Bertellinus

ON ST. BERTELLINUS, HERMIT,

IN ENGLAND,

VIII century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

His memory in the Calendars, his biographer, a fabulous Life, why it is to be published.

Bertellinus or Beccelinus hermit in England (S.)

BY C. S.

The more recent martyrologists announce on this day saint Bertellinus or Berthelm, unknown to the older Calendars, The Saint's memory in the Calendars at the 9th of September, a hermit of Stafford in England. The older of these, Molanus in his enlarged Usuard, of the edition of the year 1583, at the IX day of September

mentions him thus: At Bethnei, which farm more recent writers name Stafford, of saint Bertellinus, hermit and confessor. Molanus was followed by Arnold Wion and Hugh Ménard, of whom the latter in the Benedictine Martyrology, the former in book 3 of the Lignum vitæ, adopted his words: which Gabriel Bucelinus also did in the Menology of his Order. On the same day Philip Ferrari celebrates him in the universal Catalogue of the Saints, likewise after Molanus' example, but calls him Berthelm; At Stafford in England, he says, of S. Berthelm the hermit. But in his annotations he observes that the same is written Bertelinus by others; but by error, as he supposes. With him agrees Castellanus in the universal Martyrology, published in French: At Stafford in England, S. Berthelm (as he notes in the margin, but in French S. Berteaume) penitent.

[2] But John Wilson in the twofold edition of his English Martyrology varies both the Saint's name and the day of veneration. the 12th of August and the 29th of September. In the former, namely of the year 1608, he names him Berthelm, and refers him to the XII day of August, announcing thus in English: At Stafford in the county of the same name, the Commemoration of S. Berthelm the confessor, who, sprung of a noble British stock in our island, despising the filth and vanities of the world in the flower of his youth, became an anchorite for the love of God, leading a very austere and severe life in the woods near the said Stafford; where in the highest sanctity of life he ended his blessed days, and at last slept in the Lord. His body, afterward carried to Stafford and there buried, had of old been wont to be preserved with great veneration by the inhabitants of that same province. But in the later edition, which came forth in the year 1640, he preferred to name him Bertellinus and to defer him to the XXIX of September. Take the words from the English in Latin: At Stafford in the county of the same name, the Commemoration of S. Bertellinus the confessor, sprung of noble British blood; who in the flower of his youth, scorning the vanities of the world, became an anchorite for the love of God, leading a severe and austere life in a forest near Stafford; where in all sanctity he fell asleep in the Lord. His body was buried at Stafford very honorably, and there in ancient times it had been wont to be preserved with due veneration by the inhabitants.

[3] Why we give him today. From these eulogies it is clear that in both places the same Saint is treated of: in both places too he praises in the margin the Register of the church of Stafford and the ancient monuments of that same province. In the Life published by Capgrave, and in our Ms., of which we shall presently speak, S. Bertellinus is said to have died on the V of the Ides of September, on which day he is commemorated by Molanus and others, as we have seen. Wherefore I do not know what impelled Wilson to announce him first at the XII of August, then at the XXIX of September, contrary to what others do; unless perhaps the author of the Life confounded two Bertellini, and, deceived by that error, they commemorated the holy Hermit at Stafford on the V of the Ides of September, who was to be referred neither to that day nor to that place: of which controversy we shall presently treat. Perhaps some other festival of the Saint was kept at Stafford, since Wilson uses the word commemoration. We give him however at this day, because all the other martyrologists do so, and in our Work in the Prætermissi at the XII of August he was likewise deferred hither.

[4] The author of the Life, We have the Saint's Life in manuscript, excerpted from the Ms. of Rouge-Cloître, which is a monastery in our Belgium: the same Capgrave published in the Legend of the Saints of England, folio 50 verso. The author's name is wanting in both; but whoever he was, if he is the author of the whole lucubration, he did not compile it before the end of the XIV century, since at the close he reports a miracle which he says was wrought in the year 1386. Molanus, praised at num. 1, asserts in his Annotations that the author was Alexander Prior of Ashby: Alexander of Ashby, he says, Prior of the Regulars, wrote the Life of Bertellinus the hermit, in one book. It begins: Since as far as our understanding; which is the very beginning of our Ms. and of Capgrave's edition. The same John Pits also thought in his Historical Relations on English affairs, age 13, at the year 1220, num. 319, where among his Works he recounts the Life of S. Bertelinus, one book: Since as far as our understanding. But to the author himself he there weaves a most honorable eulogy, from which I cull some things.

[5] who probably was not Alexander of Ashby, Alexander of Ashby, whom some call a chronicler of Somerset, some of Stafford, born in the Western regions of England, where also he embraced the institute of the Canons Regular of S. Augustine, at length was made Prior of a certain monastery, a man of upright and religious life, of great reading and learning; easily the chief of the rhetoricians and poets of his time and of our nation, a theologian too not to be despised. In all things he followed piety rather than relied on subtlety of wit, and wrote few things on profane matters, more on sacred… He flourished in the year of human Redemption MCCXX, Henry III sitting at the helm of the English rule. Thus he; which if they be true, the said Life seems to me rather to be denied him. For first indeed, as regards the time, the author, in reporting a miracle granted to a certain blind man in the year 1386, proves himself more than a hundred and eighty years younger than Alexander of Ashby; unless one should wish that this was added afterward to Alexander's little Work, which from the very context of the Life is probable enough, as will be plain to one who considers it. More doubtful does the asserted erudition of Alexander make me, with which by no means agree so inept a style of writing, and the little fables with which that Life is sprinkled, and which we shall explode below. I shall say in few words what I think: if so great a praise of learning is deservedly ascribed to Alexander of Ashby, he must not be reckoned to have written the Life of S. Bertellinus such as it has come down to us. But come, let us examine the Life itself.

[6] At its very beginning, in faulty phrasing, the author professes he drew much from the Acts of S. Guthlac. that he will deliver the Acts of S. Bertellinus in summary from ancient histories: Since, he says, the more inaccessible a thing profitable to our understanding has been, the more precious is the knowledge of it held, I strive to write, out of ancient histories, a few things with a brief pen concerning the Life of blessed Bertellinus the confessor (since I cannot describe all the Saint's deeds). Lest therefore the prolixity of words beget weariness in the hearers, let us hear with the heart the summary truth. Among these ancient histories, whose writers he does not record, was the Life of S. Guthlac, presbyter and anchorite of Crowland in England, by the contemporary author Felix, which is extant in our Work, tom. 2 of April, from pag. 38. This our biographer used so liberally that, unmindful of the brevity he had promised, he seems to have compiled no less the Life of Guthlac than that of Bertellinus. But since between the deeds of Guthlac and of his Disciple there occurs a necessary connection, we can easily pardon him this, unless he also — as we fear — confounded S. Guthlac's disciple with the Hermit of Stafford, or wrongly made him a dweller in the wilderness at Stafford; which must now be inquired into.

[7] In the praised Life of S. Guthlac a certain Beccelinus, It is asked whether the Saint is the same as S. Beccelinus his disciple and attendant, is mentioned once and again. He in the Acts published by Capgrave is called Bertelinus; but Mabillon reads with us Beccelinus. However it be, our biographer supposes him the same as Bertellinus the anchorite of Stafford, and therefore transferred into the latter's Life what he had found about the former in the said Acts: one passage however he passed over, perhaps because it was wanting in his copy; which for that reason we shall report at the end of this Commentary. Further, the same anonymous writer leads S. Bertellinus after his master Guthlac's death from Crowland into Stafford, another county of England, and there writes that he, after a life most holily led in the wilderness, died on the V of the Ides of September, and, being buried, became famous for many miracles. Whence the author learned this last period of the Life is wholly hidden from me; but whether he drew it from his own invention or from elsewhere, it appears to me feigned, not only as regards the circumstances, of which below, but also as regards the substance; which I shall now show.

[8] To the Acts of S. Guthlac in our Work are subjoined certain Analecta, excerpted from the History of Ingulf, who died at Crowland, abbot of Crowland, installed in the year 1076, as is said from him there in the Annotations, pag. 53, lit. a. He writes to our purpose about Bertellinus, whom he calls Bettelinus, the following: Also on that same island (Crowland) in those times there were some leading the eremitical life, who, cleaving to the man of God (S. Guthlac) in holy familiarity as long as he lived, like the sick to a physician, gathered frequent salvation of soul from his instruction and example. Of whom one was newly converted to the Catholic faith, noble in birth, once very powerful in worldly things, by name Cissa, who, having left all things, followed his Lord Christ. Another was Bettelinus, the most familiar servant of the aforesaid father (Guthlac). A third was Egbert, privy to his secrets above the rest. A fourth was Tatwin, once his guide and boatman to that same island; who all, in single cottages not far from the oratory of the holy father Guthlac, by leave of the above-mentioned abbot Kenulf, had separate dwellings until the end of their life. According to these things S. Guthlac's attendant — whether you call him Beccelinus, Bettelinus or Bertellinus — after his master's death, and after the monastery over which Kenulf presided had been erected at the Saint's tomb by king Æthelbald, as is premised, persevered in the same wilderness until the end of his life.

[9] whose bones were burned by the Danes in the 9th century: And that he was buried in no other place the same Ingulf hands down at num. 12, where about the Danish irruption, which at num. 10 he had fixed to the year 871, he thus proceeds: But the Danes broke with knives and mattocks all the sarcophagi of the Saints, who rested in high marble tombs about the tomb of the holy father Guthlac on his right and left, namely on the right the tomb of S. Cissa priest and anchorite, and the tomb of S. Bettelm, man of God and once attendant of S. Guthlac, the tomb also of S. Tatwin, once guide to Crowland and boatman of S. Guthlac… But when they did not find the hoped-for treasures, being exceedingly indignant, they most mournfully burned all the bodies of the Saints, drawn together pitiably into one heap, fire being applied, on the third day of their coming, together with the church and all the buildings of the monastery, namely on the VII of the Kalends of September.

[10] the biographer seems These things altogether induce me to believe that S. Bertellinus' withdrawal to the wilderness of Stafford after Guthlac's death, and the anchoretic life led in it, and finally his burial, asserted by our anonymous writer, must be held invented. For although Ingulf flourished about two centuries after the said Danish irruption, yet he was much nearer to it than the writer of the Life; by a whole century indeed, if he was Alexander of Ashby, but by three hundred years and more, if we ascribe to the same author the life and the miracle which is narrated to have happened in the year 1386. Next, since Ingulf was abbot of the monastery of Crowland, he could, both from ancient monuments and from tradition, about the affairs of his own monastery

be better informed than any outsider. Add that the little fables with which the anonymous writer wove that part of the Life — nay, and the rest of what he had not learned from the Acts of S. Guthlac — leave scarcely any credit to his statements. What then? Shall we say that no Bertellinus lived as an anchorite in the province of Stafford, that none was venerated there? That I should not dare to assert for certain. And of his veneration at any rate it is sufficiently established from the martyrologists adduced, from the registers and the ancient monuments of that county praised by Wilson, and finally from the biographer himself, or from him who wrote the said miracle, in which express mention is made of a church dedicated to S. Bertellinus.

[11] I confess indeed that it can be replied that Molanus, and the more recent martyrologists who followed him, to have confounded him with the Hermit of Stafford, perhaps rest here on no other authority than the biographer's, as becomes credible from this, that on the V of the Ides of September, at which they announce him, he is said by that writer to have died. So it is: but that cannot be said of Wilson and of the instruments praised by him; for otherwise he would have referred S. Bertellinus not to the XII of August or the XXIX of September, but to the IX of this month. As regards the biographer himself, although in many things he is a trifler, he is not on that account to be rejected when he mentions the Saint's veneration, and asserts that a temple dedicated under his name existed at Stafford toward the end of the XIV century. Nay rather it appears to me very probable that the veneration paid him by the men of Stafford gave the biographer occasion either to make one out of two Bertellini, or to transfer the Anchorite of Crowland to the wilderness of Stafford.

[12] Not so favorable a judgment can I pass on the Saint's sojourn and burial in the aforesaid county. or rather to have wrongly judged that he lived at Stafford: For since the writer of the Life expressly makes Bertellinus, the hermit of Stafford, the same as the holy Disciple of Guthlac, whom we have shown from Ingulf to have died and been buried at Crowland; and since of the antiquity and credit of the instruments which Wilson praises it is by no means established to me; I cannot but doubt whether any holy hermit of that name ever made that province illustrious by his life and burial. In this darkness of things let the learned reader choose what he pleases; to me meanwhile, until surer things be brought forward, it appears more likely that the Bertellinus who is announced at Stafford is either another than the holy Disciple of Guthlac, or, if he is the same, was venerated there, but did not die and was not buried there. The first Michael Alford holds in the Index of Saints appended to tom. 3 of the Annals of the English church, where he has thus: Berthelm, or Bertelinus the hermit, was the attendant of S. Guthlac …, buried with him in the church of Crowland: his tomb was broken by the Danes… This Saint differs from another Bertellinus, who is read in our (English) Martyrology at the XXIX of September. The Saint is written as of illustrious British blood, who, having left all things, led an eremitical life, and dies in the district of Stafford. Alford is favored by the English Martyrology; first, because in it he is announced not at the V of the Ides of September, but at the III of the Kalends of October, or on the day before the Ides of August. It favors him, secondly, because in the same no mention is made of Guthlac's instruction; and thirdly and finally, because he is there said to have lived and died at Stafford, which by no means coheres with Ingulf's statements.

[13] To these it can be replied that in the English Martyrology not the day of death, the latter appears more probable. but some other festival may be denoted; since the word deposition is not employed, as elsewhere, but commemoration. There could therefore have been some temple erected to him there, or even some relics of his preserved, and therefore his yearly memory celebrated, as is wont to be done with other Saints elsewhere too; and this here becomes altogether likely, if Bertellinus, as the biographer will have it, was sprung from the county of Stafford. The two remaining arguments would have more weight if the antiquity of the monuments from which Wilson wove his eulogy were established: for I fear that they are either the Life itself, or composed from it. Nor does it matter that he assigns another day of veneration, and has nothing about Guthlac: for the first he could have learned from the tables of the church, which he seems to designate by registers; the other he could have omitted on purpose, because it did not pertain to the men of Stafford. I go on to examine the rest.

[14] The Life is examined The biographer makes our Saint the son of a king of Stafford, whom he does not name. Wilson in his Martyrology is content with noble British blood. The first seems to me in no way, the second little likely, if Bertellinus is the same as S. Guthlac's disciple. The reason is that Felix, Guthlac's contemporary biographer, as we have given notice, must be said to have been wholly ignorant of that nobility of birth, since he nowhere makes mention of it, even where there was the fittest place for recording it. Hear him writing about him in our Work in the place cited, pag. 43, num. 21. There was, he says, a certain clerk, by name Beccelinus, who of his own accord offered himself to become the servant of so great a man, and purposed under his discipline to live chastely to God. He adds that the same performed the office of barber for S. Guthlac. Everyone sees that it would have conduced not a little to the commending of Guthlac's fame for sanctity if a king's son had bound himself to him as disciple and servant; and therefore that it would have been to the biographer's purpose to record Beccelinus' royal stock at least in this place; which nevertheless he did neither here nor elsewhere. Nor indeed was Beccelinus so unknown to Felix that his royal birth must be said to have been hidden from him: for he knew him not only from report but also by face and conversation. This is clear from chap. 5, num. 35, where he has this: There dwelt therefore with him at that time one Brother, Beccelinus by name, by whose report we have described these things about the death of the man of God Guthlac. Besides, he knew Cissa, Guthlac's successor, and knew others too who had for a longer time associated with him (and therefore with Beccelinus too): from whom, as he had learned Guthlac's deeds, by his own testimony in the Prologue, num. 2, he could also have been informed of Beccelinus' royal stock. Equally unknown in Ingulf's time in the monastery of Crowland was Beccelinus' royal condition, as is plain from the words recited at num. 8, in which Ingulf proclaims S. Cissa noble in birth and once very powerful in worldly things, being content to have called Bettelinus the servant of the aforesaid father. And so, if the outstanding nobility asserted by the biographer of Bertellinus be true, he must be distinguished from Guthlac's disciple.

[15] in many things fabulous: yet to be published. Fabulous, or at any rate defiled with fables, are the things which are narrated from num. 1 of the Life about the Saint's flight to a certain Irish king, about a fall of the flesh, about that same king's daughter carried off into England, and about her being killed with her offspring by the teeth of wolves in a certain grove: which mournful chance the biographer affirms cast upon Bertellinus a desire of a holier life. Reckon likewise among fables what he narrates from num. 8 no less ineptly than ridiculously; namely that S. Bertellinus after the death of his master S. Guthlac presented himself unknown to the king his father, and received from him a small island, formerly called Bethnei, now Stafford, in which he might lead the anchoretic life; but that, his father being dead, when the successor to the kingdom strove to drive him out of his wilderness, and he was compelled to defend it by single combat, an archangel came down into the arena for Bertellinus under the appearance of a little man, but for the opposing side a man blacker than an Ethiopian, more terrible than a giant; but that the latter, laid low on the ground by the former, implored Bertellinus' help, and that by that prodigy it came about that the goods, already forfeited to the treasury, were restored by the king. Fables of this kind need no refutation. Further, lest the reader wonder that we have committed so fabulous a Life to the press, let him know that this was done solely that he may perceive by what right we explode it, and at the same time may himself judge what can prudently be determined about the Saint's royal blood, and his sojourn and burial at Stafford.

[16] Before I exhibit the Acts themselves, I transfer hither a passage from the Life of Guthlac A deed of the Saint omitted by the biographer, which pertains to Beccelinus. In chap. 2, num. 21, Felix among other things writes thus: There was a certain clerk, by name Beccelinus, who of his own accord offered himself to become the servant of so great a man, and purposed under his discipline to live chastely to God; whose inmost heart the malignant spirit entered, and began to puff him up with the pestiferous swellings of vain glory: and then, after he had seduced him with the swollen blasts of empty pride, he also began to admonish him that he should seize a deadly sword and slay his master, under whose discipline he had begun to live to God: setting this before his mind, that if he could destroy him, he would afterward hold his place with great reverence from kings and princes. On a certain day therefore, when the aforesaid Clerk had come, as he was wont, to shave the man of God Guthlac after the course of twice ten days, being troubled with huge madness and thirsting for the blood of the man of God with immense desire, he undertook without hesitation to kill him.

[17] Then the holy one of God, Guthlac, to whom the Lord continually manifested the foreknowledge of things to come, having learned of the sin of the new crime, from the Life of S. Guthlac: the time of his death. began to question him, saying: O my Beccelinus, why dost thou hide the ancient enemy under a dull breast? Why dost thou not vomit forth the pestiferous waters of the bitter poison? For I know that thou hast been deceived by the malignant spirit: wherefore confess, by turning from them, the shameful meditations which the hostile accuser of the human race has implanted in thee. Then he, when he understood that he had been seduced by the malignant spirit, prostrating himself at the feet of the holy man Guthlac, and confessing his offense with tearful voice, humbly begged pardon. And so the man of blessed memory Guthlac not only granted pardon for that fault of his, but also promised that he would come as his helper in future tribulations. Our biographer perhaps omitted these things on purpose, because he recognized that they were by no means honorable to S. Bertellinus: it has pleased me however to insert them in this Commentary, both because they are a memorable proof of human frailty and of divine mercy, and also because the knowledge of them seems owed to the Saint's humility. For neither is it likely that Guthlac revealed to any mortal this fall of his Disciple, divinely manifested to himself alone. Further, in what year the Saint died I have found handed down nowhere: but if he was S. Guthlac's disciple, as appears more likely, it was done in the VIII century, since S. Guthlac ceased to live in the year 714, as was shown in his Acts.

LIFE

by an anonymous author,

From the Ms. of Rouge-Cloître, collated with Capgrave's edition.

Bertellinus or Beccelinus hermit in England (S.)

BHL Number: 1263 ^a

By an Anonymous writer.

CHAPTER I.

His deeds in the world, his penitence for a fall of the flesh, his life in the wilderness under the discipline of S. Guthlac.

[ ] a fall of the flesh Since the more inaccessible a thing profitable to our understanding has been, the more precious is the knowledge of it held, I strive to write, out of ancient histories, a few things with a brief pen concerning the Life of blessed Bertellinus the Confessor, since I cannot describe all the Saint's deeds. Lest therefore the prolixity of words beget weariness in the hearers, let us hear with the heart

the summary truth. Bertellinus, English-born, a pious royal offspring ^b, noble in stock and in form, more noble in the Catholic faith, refusing to defile his life with his native wantonnesses, crossed the sea, and, associating with a certain Irish king, deserved above all men the favor of his love: but because our Father who is in heaven sometimes does not hinder certain men from sinning, for the sake of a greater penitence to come, being smitten with love of the king's daughter, he carried her off with child into the parts of England: which I say lest the cause of his wonderful penitence be unknown to sinners.

[2] he washed away by doing penance in the wilderness: he turns bread into a stone For as they lay hid in the thickness of the woods, behold the time of bringing forth, the term of pain, and a river of grief, came upon them especially. O how lamentable a childbirth! While Bertellinus was of necessity [\] seeking the help of a midwife, the woman together with her child expired by the teeth of wolves. And so Bertellinus, returning, believing that that calamity had been appointed ^c on account of his own sin, spending three days in the office of the funeral, if he grieves, thou wouldst not complain ^d. But serving God there alone, with penalties before unheard of, always keeping his sins before his eyes, by true penitence he led a contemplative life. But the loving and merciful God, not despising [\] a contrite and humbled heart, but according to the multitude of his mercies forgave him many sins; for he loved much. He loved God, he was loved by God; he magnified Christ by good works; he is magnified by Christ with many miracles. The malignant spirit tempted the holy Man, saying: Say that these stones be made bread. Bertellinus confounded the devil by the opposite of the temptation; because he changed not a stone into bread, but on the contrary bread into a stone, to the reproach of the diabolical temptation: which stone is known as a testimony of the miracle ^e in the place which is now called Bertelmesley: which being learned, the men of the province venerated Bertellinus, dear to Christ, as a prophet.

[3] There was indeed in those days the most blessed Guthlac ^f, beloved of God and of men, of the noble race of the Mercians, deriving his origin from most illustrious parents, Guthlac is born, serves as a soldier, becomes a monk; at the hour of whose birth a hand as of a man sent from heaven was stretched out toward ^g the door of the house, gleaming with unspeakable brightness: which, fortifying the door with the sign of the cross, prefigured by a happy omen that he would come forth to birth who by final perseverance would bear about the cross of Christ in his own body. For after he had completed his fifteenth year ^h, he began to burn more fervently for military deeds according to the demand of that age. And so, adorned with the military belt, he surpassed the boldness of brave men: and, military forces being joined to him, he began to rage against hostile peoples, to overthrow cities and castles ⁱ, to obtain unspeakable titles from his warlike deeds. Yet in a wonderful manner in the very cruelty of arms he was merciful to his enemies, and paid back to them a third part of the plunder and the spoils: and the more fervent he had been in the soldiery of arms, the more ardently did the Lord kindle his mind to the desires of the spiritual soldiery. He therefore was reconsidering his days in bitterness, knowing that the days of man are short, the end doubtful, the departure horrible, the Judge terrible, the punishment unending. Bidding farewell therefore to his fellow-soldiers, and casting away his secular arms, he withdrew from them, now thinking of nothing but the arms of Christ's soldiery. Further, he knew that the senses of man are prone to evil from his youth, unless they be restrained by regular observance; he came to Repton ^k, where, being chosen into the Lord's lot, he received the mark of the clerical tonsure. And so, given over to monastic disciplines, he presented his body a holy sacrifice, living, pleasing to God: and there he learned the psalms and hymns, and within two years advanced in the knowledge of the Saints with wonderful ease.

[4] And so Guthlac, wishing to lead an anchoretic life, Bertellinus withdraws with him into the wilderness: withdrew from Repton, leading with him two young men, one of whom was the aforesaid Bertellinus ^l, son of the king of the people of Stafford, who for the correcting of their own life clung continually to that holy man. He came to a certain island of divers groves, pools and various sedges, by name Crowland ^m, and there they made themselves a little hut for a palace out of wild sods; recalling too that the ancient fathers went about ⁿ in sheepskins, in goatskins, in the deserts, they now used not linen or woolen clothing, but raw and rough goatskins; and conforming themselves to their first parents, who, cast out from the place of the pleasure of paradise ^o, had tunics of skin from God: knowing that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, they yet fed with great restraint on barley bread and clear [p] water. With continual much fasting and many vigils they strove to subdue their flesh, so that it was compelled [q] humbly to serve the spirit. This Guthlac, I say, an excellent gift and a perfect boon coming down from the Father of lights, waged manifold wars against spiritual wickednesses on that very island; now carried by demons into the air, now dragged among briars and thorns, now as though plunged into marshes, and grievously afflicted in divers ways, by the consolation of S. Bartholomew the Apostle he bravely conquered them, and powerfully cast out all those monstrous ranks from that island of Crowland, which they claimed by the prescription of long time, and banished them far off forever. These two saints, Guthlac and Bertellinus, dwelling assiduously in divine service on that island for many years, many miracles were wrought through them.

[5] Guthlac foretells his death, At length the time came that the man of God Guthlac should lay down the burden of his flesh, which by long practice he had striven to subdue; he was seized with a sudden sickness on the fourth feria before Easter, and announces to Bertellinus, his only companion, that on the eighth day he would pass from this vale of weeping. And when the other broke out into wailing and tears; Do not, he said, my son, do not weep: I go to the wages of my labors, to abide forever with that Lord whom I have served. But on the fourth day of S. Guthlac's sickness Easter was celebrated; the solemnity of the Paschal Mass having been performed, and the Viaticum of our salvation received, to Bertellinus, who ministered to him at the Lord's table, he used such sacred eloquence and mysteries [\] that he seemed not to be speaking, but rather an angel of God. And so Bertellinus, seeing in the face of the man of God that the term of his laying down was at hand, began to ask him more urgently what he had never before presumed to inquire. I adjure thee, he said, father, by the mercy of Christ, that thou wouldst deign to reveal to me more openly what it is that from the first dwelling which I had with thee I have heard thee daily, morning and evening, speaking mutual discourses with another, and with whom thou didst utter the words I have not known.*

[6] and dies in Bertellinus' presence, But the friend of God answered with his accustomed kindness: The last day is at hand, he said, dearest son, nor does it profit me to lie, who from my first conversion have shunned all falsehood: know then that from the time when I betook myself to this wilderness, I have always had, morning and evening, an angel of my consolation, who relieved my labors and temptations with heavenly solace, foretold things to come, showed things absent, and made known from heaven the heavenly secrets which it is not lawful nor expedient for me to utter. But these things, my son, cover with silence, and attempt not at any time to reveal them to any mortal, save to my sister Pega [r] and to Egbert [s] the anchorite. And so on the following morning the sighs and sobs which are wont to be the forerunners of death had now often shaken the blessed man's breast, and from his mouth so great a sweetness of odor breathed forth, and from his mouth so great a sweetness of odor breathed forth, as if someone had strewn rosy flowers or poured out balsam. But on the following night, when the often-named brother Bertellinus was keeping vigil in watch over the man of God, he beholds, not without great astonishment, that from midnight until dawn a brightness of unspeakable light shone round the whole house. But when the sun was rising, Guthlac, beloved of God, calling his disciple Bertellinus, said: Son, it is time that I should pass to him whose servant I am, and that thou shouldst take thy journey. And stretching out his hands to the altar, he fortified himself with the sacred Communion, and with eyes and hands lifted to heaven, he fell asleep in the Lord [t].

[7] and is buried by him and by S. Pega. A heavenly splendor had prefigured the glorious passing of the most blessed man, and an immensity of light from above spiritually illumined it: for when the sun was in its strength and was burning more vehemently with midday rays, blessed Bertellinus beholds as it were a fiery chariot raised from the earth up to heaven, whose brightness was so great that in comparison with it the splendor of the sun grew pale as a lower light: but Bertellinus, seized with huge fear, fleeing, took a little boat, and hastened with all speed to the holy virgin of Christ Pega, sister of blessed Guthlac. And she with blessed Bertellinus granted to her brother's funeral the tears of due affection, and, giving thanks and commending his soul to God, commends herself also to his prayers. The obsequies therefore of the holy man having been most devoutly celebrated, and his body given to burial in his oratory, the blessed virgin Pega returned to her own place [u].

ANNOTATIONS.

wherefore I do not know whence our compiler learned that one of these was Bertellinus. It does not stand in the way, however, that in the same chapter, num. 21, Beccelinus is said to have been a clerk who of his own accord offered himself to become the servant of so great a man; for by boys he could have designated attendants or disciples: nay rather, since Beccelinus appears there immediately after, what our biographer here writes is credible.

p. In Guthlac's Life is read lutulenta muddy.

q. Read ut … cogeretur.

r. The Life of S. Pega we illustrated at the 8th day of January; of her frequent mention is made in the Acts of S. Guthlac, and it will recur in these too.

s. In the Analecta which are appended to Guthlac's Life in our work, pag. 50, num. 2, Egbert is read to have been privy to his (Guthlac's) secrets above the rest, and to have dwelt there after his death in a little cell not far from the oratory. See what was said in the Commentary, num. 8.

t. On the fourth feria after Easter, in the year from the Incarnation of our Lord seven hundred and fifteen, says Felix in the often-praised Life, chap. 5, that is on the XI day of April, and in the year 714 of the vulgar era; namely because Felix counted the years from the Incarnation of the Word itself, or nine months before the common era, as was observed there in the Annotations at lit. c and d.

u. What he has narrated from num. 3 thus far was drawn from the Life of S. Guthlac; what follows he brought forth, as it appears, from his own store.

\ read necessarium*

\ read despexit*

\ add suavitate*

CHAPTER II.

His withdrawal into the wilderness of Stafford, his death, burial, a miracle.

[ ] Unknown, he obtains a wilderness from his father, and when he was dead At length saint Bertellinus, utterly rejecting temporal glory, went to the king his father ^a, and asked of him a certain island, in those days very deserted, to be inhabited as a hermit. O how wonderful the religion of the Son, who showed himself to his father's sight, but not to his recognition. The king assented to his petition, and granted him a small island, named by the ancients Bethney, but by the moderns Stafford ^b, to whom he would more gladly have given an ample region. Where the noble Hermit long labored in penitence, and, triumphing spiritually, shone with many miracles. But when the king, the father of the venerable hermit Bertellinus, had passed in the course of nature the bounds of all flesh, there was made a great persecution in those parts, and by the immense authority of royal forces a stranger took the lordship of that kingdom: who, when he saw the servant of God Bertellinus dwelling delightfully in the pleasantness of the place, purposed to cast him out, yet sparing religion in this, that he rose up against him not with royal forces but with the rigor of the court ^c. And when Bertellinus in the urgency of his necessity sought the support of his kinsmen and friends, he found not kinsmen but doubters, not consolers but rather adversaries, sitting with princes in secret to destroy the innocent, according to that saying of Solomon: The poor man is hateful even to his own neighbor; but the friends of the rich are many. Wherefore upon his degenerate kinsfolk he pronounced the unjust sentence of a lasting curse, which lies open by manifest tokens not only in the fourth or fifth generation, but even to this present day ^d. O how great the wonderful fruitfulness of his religion, who, appearing in the king's court to answer, concealing his hereditary rights, alleged the right of donation.

[9] and being compelled to defend it by single combat The suit at length being brought on, the parties stood upon a determination by duel ^e. O how great the iniquity of the world! While royal power abounded in champions, for the poor and humble man in Christ there is none that doeth good, no not one. And so Bertellinus, full of grace and fortitude, prostrated himself in prayer, saying: O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me; O Lord my God, in thee have I hoped, save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me. I am become a stranger to my brethren, and there is none that comforteth me; deliver me and set me beside thee, and let the hand of whomsoever thou wilt fight against me. The prayer being ended, he heard a certain voice saying to Bertellinus: Beloved of Christ, fear not: the Lord hath heard thy supplication, the Lord hath received thy prayer.

[10] But when morning came, casting his care upon him an angel appears, who will not suffer the just to waver forever, he met a certain little man — whom I should better call an archangelic strength, as will be plain in what follows — with a small hall and toothless ^f, greeting Bertellinus and saying: Lord, behold, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I am ready for the defense of your right. But Bertellinus, strengthened by divine grace, knowing that the spirit breathes where it wills, not mistrusting because of the smallness of his body, but remembering how the boy David not by the power of the body but by the grace of the pneuma ^g smote ten thousand of the Philistines; nor giving over to forgetfulness that philosophic saying, Do not despise the strength of a small body, answered him, saying: Friend, by the almighty grace of Christ thou art welcome. And blessed Bertellinus, the servant of Jesus Christ, received God's messenger carefully, giving thanks to God. And at the appointed time he brought him forth into the place of the duel: and the crowds, looking on, saw one blacker than an Ethiopian, more terrible than a giant, gnashing with his teeth, and striking for the fight.

[11] But God's messenger, in body a little man, in spirit an archangel, [who in his place overcomes the adversary: Bertellinus' goods are restored to him:] with cheerful countenance awaited him as he insulted. But the horrible giant, leaping forth with a lion's roar, threatened assaults not to be endured ^h: but God's messenger, undaunted, not as it were by the art of boxing, but by an infinite power of strength, being unharmed by the favor of divine grace, becomingly held the huge one, laid low at his feet, crying out and saying with a great voice: Bertellinus, servant of God, have mercy on me. Which being seen, if all the bystanders wonder, let no one wonder, since being unharmed [\] he held the huge one bound by the power of strength: nor was anyone found of so frenzied a head as not to reckon that a divine miracle. Whence all who were there present, except Bertellinus' kinsmen, prostrate at his feet, said: We have sinned; we have acted unjustly, we have done iniquity: holy Father, have mercy on us.* The most blessed Bertellinus therefore being reverently received by the king, all things which had before been confiscated ⁱ were, by the command of that same king, restored to the Man. And so all the men and women of the whole province who feared God, venerating blessed Bertellinus as their spiritual father in his lifetime, loved him in all things.

[12] But the holy one of God, fearing temporal glory and honor, he dies and shines with miracles: went away wandering in desert mountains, like a forest-dweller ^k, where, giving himself to fastings and prayers, and serving God with many vigils, and scorning the vanity of the world, he ended his life on the V of the Ides of September ^l. This is that Servant whom the Lord found watching, to whom he delivered five talents, and he gained other five, and entered into the kingdom of his Lord: which our Lord wonderfully showed in his life, and far more wonderfully after his death by frequent shining miracles, in the place which they now ^m call Stafford: because the Lord granted the desired health, for the love of blessed Bertellinus, to the lame walking, to the mute speech, to the deaf hearing, to the blind sight, and to those with other sicknesses — until a certain man committed a homicide in his church.

[13] a blind man is enlightened. For there was in the town of Stafford a certain man named Willmot, using the trade of a cortuarius ⁿ; this man for many years, nearly XVI, lacked the sight of his eyes; so that he could not go out of his house without a guide going before him. At length, many years having passed, being led to the church of S. Bertellinus in that same town of Stafford for the sake of recovering his health, and kneeling in prayer before the altar of S. Bertellinus, while the priest — then called John Crostiis — offered the Eucharist in the Mass to the supreme Father, the aforesaid blind man, then restored to sight, saw first that venerable Sacrament, giving thanks to the most high God, who for the love of blessed Bertellinus had renewed the ancient miracles. This miracle was wrought in the year of the Lord MCCCLXXXVI ^o. Let us all therefore pray to the clemency of the highest Blessedness that, for the increase of the honor of blessed Bertellinus the confessor, and for the confirmation of our faith and hope, he would deign to make manifest his merits to us by the accustomed miracles, that all who venerate him with devout heart may deserve to receive bodily and spiritual health, and that in whatsoever tribulation, imploring his help, they may by his merits and intercession obtain the saving effect of their petition, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

\ perhaps minimus*