Madelberta

ON ST. MADELBERTA, VIRGIN,

AND ABBESS AT MAUBEUGE IN HAINAULT

About the year DCCV.

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.

Madelberta, virgin and abbess at Maubeuge in Hainault (S.)

BY J. P.

§ I. The Saint's parents, birth, and age.

[ ] A pair of spouses most illustrious in nobility and splendor of family, and most noble in the glory of their virtues and the sanctity of their life, The whole family of Madelberta is venerated as holy. Vincent otherwise Madelgarius, and Waldetrudis the sister of St. Aldegundis, and also all the offspring of that most pious marriage, beloved of the heavenly ones — Landric, Madelberta, Aldetrudis, Dentelinus — divers regions venerate and honor, and before all others our Belgium, the most fruitful nurse of them and of other Saints of both sexes. Our Predecessors also have illustrated the Acts of nearly all of them on divers days. For they gave Aldegundis, virgin and abbess, on the XXX day of January; Vincent or Madelgarius on the XIV of July; Waldetrudis on the IX of April; Landric, bishop and abbot, on the XVII of the same month; Aldetrudis, likewise virgin and abbess, on the XXV of February; and Dentelinus, the youngest, on the same day as his father Vincent. There presents herself at last today also St. Madelberta, whom alone our Work lacked, that it might embrace the whole most holy family.

[2] The frequent incursions of the Normans into Belgium, and especially into Hainault, She was born the province of St. Madelberta's birth, have rendered the chronology of the seventh century, in which she and the other Saints just mentioned flourished, very intricate, and have wrapped it in such dense darkness that authors, for lack of monuments, either dare determine nothing certain about it, or, when they attempt it, torture themselves wondrously this way and that. This has been the reason why I have judged it superfluous to inquire more laboriously into the year in which our Saint first beheld the light, content to have brought forward in a few words those things which are easily drawn from her manuscript Acts and proper Offices, of which the discourse will recur below, and which do not appear wholly opposed to those things which are either reported in the Acts of SS. Aldegundis, Vincent, and Waldetrudis, or noted by our Predecessors and other writers in discussing them.

[3] And so, if what is reported in the just praised Acts and proper Offices of our Saint can safely be admitted, in the reign of Dagobert I, she must have been born before the 44th year of the seventh century; nay, in the more common opinion of the learned today about the year of the death of Dagobert the first, king of the Franks, before the 38th year of that century. For the author of the manuscript Life, with whom the older Breviaries agree, begins his narration in this manner: Therefore in the time of Dagobert, the renowned king of the Franks, there was the blessed virgin of Christ Magdelberta, etc. And the Propers of the noble collegiate churches of Mons and of Maubeuge in the 1st lesson of the second Nocturn have it thus: In the time of Dagobert, the first of that name, king of the Franks, there was the blessed virgin of Christ Madelberta by name, etc. And it is established, according to all the learned, that the death of Dagobert the first cannot be prolonged beyond the year 644, and more probably, according to many, not beyond 638, and consequently neither the birth of our Saint: although it cannot be much anticipated either, on account of the not slight difficulties which our Sollerius in the previous Commentary to the Acts of St. Vincent, number 8 and following, shows in rightly combining the age of the said Saint with the age of St. Waldetrudis his wife and of her sister Aldegundis, and which he at last leaves to the writers of Hainault to resolve: as the curious reader may see in the numbers cited at the XIV day of July.

[4] and while quite young It is no easier to determine how long our Saint lived under the care of her parents, before she was handed over with her sister Aldetrudis to her aunt Aldegundis to be educated and imbued with Christian morals and religious virtues. If credit is to be given to her Acts and to those of her sister Aldetrudis, it may be gathered that they were quite young when they were withdrawn from their mother's discipline: for in the former Madelberta is called a little girl imitating her aunt; in the latter the following are read of Aldetrudis: who, when still in a childish age placed in the monastery, was being reared by her blessed kinswoman. These things are more clearly set forth in the Acts of SS. Aldegundis and Vincent: the author of the Life of the latter, in Sollerius at number 14, writes thus: And the illustrious servant of the Lord (Vincent), being so beloved and acceptable to God in the first-fruits of his womb (St. Landric his first-born), decreed that the twin offspring which he had received from his most pious wife should still be cherished in the bosom of holy mother Church. For they were twin sisters, little maidens, and they too were to be for the dowry of the Lamb of God the Father, of whom the one was named Magdelberta, the other Aldetrudis. To these Aldegundis, the most blessed virgin, becomes a second mother in Christ, who had also been their aunt by blood on the mother's side; for their education their holy parents approach her sanctity and offer prayers; to which the pious virgin kindly ascends. Thus he. It is useful also to transfer hither what is delivered to the present purpose by the biographers of St. Aldegundis.

[5] she was educated in a monastery by St. Aldegundis: Three Lives of that Saint, written by divers authors, Bolland published at the XXX of January. The first is by an anonymous author from an old manuscript. The second is ascribed to Hucbald, a monk of Elnone in the ninth century; the third he had from an ancient codex of St. Ghislain in Hainault. In the first, at number 22, mention is made of St. Aldetrudis alone, but that this must be understood at the same time of St. Madelberta is plain from what has been said in the preceding number and from what is presently to be said: Following the footsteps of Christ (says the author) the blessed and venerable virgin Aldegundis, among the others whom, snatching them from the devil, she had gained for Christ, had also brought up regularly in a monastery from the very cradle the daughter of her sister Waldetrudis, by name Aldetrudis. But Hucbald, or whoever was the author of the other Life, at number 16 joins both sisters in these words: And St. Aldegundis instructed with great diligence and regularly her two nieces, the daughters of her sister, and diligently taught them from the very rudiments of infancy to choose the Lord Christ as their spouse. Of these one was called Madelberta, the other Aldetrudis.

[6] These things indeed seem clear at first sight and most easy to understand; but she did not much surpass St. Madelberta in age; but if you consider more attentively the circumstances added by the same and by other writers, to reconcile them with the age of St. Aldegundis, this is the work, this the labor. For the biographers of the holy Virgin just named say that she was born in the reign of Dagobert king of the Franks, and most writers bind her birth to the year 630, which Hucbald, praised above, determines in express words. About the year of the Lord's Incarnation, he says, six hundred and thirty having run out … Dagobert son of Chlothar reigning in France … there was born in the district of Hainault the Virgin Aldegundis of royal lineage, her father Walbert, her mother Bertilia. And consequently in the more common opinion, which binds the death of the said king to the year 638, Aldegundis could not surpass her nieces Madelberta and Aldetrudis in age by more than six or seven years at most; since these too are said to have been born while the same Dagobert was ruling.

[7] Nay, whatever you may think about the death of Dagobert, whether he departed this life in the year 638 or prolonged his life to 644, it matters little to our purpose. From elsewhere it is sufficiently gathered that SS. Madelberta and Aldetrudis were not much inferior in age to their aunt Aldegundis. For before Vincent and Waldetrudis by common consent bade farewell to the marriage-bed and to the world, after receiving Madelberta and Aldetrudis they certainly begot still one more offspring, Dentelinus the younger; but when they had embraced a more perfect life, Aldegundis was still living with her parents, as Hucbald and the author of the third Life not obscurely hint; take the words of the latter: After therefore Bl. Waldetrudis had committed herself to the contemplative life, she sends word by letters to her mother Bertilia, beseeching that her sister Aldegundis be sent to her … for it was also the wish of that same Bl. Waldetrudis that her sister the Virgin of Christ Aldegundis should receive the sacred veil. Things agreeing with these are narrated in the Life of St. Ghislain in Mabillon, tome 2 of the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict. The author speaks thus: For the rest, the Saint (Ghislain) admonished the Saint (Waldetrudis) about her sister Aldegundis, a little maiden, that she should gain her too for God as she had gained herself, and should not neglect her daughters either, but should consecrate them to God, Aldetrudis and Madelberta. And indeed, the Godhead inspiring it, and St. Waldetrudis suggesting it, and the kindly-flowing Father Ghislain shining, the kindly Aldegundis betook herself to the service of God.

[8] Philip d'Aumône, abbot of Bonne-Espérance, who on Mabillon's testimony flourished in the twelfth century, in another Life of the said St. Ghislain, in manuscript among us, sets forth this same thing thus: when at twelve years old she left the world. Nor did it suffice the holy man (Ghislain) that he had caused Waldetrudis to be converted, unless she should call to this same thing her sister Aldegundis: nay, and the two daughters whom the same Waldetrudis had borne. One of whom was Maldelberta, and the other was called Aldetrudis. From which the following are evidently drawn. When Waldetrudis, despising

the vanities of this world, gave herself over to God's service, Madelberta and Aldetrudis had reached the fourth year of their age, or at least the third; Aldegundis, a little maiden, was still living with her mother Bertilia, and remained there for some time before, roused by her sister's example and admonitions, she deserted her father's house; and this she did, as will appear below, when scarcely twelve years old, and so was not much more advanced in age than either of her nieces Madelberta and Aldetrudis. How then, as I reported from the Acts of St. Vincent at number 4, did for their education her (Aldegundis's) holy parents approach her sanctity? How, as at number 5 from the Acts of SS. Aldegundis and Aldetrudis, did that same Aldegundis diligently teach our Saint and her sister from the very rudiments of infancy; and bring them up regularly in a monastery from the very cradle? Indeed I shall candidly confess that the series of events and times here appears to me so disturbed, and the diversity of writers so great, that I find no way by which the things said hitherto can be combined even by probable reasons; unless most of them, and especially these — from the very cradle, from the rudiments of infancy St. Aldegundis brought up SS. Madelberta and Aldetrudis regularly in a monastery — may be interpreted in a wider sense: and if this be allowed, I judge that some light can be brought to obscure matters, and the knot somehow thus unravelled.

[9] This difficulty Let St. Aldegundis have been born in the year 630; SS. Madelberta and Aldetrudis, either at the same birth — for this the words reported from the Acts of St. Vincent at number 4 seem to hint — about the year 637, or at different births, the one in the year 636, the other in 637. Let St. Waldetrudis have bidden farewell to the world about the year 641, leaving with her mother Bertilia her sister Aldegundis, her little son Dentelinus, who is said to have died at seven years old, and both her daughters Madelberta and Aldetrudis. Not long after, let Waldetrudis have asked Bertilia by letters that her sister Aldegundis, now eleven years old, should be sent to her, who, Bertilia consenting, as the biographers in Bolland narrate, remained with Waldetrudis for a short time. Not much time had elapsed, says Hucbald in the same place at number 9, and behold their mother (Bertilia), seized with a womanly anxiety lest her sister (Waldetrudis) should alienate the mind of her virgin daughter (Aldegundis) from the world, and persuade her to take the sacred veil, sends to the monastery, calls back to herself her virgin daughter. Waldetrudis, unwilling indeed, sends her sister back, that she may not offend her mother, but by earnest entreaty exhorts her to make herself wholly a stranger to the world, and to prepare herself for an immortal spouse.

[10] is resolved by a reasoning These things being thus disposed, it is not difficult to understand how Aldegundis, having returned to Bertilia, and seeing herself pressed by so many prayers of her parents, and, as Hucbald relates, even by threats, so that she could not escape marriage except by flight, at last secretly slipped away from her father's house about the year 643, when she had reached the twelfth year of her age, as Vinchant asserts in the Annals of Hainault, chapter 9. Which is not alien from the truth; since the author of her third Life in Bolland at number 5 writes thus: Therefore when her parents judged that the nubile time was now at hand for the Virgin, the mother calls her daughter, and with most sweet words exhorts her that her child hide not from her what she bears in her heart. She coaxes her daughter to assent to her mother, that she may be joined to a husband. Then, some things being interposed, he relates the flight of Aldegundis and her coming to the wooded place where Maubeuge now is. And the rest, which both Hucbald and the other biographers record as done by St. Aldegundis after her flight, until, some noble virgins having been gathered, she reduced into the form of a monastery or college the dwelling which she had fixed at Maubeuge, can not incongruously be said to have been accomplished in the space of three years. And so, if we suppose — as in my judgment must be supposed, lest otherwise credit must be denied to the writers praised at numbers 4 and 5 — if we suppose, I say, that toward the end of the year of Christ 646 or at the beginning of 647 SS. Vincent and Waldetrudis, having learned of Aldegundis's pious and holy manner of Life, either wrote to her or came to her themselves (for, although they had renounced the world, they must not necessarily be said to have broken off absolutely all intercourse even spiritual between themselves), and asked that she would take upon herself the care of their daughters Madelberta and Aldetrudis, who at that time, conformably to what was said at numbers 6 and 9, were virgins of about nine or ten years — then in a sense not alien from the common usage of speech, according to the often-praised biographers, both sisters were brought up under their aunt from the cradle, from the very rudiments of infancy, regularly in a monastery.

[11] Nearly the same way Father James Simon of the Society of Jesus held in the Annotations to the Life of St. Waldetrudis written by him in the French tongue, that is somewhat probable. where from page 8 he disputes about the age of the said Saint and of her sister Aldegundis. Nor does our Sollerius confess that the praised author's opinion displeases him, in the previous Commentary to the Acts of St. Vincent at number 13, however much he at the same time implies that not every difficulty is dissolved in it, and thinks that St. Waldetrudis's withdrawal from the world must be deferred longer, on the ground that she too is said to have been born in the reign of Dagobert the first, king of the Franks. But indeed writers recount so many and so great things under that king, who reigned altogether only sixteen years, that unless we believe that some things which happened either under his predecessor or under his successor have been faultily attributed to him — as the praised Simon judges with sufficient probability was done by the writer of St. Waldetrudis's Life, and Sollerius does not deny in the same place at number 9 — not a few things can be called into doubt. But these matters neither escape the learned, nor is this the place to discuss them at greater length; it suffices me to have combined, by a reasoning not unlike the truth, those things which at first sight seemed unable to stand together concerning the age of SS. Madelberta and Aldegundis as reported by the authors.

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§ II. The Saint's death, Acts, and memory in the Calendars.

[ ] Some bind the Saint's death to the year 684 or 685, It is sufficiently agreed among writers how long St. Madelberta, after St. Aldegundis, the first abbess of the college of Maubeuge, and St. Aldetrudis, who was substituted for her, had flown to the heavenly ones, presided as third prelate over that most noble house of virgins. But they do not equally agree about the year in which she laid down that office with her life. Arthur in the Gynæceum, Bartholomew Fisen in the Flowers of Liège, Vinchant praised at number 10, Giles Bucher in the Chronicle of the bishops of Utrecht, which you have in John Chapeauville at the end of tome 1 On the deeds of the bishops of Liège, and others assert that she died in the year of Christ 684 or 685, having presided after her sister Aldetrudis for nine years. But Charles Le Cointe in tome 4 of the Annals of the Church of France, and with others Father Michael Delewarde in tome 1 of the General History of Hainault, keeping the same space of time as regards the Saint's rule, judge more rightly that her life must be prolonged about twenty years and her death bound to the year 705. The authors named in the first place made the death of our Saint so many years premature because they supposed that the death of St. Amandus, from which as an epoch the year of St. Madelberta's death must be deduced, fell at the beginning of the year 662. But from that opinion most modern writers depart, not to say all.

[13] but from the epoch of the death of SS. Amandus and Aldegundis And so, since in our Work, especially in tome 1 of February in the previous Commentary to the Acts of St. Amandus, it has been sufficiently proved that the life of the said Prelate must be prolonged longer, and since, after various learned lucubrations and dissertations of the learned about the year of his death, it must more probably be set after the birth of Christ 679, it follows that the passing of our holy Abbess also happened later, and with the authors praised in the second place may be bound to the year 705. Which I show in a few words. When St. Amandus died, St. Aldegundis survived for some time. This we clearly draw from the often-mentioned Lives of this Saint in Bolland, and from the Acts of St. Ghislain in Mabillon, in which the death of St. Amandus is said to have been revealed to that holy Abbess while she was at prayer, and she is said to have indicated this revelation to SS. Ghislain and Waldetrudis. To these the biographer of St. Ghislain subjoins: To whom (Aldegundis) the venerable Ghislain says: … Know that the end of thy present life is at hand: therefore I ask thee to establish thyself steadfastly in the work of God, beseeching his goodness that he send upon thee some infirmity, whereby, being rendered more purified, thou mayest be able to be rewarded perpetually with St. Amandus. Which indeed the holy Virgin … asked infirmities of God, and deserved to obtain them. For in her right breast a cancerous disease arose. Which infirmity she greatly loved, because she knew that it would greatly profit her if she bore it patiently, which she did to the end. St. Aldegundis therefore survived St. Amandus at least for some time, nay more probably for about five years. For, as from the Life which Bolland published in the first place at the XXX of January Le Cointe rightly enough conjectures in the above-mentioned Work at the year 684, number 1, and with him Mabillon from the Life of the said St. Aldegundis which he himself published, in the Annotations to number 29, letters a and b, St. Aldegundis passed to the Lord on the III Kalends of February falling on a Saturday; and since, after the year 679, that day of January first fell on a Saturday in the year 684, they affirm with more probability that this was the year of St. Aldegundis's death.

[14] it is shown that it must be prolonged to about the year 705. These things being thus discussed, the rest are certain enough, for, as I implied at the beginning of this §, no one, so far as I know, has hitherto called into doubt that St. Aldetrudis was substituted as abbess for her aunt, and governed the virgins of Maubeuge for twelve years, and after her St. Madelberta for nine years. The first the 6th Lesson of the Office of St. Aldetrudis in the Proper of Maubeuge on the XXV of February also openly teaches, in the following words: She succeeded blessed Aldegundis her aunt in the rule of the monastery of Maubeuge, and ruled it after her most holily for twelve years. And the second the 5th Lesson of the Office of St. Madelberta in the same place at the VII of September. Take its words likewise: When she (Aldetrudis) was dead, the venerable virgin of Christ Madelberta succeeded third to the ruling of that same monastery, and flourishing with wondrous virtue governed it nine years. Whence from the death of St. Aldegundis to the death of St. Madelberta the intervening 12 years in which St. Aldetrudis governed, and the 9 of our Saint's rule, added to the year 684, run out to the year 705, which we have fixed as the year of her death. And hence it follows at the same time that she died heavy with age; for if, as from probable reasons at numbers 3 and 9 I have supposed, I bind her birth to the year 636 or 637, she reached the 68th or 69th year of her age.

[15] The Saint's Acts, of which mention has been made above, The Acts by an anonymous author to be given from three manuscripts. and which I shall subjoin to this Commentary, are drawn from a manuscript Codex of the monastery of Rouge-

Cloître near Brussels, the first part of the Hagiologium of the Brabanters, and collated with another manuscript Life which exists in the monastery called Bethlehem near Louvain, and with a third likewise in manuscript, which, although it bears no certain marks whence it was received, I judge was copied from the Utrecht manuscript Codex of St. Saviour; for our Predecessors Bolland and Papebroch testified in a memorandum left to their successors that such a one was among us. And to this third one there is prefixed a Prologue with this title: Here begins the prologue to the Life of St. Madalberta the virgin. But since in it I find not even the name of our Saint expressed, and it contains almost nothing but certain sentences of the Sacred Letters, so arranged by way of exhortation that it could easily be adapted to the Life of any holy virgin, I have not judged it worth while to commit it to the press. For the rest, the Utrecht one differs from the other manuscripts; for in it the words are frequently expressed in another order, or some are substituted for others; but since it nearly everywhere retains the same manner and sense of the things which are narrated, I have not judged that it must be printed separately, nor even that all the discrepancies of words must be observed, lest through their frequency the Annotations should grow too much by useless labor; yet I shall warn the reader where anything worthy of observation shall occur. The author's name lies hidden, and the time in which he wrote; if, however, anyone should wish to expound in a wider and more favorable interpretation the words with which he concludes the Acts, he will be able to suspect that the said author was very nearly a contemporary of our Saint. For he asserts that the Saint's body, famous for miracles, was given to burial at Maubeuge, and about its translation to Liège a few years after, of which the discourse will recur below, he keeps deep silence; as if he too had departed from the living before the said translation. But it does not please me to cling to such conjectures resting on so slight a foundation: since the biographer may have been ignorant of the translation, or, not being ignorant of it, may have willingly passed it over. Nevertheless that his Acts are not very recent will be plain from the lessons of the proper Office, which have been excerpted from them and inserted into the ancient Breviaries presently to be praised.

[16] Ambiguous are the things which we have hitherto discussed, nor can they be decided by any certain reason; She is noted on this day in various additions to Usuard, more explored are those which now come to be said about the sacred Calendars, the elogia of St. Madelberta, and the cult rendered to her from time immemorial. Her memory I do not indeed find in the purer and original Martyrologies of Ado, Usuard, and other more ancient writers; nevertheless her name is inscribed in many Auctaria of the older editions of Usuard. At the VII day of September the codices of Greven announce her in these words: Of Madelberta the virgin. The Hagenau: Likewise of St. Madelberta the virgin. The register of the Utrecht Charterhouse: Of Madelbergis the virgin; with which agree the Lübeck-Cologne editions, and Molanus likewise in his additions. A little more at length the author of the Brussels Usuard records her in this manner: Likewise the deposition of St. Madelberta the virgin, who rests at Liège, the daughter namely of St. Waldetrudis and the niece of blessed Gudila. But this nearness of blood of our Saint to blessed Gudila I do not find sufficiently proved, so that I should dare to admit it as true. And indeed a like consanguinity, which Peter Divæus asserts in book 1 of the Brabantine Affairs, chapter 3, between St. Amalberga the mother of St. Gudila and St. Waldetrudis the mother of our Saint, Sollerius deservedly explodes in the previous Commentary to the Acts of the said St. Amalberga the widow, number 5, to whom we refer the curious reader.

[17] in the Brussels one she is wrongly called the niece of St. Gudila. Hear meanwhile how in the previous Commentary to the Acts of St. Vincent Madelgarius, number 17, that same Sollerius of ours takes up these words of the praised Brussels author at the XIV day of July: At Senogiæ (rather Sonegiæ) of St. Vincent the confessor and husband of blessed Waldetrudis of Castrilocus, niece of blessed Gudila. Hear, I say, how he takes up these things: This writer's nepotism, or niece-ism, with his St. Gudila we have rejected elsewhere also. That St. Gudila was the daughter of St. Amalberga, of whom there was treatment on X July, we well know; but whether, and in what degree of consanguinity, she was related to St. Waldetrudis, has not hitherto been explored by us; the connection of blood of SS. Walbert and Bertilia (the parents of St. Waldetrudis) with St. Amalberga must first be proved. Thus he, and we with him, as regards the pretended kinship between St. Gudila and St. Madelberta the daughter of Waldetrudis. The same Sollerius in the previous Commentary to the Acts of St. Amalberga the virgin on the X day of July shows this announcement of the same Brussels writer, The deposition of the holy virgin of Christ Amelberga, niece of blessed Gudila our patroness, to be inept and improbable, and says that he is of opinion that the praised author of the Brussels Usuard counted it glorious for himself if he could join his own holy patroness Gudila to Bl. Amalberga by nearness of blood; which perhaps might not incongruously be said here also about the asserted kinship of St. Madelberta and of her whole most holy family with St. Gudila; but these things would lead us too far away from the Martyrologists, whom I resume.

[18] She is marked also in more recent Martyrologies: Besides those hitherto mentioned, our Saint is recorded at the same VII day of September by the author of the Florarium in manuscript among us, by Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology, by Canisius in the German and Saussay in the Gallican, whose announcements it would be long to describe; take a short one, and in my judgment very accurate, from the Parisian Martyrology: At Maubeuge in the Diocese of Cambrai, of St. Madelberta the virgin, third Abbess of this house of virgins, whose body after some years was translated to Liège by the care of St. Hubert: and there is noted in the margin, about A.D. DCCV. To these are added the Benedictine martyrologists Wion, Menard, Dorgan, and others, as also Bucelin in the Menologium: he, however, was signally mistaken; for after many things which he records about our Saint's family, life, and virtues, he subjoined the following: Maldeberta flourished in the Year of Christ DCXII. For, as is evident from the preceding §, in the said year and in many following she had not yet beheld the light. Indeed at first I judged that this was an error of the pen or of the press; but when I noticed that the same year was also assigned in the margin, I began to doubt somewhat, and to consult what year he ascribed to St. Aldetrudis at the XXV of February. And behold, a new and no less base error occurs. For there he concludes a good long elogium of St. Aldetrudis thus: She flourished about A.C. DCCCXL, which he also repeats in the margin, and cites John Molanus, Aubert le Mire, and divers writers of Belgian affairs.

[19] But the praised writers, as also Bucelin himself, assert that St. Madelberta succeeded Aldetrudis when dead and survived nine years; less exactly in Bucelin's Menologium. but not one of them even dreamed that St. Aldetrudis flourished nearly two centuries after the times in which St. Madelberta flourished. Would that the praised author had preferred to use here also that prudence which he used when he wrote about the holy sisters Aldegundis and Waldetrudis, and had suppressed in silence the years in which SS. Madelberta and Aldetrudis flourished; he would have avoided such foul anachronisms himself, nor would he have given the incautious a handle for falling into the like. Further, of the announcement which Molanus has in the Additions to Usuard mention has been made above at number 16. But in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii he records it thus: At the monastery of Maubeuge, the birthday of St. Madelberta the virgin, who in the aforesaid monastery presided holily as third for nine years. For the first was her aunt St. Aldegundis, the foundress of the place. The second her sister blessed Aldetrudis. Whom she herself succeeded. And Le Mire in the Belgian and Burgundian Calendars: St. Madelberta, virgin and Abbess of Maubeuge, and after a few words interposed: To Aldetrudis was substituted St. Madelberta, and she presided nine years. Lastly, Constantine Ghini inserted the memory of our Saint into the Natales Sanctorum Canonicorum, Arthur into the Gynæceum, and other writers in great number into their Works, whose names I have by no means judged it useful to recount here, much less to transcribe their elogia, since these embrace nothing except those things which have already been said hence, or which may further be seen in the Acts. Let these things therefore adduced from the sacred Calendars suffice, that the ancient cult of our Saint may be established: I pass on to those things which touch it more nearly.

§ III. The Saint's ancient and present cult, proper offices, the translation and visitation of her relics.

[ ] The cult is proved from the proper Offices in the ancient Breviaries of Liège That the feast of St. Madelberta was celebrated from time immemorial every year on this day, not only at Maubeuge but also in the whole diocese of Liège, and in the noble collegiate church of St. Waldetrudis at Mons, becomes manifest from the ancient Breviaries which are preserved in our museum. There occurs in the first place a twofold Breviary of Liège, one published in the year 1514 from the presses of Paris, another like to this printed in the year 1520; and in them there stands an Office to be recited on her festivity. All is from the Common except the Prayer and nine Lessons so disposed as to embrace the whole Life which we shall give afterwards, those things only being omitted which pertain less to our Saint: and this indeed, as I implied above, in some fashion confirms the antiquity of the Life, since in both places the same things are reported in exactly the same words. And the Prayer prefixed to the Office is this: O God, author of innocence and lover of chastity, who hast on this day carried thy blessed virgin Madelberta across to the heavens, grant to us thy servants who celebrate her sacred solemnities to obtain by her pious intercession pardon of our sins. Through, etc.

[21] and Mons, In the second place comes a very ancient manuscript Breviary of the said noble collegiate church of St. Waldetrudis at Mons in Hainault, which likewise contains an Office of the Saint; but it has only three proper lessons, drawn likewise from the often-praised Life. To these there is prefixed the following prayer or collect: Coming before the solemnity of the most blessed virgin Madelberga, we beseech thy clemency, O Lord, that by her assiduous prayers thou wouldst absolve us from all crimes. And then, the lessons being recited, another is subjoined in this manner: Grant, we beseech thee, Lord, to our members a coming forth with exultation, that we may follow the constancy of the faith of blessed Madelberga, whose day of deposition we recall. Through. To these add the proper Missal of the distinguished church of Liège printed at Paris in the year 1509, in which is prescribed the Mass formerly wont to be said on the said festivity of our Saint. It is useful here to note in a few words the order which is kept in it.

[22] and from the proper Mass in the ancient Missal of Liège. Introit: Thou hast loved justice. Collect: O God, author of innocence, etc., as above at number 20. Second prayer of St. Evortius the confessor. Third prayer of the Sunday. Epistle: Lord my God, thou hast exalted my dwelling upon the earth, etc. Gradual: With thy comeliness and thy beauty. Gospel: The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure, etc. Offertory: Virgins shall be brought to the king. Secret: Receive, Lord, the gifts which we offer on the solemnity of thy blessed virgin Magdelberta, by whose patronage we trust that we are delivered. Through our Lord. Communion: The kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls, etc. Postcommunion: Trusting in the prayers of thy holy virgin

Magdelberta, we beseech thee, Lord, that through the Sacraments which we have received we may receive eternal remedies. Through our Lord Jesus. And these things sufficiently show in what veneration our Saint was held in more ancient times. And today the said churches venerate her with no less cult, which I also briefly show. Her festivity is celebrated every year with a double rite throughout the whole diocese of Liège; as is established from the Proper of Feasts of the year 1623 and the Breviary of 1636 reprinted at Liège: but there a different disposition of reciting the Office is assigned than in the older Breviaries praised above. For all is read from the common of virgins, except the prayer O God, author of innocence, etc., and the lessons of the second and third nocturn: and these are drawn from the common, not of virgins, from the Homily on the Gospel The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure: while the former are drawn from the Saint's Acts, and the third of them is concluded in these words: Whose bones of the body, with the other things with which she covered herself and which she used, are held in veneration at Liège in the cathedral church.

[23] The change of the Office made according to the norm of the Roman Breviary. For the rest, I judge that that change of the Office was made about the beginning of the preceding century, and without doubt in order that everything might thus be brought to the norm of the Roman Breviary; both of which I gather as much from the preface of the said Proper and Breviary of Liège as from the Decrees of the diocesan synod celebrated in the year of the Lord 1618 in the cathedral church of Liège, under the presidency of the most serene and most reverend Lord Ferdinand, archbishop and elector of Cologne, bishop and prince of Liège, duke of both Bavarias, etc. Where chapter V of title X On sacred places and the Divine offices has it thus: For the greater conformity, moreover, of the churches of this diocese with the Roman, and for the surer uniformity of rites and ceremonies, we desire that at least gradually, and so far as it can be done, all everywhere should follow the Roman office. The said Decrees stand in the Spicilegium ecclesiasticum Germaniæ, tome 6, page 771 and following. That a not unlike change, more probably about the same time and for the same reasons, was made in the Office which was formerly wont to be recited in the noble collegiate churches of Mons and Maubeuge is established again from the Propers of the said churches printed at Douai in the years 1624 and 1625, in which the Office of our Saint of nine lessons does not much differ from that of Liège today. Further, what we have hitherto discussed about her ancient cult will be not a little confirmed by those things which remain to be treated about her sacred body and the translation of her relics. Nay, that from her very death she was in the highest veneration among men, and of exceeding power with God, will be evidently plain.

[24] The body of St. Madelberta, presently after her death, with distinguished array, the clergy of Maubeuge accompanying, the virgins of the noble House of virgins gave over to burial in the Church of St. Peter, The Saint's body, at Maubeuge, where it was first buried, as the writer of the Life reports at number XI, adding that she there became famous for innumerable miracles, and he enumerates some of these; but, as I implied at number 15, about the translation he keeps deep silence. Yet that that translation was made not many years after the Saint's burial is certainly established. Molanus in the Natales mentions it, Le Mire in the Fasti, Ghini, and with most of the more recent writers briefly and accurately the Parisian Martyrology; you have the words at number 18. A little more at length Bartholomew Fisen of the Society of Jesus treats of it in book 5 of the History of the church of Liège, in the Acts of St. Hubert, who was first bishop of Maastricht on the Meuse, and then transferred the see from Maastricht to Liège. I know indeed that this is denied by the said Fisen, and that he asserts that the episcopal see was never fixed at the city of Maastricht, and that the prelates from St. Servatius down to St. Hubert only stayed there as it were wandering and with an uncertain hearth; but this opinion of his learned writers have refuted with reasons and testimonies so solid — and among them our Henschen in his Exegesis on the bishopric of Tongres and Maastricht prefixed to tome VII of May, as also lately Henschen's vindicator the Rev. Father Peter Dolmans, theologian of the same Society — that, although this were the place to treat that question, nothing further would need to be added by which the honor due to the people of Maastricht might be vindicated. Let us hear therefore what the praised Fisen has to our purpose.

[25] After he has reported in the book cited in what manner St. Hubert exposed to the veneration of the peoples the relics of St. Lambert translated from Maastricht to Liège, together with the sacred remains of St. Theodard, is translated by St. Hubert bishop of Maastricht to Liège he goes on in this manner at number 15: He summoned also external aid from the neighboring peoples. From Maubeuge (it is a town of Hainault) he brought into the city the sacred body of St. Madelberta the virgin, as nothing other than some new and special safeguard of strength. And, an elogium of the Saint from her parents and from the sanctity of her life being interposed, he subjoins: She is celebrated also for miracles, when Hubert brought her to Liège, judging that she would be a most firm fortification for the city. These things, unless I am mistaken, the praised author drew, as also others alleged in the preceding number, from the Deeds of the Pontiffs of Maastricht and Liège, by Anselm, Canon of Liège. These Deeds John Chapeauville collected and inserted into tome 1 of his Work, which he printed and illustrated with annotations, On the Deeds of the same pontiffs written by various authors. And the said Anselm flourished, as the same Chapeauville proves in his preface, at the beginning of the eleventh century, and about the translation of our Saint in chapter XXX he transmitted the following to posterity: But afterwards, being famous for miracles, her body (St. Madelberta's) was translated by blessed Hubert the bishop, as is said, to Liège with great glory.

[26] about the year 722, The year in which the said translation was made none of the ancient writers noted as determined. Nevertheless, since from Anselm and Fisen already praised the relics of St. Lambert from Maastricht and of St. Madelberta from Maubeuge seem to have been brought by St. Hubert to Liège about the same time, it may not incongruously be set as the seven hundred and twenty-first or twenty-second from the birth of Christ. For St. Hubert, whose Acts will come to be illustrated at the III day of November, succeeded St. Lambert in the bishopric of Maastricht; and his sacred remains he carried to Liège in the thirteenth year of his episcopate, which the coeval and familiar writer of his Life expressly narrates in Surius at III November. And accordingly, in the opinion of those who judge that the martyrdom of St. Lambert must more probably be bound to the year of Christ seven hundred and eight, which will be more fully discussed by us at the XVII day of this month, the XIII year of St. Hubert's episcopate will coincide with the year of Christ DCCXXI; for I nowhere find it recorded that the see of Maastricht was vacant for any notable time from the death of St. Lambert until the ordination of St. Hubert. The epoch therefore of the translation of St. Madelberta will have to be fixed either in the same or in the next following year, and consequently the virgins of Maubeuge enjoyed the precious treasure of their holy Abbess's body for only about XVII years, in which small interval of time those innumerable miracles which the biographer records happened at her sepulchre at Maubeuge.

[27] and is laid up in the cathedral church. And the relics of St. Madelberta were laid up in the sacristy of the cathedral church of Liège, and are kept to this day at the side of St. Lambert, says Fisen. Anselm, in the place alleged above, asserts that they were placed in the same shrine with the body of St. Theodard, bishop of Maastricht and martyr, whose memory is in the Calendars on the X day of this month, when also in our Work his Acts will be discussed. Take the words of the praised Anselm: On the other side of the body of blessed Lambert rests the body of St. Theodard, bishop and martyr, with St. Madelberta the virgin, who are placed in one shrine. For the rest, when in the declining fifteenth century the people of Liège were being shaken by a long and disastrous war on account of the dissensions which had arisen by reason of the bishopric between most noble and most powerful families, public supplications were instituted for obtaining peace, the relics of SS. Lambert, Madelberta, and others were exhibited to the people for veneration, and on the same occasion the reliquaries were opened and visited. The history of this visitation, as it was performed, in Chapeauville, tome 3, page 213, Siffrid Petri gives at the end of chapter 45 of the book which he entitled Deeds of the Pontiffs of Liège, under this title: The History of the Visitation of the shrine of Bl. Lambert, martyr and pontiff, and of the other relics of the church of Liège, written by an anonymous author of this time.

[28] That history, since it is rather lengthy, I do not transfer hither; In the year 1489 her Relics I excerpt only those things which chiefly pertain to our Saint, and from which the studious reader may gather in what year, by what authority, and by whom the said visitation was instituted. The author thus begins his narration: In the year from the Nativity of the Lord one thousand four hundred and eighty-nine, on the fourteenth of the month of April, at the sixth hour of the evening, the venerable and noble men, lords and masters Godemillus de Eldris the scholastic, Henry de Palude the cantor, John Biliton priests, William de Liberme and James de Corswarem subdeacons, canons of Liège, together with the lords Crispin Roefs, canon of the lesser table and notary, and also Bruno de Tills of St. Martin's, John Sorlet also of the lesser table, John de Dyck otherwise de Wert, and Christian de Goe, chaplains of the church of Liège, as witnesses; by the mandate and will of the venerable and noble men, the lords dean and chapter of Liège, having confessed and being contrite, solemnly vested in the sacred garments, with lights and all decency, approached the shrine and the place of the glorious martyr, the most blessed Lambert. Then, having reported what was done on that day about the relics of St. Lambert, and on the XVIII day of the same month about the relics of the holy martyrs Peter and Andoletus, he goes on in this manner:

[29] Then on the next following day (XIX April) the same lord cantor, by virtue of the same commission, visited the shrine of Bl. Maternus the confessor, etc., and then visited the shrine of Bl. Magdelberta the virgin, are visited and enumerated. in which he found both her bones and her ornaments with some other relics, as is contained in a slip of the present tenor (which he left decently replaced in the same shrine together with the said relics). "In this shrine are had the bones of Bl. Magdelberta the virgin, her cowl and her veil, the black girdle of the same Virgin woven with wondrous work, likewise her head-cloth or head-covering, likewise another veil of hers, and also two great pieces of her habit, likewise two small shears which the glorious Virgin used in her life, together with some other ornaments of the same Virgin, and very many other relics of divers other holy Apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins". All which being thus visited and decently replaced, the same said cantor ordered both shrines to be closed and nailed with their iron fastenings, and, like slips being also set and affixed on the outside, he ordered both shrines to be most worthily colored red, and to their former place, as

they had been set, to be placed. And after a little he puts an end to his narration in these words: At last, all these most sacred relics being most worthily placed in their own, the keys of the shrine, both the outer and the inner, were carried by my lords the dean and chapter and placed in the archives of the church in the upper chest, which is entitled Mechlinia. Thus he: from whose latter words, and also from those which I reported at number 27 from Anselm and Fisen, it may be gathered that the sacred remains both of St. Lambert and of St. Madelberta and of the other Saints whom he there enumerates are preserved enclosed in one and the same shrine, as he calls it, or greater casket, yet in distinct smaller caskets set beside one another. But I judge that enough has been said thus far about our Saint's cult. I subjoin her Acts from the manuscripts mentioned above.

ACTS

by an anonymous author,

From the Brabantine Hagiologium in manuscript of Rouge-Cloître, collated with two other manuscripts.

Madelberta, virgin and abbess at Maubeuge in Hainault (S.)

BHL Number: 5129

By an Anonymous author.

Born of her father Vincent and her mother Waldetrudis Therefore in the time of Dagobert ^a, the renowned king of the Franks, there was the blessed virgin of Christ, Madelberta by name, who from her childish years did not withdraw from the works of God, but with exceeding love followed his footsteps, for which, the frail enemy being overcome, she triumphs in heaven with him, noble by family, nobler by sanctity. She was therefore the daughter of the illustrious Vincent ^b, who before his conversion was called Madelgarius, and of his chosen wife the venerable Waldetrudis; and she was handed over together with her holy sister Aldetrudis to the holy and religious virgin Aldegundis ^c, the spouse of Christ and their aunt, to be nourished with spiritual milk and to be taught the holy rule, and the heavenly love grew marvellously in her.

[2] while still a little one she is handed over to St. Aldegundis to be brought up, The little girl became an imitator also of their footsteps, and was zealously occupied at the daytime and nighttime hours with holy prayers, she who had been fed with such marvellous banquets, having gained ^d the most bright lights of them both, and governing the kindly flock of Christ for the space of nine years after their departure by the Lord's command: for although she was the elder by birth ^e, yet she had humbly yielded to her sister in the receiving of the rule. She had bravely undertaken the struggle against the malignant ones , and overcame the slippery enemy, her own offenses being laid aside; like a rose she grew among sharp shoots, instructed by marvellous examples, whom the true Spouse brought into the wine-cellar, and gave her to drink the cup of charity. Inebriated with the sweetest wine, she poured forth ample foaming lips with the odor of balsam, and adorned her neck with sacred stones.

[3] imitating her virtues Her mind began to pant more and more with the ardor of sacred fire, like her holy aunt and her kindly sister, and, sustained by the merits of both, she began to be assiduous in prayers, prompt in vigils, generous in alms, of wondrous chastity, adorned with zeal for piety and humility, and inflamed by the doctrines of Christ from the lamp of Amandus ^f and of other bishops and of the other holy men, she greatly subjected herself under the dryness of Christ, that she might be able to seize the prize; and therefore for love of him she was made poor, that she might deserve to abound in heaven: amid the divers punishments ^g which she suffered in prayers, with tears poured forth she chanted with joy, saying: "Perfect thou my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps be not moved." And again: "I will freely sacrifice to thee, and will confess to thy name, O Lord, because it is good."

[4] she triumphs over the demon. In the exercise of good works she suffered the snares of the ancient enemy desiring to cast her down from prosperity; but the Virgin of Christ with a strengthened breast said: Depart, pest of the furies, lie under malediction, thou shalt have no part in me. And at once she was strengthened by angelic comfort: for through the windows set in the oratory there came as it were the most bright rays of the sun *, whence she knew herself overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, continually imploring victory from the Most High, that she might be able to render him an unstained spirit, and might be able to return by the path of justice thither whence hither, by the devil's working, man had long since come as a captive. She now looked into the flowering groves of paradise, her inward parts pierced by the flaming and quivering sword; now the love of Christ entered into her heart, and she trod down the most empty tinder of the world, imbued with the teachings of her father and mother, who for the name of Christ estranged themselves from carnal fellowship.

[5] Her aforesaid father, Vincent by name, lived holily for many years under the rule with shorn head in the monastery of Haumont ^h, Having embraced the religious life by the example of her parents but now he rests in his own allod *, where he built a monastery by the name of Soignies ⁱ, in which even now the flock of Christ wars canonically. Her mother also, St. Waldetrudis, received the consecrated pall and veil from the blessed pontiff of the city of Cambrai, Autbert ^k, and built a monastery on her own ground, which is called Castrilocus ^l, and there for very many years marvellously governed the sheep of Christ snatched from the jaws of the wolf, in which she now rests in a holy tomb. Instructed by such examples, she came forth of a holy stock and of royal offspring, being free neither by day nor by night from divine converse, fearing to be removed far from the fellowship of the Saints, and estranged from the blessed seat of ineffable paradise. For whence the first man had fallen by pride, thither the aforesaid virgin Madelberta desired to return by obedience.

[6] But of her consecrated aunt, the holy virgin Aldegundis, of St. Aldegundis her aunt, by whom she had been reared regularly, as we taught above, she followed the examples in her latest days. Who ^m, being asked by her mother whether she wished to join herself in carnal wedlock, and to receive the paternal traditions after the wonted manner, she with tears for joy uttered to her urging mother an answer given from God, saying: I have given myself with all devotion to the Lord Christ, to him alone have I devoted myself, I will have no other spouse but him. Secretly she sold the royal garments, and the magnificent and marvellous necklaces, and all the furniture handed to her, which had formerly been reserved for her by her parents for the honor of this world, and gave the price to the poor, considering the sentence of the Gospel where it says: Go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow me.*

[7] Again her mother, the renowned Bertilia ⁿ, ordered her that she should make bridal ornaments from a certain linen cloth; who, her mother Bertilia vainly resisting, but she, kindled with divine love, had already given the carnal bridegroom over to oblivion, since in her breast the supreme Spouse was strong, and she sewed a chrismal garment, with which the heads of infants are adorned in baptism, and laid it up in a chest; and at once, when the matter became known to her venerable mother Bertilia, she wished to correct her with bodily discipline.

[8] Hearing this, the holy Virgin, slipping away in silence, came to a wooded place fleeing the world, had founded a monastery at Maubeuge, which her father and mother had divided by lot with the holy and venerable virgin Gertrude ^o their kinswoman, and there, some trees being uprooted, she dedicated a chapel in honor of blessed Peter the apostle, and thereafter built a monastery which is called Maubeuge [p]: which the Sambre [q] encircles, the Malbodius pierces through, and a troop of nuns fills. On the right and on the left there is a wood and a plain, and there at harvest time flowering meadows appear, and the magnificent water of a navigable river.

[9] and had governed it as first abbess, And there for a long time the holy virgin lived in her struggle, who had often read the contests of the holy virgins, and, ruminating with bowed minds and tears upon some passion for martyrdom, cried unceasingly to the Lord: the lovable gift which she asked she obtained from the Lord, and received the disease of cancer in her right breast, and rejoicing loved it for the palm of martyrdom. Further, she handed over her venerable nieces Madelberta and Aldetrudis to the monastic life; and when the Lord had decreed to set an end to her, a globe of fire was seen, as though coming from the summit of heaven and reaching even to the roof of the virgin, in which she rendered up her unstained spirit to the Lord.

[10] after her sister Aldetrudis Moreover an ineffable odor filled the house, so that all who had come together at the departure of the consecrated virgin wondered. Considering therefore the escort of so great prosperity, the consecrated virgins, like two birds, began with leaning wings and joined [r] feet to hasten to the stars. The kindly Aldetrudis, obtaining the rule of the monastery after her, governed most excellently, and, the space of twelve years being accomplished in that rule, with the virtues of good things happily passed to the heavens.

[11] she succeeds as third abbess and dies holily. But the venerable virgin of Christ Madelberta succeeded her in place and in office for ruling the church of God, who while living flourished with wondrous virtue, and led with her to glory by her departure the souls of the consecrated virgins whom she had gained. Her body is given over to holy burial with no less honor than the others in the church of blessed Peter the apostle, with throngs of devout priests chanting psalms, and with choirs of consecrated virgins rejoicing; and there the lame and the deaf received help by her own merits, as, with the Lord's help, we shall show in a few and true words.

[12] At her sepulchre a deaf man received hearing, There was at that time a certain religious man not far from the monastery of Maubeuge, who had lost the hearing of his right ear, and unceasingly, with tears poured forth, asked of the Lord a remedy for the loss of hearing. On a certain Sunday night, when weary he lay in sleep upon his own bed, by an angelic admonition he heard a voice saying to him: Rise, go to the monastery of Maubeuge, into the church of St. Peter, in which the holy virgin Madelberta rests, and there at the sepulchre of that Virgin thou shalt receive health; and at once, being seized with fear, rising in the morning he went on to the appointed place. Already the office of Mass was being celebrated * in the church of St. Peter, and he at once prostrated himself at the Virgin's sepulchre, and his prayer being finished, lighted a candle. Intent at the beginning of the Gospel, in the middle of the Gospel [s] he began to sweat, to grow pale, to tremble, and moisture or water crackled through his ear: the Gospel being finished, by the intervening merits of the blessed Virgin, its former health was restored to his right ear: for he heard clearly as with the other, so that all who were present glorified God.

[13] a lame girl received walking There was a certain faithful maiden virgin of the household [t] of the monastery, who had been made lame from her birth, so that her legs clung to her buttocks, and her palms turned upward and her thumbs lay bent against her own arms. What shall I say? All the frames of her sinews, with hardened knots, had withered. Her parents, having offered her at the Virgin's sepulchre, laid her down on a bier, and, for what necessities I know not, had gone out, leaving her alone and given over to forgetfulness. And when the Sisters after the wonted manner had come to perform the evening office, she was walking in the midst of the church and glorifying the Lord, rejoicing with those who had come * at the sight of so great a miracle, who wills that none should perish, but that all should be saved [u].

[14] These few things we have singled out, but nevertheless innumerable miracles remain and countless others obtain other benefits. which the Lord showed in that place for love of the holy Virgin. For the labors and hardships in the present world with which she had been tormented she obtained the kindly reward, and found the palm, and the unfading crown adorned with divers flowers; in the virginal chamber she now sits, wedded to Christ her spouse, with

whom she will possess ineffable glory for ever, the same our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom be honor, power, and glory through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p The site of Maubeuge, now also a town in Hainault, Bolland delineated in the previous Commentary to the Acts of St. Aldegundis.

q The Sambre, a river in Belgium, is called Sabis by Cæsar.

r The words innixis (better perhaps innixæ) and junctis I have borrowed from the Utrecht manuscript, because I could not read them in the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître.

s In the Utrecht: but in the middle of the gospel, etc.

t Probably she is said to be of the household of the monastery either because her parents served the noble virgins, or because she had a kinswoman among them.

u The sense is: She glorified the Lord, who wills that none, etc. But is that text, which is properly to be understood of sinners, rightly employed here?

otherwise sancta*

otherwise gloriosæ*

otherwise fuit*

Utr. acceperat spiritus*

Utr. super eam*

* i.e. estate

* i.e. inheritance

celebrabatur*

advenerant*