ON BL. ALBERT, ABBOT OF PONTIDA,
NEAR BERGAMO IN ITALY.
About the end of the eleventh century.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Albert, abbot of Pontida near Bergamo in Italy (Bl.)
BY C. S.
§ I. His memory in the Fasti, notice of the place, the writers of the Life.
[ ] The martyrologists of the sacred Benedictine Order inscribe in their Fasti on this day Bl. Albert, a Bergamask by country, The Blessed one's memory a Benedictine monk by profession, first abbot and founder of the monastery of St. James at Pontida in the territory of Bergamo. In the monastery of saint James of Pontida (says Wion) near Bergamo, of saint Albert, first abbot of that same monastery, famous for miracles and for holiness. In quite the same words Ménard announces him in the Martyrology of his Order, as does Bucelinus in his Benedictine Menology, where to the announcement already cited he subjoins this eulogy: Albert was a Bergamask by nation, not only the first abbot of his monastery, but also its first founder, over which he himself, being set by the holy abbot of Cluny, received from the same as director of his life and actions blessed Vitus, a monk of eminent holiness, who stood by Albert as a most skillful fellow-worker in establishing monastic discipline. Albert was honored by the Deity with the grace and glory of very great miracles, and died in the year of Christ 1099, being buried first at Pontida, but thence afterward translated to the basilica of holy Mary the Greater at Bergamo; where he is most religiously honored with a frequent concourse of the faithful. Almost the same things the praised Wion has in his Notes.
[2] To the Benedictines is added Philip Ferrarius in his general Catalogue of Saints in the sacred Fasti, who are not had in the Roman Martyrology. Receive his words: At Bergamo, of St. Albert, first abbot of Pontida: but in his Notes he adds that he died on the Kalends of September, but that his memory is nevertheless celebrated on this day. But Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals tom. 5 pag. 240 says rather meagerly: The men of Bergamo hold this Albert for a Saint, on the testimony of Cælestinus in the History of Bergamo. That this is deservedly asserted by Cælestinus is manifest from all the writers who have written about the Saints and Blessed of Bergamo: for all these testify that Albert was famous for holiness and miracles (which nevertheless they nowhere set forth), and for a certain token of cult they assign the translation of that same sacred body. These hagiophile writers the reader will find reviewed below: let it suffice to have confirmed our words by the testimony of one or two.
[3] and among the writers of Bergamo: the translation of the body. Antonio Guarneri, on the Life and deeds of the Saints of Bergamo, writes these things on Bl. Albert: Albert at length, since he was both pleasing to the greatest men, and far before others most acceptable to the minds of the poor, his life having been most holily spent, and immortal works produced, passed to the seats of the Blessed, in the year from the Virgin's childbearing 1095, on the 4th of the Nones of September, and was buried in the church which he had built. That his death was precious in God's sight, frequent miracles have testified. He then narrates that after 277 years that church was plundered and burnt, and that on that occasion Bl. Albert's body was translated to Bergamo and placed in the church of St. Mary the Greater. Cælestinus in his quadripartite History part 1, book 5, chap. 16, having reported the burning of that same church by a hostile flame, which he binds to the year 1373, goes on in this manner in the Italian tongue: The body of saint Albert, founder and first abbot of the said place, and the body of a certain disciple of his, then hidden, were afterward in the month of October translated to Bergamo by the bishop, clergy and people, and laid up in the church of St. Mary the Greater; where to this day they are preserved at a certain altar. That that altar is sacred to the most sacred Body of the Lord, an eyewitness, Mario Muzio, hands down in the Life of St. Albert. His words from the Italian are these: He was buried in his own church before the high altar: thence, on account of the plundering and burning of the monastery and church done by Barbana Visconti, he was translated together with the bones of the blessed Henry and Vitus into the church of holy Mary the Greater, which are thought to be the same as those which in the year 1580 were found in the altar of the Body of the Lord in that same church, together with shreds of tunics, shoes and thongs after the use of the Cluniac Fathers: at which finding I too was happily present. Lastly, concluding after a few words, he says: Certain relics of this blessed Father are honored in St. Pancras's.
[4] Further, to the knowledge of the place pertain those things which the praised Guarneri has in the Life, The site of the place and monastery continuing his narration thus: His patrimony being divided into two parts with his brother, certain estates situated at Pontida fell to Albert by lot. That village is situated in a valley of the territory of Bergamo, where it looks westward, no great plain being added: it is distant a thousand five hundred paces from the river Adda. The woodland was then almost wholly waste and forested, and was beset by abandoned and criminal men who lived by plunder: now by the diligence and zeal of tillers it is fertile and fruitful. On the north and on the summer east it has earthy hills gently sloping, and so productive of a most delightful wine that nothing seems either richer in use or more cheerful in appearance: on the south lofty mountains clothed with the thickest chestnuts are set over against it. To this fruitfulness and pleasantness there is added the utmost healthiness of the air, and the place is thought most suitable for one seeking solitude and retirement. There Albert first built a lowly and small oratory, as the beginnings of things almost always are; then, money having been laid out by pious men, he founded a magnificent church: he himself contributed a great part of his patrimony to the use and adornment of the church.
[5] Of the same monastery Mabillon treats in tom. 5 of the Benedictine Annals at the year 1087 num. 30, and some knowledge of it. where he says: In the county of Bergamo, but in the diocese of Milan, there was founded in this year the monastery of St. James, called de Pontida from the place where it is situated, endowed from the goods which
Odo the cleric had given to that same place. This monastery was subject to the abbey of Cluny, and its government was committed to Albert the prior by the venerable abbot Hugh. Presently, in confirmation of what he has said, he brings forth the following, which in the margin he marks off with brackets, although he does not indicate whence he drew it: He (Hugh), being in the forecourt of the church of saint Romanus not far from Cluny, with the counsel of the monks and of the keeper of the monastery of saint Peter, in the presence of his own attendants, grants leave to Albert Prior of saint James de Pontida to dispose of the goods of his priory as should seem to him more advisable (taking care however that the good repute of the Order be kept unharmed), and most of all of the goods granted by Odo, cleric and ordinary, as he calls him, of St. Faustinus of Brescia. But I do not sufficiently follow how from these words he drew out that that monastery was first founded in the year 1087. But as to his saying that Pontida is situated in the diocese of Milan, this the praised Cælestinus openly denies at part 2 book 17, pag. 252, contending that that place belongs to the diocese of Bergamo. Of the same monastery he again makes mention at the year 1113, num. 77, saying: There stands even now a celebrated monastery in the territory of Bergamo, situated beyond the river Adda, called that of Pontida.
[6] The modern writers of the Life. Various writers of his Life our Bl. Abbot has obtained; but modern ones, if you except Teutaldus alone. Donato Calvi recounts them all in his Scena litteraria of the Writers of Bergamo, in which I read these things in Italian about Teutaldus: Teutaldus of Cluny, an ancient writer and of great authority, whose papers profited much toward the completing of Peregrini's Vinea, was a monk of Pontida, and the third abbot of that venerable monastery of St. James. He wrote a history of St. Albert, the first abbot and founder of the monastery of Pontida. This history is not extant in our Museum: but if it be lawful to judge of it from the Vinea of Bartolomeo de' Peregrini, it is either interpolated or to be despised; it narrates things so improbable, nay, so mutually conflicting, as we shall show at num. 9 and 10. Among the moderns the chief are reckoned Bartolomeo de' Peregrini, Mario Muzio, Antonio Guarneri, who completed the work of Marc Antonio Benali, and Cælestinus the Capuchin, of whom none is older than the 16th century. Wherefore I have not thought it worth the labor to reprint their little Works; judging it enough if I should draw into a kind of compendium those things which they have handled in a fuller style.
§ II. His age, and the translation of the body.
[ ] The age in which he flourished is inquired into. About the last age in which the Blessed one lived there is a twofold opinion of the writers: the one refers it to the middle of the 10th century, the other to the end of the 11th. The latter, which is the more common, the cited Guarneri follows, who affixes Albert's death to the 4th of the Nones of September of the year 1095. The same year of death is established by Marcus Muzio in the Life published in the year 1610, by Bartolomeo de' Peregrini in the Vinea Bergomensis part 2, chap. 16, by Ferrarius in his general Catalogue of Saints, by Carlo Sigonio tom. 2 On the Kingdom of Italy col. 601 in Lodovico Muratori: with whom Mabillon agreeing, in the Benedictine Annals tom. 5 at the year 1095, thus writes: Meanwhile Albert or Adelbert the Bergamask, a holy man, founder and abbot of the monastery of Pontida in the diocese formerly of Milan, now of Bergamo, dies on the Kalends of September of this year (1095), and blessed Henry of Cremona was substituted for him. The Life of saint Albert is said to have been written by Cælestinus in the History of Bergamo, and they hand down that he was a disciple of St. Hugh abbot of Cluny. They are deceived therefore who think that he lived in the ninth century. More rightly Ferrarius and Sigonio place his death in this year. Very near to all these come Wion and Bucelinus, according to whom the Blessed one's death falls in the year 1099. But Cælestinus, praised above, contends that about the year 940 was his last. Into almost the same opinion afterward went Mario Muzio in his Sacred History of Bergamo printed in Italian in the year 1621, where he thinks that Albert died about the year of the Lord 950.
[8] The coming of Theutberga, repudiated by Lothair, The opinion of the former, which contends for the end of the 11th century, seems to me far the more probable, because in it the reckoning of time agrees more rightly with the persons and deeds which are reported in Albert's Life by various writers, and most of which must be fictitious if the blessed Abbot is to be referred to the 9th century and to the middle of the tenth: as will evidently appear from the observations which we shall employ in discussing his Acts. Meanwhile let us examine the chief argument of our adversaries. The only one which they bring forward is that they will have it that Theutberga, whom Lothair king of the Franks had repudiated, having taken Waldrada as concubine, came to Bl. Albert, drawn by the report of his holiness, and, instructed by his pious admonitions, founded the monastery of Fontanella and the church of St. Giles not far from Pontida, and there, after a life piously spent, was laid in a marble tomb. Hence Cælestinus in his quadripartite History of Bergamo, part 2, book 17, thus reasons in Italian: The coming of Theutberga (by others she is called Toperga, Theberga and Thietperga) to Albert at Pontida is asserted in the Vinea, by Guarneri, by the Muzios father and son, by Girolamo Terzi; and, what is of great moment, by Theodaldus the second (nay, the third) abbot of Pontida in the History which he composed of the deeds and life of saint Albert his master and first abbot: so that on this matter no doubt remains. Then he affixes Theutberga's coming to the year 868. This foundation being laid, he reasons much as follows: when Theutberga came to Bl. Albert, he numbered about 40 years at the least: for he had served as a soldier in the world, and had spent some years in a solitary life; since indeed the report of his holiness was already widely spread, and he already presided as abbot over a numerous flock of monks, when he was visited by the aforesaid queen. If therefore he reached the year 1095 or 1099, he must have died an old man of 267 years or more; which seems incredible.
[9] Rightly: nor does so great an old age appear probable to me. to our Blessed one in the 9th century, But why should it not be lawful to answer this argument by quite a similar reasoning? The deeds which we are about to report are commonly asserted by the writers of the affairs of Bergamo, namely by Bartolomeo de' Peregrini in the Vinea, by Guarneri, by Muzio the son, and others, and, what is of great moment, by Teutaldus or Theodaldus: but all these belong to the end of the 11th century: if therefore Theutberga came in the year 868 to Albert, already a man of forty, he must have attained the 266th year of his life; which seems incredible. But that Albert reached the last years of the 11th century we have from Teutaldus himself in part 3, chap. 17, of the Vinea praised by Cælestinus. Receive the words. This vineyard sustained many losses about the year of the Lord 1094, when the men of Como and the Islanders of the bank of the Adda in the territory of Bergamo made a great war among themselves. But blessed Albert, founder of the abbey of Pontida, labored so hard, and employed all diligence [] in appeasing so cruel a war of the men of Como, especially because, hostages having been given, the men of Como broke faith with the Islanders, and rushed with very great forces against the Islanders: but by the prayers and merits of blessed Albert the men of Como were at length routed and put to flight by the Islanders: and at that time the prelate of this vineyard was Atto, the first of that name. These things the lord Theutaldus, third abbot of Pontida, in the history of that same St. Albert, chapter 23.*
[10] What that war was I have not ascertained: seems to be fabricated: but it must have happened some years earlier, if Atto I died in the year 1077, as Ughelli has in Italia sacra tom. 4 col. 449 of the latest edition. Whatever be the case, from this testimony we have that Albert was still reckoned among the living about the end of the 11th century by Theutaldus: and so there is no reason why Cælestinus should lean so much upon the authority of that biographer; since he favors us no less than him. It remains therefore that we number either Theutberga's coming to Albert, or most of the things which are recorded about the Bl. Abbot, among fables: which is the more probable let the learned judge: to me meanwhile that coming does not seem so certain that on its account I should judge the rest to be held for fictitious; especially since from what has been said it is plain that Teutaldus has either been interpolated, or is not consistent with himself, when he narrates things so ill cohering. There is added that John, abbot of St. Arnulf's at Metz, in the Acts of St. Glodesindis tom. 6 of July pag. 220, expressly writes that Theutberga, Lothair's widow, undertook at Metz the government of that same saint's monastery, and was buried in it: whence Eckhart in Francia Orientalis tom. 2 pag. 548 hints that she died at Metz: the same has Daniel in his History of France at the year 869, where he writes these things about her in French: Returning into France, she withdrew into a certain monastery at Metz, where she laid down her life. But suppose she was indeed buried near Pontida, she will not on that account have to be said to have lived at the same time as our blessed Abbot, since all the rest of the things which are narrated about him establish the contrary, as we have shown and shall show.
[11] it is shown whence that error could arise: But whence, thou wilt say, did that coming of Theutberga to Albert come into the mind of the writers reviewed above? To me it appears very likely that Teodaldus was either ill understood or interpolated. Occasion could have been given by another Thetberga, a most noble woman, who flourished in Italy after the middle of the 11th century, and could have met our Abbot. Of her Ughelli thus makes mention in Italia sacra tom. 3, col. 69 and following of the latest edition, treating of the archbishops of Florence: Gerard sitting in the year 1058, there arose a certain most noble matron, Thetberga by name, who, her husband being dead, gave herself to the religious life, and conferred a most ample donation upon the canons of St. John the bishop &c. Then after many words he adds: Thetberga, or Tisberga, as we have seen, the benefactress of the canons, is thought to be that same woman who a little after became abbess of the most celebrated monastery of St. Felicitas of the Order of St. Benedict, and deserved to be adorned, for herself and for her successors in that same monastery rebuilt by Nicholas II, with the following privilege. He presently subjoins the aforesaid Pontiff's privilege, signed in the year 1059. This most noble matron, I say, could have come to Albert; and Teutaldus could have treated of her coming: and since she was of the same name as the queen repudiated by Lothair, some interpolator could without difficulty have been led to believe that Theutberga the queen was designated by Teutaldus; and he could the more easily be led to it because (if the praised Muzio narrates truly at pag. 215 of the second edition) at Fontanella in the church of St. Giles not far from the monastery of Pontida the tomb of the latter is shown with this inscription: Bl. Thetberga, wife of Lothair King of the Franks.
[12] He died about the end of the 11th century In confirmation of our opinion I here add one argument: which, although it does not convince, yet, if it be weighed with the things adduced and to be adduced, does not lack its own force. Teutaldus or Theodaldus is reckoned by all the third abbot of Pontida; into which office, Henry of Cremona in the year
1119 having been snatched from the living, he is said to have succeeded, in the Vinea part 2, chap. 18. There labored also in this vineyard, he says, Bl. Henry, a citizen of Cremona, the companion of the said St. Albert, whom he succeeded in the office of abbot, and most justly lived as abbot 24 years; and in the year 1119 his soul passed to the heavenly realms, … and Theodaldus, formerly the companion and disciple of the said St. Albert, succeeded him … These things from the recorded history (namely of Albert, as he had premised) chap. 21 and 25. This reckoning can be confirmed from Tristano Calco in Puricelli's Monuments of the Ambrosian basilica, tom. 1 pag. 556 of the Milanese edition of the year 1645, where Thebaldus prior of Pontida is said to have come in the year 1119 to Milan, to render thanks for the monastery of Pontida founded and built (that is, repaired and enlarged, I think) by the munificence of the Milanese, and to obtain certain immunities. Certainly this Thebaldus seems the same as Theodaldus, as is not obscurely drawn out from the time of his priorate: but if he be the same, in what way could he turn out only the third abbot on the opinion of our adversaries, who affix Albert's death to the year 940 or 950? On that opinion certainly at least 169 years must have come between the first and the third prelate. But let these things suffice about his age: now let us examine the Blessed one's Life, as it is reported by the writers praised at num. 6; from which our opinion will be much confirmed.
ANNOTATIONS.
. Read omnemque diligentiam.*
§ III. A compendium of the Life from various sources.
[ ] The Blessed one's country, his youth; the beginnings of the monastery: They hand down that Albert, born at Bergamo of honorable parents, in his youth served strenuously as a soldier, until, wounded with a mortal wound in a battle, he bound himself by a vow that he would follow the rule of a holier life if he should escape the present peril. Being bound by his vow, he is said to have wished to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for religion's sake, with a certain Henry of Cremona taken as his companion: but that, his counsel being changed, he went to Compostela; and thence, returning to his own country, his inheritance being divided with his brother, he withdrew to certain estates situated at Pontida in the territory of Bergamo, which had fallen to him by lot: where, a lowly chapel being built first, but then a magnificent church out of his own means and those of pious men, he laid the cradle of his monastery. The number of his disciples being presently increased, he is said to have obtained from St. Hugh abbot of Cluny a monk of remarkable piety and learning, Vitus by name, who should prescribe laws of living for that new family. The same Hugh, having some years later set out into Italy, is narrated to have set our Albert as abbot over his own monastery. So nearly all the praised writers, except Cælestinus, who in St. Hugh's place substitutes Berno, or his successor St. Odo, abbots of the 10th century: but he did this, evidently, because he knew that St. Hugh's age could not be reconciled with queen Theutberga's coming to Albert. But before we go forward, a few things must be noted.
[14] Of all these things nothing seems more certain than that our Blessed one was the founder and prelate of the monastery of Pontida: which of these things are certain. for in this all agree, none contradicting. But what is added about St. Hugh cannot stand on the opinion of those who think that Albert died in the 10th century. For that saint Hugh beheld the first light in the year 1024 is shown in our Acts tom. 3 of April pag. 629: if therefore about the middle of the 10th century our Abbot had already died, in what way could he seek monastic laws and a governor from that holy abbot of Cluny, not yet born at that time, and be set by him over his own monks? But on our opinion no difficulty here occurs: for St. Hugh, as we have from the cited Acts, having been substituted for St. Odilo, who died in the year 1049, survived among the living until the year 1109, and so lived long contemporary with our Albert. Cælestinus tries indeed to break the force of the argument, by substituting, as I noted above, Berno or Odo in St. Hugh's place; but on what foundation he leans in doing this has been examined from num. 9. Besides, that our Blessed one was subject to St. Hugh of Cluny Mabillon shows at num. 5, although the instrument from which he excerpted those things he omitted to indicate, by a slip of memory, as I think. See num. 7 and following.
[15] The dissension which is said to have arisen between him The often-praised Guarneri subjoins to the aforesaid a certain grave dissension which a disparity of manners had stirred up between Bl. Albert and the bishop of Bergamo. Receive the matter from him. Arnulf the bishop then administered the church of Bergamo, who, comely in a sheep's skin, bore within the savagery of a wolf. He began to envy Albert, eminent in honors and virtues … He was likewise greatly exasperated by this, that the bishop had injuriously ordered a certain pious priest and intimate of Albert's to be led into bonds: which being known, Albert hastened to Bergamo, and, having entered the prison, could not be thrust out thence before the priest was released. This most hostile mind of Arnulf's did not escape Albert: wherefore, when he was taking care that the church which he had built should be consecrated, he pressed with great prayers upon the supreme pontiff Urban, that he might lay this burden upon whichever of the foreign bishops he wished. That labor was delegated to Otricus bishop of Imola, who had come together to the council which was being held at Piacenza.
[16] and Arnulf bishop of Bergamo The others being glad at this being obtained, Arnulf displayed great envy and sadness: for when it was reported to him that Otricus had come to Pontida, roaring with anger just as if the whole right of the bishopric had been snatched away, hedged about with a troop of his own men he flies to Pontida with headlong speed. Presently he weaves at some length the ungoverned speech of the prelate, who scarcely refrained from violent hands, and Albert's placid answer to it: and when nothing was gained by this, he brings in the surrounding people pleading much for the blessed Abbot; and at last goes on thus: Albert meanwhile had fled into the church for prayer, by which he had obtained very many other things: and, as they urged and admonished, and as he suppliantly prayed God for this, an end was put to the contentions, and, right hands being given, all praising it together, by decree of the supreme Pontiff, with a great throng and zeal of men the consecration was completed. As Albert was said to be more happy in the multitude of those who favored him than in the victory won; so the bishop's intolerable pride and savagery God did not long suffer to go unavenged: for not long after, a council being gathered at Milan, it was charged as a crime against the bishop that he had made a trade of sacred things: and since he not only did not clear himself, but was even pressed by his own confession, he was condemned, and the bishopric was taken from him. These things Guarneri, which agree well with the age we have fixed.
[17] is said to have arisen, But Bartolomeo de' Peregrini, in the Vinea part 1, chap. 27, writes that the church of Pontida was consecrated by Arnulf himself. He (Arnulf), he says, in the year of the Lord 1090 consecrated the church of the abbey of St. James of Pontida of the Order of St. Benedict. Cælestinus, because neither the age of Arnulf nor that of Otricus can stand with the often-recorded coming of queen Theutberga, thinks that the aforesaid church was consecrated by neither, and contends that Guarneri was mistaken in assigning the time and the persons. And so, reporting almost the same things as Guarneri about the consecrating of the church, he says that these things befell under Haganno bishop of Bergamo in the 9th century: but he brings forward no other cause for a prelate being called from another diocese to that work than that Haganno, having followed Lothair's side in repudiating the most innocent Theutberga, was at that time bound by an anathema from the Apostolic see. To Cælestinus in this last part Guerrini opposes himself in his Synopsis of the affairs and times of the church of Bergamo pag. 53, of the edition of the year 1734: where he endeavors to prove that Haganno favored Theutberga, so far from having opposed her.
[18] But whatever be the case about that controversy, Guarneri's narration pleases me, not indeed as certain, is examined, but as more probable than Cælestinus's opinion, both because of what has been said above, and because Bartolomeo de' Peregrini, as we have already seen, not obscurely refers Arnulf to Albert's age, although in the rest he opposes Guarneri in this place. Add that the things which are here recorded of Arnulf agree entirely with his character. This is agreed from the letter of St. Gregory VII given in the year 1079 to Rainald bishop of Como, in which he commands him diligently to inquire into the various things which had been brought before him about Arnulf, and according to his deserts either to absolve or to condemn him. And among the crimes objected are numbered simony and the vexing of holy men. Besides, says the holy Pontiff, he is reported to carry on the pestilential traffickings of the simoniacal heresy … To this is added that the servants of God, whom, as befits a religious man, he ought to protect and to help in all things, he on the contrary endeavors to harass and molest. This letter the studious reader will find entire in Labbe tom. 10 of the Councils col. 224 and following. From these things we have two: one is that Arnulf's prelacy falls within the age we have fixed for Albert: the other, that that bishop was of such manners that the things which he is said to have contrived against Albert square in the highest degree with his turbulent character. Nay, one might not undeservedly suspect that among the servants of God whom he is said by St. Gregory to have endeavored to harass and molest our Blessed one and the presbyter intimate with him are numbered.
[19] The other circumstances also seem consonant enough with the truth: and is shown to be probably true. for Urban II, on Pagi's testimony in his Breviary tom. 2, held St. Peter's chair from the year 1088 until the year 1099: and he celebrated a council at Piacenza in the year 1095. But that Arnulf, when the 11th century was already growing old, namely in the year 1077, is named elected bishop of Bergamo, Ughelli hands down in Italia sacra tom. 4, col. 449 of the latest edition; and he adds that the same, in a provincial council held at Milan in the year 1098, was convicted of simony and stripped of his bishopric. Nevertheless in Otricus there seems to be an error: for Ughelli acknowledges no Otricus among the bishops of Imola before the year 1122, to which he refers him in his Supplement col. 274. For which reason, if the aforesaid church was really then consecrated by the bishop of Imola, Oldo is to be substituted for Otricus, who, on the testimony of the praised Ughelli tom. 2, col. 624, at that time presided over the church of Imola, and who in the year 1095 consecrated at Como the church of Vostemati by the authority of Urban II.
[20] Of Albert they narrate nothing further, save that, famous for the spirit of prophecy, he was held in veneration by princely men: The Blessed one's remaining deeds, his death, the monastery's that at his judgment wars were lulled to sleep: that, most devoted to religious exercises, he kept watch whole nights in the sacred buildings, and passed three Lents most religiously at Rome. But what prophecies he uttered, what wars he appeased, they do not express. Lastly Guarneri thus continues Albert's history: Albert at length, since he was both pleasing to the greatest men, and far before others most acceptable to the minds of the poor, his life having been most holily spent, and immortal works produced, passed to the seats of the Blessed in the year from the Virgin's childbearing 1095, on the Nones of September, and was buried in the church which he had built. That his death was precious in God's sight, frequent miracles have testified. Then, an interval of 277 years
having come between, the inhabitants of that place, who were hostile to Bernabò, then ruling the men of Bergamo, having set an ambush, assailed and foully butchered Ambrose his son, begotten of a concubine. Which being done, because they understood how great a crime they had committed, they began to prepare a defense proportioned to the greatness of the peril, and seized the church of St. James, and strengthened it with the garrisons and arms of their friends, and then fortified it with hasty work after the manner of a citadel. The father, kindled by the wrong done to his slain son, sent a part of his forces to storm the church. Over these he set Anotus the viscount, Paganino Panico of Bologna, Nicholas Terzi of Parma.
[21] destruction, the translation of the body These, a multitude being thrown about the church, set about assaulting it with a great onset. The men of Pontida, under the leadership of Clericus Caprinati, son of Tedeschi, whom they had set over themselves, at first constantly defended themselves, and for a whole four days bravely sustained the enemy's onset: but when the walls were being shaken with great engines, and daily some of their few were falling, and two monks having been lost, and Nantellinus Rivola, William Colleone, Simon Brolo, distinguished men, having been slain; and those who remained were wearied both in body and in mind, they surrendered on terms that they should depart unharmed. That was more easily promised than performed: all were slain against the faith pledged, the church plundered and burnt … All things being laid waste with sword and fire, … Bl. Albert's body was translated to Bergamo, and placed in the church of St. Mary the Greater.
[22] to Bergamo. Quite the same things Mario Muzio has in the Life, and Cælestinus cited at part 1, book 5, chap. 16; and part 2, book 17. Yet I find nothing consigned to letters in other writers about this destruction of the abbey of Pontida. The Milanese Annals composed by an anonymous author, in Lodovico Muratori's Italian Affairs tom. 16 col. 755, do indeed make mention of Ambrose, Bernabò's son, being slain: and they say that his father was so greatly saddened by that slaying that he was rendered as it were out of his mind through excessive grief: but of the vengeance just related they make no word. It must however be confessed that that Bernabò is depicted in the praised Annals as of so ungoverned and cruel a disposition that a like perfidy and ferocity is by no means alien to his character. And this slaying of Ambrose is there bound to the year 1373. Further, Guerrini, praised above, at pag. 77 writes that this translation was made by Lanfranco de Salvettis of the Order of Minors, who from the year 1349 until 1381 ruled the church of Bergamo. Receive his words: He translated the body of Bl. Albert, a citizen of Bergamo, from the abbey of saint James de Puntida founded by him, to the church of holy Mary the Greater at Bergamo. The other things which pertain to the translation of the Blessed one's body we have given above at num. 3.