed at Grand among the Leuci.] But if little trust is to be put in the narratives on the family of St. Eucharius, what faith shall we give to the remaining traditions? Shall we say that he was a bishop as was most certainly handed down in the 11th century, or shall we on the contrary follow the writers of the breviary of the year 1749 and others, who have struck his episcopate out of his acts? And if he was a bishop, was it at Grand or at Toul, as some hand it down one way and others another? Did he undergo martyrdom or not? If he did, was it under the emperor Julian the Apostate, or at another time? First of all I would not dare to deny outright or call into doubt the episcopate of St. Eucharius. The words of the Passion of St. Eliphius, which we gave at number 4, are perfectly clear on the matter, and no doubt seems to have arisen before the 17th century. Certainly Rupert, who published that Passion of St. Eliphius in the 12th century in a better form, wrote that St. Eucharius discharged the episcopal honour In Surius, Vitæ SS. of October, page 246, edition of 1618.. In the Breviary of Toul, which Hugues des Hazards, prelate of Toul, ordered to be printed in the years 1512 and 1513, lesson VII on St. Eucharius begins with these words [In A. Digot, Mémoire sur l'épiscopat de S. Eucaire, in the newspaper l'Espérance, courrier de Nancy, 1841, 1, 8 and 15 July.]: In that city then, by name Grand, the most illustrious man Eucharius, beloved of God, by the disposition of God's grace, had been ordained bishop; and in the Missal, printed in the year 1550, the Gradual of St. Eucharius has the following beginning Ibid. at the place cited.: O kindly shepherd of the sheep, of the city of Grand and its borders, feed our college… The crown of glory, triumphant Eucharius, you have worthily earned; and in the Prose, which comes after it, you have this Ibid. at the place cited.:

Here where he presided over Grand,

There his life shone forth;

finally in the Breviary, printed in the year 1593 and again in 1628, the hymn of St. Eucharius at vespers comprises this Ibid. at the place cited.:

Yet Saint Eucharius,

Maker of virtues,

The city of Grand and its borders

Had as their bishop.

[7] It cannot be doubted that he was a bishop. To these things it can certainly be objected that St. Eucharius is said to have flourished in the middle of the 4th century; that the oldest monument is seven centuries later; that on it especially rests the tradition about his brother and sisters, of which, however, we have made very little, and other things of that kind. It is indeed so; and I would gladly add other

several saints who were never bishops, yet were afterwards held to be bishops and venerated under that name: of which thing (to omit others) you have a singular example in St. Benedict of Quincy, about whom we disputed at the 23rd day of October. But, although these things are so, no prudent person would for that reason doubt the episcopate of St. Eucharius. For since the cult of St. Eucharius is very ancient, as we shall say below, and since in the divine offices a distinction has always been observed everywhere between bishops and other saints, it is not easily to be supposed that changes have been introduced by length of time and the fickleness of men, and thus these changes (wherever they seem to need objecting to) must be demonstrated by certain documents, but cannot at all be thrust upon us by vain conjectures and bare divinations: if it is otherwise, there will no longer be any historical authority of the liturgical books, which all sensible men venerate. For it is one thing altogether to determine from those books whether someone was a bishop and martyr or not; which can be gathered from the form of the offices, at least from the Mass: and another to demonstrate from them the deeds of bishops and martyrs; for these were often brought into them from the rumours of the people or even from the conjectures of the more learned, which were gradually received by all as undoubted and certain things. From the latter it is manifest that one may easily depart; from the former no sound reason persuades us that one should.

[8] While disputes were raging among the Leuci about the exemption of some churches, Now if St. Eucharius was a bishop, in what place did he have his see? This controversy is much more difficult and has been agitated by several. At the end of the 17th century it was already long the common opinion that St. Eucharius sat not at Toul but at Grand, a place which lies to the south-west of Toul between the Marne and the Meuse, at the eastern sources of the stream Odorna or Orna , on the left of the road by which one goes from Neufchâteau * to Bar-le-Duc. And since in that age controversies had arisen in those parts about the exempt territories of some abbeys or chapters, especially of the chapter of Saint-Dié, those who stood on the side of the abbeys and chapters were eager to raise the glory and antiquity of the see of Toul, just as those who favoured the bishops of Toul tried to depress the rights and dignity of the abbeys and chapters. In this business the fault of each side is manifest. The exemption and rights of the abbeys and especially of the chapter of Saint-Dié were as clear as could be; but these by no means depended on the antiquity of the see of Toul, since most certainly the bishops had their see established at Toul before any thought had been given to erecting any abbey or chapter that still existed in that age; so that the matter was altogether pointlessly argued. But no less at fault were the patrons of the bishops of Toul, who called into controversy the most certain privileges. But such was then the common inclination of minds that by fair means or foul war should be declared on the rights of exempt places; with which sin even the best bishops stained themselves.

[9] [many books were written on the episcopate of St. Eucharius, and more recently some commentaries too.] However that may be, the first to go down into the arena was François Riguet, a truly learned man, who brought out at the press of Nancy in the year 1701 and 1707 a Chronological System of the bishops of Toul Système chronologique et historique des évêques de Toul, in-12.. As Riguet had at one time been among the Premonstratensians, Charles Louis Hugo, a distinguished member and historian of the same institute, made himself his Achates; and he wrote the preface which is prefixed to the first edition of Riguet's book. In both these writings the aim was to show that St. Eucharius had his see at Grand and that only afterwards, namely when Grand was destroyed in the 5th century, was the see of Toul instituted. Against these lucubrations there arose, under the mask of Antimo, Delisle the younger, or (as others will have it) Nicolas Clément, a native of Toul and keeper of the royal library at Paris, publishing a Defence of the antiquity of the city and episcopal see of Toul Défense de l'antiquité de la ville et du siége épiscopal de Toul, Paris, 1702.. To Clément's side there inclined a little later the historian of Toul Fr. Benoît Picard, commonly Benoît de Toul, yet in such a way that he seems indeed to wish to strike out the see of Grand and the episcopate of St. Eucharius Histoire de Toul, pages 149 and 210., but at the same time to hint that St. Mansuetus, whom he lays down as the first bishop of Toul, flourished in the middle of the 4th century or rather about the year 400 Ibid. page 149.; and almost the same opinion was followed by Calmet [Histoire de Lorraine, 2nd edition, volume I, column XXIX and following and column 202 and following.]. But although, as was his custom, he had done this with moderation in the first edition of his History of Lorraine, he nevertheless did not escape the censures of the defenders of the church of Toul, both because he had not made the see of Toul sufficiently ancient, and chiefly because he had not accommodated to their opinion the history of the abbeys of Saint-Dié, Senones, Moyenmoutier, Saint-Èvre and Étival; for which reason there arose against him Brulerius, later archdeacon of Toul, who in the year 1727 had printed at the press of Toul a Defence of the church of Toul La défense de l'église de Toul, in-4°, Toul, 1727. and in the year 1746 Observations on the animadversions of the Rev. Fr. Dom Augustin Calmet, or a sequel to the Defence of the church of Toul [Réflexions sur les remarques du R. P. Dom Augustin Calmet, abbé de Senones, pour servir de suite à la défense de l'église de Toul, in-4°, Toul, 1746.]; to both of which works Calmet replied in a singular Dissertation on the bishops of Toul, placed at the front of the first volume of the later edition of the History of Lorraine, brought out in the year 1747. That controversy then rested, until in the year 1841 it was renewed by the distinguished Dufrene, advocate at Toul. He published a writing on that subject both in the Commentaries of the antiquaries of France and in a newspaper of Nancy L'Espérance, number 79., defending the side of Clément and Calmet and using their arguments. A little later Auguste Digot championed the contrary opinion and tried to weaken the reasons of his adversaries Ibid. 1841, 1 and 8 July.; in which work the Rev. Marchal, parish priest at Heillecourt, afterwards brought him aid Ibid. 1841, 15 July..

[10] [Although many things suggest that St. Eucharius, venerated by the people of Toul and of Trier, is one man,] What then will seem to need deciding about these things? Before I give any sort of answer to that question, I cannot but disclose an anguish by which, as I was writing the Commentary on St. Eliphius and the present one on St. Eucharius, my mind was continually tried, namely that St. Eucharius, the bishop venerated by the people of Toul, is the same as St. Eucharius, the first prelate of Trier: and although Bueus Acta SS. volume II of October, page 153. wrote that Eucharius of Toul would be ineptly confused with the one of Trier, it is clear even from this one remark of his that the same opinion presented itself to his mind. And indeed the former diocese of Toul, being part of Belgica Prima, was contained in the ecclesiastical province of Trier; whence no doubt St. Eucharius of Trier spread the faith in that region or took care that it be spread. Then as the people of Trier seem to have increased the catalogue of their bishops with names belonging to other sees, so it will be no wonder if the people of Toul believed that St. Eucharius of Trier was a bishop of their diocese; and since yet his name was not read in the ancient catalogues, it was natural that they should suppose that he sat at Grand, whose former splendour they could perceive from its ruins. And finally, from the fact that his name is absent from those catalogues, an argument seems able to be drawn that he sat neither at Grand nor at Toul, and thus was bishop of another see; seeing that, where within the limits of one and the same diocese the episcopal see is transferred from one place to another, the series of bishops is not for that reason broken, nor a new one begun. It can indeed be objected that the birthdays are different, namely that St. Eucharius of Toul was formerly venerated on the 27th day of October, but the one of Trier on the 8th of December. But who would dare to trust to this difference, which perhaps arose from a translation of relics or a dedication of a church? For St. Eucharius of Toul had not one birthday or feast: in the French inscription of Pompey, which we shall recite below, he is said to have been laid to rest on the 10th day before the Kalends of May, or the 22nd of April; and the feast of his translation was held at Liverdun on the 5th day before the Kalends of May, or the 27th of April Benoît Picard, Histoire de Toul, page 210.; and finally, as we saw at the start, another festival was celebrated on the 27th day of October; so that the argument drawn from the distance of the birthdays is for the present so much the less firm as the feasts of St. Eucharius of Toul were the more numerous.

[11] [yet it must be decided otherwise because of the existence of two bodies from very ancient times.] And so I would say without any doubt that St. Eucharius of Toul and of Trier were one and the same man, were it not that an inescapable reason stands in the way, drawn from the preservation of two bodies from very ancient times: nor can it be objected that in both places only a part of the bones was deposited, since in that age it was hardly at all the custom among the Latins to pull sacred bones apart Compare Acta SS. volume VII of October, page 935.. Further, as will be seen below, from at least the 6th century the body of St. Eucharius was kept in the diocese of Toul, while the other was carefully guarded at Trier. Of the latter we have testimonies, some older than the Norman invasion, others more recent; which we notice for this reason, that some make absolutely no account of these later documents, as if they consisted of bare fictions of the monks of St. Matthias. In the Life of St. Maximinus, edited by our predecessors Ibid. page 22., which all, even Hontheim Hist. Trevirensis diplomat. volume I, page LVIII., admit was written in the 8th century, this is narrated about his funeral at Trier: St. Paulimus therefore, prelate of the city, ordered him to be carried into the basilica of St. John, which his predecessors had built. For SS. Eucharius, Valerius and Maternus prepared for themselves another place there for resting: and there the most blessed man was honourably laid in the church which we mentioned above. But Saints Eucharius, Valerius, Maternus rest on the other side of the city, within the church which they built for themselves far from the city with wonderful work. Almost two centuries earlier St. Gregory of Tours, in the Lives of the Fathers, chapter XVII, treating of St. Nicetius, prelate of Trier, reports this Works of St. Gregory of Tours, column 1237.: And when the plague of the groin was greatly laying waste the people of Trier in the surrounding parts … a great sound arose in the night … There was heard in the midst of the noise one voice clearer than the rest, saying: "And what shall we do here, O companions?

For at one gate Eucharius the priest keeps watch, at another Maximinus stands guard, in the middle is Nicetius: we can prevail here no further." So spoke the demons, namely because St. Nicetius, living, prayed in the middle of the city or in the cathedral church, and SS. Eucharius and Maximinus rested in death outside opposite gates, the former to the west, the latter to the east. I forbear from reporting more recent monuments; which Waitz has indicated with singular diligence in his edition of the Gesta Trevirorum In Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, volume VIII, here and there.. For since these were collected by the monks of St. Matthias, like most of the Lives of the saints of Trier, there is much talk in all their writings about St. Eucharius of Trier and his body; seeing that they themselves were established in the suburban cemeterial basilica, first called of St. John, then of St. Eucharius, afterwards of SS. Eucharius and Matthias, and finally of St. Matthias, because the relics of this apostle were said to have been brought there in the 4th century.

[12] Very many things favour saying that St. Eucharius was bishop at Grand; St. Eucharius bishop of Trier is therefore one man, and St. Eucharius the bishop venerated by the people of Toul another. Whence the question returns of what see, after all, this bishop was, whether of Grand or of Toul. For my part I shall openly profess that I am in the greatest difficulty here. At number 6, where we showed that St. Eucharius was truly a bishop, we recited several places in which it is handed down that he had his see at Grand; and these are the strongest arguments on which the defenders of the see of Grand rely. They add that in the Passion of St. Eliphius Acta SS. volume VII of October, page 812. one reads that it was a city very great in length and breadth, at that time most strongly fortified with towers and walls, namely by name Grand; that this was said most truly, since it is manifest from the remains [See the topographical Map of Grand in Caylus, Recueil d'Antiquités, volume VI, page 349.]: that namely parts survive of an aqueduct, by which the necessary waters were brought from a distance; that there was there an immense amphitheatre, whose major axis was a hundred and thirty-seven or eight metres long, the minor sixty-one; that there were found there many coins of the first emperors, namely of Nero, Vespasian, the younger Faustina, Commodus and Septimius Severus, and inscriptions with the name of the second Antoninus; that in the year 1808 there was discovered there a public prison, in which were found bronze fetters, chains and five corpses; that public baths were likewise found there; and that one can scarcely dig the earth anywhere without the appearance of tombs, fragments of statues, friezes, capitals and other things of that kind; in a word that the immense circuit of this town can be gathered from the surviving traces [Benoît Picard, Histoire de Toul, page 110; D. Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, volume I, page XXXVII; Caylus, Recueil d'Antiquités, volume III, page 429 and following; volume VI, page 349 and following; A. Digot, l'Espérance, courrier de Nancy, 8 July 1841; Valckenaer, Géographie ancienne des Gaules, volume I, pages 533 and 534.]; that the paved road by which one went from Nasium to Noviomagus was carried through Grand, and so nothing stands in the way of this place's having been the principal town of the Leuci; that therefore it could have happened that St. Eucharius had his see there; that while that town flourished, Toul was very small; that its circuit, which Calmet noted on the map of Toul inserted in the first volume of his History of Lorraine, was so small that scarcely two thousand five hundred inhabitants were contained by it; that it seems to have been only a fort; whence the road which still cuts through the former town is even now called Micastel or Michate A. Digot, at the place cited. Compare Benoît Picard, page 16.; that it seems therefore that Toul was not made the head of the Leuci and seat of the bishop before Grand had been destroyed by the barbarians.

[13] others favour Toul; which, however, But, although it cannot be doubted that Toul in that age was confined within very short walls, [are said about the archdeaconry of Blois, in which Grand was contained and which they will have to have been once a part of the diocese of Troyes,] it is nevertheless undoubted that it was the city of the Leuci. For Ptolemy, who flourished under Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: Under these, he says D. Bouquet, Recueil des historiens francais, volume I, page 77., namely the Mediomatrici, and the Remi are the Leuci, and their cities Tullum, Nasium; so that no less before the barbarian irruptions than in the times of Honorius Augustus the city of the Leuci was at Toul (the words are those of the Notitia of the empire) Ibid. page 123.. Then the site of Toul was much better than that of Grand. For Toul was placed upon the Moselle and was cut by two public roads; one by which one went from Andomatunum to Divodurum ; the other by which one went from Rheims or more nearly from Nasium to Andesina Valckenaer, Géographie ancienne des Gaules, volume III, page 86 and following., and hence perhaps to Strasbourg. Add that Grand was unknown to all ancient writers. They object besides that Grand does not even seem to have been once situated in the territory of the Leuci or the diocese of Toul, but rather in that of Langres, indeed of Troyes: which they make out thus. Grand, they say, was contained in the archdeaconry of Blois; and since this was once part of the diocese of Troyes, and the ecclesiastical divisions and above all the dioceses represented the former bounds of the peoples, hence it comes about that Grand must be assigned to the Tricassini, and by no means belonged to the Leuci.

[14] although Bl. Paschal II judged otherwise, They rely on the following diploma Benoît Picard, Hist. de Toul, page CXXIV., which since it is almost unknown we give here: Paschal, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Pibo, bishop of the church of Toul, and the canons, greeting and apostolic blessing. Concerning the archdeaconry of Blois we have heard of the complaint moved against you by the clerics of Troyes in the council (celebrated at Troyes Labbe, Collect. concil. volume X, column 738 in the month of April of the year 1104 Mabillon, Annal. Bened. book LXX, numbers 75 – 79.); over which council indeed our brother Richard, bishop of Albano, at that time bearing the part of our authority, presided. For the rest we have learned that that complaint, the venerable bishops who sat in the same council judging, was easily laid to rest justly and legally. For when the venerable Hugh, now bishop of Châlons, formerly your canon of the church of Toul, stood ready to prove canonically a possession of forty years and far more, those of Troyes on the other side were by no means able to show a legal interruption made by them. The sentence was therefore given by episcopal judgement that the archdeaconry of Blois, all pressing by those of Troyes being henceforth removed, should remain wholly in quiet and intact in the right of the church of Toul. Which sentence, both third, intimated by the reports of those who had been present, and contained in the presentation of the letters written in the presence of the same council, we too, by the Lord's gift, confirm by the present letters, and we sanction that the archdeaconry of Blois is to be held and kept by the church of Toul by perpetual right and possession. Given by the hand of John, deacon and librarian, on the II day before the Kalends of February, indiction XIIII (year of Christ 1106).

[15] are of no moment for solving the question put forward. But the argument drawn from this is very weak. First of all the division of the dioceses into archdeaconries is not of such antiquity that from it the circumscription of the former lesser districts can safely be understood [Compare Guérard, Essai sur le système des divisions territoriales de la Gaule, page 87 and following.]; and indeed in the former diocese of Toul the archdeaconries rarely agreed with the lesser districts. Then the political fortune of that region which was called the archdeaconry of Blois or of Reynel, and which included various lesser districts or parts of districts, was very varied; so that a whole commentary could easily be written about it: for which reason, since ecclesiastical matters have rather often followed political ones, all those things are very uncertain which rest on so great a variety. Third, there were formerly in the diocese of Toul eight archdeaconries, namely of Toul, of Port, of Vittel, of Reynel or Blois, of the Vosges, of Ligny, of Gondrecourt and of Bar-le-Duc; of which the last two were at some time suppressed and their territory added to others Benoît Picard, Hist. de Toul, page 164.. Further the archdeaconry of Gondrecourt seems to have taken in about both parts of the district of the Orne or Ornois, of which in the division of the empire made in the year 870 this is read: To Louis, king of Germany…, Odornense which Bernard held, or the eastern part, contiguous to the district of Toul…, to Charles the Bald… Odornense which Tetmar held, or the western part, neighbouring the district of Bassigny, then not very wide; so that the district of Ornois then comprised, besides the territories lying at the sources of the stream Orna or Adorna, also the district of the Valleys, in which the Vallis Colorum is contained, and thus was circumscribed by the boundaries of the district of Toul to the east-south-east, of the district of Soulosse to the south-east, of the district of Bassigny to the south and south-west, of the district of Bar to the west and north-west, and of the district of Verdun to the north Wastelain, Description de la Gaule Belgique, 1778 edition, pages 271 and 272.. In this district therefore, whose principal part still keeps the common name of Pays d'Ornais, Grand was situated, although some will have it that this place was at some time part of the district of Soulosse Benoît Picard, page 111., situated near the sources of the Meuse and Mosona . Fourth, the archdeaconry of Blois scarcely seems to have stretched to the right bank of the Marne *, and thus was called the deanery of Toul or part of the archdeaconry of Reynel. Fifth, Lifou Major and Minor, which was nearer to Troyes than Grand and was also contained in the archdeaconry of Blois or rather Reynel, is called in the History of the bishops of Auxerre, which Herric wrote in the 10th century, Lufaous in the greater district or diocese of Toul [Labbe, Bibliotheca Mss. volume I, page 430. Compare Lelong and Fevret de Fontette, Bibliothèque historique de la France, volume I, numbers 494, 521 and following.]; so that long before the times of Bl. Paschal II, indeed before all memory of men, that tract was part of the diocese of Toul. Sixth and finally, St. Libaria, who was greatly venerated at Grand, seems never to have gained ecclesiastical honours in the diocese of Troyes; on the contrary in the diocese of Toul. In vain therefore do they try to demonstrate from the diploma of Bl. Paschal II that Grand was not situated within the limits of the diocese of Toul. Besides, even if that were granted, it would by no means follow from this that St. Eucharius did not have his see at Grand, but only that he lived outside the diocese of Toul.

[16] [The old lessons of Toul are of no great value. The question whether the territory of the Leuci was formerly not divided into two dioceses.] All these things, therefore, are much less weighty than some suppose. Must we then go over to the opinion of those who affirm that St. Eucharius was bishop at Grand? I would not say so. For if in former times in several liturgical books he was called bishop of Grand

in others, for example in the Breviary of Toul used by Gonon Vitæ Patrum Occidentis, page 225., he was said to have been bishop of the Leuchi, by which name the bishop of Toul was most certainly understood in the Middle Ages; and in others it was handed down that he ruled the schools at Toul, which Constantine the Great had established there Benoît Picard, Hist. de Toul, page 209.. I shall readily grant indeed that this was invented, since the memory survived that schools had once greatly flourished in this city [Launoy, de Scholis celebrioribus, chapter 37, Works volume IV, part I, pages 42 and 43.]; but this too must be granted, that the tradition about the episcopate of St. Eucharius at Grand was very unstable, for another contrary tradition to have been so easily admitted. It must also be noticed that in the 9th century the opinion gained strength that St. Mansuetus was the first bishop of Toul; and since St. Eucharius seems to have been earlier than he, hence it was natural that he should be said to have been bishop not of Toul, but of another place, namely Grand. For this reason in the midst of that darkness I prefer to define nothing rather than to incur a manifest danger of error. This one thing is to be held, that he was a bishop and underwent martyrdom in the diocese of Toul; unless anyone prefers to lay it down that the Leuci in the first times were divided into two dioceses, since (as Ptolemy is witness) they had two cities, Toul and Nasium; that Grand, which no differently from Nasium lies between the Meuse and the Marne, succeeded Nasium; that in this part of the Leuci St. Eucharius was bishop; that afterwards the diocese of Nasium or Grand was added to that of Toul, as was done with other dioceses of Belgica too; that this could easily have been done when Nasium and Grand were destroyed by the barbarians, and so, by the old discipline, it was laid down that neighbouring bishops should take care of widowed churches; whereby it was natural that a union should gradually come about. And I would plainly approve these conjectures, if they had me a better authority. We come now to the time at which St. Eucharius met a savage death for Christ.

* Marne.

* Orne.

* Neufchateau.

* Naix dans la Meuse,

* Neufchateau

* Langres

* Metz

* Vaucouleurs

* Soulossois

* Le Soulossois

* Le Mouzon.

* La Marne.

§ III. At what time and in what place St. Eucharius underwent martyrdom. The recent chance rediscovery of the tombs of his companions.

St. Eucharius underwent martyrdom in the reign of Julian, At what time, then, did the blessed man receive the palm of martyrdom? All the monuments that survive cry out that it happened in the time of Julian the apostate; indeed in the old Passions of SS. Menna, Libaria and Eliphius, Julian himself is said to have questioned the saints and condemned them by capital sentence; and they report that he did the same with St. Eucharius. But, as we have demonstrated more than enough in the commentary on St. Eliphius Acta SS. volume VII of October, pages 802 and 803., Julian in the year 361 was still publicly following the Christian religion; after that time he did not again come to the territory of Toul; and, what is the chief thing, he did not publicly employ the pagan rites or show himself adverse to the Christians until he had left the Gauls. Since, however, saints are venerated here and there in the Gauls who are said to have given their lives for Christ in the reign of Julian, some contend that a general persecution was stirred up in the Gauls by Sallustius the prefect, in which the martyrs of Toul also perished; but we have shown in the cited commentary that this is put forward without any surety Acta SS. volume VIII of October, pages 803 and 804.. Hence (unless anyone believes that these martyrdoms were fastened on Julian by popular rumour, because to a hated man, of whose presence in those parts the memory survived, slaughters are easily attributed) it remains to say that magistrates or commanders of forces, hunting the favours of Julian, acted savagely against St. Eucharius as also against St. Eliphius and others. Nor does it seem that the martyrdom of St. Eucharius can be removed from the times of Julian; for tradition bears this from at least the 9th century; and, what is the chief thing, in the cemetery of his companions there was discovered not so long ago a coin of Constans, son of Constantine the Great, as we shall explain a little below; for which reason, unless it be said that the mound in which this coin was found was added to others later (which is a rather improbable divination), it must necessarily be laid down that this immense slaughter was made in the age of Julian; since at another time there was no persecution of Christians. I shall profess, however, that I am by no means opposed to the people of Toul who have believed that the Christian faith was known and spread among the Leuci long before the times of Constantine. For the rest, at the 17th day of October in the Commentary on St. Florentinus, bishop of Trier and Tongres, much discussion was held on this subject.

[18] [in the villa of Pompey, as the inscriptions affixed to the hermitage of St. Eucharius,] There can scarcely be a question of the place in which St. Eucharius was crowned with martyrdom: that this happened at Pompey or in the villa of Pompania is plainly certain. This village lies on the left bank of the Moselle between Liverdun and the confluence of the said river and the Meurthe, to the north of Nancy, from which it is two leagues distant, and three from Pont-à-Mousson [Compare on this village d'Expilly, Dictionnaire géographique de France, under Pompey; Dictionnaire universel de France, under Pompey; Grille de Beuzelin, Rapport sur les monuments historiques des arrond. de Nancy et de Toul, pages 44 and 45.]. There once stood there a small church, preserving the memory of St. Eucharius, which in the year 968 St. Gerard, bishop of Toul, gave as a gift to the nunnery of Buxeriae *, and which in the 18th century was built anew from the foundations in a larger form [Compare Benoît Picard, Hist. de Toul, page 210, and Grille de Beuzelin, at the place cited.]. To the north-east of that church and on the right of the paved road by which one goes from Nancy to Pont-à-Mousson another monument is seen, much more closely belonging to St. Eucharius; namely a chapel, also called a hermitage, formerly under the jurisdiction of the chapter of Liverdun Benoît Picard, Pouillé du diocèse de Toul, volume I, page 276., now falling into ruin, and built before the year 1312 [Mittheilungen a. d. Gebiete der Kirchlichen Archäologie und Geschichte der Diöcese Trier, 1st fascicle 1856, page 56.] on the very spot on which the holy martyr is said to have poured out his blood. On the outer wall both the following inscriptions are read, which are said to have been made in the 13th or 14th century, but seem to be of a more recent age. They were first published by Abraham Ortelius and Jean Vivien in their Itinerary through some parts of Gallia Belgica After the works of Peter Divaeus, page 16.; then by Brouwer Annales Trevirenses, book IV, chapter 116, volume I, page 247.; afterwards by Riguet Système de évêques de Toul, page 13.; Fr. Benoît Picard Hist. de Toul, page 211.; Calmet Hist. de Lorraine, volume I, columns 201 and 202.; Auguste Digot L'Espérance, 1 July 1841., Louis Collenot Du martyre de 2,200 chrétiens, page 25. and others. Here first is the French inscription:

Pour lamour du Creatour

Ici en cest lieu et alentour

Nobles barons chevaliers et champions de la foy

De la vie eternelle ayant la soif

Desquels le mirouer et exemplaire

Etait mōs: sct Eucaire

Par Wualdres Sarasīs et paiens

Avec l'apostat Julien

Vingt deux cents par nombre

Sont ici mis en comble

En l'an IIIc LXIII la Xe kalende de May

Furent mis en ceste macthe

Hi felices prœlibati

Juliani gladio sunt truncati.

[For love of the Creator, here in this place and round about, noble barons, knights and champions of the faith, thirsting for eternal life, whose mirror and pattern was Monseigneur St. Eucharius, by Vandals, Saracens and pagans, with Julian the apostate, twenty-two hundred in number are here laid in a heap. In the year 363, on the 10th Kalends of May, they were put in this slaughter. These happy ones aforesaid were cut down by the sword of Julian.]

The Latin one sounds thus:

From the royal lineage of Catalonia

Of Baccius and Lientrude were born

The most noble and most holy persons written below

Namely St. Eucharius, St. Eliphius

St. Libaria, St. Susanna, St. Menna

St. Oda, St. Gertrude, by whose worthy

Suffrages and glorious merits

May we be joined with them in heaven

[19] and a third, of Liverdun, attest. And although below there will have to be a special discussion of Liverdun, let it be permitted to report in this place too the inscription which was formerly read there above the monument of St. Eucharius and has been reported by the aforesaid writers in general:

Lami de Dien et vrai martyr Eucaire

Jadis de Grand evesque debonnaire

Noble de sang fils de Baccil royal

Lan de salut trois cent soixante deux egal

Par Julien jadis empereur des Romains

Dit lapostat pour des faits inhumains

Fit mettre a mort par Dandres et par payens

Vingt deux cent chevaliers chretiens

Pres de Pompey an lien quon dit aux tombes

Des dessus dits le benoit S. Eucaire

Etoit guidon miroir et exemplaire

Par grâce de Dieu son ehef il apporta

A Liverdun comme sa vie le temoigne

Duquel le corps sans quelque doute ancune

Fut inhume et mis en ceste place

Jesus nous donne en paradis la place.

[The friend of God and true martyr Eucharius, once gracious bishop of Grand, noble of blood, son of royal Baccius, in the year of salvation three hundred and sixty-two exactly, by Julian, once emperor of the Romans, called the apostate for his inhuman deeds, there were put to death by Vandals and by pagans twenty-two hundred Christian knights, near Pompey in the place called at the tombs. Of those aforesaid blessed St. Eucharius was the standard-bearer, mirror and pattern. By the grace of God he carried his head to Liverdun, as his life bears witness, of whom the body, without any doubt, was buried and put in this place. Jesus give us a place in paradise.]

It is not worth the trouble to dispute about the many circumstances contained in those inscriptions; for we bring them forward for no other reason than that they may be a testimony to the place in which St. Eucharius died with his companions.

[20] Much more is this evident from the cemetery found in the year 1851 But, you will say, what moment have inscriptions so remote in time from the age of Julian the apostate? The greatest plainly, since the place of martyrdom and burial could not but continue in the memory and veneration of those living near. But receive a firmer reply. When in the year 1851 the railway between Nancy and Metz was being laid, and on this side of the bridge built over the Moselle an embankment had to be raised, it seemed fit to take earth from a neighbouring field, divided into gardens and vineyards, which still has the name champ des tombes field of the tombs. While this was being done, behold there were discovered about six hundred tombs, which had never been disturbed and which contained skeletons, quite well preserved. Some bodies lay covered with bare earth; others among stones; others finally in heavy tombs, covered above with stones; and one tomb was built of bricks. In several tombs there were found brooches, earrings, beads of glass and earthenware; likewise vessels, placed especially at the feet; sometimes also a sword lying at the side; there were found likewise coins of Marcus Agrippa, Postumus and Constans; from the neck of one skeleton there hung by a little chain a coin of Maximian Herculeus; once also two bodies were discovered in one tomb.

[21] of the companions of St. Eucharius, who were beheaded with him: by this finding But, to use now the words of Georges Boulangié [G. Boulangié, ingénieur des ponts et chaussées à Metz, in the journal: Journal de la société archéologique et du comité du musée Lorrain, 1851.], an eye-witness, in a great number of the tombs the heads were separated from the trunks, and lay

sometimes in the middle, sometimes at the feet of the skeletons; in a mound more recently opened the bones of only a single body lay, but two skulls, one at the head, the other at the feet. In one pit there appeared four bodies, at the middle of which four heads had been placed. In one mound, since it was too short to take the body straight, the legs were folded against the head. Finally a certain skull, which is now in the possession of the distinguished V. Petit at Maxéville, contained a mass of melted lead. No inscriptions indeed were found there; but a small square stone, three inches long, marked with an equal-armed cross. We have here therefore a multitude of men, beheaded and sometimes treated in the most cruel way. From the sign of the cross, even if the indications of martyrdom were not abundant, who does not understand that they were Christians? That they lived down to the times of Maximian Herculeus, a coin of whom one of them wore from his neck, who would deny? Does not the presence of that coin suggest that they probably lived even after the times of Constans, or after the year 333 (for without doubt the son of Constantine the Great is to be understood Compare Eckhel, Numi veteres, volume VIII, page 109 and following.)? And thus we are plainly led to the age of Julian the apostate; so that in the archaeological and historical fascicles of Trier Mittheilungen etc. page 77. the title was rightly given to the commentary on these finds: Merkwürdige bestätigung einer Martyrersage Remarkable confirmation of a martyr-legend. And this indeed is the providence of God, that, while very many of the learned devote their effort to denying or mocking all received matters, such monuments should be found by which the triumphs of the holy martyrs are plainly confirmed and established for all time. Recall what we have taught elsewhere about the Theban martyrs Acta SS. volume IX of October, page 156..

[22] the principal circumstances of that martyrdom were wonderfully confirmed. But it seems they must be looked at a little more closely. From the opening of those tombs, in truth, it is not established that the companions of St. Eucharius were two thousand two hundred in number, as is claimed in the French inscription of Pompey; but it is not to be doubted that they were at least six hundred. That among these there were soldiers, as was established from the sword placed beside them, is no wonder, since most certainly through Roman soldiers, as my colleague has already noticed in the commentary on St. Florentinus, bishop of Trier Compare ibid. volume VIII of October, pages 31 and 32., the Christian religion was spread in every direction and especially in Belgica. That very many were beheaded, as is added in Latin at the end of the French inscription, is no less certain from the placing of the heads. In a word the principal circumstances which were reported about the martyrdom of St. Eucharius and his companions were hence made manifest and unshaken. In reporting the journey which about the middle of the month of July of the year 1852 was made in these parts by the president of the republic, afterwards the emperor Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the newspapers everywhere mentioned this finding. As usually happens, some thought one way, others another about it; but these matters are best determined by common prudence. See however the said lucubration of Louis Collenot.

* Bouxieresles-Dames or les-Nonains.

§ IV. The relics at Liverdun; the Vandals repelled; the translations and destruction of the relics; the fortunes of the chapter of Liverdun.

[The translated relics of St. Eucharius are a protection to Liverdun, as is established from the diploma of King Dagobert,] St. Eucharius is reported in the inscription of Liverdun to have carried his head to Liverdun. But on that fiction, which I have pursued with special zeal in the Commentary on St. Bolonia Ibid. volume VII of October, page 819., I have nothing further to remark. Not long after the death of St. Eucharius his body was carried into the church of Liverdun. Liverdun (the form of whose name smacks of the Celtic or Roman age) lies a league and a half to the west of Pompey, likewise on the left bank of the Moselle, on an abrupt hill on which there was formerly a notable fortification of Toul, situated not far to the west. There exists a diploma of the emperor Frederick II Benoît Picard, Histoire de Toul, pages XXXII and XXXIII., given in the year 1225, by which a diploma of Henry VII is confirmed; in which diploma of Henry VII a third of King Arnulf is contained and confirmed: and this very diploma of Arnulf has been published from the archive of Toul by Mabillon [Annales Benedictini, appendix to book XXXIX, number 92, volume III, pages 642 and 643.] and the authors of the new Gallia Christiana Volume XIII, instruments, columns 451 and 452.; which we note for this reason, that some seem to be in two minds about this diploma. Further in the diploma of Arnulf, granted about the year 888, this may be read: Moreover at the intervention of our beloved son Zwentibold and of Vilnorendus (Fr. Benoît reads Vizemundus in the diploma of Frederick), duke, and of the aforesaid bishop (of Toul, Arnold), we order the ancient liberty from the glorious King Dagobert to be, by our corroboration, observed in perpetuity, namely that within four leagues, except the immunity of Liverdun, which is the proper protection of the city and a place of peace, in which St. Eucharius, martyr, is venerated and, besieged by the Vandals, it remained undestroyed, where God, stirring up his power, saved many, and the Vandals, suffering great ruin, perished on account of their iniquities. The privilege of King Dagobert indeed perished afterwards; but there is no one at all who would prudently call it into doubt, being confirmed by so ancient a diploma of King Arnulf.

[24] [against the Vandals, who in the year 407 laid waste these parts, as is established not from the Passion of St. Donatus, who was rather slain by the Huns, but from Salvian.] Nor is there greater reason to doubt the failed attacks of the Vandals. For since on the last day of the year 406, having crossed the Rhine, they entered the Gauls Prosper of Aquitaine, Chronicle, in D. Bouquet, volume I, page 627. and thereafter treated them so inhumanly, it is beyond doubt that they were also in the tract of Toul. There was formerly venerated in the abbey of St. Mansuetus on the 7th day of August St. Donatus or Dodon, martyr, of whom in a diploma which Henry of Lorraine, bishop of Toul, gave in the year 1147, the following is read Benoît Picard, Hist. de Toul, page 214.: It has come to our notice, and we make it known to the memory of the faithful, that in ancient time Donatus, notable in virtue, a monk by profession, in a battle with the Vandals, crushed and pierced by a monstrous whirlwind of missiles, underwent with triumphal blood a voluntary martyrdom for the Lord; and about the river Meurthe, namely near the parish of Domnaebasola , beside the public road between Lunéville and Nancy, by the providence of divine disposition obtained a tomb. But since he was pierced by a whirlwind of missiles or, as is handed down elsewhere, by arrows, and that kind of weapon was not proper to the Vandals, but to the Huns Compare Acta SS. volume IX of October, page 114., I would not dare to trust much to these things; for the rest, I refer the examination of this matter to the 25th day of November, on which there can be treatment of St. Donatus, plainly omitted by our predecessors at the 7th day of August, together with St. Livarius of Metz, killed by the Huns. I prefer therefore to report in this place from book VII of Salvian on Providence a few things about the journey of the Vandals through the Gauls. There was stirred up, he says In D. Bouquet, volume I, page 782., for our destruction and disgrace a nation which, going on from place to place, passing from city to city, should lay all waste. And first it poured forth from its native soil into Germania Prima, barbarian by name, Roman by rule; after whose destruction there first burned the region of the Belgae; and certainly before all else Belgica I, in which the diocese of Toul was contained; then the wealth of the luxuriant Aquitanians; and after these the body of all the Gauls.

[25] The relics of St. Eucharius are more than once translated at Liverdun. The relics of St. Eucharius seem not to have been first deposited in the church in which they afterwards rested. For Fr. Benoît Picard narrates Hist. de Toul, page 209. that St. Gauzelin, who occupied the see of Toul from the year 922 to the year 962 Compare Gallia christ. volume XIII, column 975 and following., raised them from the earlier tomb and translated them to the parish church of St. Peter of Liverdun. Calmet notices Hist. de Lorraine, volume I, column 203. that these things are not read in the Life of St. Gauzelin; and they are not in fact read in the Acts which our predecessors illustrated at the 7th day of September. But I see the monuments of Liverdun praised here and there; so that Fr. Benoît, a diligent man and prudent in writing, is to be thought to have found them in similar charters. Before the year 1184 Pierre de Brixey, prelate of Toul, as we read in the Cedules of each bishop of Toul (this is the title of the book) Ibid. column CCXXVI., also rebuilt the fort of Liverdun and ordered a well to be dug in it, and first placed canons there. Before, that fort stood not on the top of the hill, but on the slope Benoît Picard, Hist. de Toul, page 26.; for which reason, since in the year 1184 there was a church of St. Eucharius in the new fort, holding the relics of the holy martyr, it must have been built together with this fort. There was at that time besides at Liverdun a chapel of the bishop, and the parish church of St. Peter had remained; which was also renewed in the 13th century [Compare Grille de Beuzelin, Rapport sur les monuments historiques des arr. de Nancy et de Toul, page 123.]. Further, when Pierre de Brixey founded the chapter in the church of St. Eucharius, consisting (if Calmet Hist. de Lorraine, volume II, column 550. is to be believed) of a provost, a dean and four canons, he gave to the new institute the episcopal chapel and the church of St. Peter; as will be clear from the diploma to be reported presently. And we note these things for this reason, that these matters are somewhat entangled. But receive now that diploma Benoît Picard, Hist. de Toul, pages XCIII and XCIV..

[26] Before the year 1184 the chapter of St. Eucharius was founded there. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Peter, by the grace of God minister and servant of the holy church of Toul, to all who practise the Christian profession, happily to exchange earthly things for heavenly, things that perish for eternal. The talent of the Lord's money brought back to the Lord without gain is to be feared especially by pastors, who must with diligent care skilfully watch over the building of churches and the enlargement of possessions. Led by this consideration, we have, with the Lord's help, built Liverdun, a very ancient fort of the church of Toul, and for the defence and security of the same fort and also especially for the honouring of the relics of the glorious martyr Eucharius resting there, we have instituted secular canons in the same fort, and have taken care to found the church of blessed Eucharius with possessions and to fortify it with privileges. First therefore we confirm the place itself to be freely possessed by the aforesaid canons our sons by the authority of God and of the blessed apostles and by our own; and that no one may dare to disturb them, their households or possessions by any troubles, or to sadden their houses with enemies, by the same authority we forbid, and if

perhaps (God forbid) it should happen that they or their households offend however enormously, let neither the provost nor any other secular power presume anything in the matter, but let him leave it to be corrected by their dean and finally by the bishop. We establish them and their households free of every ban; and if it should happen (God avert it) that any of the canons dies intestate, let the remaining brethren dispose of his things by the judgement of piety for the salvation of his soul. And whenever the deanship of the aforesaid church shall fall vacant, let the canons, with the counsel of the bishop, have free faculty of electing a dean. And that provisions may come from the altar to those who serve the altar, we confer on them our chapel at Liverdun with its appurtenances, as well in field as in meadow and vineyards; and the tithe of salmon, whether caught by nets or by weir; also the tithe of the mill and the banal oven within the circuit of the walls of the dean's court, and besides the half of our vineyard which is towards St. Martin. We grant them also free use of the water, so that each canon may have one fisherman each in our water without nets; and specially we give them the bend of the water below the fort, which is called the arm of St. Eucharius; led also by fatherly affection, we give them the mill of Campagneium, which we have newly built; the house too with an oven, which we have built in the market of Toul beside the land of St. Gengulph, we give them to possess with such freedom that none of those working at the oven should answer to the bailiff of the city or to any of the officials; but let H. render account before the bishop. Besides, we give them V. modii of wine from the rents of Lucey; also the tithes of Pagny as well of wine as of crops. With the consent also of the abbess and the whole chapter of Bosseres, we have handed over to them the church of Liverdun with its appurtenances, the church of Pompagne * with its appurtenances, the church of Roseres, the church of both Sasireium, to be possessed with such freedom that neither the cathedraticum nor the other things which are customarily rendered to archdeacons be exacted from them: and not only do we confirm to them the things already conferred by us, but also the others which shall henceforth be conferred on the same church, and those which in this very plantation have been conferred by the canons themselves: namely the vineyards of Olric the dean at Barrisnum with a stone house at the little ford and XII pence to be paid annually for the vineyard of Himar his nephew; the vineyards of Hugh de Scropulis, at Lucey, purchased from Henry de Gisencourt and Luciana; the vineyard of Drogo with a meadow and arable land, as much as suits four oxen for the year; the vineyard of Hugh at Bruerum in alms, as much as a cartload of wine can bear; two vineyards at Parneia; the half of Gobert's vineyard at Scropulae; the vineyard of Conon of St. Gengulph at Preama, the vineyard of Peter de Barro at Laperere, with VI jugera of land at Barrivilla and two swathes of meadow at Longa Aqua, the house of Henry de Masnillo with a press and barn, vineyards, meadows, fields, mill and all that they possess; the vineyard of Isembard on the border of Lucey and Bruerium. Whoever therefore shall keep unshaken this page of our devotion, strengthened by the signs and witness of our persons, may he receive a portion with blessed Eucharius the martyr and Gerard the confessor; but whoever with rash boldness shall break it, may he find eternal damnation with Judas the traitor and Caiaphas the slayer. Sign of Richard, abbot of St. Èvre; S. of Theodoric, abbot of St. Mansuetus; S. of Stephen, abbot of St. Leo; S. of Frederick the dean; S. of Albric the archdeacon; S. of Haymo the archdeacon; S. of Hugh the archdeacon. Given at Toul by the hand of Theodoric the chancellor, in the year of the incarnation of the word 1188, indiction second, concurrent VII, epact XVII. The year at the end is badly noted; for it should be read: In the year of the incarnation of the word 1184, indiction second, concurrent VII, epact XVII according to the Egyptians, after the month of September had begun Compare Art de vérifier les dates, volume I, pages XXXV and 24.. The new institute was confirmed by Pope Lucius III D. Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, volume II, column 550., who died on the 24th of November of the year 1185.

[27] [The relics are laid in a new casket; and not in the year 1473 by the marshal of Lorraine, but in the year 1587 by German protestants they are burned. The suppression of the chapter.] That the church of St. Eucharius, founded by Pierre de Brixey, was beautiful, Calmet relates Hist. de Lorraine, volume I, column 203.; on the other hand there did not seem sufficiently beautiful to Gilles de Sorcy, who from the year 1253 to 1271 wore the episcopal fillets at Toul, the casket which Pierre de Brixey had had built to hold the relics. Gilles therefore prepared a much more beautiful one, into which he translated the bones of the holy martyr with the greatest solemnity, in the presence of Frederick or Ferry IV, duke of Lorraine, of Margaret of Navarre, his wife from the year 1255, and of the chief men of the nobility and clergy [Ibid. at the column cited and Fr. Benoît Picard, Hist. de Toul, pages 209 and 210.]. Fr. Benoît Picard at first related Hist. de S. Gerard, page 33. that those relics of St. Eucharius were scattered in the year 1473. For when Louis XI, king of France, had given the town of Epinal or Spinaldum to the marshal of Burgundy, and then had taken it from him and given it to John, duke of Calabria and Lorraine, a most violent enmity blazed up between the two sides and gave occasion to war. The bishop of Toul at that time was Antoine de Neufchâtel, son of the marshal of Burgundy. He, asked in vain by the canons not to allow himself to be mixed up in that dispute, received Burgundian soldiers into the forts of Toul, and thus into Liverdun. The marshal of Lorraine, sent by the duke of Calabria, therefore besieged this place and took it after ten weeks. Four hundred soldiers of the garrison were led away captive; the citizens were expelled from the town; the walls destroyed; booty driven off; the houses set on fire; the archive of the bishops of Toul destroyed by the flames, except that the lord of Fénétrange saved a third part, carried off to the church of St. George at Nancy [D. Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, volume V, columns 271 and 272; Benoît Picard, Hist. de Toul, page 564.]. And certainly in this plundering and burning of the fort the church of St. Eucharius could not but suffer; nevertheless the relics of the holy martyr did not perish then, but in the year 1587, in which the protestants, bursting out of Germany into Lorraine and turning everything upside down, also took and despoiled Liverdun. There came into their hands the reliquary casket, from which they tore away the plates of gold and silver, and they took out all the bones of the martyr and threw them into the fire Hist. de Toul, page 210; Hist. de Lorraine, volume I, column 203.. Yet the cult of St. Eucharius by no means perished, as I see noted by several geographers of the last century. Indeed, when about the year 1700 Henri de Thiard de Bissy united the goods and rights of the chapters of St. Eucharius of Liverdun and St. Nicholas of Brixey to the seminary of Toul, the memory of St. Eucharius took no harm thereby. It was less fortunate when at the end of the 18th century public and sacred affairs were so impiously overturned in France. The church of St. Eucharius does not now seem to exist any longer; certainly Grille de Beuzelin makes absolutely no mention of it Rapport etc. pages 122 and 123.; who similarly omits the cross of St. Eucharius, once erected in the midst of the fields to the north of the town and indicated on the topographical maps of Cassini.

[28] The suppression of the diocese of Toul. And with these things we at length finish the commentaries on the band of saints whom the people of Toul have long since loved to join together and to call brothers and sisters, although no bond seems to have existed among them, except this common intercourse which exists among all Christians, above all those in heaven. These were formerly the chief glory and ornament of the diocese of Toul; which, when all things are now changing, God did not wish to perish, but rather to be confirmed and to grow, by the finding of the cemetery of St. Eucharius and his companions. These things then remain after the abolition of the diocese of Toul, so opulent, so ample, that from it were cut the dioceses of Nancy and Saint-Dié. God grant that these daughters, the one preserved, the other created at the beginning of this century, may have this reverence for their mother, as ever to extol, venerably to honour, and with the greatest confidence to implore SS. Eucharius, Eliphius and the others, once so celebrated in those places and as it were fathers or certainly most strong champions of the Christian religion.

* Dombale.

* Luneville.

* Pompey.