Aigulphus and His Companions

ON ST. AIGULPHUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, ABBOT AND MARTYRS,

IN THE ISLAND OF CAPRAJA BETWEEN CORSICA AND ETRURIA.

Between the years DCLXXV and DCLXXXI.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Aigulphus, abbot and martyr on the island of Capraja between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Trucharius, martyr on the island of Capraja between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Frongentius, martyr on the island of Capraja between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Other companions, martyrs on the island of Capraja between Corsica and Etruria (SS.)

BY J. S.

§ I. The differing Acts of St. Aigulphus and his companions,

partly published, partly hitherto unpublished: the author of the published Life is Adrevald,

a monk of Fleury; the author of the unpublished one is anonymous: the authority

of these and of others is examined.

[ ] The illustrious martyrdom of St. Aigulphus or Aygulphus,

abbot of Lérins, and of his fellow Monks

I find related by many writers;

the Life of St. Aigulphus published by various persons, but not in altogether

the same manner. Sufficiently

lengthy Acts were published by Surius in the first edition

of his Work at 3 September, though with the style altered

and polished. Mabillon afterward published the same Acts in the style

of the first author among the *Acts of the Saints

of the Order of St. Benedict*, saec. 2, from page 656, with this

title prefixed: *The Life of St. Aigulphus, abbot of Lérins

and martyr, by Adrevald, a monk

of Fleury, who flourished in the principate of Charles the Bald*.

In his preliminary Observation he speaks thus of it: In

by us in its genuine and native style,

bears this inscription: “The proem of father

Adrevald on the life and passion of the venerable monk

Aigulf of the place of Fleury.” Of this very

Life we have a transcript from a Ms. codex of Rouge-Cloître;

but the author's name is there omitted,

and this title prefixed: *The Life of St. Aigulphus,

abbot of Lérins*. But there is no other difference

between this transcript and Mabillon's edition,

except in the words alone, which frequently

differ in such a way as nevertheless everywhere to convey

the same sense.

[2] The learned Benedictine Religious of the Congregation

of St. Maur, which were written by Adrevald of Fleury, who are publishing the Literary History of France

in French, in volume 5 of the said Work from page 515

treat of Adrevald, a monk of Fleury, and attribute

these Acts of St. Aigulphus to him without hesitation.

And indeed I do not see that there is any doubting the matter,

after Mabillon found Adrevald's name

prefixed in the Fleury Ms., especially since it is established

that various things were written by Adrevald, and no

reason occurs why we should adjudge this Life away from him.

The time of the Life's writing also favors Adrevald:

for at num. 2 the biographer hints that he wrote about

two hundred years after the martyrdom of St. Aigulphus,

and at that very time Adrevald flourished and wrote other things

as well, as the aforesaid Benedictines prove. Finally the style of the Life of St. Aigulphus

squares excellently with the style of the first book of the *Miracles

of St. Benedict*, of which Adrevald is the author,

as may be seen in our volume III of March, page

305 and following, where that book of Miracles

is given. And so about the author of this Life there is no

doubting: but his characteristics must be more closely

inspected, that from them we may gather how much authority

is to be assigned to the Little Work. about two hundred years after the Saints' martyrdom, from another older one:

[3] Adrevald's age cannot procure for him great

authority in this Life, since that composition

is nearly two hundred years later than Aigulphus's martyrdom,

as I have already intimated. The learned

Benedictines acknowledge that Adrevald is later than Aigulphus

by so great an interval: but they observe that another

Life shone before him, and that Adrevald composed his own

out of that one. This can easily be proved,

even though Adrevald himself did not in express words mention

that older Life. For

Adalbert, likewise a monk of Fleury, whom

some believe to be the same as Adrevald, in his *History

of the translation of SS. Benedict and Scholastica

into Gaul*, which was published by us in volume [ ]

of March, page 302, at num. 3 has this about Aigulphus:

Whose Passion also is held by us. But

that History of the translation was written before the Life

of St. Aigulphus, since Adrevald in the Life of Aigulphus

at num. 5 refers his readers to it. There is therefore

no doubt that Adrevald saw

some older Life or Passion, as

the aforesaid Benedictines rightly showed: who likewise

had observed before that Adrevald is celebrated by Trithemius

and Aimoin as a most learned and

most eloquent man. From these things finally the same writers

conclude that Adrevald did not lack the necessary

supports for writing the Life of Aigulphus: and they affirm

that it was written by him rightly enough, though they disapprove

his style as more diffuse than is right and now and then

involved.

[4] What makes me less willing to acquiesce in this judgment

is the other Life of St. Aigulphus, hitherto unpublished, many things are found in this Life which are not probable. in

which several of that Saint's deeds are narrated otherwise

than they are related by Adrevald, so that in

one or the other Life some errors must necessarily be found.

Besides, the aforementioned book of the *Miracles

of St. Benedict* was so written by Adrevald

that Henschen judged a good large part of it

unworthy to be reprinted, and having cited

certain of its words, did not hesitate to pronounce

at page 305: How stupid and

rank these fictions are, who does not see? Nay, the aforesaid

Benedictines themselves at page 521 have already called that judgment

of Henschen's a just censure. But if

Adrevald mixed into the aforesaid Work such rank fables

about persons nearer to him,

namely about the last kings of the Merovingian stock

and about Charles Martel, who will make us secure

that the same man spoke more cautiously about St. Aigulphus

and his affairs? Nay, who will not fear that by so great

he wrote the more freely about him, the longer he had been

dead, and the less his deeds were commonly

known? Mabillon has already noted a notable slip of his

at page 664: for he invents the Oratory,

a convent of virgins, which was in Gallia Belgica,

as being near the monastery of Lérins. Finally

various things present themselves to me in Adrevald's Life

which are not read in the other. And the more

I consider these, the less probable they appear,

as I shall show of each below in the Commentary,

or in the Annotations to those Acts which

I shall give in the second place.

[5] Further, other Acts of St. Aigulphus, much briefer

than the aforesaid, Another Life, which is perhaps that very one which I have already said are unpublished, were communicated

to our Elders from the library of Constantine

Gaetani. And I have a strong suspicion

that these are those very Acts of which Adalbert of Fleury, cited

at num. 3, said: Whose

Passion also is held by us: for there are various

things which persuade to this. First, the title agrees;

for these Acts are entitled: *The Passion of blessed Aygulphus,

martyr and abbot, with three monks

his companions*. Secondly, many things in this Passion are expressed

in the same way in which they are read in Adrevald:

and not only did both biographers narrate certain deeds of the Saint

in the same way, which would be less to be wondered at;

but each in his preface brings forward the example of St.

John the Baptist, to prove that Aigulphus is rightly

called a martyr: each also says that after the example of other

writers he narrates the Saint's fatherland and family. Thirdly it is clear enough that the anonymous

author of this Passion did not see Adrevald's

Little Work, since in the preface at num. 2

he says that he is about to write Aigulphus's Life as he found it in

certain deeds of the monastery of Lérins, over which

he presided. Then this author passes over many things narrated

by Adrevald; not a few also he narrates

in a different manner: which he does not seem likely to have

done had he seen the Life written by Adrevald:

and he would doubtless have had it, if he had been

later than he.

[6] which Adrevald had, who added many not very probable things to it. I see, however, that the diversity of the two Lives

can here be objected, and that from it may be inferred that Adrevald did not see that Passion, since he

departed from it in various matters. I confess that by this reason I am

rendered doubtful; nor am I willing to affirm as certain

that this Ms. Passion shone before Adrevald. Nevertheless

that suspicion is not removed, since it appears certain

that Adrevald indulged conjectures too much,

and therefore it is the less to be wondered at if

he now and then departed from the older Life, whether because

he had other records also, or because

he attributed much to popular traditions. Certainly

Adrevald was zealous to embellish his style and to make a show

of his own learning: and he narrated far more things

than the anonymous author. But if we attentively consider all those things

which he alone narrates, we shall scarcely

find anything among them that is sufficiently probable.

For this cause I judge that those deeds of Aigulphus

which are read in the Ms. Life, which I shall publish in the first place,

are far more certain than are the others

which Adrevald superadded to them: and further,

where they disagree, I judge that the anonymous writer is to be preferred.

But those things are certainly the most certain of all in which

both agree. Let these things be so said out of the love of truth alone,

that I should not wish to contend vehemently if anyone should show by suitable

reasons that more credit is to be given to Adrevald

than to the anonymous writer.

[7] Another Ms. epitome of Adrevald: a Life put together by Vincent Barralis: Besides these Acts, there is at hand for us another

Ms. Passion, communicated formerly from a Utrecht codex

of St. Saviour's. It is not necessary to set these briefer

Acts before the eyes of readers, since they contain nothing

which is not in Adrevald, of whom they are

an epitome, as most clearly appears from a comparison

of the two: for not only are the same facts related in both,

but Adrevald's very words are here and there

retained in the epitome, only the superfluous being cut away,

or those things which do not pertain to the history.

Wherefore, if I shall find anything different in that Ms.,

I shall communicate it to the reader in the Annotations

to Adrevald. Vincent Barralis composed new

Acts of St. Aigulphus and his Companions, which he inserted

in his Lérins Chronology, page 327 and following.

But he asserts that these Acts of his were compiled from various

manuscripts and very ancient codices of the monastery

of Lérins. The proem of Barralis indeed

is wholly taken from the Ms. Passion to be published in the first

place, which he then went on to follow

at the beginning of the Life; but afterward, having advanced further, and especially

in relating the martyrdom, he preferred to follow

Adrevald. And so Barralis so followed these two authors

that he adopted neither in all things,

and everywhere interpolated the one from the other.

Whether Barralis also had some other Life, or at any rate

certain other records, is not established

for me. He narrates indeed some things which are not read in

the aforesaid Lives; but these are few, and

seem to be added from conjectures rather than from ancient records,

as will be proved in the course of the work.

We shall discuss the deeds of St. Aigulphus and his Companions

below in their order out of the said records.

[8] Mabillon after the Life of St. Aigulphus published

also a brief account of the translation of the relics

of holy Aigulphus into the castle of Provins. [The Translation or Invention, as also the Miracles of St. Aigulphus, to be given below.] He observes

beforehand that there is a dispute between the men of Provins and those of Lérins

about the present possession of the body, on which

we shall treat below. Then he explains what this account sets forth,

and whence it was received, in these words:

The history of the translation, first indeed from the monastery

of Lérins to that of Fleury, and afterward from that of Fleury to the castle of Provins, an anonymous author thus

touches upon in a codex of the library of St. Remigius at Rheims.

We have the same history of the Translation,

or rather of the Invention, from the ancient parchments

of Master Antoine Wion, master d'Herouvalle,

under this title: On the invention of St. Aygulf.

I shall give this Ms. Account, compared with Mabillon's edition,

who cut away some things here and there

as superfluous. But at the end there has been added

to the people after the deposition of the body. But

since this Sermon contains nothing which pertains to

the Saint, and is wholly moral, it is not necessary to transfer it

hither. Finally Mabillon subjoined

the Miracles of St. Aigulf from a Ms. codex of the most distinguished gentleman D.

Herouval. These Miracles likewise I have in manuscript from the codex of the same most

distinguished gentleman, copied in the hand

of our own Papebroch. From this transcript,

compared with Mabillon's edition, I shall reprint

those Miracles, and shall again supply some things

passed over in Mabillon.

§ II. St. Aigulphus's fatherland, parents, age, monastic life: the translation of St. Benedict's body attributed to him.

[ ] St. Aigulphus born at Blois of parents of slender condition, About St. Aigulphus's fatherland the writers agree,

affirming with one voice that he was born

at Blois *, that is, in the castle of Blois situated on the Loire,

between Orléans and Tours. The city of Blois,

otherwise sufficiently ancient, was only adorned with episcopal

dignity toward the end of the seventeenth century by Pope

Innocent XII, under the metropolitan see of Paris. He had parents

of slender condition, if we believe the writers of his Life.

Aimoin, however, in his History of the Franks,

in the last chapter, says that he sprang from a not ignoble

family at the castle of Blois. A noble family does not indeed

conflict with a scanty rating of goods: nevertheless

it appears strange that that nobility, passed over

by the writers of the Life, should afterward have been known to

Aimoin, who is a whole century later than they. It is also to be observed

with Martin Bouquet,

who took charge of the latest edition of Aimoin in volume

3 of the Writers of French Affairs, that this chapter was not

in the earlier editions: This chapter,

says the aforesaid editor at page 139, Duchesne first added

from Ms. codices. It is wanting in the Saint-Germain

codex. And so it is less certain that this chapter

is Aimoin's: and more uncertain still what is there read about the noble

family of St. Aigulphus: for Adrevald

denies that nobility at num. 3.

[10] About the time of Aigulphus's birth Adrevald records

nothing: in the reign of Dagobert I. but the first Life at num. 3 hints

that he was born under the reign of Dagobert I. We can

therefore judge that he was born about the year 630,

with an extension of some years by which he might have been

born later, or even two years earlier. He was devoutly brought up,

and as a Youth was imbued with letters, as

is abundantly gathered from his deeds, although both Lives are silent

about his study of letters. Barralis compensated for that silence

of the Acts liberally, and perhaps too much,

when he wrote this about Aigulphus's studies: And so, being handed over by his parents

in his tender years to be imbued with letters, in a short time he so flourished in Grammar,

Rhetoric, Dialectic, and in every kind

of the sciences, that by the keenness of his wit

he adorned at once his parents and his fatherland.

Imbued with letters he chose the monastic Life in

the abbey of Fleury, over which St. Mummolus

was then abbot, as Adrevald says at num. 4 and 5.

The time when his monastic life began the writers do not express

otherwise than by saying that Aigulphus

was then a young man (of perhaps eighteen

or twenty years) and that Mummolus was in charge of the abbey,

whose prefecture is said to have been long-lasting.

[11] Mabillon will have the monastery of Fleury founded about the year 641, From the time, however, at which the monastery

of Fleury was built, it might somehow be gathered

in about what year Aigulphus began the monastic life,

provided that time could be assigned with sufficient certainty.

That that monastery was built in the time

of Clovis II, king of the Franks, the first Life at num. 5 testifies,

and many other writers assert the same,

so that the matter is by no means doubtful. But since

Clovis held the kingdom for eighteen years,

that note of time is too vague. The Testament

of abbot Leodebodus, who built the monastery of Fleury,

is dated in the 2nd year of king Clovis: and

from that it would follow that the foundation was begun

in the earlier years of Clovis's reign, as

Mabillon will have it begun in his Annals, volume 1, page 380,

setting the foundation at the year 641. But there is no doubt-

ing that the epoch of the testament is corrupted,

unless the testament itself is wholly fabricated:

for at the beginning Leodebodus says that he not only

dealt with king Clovis, but also with

his glorious lady his wife, queen Balthild. But it is certain

that Balthild was married to Clovis much later,

since he came to the throne as a boy.

Mabillon acknowledges that this and other things cannot stand

with the second year of Clovis;

yet he will have the testament to be of good credit, excepting

those things which are read in it about St. Balthild, about St. Audoenus, and

about St. Leodegar. Nay, he presently

says: To draw the whole matter into a few words; from the beginning,

as I have already said, of the principate of the younger Clovis

the monastery of Fleury began to be founded.

And finally, from the time of the translation of the body of St.

Benedict, and from the fourteen years of the first

abbots, he affirms that the reckoning of the monastery's founding can be brought back

to the year 641.

[12] but nothing certain can be said, except that it was founded under Clovis II, But either the testament cannot stand,

or the abbey was founded later: for Leodebodus

says in his testament: I resolve to build a Monastery in honor of holy

Peter. The monastery was therefore not yet

built when he already says that he

dealt with queen Balthild. But Balthild was not queen

before about the year 650. And so the foundation

is to be placed about the year 650, and the corruption of the testament's

epoch must be acknowledged: or the testament

must be abandoned altogether, as Longueval has already

abandoned it and acknowledged it to be spurious

in his History of the Gallican Church, volume 3, page

565. But Le Cointe in his Annals of the Franks, at

the year 667, examining the same testament, at num.

18 judges that so many things in the chronological notes must be corrected

that he at last concludes it to have been made

in the twelfth year of king Clothar III,

the six hundred and sixty-seventh of Christ. But

Le Cointe departs too far from all the writers

who hand down that the monastery of Fleury was founded under Clovis II.

Pagi, at the year 664, num.

19, says that for the second year of Clovis in the testament there must be substituted

the twelfth year, and that the building

of the monastery is to be fixed at the year 649. To me

indeed all these things seem too uncertain to

be of help toward establishing the chronology.

Wherefore I assume this one thing as certain, that the monastery

was founded under Clovis II, and

therefore that probably no abbot presided over it before

the year 640, since many things had to be done first

before the election of an abbot: but on the contrary, if Leodebodus's testament

holds good in the rest, and only the chronological notes

are corrupt, that no abbot could have been set over that monastery

except about the year 650

or later.

[13] Aimoin of Fleury, already praised above,

in his last chapter relates the building of the monastery of Fleury,

and other things conducing to our purpose,

in this manner: While the glorious king Clovis,

son of Dagobert, was ordering the governance of the kingdom of the Franks,

a certain man noble by family, and no less

renowned for the uprightness of his mind, Leodebodus by name,

was discharging the office of abbot in the monastery of St. Anian,

in the suburb of Orléans. He, approaching the oft-

mentioned prince, asked that an exchange be made

of the fisc of Fleury. To which petition the king,

kindly as he was in mind, willingly assented: and having received

from the said abbot an estate which had come to him from

his paternal inheritance, he transferred the aforesaid fisc

of Fleury into his lordship. And he, having obtained his wishes,

by no means suffered that same place to lie idle long:

but two basilicas having been built,

one in honor of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and another

in veneration of Mary, the Mother of God, he presently

built also dwellings suited to the uses of monks:

and having gathered together certain nobles, or also men

desiring to serve God, he appointed an abbot

named Rigomarus. And he, when five years were completed,

passing from this world, received a successor

named Mummolus. This good shepherd,

while he was striving to increase the flock entrusted to him by the highest

and true shepherd, God, received a certain man of innocent

life, Aigulphus by name, sprung of a not ignoble family

from the castle of Blois, converted

to the service of Christ. From these things

we have that Aigulphus entered the monastery

after Rigomarus had presided over it for five years,

and Mummolus had been substituted for him, so

that his entrance may be fixed thereabouts at

the year 650, though we confess he might have entered a year

or two earlier, and later even by several.

[14] About the Saint's exceptional fervor and excellent virtues

the writers of the Lives treat abundantly. [The translation of the bodies of SS. Benedict and Scholastica ascribed to Aigulphus:] These things related,

Adrevald in the second Life at num. 7 relates

that the body of St. Benedict was translated by Aigulphus

to the monastery of Fleury. Aimoin agrees with Adrevald,

subjoining these things to what has gone before:

Whom (Aigulphus) also, in the course of time

approved in the monastic manner of life, he (Mummolus) sent to the province

of Benevento, that

he might thence transfer to the Gauls the holy body

of the father Benedict, to be reverenced by all mortals.

He obeyed his command not sluggishly, and brought

into the Gauls the most holy limbs of the said father together with the bones of his sister

Scholastica. And whoever shall wish to know this

more fully will be able to find it in the book which is entitled

On the Translation of father Benedict.

The book which Aimoin here designates,

and which Adrevald likewise indicates, has been published

by us in volume III of March, page 302 and following.

About Aigulphus's mission it is there stated at num. 3 thus:

He (Mummolus) sent to the aforesaid province

one of his fellow-soldiers, named

Aygulphus, a monk. For he said it had been

divinely revealed to him that the aforesaid Man,

going thither, should translate the body of the said Benedict.

For that same Aygulphus was a venerable

man, and one longing wholly to please God: and

of how great sanctity, or of what virtue, he was, his end

proved, in which all praise is safely sung. Further,

such a vision as is said to have been offered to abbot Mummolus,

that he should send Aigulphus for the body of St. Benedict,

such a one also they will have been offered at the same time to St.

Berarius, bishop of Le Mans, that he should send some of his men

to Cassino to seek and translate

the body of St. Scholastica.

[15] an account of the translation These men of Le Mans therefore, if we believe the aforesaid

History, having been brought to Fleury, find Aigulphus

girded for the journey, and by common resolve

they determine to carry through together the work that had been begun. But when

they had reached Rome, they were divided, meaning to complete

the business which they had begun. The said Aygulphus,

leaving off meanwhile those things which he had openly made a show

of wishing, namely the circuits of the holy places,

gave his effort to the expedition, striving

to accomplish the more quickly the holy charge which had been laid upon him.

At last therefore he came to

the place of the castle which is called Cassino: and there

putting an end for a little while to his journey, he awaited

the outcome of the matter, praying to him who had deigned to reveal

the vision set forth above, and who had appointed him

to this work, that he would not have so great a journey

spent in vain; but that, as he had promised,

he would deign to reveal to him the casket of his treasure.

Presently in chapter 2 Aigulphus is said to have opened his plan

to a certain old man, that he might bring help to him in his search.

The same things also are narrated in the Life of St. Berarius,

bishop of Le Mans, with this difference, however,

that the Fleury author brings Aigulphus to Cassino before

his companions of Le Mans, and so attributes the finding

of the bodies to him alone as to hold

that the men of Le Mans came when the bodies had already

been found. But the Life of St. Berarius, published by Mabillon

in volume 3 of the Analecta, page 170, affirms

that the men of Fleury were indeed parted at Rome from those of Le Mans,

because both wished to conceal their plan,

but that they came to Cassino on the same day,

where at last they made known to one another the cause of their journey,

and for what desire they had undertaken so long a labor,

which they had long concealed.

This making known of their mutual plan the men of Fleury,

who attribute the whole finding to Aigulphus,

place after the finding. But those of Le Mans ascribe the finding

to both. One side or the other here

certainly errs, if not both.

[16] as the writers of Fleury and Le Mans related it: But that old man, to whom either Aigulphus alone

or all together had disclosed the cause of their journey,

is said, a reward for his labor having been promised, to have pledged

his effort and to have given such counsel in the History

of the translation at num. 5: When, said he, you shall see

the seasons of the light-shunning night, and the bounds of the hour of silence,

drawing near, do not indulge

in rest even for a little; but leaving the recesses of the roof,

be present untiring as a watchman under the bare vault of the air.

And when you shall behold some place of this solitude shining

with a most brilliant light, like a snowy mountain,

mark the place with a sure mind: for there

is to be found that whereby an end may be put to your care.

But while Aigulphus so keeps watch, either alone

or with the others, he beholds afar off a place gleaming

with a bright light, as when some place is flooded and lit up

with lamps and thronging torches. About

the morning hour he hastens undaunted to the place

of which he had been the marker: and there, finding all things

as he had long before wished, he repaid

countless thanks to the Prosperer of his journey.

For approaching the place, he found there a coffer,

outwardly indeed mean, but inwardly holding

pearls of great price. But before the doors,

that is, of the stone set over it, there were fixed

marks of those whose tombs lay within. These things

being found, as he had long wished, and the little coffer being opened

at the side and emptied, he shut the treasure he had found

in the fold of a single little basket, which basket

is held by us to this day as if new. And when all these things

had been accomplished, unexpectedly his companions are present, … seeking

themselves also, and not long frustrated of the blessing they sought…

And presently, with haste taking the road back again,

they hastened to return together,

carrying the most precious pearls which by a divine

gift they had found.

[17] Thus far about the finding itself the Fleury historian

Adalbert. the Fleury and Le Mans writers: Now receive also in brief

what the same man affirms happened on the road toward Fleury, and

afterward. A voice brought divinely,

he says at num. 7, forbade them to weave delays in

their going. But the Roman Pontiff, warned by another vision,

pursues them as they go away: but they, covered by God

with a thickness of darkness, could not

be found. Then certain miracles are related

which are said to have been done on the journey. Finally in chapter 3

some contention is asserted to have arisen, because Aigulphus

desired to keep both bodies at Fleury: a difficulty

also occurred in distinguishing the bones

of St. Benedict and of St. Scholastica, which, he says,

the fold of a single little basket held mingled together. But,

the contention being lulled and the separation made, as may there

be read, it is asserted that the body of St. Benedict remained

with the men of Fleury, and that the body of St. Scholastica

was handed over to those of Le Mans. The same things are narrated

in the Life of St. Berarius, whose author seems to have drawn everything

from Adalbert of Fleury, yet in such a way

that he was unwilling to attribute the honor of the bodies found

to Aigulphus alone. Further, I cannot dissemble

that many things are found in the said History of the translation

which appear to me not very probable,

and which do not agree with the more ancient writers.

[18] Mabillon in volume 4 of the Analecta, page 451,

published from a Ratisbon codex of St. Emmeram, a certain anonymous German narrated the same translation,

written nine hundred years ago (that is, toward the end

of the eighth century, if he rightly assigned the codex's antiquity,

Mabillon writing in the year 1685) a certain

account of the aforesaid translation, which, he says,

seems to have an author contemporary with the time at which

the translation was made. But I in

that whole account find not even one word

from which I might infer that that writer

was contemporary with the translation, although otherwise

it is not to be doubted that he is older than Adalbert

of Fleury. Mabillon adds: I judge

him to be a German, not only because the codex was found

in Germany, but also because, as a foreigner, he was ignorant of the names

of abbot Mummolus and of Aigulf the monk, the author of the translation,

and because he supposed that the body of St. Scholastica

remained at Fleury. To this conjecture I willingly subscribe.

I add also that this writer seems to be the first

who narrated that translation; or

at any rate the first of those whose writings have

come down to us. Him therefore we must compare with

the Fleury History, composed nearly two hundred years after

the translation.

[19] Receive his words, with the superfluous things omitted,

which do not touch upon the fact itself. and his account is recited, There was

in France, he says, through the prudence of the holy Father

a learned priest. He was about to make a journey to Italy,

wishing to find out where lay buried the bones

of the holy father Benedict, uncared for by men.

At last he came into a desert place, which is distant from Rome

70 or 80 miles (that is, Italian

miles, and rightly enough) where formerly a cell was built,

the firm concord of the charity of those dwelling there was that of blessed

Benedict. And yet the priest with his companions was still

anxious about the uncertainty of the places. And when

he could find neither a trace nor the burial-ground

of the bodies, at last from a swineherd hired

for a fee he learned, and perfectly found, the place

of the monastery: yet he could by no means recognize

the tomb, until with his companions he consecrated

a fast for two days and three. And afterward it was revealed

by a dream to their cook, and the matter

itself became known to them… And then, searching the places

more diligently, they found a marble stone

that had to be pierced through. The stone being broken up, they found the bones

of holy Benedict the abbot, and in the same monument

the bones of blessed Scholastica his sister lying beneath,

with marble however set between…

[20] and it is compared with the preceding: And when the bones had been gathered and washed, they laid them

upon a most clean * winding-sheet, each

apart, however, that they might carry them with them to their own country,

the Romans not knowing… Afterward

the winding-sheets covering their bones were found

to be red with their blood, as though gore had flowed

from living bodies… And then they were placed

upon a horse, and through long stretches of road it carried them

so lightly as though it felt no weight. And when

it walked on a wooded road and by narrow paths,

neither the obstructions of trees nor the difficulty

of the ways was * an obstacle or hindrance to them

on the journey, so that the bearers perfectly recognized

that this was on account of the merits of holy Benedict and

of blessed Scholastica his sister, that the prosperity of their journey

should be so secure, until they were brought

into France to the monastery whose name is Fleury;

where they are now buried in peace,

etc. This account indeed differs much from the account

of the men of Fleury. For first, it does not express the names of Aigulphus and

of Mummolus; and it does not even say

that he who translated the body was a monk, since

he is called by him only a learned priest. 20 It records

no visions, except the cook's dream. 30

It records the finding of the tomb in another manner than

Adalbert does. 40 It says that the relics were found placed not upon a basket

or a little basket, but upon a winding-sheet. 50 It

does not affirm that the bones of both bodies were mixed, but that they were laid

apart.

[21] Paul the Deacon narrates the translation in a still more different manner. Paul the Deacon in book 6 On the Deeds of the Lombards,

chapter 2, has the following to our purpose:

About these times, when in the castle

of Cassino, where the sacred body of the most blessed Benedict

was resting, a vast solitude had come to be, some years having

now elapsed, Franks coming from the region of Le Mans

or of Orléans, when they had pretended to pass the night

beside the venerable body, carrying off the bones of that same venerable father,

and likewise of his venerable sister

Scholastica, bore them away into

their own country: where two monasteries were built,

each severally, in honor of the two, of blessed Benedict

and of holy Scholastica. But

it is certain for us that that venerable mouth, sweeter

than any nectar, and the eyes ever beholding heavenly things,

and the other limbs also, although fallen away

into ash, remained. If we take these words

as they are understood by the Gauls, they suggest yet another

account of the aforesaid translation:

for here the place where the sacred bodies lay is not supposed

to have been unknown, but very well known; since

the Gauls are said to have pretended that they wished to persist

in nocturnal prayers at the tomb. Why, I ask, should they have pretended,

nay how could they have pretended that they

wished to keep vigil at the tomb, if the place of the tomb

had been altogether unknown, if none of the monks of Cassino

had been left for the guarding of the bodies among the ruined walls

of the monastery? And so, if we wish to cleave

to this author's account, it must be said that the relics

were not left without a guardian, one or

more, and that the tomb had not to be sought by the aid

of an old man or of some swineherd, as others assert. Hence

those words, when in the castle of Cassino … a vast solitude

had come to be, are not so to be taken as if the place

had had no inhabitants at all: but a vast

solitude is said to have been there because the monastery,

the church, and almost all the buildings had been destroyed,

and because a small number of hermits inhabited the place.

Certainly when Petronax came to Cassino

to restore the monastery, he began to dwell there with certain

simple men already residing there before,

on the testimony of Paul, book 6, chapter 40. That such men

were there also when the Gauls came to seek the bodies

the aforesaid pretense of passing the night

beside the tomb proves.

* Blois

mundissimam*

erat*

§ III. Doubts concerning the translation of SS.

[ ] Benedict and Scholastica: more probably only a part of the bodies was translated.

Was it done by St. Aigulphus?

Concerning the aforesaid translation a threefold doubt: The translation of St. Benedict to Fleury has also

been noted by various martyrologists of the first

rank, such as Wandelbert, Ado, Usuard,

and several others, but without the name of St. Aigulphus,

whom the aforesaid martyrologists did not even mention.

Besides, the Life to be published in the first place contains nothing anywhere

about this translation, which the biographer

ought neither to have been ignorant of nor to have passed over,

so that the first writer who asserted Aigulphus to be the author

of this translation is nearly two hundred years

later. While I attentively weigh these things,

and while I consider the reasons which the men of Cassino opposed

to the translation of the bodies

of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, who constantly denied it and

go on denying it to this day, a manifold doubt arises

in me. For first, the translation itself does not seem to me

at all certain. Secondly, it appears more

doubtful whether all the bones were translated. Thirdly,

even if I should be willing for the time being to suppose the translation as certain,

whether of some bones or even of all,

not even so should I find

foundations firm enough by which to attribute it certainly

to St. Aigulphus: for the authority of Adalbert

of Fleury, whom others afterward followed,

does not seem to me so great, whether I consider his age

or his method of writing, that, while the ancients

are silent, I should certainly set down Aigulphus as the author of the translation,

especially since Aigulphus's age less

favors the aforesaid opinion, as we shall see.

[23] Concerning the first doubt, namely whether the bodies

of SS. Benedict and Scholastica were translated into Gaul,

the writers who disputed for the translation; there has already been dispute for many centuries,

and most of all in later ones. The last patron of the men of Fleury

was Mabillon, who in the *Acts

of his Order*, century 2, page 337, reviews the other champions of the translation

in these words: After

the repeated edition of the Cassinese Chronicle and of certain

letters which bear the name of some supreme Pontiffs

in favor of the men of Cassino, the first among the more recent writers

to take up the side of our men of Fleury and strenuously to defend it

was Jean du Bois, a Celestine monk,

a learned man, who saw with his own eyes the records of the Gauls' lawful

possession, handled them with his hands,

and published them in his Bibliotheca Floriacensis in the year

1605. Him ten years later there immediately

succeeded Charles de Saussay, dean of the church of Orléans,

doctor of theology, who in

book IV, chapter 1, of the Annals of the same church so eloquently

and strongly vindicated for our men of Fleury the unshaken

and perpetual possession of the sacred deposit,

that he seems to have snatched the palm from the rest.

In which kind of work our own men also have learnedly been engaged:

Simon Millet in a separate treatise published

in French, and Hugh Ménard, who in book 1

of his Observations on the Benedictine Martyrology handled this argument

excellently, so far as the plan of the brevity he had proposed allowed.

To these must be added Charles

le Cointe, founder of the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks,

who in volume III at the year 673,

num. 42, most recently asserted again the cause of the men of Fleury,

already vindicated by many.

These at length Mabillon himself followed, both

in this place and again in the Benedictine Annals,

book 14, num. 29.

[24] others who denied it, or doubted of it: The advocates of the contrary opinion he enumerates thus:

For the men of Cassino fight Matthaeus Lauretus,

of Castile, in a particular little book against Jean

du Bois, published at Naples in the year 1607 at the instigation

of Gregory Castioneus of Arezzo, abbot of Cassino;

the most distinguished gentleman Angelo de Nuce, likewise abbot

of Cassino (and afterward archbishop of Rossano),

in an Appendix printed at Rome to the Cassinese Chronicle,

published and illustrated by his care at Paris in the preceding

year: who is wholly taken up with defending

Leo of Ostia and Peter the Deacon

against our Ménard's Observations. The same

author afterward replied to this very Dissertation of Mabillon's

in his third Appendix to

the Cassinese Chronicle. This Appendix has been printed

after the Cassinese Chronicle lately reprinted among

the Writers of Italy, volume 4, page 623. The Dissertations of all

these may be seen, as also certain observations

of Orazio Blanco on Paul

the Deacon, book 6, chapter 2, which are found in

Muratori, volume 1 of the Writers of Italy, pages 490

and 491. Further, Baronius at the year 664 recorded a few things

about this translation, and attached himself to neither side.

Bolland and Henschen followed the doubting Baronius,

and others of our Elders, wherever anything connected with this dispute

offered itself. Finally Gerard Casteel, Prior of the canonical

Order of the Holy Cross, lately reviewed the arguments of the disputants,

and disputed for both sides in an ambiguous manner,

in a Little Work published at Cologne

in the year 1734, whose title is Controversiæ ecclesiastico-historicæ,

controversy 34.

[25] [it appears more probable that some bones were translated, but others left at Cassino:] I so far side with those who doubt about the translation of the whole body,

or of all the bones, that yet

I can scarcely doubt that some bones were translated

to Fleury. To this opinion Angelo de Nuce himself does not

object in his first Dissertation,

in which he speaks thus: But that I should admit that some little particle

of this precious treasure of ours

was at some time carried into the Gauls, I shall not be hard

to persuade: and that thence the opinion about

the translation of holy Benedict grew strong. For however

small and slight a part of relics comes figuratively under the name

of the whole, and still more so some notable bones.

He confirms this by the example of St. Maurus, who in

the Cassinese Chronicle, book 2, chapter 53, is said to have returned

to Cassino, because a whole bone of his arm had been

translated thither from Gaul. Other examples also being brought forward,

he reasons thus: By a not unlike reasoning, therefore,

on account of some relic of our holy father carried into the Gauls,

it was first said synecdochically that St. Benedict was carried thither,

then little by little it was commonly believed

that the whole was brought. This conjecture is very

probable, especially if it be admitted that not only

a small particle but some bones were translated:

for it very often happens that treasures of this kind,

since they are very rarely inspected, are believed far

greater than in truth they are. Certainly

not from any other source have so many disputes arisen about the bodies

of certain Saints than that many have believed their own

treasure greater than it would be found

if the several bones were surveyed; and therefore they prefer

to attribute the whole to themselves rather than to weigh the reasons

of the opposite side without prejudice.

[26] Further, if we are willing to weigh maturely and

without prejudices the words of Paul the Deacon, which seem to be preferred

to the sayings of all others, certainly Paul the Deacon affirms that bones were carried off; we shall easily see

that he attributes some bones of St. Benedict to each of the litigating

parties, and all of them to neither. His words

in book 6, chapter 2, are these in the printed editions: About

these times, when in the castle of Cassino, where the sacred body

of the most blessed Benedict was resting (in

the Ambrosian codex and in the Monza codex it reads rests,

on the testimony of Orazio Blanco in his annotations) some years

having now elapsed, a vast solitude had come to be,

Franks coming from the region of Le Mans or of Orléans,

when they had pretended to pass the night beside the venerable

body, carrying off the bones of that same venerable

father, and likewise of his venerable sister

Scholastica, bore them away into their own country:

where two monasteries were built, each severally,

in honor of the two, of blessed Benedict and

of holy Scholastica. Thus far

the author. But now I do not see on what foundation

it can be said that Paul here only narrates what

popular report holds: for he sets forth the matter with

its circumstances in such a way that it seems by no means to be doubted

that he is uttering his own opinion, not another's.

He affirms the carrying off of the bones so clearly, too,

that it cannot be explained otherwise.

[27] Nevertheless, since he clearly attributes the body of St. Benedict

to Cassino in two places, but he does not seem to affirm that all were carried off, it must be diligently

investigated what he asserts was carried off. For

he does not say that the body was carried off, but bones; nor does he say

all the bones, but only bones. But many things persuade

that by the indefinite word bones he understands

some bones, not all. First, the words following

presently persuade to this, by which he attributes not a few things

to the men of Cassino: But it is certain for us that that venerable

mouth, sweeter than any nectar, and the eyes

ever beholding heavenly things, and the other limbs also,

although fallen away into ash, remained. That these things

are to be understood of ashes alone, or can conveniently

be so understood, I no more perceive than

that the earlier words can be explained of popular report alone.

Nay rather I judge that by mouth and eyes nothing

is to be understood but the skull, whose nobler

parts the author named. By the other limbs he seems

to have understood some of the rest, or those other

limbs which had not been carried off. Further, what is printed

as although fallen away into ash reads in the Ambrosian

and Monza codices only although fallen away,

as the aforesaid editor again notes.

But whether we read fallen away, or fallen away into ash,

the author seems to hint by these words nothing

but that the frame of the body had been dissolved, and

that by this dissolution the bones which remained at Cassino

had fallen away from their frame, and mixed with the ashes

had lain in the coffer without the figure of a human body. I know

indeed that some writers have interpreted these words

fallen away into ash in that sense, as if it had been written

reduced to ash: but, in my judgment, they will sweat much

if they mean to show that this is

the author's mind, since both the obvious and the proper meaning

of the words is other, and the words following also

hint the contrary.

[28] and that only ash was left at Cassino; Certainly to fall away into earth is not to be changed

into earth; nor could I anywhere find that the words

to fall away into ash were ever used

for to be changed or reduced to ash. Yet it is rightly

said, to fall away into earth, into sand, nay also

into ash, but in that sense, that the thing which

falls away does not by that falling away become earth, nor sand,

nor ash, but is understood to be laid upon earth or sand

or ash. So bones, when the flesh has been reduced

to ash, necessarily fall away into that ash

as soon as the frame of the body is dissolved. That

Paul the Deacon meant this very thing the following words

show: For the Lord's body alone singularly

did not see corruption. But

the bodies of all the Saints, to be restored afterward

to eternal glory, have been subjected to corruption;

except those which by divine miracles are preserved

without decay. First, by these words he compares the corruption

of the body of St. Benedict with the corruption

of the bodies of other Saints; but the bodies of other

Saints are not wont to be corrupted in such a way that absolutely all

the bones too pass into ash. Secondly,

he consoles the men of Cassino about the corruption, in that

it is common to all the Saints, a few excepted;

but that consolation is frivolous if he acknowledges

that all the bones, which are less liable to corruption,

had been carried elsewhere: for it might easily be thrown back at him

that the bodies of Saints are indeed everywhere corrupted;

but that the bones are preserved and held in the highest esteem.

And so neither here did he mean to signify that only ashes

were left at Cassino; and above, where he said that bones were carried

off, he meant not all but some carried off,

and others left with the ashes in the tomb.

[29] but that some were carried off, while others remained at Cassino, This exposition can be confirmed first,

because the writer attributes to the men of Cassino that venerable mouth

of St. Benedict. But a man's mouth consists not only

of fleshy parts but also of bony ones. Certainly

the teeth are part of the mouth, as are also the bones of the palate: he does not

therefore attribute to the men of Cassino only the fleshy parts.

But that by mouth and eyes the whole skull, consisting of the sockets

of the eyes and of the mouth, is more rightly understood,

I have already observed: for he says it is certain that these things remained.

But if the cranium had been carried off, he could not

say for certain that all the dust arisen from the dissolution

of the mouth and eyes had been left in the tomb,

since some part might easily have been carried off along with it.

The author therefore is not speaking of dust,

but of the cranium. Secondly, the manner in which Paul narrates

that the bones were carried off makes it not probable that all

the bones of the two bodies were carried off: for

they carried them off *while they had pretended to pass the night

beside the venerable body*. The tomb therefore had to be opened

by stealth on that night, and the thing done quickly and most cautiously.

It had to be guarded against as much as possible

that they should carry off more than they could conceal,

so that in the morning they might depart without the guards' suspicion,

and carry their spoils away with them. Adalbert himself

in the History of the translation in our volumes, at num. 6,

says: The treasure found he shut

in the fold of a single little basket. But it is not probable

that all the bones of two bodies were enclosed in one little basket.

[30] Thirdly, Paul the Deacon attributes the body of St. Benedict

to Cassino in book 1, chapter 26, in these words: while he attributes the body to Cassino in two places:

Finally, when by a divine admonition he came from Subiaco

into this place, where he rests … etc.

Again in book 6, chapter 40: About these times Petronax…

made for the castle of Cassino, and coming to the sacred

body of the blessed father Benedict

etc. But the answer of some, that he spoke thus of the ashes

alone, or even of the empty coffer,

does not satisfy me; especially

because the cause of the men of Cassino rests on better foundations

than that so far-fetched an explanation should here

need to be used. From all these things therefore it may be permitted to conclude

that the authority of Paul the Deacon, which each party

of the litigants contends favors itself, avails

for nothing more than that by a friendly settlement

each party should acknowledge that the bones were divided, and are preserved partly

in Italy, partly in Gaul.

[31] This conjecture about the bones of SS. Benedict

and Scholastica, that they were partly carried into Gaul, nor is there any ancient author who cannot conveniently be so explained. partly

left at Cassino, appears to me the more probable

in proportion as the ancient writers who are alleged for one side or the other

can the more conveniently be so explained.

The Gauls bring forward Adalbert, Adrevald,

Adelerius, Aimoin, and St. Odo,

writers of Fleury: they add the anonymous of Ratisbon,

Wandelbert, Ado, Usuard,

Rabanus, Notker, Regino, and several

others, who say that the body of St. Benedict was translated.

It would be hard to be willing to convict all these

of error, especially since the festival of the translation

has been solemnly celebrated. The Italians on the contrary set against them

writers by no means to be despised, Leo of Ostia,

Peter the Deacon, Cardinal Oderisius,

St. Bertharius the abbot, and several others; and also

repeated inspections of the bones. If anyone should now

wish to contend that the body which is preserved at Cassino for the body

of St. Benedict is another's, he would have to show

that those Gauls who translated the bones

were less liable to such an error than the men of Cassino

themselves are. I should prefer to believe that neither erred

in this matter, but that both attributed the body to themselves before others,

because they possessed a great part of it;

and because they were speaking in the manner most usual in these matters,

namely by naming as the body that notable

part of the body which they had. Certainly

none of the reported Gallic writers enumerates the bones translated;

none asserts that they were inspected by anatomists

and the whole body found. But the Italians already

freely confess that the whole body is not preserved with them.

Nothing therefore can I conclude from these things

that is fairer and more probable than that in each

place a part is preserved; and that the miracles are true which

are read to have been done in each place by the patronage of St. Benedict.

[32] It remains to examine the third doubt,

namely whether the aforesaid translation is to be attributed to St.

Aigulphus, Since most of the Gauls refer the translation to the reign of Clovis II, to whom Adalbert, Adrevald,

Aimoin, and other writers of Fleury ascribe it,

and generally all the moderns who affirm

the translation. The age of St. Aigulphus, as I have already

observed, and the silence of the more ancient writers, press

that doubt upon us. Mabillon in the Acts, century 2,

page 349, discusses the time of the translation, and having noted

the opinions of certain persons, thus sets about proving

his own: First of all there occurs the very ancient writer

of the Life of Charlemagne in Pithou:

“After Dagobert there reigned Clovis his son:.. from which

time the body of St. Benedict was

translated from Benevento into France, to the town

of Fleury.” The describer of the miracles

of St. Genulphus agrees … in almost the same words: “After

Dagobert his son Clovis reigned,

in whose time the body of St. Benedict was translated from Benevento

into the Gauls.” And the Martyrology

of Fleury cited by de Saussay: “In the year

of the Lord 660, under Clovis son of Dagobert,

the body of St. Benedict the abbot was translated from

Monte Cassino to the monastery of Fleury

by Aigulf the monk.” Finally the Chronicle

of St. Maixent or of Maillezais, published by Philippe

Labbe in volume 2 of his New Library, places the oft-mentioned

translation in the time of Clovis the second.

With all which Adrevald in

the book of Miracles, chapters X and XI, and Aimoin in the *Poem

on the Translation*, and others, agree. Nor

does Clarius depart much from it in the Chronicle of St. Pierre-le-Vif,

relating that it was done under Pope Vitalian, who began

to sit in the year 656. And so it seems

certain that that translation happened in the reign of Clovis, son

of Dagobert, not indeed in the earlier

years of his reign, in which the foundations of the monastery of Fleury

were laid, … but in the later ones.

Thus far Mabillon, adding that the translation is to be tied

to the year 653 according to the opinion of Adrien

de Valois, who fixes Clovis's death in the year

654. Pagi in his Critica at the year 664, num.

18 and 19, does not depart much from this opinion

of Mabillon's; but since he refers the death of Clovis II

to the year 656, he prefers to assign to the translation the year 654 or

one of the two following.

[33] under whom Aigulphus was not of that age, But now if we wish to cleave to this epoch,

it will not be at all probable that St. Aigulphus was

chosen to translate the aforesaid bones. For

at that time the Saint seems to have been born only

about twenty-four years, or at any rate

not yet to have been thirty years old, since we have fixed the year

of his birth about 630. Then Aigulphus could not

at that time have been much approved

in monastic discipline: for we have fixed his entrance

above at about the year 650, which

agrees well enough with the year of his birth. Shall we then believe

that a Youth of twenty-three or twenty-four years,

who had spent only three or four years in

the monastery, was sent into Italy

as the leader of so great an expedition? The aforesaid Pagi

at num. 19 seems indeed likely to have believed this easily:

for he places the building of the monastery of Fleury

in the year 649, and the death of the first abbot Rigomarus

in the year 655, that is, after a five years'

administration. He then adds that Mummolus was declared

abbot, and that he sent Aigulphus the monk

into Italy to carry off the bodies of SS. Benedict and Scholastica.

All of which, he says,

agree marvelously among themselves, and with the history of this

translation. And so, if we believe Pagi, Mummolus

was made abbot in the same year, in the same year admitted Aigulphus

into the Order, and in the same year despatched this Recruit

into Italy. But Pagi seems to have been so intent

upon his figures here that he assigned nothing to right reason. For what

is less consonant with right reason and sound judgment

than to despatch a raw Recruit into Italy for a work

so arduous?

[34] [so that the translation can certainly be attributed to him, while the more ancient writers are silent,] Certainly Adrevald in the Life to be published in the second place

premises many things about Aigulphus's monastic

training before he asserts that he was despatched

to Cassino. Wherefore not only does Pagi's

reckoning seem to me altogether improbable: but

Aigulphus's mission does not appear to me even sufficiently probable,

even if we should be willing to believe that he had first been trained

in the monastic life for four or five years,

and was not far from the age of thirty years. This reason drawn from St.

Aigulphus's age renders me the more doubtful

the less I can comprehend why very many

writers, who asserted the translation, did not

name Aigulphus, a man in every way most distinguished both by the abbatial

dignity and by martyrdom. Wandelbert, Ado, Usuard, Rabanus,

and Notker asserted in their Martyrologies the translation

of St. Benedict: but none of them

affirmed Aigulphus to be its author: nor can it be said that this happened

for brevity's sake, since not one of them announced even

the memory of St. Aigulphus. Nay

rather, on the testimony of Mabillon in the Annotations to the Life,

the memory of St. Aigulf in the two most ancient Martyrologies

of the monastery of Fleury is not recorded in the first

hand, but in a later one.

[35] Besides, as all those ancient Martyrologies

passed over St. Aigulphus, and Adalbert first affirmed it after two hundred years: even though they contain the translation

of St. Benedict, so the first Life has not

even a word about the translation, which, as

a notable fact, ought neither to have been unknown to the biographer nor omitted

by him. There is added the silence of all writers

of the seventh century after its middle, and of the whole eighth, nay

of the middle of the ninth also, since none before Adalbert

attributed the translation to St. Aigulphus. Finally

that whole History of the translation, as it was related by Adalbert

and the other men of Fleury, agrees so little

with what was written on that matter by Paul the Deacon,

although Adrevald in Mabillon at page

371 cites Paul's authority, that either Adalbert

or Paul erred in various matters. But that I should judge

that Adalbert rather than Paul erred,

many things bring about, which in his History are related in a manner

little probable. About Aigulphus himself he does not rightly

have this: For since he was strong in good

works, and in the monastery of Lérins was asked, for his zeal

for good works, to remain a while

for the sake of example, having suffered the plots of those hostile to divine

religion, he came at last to the palm of martyrdom. But Aigulphus had not been asked

to remain a while at Lérins for the sake of example, but had been set

as abbot over the monastery. All these things compel me

to doubt whether Adalbert rested on a sufficient foundation

when he made St. Aigulphus the author

of the translation.

[36] Further, if anyone should prefer to place that translation

later with Paul the Deacon, and Paul the Deacon refers the translation to that time, who records it

about the times of Gisulf, duke of Benevento,

Aigulphus would already have been dead before the bones

of St. Benedict were translated. For Gisulf obtained the principate

about the year 690, as is observed

in the annotations to Paul, and held it seventeen

years, as Paul himself writes

in book 6, chapter 2. The translation therefore must be placed,

according to Paul the Deacon's mind, between the year 690

and 707; at which time Aigulphus was already dead.

Le Cointe followed neither the opinion of the men of Fleury

nor Paul the Deacon, but refers the translation

to the year 673. This epoch coheres rightly with the age

of Aigulphus; but it is altogether destitute of the authority

of the ancients. Le Cointe indeed at num. 51 endeavors

to reconcile Paul the Deacon, whom he deservedly

prefers to the rest, with his own reckoning: first

because he said about these times, which is vague

and undetermined: secondly because, where in chapter

2 he had narrated the translation, in chapter 4 he relates the synod

held at Constantinople against the Monothelites

about the year 680.

[37] But, even though Paul assigns a vague time,

it does not seem that it can be drawn back as far as

the year 673, when Aigulphus was already dead: the matter seems doubtful. if we wish to cleave to the aforesaid author.

The second observation makes less to the point: for

in chapter 4 Paul returns to earlier times, and begins

to narrate certain things done outside Italy, as

the first words of that chapter at once hint: While

these things are being done in Italy, a heresy arose at Constantinople,

etc. And so, since neither Paul the Deacon's

epoch, which is perhaps the truer, agrees well enough

with the age of Aigulphus, I confess that I not a little

doubt whether the translation has been truly attributed to him.

Yet I shall willingly lay aside every doubt,

if anyone shall bring forward records more solid and

more ancient than have hitherto been produced, for

vindicating the translation to St. Aigulphus.

§ IV. Whether the Saint was abbot of St. Anian's? about

the time at which he was made abbot of Lérins: whether he restored the convent of virgins at Arluc,

and set Angarisma over it as abbess?

[ ] Barralis asserts that Aigulphus was abbot of St. Anian's, Vincent Barralis in the Life of St. Aigulphus, passing over

the translation of St. Benedict, of which

we have treated, writes this about St. Aigulphus when he was already

trained in monastic discipline: But the Lord, willing

that the lamp be set not under a bushel but upon a candlestick,

gave a faithful Servant over his household,

that he might give them their measure of wheat

in due season. For the monks of St. Anian's of the city

of Orléans, affected by the odor of his life, came to him,

asking that he would deign to discharge over them the office

of shepherd for some days: to whose petition

he did not acquiesce, but at last, overcome by obedience

and charity, gave his assent. And he, taking on the care

of the government, roused his brethren by admonitions and by regular

disciplines to earn the joys

of eternal life. He also overflowed with such largess

toward the poor that, when so violent a famine had attacked

almost that whole * province, and very many

were perishing in this calamity, all the treasures of the church

and the goods of the monastery having already been spent on a work

so devout, he scarcely held back from the brethren's daily

food (though it was very small). And when his

munificence had come to the ears of king Clovis,

that he himself might furnish help to so great a calamity,

the gold and silver with which king Dagobert

his father had honorably adorned the church of holy Dionysius the martyr

near Paris he took away and bestowed

together with royal gifts upon the Man of God,

saying: Take what I offer you, holy

Father, that * you may be able to distribute to the needy as you shall best know how.

Many courtiers also,

moved by this example of devotion, imparted very much.

Thus far Barralis, who says that he composed the Life

out of various manuscripts and very ancient

codices.

[39] [but he seems to have said this from a fallacious conjecture and from a confusion of two men.] Nevertheless I judge that this prefecture of St. Aigulphus

was not found by him in ancient codices,

but deduced from a fallacious conjecture, and that all the things

just recited do not pertain to St. Aigulphus.

Certainly Barralis for the deed of king Clovis cites

in the margin Aimoin, book 4, chapter 41, where

Aimoin does indeed narrate a like deed of Clovis's.

But that king is not said to have given that silver

to Aigulphus, abbot of St. Anian's, but to Aigulphus,

abbot of St. Denis, who was living at the same time.

And so, since in this deed he clearly confounds St. Aigulphus

with Aigulphus, abbot of St. Denis, I strongly

suspect that that whole prefecture of St. Anian's

rests on no other foundation than that he read

that the said silver was given by Clovis to Aigulphus

the abbot, and, since he knew no other Aigulphus of that

time than the one of Lérins, he easily

believed that this man was an abbot in France, and

indeed of St. Anian's, in whose catalogue of abbots

there is a huge gap after Leudebodus. But the age of St.

Aigulphus does not favor this prefecture, especially under

Clovis II, and both Lives to be published were deeply

silent about that abbatial dignity. Altogether therefore I judge

that St. Aigulphus was promoted from the monastery of Fleury to

the prefecture of Lérins; and

not that from being abbot of St. Anian's he was made abbot of Lérins.

[40] Further, as it is certain that Aigulphus presided

over the abbey of Lérins, The year of Aigulphus's promotion to the abbey of Lérins is uncertain, so again it is obscure

in about what year he was raised to that dignity,

and for how long a time he administered that same abbey,

and finally in what year he was crowned with martyrdom.

If it please us to hear Adrevald, all

these things happened under Clovis II, whose death

is now more commonly noted at the year 656. But that appears altogether

improbable, because thus he would scarcely have completed twenty-

five years when he was chosen to

reform the manners in a most famous abbey. Mabillon

in his Annals, volume 1, page 463, refers the beginning

of St. Aigulphus's prefecture to the year 661. But

so far as can be conjectured from Aigulphus's age (for

I find no certain note of time) that prefecture

must be placed later. Le Cointe will have him raised to the abbatial dignity

in the year 675, which agrees well enough

with the epoch of his age established by us: for thus he was

about forty-five years old. Nevertheless

nothing stands in the way of his having been able some years

earlier or later to begin the administration of the abbey of Lérins;

nor have I hitherto seen any reason

brought forward why he could less have set out for Lérins

in the year 670 than in the year 675. Wherefore Pagi

at the year 664 rightly says that St. Aigulphus

was petitioned for as abbot of Lérins in an uncertain

year, yet in such a way that we can conjecture from what has gone before

about his age that it was not done long before

the year 670, and from what must be said about his death

it also becomes probable that it must not be put off at least as far

as the year 680.

[41] How long the Saint administered the abbey

is nowhere expressed. [it is equally uncertain how long he presided. What Barralis wrote about the restored] But I suspect that he presided

over the abbey for some years, since he is read not only

to have reformed the manners of the monks, but also to have gathered

the scattered ones and to have added many to the reflourishing monastic

discipline. But nothing occurs which

compels us to say that these things were accomplished within a year

or two. The very plotting

of the rebellious monks also seems to have been of a fairly long

undertaking, and not so quickly, as some seem

to persuade themselves, brought to the highest pitch

of malice. Further, among the deeds at Lérins Vincent

Barralis relates the following about St. Aigulphus: Virgins also,

desiring to emulate (namely the life

of the monks of Lérins), came together to entreat the holy Man

with the whole affection of their heart, that

he (would be willing) to appoint them a monastery in which they might be able

to keep unstained the virginity which

they had vowed to their heavenly Spouse. Assenting to their devotion,

blessed Aygulphus built or repaired a convent in the place

which is called Arluc. And he set over them

a consecrated virgin, named Angarisma,

of Blois, whom with other virgins

he had ordered to come from the Gauls. Whence Barralis received

the restoration of this monastery is not

sufficiently clear, since neither Life records anything about it.

Adrevald indeed in the second Life

at num. 30 has this: Besides, they make a certain

abbess, Angarisma by name, a partaker of this news

(about Aigulphus's death), who in a neighboring monastery

presided over consecrated sisters,

having been imbued by the holy Man from her earliest age both in the holy

Scriptures and in monastic teachings.

But she is presently said in the same place to have presided over a monastery

whose name is Oratorium: but

this monastery is that of Beauvais, not that of Lérins,

as Mabillon observes in the Annotations to

the Acts. Besides, Adrevald does not say that that monastery

was restored by Aigulphus; nor does he assert

that the abbess Angarisma was of Blois by fatherland.

Wherefore that whole account of Barralis again becomes

very suspect to me; nor do I sufficiently trust Adrevald's

own statements.

[42] monastery of Arluc, and the abbess Angarisma set over it, Hear Mabillon himself in the place assigned doubting

about these matters on account of Adrevald's slip: The monastery

Oratorium, he says, never existed at all in Provence,

but in Gallia Belgica near the city

of Beauvais, commonly called Oroer,

over which presided St. Andragisma, a noble virgin, who

is said in her own Acts, to be given toward the end of that Benedictine

century, by no means to have dwelt in Provence

or on the island of Lérins. (Consult page

1063, where instead of Acts he gave a brief collection about St.

Andragisma.) If any credit is to be given to the Acts of St. Aigulphus

interpolated by Vincent Barralis, Aigulf

built or repaired a convent in the place which is called Arluc

… and set over it Angarisma

of Blois… Angarisma accordingly would have to be distinguished

from Andragisma, who was by origin of Thérouanne.

But he seems afterward to have laid aside his doubt:

for in volume 1 of the Annals, page 15, about the convent

of Arluc, founded at the beginning of the sixth century, he has this:

This convent the holy abbot Aigulf restored in the sixth century

(read: the seventh), and set over it

Andragisma as abbess. Again

at page 530 he treads in the same footsteps, and says that Adrevald

was corrected by Vincent Barralis. Nevertheless

I strongly doubt whether the aforesaid assertion of Barralis

deserves more credit than his opinion just refuted

about the prefecture of the convent of St. Anian's administered

by Aigulphus.

[43] Certainly, if we diligently compare the sayings of Vincent Barralis

with the assertions of Adrevald, [it seems to have been asserted out of Adrevald's error and out of ill-founded conjectures.] we shall see

without difficulty that he had no other foundations

for correcting Adrevald's error

than uncertain conjectures; and therefore it will remain doubtful

whether Adrevald's error has not been exchanged for

another error of Vincent Barralis. This writer saw

that there was no convent on the island of Lérins

which was called Oratorium: for this cause he substituted

Arluc. But he does not seem to have known that at the same

time the abbess Andragisma presided over the monastery of Beauvais

which was called Oratorium,

and that she herself might no less by error have been designated

by Adrevald than he had faultily assigned

the monastery Oratorium. Certainly, since it is established

that Andragisma was at that time abbess of Oratorium,

there is a strong suspicion that there has been error in the abbess

as much as in the monastery; and all the things

which the erring Adrevald narrated about Angarisma,

and which Barralis, trying to correct him from conjectures,

narrated, are strongly suspect to me,

especially since the first Life has not even the

least word about them; and since that Angarisma,

abbess of Arluc, has hitherto become known through no other record.

Barralis makes her of Blois by fatherland

for no other reason, I think, than that

she is said by Adrevald to have been imbued by St. Aigulphus from her earliest

age both in the holy Scriptures and in monastic

teachings. For hence Barralis seems easily

to have concluded that she was born in the same city

as Aigulphus. Wherefore I should not dare to reckon Angarisma

among the abbesses of Arluc,

nor to assert that the convent of Arluc was restored

by St. Aigulphus, until those facts are proved by more certain

records.

totam*

ut*

§ V. The conspiracy of the pseudo-monks against

the holy Abbot is elucidated: the time and place of the martyrdom, as also

the number of his Companions, is investigated.

[ ] The conspiracy against the Saint arose through two monks, After St. Aigulphus had restored monastic discipline

in the monastery of Lérins, a most grievous

conspiracy of certain rebels broke out,

by which the holy Abbot was at last brought to the crown

of martyrdom. The heads of this conspiracy

were two monks, Arcadius and Columbus,

to whom you may deservedly apply that saying of St. Augustine writing

to the people of Hippo: As I have with difficulty

found better men than those who have advanced in monasteries,

so I have not found worse than

those who have fallen in monasteries. If we believe Adrevald,

Arcadius deserted the monastery as an apostate,

and when he afterward wished to return, feigning penitence,

he was not received by Aigulphus: but the first Life

does not have this. Both, however, agree in

this, that by St. Aigulphus's gentle admonitions the conspiracy

remained lulled for a whole year, until

at last it broke out more violently, after the rebels

had drawn to their side a certain Mummolus,

from whom they obtained a handful of soldiers,

for violently crushing the holy Abbot and those adhering to him.

[45] It is not altogether clear who that Mummolus is

who was willing to bring help to the rebellious monks.

whom they drew to their side a certain Mummolus, probably the bishop of Uzès, In the first Life at num. 14 the band of soldiers

is said to have been given by the most wicked Mummolus, prince of the city

of Uzès. Adrevald in our Ms. at num.

16 speaks thus about Arcadius: He betook himself

to a certain prince of the city of Niceria, named

Mummolus: and he then narrates that Mummolus himself,

enticed by the hope of money, came to Lérins with his

soldiers. In the Ms. epitome of this Life,

mentioned at num. 7, is read: He betook himself

to a certain prince of the city of Uzeia, named

Mummolus. Mabillon published, *prince of the city

of Vicetia, named Mummolus*: and in

his Annotations he says: Read “prince of the city of Ucetia,” yet noting that in Herouval's Ms.

the reading is not Vicetia but Nicetia or Nicea. But now

Mabillon suspects that this Mummolus was not some

secular prince but the bishop of Uzès,

noting this: Read, prince of the city of Ucetia,

that is, bishop; for so they not

rarely call bishops. In the Life of St. Amandus, chapter

XXIII, at the year 679, Mummulus

of Ozidinum, that is, bishop of Utica, is said to have plotted

the death of St. Amandus. Which savagery of the man,

as also his date, answers well enough to the present fact:

although the island of Lérins is not a little distant from

the city of Uzès in Gallia Narbonensis. Certainly in the transcript

of the most distinguished gentleman D. Herouval, for Vicetia is read

Nicetia, or Nicea, which city is nearer to Lérins.

Mabillon indeed has some doubt: nevertheless

he preferred his earlier opinion about Mummolus as bishop

of Uzès, since he inserted it, though equally

doubtfully, into his Annals, volume 1, page

463.

[46] they drew to their side. The first Life favors this opinion, in which,

as I have said, is read, of the city of Usezia, which can with difficulty

be expounded of any other city than of

Ucetia or Ucecia, called by the French Uzès or Usez.

Likewise what is in the epitome, of the city of Uzeia,

can scarcely be drawn to any other. Nor is the distance of this

city from the island of Lérins so great as to take away

the probability of the matter, especially since its territory

lies along the Rhone, so that from the district of Uzès

one might easily sail to Lérins. And so I willingly

subscribe to Mabillon's opinion, since the date of Mummolus

of Uzès, and his manners, bring it about that we ought not to seek

another city than Usezia or

Uzeia, that is, Ucetia. Nice indeed is nearer;

but it is not called Nicetia; and

in only one transcript is Nicetia read: nor

is any Mummolus known there.

[47] The seizing of the Saints is not rightly narrated in the second Life: Adrevald burdened rather than adorned the martyrdom of St. Aigulphus and his Companions

with many circumstances

which are little probable, as I shall show in the annotations.

Here, however, I shall discuss only the chief points.

The seizing of the Saints the first biographer so narrates

at num. 14 that we cannot doubt

that they were at once thrown into a ship prepared for the purpose,

and carried off, with their garments changed, to the island

of Capraja, where for some time they were kept in a workhouse-prison.

Wherefore I suspect to be fictitious

whatever Adrevald narrated about their imprisonment

on the island of Lérins, and about what was done there after their seizure:

for it is not probable that apostate

monks, and some assassins sent to them,

were of such boldness that they would have endured to keep the holy Abbot,

who without doubt had many favoring him both in

the monastery and outside the monastery on the island,

long in prison there. I should prefer therefore

to believe that the Saint, with some companions

who had accompanied him to soothe the fury of the rebels,

was presently seized, when they had caught their opportunity,

and led off to the ship; as is read

in the first Life in a manner plainly probable. About

the storm also, which Adrevald describes at length,

nothing is narrated in the first Life; so that

this too can and should probably be deleted.

[48] The island of Capraja, to which the Saints were carried off, Further, what the island of Capraja is, to which

St. Aigulphus was led off, I have nowhere found sufficiently

set forth. Mabillon says nothing about that island,

neither in the Acts nor in the Annals, except

out of Adrevald, whom he transcribes in volume 1 of the Annals,

pages 463 and 464. Longueval in his *History

of the Gallican Church*, volume 4, page 88, in his annotations

gives this conjecture: It is believed that the island which

was named by the ancients Capraria is one

of the Canary islands, called Palma, where indeed

there is a mountain which is called the Caprarian mount. Not

only the mountain, but the island of Palma itself, is believed

to have been named Capraria by the ancients. But

Capraja, or the island of Capraria, to which

St. Aigulphus was carried off from Lérins with his companions, is not to be sought

so far away in the Atlantic sea; since

others nearer of the same name are found in

the Mediterranean sea. Baillet at 3 September

in Aigulphus assigns a nearer Capraria, commonly

called Cabrera, which is near Majorca,

to the south. But I judge that this too is not rightly assigned,

for reasons to be given below.

[49] Philip Cluverius in Ancient Italy, book 2,

page 505, about the Capraja or Capraria which we are seeking,

it lies between Corsica and Etruria, has this: Beyond Elba, Oglasa and Planasia

(islands of which he had treated) larger, as

Pliny says, is the island Capraria, which today too is commonly

called Capraia. In the language of the Greeks it was called

Αὶγίλα, Ægila; or Αἴγιλον, Ægilum,

on the testimony of Pliny and Solinus; namely ἀπὸ

τῶν

αἰγῶν,

that is, from the great number of wild goats,

which were bred on it; just as from the same ground

three most famous islands off Lilybaeum, the promontory of Sicily,

were called Αἰγάδες; and one

of them, in which there were wild goats, on the testimony

of Homer, Odyssey book VIII, Αἰγοῦσα,

Ægusa; as

we teach in Sicily, book II, chapter XV. M. Varro

in Rustic Affairs, book II, chapter III: “The she-goats which

we keep sprang from wild goats; from which, near

Italy, the island Caprasia was named.”

This our Caprasia or Capraria between Corsica and Italy,

besides the writers named above,

Mela, Pliny, Solinus, and Martianus Capella,

is recorded also by Rutilius in his Itinerary.

This island is everywhere marked in geographical maps,

by its common name Capraia, between Corsica

and Etruria. And that this is the one to which

St. Aigulphus was led with his Companions, there persuades us first

the not great distance of it from Lérins; certainly it is far

less distant than all the others of the same name,

even than the Spanish Capraria, commonly

called Cabrera. Our Capraja is also near to Corsica,

to which Adrevald hints it was neighboring.

Secondly, the others are called only Caprariæ;

but this one was also called Caprasia, as

it is always named in the Life of St. Aigulphus, all the Mss.

agreeing.

[50] Thirdly, Adrevald says that there were many monks

on the island of Capraja, and it had many monks, or rather hermits: when St. Aigulphus was carried

thither: which is true of the Capraja just assigned,

and perhaps agrees with none of the others. About

the monks of Capraja Rutilius Claudius Numantianus does not permit us to doubt,

a pagan man of the sixth century,

who in his Itinerary, written in verse, sings thus about it:

As the sea's course goes on, Capraria now lifts itself.

The island is squalid, full of light-shunning men.

They themselves call themselves monks by a Greek surname,

Because they wish to live alone with no witness.

They fear the gifts of fortune, while they dread its losses.

Is anyone wretched of his own will, that he may not be able to be wretched?

The pagan man adds more, to carp at the monks'

institute, which of course could not please

him, since he did not know the true God, for whose love

monks and anchorites deprive themselves of present

consolations, that they may enjoy eternal ones. Yet it can

somehow be doubted whether he designates cenobites or

anchorites: for both at that time were called

monks. Nay rather, those words, *Because they wish to live

alone with no witness*, agree more with anchorites

or hermits than with cenobites dwelling together.

That little verse also which presently follows,

Or do they, by fate, seek out their own punishments in these workhouses,

designates hermits more: for the word ergastula agrees rather

with the cells or huts of hermits

than with a monastery of monks dwelling together.

[51] Before the Saints came to this island,

a difference among the writers in narrating what was done on that island, they suffered many things in the ship: for their tongue

was cut off from them, and their eyes torn out, as both

Lives have, adding then that they spoke perfectly without a tongue.

But about what was done on the island of Capraja the biographers

do not agree with one another. The first says that they were there

shut up in a prison or workhouse for some days,

and were there refreshed by an apparition of St. Michael

the archangel; and at last were crowned with martyrdom on that same island.

Of these things there is nothing which strays

from probability. But Adrevald relates many things here

which appear to me not at all probable,

so much so that I wonder that his account was adopted by Mabillon

and by other learned writers.

He says at num. 25 that they put in at the island of Capraja,

whose bays held a very great swarm of monks;

that they turned aside to these on the Lord's Supper, and were received

by them most kindly and most courteously:

then that at the Paschal solemnity Columbus, discharging

the office of deacon in that gathering of monks,

gave the kiss to St. Aigulphus equally with the other monks:

and that the same man, the Paschal festival being over,

set out for Ephesus, Aigulphus and his Companions being left meanwhile

in the monastery of the island,

until he should return: and that Columbus, returned from Ephesus,

dragged the Saints from the monastery, and having put them on a ship

coming from Africa, ordered them to be killed on another island between Corsica

and Sardinia by his attendants.

So, at somewhat greater length, Adrevald.

[52] where Adrevald relates many things quite improbably: But in this account many things, as I have said,

are not probable. First it is not probable that

Columbus, with St. Aigulphus and the other Captives,

whose tongues he had taken care to have cut off and their eyes torn out,

turned aside to the monks. Secondly it is incredible

that Saints treated so cruelly, and their persecutors

along with them, were received most kindly and most courteously

in the same monastery. Thirdly that very

monastery of Capraja is uncertain,

since those monks were perhaps hermits, as I have already

shown. Fourthly, what is said about the celebration of the solemnity

and about the kiss of Columbus is plainly ridiculous.

Fifthly, no more probable is the fabricated journey

of Columbus to Ephesus. For who would believe that the Saints,

who could not be ignorant of their persecutor,

were willing to communicate in the sacred mysteries with this impious man;

or could at all be present at the Offices, deprived

of their eyes? Again, who would persuade himself that so great

a number of monks as was on

the island did not think of bringing help to the Saints,

if they believed them innocent; or received them so courteously,

if anyone should hold that they were deceived by the lies

of the persecutors? These things surely are not sufficiently consonant with themselves,

and the first Life records nothing of all these,

so that I can scarcely doubt that they

are altogether fabricated, and invented solely to embellish the history

of the martyrdom the more, and to describe

the malice of the persecutors the more graphically.

[53] nor is it probable that they were carried from the island of Capraja to another: Finally, from this license of conjecturing, and of adorning

the martyrdom of the Saints with various circumstances,

which Adrevald used openly enough, there arises a doubt

about the place where the Saints consummated their last

contest. The first Life assigns the island of Capraja,

and asserts both that the Saints were slain there and

that their relics were afterward brought thence to Lérins. But Adrevald

narrates that the Saints were again put on a ship

by Columbus, and carried away from the island of Capraja:

then transferred into another ship coming from Africa,

and sent to some island I know not which,

situated between Corsica and Sardinia, that

they might there be slain by the attendants: which he affirms

was also done. This island in our Ms. is written Amatune,

in Mabillon Amatim; elsewhere also

it is written Amaritima, and Amaritina, and Amatuna,

as I shall observe in the Annotations to the Life. But it is

wholly unknown to me; nor could I notice

that it was known to any of the writers who have treated

of these matters. Nay, I strongly doubt whether Adrevald himself

knew it, even though he says that it is situated between

Corsica and Sardinia, both because

I find no island of a like name in the ancient

or the modern geographers, and because the bringing

of the Saints to that island is narrated in a manner by no means

probable: and finally because the first Life dissents,

to which I judge more should be attributed.

And so I judge it more probable that the Saints suffered on

the island of Capraja, as the first Life has it, and were not carried

elsewhere. For who would prudently believe that those assassins,

however impious, were of so abandoned a boldness

that they would parade the Saints, so cruelly treated, as if

in triumph to various places, transfer them

from their own ship into another ship, and so make their crimes

known to more people? Or were the impious apostates

of such power that they could compel the master of another ship

at their own will to receive into his ship

certain Men bereft of tongues and eyes

and to carry them across to a certain island,

that they might there be butchered? Such things will be able to be believed

by those who have not seen through Adrevald's trifles;

but to me they appear incredible.

[54] About the time of the martyrdom and the number of these

Martyrs Vincent Barralis at the end of the Life

speaks thus: the epoch of the martyrdom must be set between the year 675 and 681: But blessed Aygulphus, abbot

and martyr, suffered with thirty and more fellow Monks

about the year of the Lord six hundred

and sixty, on the third of the Nones of September, while Pope Vitalian

sat in the See of Peter. Then, treating

of the relics at page 361, he attributes thirty-three Companions

to St. Aigulphus. Others assign the year 677

to their martyrdom, and strive to prove that year

by a reason drawn from what Adrevald says about Audoenus

the bishop in the second Life

at num. 16, where I shall show in the annotations that this reason is frivolous

or rather no reason at all. And so,

since no fit note of time offers itself

for assigning any certain year, I have broadly fixed the Saints'

martyrdom between the year 675 and

681, which becomes probable from his age and the other things said

before, but not altogether certain. There can be added for confirmation

the Chronicle of Maillezais, published

by Labbe in volume 2 of his Library, in which at page 193

St. Aigulphus is said to have been crowned with martyrdom under

king Theodoric and Ebroin the Mayor of the Palace, as

Mabillon has already noted in his annotations to the Life.

For since Theodoric III succeeded his brother

Childeric in the kingdom in the year 673, and Ebroin

began to administer the kingdom under him two or

three years later, according to this epoch

the martyrdom of St. Aigulphus and his Companions cannot

be placed before the year 675, to which Mabillon fixes it.

Again, since Ebroin was slain in the year

681, as Pagi proves at that same year at num.

27, the time of the martyrdom cannot be determined more exactly

than if we say that it happened between the year

675 and 681. And at this time St. Aigulphus could have been

of about fifty years of age.

[55] Thirty-three Companions Barralis attributes to St. Aigulphus

no more rightly, I think, it is not probable that 33 Companions were slain with St. Aigulphus, than he designated

the time of the martyrdom. Certainly from neither Life can it be gathered

that the number of Martyrs was so great. The first

Life treats of their seizure at num. 13

and 14: but it is there left uncertain how many were

seized. For first it is narrated that those who adhered

to the holy Shepherd fled

into the church of blessed John the Baptist. But these do not seem

to have been seized, both because it is nowhere said,

and because thus all the good would have been taken, and only

the perverse would have been left, who had conspired against the Saint,

or had not dared to disapprove their impiety.

But that this did not happen is plain

from what was done by the men of Lérins who were left, after the slaying of the Saints

was announced: for on the testimony of the Life at num. 18, immediately

there arises from all a most bitter lamentation,

and at once some are sent to bring their most sacred

bodies to Lérins. And so there had remained

in the monastery of Lérins not a few who

had been devoted to abbot Aigulphus; and all

those, as I judge, who had withdrawn themselves by flight

or had sought hiding-places while the persecutors

raged.

[56] but more probably he had only three Partners in his martyrdom; Secondly, when the most atrocious pseudo-monks came upon them,

blessed Aigulphus went out to meet them,

addressing them sweetly, as again the Life has it,

which at num. 14 speaks thus about the persecutors: But

they … made an onslaught upon blessed Aigulphus

and his Companions, whom they at once seized by means of the soldiers,

and put on a ship. Who those Companions

of Bl. Aigulphus were, and how many in number, is not

added. But from the whole account, and from later facts

it is sufficiently gathered that there were some Monks

who, disregarding the danger, had gone out with St. Aigulphus

to meet the persecutors. And that these

were four, of whom three were slain with the holy Abbot,

while the fourth escaped, I can

not without reason persuade myself from the title of the first Life,

which is such in our transcript: *The Passion

of blessed Aygulphus, martyr and abbot, with three

fellow Monks*. Certainly I do not see why I should

disapprove this title, since the number assigned in it

is far more probable than is the number

which Vincent Barralis designates without any

testimony of the ancients, and less probably.

[57] of whom two are named by certain writers. But of these Companions of St. Aigulphus I find only two

named, and that indeed in such a way that the matter

does not seem altogether certain about either. By Adrevald

below at num. 19 one of the Martyrs is named

Trucharius. Another Companion of St. Aigulphus

is assigned by de Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology at

3 September, where, after a brief elogium of these Saints,

he proceeds thus: Among these must be named

St. Frogentius, whose body, brought to the monastery of Fleury,

is there kept with the highest honor.

Ferrari announces this Saint in

his General Catalogue, as the companion of another Aigulphus

the martyr; but he wrongly divides one Aigulphus

into two, or rather into three: for

he once names Arnulphus abbot of Lérins,

who does not seem distinct from our Aigulphus,

and to have arisen from nothing else than the name Aigulphus

faultily written, since among the abbots of Lérins

no holy Arnulphus is found. But our Aigulphus

he acknowledges with the Roman Martyrology; and

he superadds another, because this one is by some announced

at Provins on account of the relics, as we shall see,

inferring from the diversity of place a different Saint,

as he himself says in his annotations. But that reason is wholly

empty, for he is announced at Provins because

his body was translated thither; and at Lérins because he was

abbot there. And so St. Frogentius, if he is a companion of St.

Aigulphus, is not of another than of ours. Charles

de Saussay in his Annals of the Church of Orléans,

book 4, chapter 7, num. 101, reviewing the relics

kept at Fleury, has this: The whole body of Bl.

Frongentius the martyr, whose Acts of his life are held

among them. He is celebrated together with St. Aigulphus and

his fellow Martyrs on the third day of September. In a Fragment

of French History in Duchesne, volume

3, page 343, under Lothair, son of Louis the Pious, these words are read about

the translation: But another likewise,

coming to the same monastery (of Fleury),

Otto * by name, offered along with himself to holy Benedict the body of a certain holy

martyr Frotgencius.

It is not indeed here asserted that Frotgencius

was a companion of St. Aigulphus; but de Saussay could have learned this

from the men of Fleury, to whose good faith I leave these matters.

* elsewhere Atto

§ VI. The translations of the bodies discussed: the ancient cult, and his memory in the sacred Calendars.

[ ] The bodies translated to Lérins: St. Aigulphus's successor That the bodies of SS. Aigulphus and his fellow martyrs

were carried back from the island on which they fell

to the island of Lérins, both Lives and other

writers agree. From the same it is also

established that that translation was made not long

after the Saints' martyrdom, as soon as their

death became known to the men of Lérins through Briconius's return.

Nevertheless certain other doubts here occur

because of the diversity of the accounts. The anonymous writer in the first Life

at num. 18 asserts that the bodies were honorably laid to rest

or entombed by blessed Prigonius, the successor of that same

Abbot (St. Aigulphus); without

any mention of any contestation or division

of the relics. But Adrevald at num. 30

brings in the abbess Angarisma sharply urging

that the body of St. Aigulphus be handed over to her, while the monks

of Lérins oppose her petition;

and at last the dispute so settled that to the abbess

was assigned the head of the holy Abbot with

the right arm, and the rest of the body with the relics

of the other Saints should be transferred to the monastery

of Lérins … to be buried. He asserts

besides at num. 29 that in St. Aigulphus's place another

abbot had already been substituted, Rigomirus by name,

when Briconius returned to Lérins, from whom

the men of Lérins learned the martyrdom of Aigulphus and his Companions.

And so, if we believe Adrevald, the men of Lérins

had already chosen another abbot before

they knew their holy Abbot to be dead.

[59] But if we should be willing to weigh both doubts in an even

balance, probably elected after his death was known: Adrevald's assertions will appear not

only contrary to the earlier biographer, but also less

probable. First it is not probable

that the men of Lérins chose another abbot before

they had learned what had happened to St. Aigulphus.

They knew indeed that he had been violently carried off: but

they did not know whether he was not going to return. Secondly

Briconius does not seem to have been away from Lérins so long that

by the very length of St. Aigulphus's absence they could have cast away

hope of receiving him back some day: for

the distance of the island of Capraja from Lérins is not so great,

nor do the Saints seem to have been detained there so long,

that Briconius could not have returned

to Lérins within a few weeks. Thirdly there can be a strong

suspicion that Adrevald from mere conjectures

set down abbot Rigomirus as Aigulphus's successor,

because he found that he presided over the men of Lérins in the same

century. Certainly the Sainte-Marthes in volume 4

of Gallia Christiana, page 562, put Ricomirus, who is doubtless

the same, before Aigulphus in these words:

Ricomirus was administering the ascetery of Lérins

about the year 650. These reasons compel me to doubt

whether Adrevald truly wrote that Rigomirus

was chosen Aigulphus's successor. Certainly I judge

it more probable that Aigulphus's successor

was chosen after Briconius's return. But whether

Rigomirus was then chosen, or Prigonius, as

Aigulphus's successor is called in the first Life, I cannot

determine. Prigonius would certainly be preferable, if

he were better known, because I think more is to be attributed

to the first Life than to Adrevald.

[60] it is not probable that the body of St. Aigulphus As regards what Adrevald asserted about the abbess

Angarisma, and about the relics given to her,

I have already said at num. 43 that Angarisma, abbess

of Arluc, is very suspect to me;

and from that it follows that what Adrevald narrated

about the relics given to the monastery of Arluc is likewise suspect.

Vincent Barralis was unwilling to omit Adrevald's account;

but he changed and enlarged it at his own

pleasure. He says first that the bodies

were found wholly untouched, as though they had then completed the course

of the present life. He says secondly: There was present

among them a monk who, when Aygulphus

was being tortured by the impious in the monastery, had been deprived

of the soundness of his arm. He, devoutly touching the limbs

of the holy Martyrs, at once received soundness.

Neither Life has anything of these. Barralis says

thirdly that the bodies came to Lérins on the sixteenth

day of May. This likewise is not read in the Lives:

nevertheless he gathered it perhaps from the feast of the translation, or from

elsewhere. Fourthly, he writes that the occasion for the abbess Angarisma's

seeking the relics was furnished by a miracle,

relating the matter thus: There was present meanwhile

there a nun who by a glaucoma had lost the sweet light

of her eyes: which, by kissing again and again

the right arm of blessed Aigulphus, she received back.

[61] was at once divided at Lérins. By reason of which miracle a devout contest and a holy

emulation was stirred up: for the consecrated

woman (so he names the abbess) urgently demanded

that the body of the blessed Man be given to her.

To whom the abbot said: It is not fitting to separate a Father

from his sons. And she: Well, for he was my Father first. Did he not

form me from the cradle with holy admonitions and with a full

discipline? and did he not always have me as a daughter in Christ?

Obeying whose holy obedience I also

left Gaul and my household gods,

that I might not be too far from his patronage. And the abbot:

Setting out from the Gauls at our prayers, he came

to us, that * he himself might have us as sons, and we him

as Father. And so the abbess, seeing

that she could not attain her desire, said: Give

us at least the arm by which this sister

was healed. Rigomirus grants what she

demanded with so great an affection of devotion: which afterward,

when devastation was ravaging those parts, was brought back to the monastery

of Lérins. First, Adrevald indeed has the miracle,

but narrates that it happened later. Then the reader here sees

that only the arm is attributed to the nuns of Arluc,

not the head; and the arm indeed is so attributed

that it is afterward said to have been brought back. But I judge

that neither the head nor the arm was so quickly

separated from the rest of the body; but I believe that all the limbs

were entombed together in the monastery of Lérins,

as the first Life has it: for that division so

soon after the death is not at all probable,

and has been related in a manner even less probable.

[62] Certain miracles done at Lérins are narrated. Barralis then subjoins certain miracles,

proceeding thus: Meanwhile a mixed multitude of the sick

and the ailing takes possession of the island's shore:

whose healings, granted by the intercession of the holy

Martyrs, if we should wish to relate one by one,

there would be no measure in the page: therefore to bring forward

a few out of many will not be unfitting, so that they may be

manifest to those who do not believe or perhaps do not know.

A certain Man had from his mother's womb a left shin

shorter than the right *, so that with sticks joined

to his sides he scarcely walked: but being led

to the bodies of the Saints, and prayer being made,

he leapt forward on equal soles. A certain woman also

had her face oppressed with the elephantine disease;

and now, about to lose her eyes, she was inclining * to it: and she,

coming to the monastery, prayers being poured out and the limbs

of the Saints being kissed, had her face adorned with its former

soundness. A certain matron also

bore a mute son, who so remained for ten years,

until, being led to the monastery, he received speech

by the merits of the Saints: whose mother,

overwhelmed with vehement joy, was brought to the last extremities of life:

and when they laid Bl. Aigulphus's sheepskin cloak upon her,

as though waking from sleep, she rose before

them all. And those oppressed by demons were cured

likewise, by whatever infirmity they were held;

the intercession of the Saints being implored, they returned

home unharmed, so that it was truly proved that

God is wonderful in his Saints. These miracles I judge to have been drawn

from other records of Lérins;

and to have been done not at once at the deposition of the bodies, but afterward

little by little.

[63] About the deposition of those same bodies Barralis writes this

at the end of the Life: Barralis contends that all the bodies were left at Lérins; Yet after a festival

of seven days had been celebrated, with hymns and spiritual songs

the monks laid the bodies of the venerable

Martyrs with an exceeding fragrance and honor

in the basilica of the kindly father Honoratus, where benefits

of souls and bodies are granted to those who ask. The same

author at page 361 claims that the sacred body of St. Aigulphus

remained at Lérins even to his own times;

for he has this in the same place: Further, I judge that it must not be wrapped

in Pythagorean silence, that in this our

age still the venerable remains of the holy and unconquered

father Aigulphus, and of the thirty-three Monks

of Lérins, martyrs his companions,

are reverently preserved in the sacred hive of the island of Lérins,

and beneath the solid tower in the chapel of the holy Cross,

together with the other relics of the Saints,

in a certain chest or wooden ark, painted on the outside

with a red color, with this inscription: *These are

the bodies of the holy Aygulphus and of his Companions*:

but the cranium and the sacred bones of the head of the reverend

aforesaid athlete Aygulphus the abbot in a statue

of silver raised from the breast upward, magnificently

wrought and carved in pontifical habit with a mitre

adorned with various small stones, is there kept laid up,

marked around with this note: “This head

of blessed Aygulphus Raymondina Tombarella,

and Jacobus her son of Nice, a monk of Lérins,

caused to be made, and I, Joannes Calio,

made it in the year 1452, on the 22nd day of May.” Thus far

Barralis.

[64] Mabillon in his preliminary Observation to

the Translation of St. Aigulphus, but the monks of Provins in Brie claim the body of St. Aigulphus for themselves; which he inserted in the Acts

of the Saints of his Order, century 2, page 666, observes

that the aforesaid things are asserted by Barralis, and presently subjoins

the following: On the contrary the monks of the priory of Provins,

in the castle or town of Provins in the diocese of Sens,

claim for themselves by not a few arguments the sacred remains of the Bl. Martyr,

and show both his head and

a great part of the relics: our men of Fleury also used to show

some portion of the sacred body before the disaster of the Calvinists.

To settle lawsuits of that kind is a thing full of difficulty and of

odium. But since six hundred years ago

the monastery of Provins was founded in honor of St. Aigulf

for the holding of his relics,

which Sebuinus or Seguinus, archbishop of Sens,

approved along with others, and enclosed in a silver casket;

the cause of the men of Provins will perhaps seem to outweigh

the cause of the men of Lérins; who, if they had preserved

the relics of St. Aigulf, would doubtless

have kept them not promiscuously with the other bodies of his Companions,

but separately, as also the cranium.

Thus far Mabillon on these matters, who, repeating

like things in volume 1 of the Annals, page 530, says that they were deposited

in the basilica of the monastery of St. Aigulf at Provins,

which is a priory of the abbey of La Celle

near Troyes.

[65] and they abundantly prove that they have either the body or a part of the body. Of the church, priory, and relics of St. Aigulphus

Peter, abbot of La Celle, makes mention in his letters,

who about the middle of the twelfth century held the prefecture

of that abbey, and then was translated to the abbey

of St. Remigius at Rheims, and finally to the bishopric

of Chartres. This abbot's authority

brings it about that the cause of the men of Provins doubtless

outweighs, because the authority opposed to it is not

of great moment. About the church burnt in his time

he speaks thus in book 1, letter 18: These things we have said for this reason,

that the noble church of blessed Aigulf with

all its appendages was so utterly burnt

that nothing except the books and the relics of the Saints

was saved from the fire. About the burning of the same

church he writes again in book 4, letter 5: and in both

he says that he sends the relics of St. Aigulphus to various

provinces, that by their presence the charity of the faithful

might be the more stirred up, and so out of their

alms the church might be restored. About the Prior of St.

Aigulphus he speaks in book 3, letter XI. Finally in book 4,

letter 7, he has this: This I wrote beside the chapel of St.

Aigulphus … Tomorrow in a most seemly tomb, namely

a new chest, we are about to lay up the most sacred

body of your lord blessed Aigulf, whose head and

body we have. These things do not permit me to doubt

that the men of Provins have the body or a great part of the body.

Nothing, however, stands in the way of

some bones having been able to remain at Lérins. Marlot

in his History of the metropolis of Rheims, or in the Chronicle of St. Nicasius of Rheims

subjoined after volume 1,

chapter 9, has this about the sacristy of St. Nicasius: They show

besides the upper part of the cranium of St.

Aigulf, martyr, of the Order of St. Benedict, etc. The History

of the translation, and another about the Miracles

done at Provins, I shall publish after the Lives, as I have already noted.

[66] The cult of St. Aigulphus in various places, and of his Companions at Lérins: The recorded translations of the sacred body leave no

doubt about the ancient cult of St. Aigulphus,

although otherwise his memory is not found

among the more ancient Martyrologists. Mabillon

in his annotations to the Acts observed the following

about his cult: Although the memory of St. Aigulf in

the two most ancient Martyrologies of the monastery of Fleury

is not recorded in the first hand, but

in a later one; yet it is established that his feast day was solemnly

celebrated by the men of Fleury six hundred years ago.

The writer of the book about his Miracles testifies this,

who was living in the principate of Louis VI,

as we shall see below in the book of Miracles at num.

VIII (in our volumes num. 14). About the cult

among the men of Provins we have already said enough, where we treated of the church

and relics of the Saint out of Peter of La Celle.

Nor can there be any doubt that the men of Lérins

themselves first of all began to venerate their holy Abbot with his fellow

martyrs: yet I find no fit document

by which the time can be determined from which

St. Aigulphus began to be honored with his Companions. But that he was honored

together with his Companions is proved from the ancient hymns

which Vincent Barralis published at page 340

under this title: *Other hymns on the festival of holy

Aygulphus, abbot, and of his fellow martyrs, taken

from an old parchment * Breviary of the church of Lérins

in Ms.*

[67] a hymn containing the deeds of Aigulphus, The hymns themselves I shall willingly communicate to the reader,

that from them he may at the same time see that many things were formerly unknown

to the men of Lérins which we have disapproved in Adrevald's History.

At First Vespers this hymn is set forth:

Sing, O gladness of the choir of Lérins,

with boundless praises the rewards of the Martyrs:

who, upheld, rejoice in the heavenly glory

wherewith the faithful are rewarded.

A devout stock long ago brought forth Aygulphus,

the castle of Blois in Gaul earned him:

when he was born, hell shuddered,

his manner of life being foreknown.

He becomes gentle to all, now full of grace,

he succors the needy, lavishing his own goods:

he chooses the virtues, and in all things

neglects all earthly things.

By exceeding prayer, his virtues being confirmed,

for the way of salvation, his manners being approved,

he is joined to the flock of abbot Mummolus,

and truly to the law of Christ.

The Zealot of Christ, the Lily of the Order,

the monastery of Lérins chose as its Shepherd:

holding worldly joys in hatred,

he gives remedies for salvation.

You, highest Deity, etc.

[68] At Nocturns, a hymn.

To the lofty star of highest Olympus another about his martyrdom and that of his Companions,

the deeds of the Martyrs' renowned triumph

with tuneful voice and with sweet mind,

O assembly, bring forth.

Against the Saint of God, long pre-eminent

in sacred teaching, reforming the harsh,

the other part of the flock, rushing on wrongfully,

straightway rages.

Splendid things in heaven, though his sight was bored through,

he beholds none the less with a divine sight:

his tongue removed, he discloses the renowned

merits of the virtues.

That with equal torment they may be tormented,

the Saint's Partners accompany the Saints *:

the holy Man exhorts his holy Partners

to suffer exultingly.

O treacherous Columbus of the flock of Lérins,

you fierce accomplice, unhappy Arcadius,

what did the upright deserve from the wicked,

to be so dreadfully slain?

Be there to God the Father, etc.

[69] At Lauds, a hymn.

O Gem of the Martyrs shining forth, about which the third also treats:

Satan's frauds being driven out *,

grant kindly, pardoning the guilty,

that we may enjoy the praises of Aygulphus.

When the monastery strives to be reformed

by the true rule,

his flock rushing upon him,

he incurs the wrath of base men.

Bound, beaten, pleasing to God,

he and those favoring him are here tortured:

deprived of tongues and of sight,

they are handed over to death by their own.

O Martyrs, soldiers of Christ,

let us all as suppliants pray,

that, made branches of the true Vine,

we may be lifted on high.

To the One and Threefold, etc.

[70] Finally at Second Vespers this hymn

is prescribed. a fourth about his life and martyrdom.

Let the church sing the brightness of consecrated Aygulphus,

the deeds and exceeding achievements of one duly walled about with comeliness:

let the lilies of the just be present at his ordered life.

He took up the manifold glory of praise of the orthodox law:

his age gloriously brought forth a sure prize:

gladly, wondrously, carefully he takes away * vain joy.

The choir of Lérins chose a martyr pleasing to God,

the guilty error of Columbus slays him who suffered wondrous things,

an overshadowing divine fire takes up the man given over to death.

His cohort, groaning, drains the contest of him who triumphs,

the veil of the high and most powerful King goes forth,

the solace of the jubilant flock conquers in the upper air.

The wave washes the little bodies of those bereft of blood:

with a razor they twice cut off the tongues of the afflicted:

kindly they receive kisses from the head of their torturers.

Lifting their hearts on high, they gaze into heaven;

awaiting the life at the right hand, they despise that at the left.

Pouring forth their spirit at last, they seize the way of life.

To the Trinity be glory, steadfast jubilation:

to Him honor, victory, exalted praise,

who reigns over all things through the ages upon the throne above.

The studious reader will see in these hymns that almost everything

which is read in the first Life is briefly touched upon:

but nothing of those things which were added by

Adrevald.

[71] The memory of the Saints in the Calendars. The more recent Calendars everywhere celebrate the memory of St. Aigulphus and

his Companions, and sometimes also record Aigulphus without

his Companions. Receive a few announcements out of many: In our Usuard at 3

September the ancient Hérinnes codex has this added

in the margin: Likewise at Provins, holy

Aigulf, glorious martyr. The Brussels codex:

At Prumiacum (read: Provins), holy Aygulphus,

abbot of Lixivium (read: of Lérins) and martyr.

He is announced at Provins also in Molanus, and

in our Ms. Florarium, and here indeed with his Companions,

although he is assigned to Provins only on account of the relics

and the cult. Various Usuardine codices also

announce the same Saint in the monastery of Lérins

without his Companions, even though he was honored there with his Companions.

Wion celebrates our Saints thus without

a place at 3 September: On the same day, the birthday of the holy

martyrs Aigulphus, abbot of Lérins,

and of his fellow Monks, who, their tongues having been cut off

and their eyes dug out, were beheaded with the sword. These

are the very words of the Roman Martyrology. The Paris

Martyrology explains more in this manner:

On the island of Amatuna near Sardinia, St. Aigulphus,

abbot of Lérins, who for his zeal for regular

discipline was snatched from the monastery, his tongue cut off and

his eyes dug out, and was butchered: whose relics are preserved at Provins

in Brie in the church of St. Medard, to which he also gave

his name. The rest is here rightly set forth;

but the place of the martyrdom less probably, out of Adrevald.

ut*

habebat*

videbatur*

membraneo*

read Sanctum*

pulsis*

aufert*

A LIFE

by an uncertain author

from a Ms. of the library of Constantine Gaetani.

Aigulphus, abbot and martyr on the island of Capraja between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Trucharius, martyr on the island of Capraja between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Frongentius, martyr on the island of Capraja between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Other companions, martyrs on the island of Capraja between Corsica and Etruria (SS.)

BHL Number: 0193

By an Anonymous Writer.

PREFACE

It is shown that they too are rightly called martyrs who fall for the sake of truth or justice.

That they are martyrs who are slain for justice, When the deeds of the faithful are recited in the churches,

it is clear that not only those are called martyrs

who contended for the faith of Christ, but also those who

for constancy in justice and truth, which is God,

steadfastly poured out their blood, ^a as

we have learned of the prophets in the old Testament:

who, as the Apostle says, experienced mockings and scourgings,

and moreover bonds and prisons; they were stoned,

they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they died

by the slaying of the sword. In the New also we read

that very many were afflicted with various punishments not only

for the confession of the faith, but out of love of justice

and of truth: as is manifest concerning John the Baptist,

than whom among those born of women there has not arisen a greater,

whom, for justice and truth's sake,

the sacred history of the Gospel relates to have been beheaded

by the most cruel Herod. For Herod feared

John, knowing him to be a holy and just man:

he kept him safe, and, having heard him, did many things.

But because John rebuked him concerning

his brother's wife, whom he had married, he was beheaded.

[2] Whence the Lord addresses his faithful, saying:

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for

justice' sake. and the author shows that such are honored in the Church. But lest the future pastors of his Church,

with the adversary pressing upon them, should be afraid, he

admonishes them by his own example, saying: I am the good shepherd; the good

shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.

We venerate therefore those pastors who, kindled with the fire of charity,

did not fear the lashes of the executioners, but,

offering themselves a living victim and pleasing to God,

were made a sacrifice to the Lord for an odor

of sweetness. Among whom is to be numbered, and with the piety owed to veneration

to be honored, Aigulphus, abbot and martyr of the monastery

of Lérins, who, set aflame with the ardor

of truth and the burning of charity, chose rather

to undergo death than to endure vices: for

he fell for the Church of Christ, that is, for the salvation of souls,

wishing to deliver them from the jaws of hell.

Whose memory, full of virtues and

worthy of praise, according as we find it in certain deeds of the monastery

of Lérins ^b, over which he presided,

we shall begin, with the Lord's help, to narrate. Premising

therefore what belongs to the more ancient writers, we shall go on to set forth

his lineage and native soil, in what manner he

came thither, and how, his own blood being poured out for Christ,

he remained unconquered.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER I.

The native land of St. Aigulphus, his parents, his training, his monastic life, his abbatial dignity, and his happy labors therein.

[ ] The saint born at Blois of pious parents, At the time when by the grace of God Dagobert ^a was reigning

over the peoples of the Gauls, there was in Gaul the town of Blois,

of which place the parents of B. Aigulphus

were natives: who, though they did not abound in an ample estate of goods, which

in the world is held the chief distinction of a family,

nevertheless excelled in character and in holiness of life.

Being for some time without

the fruit of their marriage, they entreated the clemency of the Lord

that he would deign to grant their prayers, not

so much for their own support as that they might dedicate the child

to the divine service. God, recognizing their vows,

bestowed ^b on them this son of comely form,

whom they were at pains so to instruct that he should be strong in good

character before God and men.

[4] [deliberating about his state of life, where the monastery of Fleury had been built,] When he had reached the years of youth, and

wantonness was titillating his members, he put this deadly plague

of the soul to flight by the medicine of fastings:

he frequented the church of God assiduously, intent upon the divine

offices, that he might at some time perceive by what rule of

life he should direct his course. At length that word of the prophet

sounded in his ears: The sacrifice of praise

shall glorify me, and there is the way by which I will show him

the salvation of God. For at that time Leodebundus ^c, of blessed

memory, was abbot of the monastery of St. Anianus,

which is built with varied workmanship in the city of Orléans.

That same venerable father, not unmindful

of the holiness of that most holy father Maurus ^d,

and of the good habits of life which he had left behind to his

successors in Gaul, being inspired with divine ardor,

was zealous to propagate, so far as he could, the monastic

order.

[5] and then he enters it: While he was carefully searching out places suitable

for the gathering of souls, and had found a valley exceedingly quiet

and pleasant with a broad plain, he betook himself to king

Clovis ^e, the son of king Dagobert,

to ask that he would deign to bestow the field which the

neighbors called Fleury, for the building of a

monastery. The king, satisfying his petition,

bestowed also many gifts toward the building of the monastery

which is now called the monastery of Fleury ^f.

The monastery being therefore completed, from every side

men flocked to the man of God, that

they might there serve the Lord as soldiers: whose holiness of life

so flourished that the name of the monastery of Fleury

scattered flowers and fruits of good odor throughout all Gaul.

Hearing which, B. Aigulphus, being bereft of

his parents, that he might get free the more readily (for he desired,

loosed from the bonds of the world, to serve Christ as a soldier), bestowed all

that he possessed upon the support of the poor,

and so naked entered upon the way of the cross ^g.

[6] [and there flourishing in virtues, he is asked for as abbot by the monks of Lérins,] In him there was so great an austerity of fastings,

so constant an assiduity of prayers and vigils,

that his manner of life was a marvel to all. Some years afterward

having passed, when the name of the blessed man and

the report of his holiness were spread abroad on every side,

he, impatient of popular favor, avoided the company of men:

for he feared lest Christ should reckon his merits to him

in this world. But the Lord, willing

that the lamp be set not under a bushel, but upon

a candlestick, gave a faithful servant over his

household, to give him in due season his measure

of wheat. When indeed the odor of his holiness had gone forward to

more distant parts, the monks of Lérins, moved by the fervor of his

life and by the observance of religion which

was then practiced in the Gauls, came to the blessed man

by the common consent of the whole monastery,

asking with the humblest prayers that he would deign to discharge

toward them the office of a father, that by his teaching he might gather

together the straying monks who were without a shepherd.

[7] to whose prayers he at length assented, For the monastery of Lérins, after that man

most acceptable to God and dear to the world, Honoratus ^h,

had been translated to the heavenly kingdom, had suffered from

barbarian nations things unworthy enough and inhuman, even to ruin ⁱ,

whence the monks, deserting the holy island

without an inhabitant, served their own desires

without a shepherd. Whom the blessed Aigulphus

received gently, and, having first learned of the devastations of war

and of their manner of living, said:

Brethren, it is better that you choose one from among yourselves

as elder, to whose command and authority you may be subject:

for I judge that your habits do not

agree with mine. There was then in Gaul, as

we have said, the whole keeping of regular discipline

which Maurus, the most valiant servant of Christ, had left

to the monasteries. The brethren of Lérins therefore, seeing

that they could not bend the mind of the blessed man to their wishes,

repeating their request again and again, pressed

their petition the more earnestly, that they might not return home without him.

[8] Moved at length by their prayers and by charity,

which is God, [with the king consenting he sets out for Lérins, and gathers the scattered monks:] bidding farewell to his own and to the men

of the court, who loved him for the merits of his virtues,

and at the same time, leave to depart having been granted him by the king,

to whom he was bound by dear affection, and by the council

whose decision in this matter it was ^k, he undertook the journey

to instruct the brethren of the monastery of Lérins.

Whom, receiving them most kindly in the love of Christ,

he first began to restore the ruined dwellings,

and to recall to the monastery the brethren who were absent:

all of whom rejoiced to be blessed by him. Very many

then, illustrious by birth, having despised the enticing

converse of this world, flocked to him,

bestowing their castles, villages, and likewise their estates,

that, the bonds of the world being broken off, they might serve

Christ more securely.

[9] To whom he, like a wise physician,

administered refreshments of souls and of bodies, he restores discipline to the monastery of Lérins,

being zealous not so much to heal present languors

as also to forestall future harms.

The brambles of their former evils being first plucked up by the roots,

he took care with all diligence to plant in their hearts

the seeds of divine love, and of love of neighbor

after God. He taught them besides to hate the false

and temporary sweetness of this world,

according to that which the blessed apostle John says: Love not,

dearly beloved, the world, nor the things

which are in the world: if any man love the world, the charity

of the Father is not in him. Whence, a few days

being passed, that congregation, leading an angelic life

on earth, so flourished in heavenly discipline

as the monastery had flourished before.

[10] The blessed Aigulphus, seeing his flock

forget the things that are behind, which he governs in holiness. and pant after things eternal,

rendered immense praises to God. For,

the odor of their life being spread abroad on every side, very many

illustrious men bowed their necks to the yoke of Christ.

O how happy then was the island of Lérins,

distinguished by that renowned soldier of Christ Aigulphus, in

whom shone forth an exceeding charity and purity of innocence:

he ruled the members subject to him with the greatest tranquility,

and his power was invincible in putting demons

to flight. Purity mingled with sweetness, and a gracious

severity, rendered him lovable and comely to all good and religious sons

who sought God in truth.

ANNOTATA.

does Adrevaldus mention it in the second Life; the thing nevertheless is credible

enough, whether it was done by the Burgundians, or by the Goths, or by

the Lombards. The former, addicted to the Arian heresy, were long enough in Provence that they could have laid Lérins waste more than once in the fifth and sixth centuries. The Lombards, moreover, pagans in the sixth century, waged frequent

wars with the Franks, and not seldom burst into Provence,

so that they could easily have laid Lérins waste, and brought it about that the monks

were compelled to desert the island. Warlike devastations of this kind, which Lérins could also

have suffered from the Lombards in the seventh century, the author of this Life alleges as the cause of the relaxation of discipline.

sense our anonymous author also can easily be explained. Further, the author does not say

who that king was by whose consent the saint departed for Lérins. But

under no king can the departure be more probably placed than about the end of the reign

of Clotaire III. Yet even after his death, and while Childeric II was reigning, or

his successor Theodoric III, he could have departed.

CHAPTER II.

The conspiracy of certain rebels, who by the help of Mummolus

carry off St. Aigulphus with several companions, taken captive, to the island of Capraia,

and, having afflicted them with various torments, at length slay the martyrs.

[ ] The conspiracy of Arcadius and Columbus, But the ancient enemy of the human race, the devil,

seeing the glory of the Lord increased in this most blessed

island, took it ill — he by whose envy, most savage enemy that he is,

death had entered into the world:

for he grieved that those were being snatched from him

whom he had long held subject to himself. And so

he stirred up certain men as his own limbs, namely Arcadius

and Columbus, beset with the bitterness of gall,

to whom the narrow way that leads to life was always

hateful. He urged them to remember the solaces of the present,

which it was not permitted to those established under the blessed man's

governance to take up again. Into their hearts therefore

the devil put it, as into Judas, that they should betray their Master,

so that, the shepherd being driven off,

they might the more easily scatter the straying sheep who lacked a shepherd.

[12] But the madness of the wicked, stirred up by these two

standard-bearers, who both draw others in and sow discord, which the saint stills for a time: prevailed in number over the rest

who adhered to the man of God: for the number of fools is always

more numerous than that of the good. The wicked

therefore, not being able to attain the end of their perverse will,

stirred up in the congregation the fuel of quarrels,

that they might call back from their holy purpose

those whom the holy father had trained in the service of God.

But the blessed Aigulphus, perceiving

whither the desires of the wicked tended, lest regular discipline

should be violated, came forward like an immovable column,

and with cheerful countenance and tranquil mind was at pains to soothe

the fury of their breast, saying:

O my sweetest sons, and exceedingly beloved,

why do you violate the covenant which in this island from the diverse

parts of the world * has gathered together. Learn to renounce your

feuds, and to obey the words of Christ,

who says: Learn of me, because I am meek and

humble of heart; and you shall find rest for your

souls. Have humility as the friend of all virtues,

and take care to possess it as the one thing needful.

The blessed man's discourse being finished, the fury of the wicked

is mitigated for a time, and they confess their fault.

[13] But when a year was completed, the stronger part of them rises up,

and through Arcadius and Columbus that whole company of

malignant conspirators is set in motion: [but after a year the conspiracy breaks out, and, most of the upright fleeing, Aigulphus]

and the wicked rushing * upon the innocent, who adhered to the holy

shepherd, these betook themselves into the church of blessed John

the Baptist, commending their souls and their bodies

to the Lord. But when the most savage

false monks came upon them, the blessed Aigulphus

went forth to meet them, addressing them gently:

Lay aside, my brethren, this most unhappy

hatred of feuds, and preserve mutual charity

among yourselves: for I came into this island

to satisfy your desires: if you judge me the author

of the discord that is among you,

cast lots upon me, as was done to Jonas,

for it is more profitable for me to be absent from you than, being present,

to be tormented by your manners.

[14] with several companions is seized by soldiers instigated by the rebels: But the holy man, foreseeing his future persecution,

did not cease from holy admonitions, and from prayers also

poured out to God for the wicked themselves.

But those malignant men were turned to a Pharaonic

madness, and were made the more obstinate

by the sweet preaching of the elder, and they stopped

their ears and made an assault upon the blessed Aigulphus

and his companions, and having loaded them with insults,

and clothed them, for their own mockery, in filthy garments,

they drove them from the island: and by an armed

band of soldiers, whom they had obtained from the most wicked Mummolus ^a,

prince of the city of Uzès, conspiring with them in their conspiracy,

and * by the conspirators themselves,

the holy men were set on a ship, to be conveyed

to the island of Capraia ^b.

[15] [the saints being put on shipboard, in which they suffer most cruel things, and being carried to the island of Capraia,] But on the journey the most wicked conspirators afflicted

the saints of God with many torments, blows,

and injuries; and they also ordered their tongues to be cut out

and their eyes to be bored through, and every one of their limbs

to be tortured. But O wondrous thing! with their tongues cut out they

sang to the Lord: O Lord, thou wilt open my lips,

and my mouth shall declare thy praise. For he who

had given the grace that the tongueless should speak,

gave also that they should speak more gracefully and acceptably:

and the blessed martyr of Christ Aigulphus consoled

his companions, set in a most harsh prison-house,

saying: Through many tribulations we must enter

into the kingdom of heaven.

[16] [and there, being put in the prison, they are strengthened by the archangel Michael:] Afflicted therefore with various torments in prison,

the blessed Aigulphus with his companions bore all things

most willingly. Mindful of the Lord's passion,

they remained immovable amid the scourges: each one

of them sang to the Lord: What shall we render

to thee, Lord Jesus Christ, who for us

hast borne things far more bitter than these? We will take the chalice

of salvation, and we will call upon thy name. For

thy sake, O Lord, we are put to death all the day long; do not

cast off thy servants, since willingly for thy name

we are sacrificed as sheep for the slaughter. In thee,

O Lord, we have hoped; let us not be confounded. Their prayer

being finished, in the darkness of the night the archangel Michael

appeared ^c in the prison, saying: Be comforted,

little flock, and fear not; for it hath pleased

your Father to give you the kingdom of God through a blessed martyrdom.

But the holy men rendered thanks to God.

[17] invited to flee they refuse: and at length are crowned with martyrdom: Meanwhile to one of the guards, who, moved by pity,

was inviting the martyrs of Christ to flee ^d,

the blessed man Aigulphus answered: If we live, we live

unto the Lord, and if we die, we die unto the Lord:

let the will of the Lord be done in us. And again

they sang to the Lord, saying: To thee, O Lord,

we lift up our eyes. At length in the said

island of Capraia ^e, both arms having first been cut off from the holy man

of God Aigulphus ^f, and then the heads of all

his companions, they consecrated the martyrs to the Lord.

But before they had come to the appointed place

of martyrdom, they obtained from the guards a respite

for commending themselves to the Lord, and when these were about to cover

their faces with a veil, as the custom was ^g,

they themselves said: Suffer us to see the sky, that our spirits

may be directed to the Lord who made them:

and so, commending their souls to the Lord, the saints

of God with all confidence and alacrity, amid words

of prayer and of the Lord's praise, rendered up their spirits to the Lord. [the martyrdom announced by Briconius, who had escaped: the bodies translated to Lérins.]

by name, who had escaped, related

the whole order of their martyrdom to the brethren at Lérins.

And immediately there arises from all a most bitter

lamentation: and they at once sent certain men over to the aforesaid island

of Capraia, that they might carry back the martyrs'

most sacred bodies to Lérins. Those who had been sent,

therefore, gathering the bodies of the holy martyrs,

honorably laid them in little baskets:

whence so great a fragrance of perfumes

followed that the ship would have been believed laden with spices,

or with roses and flowers: and so, carried to Lérins,

they were honorably entombed by the blessed Prigonius ⁱ,

the successor of the same abbot.

ANNOTATA.

the author only wished to insinuate that they were unwilling that their faces

should be veiled: nor did he sufficiently advert to the foregoing gouging out of the eyes, while

he was writing this. Whatever it be, whether the writer inconsiderately contradicted

himself, or spoke improperly, it is more probable that the saints were

blind, since both biographers assert it, and neither says

that their sight was preserved to them by a miracle.

Add vos*.

irruentibus iniquis*.

Perhaps, ab*.

ANOTHER LIFE

by Adrevaldus, monk of Fleury,

from the Rouge-Cloître manuscript and Mabillon's edition.

Aigulphus, abbot and martyr, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Trucharius, martyr, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Frongentius, martyr, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Other companions, martyrs, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (SS.)

BHL Number: 0194

By Adrevaldus of Fleury.

PREFACE

The usefulness of writing the Lives of the saints: the martyrdom of St. Aigulphus asserted.

The Lives of the saints are useful: That to commit to letters, and to transmit to those who come after *,

the pious and arduous contests of the saints and most valiant athletes of Christ,

by which they triumphed over the devil

and the savage world, is not

the duty of just anyone *, there is almost no one who

does not know. For by such things the rudiments of believers

and the first beginnings of faith are consecrated, by the confidence of hope the grown

are animated, the perfect are delighted by the sweetness of pious charity;

by the wariness of the master of the games ^a, lest they succumb,

they are anointed as with a kind of oil; and if

they have grown weary, by this medicine they are restored to their former

strength. To this is added that, drawn by these things, we frequently take part

in the fellowship of the saints,

whom the bosom of beatitude, still closed to us, already holds.

For we do not love them for their outward

lineaments, but because we know them beautiful

by the prerogative of their merits. Which, while they are implanted in our hearts

by the recital of their history,

are brought back, as through a kind of mirror, to be set before

the eyes of our mind. Of whose

company we have undertaken to hand down in writing the Life, that is to say the passion,

of one, Aigulphus by name ^b, for the love of him for whom he so

lived and suffered,

relying not on the sharpness of our talent, but on the help of him

who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, and whose promise

we hold as a most firm anchor,

when he says: Open thy mouth, and I will fill it.

[2] the martyrdom of St. Aigulphus proved. But the practice of certain men is not hidden from me, who are always

seeking what they may tear with the bite of their teeth ^c, whose opinion perhaps will be this:

Why do you bring forward to us, or rather fabricate, a raw

martyr? None * of the persecutors cut his throat for the faith of Christ.

The trophy of the ancient martyrs is renowned *,

not that of some novice, who guards less carefully against the snares

of enemies, from whom if a very brief anger has broken out, let that suffice him ^d.

For what does it prejudice, whether four hundred

years ago or two hundred one of the martyrs

completed the course of his contest? Is not *

the beholder of the struggle always the same? But

these things are not to be weighed like wines, which the older they are,

the more pleasing they are wont to be. But be it so:

none of the persecutors slew him for the

name * of Christ. Did Herod behead that John, the greatest among those born

of women, for Christ's sake? and not rather, because * he stood

as an adversary to him in the way of iniquity, did he take him away from human affairs

for truth's sake, which is God?

And therefore if from any other source anything * has broken forth,

which one would admit on behalf of the blessed John, let him remember that he ought to admit the same

on behalf of this venerable man also.

These things, therefore, being very briefly touched upon beforehand, let us come to the narrative,

with Christ going before and aiding our

endeavors.

ANNOTATA.

Ms. committere*

Mab. officium*

Mab. Num* …

Mab. tais*

Mab. numquidnam*

Mab. confessione*

al. quia*

Ms. quisquam*

CHAPTER I.

The native land and parents of St. Aigulphus: his training, studies, monastic

life, virtues: the body of St. Benedict translated: the prefecture of the abbey of Lérins undertaken.

[ ] Aigulphus born at Blois of parents of slender condition, That it was the custom of the ancient, or of modern,

writers, that they should first set forth the family and native

soil of him whose deeds they were about to relate,

is plain even to any simple persons.

Not despising their usage, we too

take care to make known the native land and family of the blessed Aigulphus

to those who do not know them. The stronghold of Blois is set on the flank of a certain

mountain, to which is adjoining the bank

of the river Loire: and the same Loire ^a, gliding

past, besides the abundance of fish which it displays at that

place more abundantly than at others, furnishes also a great

bounty * of other produce, namely of wine and of grain,

and of the other things necessary to human nature. That the parents of the blessed Aigulphus

were inhabitants of this district and stronghold we have

learned by most certain report — not indeed exalted by any windiness

of high blood ^b, nor swollen with an affluence of worldly

wealth, yet happy in so great an offspring.

For he was one of those of whom the Apostle says:

The weak things of this world, he says, and the contemptible

hath God chosen; and the things that are not.

[4] How therefore he passed the age of his childhood

is difficult to relate, and piously brought up, how, namely,

he counted it sweet to wear away the threshold of the church assiduously, to serve

the ministrations of the priests, to give effort to

the watches of the vigils, to run to the necessities of the poor

according to his power, and every single day to offer himself wholly

as a holy victim pleasing to God, spiritually, upon the soul of his heart,

to the Lord of spirits ^c. But

when he came to the years of youth, there began to be a burden to him ^d

not only the secular life but also the secular habit.

He turned over in his mind by what means, its restraints

being broken and his lot changed, he might healthfully entangle his foot

in the fetters of Christ. But while he was stretched

between these things, and was weaving delay upon delay, presently,

while seeking useful counsel (for so great a matter ought not

to entrust itself to a headlong will, but such things demand much

reconsideration), the report of the blessed

man Mummolus ^e, abbot of Fleury, took possession of his ears:

for the fame of his life was carried far and wide.

[5] he enters the monastery of Fleury, where, increased in virtues, Having heard this report, he went eagerly to the holy man

and sought to hear him: and having heard him *, he disclosed

the desire with which he had long burned, and

with the humblest petition asked that he might insert him into the number

of those whom he was training in the school of Christ.

Which the blessed man hearing, after his manner, always

friendly to discipline and accustomed to the regular life, the days

of probation being passed through, and the fitting trials

being run through, he united him as a suitable member

to the body of his holy congregation. But he,

having attained the monastic fold, presently, by the working

of the power of the Holy Spirit, began to show

himself a clean animal, and fit for the heavenly flock.

There shone in him, as in a sheep *, purity of innocence;

in the command of his own members, a true

ram-like power; and in the war declared against the demons,

in a manner an inflexible bull-like authority; in purity

of mind, a dove's sweetness; in chastity of mind

and body, a pre-eminent cleanness of the turtledove.

He did not forget that in the law that animal is discerned

as clean which divides the hoof and chews the cud; and therefore

by the cleaving of the hoof he understood discretion ^f,

not only of good and evil, but also the cause of the inner

man. Further, in the chewing of the word of God

he held to assiduous meditation, according to that which

the Lord says: We ought always to pray and not

to faint: and the Psalmist: I will bless, he says, the Lord

at all times; his praise shall be always in

my mouth.

[6] and having gained an illustrious name, So many virtues therefore being gathered under one man, as it were

with spiritual wings ^g, he flourished with the grace of all

virtues. And lest so great goods should

incur any loss, he did that which is written of the

just man, that he shall meditate * on the law of the Lord

day and night. In the exercise of which he came out to such a height

that not only to those of his own province, but

even to those set far off, his teaching was a marvel.

But it pleased the Divinity to show by now evident signs

that it esteemed him greatly

on whom it had conferred such gifts. For Benedict, beloved of God

and to be celebrated * and sung throughout the whole world, the founder

of the regular life ^h, had many years before

closed the last day of this life in the province of

Benevento, and had received burial in the stronghold of Cassino.

But after much time,

according to the prophecy of that same most holy

man, the same place was taken by the Lombards, and was

reduced to a wilderness ⁱ.

[7] he is said to have translated the bones of St. Benedict into Gaul: But the Divine disposition, willing both that the relics

of the aforesaid most holy man should be venerated, as was fitting,

with congruous honor, and that the parts of Gaul should be

consoled by their coming, appeared to the already-named

kindly abbot Mummolus, commanding that

he should send the aforesaid Aigulphus as far as the mountain or stronghold

of Cassino, that he might carry off the bones

of the most pious Benedict *: which it is agreed was also done.

For God going before him, and prospering his way

wonderfully, having measured out so great

a journey, he found by an easy token what he sought:

and having found it, he carried it back with the greatest exultation to the father

who had sent him. Of which deed, if any one desires to know the account

without scruple *, he will be able to learn it from the reading of a little book

composed on this matter ^k.

This affair, although he cared for nothing of the sort, bred for the holy man

an immense reputation for holiness both with the king chosen abbot of Lérins to restore discipline. and with the men of the court.

[8] Therefore when the fame of his virtue and the fragrance

of his holiness were sprinkled everywhere, and the lamp kindled

with the fire of the Godhead ^l ought now by the divine

judgment to be set upon a candlestick: behold, monks of the monastery

of Lérins are at hand, asking that a spiritual

father be assigned them. For that same monastery

flourished * with an ancient prerogative, so

that by its teaching very many * places fit for the divine service

were founded far and wide; yet at that

time, by the devil's authorship, discord emerging,

things were tottering otherwise than they ought *.

When therefore the petition of the aforesaid monks had been brought

to the king and his nobles; and when, as

is usual, the king consulted his counselors, by whose management *

it was agreed that the commonwealth was administered,

what needed to be done in such a case; there was one voice, no

dissent: that such and so great a man ought to be set over such

a place: through whom it would be certain that both fallen things would

be raised up and neglected things reformed to their ancient state.

[9] What more? Then the blessed Aigulphus,

however striving against it and resisting, reluctant, he undertakes the burden. is brought before them,

and the care of the aforementioned monastery is laid upon him,

the king rejoicing and his court exulting,

because the Lord had shown them such a shepherd

to be set over his flock. For although his own silences

soothed the holy man more, nevertheless

he was not unmindful of the apostolic precept,

by which it is commanded that every soul be subject

to the higher powers. For he was an animal with eyes,

and circumspect on every side, and, that he might remain

unspotted *, he looked about him this way and that. And now,

putting his neck under the burden laid upon him, he goes to the brethren

he had received. And because his reputation had already thundered in their

ears *, they embrace him with the glad arms of devotion;

and he too cherished them with a reciprocal and kindly

* love.

ANNOTATA.

Mab. repræsentat*

Mab. adito*

in Ms. velut nova*

in Ms. meditabatur*

Mab. celebratus*

Mab. transveheret*

Mab. scrupulosius*

Mab. floruerit*

ibid. plura*

ibid. decebat*

ibid. auctoritate*

Ms. immutilatum*

Mab. aures allexerat*

ibid. gremiali*

CHAPTER II.

The discipline of the monastery of Lérins restored: the conspiracy of certain perverse men against the holy abbot.

[ ] He instructs the monks of Lérins excellently, Meanwhile he began to sow the seeds of the divine word

in their inward fields, whereby he might teach

them, vices being renounced, to lay hold of the summit of the virtues,

and that the keenness of the inward eyes must be cleansed; because

God, who is clean, cannot be seen save with clear gaze; that the mote

of anger and the beam of hatred must be thoroughly driven away;

that the enemy of lust must be kept off with the utmost care not only from the body,

but also from the mind;

asserting that a house accustomed to unclean defilements is not worthy

of the habitation of the Holy Spirit, nay, that he flees

from such a heart: affirming absolutely that the world, and the things that are its own,

must be shut out from the heart *: that nothing

beyond what God has commanded must be set in the seat of love, that is,

in the chief place of the heart, that is, the love

of God above all things, and of one's neighbor after God:

and that whoever beyond these things, and the things that pertain to these,

has stretched out the foot of his love, does not escape

the crime of fornication, and therefore must be struck by the sentence

of David, who says: Thou hast destroyed all them

that go a-whoring from thee.

[11] and restores discipline and the monastery. By these and such mystical antidotes, like a spiritual

physician, he strove not only to heal present

languors, but strove also to forestall future

harms. But the Lord was present to his

endeavors, without whose help they labor in vain

who build the house. Finally the Lord deigned to impart so great

a grace to his teaching

that not only did those present hear him with the greatest

eagerness, but also those who had once fallen away

from the monastery returned with the highest ardor,

and rejoiced to be united to the congregation.

One might see the monastery, like a kind of beehive,

receiving all who came, who declared * themselves either to be

or to wish to be the Lord's bees;

and also many of the laity conferring their goods, and bringing back their estates

to the holy man ^a: who, according to the Apostle,

laid out their carnal things to be reaped by him who sowed spiritual things.

[12] Arcadius and Columbus conspire against the saint, Seeing such things, the envious devil, by whose envy

death entered into the world, took it ill.

He grieved that he was expelled by those in whom he had long

rejoiced to have subject to himself: and therefore the crafty scout

turns to his accustomed arts of wickedness, to spy out

whether he might find any of his own among

the Lord's sheep, dyed * under a sheep's skin,

knowing that they imitate him who are of his

party. At length therefore he found two, whom he used as

a serpent's pipe, as in paradise, to solicit the hearts of others

and to urge them to discord.

Of these one was called Arcadius, the other Columbus,

using a name contrary to himself. For his heart

was not a stranger to the malice of gall, but, as the apostle

Peter says to Simon: It was turned into the gall of bitterness

and the bond of iniquity. Into

their hearts therefore, as into Judas', the devil put himself,

that they might betray their master, so that, he being driven away,

they might scatter the sheep, huddled together without a shepherd.

[13] And so for a long while they concealed their endeavors, secretly

attaching * to their perfidy and having drawn many to their party, they break out into discord, whomever they could.

But on a certain day, when they now relied upon * their number,

and could no longer conceal their madness, like

a flame long suppressed they suddenly burst out into the open.

For the faction of the wicked, stirred up by the two

standard-bearers, so grew strong that they scarcely refrained their hands

from the murder of their master and of the good men who

adhered to him. Those, moreover, to whom the danger was threatening,

seeing whither the desires of the wicked tended,

snatched themselves out of their hands by the help of flight,

and betook themselves into the church of St. John ^b,

commending their bodies * and their souls to the power

and mercy of the Lord.

[14] But the holy and in all things most gentle

Aigulphus, not unmindful of his patience and accustomed

meekness, which the saint stills for a time with gentle words: came to them, and with the gentlest

words strove to soften their swelling hearts. For with these

words he addressed them: O my sweetest and

exceedingly beloved sons, by what impulse do you violate the paternal

and fraternal covenant? What is that

which has made you not to know your own brothers? Or are you ignorant

that the devil, by reason of pride and discord,

was thrust down from the height of heaven *? Has it passed from your

mind that the unity of tongue was taken away * from the proud alone as the highest

vengeance; and that it was never recovered

*, save at the coming of the Holy Spirit, signifying in the appearance of fire the bond

of charity? Learn therefore to renounce

feuds, and to obey the words of the Lord,

who says: Learn of me, because I am meek

and humble of heart. But if this is done on my account,

I say to you in the words of Jonas: Take me and

cast me into the sea. For it is better for me to be separated from you

in body than, being present, to be tormented * by your

dissension. By this address he seemed indeed for a

time to have repressed the commotion and mitigated the fury,

so far that they themselves confessed their fault and offered

satisfaction, but by craft they were cloaking their fault.

For a whole year the devil lay hid in the caverns of their hearts

under such simplicity, nor was he able, though by frequent, nay continual, admonitions

of the man of God, to be driven out from the lurking-place of their mind, like

an asp with stopped ear: but he always contrived ^c

that they should bring their undertaking to the wished-for end.

[15] But when such things were flying through the mouths of many,

and were carried even to the king; Arcadius is related to have gone out from the monastery. the authors

of the conspiracy, fearing lest the king's severity should punish

them, decreed that one of them,

that is, Arcadius, should depart from the monastery, to stir up

the clergy of the city, and whomever of the laity

he could: while Columbus, remaining within the monastery,

should confirm in the perfidy they had begun those who had fallen away

from the holy man; and should associate to himself whomever he could.

But the holy man Aigulphus was always

insisting on his teaching, saying: Brethren, they are the words of the Holy

Spirit who says: The Lord maketh men of one mind

to dwell in a house. Those therefore who do not keep unanimity

have lost the habitation of the house of God,

and have yielded to the devil ^d: and therefore we ought

to be bound by the bond of charity, and not to be divided

by rendings. While he was acting and speaking thus, on a certain

day Arcadius returned, and with counterfeit humility and feigned

words, having promised amendment of the past,

begged for his former dwelling. But the man

of the Lord, foreseeing the hidden plague, with the brethren striving for it,

not only did not assent, but

even cast him out beyond the monastery ^e.

ANNOTATA.

Mab. cordis amore*

Ms. faciebant*

Mab. fuscatum*

Mab. adsciscentes*

ibid. &*

Mab. cor*

Mab. a cæli*

ibid. ablatam*

Mab. reparatum*

Mab. cruciari*

CHAPTER III.

The seditious, having drawn Mummolus over to their party, by means of soldiers received from him seize St. Aigulphus with several companions, and shut them up in prison.

[ ] [Arcadius, having drawn Mummolus over to his party, seizes the saint by his soldiers,] But he, impatient of the injury, betook himself to a certain

prince of the city of Nicerium ^a, by name

Mummolus, and persuaded him to go to the monastery,

as though he would find much money there.

When he had cast into his breast the torch of cupidity, well known to himself,

he seized upon the journey without delay, and came to the monastery

and to the holy man. And because he was often accustomed

to confer ^b with the same Mummolus about the welfare of the soul,

he received him without any fear,

and had him attended with a magnificent banquet. But already

he had learned of the contrivances of the plot through bishop

Audoënus ^c. While Mummolus therefore was dining,

and the rest * of the conspirators, suddenly Arcadius,

after the likeness of Judas, stood by, surrounded by a malignant

crowd, and laid hold of his master, and commanded him to be bound and beaten

with cudgels ^d. Which also was done.

[17] Meanwhile the man of all patience, remembering

the passion of God and of our Lord, and the monks familiar with him: bore such things with an even

mind, saying ^e that the Lord Jesus Christ

had endured greater * things, not for himself, but for us,

and therefore with all confidence he sang, saying:

What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that he hath rendered

to me? I will take the chalice of salvation, and the name

of the Lord I will call upon. Torn therefore and bound

and held up to mockery, he was set forth before the faces of his

persecutors, until night should be drawn over the light:

which, when in its own time it had begun to cover

the earth, the ministers of Satan, having led out from the cloisters ^f

of the monastery those whom they knew to have adhered more familiarly to the holy

man, bring them to the father, as though

they were to be heard together, but in very truth that they might suffer

together. For the Divinity did not will that the shepherd

should suffer alone, but that he should have the flock as sharer.

But the holy men, strengthened as they were by the power of the Holy Spirit ^g,

as though at that very moment about to offer their throats to the swords,

were bidding one another a last farewell: and rushing

into mutual kisses, they commended themselves

to the Lord, saying to him with the greatest confidence:

For thy sake, O Lord, we are put to death all the day long,

we are counted as sheep for the slaughter: cast us not off therefore

unto the end. And again they said: Thou hast laid

us in the dark, like the dead of the world.

With these and like words they consoled both the darkness of the night

and their own hardships.

[18] But amid these things they armed one another also with mutual

exhortations, he is invited to flee by one of the guards; they refuse: lest any of the weak should fail in such straits,

since the truthful Apostle says: The sufferings

of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory

to come, that shall be revealed in us. Truly, as

the nature of the human body is, a slumber heavier than usual through sadness

seizes them all alike, both the bound

and the guards. But one of the guards, touched with pity,

went up under the roof of the prison, stripped the top,

and invited the saints to take flight.

But St. Aigulphus gave thanks to his devotion,

yet by no means acquiesced in his exhortation, saying:

Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die,

we die unto the Lord: whether therefore we live, or whether we die,

we are the Lord's: and because at the same time * we have given

our hands to his disposing, we shall by no means strive

against his mind: for we are his work; and

he is our potter; it is not therefore lawful for an earthen vessel to complain

against its fashioner, and therefore let the will of the Lord

be done.

[19] These things being thus said, the divine praise claimed

for itself the remainder of the night; they are tempted with feigned blandishments by Arcadius, after whose departure ^h and the coming

of the light, Arcadius, that bringer of calamity,

imitating the practice of the devil and of all perfidious men,

though he himself (as has been narrated above) had been the head

of the whole crime *, came, wishing in a manner with sweetened words

to soothe the grief of the saints *.

But one of them, Trucharius ⁱ by name,

moved with just grief, cast in his face what his mind dictated or his grief

urged; saying, what

was true, and lamenting, that he was truly

a son of the devil by imitation, who, while he drives every man to destruction,

seeks besides to appear a counselor:

and moreover a brother of Judas, the betrayer of the Lord, who after his

likeness, in place of a feigned kiss, bore words

sweetened indeed with the honey of blandishments, but stuffed with poisoned

juices. But a shameless face joined to cruelty

feels not the admonitions of rebuke,

and moreover the admonitions * further the sentence already begun.

For that same wretched Arcadius, that he might seem to make it credible

that he had not done ^k what he had done, at the third

hour offered the saints food and drink: and, as though sharing their grief,

invited them to refresh themselves.

[20] [for whom nevertheless they pray before taking food: Mummolus despoils the monastery.] The saints, however, though outwardly they were distressed,

did not therefore forget their purpose and their regular custom,

and answered that they could not destroy

the regular institutes, which at that season command fasts to be extended

to the ninth hour: and so, the viands being removed,

after the accustomed manner the solemn fasts were prolonged even to the

customary hour. But when the time of breaking

their abstinence was now at hand, they poured out prayers unanimously

for that very Arcadius, and so

took the food offered by him. But Mummolus,

who, wishing to be thought offended at such things,

had withdrawn from the monastery, returned on the third day, and

with the greatest menacing * began to seek out the moneys

of individuals. But when the monks answered

that it had never been permitted to those set under the hand of the holy man

to have anything of their own, not even in will *:

but that all things were before * all; he,

seeing that he had fallen from his hope, turned himself elsewhere.

For because he did not find private goods, he rushed upon the common ones;

and whatever of the monastery's property there was, and cupidity urged him

to carry off, he left absolutely nothing.

ANNOTATA.

Mab. adds sceleris*

Mab. amariora*

Mab. semel*

Ms. discriminis*

Ms. Sociorum*

Mab. importune*

Mab. intentione*

Mab. voluntatem*

Mab. communia*

CHAPTER IV.

The saints are carried off to the island of Capraia, and, being first afflicted with many torments, are slain.

[ ] The saints are put on shipboard, Now when he had withdrawn, the blessed Aigulphus with

the rest were kept under guard at the pleasure of Arcadius and Columbus,

and for ten days were worn out in body

in the prison-house, but they consoled themselves

with the exhortations of the Lord, who says: Fear not,

little flock; for it hath pleased * your father

to give you the kingdom. Likewise, that through many tribulations

we must enter into the kingdom of God.

But after these things the ministers of the devil, namely Columbus

and Arcadius, removing both St. Aigulphus

and the remaining victims of the Holy Spirit, put them on shipboard,

and committed themselves to the sea. But the saints,

now knowing most certainly that the sons of night

had determined to destroy them, exhorted one another

by mutual admonition, according to the Apostle, so much the more as

they saw the day approaching, that none of them,

through love of the present life, or through terror of an uncertain

death, should yield to the enemies: because present death,

if it is deferred, is not escaped; but the death to come

is never ended, since the Lord says to the impious:

Go into everlasting fire. But also the happiness of the saints

will lack an end, the Lord likewise saying to his faithful

who persevere in fidelity to him even unto the end:

Come, ye blessed of my Father,

possess the kingdom prepared for you from

the foundation of the world.

[22] With these and like things the athletes of Christ were armed in the spiritual

wrestling-ground against the wiles of the devil, which is tossed by a long-lasting storm; and against his ministers

driven about by demoniac furies.

Truly, after the ship which bore both alike,

namely the persecutors and those suffering

persecution, had made for the deep *, contrary winds

lift themselves up, and the persecutors are carried one way

by their will, and elsewhere by the blast of the winds. And so

for forty days — which is also wondrous to tell —

they were whirled about, wandering over that whole

strait, so that neither could they themselves take the shore, nor could the waves

sink the ship: God, I believe, showing

what the impious deserved: but that the guilty should not suffer

what they deserved, the innocent were indeed the obstacles *,

so that in a manner the elements themselves, though

not with a voice, cried out by their work: It had been right that these gallows-birds

should either be dashed on the sandbanks or swallowed by Charybdis;

if there were not mingled with them those who do not deserve to undergo

such things. And indeed in the deluge it was ready at hand

that the guilty should be wrapped in the waves, who were separated

from the fellowship of the good. The Egyptians we swallowed freely,

because we saw none of the just mingled with them: Jonas

we took up for the avenging of his disobedience,

but we know our nursling to have been prepared by God,

who both was to receive him for saving in a prison-like custody,

not to pass him into his own members, as it were, by corrupting him for food;

but, as a deposit, to present him again when

he should be asked back.

[23] the tongues of the saints are cut out, who go on speaking without tongues: What the Creator wills by such things, the judgment

among us wavers in doubt. But here we call one thing to mind ^a,

namely Paul's shipwreck: who likewise,

bound by the wicked, underwent the peril of the sea with them.

But that neither he nor the rest should perish, it was

granted to his prayer. Perhaps therefore now also

to this holy man in a like danger a like gift is granted *:

and therefore, while his sentence is awaited,

they are tossed this way and that; but the way of escape

is denied them: and according to the Scripture, because

the wicked walk round about. Amid these things Columbus,

seeing the sea closed to him, and reckoning that, if they should reach

land, the innocence of the saints and his own cruelty would be

laid open, caused the tongues of the saints to be cut out.

Which being done, they sang psalms as if with tongues entire ^b:

O Lord, thou wilt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare

thy praise. But he, in no way moved by so great

a miracle, hardened in heart after the likeness of Pharaoh,

ordered them to be scraped away by the roots. One might see

an open pit, and nothing of a plectrum within,

and yet words most perfectly uttered.

[24] their eyes too are gouged out, and they are clothed in filthy garments. But when Columbus heard them speaking in an unheard-of

manner, increasing his impiety,

he commanded their eyes to be bored through: who nevertheless did not cease

from the divine praise. And although outwardly deprived

of their eyes, yet knowing that they kept safe those eyes

by which God is seen, they confidently sang psalms

before him, nay to him ^c, saying: To

thee, O Lord, we have lifted up our eyes, who

dwellest in the heavens. But the savagery of Columbus and of his

companion ^d toward the saints did not rest even thus.

For indeed they command them to be stripped of the garments with which they

were clothed, and to have filthy and most vile ones exchanged for them ^e,

the wretches not considering that of him who

is clothed with Christ, according to the Apostle who says:

Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ: and

again: Put ye on the bowels of mercy, etc.

nothing old, nothing filthy, can dishonor him.

[25] Landing on the island of Capraia, they are kindly received by the monks. When they had been tossed thus for many days,

they put in at the island which is called Capraia. Its

bosom held a very great swarm of monks

^f, to whom turning aside on the fifth day before Easter,

which is called the Lord's Supper, they were most kindly

and most humanely received; so that, so to say, thus

it befits monks to be treated by monks ^g. For, their long

tribulation being known, by which they had been most protractedly and most unhappily

harassed, the monks hastened to refresh them

by such means as they could. While they were tarrying there,

the most holy day of the solemnity of Easter came:

on which, when the office of the Mass was being celebrated,

that most unhappy and most shameful of all men,

Columbus, covered with the insignia fitted to the office of a deacon,

ministered as a deacon, conspicuous

to human eyes, but hateful to the divine.

Moreover, when it had come to that place where those about to receive

the sacraments of the Body and Blood of Christ

give kisses to one another in turn, that unhappy man did not

hesitate to offer to those whom he had so cruelly mulcted kisses

not dove-like, but altogether raven-like ^h,

or at any rate dog-like.

[26] But the blessed man Aigulphus with his companions

with the highest exultation rendered such thanks to God and there they are left by Columbus, who has set out for Ephesus:

as they could, not only for their own refreshment,

but * for the immense charity of the brethren to whom

Christ had brought them. The Paschal

solemnity being completed, Columbus made for Ephesus,

as a man of the world about to attend to secular business.

Meanwhile he left St. Aigulphus with the other saints

in the same monastery, commanding

that they should await his return. So great a grace therefore in speaking

did the Lord bestow on his saint Aigulphus, until that wicked man

should return,

that the eagerness of his hearers always accompanied their satiety.

For he who had given the grace

that a tongueless man should speak, he added the grace also that

he should be heard the more gratefully.

[27] But Columbus, having returned from Ephesus,

drags the saints from the monastery, but he on his return orders them to be carried to another island and slain. and again puts them

on shipboard: and when they had weighed from the harbor, and had gone forward

some space, there met them a certain ship

coming from Africa, on which they placed the holy martyrs,

commanding their henchmen that, on coming

to the island called Amatuna ⁱ, situated between Corsica

and Sardinia, they should there slay the saints

with the sword *. Which also was done. For the butchers

of the sacred victims, coming to the place appointed for them,

prepare to expend the workshop of their wickedness

upon those most wicked commands *. But when the saints asked

a respite for prayer, they granted it. And the saints, more earnestly

and at greater length commending their souls to the Lord,

at length rise up from prayer, and with

all confidence and alacrity, amid words of prayer

and of the Lord's praise, sent forth their spirit from the little vessel

of the flesh on the III Nones of September ^k.

ANNOTATA.

Ms. placuit*

Ms. petit*

Mab. esse*

Ms. distribuitur*

Mab. quantum*

Mab. conficerent*

Mab. impissimis*

CHAPTER V.

The martyrdom of the saints made known at Lérins, and their bodies translated thither.

[ ] Britonius, escaping from the slaughter of the saints, And indeed, so far as it may be conjectured, the devil,

the perpetual rival of human salvation, was acting (as it

seemed to him) all too craftily, namely that

he might so destroy the saints that their passion

should lie hidden from mortals, and the living should not have close at hand

an example by which they might be strengthened to lay hold of

the prize of patience. For it is the greatest

incitement to virtue to behold the unexhausted vigor of a companion and neighbor,

and it is a shame to appear

degenerate, when men see an equal escape through the contest of labors

to glorious rewards.

The most wicked one also envied mortals the benefits that were to profit them,

which he anxiously foresaw were to be conferred on them

divinely through the relics of the saints. But how

most truly it is sung of him: This dragon, whom thou hast formed

to mock him, may be conjectured from this. For indeed,

while the fierce torturers * were busied

about the butchery of the saints, one of them, Britonius ^a

by name, driven by the divine Spirit, having got a skiff,

went aboard, and withdrew himself from the slaughter of his brethren.

[29] announces their martyrdom to the monks of Lérins: Whom we believe to have been reserved by God for this,

that the passion of the saints should not be hidden. For by his

report both the manner of the saints' passion was brought to the knowledge

of the faithful, and their bodies were, for our consolation,

made manifest by the grace of God,

and brought back to our ^b borders. But it is right

to believe that he is not without a share in his brethren's glory,

whom terror did not hold back from martyrdom, but

whom God appointed to so great a service. When

Britonius * returned to the monastery after the slaying of the holy man

Aigulphus, there had already been substituted in his place a man

of venerable life, Rigomirus ^c. At the news of this thing

a great grief was brought both upon him and upon the brethren.

But while they suffered with the flesh, they rejoiced together

with the spirit, knowing that after the muddy dwelling there had succeeded

for them the inner chamber of the eternal city,

whose king and founder is God.

a sharer of this news, those sent to seek the bodies bring back what they found to Levinum,

who presided over holy nuns in a neighboring monastery,

having been instructed by the holy man from her earliest years

both in the holy Scriptures and in monastic

teachings. Therefore by common counsel and resources

they make ready ships, appoint companions, and add those ^e

who knew the place. Who, with God prospering them,

enjoying favorable breezes and the gentle

temperature of the airs, were carried down to the place in which

the glorious remains of the martyrs lay, destitute indeed

of the guardianship of men, but defended by the hand of the divine protection

^f. Which, when they had found them as they desired,

with the greatest alacrity and the highest reverence,

such as was worthy of martyrs, they put on shipboard,

and return with a swift voyage, and when, with God as guide

and as bringer-home, they were gaining favorable results, and were preparing

to bring the bodies of the saints into the monastery of Lérins,

the already-named abbess Angarisma came to meet them,

beseeching with much entreaty that the opportunity be granted her

of burying the master's body

in her own monastery, whose name is Oratorium ^g.

[31] Whose devoted petition, and the incomparable affection

of the sons toward their father, where they are honorably buried. was the sole

(so to speak) friendly seed-plot of contention.

For the venerable woman, burning with desire, sought the body:

but the disciples were unwilling to be separated from his body

even in the smallest part *. But amid these things charity

set itself in the middle as a barrier, which is wont to settle such things.

For it both repressed the woman's too eager

will, and enlarged the more devoted tenacity of the others, so far

that the head of the holy body, together with the right arm ^h, assigned to her,

should suffice her;

but the remainder of the body, with the relics

of the other saints, should be translated by the blessed Rigomirus

and the brethren to the monastery of Lérins for burial.

ANNOTATA.

* i.e. the executioners

Mab. eo*

Mab. ab illius præsentia*

CHAPTER VI.

Some miracles, and the punishment of the sacrilegious Columbus.

[ ] A nun blind with glaucoma recovers her sight: Further, the holy abbess's devotion was by no means

left unrewarded. Now there was in her monastery

a certain one of the sisters, whose sight glaucoma

for the coverings of the eyelids were laying bare

the balls of the eyes. Full of faith therefore, with

the rest, who were keeping the solemn watches over the sacred

funeral rites, she honored * the whole night with prayers and divine

praises. But when morning came,

the long-banished light returned, and, though late, being endowed with divine light,

she joyfully beheld the world lit by the sun.

By which miracle the hearts of all beholders

were so drawn that it no longer grieved them to have lost

their father in body, whom they rejoiced * to dwell with them

by so effectual a display of miracles.

[33] But the same blessed father was present not only to the devout

and to those who through him asked benefits of God, [St. Aigulphus, appearing to Columbus, foretells his punishment: by which he was carried off:] but bestowed the gift of his help even on his persecutor.

For when Columbus, the contriver of his death,

on the night that followed the day of his martyrdom,

had committed himself to his bed, as one about to relax

his limbs in rest, suddenly the man of the Lord

stood by him, rebuked him for having condemned him, undeserving, to such great evils,

and vehemently inveighed against him, asking why the savagery of his cruelty had blazed

even to the murder of innocents. Which said, he took on his finger

a drop of the shed blood, and impressed on his breast and back

a sign in the manner of a circle. Seeing which,

the wretch fell trembling at his feet, and

began to entreat his accustomed and unconquered piety,

that he would not reserve him, liable to so great a judgment, for the divine

examination. Then the saint, moved by his prayers,

wiped away one mark: but he indicated that the other could

not be abolished until a remedy should be shown him before Clovis ^b

the king and Ebroin the mayor of the palace,

and the public judgment of the Franks.

Which it is agreed was also done. For, sought out by the king's

command, he was found, and cast into chains,

and by the judgment of the Franks was tormented with a ferocity of punishments

even unto death.

[34] But in these things one may not merely conjecture something,

but plainly understand on occasion of which the author, by reasoning, what they portended. For that

shed blood of the martyr is understood as innocence

that has suffered violence, demanding a just vengeance.

Whence God said of the first of such, that is, of

Abel, to the first persecutor, that is, Cain:

The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me from the earth.

Further, the impression of the blood on the back or on the body

of the persecutor is the infliction of the vengeance which

was due to him for the committing of his crime. Whence also

the Lord says to Ezechiel that he will require the blood

of the sinner at the hand of the shepherd who does not announce it.

And the Lord to the Jews: That upon you may come

all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth,

that is, the vengeance for all just blood shed

in innocence. Further, the figure of the circle was foreboding *

an unavoidable vengeance of the sentence. For a circle

runs back into itself, having no angle of exit *.

Of this circle the Lord says against Syria, under the type

of the devil: I will put, he says, a circle in thy nostrils,

and a bit in thy jaws. But that the same circle

is twofold portended that a double vengeance was to be made

upon him *, as it is written:

Destroy them with a double destruction.

[35] The figure of the circle set both before and behind signified

that the malignant man was to be smitten tries to prove that he was punished in this life, both by a present

and by a future divine sentence. But the one circle

wiped away hinted that the same holy man

had obtained by his prayers that his persecutor should not be reserved

for eternal torments, according to the precept

and example of the Savior, by which we are commanded

to pray for our persecutors. But the other *,

remaining and to be blotted out * by the judgment of men,

indicates that, although the saints obtain from God that the future

vengeance, both their own and their enemies', be relaxed, namely that men

should not be fed upon * by eternal fires,

yet they do not wish those crimes to go unpunished

which men have committed either against God or against their neighbors,

but it behooves that in them be fulfilled what the Apostle

says: If we judged ourselves, we should not

be judged; but while we are judged by the Lord,

we are chastised, that we be not condemned with this

world.

[36] Hence it is that David, sinning, and confessing before

the prophet who accused him, and preserved from eternal punishment. says: I have sinned

against the Lord; and he deserved to hear: The Lord hath taken away

thy sin; thou shalt not die. And yet with how many

afflictions he was visited on account of a sin forgiven,

the reader of his history will be able to recognize.

Paul, the vessel of election, labored more than all,

and because he was a blasphemer, as he himself confesses, and a persecutor,

he says ^c that he carries about the stigmata of Christ in his

body, marking, namely, things inflicted for satisfaction

for his past life. Of these things therefore let us too

be mindful; and if to us, as we know, the sins of our deeds

are forgiven through the judgment of the priests,

let us nevertheless by no means think ourselves spared,

until we make satisfaction to God, as is fitting, and to the men

whom we have injured, knowing

how highly God esteems his servants, of whom he says:

He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of my eye.

Nay rather, exhorting those in whom we know God to dwell

by faith, and by the other exercises of good works,

let us hear from him: Come, ye blessed

of my Father; that with him, and with his Father, and

the Holy Spirit, we may deserve to reign; whose kingdom

and empire remains without end unto ages of ages.

Amen.

ANNOTATA.

Mab. oneravit*

Ms. gaudent*

præsagiebat*

Mab. angularem exitum*

Mab. impio*

Mab. alter*

ibid. delendus*

ibid. deposcantur*

THE FINDING OF THE RELICS OF ST. AIGULPHUS

by an anonymous author,

From the ancient parchments of Herouval, collated with Mabillon's edition.

Aigulphus, abbot and martyr, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Trucharius, martyr, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Frongentius, martyr, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Other companions, martyrs, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (SS.)

BHL Number: 0195

By an anonymous author.

The author complains that the translation of St. Aigulphus was not written down. That many deeds of illustrious men have been passed over

through the negligence and sloth of writers

is plainly agreed to be clear and manifest, since studious

readers of the divine writings can in no way

find those things which with fervent zeal they desire with eager mind

to learn. Which it is evident has happened

concerning the removal of the body of the blessed Aigulphus,

that eminent abbot: since by the zeal and work of no scholar

is it found written down from that time how

or in what manner it was carried to the stronghold of Provins ^a;

even to this day it is covered with silence,

because concerning the coming of so worthy a father to us there is silence.

Of whose most worthy and upright works, because

they are very many, which also can most worthily be told,

studying brevity, we rather touch them in passing

than narrate them fully to be inserted in this very small

little work.

[2] He relates that it was carried to Fleury, and afterward to Provins. For he, when he was passing his life in honorable

ways, carried the body of Benedict, our common father,

from the place of Monte Cassino with much labor

into the parts of France, to the monastery ^b set

upon the river Loire. Afterward, being made father of the monastery

of Lérins, as his Passion ^c fully

sets forth, by two most wicked men, monks in name

only, Arcadius and Columbus,

who were more savage in crime than others, he earned, along with several other

brethren, the crown of martyrdom by the cutting off of his head.

And he obtained for himself a worthy burial

there from a certain venerable abbess ^d,

and long afterward his body was carried to the monastery

of St. Benedict ^e, and, honorably entombed, it slept

in the quiet of peace. But when Hasting ^f the Norman, having gone out

from his own borders, was harrying France with frequent

devastation, four monks of St. Benedict

carried off the body of St. Aigulphus, abbot and martyr, in their flight as far as the stronghold of Provins,

the monastery of St. Benedict having already been burnt with fire ^g

by that same Hasting. And they laid the body

in a little wooden church, dedicated in honor of St. Medard

^h, set in the suburb of the same stronghold.

[3] At length Rudolph, king of the Franks, a man warlike

in arms, where three monks secretly deposit it under the earth, attacking that same most wicked Hasting

in war, with the blessed Benedict bringing him aid,

as is also read in the miracles, slew him

with the sword ⁱ, and snatched the borders of the Franks from his plundering.

Since therefore the dread madness of the Norman persecution

did not cease before the death of Hasting,

the four aforenamed monks, while they were guarding and watching over

the body of the blessed man there, one of them,

touched with infirmity of body, forsook this present

life, struck down by pale death, which with an even

foot strikes the towers of kings and the cottages of the poor.

Then indeed the three remaining brothers who survived,

understanding that they would undergo a like chance of death,

take counsel in silence, saying to one another: We

are few, and daily we are diminished in number;

and it is greatly to be feared by us lest the clay of this holy

body be carried off either by stealth or by violence.

Let us therefore take secretly, at the hour of the dead of night,

a stone sarcophagus, and lay it hidden deep in the earth,

and there let us place the holy relics

with the coffer in a secret place of the earth:

which said, was done with the greatest speed.

The earth being dug up again in the darkness of the stealthy

night, the tomb being laid in the depth of the ground, there

they secretly lay away the bones of the precious martyr: placing

at his head the little book of his Passion.

[4] But it happened not long afterward,

by the inevitable chance of death, [and they die, the matter being disclosed to no one. The saint, unknown, bestows benefits:] that one after another they made an end

of life, intimating to none of the survivors concerning

the concealment of the sacred treasure. But the Truth, always

pronouncing true things, says: There is nothing covered

that shall not be revealed, nor hid that shall not

be known. Although the bones of the most sacred body of the blessed Aigulphus

the martyr lay hidden in a place secret and unknown to mortals,

yet the lamp which was under the bushel began

to shine as though set upon a candlestick, and to grow bright

with frequent signs of miracles. For those suffering fever

and laboring under the quartan type, and the ague-stricken ^k,

and those worn down by the labors of various pains, while they wore away the threshold

of the church of the blessed Medard, confessor of Christ,

in which the limbs of that most pious man rested; while

those who had come burdened with infirmities passed the night

with assiduity of vigils, they returned home whole

and joyful. For although the name of the martyr was suppressed,

of whom they were wholly ignorant, yet he,

the kindly hearer and most pious restorer

of healths, among the other names of the saints,

whose merits the sick implored to be present to them,

felt himself, by the assiduity of their prayers, not to be

a stranger, but rather bore help to the wretched and to those in tribulation,

and granted relief of their labor.

[5] Now it came to pass on a certain day, while the people were running together

devoutly ^l to hear the solemnities of the Masses, a possessed man names him, and points out the place where the body was laid: that a certain man, who was accustomed to be tormented at the instigation

of a demon, thunders out horrible cries,

and, resounding dreadfully, calls out with grim voice:

Aigulphus, martyr and abbot *, I am set on fire by thy prayers,

and I am burnt divinely with a celestial fire, thy

wondrous power doing this. Then the people, made stupefied

and disordered at the shouts of the man crying out, ask

the man suffering the frenzy what it is, why he thundered

so greatly in repeating his cry. But he:

You foolish people, in your ignorance, think vain

what I utter unwillingly: but lest you think me altogether

to be babbling, I will most certainly mark out for you fools

the place where you will find that which

miserably torments me, a most holy body. Which said, he went

on ahead, and with his finger marks out the place, saying:

Here, here, dig the ground, and there will appear to your malignant

eyes a stone coffin, where beneath lies laid

the body of Aigulphus, abbot and martyr.

[6] which is found in the appointed place, with the History of his martyrdom: At these words of the demon the people became at once believing, and, rakes being seized, the ground being dug up as quickly as possible,

they found a sarcophagus, very well covered

with a lid on top: which being removed by the hands of the priests,

they see set within a wooden coffer,

and the little book of the martyr's Passion. But the man possessed

is straightway freed from the demon by the power of the blessed martyr.

The tomb therefore being uncovered,

they send with the greatest haste to the lord

archbishop Sewinus ^m legates, who

relate to him all these things in full, as they had been done.

Hearing which, he, being a man adorned with honorable

manners, and fully instructed in ecclesiastical

teachings, made glad with unspeakable joys,

rendered manifold thanks to God,

who in the days of his priesthood granted so bright

and shining a star of a martyr, long hidden

in the secret places of the earth, to manifest itself by revelation

for the obtaining of wholesome help for mortals.

[7] the archbishop visits the bones, Having therefore called together the abbots, that is, Rainardus

ⁿ, abbot, his own nephew, a man adorned

with upright manners, whose name is sweetly fragrant, like

the odor of balsam; and the abbot of St. Remigius, the lord

Winemannus [o], a religious man, and among the rest

of the archdeacons the most noble; the lord Leothericus

[p], who proved his most worthy successor in the governance

of the bishopric: who was a man humble and most gentle

of mind, and sweet in speaking: with very many

of the clergy also, and with a multitude of the common

people. With all these, therefore, the distinguished holy leader

went on his way most swiftly, that what persuasive report

had instilled into his ear he might behold with eyes

made clear by the love of faith: and that he might pour out words

to a people ignorant of so great a matter. At length therefore

he reaches the church in which the worthy heap

of holy bones had been laid away. When he rolls back the lid

with diligence, he beholds a wooden coffer

crammed with holy bones, and Indian incense

fragrant and breathing of the finest myrrh.

[8] and afterward lays them in a stone crypt. Presently therefore he orders a little stone crypt to be built,

which the skillful hand of the masons, building it with the greatest

speed, made a worthy dwelling of repose for the holy

martyr restored. At length, with great chanting

of psalms and lofty modulation of antiphons,

and with very many lights of tapers and the sweetness of the fragrant

odor of incense, it was laid, together with the sarcophagus itself,

within the compass of the little crypt with the greatest

honor by the hands of the aforementioned archbishop, and by a concourse

of abbots and archdeacons and clerics

who had come together, with crowds of both

sexes exulting, and rendering praises on high to God for the gladness

of their heart. Then the archbishop,

memorable and in his own times very

acceptable, began thus to make a discourse to the people

in a few well-flavored words.

ANNOTATA.

of St. Romanus the abbot, at the year 545, in the first Benedictine century, we have seen. But in the very place which he assigns, concerning the time of Winemannus it stands thus: Winemannus presided over the monastery of St. Remigius of Sens in the time of archbishop Mainardus, about the year 1055. Since these things do not cohere, I shall presently prove that Winemannus must be left with Sewinus.

Of Winemannus these things are read in Mabillon, first Benedictine century, page 97:

Winemannus was abbot

Of that same monastery,

A father, a venerable man,

Who built very many

Workshops, excellent enough,

For monks to dwell in,

Who serve Remigius,

That most eminent bishop.

These things are said on occasion of a miracle at which was present Rainardus … count of the city of Sens, as is presently subjoined. The death of this count Rainardus is bound by Clarius to the year 999. And so there is no doubt that Winemannus was abbot before the year 999, while Sewinus was archbishop; and not about the year 1055. But occasion of erring was given Mabillon by the other Rainardus, count of Sens, whose death is mentioned by the praised Clarius at the year 1055. Mabillon's erring epoch was followed by our Henschen in tom. 4 of May, in St. Romanus, page 153 num. 3, which I wish here corrected. Nevertheless from what Mabillon delivers in tom. 4 of the Annals, page 552, it can be proved that Winemannus was still living under count Frotmund, midway between the two Rainardi, whose death Clarius mentions at the year 1015. But what he there says, that a certain instrument was subscribed by count Frotmund and by Mainardus, archbishop of Sens, cannot be true, unless Mainardus subscribed afterward for confirmation, or subscribed long before his episcopate, since Frotmund died more than thirty years before the episcopate of Mainardus. Perhaps the said instrument was subscribed by the viscount Mainardus, father of the bishop Mainardus.

p. Of the beginning of the episcopate of Leothericus, Clarius at the year 1000 has it thus: In the thousandth year, with clergy and people acclaiming, there was elected to the bishopric the lord Leothericus, archdeacon of that same church. So accurate a notice of persons confirms what the author mentions about the finding and the deposition of the body.

Mab. abba*

MIRACLES

by an anonymous author,

From the manuscript codex of M. de Herouval, collated with Mabillon's edition.

Aigulphus, abbot and martyr, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Trucharius, martyr, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Frongentius, martyr, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (St.)

Other companions, martyrs, on the island of Capraia between Corsica and Etruria (SS.)

BHL Number: 0196 ^a

By an anonymous author.

CHAPTER I.

The body translated into a silver shrine: a cripple healed, and a blind man; the danger of hail and of fire removed, the saint being invoked.

[ ] The body found: afterward translated into a silver shrine: We have learned that it has often happened in times past,

and we have likewise proved that it frequently occurs in our own,

that many things which were worthy

of memory and of relation have been reduced to nothing through the carelessness or

the sloth of certain men. But

whatever is wont to happen concerning certain other matters, yet the notable

life of the saints and their glorious miracles ought by no means

to be covered with the silence of oblivion:

but, consigned to letters * for the knowledge and strengthening of the faithful,

we judge that they should be brought forth in public.

Wherefore I, though the lowest of all in the knowledge and practice

of letters, and not lofty in talent, presume to make known

to your ears a certain notable miracle of the most blessed

Aigulphus the martyr, to the praise of God and the increase

of the Catholic faith ^b. For after the most holy body

of Aigulphus the martyr had been divinely revealed and found,

it was, by the hands of the archbishop of Sens, Seubinus

composed of cement and stones, until

a silver vessel should be prepared in which the body of the blessed

man, being translated, might rest. And when

that silver vessel was prepared, a day was announced and appointed

on which the translation of so great a man should take place,

to which the people of the whole region should come together.

And when that day came, and the people

of this region were gathered, together with count Stephen ^d

and the countess Ala his wife, with a great

multitude of nobles, the monks of this church

carried the glorious body of the martyr

into a certain meadow.

[2] a cripple is healed, Now the sermon to the people being finished, the religious men had

prepared themselves to lay the most holy body

in the silver vessel. But while

the limbs of so great a martyr are being laid with worthy veneration

in the prepared coffer, with hymns and praises:

behold, there was brought in a certain man, at present feeble

and from his birth contracted, deprived of the whole framework

of his limbs, a native-born inhabitant of this town,

Stephen by surname Roundellus *. For this cripple could not

lift his eyes to heaven, going along, as he could, only

on hands and knees, his ankles * fixed against his buttocks; nor could he

move himself except by someone's help. This feeble man

with mighty cries began to call for the martyr's aid, saying:

O St. Aigulphus, glorious martyr of Christ, be present

to my prayers, kind and favorable, and give me

health in my body. Almighty God heard

his voice, willing to declare the merits of his martyr.

The limbs of the sick man began to crack and

to give out a great sound: and without delay, with the grace of God going before

and the merits of the martyr following after,

the whole framework of his limbs, which before had been

dissolved, in the sight of all received

health: and as though he had before felt no feebleness

of body, he rose up whole and sound. And he,

being made whole, with joined hands is made a servant of St. Aigulphus.

[3] [and on that occasion the right of the fair is in part given to the church of St. Aigulphus:] Full health therefore being restored to him, the people of the faithful,

who had come to that festal day of his translation, greatly rejoices:

and with lofty voices praises the mighty works

of almighty God. But count

Stephen, having taken counsel with the countess

and with certain men of good repute, who were both

his familiars and his counselors, knowing that the lord Eugenulphus

had on the day before * given half of the fair ^e

to the church, himself granted and confirmed the half of his own half,

which he held, with the countess approving,

to be possessed by perpetual right by the church

of B. Aigulphus and its servants. Thus indeed * the church has three

parts of the fair, and the count retained for himself the fourth

part, and the safe-conduct ^f, so that by

this the church's portions might be the stronger. The relics of the glorious martyr

being arranged and honorably placed,

the monks return, praising and glorifying

God, who is wonderful in his saints and glorious

through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

[4] a blind man recovers his sight: Now there was a certain servant in the infirmary

who had been appointed to wait upon the feeble and the sick:

to whom, when the sacristan of the church had commanded

that he should bring water for washing the hands

of the priests, he immediately brought water from the well;

and set it in the place where it was wont to be put: and when he wished

to return to the house, an immense stupor surrounded

him: and, as though he were pricked with goads in

his eyes, he straightway lost the light of his eyes.

Seeing nothing at all, he could move himself neither forward

nor backward. And so he, his sight being so suddenly lost,

began through grief to wring his hands and to cry out:

O St. Aigulphus, sweetness of the poor, thou kind consoler

of the wretched, pray for me, a most wretched sinner,

to the Lord. At whose cries there ran together

the monks of the church, and other men and women,

desiring to behold what had befallen him: who all

raise up their cries to the stars with lofty voices. At length

they exhort him to prostrate himself beneath the body of the blessed martyr,

and, invoking the mercy

of God and the clemency of the martyr, to wait until

God should look upon him. All day long he lay there, seeing nothing,

until, the day now declining to its setting,

he fell asleep a little while. And when evening

came, he rose as if waking from a heavy sleep:

and his sight being restored to him by the grace of God and of his most blessed

martyr, with opened eyes he saw more clearly

than he had seen before, and better: and all who

were present began to praise and glorify God and the holy martyr

as much as they could. Then

he who had been healed offered himself, that thenceforth

he might serve the church and the monks, to whom he gave himself,

the more diligently. Which the countess ^g and the lord

Henry her son, whose man ^h that fellow was,

granted and approved, to the praise of God, to whom

be honor for ages of ages. Amen.

[5] At another time also, at the beginning of September,

within Provins there fell no small and unaccustomed hail,

the danger from an unwonted hail ceases, the saint being invoked; for * no one had seen or heard

that so fearful a storm had fallen upon the earth.

The size of this hail was greater than

that of pomegranates, and its hardness was as of stone. This hail

was splitting the tiles and the houses of St. Aigulphus.

Wherefore the monks, greatly terrified, and the people

of the whole town run together to the church: they set

the body of the blessed martyr on the ground, all crying out

with voices and with tears: O St. Aigulphus, why

dost thou sleep? why dost thou suffer us to perish? If thou art truly

a martyr of God, succor us in the crisis of so great a necessity.

Behold, straightway the divine mercy came,

and the help of the glorious martyr appeared: for

that storm, which had been violent, quickly ceased

without hurt of the monks or of the whole people,

with the merits and prayers of B. Aigulphus intervening,

the will and mercy of our Redeemer effecting it,

who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives

and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.

[6] But in the time of winter and at the beginning of the night,

when a heavy sleep had at some point fallen upon men, as also a conflagration, his body being brought.

a most violent fire was kindled in the town

of St. Aigulphus, in that quarter in which the richer

and better houses seemed to be: and that fire began

to grow wondrously, so as to consume everything,

because there was then no small drought, and the frost

had bound all things fast: the wind too, growing strong,

as though stirred by fury, fanned it exceedingly.

Then the townsmen and the monks, awakened by the unwonted

clamor, being roused, unanimously made an onset

against the fire, desiring to extinguish it. But

it was in vain, because they could not endure the heat of so great

a conflagration even from afar. But seeing

the flames stretching toward the church of St. Aigulphus, with

grief and groaning they cried out: O St. Aigulphus, precious

martyr, favor our voices, free thy house

from these fires, and rescue us from the perils.

Then with lengthened strides they run to the church:

and taking away thence the body, they carry it before so great

a fire, that it might either extinguish that fire or

his body should remain there to be burnt up ⁱ. These things

being thus set forth, and the people crying out, straightway

the mercy of God was present, and of the glorious martyr

his clemency: for that dreadful fire was immediately

quieted, and, the forces of its heat being consumed,

it wholly abated, and the savagery of the wind altogether

fell silent. Freed therefore from the plague of so great

a persecution, they were filled with great joy, and

carrying back the glorious body of St. Aigulphus with hymns and canticles

to his church, with great veneration

they restore it in its own seat.

ANNOTATA.

Mab. assignata*

Mab. Roudellus*

i.e. talis*

Mab. pridem*

Mab. siquidem*

Mab. quam*

CHAPTER II.

A theft committed in the church of St. Aigulphus, by which the reputation of the monks was endangered, wondrously detected: benefits conferred on two women.

[ ] [When a certain man had stolen three chalices and patens in the church of St. Aigulphus,] At a certain time about the end of August, a certain clerk ^a,

coming to Provins, and saying

that he was a canon of the church of Lyons, and that he came from

the schools *, had sent, as he said, into his own country

for money: and therefore he was awaiting his messenger

at Provins: and since he frequented the church

and had familiarity with the monks,

he says on a certain day that he wished to dine with them, because

he could not find fish to eat:

and they, esteeming him from his outward appearance

honorable and upright, gladly received him to dinner,

and charitably refreshed him from their goods.

But after the meal, observing in him according to his face

nothing of evil suspicion,

going to rest in the dormitory, they left

him in the church, believing that on account of the heat of the day

he wished to rest or to pray there. But

when that worthless fellow perceived that nothing hindered him, he took the key

where he had often seen it laid: he unlocked the cupboard ^b,

and snatching thence three chalices with their patens,

having locked the cupboard again, and put the key back in its

place, he hid those chalices with the patens (which is horrible

to say) in his breeches ^c.

O how great is the patience of God! Those chalices, in which

daily the true Body and the true Blood of Jesus Christ

are offered in sacrifice *, by which is signified the sepulcher

of the Lord, in which after his passion

his most sacred body was buried; the patens,

by which is signified the stone laid at the door

of the tomb; and the corporals, by which is signified

the Savior's shroud — it is to be wondered at that God permitted *

them to be so dishonorably handled.

[8] Afterward the bell for the collation is rung: after None ^d,

that same thief drank with the monks, [and the monks themselves were held suspect of the theft, St. Aigulphus being invoked,] having the chalices in his breeches,

and after this, leave being taken,

glad and brisk, like one about whom there was no doubt,

he went out of doors. But when morning came,

they saw the corporals scattered: but for the Masses

to be celebrated they by no means found the chalices. What

the monks could do thereupon they do not know: rumor

swifter than the breeze went out among the people: the monks are said

to have done this crime. All said as with one

voice: Now it will be shown what the life

of the monks is: let us send word to the count, that these worthless

and luxurious men be cast out of doors: and other religious be brought in

in their place. That very thief also cried out with

the others, reviling their life: for

when they saw any of the monks outside, one pointed him out to another

with a finger as though he were a thief. Whence

the monks, greatly terrified by these things and ashamed, feared

to go out of the church. Counsel therefore being taken

upon this, it pleased all that the body of B.

Aigulphus with its little coffer should be set upon the ground, and

should lie there so long until the Lord should reveal

the sacrilegious man. They decreed also that after the Lord's

Prayer in the Mass three psalms with three

collects should be sung, that the Lord would deign to hear

their petition through the merits of the holy martyr.

This was done for eight days, until

their petition was heard.

[9] the author of the theft is wondrously discovered. For a certain widow, who was gathering the ears

in the fields after the reapers, saw the aforesaid

clerk in the fields breaking up the chalices upon a heap

of stones: and when she came to him, asking

what he was doing, he answered that he was

sick. She passed him by, and when he had withdrawn,

quickly returned, and found the traces where he had broken the chalices;

and she pointed out to the monks of St. Aigulphus what she had

seen. The keeper of the vineyards also, up in a certain

tree, from which he was overlooking the vineyards, seeing

the aforesaid clerk upon the said heap of stones,

came straightway to the place: and finding there two stones

with which he had broken the chalices, and on them traces of gold and silver,

carried all of it, with a little fragment of silver,

to the church of St. Aigulphus, and delivered it to the prior.

Which being learned, the clerk is sought and

found: and he is asked whether these things were so.

He acknowledged that all was so, and gave back the silver,

and told everything as it had been done:

and he added that, from the time he snatched the chalices,

he could neither go away nor flee from the town, nor even

eat or sleep. When the whole body of the people,

who were waiting outside, had heard this, they run to the church,

beat their breasts, kiss the ground,

magnify God: and the holy body of the martyr

is lifted from the ground, and is placed in its own place

with hymns and praises, the people standing by.

That thief is denounced, and is acclaimed by all as worthy of punishment,

whether to be burnt with fire, or hanged, or

tortured in some horrible manner:

and he is sent bound to the archbishop:

but what was afterward done with him, we do not know.

[10] A woman's hand restored; At the time when William of Provence

was governing the priory of the church of St. Aigulphus, there dwelt

in the house of Clement the priest a certain waiting-woman

of good life and good repute. This woman,

when on a certain day she was preparing herself to do her work,

immediately the fingers of her right hand,

as though the sinews were broken, were so bent back

upon the surface of her hand that they could in no way be drawn back,

in no way be pulled apart thence. And when she

saw this, weeping and wailing she runs to the church of B.

Aigulphus: and prostrated herself beneath the coffer in which

his bones are contained, beseeching him with cries and

with weeping that he would have mercy on her. She lay there from

the rising of the sun until the third hour of the day ^e struck.

Then, while the monks and the women prayed for her,

in the sight of all, her hand was so restored

to health, and her fingers made firm, that no traces of the sickness

could be seen in them, by the merit of St. Aigulphus

the martyr.

[11] a woman possessed or frenzied is restored to her mind, At that time a certain young woman dwelt

in the town of St. Aigulphus, who before was praised for having lived

honorably in manners and life. She, when

on a certain night she was resting in her bed, suddenly,

breathed upon by a malignant spirit, lost her senses. And on the

next day it appeared in her doings, for she was biting

and tearing her garments with her teeth; she pursued the crowd

of boys and women, driving them from her

with stones. Being led to the church of St.

Aigulphus, on the first and second day she went away

such as she had come: but on the third day the glorious martyr

both freed her from the demon and gave back the senses

she had lost: and she, returning home whole,

lived thereafter for a long time honorably

among her neighbors.

ANNOTATA.

and then bade them farewell, lest they should suspect anything evil.

Mab. scholis*

Mab. consecratur*

Mab. passus est*

CHAPTER III.

The life and translations of St. Aigulphus narrated in summary: a woman working and blaspheming on the saint's feast punished with a grave infirmity, and healed after three years.

[ ] A summary of the deeds We have judged it probable and worthy enough of relation

that both the life and the miracles of the saints,

which we have known most often to be wrought by the grace of God

and by their merits, should not pass in silence, should not

be covered by neglect; but should be briefly assigned

to the testimony of letters for the memory of posterity

and the strengthening of the Catholic faith: for from this their

memory and glorious veneration is exalted, and the minds of the faithful

are the more eagerly animated to confess the Lord and to earn

their intercessions. Wherefore

we wish, dearest brethren, skillfully to solicit the skill

of your diligence, that you may hear one of the glorious works

of B. Aigulphus the martyr, namely one

of his notable miracles. In the district

of Orléans, upon the river Loire, is situated a certain monastery

of great authority and name.

That place in earlier time was called Fleury:

but afterward, its name being changed for the sake of the grace and veneration

of St. Benedict, it is now named St. Benedict's.

[13] Now there is a reason why it is said to have received

this name. and the translations of St. Aigulphus. For B. Aigulphus, a monk of the same

monastery, an eminent man of the monastic order,

forewarned by a revelation of God and of our Lord, and by

the obedience enjoined upon him by Mummolus his abbot,

went carefully to Monte Cassino, from

which he carried the whole body of B. Benedict as far as the aforenamed place,

manfully and boldly, with the Holy Spirit as his guide.

But afterward, being made abbot of the church

of Lérins, he sustained many persecutions and injuries

from the unfaithful monks of that same monastery,

until, crowned with the palm of passion and martyrdom,

he happily departed to the Lord: whose most holy body

long afterward ^a was carried by a revelation

of God to the monastery of St. Benedict:

but afterward, the persecution of Hasting, prince of Normandy,

pressing on, for fear of him, by the will

and disposition of God, St. Aigulphus was carried as far as

Provins, where he rests, where he works many signs and miracles:

whose solemnity at Provins,

and at St. Benedict's, at the yearly return

of the cycle, is every year solemnly celebrated and

kept as a festal holiday.

[14] Now it happened in past time at

St. Benedict's that a certain woman, Eremburgis

by name, on the day of the solemnity of B. Aigulphus the martyr,

while all others kept holiday, A woman working and blaspheming on the saint's feast is suddenly punished, took distaff and spindle,

and began to spin: and when a certain clerk

saw her spinning, fearing the Lord

and the martyr Aigulphus, he greatly reproved her

for doing any work on the day of so great a solemnity.

And she answering said: I know not who

St. Aigulphus is, nor is he held in this town; and

wherever he may be, he can do me neither good nor ill.

Do you enjoin your parishioners to keep holiday,

for I shall by no means keep holiday today: for that

Aigulphus will furnish me with nothing whereby we may

live. This she spoke like one of the foolish women,

and when she still would not rest from her work,

need pressing her, behold, her right

hand was twisted back as far as the arm, with the thumb

fixed in the palm and the sinews of the fingers drawn back, so that

she could not even move it, the divine power doing this,

and the justice of the glorious martyr Aigulphus: her legs also

and her feet, bent back beneath her as she was accustomed

to sit, were utterly contracted; so that

she could neither rise nor move herself from that place.

[15] And when that woman perceived so great a feebleness

of her body, and already laboring three years, she is divinely bidden to go to Provins, as one out of her mind and wailing,

and calling upon the benefits of B. Benedict, she was carried by friends

and neighbors to his church,

that with his merits interceding she might be able through the grace of God

to obtain health. While the lord

William ^b, abbot of that place, and the monks marveled and

prayed for her, she lay nine days in the church,

and yet recovered no sign of health.

Being carried back to her house, for three years

she endured the pain of so great an infirmity, oppressed with many

miseries, afflicted with many pains, and could obtain no

remedy of soundness; because

she had well deserved it. And so this Eremburgis, desolate

and destitute of the use of her limbs, night and day

prayed to the Lord as she could and knew how. Behold,

on the vigil of the Lord's Nativity, as she herself recounted,

there appeared to her in a vision a certain shining person,

of comely face, with a long beard, clothed in white garments,

comforting her and saying: Woman, why

dost thou weep? why art thou sorrowful? why dost thou sigh so continually?

why art thou troubled? The boldness of thy importunity,

the greed of thy need, the contempt of the solemnity

of St. Aigulphus the martyr, the answer of thy

presumption, has deservedly stirred up for thee this misery, this misfortune,

this scourge. Nevertheless do not

weep, cease to be tormented, do not groan, leave off

sighing, cease the daily pains of thy

anxiety, lay aside pride, leave off folly,

beg pardon, seek mercy; do

what I counsel thee, what I command thee, if thou wilt have and deserve

the soundness of thy body: prepare

a conveyance, go to Provins, seek Aigulphus,

who is there: there thou shalt find him: he will grant thee health,

who truly imitated the Master of truth,

who left all things and followed the Lord:

and he will have mercy on thee.

[16] where she recovers her former health. These things being thus enjoined, he withdrew from her.

What should the woman do? What she had heard she kept quiet; she held

in silence: and yet to the abbot William alone

she secretly revealed that vision. And he approved ^c

that whatever the person had said ought to be done by the woman.

She knows not what to do, because a harsh winter

had set in roughly; and rains, snows, and frost impeded

her journey: and therefore she could not find

a conveyance: although the pain of her infirmity afflicted her;

yet she put off ^d her journey until Pentecost.

And so, when the solemnity of the Holy Spirit came,

the woman, carried in wagons with her son Joscelin,

seized upon her journey, and came as far

as the stronghold of Bray ^e. Having nothing more

that she could give the wagoners: from thence she was carried by her son

as far as Provins, and they lodged

in the porch of the church of B. Aigulphus. Yet she did not dare

to enter the church until she should have

something to offer to B. Aigulphus. But on the next day,

buying two candles out of her son's labor, she entered the church,

offering one before * the altar, kissing it with

devotion; and the other she set * before the Crucifix.

And when she had entered the church on the evening of the Sabbath day,

she remained there the whole night, intent on vigils and prayers,

beseeching God and the holy martyr.

After the monks' Matins,

before the dawn of day grew bright, the person

who had appeared to her at St. Benedict's again

appeared to her in a vision, saying: Woman, fear not,

delight in the Lord, and in the holy martyr

Aigulphus: and he will give thee the petition of thy heart.

The Lord's Day coming, while the priest and the people

were following the procession about the church,

the mercy of the Savior was present, and the pity of Aigulphus:

for the limbs of the aforesaid woman, dissolved from their former

functions, with the bones and sinews cracking, in

a moment were restored to their former health: her legs

were loosed and her feet made firm, her twisted hand

and her fingers, bent back and crooked, were stretched out, in the sight

of many. The woman, feeling herself healed,

rose upright on her feet, and followed the procession

with the others as far as before the Crucifix. Symon,

the prior of the church, and the monks, hearing of the miracle,

and the priest with the people, seeing it,

run to the bells, pull the ropes, and with loud voices

sing on high Te Deum laudamus.

ANNOTATA.

d. That is, deferred.

Mab. ad*

Mab. ponens*

CHAPTER IV.

Certain benefits granted to various persons.

[ ] A certain man rescued from a most grave disease by Aigulphus appearing: In the time of king Louis ^a there was a certain man

having his dwelling at the third milestone from the city of Chartres ^b:

he, seized unexpectedly by a disease,

is laid on his bed by the service of his servants, as though about to have rest.

Not yet in that disease had the space of three

days flowed by, when the accustomed function of speech

is taken from him, and only the vital heat

throbbed in his cold little breast. While he therefore was wearied

in such an agony, St. Aigulphus is present to him in a vision,

conspicuous in venerable aspect and in monastic garb,

about to put to flight the burden of so great an ailment,

and, his name being repeated three times, the function of his lost

voice being recalled, most kindly asks

how he did. But he, testifying that the sentence of the divine

severity had been vehemently hurled against him,

earnestly begs of him the comfort of deliverance.

To whom the eminent martyr says thus: I am sent

by the Lord, that I may bestow on thee the benefit of health.

Rise therefore, and henceforth remain whole,

and give thanks to the Lord for the soundness conferred.

But know that I have obtained from the Lord

that thou shouldst recover from this sickness. The man rises from

his bed, giving thanks to the martyr Aigulphus, and, coming

to the stronghold of Provins, with his wife accompanying him,

sounding forth many praises in the praise of the martyr Aigulphus,

returned home with joy.

[18] a boy obtained by prayers: Nor do I judge it right to pass over in silence

what has been made known by the reports of many.

A certain man from Normandy ^c with his wife,

long frustrated in every way of the hope of begetting offspring,

could never be refreshed by any solace: who,

when about five years had thus passed, while for the sake of saleable

merchandise he was running restlessly over every land,

implored the intercessions of all the saints.

Coming therefore to the stronghold of Provins, after

his accustomed manner he enters the church of B. Aigulphus to beseech

the Lord, and prostrate before the memorial

of the Virgin Mary, with most instant prayer begged that by her prayers

and the martyr's he might be made possessed of his desires,

and began to vow [d] that he would bring the image

of the son given him, and would without delay set it up

in the presence of his intercessors. His vows

therefore being performed, he undertakes the journey home. What

more? The woman conceived, and after nine months

bore a boy: and he, not unmindful of his vow,

when two years had passed, the infant's likeness, in wax

wondrously fashioned, he joyfully brought to Provins to the glory

of his intercessors.

[19] a cripple, admonished by Aigulphus appearing, What in part I saw, and in part heard from those

who saw it done, I have been bidden to relate as a miracle of B. Aigulphus

the martyr. From a certain stronghold

of Italy which is called Mortara ^e, a cripple

by name Richard, exceedingly powerless over himself,

having been carried as far as Provins, lodged at the church * of B.

the martyr, beneath the tables which they call cambia ^f.

Where, when he had continued patiently from the Kalends of November

to the Kalends of August, in winter

as in summer, he asked to be carried over to the church

of B. Mary of the Valley of Provins, where he learned that many miracles

were being done. To him St.

Aigulphus, clothed in a white garment and wrapped in a purple

cope, appeared in a vision, and said: I

am Aigulphus, the defender and guardian of this place; because

thou hast fled beneath my wings, as being my guest,

thou art of my right; and turn aside to me: and it is near

at hand that thou be healed by God. When he had reported this admonition

and at the same time consolation later

than he ought, the holy martyr appearing to him once and a second time,

he was struck by God and became dumb.

And being visited again from on high, he disclosed the secret,

and with many tears entreated that he be dragged

to the body of the holy martyr, that he, taking pity on him,

might look upon him.

[20] But being carried in the hands of those

who were present, is healed in his church. he was brought at the hour of Mass before the steps of the parish

altar, and there set down. At length,

the Mass being celebrated, at which he himself had been present as a devout

suppliant, with hands and feet bent backward,

he tried, as he could, to rise up. And when

he was not yet able, he began nevertheless to creep, to see whether,

God willing, he could reach the longed-for presence of the kindly

martyr, by whose intervention he hoped to obtain fullness

of health. At length, supported by the help of God

and of the bystanders, the steps being climbed,

and being led even to the place of the holy martyr,

with sinews and bones creaking, and making so great

a crackling that those present heard it with wonder,

he stood upright, and kissing the holy bier,

gave thanks for so great a benefit. And he, feeling himself

perfectly cured of the infirmity which he had endured for three years,

of his own accord did homage to the holy martyr,

and, being made porter by the lord Joscelin,

his body grew strong to such vigor

that he could carry the load of the strongest beast.

ANNOTATA.

d. That is, to vow.

Mab. ante fores ecclesiæ*