Remaclus

ON ST. REMACLUS, CONFESSOR AND BISHOP OF MAASTRICHT AND AFTERWARD ABBOT OF STAVELOT,

AND AFTERWARD ABBOT OF STAVELOT,

AT STAVELOT IN GERMANY.

Between the years DCLXVII and DCLXXI.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Remaclus, confessor, bishop of Maastricht, and afterward abbot of Stavelot, at Stavelot in Germany (St.)

BHL Number: 7139

BY J. V.

§ I. The Saint's public cult, from various Martyrologies, Breviaries, and Missals.

[ ] The memory of St. Remaclus, which

is wanting in the ancient Martyrologies of Usuard,

Wandalbert, Ado,

Hraban, and Notker, The Saint's announcement and eulogies

is most celebrated both in

the diocese of Liège and in the monasteries

of Malmedy and Stavelot, … and in

the monastery of Solignac, of which he is said to have been the first

abbot. So Mabillon, Benedictine Century 2,

p. 488. It is certain, however, that Remaclus is read in

Ado, in both editions, of Mosander and of Rosweyde;

although Sollier in his Observation

on Usuard's Martyrology on this day somewhat doubts

whether the announcement be truly Ado's. However

it may be, almost all the Auctaria of Usuard mention him.

Hear Greven: In the territory of Liège,

in the monastery of Stavelot, the deposition of St. Remaclus,

bishop of Upper Maastricht and confessor.

In almost the same words Molanus announces him,

adding more both in the Index of the Saints of Belgium

published by him, and in their Natales, which

Peter Louw gathered and arranged from the papers of the deceased.

Miraeus also may be seen in the Belgian

and Burgundian Fasti, p. 510. In the Sacred Treasury

of St. Servatius set forth in litanies, elucidated

by Andrew Bouwens, he is invoked in this manner

at p. 40: St. Remaclus, bishop of Maastricht,

who did cleanse places from the incursion of demons, and did multiply springs

by prayer.

[2] from several Our MS. Florarium weaves for him the following

eulogy: The third of the Nones of September. In the territory of Liège,

in the monastery of Stavelot, the birthday of St. Remaclus,

glorious bishop and confessor. He was an Aquitanian

by race, born in the diocese of Bourges

of honorable parents, and was brought up under Bl. Sulpicius,

bishop of Bourges: in whose honor Remaclus

afterward built several churches in the diocese of Tongres.

And when the pontifical see

of Maastricht was vacant, St. Amandus having abandoned it,

Sigebert, king of the Austrasians, at the prayers of the clergy

and people, to them, as they had asked, although the Saint resisted,

granted that Remaclus should preside. And he was a chief

refresher of the poor and a father of orphans,

and a guardian of widows, a consoler of the sick,

and stood forth a bountiful provider in all necessities.

And so great a virtue of humility shone in him,

that he desired to be held inferior to all.

He was also the founder of many monasteries and

the father of many disciples; of whose number

were blessed Theodard, holy Lambert,

and holy Hardelin, a confessor Aquitanian by race.

At length, the pastoral burden being laid down,

he served God in the monastery of Stavelot as long as he lived,

and there he was buried in the year of salvation DCXII. More briefly

does Peter de Natalibus praise him in his Catalogue

of the Saints, book XI, ch. 62: Rhemachlus, bishop

of Maastricht, flourished in the time of the emperor

Constantine the younger, as Sigebert says. Who,

after he had for some time happily governed the church committed to him

by words and by examples,

at length, wearied of secular tumults, resigned

his bishopric; and, taking the habit of the monastic life,

thenceforth continually served Christ as a soldier, and, under

monastic obedience made a disciple from a master,

rested in peace. These and other things will be examined below.

[3] To the aforesaid may be added Galesini's Martyrology

adapted to the use of the Holy Roman Church, Martyrologies;

where likewise on this day he is thus announced: At Maastricht, of St.

Remachus (otherwise Remaclus), bishop and confessor:

who, shrinking from popular tumults,

that he might rest more religiously in meditations upon heavenly

things, laid down the episcopal office

and hid himself in the monastery of Stavelot: where throughout his whole

life he gave illustrious testimonies of his sanctity.

Other martyrologists have similar things, naming him a Man of admirable

sanctity. To pass over the German Martyrology,

the English one of Whitford,

Ferrari in his general Catalogue, Wion in part

2 of the Lignum Vitæ, Dorgan, Ghini, Menard,

and the rest who honorably celebrated him,

I subjoin the announcement of the Paris Martyrology

published in the year 1727, conceived in these words: At Stavelot

in the forest of the Ardennes, of St. Remaclus, from being abbot

of Solignac among the Limousins, bishop of Maastricht

after St. Amandus, who,

by the exertions of king Sigebert and duke Grimoald,

founded the monasteries of Cugnon, Malmedy, and Stavelot.

After I had written these things, I fell

upon the ancient Calendar of the monastery of Stavelot

published by Edmond Martène in vol. 6

of the Ancient writers and monuments, where at col.

675, at the third of the Nones of September, there is set in italic type:

The deposition of St. Remaglus, bishop and confessor.

[4] The Saint is venerated not only in the diocese of Liège,

but also in several others, public veneration in various with various rite.

The dioceses and monasteries in which together with

St. Mansuetus he is invoked on this day were assigned

above at p. 635; but at Mainz the cult seems

to have been interrupted: for the Mainz Breviary

of the year 1570 and the Diurnal of the year 1612 have nothing

about him; for what cause I do not know. This is certain

from the cited Missal and from the older Breviaries, that he was

in veneration there in the years 1493 and 1507.

Of St. Remaclus there treat the Cologne Breviary of the year

1498, that of Tournai of the year 1508, and the MS. one of Arras;

likewise the Missals of Tournai of the year 1509

and of Cambrai of the year 1527: but with no special

rite. The Brussels Breviary of St. Gudule of the year

1516 and that of Bamberg of the year 1575 recite 3 Lessons

about his life with a proper collect, which in

the Bamberg one is this: O God, who on this day did receive

and reward blessed Remaclus, your confessor

and bishop, grant in your mercy

that we who rejoice in his merits may be stirred

by his examples, that by his intercession we may merit pardon and

life eternal. Through. But the Brussels one

has another, to be given presently. Throughout the diocese

of Liège a proper Office of nine lessons is made of the Saint

with semi-double rite; the collect: O God, author

and founder of the world, who did consecrate today's festival*

by the passing of blessed Remaclus, your confessor and bishop;

grant, we beseech you, to us,

that we who exult in devout observances at his yearly

celebration may by his suffrages obtain the help*

of your mercy. Through our Lord. This the Breviaries

teach: the ancient one of Tongres, that of St. Servatius of Maastricht,

two of Liège, one published in the year 1520,

the other in 1558, and other more recent ones. Likewise

the Liège Missal of the year 1509 contains a proper Mass

of the Saint, whose Introit: The Lord

made with him, etc. Psalm: The mercies of the Lord

I will sing for ever. The Collect the same as

in the Breviaries: O God, author and founder of the world,

etc. Epistle: The just man gave his heart, etc.

Gospel: Jesus appointed also other seventy.

Offertory: I have found David, etc. Secret:

By the intervention of the prayers and by the obtaining of the supplications

of blessed Remaclus, your confessor and bishop,

pour out, we beseech you, O Lord, a heavenly blessing upon these gifts

offered, by which we celebrate his

yearly commemoration; and grant

that through them we may be free from all faults, and may be set among the heavenly

joys. Through. Communion: Blessed

is that servant whom, etc. Complenda or Postcommunion:

May blessed Remaclus, your confessor and bishop,

we beseech you, O Lord, stand forth as our perpetual

intercessor: that the mysteries which we handle with unworthy

hands may not be to us a guilt

unto punishment, but may be the strength of our weakness,

and a saving preparation for the attaining of eternal life.

Through our Lord.

[5] dioceses: a hymn from the solemn Office in the abbey of St. Gall, The Saint was formerly venerated also in the diocese of Utrecht,

as is clear from two Breviaries printed in the year

1508, where the following Collect is found:

Almighty and eternal God, who did consecrate this day

by the merits of blessed Remaclus, your confessor and bishop,

and who did make it illustrious by his sanctity and by the splendor

of his miracles: grant, merciful

Father, that we be defended by the prayer of him whom you graciously

grant to be joined to the heavenly host. Through. The same

the Utrecht Missal of the year 1514 reads, with the following added:

Secret: Look, O Lord, upon your people

hastening to your sacraments,

and keeping the present festival of your holy confessor

and bishop Remaclus: that what

each has offered in honor of your name may profit all*

unto pardon. Through. Complenda:

We give you thanks, O Lord our God, who

have vouchsafed to restore us with a heavenly remedy: grant, we beseech you,

pardon of our sins, as to your blessed

confessor and bishop Remaclus you did give

the seat of the pontificate. Through. In the abbey of St. Gall among

the Swiss, whose proper Offices, approved by the authority

of Pope Paul V, were printed at Venice

in the year 1612, the feast of our Saint is celebrated with an Office

of 12 lessons, with the rite of a double of the second class. The collect

is from the common, Grant, we beseech you, almighty

God, etc.; but the ℞ prolix. at Vespers is proper:

Let us praise the Lord in the glorious merits of the blessed bishop

Remaclus: to his sepulchre the sick come,

and are healed. ℣. Let us all rejoice in the Lord,

celebrating a festal day of the most blessed Remaclus,

etc. Receive also the hymn at both Vespers:

Holy Remaclus, come to the aid of your people,

and protect us, defending us from the enemy,

and so look upon those who devoutly serve you,

that our homage may be pleasing to you.

Help the tottering monastic Order,

succor the Clergy and the groaning people,

teach princes to follow after justice,

and at the same time sustain the whole Church.

To the Trinity be everlasting glory,

honor, power, and jubilation,

in unity, to whom dominion abides,

from then, and now, through eternal ages. Amen.

[6] To these I subjoin two other hymns, which, together

with the Saint's Life and miracles and also a Homily on

his birthday, Fr. John Gamans of our Society copied out at Bamberg

in the year 1654 from an ancient codex. likewise two others

The first has this title: A Hymn on the festivity of St. Remaglus

the bishop. It is composed in Sapphic

meter, but is not free from faults.

Bright festivals return with lofty honor,

which we celebrate with well-wrought songs,

and we praise you, kindly Ruler,

with our whole heart.

Do you favor our prayers willingly,

you whom the day, lovingly bringing back to earth

these sacred rites, likewise bestows from heaven,

holy Remaglus.

Joining you to himself with shining love,

he willed you to be held a bishop dear to him,

rich, and at last shining upon the people

from the summit of heaven.

The rising shall bring back the setting; but you of the world

who behold the special light of the sun,

which by faith you rightly and honorably follow

always and everywhere.

The ample hall of the king venerates you,

but you please the supreme King of lords,

shining among festive crowns,

an honorable soldier.

[7] Ask, fasting, with panting prayers,

ask the governance of your blessed Patron: on his festivity

for receiving the gifts of the rich

word of your vows.

And do you, in the first course, venerate the kindly

bishop of the diocese of Tongres,

lest another take first the things obtained, or carry off

the joys of the mind.

The bishop shines forth, and, excelling upon his throne,

feeds the unlearned, cherishes the wretched,

pouring out with generous mercy

the full depths of his heart.

Unlocking things to come by the Holy Spirit,

full likewise and shining in signs,

submissive in heart, humble, chaste —

such was this man.

Hence, a rejoicing soldier, he takes up

the abandoned wastes of the desert, that alone to the thundering Lord

he might be able to offer with chaste vows

the innermost parts of his mind.

A rich light, radiating from a broad source,

shone; and as Shepherd of monks he flourishes,

teaching with holy admonitions and adorning

illustrious companies.

Here, receiving the goal of death poured back,

his spirit pierced the bright heavens *;

there help us always with your prayers,

holy Remaglus.

Let us sing glory to Christ with open

mouth, to him who bestows or who serves *,

who, simple, is strong in so great a Godhead,

threefold and one.

[8] hymns at Bamberg. To the following rhythmic hymn is prefixed: Likewise

from the same source as above; by which I judge is signified that it was taken

from the same codex.

Eternal Light, governor of the ages,

kindly propagator of all good things,

bestowing the palm upon unconquered soldiers

who follow you, laurelled with glory.

Keeping the feast of your holy Bishop,

we devoutly sing praises to you, O God;

by whose obtaining may we merit to ascend

the lofty hall with the triumph of the gift.

You now we pray, holy Bishop of God:

ask that pardon be granted to us,

all the briars of vice being subdued,

and that perennial grace be increased.

Let no deeds of death wound us,

let sins and wounds be driven far off,

let the enemy be struck down with his wicked endeavor,

and let the sick be cherished with the hope of salvation.

Holy Remaglus, favor our prayers,

offering the vows of all to the Majesty:

and may they be joined to the thousands of angels

who devoutly celebrate your feast.

Praise, honor, power, and melody

to the Father, and to the Son together, and to the Paraclete,

who rules, God three and one,

and his kingdom unto eternal ages.

Amen.

al. creator*

al. devotione*

proficiat*

for æthera*

i.e. largienti*

§ II. The year of his birth, his country, his family, his education under St. Sulpicius.

[ ] The Saint between the year 612 and 624 In what year of Christ the Saint was brought into the

light, as also when he departed from this mortal

life, cannot be determined with certainty. Notger,

bishop of Liège from the year 972 to 1008,

in his Life — a transcript of which, from a notable

and ancient MS. of St. Peter's at Cologne, found there in

the Charterhouse, Gamans transmitted in the year 1638 to our

Elders — and Hariger, abbot

of Lobbes, in Chapeauville, vol. 1, On the Deeds

of the bishops of Tongres, Maastricht, and Liège,

ch. 48, write that he was born at the time when

the metropolitan city of Bourges had as archbishop

St. Austrigisilus, and as archdeacon

Bl. Sulpicius, who shortly after him was endowed with the

pontifical honor. He was raised to the see

of Bourges St. Austregisilus in the year 612, and after

he had sat 12 years, as he himself had learned by an angel's

revelation, as is said in his Life published

by Henschen in vol. V of May, on the 20th of that month

he departed to the heavenly ones in the year 624, St.

Sulpicius surnamed the Pious succeeding him. Hence it is clear

that our Saint's birth, according to Notger and Hariger,

must be placed either in that very year 612, or somewhat

after; certainly between the year already named and 624,

beyond which it is not suffered to be deferred by the following words

of Notger: In whose diocese blessed Remaclus in those

same days most happily took the beginnings of his

birth.

[10] That he sprang from the parts of Aquitaine

the anonymous writer of Stavelot hands down in the Life, n. 1. in the province of Bourges in Aquitania Prima It

the cited Notger and Hariger describe in this manner: Now Aquitaine,

which some reckon to be nearly a third

part of the Gauls, is named from the winding

waters of the river Loire, which for the greatest

part bounds it and almost encircles it in a ring.

It has on the Circius side the Ocean, which

is called the Aquitanian gulf; on the west (toward

the south) the Spains; on the north and east

the Lugdunensian province; on the southeast and south

the Narbonensian, etc. Where by Circius the west is designated:

for Circius, by others Cercius, is a wind

which blows from the west and vexes Narbonensian

Gaul, as Du Cange has it in his Glossary. The etymology

of Aquitaine from the waters of the Loire is not approved by Valois

in his Notitia Galliarum, p. 32: since Aquitaine

was known to Julius Caesar and to Hirtius, and was

only under the principate of Augustus extended to the Loire;

but he rather judges that Aquitaine was so called from

the Aquae Tarbellicae (commonly Acqs or Dax) and from other

wholesome waters, hot and cold, in which it abounds.

And at first indeed, he says at p. 33, Aquitaine was one and

single, between the Pyrenees and the Garonne

and the Ocean … At last, the Novempopulania

remaining apart, Aquitaine was divided in two

into Aquitanica Prima and Aquitanica Secunda:

Bourges was made the metropolis of the province of Aquitanica Prima,

and Bordeaux of the second.

[11] The Saint therefore was born in Aquitanica

Prima, in the district or county of Bourges, born of noble parents now le

Berry, of noble and wealthy parents. Hear

Notger: His father was Albutius, his mother was called

Matrinia, both mighty in riches according to the dignity of the world,

as being renowned for the nobility

of their family; as the handing over of his great possessions,

made both to our church and to your monastery,

either by himself or by his heirs or

even by the royal loftiness, testifies: for many

writings concerning those same properties, possessed by us through the courses of many

years, are still kept in the archives

of both churches. More briefly does

Denis de Sainte-Marthe explain the Saint's birthplace and family,

in vol. 3 of Gallia Christiana, col. 823:

St. Remaclus, or Remaclius and Rismaclus, was born in Aquitaine

and in the district of Bourges, of his father Albutius

and his mother Matrinia, illustrious for nobility of family and abundance

of possessions. Our codex ✠ MS.

79, which we call that of Maastricht on the Meuse,

has thus: Remaclus, ordained the eighteenth bishop

of the church of Maastricht, and of Aquitaine,

of the diocese of Bourges, of his noble father Albutius

of Wezenchen and his mother called Matrinia, daughter of the count

of Savoy, that is, of Sabaudia. In the transcript

of the MS. Chronicle of the monastery of St. Trond, marked ✠

MS. 139 G, Matrina is named daughter of the duke of Savoy;

but I read of no counts of Savoy

before Berald in the eleventh century, nor of dukes before Amadeus

VIII in the fifteenth; and concerning the Saint's maternal

grandfather the anonymous writer in the Life, and others, are silent.

[12] And Remaclus, of good disposition, was educated, say Notger

and Hariger, ch. 49, he is educated under St. Sulpicius, loftily, according as

a very great abundance of means was at his parents' disposal,

namely under blessed Sulpicius,

in whose veneration it is certain that very many churches in our diocese

were afterward dedicated by that same holy Man.

We cannot doubt that the holy

Boy was steeped by so great a master in the best morals

and trained to all uprightness and virtue,

as is clear from what follows: Then, when he was

grown and already bearing the fruit of all goodness, as befitted

such an age, they hand him over to Bl.

Eligius, a man to be preferred to all men of his time

for the grace of his merits, who placed him in the monastery

of Solignac, which he was himself building by a pious work upon his own

inheritance, and instructed him to a nicety in the sacred institutions

of monastic discipline.

And so far did the good Youth cleave to the admonitions

of the holy man, that he not only became no sluggish executor

of the divine word, but so abounded

in heavenly grace, etc. The same the older Life hands down,

except that it makes no mention of St. Sulpicius. But

Mabillon in his Preliminary Observations, n. 3,

well remarks that the governing of a monastery and the instruction of St. Remaclus

in monastic matters do not befit a man

lay and of the court, such as Eligius then was, nor

agree with Audoenus' narrative.

See what is to be said below at n. 14.

[13] in whose monastery probably Louis Bulteau in his Compendium of the history

of the Order of St. Benedict, vol. 1, p. 631, and another

modern writer have nothing of a boyhood passed under St. Sulpicius,

so far adhering to the older Life:

but since Notger, having diligently searched the ancient

monuments, as he himself testifies in the prologue of the Life

enlarged and polished by him, expressly asserts above

that the Saint was educated namely under blessed Sulpicius,

it is not to be doubted that he found that somewhere,

and many other things which lay hidden from the anonymous writer.

These more recent writers add, however, that Remaclus

afterward, having left the palace, dwelt for some time with St. Sulpicius,

and was confirmed by him in piety by admonitions and

examples. And this is probable

enough; for to whom would the Saint, wearied of the court

and disdaining earthly things, rather have betaken himself

than to his former master, that he might be steeped by him

in monastic discipline — him whom he had before

had as the governor of his boyhood? Nor would I deny

that this was done at the urging of Eligius, who, when he perceived

that Remaclus was estranged from the pomp and vanity of the world,

was perhaps even then designing to set him as abbot

over the monastery of Solignac, which he was planning

to build; and therefore persuaded him to return

to Sulpicius, to be cultivated by him in the exercises of the religious

life. These things by conjecture, namely if the Saint

was an honorary page of Clothar II: but if

not, he was St. Sulpicius' disciple not twice

but only once. What Sainte-Marthe asserts,

and others say doubtfully, that in the royal court he acted as procurator

of the sacred scrinium and was one of the referendaries —

namely in the lifetime of Clothar II, who

died in the year 628 — does not seem to cohere with

our Saint's youthful age, nor can it be reconciled with

the Acts of St. Bercharius, which will be examined at the 16th of October.

Receive meanwhile Mabillon's Note,

p. 834: Whether Remaclus bore that office in the palace,

and whether Bercharius lived with him at court or elsewhere,

is not sufficiently established. Certainly Remaclus' Acts express nothing

of that office or of Bercharius.

[14] and he was a monk, Sainte-Marthe subjoins that, Clothar being dead,

the Saint returned to his country and vowed himself wholly to God;

that thereafter he betook himself to Solignac, where, as it seems, he was declared

first abbot by Eligius,

which will be proved in the following §. Therefore the authors

of his Life, Hariger, Notger, and others,

are mistaken, who affirm that he was instructed in monastic matters

under the rule of Eligius as abbot of that monastery;

for they are convicted of error by the authority of the contemporary St. Audoenus,

who in book 2 of the Life of St. Eligius, ch.

2, relates that Eligius was still a layman when he was designated

bishop of Noyon; nay, that he had indeed

thought at one time, as he has it in book 1, ch.

15, of at last making himself over to that same monastery

(of Solignac), had not God's dispensation bound him

in another place. From these it manifestly appears that Eligius

was not abbot of the monastery of Solignac,

and accordingly that in this part St. Remaclus'

Life must be corrected. Yet we would not have anything hence

taken away from his own virtues, in which he so shone, whether

in the monastery of Bourges under St. Sulpicius, or in

the government of Solignac, that to all who served under

the same discipline he became an example and rule

of religious conversation: for in continual vigils

he passed the nights, and all night long continued his prayers,

foremost in abstinence, illustrious in the whole

uprightness of his character. These things Notger and Hariger say after

the anonymous writer, to be corrected only in this,

that they wrongly supposed those things to have happened

while St. Eligius was abbot. I shall go on further, from them and from elsewhere,

to supply what the anonymous writer omitted in the Saint's Life,

or to explain what was not sufficiently clearly

set forth by him.

§ III. He becomes the first abbot of Solignac, then of Cugnon, and at last bishop.

[ ] The first of the monastery of Solignac Audoenus relates, in book 1 of the Life of St. Eligius,

ch. 15, that a certain villa in the Limousin country,

surnamed Solemniacum (commonly Solignac), was granted to him

by king Dagobert;

in which place (Eligius) built the first and chief

monastery of the men of God: where also,

an abbot being appointed, he made over many of his own home-born servants,

etc. Nowhere indeed is the name of that first abbot

found expressed by Audoenus; yet

I think no other is designated than St. Remaclus.

For, first, from the Charter of St. Eligius for Solignac,

which Mabillon published at p. 1091 and

Denis de Sainte-Marthe reprinted in vol. 2 of Gallia

Christiana among the instruments of the church of Limoges,

col. 185, it is established that he was set over the others in this monastery:

Where also, under Christ's auspices, says

Eligius, the venerable man Remaclus the abbot is known to preside.

And below: In like manner I adjure you, most blessed

father Remaclus the abbot, and your successors

or subjects after you, by the majesty of the undivided

Trinity, etc. It must be observed, moreover,

that that donation of Eligius was made not long

after the building of the monastery; and so there is no

doubt that the first abbot is meant. Besides,

in book 2, ch. 14, Audoenus narrates that a second abbot

was appointed for the monks of Solignac by Eligius;

for the former was accounted as taken to a bishopric.

Which words can be understood of none but Remaclus,

whom Eligius expressly handed down above to have been

abbot, and who was taken up to a bishopric,

as will be said below.

[16] Mabillon, in part 2 of the third Benedictine Century,

p. 628, confesses that it is understood from Audoenus just cited he is appointed abbot in the year,

that Remaclus was the first abbot of Solignac;

but afterward he subjoins: Unless perchance another, who was the first abbot

of the place, was also promoted to a bishopric.

Which conjecture seems to me altogether improbable,

on account of the testimony of the contemporary Audoenus, who

numbers the substituted abbot not as third, but as second;

and so before Remaclus, who preceded him,

no other abbot can be imagined. The cited Mabillon,

the matter being more maturely weighed, in vol. 1 of the Annals,

pp. 352 and 353, asserts that it is established both from

the aforesaid letters of Eligius and from Audoenus himself

that Remaclus was the first abbot of Solignac;

but when precisely, or from what monastery, he was taken to that

government, is not clear. According to what was said

at n. 13, it is probable enough that he was summoned by Eligius

that he was from the Bituricensian monastery of St. Sulpicius. Concerning

the time we have only this much for certain, that the

Saint presided over the monastery of Solignac in the 10th year of

King Dagobert, in which the grant of Eligius is signed as made on the X

Kalends of December. Mabillon and others refer that

tenth year to the year of Christ

631, reckoning from the month of March 622, in which

Dagobert I was inaugurated king of Austrasia:

Bolland, however, in volume 1 of February p. 371, defers the foundation

to the year 637, which was likewise

the tenth of Dagobert, counting from the death of Clotharius

his father. But one may see the years of Dagobert

I computed in both ways in Mabillon,

book 6 On Diplomatics, p. 464 and following.

[17] as it seems, 637. I judge Bolland's reckoning the more probable:

for Eligius, before the construction of the monastery,

on the testimony of Audoenus book 1 chapter 13, discharged an embassy

to Judicael, prince of the Bretons, and on returning

brought him with him to the king of the Franks.

Now the coming of King Judicael to Dagobert

happened in the year of Christ 635, as we learn

from Fredegarius chapter 78 in Ruinart. Add

that Sigebert in his Chronicle does not mention Solignac

except at the year 637. Remaclus therefore

in that year, as it seems, being given as abbot to the new monastery,

vigorously animated the 150 monks subject to him, by example more

than by word, to undertake the exercises of the religious life

according to the rule of the most blessed fathers Benedict

and Columbanus. How great a

perfection of monastic religion flourished there in consequence,

Audoenus, an eyewitness, declares in chapter 16

in these words: To which place I too came, and

I saw so great an observance of the sacred rule that the life of those

monks is almost singular above the other

monasteries of Gaul, with the one exception of Luxeuil,

of which he treats below in chapter 21. Nor is the

excellent training of St. Tillo to be passed over, which the Life of him

thus records in Mabillon, Century 2

p. 995: For Eligius, having received the blessed Tillo,

handed him over to St. Remaclus, abbot of his monastery of

Solignac, to be reared and instructed in letters.

Whom the holy Man, as he had received in charge,

reared with all diligence in the pursuit of piety,

trained in sacred letters, and strengthened with evangelical and

apostolic teachings.

[18] Thence summoned into Austrasia, he is set over the monastery of Cugnon When the holy Abbot had for some time — that is, for about six years —

governed that monastery with great integrity of manners

and fatherly solicitude, the fame of his sanctity, spread far

and wide, reached even the nobles of the Austrasian palace themselves. Therefore,

says Notger, it was proclaimed in the royal

court that so great a Man ought not to be absent from the king's

presence, that by his prudence the affairs of the kingdom

might be ordered, whose distinguished merits were already

at that time so spoken of. Being summoned therefore honorably, as

was fitting, he is brought to the threshold of the palace. Nearly the same things

the older Life has, and Hariger chapter 49.

Hence it might be conjectured that he for some time acted in the court of

St. Sigebert III as procurator of the sacred archive of the

palace; at which time, at the exhortation of St. Nivard, Bercharius

came to be formed by Remaclus, whose

venerable reputation, commended by the titles of prudence

and sanctity, had grown everywhere, as the Acts

of Bercharius relate. See above number 13 at the

end. When the Saint was summoned into Austrasia

is not established: yet it must have happened before the year

644, if what the recent compiler of the Life says is true,

that he was there initiated into the priesthood by Goericus, surnamed Abbo,

bishop of Metz;

since he died in the year 643, on the XIX day of September,

as we said in volume IV of July p. 430. Thereafter he was set over

the monastery of Cugnon in the duchy of Luxemburg,

either to build it, or at any rate to order and govern it,

on the testimony of St. Sigebert in the charter of foundation

in volume 1 of February p. 234: Under the devotion

of our soul … we will to construct a regular monastery in

honor of our patron Peter, of Paul, of John, and

of the other Martyrs, in our land, the forest of the Ardennes,

in the place which is called Casegonguidinus,

which the river Sesomiris is seen to encircle, … and there, under Christ's

auspices, we appoint Remaclus abbot, etc. Which charter

Martène notes to have been given about DCXLVIII,

volume 2 of the Collectio amplissima p. 6. At the same

year 648 Mabillon mentions this monastery,

volume 1 of the Annals p. 403, where he has thus:

At this time also Sigebert, the most pious king of the Austrasians,

displayed royal munificence in founding

monasteries … The first in origin is that

which he built at Casæ-congidunum … having summoned from*

the monastery of Solignac the abbot Remaclus, that he might preside

over the servants of God gathered there … There still

survives even now a cell or priory in the aforesaid village of

Casæ-congidunum, situated between the towns of Chiny and Bouillon,

on the river Sesinara , which joins the right*

bank of the Meuse near Château-Regnault.

[19] The foundation Le Cointe places three years earlier, namely in the year

645, he is set over the monastery between the year 644 and 648: and after him Denis

de Sainte-Marthe, volume 3 of Gallia Christiana col. 931:

Casæ-congidunum of the Order of St. Benedict, upon the Sesmara

river, is founded in the year DCXLV. But the year

of the monastery's founding cannot be exactly assigned; for

Sigebert's charter is destitute of chronological notes, nor

does Sainte-Marthe cite any instrument. What

Le Cointe says in number 9, that Godo, who in the charter

is named Apostolicus, that is bishop, did not preside over

the church of Metz before this year, seems equally

false as that which he had premised concerning

Tillo's being substituted at Solignac in the place of our Saint:

for the successor of Remaclus in the abbacy of Solignac

is called by Sainte-Marthe Childomarus,

under which abbot Tillo returned to Solignac. See volume

1 of January p. 379 and Century 2 of the Benedictines

p. 994. But Godo began to sit in the see of Metz

in the year 644, as was shown in volume IV

of July cited above: whence it is plainly deduced that the charter

was not given before the year 644; but

the certain time of the foundation cannot be elicited. Concerning

that monastery Notger and Hariger in chapter 54

write the following: In the place which is called Casæ-congedunus,

situated upon the river Sesmara, the same king

(Sigebert) had built a monastery by the counsel of his nobles

in honor of the Apostles Peter, Paul

and John, because it offered dwellings suitable for the habitation

of the servants of God; he had enriched it with the gift

of his bounty, had gathered together persons approved in

serving God, over whom he appointed the blessed

Remaclus as provisor, and charged him to accustom the inhabitants

to live according to the tradition of the fathers.

There remains to the present day the place

of his prayer, hewn by his own work in the rock, whence to the sick

benefits come even now: where

he too for some time offered himself as a victim on the altar of the most high God,

wasted with fasts and vigils, and, more familiarly

joined to God, suspended himself in holy contemplation,

and poured out the streams of his teaching into the hearts

of his subjects.

[20] and having become a regionary bishop, the successor Among these seems to have been St. Hadelin, a noble

young Aquitanian, who, having left his country for the love

of Christ, came into Austrasia with the holy

Remaclus, whom he had set before himself for imitation,

says Menard. Notger too, in the Life of him,

volume 1 of February p. 373, testifies that he was in all things

a sharer of the pious acts and hardships of our Saint

and a companion of his pilgrimage.

Finally Bolland in the preliminary Commentary number

38 says that partly at Metz, partly at Cugnon,

he devoted himself to sacred letters and piety. Meanwhile, while

the holy Abbot was assiduously engaged in forming the monks of the new monastery

according to the order and admonitions of the ancient

fathers, St. Amandus laid down the bishopric of

Maastricht in the year 650. His Life

at the VI of February may be consulted, or Pagi in

the Critica on Baronius at the years 649 and 650. Remaclus,

who had already before obtained the priestly infulæ

(on the testimony of the Life below number 2), or had been ordained

a regionary bishop, is soon substituted for him by the votes of all

in the see of Maastricht: Amandus himself,

as is likely, says Henschen p.

834, persuading the king to lay that dignity

upon him, and exhorting the Saint to deign to undertake it,

and promising that he would bring it about at Rome that

Pope Martin should be willing that all be ratified. The interpontificate of 9 years,

during which St. Landoald is thought by Aegidius

to have been vicar of the see of Maastricht while it was vacant

by the abdication of Amandus, is fictitious:

for Amandus was still sitting in the year 649, as

is established from the replies of St. Martin the Pope given

to him after the Lateran council held in that year

in the month of October; but Remaclus had already

been substituted for Amandus in the year 651, which will appear

more clearly below.

[21] of St. Amandus, he is chosen by the votes of all. It will be of use now to relate in the words of Notger with what

zeal and with what earnestness the holy Prelate was demanded for and raised to that

see. To Sigebert,

he says, the people of Maastricht, with the common election

of the priests, with the concourse and

hearing of the magnates, with the outcry too

and acclamation of all orders, offered this

prayer of their petition: that none ought to preside over them

but the blessed Remaclus; that he was pleasing to the angelic

spirits, reverend to the inhabitants of the earth,

that they had experienced manifold advantages of his

benefits, and had often felt the support of his intercessions both with

the king and with the nobles;

that they had noted the skill of his prudence,

since he frequently bestowed his labor upon the royal

counsels, that knowledge of the Scriptures was not wanting to him,

whence he might bring forth things new and old … To such

prayers the king favorably assenting, and dutifully agreeing with such

zeal, decreed to grant their petition, because they

demanded what was just, and at the same time

to enter upon conference with the blessed Man about this. But

who could suffice to relate with how great a sweetness of words

the most kindly king soothed him to consent?

Who at last could avail to narrate

how greatly the blessed Man was seen to struggle and resist

so far as he could? But the king, relying upon the counsel of the priests

and nobles, did not desist from his proposed intention:

the holy Priest indeed, fearing to go against the divine

sanction, though unwilling, is substituted as the twenty-seventh

to the church of Tongeren or Maastricht,

that he might thenceforth diffuse among more men the seeds of the word,

which hitherto long lying hidden in himself he had concealed.

Things like these Hariger writes in chapter 50.

[22] The Saint's ordination Gelenius, Wion and Saussay

assign to the III Nones of February, as was said

in volume 1 of that month p. 319 among the Prætermissi.

Hence Le Cointe and Sainte-Marthe fix the beginning

of his episcopate at the year 653, His ordination is more probably to be fixed at the year 648. which was furnished

with the Dominical letter F affecting the III day

of February. But Pagi at the year 649 number 6

says that Le Cointe wrongly deferred Remaclus's ordination

on that account to that year;

since the birthdays of the Saints, the consecrations of bishops,

and the dedications of churches are rather often noted

in the Martyrologies on other days than those on which

they occurred, and days of this kind have often been changed

at the pleasure of the bishops and for the convenience

of the churches, or finally, mention has been made of them in the Kalendars

long after those solemnities had been performed,

or the saints had died

or been translated.

Of this reply of Pagi we have no need here:

for let us suppose the consecration to have been made on the very

day on which it is commemorated, the III of February; not on that account, however,

must it be deferred to the year 653, since

the III day of February was equally a Sunday in the bissextile year

648, marked with the Dominical letters EF.

And in this year he was more probably created bishop

not indeed of a fixed see, but of an uncertain one, perhaps that

by that title his dignity and honor might be increased, says

Mabillon volume 1 of the Annals p. 404.

The Short Chronicle of Lobbes favors this, in Edmond

Martène volume 3 of the Thesaurus novus anecdotorum

col. [ ], where St. Remaclus is read to have been ordained in

DCXLVII, which by the old reckoning ended on the Kalends of

March, or the XX of April, that is, the Easter of the year 648.

But that in the cited Chronicle and

elsewhere the Saint is then called ordained bishop

of Maastricht, is to be understood by prolepsis or anticipation;

since Amandus was still sitting at Maastricht

in the year 649, as I proved above at number 20.

* commonly Cougnon

* or Sesomiris, commonly le Semoy

§ IV. Whether he had his episcopal see at Tongeren or rather at Maastricht on the Meuse.

[ ] The opinion is refuted This question might seem superfluous to the learned,

after Henschen's Diatribe and Exegesis

on the bishopric of Maastricht, and the preliminary Commentary

on the Life of St. Amandus, volume 1 of February

p. 824 and following. Certainly, as after Mabillon

Denis de Sainte-Marthe admits, volume

3 of Gallia Christiana col. 817, that the see was translated by St. Servatius

from Tongeren to Maastricht and there

remained down to St. Hubert, Henschen has shown with so many and so

unconquerable arguments both in the

Diatribe and in the Exegesis, that it needs no further

confirmation. Nor less evidently in the Commentary

cited did he vindicate the bishopric of Maastricht

for St. Amandus, and consequently for our Saint too:

since it is granted by all that Remaclus held the same

see which Amandus abdicated.

But because lately the most illustrious lord G. L. Baron de Crassier,

counselor of the most exalted prince-bishop of Liège, has raised a suit against Henschen

and has again denied the bishopric of Maastricht on the Meuse,

by a Brief Elucidation published at Liège in the year 1738

and four years later by an Addition to

the same; it will be useful to discuss this matter a little more fully,

that the truth may shine forth the more. Yet I shall here touch

only upon those things which properly pertain to our

Saint or are in some measure connected with him:

for I do not think it necessary to write a vindication

for Henschen, or to establish the translation of the see.

Both the Rev. Father Peter

Dolmans of our Society has abundantly accomplished, having published at Antwerp

in the year 1740 Apologetic Observations for

the bishopric of Maastricht on the Meuse, in which he excellently refuted the Brief

Elucidation. Then to the Addition to the Brief Elucidation he opposed

Further Apologetic Observations, printed at Louvain

in the year 1742: to these, however, nothing, so far as

I know, has hitherto been answered, nor do I see what

could be solidly answered. Consult the Memorie Trivulziane

for the month of September 1740 from p. 1794.

[24] about the see of Tongeren, But to come to the point, the most illustrious

lord Baron in his Brief Elucidation p. 19

thus pronounces: Concerning St. Remaclus it is certain that he

was not only bishop of Tongeren,

but also dwelt at Tongeren, as plainly appears from the Life

of Bl. Trudo written by Donatus toward the end of the VIII century:

for there Trudo is said to have been sent to the blessed

Remaglius, pontiff of the city of Tongeren,

likewise admonished by the holy man Remaglius, prelate of the city

of Tongeren; finally at folio 36, having set out from Metz

he came as far as the city of Tongeren,

in which he found his spiritual father Remaglius the bishop.

That these things are so read in the parchment Codex

of 900 years, which the distinguished Elucidator possesses,

we readily believe; yet we do not think it thence to be concluded

that our Saint had his see at Tongeren.

Hear the first Observation of Dolmans

p. 48: Hariger in Chapeauville p. 86,

in the Life of St. Remaclus, writes the following: “The people

of Maastricht, with the common election of the whole

clergy and of the priests, … meeting the king,

with much prayer demanded that the blessed Remaclus preside over them…

To whose votes the king without hesitation

assenting, decreed to grant their petition

… He alone at last, overcome by the insistence of many,

is substituted as the twenty-seventh bishop of the

people of Maastricht”. From which I conclude that it is

not certain that St. Remaclus was bishop of

Tongeren: for when St. Remaclus was promoted to the infulæ

(of a fixed see), by the vote of what people,

by the election of what clergy was he preferred to the rest?

The people of Maastricht, says Hariger, with

the election of the whole clergy and of the priests … demanded

that Remaclus preside over them. Therefore the people of Maastricht

demanded St. Remaclus as bishop. But for what

church? For their own or for another? For their own assuredly:

for a people is not wont to demand a bishop for another's church,

but for its own. Moreover the clergy

of Maastricht elected St. Remaclus bishop. Therefore

St. Remaclus was bishop of Maastricht. For the clergy,

when the election belongs to it, elects a bishop for its own

church, not for another's. “The right of electing a prelate

belongs to the college of the widowed church”,

says Lancellotti in the Institutes

of canon law.

[25] and by solid arguments Then Dolmans forestalls an objection

apt to be made: But, you will say, Hariger lived

in the tenth century; Donatus in the eighth: therefore greater

is the authority of Donatus in the present matter.

I answer that the defect of age in Hariger is so supplied

that by his own testimony he easily

surpasses Donatus: for Hariger wrote the Life of St.

Remaclus professedly; Donatus mentioned him only

incidentally: accordingly Hariger examined the Life and deeds of St. Remaclus

more accurately than the other,

using for that purpose an abundance of ancient monuments.

Let us hear Hariger himself speaking in his preface to

abbot Werinfrid:

“You presented”, he says in volume 1 of Chapeauville p. 1 and

following, “a little book on the Life of the special patron

both of us and of you, namely of St. Remaclus, complaining

… that it had been published more briefly than the matter

demanded, in proportion to the greatness of his deeds,

and at the same time you seemed … to exhort me that I should not

only copy it, but should give it to be polished somewhat more

elegantly: both because there is at hand an ABUNDANCE of his deeds

taken from elsewhere, and because there is no lack

of information about the times, the diversity of which it is now especially

needful to know, from your cartulary… Therefore I set about it… And lest this labor,

undertaken at your exhortation, should

prove unfruitful, I have gathered together, down to

our own times, the times and deeds not only of him whom we have mentioned,

namely St. Remaclus, but also of the other

pontiffs of our see,

which COULD BE SCRAPED TOGETHER FROM WHATEVER SOURCE, and I have offered to your

wishes the Life THENCE EXCERPTED, for which above all you were panting

with desire”.

[26] From these things it appears that Hariger not only

undertook of set purpose to compose the Life of St. Remaclus, it is shown that the Saint,

but also used an abundance of his deeds,

and of the deeds of the other pontiffs scraped together from every quarter,

and thence excerpted the Life of St. Remaclus. If therefore

Hariger had found in these ancient monuments

that St. Remaclus was bishop of Tongeren,

would he have written him bishop of Maastricht? To suspect

that would perhaps not be altogether unlawful, if

he had written St. Remaclus of Maastricht baldly,

without adding the various circumstances which

accompanied the beginning of the episcopate. But now, since he relates

the manner in which, demanded by the people of Maastricht,

elected by the clergy, urged by the king, he was substituted as the twenty-seventh

bishop of the people of Maastricht,

it is necessary that we either establish St. Remaclus as prelate of Maastricht,

or believe that

Hariger forged all those circumstances of the election out of his own

brain. But who would think Hariger so little

a lover of truth? He indeed sufficiently shows

how zealous he was for sincerity,

when in Chapeauville volume 1 p.

28 he speaks thus: “St. Servatius presided as tenth

over the church of Tongeren… Whose birth indeed

and lineage, although some think he descended from the family

of the kinsmen of the Lord and Savior;

yet because we have by no means received the place

of his nativity, nor have we anywhere else heard

the causes of his coming; therefore we cannot be

easy in believing, nor do we judge that so great an opinion,

which perhaps is urged out of piety, is

by all means to be disparaged: since according to

Tully we ought not to be ashamed to confess that we do not know

what we do not know; and it befits the assertors of this opinion

modestly to confess ignorance rather

than irreverently to lie for the sake of piety”. Behold how circumspectly, how sincerely

Hariger gave his opinion about the lineage of St. Servatius.

And shall we believe such a man capable

of studiously fabricating many circumstances

with which to adorn the see of St. Remaclus at Maastricht?

[27] Finally the misuse of the word "Tongerensian" in

Donatus no less, although sometimes called of Tongeren by misuse, than in other writers

(of whom we have already treated, and shall treat again below)

easily had place, and he himself called

bishop of Tongeren one whose predecessors

had fixed their see at Tongeren. Whence Mabillon in

the Notes to the Life of St. Remaclus, which he published among the Acts

of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, Century 2 p.

490, and where St. Remaclus is called

bishop of the see of the people of Tongeren, skillfully explains that manner of speaking

there in these words: “That is,

of the people of Maastricht. For although the episcopal see

had been translated from the city of Tongeren to Maastricht by the blessed bishop Servatius,

as Henschen amply and learnedly teaches

in the Diatribe on the bishopric of

Maastricht; nevertheless the name of the earlier see

is sometimes read as attributed to the bishops of Maastricht.

From the city of Maastricht, commonly Marstrich,

on the Meuse the see afterward migrated to Liège, by the doing

of St. Hubert”. A similar misuse

of the word "Trajectensian" cannot be feigned in Hariger,

who in Chapeauville volume 1 p. 54 expressly

asserts that St. Monulph established the pontifical see at Maastricht,

in the church of St. Servatius, to be there

thenceforth: and accordingly he calls the successors of St. Monulph

Trajectensian for this reason, that the see had been placed

at Maastricht.

[28] he was truly and properly bishop of Maastricht. After these things he adds a second Observation:

If this argument of the distinguished Elucidator holds: Donatus

wrote St. Remaclus bishop of Tongeren:

therefore St. Remaclus was bishop of Tongeren;

this argument of mine must needs hold too: Baudemund wrote St. Amandus

bishop of Maastricht: therefore St. Amandus was bishop

of Maastricht. Nay, if there is force in the reasoning

of the distinguished Elucidator, much greater force must

be in mine: for Donatus is not read to have been either

disciple or intimate of St. Remaclus; Baudemund was both disciple and

intimate of St. Amandus:

accordingly St. Amandus was far better known to Baudemund

than St. Remaclus to Donatus. Moreover Donatus

touched the Life of St. Remaclus incidentally, Baudemund

devoted himself wholly to the Life of St. Amandus.

Accordingly the bishopric of St. Amandus was better ascertained by Baudemund

than the see of St. Remaclus by Donatus.

Finally Baudemund has many and most ancient

historiographers who adhere to him;

not so Donatus. Add that St. Martin

the Pope gave a letter to the holy Amandus

bishop of Maastricht, as Baronius has

at the year 649 number 38. Therefore the authority

of Baudemund is the stronger: whence we deduce that

our Saint too was bishop of Maastricht,

inasmuch as he was substituted for Amandus who was abdicating that same

bishopric. But if anyone should wish to assign Remaclus to the people of Tongeren

on account of the authority of Donatus,

he will consequently, on account of the greater authority of Baudemund,

have to say that after the abdication of Amandus

either Remaclus or another brought the see back from Maastricht

to Tongeren: but since no one

has hitherto dreamed of this, there remains to Remaclus the see

which Amandus relinquished, namely that of Maastricht.

[29] The contrary is not proved by the alleged residence at Tongeren, as is proved On page 52 Dolmans thus refutes

the residence at Tongeren: What the distinguished Man adds, that St.

Remaclus dwelt at Tongeren, he thinks proved

from this, that St. Trudo (on the testimony of Donatus) came at the bidding of an angel

to the city of Tongeren, in

which he found his spiritual father Remaglius the bishop.

But that St. Remaclus was found at Tongeren,

not because he dwelt there, but because

he was going about to survey his diocese, Notger bishop

of Liège relates, in Surius at the 3rd day of September:

“With pastoral solicitude,” he says, “he visited his parish

after his custom… Meanwhile

St. Trudo … is affected by a nocturnal vision… Brother,

says the angel, … go to blessed Remaclus,

who is not far from here”. Accordingly the inference

of the distinguished Man is not legitimate, by which from the lodging of one passing through

he concludes a fixed domicile in the city of Tongeren.

That St. Remaclus chiefly conducted the care of the bishopric at Maastricht

is gathered from Hariger,

who in Chapeauville volume 1 p. 94 writes

that the same Prelate, when the foundations of the monasteries

of Stavelot and Malmedy had been laid, returned

to Maastricht and again engaged himself in watching over the pastoral office.

Since he says that St. Remaclus returned

to Maastricht, he insinuates that the same had also previously

been employed there, and indeed that the pastoral care was there

so resumed as it had for some while been

interrupted there.

[30] I know indeed that Notger, just cited,

writes that St. Remaclus, betaking himself to Tongeren or Maastricht, from Notger and Hariger bent his mind to the cares of the pastoral office;

but this ambiguous sentence does not convict Hariger

of error: for from this disjunctive

statement, he betook himself to Tongeren or

to Maastricht, it cannot be determinately concluded that St. Remaclus

betook himself to Tongeren. Nay, if an exposition must be sought

for the doubtful sentence, it will nowhere be

more suitably sought than from Hariger himself.

But if we stand by his testimony, it is evident

that St. Remaclus resumed at Maastricht the discharge of the episcopal burden.

A like explanation of doubtful speech

has place elsewhere. Notger says, for example,

in Surius: Blessed John, happily governing the church of the people of Tongeren

or of Maastricht,

put off the man. And after many things: At length

the Man of God (Remaclus) … is given as prelate to the church of Tongeren or of Maastricht.

Blessed John and Remaclus were not, if

we speak strictly, prelates of both

cities: since only one or the other city

was the chief city of the diocese; but which,

Hariger again explains, who expressly writes each Saint

bishop of the city of Maastricht.

[31] Nay, Notger explains himself, when he says:

“King Dagobert … establishing the see at Maastricht, strove … to place blessed Amandus

… in the see of Maastricht.

And that holy man indeed for three years …

sowed the word of life: but seeing that he profited nothing

… he betook himself to other places, as he had done before,

for the sake of preaching. It is however

not ascertained how long the people of Maastricht

then remained without a pastor, until

his father gave Sigebert as king to the Austrasians…

But to him the people of Maastricht, out of the common election

of the priests, … offer prayers, that none but

blessed Remaclus ought to be set over them as bishop”.

All which sufficiently shows that these words of Notger:

prelate of the church of Tongeren or of Maastricht,

are to be interpreted in favor of the see of Maastricht.

For if the see remained at Tongeren,

why, on Notger's testimony, was St. Amandus placed in the see

of Maastricht? Why did the people of Maastricht

remain without a pastor? Why did the people of Maastricht

demand St. Remaclus to be set over them as bishop?

And thus Notger himself confirms

what I have related above from Hariger, and the bishopric of St. Remaclus at Maastricht

remains established not only by the testimony of the abbot

Hariger, but also of the bishop Notger.

[32] In vain therefore does the Lord Baron say on p. 20 of the Elucidation,

which neither the bull of Leo IX nor the other charters objected can overthrow that it appears clearer than light that St. Remaclus

is not only called bishop of Tongeren, but also

dwelt in the very city of Tongeren: for that alleged

residence has been refuted above. He then subjoins,

to confirm his opinion: In the first place there proves it the bull of St. Leo the Pope,

the IX of that name, in which, confirming the privileges of the monasteries of Stavelot and

Malmedy, the following are expressed *:

“Since the blessed Remaclus was the builder of both

monasteries, and formerly bishop and pastor

of the people of Tongeren”. Which bull Aubert

Le Mire reported in the Notitia ecclesiarum Belgii chapter

CXXVII, p. 291; as also the diplomas of the emperor Otto

II, and of the Supreme Pontiffs Gregory V and Sylvester II,

reported by Edmond Martène, Veterum Scriptorum & Monumentorum

volume 2 p. 50 and following. But, granting

gratuitously that it was so written in the originals,

by what reasoning will the distinguished Elucidator prove that the word

"of the people of Tongeren" is to be taken properly?

And so long as he has not shown this, the authority adduced avails

nothing for concluding, against more ancient testimonies,

that our Saint had his episcopal see

at Tongeren. Otherwise, from the fact that

Stephen, tenth bishop of Liège from St. Hubert,

in Chapeauville volume 1 p. 351 calls himself

bishop of the people of Tongeren — in an improper sense, of course —

anyone will be able by the same reasoning to infer: therefore

at that time the episcopal see was in the city of Tongeren,

and so either Stephen was not prelate of Liège,

or he had two episcopal sees at once,

one at Tongeren, the other at Liège;

which the people of Liège, I think, would by no means admit.

A like argument could easily be framed about several

other bishops of Liège; for Pope Zachary,

on the testimony of Henschen in the Exegesis, volume VII

of May p. XXXVI number 53, in Letter VI about the year

751 wrote to Fulcarius bishop of Tongeren:

Walcandus, in the cited volume of Chapeauville p. 154, is named

bishop of Tongeren by the emperor Louis the Pious

in a charter of the year 831. By the same name, in

the Henschen just praised, Franco,

the predecessor of the aforesaid Stephen, and Farabert call themselves,

subscribing to councils, the former at Toul in the year 860, the latter

at Ingelheim in the year 948. Durandus too,

twentieth bishop of Liège, to whom in the year 1024

Conrad the Salic granted a charter published by Chapeauville

p. 263, is said in his epitaph, in the same place

p. 260, to have governed the see of Tongeren.

[33] even were it established that these are not interpolated, Just as therefore the people of Liège will deny the consequence,

on the ground that those bishops, out of love of antiquity,

were called Tongerensian by themselves or by others only improperly,

since the see was then at Liège,

not at Tongeren; so we likewise say, according to

what has been disputed above, that the name of bishop of the people of Tongeren

was attributed to our Saint only by misuse, in place of that of the people of Maastricht.

Perhaps too the men of Stavelot at that

time wrongly thought that St. Remaclus had sat at Liège,

and therefore inserted the word "of the people of Tongeren" — as

several bishops of Liège had preferred to be

named — into the petition to which the Pontifical

and imperial rescripts had to be fitted.

Wherefore those charters objected, and others, even if it were certain

that they are not interpolated, cannot overthrow the Saint's

bishopric of Maastricht: since from the bare

title "bishop of the people of Tongeren" (which nevertheless, in

the praised Martène, the precept of

Otto III given in the year 986 and all the Stavelot monuments

older than the year 980 omit) the place of the see

cannot be gathered; the distinguished Man himself saying,

on the last page of the Elucidation, that that title was continued

by misuse among the people of Liège: why not

also among the people of Maastricht, from whom the see passed to

Liège, as has been proved abundantly and more than enough by Henschen

and most recently by Dolmans, both

in the earlier Opuscule p. 67 and following, and in the later

from p. 21. A few little words of

Charles de St. Paul will suffice here, p. 148 of the Geographia sacra

published at Amsterdam in the year 1704: At length holy

Hubert transferred the bishopric from Maastricht to Liège

in the year DCCIX. The translation of the see to Liège

Lobbetius and Foullon likewise assign to St. Hubert,

and Bucher and Fisen expressly bind it

to the said year 709: it was not therefore made

only in the X century, as the distinguished Elucidator writes

p. 40. So much in passing.

[34] But, you will say, none of the Stavelot monuments

cited has the title of bishop

of Maastricht either. I admit it; but neither have we used them

to define the place of the see. Further, since the most solid

arguments of Dolmans, nor the Index of Molanus. By several other by which in the earlier

opuscule in various places he showed that the episcopal see

was at that time at Maastricht, the most illustrious Lord Baron has not even

attempted to attack in his Addition;

in vain does he there on p. 37 suppose

his opinion about our Saint to be sufficiently

proved: for Dolmans rightly observed

in the Prologue of the later opuscule, that he proves nothing SUFFICIENTLY

who does not dissolve the reasons of the opposing

party. Lastly, as to what the most noble Man objects

on the cited page of the Addition from

the Index of Molanus, that Remaclus was substituted

as bishop of the see of Tongeren; I answer from the Natales

Sanctorum Belgii p. 187, where these things are read:

But so far did the sanctity of holy Remaclus

spread itself, that after blessed Amandus he was compelled by the clergy

and the nobles of the court to the bishopric of Maastricht.

And indeed that the Saint had his episcopal see not at Tongeren

but at Maastricht is proved, besides what has been said above,

10 by the manuscript Chronicle of Saint-Trond,

noted among us as N Ms. 3, in these words

at chapter 3: St. Remaclus … is ordained bishop

of Maastricht. The same is repeated in other words at chapter

5: at chapter 12, St. Remaclus abdicates the bishopric

of Maastricht. It is proved 20 by the Life from the Ms. of Rouge-Cloître,

both by its very title: On saint Remaclus, XVII bishop

of Maastricht, and by these words at folio 1 verso:

Meanwhile the Man of God, full of the Holy Spirit, is substituted

bishop of the see of the people of Maastricht. It is proved 30

by the Deeds of the pontiffs of Maastricht and Liège,

published from the ancient Ms. codex of the most distinguished lord

baron de Crassier himself, by Martène,

volume 4 of the Veteres scriptores col. 845. Nor can any doubt

be raised from the fact that Theodard is there

said to have succeeded his Master in the see of Tongeren,

or of Maastricht: for the author himself sufficiently

shows in the Preface col. 843 in what sense he understands the word

"Tongerensian", namely the improper one. Anselm,

canon of Liège, in volume 1 of Chapeauville

p. 101, has only: he succeeded him in the see of Maastricht.

Godeschalcus likewise, who flourished in the year 770,

in the same place p. 326: Theodard presided over the pontifical see

of the town of Maastricht.

[35] It is proved 40 by Renier, monk at St. Lawrence near

Liège, testimonies the same see is asserted for the Saint. chapter 2 of the Life of St. Lambert,

pronouncing thus: Remaclus received the see of the church

of Maastricht. It is proved 50 by the Magnum

Chronicon Belgicum in Pistorius volume 3 of the Scriptores

rerum Germanicarum p. 24, where it is thus

read: Blessed Remaclus, XXVII bishop of Tongeren

(from the more ancient place of the see, in which some of

his predecessors had sat) and XVII of Maastricht,

from the episcopal see which after St. Servatius

he held at Maastricht. In the same way understand the Extract

from the register of Malmedy, written by some

practitioner about the year 1299, which most courteously

in the year 1654 Benedict delle Rive, priest of the monastery

of Stavelot and prefect of the library and

archive, sent hither: In the year DCXLVI, according to authentic

histories, St. Remaclus, by command of Sigebert king

of the Austrasian Franks, is ordained bishop of the people of Tongeren,

a man of great sanctity, etc. In the year

DCLI king Sigebert, despairing of posterity of offspring

(this is false, for he had a son Dagobert

II, as Henschen has shown) built for God XII monasteries

here and there, among which Stavelot

and Malmedy were eminent, there cooperating

with him in these Grimoald the Mayor of the palace, and St. Remaclus

bishop of the people of Maastricht; who indeed

Remaclus, not long after, being weary of secular*

tumults, took in the monastery of Stavelot the habit of the monastic

life. But do not trust the years marked there;

for that practitioner, as Rive warns

in his letter, noted a certain number in place of an uncertain one:

whence some have been led into error.

Finally Theodoric, abbot of Saint-Trond, proves it

in the Life of St. Landrada, volume 2 of July p.

626, in these words: At that time Martin at Rome,

Remaclus at Maastricht, were wakeful in word and work

in the priestly care. I omit other things, lest I beget weariness

in the reader.

exprimit*

read pertæfus*

§ V. The virtues and deeds of the holy Bishop with St. Trudo, from the Life written by Notger.

[ ] The episcopal dignity adorned by the Saint's The extraordinary virtues of the holy Bishop the anonymous

of Stavelot relates summarily in the Life at number 3

and 9; the same Surius pursues more fully from the Notgerian Life,

at the III of September p. 24, but with the style

changed. It will be of use to hear Notger himself, who

describes them in the cited apograph of the old Cologne Ms.

in these words: Further, of what merit and of how entire a religion

he showed himself in that same government,

it is not within our faculty to unfold; since

at once in the very beginning of his ordination the Lord conferred upon him

so great a grace of preaching that all

most speedily lent the ear of obedience;

there was none who did not love him from

affection, and each one sedulously strove for his part to cleave to

his teaching: for arrogance usurped nothing

of his manners, humility entire had possessed him

entire. The proud revered him as

their superior, the humble embraced him as a brother,

good to all in common, assuredly benevolent to all,

placed on earth he showed himself heavenly in bearing

and in manners; angelic in aspect, shining*

in gait, holy in act, most upright in body,

most skillful in mind, circumspect in work,

most excellent in wit, great in counsel, catholic

in faith, most patient in hope, he stood diffused

in charity, and of what merit he was, he declared by his works.

[37] various virtues, many instructed by him Indeed most pious, and most approachable with all sweetness,

always midway between rich and poor,

so that the poor reckoned him as a poor man, the rich

as a rich; for he weighed not the persons of the powerful,

but the elegance of manners, honoring

each the more readily the more holily he knew him

to live; what he asserted with the mouth

he never destroyed by action; showing forth in work

what was to be taught by voice; and what divine grace

granted him, he transmitted to posterity: for not

only through himself do his deeds profit us even today,

but also the works of his disciples, and

of those who were faithfully educated by him, are for our example and

imitation. He was the founder and rector of very many

monasteries, where by his example

to the present day the ranks of those serving Christ

increase. He was the father and instructor of many

disciples, whose souls he both won for Christ,

and by whom and by whose

successors souls are still won. His talent,

daily put out at interest, yields its recompense,

and it is ascribed to his merits that it

is heaped up with their increase. Of whose number

was blessed Theodard, without doubt formed by him in ecclesiastical

disciplines, inasmuch as he was designated by him

as his own successor, and obtained the final crown

of martyrdom; holy Lambert too was one

of his discipleship, who himself also displayed an approved martyr

in his own time. He too is numbered

among the Saint's disciples by Hariger

chapter 51; but wrongly, says Mabillon in the Notes

p. 492. Certainly Godeschalcus, cited at number 34,

names no other teacher of Lambert

than Theodard, prelate of the town of Maastricht.

[38] So too blessed Hadelin, who himself also

is said to have been sprung from Aquitaine and a fellow-comer of that

pilgrimage, disciples: endowed with the spirit of prophecy while at one time he was performing works worthy of God

where he had withdrawn, saw in a vision the same

Father appear to him, comely in countenance,

reverend in hair, most excellent in all the rest of his stature,

who also showed him the place of his future manner of life and of his perpetual

rest, and designated a spring fit for the uses

of men, which is still plainly

shown to all, since both in that same place

he rests as to the body, and, present in spirit, does not cease

to bestow innumerable benefits daily upon believers

there. That afterward in the year 1338

the body of St. Hadelin was translated from Celles to Visé,

you will find in volume 1 of February p. 367. In

the work also of the holy Man Trudo, and in the lot of his election,

it is to be weighed with what intention the holy

Priest kept watch over the folds and the guardianship of the Lord's flock,

and that, full of the prophetic spirit,

he was at times foreknowing of things to come, and, burning

with the love of the divinity, had grown cold to the incitement

of all covetousness.

[39] With pastoral skill blessed Remaclus went about his parish

after his custom; He instructs Trudo about what is to be done, those whom he could he snatched from the voracity

of the wolves, and busied himself to win them

for the chief Pastor. The good he supported, that they might advance

to better things; the slothful and torpid he exhorted

to come to their senses. Meanwhile holy Trudo,

still blooming in boyish age, was putting forth his first

fruits of good savor: he, though he was strong in the nobility

of a very high blood, yet panted the more by the force

of divine love and by the pursuit of the virtues, and

was so touched by the ardor of the Holy Spirit, that at one time he bound

himself by a vow that, if at any time under Christ's

auspices he should learn the sacred letters, he ought to build a church

on the ground of his own property, and would there

serve perpetually, and would gather, so far as he could, fellow-workers

who would serve the Lord with him.

Glowing with such a desire, he is seized by a nocturnal vision,

etc., which the anonymous of Stavelot narrates fully enough

below at number 5 and following. Notger afterward

explains in what manner the holy Bishop

sent Trudo to Metz, and thence after

some years received him back sent home to him.

[40] Giving therefore (Remaclus) to him a little letter

of his own, sends him to Metz, and on his return fortified by his blessing,

he sent him to the bishop of the city of Metz, to be instructed by him according

to what the Holy Spirit had indicated to him.

Over the city of the Mediomatrici there then presided the holy

Chlodulf, as he was the son of blessed Arnulf according to the flesh,

so also his heir and most worthy successor in the merits of the virtues and in the infulæ

of the pontificate. Of Arnulf

volume IV of July from p. 423 may be seen; of

Chlodulf, volume 2 of June from p. 126. But since

Chlodulf was consecrated bishop on the XIX

of April 655, or, as Pagi prefers, the XIII of April

654, certainly Trudo was not sent to that bishop

before the year 654. He most kindly and

humanely received blessed Trudo, congratulating not only

on the choice of him who was received,

but on the most reverend commendation of the sender, namely of holy Remaclus:

he learned the causes of his coming,

charged that he be imbued with sacred letters and the divine

law, received in the stead of holy Stephen the delivery of his possessions,

and through several courses of years,

while he tarried there, treated him well; instructed in the things

for which he had come and promoted even to the height of the presbyterate,

he sent him back to the holy father and fellow-bishop

Remaclus, in the 10th year of the bishopric of Remaclus himself,

as the Chronicle of Saint-Trond has, chapter 8.

[41] receives him kindly, being wholly free from cupidity. Who, having inquired what the Lord

had done concerning him, and whether his journey and return had been

prosperous, and approving that he had been learned

in the divine law, rendered immense thanks to God: Praise, he says,

be to thee, O Lord, Father of heaven and earth, because thou

hast deigned to fulfill the word which thou didst reveal to me, thy little one,

concerning thy servant, and because thou hast called him back to me

safe, becomingly adorned with thy

precepts. And he granted him to announce the divine word

in his diocese, etc., concerning which in the Life of St.

Trudo at the XXIII of November. Then Notger praises

Remaclus, that he was so free from

all avarice and cupidity that he demanded nothing from Trudo for himself or

for the uses of his own. The author of the Life of St. Chlodulf,

volume 2 of June p. 129, writes

indeed that Remaclus wished Trudo to hand over his goods

to the church of Maastricht, and prayed God with continual

prayers to put this mind into Trudo;

but it is clear that this could be wished without avarice, nay holily,

before the will of God concerning those goods

had become known: and when the Saint learned this,

he fulfilled it perfectly, bidding Trudo bestow his possessions

not on the church of Maastricht but on that of Metz. Nothing therefore is taken from his praise by

that narrative. But let us hear Notger: It is pleasing

now to attend briefly to these things: that in blessed Remaclus, as

we said before, the fires of all cupidities

had cooled; that he surpassed the merits of all the priests

of our age; that he condemns all the bishops of our time

by comparison with himself; who, if perchance

the same option were given them as to this holy Man, would

without doubt do anything else rather than do it. That is to say,

so far from bidding devout persons bequeath by will what was to be offered

to another church and not their own, they would rather dissuade those who offered

of their own accord from doing it; nay, they would make them bequeath to themselves,

and — be it said by their leave — would supplant others.

Which the more it is to be pressed home upon us,*

the more is the merit of blessed Remaclus, who trampled upon it,

to be extolled with magnificent praises.

[42] Care of his household, solicitude for the flock. We therefore thought that the whole text of blessed Trudo

must be inserted, that we might also demonstrate that the gift of prophecy

and the knowledge of things to come were not lacking

to the blessed priest Remaclus. Who, first, when his household

mocked at that same servant of Christ, as he was departing from him, on account of his dress,

because he had taken to himself so mean-clad

a person, learned these things by the revelation of the Holy Spirit,

and most severely rebuked them upon that matter,

received them repentant, and admonished them to amend for the future;

but these things elsewhere. Who at last could suffice

to relate how holily and religiously blessed Remaclus

lived for the rest, and how great

was his solicitude toward the flock committed to him?

He admonished all to keep themselves from the allurements of the flattering

world, to draw back the steps of their intentions from secular

cares, to hold the concord of brotherly peace,

to run without stumbling the path of God's commandments,

not to love the world and its concupiscences,

but to trample them, with unresisting mind, as the flower of the grass that

shortly passes away, but with mind and work to desire heavenly things,

etc. Notger afterward relates the foundation

of the monastery of Cugnon: but that preceded the Saint's

episcopate. See above §3. Of the two

others it will be treated in the following §.

read angeli cus*

elsewhere culpandum*

§ VI. The monasteries of Malmedy and Stavelot built at the Saint's urging and by his care.

[ ] [He is the author to St. Sigebert of building some monasteries in the Ardennes forest:] Both those monasteries, which are even today

very famous, are distant from Liège, as one goes eastward

and toward Trier, about six Brabantine

leagues; the one from the other scarcely a league and a half,

according to Nolin's map in Denis de Sainte-Marthe,

volume 3 of Gallia Christiana. At what time

they were founded will be examined below, after

the reader shall have been more fully instructed from Notger about the site

and the other circumstances of the building. Thus then he has:

At length, growing weary of that place (Cugnon),

though it is uncertain for what causes — yet, as the report

of the account goes, namely because the same place was pressed on all sides

by the persecutions of those dwelling round about and of the more powerful,

and the king had not in

the neighborhood the means whereby any enlargement could be made for that place,

the holy Man brought his mind to approach the king about

this. It is my resolve, he said, to sound your highness,

illustrious prince; because,

although there are in many places monasteries dedicated by your munificence to the worship of God and

of the Saints, the Ardennes alone,

set among steep mountains, shut off beyond the frontier,

is known to have few or rather no monasteries;

let therefore your serenity command that some be

built there; the means of building will be at hand, God favoring,

and the nearness of our see will supply what is wanting:

nor will it be impossible to enlarge it and to provide for necessities,

since it is agreed that the lands lying round about

are subject to your dominion.

[44] It is yours, said the king, most blessed Father, yours

to counsel us in this, he is set by the king over the work, but it will be ours

to lend the ears of our serenity to assent as speedily as possible to your counsel

and to have the work done in good time;

it will concern you, I say, to arrange it and to press on

that work; it will concern us to assign the places which you

shall choose as suitable for these, and to supply the costs of whatever

help you shall need. Therefore, having called together

his faithful men, namely holy Cunibert

the archbishop, Atellanus, Theodefrid, Gislochardus,

bishops likewise, and also his nobles

Grimoald the mayor of the palace, Folcoald, Bobo,

and his household officers Chlodulf, Ansegisel

and Bezelinus, the king said: By the will of God and by your

consent and that of the rest of our faithful, we determine

that two monasteries be made within our forest situated*

in the woodland of the Ardennes, in which be gathered

religious men to serve the monastic Order,

who for our safety and that of our successors,

and for the stability and quiet of the whole kingdom,

and for the preservation of those who watch over the cares of the kingdom,

shall be bound to entreat almighty God more abundantly;

of which matter having at hand as monitor and instigator

the blessed Remaclus, we set the same

over that work as provisor and minister.

[45] The holy Priest therefore, having received the royal authority

and the support of the necessary companions, and founds Malmedy,

attacks the woodland of the Ardennes, vast with marshes and rugged mountains;

he crosses the Fagnes, comes to the brook

of the Warche: he finds there indications

that those places had once been given over to idolatry, stones

shaped into images of Diana and other portentous names,

springs fit indeed for the uses of men, but polluted

by the error of the heathen, and on this account still

liable to the infestation of demons. Therefore, having made an adjuration

of the name of Christ and stretched forth the sign of the holy cross,

he purified that place from the incursion of demons;

and at once the water, gliding away drop by drop from its own

channel, disappeared. Seeing therefore that that place

was fit for habitation, both by its fishful waters and by its most rich pastures,

he increased over the spring a copious

blessing of prayer, carved the sign of the cross on a stone,

and poured lead over it into the holes. (That this was done for no other reason

than that the sign of the cross might be more conspicuous,

and because hollows of stones are wont to be leaded by workmen,

our Foullon rightly judges, volume 1 of the Historia

Leodiensis published in the year 1735 p. 90, against certain who

philosophize much about the cause of the lead poured by the Saint.)

Straightway most abundant waters flowed back,

which make credible what has been said to those who behold them

today; and because he had cleansed the same

from the infestation of evil spirits, it pleased them to call it Malmundarium *

as it were "cleansed from evil." He built there an oratory,

constructed dwellings for the uses of the servants

of God, and increased whatever pertained to the worship of God.

[46] then Stavelot: But because that lay in the parish of Cologne,

he took pains to begin another also, which yet should be enclosed

within the boundary of his own diocese. Going forward

thence about two miles to the west,

he crosses the brook Calla, which is the boundary between the parishes,

and halted at the river Amblève on the border of a certain

mountain: there too, tarrying a while,

he wrought with much zeal the things suitable to a holy manner of life,

as anyone will be able to hear from the inhabitants

who report it. But because that same place,

although it abounded in springs, was yet confined by the narrowness

of the ground, and therefore less sufficient for the uses of the necessary

offices, he turned back again and went forward

a little to the east, and espied a more spacious place

and fitter for the future work: he began to press more attentively

upon the proposed labor, and, as is wont

in such matters, the divine power cooperated, and with prosperous

success the effect followed his will.

And because, on account of the concourse of wild beasts running together thither

from every side, either to drink or to feed, as it were to a

stall, the name Stabulaus had of old been given to that*

place, he did not think it worth changing, but that it should always be called and be

a stall of faithful souls, thenceforth hastening thither as to the pastures

of everlasting life.

For to the brethren whom the holy Man had for the present

gathered there, a troop of divers wild beasts often struck

no small terror by their noises,

so that they ran back in horror to blessed Remaclus, who was pressing on

that work, and begged what

fortification, what defense they might take against

these snares of the devil.

[47] he gives his people wholesome counsels against the devil's snares; Whom kindly consoling and strengthening in common,

Believe, he said, in the Lord, little sons,

faithfully, embrace his commandments inviolably,

keep your mind harmless from thoughts that are without

understanding, and, purifying your souls,

render to the Lord a clean service,

pray without ceasing, sing psalms at evening, morning and noon,

give yourselves to reading as often as possible,

fortify your foreheads with the little sign of the cross, store away its

power in the inmost cave of your hearts; and

at once the snares and the efforts of the invisible enemy will be reduced

to nothing, and the horror of those wild beasts, through

which he hopes he has found an approach for assailing you,

will be in vain: for in such wise he assailed

before you those dwelling in the vast desert of the Egyptians, of the Thebaid and of Nitria,

of whom may God grant that we become

even slightly imitators. He has a thousand

arts of harming, there are innumerable deceits of snares;

but we are not ignorant of the wiles of him who sometimes even

enters his engagements by means of flies,

and we, the servants of Christ, the more we are pressed by his assaults,

the more we rise up, when we resist.

Satan by experience greatly fears the beginnings of those who are entering

upon a right life: vigils, prayers, fasts,

meekness, patience, voluntary poverty,

contempt of vainglory, humility,

mercy, and above all a pure love toward

Christ; and therefore, like a lion in a den,

he lies in wait from a hidden place to frighten you from your purpose.

Having exhorted them with these and the like things, he made their

minds readier in the obedience of God and

rendered them more even-tempered against all temptations:

after this, having appointed overseers of the works, he assigned whatever

was to be done, and, returning to Tongeren or

to Maastricht, engaged himself again in watching over the pastoral office.

[48] Not much time thereafter had elapsed

when the king heard that the monasteries had been built in his forest: he dedicates the monasteries, and presides over them as abbot.

he rendered immense thanks to the almighty Lord,

and because the churches, adorned with new material, needed the episcopal

blessing, he sent and summoned blessed

Remaclus, and gave charge that both that which lay under

the parish of Cologne — with the consent of the venerable

Cunibert, metropolitan of that city —

and that which lies within our diocese, be solemnly consecrated by blessed

Remaclus; so that they which had been built

by his arrangement and utmost zeal

might also by his diligence be endowed with the pontifical

blessing: which the holy Man forthwith fulfilled,

as being one so dear to the king and the nobles

that nothing of importance was done without his

counsel. Whence it came about that, because he was held in so great

honor and dignity among them, when the solemnities of the Masses had been performed,

Grimoald the mayor of the palace handed over both monasteries

to the same blessed Man, to be thenceforth governed by his

skill, and that whatever was necessary for the monastic

Order should be furnished by the royal loftiness

at his suggestion and care. Thus far

Notger; from whose narrative it becomes plain

that those monasteries were not built before

the Saint was raised to the see of Maastricht.

The same is clear from Hariger chapter 56, from the anonymous of Stavelot,

and from the Chronicle of Saint-Trond chapter 7. To which

may be added the following from chapter 37 of the manuscript History

of the Saints of Namur, which we keep under

the wrapper B 93 a: When he (Sigebert) was pressing on more earnestly

with the founding of the monastery of Stavelot,

Grimoald the Mayor of the palace cooperating with him, and

likewise with the building of the monastery in the place which

is called Malmedy; having taken counsel

with Remaclus bishop of the people of Tongeren, etc., which

are also read in the manuscript Passion of St. Theodard at

the X of September.

[49] Mabillon, however, thinks the contrary,

volume 1 of the Annals p. 403, writing as follows: It is discussed at what time

That this was done before Remaclus was taken up to the government

of the church of Tongeren, appears from the above

charter of Sigebert, in which Remaclus is called only

abbot: although the writers of his life place it after his promotion,

being certainly not very accurate

in designating times. But this reasoning of Mabillon is

less accurate; since that above-mentioned charter treats only

of the monastery of Cugnon, as will be plain to one who inspects volume

1 of February p. 234 number 17. Denis

de Sainte-Marthe, col. 823, argues in this way:

Remaclus at that time was living at Cugnon,

therefore he was not bishop of Maastricht. I answer

that Notger and Hariger say only

that the Saint grew weary of that place, and this

could be done by one absent. Moreover, to live for a while at Cugnon

and to preside over the church of Maastricht

do not conflict with one another. Le Cointe at the year

648 number 22 contends that the beginnings of those monasteries

are not to be thrown back after the ordination of Remaclus as pontiff

of Maastricht, because Malmedy belongs

to the diocese of Cologne, and no one will easily

persuade himself that a monastery was built by a pontiff of Maastricht

in another's parish. The same

reasoning Martène also adopts, volume 2

of the Collectio amplissima p. 2. But this is a most trifling

conjecture, says Pagi at the year 651

number 9, where he refutes Le Cointe. Certainly the holy Bishop

could have been ignorant that the place, situated in the farthest part of the province

of the Ubii, was outside the diocese of Maastricht;

but if he did know it, he yet chose that place

in preference to another for the extirpation of idolatry, not

seeking the things that are his own, but the things that are Jesus Christ's. What

Martène premises on page 1, that Remaclus in the first

charter of the foundation of both monasteries,

col. 7, is given only the name of abbot, presses nothing:

for he is called bishop in the same charter,

as Henschen published it from the archive of Stavelot

at the 1 of February p. 234 number 19; and in

the second charter he is in both places called bishop

and abbot. Add that those charters were granted not, as

Martène thinks, about DCLI or in the very year DCLI,

the fourteenth of the reign of St. Sigebert, but some years

later. For Sigebert, in the last charter,

decreeing that the instruments of the cessions should be valid only from

the 14th year of his reign, does not say

that the precept in which this is contained was issued in the same 14th year;

nay, he plainly shows that from the 14th year of his reign down to

the time of the given precept many years had flowed by,

saying: If before the foregoing years,

while we still seemed to be under a tender age,

anyone received any of the instruments of this cession,

let no effect be given to it;

but let it remain void and empty: whereas he would surely have said

before this year, if he had drawn up that charter

in the very 14th year of his principate. But since

at the beginning of the said charter he mentions the first donation,

and holds it ratified, he sufficiently intimates that

the instrument of this one too was issued after the 14th year

of his reign.

[50] of the foundation, and the privileges of the imperial abbey of Stavelot Further, those monasteries, on the testimony of the Chronicle of Saint-Trond

cited, began to be built in the sixth year of the bishopric

of St. Remaclus, and accordingly in the year of Christ

655 or a little later. For according to the same Chronicle

chapter 8 the Saint governed the church of Maastricht

for ten years, which are to be reckoned from about the middle of the

VII century, as is plain from what was said at number

20. But in what year they were completed and dedicated

is not established: for the anonymous author in the Life

number 10 says only that with prosperous success they were speedily

completed; Notger above at number 48,

that not much time had passed when the king heard that the monasteries

had been built. With the lapse of time Stavelot

grew into a small town, which by some

is called Stablo or Stabla, and it is subject, together

with the adjacent tract, to the dominion of the abbot, who already

before the year 1376 is honored with the title of prince and count

of Logne, says Denis de Sainte-Marthe

col. 939. Of the origin and privileges of both monasteries

the Spicilegium ecclesiasticum Germaniæ, published at Leipzig

in the year 1716, volume

4, or part 3, p. 781, records these things: The imperial, free

and exempt abbey of Stavelot is composed of two monasteries,

namely of Stavelot and of Malmedy,

canonically united in perpetuity from their origin.

This was founded by Sigebert II king of the Franks*

about the year DCL ; it constitutes, with its

territory, an estate and immediate fief of the Holy Roman

Empire. The abbot for the time being of this consistorial abbey

is a prince of the Empire, having vote

and seat both in the general diets of the realm

and in the circle diets of the Rhenish-Westphalian circle.

This prince, confirmed as abbot by the supreme Pontiff,

receives his regalia and the investiture of his principality

of Stavelot and of the county of Logne and of his other

fiefs immediately from the august Emperor sitting

on his throne, and with the accustomed solemnities.

The religious of both the said monasteries constitute

but one Chapter, and that to be assembled at Stavelot

at the convocation of the prior

of Stavelot, as often as there is question of electing

a new abbot, or of taking possession

of the same abbey.

[51] The builder and first abbot of both these monasteries

was St. Remaclus, are assigned summarily. bishop of the people of Tongeren,

whose sacred relics rest in the church of Stavelot

in a most precious casket, exposed to the veneration

of the peoples. More about the prerogatives

of the monastery of Stavelot may be seen in the privileges

of the supreme Pontiffs, of kings and emperors,

and also of the archbishops of Cologne:

where it is to be noted that the privilege of the emperor Lothair

the third of the year MCXXXVII is called*

a golden bull; because it is written throughout in golden

letters, and from it hangs a golden seal,

on whose first face is the effigy of the emperor

with this inscription: Lothair III of the Romans,

emperor, ever august; on the other face is

the city of Rome with this inscription:

Rome, head of the world, holds the reins of the round globe.

And this original privilege still survives quite entire

in the public archive of the monastery of Stavelot,

as also the original privileges of the supreme

Pontiffs Celestine (II), Eugene (III),

Alexander, and Adrian (IV), and also of Frederick

and Arnold, archbishops of Cologne,

and various others. The privileges of the ancient kings and

emperors granted to the abbot and monastery of Stavelot

are found confirmed at length by Charles

IV, emperor of the Romans, of the year MCCCLVII,

from whose exemplar hangs a golden seal;

by Charles V of the year MDLIII; by Maximilian

II of the year MDLXVI; by Matthias of the year

MDCXIII. The said Spicilegium may be seen, and

Martène praised above: but in both places are wanting

the diplomas of Alexander, of Charles V, of Maximilian

II and of Matthias. But the diploma of the emperor Leopold,

given at Vienna the XX of July 1671,

by which all the privileges are confirmed, Martène published in the year

1730 in the Rights of the imperial monastery of Stavelot defended

against Ignatius Roderique

p. 50.

* i.e., a wood

* commonly Malmedy

* commonly Stavelo

* in others III

* rather 655

* he was only the II emperor of this name, though he himself styles himself III.

§ VII. He abdicates the bishopric and withdraws to Stavelot,

[ ] St. Theodard being substituted for him; at what time this happened:

the donations made to the Saint for the monasteries: whether he went to Rome.

[Out of love of the monastic life he lays down the bishopric, having designated Theodard as successor,] When the monasteries of Stavelot and Malmedy had been

built, as has been said, Remaclus the bishop presided over them as first abbot,

on the testimony of both charters of Sigebert.

But since on account of his episcopal duties

he had often to be absent thence, he appointed as his vicar in

the government of the monasteries St. Theodard,

who on no other title is to be numbered among the abbots of Stavelot.

Then, after no long time, says

the Life, Remaclus, weary of secular tumults,

obtained from king Childeric — not from Sigebert,

who had already died — that, leaving a successor

after him in the pontifical see, he might return to Stavelot

to the quiet of the beloved solitude. Who that successor

was, Notger thus explains: He set forth to the king and the nobles

the sufficiently approved life of St. Theodard,

and designated him by name to fill his place and to be substituted

after him in his see.

He then goes on at length to relate how great

a grief arose among all when the holy Prelate's purpose

was understood; in how many ways they tried to move him from his undertaking,

and how reluctantly at last they consented to

his abdication. Receive the matter summarily

from Hariger chapters 57 and 58: Therefore

the blessed Priest, longingly entering upon that solitude of a more retired life

which he had always had in his desire,

by permission of the king and princes, and with the assent of the clergy committed to him

and of the whole people, appointed St. Theodard,

a man of approved life, to succeed him, and

withdrew into the monastery of Stavelot, where, removed from secular

cares, he might more freely have leisure for God. O

how great a grief arose at his departure! O

how sorrowful he left those to whom he had imparted the seeds

of life, when they saw themselves bereft of such a Father!

Every age, both sexes, testified the grief of the heart by tears

poured forth, and, following after

him, resounded with endless cries. Moved by whose wailings

the holy Man soothed their sorrowful minds

with such consolations as he could.

[53] [which with difficulty, because of the zeal of the people wishing to keep their Pastor,] But they, receiving no comfort, nay

rather setting before him the ordinances of the canons, tried to hinder

his withdrawal as not lawful;

because it was not permitted to leave of one's own accord the flock which one had once undertaken to rule,

except under compulsion of infirmity or

the intervention of a capital fault. To

this the blessed Man answered that he was not going against the canonical

ordinances, since in this respect he was taught by the examples of Saints and

of better men: nor is he proved to stray outside the canonical rule

who strives to imitate the footsteps of those

by whose life and teachings the state of the whole Church, strengthened

in faith, has received increases of virtue. To this

hope, he said, the blessed John the Baptist encouraged me, who,

in the very tenderness of his years, chose rather to be squalid with

the hardships of the hermit than among citizens to defile his life

even by a light word. And Moses

approved this life, who, when he scorned to be enervated by the riches

of the Egyptians, in the desert of a vast solitude

was found worthy to be distinguished by converse with God.

Abraham, the father of all believers, incited me to these

affections, whose example too I have imitated:

having gone out from my native soil, I have renounced the desires

of all pomps. So Elias, so Elisha, so

the other prophets consecrated the beginnings of this holy manner of life,

who, distinguished by the contemplation of this vision,

subdued kings themselves. The example of the Lord

and Savior himself has impelled me to this,

who, when about to conquer the devil, chose the silences of hermit

solitude: whose mercy may grant, whose

loving-kindness assent, that I too may trample down the wiles of the enemy

raging there, and may be able to watch, as I desire, over

the profit of your souls. After

these words of answer and consolation, the venerable Father,

when he had at last made them more peaceful,

gave his blessing and dismissed them; and he himself, completing the journey

which he had begun, came to the monastery of Stavelot.

[54] Further, it ought to seem strange to no one that

nowhere is the holy Prelate read to have consulted

the Roman Pontiff upon that matter; at last he obtained from the king. since

Thomassin, part 2 of the Ancient and New Discipline of the Church,

book 2 chapter 52, on the resignation and cession

of bishoprics from the year of Christ 500 to 800, number

4, writes that it was not then customary that

leave should be begged of the Pontiff to lay down the episcopal

care, but that bishoprics were rather often resigned by prelates,

now simply, now in another's favor,

without consulting the Roman Pontiffs: of which matter

he brings forward various examples. Among others, at number 6, he records these things about Sulpicius

the pious and about our Saint: The blessed

Sulpicius, archbishop of Bourges, in the year DCXLI

sent back a renunciation to his church, the king permitting,

and giving the successor he had asked for. The bishop of Maastricht,

Remaclus, also cast off his burden, the king

consenting. For in good faith holy men

thought the royal assent sufficed for this;

the power of loosing bishops from the sacred bond and wedlock of their churches

not yet being claimed, either by usage or by canonical ordinances,

for the supreme Pontiff alone: which the praised Thomassin thinks

was at last established and confirmed under Alexander III, who

began to sit in the year 1159,

chapter 54 number 6. If, however, Remaclus (as is reported)

made pilgrimage to the thresholds of the Apostles,

I do not doubt that he sought the Pontiff's consent upon this

matter. See below number 61.

[55] As regards the time of the abdication, that it was rightly

bound by Bolland, volume 1 of February page 372,

to the year of Christ 660, Pagi asserts and proves

at the said year numbers 8 and 9. [That abdication and withdrawal did not happen before the year 660, nor should it be deferred after 661.] Certainly

it does not seem that it could have taken place before that year,

since toward the end of the year 649 Amandus was still sitting,

after whom Remaclus governed the church of Maastricht

for 10 years: nor is the Saint's withdrawal to be deferred

beyond the end of the year 661, which I show thus. His successor

Theodard had already been bishop for three years

when he dedicated the monastery of St. Trudo at Sarchinium

on the III Ides of October, on the testimony of the Chronicle of Saint-Trond

chapter 13: but that mark of the day designates

the year 664, since throughout the whole time in which Theodard

presided over the church of Maastricht the XIII day of October

did not fall on a Sunday except in the said

bissextile year, which was furnished with the Dominical letters G F.

Thence, going back three years, one comes

to the year 661, at the end of which, or at the beginning

of the following, Theodard began his bishopric.

And this reasoning moves me to think that Remaclus's abdication

is to be fixed rather at the year

661 than at 660; inasmuch as it preceded Theodard's ordination

by a very short time, as

is elicited from the latter's Life and Passion written by an anonymous author

of nearly the same age, as it seems, which we keep to be published

at the X of September.

[56] Many disciples flow together to the Saint, among whom Papelenus rightly, Free from the episcopal burden, Remaclus at once betook himself to Stavelot,

to the harbor of the longed-for quiet.

Hearing this, says Notger, devout men, either from the neighborhood

or from remote parts, whose

hearts God deigned to touch, began from every side

to flow together to him like bees to hives,

some to give themselves to the service of the Almighty and with gentle

yoke of Christ to bend their necks beneath it; others indeed to hand over

their children to be instructed in liberal, nay in monastic,

disciplines and to serve there perpetually,

many also to share of their means and revenues

for the necessities of the holy men: among

whom the Lord and father Papolenus came for the sake

of seeing him; but he strove to cleave to his teaching rather than

to return . He was therefore received by blessed

Remaclus most obligingly, and, having lived there without

offense, he who had come to be instructed was building up many

to imitate him. The holy Man, considering with

himself whether perhaps the Lord had sent him for this very purpose, not only

asked him not to depart from him;

but on account of discipline set him over the brethren

placed at Malmedy, according to the institution of St. Benedict,

his own authority in all things being safe:

he himself, returning to Stavelot, thereafter girded himself

to greater works of the virtues, and by his own example

animated many to the pursuit of his works.

[57] but Lambert is wrongly reckoned among them. Who in his presence did not change sadness into

joy, who did not turn anger into peace,

who at the sight of him did not temper the grief

of bereavement, who, forgetting the sorrow of poverty,

did not both despise the opulence of the rich and rejoice in his own

poverty, who, pressed by the burden of labors,

was not relieved by his exhortations, what youth,

kindled by the incitements of vices and by the titillation of the flesh,

did not at once, by his most wholesome admonition, become a cultivator

of chastity? He healed those vexed by the devil,

and none the less restrained from evil works those distracted by unlawful thoughts,

dashing them against Christ the rock;

he knew with what infirmity each labored, and,

making distinction according to the merits of their life, applied correction

according to the quality of the diseases. Meanwhile

there grew in that place the ardor of divine fervor and

the inflexible rigor of monastic discipline, and how

also in the other offices of the enclosure the power of sinning

was checked, the dormitory cell of that place is witness,

witness the holy martyr Lambert,

who, driven out from his bishopric, resolved to seek this place especially,

because he knew that there the path of holy religion

was more rigidly observed; witness also the stone

cross, at which — when he rose to prayer in the middle

of the night, because by the slipping of his shoe he struck a noise upon the

rest of the brethren — he stood, being so adjudged, until

daybreak, gave himself to psalmody and prayer,

drove off the cold, held back the snow, and became known

to all as holy. But these things elsewhere. That

is rightly added: for these things were not done while our Saint

was alive, but under abbot Sigolinus, as

Mabillon reports, book 16 of the Annals numbers 40 and

75; and here again Lambert is wrongly numbered

among the disciples of Remaclus, whom, on Godeschalcus'

testimony, it is established to have been taught by Theodard in

the royal court, and thence taken up to the see

of Maastricht. He will be treated of at the XVII of September

with the Roman Martyrology.

[58] Chronological errors concerning the donations for the monasteries What next follows in Notger and

is found below in the Life at number 14 about the donations

of Sigebert does not cohere with chronology:

for the learned now agree that St. Sigebert was not

among the living after the year 658; nay, Pagi

assigns his death to the year 656, others still earlier,

as may be seen in the same place at number XI. And so

the donations of Sigebert must have preceded Remaclus's abdication

by some years: but they were made

neither in the very fourteenth year of the reign, nor even

before it, as Notger writes, but each of them is later than the said

14th year. See above number 49 toward

the end. Further, what and how much was given to the monasteries,

let us hear from Notger. The illustrious king

Sigebert … with the consent of his faithful men, both

of the bishops and of the nobles above mentioned,

to the honor and worship of SS. the Apostles Peter and

Paul and of St. Martin, to whom those places were dedicated,

granted to blessed Remaclus that, for the uses of the servants

of God, that they might thenceforth live more quietly and

more freely have leisure for God alone without the encroachment of neighbors,

there should be measured out round about each monastery

twelve leagues, and that whatever was contained within their bounds

should be cultivated by the tenants of the two monasteries alone. Now a "league"

is so called only in the tongue of the Gauls, containing one thousand five hundred

paces, that is twelve stadia: which,

confirmed by testament and marked with the impression of the royal ring,

the holy Man received gladly and held reverently.

[59] In the other charter the same king added and confirmed by testament

to blessed Remaclus certain

properties in Aquitaine, namely the Toll, made to the Saint by king Sigebert, which is

at the port of Vetraria upon the rivers Taunacus and Itta,

also the port which is called Sellis, and moreover

Vogatio upon the river Loire with all things

appurtenant there; which is likewise found inserted in the precept confirmed

by his own hand. The holy, he says,

and venerable monasteries named Stavelot and

Malmedy, over which the venerable man

Remaclus, bishop and abbot, is seen under Christ's auspices to preside,

which the illustrious man Grimoald the mayor of the palace

built by his own labor in honor of saint Peter and saint Paul

or of saint Martin and of the other Saints,

in the vast wilderness of the Ardennes —

even as we by our precept granted from our forest the very places for building

those monasteries — although they are enriched by the grace of Christ,

are nevertheless seen to have but little

worldly substance. Therefore, admonished by divine inspiration,

we have determined to look somewhat to those monasteries out of our fisc

and to comfort them: and the rest

that follows in the same precept. From the fiscs also

lying about the monasteries he gave him the tithes,

which the inhabitants of those same monasteries are still seen

to possess. That the estate of Germiniacum

(Germigny), situated in the district of Reims,

was also granted to Remaclus by the pious munificence of the same king,

is made credible by the charter of Childeric II

confirming the donation of the estate above named

with its integrity and soundness, with the boundaries

pertaining to it , or the mill itself or the vineyard

with the vinedresser, etc.; the same the charter of Dagobert

II asserts: as may be seen in Martène volume

2 of the Collectio amplissima col. 9 and 13.

[60] But since the holy Man judged the estate granted by Sigebert

in the woodland of the Ardennes too ample

which by prudent counsel he asks Childeric to diminish. to be defended, against the force of human ambition

or cupidity, by monastic simplicity,

he obtained that it be diminished by half;

so that those who had possessed 12 leagues about the whole circuit

should thenceforth retain only six.

Concerning which matter Notger thus: Childeric was ruling

the kingdom of Austrasia, whom the holy Man approached;

he asked that what his uncle had bestowed be confirmed.

The king gladly assented, and, according to the request of the Man of God, ordered that a circuit

of the same measure be marked out afresh by his successor holy Theodard and by Odo

his household officer: of which he reserved the half to his own dominion,

and reconfirmed by testament the other half for the uses of the servants of God.

Which it is established that the Man of God did sagaciously

and providently; so that, if it should ever befall his successors

to be less powerful, they might with

less difficulty and more freely retain what was smaller, without the envy

and disquiet of the neighbors.

That testament or precept of Childeric

Henschen published, volume 1 of February p.

235, but without chronological notes. It has seemed good to add them here

from the Letters of foundation and of the privileges

of the monastery of Stavelot and Malmedy,

which we keep under the wrapper ✠ Ms. 34

a: Given when the month of September had made VI days,

in the VIII year of the reign of the lord king Childeric. At Maastricht,

happily. Now the eighth year of Childeric coincides

with the year of Christ 667, not 665 or 666:

for he did not, as Martène will have it col. XI, begin to reign

in Austrasia in the year 658; but in 660,

as Pagi proves at the said year

number 6. Childeric's precept was confirmed by the emperors Louis

the Pious and Otto I, in whose

charters, in the praised Martène col. 23

and 43, these things are read about our Saint: The aforesaid

Father, loving rather to serve the Lord in quiet

than to endure the tumultuous fluctuation of the world,

besought the same king Childeric that

he would withdraw VI leagues from him for the quiet

of the monks living there, and would confirm VI to him by

his precept, and would order them to be marked out on every side;

as the same king gladly took care to do. What Notger says of Pepin

of Herstal, when he was administering Austrasia, that he too,

hearing that the worship of religion was increasing

in the aforesaid monasteries, handed over two estates from his fiscs for the uses

of the table of the servants of God, one in Hesbaye, the other

in the Ardennes, for the love of God and of that same Saint;

does not belong here: since it is attributed

to the Saint as living, who nevertheless had died long before the principate

of Pepin.

[61] If he went to Rome, it seems to have been done immediately after his abdication, Equally wrongly is Remaclus's pilgrimage

toward Rome deferred to the times of Theodoric

III the king, and of duke Pepin. In their time,

says Notger, they report that he went to Rome to the suffrages of saint

Peter and of the other Saints;

and that there he gave himself to fasts and prayers so long,

until by a divine gift, and relying upon angelic

consolation, he deserved to obtain a certain part of the relics of the apostle,

which also among us,

adorned with gold and gems, are kept in the greatest

honor. Which although to some it may perhaps seem incredible,

we, who venerate that incomparable treasure,

have seen many benefits divinely bestowed by their presence;

which anyone will find who reads it in the book*

of his virtues.

Of the Saint's Roman journey the anonymous of Stavelot is silent,

silent too is Hariger, nor does Notger himself narrate it

positively, as is plain from the word

they report. Whatever be the case, that journey could not at that time be

undertaken by Remaclus, inasmuch as he died before

Theodoric in the year 673 succeeded to the kingdom

after his brother Childeric. Bartholomew

Fisen in the Flores ecclesiæ Leodiensis at the III of September

chapter 6 writes that the Saint made pilgrimage to the thresholds of the Apostles

about the year 668,

having taken St. Hadelin as companion of the way; but he proves

neither. The Life of this saint may be seen, volume 1

of February p. 373. More rightly at the said year

668 number 15 Le Cointe thinks that Remaclus, if he ever

undertook the journey into Italy from Gallia Belgica,

committed himself to the road immediately after laying down his bishopric;

which could have been done, that his abdication might be ratified by St.

Vitalian the Pontiff. But there does not seem

to remain a sufficient foundation for a pilgrimage of this sort;

since the relics of which mention

is made above by Notger do not seem to be other than

those which Amandus, the Saint's predecessor in the bishopric of Maastricht,

received transmitted from Pope Martin,

as in the letters of Martin himself to Amandus,

volume 1 of February p. 867, these words

testify: But the relics of the Saints, of which

the bearer of these presents reminded us, we have ordered to be given.

elsewhere maluit*

ad eam*

perhaps quiscumque*

§ VIII. His happy death and its time, the Saint's age and his successors: by whom and when the Life and miracles were written.

[ ] Feeling the end of life to be at hand, his Notger, in narrating the Saint's death, inserts many things as

though said by him: At that time blessed

Remaclus, now an old man, but riper in manners than in years,

understanding that the day of his calling was at hand,

on which honor in heaven should recompense what

labor had worn away on earth; he resolved to comply with

his subjects, whom, being summoned and sorrowful at the departure of their Father

and their own desolation, he consoled with these last

words: Behold, most holy Fathers, behold, dearest

brethren, knit together in the frame of my inmost heart,

half part of my soul: I am about to enter the way of all

the earth, and shall not thereafter return

to you; your solitude, yours whom I leave,

troubles me; my own going, who

am comforted with God as consoler, does not sadden me: the coming of a condition

common to every mortal does not

frighten me, since the whole life even of the wise ought to be

a meditation upon death. No base death can

befall a brave man, … none wretched to him who looks ahead.

Rather the tenderness of your minds,

of yours, which it would still be needful to form

with harsher pursuits, holds me back; for you, I say,

I fear, lest, if the madness of the wolves drive on, there be none

to drive them off. These monasteries I have dedicated to God and to the Saints,

I have also assigned them to be handmaids to your uses,

and I have hitherto used your strong and faithful

labor… In what place our affairs stand, you see,

and that this world is set in wickedness

you all mark together with me: if therefore anything is of weight,

see that you be never by any error seduced from the integrity which

I have placed in you;

but be united by the glue of peace in Christ, according to that

which both the tradition of the fathers holds, and you have learned by the reading

of the holy Scriptures, and also by the admonition of my

vigilance: and so let sacred reading never depart

from your ears or from your hands, and let your meditation upon it

be continual.

[63] For as a field, however fertile, cannot be fruitful

without cultivation, to the pursuit of prayer and to the other virtues, so the mind without teaching;

and for a learned and cultivated man to live is

to think. One must apply oneself frequently to prayer,

and entreat pardon for the excesses contracted through human frailty,

and not only make supplication about those hereafter to be contracted,*

but keep watch with cautious care:

for where anyone has given himself to sloth and idleness,

let him implore God in vain; and let it be virtue for you

to flee vice, and the first wisdom

to have been rid of folly. Modesty, and faith the uncorrupted

sister of justice, and naked truth, let these hold place in your hearts,

that those who behold your works may be provoked

to the example. Offer to God and to your prelates a true confession

of your faults, uncover the beatings of temptations

at their very entrance, because an evil shame conceals the untreated ulcers

of fools, and by covering them

supplies them strength. Show the good of obedience to your elders,

imbue your minds with their teachings,

because each man then lives rightly if he takes care

to be what he hears. Refrain from all things which anger

loves to do; because it is true that the only

triumph of innocence is not to sin where one might have leave

to do so. Be temperate also in the best things and in those adjudged good,

because there is a measure in things, there are

fixed limits at last, beyond and short of which the right cannot

stand, and it is true that each should measure himself by his own scale

and foot. Let no one be injurious to another,

because it is better to receive an injury than to do one:

embrace patience, which is the harbor of miseries;

since no one is so savage that he cannot

grow gentle, if only he lend a patient ear to cultivation.

[64] especially to peace and concord Be deterred by no labor set before you by your prelates,

because all labors that are illustrious and ennobled are made tolerable

even by endurance , and the habit of labors

makes the bearing of pains easier.

Avoid sluggishness, because virtue does not

easily accompany slow minds. Trample pride above all things,

that you may be granted true liberty; for he is not free

whom a proud mind inflames. Love chastity,

because all sacred Scripture says

that nothing is better, nothing preferable to the celibate life. Let prosperous things,

which weary the minds of the wise, not

delight you; because him whom favorable circumstances have delighted

more than enough, they will shake when they change. Above all I admonish

that peace and the concord of unanimity be held,

so that, as you are gathered into two monasteries,

so you may burn with the twin love of God and of your neighbor:

and that, because you are ruled by one pastor, you may never

be sundered by any scandal or schism.

Let not envy, which consumes the bones, break

you; because the envious man grows lean at another's rich

possessions, and the Sicilian tyrants found no greater

torment than envy: and do not complain, perhaps, of a smaller substance;

for he is not poor to whom the use of things

is at hand, and nature herself daily

admonishes us with how few, how cheap, how

small things she has need — granted that not by riches are the minds and cares

of men relieved.

[65] he most lovingly and strongly exhorts them; These then are the counsels of my exhortation,

which, as I am on the very point of departing and about to bid you the last

farewell, it was fitting should be imparted to you,*

that they may be impressed upon your hearts the more closely,

the more it shall be evident that you are the more grievously burdened by my departure;

and if they shall have brought forth any fruit, that

will be my palm, in that I shall seriously triumph, therein

my mind will rejoice exceedingly. You too, dearest ones,

know that you must die; therefore suffer not, I beseech you, the time granted

for penitence to pass in vain.

There will come, most certainly there will come, a day when you shall in vain long for

the use of a single hour: while there is time,

work good toward all, because the fleeting years

glide by and day is thrust on by day. The year, and the hour that snatches away

the kindly day, warn that mortal things

are not to be hoped in. Death is the last line, perpetual

enjoyment is given to none, and heir follows the heir of another as

wave follows wave. We are dust and shadow,

one death awaits all and the road of death must be trodden once;

but ending in a good work we shall be blessed,

when, our bodies left behind, we shall be free of all cupidities

and rivalries.

[66] After these sweet admonitions of fatherly love

and last words of charity, he calmed their grief over

his departure and rested from preaching. and, having received the Viaticum, he dies holily Then, stricken by a slight fever and strengthened by the viaticum

of the most holy Body and Blood of the Lord,

between the hands of his dearest sons he there

rendered his soul to his Creator, where he had sweated most

in the service of God, a true Israelite who, having gone out

from Egypt, despoiled his neighbor, carrying back to his creditor

the talent put out at interest. His body,

honorably cared for, was buried with much melody of psalms

and hymns in the oratory of blessed Martin,

which he himself had founded: where it also lay

for some time, and showed by attesting miracles

that he lived with the Lord. There succeeded him the lord

Papolenus, an apostolic man, of whom we made mention

above; then Sigolinus, likewise approved by the judgment

of the blessed Father; next Goduinus,

full of years and of maturity of manners, who also

translated the body of the holy Man and placed it in the church

of saint Peter, and adorned his bed with gold and silver:

where through his merits the Lord works

even to the present many benefits of miracles,

an abundance of which, collected and written down, is preserved

there, to the praise and glory of his name,

which is blessed for ever. Amen.

[67] The year of the Saint's death some either defer too much,

not before the year 667, or anticipate too much; whose

opinions to review here one by one I do not judge

necessary. He was still among the living in the year

of Christ 667, as is plain from the precept of Childeric II,

which is inscribed as given to Remaclus in the 8th year of his reign,

the VI of September. See number 60. But if he died

on the same day (as Le Cointe and Sainte-Marthe will have it)

on which he is more solemnly venerated, namely the III Nones of September,

then without doubt he also survived into the year

668: nor do the things recorded of his successors, Papolenus, Sigolinus and Goduinus,

allow a longer life to be assigned to him, says Le Cointe at the said

year number 14. Rightly indeed, provided that what he reports

about Papolenus on p. 629 be true; namely

that he governed Stavelot not a full two years,

and died in the year 670, on the seventh Kalends

of July. But since Mabillon volume 1 of the Annals

p. 465 confesses that of Babolenus, abbot

of Stavelot, almost nothing is known but the name, and Le Cointe

does not prove his opinion about the latter's death from any other source,

the year of Remaclus's death cannot hence be certainly determined.

Nay, his happy passing could have occurred

in the following year 669, or even later:

it is certain, however, that it happened before the end of the year 671,

if Pope Vitalian, who died the XXVII of January

672, granted a charter to Remaclus's successor,

as after Mabillon Sainte-Marthe relates,

volume 3 col. 940. But I think that the charter, as it now

stands, seemed spurious to Martène,

since he did not publish it among the Stavelot monuments,

nor afterward defend it as genuine

against Ignatius Roderique, who in Disputation

1 chapter 1 had called it spurious, and not undeservedly indeed.

For who would believe that Vitalian granted to abbots

the faculty — and that an unlimited one — of dispensing

in the degrees of consanguinity, so that those might marry

who are connected by kindred or otherwise, as

is there said. Mendacious too is the added Indiction

IV, for at that time Papolenus was not yet abbot of Stavelot.

[68] But Mabillon, at the year 661 on the page

cited, seems to have held that bull as by no means suspect.

nor after 671. We have received, he says, from the archive

of Stavelot a charter of Pope Vitalian, inscribed

“to Babolenus, abbot of the monasteries built at Stavelot

and Malmedy in honor of

saints Peter and Paul”. By which charter

the Pontiff confirms all that king Sigebert

bestowed upon the monastery of Stavelot, where saint Remaclus,

Babolenus's predecessor, is said to rest;

and he grants the faculty of electing an abbot according

to the rule of saint Benedict: moreover he orders the monastery,

with its inhabitants and its goods, to be altogether

free. “Written in the month of December

* , in the fourth indiction”, which corresponds to this*

year. Nor does he add more, and so our Saint

had already died in the year 661 in Mabillon's opinion.

From what conjecture, therefore, does the learned man

in the same volume p. 478 assign to his death the year

664? That indeed is hard to grasp, since those

two do not cohere. The error of the indiction Sainte-Marthe

noted, and warns that for "fourth" is to be read

XI or XII; doubtless in order to retain from Le Cointe

the year 670 as Papolenus's year of death. But I,

if Papolenus obtained any charter from Pope Vitalian

(which I would not dare absolutely to deny), think it was given

in the Indiction XIV or XV, and that he

who copied it, when perhaps he could not read the mark of the number ten,

X, eaten away or obliterated by age,

set upon the charter the ciphers IV as the whole number:

and this appears much more likely

than that IV was written for XI or XII; for these

numbers have almost nothing in common with that one. But the Indiction

XV began in the month of September in the year

671, within which and the year 667 I have placed the holy Prelate's

death.

[69] His age, and the chronology of some of his successors; As concerns his age, he died, according

to the anonymous of Stavelot, now wearied with extreme old age;

which words seem to signify

decrepit old age: but Notger, at the beginning of this

paragraph, says that he was indeed an old man, but riper in manners

than in years. Certainly, if he was not born before the year

612, as we saw from the same Notger

and Hariger at number 9, he did not complete the sixtieth year

of his age. On his death there next

succeeded St. Papolenus or Babolenus, of

whom above; but how long he presided is unknown.

Following him, St. Sigolinus could have received at Stavelot St. Lambert,

driven from the bishopric of Maastricht by Ebroin in the year

674. On the death of Sigolinus, St. Goduinus was made

abbot, who in the year 677 obtained for

his monasteries a charter from Dagobert II,

and likewise another from Theodoric III about the year 681,

as Le Cointe judges at that year number 66.

After the death of Goduinus, which Sainte-Marthe

with Le Cointe places about the year 685, both

monasteries were governed by Papolenus II, called by others

Abolinus, Pabulinus, Papolinus and Bobolinus.

In favor of this man (not of St. Papolenus, long before

dead) there survives a precept promulgated by Clovis III

in the 2nd year of his reign, the XXV of June, that is about

the year of Christ 693. A sixth abbot by name

Rabangarius becomes known from a Plea held before Charles

Martel, mayor of the palace, about 720, as

the editor Martène notes col. 15. For the rest, it seemed good

to establish here in passing the succession of these prelates of Stavelot,

in order to correct the errors of various writers.

For 10 Benedict delle Rive, praised above,

because he falsely supposed the mentioned charter

of Clovis III to have been granted to St. Papolenus

the second abbot, also wrongly deferred Remaclus's death

to the times of Clovis III, and confounded the second

abbot with the fifth; which last

error Henschen too followed, volume

V of June p. 195 on St. Papolenus, where also the title

of bishop is to be struck out, since it is nowhere read

as ascribed to that saint, but to the other Papolenus,

who was the fifth abbot, and yet not a saint.

20 Fisen, at the III of September p. 400, in reviewing

the abbots of Stavelot, confounds Rabangarius

the sixth abbot with Goduinus, unless the latter

had two names; and then in place of Rabangarius he sets as successor

of Bobolinus one Abolenus, which Abolenus

is to Le Cointe one and the same with Bobolinus himself,

or Papolenus II. I pass over other parachronisms about Sigolinus

and Goduinus, likewise to be emended from the series

given.

[70] The Life of our Saint was first committed to writing by

a monk of Stavelot, The Acts and two books of miracles, written by various as he himself sufficiently indicates

at numbers 1 and 14, but he is silent about his name, and the time

at which he wrote can nowhere be gathered from it:

that he was not, however, of nearly the same age as the Saint, but

more remote from his time, these words at number 14 suggest:

Which seems to endure unshaken down to our own time. Mabillon, who first

published this Life in print in the Benedictine Century 2,

p. 488, says that that same anonymous author

also seems to be the author of the first book of the miracles of St.

Remaclus; which he afterward asserted, book 15 of the Annals

number 43: nor do the authors of the Histoire littéraire

de la France doubt of this, volume 5 p. 94. Since

therefore the writer of book 1 of the miracles at number 31

below says that he reduced those miracles to writing

at the urging of Airicus, abbot of Inden, who presided over Inden

in the principate of the emperor Lothair; rightly

they say that that Life was first composed by him

about the middle of the IX century, that is, when about 180 years

had elapsed from the Saint's death. The things done by the Saint

he wrote, as it seems, almost from tradition alone,

which survived in his monastery; and it is sufficiently

apparent that he had not been fully informed of everything. But about the miracles

he protests that he narrates none other

than those which he himself saw, or received from witnesses worthy

of credit. The second book of the miracles does not have

the same author, but three different monks

likewise of Stavelot, who were present at almost all

they narrate: the first relates deeds of the year

883 and following; the second wrote under abbot

Odilo about the year 950, as the authors

of the Histoire littéraire cited have it: certainly he was contemporary with St.

Odilo, whom Fisen relates to have passed to the Lord

in the year 954. The third testifies that he was sent

by abbot Ravenger to receive holy orders;

of whom afterward in the annotations to chapter 3 of book 2 of the miracles.

[71] The little work of the first anonymous author, or booklet

on the Life of St. Remaclus, which will be published below. Notger bishop of Liège

enlarged and extended, being urged to

this by Werinfrid, abbot of Stavelot, to whom also he dedicated

his book, as is plain from the prefixed

letter. And this lucubration of Notger I have for the most

part inserted piecemeal into the Commentary, lest

it remain unpublished: it may be read entire, with the style changed,

in Surius. Fully likewise the things done by the Saint while alive

Hariger, abbot of Lobbes, contemporary and friend of Notger,

pursued, from chapter 47 to

the end: he is, however, more concise than Notger. Hariger's

editor Chapeauville, volume 1 p. 83, notes that the Life

of St. Remaclus was also drawn up by Thietmar,

and survives in the monastery of Stavelot, written by hand

on parchment in a very ancient Roman letter.

But that seems to be merely an apograph

of the earlier anonymous author: for the beginning and the end

are the same as in the old Cologne Ms., from which our Gamans

copied it with others and sent it hither

in the year 1638. Further Thietmar or Thiatmar,

whose letter prefixed to that Life we shall give below,

presided as sixth abbot over the monastery of Helmarshausen in Saxony

from the year 1080 or 1081,

as is gathered from the Translation of St. Modoald, volume

III of May p. 78. Besides 8 different apographs

of the Life written by the anonymous author — to one of which, mutilated in its middle

part, the title of martyr is wrongly attached —

we have two other Lives of the Saint: one

in a Maastricht codex, but interpolated, whose beginning

I gave above at number XI; the other from a Ms. of St. Salvator

at Utrecht, which is rather a kind of compendium of the Life and

of the miracles. I prefer

the older Life by some religious of Stavelot,

which I shall publish after this Commentary from

a most ancient Ms. of the abbey of St. Paul at Utrecht,

collated with six other Mss. and with Mabillon's edition.

To the Life I shall subjoin the miracles, distinguished into two books,

as the praised Gamans sent them hither

from a notable and old Ms. in quarto of St. Peter's at Cologne,

found in the Carthusian house of Cologne, and I shall collate them with

5 other Mss. and with Mabillon. But that the miracles

were not written by Notger is plain from the preceding

number, and Pagi proves it at the year 882

number 18 against Baronius. The same Vossius admits,

book 2 On the Latin Historians chapter 41 p. 353 of the second

edition, and others.

add non*

i.e., contentione*

communicare*

Sainte-Marthe reads Septembri*

§ IX. Churches dedicated to the Saint, the finding of his tomb, his cult propagated to Fanum S. Galli: his bones carried to Liège grow famous by miracles.

[ ] Two churches built to the Saint at Liège; Before the Acts are published, I shall set forth the remaining things

pertaining to the Saint's posthumous glory, keeping the order

of times. Fisen relates in

the History of the church of Liège p. 239 that on the III Nones of June of the year 976

a foul storm raged through Hesbaye,

which seemed to have destroyed all hope of the coming harvest:

and since this fell heavily upon the monks of Stavelot,

on whose fields the evil had lain not

lightly, it was announced from heaven to Godfrey, dean of that

monastery and son of the count of Vianden* ,

as he was prostrating himself in prayer, that this plague had been inflicted

by God the avenger on account of fields

profanely tilled on feast days. Further, that the loss could be repaired

if the sacred body of Bl. Remaclus were carried through

that region in an ambarvalian supplication.

So it was done. On the way through the city of Liège

they were climbing the Publémont, and by chance

the bearers of the holy body had rested

beside the basilica of St. Martin, when, the signal for the journey being given,

they could by no force move the sacred body from the place before

Godfrey had vowed to his holy Father a church

to be set in the same place. It was afterward

built (by Notger the bishop, as he has it in the Flores

Leodienses p. 207), and today is a parish church.

For the rest, wherever the sacred litter was brought through Hesbaye,

a wondrous fruitfulness followed.

John Placentius, in the Catalogue of the prelates

of Liège, treating of Notger, writes that in his time

the aforesaid Godfrey conveyed the relics of St. Remaclus

from Stavelot to Liège, on whose occasion,

he says, two parishes of the same name

were built. Foullon likewise, volume 1 of the History

of Liège p. 203, from the Placentius cited asserts

that two parish churches at Liège were designated to the Saint,

when he had grown famous by new miracles; but that

he places their building about the year CMLXXV

is, I think, conjecture, for Placentius does not mark the year,

nor does Bucher in his Chronicle.

[73] In the year 1040 St. Poppo the abbot took care that the church of Stavelot,

restored by him and endowed with various ornaments,

should be consecrated with solemn rite, Stavelot also dedicated to him in the year 1040, on the testimony

of Everhelm in his Life at the XXV of January p.

647. A Brief narrative of this dedication and of the tomb of St. Remaclus

previously found, written in the best faith by an eyewitness,

Martène published from an old Ms.

of Stavelot, col. 60, whence I excerpt the following: In the year from the Lord's incarnation

MXL, on the Nones of June , this monastery was dedicated

in honor of blessed Peter prince of the apostles,

of Paul and of Remaclus, by the venerable bishops

Herimann, archprelate of the holy church of Cologne,

Nithard of Liège, Herimann of Münster,

Richard of Verdun, Gerard

of Cambrai, king Henry the third being present,

and the lord abbot Poppo governing the abbey in the twentieth year

of his ordination — which abbey he himself

restored from the foundation, and, as now appears,

brought to its accomplishment. And the circuit of walls,

laid out for its protection after the manner of a middling town,

was on that same day consecrated for the burial of orthodox

departed in this wise. For the bodies

of our blessed patron Remaclus, and also of Justus

the martyr, and very many precious relics, are carried with

exorcised water in lustration round about it on the outside,

and, the circuit accomplished, with the greatest

exultation of clergy and people, exalting the famous praises on high,

they are brought back again to the same entrance;

and with the same distinguished procession the gate

of the aforesaid monastery is sought again, in which, when the priestly

blessing had been performed, the king with the said

bishops and nobles showed himself above going to meet

the Saints, and bade the bishop make a sermon to the people,

to stir up the glory of God.

[74] Then he provided with kindly bounty how they might be endowed with royal munificence.

where two years earlier his tomb had been discovered Then is subjoined

what the king of the Romans gave. These things being so done,

while the ministers were bearing the coffin of our Patron,

he lent himself to the help of carrying it, and so,

attending with the clergy in the due procession and with an immense

people, the same aforesaid king with great devotion translated it

to the place where it is now laid up.

But after the Gospel of the solemn Mass,

at the lord abbot's request, he caused to be publicly recited the privilege of Pope Gregory

(V) — the uncle, that is, of his father — granted to the place for

its protection and against the complaint of those lying in wait;

and, this being approved by the bystanders,

he strengthened it also by royal authority.

To this benefit he added another too: for the precepts

of the ancient kings … and also of the emperors

… he confirmed by his own testament as well, as

may be seen col. 59. Then it is related that two years before

the tomb of St. Remaclus had been discovered, and in it

his blood found fluid, which had flowed out onto the ground

from a glass phial that had by chance fallen

and been broken. These and other things the writer

sets forth in this manner. Moreover, while the same

abbot was still living, within two years of the aforesaid

dedication, the tomb of our Patron was found

hidden from us by the hindrance of a very long interval

of time. It was indeed found on the IV

Nones of March, in the days of the sacred forty days, the grace from above

favoring our desires, by a true indication

and with all ambiguity removed.

[75] For as it was reported to us by our fathers in truthful account

and handed down in writing, built by abbot Goduinus, Goduinus,

who succeeded the blessed Confessor as fourth abbot in the government of the place,

translated him with dutiful devotion on the VII Kalends of July

from the oratory of St. Martin,

where he was at first kept buried, into the principal monastery

of SS. the apostles Peter and Paul,

built and consecrated by himself with sagacious industry

(see volume V of June p. 4), and whatever

was needful in so magnificent a business he effectually accomplished with

fitting honor. Indeed he prepared a bier

wrought at his own expense with gold and silver, with the prerogative worthy of its beauty, in which

he placed the now dry bones, separated from his corrupted flesh,

and set it on high behind the altar of the aforesaid apostles,

that it might be evident to all,

with fitting furnishing; he spent also the sincerity of the same

kindly devotion upon his tomb,

for he committed it beneath the bier in the lower part of the ground,

and with no sluggish faith fortified it with a firm pavement

for the safeguard of faithful posterity. But

when the persecution of the pagans grew strong, and was frequently laying waste the province

of Lorraine and the others with hostile

savagery and incursion, and after that

the aforesaid monastery was burned by the hateful nation of the Danes,

and therefore, as it threatened to fall,

was restored by abbot Odilo with more lavish work and more loftily

upon the very foundations. No hindrance was inflicted upon the burials, because

the same breadth bore the occasion of the whole loss.

[76] [but wrapped in the old ruins of the monastery; in which also a glass phial was found,] But when that too was newly pulled down and the present one restored

with more excellent grace, length, breadth, thickness,

and costly adornment,

yet set apart from the foundations of the two, the memory

of many monuments there placed was abolished,

and moreover the truth about our Patron was taken away with the ancient fathers

by the general and inevitable law of mortality.

The shapes of divers things also now hinder:

fallen walls and the heaped mass of rubble,

the level of new pavements laid over,

then the richness of the grassy earth's unwonted fertilities

under the open air,

and very many opposing appearances of varieties.

For from our fathers' account our opinion had conceived

belief in the matter, but the means was not at hand for confirming

the proof of the truth,

because the appointed place had yielded to age, and the ruin

of the walls and of the altar had taken away all traces for the seeking;

but after those hindrances

had been thrust out, the favor of our desire is requited,

and there appeared what we had long sought with much

investigation applied. Therefore after we found it,

as was just and fitting, we rendered immense thanks

to the divine dispensation, and while under urgent

necessity we raise it from the earth with engines suited thereto,

besides the dust of his dissolved flesh

we found his blood, as though reserved for the glory of the future

resurrection, made fast in a glass phial

beneath it.

[77] which by chance is dashed to pieces, the Saint's blood flowing out; While in taking it up haste is made with unconsidered eagerness

and struggles against prudent reason,

our sins contriving it, the sacred vessel falls and

is dashed to pieces, and that precious treasure itself,

by the working of the greatest negligence, is poured out scattered upon

the ground; but the grace from above intervening

and repairing our strength, we revive with good confidence our hope,

which had been dissolved by exceeding grief,

and with diligent care and examination we gather up that gore again

together with the earth itself, and because

we were spiritually providing what was necessary for our own private and public advantage

and that of all the orthodox,

we laid it up in a small casket to be faithfully kept.

But as for the place of sanctification and

of the sarcophagus found — because it was not lawful that it should be cultivated there with

worthy veneration, for the open approach and exit of the cloister

forbade it, and moreover, a slow deliberation

intervening, since the scattering had taken place

it was not possible for all the relics to be fully recovered — it was decreed,

for those present, absent and to come, that what

remained of them there should for this reason be commended

to memory.

[78] For within the masonry wall there is in the middle a hidden

arch compiled by the mason's art, [which with the earth itself and other things abbot St. Poppo places behind the altar.] and the pavement

* taken up from that place, and which because of its*

tenacious solidity we have not yet found dissolved

by division, is set back over it, so that to those seeking with pious

faith the token of the truth may be laid open with sure

attestation. Of this matter there are still as many living witnesses

as were present on that day.

Gonterus indeed bears testimony, to whom

it was entrusted to handle the sacrament of so great a mystery,

who at the command of Peter the dean, but now the abbot,

in the strength of holy obedience presumed with bloodied

hands to gather up the scattered relics,

and to put them back to be faithfully guarded in the said chamber.

But when the aforesaid lord abbot,

in whose absence these things were done, learned of it on his return,

he extolled the grace of almighty God with worthy praises,

and gave that coffer, with the dust, the blood

and the ashes, to be entombed behind the altar of the aforesaid Apostles

with the utmost carefulness and honor,

and also ordered it to be elegantly adorned, for the commemoration hereafter of so notable

a sanctification, with divers marble stone

laid over it.

[79] About the same time, as it seems, the Saint's veneration

was propagated to Fanum S. Galli in Switzerland: A feast instituted in the monastery of St. Gall; his bones carried to Liège

where the festival of St. Remaclus, on the testimony of Burkhard,

monk of St. Gall, in Goldast p. 67

of the second edition, Notpert or Nortpert de Stafile appointed

to be solemnly kept — formerly a disciple

of St. Poppo of Stavelot, and made abbot of St. Gall

in the year 1034. Of whom Mabillon, volume 4

of the Annals p. 398, records these things: His love and cult

toward saint Remaclus, bishop and founder of the monastery of Stavelot,

was singular; from that monastery he obtained his relics,

and ordered his feast day to be solemn at saint

Gall's. That the same was also done elsewhere in the XII century, we shall

see below. In the year 1071 St. Remaclus, carried by his own

people to Liège from Malmedy, extorted his right from the king

by miracles. These are the words of the Short chronicle

of Lobbes in Martène volume 3 of the Thesaurus

novus anecdotorum col. [ ]. The matter Lambert of Hersfeld

thus narrates, volume 1 of Pistorius

p. 184: When the emperor Henry the third had come*

to Liège, the brethren of the monastery of Stavelot, being troubled,

daily dinned the royal ears

for the recovery of the monastery of Malmedy ,

which the king, on the counsel of the bishop of Bremen, had snatched from the abbot

(as has been said before) and given as a gift to the archbishop

of Cologne. And when he was moved by nothing —

not by prayers, not by tears, not by the very importunity of those pressing him —

taking counsel and (as is reported)

stirred by divine revelation to do this,

they take up the bones of blessed Remaclus, carry them to Liège,

and, while the king was holding a banquet in a certain frequented place,

they set them upon the very table, beseeching

by God that, if he pitied not the sons, he would at least pity so great

a Father, now reigning with Christ, and

daily making proclamation of his injuries at the tribunal of the eternal Judge;

and that unless he restored to him his own,

they would no longer be his soldiers, for want of necessary things.

[80] At this kind of supplication, which had been devised to win

good will, they blaze with many miracles: the king,

on the contrary, being exceedingly enraged, rushed off in haste, leaving the feast,

into the palace, and, full of wrath, was pondering by what example he ought to punish

the abbot as the instigator of so bold a deed. But

behold, the table on which the sacred relics had been placed

fell, shattered by divine power: and it crushed the legs

and feet of a servant of the king, a man of no obscure

name: who a little after, when the divine loving-kindness had been entreated

through the intercession of blessed Remaclus, was so

restored to his former soundness that not even a scar

was left as evidence of the injury done away.

And so thereafter, through the whole night

and the following day, so great a multitude of miracles

blazed around the holy body, that blessed Remaclus seemed

in a manner by bodily proclamation

to demand his right. All being astonished

at the strangeness of so great a thing, the king, seized with most vehement fear

lest perchance, if he delayed, heavenly vengeance should straightway go forth against him,

not only restored what had been taken away, but even heaped upon them magnificently

with fresh gifts, after royal munificence.

[81] whence arose the Saint's commemoration on 9 May. Hence took its origin the commemoration of St. Remaclus indicated in volume 2 of May

p. 359, which is celebrated with a yearly

feast among the men of Stavelot with double rite

on the VII Ides of May. Whoever desires a fuller history of the whole matter,

let him go to the Triumph of St. Remaclus,

written in two books by a monk of Stavelot who was an eyewitness of very many

of the deeds, which Chapeauville

published from an ancient Ms. codex of the monastery of Stavelot,

volume 2 On the deeds of the pontiffs of Liège

from p. 517 to 574; where all the aforesaid things

are reviewed one by one and many others at length. In chapter

XI of book 2 it is said that not the king's servant, as Lambert

of Hersfeld has above, but a servant of the monastery of Stavelot,

by name Gonterulus, had his shin broken and afterward

restored whole. In which matter greater

credit seems to be due to the anonymous author, as one who was then

present at Liège, than to the man of Hersfeld, contemporary indeed,

but absent and writing only from hearsay.

Further, the anonymous author of the Triumph Martène learnedly

vindicated from imposture, cited at the end

of number 51, in the whole of chapter 9 from p. 119;

where, having set forth the sum of the work, he brings forward the testimony

of Frederick archbishop of Cologne, the ancient deeds

of the abbots of Stavelot, Francis Laurentii,

prior of Malmedy, and the eyewitness

Deoduin bishop of Liège. The antiquity of the same

work is then proved from the character of the Stavelot codex,

which seems to breathe the age of Henry himself,

being written from the original at the same time

and by the same amanuensis by whom also the Life

of St. Poppo was written, on Martène's testimony. A double

specimen of the writing, engraved on copper, is exhibited before page

125, namely a part of the cited chapter XI from the Triumph

of St. Remaclus, and a part of chapter 22 from the Life of St.

Poppo. The first will be of use below for restoring a few little things

in Chapeauville's edition, from which I shall give

excerpted all the miracles contained in book 2 of the Triumph.

elsewhere Viennæ*

elsewhere Julii*

* perhaps something is wanting

* commonly IV

Malmundariensis*

§ X. His solemnity instituted in other places,

an arm granted to the men of Solignac; the disaster of the men of Stavelot avenged,

altars dedicated, the suit about the body, the form of his habit.

[ ] Foundation of the feast in the abbey of Helmarshausen, At the close of the XI century, or the beginning of the following,

the Saint's feast was instituted in the abbey of Helmarshausen

of the diocese of Paderborn by Thietmar,

whom we mentioned above at number 71. Here

are the very letters of the foundation from the praised Cologne Ms.

Thietmar, second of this name,

but sixth by succession, by the grace of God abbot of the men of Helmarshausen,

committing all that is his, both spiritual and carnal,

to the disposition of the divine mercy,

and believing that he is helped in the present life

and in that to come by the patronages of the Saints, was the first to bring the knowledge of Blessed

Remaclus to this congregation. Then,

Rodulf of good memory, abbot of the men of Stavelot,*

bestowing them as a perpetual pledge of mutual brotherhood,

having received the relics of that same Saint and a chasuble

of the best pall as a token of mutual charity,

he appointed, by the common consent of his brethren,

that the day of his deposition be kept festively, like that of saint

Martin, and that the book of his Life and the history of the chant

be fully recited: and that this might be done the more solemnly and devoutly

of free will, and endure unshaken among posterity,

he conferred upon the same Saint one manse

* in the village of Mitthin, which yearly pays*

five shillings, appointing out of these that through

the hand of the cellarer a charity be given to the brethren on the aforenamed

solemnity. Therefore by fixed constitution,

after first vespers, at supper, over and above

the appointed drink, let mead be poured out in full for all.*

On the holy day let the prebendary bread be of fine flour,

the sow's udder better than usual, as on the highest festivals,*

for each brother a roast of eel upon

the spit, likewise a serving of fish, if it be at hand,

or of whatever kind be a good dish;

then the prebendary fishes, and a quarter of meat-pie *

fried in fat or oil, or, if it fall on a Friday,

roasted upon the gridiron, and a full pouring

of mead. But let the supper be of cakes made with eggs

and prebendary cheese, and let the measure of the prebend

be beer for the drinking. Wax also of an amphora of honey

let there be given to the sacristan for increasing the lights, and for setting on

incense, or six pence from the same rent.

But if anyone shall increase it for the better, may the reward of the divine retribution

be increased for him by the merits of blessed Remaclus:

but if anyone shall lessen it or change it for the worse,

he will without doubt bear his displeasure.

[83] These seem to have escaped Mabillon: for

in volume 5 of the Annals p. 516, now extinct. The men of Solignac experience the Saint's help; where he praises Thietmar

especially for his zeal for sacred relics,

he does not mention St. Remaclus even by a word. Further, the once famous

abbey of Helmarshausen was in the XVI century

broken up by the Hessians, from the time when first

the Lutheran, then the Calvinist heresy began to throw all

into confusion. But the sacred treasure of relics, happily withdrawn

and preserved by the industry of Eric, bishop of Paderborn,

passed to the church of Paderborn,

on Mabillon's testimony in the same place. The Saint's help in great

troubles the monks of Solignac experienced in the XII century:

for which benefit their abbot Gerald

de Terazzo, in letters given to Wibald

in the year 1149, asked the men of Stavelot to give thanks to

their common Parent. Receive a part of this letter

from Martène volume 2 of the Collectio amplissima

col. 353: Before all things, dearest ones, we ask

that you deign to give thanks to our common father St. Remaclus

and likewise to pour out prayers, as sons of the household,

for us your brethren. Thanks,

I say, because with God's help the loving Father, having rescued us from great

tribulations, has for the present set us in great

peace; and to pour out prayers none the less,

that, as hitherto he has been well accustomed,

he may not cease to be our patron for ever. Under this Gerald's predecessor Maurice, and

under Guibald or Wibald, abbot of Stavelot, the fellowship between the two

monasteries was renewed and confirmed in the year 1134, for which

it is wrongly given in the Benedictine Century 2 p. 1093 as

one thousand two hundred and thirty-four, as is plain from the Indiction

XIII, which in no way agrees with the year 1234,

since then the Indiction VII was running. Add that

Wibald died in the year 1158, and no other of that name

is found among the abbots of Stavelot. In the place

cited, at the end of the letters, is added: Given

in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and thirty-

eight, on the Sunday before Pentecost: which certainly

must be understood of another renewal or confirmation

of the fellowship, if the year 1238 is rightly marked.

Let it suffice to have observed these things in passing about the letters of fellowship:

of the Saint's relics, which in the XIII century

the men of Solignac obtained, it will be treated below.

[84] abbot Wibald institutes another feast at Corvey: In the year 1151, the sixth of Wibald's government

at Corvey, a constitution was made in the chapter of Corvey

by which the aforesaid abbot assigned the mount of St. Michael

to the feast of St. Remaclus and to the celebration of

his own anniversary, as he himself testifies

in Martène, in the volume cited, col. 610, in these

words: We wish it to be known to all the faithful

of our church, both present and to come,

how we have ordained the mount which is called saint Michael's,

namely the church with all things pertaining to it,

for the feast of saint Remaclus and for our anniversary. And below: For the memory*

and veneration of blessed Remaclus our lord and

patron, and also for the remedy of our soul,

we have designated the same mount with all its appurtenances,

likewise the church with its dotal manse and the bailiwick*

with the manses and fields pertaining to it

and the newly-cleared lands … for the refection of the brethren of Corvey

on the feast of our aforenamed Patron and

on the anniversary of our ordination, that is, on

the vigil of the eleven thousand virgins,

etc. Then of the solemnity he speaks thus: But the brethren

of their spontaneous and common will appointed the feast of Bl. Remaclus

to be solemnly celebrated in copes and with five candles;

on whose feast day

they shall celebrate the earlier Mass in the greater church of St. Remaclus,

but the greater Mass in the chapel which is joined to our house

and consecrated under his title,

of the dedication. These latter things

sufficiently indicate that the Saint was already venerated before at Corvey,

a chapel being consecrated in his honor,

in which Wibald says a solemn Mass of the dedication

is to be celebrated.

[85] certain relics sent to Solignac, Some of the Saint's relics were sent

to Solignac in the year 1263, with the added promise of more notable relics

to be sent shortly, which

the monks earnestly desired. This is shown by a letter

written most obligingly by John, dean or

prior of Stavelot, to Archambald II, abbot of Solignac,

which Mabillon, just

cited, published on p. 1092. To the venerable fathers,

confrères and friends chosen out in the Son of God,

Archambald abbot of Solignac, and to the whole college

of the same place, John the humble dean

and the whole convent of the church of Stavelot, greeting,

and to be cherished more frequently at the fountain of consolation

in the hidden place of God's countenance. It has become known to us that your

devotion aspires with the highest desire to have some

relics of our glorious patron,

namely Bl. Remaclus, once adorned on earth

with pastoral glory. But because at present we are not able

sincerely to transmit to your paternity anything consolatory of his body,

as the affection of our desire demands;

yet, lest your entreaty seem to be frustrated with us —

since we purpose with the highest zeal to fulfill it — of

his pastoral staff, of the chasuble in which he lay entombed,

and of his sandals we transmit to your devotion

on this occasion: knowing undoubtedly that

we shall transmit to your piety a fitting portion of the body

of our said Patron, when it shall happen that

the body is transferred from casket into the casket which we have caused to be made glorious:

which will be shortly, the Lord disposing. Given at Stavelot,

in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-

three, on the Ides of June.

[86] The men of Stavelot stood by their promises: for to the messengers

of Solignac, Clement and Vivian, they gave the arm

of St. Remaclus and also relics of other saints

on the XIII of May in the year 1268, and five years later as

is established from letters given with the utmost benevolence to the same Archambald,

which likewise it has seemed good to transcribe

from Mabillon p. 1093. To the reverend

fathers in Christ and their most beloved lords,

the venerable father the lord Archambald the abbot,

and to the whole convent of Solignac, the humble dean

and the whole college of the monastery of Stavelot

of St. Remaclus in the Ardennes, greeting, and themselves

wholly to an inward love by an everlasting covenant.

Although the distance of places has enjoined upon us a bodily

separation, yet the sincerity of an undivided love shining forth

between us will, by God's help,

keep us undivided through the ages. Hence it is, reverend fathers

and lords, that with all the affection of heart and

mind we venerate and adore, praising together

the Most High, who has so sweetly joined us and you together

through the mediation of our patron Bl. Remaclus with a sweet and firm

bond, nay one made fast by inviolable mutual charity,

that neither tribulation,

nor persecution, nor the fear of the sword shall be able to be separated *

from the charity compacted by the divine goodness,

the mercy of God helping.

[87] Wherefore we, having received your messengers, in truth

confrères, the very arm of the Saint. namely the lords Clement

your cellarer and Vivian your sacristan, together with

your letters, were suffused with unspeakable joy,

and, learning from them the prosperity of your convent,

you poured gladness and delight into our

hearts above gold and topaz, above the odor

of the lily and of balsam. We therefore rise up

to your reverence for letters so affectionate,

full of mellifluous charity, transmitted to us by our and

your aforenoted brethren, humbly

bowing to you; by whose conversation, namely of the said

brethren, and by the honesty of their manners

we could and ought to have been amended; through whom

also we transmit to your love the arm

of our venerable father Bl. Remaclus, and of the relics

of the eleven thousand Virgins; and also of

the relics of the Theban martyrs. Suppliantly asking

that you deign to honor the said relics with due honor

and with fitting solemnity.

Given in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-

eight, on the Sunday before the Ascension

of the Lord, that is, the III Ides of May.

[88] A ravager of the fields of Stavelot punished by a terrible death: In the following century the Saint severely avenged an injury

done to his clients, striking with a horrible

death in the year 1388 a certain nobleman who

with a band of three hundred plunderers had dared to invade and lay waste

the fields of Stavelot. The memorable

vengeance, by which the rest of the robbers, terrified,

were converted to penitence, a writer of the

XV century, Cornelius Zantfliet, monk at St. James at Liège,

thus sets forth in his Chronicle, in Martène

volume 5 of the Collectio amplissima col. 332:

But at that time also (in the year 1387) a certain German

nobleman with three hundred accomplices entered the land

of Stavelot, violently carrying off a great

booty about the village called Lierneux . And when

about two hundred inhabitants of the place wished to drive off the booty

and to block his return, there were slaughtered

XLVIII, and XXXVI taken: on the other side only three

were killed, and the booty carried off. But St.

Remaclus, patron of the land, exacted a heavy vengeance

on the enemies: for in the following year the prince of the robbers

went mad, chewing the hands and ears of his own horse,*

and was stricken with a terrible death.

Whose accomplices came to the monastery of Stavelot

humbly asking pardon for what they had committed,

and offering a worthy amends ; fearing

lest something similar befall themselves.

[89] two altars dedicated to the Saint, whose body is not at Bamberg, For the rest, the aforesaid Benedict delle Rive,

who in the year 1647 most courteously sent to Bolland

the titles of the altars of the imperial church of Stavelot,

testifies that, besides the greater altar, which is dedicated in honor of SS. the Apostles

Peter and Paul and of SS. the pontiffs Remaclus

and Martin, another likewise was consecrated in the year

1547, from the original letters themselves,

which he thus recites: On the last of December

in the year MDXLVII by the Liège style, there was consecrated

an altar in the Castle of Stavelot by the Rev.

Lord D. Gedeon vander Gracht, bishop of Castoria,

suffragan of the Most Rev. Lord George of

Austria, bishop of Liège, in honor of St. Remaclus

the bishop, of St. Goar and Sylvester (signed)*

Theodoric Beex, etc. (And the seal of the same bishop

of Castoria impressed in wax of a red

color.) There remains a certain difficulty about the place

where the Saint's body is kept: for our Gamans,

cited at number 6, notes that in the Ms. of the mount

of St. Michael there is added at the foot of the Life of St. Remaclus

the following words: His body is now honorably preserved in the cathedral

church of Bamberg.

Having been informed of that suit, Rive, praised above,

wrote to Henschen in favor of the possession of the men of Stavelot,

to this effect, on the VIII of April

1654: Entire (except, that is, the arm, which

we have seen was granted to the men of Solignac) St. Remaclus's

body is kept here, I have seen no one hitherto

who doubted; and so great is the certainty of that matter

that it would seem to me superfluous to confirm it with arguments,

which meanwhile are innumerable.

[90] but he is shown to rest at Stavelot: Nor am I delayed by the objections which

could arise from documents received from Bamberg:

for if the men of Bamberg possess any documents, any

particles of relics, or perhaps even the Life

of St. Remaclus, all those must have been sent thither

from here. Let your Reverence judge whether on this account

they can be called more complete. Theodoric, treating

of the bishops of Cologne, of Laon, etc., I have not

seen. I should like to have a copy of him. Although

words of that sort added, or any others whatever, are approved by me

rather as glosses than as genuine text.

And certainly to those objecting against our possession

I would reply only this: Come and see,

handle, for these are the bones of St. Remaclus,

this his habit, this his stole, these his sandals, this bier

skillfully built, this the received tradition of all

the ages, these the undoubted writings, etc.

Since the Saint is venerated at Bamberg, as was said

at number 4, I would not absolutely deny that in that cathedral

church certain relics of him are preserved:

but these the author of the manuscript of the mount of St. Michael

may have called "the body," taking a part, however small,

for the whole, as often happens in like cases. And

indeed, if the Saint's very body had been translated to Bamberg,

would the men of Stavelot have been ignorant of it, would

Rive, the prefect of their library and archive and a most diligent

searcher, have dared to write the above,

would, finally, the Annals of the church of Bamberg

have wrapped that translation wholly in silence?

The author of the Triumph of St. Remaclus says indeed,

in Chapeauville volume 2 p. 562: It was said

that the king had this counsel, that the bishop of Bamberg should take away from him

the body of our Patron granted by his gift;

but from the following chapters

it is established that it was not carried off by the man of Bamberg.

[91] Since Rive in his letter mentions

the habit or garment of the Saint, description and engraving of his monastic garment. it has seemed good, by way of a finishing touch,

to subjoin the following description of it and to give

its likeness from Martène, Annales Benedictini

volume 6 p. 571: In the monastery of Stavelot …

blessed Remaclus made the end of a most holy life,

and was buried in the same place in the oratory of St. Martin. There is seen

to this day among the sacred relics of the same monastery

his monastic cowl of rough cloth,

such as the Capuchin fathers today mostly make their garments of,

and of the same color; in which the love of poverty in Remaclus

is proclaimed by the various patches of the same material,

with which the torn garment is mended here and there.

But the form of this cowl is after the manner of the ancient

chasubles, which surrounded the whole body

without sleeves; but with a pointed hood sewn on above,

such as St. Isidore represents to us

in the book of Etymologies: “A casula is a hooded garment,

so called by diminution from casa (a hut), because

it covers the whole man”. And Theodemar, abbot

of Monte Cassino, in his letter to Charlemagne:

“We call a cuculla what by another name we call a casula”.

Of such antiquity I have never seen any monument in this

kind more precious or more admirable, nor did Mabillon:

wherefore for the instruction and edification of those to come

it is well to represent it here: which also

we have ordered our engraver to imitate, the proportion

being preserved.

* he died in the year 1097 or 1098

* i.e., a small estate or little field

* i.e., hydromel

* it seems to be taken here for any dish whatever

* i.e., a certain cake

perhaps ac*

perhaps ecclesiam*

separare*

elsewhere Lierneux, in Latin Ladernacum and Lethernacum*

perhaps manis*, i.e., the jaws

* i.e., satisfaction

Goaris*

LIFE

By an anonymous monk of Stavelot

From a most ancient Ms. of the abbey of St. Paul at Utrecht, and six other Mss. collated with one another and with the edition of Mabillon.

BHL Number: 7113

BY THE ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

PROLOGUE.

The deeds of the Saints are to be published to the praise of God. Since it is the study of the heathen to fit their fictions and

their vain rites * elegantly to obscene

poems, and to commend them by perpetual

memory to those who come after them; why should I keep silence,

so as not * to declare the manifest works of Christ, which

by divine power he does not cease to work innumerably

through his Saints: since I can speak true things in

praise of the magnificent God, and confer very much fruit

upon those who hear ^b how great an honor he bestows

upon those who serve him, by working things so magnificent.

ANNOTATA.

elsewhere errorum*

Mabillon nec*

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's country, parents, education: he is summoned to the court, becomes a bishop, receives St. Trudo and teaches him what is to be done.

[ ] The Saint's birth and pious education: Therefore there was sprung from the parts of Aquitaine a man

in all things venerable both in life and in manners, by name

Remaclus, noble by his parents, but nobler

by faith. His father was called Albutius, and his mother

was named Matrinia *, both very powerful in the resources of things

according to the dignity of the world;

as the handing over of his possessions, made to us,

testifies. Who, when he had been reared by his parents

in a lofty manner, according as a very great abundance

of secular means was at their disposal, they hand him over — already bearing the fruit

of a good disposition and of all sweetness ^b —

to blessed Eligius, a man to be preferred in all merits,

to be imbued with the sacred institutions of monastic discipline

[in] the monastery of Solignac, which

his own father built by a pious work on his own estate

^c. For he clove so far to the holy man's counsels

that not only was he no sluggish executor

of the divine word; but the divine power so grew in

him that, showing there the greatest

examples of religious life, he shone forth wakeful all night in vigils,

continual in prayers, outstanding

in abstinence, illustrious in all uprightness of manners:

so much so that the aforesaid man handed over to him all

the care of the flock committed to him, and himself

solicitously gave himself to the service of the palace,

as he was compelled to do.

[2] But after some time, as fame spread it abroad,

there was heard through the whole province of Gaul

of the life and acts of the oft-to-be-remembered blessed man

Remaclus, he is summoned to the court, and becomes a regionary bishop, and it came * to the ears of the nobles who at that time

presided over the palace, that

so great and such a tree had brought forth shoots. Nor could

the light irradiated by his grace, the Lord willing,

be hidden under a bushel, but, that it might shine

for all who abide in the profession of the faith,

the lamp was set upon a candlestick: and it was disclosed

in the royal courts that so magnificent a Man

ought not to be absent from the king's presence ^d, that

by his prudence the affairs of the kingdom might be ordered. Whence

it came about that, being summoned honorably, as was fitting,

he was brought to the threshold of the palace, destined to be a great

comfort to all; as the event of things

afterward fully taught. For he was held in so great dignity

that he obtained the priestly infulæ, the people acclaiming

that it was worthy that such a teacher ^e

should be made to hold the office of prelate, who had received so great grace

from God that he also came to the help of all in their

necessity.

[3] Meanwhile the Man of God, full of the Holy Spirit, by the ordering

of God's providence is substituted as bishop of the see of the people of Tongeren

^f, afterward of Maastricht. that he might diffuse among more men the seeds of the word,

which, long remaining within himself, he was concealing.

But who could suffice to relate how great

was his care for the food of the poor, since he became

the father of orphans, the loving helper of widows, the most kindly

consoler of the sick, and the most bountiful provider

of all necessities? So great, then, did the virtue

of humility shine forth in him that he desired to be esteemed inferior

to all, that he might become, according to

the Apostle, a pattern to all, lest he fall into the reproach of that

sentence, lest perchance, while preaching to others,

he himself should become a castaway.

[4] Nor do I think it should moreover be passed over — nay,

it is rather to be set forth — St. Trudo, burning with the desire of learning sacred Letters that the Man full of God

was also foreknowing of things to come; which gift

conferred upon him is most manifestly proved to have been

by divine revelation. Who, while with most happy course

he strove daily the more attentively, with wakeful care,

as he was devout, for the helm of the Church,

so that he might commend to the Bestower of all whom he could

snatch from the jaws of the wolves;

that, bringing back * his sheaves when Christ should come, he might deserve

to receive the reward of the work committed to him, the unfading

crown of glory. While he was exercising this warfare ^g,

it happened that from the borders of Hesbaye * blessed

Trudo, still flourishing in boyish age,

put forth his first most abundant fruits of good savor.

And because he was sprung of a great lineage of birth,

as the little sheet of his deeds records, there began to be nourished

little by little in him, the fire of divine love being kindled,

an abundance of virtues. For he was touched * with such

an ardor * of the Holy Spirit that he bound himself

by a vow that, if at any time he should fully learn the sacred letters,

a church ought to be built on his own property

^h, and that there he should serve the Lord continually, which

afterward under Christ's auspices he solemnly fulfilled.

[5] is admonished by an angel to go to Remaclus, For * while he was burning with such a desire, he is seized by a nocturnal

vision, and is taught by an angelic admonition

in these words: Brother Trudo,

know that thy vows, by which thou hast bound thyself from boyhood,

and the prayers which thou hast humbly poured out, are accepted

in the sight of the God of heaven: and whatever

of good desire is turned over in thy mind, he himself will grant thee

in this his assent. For wisdom shall fill

thy heart, and shall instruct thee [in] his commandments,

and shall engrave his counsels in the secret of thy breast,

and, as thou hast desired, thou shalt come to the degrees

of Ecclesiastical dignity: because thy petition is just and pleasing

to God. The same man of shining countenance also added

to say to him: Rise therefore, and go to

blessed Remaclus, pontiff of the church of Tongeren ,

who is not far from the place [in] which

thou now art; for to him God has revealed all things

which it befits thee to do, and he himself will direct thy steps*

to all things which thy soul desires.

[6] by whom he is most kindly received Hearing this, the man of God, trusting in the angelic vision *,

rose in haste, and rejoicing began

with swift step to make for the place where the holy Man

at that time was toiling in the care of his government. And when

he was not far from the estate ⁱ where the lord

Prelate was residing with his servants, at once knowing it

by the spirit, as had been announced to him before from heaven,

he said to his servants: Rise to meet

the man of God, who comes to visit us, and

receive him with all reverence, and bring him in

to me. Go quickly, for he is already drawing near.

They therefore, fulfilling his commands ^k, brought

[him] to the Bishop. And the loving Father, beholding him,

at once rose and rushed to kiss him,

weeping abundantly for exceeding joy upon his neck.

And when the chosen youth wished to fall at his sacred feet

before him, he raised him up with wet

cheeks, saying such things as these: To thee,

good Lord Jesus, visitor of souls, be glory,

praise and jubilation through the immortal ages of ages;

who hast willed to make us partakers on this day

of the visitation of thy servant.

[7] and, having been taught what he must do, is sent to Metz When these things had been said, the blessed Priest added these also,

saying: But thou too, my son, be blessed by God

the most high, who has deigned to direct thee to us,

and may he himself hereafter fulfill all that thy soul

desires, accomplishing the will of thy heart.

Know therefore that from this hour thou shalt be a son to me, joined by the bond

of charity; and I shall perpetually retain toward thee the rights

of a spiritual father. For to me,

his servant, God has deigned to reveal all that

is in thy mind, and whatever thou oughtest to do about this

thou shalt be fully taught by me: [for as

I have already said before, the word of God came to me.]

For I have learned by the spirit what in thy boyhood

thou didst confirm with an oath: to build a church on thine

inheritance, God helping, and there

to serve Christ with all assiduity . Whence know

that thou must hand over thy possessions to blessed Stephen the protomartyr,

and there from the inhabitants [of the city

of Metz] receive the holy Scriptures perfectly.

After this thou shalt return, filled with learning

and with honor, to thine own place, and, as thou hast promised,

thou shalt build a church in whatever place

thou wilt.

[8] With these and other words of exhortation the most consecrated boy

was admonished by the aforesaid venerable Remaclus,

he is sent: the Saint rebukes his servants for disparaging him. whom the Pontiff, kissing him very long, dismissed

in peace ^l, saying to his servants: Conduct

him with great reverence, because the Lord regards

his journey . But they *, as though negligent,

began to disparage him because of the fashion of his clothing,

saying: Behold how cheap our Lord has become

today, who has taken to himself this poor little man,

having such unshapely garments,

and has shown him so great honor. And when

they were disparaging him with such words in silence, again,

admonished by the secret messenger who,

sent to him from heaven, was ever at hand, the Man of God rebuked

them harshly, speaking thus: O unhappy men, why

do you look at the faces of men, and at the mean

coverings of garments, when rather the Inspector of our souls judges

the minds and acts of men?

Do therefore penance for your errors,

because you have spoken foolishly. But they, cast down

at his feet , begged pardon, confessing :

Forgive us, loving Father, for we have sinned

in ignorance; spare us who have offended, in that

we have acted foolishly. And he said: Let pardon be given

you by God; see that you fall into no such

fault hereafter.

ANNOTATA.

St. Eligius, bishop of Noyon, is in the Roman Martyrology on the 1

of December. Some things hereafter omitted in the Utrecht Ms. I shall supply from others

and enclose in brackets []; and I shall do the same for the Cologne Ms., from which the miracles

will be published below.

came into Austrasia, and likewise when the monastery of Cugnon was founded,

of which he was the first abbot, consult the Commentary numbers 18

and 19.

"of the people of Tongeren" in his Notes (see the Commentary number 27), adding that this

happened after the abdication of St. Amandus, and not after Landoald, whom

Notger and some others wrongly feign to have been bishop, and place

as intermediate between Amandus and our Saint: for the latter succeeded Amandus on his abdication

in the same year 650, as Bucher has it in his Chronicle. On the errors

about St. Landoald more may be seen in volume 1 of February p. 833 and

at the day 19 of March, on which he is venerated.

Who while … he strove … that … he might deserve to receive the crown; it happened

that from the borders of Hesbaye blessed Trudo … put forth his first most abundant fruits of good work. The Ms. of St. Maximin wrongly has of Spain for of Hesbaye. But the words still flourishing in boyish age are not

to be taken strictly; for Trudo, before he was admonished by the angel about

going to our Saint, was a youth, nay a man, on the testimony of Donatus in his

Life, which will be given on 23 November.

elsewhere Mariana and Maternia*

Mabillon perlatum*

Vaucelles reportans obviam venienti*

elsewhere partibus*

Mabillon gratia*

elsewhere tractus*

in one Ms. Qui*

in the same place Trajectensis*

Mabillon conveniunt*

in two Mss. visitatione*

in one Ms. sedulitate*

Mabillon cor*

elsewhere vero*

elsewhere genibus*

in one Ms. dicentes*

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's virtues and pastoral care: two monasteries founded at his instance,

into one of which, having abdicated his bishopric, he withdraws; his pious

death and burial.

[ ] With great solicitude he instructs his people: To prove, therefore, of how great merit that Man

was, whom the angels of God so far served

that hidden things of secret matters, which

were kept in the sight of the Creator, were made manifest

to him and disposed by his judgment,

I have taken care to note down the things mentioned above, lest anyone

of perverse mind, or deceived by the devil's art,

should dare to disparage and accuse (which I do not believe

will happen) so magnificent and chosen a Soldier

of Christ, a keeper of the talent entrusted, and one bringing

twin gifts with gain to the Lord. For who

could suffice to relate how holily and justly he lived

for the rest, and how great was his solicitude

for the guardianship owed — namely by admonishing all

to keep themselves from the allurements of the flattering world,

to draw back their step from secular cares, and to continue perpetually

in the law of God's commandments. With these and the like

exhortations, confirming in the fear and love of God

the people entrusted to him, he began

to burn with a greater eagerness of mind, whereby he might be able the more freely

and devoutly to raise his heart to contemplate the pastures

of the heavenly life.

[10] he is the author to king St. Sigebert of founding two Meanwhile, while he perseveres * in this tenor of purpose,

girt with faith, fortified with hope, founded on charity,

it happened, God favoring, that it pleased the pious

princes of the kingdom of the Franks, king Sigebert and

duke Grimoald ^b, by the will of God and the counsel

of their nobles, that there be built within * the forest

monasteries situated in the district which is called the Ardennes ^c,

named Stavelot and Malmedy

^d, in which religious monks should dwell

who should there spiritually serve Christ,

and should entreat the almighty Lord for the state of the whole kingdom and for the safety of the king

or ^e of his sons, or of those who exercise the care of the kingdom.

Then they began to build * more attentively and,

as is wont in such a work, the divine power followed after,

and with prosperous success they were speedily completed.

[11] And when the time was at hand that the churches,

adorned with new material, should be dedicated, monasteries, which he dedicates. the aforesaid king,

sending to blessed Remaclus the bishop — because

one of them, that is Stavelot, belonged to his

diocese, but the other, that is Malmedy,

because it looked to the metropolis, with

the consent of Cunibert ^f, who was metropolitan

of Cologne — summoned him, that as was fitting

he should dedicate them by his ministry. Which the most holy

[Man], at once obeying, fulfilled with great diligence,

the work enjoined upon him *, which had long since been done

by his own arrangement; because, since he was

near and beloved to the King and to the chief men of the palace on account of his very great sanctity,

nothing of importance was done without

his counsel. Whence it came about, because

he was held so dear to them, that, when the solemnities of the Masses had been performed,

the said mayor of the palace Grimoald handed over the aforesaid places to him,

that all should be ordered under his rule,

and that the monastic institutes of life should be there observed.

[12] But after no long time he at last obtained

from the king ^g, Having abdicated his bishopric, he withdraws to Stavelot, that, leaving a successor

he might go to this place of the wilderness, and there,

removed from men, have leisure for God alone. But how great

was the grief at the Pastor's departure, and how

sorrowful he made those to whom he had provided * the seeds of life,

when they saw themselves bereft by the departure

of their Teacher and Father ⁱ. They said therefore: What shall we

wretches do, who lose such a Pastor?

Whence shall we receive consolation, when

he himself was our consoler and defense? Who will heal

us any more, since he was the healer of bodies

and of souls ^k. Whence hope for us, when

we are forsaken of so great a Pastor? While they were crying out these

and like things with wailing, commending them

to God the maker, counting * all the world as nothing,

desiring to please the one Lord, he sought the monastery,

longing to lead a solitary life.

[13] But religious men, hearing this, both from

the neighborhood [and] from remote parts on every side, began

to flow together to his teaching, seeing that the wisdom

of God was in him, for the accomplishing of whatever things

are held just and worthy of God and acceptable.

For he was so accustomed to divine works

that no time at all passed by in which

he was not intent upon psalms or prayers or reading.

Abiding therefore with wakeful care and without

[any] reproach in the monastic teachings,

he converted the minds of many noble men, so that they became

imitators of that life whose teaching was

perfect; because what he taught with the mouth, he took care

first to fulfill in work.

[14] Whence it came about that, as religion increased,

the revenue of that same church also increased, he asks that the donations made to the monasteries be diminished, for the uses

of the servants of God serving there. For the aforesaid

most pious princes, hearing of the worship of religion of this sort,

summoning the blessed Man, handed over

to him out of that forest twelve leagues

in length, and likewise in breadth; in

which space there should be no gainsayer of his rule

or of those succeeding him, that they might serve God in quiet.

And they also confirmed by testament

with the imperial seals *, that it might endure firm

[for] all time; which the most holy Father

received gladly and held reverently *.

But not long after he took pains to shorten that same space,

that it might be without hindrance to those who followed,

and that the rectors of the place might be able to keep it

without any obstacle ^l: which seems to endure unshaken

down to our own time altogether.

[15] The devout disciples therefore, obeying the Father's counsels,

carry out the regular institutions not slothfully,

inasmuch as they saw their Teacher at absolutely every

hour cleaving very attentively to the divine praises,

and long keeping the vows of his purpose. He exhorts his disciples to virtue by examples rather than by words, Tarrying longer

in these wrestling-school disciplines, at last

they obtained the promised grace, the Lord, as we believe,

bestowing it. But that loving Priest,

set in the triumph of the contest, armed with faith

against the wickednesses of the unclean spirits, if

any * of them tried to withstand the worship of divine religion

and to cast down the vow of his mind, founded as it was

steadfastly in Christ, strove

greatly to break this * by continual

testimonies of the Scriptures, by pressing upon prayer,

by wasting the flesh with fasts, by passing the night [in] vigils,

by bestowing alms, proclaiming that word of the Apostle by examples

rather than by words: For me

to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

[16] he dies piously and is honorably buried. Enduring therefore unmoved in this constancy of mind,

at last desiring to render to his exactor

the talent of good work once entrusted to him, and now, so to speak, heaped up,

especially when he had heard the voice

of the Lord calling him and saying: Well done,*

good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things,

I will set thee over many; enter into the joy

of thy Lord: desiring to be * partaker of this longed-for joy

and daily paying these prayers,

now wearied with extreme old age, bidding farewell to all

and commending them to God the maker, he reached the goal

of death, and rendered his blessed soul to heaven

^m. Whose body, honorably, as was fitting, delivered to burial

with the sweet melodies of hymns

ⁿ, is kept in great honor: especially

since there flourish there the tokens of very many miracles,

to the praise and glory of the name of Christ, who deigns

to confer innumerable gifts on those who faithfully serve him.

His deposition is celebrated on the third

Nones of September, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning;

to whom be glory, praise and jubilation through

the immortal ages of ages. Amen ^o.

ANNOTATA.

extending 100 miles and more in length, and it stretches through

the duchy of Luxemburg, as also through the southern territory of Liège

toward the borders of the province of Champagne, and a part also through southern

Hainaut, having different names according to the variety of places, and it was formerly

much larger. Hadrien de Valois describes it at greater length in the Notitia Galliarum, adding on p. 38 that the monasteries of Malmedy and Stavelot, which are here treated of, are now outside the bounds of the Ardennes forest, which has been cut down here and there by the labor of cultivators and above all of monks.

by the anonymous author, not because it was begun to be built first, but because it was the chief one and

the seat of the abbots. See the Commentary §6. Mabillon in his Notes observes from

Henschen, volume 1 of February p. 221, that both monasteries were begun

in the sixth year of the bishopric of St. Remaclus,

that is, he says, in the year of Christ DCLXVIII; but wrongly: for Henschen expressly has DCLV. And the dedication does not seem to have been deferred for three years.

Sigebert had sons the contemporary writer of the Life of St. Bonitus the bishop shows, published at

15 January p. 1070 number 4: yet the name of Dagobert alone is expressed by

the authors.

g. Not

Sigebert, but Childeric II, Sigebert's nephew by his brother. He began to reign

in Austrasia in the year 660, and confirmed the donation of his uncle, diminished by half

at the Saint's request, in the year 667.

h. He was

St. Theodard M., inscribed in the Roman Martyrology at the 10th of this month. In what

year our Saint abdicated his bishopric, I have said in the Commentary number 55.

was the grief at the Pastor's absence, and how sorrowful he made those to whom

he had imparted the seeds of life …, who could without weeping follow it out,

suffering with them as they wept.

n. In

the church or Oratory of blessed Martin, which he himself had founded, as

Notger and Hariger testify. Thence it was afterward translated by Goduinus,

the fourth abbot. See number 75.

elsewhere perseveraret*

elsewhere intra*

elsewhere ædificari*

Mabillon commissum*

read contulerat*, as is had in others

Mabillon reputans*

Mabillon sigillis*

the same, constanter*

elsewhere qui*

hoc irrumpere* is absent from three Mss.

Mabillon clamantis ad se*

in one Ms. particeps fieri*

MIRACLES

From a Cologne Ms. collated with five other Mss. and the edition of Mabillon.

BHL Number: 7120, 7121, 7124, 7123, 7125, 7122, 7126, 7127, 7128, 7129, 7130, 7132, 7134, 7135, 7137, 7138

BY THE ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

BOOK I.

by the same anonymous author of Stavelot

PROLOGUE.

[The author writes nothing but what he has seen, or heard from those worthy of credit.] After the most glorious ^a triumph of his contest, praiseworthy in all ages,

by which, the fleshly garment being laid aside,

the same man obtained the unfading crown of glory,

to prove of how great merit and of how great sanctity that blessed Man

was, the loving Lord would not have that remain hidden

which was not hidden with him, but that it should become *

clear to men also, with how great glory he is strong

in heaven, to whom he grants to work on earth such miracles

as have been granted to our eyes

to see. For we do not dare to be silent about what we know,

lest we be judged as it were slothful and slow to relate

or to admire the works of Christ. Nor * do we wish

to say anything but what we have learned by the account of truthful men,

or have ourselves beheld with our eyes,

lest we be convicted of the fault of falsehood ^b.

ANNOTATA.

elsewhere fieri*

in others Verum nec*

THE CHAPTERS OF THE ANCIENT DIVISION,

SUCH AS THEY ARE IN THE MS.

I. Of Joseph, so contracted that, leaning upon his knees,

he could not raise his head.

II. Of the man bound with iron, whose chains are burst asunder

when he touched the screens.

III. Of the blind woman who, when she drank of the spring

of saint Remaclus, was healed.

IV. Of a certain man by name Amulgerus, who recovered the health of his eye.

V. That this deed came to the ears of the emperor Lothair *,

and, kissing the lights, he rendered thanks to God.

VI. Of a certain contracted man in the monastery of Dervo,

who, as he himself confessed, by the merits of our brethren

recovered as he came * to the festival.

VII. [Of a dumb woman healed on the festival of the aforesaid

Man of God.]

VIII. That a certain man invaded the land of saint Remaclus,

and, by imprecating upon himself, remained bald.

IX. That a certain man assigned a ram to saint Remaclus,

and for his lie remained deformed with face and mouth

twisted.

X. Of a woman blind for three months and given light.

XI. Of a certain man who, fraudulently taking away his wife's brooches

from saint Remaclus, is made blind for six months.

XII. How he healed a certain man wounded by demons

and made deaf.

XIII. Of another, to whom he gave a slap on the face and

struck with the greatest deafness, and afterward healed.

XIV. Of the pall which a nun took from the altar

in the village named Marcha, with which, after

the washing of her head, she wiped that same head and

lost her hair.

XV. Of the fragrance of his tomb, when the first

clod of earth was moved away by the workmen.

XVI. Of the fish in the village of Calco, which the wave cast

into the ship.

XVII. Of the vineyard in the village of Maranco, fraudulently taken away

and restored.

XVIII. Of the man deaf and likewise dumb from his birth,

how he was cured.

XIX. Of the cup of our blessed father Remaclus,

how it was found.

Ludovici*

perhaps venientium*

CHAPTER I.

Contracted men healed, iron chains burst, sight restored to the blind and speech to a dumb woman; a perjurer punished.

Chap. I.

For at that time when the building of the altar of our church

* was going forward, A wretchedly contracted man is suddenly set upright, it happened that there was present

there a certain man by name Joseph, who was so bent

that, leaning upon his knees, he could not raise his head

upward: nor was he at all able to hold it

motionless in one place for long. But how

it had befallen him, he used to relate: that while he was

alone with his horse in his neighbor's field,

and was unjustly feeding down his grass, he was so burned,

being smitten from heaven by a flash of fire

*, that at once, his head being lowered, he was made bent. But on a certain

night which is called the Lord's, while the brethren

devoutly pressed on to the performance of the divine Office,

behold, that same feeble man, falling forward on the pavement of the church,

filled the church with great outcries of his voice *,

so much so that from excessive terror

those who were present to keep the vigils, fleeing in swift

course, irreverently burst into the places of the altar,

not knowing what it behooved them to do.

Meanwhile the religious monks, sublimely performing the matin hymns

in the praises of God, as they were accustomed,

came to see what the sick man was suffering with his clamorous

cries: and beholding him,

they perceive all the knottiness of his limbs

dissolved, and the joints of his body firmly set upright

in their former strength with a revived step.

[2] And to those inquiring how this had been done,

he asserted that he had seen as it were a burning torch go forth from the bed

of the blessed * Pontiff and suddenly

shine upon him, a light seen coming forth from the Saint's coffin: and take away from him all that infirmity,

and restore him to his own state; and in a wondrous

manner you might discern * that the whole wound of that fire,

which came forth from the lightning, was wiped away, not only

like the rest of his flesh, but even whiter,

nay even sounder; and he who by the hands [or]

conveyances of others had been carried into the church, himself

now sound in body began rejoicing to take his way with swift

step and to need no other's support.

Then the devout monks with exulting spirits render solemn praises to God and

to their holy Patron,

because he deigned through him to show such things to

the praise of his name. There are kept also the staves or

stools ^a of the man himself who was healed, and of the many who there received

health, hanging at the doors of the church

as a memorial of the powers of Christ, that those who see

may recount his mighty works.

II.

[3] At another time likewise a certain man, coming bound

with iron, a man bound with iron is loosed, straightway when he touched the railings, at once the iron

bonds were so burst asunder that from the place in which

the sick man was standing * as far as the place of the little bed, in which

the most sacred ashes had before lain, they fell upon the pavement,

and the man remained unhurt. While all

who were present made a din and marveled,

they see loosed from his bond him whom a little before

they had seen bound with iron manacles. And rejoicing in such

a gift, he returned with praises of thanksgiving

to his own house in peace.

III.

[4] At about the same time there was a certain woman

from Hasbania ^b, and a blind woman is enlightened, deprived of her eyes, who by a long

sickness was held encompassed with this darkness.

She, seized by a vision of the night, is admonished to

send one who should bring to her from the holy Man's fountain,

and to drink of this and to wash her eyes; and when she

had done so, at once she received her sight.

IV.

[5] Nor do I think this should be kept silent, that a certain

man, Another punished with blindness for violating the observance of the Lord's day, by name Amulgerus, while at harvest time

on the Lord's day — which is

more freely released from servile work — sweated too intently over

the storing up of the ears of corn, at the work suited to him, and gave not honor

to God by ceasing from his labors, with his wife

loading the wagons and leading them home for storage;

it happened that one of the stalks struck his

right eye and of a sudden made him one-eyed. Through this

grief for the lost eye he remained deprived of the other also:

and being encompassed with darkness, for a long time

the sad and mournful sick man endures in this blindness.

Yet not despairing of God's mercy, supported

by another's guidance, going about very many places of the Saints,

he prayed that by their suffrages soundness might be given him.

And so, persisting in this labor, on a certain

night given over to sleep, he deserved to hear an answer,

that health was to be granted him nowhere else, until

he should come to the memorial of the most holy Confessor

of Christ.

[6] by the Saint's merits he receives the use of his eyes, Having learned this, rejoicing at the divine

admonition, the silences of the night being past, briskly

leaping up from sleep, traversing places far and wide with swift course,

at length he arrived on a Saturday * at the place

long desired. But on the following night, which is

called the Lord's, while the brethren after their custom solemnly

sing the evening hymns, behold, again *

the feeble man fills the whole church with cries, so that

all acknowledged the power of God to be present. When this

was known, the servants of God lift up their voices on high in

the praises of Christ, who granted them to see

his mighty works: and the course * being finished, they came

to see the works of divine grace in the limbs of the sick man,

who now with clear eyes saw all round about

gazing upon him. To those considering it, then, he related

that he had seen from the place of the tomb a lamp flashing

like the rays of the sun, and that it had shaken

both his ears and his whole head, and had wiped away the darkness,

and given him light. And rising

from the place where he had lain prostrate, he goes forth from the church

joyful, taking his way and seeking a guide for the way no longer ^c.

[7] And not long after, as the report spread everywhere,

whom the emperor kisses: this wonderful deed came to the ears

of the most unconquered prince Louis ^d and of his

nobles. And he too who had been blind is shown to him by those

by whom he was already known, relating

how * he received his sight through the merits of the most holy

Man: and the emperor rendered manifold thanks

to almighty God, kissing the eyes

divinely restored to him, and was filled with immense

joy that in his days the Lord deigned to show

such tokens of miracles through his Soldier.

VI.

[8] I think this also should not be passed over, what

was done in the place, another man contracted in all his limbs which is named Derf ^e by the inhabitants

dwelling there. The occasion of this matter, which I relate, was such.

For it was the very great zeal of our abbot ^f, who

at that time presided over both places, that in the above-named

place regular observance should grow; because up to

his times they toiled ^g in canonical practices,

and he had caused elder brethren from among us to dwell there,

who should persuade them that all regular order

must be firmly held and unceasingly kept.

While they were intent on these disciplines, it happened that the festal

day of our most holy Doctor was at hand: and when

by the exhortations of the rulers teaching them they had learned of the deeds

of the most blessed Bishop, with one

accordant mind the devout promise vigils after the custom,

to keep the night solemn. Meanwhile, while these things

are being done, it came about, God favoring, that there was present there a certain man

contracted in all his limbs, so that the soles

of his feet seemed joined to the place of his thigh.

And he began with great efforts to persist in prayers,

that he might as a suppliant await through the night in the church

the mercy of God: for he said that it had long since been

announced to him from heaven that there would be there monks from

the parts of that same Saint, who would toil in the watches

of the vigils of that night, and that he should know

that he was there to receive health.

[9] Strengthened in faith by this vision, he was securely

passing the night in the temple; he is healed in the monastery of Derf, an apparition going before: and behold, as soon as

all take the silence of the quiet night, the sick man lying there

disquiets with sudden cries those desiring

to take sleep, and rising, so to say,

unwilling, they enter to celebrate the divine Office,

now glad at the Lord's consolation. Their long

prayers therefore being finished, they go to behold

the wonderful deed, the sick man's limbs restored to their former

condition. Again praises are rendered, again

lofty * vows are stirred up in astonished hearts,

because even to those set far away the memory of the

Saint was not wanting. But being asked how

it had appeared to him, he related that he had seen a certain

man of sacred aspect ^h, bearing an angelic countenance and a shining

form, entering the church from without,

and stretching out his hand to him and bestowing health:

and cured in such a manner, full of thanks he began

to take his way; and he who before had been carried

by the hands of others, his own step now restored,

went to his house in peace.

VII.

[10] Meanwhile I shall not be silent that a certain woman

by name Hrodlindis * had so long remained mute, a mute woman receives speech.

that not any sign of speech could be recognized

in her. She therefore, coming to the feast of the most sacred day

of the vigils of the holy Father, was keeping watch,

and awaited the mercy of almighty

God, and by the motions of her mind, as far as she could, prayed

that he would have mercy on her. Her, intent upon this anxious

trouble, the divine power enveloped; and

among the crowd of the people the clemency of the excellent Father

recognized who she was that had needed

comfort more than the rest. For when all [who]

were present came together into the church to keep

the sacred vigils, and the most devout servants of God, with

all diligence and loftiness of praises, were discharging

the nocturnal Office, there is present a visitation from on high,

which suffers not their labor to be

empty: but that it might confirm their faith and their pious deeds,

the weak woman, whom the unclean spirit had so

rendered mute that, remaining so from her birth [sic],

she seemed to mutter no word at all —

behold, suddenly we saw a wondrous thing, that she was namely

made so fluent of speech that none of us

could speak more correctly or form words better. And thus,

made joyful at the divine gift, giving thanks and

praising God, and rendering worthy thanks to the holy Patron,

she returned safe to her house in peace.

VIII.

[11] Moreover it comes to mind that a certain

man, deceived by the depraved will of his mind, unjustly took away

his land, Vengeance upon a perjured invader of the estate. and attempted to usurp it into his own

dominion. But when our men learned

that that wicked man presumed such things, they rebuke

him with coaxing words of this kind: that it was not

fitting for him to do so unjust a thing against the Saint of God,

as to wish to take away his goods from him by violence.

But he, delaying nothing, nay rather coming to the boundaries

of the place with the defenders of his own party,

protested under the attestation of the oath of false

* witnesses, that that part of the land belonged rather to his

domain than to the parts of our

church. Indeed he even imprecated upon himself, reproaching himself thus:

So may the merit * of that Saint aid me in my

necessities, and so may the hairs remain

on my head, or * the hairs in my beard, as

I speak rightly and judge these things to be mine. And thus

from that very hour, as he himself had demanded, he remained

smooth, without hair and beard. For * also

on the following night he was oppressed with sickness and so

worn out with languor that his nails and * the hairs

of his body were torn away from him; and bound by such

affliction he not only restored the land which he had wished to take

by force, but even restored it doubled from his own;

yet he lacked hair and beard for as long a time

as he survived.

ANNOTATA.

It is a tract of Germany in the dominion of the bishop of Liège, extended between Brabant,

the Meuse, and the city of Liège, whose head is Saint-Trond, from

Baudrand. Valesius also may be seen in the Notitia Galliarum page 242.

the Great, made partner of the empire by his father in the year 813, crowned emperor by Stephen IV,

Pope, in 816, and deceased in 840. The diplomas which he granted to abbot Wirundus

in the year 814 may be seen in Martène, tome 2

of the Most Ample Collection, column 21 and following.

f. This

was Odo or Haudo, to others Hauto and Ando, abbot of Stavelot and at the same time

of Der, who, with the favor of the emperor Louis the Pious, recalled the clerics of Der to

the ancient institutes of the monks in the year 827. He died toward the close of

the year 836, after he had presided nineteen years, from Denys de Sainte-Marthe in

the Abbots of Stavelot, columns 941 and 942. Hence is discovered the age

of the writer.

phrase the anonymous author signifies that clerics had been made out of monks: as after

him the monk of Der plainly wrote in the miracles of St. Bercharius in

Mabillon page 844 number 2, subjoining at number 4 the same benefit which here

follows.

is, he says, Holy, in which sense Paul to Titus chapter 2 ℣. 3 calls the πρεσβύτιδας

…

ἱεροπρεπεῖς. Lucian the presbyter, cited by Du Cange tome 3 of the Glossary column 877, interprets Jeruprepem as a worthy Priest.

The Ms. of Rouge-Cloître substitutes Stabulensis*

Mabill. fulguris igne*

al. totam*

al. beatissimi*

al. cernens*

Mabill. jacebat*

Ms. of Rouge-Cloître Stabulo*

Mabill. subito*

the same cantu*

al. qualiter*

al. supplicia*

Mabill. Rothlindis, al. Richlindis*

Mabill. falsator*

al. auxilium*

Mabill. &*

the same Etiam*

al. &*

CHAPTER II.

A punishment inflicted upon another who had broken a vow; sight restored to the blind

and hearing to the deaf: one who steals away the cloth of the altar is punished, but afterward,

repenting, is healed: a sweet odor from the Saint's tomb.

IX.

Another also, binding himself by a vow, appointed one

ram that he would give to the church of the most holy Man

while life accompanied him: One who breaks a vow pays the penalty, and keeping it carefully,

and it being now full-grown, awaiting the festal

season of the day, he began with that same ram to set out for

the place lately destined in his mind. And when he was now near

the monastery, and beheld it from afar,

the purpose of his mind, long kept, was changed by the snares

of the ancient enemy; and so, driven on by the devil,

he halted a little, and turning aside in another

direction, he took away the pledge which he had given of his own accord,

and presumed to turn it to his own uses.

For when night came on, preparing himself a feast from that same

sheep, he does not depart until with his own he had

consumed all the flesh of that animal:

and the feast being consumed, the Lord was mindful of the most foolish

vow ^a by which the wretch was held bound;

for [so] his mouth and face remained twisted almost as far

as his ear, so that you might discern him disfigured with deformity;

showing himself guilty to all who beheld him,

and proclaiming himself guilty of the vow .

Departing thus deformed, by such a mark, as long as he lived,

he offered himself notable to all.

[13] There was besides a certain woman by name Ermenrada,

blind, having lost her sight for three months,

who was admonished in her sleep a blind woman recovers her sight, to commit some vow

to the Saint, and he would give her sight back to her.

And although poor in goods, she yet remained

whole in faith; for she could find almost nothing else

than a candle ^b girding her head about,

which, sending it by her carrier, she besought with all her

efforts that he would * set it lighted before the sacred sepulchre;

that there, as long as it lasted, it might burn

unextinguished. And as soon as * the lamp, fitted

by men's hands, lost its office of shining,

the light long denied was straightway restored to the feeble blind woman,

and [she] was restored to her former soundness.

XI.

[14] I shall insert into this narration also another miracle, which is known to many, [likewise another, who had lost the use of his eyes because he defrauded a pious legacy:]

because

it is agreed to have been accomplished no more than two years ago.

For a certain [man] by name Lungulfus

had brought even to death,

that he should carry silver clasps for her absolution to the place

of the most blessed Bishop, and there make request for

the deliverance of her soul. And he, hearing

the most coaxing voice of his wife, promises that he will fulfill

whatever she had suggested. But after her

death, forgetful of his promise, unmindful

also of the conjugal * privilege, and holding of small account

the fear or * the love of God, he kept the silver

by him, and turned it to his own uses,

and defrauded the woman of it. Which crime the Knower

of hidden things, not suffering it to go unavenged, so

wrought that that faithless man ran into the darkness

of a profound blindness, and for six months

remained deprived of his eyes. And when he was asked

by neighbors or kinsfolk what had befallen him, since before he saw,

and now had suddenly been made blind; not being able

any longer to hide his sin, he confessed

that because of the guilt of the theft committed against his wife

the office of seeing * had been withdrawn from his eyes.

And when those who had learned from him the cause of this

deed exhorted him, taking some gift

in his hands, he came in haste to the monastery;

and there he made open the crime which he kept hidden,

and, night coming on, persevering there continuously

in prayers at the place of the sepulchre,

at the dawn of the brightening day he saw all things clearly, and returned

thence sound.

XII.

[15] Lately therefore * it happened that a certain man of our

household, by name Gotherus, a deaf man given hearing, wounded in a dream by

wicked spirits, was made deaf.

He therefore, urged in the silence of the night, was bidden

Remaclus, where he should know that he would recover the loss of his

former health. While then he went on doubtful with this hesitation

and much saddened, the brethren carrying in wagons the allowances of spelt

to the remaining tenants, he too, according to the measure

enjoined upon him, did not delay to carry with the rest. And

when he came not far from the monastery, his ox,

having suffered excessive weariness or some injury or other,

halted in that same place. Then the man, made anxious

and trembling, being able to do nothing else,

remained there that night, guarding the work enjoined

upon him by the exactors. But when the middle

space of the night was passed, a certain old man coming to him and

seeing him laid in sleep, asks whence he was,

or whither he was going, and whose was the service

which he was keeping. And it seemed to him that [he]

answered * the whole order of the matter, according as

he had been questioned; and looking toward him he perceives

that he carried a rod in his hand, which the same

shining man, lifting it up, struck his head and his ears,

and departed. And so the sick man, waking, was restored

to health. But when morning came, he lent a loan ^e to a certain

passer-by * there, and took that man's ox,

the price being received; and he brought back in its whole number the corn which

he had guarded, and rendered thanks to God

for the health given him; and so he departed rejoicing,

and returning to his lodging he found unhurt the ox

which he had left almost dying,

and returned with joy to his house.

XIII.

[16] To this miracle also I shall set forth another like it.

There was a certain man of the same household, Theodradus ^f by name, another also struck by the Saint, as is reported, with a blow and with deafness,

who at the sixth hour of the day was plowing land

fit for use as seed-ground: and behold, lifting up his eyes

he beholds coming from afar that same old

[man], bearing grey hair upon his head, showing

the form of a cleric, and awaiting him

as he hastened to him, he saluted him humbly.

Being asked whence he was, or whether he knew how

one might go to the monastery, [he] protested that he knew

exceedingly well. And the other said: Lead me,

he says, to the place, for I greatly desire

to come there more quickly. But he, made negligent,

answered that [he] could not leave the work fitting for him *

and be at his service;

and being much entreated by him with prayers, he gave

no assent at all. And when the sun set,

and the beginning of the night followed; to him

given over to sleep the same man is present in like form, entreating like things.

When therefore he in no way gave assent,

he gave him a blow on the face, and struck him

with a very great deafness.

[17] But when not a few days had rolled by, compelled

by necessity, coming humbly to his most sacred tomb,

he is healed by the same: he prayed that he might be favored by his help.

Nor was what was sought long delayed; nay, he willed rather

to confer health more speedily upon the guilty man; for on a Lord's

night likewise the sick man bids himself be placed in the church,

saying that he trusted health to be at hand for him as quickly as might be,

the Saint of God granting it. Whence according to

his faith soundness soon followed, which * afterward

he was accustomed to relate to us; for while he sat

awaiting the help that should be at hand for him, he beholds a light

proceeding from the altar, and that same man whom he had

seen before, holding a lamp in his hand,

signing him * with the sign of the cross, and curing every infirmity

of his feeble limbs; and thus

afterward, his strength being renewed, he remains for ever unhurt,

persevering in the watches of that same temple.

XIV.

[18] The inhabitants report that an estate situated in the district of Famenne ^g,

by name Marcam ^h, passed as a dowry to the church

of our monastery. a cloth offered at the dedication of a church In it therefore lately,

occasion serving, an oratory was being prepared to be built by the natives;

and, effect following upon the vow,

the work is begun, and, help being conferred from heaven, the whole

fabric — of wooden material ⁱ though it was — is completed in a short time.

Which done, they invite after the custom the priest of the people

to bless it, first however asking that pledges be given them

from the monastery of St. Remaclus, that it might be consecrated

in his name. Assent

therefore is given by three brethren to the faithful petition,

and, the day of blessing being agreed on, the sought-for relics of the blessed

Man are conducted by a priest named Goderannus

to meet the bishop: by whom, being received

with veneration, they were fittingly set in * a suitable place.

And when the vigils and the other things belonging to this rite

had been performed after the custom, when it came

to the covering of the altar, a certain venerable matron

by name Grimvara, by whose prompting these things were chiefly

being done, bringing the cloth with which the holy altar was to be covered,

held it out to the bishop under a testification

that it should never at any time be removed thence, save for the sake

of washing. And she sought, out of an affection of piety, that

the carrying of it should be left to her too,

believing that it would be a help to her, if she should expend

any service upon the holy Confessor.

[19] All things therefore being duly performed, they departed.

But after no long time a nun ^k, a certain woman, stealing it away and abusing it, is punished, who had devoted herself to service in that same place,

preparing to go somewhither, by a diabolical

instigation — as afterward became clear — forgetful of her purpose, took up the pall

with which the aforesaid mistress of the household had covered the altar,

and, having placed it upon her head, went whither she had determined.

But presently divine vengeance follows upon the rash

deed. For, returning home, the demon

driving her on *, she prepares hot water,

and washing her head with the water, hastens to wipe it

with the same aforesaid cloth; and thereupon all her hair,

following it, so utterly flowed down from the crown

that no trace of a head of hair

remained upon it; and it came about that she lost her natural

covering, who had unjustly usurped another's veil.

Nay more, to the increase of her ill fortune,

an itching pervades her whole head to such a degree

that — a thing shameful to say — it swarmed with

worms themselves.

[20] Sorely straitened by which punishment, she related the deed done

in order to the priest and likewise to all the people

in order, but afterward, repenting, she is freed from the disease. and begs them to entreat the Lord

for her absolution: and they, considering that this

was not within their own powers, send messengers to the monastery,

who should carry the same things to the brethren, and admonish them beforehand

that they be entreated for the recovery of her health.

Nor was there delay: the Patron, appeased at the entreaty of his own,

the injury forgiven, restored the poor woman to her former soundness.

At length, the corruption being straightway checked, the skin

in a manner coming to life again, her hairs began to be born anew,

as from the beginning: and gradually growing strong

they showed her, so to say, come back to life, a new-born child out of an old woman.

And it was enough to learn from this example

that no one should dare to profane sacred things. Of this

matter the aforesaid matron, still living, is a witness,

together with her husband, for whom there stand as many warrantors

as it is agreed were dwellers on the estate at that time.

XV.

[21] It seemed at one time to the brethren to the brethren and to the keeper

that some things about the venerable sepulchre of the blessed Man

were held worthy of amendment; The Saint's sepulchre breathes forth a most sweet odor. for which, craftsmen

being called in, they take counsel what is to be done about it.

They, all things being diligently looked over, perceive

that something projected above from the place of the covering, which,

unless it be removed, the structure cannot be fitly

set above. And so on the appointed day the craftsmen are present with

mattocks, hammers and pincers, and, the doors being barred

on every side, they begin man by man to dig out the earth

by which the sepulchre was covered;

which however they find so tenacious that scarcely with great

difficulty could * it be loosened. Moreover the matter was being carried on

secretly, none knowing of it save the brethren, and

the masters of their * works alone. As

soon therefore as that projecting clod was a little moved

aside, so great a fragrance flowed forth from the sepulchre

as if incense and all fragrant spices were being burned

there together *. Having drunk this in,

the workmen stand fixed, straightway struck with amazement, and,

the work left off, they strive to flee far away. But the keeper,

of a loftier understanding, recognizing the divine power,

admonishes that nothing is to be feared, but rather that the work begun

is to be watchfully pressed on: that from this it ought the more

to be understood that the presence of the blessed Man was at hand, who

by such an omen showed himself about to favor their pious

will in all things. Therefore the workmen, rekindled by these words

and at the same time sprinkled with a paradisal fragrance,

joyfully finish what they had begun: but the aforesaid

odor, bursting forth outside, so diffused itself through all

the spaciousness of the whole place, that it betrayed to all

the deed which the brethren had wished to remain undiscovered ^l.

ANNOTATA.

that the anonymous author wished

to relate that that countryman bought or hired another ox on a pledge,

fearing, as is likely, that his own ox had died in the

lodging.

or Theodardus as he is elsewhere called, was freed from a certain deafness

by the Saint's merits, I should readily believe: but the preceding apparitions with

their circumstances are suspect to me.

Mabillon notes, of which kind many women in that time, the veil being assumed,

devoted themselves to some church, even though they remained in private houses.

He adds that Jerome in a certain letter on avoiding suspect cohabitation treats of devoted women of this kind, and assigns to them dark or dusky garments.

Mabillon, in whom many things are read otherwise, especially in the two

last miracles; but I have not thought all and each worth noting.

Mabill. præmonstrautem & proclamantem*

al. quod*

al. Quando autem*

i.e. jussi*.

Mabill. &*

the same habiti*

al. etiam*

Mabill. At ille respondit in visu*

in others commanenti*

al. commissum*

al. nam*

al. consignantem*

al. ac*

Mabill. se mox*

al. possit facultate*

al. eam*

i.e. aromata*. See Du Cange.

CHAPTER III.

A fish prodigiously caught: the dropsy, once cured, invades anew the violator of a vow,

who afterward, the vow being made good again, is healed; likewise a man deaf and

mute from birth: a thief cannot depart until he gives back the Saint's cup, which

was thereafter honorably preserved.

XVI.

There is an estate situated upon the river Meuse ^a, subject to our

dominion, A monk fishing for some time with vain effort, called Calcus. In it therefore,

because it is fit for fishing, it was formerly the custom

to appoint a monk from the monastery, of whose

faith, life and conversation alike there should be no doubt;

who, careful about the fishing, should at a fixed time

send or bring to the brethren what by the Lord's bounty he took. On a certain occasion, then,

this office is assigned to a certain aged brother by name Leutfridus;

who, when through the revolution of a year

he sweated at the task enjoined upon him,

a very favorable outcome, as is wont, followed his pious

endeavors, so far that for the most part he destined a plentiful

catch of fishes for the monastery.

But it happened at one time that the festal day of the blessed Remaclus

was at hand after the custom, wherefore the aforesaid

old man greatly strives to bring it about that he may be able to set forth

fishes sufficient for the refreshment of his colleagues.

And so there is frequent recourse to the lake ^b (I mean the Meuse),

nets are drawn, seines are cast,

and every kind of fishing is set in order; but no

fish at all is taken, the power of catching being denied him,

as I think, by God's will.

[23] at length, the Saint being invoked, Whence the elder, exceedingly saddened, knows not what

he is to do: for he is urged on by love of his Patron

to hasten as quickly as may be to his solemnity,

and is no less pressed by shame, because he cannot

bring with him the accustomed gifts of fishes. He hangs

therefore in doubt whether he should seek the monastery inglorious,

or sit sorrowful at home. At length

shame is overcome by love, and so, the deliberation being presently made

about making the journey *, he bids a boat be made ready for him

to cross over. Having gone aboard it, he began silently

while sailing to turn these things over with himself:

Does it please thee, he says, O bountiful Confessor, that

so long a labor being spent, I should bring back no fruit at all

of my work? What crime have I committed,

for which all power of fishing has been denied me?

And would that here first, if I deserved it,

I might undergo the savage shipwrecks of this river, rather

than that the brethren should for * my sake suffer any loss of

their provisions.

[24] he prodigiously takes a huge fish: While therefore, moved by the greatest grief, he was speaking

these and other things with himself in a silent mind, as I had said,

the pious condescension of the holy Confessor heard

his faithful murmuring: and a wave, suddenly raised from the river,

swiftly made for the boat as if driven by a blast,

and cast into it, together with the water, a great fish,

which one of the sailors, having laid hold of it,

carried to the shore, and held out to the monk to be brought to his companions.

Then the old man was made glad *, that

though a late one, he had yet obtained a wondrous catch by the power

of the Saint: carrying off the captive set upon the creel ^c

of the river, he snatched up his journey in haste,

and, the Lord favoring, arrived whither he was going with

all safety. And when the scaly creature * had been set forth in the sight

of all, taken by a new kind of fishing,

he made known the matter in order as it had been done:

all therefore rejoice that they are held worthy

of a divine gift, and render the thanks due

to the pious Confessor, who, while he favors the vow of one,

took thought for the advantage of many, and, in order to cover

the shame of a single monk,

granted seasonable food to all who served him. And it was done

by a prudent ordinance, that, the fish being divided into parts,

there should be ministered to each of the brethren from it

on the day of the holy solemnity a fitting portion for a blessing;

so that they might remember that they would never be forsaken

by the suffrage of the blessed Remaclus, if they took care to watch

in his service.

XVII.

[25] In the district of Mosaliacum ^d a certain estate

is named Marancum, a dropsical man, a certain vow being made, is cured at the Saint's sepulchre; where for some time *

a certain one of the dwellers had fallen into a grievous dropsical

disease; and when he was held for a long time by that kind

of trouble, and could be cured by no

physician, on a certain night he is admonished in sleep

that he should go to the tomb of the blessed bishop Remaclus,

and there, making a prayer, should pay his vows

for his health, and should know that presently by him he would be

restored to his former soundness. He straightway,

morning being come, summoning his kinsfolk and friends,

discloses the vision and eagerly demands to be conducted

whither he was bidden, promising that he would deliver a certain part

of a vineyard to the Saint, if he should not delay to impart to him

the comfort promised. Nor was there delay: giving credit

to his words, they make ready lights to be carried with them,

they prepare also the necessaries of the journey,

and hasten as quickly as may be to go with the man to the appointed place.

And when they had come thither,

the keepers of the place being summoned, they make known for what cause they had come,

and demand that the entrance of the church be unbarred for them:

which having entered, they straightway seek reverently

the place of the tomb, and, the tapers which they had brought with them

being lighted before it, they prostrate themselves in

prayer; and when prayer had been made for a very long time,

the sick man felt the Saint's power, and

straightway received the promised gift of health.

But he, not unmindful of his vow, delivered the vineyard which he had promised,

and so returned home unhurt with the giving of

thanks.

[26] When, after no long time, the same * man,

now rendered secure from his sickness, [afterward, breaking his vow, he is again seized by the dropsy: but coming to his senses] the unhappy man began,

as the manner of countrymen is, to grieve at the

diminution of his revenue, and, driven by a diabolical instigation,

presumed to recall to his own uses the vineyard given

to the holy Confessor: and, the fruit being gathered from it,

he presses out the liquor * after the custom, and stores up

in his storeroom the future loss of his own salvation.

He, presently struck by the divine judgment, is

again seized by the same languor: and, the disease growing strong,

lying on his bed he began to fare so grievously

that he wholly lost hope of life.

At length amid excessive pains and dire sighs, remembering

his rash daring, he calls together anew the priest and likewise

his kinsfolk, to whom, setting forth the cause alike of his offense

and of his pain, he begs with tearful pleading

that counsel be taken for him by them. They,

the counsel being received, make ready a wagon, upon which,

placing the wine which the wretch had fraudulently kept, and the sick man

together with it, they direct their journey anew with yoked oxen to the tomb

of the blessed Confessor, saying thus

to the wretch: If the iniquity of thy fraud is so great that

thou deservest no pardon at all, at least there receive alone

the penal debt, where it is agreed that thou hast lied

to God ^e: and let not another's wickedness stain

those whom their own fault has not defiled.

[27] Therefore, made partakers of their vow, they come to the monastery,

and, making his vow good again, he recovers his health. and set the sick man before the doors of the church,

and, the brethren being summoned, they relate in order the matter,

which before indeed was but little known;

and, the little vessel of wine being consigned to them,

they greatly accuse the man's presumption: yet they beg

humbly that prayers be poured forth for him.

Which done, the accustomed clemency of the blessed Patron was not wanting

to those presuming upon him: for indeed on that same night

the sick man is bidden to lie down before the doors of the basilica,

and there to await the power of the Confessor of the Lord.

But the brethren, having entered the church, celebrate the vigils,

and pray the more earnestly for the man's health;

and when, the day being given, they come forth outside, they find the man

loosed from every bond of sickness and

rendering to God such thanks as he knew

for the health recovered. Greatly rejoicing for him,

they sing praises together to the Lord in hymn-singing * exultation,

who according to the Psalmist's word is nigh

in truth to those that call upon him, and knows always to impart their requests

to his faithful without upbraiding.

So, a vow being made concerning the vineyard, that he should not further

presume such things, the man who had come led by another's

steps returns home joyful upon his own.

Of this matter the vineyard itself is a witness, which

in the aforesaid estate is possessed by us alone of all;

witnesses too are they who till the same, the kinsfolk of the aforesaid

man; and to such a degree is the matter held

known that almost the whole countryside is a witness.

XVIII.

[28] A certain man, from his birth made both deaf

and mute, Another deaf and mute from birth brought indeed to others a laughing-stock, but to his own

a continual grief: whom his parents, driven alike by deep *

sorrow and by shame, hand over to a certain

beggar, that going about with him to the sacred places he might acquire *

for himself through him a daily livelihood from

the devout, until, visited by heavenly

grace, he might deserve to obtain by the merits of some Saint or other the soundness

long denied. And so, when no

small course of time had rolled by, and very many dwellings

of the Saints had been traversed, both at length come

to the little place of our lowliness:

and they being received after the custom in the guest-house, for

nearly eight days we furnish out of piety the things necessary for their sustenance.

But it was the porter's custom that, the sick man being asleep,

withdrawing himself from him secretly,

he would go out meanwhile whither he had need; otherwise he never

suffered himself to be parted from him, the sense of recognition alone

having been divinely reserved to him. Now the days

of the Lord's Advent were being kept; it happened therefore

on one of the Lord's nights ^f, which was the eighth

before the Nativity, while the sick man lay before the doors of the church

and his attendant was absent, that the bells were rung after custom

to celebrate the evening praises.

And, the people flocking together to the church, the sick man

is roused, and although ignorant of what was being done,

yet moved by the divine will, entering the house

with the rest, he stands alone in one corner

astonished. And when, as we were reverently performing

the divine melody, it had come to

the Evangelical canticle ^g, where, the voice being sent forth, the cantor

begins the antiphon said Of Wisdom, straightway

the sick man, fallen to the ground, pitched forward as if with his legs cut from under him,

and, blood flowing down alike from his ears

and his throat, lifts on high cries like a madman's;

with which he utterly disturbs not only the lay people,

but even us who were not yet aware of the matter.

[29] is endowed with hearing and speech: But we, the praises being finished, coming to where the sick man

lay, find the whole pavement stained with gore,

and the wretched man lying as if half-dead.

And recognizing straightway the Patron's

power, we caused him, lifted from the ground and diligently washed

with water, to be carried before the holy tomb, not without great

amazement and at the same time joy; and

so, all the bells being rung anew, turning ourselves to the praise

of the Lord, we sang together with clear voice the hymn *Te

Deum laudamus*. But after

this, food and drink being taken, he came to * so perfect

a strength of health that for the doing of

any work whatever none could be found readier than he.

But speech, after the manner of a child, he so learned

from others speaking before him, that he said nothing else

than what had before been uttered by another:

whence it appeared by manifest token that he had neither heard

before nor spoken. But with so great a burning

of love did both, the leader namely and the led, cleave to the blessed

Confessor, that, having stayed with us for nearly three years,

and having received wages, they served

with the other officers of the place. Which

matter became so famous that it was not hidden from the king ^h

who came there; who straightway causing the man to be

summoned, bade him stand by while he himself dined,

and to such a degree venerated in him the power of the holy

Man, that he kissed his ears and his mouth, and even his very

eyes.

XIX.

[30] Now I shall relate a wondrous deed, what befell

concerning the cup of that same Saint, a thief's wagon cannot be moved from the place which up to that time

was handled negligently among us, nor kept with worthy

honor, as was fitting. For at a certain

time *, until he restores the Saint's cup which he had taken away, while the corn was being carried to the brethren by the servants

in wagons, as was the custom, the appointed

allowance * being given them, and each drinking from that same

vessel, when it had come to the last of them, who

was called Dominicus, the attendant

who held out the cups was wanting. And he, looking about

here and there and marking that there was no one,

hid the vessel in his own pack, that he might carry it

to the place appointed; and, bound by such a crime,

he wished to depart free, who was already held bound

by the divine power. For when he wished with his

fellows to return with the wagon to his

house, four pairs of oxen being yoked, the wagon so

remained immovable that you would have seen it

greatly weighed down with the mass of some thing or other. And when

the oxen had been chastised once and twice, they so remained rigid

that they were thought senseless, and altogether

without any motion at all. For when his companions

inquired what had befallen him,

confessing his fault, he gave back with the greatest sorrow the vessel

which he had unjustly wished to carry off: and at once

the oxen, absolution being given them, with free step

began briskly to run the way by which they had come.

[31] After this, the vessel, laid up, is guarded with great

diligence, which afterward Airicus, abbot of Inden, splendidly adorned, until, the report spreading abroad, the venerable Airicus,

abbot of the monastery of Inden ⁱ, hearing the cause

of this deed, with a great effort of entreaties

received from us the cup he had asked for; which

he keeps with such care that he ordered it to be wrought *

of gold, with silver chains, in memory

of the blessed Man; and he caused it to hang before the burial-place

of the most holy martyr Hermes ^k, whom

that kindly father himself, taken with pious labor by the command of the emperor

Lothair ^l Augustus from the parts of the Roman Church

with honor, venerates with the greatest honor

as a treasure entrusted to him. Having learned therefore of this

account, he diligently inquires whether these and other portents

were held in writing among us,

which God has wrought through the merit of his Servant.

But learning that through our carelessness or negligence

they remained almost in oblivion, in no way

committed to the pen, he prudently took care to rebuke or reprove

us, that we did not act rightly, in that what had been revealed

among us should be made clear also to others

who did not know it; and by all entreaties

and by his own command he admonished our littleness

that we should take care to transcribe it for him.

[32] Obeying therefore his commands, trusting

in the obedience enjoined upon us, at whose urging the author wrote these miracles. we set about

this work as we could, not as we wished

and as it was worthy to be accomplished. Whence if *

the discourse is held uncultivated, it is to be assigned to inexperience rather

than to will. Taking this care above all,

that we should set down nothing but what we learned from those

who had seen, or what we ourselves through our own selves

have proved. Now therefore, most excellent shepherd,

receive from us the office of thy charity enjoined upon us,

and, as thou didst promise, give it to those who know it not

to be read through ^m. Let these few things out of many

suffice thee, lest the abundance of very many sayings should be able

to hinder belief in the matters: for if we should set down all things

which the Lord has deigned to show through him,

we should seem to give the readers a great prolixity ⁿ. [But these things

we have comprised briefly for a memorial, that from them we may the more easily,

nay the more freely, prove the rest also.]

ANNOTATA.

h. Since

mention is made below of the emperor Lothair, I suspect that one of his brothers is here designated,

namely Louis king of Germany, or

Charles the Bald king of the Franks.

i. It is a monastery

of the Order of St. Benedict, so called from the Inde, a neighboring brook, distant about two

leagues from Aachen. It had for its founder about the year 814

the emperor Louis the Pious, as Sainte-Marthe testifies, tome 3 of Gallia Christiana column 731: it is commonly called Cornelis-munster, that

is, the monastery of St. Cornelius, inasmuch as it is dedicated to St. Cornelius, Pope and

martyr, who is honored on the 14th of September. Moreover Sainte-Marthe, column 733,

wrongly places Airicus among the abbots of Inden in the tenth place after Adagrinus about

the middle of the 10th century; whereas our anonymous author, who testifies below that by Airicus's command

he wrote these miracles, was a monk long before the middle of the 9th century

in the time of abbot Odo, who died in the year 836. See what is said on chapter 1, letter f.

l. Lothair,

son of Louis the Pious by Ermengarde and the first emperor of this name,

was crowned at Rome by Pope Paschal I in the year 823. After his father's

death he ruled fifteen years; then, renouncing the empire and the world

by a notable example of modesty and penitence, he had himself carried to the abbey

of Prüm, where he died a monk in the year 855, from the Chronicles of Marianus Scotus and

of Sigebert at the said year. Chapeauville may be seen, tome 1, page

156. Some have not hesitated to insert Lothair in the Benedictine Fasti, says Mabillon, tome 3 of the Annals page 42, presently subjoining: It will be enough if he be called OF PIOUS MEMORY, as in the Gallican martyrology of André du Saussay at the 1st of October, page 675.

has it more. There are also absent from the codex of Duyn the following miracles, which in

the Bamberg and Fosses Mss. are read continuously, the prologue being omitted.

al. iterandi*

al. per*

al. est* is omitted

i.e. pisce*

al. aliquando*

al. isdem*

i.e. vinum*

al. hymnica*

perhaps adultum*

al. acquirat*

al. in*

al. nempe*

i.e. portione*

al. quam tanta diligentia servat, ut eam auro includi*

perhaps nimis*

BOOK II.

by three other anonymous monks of Stavelot as authors.

From the same Cologne Ms. collated with the Bamberg and Fosses Mss.

PROLOGUE.

[The writer of the prologue testifies that nothing but true things is narrated in this book.] Since I have hitherto spent leisure and silence in learning,

most serene of abbots, I now obtain

an occasion to turn it into honorable business,

and to commend to thy most pure judgment the benefit of learning

received from thee after God — with how clear-sighted a wit it flourishes.

For I was bidden

to describe the deeds of St. Remaclus done in recent time,

which I have undertaken by the presumption of confidence in thee;

striving so to balance devotion with the faith of truth,

that I insert nothing else but what I have learned by sight and

by the true report of the faithful. And since to thee

first of all I would rather present it, I ask that a petition for pardon may so

absolve me that I be not pierced with the goads

of disparagement and ignominy: for the scrutiny

of this Little Work does not dare to go forth into public ears,

unless, as is meet and right, it first rest upon thy

deliberation and upon the integrity of thy sincere charity.

Thou knowest indeed, my lord, that a multitude unaccustomed

to discipline is a hindrance to itself, nor

does it stand of itself upon a stable monument, unless it be propped

by another's judgment. Diligently attending to which, I devote it

chiefly to thy authority, which the highest

brightness of genius has most famously brought in for present

and future usefulness. I still call to mind thy former

benevolence, often bestowed upon me from thy heart,

I look upon thy long-lasting affection,

which, while thou didst cherish me with the recompense of favor, thou hast neither

cut off by jealousy nor shuddered at by disdain: and

therefore, because I judge that I still thrive with thee by the same benefit,

if I have gone too far in anything in this little work,

I have to impute it to thee, who didst persuade me to trust

so much in thee, that, according to the Apostle, thou didst cast fear

outside by perfect charity. To this also I do not

doubt that in this matter I am putting out at interest the price of thy faith;

for if the shame of a monk disciple be too much for thee,

thou hast still the arena of thy study, where thou mayest

exercise the wrestling-school of thy own wit: look, my lord, upon what is due

to thy merits, and, being a little free from loftier

writings, willingly impart thyself to this small

lucubration; for a worldly matter seeks to have various

turns, and desires now and then to relax with easier things,

by a change of rest, a continuous and unbroken

strength. Nothing is more pleasant than a variety of studies

and of duties, nothing more welcome than a devotion

which is kept amid dangers. In this

indeed my apprehension is the more fearful, because

I am as yet rude in wit, I lack the reverence of age,

and thence I judge that I must be marked with the title

of the greater rashness, unless the commendation of thy protection confirm me.

Therefore grant thyself to my support,

hallow it by thy examination, cut away what is superfluous,

supply what gapes, rebuke what is erroneous, receive

with wondrous eagerness what is fitly said. If in this

thou lend me thy trust, and commend my anguish

to thy kindness, thou wilt stir me to attempt greater things

that shall profit thy business: the aforesaid

Apostle also says: Every one, as he hath received

grace, ought to minister the same one to another, and

the rest. Hence too the greatest of orators: For the fruit

of genius and of virtue, and of every excellence,

is then taken as greatest, when it is conferred upon each one nearest.

And so the fruit of thy teaching is then

more illustriously adorned, if the skill of thy

disciples is raised by a homely charm to the notice of many.

Which may the mercy of Christ

grant, may his loving-kindness assent, that their surviving fame

may so take counsel for thee that it may win thee, by glorious merits,

to earthly and to heavenly grace. Amen ^a.

ANNOTATION.

a. The prologue,

as I have already noted, is omitted in the two other Mss.; nor do I think that it was

composed by the first author of this book, who was a monk in the year 883.

For the writer of the prologue addresses an abbot under whom the studies

of letters flourished: but these St. Odilo restored to their former honor only about

the middle of the 10th century. Then he excuses his younger age, I am as yet rude in wit, I lack the reverence of age: which do not apply to the first author of the book, inasmuch as he was a man of great age, if he reached the times of Odilo.

THE CHAPTERS OF THE ANCIENT DIVISION,

SUCH AS THEY ARE IN THE MS.

I. While we were fleeing the nation of the Danes, in the hours

of the night on the mountain named Alnos, a light

came down in the manner of a fiery column upon

the Saint's coffin, to show the way.

II. Returning first from the estate of Bouvignes, we came to

the estate of Calcus, in which a plague of men,

which had broken out, is healed, and a paralytic girl

is cured.

III. That, while fleeing the same heathen folk, when

we came to the castle of Lonnia, a mad woman is there

cured.

IV. Likewise, fleeing, we entered the castle of Chèvremont;

but while we return, the lamps which

were carried before the Saint's coffin are frequently rekindled by

divine power.

V. Of a certain poor little woman, contracted

and healed.

VI. Returning from the castle of Lonnia, we came to the fisc

of Ledernau, and set the Saint's coffin in

the church, into which a light came down from heaven by night,

and the bells sounded of themselves.

VII. Of a certain contracted girl, brought from

Lombardy, healed.

VIII. Of a certain keeper of the church, who showed himself

unclean about the pledges of the Saints.

IX. A certain servant from the fisc of Brattis, contracted

in the monastery, but presently healed.

X. Of a certain servant who stole from the altar of the holy

Mother of God Mary plates of silver, to be fastened

to the table; but he perished mad, with a demon.

XI. Of another, who likewise stole a golden clasp from

the same altar, but is likewise invaded by a demon,

yet is afterward healed.

XII. Of Lambert the smith, to whom his arm was restored.

XIII. Of a boy contracted in his hands and healed.

XIV. Of another blind man enlightened.

XV. Of a certain man to whose hands a staff had stuck

on the third feria of the Rogations, but on the next Lord's day

he is cured.

XVI. Of a certain matron from the district of Famenne,

withered in all her limbs, and healed.

XVII. Of a certain woman from Glengou, likewise withered

and healed.

XVIII. Of a certain sick man contracted with a wretched languor,

but healed.

XIX. That a tower fell, but did not crush

those sleeping in it.

XX. Of a certain girl for nine years wasted by a dire plague

and contracted, but healed at the dedication of a church.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's body, carried elsewhere for fear of the Northmen, is lit up with a wondrous

brightness: a pestilence is extinguished; a paralytic woman, a woman out of her mind, a contracted woman

are healed: tapers divinely kindled.

Chap. I.

Therefore, while Charles the Third ^a, Caesar, was administering the sum of affairs,

When the Northmen invaded the Ardennes forest, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred

and eighty-three, the divine clemency being, as I believe, everywhere

exasperated by our evils, either bade or permitted us to be given over

to a most grievous and untried, though deserved, scourge. For indeed

the pestilent nation of the Danes ^b, hateful to every age,

emerging from the sheath of their native soil, prepares a plentiful

fleet, by which, passing over the ocean, it unexpectedly seizes

the borders of the Franks, and, traversing the whole province, afflicts

some parts with slaughter, sets fire to others; but all things together

it ruins and plunders, according to that word of the prophet:

From the North shall an evil be spread over the inhabitants

of the earth; and elsewhere: Behold, a people cometh from

the land of the North, and a great nation shall rise up from the ends

of the earth: it shall lay hold on arrow and shield, it is cruel

and shall not have mercy, saith the Lord, and the rest.

And so, when almost the whole region beyond the Meuse had been laid waste

to the point of extermination, they come to the river; and this too

being crossed, none resisting, the Ardennes

forest is burst into, and the whole becomes the prey of the barbarians.

Finally the villages are overthrown, the towns

burned, the lightnings * of royal houses also,

and the very monasteries of the monks are utterly destroyed;

nor is there any ceasing from the enterprise, until the sudden devastation

claims for itself our place also.

[2] the monks flee with the Saint's body, upon which there comes down But at a certain kindling of the moon (for by night

that most deadly assault chiefly raged, according to the Lord's

word, that he that doeth evil hateth the light,

and, this, he says, is your hour and the power of

darkness), the character of the place having been explored — as the outcome afterward taught —

and it having been seen that * it was on all sides

girt by forest, so that none could escape,

they secretly contrive to fall upon us: which

would also altogether have come to pass, unless by the divine will and by the Patron's

merit it had been made known to us a little before. For on one

of those days, the sun already seeking its setting,

a messenger came who, having slipped away in flight, declares that he is pressed

by the enemy in close pursuit. Then, stricken

with fear, straightway taking the dust * of the Lord's confessor

and of our pious protector Remaclus, we entered upon a flight

though a late one: and when, anxious with fear and

grief alike, we were taking a blind road in the depth of the night,

having climbed the summit of the nearest mountain,

we came to a place adjoining the monastery, called

Alnos. Where, when we had halted a little

for the sake of taking breath, we beheld — wondrous to tell — an immense light

come down from heaven in the manner of a fiery column

upon the coffin in which the most holy limbs were being carried,

which indeed by its own brightness greatly

outwent the clearness of the moon:

but what portent it foretokened is left

to the judgment of the wise. This one thing is not doubted by us,

that in that same place it is agreed to have been *

proved by experience. For when, as for the most part is wont

in the winter season *, an exceedingly great cold then pressed upon us,

we were meanwhile so warmed with a soothing heat

that we seemed to be under a springtime light.

[3] a heavenly light lasting nearly a whole hour: So, gazing on one another's faces in turn, with a voice

sticking in our throats, we stood astonished, saying

nothing, awaiting the end of the matter. When after the space of nearly

one hour that same light was seen to seek again the heaven above

whence it had come forth, and we,

straightway moving from the place, went on with swift step

whither we were bound. And lest this should seem to any to have been

said as a fiction, let him remember how

this mystic fire is read to have appeared to the blessed Martin

as he celebrated the solemnities of the Masses, and to Brachio ^c also, abbot and

monk, as he prayed; and let him discuss, if he is able, what mystery

it altogether carries. Let it suffice me to have said this

confidently, that it is never shown save to faithful men

and men of great merit, nor does it appear

save for certain tokens. But of this narrative there stand as many

warrantors of either order as it is agreed were then

present in that place.

But because I had promised that I would weave some

miracles of the holy Man, from this I judged that the first

beginnings should be taken: judging that this first is to be held worthy

of memory, that his own, who had followed him *,

he so preserved unharmed amid so many perils

of persecutions, that scarcely any one of them

did the enemy's sword destroy; so that he may freely

be able to cry with the Lord's word: Of those whom thou gavest

me I have lost none.

II.

[4] But in the following * storm of an agitation of this kind,

the same body being brought to Calcus we were compelled to leave our native fields,

and to seek those of others. For indeed, having entered the county

of Porcien ^d, where at that time there seemed to be some

quiet from the enemy, in a certain estate of our already-named

patron Remaclus, by name Bouvignes ^e, we made our seat

with his blessed body, until,

the enemy being driven off by the emperor, we learned that peace was restored

to our country. Nor yet were we there wholly

without experience of the Saint's power: for,

the suffrage of his holy prayers accompanying us,

we continually obtained from the Lord a sufficiency

of all good things. As soon therefore as, by the regard of heavenly

pity, the long-desired tranquillity was at length restored

to our borders, without delay we straightway strove eagerly

to return to our own: when meanwhile

we received sorrowful news, namely that the whole

of our place had been consumed by a devouring flame.

And so grief is renewed, long sighs

are drawn, and tears are poured out in common;

and what we should do, whither namely we should go

or where we should settle, remained utterly uncertain.

Counsel being at length taken, we determined to go to a certain

little estate situated upon the river Meuse, by name

Calcus ^f, which almost alone had remained untouched by that devastation

and reserved for us by divine providence.

[5] But a great plague of men had broken out in it,

so that, a horrible plague is quieted; the buriers sometimes failing,

and those to be buried pressing on as death urged,

two or three — which is even shameful to say — were for the most part

placed in one sepulchre. Which matter,

no little terrifying us, again set us in doubt,

some saying that it was better to endure somewhere the hardships

of exile while living, than to go thither

where it is agreed that all alike are perishing of the disease;

but others answering on the contrary that there would be

no refuge at all for any man for escaping death,

whom it was appointed should be ended by that plague;

but rather that, trusting in the Confessor's power, we ought

to approach the appointed place undaunted. Amid

these hazards of doubt the journey is taken,

and, the Lord helping, we quickly arrive whither we were bound.

I am about to tell wondrous things; but let him give credence

who believes that nothing is impossible to God. But

he who mistrusts this shows himself in every way

unfaithful, since he does not grant to the Lord that

which is read to have been promised to the faithful

servant: If thou believe, says the Lord, all things are possible to him that believeth;

and likewise: He that believeth in me, the works which

I do, he also shall do, and greater than these

shall he do, because I go to the Father. From

our entrance therefore all that plague so gave way to the holy Man's

merits, that those who had not yet experienced the disease

ran into it no further; and of those who had fallen into it

very many recovered; whereas before it was held

certain that whomsoever the languor invaded

should think only of the departure from life. For a considerable

time therefore we stayed in that same place, for

this reason, that there could be no access to the monastery,

the inhabitants having been driven thence by the enemy's assault,

and ashes alone possessing all things.

[6] Now there was a certain girl, a native of that same place,

whom from her earliest age a paralytic

disease had so beset *, a girl paralytic from her earliest age that, the lower part of her body being

almost, so to say, dead beforehand, every

power of walking being wholly denied her, she did nothing but

lie continually upon her little bed. But whenever

necessity demanded, she was carried by her mother

for the purpose of relieving her bowels. Moreover she herself

was fed by the support of the pious, yet she lived

by an untried taking of food: for she never

put bread to her mouth, she knew flesh not at all,

and she touched no pulse or vegetables,

but after the manner of little children enjoyed the nourishment of milk

alone, with the use of a few fruits

joined to it. But she took no drink except water and

the sweetening of strong drink, which the country folk call bracisa ^g;

though at vintage time she took a little

must, before it grew strong.

Doing these things, she had completed nearly twenty-two

years. Now the season of the Lord's Nativity had come,

which our mind was disposing to keep in our own

place: for certain roofs had already there been repaired

by our provosts, which could in some fashion

receive us on our return. And so, choosing

the necessary narrowness of these above the harmful

spaciousness of others, we departed, the Patron's

body being taken up with us. When, not

long after the departure of the blessed Man and of ourselves together,

the girl persevering in the same infirmity,

on a certain night, to a certain man dwelling in a neighboring estate

by name Givet ^h, a venerable person with grey hair,

bearing the appearance of a cleric, appeared in a vision,

and thus accosted him: Go, he said, to Calcus,

and tell that girl's mother, who keeps watch in the court

of the church — for she was a matricularia ⁱ and

sacristan — that she should carry the girl, carefully washed, into the church,

and lay her before the altar, until there she may

experience the help * of the holy confessor Remaclus. Which

being said, he departed. But he, awaking, believing

himself deluded by a fantastic dream, neglected

to fulfill the commands; but being admonished a second and a third time, the man

at length went, and told the woman what he had learned.

But she, suspecting that these things had been invented by him,

by no means gave credence to his words, and

in no way carried out the admonitions.

[7] she is suddenly healed, an apparition going before: But on the night of the Lord's Circumcision, in the same

appearance in which he had shown himself to the man, the same

person appeared * to the girl, and admonishes her that,

rising quickly, she should seek the oratory. She, awaking,

disturbs her mother with unwonted crying, and invites her to help her

rise from her bed, saying that she must

go forth to the church. Helped therefore by her mother,

she straightway rises whole from her couch, and, resting

upon her own feet, enters the church to render thanks

to the Lord for the health obtained. And by chance

the priest was present *: moreover her mother, the tapers

being lighted, rings the bells and invites the people

to see the wonders. There is a concourse of the people, and all

beholding this are filled alike with joy and amazement,

and in common giving thanks to God they bless him,

saying: Blessed art thou, O Lord, and

blessed are thy works, who liftest up the beaten down and healest the bruised,

who wondrously glorifying thy Saints art thyself more wondrously

glorified by their power, who livest

and reignest three and one for ever and ever.

But the girl herself obtained by the Saint's power so

full a remedy of health, that it is doubtful to none

that she had an almighty physician: for on that

day she ate and likewise drank bread and flesh, and wine and strong drink,

and all things offered her which are of service

for human use, without any nausea *,

and freely came * whither she wished, though with a step

that a little wavered. This narrative

is so far known that it needs no

warrant at all; the person who bears witness of herself

still continuing in health.

III.

[8] At another time likewise, compelled by the same heathen

pursuit, we go forth sorrowful from the dwelling of the monastery:

and, having taken with us the solace of all our labors,

namely the little body of the blessed Remaclus,

we enter a certain castle set upon the bed of the Ourthe,

by name Lonnia ^k, to abide there for a time. And while [we]

were living there,

on one of those days a certain woman out of her mind,

bound in all her body, is brought, who had broken forth

into such madness that, raging with continual

outcries, she pressed very many with revilings, and

handled some with blows or bites.

Those who had brought her set her before the doors of the building

in which the blessed Bishop's limbs were laid;

and there, keeping guard over her, they humbly await

the power of the holy Patron. And behold, when a watch

of nearly three days and as many nights had been kept,

the woman is restored to her senses, and, made whole,

returned briskly to her own home.

IV.

[9] About the same time, when we had returned from the castle of Chèvremont [l],

Candles before the Saint's body which the Northmen's assault had compelled us to enter,

peace having been obtained by the Lord's favor,

together with the body of the blessed Remaclus,

we turned aside to a certain estate by name Solomannia *

to take a little food: and the holy Man's relics being set

in the church after the custom,

prayer being fittingly made first, we came in haste

to refresh ourselves, since the festal day of our Patron

was at hand, which compelled us to hasten our return

as quickly as might be. Our fast therefore being broken with such things as

were at hand, the pledges of the blessed

Man being taken up again, we strive to accomplish the remainder of the journey.

But when we go a little way from the town,

a not small throng of men and women alike following us,

divine miracles appeared to us from heaven:

for the tapers set upon the candlesticks,

which were carried before the coffin of the bounteous Bishop,

extinguished indeed a little before by the force of the wind,

were suddenly rekindled with a divine light. Which seen,

we began by mutual admonitions to rouse ourselves to render

thanks to God: but the raw rusticity, less credulous of the deed,

as it always is wont to be, testifies that it sees by no means

a revived flame, but that with which they had once been

kindled. Stirred not a little by this,

we caused them to be extinguished before us,

the Patron's help being faithfully invoked, that whose

assertion was held true might be shown by the oracle

of a repeated truth *.

[10] Nor was there delay: the right hand of the Almighty was at hand,

are twice kindled by God's power: and, by the divine will applied even from the sky,

splendor is restored to the candles. Wondrous to tell, you would have seen

the whole place so lit up by it that no one

could any longer doubt that a divine light shone

there. Then we, clergy and people alike, lift up

our voices on high, and with hymn-singing

exultation render thanks to Christ for the wondrous portents,

messengers being sent back with haste,

who, entering the church, should ring the bells while we halted

there and sang together.

Nor was that power wanting to the oratory which we were experiencing

in the field: for when those who had been sent

enter into it, they behold the whole dwelling suddenly

flashing with divine lights, all of which however

had been laid asleep, the fire being extinguished, when we went forth thence.

Then, sending to us those who should make these things

known, they themselves attend to the ringing of the bells,

as they had been bidden. And so, the divine praises

being reverently completed, we take the road joyfully,

and, the Lord guiding our journey,

we are restored unharmed with all speed to the seats we longed for

^m.

[11] I shall insert into this little narrative another

wondrous deed also, a certain woman foully contracted which it is agreed was shown to us in recent time

by divine compassion for the increasing of the veneration

of the most blessed Confessor. A certain

poor little woman, so weakened in her lower limbs

that, her calves being joined to her buttocks, she could not

set a step in any way, was admonished in a vision

that she should have herself carried to the most sacred

Bishop's tomb, there to experience comfort by a divine

operation. By the support of the pious therefore

she was carried to the monastery in a wagon; she was set down

outside before the entrance of the convent, because the usage of our

place does not easily, save for a certain cause, admit a frequenting

of women. The matter for which she had come

she makes known to the sacristans by messengers, and most humbly begs

that they suffer her to enter the basilica for the sake of obtaining

the promised health.

[12] And at length, the superiors of the monastery giving assent

to this, she enters the church, creeping with little stools

by the service of her hands,

and, groaning, prostrates herself before the Saint's tomb to implore

the divine clemency. she is wondrously set upright. When after a watch

of nearly three days, while we were publicly

performing the celebration of the Masses after the custom,

the power of the most pious Confessor, moved by the sick woman's

diligent petitions, was present. Wondrous to tell, her fibres,

which had known no [n] passage of blood, gradually growing warm again,

her legs being stretched out with a great cry,

and rising quickly from the place in which she had lain

so long, she who had come thither carried by another began

to strive to walk, her own little staff supporting her.

Nor long after did she come to [so] perfect

a strength of health that it is doubtful to none

that by the suffrage of the holy Man she deserved to obtain a heavenly

remedy; for indeed wherever the delight of her mind

turns her, she sets out with free step,

needing the help of no support.

ANNOTATA.

b. This was not,

as the anonymous author seems to hint, the first irruption of the Danes or Northmen into

Gaul; for many had been made from the year 841, as Pagi testifies, who

refers the devastation of Stavelot to the year 881, number 4. At that time the abbot was

Leutbert, archbishop of Mainz, who died in the year 889.

was abbot of Manat among the Arverni, and died in the year 576. He is honored there on the 9th

of February, as Castellanus notes in the Universal Martyrology. These things for

the supplement of our Work at the said day: meanwhile St.

Gregory of Tours, chapter 12 On the Lives of the Fathers, in Ruinart's edition column

1213, may be seen.

away from the river Ourthe. Mention of the castle of Longia is made in various places in the praised

Martène, likewise in tome 2 of the History of Liège published in the year 1736, page 227.

l. It is a place

very high and on almost every side sheer, in the region beyond the Meuse,

scarcely a mile and a half distant from Liège to the south. These things and more Fisen has

in the Flowers of the church of Liège page 614. Valesius also may be seen,

page 124, where he says that it was once a royal estate, commonly called Chievremont,

otherwise Kevermont.

Fisen in the History of the church of Liège page 194 attaches the following prodigy

to the year 892, when Lintfrid, successor of Leutbert, ruled Stavelot;

he died in the year 898.

By these and by very many other notable tokens of powers it is declared with how great

glory from God the most blessed Confessor, rewarded, happily shines in

the regions above, who so surpassingly prevails to succor the misfortunes of the wretched

here below when humbly besought with faith, God and

the Savior of the world Jesus Christ helping, to whom be honor, power and might,

praise, dominion and jubilation for ever and ever. Amen.

domorum*

al. &*

i.e. corpore*

esse*

al. temperie*

al. fuerant*

al. insequente vero nos*

al. recte obsederat*

al. virtutem*

al. apparet*

al. aberat*

al. absque fastidio*

al. perrexit*

al. Solimanniam*

al. virtutis*

CHAPTER II.

A light sent from heaven upon the Saint's bier: a contracted infant girl healed;

an unclean man punished with leprosy and death, and the harrier of the men of Stavelot

with a contraction of his limbs; but he is afterward set upright.

VI.

We have a fisc by name Ledernaus ^a, still made over

to our prebend by an unbroken fellowship,

A light is sent down from heaven upon the Saint's body in which stands a church of St. Simetrius

in report. Therefore when we withdrew from the castle of Longia, likewise

subject to us, because it was convenient for us

to go there *, we turned aside to the fisc for the sake of lodging.

There was indeed being carried with us the precious body of our patron

Remaclus, granted us by divine compassion,

which on that night we determine to be kept

in the above-written church, keepers being set over it.

And behold, to a certain one of the brethren, who was keeping the vigils

and in so doing plying the business of the soul,

it was granted by divine favor to see such a heavenly

gift. For before cock-crow he beheld

a light come forth from heaven and forthwith

penetrate the house of the Lord through the set windows,

and settle upon the bier in which the limbs of God's Saint

were being carried. When therefore the darkness, irradiated

by this wondrous brightness, wholly departed, the light of the church

was made clear, and the bier itself

began to shake itself, and the bells, moved from heaven, gave forth

a sound of themselves. Then the brethren and their kin * awake,

drawn apart amid uncertainties they waver in amazement,

and although they were weighed down by the unwonted watches,

yet they are released in common to celebrate

the matin praises. But when, hastening to the church,

they arrive and learn how the matter stood,

they conceive thereof no slight opinion,

but attend upon the clod of the body of God's Saint

with divine services and mysteries: for this too

they lift up the weights of things, and glorifying they magnify the wonders of Christ

bestowed upon his Saints.

[14] Meanwhile the aforesaid brother, because by the vision of so wondrous

a brightness he was carried beyond the measure of human frailty,

was inwardly straitened in the church, astonished with so great

dread, seen, the bells sounding of themselves: that he seemed to be deprived, as it were, even of

his own unknowing. For, as

I believe, he was for this reason not comfortably lit up by that light of

the heavenly country, because he was beaten back by the images

of his own unlawful actions set before him;

for it is written that the flesh cannot receive

the things that are of the spirit; and therefore sometimes,

when the human mind is led beyond to seeing,

it must needs be that this little vessel of flesh, which is not able

to bear the weight of the talent, is made weak. Therefore

we, whom the reverence of so great a deed stirs, can

from this saving mystery conjecture that,

since the precious relics of St. Simetrius are there

contained, and because they had that night come together in body,

they revealed themselves in spirit also by this heavenly appearance.

For indeed the heavenly company of the Saints,

gathered by the merits of righteousness, shines in heaven more splendidly

than the stars, glows more brightly than the sun, and when it visits its own citizens

on earth, it adorns itself, taking on that form

in which it there serves its Creator. For

St. Gregory says: Those things which minister ought

to tend to the likeness of him to whom they minister;

and let it not be doubted that things which serve the invisible

are invisible: and what do we believe these to be,

but the holy angels and the spirits of the just? But

I have therefore approved this — doubtful indeed to many — by a consideration

so fitting, that for a mind wavering in

this matter the full testimonies of so great a father might persuade what reason could not.

VII.

[15] There is also another thing for us to recount, which it is chiefly fitting

should be handed down to memory. to a contracted infant girl There was a certain man of the Lombards,

from whom, according to the marital rule,

the law of nature dictating, a certain offspring

came forth. She indeed, by some divine judgment,

brought upon him by her affliction such misery, that she denied him the support

of a father and of a mother, and set before him

a sudden interception of the propagating of his substance.

For the soles of her feet clung together with her calves to her buttocks,

and therefore refused her the grace of walking:

but the unconquerable affection of a father's love is tortured with manifold

anguish over this, and

is driven, carrying her with him through the various merits and oratories

of the Saints and seeking a remedy.

He was compelled to leave the fields of his fatherland,

to wander with her through various provinces, with the viaticum

of prayer alone as his companion; but he was wearied with sorrowful

occupations, because as with a deaf ear

the medicine of God was deferred: yet not even for this did he fall

into utter despair, but at faith's prompting,

and because he learned by hearing that here remedies are bestowed

without distinction, presuming upon the kindness of God's Saint, our Patron,

he perseveringly betook himself hither.

After therefore he arrived, carrying his daughter

in her cradle, he set her down in the church: and

behold, on a certain Lord's day, while the Gospel lesson

was being recited, and all was quiet and

suited to the consecrating of God's sacrifice, she is urged

by a heavenly power, and is lifted up with a voice bright as if wailing;

but because it was taken for the voice of a newborn

and tender infant, the heavenly miracle is denied the power of contending

with her, hope being uncertain, and, that the disturbance

might be quieted, a sign is given to one who, being then more free,

carried there the censer of incense for the people,

that she should be thrust out of doors; which is at once done.

[16] health is restored. In like manner too her voice deceived the father's faith and devotion

as it did ours also, and he did not

weigh that the merits of Christ and of his Saints were alive ^c in her,

nor did he discuss the matter by examining it; but,

carrying her upon his shoulders, he hastened to his own lodging;

and while he is received there, and because he was still

then offended by the weariness of her crying and its excess,

he strives to find out as an eye-witness judge

by what weight of mind she was pressed. Then, drawing near,

he cast off the coverings of cloths from her, which at once

he beheld stained with blood, and while he handles the aforesaid

limbs by the tokens of the veins,

he surveys her with more attentive care; he considers

that she was struggling under the yoke of God's power, and that

the soundness of her limbs was being restored in her, her legs

being now, with reviving warmth, wholly straightened. Glorifying God and our Patron,

he exults, and straightway discharging what was due

for these matters, by no dissembling did he withdraw

the miracle from our knowledge and from that of the rest;

but, carrying forward the desire of his mind, he presented her again with haste,

bringing her back to the monastery,

and to God's Saint, our Patron, by whose

dealing he had received the wished-for result, he rendered

thanksgivings, like that other leprous Samaritan.

We too, as we came together, did not turn aside from the citadel

of righteousness, but with pious devotion extolled in common with praises

God, who sets forth mighty works

in his Saints.

VIII.

[17] Moreover it is fitting to recall to memory

that this sacred place is proved to be a partaker of heavenly things in this also,

An irreligious monk that by the merits of Christ and of his Saints it detests

the unchastities and all the uncleannesses of those dwelling in it,

and in those who have perpetrated them counsel is taken with

no easy chastisement.

The course of this matter, then, which is to be set down beforehand, I learned not

by sight, but knew faithfully by the attestation of many reverend

brethren of our monastery.

There was here a certain monk, keeper of the sacred church,

who administered the obedience * committed to him

with rash presumption: that is, weighed down

by the pleasure of the flesh, he had grown the more perilously

into abominable vices and uncleanness, and moreover into the patronage of his error,

because, struck by no dread from this, he restrained himself

from what he had begun, nor condemned an impudence

and obstinacy hateful to God and to the Saints,

but as often as it suited him, freely presented himself

about the pledges of the Saints and the altars consecrated to God.

Carried on also by excessive madness

he did not consider the judgment of the sons of Eli;

for because they sinned against God, that

is, in those things which pertained to his worship,

therefore with their father, by a judgment from above, they perished

by a deserved death. Neither did he gather into memory the vengeance shown upon

the sons of Aaron, who, when in their fire-pans *

they offered strange fire, fire going forth from the Lord,

perished by the burning. And since those

irrational ceremonies, and — as was in that way proved — hostile to truth,

were punished temporally with so severe a chastisement, if his mind

had not been perverse, a lesson should have been taken from this

with a salutary terror, and it would have been fitting to bestow one's labor

soberly and justly about the sacraments of Christ.

[18] For this cause neither was the pious compassion of our patron,

namely the blessed Remaclus, wanting, rebuked at the Saint's bidding, and despising the admonitions nor a spiritual

correction, that he might come to his senses from his detestable undertakings:

for indeed the souls of the Saints, who behold the brightness

of almighty God, know by a heavenly favor the things

that are done outside. And therefore

he appeared to a certain countryman living beyond the river Amblève ^d,

sorrowfully sets forth the guilt of that monk,

and commanded him to supply his place in an embassy,

and to terrify him with an accusation of him: he added

also that his conscience should be searched out,

so that, helped by such a favor, he might perhaps be so held back

from the aforesaid wickednesses, that he should not deservedly be smitten

by the sentence of a just condemnation from the shrines and decrees

on high; he should make known too that he should ponder the mighty works

of Christ in his place, since he very often declared in it the might

of his power by the merits of his faithful,

and struck and destroyed those doing evil with an incurable blow.

And the countryman accomplishes what had been

commanded him: for because one mortal fears another

mortal, seeking a withdrawal with him in secret places,

he first is prostrated on the ground, and rolls at his feet,

and humbly beseeches him that he would weigh with truthful

assertion the sacred thing revealed to him.

But he, when he heard it, did not rise up against himself,

but, as if out of his mind, raging against him with a tempest of words,

asserts that he had been cheated by phantom illusions,

and confounds him, tearing him proudly and injuriously to pieces: Has our Patron,

says he, approached thee with divine oracles by a private favor,

and despised my brethren who cleave to God by day and by night

with their worship? Excessive and

foolish hardships have taken hold of thee, and therefore false madnesses

have assailed thee.

[19] nor amending his depraved life The aforesaid countryman, turned away by this undisciplined

animosity, withdrew; but he himself determined not to take care of the danger

hanging over him, but, roving as with unbridled

license, persevered in that to which he was accustomed.

For indeed the just God, as I conjecture,

was wroth at his foregoing sins, and therefore

he was not pressed by the fear of the vengeance due;

but after the manner of Pharaoh, once a king, he was driven by the power

of a most evil error into contradiction.

If indeed he had been of sound sense, and had met his own mishaps

by foresight, he would diligently have attended to this,

that from the earthly side earthly things teach what is heavenly:

for frequently a ragged servant, despised in authority,

a private man, is sent to a powerful person;

but the reverence of the lord who sends him is so handled with modesty,

that he is not charged as with a reproach of indignation,

nor is it referred to as an injury; but

the business of the matter for which he has come is delivered

from his mouth with tranquil devotion. For the Son

of God held converse with Balaam, most wicked and a soothsayer,

did not shrink from his unworthiness, and moreover

restrained his frenzy by the speaking ass,

and did not suffer him to smite his army

with a curse: certainly through the reprobate Saul the Lord

himself also conferred many benefits upon his people,

who prophesied by the Holy Spirit, not when he did

justice, but when he raged against the guiltless David,

dear to God. Caiaphas too,

a rash high priest and a most bitter enemy of the Lord,

uttered a notable prophecy, unlooked for by himself,

and foretold that Christ must suffer for

the people. By which reasoning indeed it is proved

that the Spirit of the Lord and the souls of the just

accomplish, not only through the good but also through the evil,

those things which by the counsel of reason are of service for the advancement

of very many.

[20] he is smitten with a fetid leprosy, By these and by very many like things, since the aforesaid

erring man gave no credence, nor drove off by penitence

a perfidy hateful to God, he added increase

to his evils, and by a due right drew down upon himself

the sentence of the divine judgment. For the punishment of leprosy

and of itching is poured over his whole body,

and he is so vexed by the raging of their corruption that,

the stench of his flesh prevailing, he was rendered besides intolerable

and unapproachable even to friends desiring from their inmost heart

to succor him. It seemed to be provided for the advantage

of the brethren, that a lodging outside

the cloister of the convent should be assigned him for that trouble,

and, as circumstances demanded,

that acceptable supplies necessary for him should be

placed in it; which was also so done. But the disease had

so weighed him down by its assault,

that brotherly affection was denied him in the necessary

service. There was no possibility of administering

food and drink, but the steward, bringing the victuals upon a bench

placed inside the door, withdrew

with the utmost speed, because he was unapproachable

by reason of his exceeding foulness.

[21] Long wasted by this irremediable sickness after the manner

of the tyrants Antiochus and Herod, by which he wretchedly perishes:

he was at length released from it into a dire death;

and whether that affliction was a punishment of sin,

we know has not yet been revealed to any. We know

also by the attestation of the sacred Scriptures that

sinners are crushed with a double crushing, and

that temporal afflictions or deaths can both harm and profit

men: for by a more secret

justice the Lord judges, and in the secrecy of his providence

he knows how justly he dispenses to each.

By this miracle, an index of very many like it,

brethren, it is intimated by what judgment he is weighed down

who, the chastity of perfect manners or deeds

being set aside, does not conduct himself with due reverence in an oratory

dedicated to God: for neither would it be known

what of vengeance were due for such offenses and

the like, nor would it be proved what pardon might remit,

unless by such a token God's justice

were opened. A wholesome pattern likewise is annexed

by this description, that in that manner also charity

may be increased in us, so that we may be members

one of another, and, as of one body or of one man,

may have solicitude for one member on behalf of another,

and provide with heartfelt love for the things

that are to be corrected in them. Which grace the blessed Remaclus

proved by the effect, when he sent counsels of salvation

to a condemned brother, and, bearing with compassion, as it were

in his own member, the deadly poison which the enemy inflicted upon the sick man,

attempted to cure it.

IX.

[22] It seems fitting to insert that also which

I learned by the report of very many of the faithful. a certain servant harrying the men of Stavelot In a fisc

by name Brattis there dwelt the servant ^e of a certain lord *,

who roamed abroad with so ill-advised a rashness that

he vexed the household of our church with manifold

annoyance; and the greater the affection with which

he clung to his lord's favor, the more effectually he

advanced to the increase of insults. In this

folly of obstinacy therefore he long persevered, he wore away

leisure and business, held nothing holy nor of account,

nor did anyone's correction in this matter prevail

in the ear of his heart. But it happened that the festival

of our Patron, the confessor of God, was at hand, and that

for his celebration a throng of both sexes and of

various orders was gathering, as was ever the custom, with pious

devotion attending: there was present also

the aforesaid adversary of the household, still tossing about

with wicked manners, and not yet coming to his senses by any penitence

from his perverse endeavors; and since,

as Solomon says, Blessed is the man who is always

fearful, and he that is of a hard mind shall fall into evil,

he, from the goads of his evil conscience

which he nourished within, is shaken by no horror

toward the Saint whom he had wounded in his faithful,

nor is he moved by any regard of humility; but,

the madness of a perverse mind accompanying him, as if about to obtain

benefits by praying, he enters the monastery with the rest of the faithful.

[23] But after a little space of an hour, it is shown

in him he is chastised by a contraction of his limbs; that a comely praise is not fitting in the mouth

of a sinner, and that a grave peril

is entered upon from incautious security. And so, while he stood

secure, the zeal of divine severity came upon him, and he paid

the abominable penalties of his obstinacy; for suddenly

he fell upon the pavement, lost his senses, and

his limbs, which, as if in rivalry of virtue,

he had exhibited among the household of our aforesaid Patron

as weapons of iniquity unto sin, were suddenly and pitiably

contracted before all the people, so that it might appear by manifest

token that a punishment worthy of such a fault

answered to it, namely in those same limbs,

by the most subtle judgment of God. The murmuring of the people therefore being quieted

by the more prudent, we, being summoned along with Odilo ^f, our

abbot, came together, and after

we had learned the course of his life and of his conduct from his neighbors and from

the report of our own men, we did not weigh our sentence

this way and that, because we judge that he was paying the wage

of his crime by God's act, which we more evidently gathered

from very many instances, and with a written witness,

concerning the like disasters of others,

which in a like manner befell such destructive

presumers.

[24] [but, carried to the Saint's head, and having drunk wine from his cup, he fully recovers] But then we caused him to be carried to the head of the holy confessor,

our Patron, that, if the pain were incurable,

we might find out as quickly as might be; and because, after the manner

of Heliodorus, a most eminent man, as it seemed to us,

he had run into the stirrings of the divine sentence and of our holy

Patron, in the same way also confidence remained that by his merits,

in the place of Onias the high priest, he would there

receive health. Therefore

toward this trouble, which was owed to us,

we act with the compassion of charity, if we remit what

he wickedly inflicted upon us; and so, prayer

being made, we depart. After these things not many hours

had passed, when the keeper of the church hastens briskly to us,

announcing that the judicial sentence pressed the contracted man

with the affection of one healing, not of one destroying,

since his limbs were resuming their former state.

And we, filled with the highest joy at this,

strive thither with swift course: but the lord abbot,

when he beheld him still astonished at the manifest power of God,

straightway set him upon his feet, and because

he still perceived that, on account of the contrition of his spirit and of his body,

he was growing faint, he asks whether it were his desire

to take drink; and he with a willing mind assents

and begs for it. Then the chalice of God's Confessor,

which had hung above the altar, is taken down, and, filled *

with unmixed wine, is granted him to drink. Which

being drunk, he both recovered his strength, and — what was more

profitable to him — he changed his manners, turned his mind

to reverence for the Saints, and thereafter modestly unlearned

the bitterness of his mischiefs.

[25] and by his lord he is made over to the service of the monastery. Finally the people who had flocked together to the spectacle

and to Vespers, seeing this, are lifted up with famous

acclamation, and rendered thanks to God, who magnified his

Saint on the solemnity by so illustrious a

miracle, weighing his benefit by a reasonable

examination of mind, in that he so tempered his justice

toward him with even moderation, that he helped by grace

and by the lash: for because he brought scourges outwardly,

he wasted away the perversity of his mind with terror, and

lest he should be further carried so rashly beyond himself, he restrained him with such

a censure. After these things, since Solomon

testifies: The pestilent man being punished, the little one shall be

wiser; many, in whom there was a sounder mind

and one more excellent at foreseeing the future, when

they consider such vengeance, beat back the exuberant

wickedness in themselves, and thereafter are afraid to inflict

insults upon the Saint's household with the like harassing;

they prudently perceived indeed

that they might not perhaps suffer, by the perpetual accusation

of their Defender and Guardian, in the damnation of their souls,

that punishment which he had for a time

borne in his body. Then his lord, unwilling that he

should be made over any longer to his own service, delivered him to the Saint's altar

to be kept by lawful right, justly weighing

that service was deservedly to be paid to him in that place

where he knew that he had been recalled from a pestilent

error by the discipline of a just severity.

ANNOTATA.

Du Cange's Glossary. This miracle and the preceding one about the light sent from heaven

are narrated in another order and style in the Fosses transcript.

river of Belgium, rises in the duchy of Luxemburg; then flowing through the territory of Liège

it waters Malmedy and Stavelot, and hence, increased by the Warche

and by some brooks, empties itself into the river Ourthe. So Baudrand. There is

also a village Amblava in the borders of the Tungri, not far from

the monastery of Stavelot, having its name from the river, as Valesius testifies page 16.

The New Geographical Lexicon published at Venice in the year 1738 observes the following: Amblavia, a river, where it may be is not certain; but the river Rechte washes the monastery of Stavelot within the borders of the Duchy of Luxemburg.

in the Fosses Ms., where this miracle is related much more succinctly, the preceding one

and all the rest being omitted, which are written rhetorically rather than historically,

and now and again in a strange phrase.

perhaps ad eumdem*

i.e. vicini*

i.e. officium*

i.e. thuribulis*

i.e. domini*

repletus*

CHAPTER III.

The horrible punishment of a sacrilegious thief; likewise of another, who is afterward freed by the prayers of the monks.

There follows another memorable thing, which, set forth

with reason, will avail in the hearts of many with a special

force of discipline. A cleric who had carried off a silver plate from the altar A store of silver was heaped up

by the industry of the abbot and of his ministers,

with which, by common agreement, for the adornment of the house

of God a huge table before a certain altar was

to be clothed. Therefore the work is begun, it is granted to the smiths

for the hammering out, it is pressed on with the utmost effort

to its completion, nor did that mass of work flow away

in an empty endeavor; but it went forward according to the vow and purpose

with prudent craftsmanship. Meanwhile it happened that the gilded

plates, which were to be fastened to the panelling, were finished with figures

swelling upon them and with carvings of varied workmanship,

and were handed over to the keeper of the church

to be guarded: which when he had received them,

so — as for the most part happens, some matter

hindering — he neglected to secure them with a lock; but

he left them for the hour upon the reverend

altar of the holy Mother of God Mary, covered with her pall. And there was in the monastery

a certain cleric, by his manifold service ready to us *,

and therefore by a private favor intimate with us,

nor yet suspected by us of false accusations

of this kind; fear taught us no foresight

about guarding the goods of the church from him,

so did our familiarity breathe upon him.

[27] And so, when he beheld the plates placed there,

a savage covetousness allured his eyes, and no less

wounded his heart with its dart: for

while he observes the solitude of the monastery, he is seized by a demon having obtained the liberty