ON SS. THALASIUS AND BAIUS, MARTYRS AT ISSOUDUN IN GAUL,
AT THE END OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
CRITICAL COMMENTARY.
Thalasius, martyr at Issoudun in Gaul. (S.)
Bajus, martyr at Issoudun in Gaul. (S.)
BY R. D. B.
§ I. Very few documents survive concerning SS. Thalasius and Bajus. The disaster of the city of Bourges, of the town of Issoudun and of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The writers on the affairs of Bourges, among the men of their city outstanding for piety and brave spirit, On SS. Thalasius and Bajus rightly and deservedly review SS. Thalasius and Bajus of Issoudun, as martyrs of Christian truth. But although they spared no labour Compare Pérémé, Recherches sur Issoudun, page 55., as learned men sprung from that region have also written to me, to ascertain their age, the history of their bloody death, and other things of this kind, they could not but confess that they had lost all their oil and labour. Both seem to have been wholly unknown to SS. Sidonius Apollinaris, Sulpicius Severus, Venantius Fortunatus, and to the most diligent St. Gregory of Tours himself and other ancient writers of central Gaul, who celebrated the martyrs and saints of that tract in prose or verse: for they committed to writing not so much as a word about their glorious struggle or triumph. The silence of writers has been so deep that, besides a certain old Latin expression, and three statements of martyrologies, certainly not ancient, you would look in vain for any document. For in the church of the monastery of the Mother of God at Issoudun there existed a wooden casket, which was placed at the top of a wall, nine feet high, and in which (so Gaspard Thaumas de la Thaumassière) the people of Issoudun judge there are contained the bodies of the saints who were named Thalasius and Baius, of whom the first was a Senator at Issoudun, the other an archpriest in the same, martyred; in this abbey too they were canonized and given by the shedding of their blood as protectors Histoire du Berry, volume II, book V, chapter V, page 146, edition of 1867.. Where this above all should be noted, that although the cited author wrote his work in the French language, yet he reported these words in Latin: Thalasius et Baius quorum, etc.; so that traces of an ancient inscription may seem to be present in these. Wherefore we shall signify them throughout this commentary by the name of the Issoudun inscription.
[2] there do not survive The history of the affairs of Bourges, from which we have copied the cited words, was composed by Thaumas de la Thaumassière, relying, as he confesses in
his preface, on a good many genuine charters read by him, and he first brought it to light in the year 1689 [Compare Lelong, Bibliotheca Historica Franciae, volume III, page 433, Fevret edition.]. That this man collected the affairs of Bourges with most accurate diligence is reported by Louis Moreri Le Grand Dictionnaire historique, volume X, page 109, edition of 1758. and his follower Charles Richard, O.P. Dictionnaire ecclésiastique, volume V, page 287, Paris edition, 1762.. With these agree Louis Michaud Biographie Universelle, volume XLV, page 249, edition of 1825., Louis Raynal Histoire du Berry, volume III, page 449, volume IV, pages 379 and 418. and Doctor Hoefer Nouvelle Biographie Universelle, volume XLV, page 26, etc., of whom the first calls him a writer of approved works, the second now skilled in history, now a scholar of good name; the third judges that his Works, especially on the affairs of Bourges, are outstanding. I confess that he is accused by Armand Pérémé Recherches sur Issoudun, pages 291 and 54. of negligence admitted at times: but it does not escape me that this historian excerpted nearly all his views on SS. Thalasius and Bajus from Thaumassière, without detecting an error in him in this place, imitating Félix Pallet Nouvelle histoire du Berry, volume V, page 138., who in the year 1785 transferred Thaumassière's narrative, with no word changed, into his historical books.
[3] in our age Then in the Martyrology of the said monastery of Issoudun at the 30th day of October was read: In the territory of Bourges, at the castrum of Issoudun, of the holy martyrs Thalasius and Baius In Thaumassière, Pallet and Pérémé, in the places cited.. Likewise in the Bourges Martyrology of the nunnery of St. Lawrence, published by Labbe, there occur these words at the IV Ides of May (12 May): In the territory of Bourges the translation of Saints Florentius, David, Talazius and Asclepius, bishops Labbe, Bibliotheca manuscriptorum, volume II, page 699.. The editor Labbe testifies that these words were added by a very recent hand. Moreover in the same martyrology at the 30th day of October: At Bourges, at the castrum of Issoudun, of St. Thalasius, bishop Labbe, ibid., page 704.. Popular tradition too adds, carried over into the ecclesiastical Office proper to the clergy of Bourges, that both holy martyrs together laid down their lives for Christ in the fifth century and that their sacred remains perished at Issoudun and Bourges. Nothing else about the offices, deeds, struggle, death and ancient cult of the two holy martyrs has become known to us.
[4] except very few documents: The curious reader, looking into these historical monuments, will observe that everything is wrapped in dark night. We can indeed excerpt from them that SS. Thalasius and Bajus, citizens of Issoudun, were put to a bloody death there at the same time for Christ; but when did they undergo martyrdom? In the time of the Roman emperors? But at that time archpriests had perhaps not yet been created in Gaul. Or there in the age of the Visigoths? But in what way could St. Thalasius in these times have been distinguished with senatorial dignity? Then that same St. Thalasius who in the inscription of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary is called a Senator, in the Bourges martyrology of St. Lawrence is reported to be a Bishop. Moreover in what way were the relics of St. Thalasius translated from Issoudun to Bourges into a nunnery? Finally add that the traditions of Bourges and Issoudun do not agree in one and the same. And this scarcity of documents is so great that in no histories or annals or other books written before the twelfth century, if you except only the titles of some charters of Issoudun, do scholars find the name of the town of Issoudun Pérémé, chapter IV, page 64.. Nor let anyone blame either the people of Bourges or those of Issoudun, as if by their own negligence they had allowed the history of their heavenly patrons to perish; for the cause of this misfortune is no other than the innumerable calamities by which the province of Bourges, the town of Issoudun, and the monastery itself of the Mother of God, for several centuries the seat of the remains of the holy Martyrs, were almost ceaselessly pressed: and unless these are held before the eyes, the reason of this our commentary on SS. Thalasius and Baius can hardly be understood. Wherefore let the reader forgive us for briefly indicating this series of disasters, because for clearing up the Acts of the two holy martyrs it will be very useful, not to say necessary. So let us begin from the very origins of Issoudun, lest it seem absurd to anyone that the name of senator was given to St. Thalasius.
[5] since Issoudun, where they are reported to have been slain, Now Issoudun, which is said to have once been written Exoldunum, Exolidunum, Exuldunum, Exelodunum, Exilidunum, Exildunum, Uxellodunum, Urselodunum, Eussodunum, Essodunum, Issoldunum, Auxellodunum, Ypsilodunum, Seldunum, Sodunum, Xoldunum Valesius, Notitia Galliarum, page 190; Pérémé, page 20., and which today has the French name Issoudun, has always been a town of the city or even the province or diocese of Bourges. On the etymology of Exoldunum Chaumeau, Thaumassière, Catherinot and others have much disputed; but though they have sweated much in this labour, they have left the dispute undecided. But the very name, ending in dunum, like Lugdunum and other similar ones Compare Raynal, Histoire du Berry, volume I, book I, chapter II, page 38., manifestly shows the Celtic origin and so the very remote antiquity of the town of Issoudun. It is the opinion of not a few scholars that Issoudun is to be reviewed among the cities of the Bituriges which they willingly allowed to be destroyed by fire, lest the territory of their country be occupied by the Romans, and of which Julius Caesar wrote: With the consent of all, this opinion being approved, in one day more than 20 cities of the Bituriges were burned De Bello Gallico, book VII, chapter XV.. Indeed the same scholars judge that Issoudun, after the city of Bourges was subdued by the Romans, was made either a municipium or a Roman colony. In truth indeed it is not numbered by writers either among the Roman colonies of Gaul, or among the municipia: but those skilled in the matter suppose that not a few municipia of Gaul, colonies, and indeed cities, the knowledge of which seemed to have perished through the bitterness of the times, have gradually been called forth from darkness into light. In our age indeed, says Benjamin Guérard, most knowledgeable of French antiquities [Essai sur le système des divisions territoriales de la Gaule, Introduction, page 2 and following.], about two hundred nations inhabiting Belgic, Celtic Gaul and Aquitaine have become known to us: but Josephus, historian of the Jews, asserts [De Bello Judaico, book II, chapter XVI (otherwise XXVIII), page 119, Didot edition.] that in his time there were three hundred and five, Plutarch Works, volume II, Caesar, chapter XV, page 852, Didot edition. three hundred; indeed Appian [Romanae Historiae quae supersunt, on the civil wars, book II, number 150, page 409, Didot edition.] says four hundred were conquered by Julius Caesar and made subject to the Romans. That one of these nations was that of Issoudun is wholly likely; for in the neighbourhood of the city there is reported to have been found a coin inscribed with the letters Gens Xoldu, and thirty-one sepulchral urns, certain indications of a Roman settlement. There appear there also very ancient ruins, by which it is established that the place was at least in part restored by the same Romans after the burning Pérémé, chapter II, page 21; chapter III, page 39.. Moreover the towns of Gaul situated below the Loire very willingly took up Roman customs shortly after their disaster [Rivet, Histoire littéraire, volume I, part I, page 126; Desjardins, Géographie de la Gaule Romaine, volume II, chapter I, page 22 and following.]. Nor is it to be doubted that Issoudun was fortified: whence the name of castrum came to it, as we read in the Martyrology of the monastery of the Mother of God at Issoudun. For castra, as also castella, as Du Cange observes [Glossarium, volume II, under Castellum, Paris edition, 1842; Longnon, Géographie de la Gaule au VIe siècle, page 15.], were called fortified towns …, or as Schoepflin speaks, a fortified place built for defending a province Compare Alsatia illustrata, volume II, page 430.. The same elsewhere: A small town which you would rather call a larger village or burgh, where neither a bishop, nor a count, nor a prefect, nor any of the provincial judges had had a seat Ibid., volume I, page 178.. In which places too there was its own curia or order, or senate; as we shall have to show later. And so much for the antiquity of the town of Issoudun.
[6] as also the whole city of Bourges, But, as we have just pointed out, that illustrious town of Celtic Gaul Baudrand, Novum Lexicon Geographicum, page 282, edition of 1677., celebrated for the martyrdom of SS. Thalasius and Bajus, wholly lacks, owing to the iniquities of the times, historical monuments by which their glorious triumph might be cleared up. For after Issoudun, just like the entire city of the people of Bourges, had been subject to the Romans for more than five centuries, it passed under the rule of the Visigoths, who had for some fifty-seven years already occupied part of southern Gaul, from about the year 474 to about the year 484 [Dufour de Longuerue, in Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens des Gaules, volume III, page 683 and following.]. But in the year 507 Clovis, king of the Franks, added this tract by force of arms to his other Gallic possessions Compare ibid., page 379.. Then Issoudun always underwent the unhappy fortunes of the city of Bourges, whether this belonged to the kingdom of Orléans, or the kingdom of Aquitaine, or the dominion of the king of the English. Hence it was overwhelmed by incredible calamities, when the whole territory of Bourges, the Frankish kings warring among themselves, was cruelly laid waste with fire and sword about the years 532 and 583 [Compare Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, book III, column 250; book VI, column 398, Migne edition.]: likewise when in the eighth century first Charles Martel, then the Arabs and afterwards Pepin, son of Martel, inflicted on it so enormous a disaster Compare Dufour, volume cited, page 704., and when in the ninth century the Normans ravaged it for many years. And in particular Issoudun itself was almost destroyed by flames in the years 1135, 1504 and 1651. Moreover in the year 1174 it was stormed by Henry II, king of England, and in the year 1195 by his son Richard. Add that in the sixteenth century the followers of Calvin and in the eighteenth century the disturbers of civil and ecclesiastical affairs overturned all holy things at Issoudun. These things are reported here and there by Raynal Histoire du Berry, volume I, in various places., Pérémé [Recherches sur Issoudun, chapter X, page 168 and following; chapter XII, page 204.], Pallet Nouvelle histoire du Berry, volume V, chapter I, page 125. and others. These continual disasters could not but be ruinous to historical monuments.
[7] and the monastery itself, the seat of the relics, were several times burned. Finally, what is by no means to be passed over in this place, the monastery of the Mother of God at Issoudun, for several centuries the home of the relics of the holy martyrs, was afflicted with calamities of another kind. For over the monks of Issoudun, whose beginnings are referred to the year 947, there began in the year 1481 to preside commendatory abbots, the plague of monastic houses: and when, as was their custom, they held regular discipline as worth nothing, gradually
the monastery's inhabitants became so forgetful of their religious profession that they had to be called back to holiness of life. Afterwards, in the year 1620, a regular abbot was again given to them, James Touchet, who, on departing this life in the year 1674, unhappily found as his successors commendatory abbots too, to whom the Holy See constantly refused bulls. Nor is this any wonder: for these men, seeking their own interests and putting God second, so incredibly dissipated the monastery's property that at the beginning of the eighteenth century it was reduced to three or four monks, for whose regular superior no more than two thousand livres were counted out [Cf. Voyage littéraire de deux Religieux Bénédictins, tom. I, pag. 21 et seq.; Gallia christ., tom. II, col. 156 et seq.]. At last their furnishings were scattered hither and thither by order of the public authority on the 17th day of July of the year 1793, and the archive of the monastery was burned in the market-place Pérémé, pag. 284.. And this wretched state both of the monastery of the Mother of God, especially in the time of the commendatory abbots, and of the province of Bourges and the town of Issoudun, was a great reason why the memory of SS. Thalasius and Baius suffered so much damage.
§ II. Of the traditions of Issoudun and Bourges. Of the time of the martyrdom of SS. Thalasius and Baius. — Was St. Thalasius a senator and afterwards a bishop? Is he the same as Thalasius, bishop of Angers? Of the archpriesthood of St. Baius. Was he a monk? Of the family of each martyr. Of the name of St. Thalasius.
The traditions of Bourges and Issoudun do not agree It is no wonder that amid so many disasters as we have just recalled, the ancient monuments of the martyrs of Issoudun perished, and that perhaps oral tradition alone preserved their memory for a long time. This tradition, since the relics of the saints were present and honored with an unbroken cult, must always have been alive. Then, what Baronius, with the strong approval of our predecessors Henschen Acta SS., tom. III of April, pag. 409. and Du Sollier Ibid., tom. III of July, pag. 479., put forward on the Roman traditions holds also for the traditions of Issoudun [Cf. Papebroch, Resp. ad exhibitionem errorum Sebast. a S. Paulo, Art. XIX, num. 15; Acta SS., tom. VII of October, pag. 824; ibid., tom. VIII, pag. 821; Mabillon, De Azymo et ferm., cap. VIII, Opp. posth., pag. 154; Honoré de Ste Marie, Réflexions sur les règles de la critique, tom. II, pag. 299; Pitra, Etudes sur les Bollandistes, pag. 135.]. For he says: In matters belonging to the Roman Church, greater credit is to be given to her own nurslings than to the rest Martyr. Roman., at the 26th day of April, in the Note.. Now those traditions, so far as they regard St. Thalasius, are contained in two kinds of very brief documents, of which some, as we saw in the preceding §, are of Issoudun, others of Bourges, and they are neither so alike that they can be said to be drawn from the same source, nor so unlike that they do not in part pertain to the same saint. From the traditions of Issoudun we gather that both saints, of whom one was a senator and the other an archpriest, shed their blood for Christ at Issoudun, and that in the same place, as protectors of their own people (that is, of their fellow citizens), they were honored with ecclesiastical cult on the same day, the 30th of October, in the monastery of the Mother of God, where their relics were laid in the same casket: as though to indicate that they obtained martyrdom in the same contest, as is read in the Ecclesiastical Office of Bourges. But the documents of Bourges present to us a certain St. Thalasius, a bishop, of whom, just as of the bishops SS. Florentius, David and Asclepius, a translation was made to St. Laurence's. This saint must have been held by the writer of the martyrology to be the same (whether truly or falsely will be inquired below) as the holy martyr Thalasius of Issoudun; for at the 30th day of October in the same martyrology we have seen that these words also occur: At Bourges, in the castle of Issoudun, of St. Thalasius, bishop. From this it appears that the same St. Thalasius was held by the people of Issoudun to be a senator, and by those of Bourges a bishop.
[9] on SS. Thalasius and Baius. These last were followed by Nicolas Catherinot, who, in the Sanctuary of Bourges, listing the saints whose bodies rest at St. Laurence's, adds that St. Thalasius, bishop of Auvergne, is venerated there on the 12th day of May and especially on the 30th day of October. Claude Chastelain in his Universal Martyrology, at the 30th day of October, held a somewhat different opinion, proposing this statement: At Issoudun in the territory of Bourges, St. Thalasius, chorbishop, whose body is kept by the nuns of St. Laurence at Bourges. Nor were there lacking those who suspected that St. Thalasius of Issoudun, or, if you prefer, of Bourges, was the same as the one of Angers, who in his absence subscribed the Acts of the council of Tours of the year 461 Sirmond, Concilia Galliæ, tom. I, pag. 123 et seqq., and to whom the Acts of the council of Vannes of the year 465 were transmitted Ibid., pag. 137.. But this conjecture is hardly accurate; for neither the tradition of Bourges or of Issoudun favors it, nor even that of Angers, which seems never to have numbered that bishop among the saints. Now from that diversity we have mentioned several questions arise: first, in what age the holy martyrs lived; second, whether St. Thalasius was a bishop or at least a chorbishop; third, whether he was a senator; fourth and last, whether perhaps the one of Issoudun, the one of Bourges and the one of Angers are one and the same. We shall attempt to resolve these in such a way as to work in some other matters which may not absurdly be affirmed of the holy men, such as their name and profession, keeping before our eyes what has been said above on the most ancient origins of Issoudun.
[10] Both seem to have been made martyrs between the years 474 and 484. And so, before we proceed further, it will be useful to show that the popular ecclesiastical tradition is not to be charged with error, the tradition related in the liturgical Offices proper to the whole clergy of Bourges, and indicated by us at the beginning of this commentary: by which SS. Thalasius and Baius are affirmed in open words to have shed their blood for Christ at the close of the fifth century: indeed this opinion is certainly the more probable. For those who search into the ecclesiastical affairs of France do not come upon either chorbishops or archpriests before the fifth century Cf. Thomassin, Discipl. de l'Église, tom. I, col. 453, 466., and an archpriest is what St. Baius is clearly proclaimed to be: whence it seems credible to us that dignities of this kind did not exist in Gaul before the fifth century, and accordingly that St. Baius did not discharge his office before the fifth century. Nor let it be objected that he was perhaps the principal priest of the castle of Issoudun, yet without the name of archpriest, as was the usage in many places, and that for this reason he received the name of archpriest at a later time. But no demonstration is given of this matter, which is mere conjecture: whereas on the contrary the ecclesiastical tradition of the diocese, most plainly expressed both in the inscription of the monastery of the Mother of God and in the Ecclesiastical Office, declares without ambiguity that he was an archpriest. Nor does it seem that there were certainly martyrs in the region of Bourges in the fifth century or afterwards, except in the time when this city was subject to Euric, king of the Visigoths, that is, from about the year 474 to the year 484. How cruel Euric, a most vehement propagator of Arianism, was toward Catholics is related by both St. Apollinaris Sidonius Epist. to Basil, in Sirmond, tom. I, col. 1022 et seqq. and St. Gregory of Tours Opera, Hist. Franc., lib. II, cap. 25, col. 221, Migne edit.. The latter, abridging the narration of St. Sidonius, an eyewitness, writes: In his time also Euric, king of the Goths, crossing the Spanish frontier, brought a grievous persecution upon the Christians in Gaul. He beheaded everywhere those who did not consent to his perversity, he subdued clerics in prisons: and as for priests, some he gave over to exile, others he slew with the sword. For he had even ordered the very entrances of the sacred temples to be barred with thorns, namely so that the rarity of entering might bring about forgetfulness of the faith. Especially then were the cities of Novempopulana and the two Germanies read Aquitaines laid waste by this tempest. There is extant even today, on this very subject, the letter of the noble Sidonius himself to Bishop Basil, which speaks of these things thus. But the persecutor not long afterwards, struck by divine vengeance, perished. Under this persecution, I say, I judge that SS. Thalasius and Baius laid down their lives for the cause of the Catholic religion. And if credit is given to popular tradition, the place of their contest is visited even today, a mound, once situated outside, now within the city boundary.
[11] St. Thalasius does not seem to have been a bishop, These matters having been discussed concerning the time of the martyrdom, the question comes to be cleared up whether St. Thalasius was a bishop or a senator and martyr. Nor is the answer easy, since the tradition of Bourges proclaims him a bishop, but that of Issoudun not a bishop but a senator and martyr. Yet it must be kept before our eyes that the traditions of the people of Issoudun are older than those of Bourges, and, according to the saying of Baronius which we adduced above, more credible, seeing that they pertain to their own holy fellow citizen. Next, there was never an episcopal see at Issoudun. When Chastelain saw this, in order to reconcile the two traditions with each other as far as possible, he called him a chorbishop: but not happily. For thus he departed from the tradition of Bourges and did not come over to that of Issoudun, having no document at all by which he might confirm this new opinion. It is indeed true that this class of clerics existed in Gaul in the fifth century. They were already dealt with in the first council of Nicaea Labbe, Conc., tom. II, col. 47.; and they are mentioned in the year 439 in canon III of the council of Riez Ibid., tom. III, col. 1286., in Gaul, and their functions differed little from the offices and rights of archpriests, as Thomassin Discipline de l'Église, tom. I, lib. II, cap. I, pag. 447 et seq., Pellicia Pellicia, Christianæ Ecclesiæ politia, tom. I, lib. II, pag. 114 et seq., Binterim Denkwürdigkeiten, tom. I, part II, pag. 386 et seq. and others show. But it is one thing that it could have happened that St. Thalasius was honored with this rank, and another that it can be so affirmed according to some ancient record. Hence the tradition of Bourges and the opinion of Chastelain seem to us less firm. As for the view of Catherinot, who judges that St. Thalasius was bishop of Auvergne, since it is found to rest on no document, it appears to deserve little attention.
[12] but only a senator, We are therefore better pleased with the monuments of Issoudun, which persuade us that St. Thalasius was Senator at Issoudun: which several, understanding it wrongly, were disposed to believe meant that he had a seat in the Roman senate Cf. Pérémé, cap. IV, pag. 57. Tacit. Ann., lib. XI, 25., or derived his origin from a Roman patrician family, not attending to the fact that the Gauls once had their own senators. For it is hidden from no one that cities, towns, municipalities, and places designated by other names were arranged and governed on the model of the city of Rome. For Justinian says: Those who formerly ordered the commonwealth for us judged
that it was fitting, on the pattern of the royal city (Rome), to bring together in each city the noble men and to give to each a senate-house, through which public business should be transacted and all things done according to order [Authenticæ or Novellæ Constitutiones, coll. IV, tit. 17, nov. 38, on decurions and their sons, pref., pag. 72, Elzevir edit. 1668. Cf. Willems, Antiquités Romaines, part. II, lib. III, sect. III, cap. II, §3; Guérard, Essai sur le système des divisions territoriales de la Gaule, pag. 1 et seq.; Raynouard, Histoire du droit municipal en France, tom. I, lib. I, pag. 1 et seq.]. But in what way St. Thalasius earned the right to put on the senatorial toga can be drawn from no historical document. For some were co-opted among the senators by hereditary right, as being born after their father had obtained senatorial rank, others either for their merits or for the most ample offices they had discharged. To them indeed it was entrusted to decree the taxes, to name the magistrate of the municipalities, to administer and protect the affairs of the city, and to act before the emperor and his legates. Nor does the lesser celebrity of Issoudun stand in the way of its probably having had a senate, and of St. Thalasius having sat in it: for, as we have already seen at num. 5, Issoudun is believed to have been once either a Roman colony or a municipality, and St. Thalasius could be reckoned, if not among the senators of the town of Issoudun, certainly among those of the city of Bourges, since Issoudun was within the bounds of the Bituriges. Now in the inscription of the monastery of the Mother of God he is stated to have been Senator at Issoudun, and no reason presents itself why we should assign him a seat in another senate-house.
[13] confused perhaps with the bishop of Angers or another. We come at last to the final question, whether St. Thalasius of Issoudun was the same as the St. Thalasius who is venerated at Bourges. Before I answer, I cannot but disclose a certain anxiety which has beset my mind: namely, it is well enough and more than enough known that formerly and in almost every age there existed sacrilegious men who carried false relics about, so that councils, and even that of Trent, had to pass laws against their misdeeds. Moreover, is it not strange that the bodies of four bishops, of whom we plainly do not know where they sat or whence they came, were brought in one translation into the convent of girls of St. Laurence? But since no firm cause for doubting presents itself, I have driven this suspicion from my mind, holding it as certain that they are the relics of a certain St. Thalasius. But whatever that may be, it seems it cannot be established that he is one and the same holy man. I pass over that both parties contended that the body of St. Thalasius was with them: for this argument is the weaker, since by synecdoche a part of a body was quite often called the body. What is stronger, those saints are distinguished by their offices, senatorial and episcopal; they are distinguished also by their company, since one had St. Baius as companion, the other SS. David, Florentius and Asclepius. But if anyone would have it that St. Thalasius of Bourges was the bishop of Angers who was taken up to govern this Church in the year 453, and in his absence gave consent, eight years later, to the Acts of the council of Tours Gallia christiana, tom. XIV, col. 546 et seq., as I said before, I have nothing with which to confirm it. These controversies about St. Thalasius are of such a kind that, chiefly because of the lack of documents, they cannot be resolved. Now other questions are to be raised about his companion, which, although they are not so arduous, are nevertheless settled with difficulty.
[14] The functions of the archpriest which St. Baius discharged are explained, That St. Baius held the office of archpriest at Issoudun seems plain: for martyrs, especially those who bear the care of souls, if you except a very few, shed their blood for Christ in the place where they have their dwelling: nay, no one will easily deny that this is to be gathered from the inscription itself, where Baius, the protector of his people, that is, of the citizens of Issoudun, is stated to have suffered martyrdom in the same Issoudun as St. Thalasius. Since then St. Baius had been honored with the office of archpriest at Issoudun, he ruled the castle of Issoudun on behalf of the bishop of Bourges. For that this was the duty of archpriests in that age we see in the writings of St. Gregory of Tours, who speaks of Modericus, who as archpriest ruled the castle of Tonnerre Works of St. Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, lib. V, col. 321, Migne edit., and of Publianus, who himself likewise ruled Brioude Ibid., Miracula Martyrum, lib. II, col. 814.. Nor does it escape us that in the fourth and fifth centuries archpriests were accustomed not to withdraw from the side of the bishops, especially in the East, and accordingly had their dwelling where the bishops did, and were their delegates for fulfilling on their behalf those episcopal functions which priests were able to discharge. But this also is certain, that in the sixth century in Gaul some archpriests had their seat in the episcopal city Ibid., lib. I, cap. LXXVIII, col. 774., others in castles and in villages: for besides Modericus and Publianus already mentioned, St. Gregory of Tours records Eulalius, archpriest of Archtona in the territory of Poitou Ibid., Gloria Confessorum, col. 834., and another who was archpriest of a village named Becciacum in the territory of Herbauges, situated on the borders of the Nantais and the Poitevins St. Greg., Gloria Mart., cap. XC, col. 784.; likewise too an archpriest of the village of Mereum (Mercy-sur-Cher) in the territory of Bourges, or of the village of Nereum (Neris) in the Bourbonnais territory Ibid., Vitæ Patrum, col. 1054.. And since St. Gregory speaks of the second kind of archpriests as of an institution long since existing in Gaul, and lists a good number of them as though they had lived not so long before, it is no wonder that St. Baius discharged the office of archpriest at Issoudun in the fifth century [Thomassin, Discipl. de l'Église, part. I, lib. II, cap. III, col. 460 et seqq.; Pellicia, Christianæ Ecclesiæ politia, tom. I, lib. I, pag. 71 et seqq.; Selvaggius, Antiquitatum christianarum Institutiones, lib. I, part. II, cap. I, pag. 15 et seq.; Morin, De sacris Ordinationibus, part. III, Exercit. XVI, pag. 215 et seq.; Binterim, Denkwürdigkeiten der Christ-Katholischen Kirche, tom. I, part I, pag. 514.].
[15] who was also a monk. Since, according to the custom adopted by us, Saints who lived in the monastic state are to be distinguished from secular clerics, it is well to indicate briefly in this place why we reckon St. Baius among the monks. As is commonly known, St. Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli, established that the same men should be monks as were clerics Works of St. Ambrose, tom. IV, sermon LVI, num. 3 and 4, col. 720, Migne edit.. St. Augustine brought this discipline into the Church of Hippo, and St. Martin into Gaul; whence it was carried over through St. Patrick into Ireland. Concerning Gaul Ruinart speaks thus in the Preface to the Works of St. Gregory of Tours, following Adrien de Valois [De Basilicis, cap. III, pag. 24 et seqq., Paris 1657. Disceptationis de basilicis defensio, pag. 15 et seqq., Paris 1660.] and Mabillon [Acta SS. Ord. S. Bened., Pref. to sæc. II, num. 27.; ibid., Pref. II to sæc. III, num. 45, Paris 1669 – 1672.]: The monastic order was already in the time of Gregory so joined to the clerical state that to be a monk and a cleric was the same thing … and indeed, as we observe here and there in their proper places, those whom Gregory calls clerics at the beginning of a chapter he afterwards names monks. Nor is this strange, since in those times, and already long before, monks performed all clerical offices, and devoted their chief effort to the celebration of the divine offices: nay even abbots, as we were just saying, ordained clerics, and whenever anything was to be done solemnly in the Church, the bishops, as Gregory recalls here and there, at once summoned the abbots and priests of their diocese Works of St. Gregory of Tours, Preface, col. 34, Migne edit.,. These words also seem to regard the fifth century and accordingly the times of St. Baius: for St. Gregory, where he openly says that monks are the same as clerics, is speaking of men who were among the living in the fifth century. After Ruinart the Benedictine monks Tassin and Toustain Nouveau traité de diplomatique. tom. III, pag. 300; tom. V, pag. 388. adhered to the same views, reporting that St. Gregory of Tours called clerics monks more than sixty times. Nor let anyone judge that these clerics fulfilled all the duties that now fall upon monks: for the common life was not prescribed for them, but contempt of things and the exactness of Levites, so that they were not much different from well-formed clerics of today. Such then seems to have been the condition of St. Baius.
[16] Each martyr seems to have been a Gaul. Thus far we have spoken of the offices of the holy martyrs, and have said not a word of their people. Their names indeed are Greek; by Baius is signified Small, as also by Thalasius Marine: a name which was not so rare among the southern Gauls Cf. Rivet, Hist. littér., tom. I, part. I, pag. 60.. But someone will perhaps gather from this that each saint was Greek by home or origin. Nor would this conjecture be absurd, since before and after the birth of Christ very many Greeks established their dwelling in Gaul, and were more tenacious of their ancestral usages than barbarians Cf. Rivet, ibid., tom. I, part. I, pag. 45 et seqq.: but neither should it be forgotten that the peoples subdued by the Romans were within a short time so merged into one with their conquerors as to admit both their manners and their language, while those who were co-opted to administer the commonwealth accommodated themselves much more to Roman rites and customs. Indeed, to finish the matter with a few examples, it is clear from an epigram of the year 442 found at Rome [Edm. Le Blant, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule, tom. II, num. 657, pag. 539; Rossi, Inscriptiones christianæ, tom I, pag. 310.], and from the names of Apollinaris Sidonius and others of that age, that the Gauls adopted Greek and Latin names for themselves. These things sufficiently persuade us that it cannot be certainly conjectured from the name of SS. Thalasius and Baius whether they were Gauls or Greeks. Since, however, there is no reason why they should be judged foreigners, and since they were citizens of Issoudun, and having discharged most honorable offices in Gaul, suffered martyrdom there, this region seems to be called their native soil.
[17] St. Thalasius Moreover it must be considered that St. Thalasius, as being a senator, was numbered among the nobles or patricians, and accordingly generally had three or more names. Wherefore some might ask what sort of name Thalasius was. Now if he had been among the living in the time either of the Republic or of the first emperors, there would have to be doubt; for then the first appellation
was the prænomen, the second the name of the family, the third the cognomen [Cf. Sigonius, in Grævius, Antiq. Roman., tom. II, col. 1951 et seqq; Onuphrius Panvinius, ibid., col. 1991 et seqq.; Cannegieter, De mutata Romanorum nominum ratione; Marquardt, Römische Privatalterthümer, tom. I, pag. 10 et seqq.]; but since the blessed martyrs passed their lives much later, we do not doubt that Thalasius is to be taken for the last of these three. This is also easily gathered from our own Sirmond, who says in the Preface to the Works of St. Apollinaris Sidonius: For the Romans, while the Republic stood, the proper name was the one that came first, that is, the prænomen: by which, namely, brothers themselves, since they had the other names in common, were distinguished from one another, as the brothers M. Tullius Cicero and Q. Tullius Cicero. But afterwards they began to use and be distinguished by not their first but their last names as proper, as Salvius Otho and Salvius Titianus: likewise the brothers Flavius Vespasian and Flavius Sabinus in Suetonius. With a view to this the same Suetonius notes as something peculiar in the Vitellius brothers that they were distinguished by their prænomina alone; which certainly would not have been new in the times of the Republic: for then, as I said, brothers were not distinguished in any other way.
[18] He is designated by his last name, as by a proper one. And Sirmond demonstrates this by a number of other arguments. Then he likewise shows that in later centuries the custom of imposing names was this, that both the proper names of each person and the added ones, whether cognomina or prænomina (all of which varied in individual persons), were for the most part borrowed from parents and kinsmen, fathers, paternal uncles, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and other relations, with the family name omitted. Most at that time had three names, but some even more. So Quintus Flavianus Memmius Symmachus, Fabius Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius, Gaius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius, Magnus Felix Ennodius, Fabius Laurentius Marius Victorinus, etc.; to all of whom this one thing was common, that the last word was the proper name [Works of Sirmond, tom. I, pag. 831 et seqq. Cf. Works of Ennodius, ibid., col. 1365.]. How many names St. Thalasius the senator had is altogether unknown, as is the case too with hundreds of other distinguished men; but this is certain to me, that Thalasius was his last name, and that it was his proper one: in which no trouble was taken whether it was Greek or Latin. And this is sufficient for our purpose on the names of the Romans. A somewhat similar opinion, in discussing the names of SS. Ambrose and Augustine, was excellently put forward, as is his custom, by Commendatore Giovanni Battista de Rossi, in our age by general consent easily the prince of Christian archæology [Bullettino di arch. crist., series I, year II, pag. 73 et seqq.; year III, pag. 15.].
§ III. Of the cult of SS. Thalasius and Baius at Issoudun and throughout the whole diocese of Bourges.
Of SS. Thalasius and Baius Although it appears likely to us that both holy martyrs were transferred to the roll of the Saints shortly after their glorious contest, since such was the custom of that age, nevertheless, being about to speak of the cult paid to them, we wish the reader to be forewarned that no historical monument has hitherto been at our disposal by which the beginnings of this cult can be uncovered. The most ancient documents in which the name of both martyrs occurs are the Gallo-Frankish Hagiology for the use of the monastery of St. Laurence at Bourges, and the Martyrology for the use of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Issoudun. Of the age of the former liturgical monument we know nothing, as we indicated at the beginning of the commentary, except that it was composed after the thirteenth century. Yet that it is very old is manifest, since it was published by our Labbe in the years 1643 and 1657 from a manuscript almost eaten away by age and worn out by constant use: which manuscript had once been copied from another more ancient one either of the same monastery of St. Laurence or of the abbey of St. Sulpicius, and was enriched from time to time with new additions Bibl. mss., tom. II, pag. 706.. Whether the other historical monument was less ancient, namely the Martyrology of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Issoudun, about which Thaumas de la Thaumassière wrote in the year 1689 in his History of the Affairs of Bourges, I would not dare to affirm. I suspect that it is older than the year 1481, in which the monastery began to groan for several centuries under the yoke of the commendatory abbots, and monastic discipline to go to ruin: for in this condition of things men do not seem very fit for producing a martyrology. Hence it seems it must be affirmed that not only St. Thalasius, but also St. Baius, were honored with ecclesiastical cult a hundred years before the Urbanian decree of the year 1634, and accordingly that this distinguished honor was lawfully paid to both saints in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This is clear also from the fact that the cult was approved by the knowledge and toleration of the bishops over a very long time: and where such knowledge and toleration are present, Urban VIII did not wish his decree to prejudice the cult of saints and blesseds not canonized. Nor was there any other cause why it was brought into the Proper of the Offices of the diocese of Bourges by the archbishops of that city: to whom, as to the bishops of all dioceses, it is permitted by ordinary right, on the testimony of Benedict XIV De Canoniz., lib. II, cap. VII, num. 1, et seqq, to pass judgment on the lawful cult of Saints, but not to extend it.
[20] Cult at Issoudun And so in the abbey of the Order of St. Benedict under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Issoudun the memory of SS. Thalasius and Baius was once observed on the 30th day of October; on which day the martyrological announcement published above, at num. 3, was read in choir, where we also spoke of their relics. The cult of the Saints was confirmed by the glory of miracles: for one reads in the Gallia Christiana: In the abbey of Issoudun SS. Thalasius and Baius are held in singular veneration … whose holiness is proved by the frequent miracles that occur at their sacred relics Gallia christiana, tom. II, col. 157, edit. 1720.. With the Gallia Christiana agrees the Benedictine monk Beaunier [Recueil historique des Archevêchés, Evêchés, Abbayes, etc. de France, tom. I, pag. 236.], stating that the cult of SS. Thalasius and Baius both arose from miracles and was extended in every direction through this region. Likewise Edmond Martène and Durand Voyage littéraire de deux Bénédictins, tom. I, pag. 21. report that the beginning of this singular devotion and popular concourse is to be referred chiefly to about the year 1700, when a certain boy, paralyzed in all his limbs, was restored to health through the intervention of the holy martyrs. Afterwards a good many miracles of this kind were performed, and from this the cult of SS. Thalasius and Baius took no small increase. From Thaumas de la Thaumassière we learn that in his own time, that is, about the year 1689, the feast of the blessed martyrs was celebrated at Issoudun on the 30th day of October with double rite: which the historian Pallet reports was still the case in the year 1785 Nouvelle histoire du Berry, tom. V, pag. 143.: things which the archbishops of Bourges surely would not have tolerated had their cult not been plainly approved.
[21] and at Bourges. We have already noted at num. 3 that on the same day the memory of St. Thalasius alone was celebrated in the Martyrology of the convent of St. Laurence at Bourges, and on the 12th day of May the translation of the same St. Thalasius and of three bishops; because it was thought, as is also reported by Chastelain, that his body rested there: on which matter see above, num. 9. And from these monuments it is most certain that the cult of SS. Thalasius and Baius flourished in one church of Issoudun, and that of St. Thalasius alone in another at Bourges. But the Office and Mass in their honor were by no means celebrated by all the clerics of Issoudun or Bourges; and much less has it been shown that this cult extended to the whole diocese of Bourges, or even to all the churches. Indeed in the Breviaries of Bourges composed or printed at the beginning of the fifteenth century and in the years 1500, 1510, 1625 and 1651, which were most carefully examined by Rev. Fr. Caffin, priest of the Society of Jesus, not a word is said of SS. Thalasius and Baius. We have to hand no older document of ecclesiastical honor paid to the blessed martyrs by the Church of Bourges than the manuscript Directory of the Church of Bourges of the year 1625, where at the 30th day of October, St. Baius being omitted, the feast of St. Thalasius, bishop and confessor, is indicated. But in the year 1734, since the cult of both martyrs had for some years taken such increase, all the clerics of Bourges were ordered, by mandate of Archbishop de Roye de la Rochefoucauld, who prescribed the use of a new Breviary, to observe on the 30th day of October, with simple rite, the memory not of St. Thalasius alone but also of St. Baius, and in the divine Office and in the Mass to recite the antiphons or even the prayers from the Common of Martyrs: a rite which we see had not yet fallen into disuse in the Directories of the archdiocese of the years 1848 and following. But since the year 1863, from which time the clerics of Bourges have used the Roman Breviary, they celebrate the feast of SS. Thalasius and Baius with simple rite, and besides the prayers from the Common of Martyrs they add the following lesson, approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites:
[22] It is extended to the whole diocese of Bourges. Thalassius, born of a noble and patrician stock, despising wealth, gave his name to the clerical warfare. Initiated into the priesthood, soon raised to the episcopal dignity, he carried out the pontifical functions in the territory of Auvergne. Baius, however, was an archpriest. At the close of the fifth century, when persecution was raging at Issoudun, Thalassius and Baius, professing the faith constantly, together completed their martyrdom by the shedding of blood on the thirtieth day of October, on which day the distinguished relics of the holy martyrs, preserved with devout cult in the abbey of the most blessed Virgin Mary at Issoudun, were exposed to the veneration of the faithful. In the course of the centuries the body of blessed Thalasius was brought to the abbey of St. Laurence at Bourges, which every year on the twelfth day of May observed this translation with a solemn feast. But in the civil disturbance which blazed up in France about the end of the eighteenth century, the precious relics, both at Issoudun and at Avaricum (that is, at Bourges), were scattered and perished. But the memory of the holy martyrs did not perish, and they are deservedly held as protectors of the diocese in which they obtained the palm of martyrdom. Most of what is contained in this lesson has been brought to examination above, so that it seems nothing further need be said of it.