Magnus

ON ST. MAGNUS, FIRST ABBOT OF THE MONASTERY OF FÜSSEN,

AT FÜSSEN IN SWABIA

Probably DCLV.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Magnus, abbot at Füssen in Swabia (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. The Writer of the Life and its interpolators, its antiquity, authority, transcripts, editions: more recent biographers, the Acts to be published.

[ ] About to illustrate the acts of St. Magnus, I enter a labyrinth whose specious entrance has deceived not a few, The Acts of the Saint, which are said to have been written by Theodore, and has dragged the incautious into a manifold confusion of things, persons, and times. The head of the whole evil is a certain Life, which is circulated under the name of Theodore, monk or hermit of Kempten. He makes himself the comrade of St. Magnus, and describes himself as his companion in undergoing apostolic labors, as an eyewitness of nearly all his prodigies, and finally as a faithful friend at his death and burial. It may be well here to have tasted a few things from the Life which we are about to give, that it may appear how easy it was to lend undoubted credit to these Acts. Having related the death of St. Magnus, his comrade or rather his master, that author proceeds thus: And so, that same sarcophagus (of stone, which they had opportunely found) being cleansed, they (S. Tozzo and Theodore) took up the holy body and laid it away in the place where the Father himself had built an oratory for himself … placing his Life at his head, written full of virtues under the authority of Theodore, with this subscription: I therefore, Theodore, monk from the monastery of saint Gall, by order of Tozzo the bishop, as I learned from Theodegesilus, monk of saint Columbanus, about the manner of life of so great a Man together with blessed Columbanus, and afterward saw myself with my own eyes and heard with my ears, and after he left me in the little cell of Kempten, and as I afterward learned from the aforesaid venerable bishop Tozzo about his virtues, I have taken care to write very many things, but not all, on my tablet, and have placed it at his head, laid away in the sepulcher.

[2] and are said to have been amended by Ermenric, Nevertheless this Life, as it is said to have been written by Theodore — if indeed it was written by him — has not come down to us: since indeed, when in the IX century the Saint's body was raised, the bishop who was performing that sacred ceremony handed over the Life, found in the coffin and almost rotted, to a certain Ermenric to be corrected. And he summoned, says the interpolator, a certain prudent and industrious monk from the monastery of Ellwangen, Ermenric by name, and handed over to him those same quires to be read and amended. But he, asserting that he was by no means so learned as to renew such things, and to be able to insert, as was fitting, what was proper, being constrained by the necessity of obedience, took up that tablet, and, according to the estimate of his own powers, being unwilling to despise the bishop's command, completed what he found there, renewing and correcting all the writings, and, with the Lord's assent, amended the confused sequence by the lights of chapters. Thus far the Life near its end; from which it follows that the Acts which we now have were amended (nay rather vitiated) by another, reduced to order, and, so far as he judged fitting and was able to insert, enlarged and interpolated. But would that according to the estimate of his own powers he had striven to play the faithful copyist rather than the amender and unskilled interpolator: would, I say, that he had handed down to posterity whole and faithfully Theodore's own words, however confused the sequence of the deeds.

[3] by others Yet I should not wish to ascribe with certainty to Ermenric all the faulty interpolations which we shall examine below, since they may have had another author: nay, that they really had one Mabillon not vainly suspects in the Acta Benedictina, century 2, in the Eulogy of St. Magnus; whose words, because they introduce us to a knowledge of Ermenric, I transfer hither. Ermenric, monk of Ellwangen and levite, whom others call Ermenold, is he who wrote the Life of saint Sola the monk, and, as it is found in volume IV of Canisius, dedicated it to Ruodolf his teacher; and he lived in the time of Hrabanus Maurus, whom he commended in that Work; and at last, being elected abbot in the year DCCCXLV, presided in the seventh place over the monastery of Ellwangen in the diocese of Augsburg … But whether he composed the Life of St. Magnus, such as it has been published in print, it is not permitted to pronounce with certainty. Certainly from the words related a little before about him we conjecture that the Acts of Bl. Magnus were indeed polished by him, but were rashly enlarged by some other man: for Ermenric would not have boasted himself industrious or prudent, who in his Epistles to Gundramnus and Ruodolf thinks far more modestly of himself. But whosoever he is who patched together the published Life of St. Magnus, he deserved altogether ill of St. Magnus: so he.

[4] The suspicion of a new interpolation made in Ermenric's Work is increased by a certain manuscript copy of the same Saint's Life, have been rashly interpolated. which is preserved among us and of which we shall treat below. In this copy, I say, concerning the prodigy wrought in preserving the beer, which see in the Life, number 3, the following is noted in the margin: Note well, written in this margin in a very fine but very ancient hand from the earlier Life written by Ermenric: "But when the beer, flowing down, had filled the vessel placed beneath, it stood in a wonderful manner growing above the vessel in the likeness of a crown." Which sentence, although in the copies both manuscript and printed which I have seen it is had as to substance, yet in none of them is it found as to the very words: whence, as I have already said, no light suspicion arises that the Life of the Saint, as it was first either corrected or interpolated by Ermenric, is not that which is now circulated under his and Theodore's name. Nay, that a great part of it does not belong to Ermenric becomes most probable from this, that very many things have been wrongly inserted into those Acts from the Life of St. Gall written by Walafrid Strabo, who flourished at exactly the same time as Ermenric, and accordingly could have charged him with infamous plagiarism, if he had sold as his own what was ill wrested from another.

[5] Whatever be the case about the uncertain writer of this Life, this is certain, Their antiquity that already in the XI century it went under the name of Theodore and Ermenric. And this indeed is clear from a copy of the same Life interpolated by a certain anonymous monk of Regensburg, which bears at its front the following notes: From a most ancient parchment manuscript codex at Augsburg at SS. Ulric and Afra, written from the year 700, in quarto. Title: Legends of certain Saints, letter z, number 36. The writer of this Life nowhere indicates his own name; but that he wrote after the middle of the XI century is easily shown. There is extant in Mabillon in the Vetera Analecta a little book of a certain anonymous monk of Regensburg, which he wrote about his own temptations. He in part 2, according to the division made by Mabillon, enumerating his lucubrations, among other things says: But after I returned (from the monastery of Fulda to his own of Regensburg) I wrote the Life of S. Magnus, compelled by the inmost and assiduous prayers of two brethren, namely of William of our congregation, and of another, who came to us from the monastery of S. Magnus for the sake of learning, called Adalham, and who now is appointed abbot in the community of S. Afra. But he had premised that in the year of the Lord 1062 he had withdrawn from the monastery of S. Emmeram at Regensburg: and accordingly the Acts of St. Magnus were composed by him after the middle of the XI century.

[6] and their masked authority Further, that this very man is the amender of the aforesaid Life which we have, is manifest from his prologue; for it thus begins: According to the smallness of my understanding I have completed what I promised thee, beloved brother Adelhalm. For at thy request, together with another most dear Brother of ours, that I should amend the Life of S. Magnus, brought forth in ancient times in a faulty style, wavering in several places from grammatical rule, etc. Then, after many things, he concludes the prologue with these words: And even if they (the readers) be ignorant of my person, let them know that I am one of the congregation of saint Emmeram. But that we may return whence we digressed, that anonymous writer, having related the finding of the sacred body and of the Life placed beside it, thus continues: And (the bishop) calling a certain prudent monk from the monastery of Ellwangen, Ermenric by name, handed over to him those same (quires found) to be read and corrected… In like manner also I have done, who, having long been asked, have corrected this Life again. By which words indeed it is manifestly established that those Acts of St. Magnus were already in the XI century held as written in ancient times by Theodore and amended by Ermenric.

[7] it long pleased many. And hence it came to pass that not a few, deceived by this specious mask, did not hesitate to lend certain credit to them as they now stand. Nor is it any wonder: for, as the cited Mabillon rightly notes, who would not believe a pious man and an eyewitness, such as it is fair to think Theodore was? Hence those everywhere followed his authority who wove the catalogues of the bishops of Augsburg; and Bolland himself and Henschen transferred many things from it into the Acta Sanctorum, with the correction, however, which it deserves. For the former indeed, in volume III of February, in the Life of Bl. Pippin, attributed certain things to that blessed duke which in that Life were falsely asserted about king Pippin: but he warns at page 254, numbers 26 and 28, that it labors under a faulty chronology, and is interpolated. Henschen in volume 2 of January, at the day XVI, illustrated the Acts of S. Tozzo, and again in volume 2 of April, at the day XVIII, those of S. Wicterp, from the same little work of Theodore and Ermenric: but he does not, unlike Bolland, complain of the inept interpolation. How justly and deservedly they do this we shall demonstrate below, where also we shall set before the reader the other impostures of that unskilled writer, after we have enumerated the copies of this masked Work, and its editions.

[8] The various copies of this Life Various transcripts of this Life are extant in our museum, among which, because it must be named in the first place as being more complete than the rest, though not purer, is that which is noted as copied from a manuscript of St. Maximin at Trier. Of this we have a fourfold copy, with this difference, however, that the title is not the same in all: for one of them bears this: The Life of S. Magnoald, who is also Magnus, disciple of S. Columbanus and Gall. But another this: The Life of saint Magnus or Magnoald, from a monk of Luxeuil abbot of the monastery of Füssen, in the diocese of Augsburg, first written by Theodore his companion, then revised and enlarged by Hermenric, monk of Ellwangen. The remaining two rightly add to the words related: and finally arranged and enlarged by a more recent anonymous writer. Besides, a twofold copy was once transmitted to us by Fr.

Gamans of our Society, a man often to be remembered for the labor he bestowed on our museum. Each came from the Augsburg library of SS. Ulric and Afra, yet not written in the same codex, nor in the same style.

[9] One of these is noted as copied from a very ancient parchment manuscript codex, written 800 years ago and more, from the library of SS. Ulric and Afra, at Augsburg, title: Lives of SS. Magnus, Wenceslaus, Arnulf. z. 59. in manuscript, Yet I can scarcely believe that this Life, in the time of father Gamans, that is about the middle of the XVII century, had already been inscribed in the aforesaid codex for eight centuries, and so not long after its first amendment made by Ermenric; for it does not appear probable that it already then swarmed with such foul parachronisms, unless we should wish to make Ermenric the author of all these. For the rest, that copy agrees well enough with those enumerated, except that in several places it is faulty. Finally the other transmitted by the same Gamans is that which we said at numbers 5 and 6 was amended by the anonymous writer of Regensburg, and it differs from the aforesaid not only in style, but also in certain other things, which he, because they seemed to him incongruous or impossible, as he says, changed by his own censorial art: yet it is not free, like all the rest, from its own errors.

[10] From the manuscripts I proceed to the published Lives. Henry Canisius in the Antiquæ Lectiones, volume 5, and the various editions are reviewed. published it from the manuscript parchments of the monastery of S. Magnus, at the foot of the bridge of Regensburg, from the press of Ingolstadt in the year 1604. The same, among the writers of Alemannic affairs, in the following year, Melchior Haiminsfeld Goldast reported with the following heading, which I have found in no other: Of S. Theodore the hermit, on the Life of S. Magnus the confessor, his comrade, amended and divided by Ermenric, monk of Ellwangen. Then after chapter 13 he indicates the continuator of the Work by a new inscription in this manner: The supplement of Ermenric, monk of Ellwangen. This edition differs in many things from that of Canisius, for, to pass over trifles, whole sentences, nay even chapters, are wanting in the latter which are in the former, as will be manifest to one comparing both editions. For which reason Mabillon seems to me to have nodded, when in the Acta of the 2nd Benedictine Century, page 505, he warned this: Goldast differs from Canisius in this alone, that he divides the Life itself into two books and into various chapters, and that the last chapter of the second book, in which the labor of Ermenric the interpolator is mentioned, is wanting in the Canisian edition. Goldast was reprinted by the care of Johann Porss in the year 1661; but Canisius, with the annotations of Jacques Basnage, came forth from the press of Amsterdam in the year 1725: finally the same Life of St. Magnus was reported from Canisius, from the year 1617, in the third edition of Surius, at the day VI of September.

[11] Besides, our Saint's Acts in the Latin tongue were published in the year 1621 by Martin, abbot of Füssen, which I have not been able to see; More recent biographers: whence the Acts are to be published. but neither did I think it necessary, since there were not lacking the little works of others, in part put together from them. Among these Matthäus Rader of our Society, in the Bavaria pia, wrote the Life of the Saint from the said abbot, as he himself notes in the margin. Again another came forth in the year 1721, likewise composed in Latin by Fr. Ludwig Babenstuber, a Benedictine at the Blessed Virgin of Ettal in upper Bavaria; and finally another was published in German in the year 1729, by a certain anonymous author, a monk of Füssen: in both very many prodigies granted through the patronage of St. Magnus are related. Further, I shall publish the manuscript of St. Maximin compared with the rest, in such a way that I shall report in the Annotations the various readings of those which are of any moment, that the reader may miss nothing. To the Life I shall subjoin the miracles from the two writers praised, as also from the manuscript annotations of Henry, abbot of the same monastery.

§ II. The Acts mentioned are discussed.

[ ] The masked biographer compiled the Life unfaithfully Mabillon in the 2nd Benedictine Century, from page 505, examining the Acts of St. Magnus, holds their author, whom he calls Pseudo-Theodore, convicted of manifest plagiarism, and detects so many blemishes in them that he confesses himself compelled, even against his will, to omit them. And not undeservedly: for as regards the plagiarism, it cannot be denied that that Life was in great part compiled from the Acts of St. Columbanus written by Jonas, as the said Mabillon clearly proves by comparing the words of both writers, and as we are about to show more at length. Nor moreover did Pseudo-Theodore use the lucubration of Jonas alone, but also the little work of Walafrid Strabo, abbot of Reichenau, on the Life of St. Gall, in both cases with the worst faith. Each of these we shall presently prove, after we have shown why we accuse our biographer rather than Jonas or Walafrid of plagiarism. Jonas, a monk of Bobbio in Italy, composed the Life of St. Columbanus about the middle of the VII century, and inscribed it to Bobolenus of Bobbio and Waldebert of Luxeuil, abbots: and he confesses that he learned many things on this subject from SS. Attala and Eustasius, disciples of St. Columbanus, and from other monks of the monastery of Bobbio, who narrated things not heard but seen. Jonas therefore could not have read the Life of St. Magnus, which, deposited by Theodore in the Saint's sepulcher, was first found in the IX century. Nor mayest thou say that Jonas could have received some copy of it from Theodore: for what cause wilt thou bring forward that he himself, who in his preface diligently cites, as we have said, the sureties of his lucubration, makes no mention of this Life or of Theodore, and narrates nothing about St. Magnus, who is frequently praised in it among the chief disciples of St. Columbanus? Add that our masked biographer below in the Life, chapter 2, number XI, openly confesses that he had some Life of St. Columbanus before his eyes, when he says: As is contained in the Life of Bl. Columbanus.

[13] from Jonas and Walafrid Strabo. About Walafrid Strabo it may seem more doubtful, since he himself in the preface prefixed to the Life of S. Gall says: I tread in another's footsteps, and am compelled to measure out the line of truth to be held only by new paces. You wish therefore that the Life of saint … Gall .., noble in sense, degenerate in writing, be adorned by me with the light of correct speech, and that its confused sequence be distinguished by the boundaries of chapters: by which words it is clearly established that Walafrid in putting together the Life of S. Gall had another writer in his hands. The time too is in favor; since indeed Walafrid dedicated this little work of his to Gozbert or Cotzpert, abbot of St. Gall; who, on Mabillon's testimony, resigned the abbacy in the year 837. But there are many things which remove every suspicion of plagiarism as far as possible from Walafrid. In the first place he was himself a learned man, who was only thirty-five years old when in the year 842 he undertook the governance of the monastery of Reichenau, already famous for the monuments of his genius, to which he afterward added several others, says Mabillon in volume 2 of the Annals at the year given, number 62: but our writer labors under such foul anachronisms that he cannot be excused from gross ignorance in many things. Then, if Walafrid used the Life of St. Magnus, at least such as it now stands, he did not tread in another's footsteps, nor measure out the line of truth to be held only by new paces, but also unfaithfully omitted and altered some things; which I should not wish to suspect of him. Add that it is certain that the masked biographer inserted into his little book many things drawn from the little work of Jonas, with the names and certain circumstances slyly changed, though often in the same words: no wonder therefore that he used a similar plagiarism in the rest. And that I should think that he used Walafrid rather than the older anonymous writer whom Walafrid himself followed, whole sentences transferred from Walafrid's lucubration into the Life of our Saint with a few things changed altogether persuade me. But all these things will become more manifest in the course both of the Commentary and of the Life: wherefore let us approach the matter itself.

[14] The said Jonas in Mabillon, 2nd Benedictine Century, The deed of Autiernus the monk in the Life of St. Columbanus, number 18, writes thus: And so at that time (in which St. Columbanus was staying with his companions at Luxeuil) a certain brother, named Autiernus, began to urge that he might come into Ireland for the sake of pilgrimage. To whom Columbanus said: Let us go into the wilderness, and prove the will of God, whether thou art to undertake the journey thou desirest, or to remain in the company of the Brethren. Going therefore together they take in their company a third young man, named Somarius, … and came to the appointed place in the wilderness, content with the food of only one loaf: and when the twelfth day had now passed, and nothing of a fragment of bread had remained, and the hour of refreshment was drawing near, they are commanded by the father to go through the broken places of the countryside, and to come to the bottom of the valley, and to bring back whatever they should conveniently find for food. Rejoicing, they came through the hollows of the valley as far as the Moselle, and behold a catch of fish once set by fishermen and placed against the waves, and drawing near they find five great fishes, and taking three, because they were alive, they carry them to be presented to the father. But he said: Why did you not bring five? They answer that they had found two dead, and had therefore left them. But he says: By no means shall you eat of these, unless those which you left behind shall have come. But they, struck with the miracle of the providence of divine grace, return with swift course, and are rebuked for having left the manna they had found, and so are bidden to prepare the food. Namely, being filled with the Holy Spirit, he knew that feasts had been prepared for him everywhere by the Lord. Thus Jonas.

[15] From this passage our Theodore, having begun the Life of Magnus, wrongly wrested and unskillfully with Autiernus transformed into Magnoald, constructs another history. He ineptly brings SS. Columbanus and Gall into Ireland for the sake of pilgrimage: presently he produces Magnoald, asking to pass into their discipline. Then he makes Columbanus speak in almost the same manner: Let us go, sons, into the wilderness, and prove the will of God, whether thou art to undertake the desired purpose of thy mind, or not. After these things he subjoins in almost the same words those things which we recited from Jonas about the company of Somarius, the provision of one loaf, and the fishes sought and found, with certain circumstances however added and changed, which make plain the writer's unskillfulness and bad faith, and which for that reason must be briefly corrected. In the first place he ascribes the deeds of Autiernus to Magnoald; but wrested to the contrary sense: for the latter, on Jonas' testimony, was thinking of bidding farewell to St. Columbanus and journeying from the solitude of the Vosges into Ireland; but this man, in Ireland itself, approaching that same Columbanus on his travels, asks to be received into his household. He asserts that the bread failed not after the twelfth, but after the third day, and says nothing about the two fishes left behind, and brought at St. Columbanus' repeated bidding.

[16] ascribes to St. Magnus. Besides, he says that that catch of fish was found once set by shepherds in the river which is called Lignona: but he does not, imprudent man, notice that the Lignon (commonly Loignon) is not a river of Ireland, but of Burgundy. But it is not difficult to divine whence he fell into this error: he had namely read in the same Jonas, after the words given in the preceding number, that Gall, when on another occasion he had been bidden by Columbanus to fish in the river Breusch, fished with fruitless labor in the Lignon: hence he himself, either forgetting or being ignorant

that that writer was treating of Columbanus' stay in the Vosges, but he himself of that same saint's pilgrimage in Ireland, boldly transferred the Lignon into his own text. I doubted indeed at first whether Magnoald might perhaps have been the same as Autiernus; but after I had considered the matter more maturely, I laid aside this scruple: for our biographer would not have needed to wrest Jonas' words so unfaithfully, if he had believed Magnoald the same as Autiernus. Let the curious reader now compare Jonas' narrative reported from number 14 with those things which are had below in the Life from number 1, and he will presently recognize the unskillful thefts.

[17] Whence the miracle concerning the beer was drawn: Pseudo-Theodore, or Ermenric, goes on to adorn his own offspring from another's shreds, with a somewhat greater appearance of truth. Jonas (in the said Mabillon, whom I would have understood whenever I cite the Lives of SS. Columbanus and Gall) at number 26 narrates a prodigy which was wrought through Bl. Columbanus and his cellarer, and was of this kind. About the hour of refreshment the attendant, whose name is passed over in silence, when he was drawing beer from a cask, is summoned by Columbanus' order through one of the Brethren: he, burning with the ardor of obedience, without stopping the outlet of the cask, flies at the nod: after receiving his orders, mindful of his negligence, he runs back to the cellar, thinking that all the beer would be spilled. But presently he bore the reward of ready obedience: for the liquor stood in the manner of a crown above the vessel placed beneath, not even the least drop having fallen to the ground. This cellarer Theodore makes Magnoald, and the attendant Soniarius: but he attributes the whole miracle, on Columbanus' judgment, to the merits of Magnoald: For I saw, says S. Columbanus, an angel of God going before thee, when thou wast calling Soniarius, who [] when the sign had been made over the cask, the strong drink stood in the manner of a crown, as you have seen. O great gift of the divine power, who has vouchsafed to confer so great a grace on his Servant, still a neophyte, that thou art already called Magnus (the Great) among the brethren. So he: but Jonas, silent about the angel and about Magnoald, attributes the aforesaid prodigy wholly, not to the merit of the Brother who had called the other, but to that of Columbanus who commanded, together with that of the cellarer who obeyed, by this closing exclamation: How great was the merit of him who commanded! how great the obedience of him who followed! that thus the Lord willed to turn away the sadness of both,* etc. Whence it follows that, if that Brother who summoned the cellarer by Columbanus' order was St. Magnoald, no part of this prodigy, on Jonas' testimony, belongs to him: but since we are about to say below that our Saint more probably was never admitted into the household of St. Columbanus, it is also more probable that both these things and the rest wrought by the Saint under Columbanus' discipline are mere inventions of the writer. See the miracle itself in the Life, chapter 1, from number 3.

[18] After the prodigy mentioned he subjoins another, of which Mabillon observes these things: He ascribes to the Saint Chagnoald's wonderful command over the bear: Not only Autiernus' deed does that masked author accommodate to St. Magnus, but also the deeds of Chagnoald; and by an easy slip of the eyes he transforms Magnoald into Chagnoald… That author (Jonas) relates that St. Columbanus, while, driven out of Gaul by Theodebert, he was staying with his companions in the wilderness nearest to the city of Bregenz, and had nothing of food except country fruits, gave orders to Chagnoald that he should forbid to the bear, which was devouring the fruits, the part that was to serve for his own use and his companions', and permit the other part to the bear. That the thing was fulfilled as it had been ordered. The same things Pseudo-Theodore transfers to Magnoald in almost as many sentences. Compare, if it please thee, the things which are related in the Acts of Columbanus with the words of our biographer from number 5 in the Life, and at the same time note that the narrative of the two differs in this, that the former writes that Chagnoald, having caught sight of the bear among the thickets, returned without delay to Columbanus, and, being bidden by him to go back, assigned to the bear his part of the fruits: but the other asserts that Magnoald exercised that wonderful command over the beast without the knowledge of his master Columbanus. For my part I gladly agree with Mabillon: for the conformity of the two texts proves it, nor does the integrity of an author already elsewhere caught in plagiarism stand in the way.

[19] Nevertheless the edition of Surius favors our Theodore, but wrongly, which in the Life of S. Columbanus in this place reads not Chagnoald but Magnoald: the same Life too favors it, printed among the works of the Venerable Bede, volume 3, column 302, of the Basel edition of the year 1563, which in this part agrees with that of Surius. But that a fault crept into Jonas' reading either by a copyist's error or by Surius' own interpretation is established for Mabillon; who doubtless would have judged the same of the Basel edition: Indeed the manuscript codices, he says, which we have used, constantly present Chagnoald. Nay, even if all the old parchments had substituted [] Magnoald for Chagnoald, they would assuredly have to be corrected. For there the discourse is of Columbanus' attendant: "He sends Chagnoald his attendant," says Jonas. Further, from his own words above it is proved that Chagnoald, bishop of Laon Clavatum, was Columbanus' attendant and disciple. Behold Jonas' words reported in Surius at number 16, which in our edition are had at number 30: "We knew Chagnoald, bishop of Laon Clavatum, who was both his attendant and his disciple, reporting," etc.: which, since they cannot be fitted to St. Magnus or Magnoald, who never was a bishop, neither can what follows suit him. So Mabillon: to which I add another passage also, in which Chagnoald is four times called St. Columbanus' attendant in the said Life in Mabillon at number 37: At that time therefore the man of God (Columbanus) was staying in the wilderness, content with the service only of his one attendant Chagnoald. Then after a few things: And presently, being awakened, he calls his attendant. And again: To whom the attendant said with rash daring, etc. The attendant therefore, inquiring, etc.: in which place it is manifest, the editions of Surius and of Basel agreeing, that Chagnoald, the attendant of St. Columbanus, is designated, and is called attendant* as from an office proper to him.

[20] as is shown. Wherefore I judge it most true that Magnoald crept in for Chagnoald into both editions, whether this happened from the error of the copyists, into which they could easily be led by the affinity of the two names, or from their own interpretation; to which this very Life of St. Magnus could have given occasion. But lest I should seem to assert this gratuitously, take an example. Patrick Fleming, an Irish Franciscan, in the Collectanea sacra corrected and enlarged by Thomas Sheerin of the same Order, published the lucubration of Jonas which we are treating, using for this, as he indicates in the preface, a most ancient codex of the monastery of St. Maximin of Trier, a copy of which our Rosweyde had made for him. This codex likewise reads Chagnoald as attendant, not Magnoald: yet he reported Magnoald in the text. He gives his reason in the Commentary, page 351, number 133, writing thus: The manuscript codex (has) Chagnoald, but wrongly: for the discourse is not of Chagnoald, bishop of Lyons, who, on Jonas' testimony, … was Columbanus' attendant and disciple: but of another attendant and disciple and fellow-citizen of that same holy man, S. Magnoald, whom Columbanus … foretold would be endowed by God with the name of Magnus, as is narrated in the Life of Magnus himself, gathered by his colleague and fellow-citizen Theodore, chapter VII. Behold, the sole authority of our biographer, cloaked under the name of Theodore, seemed sufficient to Fleming to depart from an ancient copy of Jonas, and to intrude Magnoald, whom neither in this nor in any other place does that writer mention.

[21] Again he transforms Chagnoald From what has been said, learned reader, gather what is to be thought of the things which our plagiarist in the Life, chapter 2, from number 10, narrates about the battle between Theodebert and Theodoric, adapting after his manner to Magnoald what he had found handed down elsewhere about Chagnoald. It is well to recite Jonas' text, that it may the more conveniently be compared with Theodore's words. Jonas therefore in the Life of St. Columbanus in the said Mabillon at number 57, having related the unhappy battle at the fortress of Tolbiac, thus continues his discourse: At that time therefore the man of God (Columbanus) was staying in the wilderness, content with the service only of his one attendant Chagnoald. At that hour then in which the battle was joined at Tolbiac, the man of God was sitting upon the trunk of a rotted oak, reading a book. Whom a sudden drowsiness overcame, and he saw what was being done between the two kings: and presently, being awakened, he calls his attendant, and indicates the bloody battle of the kings, sighing that much human blood was being shed. To whom the attendant said with rash endeavor: My father, lend by thy prayers support to Theodebert, that he may vanquish our common enemy Theodoric. To this Columbanus: Foolish counsel and foreign to religion dost thou administer; for the Lord did not so will it, who bade us pray for our enemies: it is now in the judgment of the just Judge what he wills to be done about them, etc.

[22] into Magnoald. Go now, reader, to the biographer of S. Magnus at the place cited, and thou wilt marvel at the man's impudence in imposing. Jonas, who had received many things about Columbanus from Chagnoald himself, expressly relates that Columbanus at that time lived in the wilderness content with the service only of his one attendant Chagnoald: Theodore substitutes Magnoald for Chagnoald; but denies that he was alone. The former writes that the vision was offered to Columbanus alone: the latter says that the same was shown at the same time to Magnoald. Jonas brings in Chagnoald, who alone was present, giving foolish counsel, and therefore rebuked by Columbanus: Theodore wrests the mad counsel onto the head of some other brother named Eunuchus: but the rebuke itself he divides equally between SS. Columbanus and Magnoald: for after he had ascribed the first part of it to the former, he brings in the latter thus applauding his words: Truly, lord, your sanctity judges well of this, since it ought to be in the judgment of the just judge what he wills to be done about them. Then he appends, from the same author without doubt, the slaying of Theodebert, the divine vengeance upon Theodoric and his children, and finally the worthy penalties exacted from the impious Brunhilda by Clothaire; which may be seen more at length in both places cited. I pass on to other matters.

[23] After relating the prodigious command of S. Magnus over the beast, Other things drawn from the same Jonas of which we treated at number 18, he reports at number 7 another miracle of divine providence toward his own, drawn from no other source than the foregoing. In the Acts of S. Columbanus at number 54 the matter is described in nearly this manner: when the aforesaid saint near Bregenz was pressed with his companions by want of food, and hunger had already been endured for three days, a huge abundance of birds settled upon the place in which he was staying. Which being known, Columbanus bids the feasts sent him from heaven to be gathered: And it was, says Jonas, a wonderful and astonishing miracle: the birds were taken, as the father's command urged, nor did they strive to depart in feathered flight. There remained therefore the manna of birds spread abroad for three days; but on the fourth day a certain bishop from the neighboring cities, admonished by divine inspiration, sent an abundance of grain to blessed Columbanus: but presently the Almighty, who had furnished winged foods to those suffering want, when the richness of corn arrived, commanded the phalanxes of birds to depart. These things he has from S. Eustasius, an eyewitness and partaker of the benefit.

[24] This miracle of divine providence our biographer reports from the same Jonas, and accommodated with little faithfulness yet in such a way that he attributes to St. Magnoald the first or at least the chief parts in it after Columbanus, and besides changes certain things at his own pleasure. For, to pass over the rest, about the time for which this prodigy lasted he writes thus: The birds were taken, as the father's command was, nor did they strive to depart in feathered flight, until Bl. Magnoald said: If it please our father, we have birds sufficiently for three days, and therefore it is good that they depart: and so he bids the phalanxes of birds go away: and taking flight, those which had remained departed; and thus the divine mercy sent from the neighboring cities an abundance of grain, through good men dwelling round about, to Bl. Columbanus by the hands of the happy Gall and Magnoald. According to him therefore an abundance of birds, sufficient for three days, was taken all at once, and then the rest were bidden by Magnoald's counsel to fly away: but according to Jonas they offered themselves to be taken for three days, until, grain being brought from elsewhere, they departed of their own accord. Which of them is to be believed, no prudent man can doubt: for my part I reckon whatever he here narrates about Magnoald among the fictions of a fable-monger, since we are about to show below that our Saint most probably was never a disciple of St. Columbanus.

[25] What he relates in chapter 1, number 9, about the counsel taken of approaching the Slavs, to Magnoald. and the vision offered, is drawn from the same Acts of St. Columbanus, with this difference again, that in these nothing is mentioned about SS. Magnoald and Gall, and the angel is said to have appeared to Columbanus alone. Nor did he draw from elsewhere what he has in chapter 2, numbers 10 and XI, about the power granted by king Theodebert of dwelling wherever they wished in his dominion, and about the food granted through the bishop of Mainz, divinely admonished: which the compiler himself expressly confesses in these words: As is contained in the Life of Bl. Columbanus, in Mabillon at numbers 51 and 52. Finally the biographer, after he has mentioned the battle joined by the kings Theodebert and Theodoric, and what followed thereupon (see above, number 21), carries his little work down to St. Columbanus' departure into Italy. From all these things hitherto mentioned it can be doubtful to no one that this Life of St. Magnus down to number 14 has been badly and unfaithfully patched together from the lucubration of Jonas, and accordingly cannot be ascribed to Theodore.

read by whom*

read should substitute*

§ III. The rest are discussed.

[ ] From Walafrid the biographer of S. Gall The Life having been carried down to Columbanus' departure into Italy, the compiler finds no further help in Jonas: another workshop therefore had to be approached, from which he might procure patchwork for the completing of his Work. And opportunely there presented itself the Life of S. Gall, written by Walafrid Strabo, abbot of Reichenau, in the IX century. Who Walafrid was we taught at number 13; here I add one passage from the Annals of Hepidannus, a monk of St. Gall: DCCCXLIX… Walahfred, abbot of Reichenau, died. That lettered man elegantly compiled the Lives of SS. Gall and Otmar at the request of abbot Gozpert. The remaining things pertaining hither we gave at the number just cited. But how many things our Pseudo-Theodore borrowed from the said writer, everyone will perceive who shall be willing to compare the Acts which we are about to publish, from number 14 to 33, with the Life of S. Gall. It is extant in Mabillon, 2nd Benedictine Century, from page 228, which I would have understood whenever I cite the Life of S. Gall.

[27] the compiler borrowed very many things: Further, lest I should beget weariness in the reader, I shall not laboriously unfold in this commentary each of the compiler's plagiarisms, thinking it more advisable to indicate in the annotations to the Life whence each thing is excerpted. Yet I shall exhibit one specimen, that thou mayest know the lion by his claw; then I shall subjoin the things which he himself thrust into the text for his own purpose, or altered, that he might the more easily adapt them to St. Magnoald: it will suffice to have indicated the rest in a few words. Yet it must be confessed that the Acts in this part are more sincere than in the former: for now neither Autiernus nor Chagnoald is transformed into Magnoald, but the things which are really related about him in Walafrid have been inserted into that same Saint's Life, though here and there a little altered. Mabillon indeed doubts, in the historical Eulogy already so often cited, whether in Walafrid Magnus ought not to be read for Magnoald; but read it either way, the same person of our Saint is designated. Now let us pursue our purpose.

[28] to which some things The said Walafrid begins chapter 9 in this manner: After these things therefore, when the time of setting out was at hand, a sudden fever attacked Bl. Gall. Whence, having thrown himself at the feet of his abbot, he indicated that he was laboring under a violent infirmity, and therefore could not accomplish the journey proposed. But he, thinking that he was detained there by love of the place in order to finish his labors, and was declining the labor of a longer journey, says to him: I know, brother, that it is now burdensome to thee to be wearied with such labors for my sake: yet, as I depart, I make this announcement, that thou presume not to celebrate Mass while I am living in the body. And when he had given him leave to live by himself, he entered upon the way of departing. After the departure of his master and his companions, Gall, placing his nets and drag-net in a boat, came to Willimar the presbyter; and when he had offered him the nets, amid tears and sighs he unfolded all that had been done concerning his brethren. Then, disclosing the causes of his infirmity, he asked him that he would vouchsafe to have care of him. Who, receiving him with all the service of charity, granted a house near the church for his need, and commended this care to his two clerics Magnoald and Theodore, that they should attend to his recovery with all diligence. When some days had passed, the Lord, who is the true physician, imparting healing, he began to take food, and, strengthened by the increase of time, obtained perfect health.

[29] Consult now the Life of S. Magnus, chapter 2, from number 14, Walafrid's text being corrupted, and thou wilt recognize the complete similarity of the two texts, except that into the latter certain things have been inserted about Magnoald which appear contrary to the former. For on the very threshold of the narrative Magnoald is brought in, asking that it may be permitted him to follow Gall; and to him asking Columbanus not only assents, but even joins Theodore as a companion, and gives orders to both that they should tend Gall as zealously as possible, and thereafter obey his commands. He adds prophecies of Columbanus about Magnoald, about the violating of Gall's sepulcher, etc.: about all of which not a word is to be read in the Life of S. Gall. Nay rather the contrary is clearly enough asserted, since about companions who remained with Gall, no mention at all being made, it is said: After the departure of his master (Columbanus) and his companions, Gall, placing his nets and drag-net in a boat, came to Willimar the presbyter, etc. And if we further consider all things maturely, this narrative of the compiler will appear not sufficiently probable, as will become plain from the following observation.

[30] When Gall pleaded that he was unequal to undertaking the journey into Italy on account of his afflicted health, he added improbable things. Columbanus, suspecting ill of him, took it so ill that, having sharply rebuked him, he punished him with a penalty assuredly most grievous to a religious man, namely that he should never presume to celebrate Mass while he was alive. Who would deny that this severity of St. Columbanus ought to have deterred others from a like request, lest they should be chastised with a like penalty? Nevertheless Magnoald, if we believe the compiler, asks leave to attach himself to Gall, and easily obtains it, with another companion, Theodore, joined besides. But, thou wilt say, they were left by Columbanus to tend Gall's health. So indeed the biographer says: but if Columbanus really recognized Gall as sick, why did he chastise him with so sharp a rebuke and so grievous and lasting a penalty? But if he judged his sickness feigned out of sloth, why, I ask, forgetful of his own severity, does he assign two companions, nay disciples, to the service of the man whom, as a dissembler, he wished to be forbidden the altar? Certainly these things seem to me not sufficiently probable. The same writer indeed adds that Magnoald was left with Gall in Alemannia chiefly for this reason, because Columbanus knew that by his help very many of that nation would embrace the rites of Christ: but I fear that that prophecy is a mere fiction, especially since Magnoald more probably was never a disciple of Columbanus, as we shall prove in §7.

[31] The rest From the specimen given it will be easy for the learned reader to judge of the rest taken, or rather in great part copied, from the same Walafrid. These, as I have already warned above, I do not here exhibit in detail, both that I may not be longer, and because in the annotations to the Life there will be a fitting place for giving warning about each. Meanwhile I observe that the things which are related from number 15 to 32 are drawn from at least sixteen chapters of the Life of S. Gall. And that it may be more and more evident that the masked Theodore compiled his little work from the said Life, I observe secondly that, just as he narrates many things where he finds Walafrid lengthy, so also he is exceedingly brief when nothing occurs in him which he might adapt to Magnoald. The first will be manifest to anyone comparing the text of both: the second I shall prove no less clearly. At number 28 he writes thus: Meanwhile therefore Bl. Magnoald, dwelling with S. Gall nearly ten years after the journey from Italy was accomplished; but in the tenth year, seeing him grow infirm, … he sent a messenger to John, bishop of the church of Constance, etc.: then he narrates the death of S. Gall and his burial, seen to by S. Magnus, John the bishop, and Theodore. Again at number 30 he has thus: Therefore after three years (from Gall's death), that the prophecy of the most holy Columbanus might be fulfilled, the sepulcher of that same S. Gall was violated. But what the Saint did in all that ten years and three years he does not mention; for no other cause assuredly than that he found nothing in Walafrid, who between the staff of S. Columbanus brought from Italy by Magnoald and Gall's death left nothing written except a single miracle of S. Gall, and the embassy of the monks of Luxeuil asking for him as their abbot. But who would believe that our Saint in the space of so many years performed nothing memorable, which his companion Theodore might hand down to memory, if he had really written his Life so at length?

[32] whence taken: what out of the whole little work Neither therefore of these two parts can be ascribed to Theodore, but to Jonas and Walafrid, most wretchedly interpolated by an unskillful compiler: and finally those things which are related from number 33 to the end are either taken from elsewhere, or are the compiler's own offspring, put together not without fables and anachronisms, as we shall more than once observe. What then? Shall we leave no part of the whole Work to Theodore or Ermenric? Mabillon seems altogether to exclude Theodore, whom he calls Pseudo-Theodore: but about Ermenric he doubts: his words we gave at number 3. But Jacques Basnage in the preliminary observations to this Life so attributes the whole to the interpolator that he judges that nothing can be claimed for Theodore, nothing

for Ermenric. To whom I gladly assent, if he means that no part of the Life, as it is now circulated, is the genuine offspring of Theodore or Ermenric: for this I seem already to have sufficiently proved, and it will be more and more confirmed from what follows: but if he should contend that nothing about St. Magnus was ever handed down to memory by the said men, which some compiler partly interpolated badly from Jonas and Walafrid, and partly enlarged and depraved according to his own judgment: this the arguments set forth by him by no means establish.

[33] may be attributed to Theodore and Ermenric: Nay rather it appears to me more probable that something must be attributed to each. This in some measure the old estimation of this Life persuades, which already in the XI century referred it to Theodore and Ermenric; which, as it cannot be true of the whole little work for the reasons brought forward, so nothing hinders our understanding it of some parts of it. For Theodore, who, on Walafrid's testimony, was Magnoald's comrade under Gall, could have gone with him to Füssen, and after his death have placed upon the tomb of the dead man some brief compendium of his Life, put together in the manner of an epitaph or eulogy; which seems to be designated by the pictatium or pitatium in the Life. Ermenric could have restored that same compendium, found almost rotted at the raising of the body, in new characters, and have appended to it an account of the raising: all which afterward some smatterer, having tastelessly enlarged them, reduced into the form of a complete Life. This opinion is favored by the fact that the Saint's last age assigned by the compiler coheres rightly with the number of years which he reckons from Columbanus' going into Italy to the Saint's death; although that same age can by no means stand with his pretended entry into monastic life in Ireland under Columbanus' discipline. For hence one may conjecture that the compiler, who everywhere, with no reckoning of time observed, labors under foul anachronisms, had in these places something more certain in his hands which he might follow: and since he could not have learned the aforesaid number of years from Walafrid, it becomes probable that he borrowed it from the said epitaph. The same computation agrees rightly with those things which we are about to say in §7; namely that Magnus was more probably not an Irishman but an Aleman, and that the beginning of his monastic life must be sought from Columbanus' departure into Italy. But as regards Ermenric, in §8 we shall show that nothing hinders the Raising of the holy body from being attributed to him.

[34] It is not pleasing to divine the compiler's date: for the Life bears no chronological note, at what time the Life was compiled is uncertain, except that it reports the raising of the body, which we shall show in §8 was more probably carried out before the middle of the IX century. It has indeed nothing about the Saint's arm translated toward the end of that same century to the monks of St. Gall; but from this silence nothing certain can be concluded, since the writer either could have been ignorant of it, or purposely have passed it over, that he might procure a greater antiquity for his Work, and be more safely covered under Ermenric's name. This one thing we can assert, that that Life was already in the XI century reckoned as ancient, as we have more than once noted from the anonymous writer of Regensburg. Further, it may be noted generally that that part of the Life which is not drawn from Jonas and Walafrid is sprinkled here and there with fables: the same besides sometimes conflicts so manifestly with sound chronology that it can by no means be ascribed to Theodore; nay, nor to Ermenric, unless we should wish to say that he was wholly ignorant of history.

§ IV. The Saint's date is inquired into.

[ ] The interpolator ineptly refers the Saint to the VI, Whoever should wish to define the Saint's date from the things which the compiler narrates scattered in various places, he must determine that he was born in the VI century, died after the middle of the VII century in the 74th year of his age, and yet about the middle of the VIII century was engaged in founding his monastery. I set forth this marvelous paradox in a few words. At the very beginning of the Life Magnoald is said to have been admitted by S. Columbanus into his household while he was still living in Ireland, from which, according to Mabillon, he crossed into Burgundy before the year 590: but in chapter 4, number 30, that same Saint of ours is narrated to have settled about three years at the sepulcher of his master S. Gall, and thence to have gone to Füssen; where, the monastery of Füssen being founded, after 26 years he ceased to live on the VIII Ides of September, being 73 years old, as is had in chapter 7, number 65. From these we have that the holy Abbot survived S. Gall about 29 years: but since Gall's death is related in Walafrid to have happened not long after the death of S. Eustasius, abbot of Luxeuil, which falls in the year of Christ 625, as is said in our Acta at the day XXIX of March, it follows that St. Magnus is said to have died about the 55th year of the VII century: or if Gall prolonged his life to about the year 646, as pleases Mabillon (of which afterward), the Saint's death will not be able to be deferred beyond the 75th year of that same century. But on the contrary the same Theodore brings forward the same holy Abbot among the living down to the times of king Pippin and of Carloman now a monk, that is to the middle of the VIII century.

[36] VII and VIII centuries: I think it worth while to weave into this place the writer's words from chapter 6, number 54: The above-written bishop Wichterp, he says, set out with him to the glorious king Pippin, who at that time was governing Germany and all Gaul, with the epistle of Bl. Columbanus which he had directed to Lothaire, entreating on behalf of the holy men Gall and Magnus dwelling in his kingdom, that he would kindly cherish them in the love of the Lord, and grant them familiar places, as should be convenient, in his dominion: but since king Lothaire was by no means able to fulfill it, … the aforesaid glorious king, on account of the love and petition of his most dear brother Carloman, who for God's sake, leaving the temporal pomp of the glory of the kingdom, gave himself over to a monastery, and on account of the largeness of his alms, and also the petition of the aforesaid bishop, vouchsafed to exalt that place with some solace of his bounty. He subjoins the truly royal munificence of Pippin toward St. Magnus, confirmed by royal letters: then he continues: Bishop Wictherp, adorned with these solaces of royal power and exalted with honors, and the best gifts having been imparted by king Pippin to blessed Magnus, returns joyful to his fatherland, enjoining these things on the blessed Man with all diligence, and giving him power that in the place committed to him he should establish, for the supplying of the vigils of blessed Mary and of saint Afra, all order and the canonical life. Behold: the man who, he had related above, departed from the living 29 years after S. Gall's death and accordingly in the VII century, in the seventy-fourth year of his age — this same man he writes was living at Füssen about the middle of the VIII century, and enriched with lands and goods by king Pippin, with Carloman the monk supporting.

[37] hence Bruschius From this passage, so far as appears, Kaspar Bruschius in the Epitome of the bishoprics of Germany, printed at Nuremberg in the year 1549, drew St. Magnus down to the VIII century, when in the Catalogue of the bishops of Augsburg he wrote the following about S. Wictherp, whom he calls Victerbus: He is at length chosen bishop of Augsburg by Pippin king of the Gauls: he presided there laudably and with the highest zeal for promoting and enlarging Christian piety, for sixteen years. To this Victerbus came saint Magnus, disciple of S. Gall, asking of him leave and power of building a community for himself and his disciples, which he built at the expense of king Pippin and with the help of this bishop … Victerbus died on the XVIII of April in the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the birth of Christ.

[38] According to these things it must be that the monastery of Füssen was founded by king Pippin and our holy Abbot between the year 736, refers him to the VIII century: in which he judges S. Wicterp was endowed with the miter of Augsburg, and 752, in which he thinks the same man died. The same author in the First Century of the monasteries of Germany, page 120, sets that foundation a little earlier, but yet in the same century: It was founded, he says, in the year of the Lord DCCXX, at the prayers of S. Magnus, one of the very first apostles of Germany, by the most powerful Pippin king of the Franks. And on the reverse page: Such is found to be the catalogue of the abbots of this place. I. S. Magnus, disciple of S. Gall, first founder of this community together with Pippin king of the Franks, and its first abbot: he presided XXV years … He died in the year of Christ DCCXLV. But since the same Bruschius in the said Work, page 113, writes that S. Gall, the master of Magnus, ended his life in the year 640, either he contradicts himself, or he makes the Disciple survive the master fully 105 years, which is not probable. Besides, that that donation made by king Pippin to St. Magnus while he was still surviving among the living, on which he founds his opinion, is a mere fiction of the writer, we shall prove in §13: wherefore there is no reason why on its account we should refer our Saint to the VIII century. About S. Wicterp we shall also dispute at length in §6.

[39] Nearer to the truth come the opinions of those of whom our Rader in the Bavaria pia, page 188, thus makes mention: others better to the VII century: About the last year of S. Magnus' life there is much contention among writers, while some say he died in DCLIV, others in DCLXXIII, others in DCLXXXIII, others in DCLXXI. Into the same century agree Bernard Hertfelder and Karl Stengel; of whom the first, in the Basilica of SS. Ulric and Afra, part 3, in the Chronicle, ties his death to the year 670: the other in the Commentary on Augsburg Affairs, part 2, chapter 3, reports that it fell in the year 689 or 691. Mabillon assigns about the year 665, whose reasons we shall examine below. Their opinion, in so far as it fixes the Saint's death in the VII century, appears to me sufficiently certain. For it is established from Walafrid that Magnoald was a disciple of S. Gall, to whose discipline he gave himself together with Theodore, when the latter, bidding farewell to Columbanus on account of his afflicted health, withdrew to Willimar the presbyter at Arbon. The same is testified by Bl. Notker, surnamed Balbulus, who flourished in the IX century and the beginning of the X, in his Martyrology at the present day, announcing thus: The birthday of saint Magnus the confessor, disciple and companion of blessed Gall, a wonderful and most holy man. The verses published by Henry Canisius in volume 5 of the Antiquæ Lectiones agree, some of which seem to have been composed on the occasion of the translation of S. Magnus' arm to the monks of St. Gall in the IX century. In the second of them, which we are about to give in §9, and which is ascribed to Ratpert, the Saint is said to have been

Increased by Gall, by teaching large, for loving the Powers above.

And again:

He, remaining after his illustrious master, Longing after his blessed examples, etc.

[40] Further, on the testimony of the same Walafrid, Magnoald was already a cleric in the year 612, who more probably died in the 55th year of it. when he was appointed by Willimar the priest to tend S. Gall's health: and accordingly he was then already of such an age that he must be said to have died more than a hundred years old

if he be determined to have reached the beginning of the VIII century. But in what year of the VII century he died is not so certain; nevertheless, for the reasons brought forward at number 33, he more probably reached the year 655, and that was his last, as will become probable from the following calculation. In chapter 7, number 65, I read these things: Bl. Magnus, laboring for sixteen days, having completed twenty-six years of his stay in that community (of Füssen), and being seventy-three years of his age, on the holy Lord's day, and on the eighth of the Ides of September, commending himself to God and to the venerable bishop, in a good old age, about the ninth hour of that same Lord's day rendered his holy soul to God. These things the compiler, which cohere rightly with his other reckonings begun from Columbanus' death. For in chapter 3, number 28, the Saint is said to have adhered to Gall for nearly ten years after the death of S. Columbanus; after which, Gall being dead, he stayed at his sepulcher for three years, as is related in chapter 4, number 30: and, the sepulcher being overthrown and restored, he is narrated in the chapter cited and following to have penetrated to Füssen, where, in the community of Füssen which he founded, having completed twenty-six years, he was called to a better and eternal life. According to these Magnus lived 39 years after S. Columbanus: but since between the overthrow of Gall's sepulcher and Magnus' arrival at Füssen about a year could have intervened, his death may be set in the fortieth year after Columbanus' death: and this fell in the year of Christ 615, to which if thou add forty, there will result the year 655, of which the VIII Ides of September was a Lord's day, on which he is said in the Life to have died.

[41] Such a chronological arrangement of the Saint's Life as is possible. From what has been said the following chronology, such as it is, is deduced. About the year 582 the Saint is born: in the year 612, being already a deacon of about 30 or 31 years of age, attached to Willimar the presbyter in the castle of Arbon near Bregenz, he serves Gall in his sickness, and together with Theodore passes into his discipline. In the year 615 he is sent by his master into Italy to the monastery of Bobbio, to inquire about S. Columbanus' death: which being ascertained, he brings the dead man's staff, which they call cambotta, to Gall as a token of reconciliation. In the year 625 Gall ends his life: after three years his sepulcher is violated; but saint Magnus and Theodore, almost worn out with wounds, their strength being recovered, restore the sepulcher. Thence in the year 629 he hastens to Füssen; where, a little cell having been founded, which afterward became a famous abbey under that same Saint's name, after twenty-six years he flew away to heaven in the year of Christ 655, in the 74th of his age. This chronology proceeds indeed from a Life vitiated with so many errors; nevertheless, since all things cohere so rightly, one may deservedly suspect that Ermenric learned those notes of time from Theodore's genuine manuscript, as we observed at number 33. And indeed, if Theodore laid aside some compendium of the Life beside the Saint's body, it is most probable that in it he expressed not only his last age, but also the space of time in which he lived either with Gall, the common abbot of both, or in his own community of Füssen. Wherefore, since nothing more certain occurs which we may follow, we adhere to the aforesaid reckonings.

§ V. An answer is given to the arguments contrary to our opinion.

[ ] Mabillon's arguments are examined Mabillon in the historical Eulogy already often praised, page 505, sets the year of the Saint's death about 665, and nevertheless at page 509, number 14, writes thus: How long St. Magnus survived Bl. Gall is uncertain. Pseudo-Theodore writes that he survived twenty-five years; which indeed we do not reject. But before I proceed, I observe that Mabillon is mistaken, if he means that the holy abbot of Füssen, according to the biographer's mind, survived S. Gall by only 25 years: for that he attributes to him at the least 29 after the latter's death we have sufficiently shown above. Now let us return whence we digressed. Why he fixes about the year 665 he brings forward no reason at all; nay rather, if he were consistent with himself, he ought to have marked about 671. For both in the Acta and in the Annals he judges that S. Gall died about the year 646; to which if thou add the 25 years which he does not deny that the Saint survived, thou wilt come to 671, which he ought consequently to have said was St. Magnus' last. There is therefore no reason why Mabillon should detain us in this part: but since he sets Gall's death, after which in the thirtieth year we have said Magnus died, much later than we do, the arguments which he adduces to this purpose must be examined.

[43] Walafrid Strabo in the Life of S. Gall in Mabillon, 2nd Benedictine Century, arguments taken when he had narrated in chapter 28 that the monks of Luxeuil, their abbot S. Eustasius being dead, urged Gall by common counsel that he should succeed into the dead man's place, but that he refused to undertake that burden, presently in the following chapter, about to relate Gall's death, thus begins: Not long after, when now the Author and Propagator of all good things wished to adorn his athlete, taken up from the world's contest, with the perennial laurels of rewards, etc.: then he adds that after an illness of a few days he was taken from among men near Arbon. Therefore, according to Walafrid's opinion, Gall died not long after Eustasius, who had ceased to live on the XXIX of March of the year 625, as has been shown in our Acta, volume III of the said month: from which it can conveniently be understood that Gall's death, which is marked on the XVI of October, happened in that same year 625: which agrees excellently with the words of our compiler, who makes Gall survive S. Columbanus, who died in the year 615, by nearly ten years. Mabillon saw this; but since the same Walafrid attributes to Gall 95 years of life, dissenting from him he notes the following: From what was said at the beginning of this chapter, Bl. Gall died not long after Bl. Eustasius, whom we have proved to have migrated to the Powers above in the year DCXXV. In the Life of S. Magnus, or Magnoald, Gall is said to have survived Bl. Columbanus, who died in the year DCXV, by only ten years: so that consequently he seems to have departed the world in the year DCXXV: but many things overthrow this reckoning.

[44] If Gall departed at ninety-five years of age, from his age and other things, who would think that it came into the mind of the clergy of Constance ten years before to promote to the vacant see a man of decrepit age, advanced beyond eighty-five years (as is read above in chapter XXII)? Nay, who would believe that the monks of Luxeuil, after Eustasius' death, thought of Gall, now nearly a hundred years old, so as to summon him from a remote region as their abbot? This is Mabillon's first argument, which I know not whether it will have among the learned so much force as it seemed to have to its author. It is unusual, I confess, for men of so decrepit an age to be raised to episcopal sees: but there have not been lacking men to whom at that age there was strength enough to discharge such an office worthily. Whence then will that learned man prove that he was not fit for such cares by reason of old age? The clergy of Constance therefore could, the surpassing sanctity and zeal of Gall being perceived, offer him their see, knowing assuredly that whatever the worn strength of the body might deny would easily be compensated by the man's piety, prudence and zeal.

[45] which about S. Gall Nor has the other part of the argument more difficulty: for what, I ask, is so greatly to be wondered at in this, that the monks of Luxeuil should seek Gall, once the companion of their holy father Columbanus, as abbot — a man whom both the sanctity of his character and the life led under Columbanus his master most highly commended? But old age, he says, stood in the way. In the way of what? Of the office? But mind and counsel and reason, which is wont to be in vigorous old men (that he was not such he does not prove), are without doubt the chief endowments of a prelate. Of undertaking the journey? But indeed a hermit who had grown old in travels could be believed likely to accomplish this way too with no great difficulty. Nay, Mabillon himself admits a fact entirely similar in Columbanus. Indeed in the Annals, volume 1, at the year 615, number 17, he writes thus: In the Poem to Fedolius, Columbanus himself sings thus of himself:

These things I had dictated to thee, oppressed with bitter ills, Which in my frail body I suffer, and in sad old age: For while the seasons glide by in headlong course, Now we have come to the years of the thrice-sixth Olympiad.

On which words he notes the following: Where, if an Olympiad be taken for five years, as indeed it is wont to be taken (nay, it is wont to be taken for four) he had then reached ninety years when he was writing the aforesaid verses. Nor is this unusual among the Scots, as is clear from S. Gall's age.

[46] Walafrid narrates He admits therefore at the least as probable that S. Columbanus reached ninety years: but yet the same Benedictine asserts that that same saint in the year 610, that is about five years before his death, was driven from Luxeuil, and in the year 612 came into Italy, and there founded the community of Bobbio, as may be seen at the years cited. From which it follows that he must also admit that S. Columbanus numbered 85 years when he departed from Luxeuil, and had reached at the least his eighty-seventh when he was occupied in building the monastery of Bobbio. Again at the year 613, number 3, he says that the same Columbanus was invited two years before his death by king Clothaire through S. Eustasius, that he should return into the Gauls and accordingly to his own monastery of Luxeuil; and consequently that Clothaire really thought of Columbanus, now nearly ninety, so as to summon him from a remote region, namely from Bobbio, to Luxeuil.

[47] in his Life. The said Benedictine forms his second argument from Gall's age, which Walafrid makes 95 years. It must be said, he says, that Gall was already of great age and superior in age to Bl. Columbanus his master when he came into Gaul, if he died in the year DCXXV more than ninety years old, which is contrary to Walafrid. But, with Mabillon's leave I would say, the second part of the reasoning collapses on his own principles: for if an Olympiad in his judgment be taken for five years, and accordingly Columbanus died in the year DCXV at ninety or more; but Gall, dying in the year DCXXV, numbered only 95 years, this man must have been at least five years younger than his master when he landed in Gaul. Yet I confess that this small difference of age does not appear sufficient to be reconciled with Walafrid's chapter 1, where he seems to make Gall much younger than Columbanus. Then, since an Olympiad is wont to be taken not for a lustrum or five years, but for four years, the difficulty objected would be greater, if both the time at which the said poem was written and Columbanus' last age were established: but since both are uncertain, nothing certain can be drawn thence. It is also uncertain whether Walafrid erred rather in assigning the time by which Gall survived Eustasius, than in expressing the years of his life: certainly if Gall's death is to be deferred to the year 646, as Mabillon will have it, because he is said to have completed the 95th year of his life, Walafrid must be said

to have shut up 21 years within the little phrase not long after, when he writes that he died not long after Eustasius. But these things will be able to be discussed more at length at the XVI of October, on which day S. Gall is announced in the Roman Martyrology: I meanwhile adhere to the aforesaid reckonings.

[48] Finally the same author sets forth his last argument in these words: Another argument of his from Ratpert. Lastly, that Gall survived Bl. Dagobert, son of Clothaire, we have already noted at chapter XIV (read XV). Of which matter it is an argument that Talto, an illustrious man, chamberlain of king Tagobert, is said by Ratpert in the book on the Occurrences of St. Gall, chapter 1, to have honored S. Gall while he was living in the body, as he himself cites in the margin. But the passage of Ratpert adduced only proves that Gall reached the times of king Dagobert, as Pagi rightly noted in the Critica at the year 627, number 31: and since Dagobert held the kingdom of Austrasia before the year 625, that friendship of Talto with S. Gall does not hinder him from being said to have died in the year assigned. But what he says, that Gall survived Bl. Dagobert son of Clothaire, this Mabillon does not prove, but merely divines, when at chapter 15, where Gall is said to have driven out a demon from Fridiburga, betrothed to king Sigebert son of Theodoric, he observes that that narrative, if indeed it be true, cannot suit Sigebert son of Theodoric, … but either Sigebert son of Dagobert (as the ancient instruments of the abbey of St. Martin of Metz teach, in Meurisse, bishop of Madaura, in the History of the bishops of Metz, under Pappolus), or at any rate Sigebert or Sigberht king of the East Angles, etc. Further, this very suspicion he himself disapproves in the Annals at the year 613, number 8, writing: Neither can this narrative be attributed to Sigebert son of Dagobert, who was not fit for entering upon marriage while Gall was alive.

[49] Antoine Pagi in the Critica on Baronius, volume 2, The difficulties objected by Pagi at the year 627, number 31, thinks with us that S. Gall rendered his soul to God in the same year in which Eustasius died, or at least in the year after him; but he disagrees in this, that he refers Eustasius' death to the year 627. He repeats his reason at the place cited, number 27, from the same Life of S. Salaberga from which Henschen and Mabillon tie the same to the year 625. The sum of the matter consists in this, that in the aforesaid Life S. Eustasius is said to have migrated to God when he had conducted the care of the Brethren (of Luxeuil) after the departure of his master (S. Columbanus) for not much less than three Lustra. The beginning of these 15 years, which the writers just praised refer to the year 610, in which Columbanus was driven from Luxeuil, Pagi judges must be sought from the year DCXII, in which king Theodebert died, or rather from the year DCXIII, in which Clothaire II obtained the monarchy of all France. The arguments by which he thinks this demonstrated by himself he sets forth at the year 613, number 6, and they are reduced nearly to this. Eustasius seems to have followed Columbanus when he was making for Italy: for although he was forbidden by the royal ministers, yet afterward he met his master in Austrasia, and lived under his discipline.

[50] from the Lives of SS. Columbanus And this he thinks is drawn from Jonas the biographer of Columbanus, from the fact that concerning a certain miracle wrought under that same saint at Bregenz in a time of famine, he says: We learned this from the report of Eustasius, who at that time was held there among the rest by the obedience of the man of God. He subjoins another thing too from the writer of the Life of S. Walaricus, first abbot of Leuconay, who, when he had said that that saint began to cast out the shepherds who after Columbanus' departure had occupied part of the monastery of Luxeuil, thus continues: Meanwhile Bl. Austasius (that is Eustasius) had been appointed by Bl. Columbanus to govern this very community, while as yet certain secular men in some part possessed the bounds of that monastery. But when calumny and strife strove to arise about casting out those secular men, then Bl. Austasius, since he too was adorned with nobility of family and with character, together with the servant of God Walaricus, so removed them from the aforesaid bounds of the monastery by persuasive and honey-flowing eloquence, with the Lord helping, that from the controversy with those secular men no scandal arose between them. These things he from the said Life, concluding after a few things: Eustasius does not seem to have entered upon the possession of his prefecture or abbacy before the present year (DCXIII), in which Clothaire obtained the whole monarchy of the Franks, as we shall show in the following year.

[51] and of Walaricus I cannot deny that from the testimonies adduced it can be deduced that S. Eustasius was for some time absent from Luxeuil and lived with S. Columbanus: but that he began to preside over the aforesaid abbey first in the year 613 is not proved from them. For Eustasius could have gone to his master Columbanus staying near Bregenz, and have been held there under his obedience, both that he might treat with him about the affairs of his abbacy, and also that he might enjoy the company of so dear a father as long as circumstances allowed. But that he followed him into Italy appears to me less probable from Jonas himself, who expressly relates that S. Eustasius was forbidden by the royal ministers to attach himself to Columbanus as he set out into exile: that he afterward accompanied him into Italy, or was sent back thence by that same Columbanus under Clothaire's monarchy to preside over Luxeuil, he nowhere writes: nay rather he seems to hint the contrary, when he says of Clothaire, now master of affairs, and his kindly disposition toward Columbanus and his disciples: Meanwhile the aforementioned king Chlothaire, seeing that the effect of the man of God's prophecy (by which he had foretold him the monarchy) had been fulfilled in him, commands the venerable Eustasius, who was governing the monastery of Luxeuil in his place, to come to him: whom with pious address he asks that he would take care to discharge an embassy for him with a public escort, and that they should have as companions whom he wished of noble men, who should be witnesses of his pledge, and should go after Bl. Columbanus, and in whatever place they should find him, should exhort him by elegant persuasion to come to him. Jonas here makes no word about Eustasius' being restored to the abbacy of Luxeuil; but rather supposes that he had already presided over it when Clothaire became sole monarch of the Franks.

[52] Besides, the things adduced from the Life of S. Walaricus are discussed. seem to suit Clothaire's reign less well: for since he was excellently disposed toward Columbanus' companions, it would not have been necessary to remove those secular men from the bounds of the monastery by persuasive and honey-flowing eloquence, who could have been restrained and expelled by the king's authority alone. And what cause shall we say there is that the author of the said Life, with no account taken of king Clothaire, sets down to the nobility of family, the character and the eloquence of Eustasius the fact that the suit brought by the invaders was quieted? I should therefore believe that in the first fervor of the persecution under Theodoric the bounds of the monastery, or the sheepfolds and outermost workshops, were occupied by those laymen, from which a little later S. Walaricus, and S. Eustasius, having returned from Columbanus, as we said above, and being now designated abbot, expelled them by sweet eloquence. In this part sanctity favored both, and Eustasius besides nobility of family, and perhaps also the powerful patronage of kinsmen: for above he is said to be adorned with nobility of family and with character, and in the preface prefixed to his Life in our Work at the day XXIX of March, to have been noble by nation, of the race of the Burgundians; but in the Life of S. Columbanus, to have had as his maternal uncle Mietius, who was bishop of the church of Langres. There is therefore no reason why with Pagi we should defer the beginning of Eustasius' prefecture to Clothaire's monarchy, or to Theodebert's death.

[53] There remains the greatest difficulty from Walafrid in the often-praised Life of S. Gall, Another difficulty from a passage of Walafrid, which, unless a fault has crept into that passage, is plainly inextricable. That author ascribes the violation of S. Gall's sepulcher, which we have said from the Life of S. Magnus happened three years after Gall's death, to the fortieth year after his death: whence it would follow that S. Magnus survived him by 66 years, and reached the year of Christ 691. Which of the two writers, Theodore or Walafrid, is to be believed cannot be certainly determined from the circumstances. For Otwin or Othwin and his prefect Erchanold, or, as it is written in other copies, Erchonald and Erwin, seem to be known from the said Lives alone, as also the bishopric of Boso. Mabillon in the annotations to the Life of S. Gall doubts whether by the copyists' blunder a fault has not crept into Walafrid's text in this place. He adds his reason for doubting in this manner: Certainly since in the next chapter Walafrid mentions Magnoald and Theodore as surviving that assault, and it seems certain (if there is anything true in the history of S. Magnus) that they died long afterward, so great an interval cannot have flowed by from S. Gall's death to the disaster here described.

[54] Nevertheless the same Benedictine in volume 1 of the Annals at the year 687, number 61, sets the aforesaid violation of the sepulcher after forty years from Gall's death, more probably faulty. relying on Walafrid's authority; but he does not even touch the argument just related. But the writers of the Gallia Christiana enlarged, volume 5, column 894, having taken up Mabillon's reasoning, prefer, though doubtfully, to adhere to our compiler, and fix it in the year 649; because they judge with the said Annalist that S. Gall died in the year 646. Better perhaps, they say, that renewal (of the sepulcher made by Boso, of whom they there treat) should be recalled to the year DCXLIX, three years after S. Gall's death, at which time and long after Magnus and Theodore were surviving. Charles Le Cointe (who ties S. Gall's death with us to the year 625) in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, volume 2, refers this violation to the year 628, led by the authority of Theodore, to whom, to confess the truth, he attributes too much. Nevertheless his opinion, as also that of the Sainte-Marthes, in so far as these favor the three years, seems to me more probable, both because the reasons set forth here and in §3, number 33, and in §4 from number 40, so persuade, and because no probable reason appears why the compiler, who borrowed so many things from Walafrid, should have marked three years for forty years, if he had read forty years in Walafrid: wherefore it becomes very probable to me that he really found that three-year period either in his own copy of Walafrid, or in the eulogy of S. Magnus restored by Ermenric. Add that from Mabillon's later opinion it would follow that our Saint was nearly a hundred years old when he came to Füssen, if, as he himself thinks with us, he was already a deacon in the year 612, and nevertheless first in the 87th year of that same century, when Gall's sepulcher had been violated, undertook the journey to Füssen.

§ VI. Whether S. Magnus lived at the same time as SS. Wicterp and Tozzo, bishops of Augsburg.

[ ] The interpolator makes SS. Wicterp and Tozzo Our biographer or interpolator in chapter 4 relates that a certain holy presbyter named Tozzo, divinely admonished, came to S. Gall's sepulcher, and to S. Magnus, who

was living there and had determined to set out for Füssen, offered himself as companion and guide of the journey. Then in chapter 5 he narrates that they came to a certain place which he calls Eptaticum, situated in the diocese of Augsburg, and that there they were kindly received by S. Wicterp, bishop of that same church, and enriched with many gifts. Finally in chapters 6 and 7 he adds that S. Wicterp wished to confer the sacred order of the presbyterate upon S. Magnus, but that Tozzo succeeded the aforesaid bishop in the episcopate after his departure from the living. But the same writer adds to his narrative such circumstances that he is blind who does not detect his unskillfulness and most shameful errors. Indeed, as we showed in § V, if we should wish to stand by his authority, it will have to be said that S. Magnus numbered more than a hundred and seventy years when S. Wicterp obtained yearly revenues and a woodland from king Pippin for founding a community; and nevertheless that in the 74th year of his life he departed to the Powers above. But these things have already been sufficiently discussed above.

[56] contemporary with king Pippin and Carloman. There remains here another question, namely, whether, just as the interpolator wrongly made S. Magnus contemporary with king Pippin and Carloman, so also he badly connected the same Saint's date with the times of SS. Wicterp and Tozzo. All the catalogues of the bishops of Augsburg reckon the aforesaid Saints among the bishops of that see: but those who have written upon them do not bind them to the same years or century. The catalogue published by the labor of Krueger at Augsburg in the year 1614 refers S. Wicterp's ordination to the year 646, but his death to 662: it adds that his successor S. Tozzo died in the year 676, citing for both the Life of S. Magnus. Bernard Hertfelder in the Basilica of SS. Ulric and Afra, part 3, in the Chronicle, ascribes the beginning of S. Wicterp's episcopate to the year 646, its end to 662 or the year immediately following; and determines that S. Tozzo died in 676; affirming both to be contemporary with S. Magnus. To the same time our Rader refers S. Tozzo's death in the Bavaria pia, page 187, following, as he notes in the margin, the Life of our holy Abbot published by the Reverend Lord Martin, prelate of Füssen.

[57] But others draw the aforesaid holy bishops down to the VIII century, Various opinions about the date of the aforesaid Saints. and with them S. Magnus. In this opinion are Kaspar Bruschius in the Work on the Bishoprics of Germany, and Peter Cratepolius On the Saints of Germany, writing that both S. Wicterp and Tozzo were raised to the see of Augsburg by Pippin king of the Gauls, and that the one died in the year 752, the other in 765, and that both lived at the same time as S. Magnus. A middle way was entered upon by Karl Stengel, abbot of Anhausen, in part 2 of the Augsburg Affairs, where in chapters 5 and 6 he judges that S. Wicterp died in the year 755, S. Tozzo about the year 768: but in chapter 3 he connects the year of S. Magnus' death with the year of Christ 689 on Tschudi's opinion, or 691 on the judgment of Jodocus Metzler. Consistently with this opinion he had premised in chapter 2, about Wicho, whom he determines to have sat at Augsburg in the VII century, these words: Under Wicho, not Wicterp, as has been wrongly believed by some, flourished S. Magnus, patron of the diocese of Augsburg. Similarly Mabillon in the Acta Sanctorum refers saint Wicterp, of whom the Life speaks, to the VIII century, although he ascribes S. Magnus to the VII century. These two last writers Corbinian Khamm follows in the Prodromus of the Auctarium to part 1 of the Hierarchia Augustana, treating the present controversy at length, and contending that S. Magnus together with Theodore the monk came into the Allgäu in the VII century under the episcopate of Wicho, or of Manno, who had preceded him, and there received from Pippin I, Mayor of the palace of the kings of Austrasia, the faculty of founding the monastery of Füssen; for which afterward in the VIII century S. Wicterp the bishop obtained privileges from Pippin III, king of the Franks: finally that S. Tozzo was substituted for the holy bishop just named; and accordingly that whatever the interpolator narrates about their familiarity with S. Magnus is invented. Now let us weigh the arguments on both sides.

[58] Whoever make SS. Magnus, Wicterp, and Tozzo contemporaries rely, so far as I have hitherto been able to detect, solely on the authority of our Saint's Life, which is circulated under the name of Theodore and Ermenric, as we have often warned. Of these, those who fix them in the VII century substitute for king Pippin, Pippin I, Mayor of the palace of the kings of Austrasia; but the rest, which pertain to the other century, they must ascribe to the interpolator's unskillfulness: but those who think that they lived in the VIII century have fighting for them, besides the cited Life, the arguments which those writers bring forward for the date of SS. Wicterp and Tozzo who contend that S. Magnus must be separated from them. But since in §§4 and 5 we seem to have sufficiently shown that the holy Abbot of Füssen flourished in the VII century, hence those who refer him to the VIII ought not to detain us from hastening to examine the opinion of the others.

[59] The arguments which S. Wicterp Karl Stengel in part 2 of the Augsburg Affairs, chapter 5, number 1, makes the Wicterp of whom we are treating contemporary with S. Boniface, apostle of Germany, in the VIII century, citing to this purpose from the Foundation of the monastery of Benediktbeuern the following words: Beuern was founded by the counsel of Bicterp of Augsburg, a much to be venerated man. Having set out into France under the escort and by the endeavor of Bl. Boniface, archbishop of Mainz, they acquired from the most pious kings Carloman and Pippin irrefragable privileges of perpetual liberty for the church of Beuern: which also those same princes obtained [] to be dedicated by that same metropolitan of so great authority and sanctity, and to be publicly honored by royal edict. Presently, illustrious persons of Catholic excellence assembling, by the above-mentioned bishop and by Bicterp, most reverend bishop of Augsburg, on the XI Kalends of November, in the name of the Holy Trinity, in honor of S. Benedict and Bl. James, and also in memory of very many Saints, of whom they had also gathered very many relics, this church was dedicated, etc. The same man at number 7 asserts that the monastery of St. Michael of Fultenbach was founded about the year 733 by that same Wicterp, at the exhortation of S. Boniface. With Stengel Bucelin nearly agrees, in the Germania sacra, part 2, page 35, under the word Fultenbach*.

[60] must be referred to the middle of the VIII century Besides, the said Stengel in the same little work, number 15, thinks that there must be attributed to S. Wicterp of Augsburg a certain little book written in the year 754, which is said to be preserved in the monastery of S. Emmeram at Regensburg, and is thus subscribed: I myself, Vichterbus, though a sinner, a bishop now aged, I think ninety years old or more, with aching limbs and dimming eyes, have written this… In the third year of the reign of Pippin son of Charles, king of the Franks, in the month of June, in ten days I wrote this little book, that is in the year DCCLIV from the Nativity of Christ, in the VII Indiction. This little book Aventinus had in his hands, who in book 3 of the Annals of the Bavarians, page 280, mentions it thus: There is preserved there (at Regensburg in the aforesaid monastery) a little book in which a bishop exhorts a friend to piety: it is written in letter-forms so ancient that I had to return afresh to the mill of letters, and to learn again the shapes of the elements. At the end these words are written: I myself, Vichterpus, have written, etc. Pagi in the Critica on Baronius at the year 756, number 9, reciting this text of Aventinus, warns that in it there is faultily read in the year DCCIIII for DCCLIV, as in the edition of the year 1554, which I have used, it is really read.

[61] are set forth Corbinian Khamm is of the same opinion as Stengel in the Prodromus to the Auctarium of part 1 of the Hierarchia Augustana, where in Relation 2, number 58, approving what Stengel has about the foundation and dedication of the community of Benediktbeuern, he adds that a manuscript codex and the Antiquities of the aforesaid monastery support this narrative: which however of what antiquity or authority they are he does not declare. He brings forward besides another argument in Relation 3, number 36, writing thus: The most ancient codices of the monastery of Benediktbeuern expressly affirm that Lantfrid, founder of this monastery in the year DCCXXXVI and dead about the year DCCLIV, was committed to the earth by Wicterp bishop of Augsburg, and expressly, N. B., they call him Saint. Finally after many things at number 51 he concludes: I assert (saving the judgment of others), with Mabillon in the Acts of the SS. of the Order of St. Benedict, Century 2, folio DVII, that S. Magnus' coming to Eptaticum and being received by S. Wicterp bishop of Augsburg of the Vindelici is a fiction.

[62] And indeed from the aforesaid it seems able to be concluded that some Wicterp was a bishop in Germany about the middle of the VIII century: and to be removed from S. Magnus but that he is the same of whom the Life speaks, the interpolator himself makes one suspect. For it is manifest that king Pippin and his brother Carloman the monk belong to the time assigned, and consequently, if he narrates truly, Wicterp too, whom in chapter 6 he makes contemporary with them. Nor do Utilo, or Odilo, duke of the Bavarians, and S. Otmar, abbot of St. Gall, belong to another century, of whom he asserts in chapter 3 that the last was taught by SS. Gall and Magnus and appointed master of the school; and he relates in chapter 7 that the other lived at the same time as Theodore, our Saint's companion. So that it appears clearer than daylight that various persons, who it is established flourished in the VIII century, are wrongly referred to the times of S. Magnus in his Life. I know indeed that it may be answered here that those persons were thrust in by an unskillful interpolator ignorant of history: just as Bolland and Henschen really thought about king Pippin and Carloman, as was said at number 7. But why may it not be permitted by the same right to suspect that the acts of S. Wicterp were badly inserted into this Life which we are elucidating?

[63] For truly a writer of this sort cannot but be suspect. persuade And yet all those things which are narrated to have passed between S. Magnus and Wicterp rest on his authority alone. And this was already long ago noted by Paul of Bernried, a presbyter and writer of the XII century, in the Life of Bl. Herluca the virgin, which Henschen published in volume 2 of April at the day XVIII, where in chapter 4 he observes about S. Wicterp: From the days of S. Magnus the confessor, whom that same bishop first saw at Eptaticum crowned with heavenly light, and a little afterward, rejoicing, ordained presbyter in the same place, we have in no way received mention of him either by hearing or by reading, down to the times of S. Herluca, except only the translation, which old men who had seen it were wont so to relate to Herluca herself. Nor did Henschen think otherwise, beginning the Life of S. Wicterp at the place cited in these words: Those would seem least of all to be about to stray from the truth who should say that nothing can be known about the deeds of S. Wicterp before he was promoted to the pontifical see: nay, that about the deeds performed in his pontificate only those things are known which are contained in the Acts of S. Magnus: and that thus Paul rightly said in the Life of Bl. Herluca that he had in no way received other mention of him either by hearing or by reading.

[64] From the biographer or interpolator alone therefore we have these things; suggest, who, since he connects king Pippin, Carloman the monk, Utilo, and saint Otmar, all famous about the middle of the VIII century,

with that same S. Wicterp, may deservedly be judged to have treated of the Wicterp who flourished in the VIII century, and, not otherwise than the men praised, to have mingled him with S. Magnus' deeds out of error and ignorance of the times. The suspicion is increased by the said Corbinian, when he notes above that Wicterp, bishop of Augsburg, who is said to have buried Landfrid about the year 754, is expressly called Saint in the most ancient codices; and accordingly, if this man was other than ours, that two SS. Wicterp, bishops of the see of Augsburg, must be acknowledged; one in the VII century, on the authority of the biographer, the other about the middle of the VIII century, on the credit of the codices of Benediktbeuern; whereas nevertheless the catalogues report only one. Then all, says the said Corbinian in Relation 3, number 36, the historians and chronographers whom I have read, in venerating Wicterp bishop of Augsburg as a fellow-worker of S. Boniface in the vineyard of the Lord in the year DCCXL, understand Wicterp the saint, famous for benefits at Augsburg in the church of SS. Ulric and Afra; the very man, namely, whom others on the credit of Theodore determine to be contemporary with S. Magnus.

[65] are weighed: Add that Bernard Hertfelder, and those who with him judge that in this part we must stand by the Life, must consequently say that the see of Augsburg after S. Tozzo, S. Wicterp's successor, was vacant for more than a hundred years, or at least that the names of the bishops who sat in it for the space of so many years have entirely perished. Indeed between S. Tozzo's death, which they tie to the year 676, and the prelacy of S. Simpert, whose beginning they refer to about the year 800, they reckon none intervening. Nor do they think this must be denied by them: for the said Hertfelder in part 3 of the Basilica, at the year 676, expressly has this: Tosso the bishop dies with a great reputation for sanctity. The see of Augsburg is vacant for C years, and more. Similarly the author of the catalogue printed at Augsburg of the Vindelici in the year 1614, after he had said that S. Tozzo died in the year 676, added: That after these things either the see was vacant for some time, or the names of some bishops have perished, the reckoning of the times shows.

[66] which although And these are the chief things which are produced for throwing back S. Wicterp's date to the VIII century, and which must now be briefly weighed by us. In the first place the subscription of the little book which is said to be preserved at Regensburg proves indeed that some Wicterp flourished about the middle of the VIII century; but that he is the same as the holy bishop of Augsburg it does not prove: nay, there is no light suspicion that he was a different man. Let us hear Aventinus, cited at number 60, giving his opinion about the author of the said little book. This Vichterbus, he says, I find, in the poems about the bishops of Bavaria written under Louis the Pious Augustus, son of Charles, which are extant in that monastery (of S. Emmeram at Regensburg), to have been bishop of Regensburg; for whom by lord Boniface and by Utilo, chieftain of the Bavarians, Geovalda was substituted. Those poems Mabillon published among the Vetera Analecta, whence I have excerpted the following:

This is called from the city of the see of Regensburg, Which that bishop Wicterp first governed; After him another, who was called by the name Cauvipald.

[67] make it probable, Aventinus' opinion Pagi follows in the Critica on Baronius at the year 756, and in the same place he brings forward besides another passage from an old addition to the Annals of Masciacum, in Labbe in the Bibliotheca, volume 2, page 733, where these things are read: In the year DCCLVI, in the V year of the reign of king Pippin, died Wicterbus, bishop and abbot of saint Martin. And he was a Bavarian, of the family of the Heilolvings, an old man and more than eighty years old, and up to that time he sat writing books with his own hand. This man the said critic thinks the same as the one of Regensburg. But Marcus Welser in book 5 of the Bavarian Affairs at the year 754 does not hesitate to affirm that Vhicterbus was bishop anywhere on earth rather than at Regensburg. Which of these is true it is not the place here to discuss: but I have adduced these things only that I might show that nothing certain can be established from that little book in favor of Stengel's opinion; since it may have as its author some Wicterp, bishop of Regensburg or of another see. Certainly both the age and the zeal for writing in it, which are noted about Wicterbus in the said additions, persuade that he should be believed the author of the little book: but since the same man is called bishop and abbot of saint Martin, he may deservedly be judged different from Wicterp of Augsburg.

[68] The argument which we have seen drawn from the codices of Benediktbeuern would be more effective, yet they do not certainly prove it. if they certainly surpassed the Life of S. Magnus in antiquity. Corbinian Khamm indeed calls them most ancient; but since he does not express their date, one may doubt whether the said Life ought not in this part to be preferred to them: for this too is certainly ancient; being indeed held as such already in the XI century. For which reason we cannot lend certain and undoubted credit to those codices. But what the same Corbinian says, that by all historians and chronographers who venerate S. Wicterp bishop of Augsburg as the companion of S. Boniface in apostolic labors there is understood that Wicterp who is famous for benefits in the church of SS. Ulric and Afra in the city of Augsburg, establishes nothing. For who are those historians and chronographers? Are they ancient, or modern? If ancient, let them be produced: for among the old biographers of S. Boniface I have nowhere found mention made of S. Wicterp bishop of Augsburg; but indeed of S. Wigbert, abbot of Fritzlar, whose Acts have been elucidated at the day XIII of August, and whom perhaps some have confused with the bishop of Augsburg. But if those writers are modern, they effect nothing unless they have solidly proved that very thing, which I have not hitherto seen done so effectively that I ought to depart from an interpolator certainly ancient. Yet I gladly confess that the matter is doubtful, and therefore I leave it to the judgment of the learned reader, who by the same labor will judge about S. Tozzo's date, if he succeeded him in the episcopate, as is the common opinion. But whichever side thou shalt have chosen, thou wilt vainly attempt to reconcile with the truth the foundation of the monastery of Füssen, as it is narrated by the compiler, which we shall prove to be fabulous in §13.

read they commanded*

§ VII. Whether the Saint was an Irishman and sprung of royal blood: whether a disciple of S. Columbanus.

[ ] Some affirm that the Saint was born of the royal blood of the Scots: That saint Magnus was by fatherland an Irishman, the masked Theodore, his biographer, expressly relates, whose authority nearly all have followed who have written his deeds. Of these some assert that he was born of the royal blood of the Scots, his father being Severus and his mother Theoclea, although the biographer nowhere indicates it. Henry, abbot of Füssen, in his manuscript annotations has the following on this subject: It must be noted that, so far as the historians establish, S. Magnus was a Scot sprung from the province of Ireland: but of what blood, noble or ignoble, he was born, his Legend does not make plain. Nevertheless from a tradition now grown up he is said to have been begotten of the royal race of the Scots, whose father was Severus, his mother Theoclea. This was taught in the year MDXV, in the time of abbot Benedict, by a certain envoy of the king of France, named Pierre Cordier, bishop of Paris, doctor of decrees, who at that time, being ambassador [] of the aforesaid king with the emperor Maximilian, was making some stay here in Füssen on account of certain business, and was very familiar with abbot Benedict, and a man much versed in ancient histories.*

[70] but these seem to confuse He therefore left in writing for abbot Benedict that S. Magnus was begotten of the aforesaid parents of the royal blood of Scotland. Which he said that he had learned in Ireland itself, which he had traversed as ambassador of the Franks. The anonymous writer of Füssen in the German Life, chapter 1, §2, similarly contends for the Saint's royal lineage; in confirmation of which he mentions a certain very ancient painting, in which he says S. Magnus is exhibited in the dress of a youthful prince, bidding farewell to his father sitting on a royal throne and to the queen his mother standing beside him. He cites besides a certain manuscript book composed, as he says, six hundred years ago, and John Leslie in the Description of Scotland, in the chapter on the Orkney islands. Fr. Ludwig Babenstuber also, in book 1, chapter 1, makes him an Irishman and begotten of royal stock: yet he notes that by others he is held to be an Aleman.

[71] our Saint with S. Magnus, prince of the Orkneys What is to be thought about this fatherland of the Saint and his royal birth will clearly appear from number 75 and following, where we shall prove that he was more probably an Aleman and a deacon of Willimar at Arbon when he joined himself to S. Gall. And if this is true, we vainly seek for him a native soil in Ireland and a royal lineage in that island; since his parents, of whatever condition at last they were — but certainly not royal — do not seem to be sought outside Alemannia. But come, let us examine the reasons on which the asserters of the opposite opinion rely, and which they repeat from the authority of the biographer and of Pierre Cordier, from an ancient painting, an old codex, and the testimony of John Leslie. As regards the biographer, who assigns Ireland to the Saint as his fatherland, we shall answer him more at length below. Of how great learning Pierre Cordier was (whom the Sainte-Marthes do not reckon among the bishops of Paris) I do not dispute: but I am certainly persuaded that whatever he understood on this subject in Ireland must be taken not of S. Magnus abbot of Füssen, but of the prince of the Orkneys of the same name. By the same labor by which I shall show this, I shall at the same time answer the remaining arguments.

[72] In the XI century and the beginning of the XII there flourished in the Orkney islands of Scotland S. Magnus, count of those same islands, who, conspicuous in sanctity, was slain by the impious Hakon, his cousin, about the year 1106, and is venerated as a martyr and the patron of his nation against its enemies. His Acts thou hast in our Work, volume 2 of April, at the day XVI, on which his memory is celebrated in the sacred calendars. And they thus begin: Blessed Magnus, sprung in the Orkney islands, was most noble in family and of the kindred of high blood. His father, count and lord of those islands, is said to have been most renowned according to the names of the great ones who are in the earth; and his mother was adorned with an offspring of no lesser blood. To this man, I say, I think must be referred what the said Pierre Cordier had learned in Ireland about S. Magnus' birth, and which he himself, deceived by the similarity of names, seems wrongly to have ascribed to the holy Abbot of Füssen.

[73] That the matter is as I have said can be solidly persuaded from the writers of Scottish affairs, and martyr. among whom S. Magnus, count of the Orkneys, is most celebrated, while the Abbot of Füssen is everywhere unknown. Of the former Thormod Torfæus treats in the History of the Orkneys in various places, asserting that he is held by their inhabitants as a tutelary saint: but he calls his father Erlind, his mother Thora. Of the same man Hector Boece of Dundee makes mention in book 14 of the History of the Scots, where, treating of a certain notable victory of the Scots over the English, he writes thus: And on the day on which the battle was fought, a certain horseman in shining arms, passing through Aberdeen, announced a very great victory of the Scots,

and the same man was seen to have crossed the Pentland Firth on horseback. And he was commonly held to be the divine Magnus, once prince of the Orkneys. Nor does John Leslie treat of another in the Description of Scotland at the place cited, which the anonymous writer of Füssen wrongly cites in his own favor, for he has thus: They (the Orkneymen) attribute very much, next after God, to their patron the divine Magnus, whom also they say often appears for their protection against their enemies when they are set in the greatest peril. Thomas Dempster in the Scottish Menology confused the two Magnuses, when at the day VI of September, which is sacred to the Abbot of Füssen, he thus announces: In the Orkneys, of Magnus, apostle and martyr of those nations, whom K. C. make a Scot, that is the Kalendar of Adam Regius, of James Cheyne, etc., the Collectanea of Gilbert Brown, etc. Thou seest, reader, whence that opinion about the royal stock of S. Magnus abbot of Füssen could have arisen, namely while there was attributed to him what was read handed down to memory in other writers about the holy count of the Orkneys of the same name: now let us examine the rest.

[74] The argument which is drawn from the painting, of whose antiquity there is no certainty, The remaining arguments of the same men are examined. is weak, especially when other things are lacking, nay when greater weights of reasoning incline to the contrary side. Whether that ancient codex of which we spoke above labors under the same error as Dempster and the anonymous writer of Füssen I cannot affirm, since neither has it been permitted me to consult it, nor does he himself recite the text: but since that anonymous writer cites it for the same Magnus of whom Leslie treats, one may suspect that in it too there is treatment of the count of the Orkneys, not of the Abbot of Füssen. About the antiquity of the aforesaid codex, wholly unknown to me, I do not dispute: but let it indeed be of six hundred years, and let it speak expressly of our Saint, not on that account will his royal lineage or Irish fatherland have to be admitted: since the former was entirely unknown both to Walafrid and to Theodore or Ermenric, or whoever is the compiler or author of this Life, who are older than the aforesaid codex; but the latter by no means coheres with the historical narrative of either writer, as I now undertake to prove.

[75] The compiler of the Life, making our Saint an Irishman, The monastic life of Magnus under Columbanus is shown to be an invention and a disciple of saint Columbanus in Ireland, has used such unskillful plagiarisms and inventions that it is manifest that he wove a fable which he could not pursue to the end. For, that he may persuade that Magnus was sprung from Ireland, he feigns that SS. Columbanus and Gall came into Ireland to spread abroad the word of God and for the sake of pilgrimage — men who, born in Ireland, made their pilgrimage into Gaul. And that he may make him a disciple of Columbanus, he needed more than one invention. In the first place he transforms Autiernus into Magnoald, and transfers that man's deed in Gaul, the scene being changed, to this man staying in Ireland, as was clearly proved above at number 14 and following. Elsewhere he ascribes to that same Saint the deeds of a certain cellarer, elsewhere those of Chagnoald, which he had found in Jonas, as may be seen in this Commentary at numbers 17, 18, 21, etc. Finally he brings forward nothing for the Saint's Irish fatherland and his monastic life under Columbanus which he has not drawn from Jonas, and, unfaithfully altered and depraved, ascribed to Magnoald. All which I think I have already shown more clearly than that it is necessary to repeat them in this place.

[76] is shown: Further, as is wont to happen in invented narratives, the compiler could not weave together his whole history without falling into a foul contradiction, and thus, unwittingly, showing what credit he deserves. For, to pass over that he places the Lignon, a river of the Sequani, in Ireland, his later reckonings entirely destroy the monastic life undertaken by Magnoald in Ireland. Let us unfold the matter briefly. According to the compiler's reckonings S. Magnus died in the 74th year of his age, of Christ 655, as we showed at number 40. About the year in which S. Columbanus crossed into Gaul the learned do not agree: Le Cointe refers it to 568, Mabillon contends that it happened a little before 590. Which of these is true I have no need to discuss: but with neither opinion can the compiler's reckoning be reconciled: for if Le Cointe's opinion be true, S. Magnus would have had to pass into Columbanus' discipline thirteen or fourteen years before he was born, since between the year 568, into which Columbanus' arrival in Gaul would fall, and the year 655 of the Saint's death, 87 years intervened. But if the aforesaid arrival must with Mabillon be set a little before the year 590, Magnoald could have been only six years old when Columbanus departed from Ireland; which in every way conflicts with our compiler, who makes him already a man or at least a grown youth, when under Columbanus staying in Ireland he began the monastic life, and presently was set over the storeroom.

[77] it is proved that the Saint was more probably an Aleman Thou seest, studious reader, upon how rotten a foundation rest our Saint's Irish fatherland and the monastic life undertaken under Columbanus. Hence Le Cointe, who otherwise makes much of this Life, in this place acknowledges a fault: which that he may correct, he determines that Magnoald came about the year 600 from Ireland to Luxeuil, where he was admitted by Columbanus into the religious household. But I prefer to believe with Mabillon that he was neither an Irishman nor a disciple of S. Columbanus; but an Aleman and a deacon of Willimar the presbyter at Arbon in Swabia, when, Columbanus setting out into Italy, Gall turned aside to the aforesaid presbyter for the sake of his health. This opinion rests on Walafrid Strabo, the biographer of S. Gall, whose words we reviewed at number 28: which passage our compiler unfaithfully depraved, that he might persuade that Magnus was a disciple of Columbanus, as we proved at numbers 29 and 30.

[78] and embraced the monastic life under S. Gall. Walafrid is indeed about two centuries later than S. Magnus, but yet he is older than the compiler, who has already in various places been demonstrated to have borrowed many things from him. There favors me besides the silence of Jonas, who in the Life of S. Columbanus nowhere mentions Magnus or Magnoald: whence also the compiler is convicted not only of plagiarism, but also of imposture; since indeed, using his words against his express opinion, he ascribed many things to Magnoald, as we have more than once observed in §2. There favors me also Bl. Notker Balbulus in his Martyrology at this day, where he acknowledges no other master of S. Magnus besides Gall, writing thus: The birthday of S. Magnus the confessor, disciple and companion of blessed Gall. Whence I so judge, that those two clerics of Willimar, S. Magnoald and Theodore, when they were serving Gall in his fever, as they had been bidden, having perceived from continual intercourse the man's sanctity, joined themselves to him as companions and disciples: and if this is true, whatever the compiler narrates about the Saint's fatherland and his monastic life under Columbanus must be rejected as inventions, and accordingly also those things which others have added about his royal blood.

* that is, envoy

§ VIII. The raising of the body: at what time and under what bishop it was done.

[ ] Lanto, bishop of Augsburg, The author of the Appendix to our Saint's Life, whom we have already warned was most probably another than Ermenric, relates that S. Magnus' body was found and solemnly raised under Lanto bishop of Augsburg, and Otgar archbishop of Mainz, in the reign of Louis, son of the emperor Louis. Take an account of the whole matter, which he himself describes at length in the Life, chapter 8, contracted into a compendium. When S. Simpert was dead, who had begun to restore the community of Füssen, which had suffered much from the tumults of war, he says that Hatto succeeded to the see of Augsburg, and to him Nittarius (by others called Nidgar), by whom he asserts the church of S. Magnus began to be rebuilt from the foundations, but that it could be finished neither by him nor by his successors, until Lanto, bishop of the same see, in the fifth year of his prelacy at length brought it to completion.

[80] And so, the work being finished, Lanto, on the testimony of the same author, by the counsel of Otgar the archbishop, raises the Saint's body. took counsel with Otgar archbishop of Mainz and his other fellow bishops about raising S. Magnus' body, which until then had lain hidden under the earth in the middle of the church, and about transferring it to a more honorable place. Lanto's counsel pleased all; wherefore he, having summoned his clergy, proclaimed a three days' fast, and warned them to implore the divine mercy that it might vouchsafe to reveal that sacred treasure. Nor were the prayers vain: since indeed on the last night of the three days' fast the Saint himself in the guise of a placid old man appeared to a certain monk who had wasted away from a long infirmity and most grievous ulcers; he appeared to him, I say, promising that it would come to pass that on that very day, when his body was found, he would be endowed with his former health. He, glad at these promises, sets forth the whole matter to the bishop, who, delaying no further, the earth being dug out, found the Saint's body whole in a stone sarcophagus, and, having lifted it up, transferred it to the place prepared.

[81] Then the Brother, to whom we said the Saint had appeared, A miracle obtained on that occasion: the Life found. being admitted to the empty tomb, venerated it, and caused his ulcers to be anointed with the dust of the tomb mixed with water and oil, and thus being restored to his former health, on the following day together with the bishop paid to God the thanks due at the Saint's new sepulcher. Further, in this finding of the sacred body there is said to have been found at the same time the Life of Magnus, which is claimed to have been first written by Theodore: And so, when it (the sarcophagus) was opened, his body was found wholly unharmed, and his Life placed at his head, but the parchments were so decayed that it could scarcely be read by anyone, says the author of the appendix, adding that the aforesaid Life was handed over by bishop Lanto to a certain Ermenric, a monk of Ellwangen, that he might amend it, which he, having long resisted, at length accomplished. All these things the reader will find more fully described in chapter 8: but in this place some things come to be examined which render this account not a little suspect of falsity.

[82] Some transcripts have that this raising In the first place some copies of this Life seem to vary a little in this part from all of ours. For that which Karl Stengel used adds that Lanto, before he treated with Otgar his archbishop about raising the body, obtained the consent of Hadrian II to the same end. And this indeed is clear from the said Stengel, who in part 2 of the Augsburg Affairs, chapter 14, number 2, recites the following from the biographer: When bishop Lanto was restoring and adorning the church, letting the sacred body of St. Magnus rest in the middle of the church, as it had been placed before, until with all diligence and reverence he should have sought consent from Hadrian the supreme Pontiff: then the venerable bishop Lanto went to Othgar or Otger, archbishop of the holy church of Mainz, and disclosed to him his desire. Then the Metropolitan summoned all his brother bishops and suffragans, that he might consult with them whether he might dare to transfer him from that place to another. And they concluded that it would be fitting to move the precious and holy body into a better and loftier place, if God should will it,

and so he returned home with the leave of the most pious king Louis, etc.

[83] was made with the consent of Hadrian II, Supreme Pontiff: but wrongly. In the same way reads Henry, abbot of Füssen, in his manuscript annotations thus observing: Lantho, bishop of Augsburg (in the year 870, as he himself had premised), by the consent and command of Hadrian II the Pope, and by the will of king Louis, by the counsel and help of Othcar archbishop of Mainz and of other fellow bishops, raised the body of St. Magnus from the first place of his burial. Of what trustworthiness those transcripts were is unknown to me; but in none of ours, which we reviewed above, is any mention made of Hadrian II's consent; nothing about it has that anonymous writer of Regensburg either, the monk of S. Emmeram, who amended the same Life in the XI century, as we have already often warned; nothing likewise the Goldast edition. Besides, since it is established that Otgar had died about 20 years before the aforesaid Hadrian was set in the year 867 over the whole Church of Christ, it is also plain that this faulty passage must be ascribed to the unskillfulness of some interpolator: wherefore I shall cleave to our manuscripts; and consequently it must be examined whether their credit in this place stands whole and sound.

[84] The time of the translation is inquired into. The whole difficulty, as is plain, turns upon reconciling the date and prelacy of the persons who are mentioned in this raising. And these are four; namely, Otgar archbishop of Mainz, Louis the king, son of the emperor Louis the Pious, Ermenric monk of Ellwangen, and Lanto bishop of Augsburg. About the first three there can be no controversy: for Otgar from the year 825, as Pagi has it in the Critica, or from the year immediately following, as pleases others, governed the church of Mainz until 847; Louis, endowed by his father with the kingdom of Bavaria in the year 817, obtained besides all Germany as far as the waters of the Rhine in the year 843, on the testimony of the Annalist of Metz; Ermenric finally is claimed in the Catalogue of the abbots of Ellwangen, in Corbinian Khamm in the Auctarium of part 1 of the Hierarchia Augustana, to have entered upon the governance of the abbey of Ellwangen in the year 845 and to have held it until 862. Excellently therefore does Ermenric's date cohere with Otgar's archiepiscopate and Louis' reign: but that the same should be said of Lanto's episcopate of Augsburg all the Catalogues of that see oppose, which Bruschius, Bucelin, Demochares, Stengel, Johann Krueger, Corbinian Khamm, and others have published, and of which some refer the beginning of Lanto's episcopate to the year 869, others to 870, and others finally to 878, and none connects it with Otgar's archiepiscopate; and consequently according to their opinions the raising of S. Magnus' body could not have been carried out under the aforesaid Otgar and Lanto.

[85] Hence the said abbot Stengel, suspecting that the sequence of events was confused by the interpolator, Stengel's conjecture is rejected. when he attributes to one what should have been ascribed to two or perhaps even to more, tries to loose the knot in this manner: If anything may be attained by conjectures, in order that all these things may be better reconciled, I should think that the finding of S. Magnus' body must be ascribed to Hanto: for he was contemporary with Otger, archbishop of Mainz: then to Nitgar the beginning of the building of the church of Füssen; but to Vodalman the consent obtained from the supreme Pontiff; finally to Lanto the completion of the building and the translation itself: but that Ermenric was ordered by Hanto (for he ceased to be among the living long before Lanto became bishop) to write the Life of S. Magnus. And thus all will be safe: for it is certain that Ermenric is not the author of that appendix, saving meanwhile a better judgment. So Stengel; to whom I would gladly assent, if he showed that the two heads of the matter which he himself supposes as certain are certain. For he asserts that Hanto, not Lanto, sat at Augsburg at the same time in which Otgar presided at Mainz; but that Ermenric died long before Lanto became bishop: but both had to be proved, which he does not do.

[86] Nay rather it appears to me more probable that this raising happened under Otgar and Lanto, More probably it was done under Lanto within the years 825 and 847: while Ermenric was flourishing. This the author of the appendix himself in the first place persuades, who, although he is not Ermenric, is nevertheless an ancient writer, and was already in the XI century held as such, as we have already shown above. Nay, it is probable that that appendix was first written by Ermenric himself, although it was afterward interpolated by some other man. For if he undertook to correct the Life of S. Magnus after the body was translated (which not even Stengel himself denies), it is altogether probable that he appended the aforesaid translation, and accordingly also the bishops under whom it was carried out, to that same Life: for which reason it is not so certain as Stengel thinks that Ermenric is not the author of the appendix, if he so takes these words as to exclude from it entirely all labor of Ermenric. I confess indeed that the authority of that writer is not of such a kind that one can safely stand upon it alone: nor yet is it to be rejected without solid reason, especially if his statements can be probably admitted, as what follows persuades that they really can.

[87] According to what was said at number 84, the raising, in the writer's mind, must have been done within the years 825 or 826 and 847: for with these limits, by which Otgar's archiepiscopate is bounded, Louis' reign and Ermenric's monastic life rightly agree: all things therefore will be safe at which time some Lanto if we shall have shown that Lanto sat at Augsburg at that time. And behold, in Labbe, volume 8 of the Councils, column 39, among the bishops who were present at the first synod of Mainz gathered under Hrabanus Maurus in the year 847, Lanto the bishop is mentioned. It is not indeed added of what see he was; but that he was of Augsburg two things make probable. The first is that it is established that none of the remaining bishops, who are there reckoned eleven, was bishop of that church; whereas nevertheless it does not seem to be doubted that the bishop of Augsburg was present at that council. The other is that in preference to the other sees the see of Augsburg is more probably attributed to that Lanto. In this opinion is Eckhart in the Francia Orientalis, volume 2, page 394, where, assigning their dioceses to the bishops present at that synod, he ascribes that of Augsburg to Lanto. It may be well to have recited his own words, that from the whole series the reader may the more easily judge of this opinion.

[88] was bishop of Augsburg, He has thus: Samuel was bishop of Worms. For Egorbald must be substituted the name of Gozbald, bishop of Würzburg. Badurad held the see of Paderborn. Schaten asserts that Hebo was bishop of Hildesheim… Gorbrathus is Gerbrach, bishop of Chur; Hemmo of Halberstadt; Waltgar of Verden; Anskar of Hamburg; Otgar of Eichstätt; Lanto or Lando of Augsburg; Salomon of Constance and Gebehard of Speyer. So Eckhart: whether all these things are exact it is neither the place here to inquire, nor necessary for our purpose: this one thing I gather hence, that Lanto, who is read to have subscribed to the said synod in the year 847, was more probably bishop of Augsburg: and if this is true, nothing hinders his being said to have seen to the translation of which we are treating some years before.

[89] appears more probable. Nor could Karl Stengel, Corbinian Khamm, and the anonymous writer published at Augsburg by the labor of Krueger in the year 1614, designate in this place any other bishop than the one of Augsburg by the name of Lanto: wherefore, that they may escape this difficulty, they are compelled to maintain that Hanto also had the name of Lanto. Hanto, says Stengel, by others Lanto, called Sanctus by Baronius: and a little after: They report that he sat VII years and was present at the synod of Mainz in the year DCCCXLVII. Then, when he noticed that these things did not sufficiently cohere with his own opinion, in which he had determined that Simpert, Hatto's predecessor, ceased to live about the year of Christ 818, with a few things interposed he subjoins: For the rest, either there is an error in the number of seven years of our bishop (Hatto); or the see was vacant for some years from Simpert's death. If there were room for conjectures, I should prefer to attribute XLVII to him; but I define nothing. In exactly the same way the said anonymous writer speaks, except that he does not add the last conjecture. And if thou shouldst ask them whence they have it that Hanto was also called Lanto, the anonymous writer answers: In the Life of S. Magnus he is called Lanto: and Lanto the bishop (Baronius has Sanctus) was present at the synod of Mainz in the year DCCCXLVII. So he: but Stengel cites no witness. Both are favored by the copies of Canisius and Goldast, in which Simpert's successor is called not Hanto but Lanto: but in that which the anonymous writer of Regensburg used in the XI century, Hanto also was had. But even if we grant that he was called by that name also, yet more probably he was other than the Lanto of whom we are treating, as we shall show at number 93.

[90] But, they will say, the catalogues of the bishops of Augsburg stand in the way, On Regino's testimony, Lanto was not substituted which, since they make Lanto the successor of Witgar, manifestly show that he could not have come to the synod of Mainz: for Witgar, on Regino's testimony, departed from the living in the year of Christ 887. Rightly indeed, if Lanto really succeeded Witgar, as the catalogues cited will have it. But the said Regino expressly denies it, writing thus: In the same year (887, as he had premised) Vuitgar, bishop of the city of Augsburg, died, and Adalbero, a man of noble family and of great genius and prudence, obtained his see, and succeeded him in the episcopate. Adalbero therefore, not Lanto, Regino makes Witgar's successor, an author not only contemporary with both, but who is also believed by some to have inscribed this very Chronicle of his to that same Adalbero. And it must be noted that by this very Adalbero S. Magnus' arm was translated to the monks of St. Gall, as we shall teach in the following §; from which it follows, against Stengel's conjectures, that the first translation of S. Magnus, of which the Life speaks, could not have been accomplished by Lanto, if he was Witgar's successor.

[91] The said Stengel and the anonymous writer acknowledged Regino's authority as contrary to the catalogues of Augsburg, for Witgar, and, in order to shake off its weight, had recourse to new conjectures. The former, after he had recited the words adduced, framed his own thus: By which words he (Regino) manifestly excluded Lanto: whence it could be believed that, when Witgar was departing into Helvetia, he was in some manner a vicar coadjutor, or, as we now say, a suffragan, not a bishop in full right. But this is a conjecture devised solely to elude Regino's authority. More frivolous is the other's evasion, when he says: Regino excluded Lanto, perhaps because he believed him the same as the preceding man (Witgar). How empty this conjecture is, everyone sees; wherefore it is not pleasing to linger over refuting it: I only observe that both writers labor exceedingly about the two persons of whom the question is, namely Lanto and Hanto; that the one may bring the latter to the times of the synod of Mainz, and remove the former from them.

[92] That therefore we may determine something in a very obscure matter, it seems it must be said but more probably preceded him. that Lanto must be placed before Witgar: for in this way it can be understood that he was present at the often-mentioned synod in the year 847, and some years before, under king Louis and archbishop Otgar, translated S. Magnus' body, and committed the Life found in the sarcophagus to Ermenric, now a monk of Ellwangen, to be revised and amended. I know indeed that to this opinion

there is much opposition from the Catalogue of the abbots of Ottobeuren, in Bucelin's Germania sacra, part 2, and in Corbinian Khamm's Hierarchia Augustana, part 3, page 346, in which S. Neodgar, by others Nidgar and Nidger, between whom and Witgar Vodalmann is reckoned in the middle by some, is written to have been raised to the see of Augsburg first in the year 864, and to have died in the year 869: and if this is true, Lanto, the successor of Nidgar and Vodalmann, could not have already sat at Augsburg at the time assigned by us above.

[93] The errors of the Ottobeuren catalogue concerning the date of Nidgar But that that catalogue errs in its reckonings various instruments persuade, which call both Nidgar and Witgar bishops many years before the times designated in it, as must now be shown. Karl Meichelbeck in the History of Freising, volume 1, part 2, published various instruments, the first part of which, down to the middle of the IX century, he says in Dissertation VI, page XXXIV, was excerpted from a most ancient codex of the archives of Freising, which they call the ancient book of traditions, and which he asserts was written by order of Hitto and of his successor Erchambert, whose death he writes happened about the year 854. Among these, at number CDLXX, is reported an instrument in which the aforesaid Hitto, according to Meichelbeck the sixth bishop of Freising, reclaims from Nitker (so Nidgar or Nitger too is called) the church in Chenperc, which Hanto, Nitker's predecessor, is there said to have claimed for the bishopric of the city of Augsburg at saint Mary's. And this charter is noted as on the 11 Kalends of September in the VIIII year of the most glorious emperor Hludowic, in the 1st Indiction; where, the beginning being taken from his father's death, the year of Christ 822 is designated; but for the 1st Indiction the XV seems to be substituted. From which we have that Nidgar already in the year 822, that is 42 years earlier than is determined in the Ottobeuren catalogue, governed the diocese of Augsburg: from which again it may be noted that Hanto his predecessor could not have been present at the synod of Mainz in the year 847 under the name of Lanto. On the contrary it is rightly understood how Lanto, the successor of Witgar or Vodalmann, could have seen to the aforesaid translation with Otgar archbishop of Mainz, and could have subscribed to the synod of Mainz celebrated under Hrabanus Maurus in the aforesaid year.

[94] and of Witgar More manifestly does the catalogue err about Witgar, whose episcopate's beginning it ties to the year 888, and his death to 902; whereas nevertheless it is established from Regino that Adalbero succeeded him when he died in the year 887, as we saw above at number 90. Nor are there lacking other things which persuade that the episcopate of Witgar and accordingly of Nidgar must be set much earlier. For the writers of Augsburg affairs relate that in their cathedral church is preserved the girdle of the most blessed mother of God Mary, given by queen Hemma, wife of king Louis, to bishop Witgar, as the inscription superimposed upon it makes credible in these words:

This girdle the mighty and most holy queen Hemma Bestowed on Witgar, full of holy breath.

Now Hemma died in the year 876, and accordingly, if that donation is true, Witgar was already then bishop of Augsburg. For which reason Stengel here notes: Hence thou mayest easily convict of error those who fable that Wigger (so he names Witgar) received the episcopate in the year DCCCLXXXVIII. Let no one therefore wonder that I refuse to stand by the reckonings of so faulty a catalogue.

[95] are shown. But from what time he entered upon the episcopate is not established; yet that he was already endowed with it about the year 860 we gather from the epistle of Nicholas I, Supreme Pontiff, in Martène and Durand, Collectio amplissima, volume 1, column 149. That was written to Charles, archbishop of Mainz, and his suffragans, who, having been assembled in the cause of a certain incestuous marriage, had consulted the aforesaid Pontiff on that matter. Further, among those bishops to whom the epistle is inscribed, Witgar is expressly named: and that this man was of Augsburg Eckhart deservedly judges in the Francia Orientalis, volume 2, page 473, where he assigns to each his see. And indeed, unless by Witgar the bishop of Augsburg be understood, there would have been no place for him among the suffragans of the see of Mainz. And the said collectors note that the epistle of which we are treating seems to have been written neither before the year 860, in which Nicholas was created Pontiff, nor after 863, in which Charles the archbishop died. Besides, in Hansiz's Germania sacra, volume 1, page 161, from a manuscript of the Imperial Library, Witgar the bishop is said to have been present at the synod of Worms in the year 868: but in Schaten, Annals of Paderborn, part 1, book 3, in the same council is read the sign of Luitgar, bishop of Augsburg, for which read Witgar; since no Luitgar is found then to have held that see. That council is extant in various writers: but the bishops who were present at it were long unknown, until, on Schaten's testimony, Ferdinand bishop of Paderborn drew them out from the ancient archives of his see.

[96] But since the defenders of the contrary opinion cite for themselves the catalogues of the bishops of Augsburg, An answer is given which substitute Lanto for Witgar, their authority must here be briefly weighed. The most ancient which I have seen is that which Johann Krueger, a bookseller of Augsburg, caused to be published in print, copied letter for letter, as he himself states in the preface, from a manuscript catalogue which is extant in a codex of the library of SS. Ulric and Afra, marked 7. H. 4. And the same editor notes that it consists of two parts, of which the former, written in one and the same ancient hand, ends with Embrico, who in a note appended in the same character is said to have been created bishop in the year 1064. The other part he asserts was written in another and varying hand, and ends with Frederick I, whom the anonymous writer's observations determine to have died in the year 1330. Finally each part, besides the names of the bishops succeeding one another, has nothing about their deeds or the time in which they lived, except a few things about Embrico alone, under whom the first part is claimed to have been put together: consequently whatever is found in modern writers about the years in which each obtained or held the episcopate, all that was afterward added according to each writer's judgment.

[97] Since therefore that catalogue was drawn up not before the year 1064, to the catalogues of Augsburg that is about two centuries after Lanto and Witgar, what wonder if it erred in putting one after the other, as we have proved from Regino, a contemporary writer, that it really erred in Witgar's successor? Much less ought the catalogue detain us which Eckhart printed in the Corpus historicum medii ævi, volume 2, col. [ ], and, on his own testimony, carried down to the times of the emperor Frederick I. Wherefore from what has hitherto been said it may be concluded that Lanto must be placed before Witgar: for there is no one who denies Lanto's episcopate of Augsburg: but that he was not the latter's successor we have demonstrated from Regino, a contemporary writer: and that he should be believed his predecessor and to have sat about the year 847, the council of Mainz mentioned at number 87 favors; there favors also Nidgar's date from the Freising tradition 470 given at number 93, and finally whatever we have hitherto brought forward about the date of Nidgar and Witgar: from all which it is conveniently understood that Lanto could have sat at Augsburg about the year 840, and accordingly could have translated S. Magnus' body under Otgar archbishop of Mainz, and Louis king of Germany, while Ermenric had already put on the monk's habit in the community of Ellwangen. Wherefore I do not see why in this part we should depart from the writer of the appendix, who, however much he was an interpolator, is yet older than the catalogues which are cited to the contrary, and which we have already shown to be held in error.

[98] There remains a scruple from the author of the appendix himself. Nitcarius first, he says, began to build the church of Bl. Magnus from the foundations; and a difficulty from the writer of the appendix: but the other bishops following him likewise built as they could, … until .. Lanto obtained that same holy see. By which words the author supposes more bishops than one between Nidgar and Lanto; whereas in our opinion only one intervening occurs. I frankly confess that besides Vodalmann, who is said to have been substituted for Nidgar, I can produce none: but if those words are to be taken in strictness, one or another seems to have fallen out of the catalogue, which in these shadows of antiquity could easily have happened. For that the memory of the bishops of that time is obscure and their series doubtful is established both from what has been said, and also from this, that in Bruschius and Bucelin, whom Corbinian Khamm does not contradict, Walthenus and Adelger are reckoned in the middle between Hanto and Nidgar, who elsewhere are related to have succeeded one another. Finally how uncertain the series of the aforesaid bishops is, the reader will easily gather from the following specimen.

[99] and the translation is set under Lanto, In the list in Bruschius and Bucelin, among the rest, the following bishops are read to have succeeded one another in this order: Hauto or Hanto, Walter, Adelger, Neodgar or Nitgar, Lantho or Lancko or Dancko, Udalmann, Widgar (by others Widoger), Adalber. Corbinian Khamm, calling Walter and Adelger into doubt, subjoins Vodolmann, otherwise Udalmann, then Witgar, Lanto, and Adalbero. Karl Stengel is displeased with Walther and Adelger, and therefore in him Nitgar is substituted for Hanto, and for him Vodalmann, Wigger or Widegar, Lanto, Adelbero. In the Catalogue published by Krueger's labor, besides Walther and Adelger, Udalmann too is lacking, and thus it is read: Hanto, Nitger, Wigger, Lanto, Adalpero. Again on the contrary the Catalogue which Eckhart published in the Corpus of writers of the middle ages, volume 2, col. [ ], has thus: Hanto, Nitger, Odalman, Wigger, Lanto, Adalbero. Let it suffice to have noted these things concerning the present controversy, that we may show that the aforesaid catalogues are not sufficiently certain for us to be obliged on their account to reject the author of the appendix in the matter of which we are treating: him therefore we follow, until the learned men of Augsburg shall have brought forward more certain things about the series of their bishops. Further, although we cannot determine the year in which this translation was carried out; yet if Ermenric was elected abbot in the year 845, as the Catalogue of Ellwangen in Bucelin's Germania sacra, part 2, page 29, has it, it can probably be set before the aforesaid year. This I in some measure gather from the same author of the appendix, who says that Ermenric, when the Life was committed to him by bishop Lanto to be amended, was a prudent and industrious monk from the monastery of Ellwangen, whom he would more probably have called abbot, if he had already then been endowed with that dignity.

[100] and made within the same church. The place in which the sacred body was laid the same writer does not sufficiently determine: but since no mention is made of any other church, it is altogether probable that it was placed in the same as before, but in a new sepulcher and before an altar perhaps built to that end: for in the Life at number 74 the Saint, appearing to a certain man afflicted with ulcers, among other things says: Ask, son, of the bishop, that when today he shall have found my body, and shall have taken it away from the crypt in which it now lies, he may permit thee to kiss that crypt … and before the new altar which has been built, .. prostrate thyself: by which words he seems not improbably to designate the place of the old and of the new burial. Abbot Henry in his manuscript annotations seems to think that the new tomb was concealed from the people: for, treating of the writer's silence on this matter,

he says that he was silent on purpose: For those ancients were unwilling, he says, that so great a treasure should be manifest to all in times so warlike: yet he adds that it was laid within the same church in the choir under the altar itself. Perhaps the exact place of the sacred body was hidden from the people, although in what part of the church it was, was by no means unknown. The latter is sufficiently plain both from what has been said and from this, that in the Life at the last number it is said that the Lord vouchsafed to reveal there very many signs before the sepulcher of Bl. Magnus after … the body was laid away; unless these things are to be taken of the old sepulcher.

§ IX. One of his arms is translated to the monks of St. Gall: the time of this translation, the hymns composed on this occasion: whether the Saint was canonized.

[ ] The Saint's arm is translated to the monks of St. Gall About the end of that same century, relics of S. Magnus, namely an arm, were translated from the monastery of Füssen, with great pomp and solemnity, to the monks of St. Gall in Helvetia, and honorably placed in a church recently built. This translation was seen to by Salomon, surnamed Ramschwag, an illustrious and powerful man, who, having been taught as a boy by Iso, a monk of St. Gall, was afterward made a monk and abbot of that same place, and at last bishop of Constance, the third of that name. He, not yet a monk, being enrolled as a brother, as they call it, frequently stayed among the monks of St. Gall: and that this might be done without inconvenience to the monastery, he had procured for himself by an exchange a certain more pleasant hill beyond the stream named Ira, which now flows through the town of St. Gall, having built there a building to which he might turn aside. On the same hill he raised a church, and endowed it munificently: which being finished, Adalbero, bishop of the see of Augsburg, at his request solemnly translated thither the arm of S. Magnus.

[102] We learn these things from Ekkehard the younger, who in the book On the Occurrences of St. Gall, chapter 1, writes thus about the said Salomon: into a chapel erected by Salomon, afterward bishop of Constance. And he handed over, out of the estates in which he had abounded, to S. Gall the place which is called Golda, making an exchange for himself, that … he might possess a certain hill beyond the Ira which seemed to him more pleasant, with the meadows and little fields adjacent to it. Then after some things he thus continues: He begins therefore at length to build on the hill of his exchange a church in honor and in the shape of the Holy Cross, into which, when it had been brought to perfection, he anxiously [] brought the arm of S. Magnus, given and escorted by bishop Adalbero, taken from Füssen, with great triumphs as it were on this side and that, and dedicated it in honor of the Holy Cross and of that same private Patron of ours, and endowed it with his own estates, that is, Tegerinouua, Bernhardicella, Stirundorf, and Goldahun too, which, as we have said, by exchange he had already handed over to the place, and with certain others. He had appointed, by the concession of Harmut, then abbot, that on that Saint's day the Brethren should feast; and he said that he wished, if it pleased God, to be buried there.* The rest pertaining to this church we shall give in §13, in which we shall treat of the churches consecrated to God under S. Magnus' invocation.

[103] The time of this translation. The year in which this famous translation was carried out Ekkehard does not indicate: but so far as it is permitted to gather both from him and from other sources, it seems to have been accomplished within the year 887, in which Adalbero, on Regino's testimony, began his episcopate, and 889, to which the writers of the Gallia Christiana, volume 5, column 901 of the newest edition, refer the beginning of Salomon's monastic life. The first is manifest from Ekkehard himself, asserting above in express words that these sacred relics were given and translated by Adalbero, bishop of Augsburg. The second is drawn from the same author, who narrates all these things before he speaks of Salomon's monastic life: but since the writer scarcely keeps any reckoning of times, we cannot affirm this for certain. Mabillon errs, however, when in the often-praised historical Eulogy, number 15, he says: S. Magnus' body was buried in the monastery of Füssen, from which about the year DCCCLXXXV his arm was carried into the monastery of St. Gall by the care of abbot Salomon. He errs, I say, since at that time Adalbero was not yet bishop of Augsburg. This is undoubted, that the aforesaid solemnity cannot be deferred beyond the year 898, as will clearly appear from the diploma of the emperor Arnulf given on this matter, which we shall recite in §13. Whence Fr. Babenstuber too is convicted of error, who in book 3 of the Life, chapter 5, ties this translation to the year 908, wrongly citing Mabillon in his own favor.

[104] Hymns On the occasion of the aforesaid translation there seems to have been composed a hymn which, among others excerpted by Jodocus Metzler from the ancient manuscript codices of the library of St. Gall, Henry Canisius published in volume 5 of the Antiquæ Lectiones, whence I have transferred it hither. It bears no author's name, but without doubt he was some monk of the community of St. Gall, where in that century the poetic art flourished. The first four verses are Sapphic, the rest Adonic: the former, after every five Adonics, are perpetually repeated as a refrain. And the whole poem comprises a festal invitation, by which the Saint is asked that he would vouchsafe to return in peace to the monastery of St. Gall, in which he had once lived with S. Gall, and to protect its inhabitants as a patron. And it is extant in the said collector in this manner.

[105] on the occasion The Invitation of S. Magnus

[160] There is extant also another poem in the same Canisius, of this translation which Mabillon in volume 3 of the Annals, page 178, cites in the margin among the festal applauses which the Fathers of St. Gall sang in receiving the sacred arm. It bears as its author Ratpert, a monk of the aforesaid monastery, who yet makes no word about it, but only runs out into the Saint's praises through the eight Gospel beatitudes.

Verses of Ratpert on S. Magnus

Wondrous God and creator of all, gentle and strong establisher of the world, the vows of the servants subject to thee receive in thy clemency.

We sing a bright triumph in our longing, rejoicing in mind and praying together, that the Saint, present above the stars and rejoicing, may bless us.

He, while he enjoyed this fleeting life, came to behold the rays of the eternal light with the innermost sight of his heart, supported from on high.

Here, unlocking the name of Magnus to the people, he is honored, famous by his mighty powers, increased by Gall, by teaching large, for loving the Powers above.

He tamed the fierce fury of the enemy, attending upon the sweet author of peace, made for all a little rule of a holy and peaceful life.

He, remaining after his illustrious master, longing after his blessed examples, reproving the turbulent honor of the world, despised earthly things.

Poor in spirit was this Minister; hence in the kingdom too he shines at the right hand: he stood forth gentle, and holds the land that bears the living.

[107] With fervid lamentation likewise he here sorrowed; therefore the Lord crowns him with consolation, composed by the monks of St. Gall. his sadness spurned and his tears wiped away, with an everlasting kingdom. — Wondrous, etc.

Lo, the losses of just hunger and of thirst alike this Blessed one endured; whence, filled with divine feasts, he rejoices among the stars. — Wondrous, etc.

He was merciful, pitying the wretched: and the lofty Judge shall pity him, when the whole show of the world shall pass away under one ending. — Wondrous, etc.

For he was of a clean and pure heart; hence he deserved clearly to see God, and at once to be called son of the Most High, a peacemaker of the world. — Wondrous, etc.

He bore with the persecutor, while he vowed just things and renders them to the Lord; thence he deservedly possesses the heavenly beauty. — Wondrous, etc.

Behold, twice four times endowed with the highest excellences, this blessed Father shines; may the same kindly bestow pardon upon us all. — Wondrous, etc.

Thence now, shining red in heaven's hall, whose [*] and a companion of the eternal throng, may he, appeased, pious and kindly, wipe away our crimes.

May the everlasting Begetter grant this to us, and the Son, full of the Father's vigor, the Holy Spirit governing our senses by his light. — Wondrous, etc.

[108] Another hymn, which Mabillon Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, century 2, in the historical Eulogy of S. Magnus, recites besides part of another poem, with which he judges that the monks of St. Gall applauded our Saint in this very translation: but to me it appears much more probable that it treats of the translation of S. Otmar; for which reason I have not judged that it should be transferred hither, especially since any curious reader may read it in the said Canisius, volume 5 of the Antiquæ Lectiones. Take the reasons on account of which I dissent from Mabillon. The one thing which fights for Mabillon is that of S. Gall, whom the poet feigns to be present at the solemnity from heaven, it is said thus:

Who greets all alike with holy voice, And asks thee, Magnus, to enter his own dwelling.

In all the rest of the poem no mention is made of Magnus: but the things which are presently subjoined to the aforesaid verses seem by no means able to pertain to the present translation; for the poet thus continues:

That those whom the communion of the heavenly temple holds, Here too the love of a partnered honor may join. Meanwhile the care of blessed Otmar shall provide That a dwelling built shall also be made ready.

[109] thinks pertains hither, These last verses, I say, seem to me to sound of the translation not of S. Magnus, but of S. Otmar, and that this may be plain, a few things must be noted. Iso, master and monk of St. Gall, in book 1 On the Miracles of S. Otmar, chapters 3, 4 and 5, writes that this saint's body was translated under abbot Grimald in the year 864, by Salomon bishop of Constance, the first of that name, with great pomp, from the oratory of S. Peter into the church of S. Gall, and there beside his altar first honorably laid down, and then placed behind the altar of S. John the Baptist, until the church of S. Otmar himself should be finished. Led by a people of numerous multitude, he says in chapter 4, with great honor, (S. Otmar, or rather his body) enters the church of S. Gall, and is laid down beside its altar on the right side. And in chapter 7: On the next Sabbath too, that is on the fourth day from the blessed one's translation, the holy body is meanwhile placed behind the altar of S. John the Baptist, until a new basilica, to be dedicated in his honor, should be built for his habitation: into which about three years afterward, on the same man's testimony, book 2, chapter 2, it was again solemnly translated.

[110] more probably treats of the translation Who would not see that the first translation of S. Otmar, described by Iso, is designated by the poet? For the three distichs just recited by us have no other than this sense: namely, that S. Gall greets all, and invites the Saint whose body is being translated to his church, so that those to whom the heavenly temple, or heaven, is common may have the earthly one common too; while meanwhile care is taken that a basilica of his own be built for him too and fittingly adorned. And these things, as they most rightly suit the translation of S. Otmar, so they by no means suit the translation of S. Magnus, as far as appears from the words of Ekkehard cited at number 102. Besides, in this poem there is certainly treatment of a church to be prepared for S. Otmar; which, since on Iso's testimony it was already finished in the year 867 and received his sacred body, could not, at the translation of the arm

of S. Magnus, which we have shown did not happen before the year 887 — could not, I say, mention then be made of preparing it.

[111] Finally this opinion is favored by the same poet, when he sings of the angels:

Who, flying about the blessed bier of the saint, of the body of S. Otmar. With the spreading of their wings cover his limbs on every side.

Which assuredly are more fitly understood of the whole body of S. Otmar than of S. Magnus' arm. What then must be answered to this little verse:

And asks thee, Magnus, to enter his own dwelling?

I answer that the word Magne is here used not as a proper name, but as an appellative, in the way in which in the same hymn the poet had said above:

Now at length accustom thyself to the services of thy own, And, prosperous one, turn hither thy face, serene one.

Where it is plain that the words Prosper and serene are taken not as the proper names of some saint, but as appellatives. And these are the reasons on account of which I have thought I must depart from Mabillon, and also from Canisius, who likewise inscribes that hymn to S. Magnus. There are also other poems in the said Antiquæ Lectiones of Canisius which mention our Saint, but these, lest I be excessive, I pass over.

[112] From what has been said it manifestly appears that the cult of our holy Abbot was famous in Germany in the IX century: Some say the Saint was canonized by John IX, others by Hadrian II, it may now be asked here whether the same Saint was canonized. So plainly asserts his proper Office in the church of Constance, published in the year 1725 and reprinted in the year 1739, in which lesson 3 of the second Nocturn is concluded with these words: Whom, being famous for miracles, John IX, Supreme Pontiff, inscribed among the Saints. Another and older one agrees, namely that published in the year 1671, and revised in the year 1687. Finally one older than these too, which the most serene and most eminent bishop and Cardinal Andrew of Austria ordered to be published in the year 1599; but that has it a little otherwise, and wrongly (as we shall show below), in this manner: Whom, being famous for miracles, John IX, Supreme Pontiff, who is read to have been created in the year of Christ eight hundred and seventy, at the prayers of Danto, bishop of Augsburg, inscribed among the Saints. Martin, abbot of Füssen, in the Life of the Saint published in Latin in the year 1621, prefixes also this title to chapter 37: On the translation and canonization of S. Magnus: but he ascribes that canonization to Hadrian II; perhaps because he had read in his manuscript that this Pontiff's consent for translating the sacred body was obtained by Lanto, bishop of Augsburg. Of the same opinion also was Henry, likewise abbot of Füssen, in his manuscript observations often mentioned, in which he in more than one place called the translation made under Lanto — to which he also thought that Hadrian II's consent was joined — a canonization.

[113] Besides, there is in our museum a certain little book, published in the Italian tongue at Rome in the year 1726 on the occasion of the canonization of SS. Aloysius and Stanislaus. some other by John VIII: This little book has two catalogues, of which the first, containing the names of Saints canonized privately by the supreme Pontiffs, likewise maintains the canonization of S. Magnus; but ascribes it neither to Hadrian II, nor to John IX, but to John IX, but to John VIII. Take the words: By John VIII S. Ampelius the bishop, S. Magnus the abbot, the aforesaid were canonized in the year DCCCLXXIII. The writer of this little work nowhere discloses himself, so that we can establish nothing about his authority: but whoever he was, that he is of small trustworthiness is plain from this, that he writes about S. Rosalia in the same catalogue: By Benedict VI, S. Rosalia, virgin of Palermo, of the blood of Charlemagne, in the year DCCCCLXXII: whence it would follow that the aforesaid saint, whose death happened after the middle of the XII century, had been canonized more than a hundred years before she was born.

[114] but the matter But neither can one stand certainly by the Breviaries reviewed; for they are too recent to make undoubted credit, especially since in the older ones which I have seen no word is made on that matter. Certainly the Breviary of Constance, which the most illustrious Hugo von Landenberg ordered to be printed at Augsburg in the year 1499, and also another which Christopher Metzler, bishop of the same see, caused to be printed at Lyons in the year 1561, do not mention the aforesaid canonization: the lessons copied from both were transmitted to us from Constance by the same Reverend Father Chardon whom I have already often mentioned, who also added another from a certain older manuscript Breviary, almost wholly of parchment, whose date, however, since it was mutilated at head and foot, he could not ascertain: but in this too nothing at all about the canonization is to be found. Concerning the same the Saint's proper Offices of Augsburg and of Chur likewise keep deep silence; silent too is that of St. Gall and the old one of Schussenried, which the Reverend Father Evermod Lorinzer in his annotations sent to me affirms was wont to be recited already in the XV or XIV century in the church of Schussenried.

[115] is altogether uncertain. Add that the Breviary of Constance published in the year 1599 by the Eminent Andrew of Austria, as we said, in that very place in which it asserts that the Saint was canonized, cannot be excused from error, when it fixes the beginning of John IX's Pontificate in the year 870; whereas it is established that this must be set at least 28 years later. The overseers of the later editions noticed this error, and cautiously struck out the year of John IX's creation, and also the name of Danto, which did not rightly cohere with that man's Pontificate, although they judged that the canonization itself must be retained in the very same words in which it was conceived in the earlier one. Since therefore that canonization rests on so faulty a testimony, we cannot admit it as certain. Nor more certain is the opinion of others, which determines that it was made by Hadrian II: for without doubt it rests on the copies of the Life in which Lanto, bishop of Augsburg, is said to have translated S. Magnus' body by the consent and command of Hadrian II the Pope: of which matter what is to be thought we have abundantly said in §8, numbers 82 and 83.

elsewhere, with the dancings of triumph*

read citizen*

§ X. The Saint's body lost: his relics in the monasteries of Füssen, Schussenried and Salem.

[ ] The body has now been lost for some centuries: a conjecture We have already said above that the place in which the Saint's body was laid away after the raising made in the church of Füssen is not indicated with sufficient exactness by the writer of the appendix to the Life. By lapse of time the body itself was lost, either because the memory of the burial gradually fell away, or because it was dug up and scattered by barbarians devastating Alemannia, or was hidden for fear of these, or finally perished by some other chance. But from what time it began to lie hidden I have nothing ascertained, except that it has already lain hidden for three centuries and more. This we learn from abbot Henry's annotations, who observes these things on the present matter: I came upon a certain old book, in which abbot Johann Hess writes thus by way of conjecture about the burial of S. Magnus. There follow Johann's words written in German, which rendered into Latin sound to me thus. Likewise there was also built a great sepulcher of stone in the middle of the church; which is said to be the sepulcher of S. Conrad, who is said to have been the second abbot after S. Magnus. And when we were digging lower or deeper, we found a walled sepulcher, above which a stone had been placed. And in the sepulcher we found a body wholly consumed; not otherwise than as if it had been laid in and buried in its monastic habit. Its bones we laid down in the sacristy: and the said sepulcher is near the altar, distant by the space of two feet from the presbyter's sepulcher, which is in the middle of the church. I firmly believe that the aforesaid body is the body of S. Magnus. Would that God might reveal it: I trust in his grace. Then Henry subjoins: These things the aforesaid abbot Johann Hess in the year MCDLXVII.

[117] But this is a mere conjecture, resting on no argument: of Henry, abbot of Füssen, uncertain. it ought at least to have been added whether one of the arms was lacking to that body, which we have said was translated to the monks of St. Gall, or not: for hence we should have a solid argument on one side or the other. Further, those bones were still kept in the sacristy when the XVII century had already begun some years, nor were they yet certainly recognized as those of S. Magnus, as we have from the same Henry, both in this place and elsewhere, where again, inquiring about the Saint's body, he continues in these words: Let it suffice us that S. Magnus in his canonization (so he calls the raising) was raised from his first sepulcher, and was laid away in this same church of ours, and indeed in the choir and beneath the altar; and that not a few of his relics, both of the body and others, are still in our keeping. Finally a certain anonymous monk of Füssen, who in the 29th year of the current century published the Life of the Saint in the German tongue, in book 3, chapter 5, §3, confesses that the holy Abbot's body had not yet, at the time in which he was writing, been brought to light.

[118] The other relics of the holy Abbot Fr. Babenstuber reviews in book 3, chapter 5, in this manner: The Saint's relics at Füssen, the patch of his cowl, stole, maniple, There are seen in the treasury, besides the patch of the cowl with which he was clothed, a stole and a maniple, as they are called, clothed in which he used to officiate at the altar. There is besides a silver chalice, in which he had likewise been wont to perform the Sacred Rites. There is also shown a little silver cross… Finally there is preserved that famous cambatta (staff or crook), which as once against serpents and wild beasts it was stronger than any club of Hercules, so even today is terrible and destructive to the whole race of worms, mice, and noxious insects. Then with a few things interposed he assigns the benefits which are wont to be obtained from God through the use of these relics. And of the shred of the cowl indeed, he says, a most ancient report has it that in earlier ages it was wont to be religiously applied to the sick and especially to women laboring in childbirth, with the wished-for and happy outcome. To the stole and maniple (made of green silk, on the testimony of the anonymous writer of Füssen in the German Life) no special assistance is ascribed: yet they are sometimes applied along with the other relics. But now about the Cross it is more than known and ascertained that, when it is set against a thundering sky threatening ruin to the fields, the clouds are scattered, the air is made serene, the demons that stir up storms are put to flight, and the crops are rendered immune from the impending devastation of hail.

[119] chalice, cross, and their power, Further, from the chalice many have hitherto drunk health and safety: those indeed more frequently for whom either a fever, or poison, or magical maleficence had procured destruction: but also for others to have drunk from it has many times been a present remedy — those who were whirled with vertigo, tortured with toothache, suffered syncope, or were afflicted with certain other sicknesses. Of the crook we shall presently treat more at length, after we have noted a few things about the cross. This is believed to be that very cross which the Saint, while he lived, is said in chapter 5, number 49, to have used. And blessed Magnus the deacon had hanging on his neck a cross, in which were contained relics of the blessed mother of God Mary, and of the wood of the holy Cross, and of the holy martyrs Maurice and his companions, and also of the blessed

confessors Columbanus and Gall. That those same relics are even today still enclosed in the cross the anonymous writer of Füssen writes: the same was testified in the century just past by the often-praised abbot Henry, who, opening it, found in it seven particles, but without any inscription. It may be well to have reported his words, that the learned reader may himself judge what is to be determined about these things.

[120] and some notice of it. Note, he says, that those relics named in the legend are without doubt to this day enclosed in the little cross of S. Magnus, and are most greatly to be venerated. For I, abbot Henry, writing these things in the year MDCVII, on the XIV day of August, caused this little cross to be opened in the presence of Brother Abraham Hayl the subprior, and Br. Caspar Weber the sacristan, and of certain secular persons, and I found seven particles (so I guess, for in German is read siben penggelin, which word I have been unable to find anywhere) rightly and skillfully enclosed: but they have no labels; or if they had, they have been eaten away by age. As regards its form and material, it is related in the German Life, book 3, chapter 5, §3, and it is said to be wholly of silver, except that the image of the crucified Lord is gilded. The shaft of the little cross extends in length to five inches and a half, but the part which lies across the shaft to four and a half: its breadth everywhere slightly exceeds half an inch. It is added that at the four extremities of the cross precious little stones gleam, whose names and value are unknown.

[121] The staff, or crook, handled by SS. Columbanus, Gall and Magnus: I come now to that prodigious staff, most famous far and wide throughout all Swabia for its continual benefits. In the Life it is called cambuta, cambutta, and cambotta; by which word is denoted now the pastoral crook such as bishops use, now a crutch for the armpit, now a traveler's staff: that it is employed in the last signification in the Life is manifest from the context of the events. Saint Columbanus is said to have used it first, and, when he was struggling with his last illness, to have bequeathed it to S. Gall, once his disciple, as a token of a reconciled mind, to be carried to him after his own death, which also was accomplished by the labor of S. Magnus, as the biographer has it in the Life, chapter 3. Some years later, Gall being dead, Magnus, having obtained this staff, carried it to Füssen: on which journey, near Kempten, a town of the Allgäu in the circle of Swabia, he is claimed to have slain with this very staff a huge dragon, in the same Life, chapter 4; where however such incredible things are mixed in that in this part the interpolation of some fable-monger is not difficult to recognize. I do not indeed deny that some dragon was killed in that place by our Saint, and that worms or serpents infesting Kempten or the places neighboring it were driven off and put to flight by the use of the aforesaid staff, as in these times it is established frequently happens: but that that whole town was inhabited by worms alone, and was on that account utterly deserted by its inhabitants, that trifler will not persuade me.

[122] It is uncertain how long that health-bringing staff remained among the monks of Füssen after Magnus was carried to the Powers above. in the monasteries of Füssen and of St. Gall A reason for doubting is furnished by Ekkehard, called the Younger, a writer of the XI century, who in the book On the Occurrences of the monastery of St. Gall, chapter 3, relates that in the time of Bl. Notker Balbulus, that is in the IX century and the beginning of the X, it was kept in the aforesaid community of St. Gall among the sacred treasures. For he says that to Bl. Notker, when in the crypt of the twelve Apostles and of saint Columbanus he was giving himself to pious tears, a demon appeared in the form of a dog; whom he, having seized the staff of SS. Columbanus and Gall, soundly chastised and drove off. His words are these: But hastily going to the altar of S. Gall, (Notker) snatched up his own [] cambota and that of his master (Columbanus), the worker of many miracles, together with that most well-known sphere of the Holy Cross, and, having placed the sphere at the right of the entrance of the crypt, with the staff he attacked that canine devil on the left. He then adds that he inflicted so many blows on the tempter that he broke the staff; which accordingly, that the matter might be hidden, he secretly caused to be repaired. But he, he says, when he had struck the last blow at him, broke the holy staff. And after a few things: The staff being repaired by a craftsman, he concealed for a time what had been done.*

[123] That this staff is the very one which is preserved in the monastery of Füssen is clear from the Life of that same Bl. Notker, written by another Ekkehard, dean of St. Gall, in the XIII century, which our Papebroch published in volume 1 of April at the day VI. For in it at number 39 it is expressly said that Notker used in beating the demon that cambota which his holy master Columbanus had sent through Magnoald the deacon with a letter of absolution to Gall his happy disciple, the worker of many miracles. Of the same staff again mention is made in the Process of canonization of the aforesaid blessed man, begun under Julius II in the year 1513, in which in our Acta, number 38, these things are read: The same witness also (Ulric Herr, professed monk and conventual of the monastery of S. Gall, as is premised) brought a very ancient staff, having a fracture, of which mention is made in the XXVI chapter (in Papebroch numbers 39 and 40) of the Life of Bl. Notker; which is said to be the staff of S. Columbanus, with which the same Bl. Notker is asserted to have beaten the demon. These words leave me doubtful whether the said Ulric Herr brought that staff from the abbey of St. Gall or from that of Füssen, and accordingly whether at the beginning of the XVI century it was preserved in the latter or in the former. But whatever be the case about the time in which it came either to the monks of St. Gall or to those of Füssen, it has now long been guarded among the latter, with no one contradicting, so far at least as I know, to the great good of the surrounding fields, as will appear from the following paragraph.

[124] its description and form. The form and length of the staff the Reverend Father Columban Zeiller, professed of that same community, transmitted in the year 1745 to the Reverend Father Maurice Chardon of the Society of Jesus, rector of the college of Constance in Swabia, from whom, having received it, as very many other things, I have caused it to be engraved on copper, the proportion of the parts being preserved so far as the engraver could. And the said Fr. Zeiller notes that its material is wood, yet unknown: that the silver plates in which the staff itself is enclosed were added partly for ornament, partly for the sake of preservation; namely lest by its age and long use it should gradually be worn away. To ornament likewise belongs the effigy of the Saint set upon it (whether it be gilded or of gold, I do not know). The whole staff extends to three Antwerp feet; the following plate exhibits its figure. And it seems to have certain sacred relics enclosed; for Henry the abbot, after he had noted about the Saint's little cross those things which we reported at number 120, thus continues: On this occasion I took care to open the staff of S. Magnus also, where I found relics of the divine Virgin, of S. Benedict, of S. Magnus, of S. Gall, of S. Ulric, of S. Sebastian, of S. Eustace and Maurice, with their labels containing the names. Likewise another particle without a legible label. These things he in the year 1607.

[125] [A particle of the same is kept among the canons of Schussenried, of the Premonstratensian Order,] Further, the most frequent benefits which God has vouchsafed to confer through that same staff to the glory of his Saint have not undeservedly impelled other religious men also to take pains to obtain some particle of it. Among the rest the regular canons of Schussenried, of the Premonstratensian Order, of whom we shall treat in §12 from number 148, and again in §13, obtained a notable particle, which, enclosed in a precious crook, they employ with no less success than the monks of Füssen against insects harmful to fields and gardens. Take what the often-praised Fr. Lorinzer communicated to me on this matter: Among the other relics which Schussenried possesses and all Swabia venerates, by no means the last place is claimed by the prodigious staff of S. Magnus, abbot, confessor and our patron. This he received as it were by right of inheritance from the holy fathers Columbanus and Gall, but Schussenried received from the monastery of Füssen, not indeed the whole staff, but only a notable part of it taken from the true staff, and given to the men of Schussenried by the aforesaid convent. But at what time this donation was made we cannot determine: for the various revolutions of the times, so many warlike tumults, so many invasions, spoliations and devastations of the monastery, which have happened from its first foundation to these latest times, have blotted out all memory of the past, and have utterly carried away the authentic records.

[126] enclosed in a precious crook, whose form we exhibit: Yet meanwhile a common and certain and perpetual tradition holds, hitherto impugned by no one, and freely asserted by the monks of Füssen themselves, that our particle was taken from the true staff of S. Magnus: and this is most sufficiently proved, and as it were demonstrated to the eye, by the innumerable prodigious effects which have hitherto followed from the touch and devout application of our staff. These things about the sacred particle Lorinzer: but about the crook in which it is inserted he says that it is wholly of silver overlaid with gold, and distinguished with various gems, and extends from head to foot four Schussenried feet and as many inches in length. Whence note in passing that the Annalist of the Premonstratensian Order erred, when in volume 2 of the Annals, column 834, he called that staff of portentous height: into which error he may seem to have fallen from the word prodigiosus, which is wont to be added to the staff, being ill understood; and which he interpreted of height, when he ought to have explained it of the prodigies wont to be wrought through it. Then when the said Annalist at column 833 says of Didacus Strobele, who in the year 1719 was elected abbot of Schussenried: He enclosed the prodigious staff of S. Magnus the abbot in precious relic-cases; either he must be so understood as to mean that the aforesaid prelate enclosed in a precious crook the particle of the staff already for a long time preserved in the abbey, or he conflicts with the words of Lorinzer, who makes that sacred gift much more ancient. Now let us resume what we have begun. On the very apex of the crook shines a statue of the Saint, wrought of the same precious metal, in whose breast the aforesaid sacred particle, nearly two inches long and half an inch wide, is preserved under a crystal glass, and is exposed to the veneration of the people. For the rest, I have thought that I should do a thing not unwelcome to the Swabians if I should set before the eyes of readers this staff also, by whose health-bringing help they have so often rejoiced. Have it therefore in the following plate at page 726, together with the sacred particle, according to the drawing transmitted to me by the often-praised Lorinzer.

[127] likewise another among the monks of Salem, of the Cistercian Order. Some small fragment also from the same staff of Füssen the monastery of Salem, of the Cistercian Order in Swabia, obtained; as we learn from a letter given on this matter in the year 1744 by a certain religious of the same monastery to the above-mentioned Fr. Chardon, in these words: Our last most Reverend and most pious abbot, Stephen Jung, when, being about to visit his monasteries as vicar general of our holy Order through upper Germany, he had come to Füssen, obtained not a part, but a particle of the staff preserved there, and ordered a staff to be made exactly in imitation of that of Füssen, and enclosed in it the aforesaid particle of S. Magnus' staff. Before

four years, however, that is MDCCXL, on the day of S. John the Baptist, I offered to our most Reverend Lord prelate Constantine Müller a part of the cowl of S. Magnus, which as a suppliant I obtained from the abbot of that same monastery, with the impression of the abbatial seal. Then the aforenamed Reverend Lord Constantine placed both the particle of the staff and that of the cowl in a silver staff, made after the pattern of the earlier wooden one. This staff is sent to the places subject to our monastery wherever they may be; and assuredly we feel from it the most abundant benefits against worms and other noxious insects.

* that is, of Gall

§ XI. Of the miracles wont to be wrought through the invocation of S. Magnus and the use of the staff.

[ ] The wonderful power of the sacred staff against insects Ludwig Babenstuber in book 3 of the Life, chapter 5, comprises the admirable effects of the prodigious staff in these words: The power of that same Cambatta against insects and other little creatures hostile to the crops is plainly to be wondered at: which in spring and summer almost daily experiments show more than sufficiently, by which it is manifestly detected that little creatures of that sort cannot bear it fixed in the earth amid the customary prayers and rites; but either die on the spot, or migrate elsewhere, or hasten into the hiding-places of their burrows, that they may snatch themselves from present destruction. Besides, insects are put to flight or killed by branches, leaves, shavings, or earth purified with this staff (or even with the cross of S. Magnus), when the former are set in gardens, meadows, and fields, and when the ground is sprinkled with the latter ground into dust. And hence it comes about that the men of Tyrol, of the Allgäu, of the Bodensee, of Bregenz, the Helvetians, Swabians, Bavarians and other peoples eagerly seek this sacred Averter of ills. Similar things Gabriel Bucelin has, writing thus in the Benedictine Menology at the day VI of September: The staff of the most holy Abbot, today skillfully encased in silver and gold, is sought into the various provinces of upper Germany against frequent plagues of insects and the pitiable devastations of meadows and fields; and it is received with great applause of the people who come to meet it, and with solemn pomp, is escorted, and, being fixed in the earth, by a miracle continued through so great a course of ages, with such little creatures most prodigiously killed or driven off, it brings help to the most sorely afflicted peoples. These things they, which we shall presently confirm by fitting testimonies.

[129] proved by various prodigies And first indeed, to begin from the older, in the manuscript Annotations of Henry, abbot of Füssen, composed before the year 1611, I find the following: As regards his staff, experience has hitherto abundantly taught that, when it is fixed in the earth where worms are trying to destroy the grain and other things growing from the earth, the worms straightway fall down, depart, and die. And thus the divine Magnus, as regards the killing of worms, has been endowed by the Lord God with a special grace, so that scarcely one like him has been found who thus drives out and kills worms, gnats, caterpillars and the other things harmful to grain, trees, crops and herbs: so that, men being drawn by the fame of these wonders and taught by experience, the aforesaid relics have very often been sought, carried away, and led about in the regions of Attica, of Bavaria, of Swabia, of Helvetia and the like, where the Lord God, through the merits of our most holy patron Magnus, has worked exceeding great things; so that in the very procession and leading about of the relics, the worms have fallen from the fruits of the earth, have withdrawn, and have died.

[130] in the XVI and XVII centuries Thus under abbot Benedict the abbot of Steingaden asked that our abbot would send our sacristan with the relics of S. Magnus to Steingaden, because worms, commonly called caterpillars, were preparing to gnaw the herbs. To whom our abbot, favoring him as a neighbor, sent the sacristan, who blessed those vegetables and things growing from the earth with the relics of the divine Magnus. And when afterward that abbot was showing our sacristan the services of hospitality, behold, the keeper of the peacocks of Steingaden came with joy to the table of the abbot dining with our sacristan, and called out to those eating that they should run and see wonders, because in truth all the worms were withdrawing from the gardens, leaving the herbs and vegetables; nor did they appear any more. The like was done in the year MDLIII. Likewise in the year MDLX, in the year MDLXVIII. Likewise in the year MDLXXX, in the year MDLXIII, in the year MDLIV. Likewise in the year MDLXXXV, in the year MDLXXXVI, in the year MDLXXXVII, in the year MDLXXXII, in the year MDCVI; and in very many other places, especially about the places of Bregenz, at Schongau; at Vils, at Seckh and Riekhholz, Ayttwang, Rettenberg, Immenstadt, etc. So that on account of the most present power three villages of the lordship of Bregenz, namely Krünenbach, Kestras and Rettenbach, promised by letters given that they would keep the day of S. Magnus as a feast every year; which we find that they observe most diligently. Further, it must be observed that the said abbot is a writer contemporary with the benefits which he relates, since indeed he was first raised to the prelacy of S. Magnus in the year 1604.

[131] and ascertained in the XVIII More recent are the things which we have received from Swabia on the same subject. The Reverend Fr. Columban Zeiller, professed of the abbey of Füssen, in his letter to the Reverend Fr. Chardon given in the year 1745 on this subject, writes thus: As regards the benefits, it must be known and safely intimated to the fathers of Antwerp that they occur every year in the blessings of fields, meadows, gardens, etc., infested with harmful creatures, as Swabia, Bavaria, Tyrol, and the Breisgau abundantly testify; and especially and repeatedly, namely in the year MDCCXXXI, Helvetia experienced it, being almost astounded at the unwonted favors, and at the flocks of such noxious insects driven off or straightway dead. It must be noted besides that, according to the character of the places where the holy relics are desired, the Father Sacristan on his arrival, bearing the staff of S. Magnus, is received with the greatest pomp, that the inhabitants, at the ringing of the bells, come out beyond the gates to meet him in suppliant procession, and so accompany him on his return, etc. These things Fr. Columban: but since a domestic testimony might perhaps seem suspect to certain ill-disposed critics, I add others also sought from elsewhere. Our most diligent helper, the aforesaid Reverend Fr. Chardon, had written to the monastery of Kempten of the Order of S. Benedict in Swabia, that if they had in their archive any records about the acts or miracles of S. Magnus, they would not think it burdensome to communicate them.

[132] He received a most courteous answer, but no records. and confirmed by various testimonies Since indeed, after the fury of the rebellious peasants, by which that monastery was utterly devastated in the year 1525, nearly nothing of the sacred relics and ancient manuscripts had survived, and this very remnant had been altogether taken away by the Swedish war, in which that same abbey suffered the extremity in the year 1632. Yet the aforesaid letter added a notable testimony, which I transfer hither in just so many words. Notwithstanding this deplorable poverty of ours, we abound in living witnesses of the great esteem in which S. Magnus is held with God; since scarcely any man of sound mind is to be found in this territory and its neighborhood who could not affirm on oath that he and his parents and neighbors have many times obtained deliverance from the infestation of mice and insects through the intercession of S. Magnus. For as soon as a plague of this kind, not rare in these regions, seems to creep in, the farmers piously have recourse to the monastery of Füssen, and beg that the staff of S. Magnus be sent out: which being obtained, and the blessing performed with fitting prayers over the fields, meadows, etc., the mice and other unwelcome reapers of the fields are wont to disappear as it were instantaneously. Of the same prodigies, unless I am mistaken, Karl Meichelbeck, Benedictine of Benediktbeuern, speaks in the History of Freising, volume 1, Dissertation 2, page XIII, where, treating of S. Magnus, he has this: Whose sanctity daily benefits exceeding all the powers of nature still testify, and sometimes kindle even in the heterodox themselves the light of the Catholic faith.

[133] And how truly these things are asserted may be gathered from an authentic letter A letter in which the magistracy of Ingolstadt given by the magistracy of Ingolstadt in the year 1729 to the abbot of Füssen, in which the people of Ingolstadt with thanksgiving attest a similar prodigy obtained by the help of the staff. It was written in the German tongue, and subscribed by the Pro-prætor and the greater Ædile, and also by the captain of the city, as they call him, and the lesser Ædile, and the whole prefecture of works. A copy of it, subscribed with the own hand of the most Reverend lord Benedict, for the time abbot of Füssen, and fortified with his seal for making credit, our most friendly Reverend Fr. Chardon procured for us, who also translated it into Latin in this manner.

[134] gratefully attests a prodigy wrought in the year 1718 in the expulsion of mice: Most Reverend, most noble and most worthy lord, lord Prelate, gracious lord. Infinite thanks be to God best and greatest, that in the past year he put into our mind that we should ask that the prodigious staff of S. Magnus be sent hither against mice and other noxious insects: and we, with the whole prefecture of works, confess ourselves bound for all time to your most Reverend and most noble worthiness, and to the whole praiseworthy convent and monastery; inasmuch as at our prayers, in the extreme necessity and calamity with which we were afflicted, it straightway succored us with this prodigious staff of S. Magnus, and graciously sent the same by the very Reverend Fr. Augustine Wündt, altogether a rare zealot and most praiseworthy priest (whom may the Powers above be willing to recompense with eternal rewards for his most ardent prayers, by which God had to be bent to our wishes, and for his untiring effort and labor). And indeed we have so experienced this prodigious help of the Saint, great in name and in fact, that for a whole year afterward in our fields, gardens and houses neither a mouse nor any other insect was permitted either to be seen or to be felt, and accordingly we now enjoy a rich and abundant harvest.

[135] in gratitude: As a slight token of our highest gratitude we bequeath ten florins to be placed in the box, and we leave it to your gracious disposition whether it please your most Reverend and most noble worthiness that two or three Masses in honor of S. Magnus be bequeathed from this money: we on S. Magnus' own feast, in thanksgiving and to obtain further favors of the holy man, will cause a solemn Office to be sung, nor shall we ever permit that here at Ingolstadt this heavenly benefit be handed over to ungrateful oblivion, with humble prayers added that your most Reverend and most noble worthiness would vouchsafe to intercede for us at the precious ashes of S. Magnus, that we may deserve hereafter also to enjoy his help; who, relying on this gracious assent, in every possible manner and with devotion obediently commend ourselves to your gracious and perennial favors. At Ingolstadt, the XXV of July MDCCXXIX.

Of your most Reverend, most noble and most worthy lordship,

The obedient

Johann Reüsch, licentiate in both laws, Pro-prætor of the city, and for the time greater Ædile.

Vitus Kleydorster, Captain of the city, and for the time lesser Ædile;

And the whole prefecture of Works.

And at the foot of our German copy the abbot himself, his seal being affixed, wrote: That this copy agrees word for word with its original, Benedict, abbot at S. Magnus' in Füssen, testifies on his abbatial faith. VI January MDCCXLV.

[136] about which a few things are noted. From this letter two things must here be observed in passing. The one is how great a hope and confidence the inhabitants of Swabia and of the neighboring regions place in the merits of S. Magnus; since the men of Ingolstadt, between whom and the monastery of Füssen the Map of F. de Wit places a distance of twenty common German miles, took care that that staff be brought to them in extreme, as they say, necessity and calamity

— which assuredly they do not seem likely to have done, unless they had been sufficiently assured of its health-bringing help from certain report or experience. The other is how usefully and happily the men of Ingolstadt placed their hope; since indeed they were not only freed from an extreme, as they themselves say, necessity and calamity, but so freed that for a whole year afterward in their fields, gardens and houses neither a mouse nor any other insect was permitted either to be seen or to be felt; whence also, instead of the scarcity of crops which they feared from the noxious insects, they rejoiced in a rich and abundant harvest.

[137] Of the staff of Schussenried the often-praised Fr. Lorinzer wrote to me things entirely similar, Similar benefits through the particle at Schussenried asserting among other things that that staff of theirs is frequently sought not only by neighboring but even by far-distant villages against pests of the fields of this kind: whence it comes about that the priests of Schussenried are now and then compelled to be absent from the monastery for three or even more weeks, occupied in this office of blessing. And lest anyone should think these things said more speciously than truly, in his latest letter, given to me in this year 1747 on the XV day of March, he brings forward a most recent example in these words: At this very hour, while I write these things, a letter is handed to me, directed to our most Reverend Lord prelate, in which the consul and magistracy of Überlingen most urgently ask that one of our priests be sent, with the staff of S. Magnus, to places infested with harmful creatures, that they may be blessed there, whose help they have so often and so wonderfully experienced in times past. Überlingen, an imperial city, is distant XII leagues from Schussenried. Further, in what manner and with what applause of the people that health-bringing rod is wont to be received, he relates in another place in this manner: When that same sacred relic is carried to some places to be blessed, the priest who is to bless is received most honorably, and, at the ringing of all the bells, with an escort of the clergy present and a most numerous and most devout concourse of people, is conducted to the places requested.

[138] But about the benefits wont to be obtained he has thus: and by the exhibiting of the Saint's molar tooth. This is irrefragably certain, and can be demonstrated by innumerable examples, that the same (staff), as often as it is applied with true faith and sincere devotion, produces admirable effects. This becomes especially plain in spring and summer, when namely in fields, gardens, and vineyards pestilential worms are rampant, or any other harmful little creatures whatever, which gnaw or infect the roots of the crops, or begin to devour the leaves, flowers or fruits of the trees: as soon as that sacred staff, with the customary prayers and blessings, is fixed in the earth where that pest is rampant, it forthwith ceases and is extinguished, and those pestilential worms by thousands upon thousands migrate as swiftly as possible, or fail in themselves, or perish in a moment. Then he adds about a tooth which, preserved among them, they believe to be that of S. Magnus: A like and almost the same power has a tooth which is handed down to be one of the molars of S. Magnus, and as such has always been held by our church, and for several centuries of years most religiously venerated. This, I say, when the sacred staff is absent, having perhaps been carried into other territories, takes its place in bestowing the benefits mentioned above.

[139] Another benefit besides the Reverend Fr. Columban Zeiller wrote to our friend the often-praised Reverend Fr. Chardon, in the year 1745, on the XXVII day of January, as by no means doubtful and to be inserted into our Acta, [A plague of cattle ceases after a vow is made, and the pastures are purified with the staff.] which for that reason it has seemed good to recite in his very words. In the year MDCCXLIII, when a plague of animals was rampant in our parts, and in the city of Füssen some cattle had already died, the senate and people of Füssen, taking counsel, conceived a vow that they would offer to S. Magnus the cow which should in the evening enter the gate of the town first from the pastures, that by the help of the holy Patron the murrain of the cattle might cease. The vow being thus made, and a blessing imparted to the pastures and the animals with the staff of the divine Magnus, the murrain forthwith ceased, nor did any animal perish from that day in the city. Which benefit the city of Füssen with grateful mind attests. The men of Füssen could have taken this counsel from the happy outcome which their ancestors in the year 1498, in a similar murrain of cattle, after such a vow had been pronounced, had experienced, on the testimony of abbot Henry in his manuscript Annotations, as we shall show below in the Miracles.

[140] [The son of the illustrious count de Spaur, a vow being pronounced, suddenly recovers.] Nor can I here pass over in silence another benefit conferred by the same Saint on the younger count de Spaur, when his health was already almost despaired of. And lest I should seem to have either added or taken away anything, I transfer it hither in the same words in which the Reverend Fr. Chardon received it from the monastery of Füssen. In the year MDCCXXXIX the most illustrious lord count de Spaur, with his most excellent wife and his two children, set out abroad to Sonnenburg, the most famous monastery (of noble virgins) of the Order of S. Benedict (in the county of Tyrol), for the transacting of certain business there: when suddenly both children began to sicken; and the evil so grew strong that the physicians augured, not vainly, that it was all over with them. And indeed on the next day the little daughter ended her life. This fate terrified the most illustrious count: and, that he might set a limit to his excessive sadness, the nuns of Sonnenburg advise and persuade him to conceive a vow to S. Magnus for the preserving of his little son's life: he conceived it, and from that hour the young count recovered. As soon as his full strength returned, the most illustrious count hastened to Füssen, proclaimed to many the benefit conferred, and, thanks having been rendered to the heavenly Preserver, in the presence of his most illustrious wife and the young count, hung up a silver votive offering upon the Saint's altar as an everlasting monument of his gratitude. We shall give more miracles after the Life.

§ XII. The Saint's cult famous in Germany.

[ ] The famous veneration of the Saint in Swabia: chiefly at Füssen, Most famous among the Germans, especially in Swabia, is the posthumous glory of S. Magnus, most famous his cult, on account of the most frequent prodigies continued for the solace of mortals already for many centuries down to the present day. The place of his veneration is not one: yet the chief and most ancient is the monastery of Füssen or Fauces, which was once ennobled by the sepulcher of its holy Abbot, and now, the sacred body being lost, so far as appears, religiously preserves his prodigious staff and certain other relics, and most usefully employs them for warding off public and private calamities. This monastery is situated on the river Lech in Swabia, a province of Germany, in a little town of the same name, which by many is also called Abusiacum. Michael Baudrand in the New geographical Lexicon of Philip Ferrarius hands down this notice of it: Abusiacum, or Abodiacus, Füssen, a town formerly of Vindelicia in Rhætia, now of Swabia, a province of Germany, on the very border of Bavaria, variæ, in the dominion of the bishop of Augsburg. It is distant XII German miles from Augsburg of the Vindelici to the South.

[142] The same man premises the following from Ferrarius: Abusiacum, of which place a brief notice is given. or, as other codices have, Abusacum and Abuzacum, Fuissen, a town of Rhætia on the river Lech, situated within the narrows of the mountains, which for that reason is also called in Latin Fauces (whence the community of Fauces), occurring III leagues from Kempten (Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of the Saints sets 5 miles) to the East-southeast, on the road which leads to Trent. This etymology does not please Melchior Goldast, who on chapter 1 of Ekkehard the Younger's Occurrences of St. Gall notes this: Fauces (Fuessen) at the feet of the Julian Alps, whence also it took its name, so that by the ancients it was called Fauzin, that is Feet: for so the ancients pronounced it. And after a few things: Our monks unskillfully rendered it Fauces. But these things I leave to be examined by learned Germans. About the monastery we shall hand down more in the following §. Meanwhile I hasten to the Saint's memory celebrated in the ecclesiastical calendars and the Breviaries of various dioceses.

[143] It is assuredly a wonder that S. Magnus' name has not yet been inscribed in the Roman Martyrology: The Saint's name has not been inscribed in the Roman Martyrology: the cause of which is perhaps to be sought from no other head than that those whom it most concerned did not press the supreme Pontiffs to grant that honor to their Patron and Helper. Whatever be the case, most frequent is his announcement among the martyrologists, who in great number mark the sacred memory of S. Magnus the confessor on this day: take some of these. Blessed Notker Balbulus, who flourished in the IX century and the beginning of the X, thus announces him at the day VI of September: The birthday of saint Magnus the confessor, disciple of blessed Gall, a wonderful and most holy man. The Martyrology of Reichenau, or of Augia Dives, which our Sollier published in volume VI of June, part 2, among the contracted Hieronymian Martyrologies: VIII Ides of Sept… the birthday of saint Magnus, confessor. In the same place the Martyrology of Augsburg of the monastery of S. Ulric at the day cited: Of Magnus, confessor. About both the said Sollier may be consulted in the Preface to the edition of Usuard: but from what time our Saint was inscribed in them I have not ascertained.

[144] With these agrees an ancient Kalendar from a manuscript of the monastery of Lérins, printed by Martène in volume 3 of the Thesaurus Anecdotorum, but in several others which he himself judges was written 600 years ago. There agrees also another old one of Verdun, published by the aforesaid collector in volume 6 of the Collectio amplissima, column 682. There is added the Martyrology of S. Martin of Trier, likewise manuscript, which the said Sollier, placing it at page XII among the Hieronymian ones, suspects was first put together for the use of some church either of Trier or even of Belgium. In this at the VIII Ides of September it is likewise read: At Fauces, of Magnus the confessor. Among the Kalendars which Domenico Giorgi published at Rome in the year 1745 with the Martyrology of Ado, two also mention the same Saint. The first he calls the Palatine-Vatican Kalendar, prefixed to a Gregorian Sacramentary of the XII century: the other, whose date he does not express, he entitles: Milanese Kalendar II: each announces S. Magnus the confessor at the present day. Nor is his memory less frequent in the supplements to Usuard, which may be seen in our Sollier, and which for brevity's sake I pass over. For the same cause I pass over the more recent martyrologists, whom I could review in a long series.

[145] It will be useful, however, to have adduced the text of Galesinius: At Fauces, he says, of saint Magnus the confessor: who, being a disciple of saint Gall, he is most frequently mentioned. by the divine office of preaching inflamed the minds of many to act piously, and, noble for the praise of his miracles and of his religiously led life, was inscribed among the Saints by the bishop of Augsburg with the authority of the supreme Pontiff. An honorable eulogy of him is extant besides in Bucelin in the Benedictine Menology, from which, because it is rather lengthy, I have excerpted the following. He departed, most heaped up as in years so in merits, and was entombed in his own community which he had founded at Fauces Juliæ (commonly Füssen); whose memory among the Germans is by far the most famous: so that, on account of the continual miracles which through his venerable relics are everywhere wrought, both in the fields and in the beasts and in men,

to the fourteen Saints, as they are called, the Helpers, he himself has been joined as the fifteenth, with an assuredly memorable commendation of his merits.

These things he, subjoining the miracles which the divine clemency frequently works through the Saint's staff for the relief of the wretched; of which we treated in the preceding §. About his reception among the Helpers of Germany we shall speak in this very paragraph. Whether he was inscribed in the canon of the Saints by order of the Pontiff we discussed in §9.

[146] The inventions of Tamayo are hissed off. Further, from what has hitherto been said and from what is to be said below, it can be doubtful to no one that S. Magnus lived and died in Swabia, and, after a mortal life most holily led, obtained his chief cult in the monastery of Füssen in Swabia: wherefore Juan Tamayo is worthy of laughter, when in his Spanish Martyrology he thus announces our Saint in Spain: At Fauces, a town in Vettonia in Spain, of saint Magnus, who, when he had come to the Spains with S. Columbanus, and as a renowned abbot had built the monastery of S. Martin in the territory of the city of Plasencia, and had contrived many other things against the heretics, after the running-out of this life, famous for miracles and conspicuous in sanctity, hastened, a strenuous confessor, to eternal rest. These things and the like, which in the same place he vainly tries to prove from the supposititious Julianus and Luitprand about S. Magnus' coming into the Spains, his erection of monasteries, and his canonization made by Bento or Lantho, bishop of Saragossa or Augsburg, in the town of Lusitania at Fauces — these things, I say, are worthy of laughter, and do not deserve to be refuted.

[147] Cult in various dioceses But how truly the same Bucelin asserts that the memory of S. Magnus is by far the most famous among the Germans, various Breviaries and Missals of Germany prove, from which we learn that the Saint's cult was received not only in Swabia, but also in Bavaria, the circles of the Rhine, Franconia, Alsace, nay even in Belgium. Indeed from the Breviaries which are extant in our museum I have found sixteen dioceses in all which have pursued him with an annual veneration, or still pursue him. Of this kind are the archdiocese of Mainz, and its suffragans of Augsburg of the Vindelici, of Strasbourg, of Würzburg, of Constance, of Eichstätt, of Speyer and of Worms: likewise the church of Vienna in Austria, of Passau and of Regensburg in Bavaria, of Breslau in Silesia, of Minden in Westphalia, and finally of Cologne on the Rhine. To these are added two Belgian Breviaries, namely of Tongres and of Utrecht, both ancient. Nor is it to be doubted that he obtained cult in other dioceses besides those already enumerated: for both his continual benefits and the title of Helper of Germany seem to require it.

[148] The same must beyond all doubt be determined about the monasteries Ancient cult which we shall show below were erected to his name. Yet I cannot here pass over in silence the most famous abbey of Schussenried, of the sacred Premonstratensian Order, in upper Swabia; whose zeal in promoting the cult of S. Magnus shines out not a little. Take therefore what the Reverend and excellent lord Evermod Lorinzer, regular canon of the same abbey and doctor of sacred Theology, most courteously transmitted to me on this matter among other things. With what zeal and fervor, he says, and likewise with what affection of piety and singular devotion our fathers and forefathers have always venerated S. Magnus the abbot and our patron, is sufficiently gathered from this, that, not content with the common Office by which holy abbots and confessors are celebrated by the Church, they composed a new and proper one, taken from the Life of that same Saint, and solemnly sang it every year on his feast-day and through the whole Octave. This cult lasted for about two hundred years; which being elapsed, it began gradually to cease, and at length, when the Swedish war came on about the year MDCXXXII, in which all the religious were driven into exile, and the monastery itself burned, it wholly ceased.

[149] This Office I have in my hands, sent by the said lord Lorinzer. in the abbey It has proper Antiphons at all the Hours, and also the responsories of the Nocturns: likewise proper lessons of the 2nd Nocturn, and also hymns and almost all the rest: yet it contains nothing pertaining to the Saint's acts beyond those things which are related in the Life. At first Vespers this hymn is prescribed.

A new star shines forth now, bright with the solemnities of Magnus, and blesses Germany and Gaul with a new Apostle.

Rejoice, people, solemnly, once grievously harassed by the furies of demons, of worms, and of beasts.

Now mayest thou shine with the light of Christ, and rejoice in peace of heart, and praise God continually, and proclaim Magnoald.

These little plants Magnus himself set in the field of virtue, and handed them over to the tillers of virtue to be piously cherished.

We pray therefore the Dwellers in heaven that he may fortify our ways, whereby, following after him, we may tread the paths of life.

Praise to the simple Trinity, and to the threefold unity, to the Father, and the Father's Son, and to the co-equal Breath. Amen.

[150] The hymn at Matins is excerpted from the verses of Schussenried which in Henry Canisius, Antiquæ Lectiones, volume 5, are ascribed to Ratpert, which we have already given at number 106: but at Lauds the following was sung.

Let a clear voice resound praises in the quiet season of night, mingling devout jubilations with the encomiums of father Magnus.

This Magnus, laying hold of the lofty summits of heavenly perfection, bore the life of an Angel in a mortal body.

He spurned his father's very ample estates and his mother's bosom; and, wandering through the deserts, he sought the lost sheep.

Absolve us, good Jesus, by the merits of blessed Magnus; blotting out the evil which thou rejectest, adding the good which thou regardest.

Praise to the Trinity, etc., as above.

[151] in Swabia. Besides, on the XXII day of March the same Premonstratensians of Schussenried recalled the translation of S. Magnus with the same Office, except that for the lessons of the 2nd Nocturn they substituted the Sermon of the Venerable Bede the presbyter on the Birthday of S. Benedict: Peter, hearing from the Lord, etc., and changed a few other things also. Nor did their piety toward their Patron stop here: but besides, on every Thursday through the year not hindered by a double feast, the following Antiphon with a Prayer is prescribed to be said at Lauds and Vespers: Let us praise the glorious man and our parent saint Magnus in his generation, whose departure beholding, let us follow the footsteps of his manner of life. ℣. The Lord led the just man through right ways. ℞. And showed him the kingdom of God. Prayer. May we be helped, we beseech thee, O Lord, by the merits of S. Magnus thy confessor, that what our own ability does not obtain may be granted us by his intercession. Through Christ, etc. This was of old the cult of S. Magnus among the men of Schussenried; about the present-day cult he continues thus.

[152] The present-day cult But as regards the modern cult, the Office is now made from the Common of Abbots, except the Lessons of the 2nd Nocturn, which are from the Proper of Constance. Then, having briefly described the extent of the diocese of Constance, he subjoins: Throughout this whole most numerous and most spacious diocese our Saint is venerated every year on the VI of September; but with greater cult than elsewhere in the church of Schussenried, as its Patron, and, after the divine Virgin assumed into the heavens, its special and primary one: in this indeed he is venerated not only in the choir, but also in public, with a precept and obligation of hearing Mass and of abstaining from servile work throughout the whole district of Schussenried. The same obligation in public not long ago several other places and whole cities imposed upon themselves, on account of the most recent benefits which they obtained through the Saint's intercession.

[153] in the same abbey The concourse of people on the feast itself to our church is well-nigh infinite: several churches come thither in procession with a solemn escort of clergy, and most devoutly venerate S. Magnus, whose statue in natural size, clothed in precious vestments, is exposed in the middle of the church. For the sermon there speaks a preacher from outside, the most famous and most eloquent among all who can be had: the solemn Mass is sung by the abbot himself in pontificals, with a notable array both of ministers and of musicians: or by a prelate from outside, to whom this office of honor has been offered out of courtesy. The Mass being finished, the people venerate with a pious kiss the sacred staff exhibited by a canon priest. Besides the day of his death, which is the VI of September, the church of Schussenried celebrates the feast of the translation of S. Magnus every year on the XXII day of March: and also on every Tuesday through the year not hindered by some feast, the greater or conventual Mass is sung of that same holy Patron of ours, besides the common suffrage which is said of him at Lauds and Vespers. And so much for the cult of our holy Patron, both ancient and modern.

[154] Then the cult which he obtained in the diocese of Constance and in the diocese of Constance: he is invoked the notes of the said Lorinzer briefly comprise in these words: Through all the rest of the diocese too he is venerated and invoked as a Wonder-worker, as an Apostle, as the Common Father and Helper of all who mourn and are afflicted. But since we have understood above from Bucelin that he has been joined as the fifteenth to the fourteen Helpers, the place and order require that we should explain this very thing briefly. The Germans call their holy Helpers those whom by a certain ancient institution they chiefly invoke as special patrons with God, either for warding off calamities that come on, or for obtaining benefits. The most Reverend lord Thomas, abbot of Langheim, of the Cistercian Order, published a special little work in the German tongue about the middle of the century just past, concerning the holy Helpers who are invoked at Langheim in the diocese of Bamberg under that title. He reckons fourteen, among whom S. Magnus is not named, as neither in the Mass wont to be celebrated of them. Greven in the supplements to Usuard, at the day VIII of August, enumerating fifteen, sets the glorious Mother of God before those same fourteen whom the said little book and the Mass reckon; with no [ ] mention of S. Magnus.

[155] But in an old Missal of the diocese of Utrecht in Belgium among the holy he has a place among the holy Helpers. That book, printed at Leiden in the year 1514, among the Masses to be read for various calamities sets forth one Of the fifteen Helpers: and the collect is of this kind: Almighty and most gentle God, who hast adorned thy chosen Saints, George, Blaise, Erasmus, Pantaleon, Vitus, Christopher, Dionysius, Cyriacus, Acacius, Eustace, Magnus, Giles, Margaret, Barbara, and Katherine, with special privileges; we beseech thee that all we who in our necessities implore their help may, according to the grace of thy promise, obtain the saving effect of our petition. Grant us, O Lord, pardon of our sins, and by their intervening merits free us from all adversities, and kindly hear our prayers. Through our Lord, etc. In the Secret and the Postcommunion the same names are repeated. A similar Mass may be read in an ancient Missal of the archdiocese of Mainz, printed in the year 1493, which, although it bears the title Of the fourteen holy Helpers, nevertheless in the collect venerates fifteen, and among these expressly S. Magnus. Him too the Missal of the Order of Preachers, printed in the year 1550, reckons among them.

[156] It may indeed be doubted whether under the name of Magnus our holy Abbot is here meant; Helpers. since both various men of the same name are celebrated in the Church, and by Giovanni Battista de Franchis in an Italian little work printed at Palermo S. Magnus bishop of Oderzo is reckoned among the holy Helpers. Yet I should prefer to believe that the Abbot of Füssen is designated in the Missals of Mainz and Utrecht: for since each diocese belonged to Germany,

it is more probable that some Saint famous for benefits in Germany, rather than a bishop of Oderzo in Italy, was joined to the Helpers of both churches. Further, the same title is attributed to him by Babenstuber, who inscribes his little work with these words: Saint Magnus, apostle of the Allgäu, common Helper of the Germans. There agrees Franz Petrus, regular canon of S. Augustine, in his Suevia ecclesiastica, page 326, saying: Even among far-distant and foreign nations S. Magnus is venerated with honor and with a solemn feast-day, and among those Saints whom on account of certain special prerogatives we call Helpers he is held a most present patron.

§ XIII. Churches and monasteries erected to God under the Saint's invocation.

[ ] The foundation of Füssen, as it is narrated in the Life Among the sacred places dedicated to God throughout Germany to the glory of S. Magnus, the most ancient is the monastery of Füssen, which venerates that same Saint as its first abbot and founder. Concerning the founders, by whose wealth it was first built and then restored and enlarged, the following little verses are circulated:

Pippin founded the community of Füssen with a royal endowment, Moved by the divine power of saint Magnus: The same Cæsar Charles repaired it when it was laid waste, And bishop Simpert in the city of Augsburg: After this Leopold, margrave of the Austrian land, And Guelph, duke of the Swabians, amply increased it.

This Pippin our interpolator makes a king and the brother of Carloman, and asserts that he was moved by the favor of the latter, now a monk, and by a letter formerly given by S. Columbanus to Clothaire and exhibited by S. Wicterp, so as munificently to supply a place and yearly revenues for building a monastery and for supporting monks in it. But since that Pippin the king is nearly a whole century later than S. Magnus, he could not have made the aforesaid donation to Magnus while he was surviving among the living. Thou wilt perhaps marvel how he could fall into such foul parachronisms and gross errors: but such forsooth was the man's disposition, that, content to have patched together his little work out of the lucubrations of others, he took no care at all whether the things which he had made his own from them suited the date of the matters which he was handling.

[158] is shown to be an invention But lest I should seem to have said this gratuitously, it is well to recite Walafrid's own words, that, when they are compared with the compiler's text, no doubt on this matter may be left to the reader. And so Walafrid in the book On the Miracles, chapter XI, in Mabillon, 1st Benedictine Century, page 255 and following, has these things: Carloman … for the love of the heavenly kingdom laid aside the pomp of secular glory; and when for the sake of a quieter life he was making for Rome, … he came to the same monastery (of St. Gall) for the sake of prayer: and hearing that the same place was made illustrious by the Lord with assiduous powers of signs for the merits of the blessed man, he is reported to have said: This place indeed is slender in means, but is noised abroad with famous report for the merits of Bl. Gall. And when he wished to confer some solace of his bounty on those dwelling there, but reflected that, being detached by the affairs of the kingdom, he could not accomplish what he wished, he wrote to his brother that out of regard for his love he would vouchsafe to bestow on that same monastery some solace of royal bounty.

[159] it is shown: He adds that Pippin assented, and gave orders to saint Otmar that in the place committed to him he should establish, for the supplying of Bl. Gall's vigils, the order of the regular life: then that he granted him certain tributaries from that same district … and the taxes which they had to bring in yearly to the royal revenues. And lest anyone's avarice, he says, should oppose the increase of so great a good, he caused a letter of lasting security to be written, and, as is the custom, to be strengthened with circumspect caution, etc. Finally he concludes the chapter with these words: Abbot Otmar, endowed with these solaces of royal piety and exalted with honors, returns joyful to his monastery; and from that time the beginning indeed of the monastic life began in the community of S. Gall, but its increase and progress does not cease even today to be laudably enlarged. From this passage of Walafrid, I say, the compiler, in putting together the foundation of the monastery of Füssen, fell into so gross an error as will be manifest to anyone comparing the two writers. But what he relates about the epistle of S. Columbanus to king Clothaire, this without doubt he did because he had found in Jonas in that saint's Life, number 61, that he had given a letter from Italy to the aforesaid king, and had asked that he would cherish with royal support and protection his comrades who were dwelling at Luxeuil.

[160] Our Bolland in volume III of February, pages 254 and following, judges that this notable donation made to the holy Abbot was by Bl. Pippin, perhaps to be ascribed to Bl. Pippin, or to him and to Pippin the king. duke and Mayor of the palace of the kings of Austrasia, whose Acts he illustrates in the same place. Nor is this opinion of Bolland improbable: for it is certain that Pippin, son of Martel and brother of Carloman, could not have founded that monastery while Magnus was alive. Perhaps too we shall not stray far from the truth if we say that something must be attributed to each Pippin; and that Bl. Pippin indeed gave some revenues to the Saint, which afterward, a century later, Pippin the king confirmed and enlarged. On this conjecture it is not difficult to understand on what occasion the interpolator fell into the parachronisms of which we have often spoken above. For it was easy for an unskilled man to confuse those two Pippins, and thus to ascribe to one and the same what had to be attributed to two: from which error a confusion of times necessarily followed; so that Pippin the king, Carloman the monk, S. Otmar the abbot, and Odilo duke of the Bavarians were determined to be contemporaries of S. Magnus about the middle of the VII century, who under those circumstances belong to the middle of the VIII.

[161] Whatever be the case, the beginnings of the monastery of Füssen are wont to be sought from a certain small chapel The beginnings and progress of the monastery of Füssen: which S. Magnus is claimed to have founded in honor of the Holy Savior, and in it to have celebrated the divine praises with his disciples. This chapel, together with the community, they relate was once and again destroyed and restored; until at length in the IX century, being begun to be built again from the foundations by the bishops of Augsburg, it became a more spacious church; which, dedicated by bishop Lanto in honor of the Holy Savior and of Magnus, was made the parish church of that neighborhood. Finally in the first year of the current century the same monastery and church began to be renewed anew far more august under the most Reverend lord Gerard, the LII abbot of that place, and at length in the year 1717, on the XV day of February, it was consecrated by the most Reverend and most Serene lord Alexander Sigismund, bishop of Augsburg, Count Palatine, etc. That it is assuredly a splendid and magnificent church may be gathered from the graphic description of it which the Reverend Fr. Chardon, Rector of the college of Constance of our Society, having received it from the men of Füssen, most courteously transmitted to us after his manner, and which for the Saint's posthumous glory I subjoin in the same words.

[162] The interior appearance of the church expresses the figure of a cross: a description its length extends to two hundred feet; its height to sixty: but where the vaulting opens an ample circumference to the topmost surface in the manner of a vast tower, it rises to a full hundred feet. The breadth which suits the figure of the cross which the church represents contains eighty-four feet, the rest sixty. The whole mass rests upon twelve columns, wonderfully gleaming with marble feigned by art, which as many round images of the holy Apostles, most skillfully wrought of the most precious marble, magnificently adorn: it receives light through sixty windows of threefold kind, oblong, round, and lunette. Below the lunette windows a huge projection, about three feet broad, juts out from the wall, so that one may most conveniently go round the whole church, and wipe away the troublesome dust both from the paintings and from the other carvings of plaster with which the whole vault is adorned.

[163] of the new church of Füssen A little lower four oratories, as they call them, jut out from the wall; two larger fitted for the musicians, the rest for the devotion of those who pray: from one of these lies open the approach to the pulpit, most skillfully wrought of a nobler wood by the ingenious hand of the sculptor; from which the herald of the divine word is wont to speak in the sermon. The vault is divided with wonderful art by ten magnificent arches; between which huge round spaces are stretched, in which the most happy hand of the painter has set the immortal monuments of his art, to the envy of Zeuxis and Apelles. The rest of the vault various carving of plaster, with smaller paintings likewise interposed, which with silent mouth tell the life and miracles of the divine Magnus, splendidly adorns. The choir, for the performing of the divine psalmody by day and night, is drawn out at some length into a rounded shape, yet so that it does not complete a whole circle; where especially the notable genius of the sculptor's art is to be admired and commended: no common wood, but for the most part noble wood, and such as nature herself has sprinkled with various markings for ornament, assigns their stations to those who chant.

[164] consecrated in the year 1717 The pavement of the choir is laid with black and white marble in beautiful variety and order: the choir is closed by the high altar, wrought of the most precious marble magnificently and at the same time skillfully. With a square space of about thirty feet interposed, marble rails of wonderful splendor keep the crowding and importunate people from the high altar. The remaining space of the church is divided into eight chapels, two larger, which form the transverse part of the cross which the church has, the rest smaller; all conspicuous with marble altars. In the two larger stand out altars whose height rises full of majesty to forty-six feet. Three organs, one greater and more notable than another, invite those skilled in music to praise God on the timbrel and in the choir, on strings and organ. All the seats for the praying people the sculptor wrought with excellent craftsmanship out of no common wood.

[165] From the greater church a few steps lead down beneath the ground to the chapel of the divine John the Baptist and of the divine Magnus, patron of the church. Four marble columns support the former: at the side, next to the altar sacred to the divine John, the baptismal font, enclosed in a marble baptistery, awaits those to be washed. But especially does the chapel of the divine Magnus shine forth, contiguous to this chapel of S. John (which from authentic documents is believed to be the cell of the holy Man, whose not only altar, but also walls and pavement, are notably adorned with wonderful variety, notable craftsmanship and splendor, with various marbles most skillfully wrought. After a few things there is subjoined the following annotation about the chapel mentioned: The chapel of S. Magnus, erected from the beginning and from the first foundation of the monastery, most ancient documents say was the dwelling and the very cell in which S. Magnus our first founder and patron dwelt while he lived; and therefore it was always held in the highest honor, and was often destroyed together with the monastery and church, partly by fire, partly by devastations, but was always renewed again; and when the church and monastery were newly erected from the ground in the year MDCCI, this chapel too was newly built from the ground and most beautifully adorned, as it is seen today; yet so that it has always kept the same place which it had while S. Magnus lived, after whose death it was thereafter changed into a chapel. So much about the monastery of Füssen: now I proceed to other matters.

[166] We said above in §9, from number 101, that some years after the Saint's raising, A church erected among the monks of St. Gall in the IX century: the IX century already growing old, a church was built by Salomon Ramschwag not far from the monastery of St. Gall in Helvetia, in honor of the Holy Cross and of saint Magnus

and endowed, and that his relics were solemnly translated into it: take the rest which pertains hither. The same Salomon assigned certain canons to the aforesaid church, who should perform the divine offices there, and, when he had already been created abbot of St. Gall and bishop of Constance, enriched it with new goods. There is extant in Marquard Herrgott, in the Genealogy of the House of Habsburg, volume 2, part 1, instrument 103, page 62, a diploma of the emperor Arnulf by which the foundation of that same church is confirmed by royal authority. And since it both conduces much to proving what we mentioned above about the translation of the sacred arm, and illustrates the foundation itself, I have thought it would be welcome to studious readers if I should insert the whole of it into this Commentary, as it is recited by the said Marquard, drawn from the archive of St. Gall. Thus therefore it runs.

[167] In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Arnulf, its endowment by a diploma by the favor of divine clemency, emperor. If we relieve by our authority places dedicated to the Lord by worshipers of God with a new institution, nay adorned with fitting ornament and supported by an endowment, we do not doubt that abiding joys can thence come to us. Therefore we wish it to be known to the whole body of all Christ's faithful, both present and future, that Adalbero, venerable bishop of the holy church of Augsburg, has disclosed to our ears that Salomon, bishop of Constance, with the consent and cooperation of the college of the Brethren serving God and saint Gall there, has built in the monastery of saint Gall, upon the river called Black Water, a basilica in honor of saint Magnus the confessor, in which also, because the pledges of the holy body of that same Elect of God are venerably laid away, it has pleased him to confer on that place certain properties from the same abbey for the service of God and of saint Magnus, with the consent of the monks: that is, in the district of Thurgau, in the county of Adalpert, along the Rihhanpah, one hide belonging thereto: and in the Breisgau, in the county of Wolfun, in the place Rotileim, two arpents, and in the district of Zurich, in the county of Adalgoz, in the villa Hoenka, a baptismal church with demesne land and the hides belonging thereto.

[168] All these things indeed that same reverend bishop, who is known to preside over that monastery, through the hands of his advocate Askeric, has perpetually handed over and assigned as an endowment of the aforesaid church of saint Magnus, with the agreement and will of the Brethren: confirmed by the emperor Arnulf: namely on this condition, that the steward of that little cell should always provide out of these goods for three monks and as many clerics and the rest of the household there, and every year on the festival of saint Magnus should furnish a plenty of service in the refectory of saint Gall to all the monks of that community, and should once a year supply a pack-horse laden with a load to the abbot going out on campaign, with a man leading that horse. Wherefore also we have ordered this present precept of our confirmation to be made, firmly commanding that an institution of this kind of the aforesaid church remain firm and stable forever without the hindrance of any person. And that this authority of our confirmation may in the name of God obtain inviolable stability through all times, strengthening it beneath with our own hand, we have ordered it to be marked with our ring. The sign of the lord Arnulf, emperor Augustus. I, Eugilper the notary, in the stead of Deotmar the archchaplain, have recognized and subscribed. Given on the III Ides of October in the year of the Lord DCCCXCVIII, in the 2nd Indiction, in the XI year of the reign of Arnulf the most pious king, but the III of his empire. Done in the city of Regensburg, in the name of God, happily. Amen.

[169] about which Thus far the diploma, concerning which certain things must be elucidated. The said Herrgott observes that all the chronological notes are correct except the Indiction, which in the year 898 recurred as the first, not the second. But to me the Indiction appears no less rightly set down than the other notes. For although in the year designated the 1st Indiction was running, it could have begun from the month of September, say the XXIV of the preceding year, which for that reason ended on the same day of the year 898 marked, from which day the 2nd Indiction took its beginning: since therefore the aforesaid diploma was given on the III Ides of October, it is rightly tied to the 2nd Indiction. The hoba, which occurs in the diploma, and is elsewhere also called huba, hova, hobunna, etc., is a measure of land with a farmer's dwelling, says Du Cange in the Glossary, and is often found in ancient charters, as may be seen in him. About terra salica the same Glossary may be consulted at the word Lex salica, where, according to Eckhart's opinion, which is there preferred to the rest, terra salica is called that which belongs to the chief house of the court, which was wont to be called sala and domus salica.

[170] a few things are noted. By a plenty of service understand the feast which the steward of that church was bound to furnish every year on S. Magnus' feast: of it the Ephemerides of St. Gall make mention, which, written in the year 1272, Goldast exhibits in the Alamannicarum rerum, volume 1, part 1: in which at the day VI of September it is thus read: By the institution of Salomon the bishop and abbot, a prebend from Golda is given to the Brethren in honor of S. Magnus the confessor. A parafredus is a pack-horse; sauma, in Du Cange, is the same as sagma, and denotes a load: therefore a parafredus laden with a sauma signifies a pack-horse with its load. Finally about the canons established there, and the endowment confirmed by Arnulf, Ekkehard the Younger again makes mention in the Occurrences of St. Gall, chapter 1, when he says that Salomon among his last commands earnestly asked of the monks of St. Gall that they should guard the church built by him in the place of S. Gall, in honor of the Holy Cross and of saint Magnus, and endowed under the privileges of royal authority, and should not suffer the service of the canons to be diminished there. Other words of Ekkehard to this effect we gave at number 102.

[171] There is extant in our Work, volume 1 of May, on day 2, the Life of S. Wiborada and Bl. Rachildis, virgins of the Order of S. Benedict, The Hungarians try in vain whom they call Recluses. From this we learn that the aforesaid church of S. Magnus was ennobled, not without divine revelation, by the sepulchers of those virgins: the former had also consecrated it, being enclosed by the aforesaid Salomon in a little cell adjoining it, by a most holy institute of life and at last by martyrdom inflicted by the Hungarians in the year 925. Memorable is what Hepidannus relates in book 1, chapter 6, on the occasion of this martyrdom, about this church being preserved from the burnings of the barbarians. He says indeed that the Hungarians, when, an irruption having been made into Germany, they were laying waste all things with sword and flame, strove in vain to burn the aforesaid sacred building, near which S. Wiborada had consecrated herself to God, by heaping up a pyre.

[172] In such a devastation, he says, coming to the basilica of S. Magnus, to burn the aforesaid church. they wished to burn that too with a pyre built up: but … the divine power resisting them, their will lacked effect. Ekkehard the Younger agrees, writing thus in chapter 5 about the same irruption of the Hungarians: By no means had they been able to burn the church of Gall, as neither that of Magnus. That the cells of the Recluse virgins continued there after S. Wiborada's martyrdom both the author just praised teaches, and also the Ephemerides cited in the preceding number, which at the X Kalends of February and likewise the V Kalends of January note the anniversary of Junta and Irmingard to be celebrated from the gardens next to the chapel of the Sisters at S. Magnus'. Finally Goldast in the Alamannicarum rerum, volume 1, on chapter 1 of Ekkehard, teaches that the church of which we are treating, which was formerly situated outside the town, was afterward enclosed within its walls, but in the outermost place, together with the cemetery; and so Matthäus Merian too exhibits it in the Topography of Helvetia, adding that the same afterward gave way to the exercise of the Calvinist heresy, which the citizens of St. Gall, alas! have embraced.

[173] Besides these, I find two other churches anciently dedicated to S. Magnus, The churches and monasteries of Schussenried to which monasteries too were afterward added to the glory of the same Saint. Of these the one is that of Schussenried, called by the natives Schussenriedt, situated between the towns of Biberach, Sulgau and Waldsee at an almost equal distance of three German miles. There had once been a castle there, likewise called Schussenriedt; and not far thence a parish church under the invocation of S. Magnus: at what time this was first erected I have nowhere found handed down to memory. Afterward there was added an abbey of the sacred Premonstratensian Order; whose beginnings the Annals of the same Order, published in the year 1736, volume 2 from page 820, refer to the year 1188, citing a manuscript Chronicle of an author, as they say, nearly contemporary. Take the words: When Clement III was Pontiff, and Frederick I, surnamed Barbarossa, emperor of the Romans, there were Beringer and Conrad, sufficiently acceptable to that emperor, in the castle of Schussenriedt: who, since they had [] sons, by the inspiration of divine grace it pleased them that in the same place where their castle was they should found a cloister of some Order, to the honor of God and of S. Mary ever virgin, and of saint Magnus the confessor, who was patron in the parish church which was outside the castle, and should confer all their estates on that cloister, making Christ himself their heir.*

[174] Then he adds that this pious will of the brothers, the emperor assenting, was committed to execution in the year 1188, a Provostry, as they call it, of the Premonstratensian Order being founded there, and of Regensburg consecrated to the Saint. to which the aforesaid parish church with the cure of souls was perpetually annexed. By lapse of time, on the Annalist's testimony, it was raised to the dignity of a free and imperial abbey, and adorned with notable prerogatives. The other monastery which I hinted at was erected in Bavaria at the foot of the bridge of Regensburg, and is of the regular canons of the Order of S. Augustine. About it Andreas the presbyter, canon of the same monastery, in his general Chronicle in Bernhard Pez, Thesaurus Anecdotorum, volume 4, has these things: In the year of the Lord MCXXXVIII of the incarnate Savior, which is the third of the bridge begun over the Danube at Regensburg, the riverside farmstead, that is the monastery of S. Magnus, in the suburb of Regensburg, began to be changed into buildings by the venerable lord Gebehard, presbyter and canon of the church of Regensburg, at whose petition king Conrad, … with the counsel of his brother Henry, duke of Bavaria, bestowed the suburb of Regensburg on the monastery of S. Magnus. More may be read in Hund in the Metropolis Salisburgensis, volume 1, page 197, and volume 2, page 450, and elsewhere.

[175] [What is to be thought of the beginnings of the latter? other places dedicated to the Saint.] Fabulous appear the things which are narrated about the beginnings of this chapel of S. Magnus, to which afterward the aforesaid community was added, in Fr. Babenstuber, whose words we shall give below in the Miracles at number 135 and following. He says indeed that about the year of the Lord 1134, when the Danube at Regensburg had not yet been spanned with a bridge, SS. Michael the archangel and Magnus, the latter in the guise of a venerable old man, the former of a youth of elegant countenance, were carried across the Danube: and that in perpetual memory of this matter a chapel was first raised to S. Magnus, a monastery being afterward added. But if these things are really so, why did they not consecrate that chapel to the memory of S. Michael as much as of S. Magnus? Further, the same writer subjoins that that chapel was overthrown in the year 1633 by the Swedes who held Regensburg, and that it was believed that they paid the penalties of this sacrilege, when on the VI of September of the year immediately following,

which day is sacred to S. Magnus, they were defeated and cut down near Nördlingen in a memorable battle.

There are also other places consecrated to S. Magnus, of which kind is the monastery of virgins of Chiebach or Kuebach, in a village of the same name in Bavaria, which Hund in the Metropolis Salisburgensis, volume 2, page 246, judges was founded at the beginning of the XI century: among the men of Steinbach in Swabia a chapel, and near Huglfing in Bavaria a parish church, are said below in the Miracles, numbers 89 and 134, to have been raised: but I forbear from more; yet it has pleased me to treat these things a little more fully, that the reader might have manifest indications of the Saint's notable cult.

read they did not have*

LIFE

By Theodore, as is reported, monk of Kempten, enlarged by Ermenric of Ellwangen, and interpolated by another,

From a manuscript of S. Maximin of Trier, compared with the editions of Henry Canisius and Melchior Goldast, and also with six other manuscript copies.

Magnus, abbot at Füssen in Swabia (S.)

BHL Number: 5162 a

By Theodore, as is reported, etc.

CHAPTER I.

Saint Magnus admitted among the monks by S. Columbanus; by his own merits he holds back the beer, that it should not be spilled: he commands a bear, he takes the birds divinely sent, he is taught by an angel.

[ ] S. Magnus by S. Columbanus At that time, when the most blessed Columbanus ^b together with blessed Gall his kinsman ^c were traversing divers places, and came into Ireland ^d both to spread abroad the word of God and for the sake of pilgrimage, a certain brother, named Magnoald ^e, begotten from the aforesaid country of Ireland ^f, began to importune the ears of blessed Gall, disciple of the most holy Columbanus, addressing him thus: O blessed master and lord, I see you so busied in the service of God that, desiring the wilderness, a multitude of wild beasts — namely of bears, buffaloes, wolves — frequent it for so long as [] you stay there, and withdraw at your command ^g. Whence, cast down at your feet, I beg that, the trappings of the world being spurned, and despising the pomp of present means, I may deserve to receive eternal rewards. Which blessed Gall perceiving — namely that he was running to the medicines of penitence, and, wherever the Lord should bid, wished to desire and to visit the enclosures of any [] community whatever through his prayer — indicating this to blessed Columbanus, presented him before his eyes, inquiring of him his counsel and will. To whom blessed Columbanus answered: Let us go, sons, to the wilderness, and prove the will of God, whether thou art to undertake the purpose of thy mind, or not ^h.

[2] being tried in the wilderness, embraces the religious life. Going therefore together, they take in their company a third young man named Soniarius [], and came to the appointed place in the wilderness, content with the food of only one loaf. And when the third day had now passed, and no fragment of bread had remained, and the hour of refreshment was drawing near, they are commanded by the father to go through the broken places of the countryside, and to come to the bottom of the valley, and to bring back whatever they should find suitable for food. Rejoicing, they went through the hollows of the valley, and found a catch of fish, once set by shepherds in the river which is called Lignona ⁱ, placed against it on every side []. Which, beholding and giving thanks to God, and taking the fish which they found ^k, they presented them to the venerable Father. But he indeed, being full of the Holy Spirit, knew that feasts had been prepared for him everywhere by the Lord, and with thanksgivings they took food, and after the food again gave thanks to the Creator. Which Magnoald beholding, following blessed Gall, promised with glad mind that he would obey their commands and would serve the Lord [] continually: whom the holy man Columbanus, having received him with his blessed hands, placed under obedience, and, endowing him according to his own magnificence, imposed a name on him, saying: May the Lord make thee great in wisdom and shrewdness, from whose great name thou art called Magnoald ^l. And again he added: Let all the monastic ministries be known to thee, from which thou hast the surname [] Magnoald.

[3] While he has the care of the cellar, the beer is prodigiously preserved: And having made him a monk, he handed him the key of the cellar ^m. And straightway God made known his will toward blessed Magnoald ⁿ in this miracle wrought. And when the hour of refreshment was now drawing near, and the servant of the refectory, Soniarius by name, was endeavoring to serve out the beer, he carried to the cellar the vessel which they call a tiprum ^o, and sets it before the cask in which the beer had been stored, and, the little spigot [p] being drawn, lets the flow run into the tiprum. And Magnoald, at the father's sudden command, quickly called Soniarius: but he, burning with the fire of obedience, forgetting to close the outlet, hastens with swift course to the blessed Man, and, the spigot which they call a duciculus [] being carried in his hand, stood before the countenance of Magnoald, the most holy men Columbanus and Gall looking on. But after the man of God Magnoald [q] had set forth to him what he had wished to command, he asked him: What is it that thou holdest in thy hand? But he, seeing the spigot and remembering his negligence, swiftly returned to the cellar, reckoning that nothing had remained in the cask from which the beer was running down. Looking therefore, he saw that the beer had grown above the tiprum, so that, of whatever shape and size the roundness was within the rim of the tiprum*, of such a size the vessel seemed to have grown upward [r], and that not the least drop had fallen outside.

[4] Hence arises a pious contest between SS. Magnus and Columbanus. But the aforesaid Soniarius, beholding that miracle, came to the feet of blessed Magnoald, telling him what he had seen concerning the strong drink. He, struck with fear and not knowing what they ought to do, went in haste to Winigoz [s] the presbyter, and, taking him with him, led him to the cellar, and found everything according to the boy Soniarius' account. Falling therefore at his feet, he spoke thus: Lord Winigoz, what shall we say to our father blessed Columbanus, if he shall hear these things? But he answered: God forbid, Brother, that the mercy of Christ should be concealed from so great a man and our father [t]: and both went with hurried step, and came to the feet of blessed Columbanus, and related to him all that had happened. To whom blessed Columbanus said: My brethren, this was not done by my merits; but by the intercession of this man Magnoald: he, hearing this, prostrated himself at his feet, and said: Lord father, do not say this; for I know that this was done for your holy merits, not for mine. Blessed Columbanus answering said: For [u] I saw an angel of God going before thee, when thou wast calling Soniarius: who, when the sign had been made over the tiprum, the strong drink stood in the manner of a crown, as you have seen. O great gift of the divine power, who has vouchsafed to confer so great a grace on his Servant, still a neophyte, that thou art already called Magnus (the Great) among the brethren. At this blessed Magnoald kept silence, giving thanks to God in his heart for so great a mercy of his.

[5] And so at that time [w], when blessed Columbanus and Gall were afflicting the body with fasting under a certain rock amid the vast wilderness, Being bidden to gather fruits, he commands a bear and were able to take nothing else for food except the fruits of the countryside, there came on a certain day a bear, a beast accustomed to secret [] voracity, and began to lick up the necessary foods, and everywhere to pull away [] the fruits with its mouth. And when the hour of refreshment had now come, saint Columbanus said to blessed Magnoald: Brother, the better fruits are known to thee; go and bring us the accustomed measure of fruits: who, when he had gone away, perceived the bear among the thickets and brambles of the dense [] wood, licking and plucking the fruits: for Magnoald, seeing it, wishing to fulfill the father's commands, was greatly afraid; but being strengthened [x] in the Lord, and fortifying himself with the sign of the holy Cross, said to the beast: In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ stand a little while, until I choose the fruits which are to be carried to our brethren [], and give thee a part from the others to eat [*].

[6] Wonderful obedience in a beast! Forgetting indeed its own fierceness it stood, that it should not devour the fruits. holding its head bowed: then he divided with a rod the thickets and brambles which bore fruits; and chose a part from those which according to the man of God's command were better, to be carried for his own use; and gave the other part to the beast, that it might eat: and said to it: Eat these, and reserve those others for the uses of the most holy man Columbanus and blessed Gall. And the beast showed such obedience that it by no means dared to pluck food from the part forbidden it; but sought its pasture only in the part set apart and permitted to it. But on another day, blessed Magnoald, again seeking fruits, found them safe and well preserved, and giving thanks to God said to the beast: In the name of the Lord do thus daily: and being heard [*] by the beast, it without doubt preserved the fruits safe as long as the Man of God stayed in that place.

[7] But on the fourth day [y] the Lord again furnishing food to his disciples, Laboring under want of nourishment, at the Saint's exhortation so great an abundance of birds came that a multitude of birds filled the whole region of that place. But blessed Magnoald, seeing this, understood that for the need of the father and of his own these feasts were spread over the earth by God; and said to blessed Gall: Let the father bid these fowl be taken for the uses of the brethren, if it please him; since the feasts have been given by God. As he was saying this to blessed Gall, blessed Columbanus said: Thou, Magnoald, who in the name of the Lord didst bid the bear reserve the fruits for our use, do again a great work according to thy name, and obtain from God that the birds may remain until they be taken by the brethren for necessary uses. He, wondering how it had become plain [z] to the blessed man about the beast, yet did not dare to ask; but at his bidding, prostrating himself in prayer, prayed together with blessed Columbanus and Gall.

[8] But the abbot, raising himself, said to blessed Magnoald: Rise, they take the birds divinely sent. bid them take the birds: and Magnoald, rising and giving thanks to the Creator of all, began to take the birds with the rest of the brethren. A miracle exceedingly wonderful and astonishing! The birds were taken, as the father's command was, nor did they strive to depart in feathered flight, until blessed Magnoald said: If it please our father, we have birds sufficiently for three days, and therefore it is good that they depart; and so he bids the phalanxes of birds go away, and, taking flight, those which had remained departed; and thus the divine mercy sent from the neighboring cities an abundance of grain, through good men [aa] dwelling round about, to blessed Columbanus by the hands of the happy Gall and Magnoald.

[9] An angel dissuades the journey to the Slavs. Meanwhile a thought rushed into the mind of saint Columbanus, that he should go to the borders of the Slavs [bb], and enlighten their blind minds with the Gospel light, and open the way of truth to those wandering from the beginning through pathless places. And when he had told these things to blessed Gall and Magnoald, and declared that he wished so to act, blessed Gall said to Magnoald: Brother, what dost thou think about that journey of our abbot? He answered: Lord master, search out first the will of the Lord, and afterward, if you judge it worthy for setting out, set out.

Hearing this, blessed Columbanus ordered a three days' fast to be made, imploring the Lord's mercy that he would show them his will. But on the third night an angel of the Lord appeared in a vision to those three, and in a small compass, as the world is wont to be described with a pen upon a page, showed the circle of the world in its framework, saying: You see, he says, that the whole world remains a desert: say to Columbanus: Go to right and left, gathering what thou readest [], that thou mayest eat the fruit of thy labor: there is no need for thee to hasten thither. Hearing these things, blessed Columbanus understood likewise, through the vision shown him, that there was no ready advancement of the faith among those nations [], and therefore he rested in the place, content only with the service of his one attendant Magnoald, until an approach should open a way to Italy [cc].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. By serraculum he understands a peg inserted in the mouth of the tap, which is drawn out when the liquor is to be drawn from the cask: below he calls it a duciculus.

q. Magnoald has here been inserted by the interpolator: for Jonas speaks of S. Columbanus.

r. A various reading occurs here. Goldast has: Looking therefore, he saw that the beer had grown in the tiprum so far that it seemed to have no more of depth in the vessel than of height heaped up above the vessel. Our manuscript, from an ancient codex of the Augsburg library of SS. Ulric and Afra, notes this in the margin: Note well: here (in the said codex) written in the margin in a very fine but very ancient hand, from the earlier Life written by Ermenric: "But when the beer, flowing down, had filled the vessel placed beneath, it stood in a wonderful manner growing above the vessel in the likeness of a crown." Jonas, whence these things are drawn, writes thus: And beholding that the beer had grown above the tybrum, and that not the least drop had fallen outside, so that thou wouldst believe the tybrum had been doubled in length; so that, of whatever shape and size the roundness of the rim was within the tybrum, of such a size the vessel had grown upward.

s. Goldast and one manuscript read Winiachus, Canisius Winniacus: who this was I do not know. In the often-praised Life of S. Columbanus, numbers 24 and 28, a certain Winnocus the presbyter is mentioned, who was familiar with S. Columbanus: from him perhaps he made Winiachus or Winigoz the presbyter.

t. The Goldast edition adds: who, without our telling, by the Spirit and with God, rejoices that he has known all the things which have been done.

u. The same edition, with Canisius and two manuscripts: Be silent, brother, I certainly know: for I saw, etc. Further, this whole pious contest and whatever is contained in this number 4 is not to be found in Jonas, who also in this place does not mention Magnoald. Consult the Commentary, number 17. Patrick Fleming in the Collectanea of S. Columbanus notes the following on the miracle of which we are treating: A like example once occurred in the monastery of St. Gall; of which matter certain verses hung on the gate of the chapter-house, where at that time the wine-cellar had been, remain to this day. Perfect obedience leaves its own things unfinished: so he.

w. The miracle which he undertakes to narrate happened, according to Jonas, after S. Columbanus, driven from Luxeuil in the year 610, was staying near Bregenz in Rhætia. And we warned in the Commentary that this prodigious command over the beast is ascribed by the aforesaid Jonas to Chagnoald: wherefore, lest I do again what has been done, see what we disputed there at number 18 and following.

x. Jonas writes that Chagnoald, having seen the bear, hastened to Columbanus, and, being bidden by him to return, so wonderfully commanded the aforesaid beast.

y. In Jonas at number 54 this miracle is placed before the preceding one, and is said to have happened at a time of harsh want, … and when their bodies were already worn with a three days' fast: but here too there is no mention of Magnoald: see what was said in the Commentary at number 23 and following, where we noted the differing narrative of each writer.

z. And yet Jonas, as we said above at letter y, expressly relates that this matter happened with S. Columbanus knowing and commanding it.

aa. But on the fourth day (the words are Jonas') a certain bishop from the neighboring cities, admonished by divine inspiration, sent an abundance of grain to Bl. Columbanus: but presently the Almighty, who had furnished winged foods to those suffering want, when the richness of corn arrived, commanded the phalanxes of birds to depart. How little faithful our interpolator is thou wilt detect from the numbers cited at letter y.

bb. In Jonas it is read: Meanwhile a thought rushed into his mind, that he should go to the borders of the Veneti, who are also called Slavs, etc.

cc. The things related in this number 9 are narrated a little otherwise by the often-mentioned Jonas: consult the Commentary at number 25.

elsewhere, for some little while*

elsewhere, of each*

Canisius Sonarium, Jonas Sonarium*

elsewhere, from all sides*

elsewhere, and Christ the Lord*

elsewhere, thou shalt have*

elsewhere, duciolum*

elsewhere, better, greedy*

elsewhere, to drag away*

read dense*

elsewhere, to the fathers*

Canisius, to eat*

elsewhere, and the beast hearing*

Canisius, wherever thou choosest*

elsewhere, of that nation*

CHAPTER II.

The stay in the kingdom of Theodebert: the battle between him and Theodoric: the slaying of Theodebert, the punishment of Theodoric and Brunhilda: S. Columbanus having set out into Italy, SS. Gall and Magnus remain in Germany.

[ ] S. Columbanus with his own kindly received by Theodebert Meanwhile an inestimable strife arose between king Theodoric ^a and Theodebert ^b, each being proud against the other in the strength of their nations. Amid which the man of God came to Theodebert ^c, and he received him most willingly into his own seats and within his own borders, and gave him the choice of seeking by trial, in whatever part he wished, a place which should please him and his own for dwelling: and, the place having been sought, he heard from the blessed men Gall and Magnoald, who had already traversed the extent of the places, that there would be a praiseworthy place within the borders of Germany, situated in Alemannia about the river Rhine, and a town once destroyed, which they called Bregenz ^d; which without doubt they thought would be granted by the king, and a part of the woodland standing next to that town, where they had been able to find fit places for staying. The king therefore gave them, according to the petition of the blessed Columbanus and Gall and Magnoald, the aforesaid town, and the waste places lying within the woodland

within, yet not many but few, where they might be able to find places fit for building a little cell.

[11] And so, sailing by the channel of the Rhine, they came to Mainz, in his kingdom he builds cells. and there, being supported with the necessary means by the bishop ^e of that place, as is contained in the Life of blessed Columbanus, they came to the aforesaid town, and there they stayed, awaiting the outcome of the matter between Theodoric and Theodebert. But blessed Magnus with blessed Gall, having left the Brethren with the blessed abbot, who had already come to him from Luxeuil as it were from the prey of the enemy ^f, entered into the woodland, and, going hither and thither in it and going round divers places, they found within the borders of that woodland places beautiful and suited to every convenience for the servants of God, and that neighboring nations were to be had on every side for preaching. Returning therefore again to the man of God, and they praising the places which they had found, the man of God said: Let us go rejoicing [*] thither, let us stay there some space of time, and let us build a little cell, until the Lord give us an approach for setting out into Italy. They went therefore to the place whence blessed Gall had sprung, that is about the lake of Zurich ^g: thence exulting to an ancient destroyed place which is called Arbon ^h, and there they stayed, building a cell and awaiting the outcome between Theodoric and Theodebert.

[12] SS. Columbanus and Magnus, being absent, behold the battle between the kings. While these things were being done by them [*], war arose between Theodoric and Theodebert near the fortress of Tolbiac ⁱ, and there, the battle being joined, an innumerable multitude of men from each army perished: at length Theodebert, being conquered, fled. At that hour therefore in which the battle was joined at Tolbiac, the man of God Columbanus, while his disciples Gall and Magnoald with the other Brethren who had come from Luxeuil were working, was sitting upon the trunk of an oak reading a book; whom a sudden drowsiness overcame, and, sleeping, he saw what was being done between the two kings: being awakened, he calls his attendant Magnoald ^k, who is also Magnus, and indicates the bloody battle of the kings, and sighs that much human blood is being shed. Magnoald, who is also Magnus, answered, prostrate at his feet: I too, lord father, was lying overcome with sleep beneath a fir tree, and it seemed to me that they were at the same time having a conflict between themselves; and, having seized a staff, I wished to strike Theodoric and to free Theodebert: but a certain apparition forbade me, saying: There is no need for thee to strike him, since the Lord will swiftly avenge thy master Columbanus upon him in a destruction by fire. Straightway awaking, I was hastening to come hither to you and to tell this vision, and meanwhile I heard you calling me ^l. While therefore both were wondering at these visions, another attendant standing by, Eunuchus ^m by name, said with rash endeavor: My father, thou oughtest by thy prayers to lend support to Theodebert, that he may be able to vanquish our common enemy Theodoric. To whom blessed Columbanus said: Foolish counsel and foreign to our religion dost thou administer: for the Lord does not so will it, who bade us pray for our enemies: and Magnoald said: Truly, Lord, your sanctity judges well of this; since it ought to be in the judgment of the just Judge what he wills to be done about them.

[13] [The death of Theodebert, the divine vengeance upon Theodoric, the punishment of Brunhilda: Clothaire king.] But Theodoric, having pursued Theodebert, seized him and sent him to his grandmother Brunhilda ⁿ, and she, having made him a cleric, not many days after ordered him most impiously to be slain ^o. And so Theodoric, staying near the town of Metz [p], being divinely struck, died amid the burnings of a blazing fire [q], and blessed Columbanus was avenged by God []. Further Lothaire, having gathered an army, took possession [] of the borders of the kingdom which were due to his dominion, Sigebert being slain, who wished to resist him, together with the five sons of Theodoric [r]; but Brunhilda, being captured and bound to the tails of untamed horses, he pitiably deprived of life [s]: and, mindful of the man of God's prophecy [t], the stock of Theodoric being utterly and radically destroyed [*], he alone obtained the monarchy of the three kingdoms. Recognizing indeed in this deed that the prophecy of the man of God, blessed Columbanus, would be fulfilled in all things, the aforesaid Lothaire wished to enrich blessed Columbanus with great honors [u]: but he, rejecting this, having left Gaul and Germany, entered Italy, where he was honorably received by Agilulf king of the Lombards, the choice being granted him that he should dwell within Italy in whatever place he wished.

[14] S. Columbanus setting out into Italy, S. Gall But in what manner he left his disciples blessed Gall and Magnoald in Alemannia must not be passed over in silence, since this was done by God's counsel. And so, when they had traversed the places about the lake of Zurich, and were coming to the head of that lake, into the place which is called Tuconia [w]; thence they came to the lake of Bregenz, which is now called that of Constance [x], to the aforesaid little cell which they had fitly built, preaching to the people that they should worship Christ, and break in pieces the vain and deaf images: for which cause the people, inflamed with diabolical zeal on account of the images overthrown and broken in pieces, began to treat with prince Sigebert [y], that he should cast them out from their borders. This the devil did by his art, that the people, whom in the presence of the light he had begun to lose through the preaching of the blessed men, he might, when the splendor of sanctity departed, occupy with the ancient darkness. The holy men therefore, taking it ill that they were driven from a beloved seat, common counsel being taken, determined to make for Italy, leaving blessed Gall and Magnoald with some other clerics [z], saying thus: May God, whom we serve, send his angel with us, who may lead us to Agilulf king of the Lombards, where, his clemency preparing human affections, we may also find a place full for dwelling; but be you of an even mind, brethren.

[15] And so, when the time of setting out was at hand, a sudden fever attacked blessed Gall; remains in Germany with S. Magnus and Theodore: for which reason, having thrown himself at the feet of his abbot, he indicates that he is laboring under a violent infirmity, and therefore cannot accomplish the journey proposed; but he, thinking that he was detained by love of the place on account of the labors finished there, and was declining the labors of a longer journey, said to him: I know, brother, that it is now burdensome to thee to be wearied with such labors for my sake: yet, as I depart, I make this announcement, that thou presume not to celebrate Mass while I am living in the body: and when he had given him leave to live by himself, he entered upon the way []. Magnoald [aa], hearing this, fell at his feet and said: Lord father, what wouldst thou have me do? If I shall leave him without support, he will be destitute and will fail; yet I will follow thee, if thou wilt, leaving him, as Peter followed the Lord, leaving his nets. Blessed Columbanus answered him: I know, Magnoald, that thou art to be great, and to win very much for God from the Eastern peoples [bb]; and therefore I do not wish thee to set out with me [], but I leave thee and Theodore our most faithful one [*], to obey the services of Gall, that with all diligence you may attend to his recovery. Yet I tell thee, Magnoald, what I would have thee do, and in what manner thou oughtest to stay with him: for it will come to pass that, after some days have passed, thou shalt receive the office of the diaconate from the bishop of Constance.

[16] So I wish that you stay with Gall, until the time come S. Columbanus foretells various things to S. Magnus. when I am to depart from this light. And so if it can be that, while I am sick, and by the Holy Spirit revealing it to thee, thou shalt be able to come to me, it is welcome to me; otherwise, when I am dead, if in any way, with the Lord so assenting, it shall have been revealed, hasten to make speed to my sepulcher and to my fellow brethren, and thence thou shalt receive my letter and my staff [cc], which bring to Gall, that thou mayest absolve him from my judgment. And I announce to thee that, when Gall is dead, after three years [dd] his sepulcher will be laid waste by robbers, while thou and Theodore look on; and when this shall have been done, his sepulcher being restored, so hasten to make speed to the place where we have heard that saint Narcissus [ee] the bishop bade the devil kill a dragon; and there, with the Lord helping, thou shalt convert very many to the faith, being about to win their souls for the Lord, and thou shalt have there a name imposed on thee by God, according as he wills to exalt thee, and thou shalt be called by the people of that land Magnus [ff], on account of the faith which thou art to preach, converting them from emptiness and the worship of demons to the faith of Christ. For there demons shall meet thee, heaping many evils upon thee; but thou shalt be strengthened by the Lord, who has appointed thee thither to stay and to remain: and, these things being said, he set out.

ANNOTATIONS.

here, having taken its name from the aforesaid town of Zurich which lies beside it, is set opposite the lake of Bregenz, which bounds the Thurgau lying between, a tract of Helvetia, on the East. But how was blessed Gall sprung from this place, whom it is established was an Irishman? Perhaps he would have asserted this more truly of S. Magnus. Note however that this error is by no means found in the Goldast edition.

p. Metæ or Mettæ, a city of the Mediomatrici, commonly Metz, the ancient seat of the kings of Austrasia, was founded on the river Moselle, where it receives the Seille. More about this city the curious reader will find in Adrien de Valois in the Notitia Galliarum.

q. So too Jonas, whence these things are excerpted: but Fredegar in the Chronicle, chapter 39, says: Theuderic dies at Metz of a flux of the bowels. This death, of whatever kind it was, our interpolator suggests was inflicted on Theodoric on account of S. Columbanus' being driven from his kingdom.

r. This tragic history the said Fredegar narrates at greater length, from whom take it in compendium. Theodoric had promised Clothaire king of Soissons that he would give him the duchy of Dentelin, or Denzelin, after Theodebert was conquered, on this condition, that he should not bring aid to him. And so, Theodebert being cut down, Clothaire occupies that duchy which was owed him by the pact: Theodoric opposes him: but while he leads out his army against him, he dies at Metz. Presently Brunhilda substitutes Sigebert, Theodoric's son, on his father's throne, who, contending with Clothaire, was betrayed by his own men, captured, and slain by Clothaire's order. Of Sigebert's brothers he relates that the one, Childebert, escaped the victor's hands by flight, that two others, Corbus and Merovech, were likewise captured, and that Corbus indeed was killed, but Merovech, being committed to a trusty guardian, survived for several years. Hence Jonas seems to need correction, when he relates that Sigebert and his five brothers, sons of Theodoric, were slain by Clothaire.

s. The punishment of Brunhilda the same Fredegar in chapter 42 describes in these words: For three days (Clothaire), having visited her with divers torments, first orders her to be led sitting on a camel through the whole army; after this to be bound by the hair of her head, by one foot and one arm, to the tail of a most vicious (others, most fierce) horse: and there by its hooves and the swiftness of its course she is torn limb from limb.

t. Of S. Columbanus, who in Jonas at number 48 had foretold him the monarchy.

u. These things the interpolator wrongly inserts in this place, which Jonas narrates after Columbanus' departure into Italy. He says indeed at number 59 that Columbanus, when, Theodebert being cut down, he saw his dominions brought under the power of his enemy Theodoric, set out into Italy and was kindly received by Agilulf king of the Lombards. Then at number 61 he writes that Clothaire, now monarch, by no means unmindful of his prophet Columbanus, gave orders to S. Eustasius, abbot of the monks of Luxeuil, that he should persuade him to return from Italy: to all which our Pseudo-Theodore paid insufficient attention. For the rest, thus far the Acts of S. Magnus have been patched together from Jonas the biographer of S. Columbanus: what follows is for the greatest part drawn from Walafrid Strabo, the biographer of S. Gall.

w. Goldast in his glosses on the Life of S. Gall says that Tucconia is today called Tugium, by the natives Zug. Now Tugium is a town of Helvetia, the head of the district of Zug, set upon a hill by the lake of the same name, and it has Lucerne to the East, Zurich to the South, being distant from the latter 18 thousand paces, but from the former 12, on Baudrand's testimony in his Geography.

x. Canisius has: which was then called that of Constance. Each reading, which makes plain the interpolator's work, is wanting in the Goldast edition.

y. It is a riddle what prince Sigebert he here designates. Certainly there cannot here be understood Sigebert, son of Theodoric II, who, on Fredegar's testimony, being born in the VII or VI year of his father's reign, and accordingly about the year of Christ 601 or 602, was slain in the year 613 by Clothaire's order, scarcely twelve years old. Walafrid in the Life of S. Gall, in Mabillon's Acta, century 2, page 234, where he describes this persecution more at length, has for Sigebert duke Gunzo: of both there will be discourse below in chapter 3.

z. Leaving blessed Gall and Magnoald with some other clerics is wanting in the Goldast edition. There are lacking here and there other trifles too, which hereafter I shall pass over.

aa. Whatever is here related about S. Magnus and Theodore down to number 17 is more probably invented by the interpolator, as may be gathered from what was said in §3 from number 28, and in §7, numbers 75 and following.

bb. He means the Swabians, who obeyed the kings of Austrasia.

cc. Goldast has cambocam, Walafrid in the Life of S. Gall cambottam, Babenstuber cambattam: all signify a staff. But whether a pastoral or a traveler's? Nothing hinders our saying that it was both, for if we believe our Saint's biographer, or his interpolator, at all, he certainly used it on his journey to Füssen. Nay, Thomassin in On the old and new discipline of the Church, part 1, book 2, chapter 58, number 2, treating of the pastoral staffs of bishops, conjectures that staffs of this kind, whether they were carried in the hand of kings or of bishops, were truly those very staffs with which they supported their step when a long journey had to be measured out; and therefore that neither the costliness of their material nor the artistry of their form was of great concern. Such therefore does S. Columbanus' staff seem to have been. As regards the word cambutta or cambotta, etc., Du Cange in the Glossary warns that it must be derived from the word cam-bot or bot-cam, which among the Armorican Britons, he says, is a branch curved back from the top. Nor do I deny it: nevertheless, whether this staff of which we are treating had one of its ends curved I can neither assert nor deny. We have given it, such as it is now preserved in the abbey of Füssen, in the Commentary at page 725, and at number 124 thou wilt find it described.

dd. After three years all the copies too have, both manuscript and printed: so also reads the anonymous writer of Regensburg of the XI century: but Walafrid in the Life of S. Gall in Mabillon writes that that violation of the sepulcher happened forty years after S. Gall's death. See what was said in the Commentary, §5, numbers 53 and following.

ee. Of S. Narcissus, bishop and martyr, there was treatment in volume 2 of March at the day 18. As regards the dragon killed by a demon at the bidding of that same Saint, and what is to be thought of this marvelous history, consult the Acts of S. Afra the martyr, volume 2 of August, day 5, §2 of the Commentary, and in the annotations to chapter 1 of the Conversion of the aforesaid holy Martyr. Marcus Welser also deserves to be seen in his Commentary on the Conversion of S. Afra, from note 89.

ff. How greatly the author labors to persuade us that the name of Magnoald and of Magnus was imposed on our Saint by S. Columbanus! In chapter 1, number 2, Columbanus says that he is to be called Magnoald from the great name of God: a little after he attributes the same word to him from the monastic ministries: now it is foretold that he is to be called Magnus from his apostolic office: in chapter 4, number 35, on the journey to Kempten, on account of a blind man enlightened, he was called Magnus by the inhabitants of that land.

* that is, going joyfully

Goldast adds the sedition being confirmed*

Canisius, from heaven*

elsewhere, he received*

elsewhere, the stock being destroyed*

Canisius and Goldast add: of departing*

elsewhere, do not set out with me*

Canisius, most happy*

CHAPTER III.

S. Gall with S. Magnus and Theodore turns aside to Willimar; frees a possessed woman, sends S. Magnus into Italy.

[ ] SS. Gall and Magnus turn aside to Willimar the presbyter: After ^a his departure also, Gall, placing his nets and drag-net in a boat, came with his two clerics Magnoald and Theodore ^b to Willimar ^c the presbyter; who, being received by him and with all diligence provided with his supports, was cared for by Magnoald and Theodore. When some days had passed, the Lord, who is the true physician, imparting healing, he began to take food, and thus, being strengthened by the increases of the times of his recovery, was restored to his former health. But the blessed and happy man, being freed from so great a weakness, began to labor among the people, that he might show them the way of truth, and drive away the diseases of souls by his sacred preaching. Search being made by a certain deacon named Hiltibold ^d, who had all the paths of that wilderness known to him, he found a spacious place, beautiful in its level ground and well fitted for staying, with lofty mountains round about in a circle, and a torrent flowing most excellently; but full also of wild beasts and animals and serpents, and also of diabolical habitations.

[18] then they withdraw into the Wilderness. Taking therefore with him his two disciples, blessed Magnoald and Theodore ^e, he came to that place, and, the divine grace cooperating with his holy intercessions and with those of Magnus his attendant, that place was cleansed of wild beasts and vermin and diabolical habitations; and, a cell being made, they began to dwell there and to serve God. Further, blessed Magnoald, when the demons had been driven from that place by saint Gall, went again to the mountain which is called Himilinberg ^f: and there, finding a bear, he commanded it in the name of the Lord to depart, and it, having straightway heard his voice, withdrew ^g. And so, announcing this to blessed Gall, they alike rendered thanks to the Lord, who saves those who hope in him. Meanwhile, while they were staying there, a messenger came to the presbyter, indicating that the bishop of Constance named Gaudentius ^h had departed from this life: and this being heard, with one accord they pressed with prayers and tears for their shepherd's rest.

[19] S. Gall, being asked once and again At length, not many days after, a letter of a certain duke named Gunzo ⁱ came to blessed Gall, asking that he would hasten to him as quickly as possible, and, coming, would free from the demon his daughter ^k, who was his only one and was invaded by a malignant spirit. But he wholly forbade it, saying that he was unworthy to do such a thing: and therefore he refused to come. Again and again the aforesaid duke, entreating him through envoys or letters [*] to make haste, indicated that the girl was already continuing for three days without food; and unless he came quickly, she would breathe out her spirit with the devil. Hearing these things therefore, blessed Gall, prostrate in prayer, prayed a very long while, and, trusting in God's mercy and loving-kindness, taking with him his two disciples Magnoald and Theodore, rising, set out after the envoys, and came to the duke ^l.

[20] frees duke Gunzo's daughter, who was possessed: Rendering thanks therefore to the Lord, he saw the girl greatly troubled by the malignant spirit; and, blessed Magnoald praying, blessed Gall commanded the demon in the name of the Lord to go out; and it withdrew in the likeness of a very black bird with an exceeding stench, and at that same hour, taking the girl's hand, he raised her, and she rose up whole, and was restored to her mother with joy. And the Lord made manifest in this sign of what merit blessed Gall and Magnoald were, following the type of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, so that, as when blessed Paul the apostle prayed, Peter commanded the demons which were bearing Simon Magus into the air to leave him, and, being left, he fell, and thus all his inward parts were burst asunder, and, being dead together with the demons, he lies led down to hell ^m, so also with these: for Magnoald praying and Gall commanding, the demon departed from the girl.

[21] he refuses the bishopric offered him on that account, These things being thus accomplished, the Lord assenting, the duke ordered great gifts to be offered him, and besides asked that he would vouchsafe to take up the rank of the pontifical office ⁿ. To whom the blessed man thus answered: Behold, my witness, and greatly beloved by me, Magnoald knows, who saw this, that blessed Columbanus my master forbade me the office of the altar; and this I dare not usurp unless permitted by him, while he lives: for which reason I cannot undertake the weight of this governance which thou offerest. Nevertheless if thou desirest that this be done without doubt, bear with me meanwhile, until I send my present Comrade with my letter to my abbot, blessed Columbanus; and if I shall learn his will and have his leave, then at length I will undertake from thee the offered burden of the pastoral care. And the duke to him: Let it be, he says, according to thy word. And so, the gifts offered him by the duke being received, the duke dismissed him in peace.

[22] The man of God Magnoald therefore, taking what had been given, and orders the gifts to be distributed to the needy, and builds a cell. carried them to the boat, they being placed on the shoulders of his disciples, Theodore and Otmar ^o. But the venerable Father obtained from the duke that he should order the prefect of Arbon to furnish him with help for completing his little cell; and straightway the duke, being pricked by so manifest an indication of his sanctity, ordered all to be done which he asked, and a cell to be built according to his arrangement. But the Father, bidding the duke farewell, withdrew, and, going aboard the boat, came to the fortress of Arbon, and bade Magnoald cause all the poor whom he could find to come together, and distribute to them the gifts which he had brought given by the duke. To whom blessed Magnoald said: Father, all that thou hast commanded I will fulfill with a willing mind: but I have a precious silver vessel; wilt thou that I keep it, that we may make of it a sacred vessel of the ministry? He answered: Son, take care to bestow the vessel which thou possessest, with the rest of the money, on the poor, lest thou be found contrary to a wholesome example, keeping in memory the sentence of blessed Peter the apostle, which he uttered to the paralytic asking money: Silver and gold I have not. Blessed Magnoald, hearing these things and giving thanks to God for the command of so great a man, bestowed all on the poor. And these things being finished, they returned to the place of their beloved solitude, and began to build a little cell [p] with great prudence.

[23] For not long after blessed Gall sent [q] a letter to John the deacon, The same Saint causes John, a certain deacon, to be consecrated bishop, asking him to come to him. Who, when he had come to him, he instructed him in the books of divine knowledge, and, the grace of God cooperating, presented him before the duke full of knowledge and virtue, and of understanding of the divine Scriptures, saying: This man is a native of the neighboring places, to whom the testimony which befits a holy man [*] can deservedly be fitted: believing him chosen by divine judgment, I offer him to you to be promoted. And when with this attestation the most holy man praised John, the duke, having very long pursued him with praises, with the election of the people and of the congregation and of the other bishops, bestowed on him the pontificate of the city of Constance. Who, being led to the altar by the neighboring bishops, they consecrated him bishop with the solemn office of benediction [r].

[24] And so the venerable Teacher, these things being accomplished, mindful of the prophecy of the holy man Columbanus about the office of the diaconate of blessed Magnoald, but takes care that S. Magnus be initiated into the diaconate. that it would come from the bishop of Constance [s], among many words of health-bringing consolation often related these things, that blessed Magnoald, who was already with him exalted in the veneration of all, at the fitting time, when the beginning of the Lenten fast came and the first Sabbath fast was performed, he should commend by divine judgment to the performing of the office of the diaconate. To whom John the bishop thus answered: Master, leave these matters with me in these days with fatherly solicitude, so that, when the Lenten fast of the coming Ember days arrives, I may do what thou exhortest. Which being heard, blessed Gall, leaving [*] with fatherly honor every support of necessities together with the most just Magnoald, trusting in the great familiarity of the venerable Father, commended him with multiplied love. And when the holy solemnity of the coming Lent arrived, blessed Magnoald, having received from John the bishop the sacred benediction of the office of the diaconate, returned with thanksgivings rendered to God to the little cell of his father the most holy Gall [t].

[25] [SS. Gall and Magnus found a monastery, and to the former the death of S. Columbanus is revealed:] Now at that time blessed Gall and Magnoald began to build a church, to construct a monastery, and to prepare dwellings round about for the brethren to live together, supported by the aid of king Sigebert [u] and of duke Gunzo. And they built a monastery of wonderful greatness [w], and stirred up the brethren gathered to them by teaching and by examples to the desires of eternal things, carefully nourishing Otmar [x], a boy of the race of the Alemans, and, teaching him according to the doctrine of their master Columbanus the discipline of the art of Grammar and of the other divine books, they appointed him master of the school. And so on a certain day, when after the labor of the morning office they were revisiting their beds for the sake of rest, at the first dawn the man of God called Magnoald his deacon, saying to him: Prepare the ministry of the sacred oblation, that I may be able without delay to celebrate the divine mysteries. And he: What, he says, wilt thou, Father, celebrate Mass? He said therefore to him: After the vigils of this night I have learned by a vision that my lord and father Columbanus has today passed from the straits of this life to the joys of Paradise [y]: for his rest therefore I ought to offer the sacrifice of salvation.

[26] hence he celebrates Mass, and sends S. Magnus to the monastery of Bobbio, And the signal being rung, having entered the oratory, they prostrated themselves in prayer, and began to perform Masses and to persevere in prayers for the commemoration of blessed Columbanus. The office of sacred devotion being finished, the venerable Gall said to Magnoald the deacon: Son, let the weight of my request not seem grievous to thee, but undertake the journey, and make for Italy, and, passing on as far as the monastery which is named Bobbio [z], inquire diligently what has been done concerning my abbot. Note therefore the day and the hour, that if thou shalt find him to be dead, thou mayest be able to know whether my vision is supported by the effect of truth. Learning therefore all these things by careful investigation, on thy return thou shalt announce them to me. The deacon, cast down at his master's feet, complained that the journey was unknown to him: but the blessed man with gentle voice admonished him not to fear: Go, he says, and the Lord shall direct thy steps. Strengthened by this consolation of the pious teacher, the Pupil obeyed the command, and, having received the viaticum of blessing, undertook the journey in haste, mindful of the prophecy of blessed Columbanus, who had asserted that he would come to his sepulcher in Italy, and take up his staff [*], and absolve saint Gall by it [aa].

[27] And when he had come to the monastery, as he wished, and he thence carries the staff of S. Columbanus to S. Gall. he found that all had happened just as had been revealed to his father through the vision. And he stayed there one night, and received from the brethren a letter to blessed Gall, containing the passing of the venerable Columbanus. And they sent his staff also, which they commonly call cambuta, by the hand of the Deacon, saying that their holy abbot before his passing had commanded that by this most well-known pledge Gall should be absolved. And, being dismissed by them, he hastened his journey, and, prospering in all things, on the eighth day came to his lord and father, bearing the letter of the report, and the token of absolution. The letter being read, saint Gall, keeping the love of his dearest father in his full heart, poured out most abundant tears, and, the brethren being gathered, disclosed the causes of his grief; then they frequented the memory of so great a father with sacred prayers and saving sacrifices.

[28] Meanwhile [bb] therefore blessed Magnoald dwelt with saint Gall nearly ten years after the journey from Italy was accomplished: S. Gall dies but in the tenth year, seeing him grow infirm and greatly languish from the seizing of fevers [], he sent a messenger to John, bishop of the church of Constance, inviting him to a visitation of blessed Gall [], who was already held fast in a grave infirmity of fevers. Hearing therefore that he was sick, John began swiftly to hasten into those parts, taking with him divers kinds of drinks and foods to refresh him [cc]: and when now near the town

of Arbon bishop John was drawing near, blessed Gall, worn out by the force of the fevers, his ninety-five years of age being completed, in a good old age that holy soul was loosed from the flesh [dd], and, freed from the prison-house of the world, rendering his spirit to the Lord in peace. And so the aforesaid bishop, hearing of the blessed man's departure from this light, weeping and wailing came to the place where the lifeless body lay.

[29] But the offices being finished which ought to be performed in the obsequies of so great a man, and is buried. prayer and benediction having been made together with blessed Magnoald, they placed the bier with the holy body upon untamed horses [ee], and without bridle or driver let them go where the Lord should bid. And the untamed horses, receiving the bier, being tame as if they had been domestic, turning aside to neither side, came by a straight way to the cell which the man of God had formerly built, bearing the holy body very evenly. And when they had come before the oratory, they stood; and, the bier being set down, his disciples blessed Magnoald and Theodore, lifting the holy body of the pious teacher, carried it within the church, and placed it before the altar. Then, making prayer for him together with the bishop, the fitting offices being first performed, they buried him. After these things, all being duly finished with the bishop's blessing, and the bishop himself returning home, blessed Magnoald and Theodore were left, and the most beautiful man Otmar with the other brethren, not many, to guard the holy man's body.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. This cell gave the beginnings to that most famous monastery of St. Gall of the Order of S. Benedict, and to the town of the same name, commonly S. Gallen, in the Thurgau, a tract of Helvetia, founded about one mile from the lake of Constance, and four from Lindau, if Baudrand has rightly noted.

q. Here Goldast, omitting what the remaining copies have about Gunzo's daughter, resumes his narrative.

r. In this place Canisius and Goldast vary somewhat. The former has thus: The duke, with the election of the people, will he nill he, the congregation of the other bishops being gathered, bestowed on him the pontificate of the city of Constance; nay, being led by the neighboring bishops Note: read him being led to the altar, they ordained him bishop with the solemn office of benediction. From Canisius Goldast differs little. Walafrid Strabo in the Life of S. Gall in Mabillon treats this election more at length in chapters 24 and 25. The writers of the Gallia Christiana, volume 5, column 893 of the newest edition, place John with the title of Blessed as the tenth bishop of Windisch and Constance, and warn that there is extant in Canisius, Antiquæ Lectiones, volume 5, and volume 6 of the Bibliotheca Patrum of the German edition, an oration which S. Gall spoke to the people on this occasion.

s. This sentence is faulty in all the copies, both printed and manuscript: Goldast reads a little otherwise in these words: Mindful of the prophecy of the holy man Columbanus, which he had foretold concerning the office of the diaconate that was to be for Bl. Magnoald, etc. That thou mayest have the whole sense, substitute: by which he had foretold what would come to pass about the office of the diaconate to be conferred on S. Magnoald. For the rest, before I proceed, the reader must be warned that whatever is here related about the diaconate conferred on S. Magnus by John seems to me invented. For Walafrid openly relates the contrary, when in chapter 24, about S. Gall going to the council in which John the bishop was elected, he writes thus: And when this synod was being celebrated with the coming of so great a multitude, and it was announced that it would take place within the space of three days, the most blessed Gall, full of divine counsel, taking with him John and Magnoald, who had been raised to the office of the diaconate, went on to the town: then after a few things he subjoins the election of John. According to these things our Saint had already been marked with the diaconate before John had received the episcopate, and accordingly could not have been initiated into that Order by John. I know indeed that Walafrid too is not free from his own errors: but since it has been sufficiently shown by us that the interpolator's statements about the monastic life of our Saint undertaken under Columbanus' governance in Ireland do not stand, that same Columbanus' prediction about the diaconate to be received is also suspect to me, and accordingly also the very reception of the diaconate at that time, which follows from the aforesaid: especially since we hold our Pseudo-Theodore convicted of unfaithful plagiarism in so many places.

t. If the biographer relates truly, these things happened more probably in the year 614: for Gall in the summer or toward the autumn of the year 612 turned aside to Willimar, laboring under ill health; from which, while he recovers, while he chooses a place in the wilderness to inhabit, while he frees Gunzo's daughter from a demon, and especially while he instructs John the deacon in the divine sciences, it comes at least to the Easter of the year 613: and consequently, if S. Magnus was initiated into the diaconate by John the bishop at the beginning of the Lenten fast, this ordination could not have happened before the year 614. Walafrid in chapter 22 says that the aforesaid John was trained by Gall for three years before he was elected bishop: but that appears less probable.

u. See the Annotations on chapter 2, letter y. In the Goldast edition the things narrated from the beginning of this number down to And so on a certain day, etc., are more rightly passed over.

w. Here certainly the interpolator makes plain that he wrote long after the times of S. Otmar: for he, on the testimony of Walafrid in the book On the Miracles of S. Gall, chapter XI, received the cell of S. Gall, still small, to be governed in the 8th century, and reduced it into the form of a monastery. Hence Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, century 3, part 2, page 154, writes thus: The monastery of S. Gall situated in the diocese of Constance … owes its beginnings and increases to abbot Otmar, who enlarged the small cell founded by S. Gall and almost forsaken, and, having furnished it with the necessary buildings, assigned it to Benedictine monks.

x. The interpolator designates S. Otmar, who presided over that monastery in the 8th century, as will appear below from chapter 7: but how unskillfully, is clear from the year of that Saint's death, which was about that of Christ 759, as may be seen in Mabillon just praised, page 158. With what likelihood therefore could he have been a disciple of S. Gall, and that before Columbanus' death, that is, before the year 615? Certainly if it be so, he must have numbered more than 150 years when he flew away to the Powers above. Charles Le Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, volume 3, at the year 661, number 2, and elsewhere, moved by Theodore's authority, contends that two Otmars presided over the monastery of St. Gall, one in the 7th century, who, having been brought up by SS. Gall and Magnus, afterward received Theodore, as is said in the Life, chapter 7: the other in the 8th century, who was reckoned among the Saints: but that both were confused by Ermenric, to whom

he ascribes the Appendix of the Life. But to me so faulty a Life is not of such worth that on its account I should think that Otmar, otherwise wholly unknown, must be established as abbot of St. Gall. Yet I confess that it could absolutely have happened that some Otmar taught by the said Saints presided at that time in the cell of St. Gall, since Walafrid in chapter XI says: After the laying to rest of the venerable father, namely blessed Gall, … certain religious clerics, kindled either by the memory of his discipleship or by divine love, ministered daily vigils at the relics of his sacred body through many courses of years, namely as it were from the times of king Dagobert down to Charles the father of Carloman and Pippin, to the praise of Christ.

y. In the year 615, on the XI Kalends of December, says Mabillon in the Life of S. Columbanus.

z. It was founded on the borders of the dominion of Genoa and the duchy of Piacenza, on the river Trebbia. By lapse of time the buildings erected about it grew together into a city, small indeed, but episcopal, suffragan first to the archbishop of Ravenna, but now to him of Genoa.

aa. That is, to show the token that the interdict against celebrating Mass had been lifted.

bb. The things related in this and the following number about S. Gall's death and burial are in the Goldast edition only touched upon in these few words: And blessed Magnoald stayed with S. Gall nearly ten years after the journey from Italy was accomplished: but in the tenth year Bl. Gall died.

cc. About the provisions brought Canisius has nothing.

dd. More probably in the year 625, as we showed in the Commentary, §5.

ee. Walafrid, from whom the interpolator borrowed these things, reports the matter a little more probably. For he says that the aforesaid bishop, with S. Magnoald, Willimar the presbyter, and Theodore, wished to entomb the saint's body in the church of Arbon (for he had died at Arbon): but when by no force they were able to lift the bier from the ground, the bishop, judging — as was the case — that another sepulcher was owed him, then at last employed untamed horses, and prayed God that he would lead them to that place which by his providence he had destined for the saint's burial.

or letters* is wanting in Canisius

elsewhere, a holy man*

supply John*

Goldast, staff*

Canisius, binding*

the same, to Bl. Gall*

CHAPTER IV.

S. Magnus and Theodore are grievously beaten by the violators of S. Gall's sepulcher: they are restored by bishop Boso: they hasten to Füssen: their deeds on the journey.

[ ] [S. Gall's sepulcher being violated by enemies, S. Magnus and Theodore grievously wounded,] Therefore after three years ^a, that the prophecy of the most holy Columbanus might be fulfilled, which he had before foretold to blessed Magnoald, that it would come to pass as it were in vengeance for himself concerning the sepulcher of blessed Gall, Otwin ^b, a most wicked duke, and Erchonald, his prefect and like unto him, having gathered a multitude of the people, surrounded that community with drawn swords, and, breaking the doors, laid waste the whole monastery, taking all that they found there in gold and silver and other utensils; and also, having entered the oratory, they broke the sepulcher of blessed Gall, thinking that a great treasure had been laid up there. But when they found nothing in it, the bones of blessed Gall being left unburied, [*] they killed all whom they found, except blessed Magnoald and Theodore, whom also, scourged and wounded and stripped, they left lying in the court.

[31] But Boso ^c by name, bishop of the holy church of Constance, hearing this, and being restored by bishop Boso, they repair the sepulcher. that the sepulcher of saint Gall had been violated, swiftly hastened into those parts, and, coming thither, found the community desolate and destroyed, the altars stripped bare, and blessed Magnoald wounded and [] Theodore, who wished to restore the relics of the sacred body to the tomb, but had not strength. Then the aforesaid bishop, moved with mercy over him, consoled him greatly, and again with his clerics venerably, with psalms and hymns and other prayers, laid away the sacred body of blessed Gall, placed back in the same sepulcher ^d, and filled the pit with earth. Therefore, a blessing being given to the two Brethren Magnoald and Theodore, he bestowed on them his own garments [], and, furnishing food also, gave them leave, when their health was recovered, to set out where the Lord had disposed that they should come.

[32] And he sent after Otmar ^e, that distinguished man, The divine vengeance upon the same violators. who had escaped by taking flight, and summoned him to dwell in that place [*], until he should inquire of Pippin ^f, who at that time was called Mayor of the palace, what he wished to be done about that community. And so the divine vengeance came upon Erchonald, the author of this crime, and upon Otwin, thus. For not long after Pippin sent a copious army to lay waste the province of the Alemans, and to subject it to his own dominion and to that of the Franks. And when the whole land was filled with hostile inroad, Otwin and Erchonald, not knowing to what quarter to turn themselves on account of the plunderers who were at hand, slew themselves with the sword, so that the signs brought together might make manifest the divine vengeance accomplished upon them ^g.

[33] To S. Magnus and Theodore inquiring the will of God, Blessed ^h Magnoald therefore and Theodore together prostrated themselves in prayer, imploring the Lord's mercy that he would dispose their journey according to his will toward the parts of the East: lest, departing as it were fraudulently, they should leave the blessed father's body: being mindful again of the prophecy of blessed Columbanus, who had said that Magnoald would come into the Eastern wilderness to the sources of the Julian Alps ⁱ, where blessed Narcissus, bishop of the city of Toledo ^k, bade the devil kill a dragon, when he converted saint Afra ^l to the faith. But on the following night it was shown by a vision to saint Magnoald that he should go forward confidently, and should know that the Lord's support was always present with him: and so, when morning came, again they were more attentively entreated in prayers [*], that the Lord would show them the way and a convenient journey, in what manner he willed them to come thither.

[34] S. Tozzo comes, who leads them to Füssen. When midday therefore came, a certain presbyter from that same district came, named Tozzo ^m, who had already heard the fame of blessed Gall, and therefore was coming for the sake of prayer to his sepulcher, bearing a burning taper in his hand, which taper he brought thither in a wonderful manner: namely, that when he journeyed by night, the taper burned [], and could by no means be extinguished by the wind: but when day was at hand, the light was at once of itself withdrawn from that taper. And when blessed Magnoald and Theodore saw him coming (for they marveled that the taper was by no means diminished), they met him and asked him whence he came: but he set forth in order whence he was, and how it had been revealed to him that he should visit the sepulcher of the most holy Gall; nay, that he should lead by a straight road those whom he should find wishing to set out for the parts of the East [], until they should come to the place desired. But they, hearing these things, prostrated themselves in prayer, rendering thanks to the Lord, who had vouchsafed to show them such a guide, that he might not permit them to wander even by a narrow way. And then at last they received the presbyter, and, kissing him, led him into the church to the sepulcher of blessed Gall, and, prayer being made, they sent him to their guest-house, giving him what necessaries they could, and choosing him as their fellow-traveler. And so the aforesaid presbyter, passing the night with them, when morning arose, praying before the sepulcher of blessed Gall, and blessing God and bidding farewell to the Brethren who were there, they set out together. Undertaking therefore the journey beside the lake of Bregenz, leaving it on the left hand as far as the place which is called Bregenz, they stayed there two days.

[35] S. Magnus on the way gives sight to a blind man: But while they were staying there, a certain blind man, who was very well known to the acquaintance of many men dwelling in that district, met blessed Magnoald, asking of him necessary food. But he, remembering the Apostolic sentence, said: I am not worthy to compare myself to the sanctity of him who said: Silver and gold I have not ⁿ: but in the name of him who gave that power, that he might do what he did, and enlightened a blind man, I implore that thine eyes be opened [], that thou mayest see, and be able by laboring with thy hands to acquire a livelihood. And this being said, he softened his eyes with his own spittle, and without delay much blood bursting forth from his eyes, they were opened, and, seeing, he fell at his feet and said: Lord, I see, since thou art great, and great are thy works; if thou wilt, I will follow thee wherever thou goest. He answered: If thou wilt serve the Lord, then follow me. And so, after this sign was accomplished, he was called Magnus by the inhabitants of that land. And both set out, namely blessed Magnoald and Theodore, and the blind man followed, giving thanks to the Lord for the sight received, the aforesaid presbyter named Tozzo accompanying [] them as guide of the journey.

[36] And so after some days they came to the place which is called Kempten ^o, near Kempten where they found a very beautiful town, but wholly deserted. Then blessed Magnoald asked the aforesaid presbyter how that place was called, or the river which flowed down there. He answered: That place is very often visited by the inhabitants of this land, and is called Kempten; but they have not dared to remain here even one night on account of the divers kinds of serpents which are here. But the river is called Iller [p]; which is not so, because it troubles many men by its very swift course, and turns them rather to grief than to joy. But we must pass by more swiftly, lest they perceive that we are here: since if they perceive it, they will make a great onset upon us to devour us. For they have devoured very many men who came hither for the sake of hunting, not permitting them to lie here even one night. Blessed Magnoald answering said: Truly our Lord Jesus Christ has power likewise to cast out these serpents from that place, as he had power to cast out bears and wolves and the other wild beasts, nay and serpents, and also demons, through the prayer of our lord and master Gall, from the place which he chose for building a little cell and for burying his holy body. We therefore, the Lord permitting, must stay here this night.

[37] And he said to Theodore: Brother Theodore, it is thine to pray a terrible dragon with his staff and to implore God's mercy, that he may furnish us help for casting out the serpents from that place, and the demons which lurk in them; since by thee this place is to be built and constructed; and therefore let us pray alike that the Lord may vouchsafe to hear us, and to cleanse this place, which is uninhabitable by men for fear of the serpents: and saying these things, they prostrated themselves in prayer. While therefore they were praying, there came forth out of the town a great serpent, whose name from the sound of its voice was Boas [q],

and it made an onset upon the blessed Men lying in prayer. Therefore the presbyter Tozzo, who was leading them, seeing it, cried out with a great voice saying: Woe is me, that I have brought you hither! Therefore, turned to flight together with him who had been blind, he was hastening to a tree, that he might save himself.

[38] And so blessed Magnoald and Theodore, trusting [*] in God's mercy; kills it, and, the serpents being driven off, makes the town habitable, and Magnoald rising, Theodore praying, and making the sign of the holy Cross before himself, and seizing the staff which he had received from blessed Gall, and the cross which he bore with him, went to meet the serpent, and said: I command thee in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, that thou lie here, and that the devil who lurks in thee may himself kill thee, being adjured by the living and true God. And when he had said this, he struck it on the head with his staff; and forthwith the serpent burst in the middle, and died: but the other serpents which were dwelling within the town, and about that town, were all turned to flight, and appeared nowhere. And so the place was cleansed; and they stayed there one week, rendering thanks to the Lord, who had vouchsafed to hear them, and to prepare that place for the habitation of men.

[39] and building a chapel in it, And so Theodore, when he saw so great a sign wrought by the Lord and by blessed Magnoald, rose from the place in which he lay praying; and, his hands being lifted to heaven, said: Lord God almighty, who hast made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; to thee I render thanks, thee I invoke, thee I adore, to thee I sing praises, who hast vouchsafed to free us from so great a peril and from such a devouring by serpents. And when he had said this, he ran to blessed Magnoald, and, bending his knee, kissed his knees, and as it were licked his hands and his eyes, and said: Truly thou shalt no longer be called Magnoald, but Magnus; since the Lord has conferred on thee so great a grace, that through thee this place is purified not only of serpents, but also of demons. To this blessed Magnoald: Do not say so, brother, I am not great, but the least servant of the servants of God, who has vouchsafed to free us from such a peril. Thy prayers therefore have been heard by God, and therefore not by my merits, but by God's command, those serpents have withdrawn. But now call our fellow-traveler, and we shall go on to that place, because the Lord wills to prepare it for the building of a cell. Remember [r] how it happened to our lord and father the most holy Gall in his own place, which he himself chose for staying; so also it has been ordained for us by the Lord, his merits intervening: therefore it is doubtful to none that the Lord wills to prepare this place for himself.

[40] he converts many to the faith: But Tozzo, when he saw that they were both unharmed, coming down from the tree to which he had fled, and the blind man who had received his sight together with him, they prostrated themselves at their feet, and Tozzo said: Truly the Lord is in this place, who has conferred so great a grace on blessed Magnus, that with his staff he should do such an unheard-of sign: now therefore I will confidently lead you through deserts and narrow places as far as the place which you have chosen for staying; because I see that so great a power has been given you by God that through your merits divers places lying in these parts are purified, and, the Lord assenting, are made habitable. Blessed Magnus answering said: Let us stay here the present week, and let us build a little oratory [s], that the people of this land may learn what mercy the Lord has vouchsafed to bring [*] upon them in this place: and they stayed there that week. But Tozzo ran through the neighboring places known to him to the men who dwelt there, and spread abroad this sign: and they came to the place, and brought food to the aforesaid Brethren exceedingly sufficient, greatly marveling at so great a power of God; and very many, being converted to the faith through the preaching of blessed Magnus the deacon, were baptized by the aforesaid presbyter Tozzo, and, giving thanks to the Lord, remained there, tilling that land and building a little cell together with blessed Magnus and Theodore.

[41] hence the demons attack SS. Tozzo Three days therefore having passed, while they were spending the nights in prayer, but by day laboring, when on the third night, the dawn of day rising, they wished to rise and celebrate the morning office, suddenly demons flying in the air and wailing, and sending forth voices with great noise and roaring, and making an onset as it were upon Tozzo the presbyter, cried out: Thou, enemy of our lord [t] and of us, why hast thou brought this Man with his companion into this place, who has put to flight from this place both us and our members, through which we were winning many souls? But their master was always wont to conquer us with his sorceries, as this man too, by invoking the name of the Lord. But he holds us conquered and expelled not only in ourselves [*], but also in our members, with the terrible name Adonai. Hearing this, the aforesaid presbyter, trembling, yet fortifying himself with the sign of the holy Cross, went in haste to the Man of God, and told him what he had seen and heard.

[42] Then the strong and chosen Warrior of God [*] together with blessed Theodore prostrated himself in prayer, and Magnus, and attack Theodore, and besought the Lord with words of this sort, saying: Almighty God, unspeakable Goodness, inestimable Loving-kindness, who hast vouchsafed, according to thy mercy and not according to our merits, to snatch us from the members of those demons and from their death-bearing poisons, receive from us with gentle hearing these prayers, as thou didst receive them in these very words of our master Gall, and bid these demons desert the place, that it may be sanctified in honor of thy name, while the cocks daily sing [u]. And rising from prayer, and going out from the oratory, they heard them crying out and wailing and saying: Thou, Magnus, bearest three names in thy head, and with the Trinity castest so many evils upon us: and thou, Theodore, what have we to do with thee? Days will come when thou wilt not have Magnus beside thee, and then we shall fight against thee, stirring up the men of this land against thee through divers errors.

[43] But saint Magnus answering said: Wretches, whom the Saint bids depart from that place. confess, if you know it, the holy Trinity of God: and they said: We know that it is unspeakable and immeasurable: and blessed Magnus: Now therefore, since you have confessed the holy Trinity, I command you, not by my own lowly names [*], but by the immeasurable power of the Trinity, that, deserting this place, you go into the desert mountains, where the Lord shall will, and have no further power of returning hither. At this voice the demons straightway said: Alas! what shall we do? We have another Gall here: nay, this Gall is worse than the former, because with his cock-crowings [w] he casts out us and our members alike: but neither does he permit us to stay in the wilderness. Further, from that day they so completely withdrew and were turned to flight that afterward they did not appear there: for it was fitting that, since the wicked and venomous servants had departed at the entreaty of so great a Man, the poisons of souls should withdraw, and give way to a habitation of sanctity: [x] and so it came to pass that from that day all men were permitted to dwell peacefully in that place, giving thanks to the Lord.

ANNOTATIONS.

h. Thus far

the compiler seems to have borrowed everything from the Lives of SS. Columbanus and Gall. What follows appears to be his own offspring. In Goldast the second Book begins here.

p. Commonly the Iller; it rises in the bishopric of Augsburg on the border of the county of Tyrol; whence, flowing to the North, it washes Kempten, and next to Ulm mingles with the Danube.

q. From the sound of its voice is better omitted in the Canisian and Goldast editions. Caius Pliny in the Natural History, book 8, chapter 14, hands down another etymology, when, writing about monsters of this kind, he subjoins this: These are made credible by those called in Italy boæ, which grow to such a size that, under the emperor Claudius, when one was killed in the Vatican, a whole infant was seen in its belly. They are nourished at first on the juice of cow's milk, whence they took their name. Another but more marvelous etymology of the word St. Jerome hands down in the Life of S. Hilarion, where, relating that a like dragon was killed by the aforesaid Saint near Epidaurus, a town of Dalmatia, he says: A dragon of wonderful size (which in the language of the nation they call boas, from this, that they are so huge that they are wont to swallow oxen) was laying waste all the province far and wide; and not only herds and flocks, but husbandmen too and shepherds, drawn to it by the force of its breath, it swallowed up. Read more examples, if it please thee, in Welser in the Commentary on the Conversion of S. Afra the martyr, annotation 90: where he also rightly warns that antiquity indulged itself in many fabulous things about dragons, and accordingly that credit is not to be given rashly and indiscriminately to histories of this kind. That this history of which we are treating must be numbered among the fabulous, everything persuades: for who would believe that the city of Kempten was utterly emptied of inhabitants on account of an infestation of serpents? Was Rhætia at that time so little peopled that serpents should occupy a whole very beautiful town? Besides, what else does the going forth of that boa from the town, and the sudden flight of the remaining serpents after its death, sound of but a fable? Thou wouldst say that, the leader being cut down, military forces had fled from their stations. But indeed the devils were driving these monsters by their tricks: so indeed the writer hints, but he is not such as at once to deserve credit.

r. What follows down to the next number is wanting in the Lectiones of Canisius.

s. That is, a little sacred building destined for prayer.

t. That is, of a lord or prince: in which signification Goldast heaps up several examples in his observations on this word.

u. While the cocks daily sing Goldast does not have. Canisius reads to the cocks singing, but, as is plain, faultily: and he warns in the margin that perhaps of S. Gall should be read, so that the sense may be: let that place be sanctified in honor of thy name and of S. Gall. I understand by while the cocks sing the cock-crow, and so I interpret the writer's mind: Let that place resound daily at cock-crow with thy praises.

w. The demons play on the equivocal word Gallus, which signifies both S. Magnus' master and a barnyard cock.

x. The contents of the parenthesis are wanting in Canisius and Goldast.

read the bones being left unburied*

that is, and*

Canisius, of his own garment*

Canisius, and commended the place to him*

that is, they entreated*

read it burned*, etc.

Goldast, to the Eastern parts*

elsewhere, to open*

Goldast, and accompanies*

add were*

elsewhere, to bestow*

supply in: Goldast, ourselves .. our members.*

Goldast, Then S. Magnus*

Canisius, merits*

CHAPTER V.

The rest of the journey to Füssen, another dragon killed, demons expelled, chapels founded.

[ ] Theodore being left at Kempten, the Saint, setting out for Füssen These things being thus done, blessed Magnus the deacon said to Theodore: Let us give thanks to God, brother, because the demons have withdrawn: now it is good that this place be built by thee and guarded ^a, that the people of this place may be sanctified, who hereafter are to come hither rather to pray than to hunt. Theodore answering said: My lord, according to thy command I do; but as soon as I shall have heard that thou art established in the place chosen for thee by God, I will come to thee and visit thee. And these things being said, bidding farewell together and kissing one another, blessed Magnus set out, taking with him as his companion, fellow-traveler and guide of the journey the presbyter Tozzo, leaving with Theodore the blind man who had received his sight. And so, the journey being begun and the river crossed, he went on by a straight path, as the traveler was leading him; and so they came to the place which is called Eptaticus ^b, and found there the bishop of the holy church of Augsburg of the Vindelici, named Wicterp ^c. Tozzo therefore, on account of the acquaintance which he had with the bishop, went before blessed Magnus, and came to the aforesaid bishop and told him all about the holy Man which he had seen and heard, and about his journey, and also about his coming to him, nay and about the place to which the Lord had destined him to stay. And the aforesaid bishop asked of what origin he was; and Tozzo answered: Lord, as I heard from Theodore, who is now left behind at Kempten, he is sprung from the province of Ireland ^d.

[45] is kindly received by Wicterp, bishop of Augsburg, But when the bishop heard his good report, he received him kindly, and began to speak with him and to cherish him with honor: and he stayed with him a few days, bishop Wicterp inquiring of him daily about blessed Columbanus and Gall, and about their journeys, and also about the manner of life and faith of their life, and about the powers which they wrought. Then he asked him whither his will was to set out. Blessed Magnus the deacon answering said: With the Lord's assent, I have been directed to the place which is called Fauces ^e, where near by are the sources of the Julian Alps, and where there was a dragon which, at the bidding of Narcissus the bishop, was killed by the devil ^f; so that, with the Lord assenting, whatever good I shall be able to build there I may do. Now therefore let thy paternity decide what thy will is for my acting [*]; since at thy command I ought to act with ready mind, as the Lord shall have revealed to me through thy mouth. But I, being now old and advanced in years, desire in my last time, if it please thy paternity, to visit that place and to prepare it for serving God, following the example of my most blessed lords, Columbanus and Gall. To this Wicterp the bishop answered: That place is very narrow and uninhabitable by men; and divers wild beasts too dwell there; that is, stags, many boars, very many bears: and on account of their multiplying, the lord king Pippin ^g holds that woodland for his own use, for the exercising of his hunting. Serpents too, very many and of divers kinds, dwell there.

[46] Blessed Magnus the deacon, straightway taking up the beginnings of a good shepherd ^h, and being dismissed by him, said: Father, my masters Columbanus and Gall had such a ministry [], that when they came to such places, our Lord Jesus Christ through their prayers straightway drove out [] wild beasts of divers kinds and serpents from those places in which they determined to stay. Likewise I believe that God's mercy will not permit them to stay in that place when I shall have come. And Wicterp the bishop acquiesced in his words, and gave them comforts of food, furnishing him with the above-mentioned presbyter named Tozzo as fellow-traveler, and guides of the journey, who should lead him through to the place destined for him by God. And when they had come to the place which is called Horse's Head ⁱ, there lay there in one narrow place a great dragon, which permitted no man to pass by that way, nor any horse; and therefore that place was called Horse's Head, because all the hunters left their horses there, and went on foot wherever they could to hunt ^k. And so when blessed Magnus the deacon was already near that place, he said to Tozzo the presbyter: Brother, let us build ourselves a tent here to stay this night, and let us pray God that he drive out this present member of the devil from that place, and vouchsafe to permit us an approach for going forward. And so they did as he had commanded; and they stayed there.

[47] But in the whole night blessed Magnus did not cease to pray, on the way, after long prayers, a fearful dragon and to implore the Lord's mercy that he would vouchsafe to overthrow the dragon. But about midnight blessed Magnus the deacon, rising, said to Tozzo the presbyter: Send a man with me, who may lead me to the narrow place where the dragon lies. And Tozzo said: I fear lest, if I bring thee thither, thou be devoured by it. To this the holy Man: And if God be for us, who is against us ^l. Let us go forward therefore confidently; because he who freed Daniel from the lions' den can also snatch me from the hand of this most evil beast. And so, when he had said this, he put consecrated bread into his wallet, and, taking with his hand

pitch and resin and the staff of saint Gall, and hanging the cross on his neck, he went forward and said: Almighty God, who hast led me out into a distant region, may he himself, as to Tobias his servant, send his angel with me, who may free me from the mouth of this dragon, and show us a place fit for saving desires. And saying these things he fortified himself with the sign of the holy Cross, and put of the consecrated bread into his mouth and a little water; and so he came to the place where the dragon lay, leaving all his companions in the tent, except one only guide of the journey.

[48] he wonderfully slays. And when the dragon saw him, it straightway rose up, making an onset upon him: but he, having in his hand pitch and resin, cast them into its mouth, saying: Help me, O Lord my God. And when he had said this, forthwith it began to burn, and burst in the middle, and died ^m. But when he who was with him saw this done, he rose at once and came to his companions, and said: Rise, go out and come; because that great Man has the dragon dead. They rose therefore, and found blessed Magnus the deacon lying in prayer and rendering thanks to the Lord: for it was fitting that, what he was beginning with divine love, he should commend himself [] to the Lord with most urgent prayer: since the Lord, as through the mouth of blessed Narcissus the bishop he compelled the devil himself to kill another dragon, so also through the hands of so great a Man he made its fellow [] perish by the burning of fire and the crackling of flames ⁿ. But when they saw the dragon dead, they went down to the rock, from which that dragon had been seen to make an onset upon the holy Man. Then Tozzo the presbyter said: We give thee thanks, O Lord, who hast vouchsafed to show us such and so great a Man, that through his merits these places may be purified, and may be made dwellings [*], which before were useless.

[49] Setting out thence, beside the river Lech But prayer being made, they passed that narrow place, and came by a way beside the river Lech to a spacious place which had no name ^o, yet there was a good level ground there. And blessed Magnus the deacon had hanging on his neck a cross [p], in which were contained relics of the blessed Mother of God Mary, and of the wood of the holy Cross, and of the holy martyrs Maurice and his Companions, and also of the blessed confessors Columbanus and Gall. He found therefore beside the aforesaid river a very seemly and beautiful place, in which place, at a distance of about thirty cubits from the bank of the aforesaid river, he found a very comely fruit-bearing tree [q]; and he hung the little cross on that tree, and called Tozzo the presbyter, and they prostrated themselves together before the little cross in prayer. Then the venerable man, blessed Magnus the deacon, sends forth prayers of this sort: Lord Jesus Christ, who for the salvation of the human race didst vouchsafe to be born of a Virgin and to die; despise not my entreaty for my sins; but permit us to build in this place a little oratory to the honor [*] of thy Mother, and prepare here a habitation fit for thy services [r].

[50] But the prayer being finished, they began to lay a foundation in this place, and built a church: which being completed, they invited Wicterp the bishop he builds a chapel. to come and consecrate it to the Lord and to holy Mary. The aforesaid bishop therefore came to that place, greatly marveling how they could have [] come thither except by the grace of God; and he dedicated the church in honor of Mary the Mother of God and of saint Florian [s], and so they began to administer the divine offices to the praise of Christ. Therefore [t], since the fame of the powers which the Lord vouchsafed to display through the merits of his blessed Confessor to those who piously sought them, so as [] to soothe the ears of the peoples set round about far and wide, they began from every side to run together with eager devotion to seek the suffrages of so great a Father, and to name that same place, for the memory of his dignity, the Cell of saint Magnus; and to enlarge it with manifold gifts of possessions from their substance.

[51] And when things had come to be conferred by this bounty of the faithful, Withdrawing not far thence, he hears demons the blessed Man withdrew on account of the multitude of men, and went on to the neighboring above-mentioned places which are called Fauces, in order that there, the Lord assenting, he might build himself a more familiar place for staying, leaving the aforesaid presbyter Tozzo in the church of holy Mary to guard the people who should come thither [u]; and he called that place Synagoga, that is, the Gathering of the peoples. Therefore when about midday he was making for a small place for the sake of a quieter life, resting in the above-mentioned place, suddenly demons [w] from a neighboring mountain with a great noise from the top of the nearest mountain called as it were with one voice upon others dwelling in the deep of the river Lech [*] as it were by name: and when these too who were being called answered as from the deep that they were at hand, those from the mountain say: Rise, they say, to our aid, that we may cast out this most evil Pilgrim and magician from these seats; since he, after the manner of his Gallus, has broken our images, and has turned away after himself the people which followed us, and moreover has killed our dragons. And let the injury which we suffer move you, and, united in strength, let us utterly expel from our borders our common present Enemy.

[52] On the contrary those from the deep answered: Alas! complaining much of themselves: who being expelled what you tell of your straits, we perceive from our own oppressions: for his angel already presses us in the deep, and we have not dared either to come out of the deep or to touch anything of his, because, the name of the Lord being invoked from his mouth, for that reason the angel scourges us with fiery whips and compels us to withdraw: wherefore we can profit neither you nor ourselves; because so strong a Warrior is he that our craftinesses cannot overcome even the fringe of his garment. These things being heard, the man of God blessed Magnus fortified himself on every side with the sign of the holy Cross, and said to them: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, not by my merits, but by the merits of blessed Gall, confessor of Christ, and by his glorious laying to rest, I adjure you that you withdraw from this place, and hereafter presume neither to stay here, nor, in now withdrawing, to harm anyone.

[53] And these things being said, he hastily returned across the river [x] to the church of holy Mary which he had built; he builds another chapel in the same place. and he told Tozzo the presbyter all that he had heard in that place. And when they wished to chant at the evening time, the voices of the demons were heard through the tops of the mountains, like the wailings of those departing, confused with terror. And the Servants of God, hearing these things, prostrated themselves in prayer, paying praises and thanks to the Lord, who had vouchsafed to free them from the terrors of the malignant spirits: and so blessed Magnus returned on the following day to the aforesaid place, and Tozzo the presbyter with him, and with the help of their own they built a very small oratory in that same place, and Wicterp the bishop was summoned by Tozzo and dedicated that oratory in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ under the name of the holy Savior [y].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. This is believed to be the same which is even now preserved in the abbey of Füssen. Go to the Commentary, §10, number 120, where we said from abbot Henry that it was opened in the year 1607, and sacred relics were found in it, but without inscriptions. Further, this little cross seems to be the same which Walafrid Strabo in the Life of S. Gall calls a capsella, or at any rate the relics which were kept in this were enclosed in that, as will presently appear at letter r.

q. Fr. Ludwig Babenstuber in the Life of the Saint at chapter 5 of book 2 notes the following: They report that that little tree still stands and is green in the garden of a certain Adam Mayr of Waltenhofen, near the parish church: and although at some time it was rashly cut down and mutilated through imprudence, that it again put forth leaves and flowered; and that there have not been lacking visitors, even from several miles away, who planted in fields and meadows the shoots and leaves plucked thence against mice, and by this means presently compelled them to change their ground. So related Johann Adam Truckmiller, parish priest of Waltenhofen, in the year MDCCXII, on the XXI of August. So he; but with what likelihood I leave to the reader's judgment.

r. This whole narrative is suspect to me: for I fear that our interpolator has ascribed the acts of S. Gall to S. Magnus. For indeed the often-praised Walafrid, relating in what manner S. Gall in the wilderness near Arbon chose the place for building his cell, among other things writes thus: Taking a hazel rod, he made a cross and fixed it in the earth. And he had hanging on his neck a little case, in which were contained relics of the blessed Mother of God Mary and of SS. the martyrs Maurice and Desiderius. Which when he had hung upon that cross, he called the deacon, and they prostrated themselves together in prayer. Then the venerable man sent forth prayers of this sort: Lord Jesus Christ, who for the salvation of the human race didst vouchsafe to be born of a Virgin and to undergo death, despise not my desire for my sins; but in honor of thy holy Mother and of thy martyrs and confessors prepare in this place a habitation fit for thy services.

s. S. Florian the martyr is venerated on the 4th of May, at which day his Acts were given. Karl Stengel in the Monasteriologium understood these things of the dedication of the church of the monastery of Füssen: but wrongly, for Waltenhofen is distant more than half a German mile from the aforesaid community, and that on the other bank of the Lech, as is also marked on the very map prefixed to his Commentary on Augsburg affairs. Nor yet was Stengel alone in erring in this part; for abbot Henry in his manuscript annotations says: Gather that those are deceived who attribute this dedication of a church to the church of Füssen: for our first church was dedicated not in honor of the divine Virgin and of S. Florian, but in honor of our Savior. Then our Henschen rightly notes in the Life of S. Tozzo that this saint was left in this church when S. Magnus went on to the neighboring places which are called Fauces: therefore it is other than the monastery of Füssen.

t. What follows down to chapter 6 is wanting in the Goldast edition.

u. That S. Tozzo acted as parish priest here, and was thence raised to the episcopal see of the city of Augsburg, is said in his Acts illustrated at the day 16 of January. Of the same place Rader says: Waltenhofen they call today a parish, over which a dean of priests still presides.

w. I would have the reader forewarned that either the following account about the demons has been unfaithfully transferred hither by our plagiarist from the Life of S. Gall, or that exactly the same things which once befell S. Gall befell S. Magnus. It is wearisome to uncover his thefts with a long discourse: let the curious reader only go to Walafrid in the Life of S. Gall in Mabillon, chapter 6, and he will presently detect how boldly the interpolator ascribes to S. Magnus, living among the men of Füssen, in often the same words, those things which befell S. Gall near Bregenz. For which reason let no one wonder that I reckon these complaints and flight of demons among fabulous accompaniments.

x. Rightly: for Waltenhofen and Füssen hold opposite banks of the Lech. Ludwig Babenstuber illustrates this passage by a certain tradition not sufficiently certain, as it appears. Outside the suburb of Füssen, he says, where the fulling-mill is, on either bank of the Lech there are marked parts of the rock lower than the rest, which the common people name the footprints of S. Magnus (S. Mangen schritt); which the divine man is said to have left impressed there when he crossed the river, either by a ford or carried by an angel. Yet they do not so reproduce the figure of human soles that it can be sufficiently recognized: they say the cause is age, which, aided by the wetness of rains and snows, has eaten away the more manifest outlines. Thus far Babenstuber: abbot Henry indeed mentions a place on the Lech called S. Mangen schritt, but has nothing about impressed footprints.

y. This was the first chapel of Füssen, and the beginnings of the abbey of the same name. About it the said abbot observes these things: Note .., that that little oratory which S. Magnus first built in our place of Füssen, and which bishop Wicterp dedicated in honor of the Savior, was (in my opinion at least) upon the rock of our greater church, contiguous to our conventual garden, where our greater church now stands built. More the reader will find in the Commentary, §13.

that is, to act*

Goldast, such a grace*

read drove out*

himself* is superfluous

that is, a like one*

elsewhere, habitable*

Goldast, in honor of thy name and of thy holy Mother*

Goldast, they could have*

so as* is superfluous

Canisius, of the Lech*

CHAPTER VI.

The monastery of Füssen is founded: the Saint is initiated into the priesthood, converts the inhabitants to the Faith, wonderfully finds veins of iron.

[ ] The Saint gathers disciples: Wicterp Therefore ^a, when the fame of the powers which the Lord vouchsafed to display with him in that same place through the merits of his Confessor had been made known to the venerable bishop, he commended certain religious clerics to the remembrance of his discipline; who, kindled with divine love, through thirty ^b courses of years, offering their services, administered the praise of Christ day and night, at the hours and at every moment, by his order. And so, those things being left for the venerable Father which were necessary for those dwelling there with him, the above-mentioned bishop Wicterp set out to the glorious king Pippin ^c, who at that time was governing Germany and all Gaul, with the epistle of blessed Columbanus which he had directed to Lothaire ^d, entreating on behalf of the holy men Gall and Magnus dwelling in his kingdom, that he would kindly cherish them in the love of the Lord, and grant them familiar places, as should be convenient, in his dominion []. But since king Lothaire was by no means able to fulfill this on account of the infestations of the divers enemies of God ^e, the aforesaid glorious king, on account of the love and petition of his most dear brother Carloman, who for God's sake, leaving the temporal pomp of the glory of the kingdom [], gave himself over to a monastery ^f, and on account of the largeness of his alms, and also the petition of the aforesaid bishop, vouchsafed to exalt that place with some solace of his bounty.

[55] And when the aforesaid glorious prince had received the epistle, he obtains from king Pippin being pricked by his brother's petition, he began diligently to inquire by his prayers ^g from Alemannia what sort of place that was which the aforesaid bishop was asking to be exalted. Then duke Gunzo ^h from the provinces of the Augsburg [*] Rhætia, answering, said: Truly, lord king, that place is indeed slender in means, but excellent for hunting, if the hindrance of serpents were absent; because very many stags, does and fawns, and divers ibexes dwell there; and also a very great multitude of bears and wolves. But bishop Wicterp began to tell of the powers of the blessed Man, how, with the Lord helping, he killed a dragon, and the other powers which the Lord vouchsafed to show through his merits and prayers, and how that place was purified where blessed Magnus was staying. And hearing these things, the glorious king Pippin, being greatly moved in mind, said: In truth I have learned that, although that place is so slender in means, yet for the merits of so great a Man it will be noised abroad with famous report; as we have heard that the place already is where the body of blessed Gall is seen to rest. He inquired therefore of the aforesaid Gunzo where in the neighboring places he might be able to find tributaries from that same district, who ought to bring in taxes yearly to the king's revenues: and he found in that same neighborhood a district which is called Geltenstein ⁱ, to pay him tributes yearly in all things.

[56] Among the other gifts therefore of his munificence which he imparted to the blessed Man, yearly revenues for the Saint's monastery. he gave him that whole woodland with the boundary of security ^k, which he caused to be written down in his letter; and the hundred and twenty-three ^l taxes which they ought to bring in [] yearly from the aforesaid district, so that it might remain [] there forever in memory of his benefits. And lest at any time the contradiction of any of his successors should stand in the way of so great an increase, he caused a letter of his security to be written, and, as is the custom of kings, to be strengthened with circumspect caution, so that thereafter both he himself while he lived, and all men of that place, as the boundary contains it, in that same woodland to holy Mary and to holy Afra, by the royal grant, without violence from anyone, the aforesaid bishop Wicterp and all his successors should hold authority ^m. Bishop Wicterp, adorned with these solaces of royal power and exalted with honors, and the best gifts having been imparted by king Pippin to blessed Magnus, returns joyful to his fatherland, enjoining these things on the blessed Man with all diligence, and giving him power that in the place committed to him he should establish, for the supplying of the vigils of blessed Mary and of saint Afra ⁿ, all order and the canonical life. From that time that place, receiving its beginning of sanctity from the blessed man Magnus, but increased and exalted by the bishops of the church of Augsburg, does not cease even today laudably to spread abroad the name of Christ there.

[57] S. Magnus with Theodore goes to Wicterp, These things therefore being first accomplished, when Theodore, who was staying at the fortress of Kempten, had heard that blessed Magnus was established in the place which the Lord had disposed, he began to hasten into those parts, that he might see in what way and how, the Lord assenting, he was staying in those places. But when he came to him, greeting one another and kissing alike each other's eyes and hands, Theodore told him divers and innumerable things which he had suffered from the countrymen of the Illergau ^o; but yet, although he endured such injuries and calamities from them, he had built there a small church upon the bank of the Iller, for which he was asking that he would obtain from bishop Wicterp that, going thither, he would consecrate that basilica in honor of holy Mary the Mother of God. They came therefore both to the place which is called Eptaticus, and found there the aforenamed bishop sitting and praying in his oratory [p]. Therefore when they were presented before his eyes, blessed Magnus the abbot told him about Theodore, how with great labor he had built a church in the place of Kempten, and how he was entreating that he would himself hasten thither, and consecrate that church to the Lord.

[58] with whom, refusing the priesthood out of humility Hearing these things, the venerable bishop, answering, said to them: I will first tell you, now that you have come, what I was thinking, and so at the fitting time,

with the Lord assenting, I will set out. Truly, dearest father Magnus, sitting now I was thinking that, because almighty God has so magnified [*] thee in that place by his many miracles, I should summon thee at the coming solemnity of the fast of the seventh month [q], and, by the favor of heavenly grace, promote thee to the dignity of the priesthood. At length, his head being bowed, blessed Magnus said: Why dost thou make this proposal, father? I see myself to stink with the squalors and shameful deeds of my sins: therefore my life is not such that thy beloved paternity can promote me to so great a dignity. Do not therefore cast away our entreaty for our sins; but, called by the Lord's commands, begin the health-giving journey, and open the way of truth to those who desire it: afterward on me, the unworthy servant of God, when it shall please thy paternity, bestow the holy gift of thy kindness, lest I seem to refuse what has been disposed by God concerning me his servant.

[59] he is irradiated with a heavenly light: And while he was saying these things, both, that is Wicterp the bishop and Theodore, saw a most splendid crown clinging to his head [] in the manner of a wheel gleaming about the sun in the clouds. And straightway rising he embraced him, and, kissing his eyes and his mouth, said: The almighty Lord, who through the power of his majesty has vouchsafed to show so great a strength in thee, that for love of him thou shouldst leave thy fatherland and keep his commandments, may he himself make [] thee guard and exalt the place destined for thee by him, the grace of the Holy Spirit cooperating: and Theodore answered, Amen. To this the bishop again said: Well is that place called Eptaticus [r], because it stands in the middle between the monastery of blessed Afra [s] and thy little cell: and therefore know that after my departure I desire this inheritance to remain to holy Mary and to holy Afra; so that that place may be as it were a mediator for our successors between thy monastery and the city of the holy church of Augsburg [t].

[60] These things being said, the venerable bishop rose and set out for the fortress of Kempten, and blessed Magnus went down with him, Theodore accompanying him at the same time, thence with the same he hastens to dedicate a church on the bank of the Iller. and they came to the fortress. And a multitude of the people being called together on the solemn day of the dedication of that church, the venerable bishop refreshed the hearts of both [] with the sweetness of preaching; and so, at his bidding, blessed Magnus clothed the hearts of the peoples with so great a light of wisdom in the things which he said that he was heard with the highest gladness and praised by the mouth of all with unspeakable veneration []. And so, staying there two days with thanksgiving, and the people [] being armed [] with the blessing of so great a Father, and a kiss of peace being bestowed by the bishop, the venerable bishop and the most holy abbot returned to their own, leaving Theodore to guard the church of Kempten. And so blessed Magnus, staying [] in his community which he had prepared for himself at Füssen for twenty-five years, God wrought great powers there through him; enlightening the blind, giving hearing to the deaf, casting out demons from many, granting a step to the lame; and so he taught the people and converted them to the faith of Christ and to belief in him, so that leaving [] their vain and deaf idols, and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[61] Being initiated into the priesthood, by the indication of a bear, Moreover also through his prayers God showed veins of iron in the mountains set round about, thus. After receiving the priestly benediction, when he was going round the mountains and valleys through divers places fit for staying, on a certain day, ascending a lofty mountain which is called Suilinc [u], he found there very many bears dwelling in the greatest fierceness: but prayer being made, they began to come before him made so gentle that, just as oxen which go before the herdsman, so they went before him. The holy man therefore prostrated himself on the earth in the figure of a cross and poured out devout prayers to the Lord, that he would furnish some support to the people dwelling in that district for acquiring victuals. Meanwhile one bear, drawing near to him with great gentleness, began to point with its foot to a great fir, and as it were signifying that under that tree an abundance of veins of iron lay. When the Man of God saw this, he said to the beast: I command thee in the name of the Lord that thou go to that fir, and, because we have no sword [*] nor mattock with which we might cut its roots or dig them out, do thou in the name of the Lord with thy feet and thy teeth tear out its roots by breaking them, that the Lord may show us his will for the help of the people of this land.

[62] At his command therefore the beast, turning, began to break the roots of the tree and to snap them with its teeth, whom he has obedient to him, until that tree, dug out with its root from the bottom by the bear, fell down; and so divers veins of iron were shown to be taken. Then the most kindly Man, giving thanks to God, taking bread from his wallet which he had with him, offered it whole to his servant, and thus commanded it: In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ eat this bread and follow me, and take care to bring to this place without any hurt the man whom I shall show thee, defending him from other wild beasts, if they should wish to hurt him: and this being done, have the mountains and hills set round about in common with the other wild beasts, so that you hurt no man here, nor their cattle. And these things being said, the blessed man Magnus returned to his little cell, and the bear followed him like a dog which follows its master. Therefore when he drew near to the cell, he called his man named Luito, and bade him come and bring with him an axe and a mattock and an adze, and commended him to the bear and said: Lead this man safe and unharmed to the place which the Lord has shown us, and take care that he suffer no hurt from other wild beasts.

[63] he uncovers veins of iron. And so the beast, turning, obedient to his command, began to go before the man and to open the way and to show the path: and so it led him to the place where the tree had fallen, permitting no other wild beast to draw near him, until the man, digging, filled his little bundle [*], and by the same path led him back as far as the little cell of the Man of God. This being done, the bear returned to the woodland; but the man prostrated himself at the feet of blessed Magnus and said: Truly, my Lord, I know and am sure that the Lord is altogether with thee, because even the beasts of the wilderness obey thee, as they do Jesus Christ [w]: for the bear so watched over and guarded me that it did not permit even other wild beasts to approach me. But he said to him: Take diligent care that thou tell this to no one while I live; but prepare an approach for other men, as that bear led thee, that they may know the way of setting out thither, and, the Lord assenting, may hereafter have help toward acquiring victuals and other necessaries through the iron. From that day therefore divers veins of iron were made known to the inhabitants of that land in that place and round about, which by the Lord's grace, through the merits of blessed Magnus, remain to the present day [x].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Henschen in the Acts of S. Wicterp at the day 18 of April notes the following about the place Eptaticus and its chapel from Karl Stengel's Commentary: I long investigated (the words are Stengel's) whether that place, called Eptaticus in the Life of S. Magnus and of Bl. Herluca, still existed: I found that the village is now called Eppach. About the church it was not so clear. Certain excellent men, perhaps passing through, inquired after that same place, when they had read of it in the Life of S. Wicterp; but they testified that they had found nothing of this title. At length I came upon a countryman, whom, examining more diligently whether any churches under the title of the Bl. Virgin Mary and of S. Lawrence existed, he answered that in the village of Eppach no church of this title existed, since it has two: but that at a journey of one hour, not far from the river Lech, in a place altogether solitary and untilled, there survived a quite small chapel of this title. By which answer I came altogether into that opinion, so that I suffered myself to be persuaded that this is that very church in which we read that Bl. Wicterp delighted, where afterward also Herluca led her life, as Paul of Bernried relates in her Life.

q. By the fast of the seventh month he designates the fast of the Ember days of the month of September, which in the first arrangement of time made by Romulus was the seventh from March, from which they began the year: and although Numa Pompilius, Romulus' successor, set January and February before March, yet it retained the name of the seventh month: hence S. Gelasius I, epistle 9: The ordinations too of presbyters and deacons ought not to be performed except at certain times and days; that is, at the fast of the fourth month, of the seventh and of the tenth, etc. S. Gelasius flourished about the end of the fifth century.

r. The anonymous writer of Regensburg in his preface carps at this passage, as though, he says, it interpreted the same word (Eptaticus) as "middle," and did not rather sound the number seven, which in Greek is called ἑπτὰ. Rightly: but what if that place was distant about seven leagues on either side, namely midway between Augsburg and Füssen? Then assuredly there will be nothing which the anonymous writer may disapprove.

s. Unless some more recent interpolation has here intervened, by the monastery of S. Afra understand a company of regular canons who are said to have inhabited that place, on the testimony of Bernard Hertfelder in the Basilica, before it was handed over to the Benedictines in the year 1012: although I should not dare to assert with certainty that those canons were already living there from S. Magnus' time.

t. About this donation Goldast has nothing, in whom only the following is read: To this the bishop again said: Well is that place called Epthaticus, because it stands in the middle between the monastery of Bl. Afra and thy little cell.

u. By Goldast it is called Swiling, but by the anonymous writer of Füssen in the German Life Seyling: in the last way I find that mountain named in Merian's Topography of Swabia, where it is marked near the town of Füssen on the opposite bank of the Lech.

w. As they do Jesus Christ is more rightly absent in the Goldast copy.

x. That those iron mines endured to the day on which these things were being written Goldast does not have: yet it was had in the copy which the anonymous writer of Regensburg used about the middle of the XI century, in whom it is thus read: from him therefore divers veins of iron were found in that place, unto the present day: unless perhaps the anonymous writer meant to indicate that those mines still survived in the XI century, in which he was writing. The often-praised Babenstuber in book 3, chapter 3, writes thus about them: They are seen even today: but since they have iron of a quality not so good as the other which is imported by neighboring merchants and sold at a tolerable price, they have long since been abandoned. For the rest, this history is sufficiently marvelous, which for that reason I could wish had been handed down by a more fitting writer than our interpolator is.

Canisius, reward*

Goldast, royal*

Goldast, of Augsburg and of Rhætia*

Goldast, to be brought in*

the same, they should remain*

elsewhere, has magnified*

* of S. Magnus

Canisius, may he make*

elsewhere, of them; elsewhere, of the eager*

Goldast, adorned with honor; Canisius, he was adorned by the whole order*

Goldast, and the people*

the same, being armed*

the same, Bl. Magnus staying*

the same, they should leave; and below, they should believe*

Goldast, an axe*

Goldast, his sack with metal*

CHAPTER VII.

The Saint's death and burial; the devastation and restoration of his church.

[ ] Bl. Tozzo and Theodore visit the Saint in his sickness, And when twenty-five years ^a had passed, and the Lord vouchsafed to exalt and enlarge that place through the merits of so great a Man [*], bishop Wicterp having died on the fourteenth day of the Kalends of May, Tozzo, by the choice of blessed Magnus, was already in his last days brought to the honor of the pontificate by the glorious king Pippin ^b. But when twenty-six years ^c were finished, the blessed Father began to be sick and to languish with an infirmity of fevers. He sent therefore to Theodore his comrade, who at that time was staying in the little cell of Kempten, and summoned him, that he should make haste and visit him and refresh with his visit his most faithful Friend. Hearing this, Theodore, with the greatest agitation at the ill health of so great a Man, and with sorrowful mind, swiftly set out into those parts, taking with him, so far as he could, those things which he knew were fitting for one laboring in infirmity. But coming to the aforesaid little cell, he found the blessed Man held in the greatest infirmity; and he sent swiftly to Tozzo the bishop, intimating to him that he should make haste and come to visit so great a Patron before he departed from this worldly light. When therefore the aforesaid bishop had heard this, he swiftly set out into those parts and came to the community of the blessed Man.

[65] And when blessed Magnus the patron was laboring in the greatest infirmity, amid whose tears he piously dies Tozzo the bishop, seeing this, began to weep and to say: Alas, beloved father! Alas, excellent teacher, thou leavest me as it were an orphan in these perils! To this the blessed man Magnus said: Weep not, venerable bishop, because thou seest me laboring in so many storms of worldly troubles, since I believe in God's mercy that my soul shall rejoice in the liberty of immortality: yet I beseech that by thy holy prayers thou cease not to lend the help of thy intercession to me a sinner and to my soul []. Amid these words blessed Magnus, laboring for sixteen days ^d, twenty-six years of his stay [] in that community being completed, and being seventy-three years of his age, on the holy Lord's day ^e and on the eighth of the Ides of September, commending himself to God and to the venerable bishop, in a good old age about the ninth hour of that same Lord's day [], rendered his holy soul to God ^f, being freed from the prison-house of this life. But while the bishop and Theodore were weeping there before his little bed, a voice was heard from heaven saying: Come, Magnus, come, receive the crown which the Lord has prepared for thee []. This voice therefore being heard, Tozzo said to Theodore: Let us cease to weep, brother, because it rather behooves us to rejoice at the immortality of his soul taken up [*] in this sign which we have heard, than to make lamentation: but let us go to the church, that for so dear a Friend we may strive to offer saving victims to the Lord.

[66] And so, the service of brotherly commemoration being finished, they both found an excellent stone sarcophagus built in ancient times by a certain duke named Abuzacus, and is buried, his Life being placed in the coffin, who also built that same castle ^g and likewise called it Abuzacum from his own name: but no one had been placed or buried in that sarcophagus. That same sarcophagus therefore being cleansed, they took up the holy body and laid it away in the place where the Father himself had built an oratory for himself, and covered it with earth, placing his Life at his head, written full of virtues under the authority of Theodore. I therefore, Theodore, monk from the monastery of saint Gall, by order of Tozzo the bishop, as I learned from Theodegisilus ^h monk of saint Columbanus about the manner of life of so great a Man together with blessed Columbanus ⁱ, and afterward [*] saw myself with my own eyes and heard with my ears, and after he left me in the little cell of Kempten, and as I afterward learned from the aforesaid venerable bishop Tozzo about his virtues, I have taken care to write very many things, but not all, on my tablet ^k, and have placed it at his head, laid away in the sepulcher ^l; so that in future times, when, the Lord revealing it, his holy body shall have been found, as, the Lord assenting, those who shall then be the pastors and rulers of the holy Church shall have found to be just and fitting, so they may correct those things which shall need correcting, and amend those which are to be amended, and also may not disdain to intercede for me, the servant of Christ, that, supported by the prayers of so great a Patron, my soul may pass into everlasting rest.

[67] Tozzo dies. The venerable man ^m bishop Tozzo therefore, after the death of blessed Magnus, as he could, always guarded that community with his own [], ruling and governing it according to the means of the place, and disposing those things which pertained by right [] to that monastery, guarding the holy body with clerics and divine offices and lights, until his own death: who, remaining in the pontificate after the departure of blessed Magnus five years and three months, on the seventeenth of the Kalends of February ended his worldly life ⁿ, handing over before

his death his inheritance to the sepulcher of blessed Magnus with security and joint stipulation according to the law of the Alemans ^o; and he was buried by his clergy of Augsburg, with witness, in that same inheritance.

[68] Theodore, visited with divers injuries, flees, At length, after the death of the glorious king Pippin [p], his sons being at strife, Utilo [q] was set up in the duchy of the Bavarians, and Gotefrid [r] in the governance of the Alemans. And so, a great sedition and quarrel having arisen between the Bavarians and the Alemans, laying waste and plundering and despoiling all that lay within the marches [s] of the two regions, Theodore [t], the faithful monk of saint Gall and Magnus, was by no means able to guard the place of Kempten on account of the divers persecutions and oppressions of evil men from the countrymen of that place, both upon his own and upon himself. Therefore, leaving that place, he set out again to the monastery of saint Gall; and he found blessed Otmar [u] the abbot of that monastery, now old and full of years and of advanced age, but by the Lord's grace full of the Holy Spirit and imbued with divine virtues.

[69] and is kindly received by S. Otmar: He told him therefore all about blessed Magnus the confessor of Christ, what had happened, and about the place of Kempten, and about the very great persecution which he had suffered from the pagans or from evil Christians. Hearing these things, blessed Otmar, grieving and sorrowing at so great a persecution, and also at his own, which he was already suffering from those most wicked counts Warin and Ruothard [w], who at that time were administering the care as it were of all Alemannia: then he sent thither a certain one of his brethren named Peretgoth [x], a monk, an excellent and prudent man, with four other monks, who should guard that place, until, with the Lord helping, peace being restored, it should again be exalted by king Charles; permitting Theodore to stay in the monastery until his death.

[70] Therefore, king Charles [y] being established and confirmed in the province of Gaul, King Charles restores the church of S. Magnus. restoring and rebuilding the churches which had been desolated by evil invaders, the Lord subjected all Germany to his rule, the princes possessing Germany being slain. And when he had heard of the unjust deeds done against blessed Otmar and carried through to the end of his death, and also of the community of Kempten, nay and of the city of Augsburg, and indeed of the monastery of holy Afra [z], and that the cell of saint Magnus was almost destroyed and desolate, being pricked in heart, he began again to rebuild and exalt those churches. And he appointed a bishop named Sintpert [aa] in that city, and gave, according to the royal custom, by a precept of security, to the aforesaid places all that had been granted thither by his predecessor Pippin; and moreover he added very many things. The episcopate therefore being received, Sintpert set out for Augsburg of the Vindelici, and for nearly thirty years governed that church [*], building the basilica of holy Afra, and restoring the community of saint Magnus [bb]. But the parish [cc] on both sides of the river Lech, by the authority [dd] of the lord Charles, now made emperor, in both kingdoms at once, God favoring, he brought together.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Here the series of events and times is most confused. Pippin the king, surnamed the Short, died in the year 768, as is certain among all. Charles and Carloman succeeded Pippin, whose quarrels Bertha or Bertrada, their mother, tried to still.

q. Utilo or Odilo held the duchy of Bavaria until about the year 747, in which he died, as Eckhart shows in the Francia Orientalis, volume 1, book 23, number 102. How then could he be set up in the duchy of the Bavarians after the death of the glorious king Pippin, who survived him by more than twenty years? He would have said this more truly of Tassilo, Odilo's son and successor, who, at the time when Charles and Carloman were at variance, it is established was contriving new things. Odilo indeed rebelled, but not under the aforesaid kings, but under Carloman and Pippin the Mayors of the palace, by whom also he was subdued. These two defections the unskilled writer confused.

r. In Canisius and the anonymous writer of Regensburg, Gotafrid; in Goldast, Gotefredus. That he was duke of the Alemans, and shook off the yoke of the Franks, we have from a fragment of Erchanbert in Duchesne, Writers of the History of the Franks, volume 1, page 780: that the same man died in the year 709 the Annals of Lorsch relate, in the said Duchesne, volume 2, page 3. He could not therefore, after the death of king Pippin, that is, after the year 768, wage war with Odilo, duke of the Bavarians.

s. That is, within the bounds or limits: for marcha sometimes signifies a bound or limit. For of the two regions Canisius and Goldast have of the two kingdoms.

t. How ineptly Theodore, the companion of S. Magnus, is brought down to the times of Charles and Carloman! For indeed, if the interpolator relates truly, Theodore must then have been about 176 years old: since indeed from the year 612, in which S. Columbanus went to Italy, down to 768, the year of Pippin's death, 156 years flowed by; to which if thou add the 20 years which he could then have numbered, thou wilt come to 176.

u. S. Otmar is venerated on the 16th day of November. His Acts are extant in Mabillon, 3rd Benedictine century, part 2: whence I note the following to the present purpose: S. Otmar received the cell of S. Gall to be governed in the year 720, and, presiding over it for 40 years, being falsely condemned of adultery by the agency of Ruadhard and Warin, died in prison in the year 759. Hence gather, reader, what is to be thought of this coming of Theodore to S. Otmar. Thou wilt certainly call it a fable: for besides that Pippin the Short survived S. Otmar, Theodore could not have known him as already abbot except when he himself was about 130 years old. See what was said on chapter 3, letters w and x.

w. Consult, if it please thee, the Acts of S. Otmar in the said Mabillon.

x. Canisius, Berthgozus; Goldast, Perechtgozus; the anonymous writer of Regensburg, Pertgozus.

y. He designates Charles surnamed the Great, who, his brother Carloman having died in the year 771, obtained the monarchy of the Franks. His Acts thou hast in volume 2 of January, day 28.

z. In the Goldast copy it is read more correctly: And when he had heard … that the community of Kempten and the city of Augsburg, and indeed the monastery of S. Magnus and the cell of S. Afra, were almost destroyed, etc.

aa. Matthäus Rader in the Bavaria sancta, volume 3, reciting his eulogy, names him S. Simpert. Hither pertain the verses which are circulated about the founders and restorers of the monastery of Füssen:

The same Cæsar Charles repaired it when it was laid waste, And bishop Simpert in the city of Augsburg.

cc. Abbot Henry in his manuscript observations warns that parish is here taken for a diocese, and asserts that the limits of the diocese of Augsburg were extended beyond the Lech under S. Simpert: and rightly, for in that signification parish is used both in the following chapter at number 73 and often elsewhere. Besides, Welser in the Augsburg Affairs of the Vindelici, book 4, testifies that it has been ascertained by him that, under the emperor Charlemagne and the divine Simpert the bishop, the diocese of the church of Augsburg … was enlarged. And again after some things he says: I remember to have read in an ancient manuscript codex that Simpert enlarged the diocese of Augsburg with the borders of the Norici: for ancient Noricum … reached only to the Inn, but later as far as the Lech. The same things about Simpert Stengel has from ancient monuments, as he says. These things will perhaps come to be discussed on the third of the Ides of October.

dd. In the Canisian and Goldast editions it is read by the authority of the lord Leo, at that time Pope, and the confirmation of the lord Charles, etc.: and likewise so the often-praised anonymous writer. This Leo was the third of that name, who began to sit in the year 795.

Goldast, he had decreed*

Goldast, to help me,* etc.

Canisius, of his stay; Goldast, of his prayer*

Lord's* is not in Goldast

Goldast and Canisius, he has prepared*

Canisius, taken up into immortality*

afterward* is wanting in Canisius

Canisius adds with guardians*

Canisius and Goldast, ought to pertain*

Goldast, those same monasteries*

CHAPTER VIII.

The body is raised: the Life found with it is handed over to Ermenric to be amended.

[ ] The Saint's church is restored: bishop Lanto In what manner therefore the body of blessed Magnus was found, and, among the other powers which the Lord vouchsafed to reveal before his sepulcher through his merits, what greatest power he then manifested when his body was found, must not be passed over in silence. Bishop Sintpert therefore being dead, his successor Hatto ^a took up in the episcopate the care ^b of the pastoral governance; but since he was seen to govern that church in the honor of the pontificate no more than seven years, he was by no means able to be exalted in these matters ^c, except only in Bavaria, on account of his kindred ^d whom he had present there, he acquired for that church what he could. But the seven years being finished and passed, in their own times his successors, who were appointed in that same holy church, first Nittarius ^e began to build the church of blessed Magnus from the foundations; but the other bishops following him likewise built as they could; yet the hall of the basilica was not brought to the perfection of the work ^f until, the Lord assenting, by the most glorious king Louis, son of the most illustrious emperor Louis, Lanto obtained that same holy see by his grant ^g.

[72] treats of raising the body. The aforesaid man therefore being consecrated in the dignity of the pontificate, in the fifth year of his episcopate the church was completed [] and adorned with all beauty; and, letting the holy body rest within the middle of the church as it had been placed before, with all diligence and honor, until he should agree with his archbishop and his other brethren whether he might dare to transfer it from that place to another. And counsel being taken with his archbishop of the holy church of Mainz [], named Otgar ^h, and with the other bishops his suffragans, they found that it would be fitting that the holy and precious body should be moved from that place into a better and loftier one, if God should will it. And so, returning home with the leave of the most pious king Louis, hastening to the community of blessed Magnus, he offers to all who were present the counsel found, most welcome to them.

[73] Now there was in that same monastery a certain brother ⁱ, The Saint, appearing to a sick man, foretells his healing sprung from the district of Duria ^k, and, although very poor, yet born of good parents [*]. And when he was staying there for the sake of learning, and assiduously sought as it were his daily food by his labors, being struck with a certain pain in his side, he wasted away with a grievous infirmity through long spaces of time, so that from the shoulder, namely, to the lowest part of the body on one side, very many ulcers emitting matter lay open. By which infirmity he was so weighed down that scarcely without the help of others could he have moved a step anywhere. But Lanto the bishop, having called together very many presbyters from his parish, proclaimed a three days' fast, imploring the Lord's mercy that with speedy haste ^l, when three days had passed, he would vouchsafe to reveal the holy body, and would show of what merit it was. And so on the following third night, when the bodily medicine applied to that sick man profited nothing, and by himself and by all who beheld him he was now on the point of falling into despair ^m, he saw in a dream a Man of much gravity standing by him, and with placid countenance and gentle words inquiring the causes of his infirmity.

[74] And when the sick man in reply unfolded to his questioner in order the whole course of his infirmity, and the finding of the body, which he indicates to the bishop: the Old Man said to him: Ask, son, of the bishop, that when today he shall have found my body, and shall have taken it away from the crypt in which it lies, he may permit thee to kiss that crypt; and when it has been kissed, take ashes from that place, and mix them with water and with holy oil ⁿ together, and before the new altar which has been built, as thou shalt be able, prostrate thyself, and also ask that thine ulcers be anointed: and if thou shalt do this, the Lord will straightway restore thee to thy former health. Awaking therefore, when morning came the sick man came to the church, and told what he had heard in sleep to the guardian of the church, and, having entered the church with him, and together with the guardian being prostrated at the bishop's feet, as he had been taught, told the bishop amid anguish and groans. A mattock being taken up ^o, he began to dig; and he found a most splendid stone sarcophagus, in which the holy body lay after the manner of a most excellent carbuncle.

[75] And so, when it was opened, his body was found wholly unharmed, then, the body being found, he venerates the sepulcher, and his Life placed at his head, but the parchments were so decayed that they could scarcely be read by anyone. But a part of the body appeared corrupted in its garment [p], but the body lay white, only as it were with its color changed. And by a sufficiently fitting miracle the indications of his sanctity first shone forth: for the bishop, the body being raised from the sepulcher, permitted the guardian of the church to bring the sick man, that he might himself accomplish what was according to the vision shown him. And the guardian, when the body of the boy [q] was brought, permitted him to kiss the place in which the holy body had lain, and, taking ash from that sarcophagus, mixed it with water and holy oil, and anointed the sick boy in that part where [*] the pain had possessed him. But on the next day the bishop inquired of the guardian what had been done about the sick little boy: and so the guardian, setting off at a run, ran to his little dwelling, to see what the Lord, by the promise of saint Magnus, had shown concerning him.

[76] on the next day he is healed. A wonderful work of divine operation performed made the matter known: because, as on the past day very many ulcers lay open, so on the next day they were found so sound, without any hurt, as if scarcely even a scar could have been found. Then at last the bishop, receiving him, led him sound and unharmed before the new sepulcher of blessed Magnus [r], where his body had been laid away: and so thanksgivings [*] were performed to the Lord for so great a miracle, in memory of the health restored: the boy himself offered himself to the Lord and to saint Magnus, that he might thereafter pass the remaining time of his life in the vigils of that same holy place all the days of his life with faithful devotion.

[77] Lanto causes the Life found to be amended. Therefore, all these things being thus accomplished concerning the body of the holy and blessed Magnus, the aforesaid bishop Lanto took with him the tablet, almost rotted, but yet by the grace of God the pages were preserved for reading under the divine sanction [s]; and he summoned a certain prudent and industrious [t] monk from the monastery of Ellwangen, named Ermenric, and handed over to him that work [] to be read and corrected and amended: but he, asserting that he was by no means so learned as to be able to renew such things, and to insert, as was fitting, what was proper, being constrained by the necessity of obedience, took up the tablet, and, according to the estimate of his powers, being unwilling to despise the bishop's command, fulfilled it, and, renewing [] and correcting all the writings which he found there, and, with the Lord assenting, amended the confused sequence by the lights of chapters.

[78] The author's conclusion. But how great and how very many signs the Lord vouchsafed to reveal there before the sepulcher of blessed Magnus after his prayer and after the body was laid away, if all could be written, they would rather cause weariness to the reader's nauseated mind [u] than be able, on account of their abundance, to be comprehended in the memory of the studious. Now therefore, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who always glorifies his Saints, these few things have been inserted; that the reader's mind may be devout for reading, or the hearer's ready for hearing, rather than, showing some weariness or nausea with wrinkled mind, they should by no means be able to be run through with glad mind [w]. And so let these things written about so great a Patron suffice: but let us beseech him that, as we believe that by his many merits he has conferred from the Lord health of bodies and of souls upon those who venerate him, so he may vouchsafe to implore for our minds the medicine of divine compassion, that we may deserve to obtain remission of sins, and to attain eternal life [x]. And the solemnity of saint Magnus, confessor of Christ, is celebrated on the eighth of the Ides of September, to the praise and glory of the name of Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns and is glorified without end, God through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

although the writer above declared that he would hand down the finding of the body: In what manner therefore, he says, the body of Bl. Magnus was found, … must not be passed over in silence, etc.

p. About the corruption of the part Goldast is silent. For the rest, the year in which these things were done was at least the 170th from the Saint's death, as may be gathered from the Commentary, §8: but how long it remained incorrupt is not clear: certainly Ekkehard the Younger, treating of one of the arms translated to the monks of St. Gall, adds nothing about its incorruption: abbot Henry believed that a certain body stripped of flesh, found under Johann Hess, who is said by Bucelin to have presided as abbot over the monastery of Füssen until the year 1480, was the very remains of S. Magnus, and accordingly supposed that they were liable to the common corruption. See the Commentary at number 116.

q. More correctly Goldast reads: But the guardian of the church, the body having been taken away, permitted the boy, etc.

r. New, where his body (now recently) was laid Goldast does not have; yet these words are more rightly added.

s. More correctly it is read in the Goldast edition: But yet, by the divine providence so sanctioning, the pages, though obscure, were nevertheless preserved for reading. Further, this tablet is the very Life of S. Magnus which, written by Theodore his companion, is related to have been deposited in the sepulcher together with the Saint's body: about which matter what can probably be determined we said in the Commentary at number 33.

t. Deservedly does Mabillon gather an interpolator from this passage; for it is not probable that Ermenric would have called himself prudent and industrious. Consult the Commentary at numbers 2 and 3.

u. I restore the faulty sense from Goldast: they would rather cause weariness and nausea to the reader's mind, than by the studious, etc.

w. This sentence too is faulty: in Goldast it stands thus: that the reader's mind may rather be devout for reading, or the hearer's ready for hearing, than that, with brow wrinkled by any weariness or nausea, it should by no means be able to be run through with glad mind — perhaps to run through.

x. In the Goldast edition there is subjoined: our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, etc. Then under the title of Addition there follows: And the solemnity of S. Magnus, confessor of Christ and abbot, is celebrated on the fourth of the Ides of September, to the praise and glory of the name of the Lord. Note, however, that there is wrongly read in that place the fourth of the Ides for the eighth of the Ides of September.

Goldast, he completed the church,* etc.

* that is, of Mainz

Goldast, sprung from a freer family*

Goldast, which the pain had possessed*

Goldast, thanksgivings, and below being performed*

Goldast, those same quires*

the same, recalling*

MIRACLES

By Fr. Ludwig Babenstuber, Benedictine of Ettal.

Magnus, abbot at Füssen in Swabia (S.)

By Fr. Babenstuber.

CHAPTER I.

Frenzy and the bite of a mad dog healed, women in childbirth relieved of a difficult delivery, offspring obtained, various diseases, a plague and the infestations of a demon driven off.

[ ] The author warns beforehand that out of many he writes few. What works greater than the powers of nature Magnus wrought while still mortal, we have related in the preceding books: now our narrative must be turned also to those which, being now received into heaven and called Divine, he is recorded to have wrought hitherto. In which kind it would deservedly have been to be wished that nothing should escape us: but since, either by the lesser diligence of antiquity or by the injuries of the times, it has come about that most things have perished, we shall set forth only the few which, after the repeated disasters of the archives, have happened to survive in the monuments of our forefathers, or in accounts more recently noted down. Nor is it doubtful that even these will suffice for pious readers to conjecture how gracious with the Godhead is our all-powerful Wonder-worker.

[2] A frenzied man brought back to a sound mind, In the neighborhood of Mindelheim, which is a little town of Swabia, madness had so made a wild beast of a countryman that by night he left his bed and, a fugitive, wandered in the woods with the beasts. When his household and kinsmen had long searched in vain for the lost man, thinking that more eyes were needed for it, they implored the help of their neighbors. These, two hundred in all, not otherwise than if they were pursuing some huge wild beast, the tasks of the search being divided among them, entered the woods and traversed every trackless and pathless place for three whole days; yet they find nothing less than the raving exile. Wherefore, these counsels also being despaired of, the kinsmen proceed to search for the fugitive by themselves alone: but all in vain. At length a mind was divinely put into them to summon the help of S. Magnus: which while they do, having prayed with a vow uttered that he who had once tamed wild beasts would restore the lost man too to his former gentleness and to themselves, straightway he who had so long lain hid from so many eyes of searchers is at hand from the woods, his madness utterly dispelled, sound and safe, and together with those who found him renders the highest thanks to S. Magnus.

[3] It is the common belief at Füssen, and attested by more than one trial, He heals the bite of a mad dog that S. Magnus brings a present remedy to those who have been poisoned by noxious animals and given over to madness. It chanced that at Nassereith [*] in Tyrol mad dogs had attacked five men; who all, three days having passed after the pestilential bites, when no one either of mortals or of immortals brought help, died. Besides, a Cerberus of this kind had savagely torn the right arm of a certain vigorous and strong youth: his parents, exceedingly anxious for his case, implored S. Magnus, promising that, if he should preserve their son alive and safe for them, they would bring him to Füssen and present him to his Preserver. Wonderful to say! this vow being uttered, so far was the deadly bite from creating any danger for the youth, that it did not leave even any swelling behind it: as all who, when so great a matter was published abroad, had come to see it, testified with admiration and proclaiming of S. Magnus.

[4] A certain exceedingly upright farmer had been accustomed assiduously to commend himself and his fortunes to God and to the divine dwellers in heaven. He obtains for a certain farmer a rich harvest every year. And so when, on account of the dearness of grain which a barrenness of some years had brought in, he was in great straits of household affairs, he besought S. Magnus with prayers and a vow conceived that he would bless his fields, now long almost empty of harvests, with their former fruitfulness. That this man's confidence in his help was pleasing to the Divine one, the outcome clearly showed: for it came about that he always brought more grain into his barns and storerooms than his neighbors, and that not without their envy. Further, he showed himself grateful every year by a gift brought from those things which he set down to S. Magnus' account ^a.

[5] Another farmer had bought a horse, but with Mercury unwilling ^b: A cancer driven off from a horse. for presently the beast began to labor with a cancer, and that, as was thought, almost incurable. Moved by this, the owner pronounced a vow to S. Magnus, and brought the horse together with gifts to his church: but when the man, of simple mind, was preparing to bring it in even through the doors, the Father Prior intervened that this should not be done. But the rustic none the less earnestly asks, nay obtains by asking, that S. Magnus restore the animal sound to him: for indeed our monks bring oats, first purified by the touch of the relics of S. Magnus and by sacred prayer, from which after the horse had eaten, it recovered, and thereafter, being constantly sound, rendered useful service until at length it grew weak with age.

[6] There was a little girl of nine years, the daughter of a certain citizen of Füssen: she, from the horrible dreams which she suffered, contracted a disease so grievous and violent A most grievous disease taken away from a girl. that for a whole nine days she was watched over as one already given up and about to go presently ^c to join the many. Further, they record that the nature of that disease was plainly outlandish. For as often as the little maiden had fallen into sleep, shuddering in all her limbs, she was lifted from her bed with a most violent shaking, and presently, falling back upon it, drew in slumber, so far spent in strength and lively color that thou wouldst have distinguished her from a dead woman only by the breathing which she drew, most faint: for six or seven days that fierceness of the unknown malady held her, all marveling who from the neighborhood came to visit the poor girl, how it came about that she went on living so long. Her most sorrowful mother, when she perceived that it was all over with her little daughter's life unless she summoned for her a help greater than mortal, fled first, amid prayers and vows, to very many Saints, men and women. But since these (so wonderful are the counsels of God) by no means came to her aid, at length she prayed saint Magnus in particular for a remedy, and that with a confidence the more firm because she had once already found that same Divine one favorable in a grave crisis of childbirth. They record that the woman pleaded her little daughter's cause in words so emphatic and breathing a wisdom greater than a woman's that all who were present marveled exceedingly. And she promised, a vow being uttered, that if she obtained the recovery of one given up, she would take care that, the fame of this benefit being spread everywhere, the honor of God and of the divine Magnus should be enlarged in no common way. What more? The little maiden afterward recovered, to the admiration of all, and made her mother bound by her vow.

[7] Women in childbirth relieved of a difficult delivery At Donauwörth ^d a certain woman was in labor for a whole eight days amid the greatest pains; yet she could not bring forth, nor did any human help supply anything by which she might be withdrawn from the present peril: nay, not even the heaven-dwellers, several of them already vainly beset with several vows, seemed willing to come to her aid. Since these things were so, it came into the minds of those who were present with the laboring woman that the divine Magnus was above all one of the Powers above who by his patronage prosper childbirths. His help therefore they seek with fervid prayers; nay, they obtain it without delay: for she, safe and unharmed, presently brought forth her offspring, and afterward came ^e, and amid the greatest thanksgivings and

praises of our Wonder-worker, set forth what had been done.

[8] being relieved of their delivery Besides, a like eight days' difficulty of bringing forth had oppressed a certain woman of Füssen amid the greatest pains. Wherefore many women had visited her, both to bring counsel and to bring help; but plainly in vain: for the midwife perceived that the child, against the accustomed laws of birth, was turning the hinder part of itself toward the light into which it was to be brought forth: which when the other women too had noted, it was believed in the judgment of all that it was all over with the life of the laboring woman. There was then at hand by chance the day which we call the Lord's: whence it was resolved that public prayers to God for the wretched woman in labor should be proclaimed to the people at the request of the preachers. But that these too were vain the persistent stubbornness of the crisis showed. It began therefore to be considered that the woman in labor should be cut open, so that at least the safety of the child might be provided for: and she would doubtless have been cut, had not the present help of S. Magnus in time dispelled the bloody counsel: for behold, on the next morning it seemed best to the midwife and the other women that the relics of S. Magnus should be summoned. The Father guardian was at hand without reluctance with the cowl, staff and cross of the divine Patron, and applied each of these amid sacred prayers to her who was now given up, and struggling no more with childbirth than with death. Which being done, when the same man had carried the sacred pledges back home, straightway the infant, being turned in the womb to the front ^f, came forth into the light, the mother being safe: whom the women, triumphing with joy, at once carried into the church and presented to God and to the divine Magnus amid a thousand thanksgivings, and, force being almost employed, impelled the Father guardian to publish to the people a matter full of miracle. These things were done on the XXIII of January, in the year MCDXCVII ^g.

[9] A certain other woman of Kaufbeuren ^h, where she had dwelt for XXV years, Offspring obtained after the touching of the relics. had migrated to Füssen with her husband. She was barren, and besides so far advanced in living that, even if she had at some time borne a child, she would thereafter cease to bear by reason of age: but since she thought it no small calamity to be without children, she set herself to pray the divine Magnus assiduously and earnestly that he would not permit her to die wholly childless. When she was glowing with such desires and vows in the church, she besought the Father guardian very greatly that he would hold out to her the sacred relics of the holy Bishop to be venerated with a religious touch. When she obtained this, it came about that she conceived. But when the months of the womb which nature requires had gone round, she struggled for a whole three days with the most bitter pains of childbirth, so that not only the midwives, but others also, denied her all hope of bringing forth by human strength; and that especially because she was a woman of advanced age, and had never before been a mother. Recourse therefore was had again to heavenly help, and the Father guardian was called with the relics of S. Magnus, which as soon as he had applied to the laboring woman after the custom, and then carried back home, he heard that she had straightway most joyfully brought forth. In the year MCDXCVII, on the XVIII of June.

[10] Again another woman in that city, exceedingly upright, had indeed brought forth, Two newborn infants but by no means with Lucina ⁱ favorable. For the child came forth into the light lifeless, as it appeared, and with its feet driven upward and clinging to its mouth, more like a monster than a man. The mother shuddered at the sight, and called upon the help of S. Magnus for it with fervid prayers. This being done, wonderful to say! the infant began to open its eyes and mouth, and to be manifestly alive: being then brought to the baptismal font after the Christian custom, it survived seventeen days more.

[11] In the same city a certain woman had amid the greatest pains brought forth a boy, whom both the midwife snatched from the peril of life. and the other women who were present with her judged to be void of life. These at first could not keep the matter so secret but that the mother noticed them murmuring sorrowfully about the sad fate of the infant. Therefore, being exceedingly dismayed, she straightway asks S. Magnus, whose likeness was set before her as though he were present, with a vow uttered, that by his patronage with God he would restore her offspring to life: whereupon in truth the boy began to stir himself and to testify that he lived: the women to give congratulation, and, water being prepared, to summon a priest who should baptize him by the Christian rite. But while these things are being hastened, presently another dismay arises among the women: for the infant, as if the Heaven-dwellers repented of the benefit, all motion having again ceased, seemed to have departed from the living: but after a repeated invocation of S. Magnus by the mother, by a repeated miracle he revived, in the year MCDXCVII, in the month of September.

[12] Against the plague also which they call the French there was great power in S. Magnus. A foul plague It had attacked a boy uniquely dear to his mother, and presently the mother herself by the common contagion: which matter when the woman bore most sorrowfully, on a certain night in her sleep she seemed to have S. Magnus, whom before she had fervently invoked both for her son and for herself, standing by her. Thereupon straightway — which thou wouldst plainly marvel at — the dire scab and the shameful pustules on both began to dry up and to cease, and within the space of eight days to vanish utterly. The mother came afterward, glad at her own and her son's recovery, and asked that the matter done be entered in the records amid the greatest thanksgivings: yet she wished neither her own nor her son's name to be known, in the year MCDXCVII, in the month of August.

[13] taken away When Maximilian I ^k was in the city of Füssen and in the community of S. Magnus, various envoys were flowing to him both from the princes of Germany and from foreign ones; and the emperor was wont to dine in the abbot's dining-hall with the doors open. On a certain day one of the guests, straightway after the first draught of wine, noticed that his mouth was closed up with pustules ^l, witnesses of the French scurf. He rises therefore from the couch ^m, and full of blushing withdraws from the chamber. But the emperor himself, exceedingly anxious for the man's case, earnestly implores for him the divine help and the patronage of the divine Magnus. That the prayers were ratified the outcome straightway showed, when on the spot, the little blisters subsiding, the foul plague withdrew. Thanks were thereupon given, as was fitting, in the year approximately MCDXCVII.

The same eruption had seized a certain citizen of Füssen with his whole household. He, the matter being noticed, secretly devotes himself and his own to the divine Magnus, and asks that they be brought to the sacred touchings of his relics. Which when he obtained, all testified that this had been for their healing.

[14] a blind girl enlightened: But let us now turn to other kinds of helping. There was a three-year-old little daughter of a certain countryman of Weissensee ⁿ: a sickness of the eyes so ill treated her that at first she was dim-sighted, and gradually, her keenness being wholly blunted, she wandered about blind. The evil held her three whole weeks, which, when no mortal force seemed able to drive it away, her parents both sought and obtained the heavenly remedy of S. Magnus by a vow uttered; for straightway the little girl's sight returned to its office: which the Fathers of S. Magnus asserted on eyewitness testimony in the year MCDXCVII, in the month of August.

[15] a plague of cattle extinguished: It chanced that a dire plague was hugely ravaging the herds and flocks of Füssen; nor was there any hope of averting by our own help the continual disasters of the stalls and mangers. Wherefore the men of Füssen by common counsel pray the divine Magnus that he himself would bring aid, with a vow added that they would offer him the cow which, whatever it might be, should first enter the gate of the city returning from pasture toward evening. The officers were bidden to mark this, and, when it was brought into the monastery, to present it to the abbot: which they did in the month of July, about the day sacred to the divine Magdalene. Then it came to pass that the murrain was most utterly extinguished ^o. Further, they bought back that heifer, which belonged to a certain Johann Daxhard, at a price paid, two five-twelfths being levied upon each head of the citizens who had cattle at pasture, in the year MCDXCVIII.

[16] an evil of the eye driven off: Again another woman here used a sight so weak that, the dullness gradually growing worse, there was danger lest she should be wholly deprived of her eyes. But as soon as she was touched about the head with the sacred pledges of the divine Magnus, she recovered her former keenness of seeing.

[17] horses healed: In this same city a certain groom had two pack-horses, each seized with that kind of disease which they name from the worm. It chanced that the man, in order to provide for the horses' health, had caused some measures of oats to be purified by the applying of the relics of the divine Magnus and by sacred prayer, and afterward had gone away into the Alps, driving the beasts laden with fodder of this kind. There, the sun having set, he enters a mountain hut; and, the horses being unloaded, he spreads on the ground a sack stuffed with hay, and lays upon it another sack heavy with the aforesaid oats, secure for himself and for his goods: when a fire suddenly breaking out consumes not only the hut, but also the sack swollen with hay, the sack in which the oats were being unharmed, although it lay upon the burnt sack. Moreover, to the horses, after they had fed on those same oats, their former health returned.

[18] Hohenfurch is a village not far from Schongau [p]. a boy's dangerous wound suddenly cured: There lived a farmer of exceedingly excellent virtue. Among his offspring, which he had received numerous from his wife, a woman of like uprightness, a twelve-year-old little son had fallen so violently upon a knife which chanced to be set upright that the point penetrated from the back between the shoulder-blades as far as the breast. When the parents, astounded at that mishap, noticed in the boy scarcely any more than slender remains of life, all human help and effort failed. But by no means long was the heavenly help of the divine Magnus lacking: for by night in his sleep there was set before the father a man venerable with age, who seemed greatly to urge that he should commend his little son to the divine Magnus, in whose dominion he otherwise was: for that this would be for his healing. He, sleep being shaken off, obeyed the admonisher, and devoted himself and his son to our Wonder-worker. This being done, the knife suffered itself to be plucked out in such a way that neither blood nor pain followed, nay nor was any scar noted. The boy moreover testified that, when men handled that part of his body in which he had received the blow, no trouble was thereby created for him. This wonderful remedy the divine Magnus wrought in the autumn of the year MCDXCVIII.

[19] The demon too experienced the powers of our heavenly Patron, as often elsewhere, the infestations of a demon driven away. in the year MDVII, when he pressed a certain man with a dire besieging. He was wont to go forth, his right and left hands armed with stones, and, roaring after the manner of a lion, to threaten and menace destruction to all whom he met. But being led by his parents and kinsmen to the relics of the divine Magnus, the stones being cast away, he put off all his fury: afterward for several days, impatient of being torn from the church, he most warmly prayed his Preserver that he would not suffer him to be further infested and driven mad by hell.

ANNOTATIONS.

Stella, Nepos, Canius, Cerealis, Flaccus, you come: The sigma holds seven, we are six, add Lupus.

p. Otherwise Schongavia, by the inhabitants Scongaw, a town in upper Bavaria on the river Lech, three and a half German miles distant from Füssen, unless the said maps of F. de Wit are in error.

* Nassareut

CHAPTER II.

Divine vengeance upon the despisers of the Saint, various diseases removed by the use of the relics, the wonderful power of the staff against insects.

[ ] Divine vengeance But just as the divine Magnus has hitherto been readily present to those who fled to him, so at times he has seemed sharply to take vengeance upon his despisers, which will be shown from the events now to be recorded. In the neighborhood of Steingaden ^a, which is a monastery of Bavaria, the country people were consulting among themselves whether it might not be to their advantage if the relics of the divine Magnus were carried about through the fields (as is wont to be done) for the preserving of the crops. Some, who had taken care that those same relics be brought, plainly wished it: but all the rest dissented: but to the great harm of all: for straightway on the next day, a most savage storm arising, hail utterly destroyed for them the whole hope of the year, in the year MCDXCVII.

[21] That certain men had long ago honored by keeping as a feast the day consecrated to the divine Magnus by the Church ^b, and so had turned away noxious insects from their fields; upon the Saint's despisers but that those who had decreed to do this and had not stood by such a decree were punished with grievous disasters of their fields, we have received from our forefathers. Of this matter let us record at least one example out of many. Not far from Prochenzell ^c, in the diocese of Constance, Matthäus Mock and Michael Weishaupt, in order that the divine Magnus might protect their fields by his patronage from the ravaging of worms, had determined to abstain from doing work on his feast-day, and had really performed it: thence it plainly came about that they received no loss from noxious little creatures. But a certain nobleman, since he made light of religion of this kind, did not bear it unpunished: for in his field, which lay in the middle between the crops of the two men mentioned [*], the worms devoured whatever had grown up, in the year MDCXVI: so related the lord Urban Lidel, parish priest of that place, a man worthy of credit.

[22] In the year MDXXVIII, on the very day sacred to the divine Magnus, about the seventh hour of the evening, and upon the violators of his feast-day: hail fell so violent and copious, the frozen shower pouring down for more than half an hour, that on the tenth day after, its balls and crusts were still found here and there. For the rest, that storm beat almost the whole town and field of Füssen: this is believed to have happened for this reason, that the citizens had profaned that day, which was at the same time the Lord's, by holding a market.

[23] It chanced in the year MDLXIV that a certain poor workman, Johann Spetel by name, The sound of a bell restrains the powers of the air. born at Weissensee, in a valley lying between two woods and distant about half an hour from the community of S. Magnus, on a certain summer day was raking up hay with a rake; when, the clouds being thickened into a storm threatening with lightning and thunder, a great voice glided to the man's ears from the other mountain through the firs, of one urging someone: Strike, strike; and of another answering opposite among the thick trees: I cannot, I cannot: because I hear the dog of S. Magnus barking. By which metaphorical periphrasis that impious one pointed to the bell which is called S. Magnus', then sounding in the tower, and he clearly testified that by its sound the attempts of magicians and witches stirring up storms to the ruin of men or of crops are made vain. And this bell is dedicated to S. Magnus, and consecrated with his cross.

[24] In the same parish of Füssen at Weissensee intestinal worms, Wine blessed in the Saint's chalice expels worms: born no one knows whence, had settled in the belly of a certain girl, and by assiduously gnawing were tormenting her most bitterly: several medicines indeed were strenuously tried, that the dire inhabitants might be driven from their seat; but nothing was accomplished. At length a mind was put into her father, greatly anxious for his little daughter's case, of summoning a remedy from S. Magnus. He came therefore to Füssen, and brings a pint of wine which he had bought to the Father guardian of the sacred things, asking him very greatly that he would pour it into the chalice of S. Magnus, and purify it by applying his staff and by the prayer of the accustomed rite. The guardian complies with the farmer's desire, and, the business being finished, returns the wine to him in his own little flask. Which as soon as he brought back home, his little daughter, having drunk from it, was first soothed with a gentle slumber, but a little after was better; and at last, a huge ball of living worms being voided, she most utterly recovered: nor did she cease, as long as she lived, to proclaim so great a benefit of God and of S. Magnus toward her.

[25] Again in that village of Weissensee a poor little girl, the daughter of a certain Johann Doser and of Anna his wife, Afra by name, about eight years old, a grievous disease not only exercised with bitter pains, but had also for five days made her speechless. The grievous diseases of two girls Several counsels having been unsuccessfully applied to break the fierceness of the evil, Anna Margarita Weld, a woman of illustrious station, wife of Wolfgang Simon Remersthal, who then presided over the castle of Füssen, urged that some wine from the chalice of S. Magnus be offered to the poor child. When this was done, the hugeness of the pains so increased that the little maiden, being violently bent, and her face changed to a foul blackness, unlike herself, struck horror into the beholders. Then she began to speak, the torment somewhat abating. After a second draught she seemed to be somewhat better. At length, being brought by her mother into the church of S. Magnus, and drinking a third time from his chalice, she gradually banished all the unruliness of the disease.

[26] he puts to flight: The same draught brought health to Maria, the twelve-year-old little daughter of a certain widow of Füssen, who had been the wife of Matthäus Winter. That girl had for eighteen months carried about a belly foully swollen and puffed up. But when she drank from the chalice of S. Magnus, the swelling subsided, and left her safe and unharmed, in the year MDCXXVII, in the month of September.

[27] he takes away an unknown malady of a boy, At Grünbach, which is of Austrian jurisdiction in the territory of Bregenz, the relics of S. Magnus, being brought and the sacred rites applied as the custom is, had indeed strenuously taken away the insects: but the host with whom the Father guardian had turned aside was lamenting the case of his little son, who still had the greatest need of the medical help of S. Magnus. He was a boy of ten, Andreas by name, so exhausted and emaciated by the slow wasting of a disease that he presented the appearance rather of a breathing corpse than of a living man. The origin of the evil was hidden from all: whence there were not lacking those who accused Stygian sorceries. This boy therefore, such as he was, to whom neither hope of recovering health nor of longer life remained, being told by his parents that the relics of S. Magnus were at hand, straightway conceived a huge desire of drinking from the Divine one's chalice. When the Father guardian, being asked by the parents, made him partaker of his wish, within a few days he saw himself safe and sound. These things happened about the year MDCVII.

[28] he expels a needle swallowed with food: Besides, to Johann Neumayr, a citizen of Füssen, a draught of this kind was for health. He, a furrier by trade, when on a certain day he had returned home exceedingly hungry, came upon a piece of bread which had, by what chance is uncertain, a needle stuck to it (an instrument for making furrier's work), and unwittingly thrust it, together with the needle, into his clamoring stomach. Straightway he felt with what ill omen he had sacrificed to his gullet. But neither method nor counsel was at hand for freeing the body from the swallowed needle without harm. In such straits certain honest men advise the man that, if he wishes to find a physician for the evil, he should implore the help of S. Magnus. He obeys gladly and willingly, and, repentance for his misdeeds having been conceived, and a resolve of confessing, he asks for a drink from the wonder-working chalice. This being offered, straightway he perceives the needle descending (though not without pains, yet moderate ones) to the bottom of the belly: which also on the next day about midday he voided unharmed ^d. That was the 2nd day of October in the year MDCXXII.

[29] he takes away internal pains. When in the year MDCXXXII the Swedes ^e had occupied Füssen, the monks of S. Magnus with his relics had withdrawn to Silz, which is in the Valley of the Lech ^f, for the sake of refuge. There was then to lord Johann Henseler, parish priest of the place, a maidservant whom certain internal pains were exceedingly infesting. But to have drunk from the chalice of S. Magnus was to have driven them off. This was done in the month of July of the year noted above.

[30] Kinsau ^g is in Bavaria below Schongau. Water purified by the Saint's staff drives off the insects of the fields. The country people of that village, already thirty-six years ago, out of the singular confidence which they bore toward S. Magnus, had caused water to be purified with the sacred staff, and kept it at home in a copper urn, judging that there was no more powerful protection against insects hostile to the fields than this water: in which indeed they were by no means deceived; for during all the time that the water lasted nothing of insects was noted. But when in the year MDCXXIII the heat of a summer unusually hot dried up the urn, the well-known pest of the crops appeared again. Wherefore those same villagers procured other water of that kind. This help of S. Magnus ^h, before unknown, became known on the IV of October in the year mentioned, when his relics were being carried about widely through Swabia and Bavaria.

[31] A certain maiden, Sabina Wagner, of Bavarian race, [A poor woman, vowing a gift to be begged for, is freed from most bitter pains of the belly.] born at Marbach, for many years a poor maidservant at Eberfing, which is a village of sub-alpine Bavaria, was tortured with pains so savage within her body that she seemed to herself pregnant with more than one serpent assiduously gnawing. In that calamity she fled to the healing hand of S. Magnus, a vow being uttered that she would take care to provide and offer a cloth for spreading on his altar, with the money begged and gathered for it, if, the pains being driven off, she should come off unharmed. How wholesome a counsel she had taken, she clearly

learned on the spot, being found bound by her vow. Further, she presented the promised cloth, and herself with it, amid thanksgivings to the divine Preserver, on the VIII of December in the year MDCXXVII. Moreover she confirmed the credit of the deed by a letter of lord Nicholas, parish priest of Eberfing.

[32] When the relics of S. Magnus had been brought also to the Helvetians and to the dwellers by the lake of Constance ⁱ in the year MDCXVII, The Saint's staff, in Helvetia, they not only routed the noxious insects, but it happened besides that not a few sufferers from fever, from a draught of wine consecrated in the health-bringing chalice with the accustomed prayer, a few hours later recovered their former health.

[33] In the year MD after the birth of Christ, when Benedict, the first of that name, was ruling the Benedictines of Füssen, and at Steingaden in Bavaria, noxious insects, the Father guardian carried the staff of S. Magnus to Steingaden ^k against the caterpillars which had begun to ravage the vegetable gardens. The supplication being finished, and the rest of the rite which was needful for the matter, they sit down to dinner, when behold, the bailiff of that community, breathless with running and with joy, bursts into the dining-hall, and calls out them all to see how the grubs ^l were deserting the gardens and the vegetables, and were changing their ground in flocks and troops. And indeed it was ascertained that the flight did not cease until they all vanished.

[34] The same staff has hitherto exerted its heavenly power against mice too in manifold ways. elsewhere it puts mice to flight. Out of the many which could be reported, Grossaitingen ^m marveled at a notable specimen of this matter in the year MDCLXXX. In the fields of that village, after the autumn sowing, mice had been born in so great a multitude that with the innumerable windings of their little burrows they undermined the whole fields, and either devoured or spoiled the sown crops; nay, the devastation being extended daily more widely, of the lower field (as they there call it) they left not even a fifth part untouched: since indeed they had settled in it too by whole hundreds. But the staff of S. Magnus, being brought, not only stayed the ravagings of the mouse-heads ⁿ, but besides made up for the disaster of that field with interest, and with a yield unheard of in that place. Yet much more abundantly than the other villagers a certain Christoph Mair, an innkeeper, felt that liberality of God and of the Divine one, whose crop of three acres in the following summer was so thick and rich that it equaled the estimate of forty acres of others. Which the same man both by word and by a letter given to the Father guardian most positively testified.

[35] A woman, after invoking the Saint, freed from a grievous evil: When Ursula Hebler, born at Gerwang, was dangerously struggling with a certain grievous ^o calamity of the body, both she and her husband Georg Weinhart set themselves to commend her health to S. Magnus as earnestly as they could. The Divine one heard the suppliants on the spot, and drove all that evil away from Ursula: who together with that same husband presented herself safe and sound to her heavenly Physician in the year MDCLXXXI, on the XV of February.

[36] the Saint's help being implored, a man deaf in one ear recovers his hearing, Georg Schnidele of Berwang [], which is in Swabia, a schoolmaster, perceived nothing at all with his right ear, which had long since become deaf. But neither did any method or counsel now occur, several having been vainly tried, for recovering the use of it. It chanced that the staff of S. Magnus was carried to that place against the ravagings of insects: which when Georg learned, he held nothing more important than to implore the Divine one and to beg his help. And he felt that this was in a short time granted. For a little after, when he was going to Lembfrizia [], he suddenly noticed that his ear had returned to its office: as in the year MDCLXXXV, on the 1st of August, he himself set forth to the Father guardian, in the presence of two parish priests, both of Berwang and of Probstried [*].

[37] a girl in peril from a fall suddenly recovers her health. At Vils [p] there was a certain Maria Ostler, maidservant of Johann Höss the brewer [q]. She in the year MDCLXXXIII, on the IX of September, being struck back from a hay-wagon by the force of the hay-pole [r] which had sprung back, when she had fallen twice, lay for some time bereft of all use of her senses. Whence by the bystanders (among whom was Andreas Geisenhoff, a citizen of Füssen, likewise a brewer) she had begun to be believed already dead. But, certain traces of life being noted after some interval of time, she was carried home, and was provided with the last Mysteries of those dying in a Christian manner. Then on the fifth day, when the danger was even then most present, and no hope of recovery shone forth, the wretched girl hears the sound of the bronze bell from the tower of S. Magnus, which chanced to be ringing, and straightway, being wonderfully roused by that voice of the sacred metal to place her confidence in the Divine one, she cries out in these words: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and S. Magnus, help me: and with the word (wonderful to believe!) she rises from her bed sound and safe, and joins the rest of the household, astounded at this unlooked-for coming of hers no otherwise than at the meeting of some specter: since it had come into no one's mind, even in a dream, that health should be so suddenly restored to one lying so ill.

[38] A newborn infant girl like one dead he suddenly either raises up or heals: To Franz Karg, a shoemaker of Berwang [s], which is of the jurisdiction of Kempten [t], three hours distant from Ottobeuren, on the XXV of November of the year MDCLIV a little daughter had been born: but by no means with Lucina favoring [u]; since indeed she was, in the judgment of those who were present, so devoid of motion and of the breath of life that she was given up for dead. In this great dismay of the parents, when the patronage and help of S. Magnus had been earnestly implored, the little one revived, and, being brought to the baptismal font, received the name of Catharine. These things the aforesaid father related to the Fathers Prior and guardian, and, grateful for so great a benefit, presented himself with a gift offered and a confession of his misdeeds made, on the VII of June of the year MDCLXXXV, at which time Catharine was still living and well.

[39] he cures an inveterate ulcer. One of his feet, which an infesting ulcer had broken open, was already for the sixth year direly torturing Georg Hueber of Hohenfurch amid bitter pains. And although the surgeons were not lacking to their office, yet they could not overcome the stubbornness of the evil. Wherefore Georg, now dismissing mortal remedies, set himself to summon a heavenly one from S. Magnus, promising to procure the offering of a Sacrifice in his church, if he should propitiously hear his suppliant. He did indeed hear him, and made him bound by his vow; which the man, being most utterly sound, declared publicly, and stood by his promises, and rendered thanks for the benefit on the XXIII of August in the year MDCLXXXIV.

[40] In the neighborhood of the community of Weingarten [w] a certain woman was for some days in labor in vain, [A woman in childbirth, after a long labor, having drunk water purified by the Saint's staff, is happily delivered.] whatever human help at last was brought. But as soon as she received a draught of the sacred water of S. Magnus, she brought forth safely. This was related to the Father guardian in the year MDCLXXXV by the priest who was then confessor to the nuns of the convent of Paint, of the Cistercian family.

[41] A drink offered from the chalice of S. Magnus restored also the use of reason. For in the year MDCXCIV the daughter of a certain widow from the parish of Wertach [x] appeared in the church of the Wonder-worker together with her mother: Persons out of their minds by a like draught which girl, already grown up, a magical (as was believed) sorcery had overturned almost wholly in mind. And indeed she had already been brought to such a pitch of madness that more than once she cast herself headlong into the waters, and would have perished drowned had she not been snatched out in time. But as soon as this wretched girl took the sacred draught from the Divine one's chalice, she felt the evil departing, and said, full of joy: Now I am very well. Then day by day, the heavenly draught exerting its power more and more, a sound mind returned most fully. Which the whole neighborhood of the place in which the maiden lived knew, and she herself took care that it be made known through the parish priest of Zell [y] as messenger.

[42] Nesselwang, as it is called, is some hours distant from Füssen. are restored to the use of reason: The innkeeper of that place, Thomas Tauscher, when for no small space of time he had for the most part been out of his mind, at length fell into true madness. Oppressed by such a calamity, he came into the church of S. Magnus, led by others who pitied the man's case, in the month of December, in the year MDCXCVII. There a priest, having first duly cleansed him by sacred confession (so far as he could through his lucid intervals) and fed him with the divine Banquet, refreshed him with a drink from the Wonder-worker's chalice, and purified him about the head with the touch of the staff. Thence it came about that day by day he was better, and gradually recovered entirely the use of reason. Which both he himself afterward, and others, made attested. But let us record helps again of another kind.

[43] In the same year an infant was presented to the Father guardian with its little body wretchedly twisted, [an infant born blind, being purified with the Saint's cross, is endowed with sight.] and deprived of its eyes, and who, blinder than a mole, did not see the light into which he had been brought forth. When the Father purified him with the little cross of S. Magnus, both parents afterward made credible that he put off all darkness, whole in sight.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. In the German Life Vils is called a small town indeed, but greatly privileged, on the borders of Tyrol: Frederick de Wit in the map of the Swabian Circle places Vils in the bishopric of Augsburg on the borders of Bavaria and Tyrol, about one and a half German miles from the city of Füssen.

q. That is, a boiler of beer, from zythum, beer, and πέπτω, I boil.

r. By cerealis malus he seems to denote the pole by which hay placed on a wagon is held in, lest it fall down. In the German Life Maria Osterling is said, this pole, the rope by which it was held perhaps having slackened, having been thrown up on high, to have fallen back upon it, and thence to have been hurled again to the ground.

s. In the German Life it is called Berwangen.

t. The tract of Kempten, commonly Stifft von Kempten, is in Swabia on the river Iller, next to the dominion of the bishop of Augsburg, and is of the jurisdiction of the abbot of Kempten, who has a place among the princes of the empire.

u. Away with those profane petty gods!

w. The German Life has Weingarten. It is

x. Wertach is a village of Swabia in the tract of Kempten, on the river of the same name, which in Latin is called Virdo.

y. In the Maps of Frederick de Wit, Zell is placed two miles from Wertach.

read of the two men*

* Berwang

* Lentsfrid

* Probstried

CHAPTER III.

A plague of cattle driven off, sick persons cured, insects expelled from houses, the floodings of the Lech restrained, various benefits obtained.

[ ] A plague of cattle suddenly driven off Into the stalls of Georg Anaser of Burgberg ^a, of the parish of Sundhofen ^b, a certain unknown murrain, rampant for some years, had brought great disasters. For the cattle seized by it were compelled to die, although whatever seemed likely to avert the destruction had been applied. At length Georg, glutted with sad losses, pronounced a vow that he would go to Füssen, and, having made in the church of S. Magnus a confession of his misdeeds, would sit down to the Eucharistic banquet, if he by his patronage would put an end to the calamity. He put an end to it on the spot, as in the year MDCXCVIII, on the XXIX of April, that same Georg affirmed, when he discharged his vow, testifying that from that time no disease had been noted in his cattle for a whole four years. He promised besides that he would perform yearly, as long as life should last, what he had performed on that day as promised by his vow.

[45] The parishioners of Mittelberg ^c, already from a time beyond the memory of their grandfathers, are wont to go every year in public supplication and greeting to S. Magnus, and shut out from the stalls. indeed in very great numbers. When in the year MDCLXIX, having obeyed this custom of theirs, they were returning home, there was much talk among them about various diseases and other calamities. Thereupon they kept asking to and fro what protections or remedies should be applied against each of the evils, and whose patronage among the Divine ones should chiefly be implored, some bringing forward one thing, some another, as is wont to happen. While this friendly contest was warm, it was mentioned among other things that in various places, nay and in their own neighborhood, savage diseases of cattle were already rampant. A certain Johann Böck of Kressa ^d, likewise a parishioner of Mittelberg, heard these things with no light dismay. Whence presently, a vow being uttered, he entrusted his stalls and folds to S. Magnus. How much to the man's advantage this counsel was, the outcome proved: for all his cattle remained untouched and unharmed by the murrain, which lot by no means befell his neighbors.

[46] The same Johann Böck in the year MDCLXX a kind of hot disease, joined with increased pains of the sides, [Being in peril from a pain in the sides and another grievous evil, a vow being made, he is healed on the spot:] which had then seized many from the said parish of Mittelberg and had given not a few over to death, set beyond hope of life being preserved by any help of mortals. In the extreme crisis Johann commits himself too to the patronage of S. Magnus, whom he had found so favorable to his affairs, a vow of a Sacrifice being uttered. And behold, straightway the pains abate on every side, and his former health gradually returns entire.

[47] The little son of Jakob Mayr, a butcher of Füssen, was Johann by name. a boy's hernia suddenly cured after a vow was uttered: He, being ruptured into a hernia, was suffering exceedingly great pains. When on a certain night the swelling appeared larger than usual, and had so sharpened the torments that there was danger lest the little boy, unequal to bearing it and as it were driven into madness, should die, his grandmother Regina Mayr was summoned. She, when she came and beheld her little grandson, hugely wailing, direly tortured, straightway cries out: O holy Magnus, have mercy on this poor child! as soon as tomorrow's morning shall have dawned, I undertake that I will see to it that a Sacrifice be made to thy honor. So she: but Johann, his pains being presently stilled, said: Grandmother, my bowels have now been restored to their place. Whence, all being full of joy, at earliest morning, as Regina had promised to S. Magnus, sacrifice was offered. For the rest, the hernia vanished without any help of human treatment, nor did it ever return to Johann through the rest of his life, although the same man afterward, being grown up, at Augsburg of the Vindelici, being set for seven years to the service of the wine-cellar and then to the brewery ^e, strenuously used his bodily strength in lifting and carrying burdens. Being asked also whether he ever felt any trouble from that old rupture, especially when the weather changed, he denied it, and said that he was as well as if he had never contracted any defect of that kind. These things the parents of that Johann testified. Further, S. Magnus wrought that cure by his patronage likewise in the year MDCLXX.

[48] another's nephritis healed: Against nephritis too S. Magnus brought a remedy. It had so violently seized the six-month-old little son of Joseph Holhund, a miller of Luimos of the parish of Seeg ^f, that for a full three weeks it stopped his urine. The most bitter feeling of pain was more than sufficiently disclosed by the boy's assiduous and most violent wailing. His parents indeed and his kinsmen pitied him greatly; but they could not help the poor child. At length by common counsel they pronounce a vow that they would carry the infant to Füssen with a gift to S. Magnus, if he would restore him to health. How ratified that vow was presently appeared: for the boy thereupon day by day was better; at length he entirely recovered; he put off all pain. These things both parents testified, and their Brothers Andreas Kolhund and Johann Geiger, and together they discharged the vow on the XXIX of June, in the year MDCLXXI.

[49] [a woman in peril in childbirth, being sprinkled with water blessed by the Saint's staff, presently gives birth happily.] A certain Afra, wife of Michael Heberle of Apfeldorf in the jurisdiction of Rauchenlechberg ^g, when she was laboring for childbirth, was in the greatest straits and pains, as also in peril of life, and was brought to such a crisis that she now cast away all hope of safety. When her husband, well aware of this, perceived that no human help availed for snatching his wife from destruction, he determined to summon heavenly help. And so he fervently commends the woman in labor to God and to S. Magnus, and, a vow being uttered, promises that he will go to Füssen, and take care that a Sacrifice be made in the church of the divine Physician, a pound of wax being added as a gift. Then with water which chanced to be at hand, purified twelve years before with his sacred staff, he religiously washed the half-dead woman. These things being done, all the pains and straits in a moment of time ceased into joy and congratulation: for Afra, unharmed, most happily brought forth. The vow both spouses discharged on the 2nd of July in the year MDCLXXII, with this addition, that, confession being made, they approached the sacred Communion. Michael mentioned among other things that that water was no less living and clear than if thou hadst brought it freshly drawn from a spring.

[50] Bugs, a vow being made, driven out of houses at Apfeldorf, The house and household of the same Michael Heberle, as he himself then related, bugs — a most stinking kind of little vermin — infested so troublesomely and abounding in so great a multitude that everyone by day and night was subject to their bites and their stench, and it might be said with Martial: Nor gown, nor hearth, nor bed safe from the bug. Against these intolerable lodgers Michael implored S. Magnus, with a vow of procuring the offering of a Mass in his church at Füssen. Of which counsel indeed the outcome was glad: for presently the bugs vanished, and by their departure or their destruction cleansed the house.

[51] Things not unlike he suffered from bugs in his own house, at Faulenbach, and that for many years, Jonas Heringer, a maker of plectra and lutes at Faulenbach, which lies very near Füssen. He was indeed much occupied in seeking out and applying whatever seemed likely to put to flight so hateful a pest, various people advising and suggesting various things; but he found all his labor vain. At length he judged it best to flee to S. Magnus: which as soon as he did, with a vow of bringing a yearly gift, the bugs disappeared, nor for now nearly thirty years, when Jonas related these things, have they returned any more. And he related it on the XXV of September, likewise in the year MDCLXXII, a man of great age and worthy of credit.

[52] In the house too of Johann Köpff at the Middle Lech, and in the parish of Niederhofen: as they call it, a parishioner of Niederhofen ^h, recently built (for the old had burned down), bugs had been born in an innumerable multitude. He believed the cause of this to be that the timbers of the building had been cut at a season of the year and under a star not suitable. Further, the foulest little creatures had so prevailed that they would have laid upon the man the necessity of pulling down his house, had it not been urged upon him in time, and he persuaded, that, a vow such as should seem good being uttered, he should summon help from S. Magnus. And, embracing this counsel, he determined to honor the Divine one's birthday with a yearly gift, if he should free him and his from so great a trouble. The best of Patrons did not scorn his suppliant: for the bugs first began to become rarer, then gradually vanished utterly. So related and testified that same Johann in the year MDCLXXV, on the VI of September, when he for the first time gave what by his vow he had promised he would give yearly.

[53] Sebastian Fischer, a citizen and baker of Füssen, found that kind of beetles which are wont to be born from the mud of ovens infesting him. likewise beetles in the city of Füssen. For they had as it were boiled up in so great a multitude that by night they very often filled and covered by crawling all the walls of the house, and especially the sacks of flour, and made them appear black rather than white to those looking from afar. But neither could the swarthy guests be driven from their seats, whatever Sebastian attempted against them, before the same man, a vow being made, summoned help from S. Magnus. This being readily obtained, the beetles all gradually emigrated. These things Sebastian testified on the 2nd of September, in the year MDCLXXVI.

[54] There was a little son of Martin Erdt, likewise a citizen of Füssen, A foul ulcer of a boy taken away a saddler by trade, Magnus by name. One of his cheeks a certain kind of tumor had invaded, such as the surgeon and others skilled in such matters said was wont to occupy various parts of the body in persons of that age at which they are growing. But this tumor, stubborn in keeping its station, grew gradually to such a point that at length it passed into an ulcer. When his father Martin and his mother Veronica noticed this, both hastened to commend the boy to S. Magnus, with a vow uttered of bringing a gift of wax: yet they wished him nonetheless to be in the trust and hand of a surgeon, with an unlucky outcome indeed; since the aids of human art not only profited nothing, but the force of the evil grew even more amply, and crept on day by day after the manner of a gangrene. For it seemed not to have pleased God that, after a remedy had already been sought from heaven, another should be looked about for. Whence Veronica, exceedingly anxious, bidding farewell to every help of mortals, took this counsel. On the bank of the Lech, as a most ancient report has it, there stand even today the footprints of S. Magnus impressed on the rock ⁱ: thither the mother carries her little son; she catches in her hand water found by chance in the sacred hollows of the soles; she religiously washes the boy's ulcer, full of confidence in heavenly help. Thence it came about that, without any other remedy, the little boy recovered the wholeness and health of his cheek. Of all these things the parents made credible on the XV of October, in the year MDCLXXVI.

[55] a horse healed. But here is not yet the end of the benefits which S. Magnus at this time conferred upon the men of Füssen. Georg Fori was among them a citizen of the senatorial Order. One of his horses the force of a disease

had brought to such a pitch of danger that those skilled in healing, the cure being now despaired of, adjudged it to the flayer. The wife of Georg, who was then absent, in order to avert this disaster of the household by another means, commended the beast to S. Magnus, with a vow uttered of a gift of wax and of procuring a Sacrifice. And behold, a wonderful thing! within the space of two hours the horse, without any other remedy, most utterly recovered. That mistress of the house performed her promises on the 2nd of December, likewise in the year MDCLXXVI, in which also the thing happened.

[56] The Lech, having gone out of its banks, after various damages inflicted, In the same year the Lech, flowing past, threatened huge disasters to the city of Füssen: for, having gone out of its banks, it was borne with so great a violence of waters that it not only overthrew and swept away the bridge and a great part of the dikes, but also the mills, fulling-mills and aqueducts, and inflicted other losses not to be repaired. This flood being stilled, other bank-dikes were again begun to be made for confining the river within its channel. And the works had already advanced almost to half of themselves, when, the sharp cold, which had held for more than two months, being turned into a damp mildness, the rains within the space of two days melted almost all the snow, this year exceedingly deep. Whence on the XVIII of January, in the year MDCLXXVII, the Lech again swelled with so great an accession of waters that the workmen and laborers were in peril, and plainly feared lest, if they persisted further in their labor, they should be swept away to destruction together with the masses cast up by them, by the force of the waves.

[57] [by the touch of the Saint's staff, once and again is suddenly forced back into its channel.] When this fearful storm of the river flooding widely was exceedingly dismaying the whole city, the senate, taking refuge in the protection of S. Magnus, asked very greatly, and easily obtained, that his wonder-working staff should be brought out against the rage of the raging Lech. And so the people, called together by the sound of the bronze bell into the Divine one's church, in suppliant procession accompanies the sacred pledge while it is carried out to the river, and brings it back home in the same order and with the same public rite of piety, after the waves had been purified by its touch and by the accustomed prayers. These things being done, a huge miracle suddenly appeared: for straightway the wind changed, the threatening waves diminished and lost themselves; the men of Füssen and the goods of the men of Füssen, the danger being dispelled, were in safety. It has been handed down to memory that a not unlike prodigy happened on the IV of November in the same year, when, the Lech rebelling again, the patronage of S. Magnus was implored by a public supplication.

[58] Two boys bewitched, having drunk Let us now return to other helps imparted to others. The offspring, still an infant, of Andreas Dieffenbrugger of Rosshaupten ^k a certain sickness was handling ill and exceedingly wretchedly: which, since no one knew it, no one could prescribe or bring any remedy for it either. At length the mother, the wife of Andreas, on the counsel of certain pious persons brought the infant to Füssen, and asked that a drink from the chalice of S. Magnus be offered to him: which as soon as she obtained, it was straightway detected that a hellish spell was the cause of the whole evil; and it afterward, within the space of two or three weeks, without any other help ceased: as the same mother on the XXV of November, in the year MDCLXXVI, related in person.

[59] A cake offered by someone, whether male or female, of a report not very good, wine blessed in the Saint's chalice, are restored to health. the boy Martin Doser of Weissensee ^l had devoured; but to his own grievous harm: for presently he began to suffer incredible pains in his body. Thereupon for three whole weeks he admitted nothing of food nor of drink, save pure spring-water: besides, he was so thinned day by day with an unusual leanness, and exhausted of strength, that in the judgment of all he was very near the last line of life. Henry his father, moved by so great a peril of his son, hastened to Füssen, and asked for one now given up wine consecrated in the chalice of S. Magnus, from which when the boy had sipped, not only did his former willingness for eating and drinking presently return to him, but also his health gradually. So the aforesaid Henry positively related on the XIII of December, likewise in the year MDCLXXVI.

[60] The newly built house of Johann Heis, who was huntsman of the renowned community of Steingaden ^m, Bugs, a vow being uttered to the Saint, expelled from a house: bugs had invaded, infesting it in so great a multitude that they drove the man to counsels of emigrating thence: and indeed he would have emigrated, had not the help of S. Magnus intervened in time, for as soon as he implored this, at the urging of others, with a vow of bringing a gift yearly, straightway he had his dwelling empty of those most troublesome lodgers. These things the same Johann asserted in the said community, in the presence of those who deserved credit, on the XXVII of January, in the year MDCLXXVII.

[61] In the spring of the same year Melchior Soier of Kranzingen, of the parish of Rettenberg in the Allgäu ⁿ, An incurable wound of the foot, a pilgrimage being promised, healed. when he was repairing the hedges about his fields, met with no light peril. For the axe which he was using in doing the work, by a missed stroke he drove so violently into one of his feet that he cut through in it two veins together with a sinew. That so serious a wound would be thoroughly healed by human art was assuredly a doubtful hope. Wherefore Melchior, looking about for a more certain remedy, commends his health with huge confidence, and with a pilgrimage vowed, to S. Magnus: straightway thereupon his foot began to grow strong again, so that it bore the man not inconveniently as he went to Füssen for the sake of the vow pronounced. He came thither on the XXV of May, although the wound had not yet entirely closed, and set forth the course of the matter in person, and added that on the very journey, which he accomplished on foot along with others going with him, his foot was rendered hour by hour stronger and sounder.

[62] Then at the beginning of autumn some men of illustrious station were riding from Reutte ^o, which is in Tyrol, to Füssen. A horseman he snatches from a present peril of life when invoked: There was in that company a youth of the family of the Fuggers [p] of Augsburg, as they are named. One of his servants, in order the more swiftly to overtake his master, had set about goading his horse with the spurs into a run. But that horse, impatient of such urgings, grew wild, reared upright on two feet, leaped high, not without horror to the beholders. To the rider it seemed best to leap down: which while he tries, he sticks entangled in one stirrup, grasping the knob of the saddle with his hand. What is he now to do in a peril so present? For he could neither free himself from the stirrup nor swing himself into the saddle amid the leaps of the tumultuous horse. Being at a loss for counsel, S. Magnus came into his mind, of whose miracles and daily beneficence toward mortals he had a little before heard much: whom accordingly fervently invoking, he cries out: O Divine one, driver-off of worms (for the name did not occur to his memory), help me: tomorrow morning I will see to it that a Mass be offered to thy honor. Having spoken these words, straightway (which all present marveled at) he came off free from the raging horse. The beast itself too presently ceased to rage, and showed itself gentle to the rider, who on the next day (it was the XI of September) came to his heavenly Deliverer's community to give thanks, and religiously attended the Sacrifice which, as he had vowed, he had procured.

[63] mice infesting the fields, a vow being uttered, he drives away: Not only in this way, but in the preceding years too, the men of Füssen suffered grievous losses from mice, prevailing in a huge multitude through all their fields. Nor did Felix Obser, likewise a citizen of Füssen, see himself exempt from this common disaster. His wife, when the evil grew worse day by day, fled to S. Magnus, a vow being uttered; which that it was ratified and accepted indeed appeared clearly: for on the spot the mice left their field, which they had again begun to ravage in troops, not even an ear being any more harmed. These things Felix related on the XXIII of September; his wife had already before discharged the vow.

[64] insects wonderfully driven from a house by the applying of the Saint's staff. Then in the year MDCLXXXIV the new house of Johann Schnöll of Hopferau [r], as it is called, an incredible multitude of crickets, bugs, and other insects had invaded. It chanced in the month of June that Fr. Cœlestine Stadler, then keeper of the sacred things [s], was performing the field-blessings in that place, the staff of S. Magnus being carried round, as the custom is. Which Johann, thinking it would be to his advantage, through whose house it was necessary that the suppliant procession should be led, asked the Father to level that sacred staff, with the accustomed prayers applied, against the dire and intolerable infesters of his dwelling. He did this most readily, and that with a most wished-for outcome, which neither the household nor the neighbors could sufficiently marvel at. For toward evening every insect became winged, was borne aloft, and sought an exit. Therefore the doors and windows of the house were opened on every side, which being done, thou wouldst have seen the hostile swarms, like flakes of snow driven round in a whirlwind, burst out eagerly wherever a gate was given, and vanish. This emigration held for some days, nor did it end before all the little creatures, plainly to a single one, had flown out. But neither afterward (as was related in the year MDCC, on the XX of November, when these things were noted down) did guests of that hateful kind create any more trouble for that house. Credit for the deed was made from the narration of the said Johann Schnöll by lord Georg Keller, then chaplain of Hopferau.

ANNOTATIONS.

on the West the Hegau and the lake of Constance, but on the South the county of Tyrol.

p. The counts Fugger, a family most famous for its wealth, sprung from Augsburg of the Vindelici, possess a notable dominion in Swabia, called the lordship of the counts Fugger.

q. Poppismata are the hissings of the mouth and the coaxings of the hand with which we are wont to soothe fierce horses. The word is Greek, from ποππύζω, I hiss, I coax: here it is used ironically for the goadings of the spurs.

r. Hopferau Frederick de Wit places about one mile from Füssen.

s. Among the idolatrous Romans ambarvalia was the name of the lustral feast at which, a victim being led round the bounds of the fields — which for that reason they called ambarvalis — they purified the fields: in this place it is taken for the purifying of the fields made by the carrying of sacred relics and the escort of a supplicating people.

CHAPTER IV.

A woman in peril from childbirth and an infant from tumors healed, the Lech again overflowing restrained, various benefits obtained by the help of the holy relics.

[ ] A woman in childbirth, and an infant from tumors A certain Maria Rueth in the year MDCXCIII, when she was with child, the offspring not yet passing the half of its appointed time, for fourteen days suffered exceedingly dangerous fluxes amid the greatest pains. Whence all who were present with the laboring woman believed that it was already all over with her life, since neither the labor nor the counsels of the midwives profited anything. At length on the XXVI of June, being in labor and almost certain that she must die unless she brought forth, she implores S. Magnus, crying out with huge confidence that he who at other times had been a favorable helper should not fail her in so present a crisis. Having spoken such words, she presently felt that it went better with her. But meanwhile her sister Elisabeth, pitying her sister, hastens to the community of the divine Wonder-worker, and brings wine and water purified by his sacred pledges and by the accustomed prayers. Which while Maria sets about drinking, and still holds the little jug set to her mouth, she also casts forth the offspring, and that without any more troublesome sense of pain. These things that same Maria Rueth solemnly affirmed.

[66] in peril are suddenly freed by drinking blessed wine and water: In the year MDCXCIV a certain unknown wasting had thinned the infant, still an unweaned child, of Christian Pazeller, a tailor from Hopferau, almost to the utmost leanness. The evil was indeed met both with various remedies and with counsels, but nothing at all was accomplished. There had invaded the poor child on a certain night another calamity also, namely a whole troop, almost, of tumors, one of which about the groin had so grown out that it equaled a loaf of bread such as was then sold for two kreuzers. Besides, nine ulcers had broken out on it. In such a state of the infant, when no help of mortals remained, recourse is had to S. Magnus, and drinks from his chalice three times, and other things consecrated with sacred prayers, are offered to the child in the extremity of peril. This draught being administered, presently the infant (which before, through the force of the pains, had never been possible) falls into sleep, and that so persistent that for a full XXIV hours it suffered itself to be shaken off by no noise or moving of those who tried to rouse it. At length of its own accord it awoke, smiling placidly, and straightway began to be better, and within a short time entirely recovered. These things the same man testified whom we named above, lord Georg Keller the chaplain.

[67] The Lech, again overflowing, is restrained by the Saint's staff. Five years later, while the year MDCXCIX was passing and the XXV day of May, the Lech again felt the powers of the unconquered staff: for when, being immoderately increased with waters and overflowing its banks, it was borne with a great mass of waves straight upon Muesau ^a, which is a place in the dominion of S. Magnus; and had already, victorious over two gardens, swept away half of each, the aforesaid staff, after the sacred prayers had been applied according to custom, so restrained its insolence that on the next day it turned its course elsewhere, harmless in all else.

[68] [A man grievously hurt by a fall from a horse, having drunk from the Saint's chalice, recovers:] Then in the centenary year MDCC Peter Lecher of the parish of Niederhofen, having fallen from his horse, met with a huge peril of life. Certainly for the space of a whole hour he scarcely drew breath, the blood bubbling forth through his nostrils, his mouth and his ears. Whence also it came about that for a full thirteen weeks he lay abed amid violent pains of the head. At length, various remedies having been vainly applied, Peter implores the help of S. Magnus, promising the procuring of a Sacrifice: besides, he has himself set upon a horse and carried to his church at Füssen, while that same ill health was even then raging: being brought thither, when he had drunk a very little of the sacred wine from the Divine one's chalice, he was day by day better, and in a short time entirely recovered.

[69] [a woman tempted by evil suggestions, a vow being made, recovers tranquillity of mind:] The wife of that same Peter, Barbara, was for a whole year violently infested with evil suggestions inciting her to evil day and night. But when, communicating the whole matter with S. Magnus amid prayers, she came into his church and caused a Mass to be offered, she recovered her former serenity and tranquillity of mind.

[70] When bugs were troublesome to that same Barbara in her house, [the same woman expels bugs from her house with water blessed by S. Magnus' staff.] she presently, becoming her own author of the best counsel, procures water which had washed the staff of S. Magnus, a sacred prayer being added, and sprinkles it on those parts of the house in which the stinking little creatures had settled. The bugs did not bear this shower, but on the spot changed their ground, never to return. These three benefits imparted to the said spouses lord Johann Essedier, parish priest of Niederhofen, positively related.

[71] In that centenary year, which we mentioned a little before, throughout the Tyrolese Alps [In a common murrain of cattle a certain man, a vow being made, keeps his own safe:] which are in the lordship of Ehrenberg ^b, a savage murrain was making huge slaughter of cattle, so that those who had sent four, five, or six oxen into that pasture scarcely received back one or two safe. Hence, for fear of further contagion, not only was the yearly market intermitted, but it was also forbidden that anyone should drive any cattle thence elsewhere; those who dared it were chastised with grievous penalties. A certain Salomon Berchtold, when he easily perceived that the same destruction threatened his herd too, implored the help of S. Magnus, promising a gift alive and breathing if he should bring it. And indeed he brought it: for that murrain brought upon Salomon's oxen no inconvenience nor disaster: whence, confessing himself bound by his vow, in the next following year on the XIV of February he caused a calf to be presented to the Divine one at the doors of the church.

[72] In the May of that same year Fr. Dominic Dierling, then keeper of the sacred things in the church of S. Magnus, was carrying the staff into the Tyrolese lordship named Lana ^c, diseases of men and of birds driven off by water blessed with the Saint's staff: against insects hostile to the vineyards. On that journey, when he had come to Airs [*], which is likewise a place in Tyrol, being asked by the innkeeper with whom he had turned aside, he purified water, salt and earth by applying that same staff of S. Magnus with the accustomed rites. Thence it came about that two sufferers from fever drank of that water: which indeed was so present a remedy to both that at the same time they both drank the liquid and drove off their sickness. Which miracle had as witnesses not only Fr. Dominic himself, but also Adam Nigg, the companion of his journey; and besides a certain lord Wasenöfer, and the innkeeper of Airs.

The wife too of that Innkeeper was ill, oppressed by some sickness or other. But to have drunk of that sacred water was to have recovered.

Besides, no simple disaster was afflicting the poultry-yard of the said innkeeper, exceedingly many of the winged race dying. There were those who judged that this evil had been contrived by Stygian arts. But whencesoever it arose, the most powerful help of S. Magnus certainly stayed it. For as soon as leave was given to the sick birds to drink of his lustral water, all recovered.

[73] Further, at Lana, which we mentioned before, there was a certain nobleman, a stone cast out without pain by the help of the aforesaid staff: and one second to none in devotion and confidence toward S. Magnus. He, when he was bitterly tortured with the pains of the stone, asked very greatly that the Father guardian would, the sacred staff being applied, pray a blessing for him: which as soon as he easily obtained, on the next day without sense of pain he voided a little stone of the size of an olive, as he himself, full of comfort and joy, related to Fr. Placid Klainhans, a monk of S. Magnus, then staying at Lana, and to Johann Eggman, an innkeeper of that place.

[74] a girl freed from a dire wasting: Then on the tenth of August Johann Schnöll came from Hopferau ^d with his two-year-old little daughter to S. Magnus, to ask help and health. That little one, Barbara by name, was for a whole year being eaten away by a certain kind of wasting unknown to all. The aids of art of which her tender age was capable were indeed ready and applied, but with wholly fruitless effort. Recourse was accordingly had to sacred helps: since it was believed that this evil had been contrived by some magical devotion. And so the little girl was carried to Fr. Wolfgang, who then acted as exorcist among the Franciscan monks. He, having pronounced the prayers of the accustomed rite, and having applied also sacred fumigations, bread, and water, diligently discharged his office: yet he too was in vain. Which when her father Johann saw, being now destitute of every other counsel, he commends his wretched child to S. Magnus, a vow of a pilgrimage to him being uttered: to which promise he also solemnly stood on the day mentioned above, with his wife, and with the sick little one brought along. While, being released from the obligation of their vow, they return home, behold! Barbara suddenly rests a little, nay even takes sleep: which the disease, so savage, had for a whole year before begrudged her, so that by no coaxings either of her mother or of others could the wailings of one assiduously in pain be stayed. But this sleep turned all things to the better, and the parents shortly had their little daughter entirely safe and unharmed. These things for testimony he said whom we have already several times named, Georg Keller, chaplain of Hopferau, and her father Johann Schnöll.

[75] to persons out of their minds But on the fourth of October a certain sudden vertigo began so to whirl Johann Maldoner of Füssen that he seemed to be drunk. Thereupon for some days he stuck in his bed, ignorant what the evil was with which he was struggling, and which he felt grow worse daily. But at length he fell into such a distemper of head and mind that, openly raving, he filled all with horrific cries, and by day and night, running about through the house, raged. Further, to those who asked what mishap had befallen him he answered that he did not know. A vein indeed was cut for the wretched man, but in vain. That father Wolfgang mentioned before also applied sacred remedies; yet with no success of any moment. Whence he himself was the author of the counsel, and that the best, that recourse should be had to S. Magnus. And so Johann is presented to the divine Wonder-worker, and, being purified with his relics, is also given a drink of the chalice, plainly to his health: for straightway on the following night the man, which all marveled at, was quiet, nay and slept quite comfortably: and when he had thereafter continued the same sacred draught for eight days, he recovered the fullest use of his mind. Which the evil spirit too had foretold would happen to him: for on a certain day, from a possessed man before whom he was kneeling as a suppliant, he began to mock; being asked the cause of this, he answered that what he was troubling this madman with was to be reckoned as nothing: that he would have suffered something far otherwise, if he had licked up the whole of it (which, however, had not been destined against him): but that by an eight days'

sipping from the sacred chalice all the evil would be dispelled. That this really came to pass, Adam Bayrhof the statuary and Michael Erdt the saddler, citizens of Füssen, testified also in writing.

[76] a sound mind is restored: Toward the end of that same year there came to S. Magnus with two of her companions Barbara Schmid, wife of Martin Schnöller of Obergabel, as it is called. Her, for a good long time, a disturbed brain did not permit to use her reason readily, so far that she handled her household business quite ineptly and preposterously, often on that account being beaten by her husband; yet by reason of her distemper of mind she by no means noticed it. Various remedies indeed, even sacred ones, were not lacking: but none of them sufficed to drive away the evil. But when a drink from the chalice of the divine Preserver was offered her, her head being gradually cleared, the whole former use of her reason returned. These things Barbara herself related in person amid the greatest thanksgivings, in the next following year, on the XXIII day of April. And in the year MDCCII, on the 2nd of February, lord Johann Baptist Steffelmair, then parish priest of that place, confirmed it by a signed writing.

[77] There was a certain Maria Thagel at Peternau in the dominion of Muggenthal ^e. sick persons by the touch of S. Magnus' staff She for a whole two years had for the most part lain sick, nor was she fit for any household work: which evil was commonly believed to have been produced by magical arts. It chanced that Fr. Meinrad Schwab, carrying about the rod of S. Magnus in that place, was performing the sacred field-blessings ^f. When the woman learned this, full of confidence in the most beneficent Heaven-dweller, having gathered such remnants of strength as she could, she went and asked this one thing, that opportunity be given her of kissing the wonderful staff: which when she had easily obtained, most swiftly, and at that same moment of time, she rose from the ground vigorous and plainly sound, and lived afterward equal even to household labors, as she had been before her sickness. These things Johann Schorn, a miller in the same village, related in the year MDCCI, on the XII of January, when he too, after an unknown sickness of already seven years, sought health in the wonder-working relics of S. Magnus.

[78] About the same time at which the miracle just narrated was wrought, are healed: and straightway widely published, there was an infant of eighteen months. He, born to a certain Aloysius, a schoolmaster, and to Johanna Wanger his wife, was assiduously sick, even after various remedies frequently applied. But at the touch of the sacred staff, and at the kissing of it, he straightway became well: nay, he was still well when the miller mentioned before related this wonder too.

[79] When in the year MDCCI, in the month of February, opportunity of drinking from the chalice of S. Magnus was publicly given, [a boy suffering from stone, having drunk from the Saint's chalice, is freed from the stones.] the three-year-old little son of Franz Duin, a citizen of Füssen, Alexander Sigismund, came among the other boys. He was a sufferer from stone, his parents being till then unaware of it, although he was torn with exceedingly bitter pains. When he came a second or a third time to the sacred draught, on returning home he voided two stones of the size of chick-peas, with much force of gravel, amid bloody urine. Not long after, when that same little boy had tasted the cup more often, he began again to struggle with the greatest pains: his urine too stopped for some days: whence his parents were in grave fear lest their little son, falling into madness from so great a violence of torment, should meet death. Who at length, having taken a wholesome counsel, call the Father guardian to their house, that he may offer the chalice to the poor child, after purifying him with the sacred relics and prayers. Scarcely had the boy drunk, and behold! the Father guardian being even then present, he asks for water, and a little after pushes two little stones from the bladder into the passage: but since they were rather large, like a larger chick-pea, the surgeon by cutting loosened the narrowness of the passage, and thence happily drew both out. Of the whole matter the same surgeon, Johann Friedrich surnamed Kurz, a citizen of Füssen, and Franz Duin, the little boy's father, made attestation by a signed writing.

[80] The house of lord Balthasar Blaicher, parish priest of Vils ^g, most stinking bugs were most grievously infesting: Bugs expelled from a house: and he, impatient of so great a trouble, fled to S. Magnus, promising to bring a gift of six kreuzers yearly if he would drive off by his patronage guests so hateful: which that the Divine one readily performed plainly appeared; for from that time not even one of the bugs was seen or noted in that house, as the parish priest himself related in the year MDCCI, on the X of March, who also brought the gift which he had promised in each year, when the day sacred to S. Magnus returned.

[81] a disease of birds driven off. The same parish priest (which he likewise then related) was rearing thirteen cocks and hens of the Indian yard ^h, all of which a certain disease had invaded, and had already given eight of them over to death: but neither did another fate await the five survivors. Their master, because he was unwilling that all this kind of bird should perish for him, promises to S. Magnus one three-pence for each, if he should render them unharmed; and straightway gives the coins to the Father guardian of the relics, then present, to be carried into the treasury. What more? All the birds thereupon were well, and by their brood brought much profit to that same parish priest.

[82] A drink from the Saint's chalice takes away a girl's headache, In the same month and year Maria Duin, daughter of a citizen of Füssen, whom a most acute headache ⁱ had long exercised, came to the chalice of S. Magnus, full of confidence in his patronage, among others who were ill. That the counsel was wholesome the outcome showed. For, a quarter of an hour thereafter having elapsed, all pain left the girl.

[83] and another's grievous disease, Again in that month and year another girl, Maria Kempter by name, proclaimed the beneficence of S. Magnus amid the greatest thanksgivings. Her (as she herself related) about that same month of March every year a certain sickness was wont to fasten to her bed, whereby it came about that she could not go to church (which otherwise she omitted on no day) and perform the offices of piety to which she was accustomed. But when she drank with others from the chalice of the heavenly Preserver (to whom she was greatly devoted), publicly offered, she received strength so strong that without any further trouble she rendered her accustomed tasks of religion.

[84] and a third's long sleeplessness: Further, on the XVII of April Maria Heringer, born at Horn in the parish of Waltenhofen ^k, reported help and a remedy obtained from S. Magnus. She had for some time been the maidservant of the judge of Hohenschwangau. But there were not lacking those who envied this liberal service. Whence, when Maria labored for a full five weeks with persistent sleeplessness and various weaknesses of body, it was believed that all such things had befallen the wretched woman from a hellish spell. Who at length becomes to herself the author of the best counsel for recovering her health, namely that she should flee to S. Magnus. And so she first pours out a fervid prayer to the Divine one daily, then on three or four days tastes from his chalice: besides, she is purified with the other relics. These things being done, straightway sleep returned with her former health.

[85] [a woman in childbirth, in peril with the child dead in her womb, having drunk the same draught, gives birth easily.] In the month of August of that same year, on the XXVI day, the wife of Georg Theobald König, citizen and goldsmith of Füssen, Maria Johanna, a child dead in the womb had brought into the utmost crisis of life: for in XXIV hours, whatever the woman in labor strove, or whatever help the midwife brought, it could by no means be brought forth into the light. Whence all who were present judged that it was all over with Johanna's life. But at length (by a counsel doubtless suggested from heaven) they flee to S. Magnus, with a vow uttered of procuring a Sacrifice to his honor. Then they send to ask the father guardian that he would not think it burdensome to come, and to apply the Divine one's sacred relics to the woman in labor. He came and applied them; nay, when she had been cleansed by confession of her faults, he also offered her the ill-averting chalice ^l: from which she, full of the best hope, drank as much as she was allowed, however abstemious she might be. Wonderful to believe! While she was still drinking, the pains customary to those bringing forth came on, the child prepared for its going out, and at last, while by those present the litanies of S. Magnus and the prayers of the rosary were being recited, it was brought forth into the light without grievous trouble to the woman. There is extant about this wonder a letter written and signed by the husband named before, and by Johann Friedrich Kurz, Surgeon and citizen of Füssen.

ANNOTATIONS.

h. That is, turkeys.

* Airs

CHAPTER V.

Various insects expelled by the help of the staff from houses and fields, women in peril from childbirth and persons afflicted with divers evils healed, and other benefits ascribed to the Saint.

[ ] Various insects at Freising In the month of September next following the sacred staff was brought to Freising, at the request of the most exalted prince and bishop ^a. For beetles, small and black, had so prevailed in his brewery that, ravaging and eating out the barley, they created grievous loss: it was also ascertained that some who had drunk of the beer made from it had fallen into disease. But when on the very feast of S. Magnus the barley-cellars and the other granaries were purified with his rod, the worker of wonders, thou wouldst have seen the beetles presently take flight, leaving all the barley, and go away in troops over the hill on which that beer-store is situated.

[87] In the same month the people of Berchtesgaden too experienced the beneficent hand of S. Magnus. and elsewhere expelled. In that dominion insects, ravaging the fields for nearly fifteen years, had done much damage. Yet, having at length experienced the heavenly power of the sacred staff set against them with the accustomed rites, they ceased from harm. The same power bugs too felt, and black beetles, cast out here and there from houses and chambers by the sprinkling of the water which had washed the most powerful rod.

[88] To a woman a happy delivery, After these things, on the XVII of November a certain Maria, wife of Benedict Gröbel, citizen and tanner of Füssen, was in labor, with the best hope indeed, as the beginnings offered themselves: but some mishap or other, falling in unexpectedly, brought it about that for a whole day she strove in vain: whence the child was in the greatest peril of being crushed within the womb. Therefore those who were present, judging that help must be summoned from S. Magnus, call the Father guardian with his relics, and beg that he would apply them to the laboring woman, and especially that he would offer her a drink from the sacred chalice. Besides, they vow that they will see to it that a Sacrifice be offered to the honor of their heavenly Helper. These things being thus done, when the Father keeper of the sacred things had not yet departed, the woman most happily brought forth. As the husband named before testified.

[89] health given to a boy almost consumed by a slow wasting: Maria Kürcher of Hirschzell, a dweller at Kaufbeuren ^b, had a three-year-old little son, Joseph by name. He through all this tender age lived his life in a little body so delicate, lean, and destitute of strength that there was scarcely anyone who dared to carry him or move him from his place, for fear lest he should suddenly die within his hands. The mother at length, having taken the best counsel, commends the poor child's health to S. Magnus, with a vow uttered of making a pilgrimage to him: which she would also have performed forthwith, if it had been safe to carry the little boy with her. Nevertheless so much was accomplished by that vow, that Joseph's ill health appeared to diminish day by day. Whence Maria on the VII of December discharged what she had vowed: she asks also that the sacred chalice be offered both to herself and to her little son: which when she had obtained, scarcely had the space of four weeks elapsed when she had the little boy fully strong, and standing and walking on his feet, which he had never before been able to do. These things the mother took care to have made known, amid glad thanksgivings, to the Father guardian, her sister being the messenger, in the next following year, on the XIII of February. The same things, from Maria's account, lords Johann Beirhof and Jakob Wanger, parish priests, the former of Frankenried, the latter of Hirschzell, testified. Likewise Johann Kürcher her husband, and Philipp Haglland, judge of the men of Hirschzell.

[90] help given to a woman in childbirth and to another afflicted in the foot. At Steinbach, which is in the parish of Stetten ^c, a certain Magdalena Geisenhös was twice or three times in such difficulty, nay and unhappiness, of bringing forth, that her children were brought into the light only when drawn out by force, and those dead. But when in the year MDCCII a like crisis was not obscurely threatening her again in labor, there was put upon her finger a ring which had lain in the chalice of S. Magnus, and was kept after being religiously touched to the other relics. Further, the men of Steinbach, moved by pious compassion, came by common counsel into the Divine one's chapel which is there, to make supplication for the woman, and that with a most glad outcome: for while his litanies were being recited, Magdalena brought forth a living little boy without sense of any bitter pain.

In the June of the preceding year Catharina Egger of Füssen, an exceedingly poor widow, not only was most grievously sick, but also suffered intolerable pains in one of her feet. But when she implored S. Magnus with a vow of a wax image of a foot, all the pain vanished, and her former health returned. Catharina discharged the vow in the January of the year MDCCII, since hard poverty did not allow her to do it earlier.

[91] A boy is freed from a long disease: In the year first mentioned, on the XVI of January, a little boy was brought to S. Magnus from Aschau ^d, as it is called, Johann Beyrer by name. He, eaten away already for a full two years by a slow wasting, could neither stand on his feet nor walk. But when, being purified with the accustomed prayers, he drank from the sacred chalice, he shortly recovered and had his feet in service.

[92] While the same year was passing, Maria Schmid, born at Oberzell, a knee hurt by a grievous fall restored to its former vigor which is not far from Kaufbeuren ^e, had one knee swollen high from a grievous fall. For a good long time indeed she was under a surgeon's hand; but he, because he saw that the evil was stronger than his art, despairing of a cure, desisted from fruitless labor. Whence the woman, delaying no longer over the remedies of mortals, commends herself to S. Magnus with fervid prayers, having conceived a huge hope that his help would not fail her: and indeed it did not fail: for after she promised by an uttered vow that she would visit the Divine one in his church at Füssen, the swelling subsided, and her foot began to be strong and vigorous as before. Maria performed the vow on the VII of September, in the year MDCCIV.

[93] A certain Adam Kerff of the Parish of Mittelberg ^f, a man near death from a long disease, a vow being made, recovers. entangled in disease for a full five years, had at last so lost all his strength that it was believed it was all over with his life. Certainly for a full two days he was unconscious of himself, and next to death. But when he came to himself a little, fleeing to S. Magnus he uttered a vow that, if he would restore him to health, he would come to his church at Füssen, and there, being cleansed by confession of his faults, would sit down to the Eucharistic banquet, and besides would see to it that a Sacrifice be offered. After these promises an abscess burst within the sick man's body, he thereupon was day by day better, and at last entirely recovered. The vow to which he had become bound he discharged on the XXV of July, in the year MDCCII.

[94] In that very year at Schwandorf the house of a certain man (he was unwilling that his name be published) a huge multitude of black beetles had invaded, Beetles by the Saint's help and that not without grievous trouble to his household. For dispelling which, when an image of S. Magnus on paper, touched to his sacred staff, had been hung up, and besides some work of religious piety toward the Divine one was performed daily, all the beetles gave up their lodging. Further, by lapse of time it came about that that appointed worship and pious prayer was neglected, and no longer performed. That this displeased the holy Patron not obscurely appeared. For the beetles migrated again into that same house as though in a formed column: the paper too on which the sacred effigy was printed they destroyed by gnawing it round on every side, yet did not touch the effigy itself. These things Johann Jakob Mechtl ^g, canon of Herrieden, made known by a letter written and signed with his own hand, as he had heard Fr. Wenceslaus the Capuchin, then superior of the convent of Schwandorf, narrating them.

[95] In the house too of Georg Schwaiger of Büching [*], driven out of houses: as he himself related in the year MDCCIII, on the IV of March, beetles of that kind had violently prevailed, nor did they suffer themselves to be driven thence by any art; nay, it was nearly the case that they themselves drove out the men who dwelt there: indeed even poor travelers, who before frequently sought lodging there, had begun to shun such a dwelling, since they feared that no rest would be granted them by those so hostile lodgers. In this state of his affairs it at length seemed best to flee to S. Magnus. And so they see to it that a Mass be offered in his chapel; they send a gift into the treasury; they carry away besides water purified with the sacred relics, and sprinkle the interior of the house with it on every side. Nor did the Divine one disappoint these efforts toward him: for within a few days not even one of the beetles was noted any more, the whole neighborhood marveling beyond what could be told.

[96] A certain Anna Langenwalder, when she had been tortured for four years with grievous pains in one foot, a foot healed and the remedies of mortals profited nothing against the evil, at length at the urging of others embraced this counsel as the one thing likely to profit, that she should seek heavenly help from S. Magnus. She came therefore into his church at Füssen in the year MDCCIV, and obtained that the sacred relics be applied to her with the accustomed rite. There followed thereupon the outcome which she had desired: for on returning home she felt a certain small bone come forth from the afflicted foot: which then, all pain departing, was thoroughly healed without any other remedy.

[97] a horse recovers from a sudden malady: In the month of October, in the year mentioned, a certain one of the monks of S. Magnus was returning home on horseback from a journey. He was using a horse wholly sound and vigorous: but when, departing by chance from some place, he had hardly accomplished the space of half an hour, at a moderate pace and by no means a hurried one, the horse's strength suddenly so failed that men who met him anxiously warned the Father that he must dismount, for the beast was about to collapse. When he dismounted, he saw the horse foaming over its whole body, no otherwise than if it had been drenched with milk on every side. When then, being led by the bridle, it went forward, it dragged its hind feet rather than lifted them. The Father, judging that so sudden an evil had by no means befallen the horse by natural force, devotes it to S. Magnus with a promise of a Sacrifice to be offered presently to his honor, if he should come home. Besides, he puts into water a medal which had religiously touched the sacred staff, and offers it to the animal to drink. These things being done, the horse on the next day was presently safe and vigorous as before, and briskly carried its rider through the rest of the way.

[98] a woman deaf, and almost deprived of feet and hands, Anna Maria Schnizer of the Parish of Bernbeuren ^h, being already deprived of her ears (as she herself related on the VIII of December), had begun to be deprived of her hands and feet as well: and this in the judgment of all would plainly have come about, had not the help of S. Magnus, to whom by a vow made she had been commended, intervened. For, being brought into his church, purified with the sacred relics, and given a drink of the chalice, she presently was clearly better, and within a short time recovered entire health, as she had desired ⁱ.

[99] a girl afflicted with an unknown kind of disease, There was likewise at Bernbeuren a little daughter of eight years. Her a kind of disease unknown to all had seized. Whence, since no one knew how to bring a remedy, the sickness held for a full twelve weeks, until her mother, Maria Landess by name, commended the poor child to S. Magnus, with a pilgrimage vowed to him. This vow being pronounced, the little daughter within the space of eight days entirely recovered, and together with her mother performed the promised pilgrimage in the year MDCCV.

[100] frenzied persons are cured: In the next following year another girl, of Büching by birth, Barbara Vethschneider by name, nearly nine years old, had fallen into a disease not unlike a dire frenzy. From which for some weeks she lay abed deprived of hands and feet. Her eyes too thou wouldst very often have seen horribly rolled and turned about. Her parents, since they wished so great a calamity of their little daughter dispelled, as much as any could, placing their highest hope in the beneficence of S. Magnus, procured once and again a drink from his sacred chalice for the suffering girl. Which counsel turned out most excellently: for a little after all health returned to the girl, and soundness followed. There is extant a written and signed testimony on this matter by lord Johann Essedinn, parish priest of that place.

[101] In the course of the same year Corbinian Buesegger of Rottenbuch related, full of congratulation and joy, that his son Georg, who had lost all use of reason, the use of reason restored to a madman: after he had commended him to S. Magnus by a vow pronounced, had returned to himself and to a sound mind.

[102] Ursula Geiger, wife of Peter Oeberle of Eisenburg, help given to a woman in peril in childbirth. of the parish of Zell ^k, a difficulty of bringing forth had once brought to such a pass that not only was she herself in the utmost peril of dying before the birth, but the child too, unless the mother's womb should be cut. Having at length happily come through that crisis, another threatened in the year MDCCVII, when again for two nights and days she was in labor in vain. Hence both spouses, exceedingly dismayed, implore the help of S. Magnus, which he by no means delayed to bring: for when the husband was hastening, about to go to Füssen, in order to procure for the laboring woman wine consecrated in the Wonder-worker's chalice, and had already saddled his horse, he is suddenly called back, and is informed that his wife by a happy travail had brought forth a little daughter, living and vigorous, which happened on the XXX of May. These things the same spouses testified, and Veronica Endres of the lordship of Eisenburg.

[103] A certain Johann Steeger of the parish of Rieden ^l had a very lean horse, A horse healed: and by disease already so nearly fallen into the flayer's rights that it no longer admitted either feeding or watering. Johann, fearing the loss that would come from the beast's ruin, commends it to S. Magnus with a promise of bringing a gift; besides, he fortifies it with amulets consecrated by the touch of his relics. Nor did the outcome disappoint these counsels: for the horse within the very next hour was better and recovered, in the year MDCCVIII.

[104] The four-year-old little daughter of Susanna Vögel of Pfronten ^m sleeplessness could neither walk on her feet nor stand: besides, leanness had left scarcely any strength in her wholly wasted little body. But when her mother, by a vow uttered, made her over to the trust of S. Magnus, and caused her to be purified with his relics, on the spot she began to recover and to walk. These things were wrought likewise in the year MDCCVIII.

[105] In the following year a certain Magdalena, wife of Georg Vilser of Hopfen, driven off: a sudden ill health had for three weeks rendered sleepless; and thereupon destitute of all strength. That she might be freed from these evils, the woman invoked the help of S. Magnus, a vow being pronounced, and was purified with his sacred relics. Nor was there delay of the heavenly help: for presently her former strength returned, and the sleeplessness withdrew. As lord Leo Eschenauer, parish priest of Hopfen, testified.

[106] Further, in the X year of this century, of Kaspar Kaim, a baker of Aschau in the parish of Wengle ⁿ, a spell taken away a certain hellish sorcery (as he himself not undeservedly believed) had made the oven useless for baking bread. Wherefore, every other remedy being passed over, the man pronounces a vow to S. Magnus, and casts a certain sacred medal of his into the oven. Which things being done, he could straightway bake bread in it as before.

[107] In the May of that year Magdalena Pez, a citizen of Augsburg, bugs driven off. took care to have it announced that she had suffered much trouble from bugs, that she had invoked S. Magnus with a vow pronounced of procuring a Sacrifice in his church at Füssen, and that in this way she was presently freed from the vexation of the bugs. She stood too by her promise, and appointed a Mass to be offered.

[108] When in the same year the sacred staff, carried about through Helvetia and applied with the accustomed rites, had everywhere wrought many wonders, and also in the Thurgau ^o at Holy Cross, a certain man great in authority and wealth, A Calvinist well disposed toward S. Magnus abjures the heresy with his son: yet devoted to the Calvinist sect, at Bischofszell [p] scattered on his own fields and lands some earth and water of the same purified by the touch of the sacred rod, granted him by some orthodox person, against the same insects that were ravaging them, full of confidence in the holy Wonder-worker. Then, a few weeks having elapsed, this same man with his son, whom he had begotten as his only one, abjured Calvin, and, a profession being made, embraced our true Religion. Where it is not doubtful that the patronage of S. Magnus with God, toward whom he was so piously disposed, had in this business its own by no means small part. These things lord Gaudentius Pfefferkorn, parish priest at Holy Cross in the Thurgau, wrote on the 1st of October: yet he did not publish that man's name.

[109] benefits To a certain man in the city of Munich (his name was suppressed) the fear of threatening dangers had struck very much anxiety and trepidation. That he might escape them, he betook himself to the protection of S. Magnus with a vow of procuring a Mass to be offered in his church. He escaped happily: as in the year MDCCXI a certain priest, Jakob Böck by name, testified in a letter given at Munich on the XII of January.

[110] ascribed to the Saint: To the same year must be referred the benefit which Peter Weis, a miller of Weissensee [q], recorded that he had received from S. Magnus. Namely his mill had for almost a whole year had some defect or other. Indeed, when it was allowed to be turned round for doing its work, the whole house was wont so to tremble and to be shaken amid huge crashes that it seemed about to fall at once. Three other masters of the milling art indeed were summoned once and again, to inspect the machine and mend it; but all their endeavor and labor was in vain, until Peter implored the help of S. Magnus; which he showed, adding a vow of procuring a Sacrifice, and of daily deserving the Divine one's favor by some other work of piety: then he obtained that the house and mill should be purified with the sacred cross of that same Heaven-dweller, those three millers being present, who afterward again set about correcting the milling machine, with an outcome not a little better than before, nay the best: for from that time the mill went on discharging its office rightly, and that continually.

[111] The Saint's staff frees the territory of Freiburg from insects. In the territory lying about Freiburg [r], which is in the Breisgau, for some years insects had been so copiously and savagely rampant that scarcely any grass now grew up, but all things, as though scorched by excessive suns, were red. Moved by this long-lasting evil, the magistracy of that city earnestly asked that the sacred staff be brought against the dire worms. Which when it was brought by a certain monk of S. Magnus, and those fields and meadows were purified with it, in that very year (which was the XI of this century) the earth was clothed with a glad greenness of grass; of the worms part migrated elsewhere, part died. That the memory of so great a benefit might endure, the men of Freiburg decreed thereafter to hold the birthday of S. Magnus as sacred and festal. These things Franz Christoph Hug, prefect of Kirchzarten near Freiburg, made known in a letter given on the IX of September.

[112] A disease of horses extinguished: An unknown kind of disease in the stable of Matthäus Beis of Rieden, of the parish of Langenwang, being long rampant, brought exceedingly great disasters; since indeed twelve horses died in the space of thirteen years. Further, the stubbornness of the evil was superior to all the protections of mortals which were applied. Which Matthäus, being taught by sad and long experience, having invoked the help of S. Magnus, applied to his horses amulets consecrated by the touch of that same staff. This being done, nothing further of adversity befell his horses: as the same man related, in the year XII, in the month of March, in the presence of Magnus Eberle of the parish of Wald.

[113] In the July of the year mentioned, in the pasture of the men of Weissensee [s], sorceries repressed who are subject to the community of S. Magnus, a sudden terror, arising no one knows whence, had so dismayed the horses that, being scattered in every direction, they were carried away in headlong flight. One of them, having measured out a small space of the way, fell dead; whom when the flayer cut open, he detected no trace either of contagion or of any other defect: and since the men of Weissensee had already long noted that their pastures were being troubled by some unknown infestation, they sought the protection of the sacred staff; which also they obtained on the V of July. For the rest, scarcely had the horse which I have mentioned fallen dead, when the farmer Georg Hauser, whose it was, was so deprived of his feet that he could not go forward even a single step. Wherefore, the field-blessings being finished, the Father purified with the same staff that farmer also: who straightway had his feet in his power, as before, and on the next day, going out to country work, played the mower.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Commonly Bischofzell, it is a town in the aforesaid Thurgau, and is in the dominion of the bishop of Constance.

q. Go to the annotations at chapter 1, letter n.

r. Freiburg, by the natives Freiburg, is a city of Germany on the river Dreisam, the head of the tract of the Breisgau.

s. Consult what was said at chapter 1, letter n.

* from Büching

CHAPTER VI.

Various evils of men, of cattle and of fields driven away.

[ ] [A woman suffering from stone and at the same time from ill humors thoroughly healed:] Maria Müller of Rieden, of the parish of Hopfen, for five years labored not only with the stone but also with an ill state of the humors ^a. Nor did any hope remain, as those skilled in medicine judged, of recovering health through the aids of art, of whatever kind these had been applied. Against so great a stubbornness therefore of both evils, it came into the woman's mind to solicit the help of S. Magnus: wherefore she set herself to say daily to his honor the little prayer ^b of which Christ, when he once dwelt on earth, was the author: which counsel indeed turned out most excellently; for shortly after, Maria's entire health returned, as she herself, her husband being present, related in that same year, on the XV of August; which the same lord Leo Eschenauer, parish priest of Hopfen, made attested.

[115] a grievous ulcer of a finger cured: On that same day there was present Matthäus Zech of Reichertshofen, himself also of the parish of Hopfen. He related that his daughter, Maria by name (who had come along as his companion), when she was still five years old, carried about for more than the space of a year an ulcer on one of her fingers, so dangerous and stubborn against every human remedy that there was talk of cutting it off. But that he, on the counsel of a certain one of his friends, had commended the girl to S. Magnus, with the procuring of a Sacrifice promised: thence it came about that the finger within the space of two weeks, without any further help of any mortal, was thoroughly healed. This the same parish priest of Hopfen besides testified.

[116] a disease of cattle removed: Then on the XXI of August a certain Magnus Müller of Waltenhofen ^c appeared at S. Magnus' bound by a vow. For a certain sudden and unlooked-for murrain had brought his five cows to such a pitch of danger that he feared not a little lest all should perish: especially because he saw that the evil yielded to no aid of nature. But when he commended the matter to S. Magnus, and pronounced a vow, performed the pilgrimage, brought the gift, and besides applied to the cattle sacred amulets touched to his rod, he had them all a little after sound and unharmed. These things lord Johann Adam Truckmüller, parish priest of Waltenhofen, confirmed with his own handwriting.

[117] beetles driven off: The same parish priest related another wonder also, as follows. The house of Georg Kollman, citizen and brewer of Schongau ^d, black beetles for many years exceedingly infested; and that so far that by night they filled the stove-room, the kitchen, and the bedchamber with dense swarms. Desiring at length to be rid of so great a trouble, Georg together with his wife implored saint Magnus, having conceived a huge confidence in his patronage, with a vow added of honoring the Divine one's birthday thereafter with a gift brought yearly. That vow being pronounced, the beetles straightway vanished. grievous torments of the body taken away:

[118] Afterward, in the XII year of this century, on the very feast of S. Magnus, Georg Holl of Zell ^e (for so the place is called) related that for a full four weeks he had been tortured with exceedingly grievous pains through all the limbs of his body, remedies which might bring health having been vainly applied. That therefore he had fled to S. Magnus, a vow being uttered,

and had been purified with his sacred rod, and had by this means recovered his former health.

[119] In the same year and on the same day there was present at S. Magnus' a certain Johann Wolfarth of the parish of Zell. a long-lasting pain of the bowels taken away: He for a full three years had to struggle with a certain internal kind of disease. Fight was indeed made against the evil with various aids of mortals; but nothing whatever was accomplished. At length S. Magnus brought health by his sacred staff, by whose touch when the sick man had been purified several times, within a short time he was well, as before the three years; as both he himself related, and lord Georg Gom, parish priest of Zell, asserted by a written and signed testimony.

[120] In the year first mentioned too a certain dire murrain was punishing the stables everywhere with great disasters, a murrain of horses warded off: and the contagion of the evil had likewise reached the neighborhood of Füssen. For the averting of it, supplication was made daily for eight weeks in the church of saint Magnus, by the prayer of the rosary, as we call it, and it was obtained that the horses of the men of Füssen remained safe and unharmed. A like help in the same peril S. Magnus rendered to the men of Weissensee and of Rosshaupten, being honored and conciliated by a certain appointed work of piety.

[121] The same year was still running when a certain Juliana Wolfarth of Sylva, the use of her feet is restored to a woman. as the place is called, in the parish of Zell, was suddenly so bereft of the service of her feet that she could come from place to place only if carried. But when some incense, and of the powder which they call S. Magnus', was brought from the community of Füssen and applied to the sufferer, it was permitted her to walk, and, the space of eight days being past, to use readily the faculty of going. This Georg Gom the parish priest, named before, testified by a handwriting likewise signed.

[122] Hither must be referred the benefits with which S. Magnus, not at the same time, visited a certain Barbara Pröbst of Vils ^f, wife of Sympert Buechenberger. Various benefits to one and the same woman, First, when she was still seven years old, she had fallen into such a distemper of mind that she lived impatient of clothes, and feared all safe things as though terrible, since by night, nay and by day, when she was alone, images and specters, I know not how horrible, presented themselves, as she thought, to her sight. But when her mother implored the help of S. Magnus for her little daughter, so wretched, with a vow pronounced, and obtained a drink from his chalice, she straightway had her sound and wholly in possession of herself. Further, the same Barbara, in about the XVIII year of her age, being seized by a sudden disease, had lost all use of her feet. Whence, having left the service in which she was, she was compelled to burn away her idle hours lying in bed. In such a state of things, by the counsel and exhortation of her mother she commends herself to S. Magnus, a vow being uttered, and that not without a glad effect. For her feet returned to their office so far that the sick woman believed the journey vowed to the divine Preserver would not be difficult for her. But when she set out on the way, she dislocated one foot, when she was already not far from Füssen. Whence most painfully, after she had rested many times, she came into the church of S. Magnus: then, having drunk from his chalice and been touched with his cross, she straightway was well, and thereafter day by day better. At another time, when she was suffering most acutely from her teeth, she again obtained the help of that same heavenly Physician, and that most present: for after tasting the same cup, and touching the sacred staff, blood presently bursting from her gum, all the pain vanished.

[123] and conferred on her son: Finally the little son of that same woman, Joseph by name, still an infant nine months old, for about twelve weeks was so ill handled by a certain sickness that many times he seemed already to be giving up the ghost. Further, since the evil eluded every remedy of art, there were not lacking those who attributed it to another than a natural cause: whence it was urged by them, and easily persuaded to the mother, that she should conciliate to her little son too S. Magnus, already so often favorable to herself. Therefore she carries the infant into the Divine one's church, takes care that he be given a drink from the sacred chalice; and, behold, a huge wonder! straightway, and at that same moment, she sees him sound and safe, both those who were present being amazed, and her household at home, and profusely recounting praises and thanks to God and to S. Magnus. Testimony about this clear miracle lord Anton Ulrich Gstöll, parish priest of Vils, gave besides, in his handwriting given and signed on the XIII of October, in the year MDCCXII.

[124] the dominions of Ottobeuren and of the Fuggers Two years later, in the month of January, the sacred staff made memorable slaughter in the dominions of Ottobeuren ^g and of the Fuggers among the mice against which it had been sought. For, as the inhabitants testified, the noxious creatures, not bearing the heavenly power of the conquering rod, were everywhere either seen dead, or had in many places wholly ceased to be seen. The same men related besides that nineteen years earlier also a wonderful help of S. Magnus had appeared among them in that same staff: since indeed the worms which ravaged the fields, against which it had been carried round, were driven off everywhere so powerfully that within a short space of time not even a single one appeared any more.

[125] and a certain man's granaries freed from noxious insects: The illustrious lord Joseph of the counts Fugger [h] for a long time was suffering grievous losses in the matter of grain: because the grain was not only eaten by insects or laid waste, but also, being corrupted from another cause, turned into flying things. But when that most illustrious man saw no end of this yearly disaster, he took at last this counsel, that he should place some image of S. Magnus in the grain-store. He added also a vow of honoring the Divine one's birthday yearly by the procuring of a Sacrifice, if he should by his patronage avert further losses. And that he did indeed avert them, all the grain for many years thereafter being unharmed and excellent, the same Lord confessed to the Father guardian, likewise in the year XIV, being ready to confirm it by a written and signed letter. The said image of S. Magnus, carved of wood, the Father guardian still saw at Weissenhorn ⁱ in that store, when he came thither with the sacred staff.

[126] an unknown disease of cattle extinguished: Günz is a village of the dominion of Ottobeuren. To its judge, Michael Pfeiler (as he himself in the year first mentioned related to the Father guardian, in the presence of the parish priest and of others from the neighborhood), not many years before, an unknown kind of disease, which had variously afflicted all the man's cattle and had made them deprived of their limbs, brought exceedingly grievous losses. Whence he, at length wearied of the evil, the help of S. Magnus being implored, and the procuring of a Sacrifice to his honor promised, distributed earth purified with the sacred staff throughout the stable on every side. This being performed, within a few days all the ill health of the animals vanished, nor did it any more return to the stable. Nay, when one or another of the cattle at pasture, being suddenly struck as it were with a palsy, was so numbed that it had to be carried home, as soon as it was in the stable it most utterly recovered.

[127] Joseph Dyrr, son of a certain Georg Dyrr, persons deprived of their feet of the parish of Niederhofen ^k, being long deprived of both feet, led a wretched life, nor could he move any step unless leaning on crutches under his arms. Him his mother Barbara, after many remedies of mortals had been vainly applied, at length entrusted to the immortal physician S. Magnus to be cured, with a vow uttered of making a pilgrimage to him. A favorable outcome blessed the counsel: for Joseph presently began to have his feet in his power, and without the support of crutches gladly performed the vowed pilgrimage readily with his mother, in the same XIV year of this century, on the XXX of October. The deed the same Barbara related to Fr. Magnus Beyrer, then guardian.

[128] A not unlike beneficence of the same Preserver befell Agatha Lor of the parish of Steingaden ^l. are given the power of walking: She for some years was exercised with pains of the feet so violent that at times she could neither stand nor walk. She summoned indeed from the surgeons remedies not so many but that there were more; but with no wished-for effect at all, nay with the evil increasing day by day. In that calamity the sick woman at length implores the help of S. Magnus, with a vow pronounced of a pilgrimage and of a Sacrifice to be appointed. That this was ratified appeared clearly: for on the spot all pain vanished, and Agatha within a few days discharged what she had vowed, full of joy, and related the whole matter, as it had been done, to the said Father guardian in the year MDCCXV, on the VII of December.

[129] The same year was exceedingly ruinous to Lorenz Linsle, an innkeeper of Obertingen ^m, a contagion of horses and cattle warded off: by a deadly contagion of horses and of other cattle. And of horses indeed, within the space of three or four weeks, that murrain had snatched five of the best from the man. To him looking about for remedies neither did any occur, nor was any suggested by anyone. At length it happened that the sacred staff was carried next to Obertingen into the dominion of Kempten. Lorenz uses this opportunity to his advantage, and obtains that his house and stables be purified. From that time not only was no more cattle seized by disease, but also one of the horses, which was every moment awaiting the flayer, on the spot recovered. They say that that matter was known to all in the whole village.

[130] Johann Reli, of Pfronten by fatherland ⁿ, carried about his right arm, of which he had been deprived, the use of an arm is restored. wholly immovable, even after whatever remedies of art had been applied: whence also he had already cast away hope of its being thoroughly healed. Meanwhile some one of his friends becomes for the man the author of the best counsel, namely that he should take care to be purified at S. Magnus' with sacred prayers, and should obtain oil which had washed the Wonder-working staff for anointing his arm. These things being done, both the former vigor returned to his arm, and its whole fitness for doing any work whatever. So Johann himself related to the Father guardian in the year MDCCXVI, on the 1st of February.

[131] In the same year the sacred staff among the men of Mindelheim ^o exerted its wonderful power against mice, ravagers of the crops. The Saint's staff drives mice and insects from the territory of Mindelheim: For after the accustomed field-blessings with it through all that dominion and other neighboring places, the mice straightway ceased to rage, and only very few, as the inhabitants confessed, appeared any more in the whole winter field, as they call it, and those weak, and so bereft of strength that they could easily be caught by anyone and crushed underfoot. The same staff (as the same inhabitants made credible by written testimony) twenty years earlier also, being brought into the fields mentioned, took away with like efficacy the worms which were laying waste the flax and vegetables.

[132] a man out of his mind receives the use of reason: Matthäus Frick of Tahaim [p], his senses being alienated, by what chance is uncertain, had gone out also from the power of his mind. But when his wife brought him to Füssen, took care that he be purified with the sacred staff and given a drink from the chalice of S. Magnus, straightway, the madness being driven off, she had him restored to reason: as he himself related in person, full of comfort, on the XVI of August, in the year mentioned a little before, bringing also a gift to his Preserver.

[133] a fish-bone sticking in the throat, water blessed with the relics being applied At Vienna, the most famous metropolis of Austria in the whole world, a certain maidservant, chambermaid to a certain illustrious lady, from a fish on which she chanced to be feeding had so dangerously fixed a rather large bone in her throat that, unless that evil were quickly met, she feared, and not in vain, for her very life from longer delay: for that reason several men most skilled in the surgical art were summoned, who, with the instruments by which they had until then quite happily succored several laboring under a like evil,

being unable to move the bone even a nail's breadth from the station which it held most stubbornly, deliberated by common counsel about making new ones: but since, in the two days which were being spent in the making of the new instruments, the evil grew strong beyond all measure, and the pains increased from hour to hour with new increases, the afflicted maidservant fell from almost all hope of recovering health, fearing with no vain fear that the fatal dart of death would be turned upon her sooner than the surgeons had made ready their health-bringing instruments. In that borderland of life and death, this illustrious maidservant's mistress and the rest of the household, pitying the afflicted woman with an inmost feeling of compassion, human help being despaired of, suggested the counsel of imploring divine help; proclaiming with notable commendation, out of the great devotion with which each of them was borne toward St. Magnus, the wonderful power of this Saint in helping the afflicted.

[134] is happily cast out: the same water health-bringing to another. Which being heard, the afflicted maidservant, being raised into hope against hope, a vow being pronounced to this divine Benefactor [q], devoutly took a very little water made sacred by the touch of the holy relics of this Divine one, and by that draught most happily wiped away both the fatal bone and the pains, most intense, which she was suffering, at one and the same moment, all who were present being struck with amazement at the novelty of so great a miracle, and wonderfully confirmed in that devotion and confidence which they had plainly conceived as special toward this Saint for a long time already. The mistress herself of this illustrious maidservant, who was then prodigiously restored to her former soundness, being shortly after seized by a fatal disease, and now utterly abandoned by the physicians, who distrusted their art for preserving her longer in it, miraculously prolonged her life for more than the space of six months — namely from the XIII day of April to the month of November — by drinking the water, and by applying also to her afflicted limbs earth and medals consecrated with the sacred relics of the divine Magnus, believing that she would not yet fail (as she was heard to say repeatedly in the last days of her life) if that blessed water, and at the same time the occasion of sending for other, had not failed. That all these things so happened in the year just before, namely MDCCXX after salvation was restored, from ocular inspection and bodily presence, with priestly faith the very Reverend and most illustrious Lord Johann Gottfried de Gabelkoven, Clerk Regular Theatine, testified.

[135] At Huglfing, a town of Bavaria situated by the lake of the worms, whole swarms of worms, until that time unknown, marked with a black and therefore ill-omened stone, Worms expelled from the fields. were with so mad a license devouring the otherwise fruitful turnip-fields of that place in their very flower, that no hope at all shone forth to the cultivators of getting back even the least return for the labor spent on tilling the fields: the farmers, cast down not a little by that disaster, human counsel and help failing, went to the curator of their souls, the parish priest of that village, to ask his counsel in so bitter a crisis of affairs. The parish priest, out of the surpassing zeal for souls with which he burned, having compassion like a father on the calamity of his sheep, relying on the prodigious help of the divine Magnus, with pious confidence took up the particle — quite a small one — which he had at length obtained by many prayers from the sacred staff of this Saint, renowned everywhere on earth by its daily and notable prodigies, to be laid up in his own newly built parish church dedicated to the honors of the divine Magnus, and blessed with it the turnip-fields infected with that pest, with so happy and portentous an effect that all that mass of worms on the very next day began gradually to grow feeble and to die, and thereafter, no further damage being brought upon the fields, wholly disappeared; which the aforesaid most zealous parish priest of that village, Bernard Pierling, an eyewitness, confirmed with his own hand and seal, likewise in the year just before, namely from the Virgin's Childbearing MDCCXX.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Tahaim is a village in the county of Tyrol.

q. Evergetes, benefactor, is a Greek word from εὐεργετέω, I do good.

CHAPTER VII.

The occasion of building a chapel to the Saint near Regensburg: benefits obtained both here and elsewhere.

[ ] In memory of SS. Michael and Magnus The miracles which we have hitherto written were wrought by the patronage of S. Magnus at Füssen, his chief seat, when he was invoked by clients both neighboring and far off. Now it is our purpose to add certain very remarkable ones by which the divine Man became renowned elsewhere in the XII and XIII Christian century. Which that I may set forth more clearly and in order, the origins of the whole matter must be sought further back. When about the year MCXXXIV from the birth of Christ the suburb of Regensburg lying between the Danube and the Regen was being restored, on a certain day, when it was already hastening to its setting, two guests of unknown countenance asked to be carried across the Danube by the ferryman who was wont to be at hand with his skiff for those crossing there (since indeed the bridge was not yet built ^a). One of them presented a youth of most elegant form; the other an old man venerable in age and hoariness. The boatman, although he was moved by the unusual appearance and habit of the strangers, first refused the service, and pleaded, not without vexation, both his weariness from frequent crossings that day, and the unfairness of many who had cheated him of the accustomed fare: then he inquired, since it was now very late in the day, whither they had determined to go; and at last, having looked at each more carefully, he asked what was their family, whence their home.

[137] carried across the Danube near Regensburg Then the youth in disguise answers that he is, of the heavenly spirits, Michael the archangel, and the old man Magnus the abbot, who once founded and governed a community at Füssen. Which being understood, the man, greatly terrified, as a suppliant begs pardon for his rude refusal, and that they would pray a blessing for him. They are straightway entreated, and assent to his requests: then the ferryman ^b, delaying no longer, receives them into his boat, swiftly carries them across, and sets them down on the opposite bank. Then he received a payment for his labor more liberal than he had dared to hope. For the Heaven-dwellers sent him to a certain neighbor, Bernold or Berchtold, to ask in the name of them both that, because he had carried them across the Danube, he should furnish a measure of corn and a fattened pig in place of the fare; and that he would receive in heaven with interest what he was now about to give for their sake: with which commands of the Divine ones Berchtold ^c readily complied.

[138] a chapel is erected in honor of S. Magnus. Thence it came about that in that place, between the Danube and the Regen, a chapel was raised as a monument of so great a matter, and the same was dedicated to S. Magnus ^d. And that this was pleasing to the Divine one, the miracles which we shall mention a little later declared more than sufficiently. Further, to the chapel was joined the church of S. Andrew with a community of the Fellows of S. Augustine, which for so many centuries now is called S. Magnus': since indeed the fame and celebrity of that name blocks out the lights of all other appellations. These things, as they have been narrated, together with the miracles, Fr. Franz Grienwald, of the Carthusian Family in the community of S. Vitus outside the walls of Regensburg, copied from the records of the said college, and in the year MDCXXIV from the Christian birth communicated to Martin, abbot of Füssen. For the rest, in the year MDCXXXIII not only that old little building of S. Magnus, but also the greater church of S. Andrew with the community and the suburb was overthrown by the Swedes who then held Regensburg: nor was it absurdly believed that they paid the penalties of this sacrilegious fury also in the very next year, when on the VI of September, which is itself the day sacred to S. Magnus, they were defeated and cut down near Nördlingen in a huge battle, twelve thousand being lost in the line, six thousand captured, and the whole army scattered ^e. But now the miracles follow.

[139] In the diocese of Eichstätt ^f, where it touches Bavaria, A nobleman recovers the use of his limbs lost by a stroke: there was Engelhard Aldenburg, a man famous for nobility and wealth among not a few. He, being struck with hemiplegia, was dragging out an exceedingly wretched life. For since the use of his limbs failed him in half his body, he could neither stir himself, nor change his posture or place, without the support of others. Which calamity by its long duration was exceedingly troublesome to his household too, and that so far that the servants, assiduously harassed by daily services and nightly vigils, almost meditated flight. Various physicians indeed were summoned to bring help: but the force of the evil was stronger than all their art. For this reason Engelhard, at length wearied of the counsels of mortals, now so often vain, began to look about for heavenly helps for his health: where it seemed most to the present purpose to commend the care of a body so ill affected to S. Magnus. Wherefore, following this judgment of his mind, amid fervid prayers he binds himself by a vow of increasing and adorning the Divine one's chapel with a yearly tribute of LX denarii as long as he should live, if by his patronage the health which he had despaired of should return to him; then he orders himself to be laid in a boat and carried to the chapel. Into which when he had been brought, he at length repeated the prayers and the vow pronounced at home; yet then indeed he began to be no stronger. Further, when he was being carried back by boat whence he had come, full of hope of recovering his body's former vigor, his eyes and mind being turned to the little church he had left, he implored again the help of S. Magnus, and heaped his former vow with another, promising that he would give the purple garment which he was then wearing for the adorning of his altar, if he would not scorn his suppliant. After these things, being brought back home, he shortly felt how welcome to the Divine one that repeated invocation of him, and armed with a promise, had been: for his limbs being gradually made firm, after the space of fifteen days had passed he had his body again strong and vigorous. Whence also he himself presently set out on his own feet, with a distinguished escort of friends and household, to the heavenly Chief-physician ^g, paid the promised fee for healing [h], and, pressing his head to his altar, rendered the amplest thanks. The said tens of denarii too he transmitted every year faithfully. These things were done about the Christian year MCLXXXVIII.

[140] A certain noble matron had borne a little daughter,

who, being now nine years old, a noble matron for her daughter, dumb from birth, could not yet speak a word, being most utterly dumb. The mother, having long and much pitied the poor child in vain, at length brings her with her into the little church of S. Magnus, and, bathed in tears, begs for her the faculty of speech: and since she thought that her own prayers alone would not suffice for obtaining the benefit, she also on her knees as a suppliant beseeches Berchtold, who then presided with religious authority over the Augustinian college ⁱ, that he too with his ascetics would not think it burdensome to ask for it. Then she passes the night sleepless amid prayers and vows: yet she obtains for the girl nothing of human speech. Wherefore, having heard the sound of the bronze bell by which the monks were called to the nightly praises of God, she runs sorrowful to Berchtold at the doors of the church, and laments that she has already wearied heaven with prayers in vain: that it is needful that he should again interpose his own prayers and those of his men. But the prelate, consoling her, teaches that it is not right to appoint for God either the manners or the times of doing good; but that the whole matter must be left to his almighty judgment; nor meanwhile must there be any ceasing from supplication.

[141] obtains speech by many prayers. According to these admonitions the woman, having returned to prayer, amid tears and sobs, with hands stretched to heaven, again most earnestly implores God's clemency and S. Magnus' patronage, and that with a most glad outcome: for the little maiden a little after began to look about, to call her mother, and to burst out in these words: Mother, mother, where is my father? She, hearing these things, was as it were carried out of herself with amazement, then poured out abundantly tears now not of sorrow but of incredible joy, and at last found no measure of proclaiming the divine benefit, and no end of giving thanks. Indeed the bishop himself, Conrad ^k, the second of that name (as one who knew the matron familiarly on account of her notable liberality toward the needy), having learned the miracle of so great a matter, congratulating her on the speech obtained for her little daughter, mingled with her the praises of God and of S. Magnus, in the year MCLXXXIX.

[142] Agnes, duchess of Bavaria, hurt by lightning, is suddenly healed: A swifter remedy Agnes obtained, daughter of Henry, count Palatine of the Rhine ^l, married to Otto duke of the Bavarians ^m. Her the lightning by which she had been blasted had grievously hurt in one side: physicians indeed were diligently applied: but all art failed them. Human help being therefore despaired of, the princely woman, full of confidence, turned to the divine, and amid frequent groans earnestly invokes S. Magnus. Nor did her hope deceive her. For straightway both all pain and the unsightly mark of her scorched side vanished. Wherefore, being bound by so great a benefit, she came on foot from the castle of Regenstauf ⁿ, with an escort worthy of her, to the little church of S. Magnus, and, thanks being rendered to her heavenly Savior, publicly affirmed the credit of the miracle by her own testimony. That a like help had befallen her from the same Wonder-worker another matron also recorded, likewise struck by lightning, who was then present in the company of the duchess Agnes, in the year MCCXXVI.

[143] a man struck with apoplexy, a vow being uttered, presently recovers. Another lightning, namely apoplexy, had blasted Conrad, parish priest of Kelheim ^o. When the physicians, summoned both from the bishop's court and from that of the duke of Bavaria, had already given the man up, certain of his friends become for him the authors of imploring the divine help and the patronage of S. Magnus with a vow uttered; he obeys, and vows that, if he should recover, then as long as he lived he would bring thirty denarii yearly as a gift to the Divine one. That the vow was ratified and accepted the health straightway restored showed. And hence the same parish priest, strong and safe, came into the chapel of his Preserver to give thanks and to present the promised denarii, in the year MCCXXXI.

[144] A certain dean freed from a grievous evil of the stomach In the same year pains so violent and dangerous had settled upon the stomach of Henry, dean of Tettenwang [p], that, being impatient of all food, he was already given up by the physicians. Among other friends, Berchtold too, superior of the community of S. Magnus, visited the sick man, relating many things about the Heaven-dweller's beneficence toward mortals, proved by very many miracles, and exhorting him that he too should commend his health to him. The dean obeys both his utmost necessity and the prelate's admonition, a vow being pronounced, and on that same day is better. Then, having plainly obtained his former health, he rendered mindful thanks to God and to S. Magnus in his chapel, and afterward, as long as he lived, brought a gift of ten denarii.

[145] A certain boy, Gottschalk by name, had fallen into the water, a drowned boy believed to have been recalled to life: and had lain beneath the waves for no small time. At length he was drawn out, but lifeless and void of life. His father, seeing this, with a vow uttered earnestly calls upon S. Magnus, and assuredly not in vain: for the boy on the spot began to vomit up the water which he had swallowed, to make a motion, to be manifestly alive and unharmed: which the same father testified in person, when he made the boy, brought with him, a tributary to the Divine one for all his life, and gave thanks, a Sacrifice being procured for it [q].

[146] The same things another father performed for his son, brought with him into the little church of S. Magnus, another's falling sickness taken away: whom he asserted to have been long and much harassed by the falling sickness; but by this Wonder-worker's help to have put off that madness utterly. This, and the benefit immediately preceding, was noted down on the XXIX of September, in the year MCCXXI.

[147] A certain Marquard of Neumarkt [r], a city not far distant from Nuremberg [s], a defect of the feet suddenly amended: was a man of a beggar's fortune, and besides much hindered in the faculty of walking by defects of the feet. Whence some one of the shopkeepers, pitying him, had appointed him guardian of his shop. That Marquard, when he had heard many notable things about S. Magnus from the report of those who came as pilgrims for religion's sake to his chapel at Regensburg, conceived a huge desire of going thither too, trusting sufficiently that a Heaven-dweller so beneficent would be present with him also by his patronage with God. And so he departs secretly from all the household, follows the other travelers as he can with his sick steps: he comes whither he had intended [t], and (behold a wonderful thing!) at his very first entrance into the sacred little church he has his feet sound, vigorous, and ready for the office of going. But the man, of simple mind, because he did not apprehend the greatness of the benefit as had been fitting, then indeed kept the whole matter silent. When he returned home, all marveled, and asked whence he had summoned health for his feet. To whom, when he had related the help of his heavenly Physician, he is admonished to run back to him, and, thanks being rendered, to devote himself to the Divine one's service, which also he performed in the year MCCXXXII.

[148] A country girl, born at Sinzing [u], Tuta by name, a blind girl enlightened: after she had long, being deprived of her eyes, wandered wretchedly in darkness, was brought to S. Magnus, of whose miracles she had heard, and that with a most glad outcome: for she presently received back the lost faculty of seeing, in the year which I have just named.

[149] No less in driving off devils than other calamities of mortals did the power of S. Magnus shine forth at Regensburg. a possessed man freed: the faculty of walking obtained: For first, a certain Reinher of the village of Eckelbach [w] had two sons, of whom one was held possessed by a black spirit, the other, being deprived of his feet, could not walk. But our Wonder-worker, to whom the father commended both with a vow pronounced, rendered the one free from the Stygian besieging, the other from the captivity of his feet: both of which Reinher asserted, when in the chapel of his Deliverer he paid mindful thanks along with his vow.

[150] Besides, a certain woman, Bertha by name, a hellish guest had settled upon, whom yet, when she was brought into the little church of S. Magnus, demons cast out of two women: he was compelled to leave safe and unharmed. There was a maiden at Regensburg, whom they called Lioba, already promised in marriage: her too an evil demon, having seized her, had direly vexed. She in the year MCCXXXIII, on the day which is held sacred to the divine Gall [x], came into the chapel of S. Magnus to seek freedom, very many accompanying her who pitied the girl's case, nay and interposing tears for the poor woman, and fervid prayers, with the most kindly Patron. Nor indeed was this piety of theirs in vain: for after midnight, when the Augustinian monks were singing the divine praises, the most hostile besieger departed amid huge wailings. But Lioba, having obtained her freedom, leaving her mortal bridegroom, was more holily married in a sacred convent.

[151] a boy suffering from stone, But we turn again to other wonders. A certain boy of Eckelbach, which we named above, the stone was most acutely tormenting. When his mother by an uttered vow had made him over to S. Magnus to be cured, she presently marveled to see him thoroughly healed, two torturing stones being cast out. Then she presented him unharmed with a gift along with her vow to the heavenly Physician, and publicly proclaimed the help brought by him to her son.

[152] an injured eye healed: speech given to one born dumb: In the same village a little stone is recorded to have hurt the eye of a certain little boy, into which it had leaped. For him his mother likewise prayed S. Magnus that he would be his physician, and obtained her prayer. For she afterward brought him into his chapel whole and sound in each eye.

The son of a certain farmer dwelling not far from Wartenberg [y] was from the beginning of his life speechless: but as soon as he was brought into the little church of S. Magnus, he received a ready faculty of speaking.

[153] a dead boy recalled to life: Certain parents had found their little son suddenly dead (by what mishap was not published) in their house: which unforeseen disaster when they were bitterly lamenting, a certain pilgrim passing that way, having heard their pitiable weeping, asked what the matter was: being informed of the cause of their grief, he urged the most sorrowful spouses that they should commend their dead child to S. Magnus with a vow uttered, adding that, if they should do this, they would receive him back alive. They readily obey the pious counsel. And behold! into the little boy there returns first his native warmth, then life and health. These things both parents recorded among the Augustinian monks of S. Magnus, whither they came for the sake of discharging their vow with their revived little son, and they promised besides that, on each day, as long as they lived, they would furnish three brass coins for feeding the sacred lamp, for gratitude's sake.

[154] a dropsy, and two epileptics healed: A certain Radiger, who was serving in country work at Lerchenfeld, a white dropsy had set beyond hope of recovering health by the help of mortals: which when the man rightly perceived, he came into the little church of S. Magnus, asked a remedy, and plainly obtained it, in the year MCCXXXII.

Another man, Leo by name, born at Ehbett, a foul epilepsy had seized: for driving away which evil no other help was needed than to have implored S. Magnus in his chapel at Regensburg. The same madness was harassing a certain boy, Henry by name, whom likewise the same heavenly Chief-physician, being commended by his mother with a vow uttered and a gift promised, endowed with health. Nay, he added benefit to benefit: for when afterward that Henry, being burned in the arm, did not seem able to be cured by our arts, being again commended by his mother with a vow pronounced, he bade him again grow well, in the year MCCXXXII.

[155] The little son of a certain Meinhard, Gebhard by name, a boy twice raised from death: when he was lying by night in the same bed as his mother Mathilda, had exchanged sleep for death, being most utterly extinct. But when the parents by common counsel pronounced a vow to S. Magnus, and promised to bring a gift if the boy should revive, he plainly revived. Nor did the Wonder-worker's beneficence toward this Gebhard stop here: for afterward, when he was drowned in the water, he restored him again to life, being invoked by

his mother uttering a new vow for him.

[156] The wife of a certain Henry of Geisbach a leprosy so foul was infesting a leprous woman cleansed. that it stirred horror and nausea in the beholder. In this calamity of his house he fled to the healing hand of S. Magnus, a vow being uttered, and that on the counsel of others. Nor did the Divine one scorn his suppliant, but wiped away all the woman's leprosy.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. This place does not occur to me on the Maps.

q. In the Life published in German the time at which these things happened is added: namely that the father came with the aforesaid son Gottschalk to give thanks to the Saint in his chapel on the feast of S. Michael in the year 1221: on this same day and year this miracle is said, at the number immediately following, to have been noted down from the father's account.

r. In the said Life it is called Neumarck, which thou mayest render in Latin Novum forum or Neoforum. Now Neumarkt is a city in the Palatinate of Bavaria on the river Sulz, five German miles distant from Nuremberg, of which presently.

s. By the natives Nurenberg. That city is imperial and free in the province of Franconia, in the tract of the Nordgau, on the river Pegnitz, which not far from it receives another river, the Rednitz.

t. Namely to the chapel of S. Magnus at Regensburg, which was at least seven German miles distant from Neumarkt, as far as appears from the geographical maps: which journey must indeed have proved exceedingly difficult for a man laboring under a defect of the feet.

u. In the German Life Sinzing is called a village, and the girl is called Magdalena Tuta: hence, when she is called above pagana, the word pagana signifies one born in a village, not a heathen or one given to idolatry.

w. In the German Life Eckelbach is called a village.

x. Probably S. Gall the abbot is designated, whose feast is venerated on the 16th of October.

y. I should suppose that Wartenberg in lower Bavaria is here designated, about two miles from Landshut.