ON ST. GENEBAUDUS OR GENEBALDUS, BISHOP,
AT LAON IN GAUL.
About the middle of the VI century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Saint's cult, by whom his Life was written: such a chronology of his deeds as may be had.
Genebaudus or Genebaldus, bishop and confessor, at Laon in Gaul (S.)
BY J. S.
The church of Laon in France has for many centuries venerated on this day St. Genebaudus or Genebaldus, its first bishop, The Saint's memory in the Fasti, and a notable proof of human frailty and of divine mercy. The memory of this Saint indeed I do not find in the more ancient and classic Martyrologies, and on that occasion, I suppose, he is likewise an exile from the present Roman Martyrology; but that defect is supplied both by the later Fasti and by a certain account of a cult ancient enough. First, in Sollier among the Supplements to Usuard at this day, the memory of St. Genebaldus, briefly praised, recurs four times, namely from the Hagenau codex, which was written in the year 1412, and from three editions of Usuard, of which the last is Molanus's. Of these I subjoin one eulogy, which Greven put together in this manner: On the same day, the deposition of blessed Genebaldus, bishop of Laon and confessor, of whom it is read in the deeds of St. Remigius. Moreover Pietro de Natali celebrated St. Genebaldus in the Catalogue of the Saints book 1 chap. 41, and the author of the manuscript Florarium of the Saints at this day. Both these wove a long eulogy, or rather an epitome of what will be given below from the Life of St. Remigius. With a prolix eulogy likewise Saussay commended St. Genebaldus, with a shorter one Ghini, with a very short one Ferrarius and others.
[2] The Martyrology of Paris has thus of the same: At Laon, and his cult is certain of St. Genebaldus the bishop, whom St. Remigius ordained as the first for this castle, which, being detached from his own parish, he raised with the consent of his fellow bishops to the honor of an episcopal see. He subscribed to the fifth council of Orleans through Medulfus the archdeacon. In the Missal of Laon, which was printed in the year 1506, the festivity of St. Genebaldus is proposed to be kept with a double rite. From the Mass, which is of a Pontiff confessor, I transfer hither the first prayer, because in it mention is made of the Saint's body: Be favorable, we beseech thee, O Lord, to us thy servants, through the glorious merits of St. Genebaldus thy confessor and pontiff, whose body rests in this present church, that by his loving intercession we may ever be protected from all adversities. Through &c. Another prayer is had for other churches, but this was for that of Laon, because his body rested in it. Our manuscript Florarium records a translation of St. Genebaldus, designating him as of Laon, on the day VII of December, on which day also Maurolycus announces this our Saint. But the author of the Florarium confounded St. Genebaldus with St. Gerebaldus of Bayeux, as is plain from the place added.
[3] and ancient. At what time the cult was begun I do not find: but I find the title of Saint attributed to him in the XII century by Hermann the monk, whose words I shall give below. Flodoard, a writer of the X century, in the History of the Church of Reims pag. 39, after an ample eulogy, speaks thus of him: Genebaudus therefore died in peace, numbered among the Saints of God, having so long discharged his bishopric that Latro his son succeeded him as bishop, and he too afterward a Saint. Hincmar likewise in the IX century called Genebaudus a Saint, as we shall presently see, so that already then he was probably venerated, and perhaps much earlier.
[4] A Life written in the IX century by Hincmar of Reims: What has come down to the knowledge of posterity concerning the deeds of St. Genebaudus is read almost entirely in the Life of St. Remigius written by Hincmar archbishop of Reims in the IX century, and published in Surius at the XIII of January. The age of Hincmar, who is more than three centuries later than SS. Remigius and Genebaudus, cannot attribute great authority to him, and not even his manner of writing sufficiently answers to the learning of its author, as the Benedictine writers of the Literary History of France have already observed, tom. 5 pag. 576. But as regards the authority of the whole Life, that will be more fully examined at the 1st of October, where we must treat of St. Remigius. Here I only observe that those things which pertain to St. Genebaudus were drawn rather from tradition and the report of the people than from ancient monuments. This I gather from Hincmar himself in the Little Work of 55 Chapters, in which at chap. 16 pag. 64 he thus addresses Hincmar of Laon: Nor did thy predecessors and forerunners disdain to be subject to the bishops of Reims, and, concerning the goods of the church of the metropolis of Reims, with which the bishopric of Laon was enriched, when they came into that parish, humbly and kindly to serve the church of Reims, from the time when blessed Remigius not only constituted holy Genebaudus bishop in the castle of Laon, but also, as ancient tradition and the monument of the reclusion show, by which he shut him up according to the rules for his most notorious excess, restored him after worthy satisfaction &c. He here touches on the chief heads which he narrated more fully in the Life of St. Remigius, namely the erection of the bishopric of Laon, the sin or carnal fall of Genebaudus, the penance performed by him, and the episcopal office resumed; and he cites no more ancient Life, nor other written monuments, but ancient tradition and the monument of the reclusion. It is therefore probable that most of what is related by Hincmar concerning St. Genebaudus was drawn from tradition, although I would not on that account deny that some things could also be drawn from ancient writings.
[5] As regards the chief facts by Hincmar
related, [the erection of the see of Laon seems certain enough, and made about the year 497:] I do not see that it can prudently be doubted that they are true; but I would not say the same of all the circumstances, which Hincmar may have written too liberally from popular report. First, it does not seem to be doubted that the episcopal see was erected at Laon by St. Remigius, and that St. Genebaudus was appointed the first bishop there. For no one contradicted Hincmar when he asserted this, but many others wrote the same. Hermann the Monk in book 1 of the Miracles of St. Mary of Laon chap. 1 agrees in these words: It is certain therefore that the church of Laon was of old renowned among the chief churches of the kingdom of the Franks, which blessed Remigius archbishop of Reims, as is read in his Life, enriched from his own revenues, and consecrated in it as bishop that most noble and most vigorous man, holy Genebaudus. Sigebert in his Chronicle at the year 500 has thus: Many estates having been conferred by king Ludovicus (that is, Clovis) on the church of Reims, Remigius, giving a great part of them to the church of Laon, established that the see of a bishopric should be there: and appointed Genebaudus the first bishop there, and, when he had fallen into fornication with his former wife, but had been purged by a seven years' penance and led forth from his reclusion by divine command, restored him to his see. Sigebert placed the erection of the church of Laon one year after Clovis's baptism, and so far probably enough: but Clovis was baptized in the year 496, as Pagi clearly proves at the year 499 num. 9 and 10; and not in the year 499 as fixed by Sigebert. If therefore the see of Laon is later by only one year than Clovis's baptism, it was erected in the year 497. I judge that this year is not far from the truth, nor yet do I call it altogether certain, since the erection may have taken place a year or two later.
[6] Secondly, the carnal fall of St. Genebaudus with the wife he had before dismissed seems likewise certain enough: Genebaudus's fall and penance are likewise certain enough: a long administration for the people of Laon did not deny it. Certain likewise is his penance, and his restoration to the episcopal see by St. Remigius. But the several circumstances of those deeds do not appear equally certain, as I shall observe in the annotations to the eulogy to be given below. The time of his administration of the bishopric before the fall and the penance cannot be exactly determined. Le Cointe, agreeing with us about the beginning of the bishopric, records the fall at the year 508, from which he believes it should not be far removed. Baillet in the Life at the V of September notes in the margin about the year DVI. Perhaps it befell already earlier, namely after two or three years of administering the bishopric; for the time of that matter is hinted at by no chronological note. Yet if we turn an attentive mind to Hincmar's account, the administration of the bishopric before the fall will seem rather short than long. But whatever be the time of the Bishop's fall, the administration of the episcopal see was long after the repeated fall expiated by a seven years' penance, since, on the testimony of Hincmar and Flodoard, he sat so long that his son Latro succeeded his Father in the bishopric. This is the more confirmed from the fifth council of Orleans, to which his archdeacon is read to have subscribed thus: I, Medulfus the archdeacon, sent by my lord Gennobaudus bishop of the church of Lugdunum Clavatum, have subscribed. Laon at that time was everywhere called Lugdunum Clavatum, as is well enough known.
[7] when in the year 549 he sent his archdeacon to the council of Orleans. Nevertheless Baillet seems to doubt whether the same Genebaudus is here designated, and confirms his doubt from this, that thus he would have been bishop for more than fifty years. But no just reason for doubting occurs, since no other is known to have presided over the see of Laon in all the intervening time; and since it is probable that St. Genebaudus was raised to the bishopric on account of his outstanding gifts of mind joined with the nobility of his stock, while he was not of much advanced age, as happened in the case of St. Remigius. But if he was made bishop about the thirtieth year of his age, and about the year of Christ 497, he will already have exceeded fifty years of episcopate, counting namely the years of his penance, and will have been more than eighty years of age: but neither is incredible or unusual. Further, it cannot be said how many years he survived after the said council, and therefore I have fixed the year of his death about the middle of the VI century. Now I subjoin the Acts from our manuscript codex, which is marked Q. Ms. 4, collated with other manuscripts and with Surius's edition. I shall add annotations after the custom, not only to show the diversity of the codices, but also to sift certain assertions of Hincmar.
ACTS
By Hincmar bishop of Reims.
From our manuscript codex, collated with other manuscripts and with Surius's edition.
Genebaudus or Genebaldus, bishop and confessor, at Laon in Gaul (S.)
By Hincmar.
The bishopric of Laon erected, where Genebaudus was the first bishop, And of those things which in the province of Reims had been [] handed over to him a, he handed over no small part to the church of St. Mary in the castle of Lugdunum Clavatum, from the parish b of Reims where he had been reared: and there he ordained as bishop Genebaudus c, a man noble in the flesh, and learned both in the holy Scriptures and in secular letters, who, having left his wife [] — namely the niece of blessed Remigius himself — had sought a religious life d; and he subjected the parish of the county of Laon to the aforesaid castle. And this Genebaudus, trusting more than was needful in his past life and in the loftiness of his rank, when he ought to have considered that he was neither holier than David nor wiser than Solomon, who were endangered by the blandishments of a woman [], incautiously permitted his own wife, whom on leaving he had changed into a sister, to visit him e rather frequently, as though for wholesome instruction, forgetting the Scripture which says: The waters hollow out stones, and by the flood the earth is consumed, and the rock is removed from its place [].
[2] Whence it came about that the frequent visits, and the soothing and frequent conversations of the woman, softened the Bishop's heart, hard against the softness of luxury, who, returning to the wife he had before left, begot a son and a daughter: and, as it were, moved a rock of stone from the place of holiness to the defilements of luxury. And likewise [], against the Scripture which says: Who shall bind fire in his bosom, and [] his garments not be burnt? — the straw being brought to the fire, that is, the matter of a woman's flesh, and the fire of lust being fanned by diabolical persuasion as by a violent wind, the heat of luxury burst into flames, and, lying f with that same former wife of his, the woman conceived; and after the birth she sent word [*] to the Bishop that she had borne a son. But Genebaudus, confounded and grieving, said to the messenger: Since by a theft, that it might lie hid from men what could not lie hid from God, he was begotten in the secrecy of a chamber, he shall rightly be called Latro Thief: so let her impose the name on him. And because the fault had not become known to men, lest a suspicion should arise from it if that woman withdrew herself from her wonted visiting, she began as before to frequent g the Bishop's house. And thus it came about that, the fault being covered from men, and in the hearts both of the Bishop and of the woman the heat of luxury being covered — since, as is known, the more fire is covered, the more when covered it glows — the Bishop, pricked in conscience against his fault, yet after his weeping returned to the fault; and he forgot what he had bewailed, since he would not extinguish what he burned for by desire. He repeated the sin which he had done. And the woman conceived again, and, having sent a messenger, sent word to the Bishop that she had borne a female child: whom he ordered to be named Vulpecula Little Fox. Why he wished her to be so named, he who knows the wiles and the significations of that animal in the Scriptures, which he referred to the deceits and craftiness of the deceiver the devil, and to the enticements and windings of wanton flesh, easily enough perceives.
[3] At length, the Lord looking upon him who looked upon blessed Peter, and he wept most bitterly for his denial, he humbly confesses his sins to St. Remigius, Genebaudus, come to himself, sent to St. Remigius, asking that he would come to Laon; because such cases had arisen there as he could not settle by himself. And blessed Remigius, as Genebaudus asked, came [*] to Laon. And being received with due reverence, and seeking the privacy of a chamber, he asked Genebaudus for what cause he had called him. But Genebaudus, with the greatest weeping and wailing, wishing to take the stole from his neck and to fall at the feet of St. Remigius, was with great force held back by blessed Remigius, that he should not take the stole from his neck. And after both had wept for a long while (for blessed Remigius had understood that Genebaudus had committed a crime for which he wished to lay aside the stole), scarcely, with sobs and tears, did Genebaudus relate in order all that he had committed.
[4] And St. Remigius, seeing him contrite and almost despairing, and receives penance from him, being shut up in a cell: gently consoled him, saying that h he did not so much grieve over the crime committed by him as that he thought so ill of the Lord's goodness, to whom, according to Gospel truth, no word is impossible: who made all things out of nothing, and by grace saved the first parent, in whom all have sinned. He despises no sinner who has returned to him, who came to redeem sinners with his own blood. And who, compassionating, wept with the tears of the sisters — which signified the anxious and tearful thoughts of penitents — over Lazarus four days dead and already stinking, and raised him from the dead, and admitted him when raised to his own banquet i … And as he was most learned, and a most eloquent orator, gathering into one testimonies from the breadth of holy Scripture and examples of penitents, he set them before him to give him heart, and, having exhorted him, enjoined penance. And a little dwelling having been made with a bed [] after the fashion of a sepulchre, and with the smallest little windows [] and an oratory, which remain to this day beside the church of St. Julian, he shut Genebaudus up in it, and for seven years governed the clergy and people of that parish, as he governed his own parish, and celebrated one Sunday at Reims, another at Laon k.
[5] And in that reclusion of penance, how great was the contrition and continence of the same Genebaudus, the divine mercy showed. after seven years an angel appearing to Genebaudus, For in the seventh year, on the vigil of the Lord's Supper, when the same Genebaudus was passing the night in prayer, and bewailing himself, because he who had been ordained for this, that on that day he should reconcile penitents to the Lord [*], himself, his crimes so requiring, did not deserve even to stand among the penitents in the church — about midnight there came l an angel of the Lord with a great light to him into the oratory, where he lay prostrate, and said to him: Genebaudus, the prayers of thy father Remigius for thee have been heard: the Lord also has received thy penance, and thy sin has been remitted. Arise, and go forth hence, and do the office of the episcopal ministry, and reconcile to the Lord the penitents from their crimes. But Genebaudus, struck with exceeding terror, could answer nothing. Then the angel of the Lord, comforting him, exhorted him not to fear, but to rejoice in the mercy bestowed upon him.
[6] bids him go forth from the cell: and St. Remigius, warned by the same angel, And he, taking heart, said to the angel: I cannot go forth hence, because my lord and father Remigius has the key of this door with him, which he also sealed with his seal. And the angel to him: That thou mayest not doubt, he said, that I am sent by the Lord, as heaven lies open to thee, so shall this door too lie open. And at once, with the seal and the bar unbroken, that door was opened. Then Genebaudus, casting himself in the form of a cross on the threshold, said: Even if the Lord Jesus Christ himself shall deign to come to me a sinner, I shall not go forth m from hence unless [] he come who set me in this reclusion in his name. And at once the angel of the Lord departed from him. Blessed Remigius too, in his crypt, which was behind the see of the church of St. Mary at Reims, was passing the night in prayer, and as though sleeping was caught up in an ecstasy: and he saw an angel n standing by him, who related all these things [], as they had been said and done; and bade him seek Laon as quickly as possible, and restore Genebaudus to the episcopal see, and persuade him to perform the episcopal ministry in his presence.
[7] [restores Genebaudus to the episcopal see, which he administers holily until his death.] At once St. Remigius, nothing doubting, sought Laon with the utmost speed, and found Genebaudus lying on the threshold of the door, which had been unbarred o with the seal and the bar unbroken: whom, with arms outstretched [], with joy and tears, praising the Lord's mercy, he raised up; and hastened to restore him to the see and to the episcopal office, as the angel of the Lord had commanded, and returned to Reims [] with joy. And so Genebaudus thereafter passed all the days of his life in holiness and justice by the grace of God, preaching to all how great things the Lord had done for him [p], so that no one might trust in his own justice, no one distrust the mercy of God… And so Genebaudus died [q] in peace, numbered among the Saints of God, living so long in his bishopric that Latro his son succeeded him as bishop, and he too a Saint [r].
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Thus far Surius. But in our manuscript codex a long disputation follows, of which I have set down only the first words. The rest may be given in the Life of St. Remigius, if it shall seem good.
q. To the praised dissertation on the mercy of God those last words are inserted, which are also found in Flodoard.
r. These words, And he too a Saint, in Flodoard, And he too afterward a Saint, somehow insinuate that Latro was held for a Saint after his death. Saussay called him a Saint, writing thus of him in the Catalogue of the Saints after the Gallican Martyrology: St. Latro by name, but in truth not a thief (latro) but rather a bearer (lator) of grace and justice, and a man fruitful in every virtue, was the son of St. Genebaldus bishop of Laon by a stolen embrace of the wife he had married before the priesthood, and the heir of the pontifical dignity, not by the right of blood but by the merit of an excelling faith and piety. Castellan in the Corollary of the [ ] of the Universal Martyrology pag. 936 records him as venerable; observing however that he is called a Saint by Flodoard. But since he adds that neither is an Office kept of him nor any commemoration, neither Flodoard's nor Hincmar's authority suffices for me to attach the title of Saint or Blessed to his name; especially since not even they do so clearly.
. Surius, fuerunt.*
. Sur., conjuge.*
. Elsewhere, mulierum.*
. Elsewhere is added paulatim.*
. Another Ms., iterum.*
. Elsewhere, ut &.*
. Elsewhere, mandat.*
. Elsewhere, pervenit.*
. Elsewhere, lectulo.*
. Elsewhere, fenestellis.*
. Sur., Deo.*
. Sur., donec.*
. Sur., ei.*
. Sur., extensis.*
. Sur., Remos.*