ON ST. ANSARICUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT SOISSONS IN GAUL
About the middle of the VIII century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
St. Ansaricus's cult and Acts: his age and deeds examined.
Ansaricus, bishop and confessor, at Soissons in Gaul (S.)
BY J. S.
St. Ansericus or Ansaricus, bishop of Soissons, memorable for the sanctity of his life, but omitted by the ancient martyrologists, has been celebrated by the more recent on this day, on which he is venerated. The Saint's eulogy, Saussay adorns this Saint with a prolix eulogy, which contains his chief deeds, but with the order of some of them inverted. This, because I can less approve the Acts, I transfer hither: At Soissons, the deposition of St. Ansaricus, bishop and confessor. He, sprung of orthodox parents from the village of Espaniacum in the very district of Soissons, when from them he had begun almost from the cradle to taste the sweetest fruits of piety and justice, repaid to his parents and to his country an abundant interest of his religious upbringing as soon as he grew up. For from his early age he showed himself so zealous for praiseworthy things, and especially for the divine worship, that he not obscurely betrayed himself to have been stirred by God to great things and destined for the common good of men (so great were the tokens of grace that shone forth in him). For by his most chaste morals and his excellent learning he provoked the minds of all to imitate and venerate him. Whence, Landulph bishop of Soissons being loosed from the bonds of the flesh, he was sought for the prelacy, and was compelled to take up the helm of so great a Church to guide it, by the vote of the whole sacred Order and the demand of the people: whom indeed the estimation they had conceived of him did not deceive.
[2] For Ansaricus, being made pontiff, turned all his zeal to this, that he might become the pattern of his flock, in which the order of the events is disturbed: and might help all to salvation so far as the pastoral care requires. For, exceedingly solicitous for the advancement of all, he kept the rich in the office of piety: the poor he aided with counsel and consolation: those who wandered he called back into the way, all
in short he kindled to a zeal for holy living by continual exhortation and by the examples of his admirable virtues. But being also a devout worshipper of the heavenly ones, he wiped from squalor the sacred footprints which they had pressed upon his soil, restored brightness to the basilicas, and gave splendor to the altars. The bodies of the holy martyrs Crispin and Crispinian (toward whom he was borne with a special affection of reverence), having summoned the most holy prelates Audoenus of Rouen, Faro of Meaux, and Eligius of Noyon, he translated with great veneration from the place where they had long lain hidden after their contest, to the basilica dedicated by him in their name. Thereafter also, among the lights of Gaul, he was present at the synod of Reims, summoned by Sonnatius the archprelate, legate of the Apostolic See, for the vindication of the sacred discipline of the Church. And at last, after so many famous works of faith, piety and justice had been performed, the ever-watchful and faithful Steward, called by the Lord, set out for his reward. Thus far Saussay, who now and then uses a rhetorical license: yet the deeds here related seem true; but the synod of Reims was held before the translation of SS. Crispin and Crispinian, as we shall see, and so far the order of the deeds is altered.
[3] his memory in the Fasti, and his cult: Besides, St. Ansaricus was announced by Ferrarius in the General Catalogue, citing the Fasti of Rosweyde and Demochares; by Castellan in the Universal Martyrology; and most recently by the Martyrology of Paris, in which it stands thus: At Soissons, of St. Ansericus the bishop, who subscribed to the council of Reims under Sonnatius. Not a few other modern writers adorn Ansaricus with the title of Saint, and testify that he is venerated at Soissons on the day V of September. It will be enough to transfer hither the words of Claude Dormay, who in the History of Soissons book 3 chap. 43 pag. 276 writes in French of St. Ansaricus's burial and cult what I render into Latin: His body was buried in a chapel of the church which he had built, where there is still to be seen a stone on which these words are carved: "Here is buried St. Ansaricus, formerly bishop of Soissons." His sacred relics were raised from this place and translated to the cathedral church, where they were honored until the city was taken by the French Calvinists, which happened in the year MDLXVII. The festivity of this Saint is celebrated on the day V of September, on which he is believed to have died.
[4] The Acts faultily written; nevertheless to be published. No Acts of St. Ansaricus do I know to have been hitherto published; but a certain copy of manuscript Acts, which is noted to have been taken from the archives of the church of Soissons, Nicolas Belfort, praised elsewhere in this Work, transmitted to our Elders. The author of those Acts is not only unknown, and some centuries later than the Saint; but he seems also to have been destitute of sufficient historical and chronological knowledge, since he inserted the most inept anachronisms into the Acts, and narrated most things in a preposterous order. For which cause I can attribute little authority to these Acts, although probably certain facts are truly related in them. Nevertheless, for want of better, I have determined to publish these very Acts; and I shall try, as far as may be, to separate what is probable from what cannot prudently be proved, and to restore in some fashion the inverted order. But I now undertake to sift the chief facts here, meaning to observe the rest briefly in the annotations.
[5] His birthplace, and other matters up to his bishopric, St. Ansaricus's birthplace is called in the Acts Espagnycum, by others in Latin Espaniacum, in French Espagny. All agree that it is a village of the territory of Soissons, and Dormay, praised before, says that it is distant from Soissons two or three French miles. The same writer adds that Ansaricus's parents were of slender condition, which whence he drew I do not know, unless he said it by conjecture, since the Acts have nothing of nobility of birth. The time at which the Saint was born no one assigns, nor can it be accurately assigned. But that he was born before the end of the VI century we shall easily see from the time of his bishopric, although the beginning of this is equally uncertain; and therefore it cannot be said by how many years his birth preceded the VII century. The miracle of a spring drawn forth the Acts attribute to him already before his bishopric, with the agreement also of a certain other manuscript instrument, whence taken I do not know. But neither does that monument seem better than the Acts, nor are the Acts themselves sufficiently well written to produce an undoubted belief about this miracle, as Dormay too insinuates. It is more credible that it was done by the Saint when already bishop, if it was really done.
[6] The beginning of St. Ansaricus's bishopric is so ambiguous and uncertain whose beginning is very uncertain, that one might easily err by twenty years if he wished to determine it, at least from the monuments known to me. If those things were true which are reported below in the Acts at num. 10 about the city of Soissons being preserved from the bubonic plague by the prayers of St. Ansaricus the bishop; likewise if St. Gregory the Great in the year 593 had confirmed a privilege to the monastery of St. Medard at the prayers of Ansaricus the bishop, as is said at num. 10; the beginning of St. Ansaricus's bishopric could not be far from the year 590; and thus he would have been bishop for about sixty years, or even a little longer. But what the inept writer relates about the bubonic plague seems fictitious, or at least is fouled with various errors, as I shall show in the annotations. The privilege of St. Medard also, as it now stands, can in no way be defended, as others have already shown, and I shall briefly prove in the annotations. For which cause neither the bubonic plague, nor the pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, nor the epoch of that privilege can avail for fixing the beginning of St. Ansaricus's bishopric; nor does any other chronological note occur before the council of Reims presently to be mentioned, at which Ansaricus was present in the year 625.
[7] But how many years before the council of Reims Ansaricus sat because the years of the preceding bishops are unknown: cannot be determined, as I have already noted. The chief reason is that the deeds of his five predecessors are unknown, with one exception, Droctigisilus, of whom some things are narrated by Gregory of Tours, book 9 of the Histories chap. 37. For from what is there related it is made out that Droctigisilus survived after the year 589, but again it is unknown how much longer he then went on living. Further, between Droctigisilus and St. Ansaricus four bishops are placed as intermediate in the ancient catalogues of the bishops of Soissons, on Dormay's testimony pag. 243, namely Anectarus, Theobaldus, Tondulphus and Landulphus. But if these four really sat after Droctigisilus, each must have presided only a few years, so that the last should reach a time near to the council of Reims. But it is probable enough that one or more of those four sat before Droctigisilus, as other writers will have it. Le Cointe at the year 545 num. 14 places two of the four before Droctigisilus, and sets the other two after; but he confesses that nothing of those four bishops came to his knowledge beyond their bare names. And so this conjecture is propped by no monuments, but otherwise agrees well enough with what is known of St. Bandaridus, of Droctigisilus, and of St. Ansaricus. For St. Bandaridus, of whom we treated at the 1st of August, was living in the year 545, and some will have it that he lived until about the year 565, which nevertheless is uncertain and not very probable. Between St. Bandaridus therefore and Droctigisilus there is time enough for Anectarus and Theobaldus to have sat. Similarly between Droctigisilus and St. Ansaricus, of whom no certain account is had before the council of Reims, Tondulphus and Landulphus could have sat, and each have presided for ten years or even longer.
[8] for Ansaricus more probably succeeded Landulphus: These congruities moved Le Cointe so to order the succession of the bishops of Soissons. And in fact a longer space appears to lie between St. Bandaridus and Droctigisilus than makes it probable that no other came between them; although the ancient catalogues, on Dormay's testimony, have none intermediate: for the order could easily have been disturbed in those catalogues, which indeed are called ancient, yet are probably by many centuries later than the age of the bishops of whom we treat. And so I should not think those catalogues are to be followed, especially since another inconvenience also arises thence: for by that reasoning four bishops are placed as intermediate between Droctigisilus and St. Ansaricus, whom it is not probable to have sat between them. The Sainte-Marthes in the Gallia Christiana turned aside to the other extreme: for they set four prelates as intermediate between St. Bandaridus and Droctigisilus, but none between Droctigisilus and St. Ansaricus. These certainly depart very far from the ancient catalogues: nor yet do they come near probability, since thus they make St. Ansaricus's bishopric very long. I suspect that they had no reason for the order mentioned, save that they will have the privilege of St. Medard to have been offered to St. Gregory the Great by St. Ansaricus. But that privilege is to be reckoned as nothing for ordering St. Ansaricus's chronology. Wherefore I should rather judge that he succeeded Landulphus, as the more ancient catalogues have it, than Droctigisilus.
[9] he was the teacher of St. Drausius, afterward bishop of Soissons: From what has been said it is clear how uncertain is the beginning of St. Ansaricus's bishopric. As bishop he was present at the Synod of Reims under Sonnatius, which was held in the year 624 or 625, as our Elders have observed in various places, and Pagi too has proved at the year 624 num. 4. This first became known from the Saint's deeds, and therefore it cannot be said whether he had then already for many years occupied the episcopal chair. But whatever be the case with the beginning of his bishopric, that St. Ansaricus was an outstanding man and the teacher of St. Drausius, afterward bishop of Soissons, is testified by an author of nearly the same age, who wrote the Life of St. Drausius published by us in tom. 1 of March. Let us hear this author, who at pag. 406 has thus: His parents therefore (St. Drausius's), seeing that he excelled in such wondrous virtues of character, and wished to hold a way of blessedness still more excellent, resolved to hand him over for education to that illustrious man and father to be remembered, Ansericus, once bishop of the city of Soissons, so that whatever might be lacking to him from the first might be supplied in the second Master… For the Lord bestowed on him so great a grace and abundance of blessing before the aforesaid venerable father Ansericus, that he was embraced by him with no less affection of love than an only son is loved by his father. Nor is it strange: for with so great a grace of humility and kindliness … he fitted himself to almost all, so that he became exceedingly pleasing to all, and was held lovable by all as a son. But if he was thus intimate with others, yet he clung most of all rather to him by whose governance he knew himself to be more diligently guarded, by whose guidance he was more sweetly reared, by whose solicitude he was more zealously instructed in the precepts of the divine and human law.
[10] he is said to have built the church of St. Stephen: Nor is he to be believed to have been handed over without a divine nod to the keeping of such a Patron, in whose honor, by the disposing clemency of God, he was a little after to be raised. For not long after, the number of his days being run out, God calling him to his reward, filled with the fruit of good works, he put off the man and closed the last day of his life. Of the Saint's death I shall treat below. But meanwhile I observe that no word occurs here by which a decrepit or excessively long-lived age is insinuated. Further, Dormay, often praised, asserts in Ansaricus
that the church of St. Stephen the protomartyr outside the walls of the city of Soissons was founded and dedicated by Ansaricus in the year 634. The same the Sainte-Marthes and others have written. But they do not say whence they drew the knowledge of that deed; and since the Acts report that the Saint was buried in that church without any mention of its having been built by him, that silence — which I likewise observe in another manuscript monument — compels me to doubt whether the building of that church can with sufficient certainty be attributed to St. Ansaricus.
[11] More certain is the translation of the bodies of SS. Crispin and Crispinian, he raised the bodies of SS. Crispin and Crispinian, which the Life reports at num. 5 and 6, with the agreement of other writers. That the chief author of this translation was St. Eligius, bishop of Noyon, the Life testifies at num. 6; and this agrees with the Life of St. Eligius written by St. Audoenus and published by D'Achery in tom. 5 of the Spicilegium. St. Audoenus in the same place at pag. 199 writes that various bodies of holy martyrs were found or raised and translated in divers places by St. Eligius. And so St. Eligius seems to have been the author to St. Ansaricus of seeking out and laying up in a precious shrine the bodies of the aforesaid martyrs; and not only the author, but also the chief helper. As witness of this matter we again have St. Audoenus, who himself too was present at the deed, and at pag. 202 wrote thus of Eligius: At the city of Soissons also he wonderfully arranged the holy martyrs and brothers Crispin and Crispinian, brought forth from a certain crypt, and adorned their memorial with a notable ornament. By ornament he designates the precious shrine more fully commemorated in the Life, which St. Eligius, being a most skilled goldsmith, if he did not fashion with his own hands, yet doubtless ordered its making and presided over it.
[12] Further, of the time of this translation, about which writers do not entirely agree, [which was done not long before the middle of the VII century: about which his death is to be fixed:] a conjecture may be drawn from the praised Life of St. Eligius, compared with other reasons. Nevertheless I do not see that the year can be certainly determined from it, even if we should wish to judge that SS. Audoenus and Eligius were certainly consecrated bishops in the year 640, as Le Cointe and Pagi will have it, whose opinion as the more probable our Cuper meanwhile followed in St. Audoenus at the XXIV of August: for nowhere is it found how many years after the episcopal dignity was taken up by Audoenus and Eligius this translation was made. Besides, some think that Eligius and Audoenus were consecrated in the year 646. The day of the translation is equally doubtful, since the Acts note the day X of June; but Dormay and others will have the translation to have been performed on the day VI of March, as Saussay noted in his Martyrology. Wherefore I can lay down nothing certain about the time of this translation, save that it befell not long before the middle of the VII century: for some assign the year 647, others 648, and others finally 649, nor do I find better reasons for any one of these years than for another; or rather, no reason of any weight has been brought forward for one rather than for another. The same is the case with the year of St. Ansaricus's death, which I have fixed about the middle of the VII century, because the year cannot be certainly determined.
[13] In the Life of St. Salaberga the abbess, in Mabillon, Benedictine Century 2 pag. 431, mention is made of St. Ansaricus as then dead, in these words: She (St. Salaberga) also saw the venerable man Ansericus the pontiff coming to meet her. The Saint is said to have appeared to St. Salaberga after his death. To whom he said: Dost thou know me? But she confesses that she does not. I am Ansericus bishop of Soissons, whom thou hast rather often seen summoned to thy house: come, and I will show thee the gates of paradise, and I will show thee the city of God most high, and the twelve seats of the Apostles glowing with gold and gems. And he said to her: Behold, a place has been prepared for thee &c. These things befell not many years after St. Ansaricus's death, if they were truly related: for Mabillon judges that St. Salaberga died about the year 655: which may be examined at the XXII of September. Now I subjoin such a Life of the Saint as there is.
A LIFE SPRINKLED WITH FAULTS
by an anonymous author,
From a manuscript of the church of Soissons
Ansaricus, bishop and confessor, at Soissons in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 0518
By an Anonymous author.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's birth and beginnings: the bishopric undertaken, the translation of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, and other things done in his bishopric.
[ ] Why and from what monuments the author writes: Since the deceitful deeds of earthly soldiers run far and wide through the world, I wonder why we Christians do not commemorate the saving merits of the soldiers of Christ, at least on their birthdays. For if what is praiseworthy in the Saints ought certainly to be referred to him from whose gift it comes, and who is proclaimed wonderful in his Saints: without doubt, when the deeds of the Saints are read, God's power and glory are extolled, the praise of the Saints is commended, greater reverence is paid to them, the mind of the faithful is edified, the lay people are instructed and animated to like virtues, the demon is confounded, the church glories. Celebrating therefore today, dearly beloved, the solemnities of our most blessed father and prelate Ansaricus, let us briefly call to memory the few things which we have learned of his deeds, both from the Legends of the Saints and from the indults of the Roman Pontiffs and the true testimonies of the ancients.
[2] The Saint's birth and beginnings: The holy confessor and pontiff Ansaricus therefore, begotten of Catholic parents in the district of Soissons, in the village whose name is Espagnycum, was from his early age a true worshipper of the Christian faith, and was always an outstanding imitator of the evangelical life also. And his supreme sanctity shines forth most of all in what follows, done by him with a mighty spirit and faith. For, having once taken pity on the distress of his parents, and of the townsmen of Espagnycum, and especially of the hamlet of Dives Burgus a, inhabitants of the said village, who were suffering from a scarcity of water, because that hamlet was high and situated among the mountains, he ordered digging beneath the gardens of his parents' house, which was situated below the aforesaid hamlet: where, a flint having been found, firmly aspiring to that Gospel word, Whoever shall not hesitate in his heart, but shall firmly believe, whatsoever he shall say, Let it be done, it shall be done unto him, with the greatest hope and with right faith he pressed his foot upon the flint, saying: In God's name let this be a spring. At which word that stone, broken beneath his foot, began to gush forth drink for the inhabitants and health for the sick, and to this day is called by the inhabitants the Spring and the Foot of St. Ansaricus b.
[3] Therefore, when, burning with the love of heavenly things and continually intent upon the increase of virtues, he was mighty in so great a perfection of sanctity, he deserved to be made by God the shepherd of the Lord's sheep, and to be consecrated the twentieth pontiff of the see of Soissons. the bishopric undertaken. For it befitted the divine graciousness that the Lamp long hidden should be set upon the candlestick of the church, which thereafter should shine round about for the salvation of the peoples. For as soon as he was taken up as prelate, he who before had heaped upon himself countless gifts of graces then began to be far more strict in fastings, more frequent in vigils, longer in prayer, and more adorned in every kind of virtue. For he bore in mind that saying of the Apostle: A bishop must be blameless; and therefore with all his effort, with all his spirit, he strove to give to all examples of sanctity by purity of mind and by fervor of faith, hope and charity.
[4] Such therefore was he found in the house of God, that in comparison with him the rest might deservedly be called the flock. Other bishops being invited, and a precious shrine made, And behold, that great Rewarder, who promised to honor those who minister to him, confers on him this grace, that with the holy Eligius c of Noyon, Audoenus of Rouen, Faro of Meaux and the other bishops worthy of praise, he should deserve to translate the most sacred bodies of the blessed brothers and martyrs Crispin and Crispinian, the apostles of Soissons. For it ought not to be doubted that it so pleased the divine foreknowledge, to set those two great luminaries, in the times of these most holy prelates, up out of the hidden places of the earth as though into the firmament of heaven, so that they might shine and illuminate the world both for the increase of faith and for the declaring of the pontiffs' merits. When therefore a vessel worthy of so great a treasure had been made round about of gold and silver, and, like a propitiatory of purest gold, set in a lofty place, from which the Lord might deign propitiously to answer us that word spoken to Moses: Thence will I command, and will speak to thee; when, I say, the ark had been fashioned, in which should be kept the two spiritual tablets, containing the law written by the finger of God, that is, by the Holy Spirit: then the said kindly pontiffs, kindled with divine fire, called together the people of Soissons at Ansaricus's urging d, and proclaimed a three days' fast for the holy translation of the martyrs.
[5] Which being completed, the rites having been performed by the prelates over the bodies of the martyrs, he translates the bodies of SS. Crispin and Crispinian; and God's word having been set forth to the people, the clergy praying with the people, the prelate Ansaricus, joined by the band of pontiffs, on the fourth e of the Ides of June opened with trembling and tears the crypt under which rested the bones of the martyrs, where they had formerly been laid by Sixtus and Sinicius f; and with most pure hands, the bishops helping — Eligius especially, who was the chief agent — the cement being removed, he uncovered their two sepulchres: and at once a very great odor of sweetness breathed forth thence, to declare (as we suppose) the merits of the martyrs and of the pontiffs standing by: that by the saving odor the affection of the faithful might be drawn, according to that word: We will run after thee to the odor of thy ointments. Then the holy pontiffs, having kissed with tearful joy the holy limbs of the martyrs, translated them into the prepared chest g: and, wrapped in a cloth of pure silk, laid them up honorably, keeping only the head of St. Crispin in the archives of the church to be kissed by the people. And so the wondrous vessel is lifted on the shoulders of the bishops, containing the manna of life — a vessel, I say, of solid gold, adorned with the precious stones of virtues — and is set up on high above the altar; that, raised like the brazen serpent, it might heal the infirmities of all who devoutly look upon it. Nor indeed in vain. For in this translation the bonds of the guilty are loosed, demons are put to flight, diseases are healed, pardon of sins is conferred.
[6] a possessed woman freed at the time of the translation: As Christ deigned in his loving-kindness to show in a woman of Paris: whom for her crimes a demon so atrociously drove that she tore herself with her teeth, in no wise shrank from the perils of fire and water, and often fell from a dizziness of the head with the epileptic affliction. For this cause the wretched woman is led, bound with iron manacles, to the mother church of the kindly Mother of God in the city of Soissons: where, standing nine days with her mother, she obtained nothing: because Christ and his kindly Mother, as appeared, reserved her cure for the translation of the martyrs. For when, the day of the translation being at hand, her mother saw all flowing together like bees clustered to the god-given basilica of the martyrs, with the help of attendants she led the possessed woman to the place, that she might at least make trial whether Christ would confer health by the grace of the martyrs. And as she enters the choir, being more cruelly harassed by the demon, she utters foul cries, and vomits bloody foam from mouth and nostrils, twisting her eyes and bending her limbs about. The prelates and the people, astonished over her,
pray the martyrs to save the sick woman. O honey-sweet loving-kindness of our God! As she who touched the hem of the Lord's garment was healed of her issue, so this woman, as soon as she touched the martyrs, being freed from the demon, felt herself wholly sound, and again blotted out her crimes in the font of confession. Who could now suffice to express how great a joy the greatness of this fourfold miracle brought upon all; and how all began to extol the name of the martyrs and to proclaim the merits of the pontiffs, whom God had thus foreordained both as ministers of the saving translation and as intercessors for the possessed woman? Plainly the Lord has made his Saints wonderful: and has heard them crying to him, because they are just, as of old is plain from their merits, and now from their miracles: therefore his eyes are upon the just, and his ears unto their prayers.
[7] a long-standing dispute at Soissons removed. After the joys of the translation were completed, Ansaricus the prelate of God persevered in his sanctity, healing diseases and flashing with other miracles, but wonderfully solicitous for the salvation of his flock. In which kind it must not undeservedly be recounted by us that, when he saw a very dangerous dispute among certain nobles and citizens of the city over the measures of wine, which down to those times had not yet been able to be settled, he called together the clergy with the nobles and the people. And instructing them with fiery words, now admonishing them of keeping peace, now of the love of the heavenly kingdom, he did not cease to hurl words breathing divine love, until, the sword of the spirit piercing them, they all submitted themselves to his disposal. Wherefore he at once orders a copper measure to be shaped, today called the half-sextary, which, being agreeable and pleasing to all, softened their hardened minds: so that, as when Peter spoke the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word, so these too were recalled to a sound mind, hearing that blessed Prelate: to whom and to such as he it is said: It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you. And that measure is kept to this day in the church of Soissons with the relics of the Saints, and is kissed with pious devotion by the people, because it was both the cause of reconciling the aforesaid dissension and a covenant.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Other deeds which seem falsely attributed to Ansaricus: his blessed death and burial.
[ ] The most savage bubonic plague, having raged at Rome, Amid the delays of these times, when almost all were bent upon evil, the wrath of God rose up over them, and, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, it began from the Roman sanctuary a. For when the Romans had not lived holily in Lent, and had received Christ's Body at Easter irreverently, and afterward gave themselves to games, revellings and luxury, while the meats were yet in their mouths b, the river Tiber so overflowed its banks that, flowing over the very walls of the city and occupying a great part of the region, it overturned many houses. Hence a multitude of serpents, following a huge dragon, went down through the Tiber into the sea: but the serpents, choked by the salt waves, are cast up on the shore. From whose stench the bubonic pestilence was formed, appearing with a swelling of the groin and a slight redness of the face; and almost without any sense of pain, so that (which is horrible) men everywhere died suddenly without penance, while yawning, while sneezing, on the road, at table, at work, at games, in church, in conversation: so that Rome, bereft of houses, of inhabitants, and even of Pelagius the Supreme Pontiff himself, mourned wretchedly.
[9] ceases when supplications were instituted by St. Gregory and piously performed: In whose place the holy doctor Gregory being substituted, he decreed that the Roman people, afflicting themselves with fasts, should go with a procession of the clergy to the basilica of St. Peter, in which they should implore God's mercy with tearful litanies c. And when he himself had prayed with the people prostrate before the steps of the basilica, rising from the ground he saw above the castle of Crescentius d an angel who was returning a bloodied sword into its sheath: and thus he understood that the pestilence had ceased: although of those who had at the same time prostrated themselves to pray about eighty died. And thereafter, the name being changed, it was called the Castle of the Angel: it was moreover ordained that every year on the day of St. Mark the Evangelist black crosses should be borne by the people, and litanies made by the clergy to St. Peter's, which today are called the Greater e.
[10] the author says the city of Soissons was freed from the same evil. Further, that bubonic plague, raging through the regions of Gaul, laying waste cities, castles and towns, was ravaging on every side about the city of Soissons: when, as the blessed prelate Ansaricus day and night implored mercy, that he might not while living see the people committed to him laid waste, a voice was heard from heaven thundering out this from on high: What harm shall we do to this city? For at the Eastern gate rest the bodies of the martyrs Crispin and Crispinian, the defenders of the city: at the Western quarter their blood was shed: in the midst stands the ash of their bodies and the sacred place of their sepulchre. We can prevail nothing further here: but the city must be left to their protection. Which voice being heard, the disease grew quiet f. Whence we reckon no small the grace of this Prelate, by whose supplication and by the protection of the martyrs the dire plague did not touch Soissons. Whence we ought to implore his help the more urgently, the more frequently we are shaken by misfortunes: that as he defended the people from the bubonic plague, so he may deign to protect both us and it in divers matters.
[11] A privilege which, at Ansaricus's urging, to the monastery of St. Medard For the rest, among his very many virtues the greatest zeal was in his mind that he should be munificent toward the religious places of monks, and should strengthen the sacred memorials of the Saints with tranquillity, and mark them with divine worship. Whence also the privilege of exemption granted by St. John the Pope and martyr to the monastery of St. Medard of Soissons, given in the church of the blessed Pope Silvester on the fifth of the Ides of March, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation five hundred and sixty-two g, Indiction ten, which was confirmed by the hands of kings, and also made with the consent of blessed Bandaridus h bishop of Soissons, and moreover made firm by the anathema of seventy pontiffs: this privilege, I say, the holy doctor Pope Gregory, at the urging of Ansaricus the man of God, confirmed in this manner: By Divine authority, and in the stead of blessed Peter the prince of the Apostles, with the consent of all the Roman Pontiffs, and by the will of the whole Roman senate, at the urging of the apostolic man Ansaricus i pontiff of the city of Soissons, and with the favoring judgment of all the bishops of Gaul k, we decree that none of the archbishops, bishops, archdeacons should disquiet the brethren of the aforesaid basilica &c.
[12] And it follows: Lest a place of such loftiness grow cheap, which we constitute the head of the monasteries of all Gaul, and suffer to be subject to no one's rule: but as this Roman See proclaims its watchfulness to the whole world, and sends new customs to all, and is free from the scrutiny of all persons, so let the aforesaid place, every worst custom of kings, prelates and judges being removed, exhibit to the other monasteries an example of divine religion and honesty, and above all enjoy full liberty. is said to have been given by St. Gregory the Pope: Whose rectors and sons, present and to come, being placed under royal guardianship only, may proclaim the advocacy of St. Peter and the authority of his successors, the Pontiffs of this holy Roman See, and, if necessity presses, may approach them. Concerning the altars also, according to the institution of the blessed Pope John, we confirm by Apostolic authority that whoever shall be of the aforesaid monastery shall be the person of the altars and the prelate of all the churches belonging to it. Hence long after there follows: I Gregory, Prelate of the holy Roman See, have subscribed to this privilege &c. And there follows: Flavius l archbishop of Reims has subscribed, Ansaricus bishop of Soissons has subscribed. Given on the sixth of the Kalends of June, in the year from the Lord's Incarnation five hundred and ninety-three m, Indiction eleven.
[13] In the privilege also of the lord Pope Eugenius n, his mention in another privilege, as the author will have it: which was given at the supplication of Louis the king and emperor in the church of St. John Lateran, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and twenty-six, Indiction four, on the sixteenth of the Kalends of May, it is thus said: Thence the apostolic man Bandaridus pontiff of Soissons and the venerable Ansaricus the prelate received blessings from these holy bishops John and Gregory of good memory, which they laid up in the public archives of St. Mary and St. Gervasius for the memory and remembrance of their successors, sealed under anathema.
[14] By these therefore and by very many other exercises of virtues the holy pontiff Ansaricus, death, burial, and miracles at his tomb. a conqueror of the world, had ascended to the summit of perfection, when at last, worn out with age, he took to his bed. And when, as the force of the disease grew more and more, he saw his people exceedingly solicitous and anxious, and had gently consoled them and commended them into the hands of the supreme Shepherd, having devoutly received the Lord's Sacraments, he rendered his spirit, amid the hands of the clergy, on the day of the Nones of September, to him to whom he had unweariedly shown service in the world. And he was buried in the church of St. Stephen the protomartyr, outside the city walls, above the public causeway of Coyacum, in which there were then secular canons. Where the blessed Prelate, buried in body, manifests by many mighty works that he lives to Christ, since at his sepulchre very many possessed persons, sufferers from fever, and other sick people, after prayers poured forth,
depart with their soundness recovered o: our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is honor and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.