Ferrutius

ON ST. FERRUTIUS, MARTYR, AT MAINZ,

AROUND THE YEAR CCC.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Ferrutius, soldier and martyr, at Mainz in Germany (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ I. His memory in the sacred calendars; how it was admitted into the Roman Martyrology. Verses inscribed on his tomb and enlarged by Riculf. Others of Blessed Rabanus. The Passion written by Meginhard of Fulda. The ancient Mainz lection.

The name of St. Ferrutius, which was formerly scarcely known outside the diocese of Mainz, [The name of St. Ferrutius, martyr of Mainz, formerly inserted in a few auctaria of the Martyrologies of Ado and Usuard,] has now through the Roman Martyrology of Baronius become famous in all churches. For it is inscribed in no ancient martyrologies, not even in that of Rabanus, who wrote two epigrams in his honor. Baronius believed that the memory of this martyr was brought into his Martyrology by Ado; but wrongly. For Rosweyde understood Vet. Rom. Mart. et Adonis Martyrologium, page 212. with the aid of more ancient codices that the words which are read in the edition of Mosander: On the same day, of St. Ferrutius, martyr, are an extraneous addition. As the memory of St. Ferrutius was added to a few more recent codices of Ado, so too with those of Usuard; namely to the codex of Alberghen, or of the canonry of St. Antony in Alberghen, in the diocese of Utrecht, written for the use of the Friars Minor; then to the Danish codex, penned in the fourteenth century likewise for the use of the Friars Minor; to the Lübeck-Cologne edition of the year 1475; to the two of Greven of the beginning of the sixteenth century; and finally, with an error of one day, at the 29th of October to the codex of Hagenoy, copied in the year 1412. I omit Ferrarius, who in the General Catalogue of the saints at the 1st day of January announced at Mainz in Germany the natal day or translation of St. Ferrutius, martyr, as though following the ecclesiastical tables of Mainz, that is the liturgical calendar; but Bolland has already shown that Ferrarius erred Acta SS. volume I of January, page 2.. And indeed in the calendar of the Breviary of Mainz of the year 1570 St. Ferrutius is plainly passed over at that day, nor did the people of Mainz do anything in his honor on that day. Yet if Ferrarius did not find this in the Mainz books, it may be that he found it in those of Bleidenstadt: for to Bleidenstadt, as we shall see in its place, his relics were translated in the eighth century by St. Lullus. Ado enlarged, printed under the name of Bede in the year 1564 by Plantin, and from there Galesinius, Walasser, Molanus in the earlier edition and Ferrarius mention at the 4th day of January St. Ferrutius, martyr Ibid. page 162., whom Galesinius and Ferrarius, because he is announced after St. Dafrosa, Roman martyr, said underwent martyrdom at Rome. But in place of Ferrutius Ferreolus is to be read, namely of Uzès Compare Solerius, Martyrology of Usuard, page 11..

[2] [was admitted by Baronius into the Roman Martyrology and by others into other more recent hagiographic books.] Since then in those auctaria of Ado and Usuard the bare name of St. Ferrutius, martyr, is contained, the designation of the arena being omitted, Molanus did not dare to bring it into his earlier edition of Usuard; but after Surius in the fifth volume of the Histories of the saints had published the treatise of Meginhard on St. Ferrutius, in his later edition he announced the natal day of the most blessed martyr in these words: On the same day, the commemoration of St. Ferrutius, martyr, whom Lullus, archbishop of Mainz, moved by most celebrated miracles, translated with great honor to the monastery of Laetantium, which they call Bleidenstadt. Whence Baronius, following the Ado of Mosander, the Usuard of Molanus and the Histories of the saints of Surius, inserted in the Roman Martyrology this brief memorial: At Mainz, of St. Ferrutius, martyr; which Cardinal de Noailles omitted in his Parisian Martyrology, although the church of Mainz is reckoned to belong to the Gauls. On the contrary Peter de Rochechouart in the Martyrology of Évreux, which he caused to be printed in the year 1752, amplified the same in this manner: At Mainz, of St. Ferrutius, who, having left military service that he might serve Christ more freely, seized by his commander and sent to prison, worn out by hunger, thirst and other hardships, fell. A brief account of his life is read among the Lives of the saints of Adrian Baillet, in the Ecclesiastical Memoirs of Tillemont, in the German, French and Belgian editions of the Lives of the saints of Butler, in the hagiographic or ecclesiastical lexicons of V. Petin, John Stadler, Cajetan Moroni and others.

[3] [His martyrdom is known first of all from verses inscribed on his tomb and enlarged by Archbishop Riculf;] Now all that we know of the blessed martyr is drawn from three springs: namely from the inscription, written on his tomb and enlarged at the beginning of the ninth century by Archbishop Riculf; from the two epigrams of Blessed Rabanus Maurus, which I have already mentioned above, and from the treatise of Meginhard, which I have similarly indicated. Yet these three springs can be reduced to one, since the two latter are only rivulets of the first. Meginhard twice mentions this inscription; namely at number 13 he speaks thus: The body of this most blessed man, then, a presbyter named Eugenius, with the assistance of Berengarius, having gathered it with the greatest diligence, entombed at Castellum, and composed an inscription touching the matter in summary, hoping in the resurrection to have a part with him whom he had attended with the offices of humanity even when dead; and in chapter XII: From the letters of the mausoleum, then, in which the most sacred and healing bones are laid up, this blessed man is known to have stayed at Mainz, and by divine love to have loosed the military belt, and to have dedicated his arms to the sacred altars, being thereafter to live for Christ. Which words may stand in place of a commentary on the first six verses of the following epigram Serarius, Rerum Moguntinarum volume I, page 146, edit. Joannis.: (the last four are evidently Riculf's.)

EGREGIVS MERITIS PAVSAT FERRVTIVS ISTIC.

CINGVLA MILITIÆ CHRISTI QVI VERTIT AD ARAM.

IDCIRCO EST PŒNIS MARTYR MACERATVS ACERBIS,

PER MENSES BIS TER VINCLIS ET CARCERE CLAVSVS,

SPIRITVS ÆTHEREAM DONEC SVSCENDIT * IN AVLAM.

EVGENIVS, BARGER * CONDERVNT OSSA SEPVLCRO.

POST LEVITA HVMILIS RICHOLFVS CONDIDIT ISTA,

QVAM CERNIS, LECTOR, SIGNAS ET * CARMINE TVMBAM.

PRO QVO QVISQVE LEGIS VERSVS, DIC SVPPLICE VOTO:

CHRISTE, TVI FAMVLI SEMPER MISERERE, PRECAMVR.

[Ferrutius, excellent in merits, rests here. He turned the belts of military service to the altar of Christ. Therefore the martyr was wasted by bitter punishments, shut up in bonds and prison for twice three months, until his spirit ascended into the heavenly court. Eugenius and Barger laid his bones in the tomb. Afterwards the humble Levite Richolf built these things, and marks with verse * the tomb which you behold, reader. For him, whoever you are who read these verses, say with suppliant prayer: Christ, have mercy ever on your servant, we pray.]

[4] the same is celebrated by Blessed Rabanus Maurus in two epigrams; When Riculf set down these verses, the relics of St. Ferrutius had already long since been translated from the neighborhood of Mainz to the monastery of Bleidenstadt; which the archbishops of Mainz were seen to honor in emulation. Blessed Rabanus Maurus, himself too archbishop of Mainz and a client of St. Ferrutius, mentions these things in the following epigram, inscribed on a new chest [Carmina of Rabanus Maurus, sect. I, number CVI, in Migne, Patrologia latina, volume CXII, column 1639.].

THEREFORE LULLUS, PRELATE AND HONOR OF THE CITY,

LONG AGO BROUGHT HERE THE BONES OF THE SACRED MARTYR FERRUTIUS.

AFTER THIS RICULPH, AND HAISTULPH, HIMSELF TOO A PRELATE,

ENLARGE THE HALL, BUILD THE TOMB.

THEIR SUCCESSOR, THE LOWLY RABANUS, AFTER THE PATTERN

OF HIS ELDERS, MADE THIS CHEST AND INSCRIPTION.

Blessed Rabanus also composed this other epigram, in which the praises of St. Ferrutius are contained Ibid. number CVII.:

Great honor stands everywhere for the worshippers of Christ,

Especially those who have laid down their life for him.

For of these one was the kind and fitting Ferrutius,

Martyr, bearing witness with Alban his companion;

To whom Christ has given as rewards for blood poured out

Eternal life and the realms above in heaven.

Rabanus published these verses, compelled by love

Of the Saints: to whom, almighty God, have mercy.

[5] it is narrated at length by Meginhard, monk of Fulda, Some time afterwards Adalger, abbot of Bleidenstadt, sorrowing that he did not have the Passion of the patron of his monastery, often approached on that matter Meginhard, called abbot in the codex of Böddeken, but whom now all agree

to have been a monk of Fulda [Mabillon, Annales Bened. book XXV, number 75, volume II, page 267; Tillemont, Mémoires ecclésiastiques, volume V, page 233, edit. Brux.; D. Rivet, Hist. litt. de France, volume V, page 272; Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, page 161, edit. 1866.], a disciple of Rudolf, one of the writers of the Annals of Fulda, who after the death of his master, recorded on the 8th day of March of the year 865, completed the history of the translation of St. Alexander, begun by Rudolf Pertz, Monumenta Germaniæ, volume II, page 673 and following.. Probably of nearly the same time is the Sermon which Meginhard, conquered by the urgent requests of Adalger, wrote. But he, since there existed no ancient Acts, understood by experience how difficult it was to adorn that task. Having nothing then before his eyes but the old inscription, proposed by us above at number 3, he wrote a sermon or treatise on the praise of martyrdom both in the midst of persecutions, and in the peace of the church; then passing to St. Ferrutius, he explains his martyrdom according to the said inscription and finally narrates what great honors were shown him on account of the frequency of miracles by St. Lullus, Riculf, Haistulf and Blessed Rabanus, archbishops of Mainz. The character of the writing, then, is moral rather than historical and contains more words than things; in which however, in the judgment of Tillemont and Rivet, the author shows the highest skill and talent, so that few writings of this age can be compared with that Sermon, if piety is regarded and a certain spiritual unction. Nor is knowledge of ancient books absent; so that, if nothing of Meginhard's writings survived besides this treatise, a distinguished place would have to be granted him among the more learned monks of Fulda of those times. We omit further things, since we are about to publish this writing below. This Adrian Baillet and the German and Belgian editors of the Lives of the Saints of Butler followed in their Lives of St. Ferrutius, except that they clung the more tenaciously to the commentaries of Tillemont; Baillet however more than the others.

[6] and briefly in the Breviary of Mainz of the year 1590. It pleases me finally to subjoin the lection which was formerly in use in the cathedral church of Mainz and in the whole diocese: for on account of the feast of the Apostles Simon and Jude it was not permitted to celebrate the natal day of St. Ferrutius except with a simple rite. But receive this lection, drawn from the Breviary of the year 1590: On the same day, namely on which the natal day of the apostles Simon and Jude is kept, there is celebrated the commemoration of St. Ferrutius, martyr; who, having left the military belt, is handed down by our elders to have lived at Mainz, and from there to have been shut up in prison at Castellum across the Rhine. Where, deprived of all human solace until the seventh month, worn out by fasting, filth and squalor, he rested in the Lord, entombed by Eugenius the priest. A long time afterwards blessed Lullus, archbishop of Mainz, moved by very frequent miracles, translated him with great honor to the monastery of Laetantium (which they call Bleidenstadt): and both he and the following archbishops attended the place with the greatest liberality. In the Breviaries of Würzburg, published in the years 1507 and 1575, the feast of St. Ferrutius is appointed at the 29th day of October with three lections from the common of one martyr. But after the Roman rite was introduced, in the proper Offices of the church of Würzburg (we have a copy of the year 1625) a ninth lection on St. Ferrutius was inserted, drawn from the writing of Meginhard, no longer at the 29th, but at the 28th of October.

* surrexit (Ioannis.) rose (Joannis.)

* Barnger?

* signatam. marked.

§ II. Whether military service was unlawful for the early Christians; how it came about that St. Ferrutius was held a martyr; at what time he cast away the belt and died.

It is very obscure at what time St. Ferrutius suffered Of the passion of St. Ferrutius two questions seem possible: the one, why, having cast off the belt of military service, he came to the penalties of prison; the other when these things took place. [; this question is to be defined by the occasion of the martyrdom or the laying down of the military belt.] It is placed beyond controversy that the blessed man was condemned to prison,

Because he turned the belts of military service to the altar of Christ;

which Meginhard explains at length. But he adds that it is uncertain whether the prefect of the city, a most unjust judge, was a Christian or a heathen; and Blessed Rabanus seems to make St. Ferrutius a companion of St. Alban the martyr, who seems to have come to Mainz under Theodosius I, at the beginning of the fifth century or later in it, and to have experienced bloody hands there Acta SS. volume I of June, page 88 and following.. For in the verses recited, after praising the martyrs in general, he thus continues:

For of these one was the kind and fitting Ferrutius,

Martyr, bearing witness with Alban his companion.

To these it is added that the name of the man who gave help to Eugenius the presbyter in entombing the body of the holy martyr is said by Meginhard to have been Berengarius; which name, of German origin, came into use among the Romans only late. Tillemont therefore thinks that it could easily have happened that St. Ferrutius suffered under Valentinian I, under whose rule other martyrs were slain. However these things may seem to cohere among themselves, since certain marks of time are lacking and must be supplied by indications and signs, it is manifest that the cause and the time of the martyrdom cannot be separated, but that both must be inquired into together.

[8] [From the barbarian name of Berengarius nothing can be defined, since in the third century many Germans were already Christians and even presbyters; likewise nothing from the verses of Blessed Rabanus.] But first a few things are to be observed about the name of Berengarius and the verses of Blessed Rabanus. First of all that name in the inscription on the tomb was read in the ninth century, or certainly before the Thirty Years' War, as Barger; and in this verse:

Eugenius, Barger, conderunt ossa sepulcro Eugenius and Barger laid the bones in the tomb

it could not consist of other than two syllables. But Barger seems to be a corrupt form or an error of the stonecutter. It was without doubt written Barnger or Barger: by which Meginhard rightly said that Berengarius is represented in the common form. But at Mainz, as in all the towns on the Rhine, Germans were mingled with Romans, as appears from the surviving inscriptions themselves [Compare Steiner, Codex inscriptionum Romanarum Rheni, volume II, pages 237 and 238.]. It pleases me to report a very brief inscription from Mainz Ibid. volume I, page 268.:

ATTILIO SVO

FOLKMARVS

That the Christian faith was already in the second century admitted by very many Germans cannot be denied, unless credence be taken away from St. Irenaeus and Tertullian, most well-known witnesses Compare Acta Sanctorum, volume VIII of October, page 26 and following.. Nor were barbarians excluded from the priesthood, as Vereca the presbyter and Bathuses, minister of the catholic church, who under Vinguric or Athanaric and Fridigern, princes of the Goths, in the fourth century of Christ were slain for the catholic faith and are inscribed in the Gothic calendar Mai, Scriptt. Vett. volume V, part I, page 66. at the 29th day of June, and in other calendars at the 26th of March or other days [Compare Acta SS. volume III of March, page 619; volume II of April, page 86 and following.]. But Barnger is not even said to have been of the clergy. Nor are the verses of Blessed Rabanus of great moment for persuading that St. Ferrutius gave his life for Christ together with St. Alban. For Blessed Rabanus wished to signify only this, that SS. Ferrutius and Alban, patrons of Mainz, were of the number of the holy martyrs. But the prelate of Mainz did not at all strive to pursue accuracy of words. For St. Ferrutius did not lay down his life for Christ, much less shed his blood; but with piety met death in prison. Nor has anyone of the ancients or moderns, as Colvenerius has long since observed In annot. on poem CVII sect. I, Opp. volume VI, column 1640, edit. Migne., enrolled St. Ferrutius in a fellowship of palm with St. Alban.

[9] [Nor is the loosing of the belt by St. Martin or by St. Victricius an argument that St. Ferrutius died in the times of Valentinian I, as Tillemont hints.] These things removed, then, nothing remains by which the age of the blessed martyr may be defined, except the cause and manner of the martyrdom. But these are not a little difficult. Tillemont, pressing on the doubt of Meginhard whether the prefect of the city and most unjust judge was a Christian or a heathen: And this very thing, he says Art. cit. page 233., we should wish to know: for it would not be without moment that not St. Martin alone, even under Christian rulers, preferred death to the dangers of military service; that commanders went to such a point of savagery as to drive a man to this extremity; and that this cruelty was not foreign to Valentinian I, the author of other martyrdoms; and that this holy pertinacity was crowned by God. But St. Martin served two years after receiving baptism, overcome by the prayers of his tribune; nor did he ask for discharge until the distribution of a donative seemed a suitable occasion. And then he did not say to Caesar that he could not serve on account of the dangers to his soul, but because he was a soldier of Christ God [Sulpicius Severus, de Vita S. Martini, chapter IV, Opp. volume I, pages 9 and 10, edit. de Prato.]. And when on the morrow battle was to be joined, by a singular providence of God he was freed from those perplexities, without either serving or contumaciously casting off the belt. The deed of St. Martin, then, by no means pertains here; so that it seems likely to me that so accurate a writer rather thought of the example of St. Victricius, archbishop of Rouen and apostle of the Morini. Which surely would fit better, if it were manifestly established that the blessed man did not renounce military service in the times of Julian the Apostate, when snares were continually laid for the religion of Christian soldiers. But it is commonly judged that St. Victricius laid down his arms under the rule of Julian; certainly the tribune who consigned him to prison and afflicted him with most bitter torments was sacrilegious and vehemently opposed to the Christian faith, as is learned from the letter of St. Paulinus, from which alone we know the fortunes of St. Victricius Compare Acta SS. Belgii, volume I, page 382 and following.. Yet by that same St. Paulinus St. Victricius is especially praised because he shrank from the shedding of blood: Before the feet, he says Ibid. loc. cit., of the sacrilegious tribune, exchanging the oaths of military service, you cast away the arms of blood, that you might put on the arms of peace, scorning to be armed with iron, because you were armed with Christ. But as to Tillemont bringing forward martyrdoms that took place in the times of Valentinian I, this assertion surely fell from an imprudent pen. In very truth that emperor was of a most severe character, nor did he allow the sins of soldiers to go unpunished [Compare Tillemont, Mémoires des Empereurs, Valentinien I, art. 7 and 8, volume V, page 7, edit. Brux.]; but he is accused of the slaying of no martyr by Tillemont himself, where he explains his deeds one by one; unless perhaps you should call martyrdom the killing of the presbyter of Epirus, who Octavian, formerly proconsul and sought by Valentinian

[Compare Tillemont, Mémoires des Empereurs, Valentinien I, art. 26, pages 26 and 27.], had hidden. All these things, then, are very light.

[10] [It is by no means doubtful that for the early Christians military service was lawful and desertion culpable, as is clear from the oath and from the sayings of councils, of martyrs] But we must return to SS. Martin, Victricius and Paulinus. Be it then that those three most blessed men were persuaded that it was not lawful to shed human blood even in a just war, under the rule of Christian princes; this surely lacks all authority. For when they followed this opinion, either in act or in writing, the three were still laymen, little learned in Christian doctrine. Other surely were the institutions of bishops and councils. In very truth I should not think that in the writings of the Fathers older than the peace of the church any place will be found where it is openly said that Christians may serve; nor in those most foul times was military service easily to be counseled to anyone. But Christian soldiers are often praised, either because they had done some brilliant deed, or because they had been unwilling to stain themselves with idolatry, or because they were a testimony of the homeland loved by Christians [Compare Mamachi, Origines Christianæ, volume I, page 370 and following; volume III, page 303 and following.]. Since then presbyters and bishops abstained from exhorting the faithful to take up arms, and some, perverting the doctrine of Christian mildness or of renunciation of the world, said openly that it was not lawful for a Christian to handle the arts of war, hence it came about at times that some Christian soldiers in the highest simplicity (as we shall presently demonstrate) loosed the belt and refused to serve. But when peace was restored to the church and better times shone forth, in the first council of Arles, which was held in the year 314, by the intervention of Constantine, by the bishops of the whole West, concerning those who cast away their arms in peace (of the church), it was decided that they be kept from communion Compare Aubespine, De vett. eccl. ritibus observationes, page 585, edit. 1672.. Nor did the council of Nicaea define anything contrary to these things in canon XII; by which canon, as Petavius clearly shows Dissertat. eccles. book II, chapter 2, number 5., there were condemned only those who, having recently, in the persecution of Licinius, made an honorable and glorious confession (so that on account of the name of Christ they had been stripped of their military belts and deprived of service), afterwards returned to their vomit, that is to that infamous military service joined with the denial of Christ: when, in order to recover it, they obeyed the mandate of the emperor. On these apostate confessors, then, if they returned to a better harvest, there was imposed a penance of three years among the hearers and ten among the prostrate. By no means then does this canon pertain to soldiers serving in a Christian manner, but to a singular kind of apostates. And the council of Arles with full right established grave penalties against deserters; since arms could not be cast away, not only without violation of the most just laws and the highest danger and detriment to the commonwealth, but also only by breaking the oath, by which they had solemnly sworn that they would assemble at the order of the consul or emperor, and would not depart without his order [Livy III, 30, and XXII, 38. Compare Becker and Marquardt, Handbuch der römischer Alterthümer, volume III, part II, pages 291 and 292.]. Rightly then St. Maurice said to the emperor Maximian in the name of the Theban legion Ruinart, Acta sincera martyrum, pages 276 and 277, edit. 1713.: We are your soldiers, emperor: but yet servants, which we freely confess, of God; to you we owe military service, to him innocence… We swore first by the divine oaths; we swore then by the royal oaths: you need not believe us at all about the second, if we break through the first.

[11] and above all of St. Augustine, refuting the gentiles, Manichaeans and others. And in many places, which Christian Lupus has diligently collected [Diss. de antiq. discip. christ. militiæ, chapter IV, in Opp. omn. volume XI, pages 106 and 107.], St. Augustine teaches that it is plainly unlawful to leave military service without the order of the emperors. This one place we shall bring forward, where he vindicates the Christian religion against the pagans, as though it were pernicious to the Roman Empire and were bringing on its destruction. He writes then to Count Marcellinus Epist. CXXXVIII, chapter 2, Opp. volume II, column 531.: If the Christian discipline blamed all wars, this would rather be said in the Gospel to soldiers asking counsel of salvation, that they should cast away their arms and withdraw themselves altogether from military service. But it was said to them: "Extort from no one, calumniate no one, let your pay suffice you." Those whom he commanded that their own pay ought to suffice, he certainly did not forbid to serve. Accordingly let those who say that the doctrine of Christ is hostile to the commonwealth give such an army as the doctrine of Christ has commanded soldiers to be; let them give such provincials, such husbands, such wives, such parents, such sons, such masters, such slaves, such kings, such judges, such finally payers of debts and collectors of the treasury itself as the Christian doctrine has commanded them to be, and let them dare to say that it is hostile to the commonwealth; rather let them hesitate to confess that it is, if it be obeyed, the great salvation of the commonwealth. And this is the most certain Christian doctrine, ordering that the things that are Caesar's be rendered to Caesar, and those that are God's to God. Nor is a distinction to be made whether the prince is a Christian or not, since, as that same Augustine explains in the Commentary on the Psalms, by baptism the first servitude, even under a heathen prince, is not dissolved: What I have said, he says On Ps. CXXIV, number 7, Opp. volume IV, column 1654., of master and slave, understand this of powers and kings, and of all the summits of this world. For sometimes the powers are good and fear God, sometimes they do not fear God. Julian was an unbelieving emperor. Was he not an apostate, unjust, an idolater? Christian soldiers served an unbelieving emperor. When it came to the cause of Christ, they recognized only him who was in heaven. When he wished them to worship idols, to offer incense, they set God before him. But when he said: "Draw up the battle line, go against that nation," they at once obeyed. They distinguished the eternal lord from the temporal lord. Yet on account of the eternal lord they were subject also to the temporal lord.

[12] [Before the peace of the church a few teachers, with Tertullian leading, seem to have taught that military service was unlawful for Christians;] But before the Christian religion had occupied the throne of the Roman Empire, neither the faithful soldiers nor even Christian teachers were altogether unanimous. Origen in book VIII, number 74, against Celsus Opp. omnia, volume IV, column 1027. openly teaches that military service does not agree with the Christian profession and that Christians cannot contend for the Emperor except by prayers; but he does not seem to agree sufficiently with himself everywhere [Compare Mamachi, Origines Christianæ, volume III, page 304; Hugo Grotius, de Jure belli et pacis, book I, chapter 2, sect. 9.]. St. Cyprian, writing to Donatus, mocks those who would have war lawful: And homicide, he says Epist. II., when individuals commit it, is a crime; it is called virtue, when it is carried on publicly! Similarly Lactantius in the sixth book of the Divine Institutes Epitome institut. divin. chapter 4. contends that in the precept of God (You shall not kill) no exception at all ought to be made; whom however Petavius has tried to purge of error Dissert. eccl. book II, chapter II, number 8 and following.. But the same Petavius concedes Biblioth. Patrum, volume IV, columns 908 and 909. that Titus of Bostra strayed from the truth on this head; on the contrary Mamachi denies it Diss. eccl. book II, chapter II, number 7., affirming that Titus speaks of an unjust war; but in this kind of apologies there is often more of subtlety than of zeal for naked and simple truth. But Tertullian went before all these; who, when he had rightly written in the book Apologeticum Origines christianæ, volume III, pages 309 and 310.: We too sail with you, and with you serve as soldiers, and farm and trade, afterwards, when he had turned aside to more severe tenets and determined that nearly all the usages of the gentiles, which he could in any way twist to a depraved sense, were unlawful for Christians, condemned military service too in the books on Idolatry and on the Soldier's Crown. In this one he thus discourses Chapter XI, Opp. omnia, volume II, columns 91 and 92, edit. Migne.: It must be inquired whether military service at all befits Christians. Do we believe it lawful for a human oath to be set over a divine one, and to answer to another lord after Christ? And to forswear father and mother, and every neighbor, whom both the law commands to be honored and to be loved after God, whom the Gospel too, holding them of more worth only than Christ, has so honored? Will it be lawful to busy oneself with the sword, when the Lord declares that he who uses the sword will perish by the sword? And will the son of peace labor in battle, for whom it is not fitting even to go to law? And will he administer chains, and prisons, and tortures, and punishments, who is not the avenger even of his own injuries? Now will he do guard duties for others rather than for Christ? Or even on the Lord's day, when not for Christ? And will he keep watch before temples, which he has renounced? And will he dine there, where it does not please the Apostle? And those whom by day he has put to flight with exorcisms, will he defend by night, leaning and resting on the javelin by which the side of Christ was pierced? Will he also carry the standard, rival of Christ? And will he ask for a sign from the prince, who has already received one from God? Even dead will he be disturbed by the trumpet of the bugler, who expects to be roused by the trumpet of the angel? And will a Christian be cremated by the discipline of the camp, whom it was not permitted to cremate, to whom Christ has remitted the deserts of fire? How many other things may be seen in the offenses of the duties of the camp, to be interpreted as transgression? The very carrying of the name from the camp of light into the camp of darkness is transgression. These sixteen reasons Lupus has explained Diss. cit. vol. cit. pages 101 and 102.; at the end of which he concludes his discourse in these words: Of these reasons some are firm; some have little or no weight; to none certainly belongs this force, that it should be unlawful to draw pay under gentile princes, much less under Christian princes.

[13] [yet Tertullian conceded that soldiers who had professed military service before baptism could persevere in it.] Tertullian himself perceived this, conquered however rather by the common discipline of Christians, than clinging faithfully to his tenets and principles. He conceded then that it is not altogether necessary that a soldier, when he becomes a Christian, should renounce his condition and state, but that it is enough if, when ordered to do unlawful things, he evades or takes care not to commit anything against God, and thus at last suffers for God. Plainly, he says Chapter XI, column cited above., if the faith has found afterwards any who were already occupied in military service, the condition is different, as of those whom John admitted to the laver; as of the most faithful centurions, whom Christ approves and whom Peter catechizes: provided however that, the faith being taken up and sealed, either he must at once desert

(as was done by many), or he must evade by all means, lest anything be committed against God, which are not permitted even by military service, or at last suffer for God, which the faith of the civilian or non-military has equally stipulated. For military service does not promise impunity of offenses or immunity from martyrdoms. Nowhere is a Christian anything else. One Gospel and one Jesus: who will deny every denier, and confess every confessor of God, and will save the soul lost for his name, and on the contrary will lose that held as gain against his name. With him the faithful civilian * is as much a soldier, as the unfaithful soldier is a civilian; that is, a faithful rustic or city dweller is a soldier of God, as the emperor's soldier, unfaithful to God, is not judged enrolled in the divine military service.

[14] [Soldiers who refused to answer to the names or to be enrolled in military service,] Very many Christian soldiers, then, following this more severe doctrine, and one plainly at war with itself, deserted military service; but from their history it appears that these were always very few in number. And indeed when that soldier, on whose occasion Tertullian wrote the book on the Soldier's Crown, had approached to receive the donative with bare head, the crown idle in his hand, the Roman pontiff and the other catholics vehemently disapproved his deed, certain that military service was not forbidden, nor that any gentile rite clung to crowns, unless an idolatrous signification should be ascribed to all indifferent things; and so in that whole book the Roman clergy and catholics are refuted, who had spat out the prophecies of the Montanist Holy Spirit. Some names of those whose natal day is inscribed in liturgical books Christian Lupus has collected Op. cit. chapter 3, page 100 and following.; all of whom suffered under Galerius, Licinius, Diocletian and Julian the Apostate, who tried by force or snares to entice Christian soldiers to take part in idolatrous things, namely St. Hesychius under Galerius; SS. Ursacius, Argaeus, Narcissus, Marcellinus, Gordius and Theogenes under Licinius; SS. Eudoxius, Zeno and Macarius with 1004 companions under Diocletian and St. Victricius under Julian the Apostate: but I omit very many others, seeking only this, whether many (if they are compared with the rest) cast away the belt and why some refused military service. Of them one is very illustrious, St. Maximilian, who in the year 295 at Theveste in Numidia, since he was the son of a veteran and therefore liable to military service, because with undevoted mind he had refused the military oath, was punished with the sword Ruinart, Acta SS. MM. page 301.. Before he brought this sentence, Dion the proconsul had said to him: "In the sacred retinue of our lords Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius and Maximus there are Christian soldiers and they serve." Maximilian had answered: "They themselves know what is expedient for them. But I am a Christian, and I cannot do evil." And when the leaden token had been offered, he had answered: "I do not accept the token. I already have the sign of Christ my God." Being asked what evils soldiers did, he had answered: "For you know what they do." So he seems to have read the writings of Tertullian. But his father, who was also a Christian, thought plainly otherwise, as one who had prepared a garment for his son for military service. But at Cyzicus on the Hellespont St. Theogenes, a Phrygian by nation, forced into military service, refused to serve Licinius Acta SS. volume I of January, pages 134 and 135., whom he did not know; that he was a Christian, for whom it was not fitting to serve this world, which he had renounced; that he could not deny that the king whom he served was eternal. To which when the tribune had said: "Behold all these too who stand by are Christian soldiers and yet they serve!" he answered: "Each one knows how he serves; I too know what king I serve."

[15] [and those who cast away the belt of military service were few in number, compared with the Christian soldiers faithfully observing their oath.] These had not yet served. But St. Marcellus the centurion, who suffered around the year 298 at Tangier in Africa and whose Acts we shall give at the 30th day of October, had long since drawn pay; but he loosed his belt and threw away his vine-staff and his arms, because on the emperor's birthday he was unwilling to take part in the profane banquet, saying Ruinart, Acta sincera martyrum, page 303.: "If such is the condition of those serving that they are compelled to do sacrifice to the gods and emperors: behold I throw away the vine-staff and the belt; I renounce the standards and refuse to serve." But afterwards he professed the tenets of Tertullian, that he was a Christian and could not serve this (military) oath, except to Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father almighty; that he had thrown away his arms; for it did not befit a Christian man to serve in worldly troubles, who serves Christ the Lord. Thus far then he had kept the vine-staff, the insignia of centurions, although it was held sacred to Bacchus Compare Petiscus, Lexicum antiquit. under the word Vitis.. Nor did St. Marinus refuse it, whose martyrdom Eusebius narrated Hist. eccles. book VII, chapter 15.; as one who, on account of the contention about the vine-staff, which he was ready to accept, was accused of the Christian religion by an envious soldier. St. Tarachus too had for some time professed military service Acta SS. volume V of October, page 567.; but because he was a Christian, he had renounced military service. Being asked then how he had withdrawn from military service, he said: "I asked the prince Publio and he discharged me." Which was an altogether probable reason.

[16] In common times Roman soldiers were ordered to do nothing against true piety; From these places, then, where you might have expected that no or few Christians entered military service or persevered in it, it appears on the contrary that they were many in number, and that Tertullian did not rashly say in the Apologeticum Chapter 37, Opp. volume I, column 462, edit. Migne.: We are of yesterday and have filled all that is yours,… fortresses,… the very camps. Indeed Edmond Le Blant Inscriptions chrétiennes des Gaules, volume I, page 84 and following., who in 10,050 inscriptions of gentiles found 545 of soldiers, or more than a twentieth part, and in 4,734 inscriptions of Christians only 27 of soldiers, or scarcely a two-hundredth part, confesses that nothing can be gathered from this, since those who did not like to inscribe on tombs that a servant of God had served men, no less shrank from cutting in marble that a soldier of Christ had served Caesar, esteeming highly this one praise which was eternal. Nor does anyone Compare Lami, De eruditione apostolorum, page 295 and following. doubt that the number of Christian soldiers was very great. And indeed, although military service was never free of dangers to the soul, not St. Martin alone so lived in it that already at that time he was thought not a soldier, but a monk Sulpicius Sev. Life of Blessed Martin, chapter 2.. Many then flourished with most holy morals, ready always rather to shed their blood than to take part in idolatrous rites. Among them very many burned exceedingly to propagate the Christian faith; so that through the Roman legions the divine seed was sown and planted through the whole Empire. Nor in ordinary times was any force brought on them to accomplish anything against the honor of the one God; since without the highest freedom of religion the Roman legions could not subsist, as they contained many averse to the native gods, and even Jews. For down to the persecution stirred up by Galerius, the emperors, says Eusebius Eusebius, Hist. eccl. book VIII, chapter 1., committed to ours even the government of provinces, freeing them from all fear of sacrificing on account of the singular benevolence with which they were disposed toward our religion… To their household servants and their wives, children and slaves they gave power of freely carrying out in their presence, both in words and deeds, the things that belonged to their religion.

[17] nor was there anything not approvable in the military oath; Next in the common military oath there could be nothing of superstition, since no one, neither writer nor martyr, disapproves it, except in so far as one already bound to Christ should wish to bind himself to a mortal man: but this was the persuasion of few. It was necessary then that in the formula of the military oath neither images Compare Acts of the Martyrs of Lyons, chapter 14, in Ruinart, page 79., nor standards Compare Hier. de Prato, Sulpicii Severi opera, volume I, page 327., nor the public genii or those of the emperors Compare Tertullian, Apologeticus, chapter 32., nor their fortune Compare Acts of St. Polycarp, in Ruinart, page 34. should be invoked; since these oaths would rightly seem superstitious to Christians and Jews. But the oath by the health of the emperors Tertullian approves Apologeticus, chapter 32. and St. Marcian the martyr used Acts of SS. Marcian and Nicander, in Ruinart, page 552.; by the head of the emperor St. Potamiaena, virgin of Alexandria, swore Acts of St. Potamiaena, in Ruinart, page 123.; by the majesty of the emperor Christian soldiers swore under Valentinian II Vegetius, De re militari, book II, chapter 5. and finally in the council of Ephesus by the piety and victory of the emperors Zeno the chorbishop abjured the heresy of the Quartodecimans Compare Ruinart, page 47.. Which of these formulas was in use under the heathen emperors no one could easily define.

[18] [nor were commanders ordered to do anything irreligious down to the times of Galerius, Diocletian and Licinius.] And that soldiers followed standards full of superstition not even Tertullian counts a fault. For commanders or for military service, which stands between dignity and power, he himself affirms that there was a necessity of sacrifices De idololatria, chapter 19.; but, as appears from the place of Eusebius brought forward above, this severity against Christians was not perpetual, and so among the martyrs of Agaunum St. Maurice was primicerius, St. Exsuperius campiductor and St. Candidus senator of the soldiers In Ruinart, page 276.; and those who are called by the Greeks μεγαλομάρτυρες are all reported to have held a distinguished place in a legion. Certainly soldiers were not always immune from the universal decrees of persecution; and indeed among the martyrs a great number is reckoned. But nothing at all singular seems ever to have been established or done against Christian soldiers before the year of Christ 298, in which Galerius tried by force to lead away from their religion Christians who were serving in the army… Eusebius, Hist. eccl. book VIII, chapter suppl. page 317.; by which atrocity Diocletian Lactantius, de Morte persecutorum, chapter 10. too and Licinius Eusebius, Hist. eccl. book X, chapter 81, page 396. wished to destroy the Christian name.

[19] [Soldiers who cast away the military belt for the causes which they call the paradoxes of Tertullian, and suffered in simplicity of mind out of conscience, are rightly reckoned among the martyrs;] From these things, then, it appears that it is so far from the case that most Christians of the first times judged military service to be unlawful for the faithful of Christ, that on the contrary this was the persuasion of few; further that the reasons on account of which some said that it was not right for them to accept the military token or to retain it are these very ones which had been proposed

by Tertullian and by which Petavius did not feel himself hindered from saying openly that that doctrine ought to be referred among the paradoxes of Tertullian, of which kind there are many in that author Dissert. eccles. book II, chapter II, number 7.. But if Tertullian alone did not propose these things, if Origen, St. Cyprian, Lactantius, Titus of Bostra and others so spoke as to seem to some to have taught plainly the same things as Tertullian, to others to need a subtle interpretation, what wonder if soldiers, men certainly rustic and unlearned, badly understood these words: You shall not kill; and these others: No one can serve two masters, and believed that it was not lawful for them to bear arms against enemies or to give themselves to another master along with Christ? And if they firmly believed this, since, according to the Apostle, those who with conscience of the idol until now eat as a thing offered to an idol have their conscience, being weak, defiled, so too Christian soldiers who were persuaded that they could not serve without sin would have sinned gravely, had they not cast away their arms. For conscience, whether right or erroneous, is the proximate law of things to be done. Wherefore all those are rightly listed among the martyrs who in good faith believed that it was unlawful for them to be enrolled in military service, or to keep the military belt, and that for that reason it was necessary rather to die than to defile their weak conscience.

[20] [but none could be reckoned among them after the council of Arles of the year 314. Before it, then, St. Ferrutius suffered; who, since he was most kindly treated,] But it is altogether incredible that there were bishops and presbyters who, after the council of Arles had determined that the military belt could not be cast away without sin, would have listed among the martyrs those who had violated this law; and therefore it seems impossible to admit that St. Ferrutius laid down the military dress and perished in prison after the council of Arles. Nor is he to be judged to have cast away his arms in time of persecution either, as the kind and manner of the penalty (if indeed it was a penalty) suggests. I see it commonly related indeed that chosen martyrs who refused the military oath, and soldiers who cast off the belt, were chastised with the common penalties. But against those who, being summoned to the names, did not answer, for a long time no certain penalty was established; but at the discretion of the magistrate they were punished with a money fine or with confiscation of goods, were beaten with rods or shut up in prison, were sold or reduced to servitude Compare Becker, Handbuch der Röm. Alterthümer, volume III, part II, page 288.. Which penalties were afterwards mitigated: for, as Arrius Menander speaks Dig. book XLIX, tit. XVI de re militari, law IV, Qui cum uno, § Gravius., who flourished under Alexander Severus among the jurisconsults Tortorelli, Degli antichi giureconsulti romani, page 228., those too who formerly did not answer to the levy were reduced to servitude as betrayers of liberty: but, the state of military service having changed, there has been a withdrawal from capital punishment, because for the most part the numbers are filled up by volunteer soldiers. From then on, then, a young man sought out or afterwards produced by his father was to be assigned to a worse military service. And that same Arrius replied Law V, Non omnes.: Not all deserters are to be punished alike… He who has deserted in peace, if a horseman, is to be driven from his rank: if a foot soldier, he changes his service. The same committed in war is to be punished capitally. But since Christian soldiers laid down their arms less in war than in peace, from this no reason can be given why they were condemned to death. Baronius then brings forward Compare Baronius, at the year 298, number 4. these following words of Arrius Law cit. § Qui desertioni.: He who joins another crime to desertion is to be punished more gravely; and that their graver crime was the Christian religion. This could sometimes happen. But Maximilian was ordered to be punished with the sword only on this ground, that with undevoted mind he had refused the military oath Ruinart, Acta MM. page 301.; and Marcellus, because, publicly casting away his oath, he had said that he had defiled himself, and had moreover laid down in the governor's Acts other words full of madness Ibid. page 304.. These sentences rested, then, on another law, namely that all contumacy of a soldier against a commander or governor was to be punished capitally Dig. book XLIX, tit. XVI, law VI, Omne delictum. § Contumacia.; and from the most ancient times, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus is the authority Antiq. Roman. book XI, chapter 43., it was permitted by law to commanders to kill ἀποκτείνειν the disobedient ἀπειθοῦντας.

[21] he seems to have died under the rule of Constantius Chlorus in Gaul. This penalty, then, awaited St. Ferrutius too; but he was dealt with kindly, since he was shut up in prison, and not called to judgment, that time for coming to his senses might be available to him. With which kindness he would never have been treated, if the deadly edicts had then been set forth: but, guilty of a double crime, both of abandoned military service and of forbidden religion, he would have been led or sent to the governor of the province. And this leniency toward soldiers, and those Christians, seems to me to belong to the times of Constantius Chlorus, who, while Diocletian and Maximian were raging against the Christians in the East, Illyricum, Italy and Africa, showing to his subjects a calm and tranquil rule, cherished them with a certain paternal care and solicitude, and, author and standard-bearer of the deepest peace within the bounds of his empire, permitted his subjects to attend to divine worship without any trouble Eusebius, Life of Constantine, book I, chapter 13.. Wherefore I judge that the death of St. Ferrutius can be established at no more suitable time than between the year 292 and 306; in which space of time Constantius Chlorus, now with the title of Caesar, now of emperor, presided over the Gauls.

* militiæ non adscriptus not enrolled in military service

§ III. The translation of the body of St. Ferrutius to the monastery of Bleidenstadt: the fortunes of this monastery and of the relics of St. Ferrutius.

[The body of St. Ferrutius, first buried near Castellum, commonly Kastel, on the eastern bank of the Rhine,] That the body of the most blessed man, gathered with the highest diligence, was entombed at Castellum by the presbyter Eugenius, with the help of another man, Meginhard is the authority. Which Castellum, written absolutely or by antonomasia, no Mainz writer seems to call into doubt as being the present little town of Kastel [Compare Serarius, Moguntinarum rerum book I, chapter 16, volume I, page 42, edit. Joannis; Werner, der Dom von Mainz, volume I, page 426; Fuchs, Alte Geschichte von Mainz, volume I, page 385; Räss und Weiss, Leben der Väter und Martyrer, volume XIV, page 550; Vogel, Historische Topographie des Herz. Nassau, page 28.]. Now it is probably that very fortress which Drusus, on the witness of Dio Cassius [Roman. histor, book XIV. Compare Cellarius; Fuchs, Alte Geschichte von Mainz, volume I, page 384, and Wagner, Beschreibung des Gr. Hessen, volume II, page 48.], built among the Chatti on the Rhine itself. Before that there was there the new village of the Melonii; which, when it was surrounded with walls, received the name of the city of the Mattiaci Steiner, Inscriptiones Rheni, volume I, page 195.. Castellum was afterwards the common name. If Fuchs is to be believed Alte Geschichte etc. volume I, page 312., its circuit has long since, the bed of the Rhine having changed, been worn away by the waters in more than half its part. But very many have demonstrated that this is not so Compare Werner, Der Dom von Mainz, page volume I, page 21.: so that from ordinary topographical maps the situation of the original Castellum (as being almost the same as that of the present town) is easily understood. The body of the holy martyr was not laid in the fortress itself (for it was not lawful to bury corpses within the walls); but toward the southern part, where in the last century there was still a cemetery of St. George and where formerly many men of proved military service and other nobles of the Romans, as has appeared from inscriptions, were buried Fuchs, Alte Geschichte etc. page 318, number 87..

[23] [from there he is translated by St. Lullus to the monastery of Bleidenstadt, of which he is the principal glory. The labors of Riculf, Haistulf and Blessed Rabanus Maurus.] Whether the tomb of St. Ferrutius was left there under the open sky, or laid up in a basilica or small cemeterial building, when better times shone forth, can be defined by no testimony, but only by divining and conjectures. This is established by the testimony of Meginhard, that the most sacred limbs, accompanied by benefits from God, were frequented by the citizens, and that they rested there peacefully until the times of the pontificate of the venerable Lullus; in which times they were translated to the monastery of Bleidenstadt. This place is twenty kilometers distant from Mainz, facing the summer setting, on the left bank of the stream Arda. On the origins of this ascetery there is not complete agreement among historians. Some have said that it was founded by St. Boniface, archbishop of Mainz, others by St. Sturmius, abbot of Fulda, others by Charlemagne, and others finally by St. Lullus, successor of St. Boniface in the see of Mainz Hirsching, Stifts-und Kloster-Lexicon, volume I, page 441.. But from what Meginhard relates at number 14 it is manifestly established that St. Lullus was the author of this monastery. Yet, as V. Vogel speaks Historische Topographie des Herz. Nassau, page 28., it recognized Charlemagne as founder and St. Lullus as endower. The most ancient diploma that survives was written in the year 778, not long after the beginnings of the monastery. St. Lullus translated there the bones of St. Ferrutius, shining with miracles at Castellum, both that they might lie in a more honorable place, and that an immense glory might be added to the new basilica. Riculf, the successor of St. Lullus, renewed the tomb, and took care that there be inscribed on it the old verses of the presbyter Eugenius, with four new ones, in which he professed himself the builder of that tomb. But see these things above, number 3. On the 6th day of June of the year 812 the same Riculf solemnly consecrated the church to God; in which church were buried the counts of Kunigeshundrete, ancestors of the house of Nassau. Haistulf and Blessed Rabanus Maurus enlarged the hall; as the latter explained in the verses recited above at number 4. The cult of St. Ferrutius, then, flourished there; whence the monastery of Bleidenstadt was sometimes called the monastery, abbey and church of St. Ferrutius [Compare Mabillon, passim in the Annals; Necrologium Bleidenstadiense, in Böhmer, Fontes rerum German. volume III, page 152; Bull of Alexander VI, in Gudenus, Cod. diplom. Mogunt. volume IV, page 508, etc.].

[24] [In the eleventh century the monastery is reformed and in the fifteenth changed into a canonry.] Monastic discipline flourished less; wherefore in the year 1085 a colony of twelve monks with an abbot was led out from the abbey of Hirsau and introduced into the house of St. Ferrutius Ibid. page cited.. But through the misery of the times and the continual decline of all human things it came about that toward the end of the fifteenth century, when the monastery was open only to nobles,

discipline had once again gone to ruin [Cf. the Bull of Alexander VI, in Gudenus, Cod. dipl. Mog., vol. IV, p. 508 and following]. And so in the year 1495 Cf. the Bull cited, and Joannis, Rer. Mog. of Serarius, p. 807, and not 1498, Ekkard the abbot and the monks of St. Ferrucius at Blidenstatt — the words are those of Trithemius Chronicum Hirsaugiense, vol. II, p. 570 — of our order, in the diocese of Mainz, having obtained by false statements a dispensation from the Roman pontiff Alexander, withdrew from the holy monastic religion, casting off together the vow made to God and the order with its habit, having no other cause for their transfer than a will altogether depraved by crimes and a stubborn hatred of regular discipline, becoming from dissolute monks clerics, such as commonly come from their like, baser than themselves. If the Ethiopian becomes white by washing, then an apostate monk too will be a good canon. From these words of Trithemius it is manifest with how much anger other Benedictines took this change of the worst example. Nor did they stop there. William, abbot of Blessed Mary the Virgin at Luxembourg, of the Benedictine order, visitor, corrector and judge, interposing a solemn protest, commanded the new canons to return to the order; but John James Leist, doctor of decretals, apostolic protonotary and dean of the church of Blessed Mary the Virgin at Mainz, by the authority which he then exercised, and by letters given on the 14th day of March of the year 1496, forbade him to disturb them any further Joannis, p. 807. Cf. Gudenus, vol. IV, p. 512. And so they are wholly astray who assert that this conversion was made against the will of the men of Bleidenstadt Hirsching, Lexicon, vol. I, p. 441. Nor is it true that the monks were distributed among different monasteries; but the abbot was made provost, the prior dean, and other offices were entrusted to the other monks; and thus in place of an abbot, a prior, four monks and two acolytes there were established eight canons and ten vicars Joannis, p. 807. But the provostship was suppressed in the year 1538 by Pope Paul III.

[25] [The canons remain there among the Protestants, until in the Thirty Years' War the Swedish soldiers demolish the church. Transferred to Mainz, they are suppressed about the year 1801.] At which time, all round about, ecclesiastical affairs were being overturned, and the Lutheran heresy was prevailing with the help of the princes; in the year 1530 it took possession of the parish church of St. Peter, and could not afterwards be expelled. The canons of Bleidenstadt thus persevered for a whole century in the midst of Protestants. But in the year 1632, in the Thirty Years' War, the Swedes occupied this town and destroyed the monastic church Vogel, Topographie des H. Nassau, p. 28; in which calamity the tomb of St. Ferrutius perished Joannis, p. 186, and most of the relics. And in the year 1637 the fourteen surviving houses of the little town and all the monastic buildings were destroyed by fire. From the arrival of the Swedes Catholic worship ceased there for some time; but afterwards the sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated every Sunday in the deanery hall; which office was performed from the year 1670 by a Minorite from Langen-Schwalbach. But in the year 1685 a new church was begun, far less magnificent than the former; it still stands, and is served by a secular priest. Nevertheless from the year 1632 the canons of St. Ferrutius never again restored their college at Bleidenstadt; but they attached themselves at Mainz to the canons of St. Alban, who until the year 1419 had also followed the rule of St. Benedict, and who then, after many misfortunes, having lost their church through disturbances and wars, had moved first to the church of the Friars Preachers, and from there to the church of St. Stephen: where the canons of St. Ferrutius joined themselves to them. But when in the year 1666 a church of St. Sebastian was erected in thanks for the plague driven off, the choirs of St. Alban and of St. Ferrutius, distinct and joined, were brought into it Ibid., pp. 72 and 90 in the year 1682 Schaab, Geschichte der Stadt Mainz, vol. II, p. 172, and there they performed the ecclesiastical offices until 1798, when the worshippers of liberty and reason erected an altar there to new goddesses. But the new arrivals were expelled from there by Napoleon as consul. Nevertheless the two sets of canons were not restored for long; for in the year 1801 or 1802 they were suppressed by the concordat. And that very rich church itself was demolished in the year 1809 Schaab, the page cited and the following. Yet toward the end their temporal affairs were so worn down that the chapter consisted only of a dean, six canons and four vicars Werner, Der Dom von Mainz, vol. I, p. 427.

[26] The fortunes of the relics of St. Ferrutius. Nowhere is mention made of their having kept anything of the bones of their patron. The Fathers of the Society of Jesus at Mainz counted themselves more fortunate; in whose church a great part of the relics of St. Ferrutius was preserved; though, as Serarius continues In Joannis, p. 46, he was buried at Bleidenstadt by Blessed Lull; and when his head was lying exposed, rather neglected, in a mean and abject place of a certain village of the Bingau, as if despised, it was brought from there by someone into the church of the Society of Jesus; and with the good leave and assent of the reverend and noble lord John Schütz of Holtzhausen, who was then vicar of the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Wolfgang, it was retained and more diligently venerated. The college and the most beautiful church of St. Ignatius, which were assigned to the university on the 6th day of September of the year 1773, were destroyed with nearly all the relics on the night between the 28th and 29th days of June of the year 1793, by a fire set by the besieging enemy Schaab, vol. II, p. 165.

PASSION OF ST. FERRUTIUS, MARTYR OF MAINZ

by Abbot Meginhard, from the edition of Surius, collated with the Bödeken manuscript codex

Ferrutius, soldier and martyr, at Mainz in Germany. (S.)

BHL Number: 2914

By Meginhard

PROLOGUE

Of Abbot Meginhard to the Life of St. Ferrutius.

The humility of the writer; the praise of the men of Mainz. To the lord Adalger with the flock entrusted to him, the lowly Meginhard wishes every best gift, descending from the Father of lights James 1, 17. According to the truthful praise of wisdom, he who knows how to hide his own folly is better than he who hides his wisdom Ecclus. XLI, 18. Hence, though often asked to say something in praise of St. Ferrutius, we preferred to lie hidden in silence rather than, by bringing forth our trifles in public, to submit to derision. For that Tullian declamation terrified us not a little, which thundered thus in censure of lukewarm writers: "For anyone to commit his thoughts to writing who can neither arrange them, nor give them lustre, nor attract the reader by any delight, is the part of a man intemperately abusing both leisure and letters ^b." For after wavering in long deliberation whether we should keep to our leisure or write, there conquered at last that effectual charity, which knows how to put forth the flames of its ardour only by working. But who are we, so small, to suppose that by a drop of a drying-up rivulet we can add anything to the floods of the Rhine, which in its swelling brings to Mainz the whole of whatever is precious in nature, whatever is becoming in morals, whatever is splendid in reason, that the world, smooth-rounded in its four quarters, anywhere offers to mortals? For she cherishes in her bosom Ambroses, who breathe forth from their summit the divine odour of honey-flowing nectar; Augustines, who, contemplating the Godhead among the cherubim, increase the bookcases with wondrous treatises; Gregories, who, most watchfully ruminating the pasture of the divine word, in storehouses belching forth from this to that, store up in order to bring forth in season. There a philosophic fountain floods the green meadows with its sevenfold streams, and inebriates those who drink freely with the sweetness of an eternal savour.

Hence we suppliantly implore the height of your eminence that, among the golden and jewelled kinds of cups in which you abound, you may not disdain even a taste of a cheap bowl, and may not, at least for humility's sake, spurn the little gift of a brotherly mind. But behold, while we strive beyond our strength, we slip beneath the burden, and being unable to be raised up to a free step, we are dragged pressed down along the ground; so that there is fulfilled in us what blessed Gregory humbly professes * of himself, that the strength which inexperience denies, charity supplies. Through the intervening merits therefore of him in whose praise this speech will be hammered out of formless matter, may our inner eye be cleansed by the purifying Holy Spirit, and the dry desert of our heart be watered from the fountain springing up into eternal life: so that whatever shall be said may be found pleasing to God, worthy of the excellent Ferrutius, and acceptable to your prudence.

ANNOTATIONS.

ne* omitted in B.

exercere* B.

quia* B.

effert* B.

divini* B.

terni* S.

d. s. h. fatetur* B.

Here Begins the Legend.

Honour paid to the saints redounds to Christ. Since through the familiar organ of the Holy Spirit we are admonished to praise the Lord, wonderful and glorious in his saints, it is right to honour them not only with daily services, but also with a certain more excellent devotion. For with the highest zeal, it seems, should that service of devotion be carried out which, when rendered to the saints, returns to Christ. Yet not man alone is summoned as a debtor of divine praise, but rather every creature, that is to say, rational, irrational and insensible. For the rational and intelligent creature praises God by itself: but the irrational and insensible through man, when man, considering it, pays to the Creator his vows of jubilation. And they too praise the Lord, since their cause gives birth to the praise of the Lord. But whether those which are called insensible creatures are able even to sense their Creator himself, it is pleasing to consider in a few words. If sensus is named from sentire, every creature is proved to sense God. For the creature senses the Creator in its own way, even where life does not sense itself. Now sense is from sensing, by which the creature, sensing God, obediently obeys his command. For if, at the command of faith, mountains are removed I Cor. XIII, 2, then assuredly the insensible rocks sense God. Every creature therefore has a sense directed toward God.

[2] What it brings to celebrate the memory of the martyrs. But what profit it brings to venerate with festive joys and due praises the memory of the martyrs of Christ, which is to be recalled by the devotion of all the faithful, we have thought it worth the labour to search out at the beginning of our speaking, according to the strength of our poor little wit. For if profit is wanting, the business of the matter is handled superfluously. Every advance, therefore, proceeds from a cause that gives it birth. But every cause is proved to be efficient. And everything efficient is greater than that which is effected. Hence the cause of the joys seems rightly to be sought, that the profit may appear the more clearly. For it does not become us to flow away after the manner of little children: who, poured forth straightway from the native womb into the hardship of this sojourn, just as their faces are wet with gratuitous wailings and unknowing weepings, so also into various rejoicing

gestures they are let loose without cause. But we, who have now put away the things that are of little children, who, fed with the solid food of spiritual delights, have put on manly strength, who see through a glass and in a riddle that which we shall see with unveiled face I Cor. XIII, 11, 12, it benefits by reason to contemplate our joys and the fruit of our joys. And what should I more rightly call the cause of our joys or of our advance than the goodness of God? For he himself, the origin of goodness and the most perfect consummation of all advance, the just dispenser and moderator of things and lover of human salvation, bestows on his elect in their agony grace for grace John I, 16, when for momentary labours he grants everlasting rewards, and, generous in mercy, saves sinners and the wicked by his free goodness.

[3] [The patronage of angels and of blessed men; martyrdom in the peace of the Church.] For, looking to the frailty of offenders, he has provided for us the patronage of the heavenly spirits and of men who please him by purity of life and sincerity of action: so that, offended by our innumerable errors, he might be appeased by their intervention. And this we rightly recall with religious joys and dutiful veneration, namely that the saints have merited by grace and by labour to be able to profit us before the strict judge. And what profit is more welcome than by their intervention to be stripped of the bonds of our offences, to be rescued from the various mischances of the world, and after death, if only we faithfully imitate them, to enjoy everlasting joys with them? But what does it profit greatly to venerate those whom, so far as the frailty of fleshly conduct allows, we take no pains to imitate? For they, taking up the cross, followed Christ by imitating him: but we, slow and slothful, if we cannot follow Christ, let at least pure men be a pattern for us. For the present peace of the Church has its own martyrdom, has its proper contest, in which, lawfully contending against the many-formed snares of the most crafty enemy, we may merit in some way through the grace of Christ to be sharers with the saints. For if, as the Apostle says, we have been companions of the sufferings, so shall we be also of the consolation II Cor. I, 7: and if we have been planted together in the likeness of Christ's death, so shall we be also of the resurrection Rom. VI, 5.

[4] Why the way to life is narrow; man as created by God, overthrown by the devil. It is easy therefore to venerate the martyrs by solemn celebration: but it is arduous and difficult to imitate the martyrs. Let the Christian cast away whatever it may be: let him conquer in his soul what terrifies him, and practise a full imitation. For two things make the road strait and narrow for us, the contempt of pleasures and the endurance of sufferings. If therefore we conquer in these, we shall be true praisers of Christ and of the martyrs, and we shall be true imitators. But now let us look more closely at the matter of the contest of the athletes of Christ, so that by the contemplation of their signal merits we may attend them more reverently with praises. God, then, the Creator of the universe, among all the good things which he created, formed man also good, but not supremely: rather by participation in that essential and supreme good, by participation in whose immutable good everything that is mutable is (insofar as it is) good. For that which is mutable cannot be supreme. Him, then, whom the sacred hand fashioned to the divine image and likeness, he adorned with immortality, fortified with prudence, reason and counsel, and endowed with freedom of choice: so that according to the dignity of his condition he might rule the world, and serve God alone, to be worthily rewarded for his willing service, or deservedly punished for his voluntary contempt. Him therefore the apostate angel, enviously grieving that he was to enter that place of beatitude which he himself had lost by pride, surrounded by wiles and cast down unwary: and thus with all his posterity he possessed him, as if subjected to himself by right. For by right in a certain manner he possessed him whom he had compelled by no force to consent to him, but had subdued, consenting, by suggestion alone.

[5] The wicked always harass the good. And when the guilt of this transgression embraced the general mass of the whole human stock, and when, God being despised, the whole world served the malign enemy, God the Creator of all, good by nature, mighty in will, merciful in work, taking pity on fallen man on account of his exceeding charity, through all the ages of the world preserved for himself certain vessels of election, through whom with fatherly kindness he admonished and instructed the rest at length to breathe again toward their original beatitude. But that fraudulent seducer did not bear this calmly: and he ceased not to assail the vessels of mercy through the vessels of perdition and wrath. For who are called sons of God in Genesis Gen. VI, 2, if not the just and God-fearing? and not undeservedly, since for the service of divine worship the adoption of sonship came to them. And the memory of these is blessed. Thus flows forth the fragrance from the incense of David: This is the generation of them that seek the Lord, that seek the face of the God of Jacob Ps. XXIII, 6, etc. The generation of the righteous shall be blessed Ps. CXI, 2; and very many things of that kind, with which the divine page everywhere overflows. But who are expressed by the sons of men Gen. VI, 2, if not sinners, who, loosed through the frailty of the flesh into every wantonness, are reproved by the carrying out of detestable works? Of these it is thus breathed out in the aforesaid incense, where, according to the properties of the spices, bitter things are mixed with sweet: They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways Ps. XIII, 2, 3. And below: Destruction and unhappiness in their ways. The sanctuary of Wisdom also, though perforated at the end, and the exceptional vessel of election of Christ ^a, in almost the same words, but in the same sense, thus describe among other things the devious paths of their error: Who changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents. And because they did not see fit to hold God in knowledge, he gave them up to shameful passions Wis. XIII, Rom. I, 25.

[6] Thus from the beginning two cities were built up, through many diversities: Two cities. one of God, the other of the devil: the one advancing from virtue to virtue, the other ever falling through sacrileges and every monstrosity of vices. For the city of God is that heavenly Jerusalem, the vision of true peace, which in part still sojourns on earth in the members of Christ, and in part reigns with the Lord in the heavens. But the city of the devil is that Babylon full of confusion, which by seducing makes all nations fornicate in her prostitution Apoc. XVII and XIX. Through the difference of their pursuits, therefore, while each was growing by its own endeavour, the prince of this world persecuted the city of God in his members. For the diversity of rivalry brings forth for the virtues a perpetual conflict with the vices: since in the universal fury of the vices the general constancy of the virtues finds no room *. This rivalry therefore, this condition of innocence, awaits holy blood from the beginning of things. Thus the just protomartyr Abel is slain by the malicious Cain Gen. IV: the God-worshipping Hebrews are tried in the furnace of tribulation by the Chaldeans: the sons of Israel are afflicted by the Egyptians Exod. I etc.: the holy prophets of the Lord are put to death by the apostate people: the Maccabees are butchered by Antiochus by a most bloody kind of death II Macc. VII. And these seem deservedly to be distinguished by such a title, who, having closed in strong combat with the ancient serpent, carried off the insignia of a most glorious triumph. In these, if I may so speak, the spirit of triumphal warfare first shone out: because, though before them almost all the just suffered persecution for their zeal for righteousness, yet no one was compelled to deny God and to serve idols made by hands, except the three youths proved in the fires of the furnace by Nebuchadnezzar Dan. III. To these therefore was then worthily granted this new kind of victory, unheard of in past ages, as if the time were now at hand when the most victorious army of the witnesses of Christ should follow in their well-worn footsteps. Hence among all the martyrs of the Old Testament, their memory alone, together with the triumphers of the Gospel faith, is venerated within the mysteries of the most sacred action: so that those whose matter of contest was equal, and equal their victory, may also be adorned with equal glory of triumph.

[7] [The charity of Christ toward the human race. The cross of Christ, our victory: his death, our life and salvation.] Meanwhile, most beloved, that most savage master still exercised the forces of his power upon the whole race of mortals, and man was in no way able to shake off the yoke of captivity, who, strong in free choice, had of his own accord subjected himself by consent to the enemy. This yoke, I say, could by no means be loosed, until it should rot away before the face of the oil Is. X, 27. Therefore by the dispensation of an ineffable mercy and the unspeakable grace of love, for the redemption of the human race God the Father sent none of the powers of the heavenly host, but his only-begotten Son, that from virginal flesh he might put on flesh, and with the same form and the same matter which the enemy had conquered might vanquish the enemy, and restore man to his former liberty. Here there was need of a work by the great right of equity and by the incomprehensible art of wisdom: because that which the malign one had long possessed under the dominion of his right, he could not lose, unless the same nature which he had conquered should conquer in return. And so the maker of man, made man, on earth sucked at the virgin's breasts while ruling the stars; the living bread hungered, the fountain of life thirsted, the light slept: the way was wearied by the journey, truth was falsely accused: the judge of the living and the dead is judged by a mortal, justice is condemned by the unjust, the cluster of grapes is crowned with thorns, the foundation is hung up, strength is weakened, salvation is wounded, life dies. For on this account he who was without beginning deigned to have his origin from a mother's womb: that his humility might become our exaltation. His cross is our victory, his death our salvation and life. For this, in short, the Son of God appeared, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Closing therefore with leviathan, with the flesh which he had put on he baited the hidden hook of his divinity, and so, dying, he laid low the enemy while the enemy believed he had conquered, and having despoiled Tartarus, he rose a victor: and ascending the heavens, he unlocked for us the approach to life, which the fiery and turning sword had closed. Hence, as the gleam of the apostolic preaching glowed red through the world under Christ the true sun, the prince of this world, led by jealousy, grieved that the vessels of his captivity were being carried off and his spoils divided.

[8] The devil incites tyrants against the Christians: the zeal of all the martyrs. Enraged therefore, he stirred up persecutions and incited battles. Hence the earthly power, conspiring, is armed against the name of Christ, the whirlwind of persecution rages, and every one of the faithful is slaughtered for the confession of the true faith. An imperial edict pressed exceedingly through the whole world, that the Christian name should be rooted out utterly. It is promulgated by public law that rewards are decreed for informers: and that Christians who sacrifice are to be heaped with gifts and the most ample honours; or that those persevering in Christ are to be put to death with various and exquisite torments for contempt of the royal majesty. Then indeed were holy bodies everywhere seized, beaten, burned with fire, torn apart limb by limb, cruelly treated in every manner. Nor were limbs spared when lifeless: they were mangled, burned, scattered, nor were they even suffered to be buried, and those to whom through Christ the heavens were being opened were denied by the unbelievers the earth, the common mother of all the living. Amid these thousandfold dangers the recruits of Christ prefer to be slain rather than conquered, whose manly constancy ever triumphs by unwearied perseverance. This is the common counsel of the holy martyrs, this their common trade: to despise the things that flee, to purchase the things that abide: to live by dying, lest they die by living: and by once dying to live for ever, rather than by living a little while to perish perpetually. This, I say, is the common and prudent counsel of the saints, this their common and happy trade. At their marvellous endurance the world with its princes shuddered, in whose

hearts it withered, now grown cheap: who were neither softened by blandishments nor broken by the sharpest torments.

[9] [The crown is the more glorious where the sex is weaker. What the intercession of the saints affords.] Nor in this campaign of the Lord were men alone crowned: women too, though of a frail sex, yet contended with a manly spirit: and even tender virgins, while they strove to tame the wanton sex of the body, tamed the world, with Christ's help, with their bloodied bodies. And so the crown is the more glorious where the sex is the weaker, because a manly spirit in women does something greater, when under the weight of suffering feminine frailty does not fail. And now the enemy with his satellites groans, laid low at the feet of those whom, dying as it seemed ignominiously, he rejoiced to have conquered: he grieves that by their intervention all the efforts of his malignity are brought to nothing: he grieves that by their suffrages the hindrances of body and soul are lifted away. This then, brethren, is the matter of the contest of the saints, this the cause of our joys, this the profit of our advance, this not the least proof of piety and devotion toward the saints ^b.

[10] The virtue and frequent miracles of St. Ferrutius. In this white-robed army of the triumphant soldiers of Christ, who ran eagerly with patience in the stadium of this world, like a most precious pearl of the Lord's garland our special patron , namely the most glorious Ferrutius , renowned in the glory of his virtues, venerable, shines forth by the prerogative of his merits. He therefore, while he lived in these dying members, despised the death that would one day come, that he might acquire the life that will abide without end, by a faithful and prudent consideration losing what would perish even if retained, so that dying he might find what could not perish. For the name of Ferrutius was given him by a sort of presage: because just as by iron not only stones and timbers but also the other metals are overcome, while iron itself is overcome by fire alone: so he, overcome only by the ardour of divine love, conquered all the machinations of worldly and spiritual malice . But though the times of his life or passion or his deeds are not found, the proclamations of his praise will not be silent, since the distinctions of his merits are revealed by the frequent attestation of miracles. For though signs, according to the Apostle , were given not to the faithful but to unbelievers I Cor. XIV, 22, yet they are of necessity at times bestowed on the faithful too: so that when the acts of certain saints lie hidden by the secret judgment of God, their merits may be evident by the proof of signs . Nor is Ferrutius alone celebrated in the divine praises without a record of his deeds, since in the series of both testaments eminent men are commemorated without genealogies. For thus that Melchizedek, who in the type of the true priesthood offered bread and wine Gen. XIV; thus Elijah, who judged the people of Israel with sword and fire Kings XVIII; thus very many of the prophets seem to be brought in suddenly: thus in the New * Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthias the apostles: thus a great many of the martyrs of Christ, whose merits may it please us to venerate none the less because it is established that their origin or acts may without danger be unknown.

[11] The encomium of Mainz. The devastations of the Gauls. That the acts of St. Ferrutius lie hidden, we conjecture either to have come about through a lack of writers, who we know did not much flourish in early times in the regions of the Germans: or at any rate that, if they had been written down by any efforts, they perished in the whirlwinds of wars. For thus at Jerusalem the divine law is read to have been burned in Chaldean flames I Macc. I: thus the records of very many and most noble cities are shown, credibly, to have perished. For it cannot easily be believed that Mainz, a city to be compared with the most excellent cities of the Gauls, lay torpid at that time, untouched by literary study; and that, most richly stocked with the merchandise of all nations, it lacked the liberal disciplines, to which is owed the most outstanding honour among all riches. But perhaps out of the innumerable disasters of the wars which devastated Gaul and Germany, the records both of Mainz and of very many cities that no longer exist have perished. And so in the Chronicles, carefully searched, we have found that in the times of Arcadius and Honorius and Theodosius the Younger, under Pharamund, Clodio and Merovech, kings of the Franks, while the Romans were still ruling, the Gauls were worn down by various nations, cities were razed to the ground, the inhabitants were led captive, country-houses were burned: where, with the rest of the household goods, liberal learning too, if there had been any, could have been abolished. Hence, lest we seem to have approved uncertainties for certainties, let us follow what we have at hand, and let us be found rather praisers of the mighty works of God than searchers of his incomprehensible judgments. Now we have proposed in this discourse to stir the minds of the hearers to spiritual joy, by which we may advance rather through edifying charity toward the fellowship of the saints, than, through puffing-up knowledge, away from the delight of inner joy, build in gehenna I Cor. VIII, 1. * But because the slowness of human wit can hardly be brought to the perception of intellectual things, unless the exterior things are first fed by the inner knowledge of the heart, according to what the Apostle says: Not first that which is spiritual, but that which is animal, then that which is spiritual I Cor. XV, 44: we shall speak according to what we have received, not indeed with a full narration of the contests of this most holy martyr, but touching in summary upon the last things.

[12] [A brief history of St. Ferrutius. He is held long in custody, tormented by long starvation.] From the letters, then, of the mausoleum in which the most sacred and healing * bones are laid up, this blessed man is known to have dwelt at Mainz, and for divine love to have loosed the military belt, and to have devoted his arms to the sacred altars, henceforth to live for Christ. Hence the prefect of the city, stirred with anger, whether a Christian or a pagan is uncertain, [a most iniquitous judge, preferred that he be carried off in punishments, hoping that his constancy could be bent by hunger, who did not dread but desired to be punished by the sword for Christ, and beyond] ^c the Rhine at Castellum transported the saint, and bound him with exile and iron and consigned him to a dark prison. Wasted by long starvation, for six months he experienced no human kindness: but destitute of fleshly support, he was divinely upheld by spiritual solace.

[13] He dies in prison. Hence, then, he did not shudder at the bitter cup of suffering: but free from care he drained the chalice of death, which the supreme physician first drank for an example, lest the sick man should believe it deadly rather than medicinal. Free from care, I say, had he drained the chalice of death, because through this bitterness he hoped that he would come to inestimable sweetness. Running therefore bravely through the punishments, he drank joyfully the chalice of the Lord, and thus in the seventh month he rested happily in the Lord. And it was beautiful that he who, setting aside the labours of the active life, was disposing himself to be free for God in contemplation, is released from the hindrances of the populace, is sent to a more fortified and secret place, is bound with the chains of Christ's love, is given over to the darkness of worldly night, that he might gain the unfailing light of the true sun; is afflicted with hunger for material bread, that he might be filled with the pasture of the divine word. And he, tried for six months, as if through the six ages of this world, by various pressures of tribulations, in the seventh month, as in the seventh age, celebrates festively with all the elect the sabbath of repose, happily awaiting the eighth, namely the most celebrated solemnity of the resurrection, when corruption shall be changed by incorruption, and the mortal shall be clothed with immortality Apoc. XIV, 4: when, made a citizen of heavenly Jerusalem, he shall accompany the lamb whithersoever he goes: when, joined with the angelic spirits, he shall be filled with divine contemplation.

[14] [The shedding of blood alone does not make martyrdom. Eugenius and Berengar bury the sacred body of St. Ferrutius.] But perhaps someone asks why this saint is glorified among the martyrs with a solemn office, when he did not shed his blood for the Lord? To him an easy reply is offered by one of sound wisdom, that the shedding of blood alone does not make martyrdom, nor the affliction of the flesh alone, but also the contrition of a clean heart and the humiliation of a saving spirit. For the lingering torment of the squalor of prison, of darkness, chains, solitude and long hunger is not to be thought of less merit with God than the momentary cutting off of the head. Nor do I think it to be doubted that the most constant athlete of Christ, who in these torments bore a most unconquered spirit, would have willingly offered his neck to the executioner, if the judgment of iniquity had so dictated. But the most iniquitous judge preferred that he be put off in punishments, hoping that his constancy might be bent at least by hunger; who did not dread, but perhaps rather desired, to be punished by the sword for Christ. He is therefore worthily proclaimed a martyr, deservedly venerated among the martyrs, whom, though the purple of blood does not beautify him, yet the variety of virtues and torments most beautifully adorns ^d. The body therefore of this most blessed man the presbyter Eugenius, with the assistance * of Berengar, gathered with the greatest diligence and entombed at Castellum, and composed an inscription touching on the matter in summary ^e, hoping in the resurrection to have a part with him whom he had attended with the services of humanity even when dead.

[14] [St. Lull, bishop of Mainz, translates the relics of St. Ferrutius to the monastery of Bleidenstadt.] There, in short, the most sacred limbs, divinely accompanied by benefits and frequented by the citizens, rested in peace until the times of the pontificate of the venerable Lull, who after the most holy martyr and pontiff Boniface vigorously ruled the people of the see of Mainz. He therefore, an outstanding follower of his predecessor and master, while throughout the diocese of his see he built churches, founded monasteries, and ennobled the kingdom of the Franks far and wide with the worship of the Christian religion, translated the relics of St. Ferrutius to the Place of the Rejoicing ^f, and took care to gather together those who fought for God under the discipline of the cenobitic rule, fervent in spirit, rejoicing in hope, of one mind with one another, chastening their souls in the obedience of charity, in the love of brotherhood. Using the providence of a good shepherd, so that the brethren should not fail in the way of the Lord's commandments, he handed over to them revenues sufficient for food and clothing, and that very place, as long as he lived in the body, he cherished with the highest devotion for reverence of the saint. But after his house of this earthly and clay habitation was dissolved, that he might inhabit * one not made with hands but eternal in the heavens, the successors both of his pontificate and of his religion, Richolf, Haistolf and Rabanus, cherished the holy place with the same devotion, enlarged the church, fittingly set in order the tomb of the sacred remains, and cherished the poor of Christ who kept watch at the sacred bones with the consolation of the highest humanity ^g. 2 Cor. V, 1

[16] St. Ferrutius, patron of Bleidenstadt. O renowned martyr, O most happy soul and glorious victory, who in scourgings, prisons and many tribulations confessed Christ ^h! And we, dearest brethren, let us praise God, from whom, through whom, and in whom are all things that are good, and according to our measure let us glorify him according to the multitude of his mercies, who deigned to bestow on us such a patron, whose excellence of merits may obtain for us the solace of our labours and the fruit of eternal rewards. And let us all and each implore our present and special patron with diligence of prayers, that he may receive the groans of our frailty, excuse our human excesses before the ears on high, cherish us by his loving patronage, protect our shepherd, defend his household, guard the place, shield us from the snares of malign spirits, rescue us from the innumerable perils of this world: so that, by the intervening merits of himself and of all the saints, we may merit to reach those joys of beatitude which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor human understanding been able to grasp, which God before the ages * has prepared for those who love him: whose honour, praise and dominion abide without end for ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

cadit*?

hoc* omitted in B.

s. n. p.* omitted in B.

g. martyr F.* B.

q.* omitted in B.

quod f.* B.

nequitiæ* B.

s. A.* omitted in B.

quamtumvis*

expateant* B.

Dei* added in B.

Testamento* added in B.

tum* B.

Clodovæo* B.

Loco i. g. æ. deficiamus* B.

scientia* B.

diuturna siquidem* B.

igitur* B.

nomine* B.

annuente* B.

ideoque* B.

et* B.

imprimisque* B.

ejus* B.

suæ* added in B

a. sæcula* B