Dorotheus and Gorgonius

ON SS. DOROTHEUS AND GORGONIUS, MARTYRS,

AT NICOMEDIA IN BITHYNIA,

In the year CCCIII.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Dorotheus M. at Nicomedia in Bithynia (S.)

Gorgonius M. at Nicomedia in Bithynia (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. Their memory in the Martyrologies at this day and at the XII of March: the Acts to be published: others plainly fabulous are rejected: the Translation with its miracles to be given.

[ ] The Roman Martyrology commemorates on this day, with the following eulogy, two most celebrated Athletes who in the persecution of Diocletian were crowned with an illustrious martyrdom at Nicomedia: These Saints, who are announced today, At Nicomedia, the passion of the holy martyrs Dorotheus and Gorgonius, who, having attained the most ample honors under Diocletian Augustus, when they detested the persecution which he was bringing upon the Christians, were commanded in his presence first to be hung up and mangled over the whole body with scourges; then, when their inward parts had been stripped of the skin, to be drenched with vinegar and salt, and so to be roasted upon a gridiron, and at the last to be put to death by the noose. But after an interval of time the body of blessed Gorgonius was carried to Rome and laid on the Latin Way, and thence translated into the basilica of St. Peter. Ado and Usuard went before the author of the Roman, of whom the former writes at the same day somewhat more at length in this manner: The passion of the blessed martyrs Dorotheus and Gorgonius at Nicomedia, under the emperor Diocletian. Of these the former, Dorotheus, master in the offices which were performed within the palace, was provost of the royal bedchamber, having with him Gorgonius, his equal in office, in faith and in greatness of soul. By whose excellent instructions almost all the ministers of the bedchamber persisted watchfully and freely in the faith of God. These at length, when they saw a certain martyr tormented with cruel and monstrous punishments, said steadfastly and freely: Why, O emperor, dost thou punish in this man alone an opinion which is strong in us all? Why is that reckoned a crime in him which is confessed by us all? This is our faith, this our worship and unanimous, and the same our opinion.

[2] And when he had nevertheless ordered them to come into the midst, in the Hieronymian they are mentioned at the XII of March. he commanded them to be hung up and mangled with scourges over the whole body, and, when their inward parts had now been stripped of the skin, they are ordered to be drenched with vinegar and salt. And when they had borne even this kind of torment steadfastly and bravely, a gridiron with coals strewn beneath it is ordered to be set in the midst, and there whatever remained of the body consumed with blows to be laid upon it, and to be kindled not suddenly but by slow degrees. At the last he commanded them to be hung up by the noose and put to death. After an interval of time blessed Gorgonius is translated to Rome, and was laid with veneration on the Latin Way between two laurels. And they completed their martyrdom on the fifth of the Ides of September. Usuard has the like, omitting however the last clause about the day of the consummated martyrdom. Whence Ado could have learned these things, we shall say below. Further, our Sollerius in his Usuard rightly doubts whether these holy Martyrs are referred with sufficient fitness to the present day, since they are without doubt the same who are announced together with SS. Peter, Migdonius and several others in the Hieronymian transcripts at the XII day of March. But these suffered either in the month of February, as may be gathered from the things which were said at the VII day of this month of September concerning St. John, likewise crowned at Nicomedia; or certainly in the month of March, in which the Hieronymian announce them.

[3] The Acts to be published are taken from Rufinus, Our predecessors, following the Hieronymian, treated at the aforesaid day of March of the holy Martyrs of Nicomedia, among whom also SS. Dorotheus and Gorgonius are, as I have said, reckoned; yet they gave warning that these two enjoy a solemn and proper veneration at the IX day of September, and therefore they deferred their Acts to the present day. There are extant in our Museum three manuscript codices, marked ✠ Ms. 74, O. Ms. 19 and P. Ms. 19, which exhibit the Acts of SS. Gorgonius and Dorotheus, but very like one another and written by the same author. There are extant also certain other transcripts, one namely from a Reims manuscript codex sent by Fr. Chifflet, another from the manuscript of St. Trond collated with the manuscript of St. Maximin of Trier, and a third finally communicated to us by Fr. Gamans; but these too differ not at all from our codices. The anonymous author of the Acts took them from the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius as turned and interpolated by Rufinus, book 8, chapter 6, and after his own fashion enlarged and commented upon them. Eusebius, book 8, chapter 6, after he has related the martyrdom of St. Peter more fully, touched upon the contest of SS. Dorotheus and Gorgonius in these words only: The martyrdoms of the rest, though in no way inferior, we shall nevertheless omit here for brevity's sake. It will suffice to have related this only, that Dorotheus and Gorgonius, together with several others who ministered in the palace, after contests of every kind (the Greek is μετὰ τοὺς πολυτρόπους ἀγῶνας, after manifold contests) obtained the reward of the divine victory, their throats being crushed by the noose.

[4] and interpolated by an anonymous writer This text of Eusebius Rufinus enlarged in the place cited thus: His (Peter's) instructor in discipline and master in the offices which were performed within the palace was Dorotheus, provost of the king's bedchamber, having with him Gorgonius, his equal in office, in faith and in greatness of soul. Dorotheus therefore and Gorgonius, when they saw Peter tormented with punishments so cruel and monstrous, said steadfastly and freely, Why, O emperor, dost thou punish

in Peter the opinion of the mind which is strong in us all? Why is that reckoned a crime in him which is confessed by us all? This is our faith, this our worship and unanimous and the same our opinion. And when he had none the less ordered them to come into the midst, having afflicted them with almost the like punishments as the former, he commanded them at the last to be hung up by the noose and put to death. Thus Rufinus, taking the Greek words lately cited not incongruously of almost the like punishments. The writer of the Acts followed Rufinus, and wrote that the same torments by which St. Peter is there said to have been tortured were likewise inflicted upon our Martyrs. Nor did Ado do otherwise in the eulogy recited above, which he pieced together entirely out of the words of Rufinus, which treat partly of St. Peter, partly of SS. Dorotheus and Gorgonius, except the last clause concerning the translation made to Rome, which he perhaps learned from the Little Roman.

[5] The praised Acts add besides certain things which are found neither in Eusebius, and enlarged not before the VIII century. nor in Rufinus, nor in Ado: namely that the bodies of the holy Martyrs were cast forth along the roads to be torn by dogs and wolves, but that by the divine will they remained untouched, were honorably laid in the earth by the Christians, and became famous for miracles. Whence the writer learned these things I do not know; but they do not agree well enough with the narrative of Eusebius and Rufinus, as will appear from §3. Finally, at the end of all the transcripts a threefold translation of St. Gorgonius is recorded; and first indeed his body is said to have been translated to Rome; then his relics are related to have been carried by St. Chrodegang, bishop of Metz, to the monastery of Gorze in Gaul, and finally some part of these to Minden in Saxony. The second of these translations was made after the middle of the VIII century, the third at an uncertain time, yet not later than the X century; and consequently the praised Acts are not older than that time, unless one should be willing to suspect without foundation that those translations were afterward added to the Acts. Hence we further learn that whatever is reported in them concerning the martyrdom of SS. Dorotheus and Gorgonius, apart from those things which we read in Eusebius and Rufinus, deserves scant credit; being written, that is, by an author five or six centuries younger than the holy Martyrs. Nevertheless we shall give them, as our predecessors promised, and by due annotations shall distinguish the certain from the uncertain.

[6] From all that has been thus far recounted there is plainly different another transcript, Other fabulous Acts, which I likewise have at hand, marked: From the codex of the Vatican library, no. 6413. This exhibits an altogether different Gorgonius, unknown to all the rest, one who suffered indeed at Nicomedia under Diocletian and Maximian, but who nevertheless died at Rome. That it was fabricated by a fable-monger, and is unworthy of the press, no one who has read it will doubt; wherefore I have thought it enough to set out the chief heads of the matter in a summary. That Saint Gorgonius, famous for remarkable holiness and learning, and divinely furnished with a singular faculty of healing all manner of diseases, was leading many over from the worship of empty gods to the rites of Christ, and was curing by the imposition of hands the lame and the blind, lepers and the possessed, who flocked to him from far and near regions. Hence they offered him royal garments and most ample gifts, which he modestly refused and ordered to be distributed to the needy. While he was doing these things, he was brought before Maximian, who was then staying at Nicomedia, and refusing to sacrifice, is consigned to prison. Led out thence he is tried again, but in vain; wherefore, after his jaws had been bruised, he is thrust back into the workhouse to die. Refreshed on the way by a heavenly voice, and in the prison itself by an angel and a prodigious light, he perceived that he had been wondrously loosed from the chains with which he had been bound.

[7] of which a summary On the next day he is again set before the emperor, who, having again in vain tried the Martyr's constancy, orders lances glowing with fire to be applied to the soles of his feet; but when these were presently quenched by divine power, he pronounced the capital sentence, saying: Bind his hands and feet, and bring a great stone, and place it upon him, and cast him into the deep of the sea. And the ministers did as Diocletian had commanded them (above he has always named Maximian alone) and they laid hold of blessed Gorgonius, and bound the stone upon him, and made a rush, and cast him into the sea. But an angel of the Lord took hold of him, and bore him up like a feather [\] lightly upon the waves of the sea; and blessed Gorgonius himself rejoiced and sang hymns to God, who had deigned to show so great a glory to his servants. And the angel of the Lord brought him to the harbor and left him.* Thus far we have been occupied at Nicomedia; now we must set out for Rome.

[8] is exhibited. But he himself, by the report and revelation of the Lord, was translated to the city of Rome, and there gave himself day and night to readings and prayers; and after a few days he passed joyfully to the Lord. And the people took up his body with hymns and praises, embalmed it with spices, and buried it on the fifth of the Ides of September in the cemetery between two laurels, on the Lavican Way. May he commend us by his prayers to the Lord. Thanks be to God, who has deigned to show so great miracles to his Saints: to him be glory now and always and unto the ages of ages, Amen. Thus far that; things which seem to me the offspring of some writer who, knowing that the body of Gorgonius the martyr of Nicomedia was preserved at Rome between two laurels, pieced together his Acts at his own pleasure; and, in order the more easily to reconcile the Martyr's arena with the place of his burial, wrote that he had suffered at Nicomedia and died at Rome. Assuredly that uncertain writer will never persuade me to believe in that new Gorgonius and in wonderful deeds plainly unknown to all other authors. In the Acts of SS. Indes and Domna in Surius at the XXVI day of December, published from Metaphrastes, St. Gorgonius is said to have been cast into the sea together with St. Peter and Indes, with millstones bound to their necks, and thence taken up by St. Domna by the labor of fishermen; but what credit those Acts deserve will be examined at the day cited: meanwhile see the judgment of our Papebroch, tom. VII of May, pag. 238, lit. d. For my part I think that Gorgonius the same of whom Eusebius and Rufinus treat, but clothed by a tasteless author with those additions which may deservedly be reckoned among the little fables of which Papebroch there complains.

[9] The Translation and miracles to be printed. To the Acts we shall subjoin the Translation of the body or relics of St. Gorgonius from the city of Rome to the monastery of Gorze in Gaul, made after the middle of the VIII century by St. Chrodegang, bishop of Metz, whose Acts were given by us at the VI day of March, where also, pag. 454 and following, this translation was treated of. The author wrote them after the middle of the X century, as is clear from Milo bishop of Metz, who flourished at that time, and to whom he shows himself contemporary. But among those things which he relates to have been done before his own times or in the translation itself, there are some which will not easily find sure credit, as will be plain from the Annotations. He also passed over many miracles done in his own time and under his own eyes, and studied to set forth especially those from which either some advantage had accrued to his monastery of Gorze, or some loss had been averted. That Translation is extant in Mabillon, in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, cent. III, part 2, printed from a manuscript codex of the Remigian library at Reims, and it is nearly conformable to the transcript which we have from the same library, transmitted by Fr. Chifflet, which we shall reprint.

\ pennam*

§ II. St. Gorgonius anciently venerated at Rome: his body translated by Gregory IV into the Vatican basilica: a Mass of the same in the Sacramentary of St. Gelasius.

[ ] It is shown that some Gorgonius at Rome Of St. Dorotheus, besides those things which are reported in the Acts, we have nothing particular to say; but concerning St. Gorgonius certain matters come here to be examined. And first indeed we shall treat of the famous and ancient veneration of some Gorgonius in the city of Rome; secondly we shall inquire whether he is the same as the Nicomedian Martyr, as is asserted in the Martyrologies of Ado and Usuard, and in the present Roman, and also in the Acts; and thirdly and finally we shall treat of the translations of the sacred body or of the relics into Gaul and Saxony, and of their veneration in those places. The most ancient veneration of some St. Gorgonius martyr at Rome is proved by the oldest Martyrologies which are known to exist. Among these the most ancient, that of Bucherius, has thus at the IX day of September: On the fifth of the Ides, of Gorgonius on the Lavican: the Hieronymian of Florentinius at the same day: At Rome, on the Lavican Way, within two laurels, in the cemetery of the same, the birthday of Gorgonius. Nor without doubt did Bede designate any other, who is prefixed in our Work to the second volume of March, where at the same day, without however a place, he says: v of the Ides, the birthday of St. Gregory; for which Sollerius in his Usuard warns that Gorgonius is to be read, as indeed Dominicus Georgius in his annotations to the Martyrology of Ado at this day, and the latest editor of Anastasius the Librarian, tom. 4, pag. LXXXIII, testify is read in the Palatine-Vatican codex 834 and in the Verona codex.

[11] The announcement of the Little Roman of Rosweyde is more doubtful: was anciently venerated on the Lavican Way At Nicomedia, of Dorotheus and Gorgonius martyrs, of whom one, Gorgonius, is translated to Rome. For one cannot tell whether by these words their passion is announced today at Nicomedia, or the translation of Gorgonius at Rome. For the former stands both the tenor of the words, and the suspicion arising from this, that the author of the Martyrology does not announce those Martyrs with the other martyrologists at the XII day of March, on which he commemorates St. Peter, their companion. But the latter is made more likely both by the Calendars just recounted, and by the veneration which he anciently obtained at Rome on account of his body having been translated thither, as it appears. I judge therefore that by the reported words of the Martyrology the veneration which was rendered to St. Gorgonius on the V of the Ides of September is primarily designated, but secondarily Nicomedia, as the arena in which both he and Dorotheus contended. However it be, they do not seem to have suffered on this day, as we have already noted at num. 2.

[12] or perhaps on the Latin Way Among the martyrologists who announce St. Gorgonius today at Rome, some place his sepulcher on the Lavican or Labican Way, others on the Latin Way. The Lavican is assigned by the most ancient of Bucherius, the Hieronymian of Florentinius, and the Roman Breviary published by order of Pope Pius V and printed at Antwerp from the Plantin press in the year 1569, in which at the present day is read: The body of St. Gorgonius, at one time carried to Rome, was buried between two laurels on the Lavican Way. On the contrary for the Latin stand Ado and Usuard, the present Roman Martyrology and the more recent Roman Breviaries, in which for the Lavican Way has been substituted the Latin Way. The same way is likewise noted by all our transcripts of the Acts, as also by the Acts in the Vatican codex, on the testimony of Paolo Aringhi, Roma subterranea, tom. 2, book 4, chap. 6. Concerning both ways the praised Aringhi may be consulted, chaps. 1 and 8: here however it must be inquired in which of the two the Saint had his tomb. The matter would be more doubtful if the way alone were named in

the aforesaid Calendars and Acts; but since most of them, whether they mark the Latin or the Lavican Way, expressly add between two laurels, I have a strong suspicion that with the most ancient Martyrologies of Bucherius and the Hieronymian, and with the older Roman Breviary, we ought to read on the Lavican Way. For it is very well known that the cemetery between two laurels was situated on the Lavican Way.

[13] between two laurels. Hence Florentinius in his Annotations to the Hieronymian suspects, not altogether idly, that in the older codices it was perhaps written, as of a place commonly very well known, Way L., which some interpreted the Latin Way, others more rightly the Lavican Way. But Aringhi in chap. 6 judges it not improbable that a place of the same name existed of old on the Latin Way also. For thus he says: But although the place which is called BETWEEN TWO LAURELS exists without doubt on the Lavican Way, … nevertheless it is not altogether improbable that on the Latin Way too there existed some place called by a name of this kind, where a good number of trees of that sort stood. So he, who places the Saint's tomb on the Latin Way also. But this is only a conjecture, formed from the martyrologists and Acts adduced, which is besides confirmed by no testimony of the ancients; and therefore it cannot settle the present controversy, since the older Martyrologies and the common knowledge of the place between two laurels cry out against it. Yet since the most eminent Baronius, well versed indeed in Roman antiquities, judged in his Martyrology that the Latin Way should be retained with Ado and Usuard, and since the revisers of the Roman Breviary in the later editions substituted the same for the Lavican, I leave this controversy to the judgment of the learned.

[14] Verses inscribed on the tomb by St. Damasus. More certain are the things which Aringhi subjoins in the same place concerning the verses inscribed in the IV century by St. Damasus the Pope upon the Martyr's tomb, whether it were on the Lavican or the Latin Way: That a cemetery existed in the same place where the body of St. Gorgonius was laid is proved plainly enough by a certain stone, which St. Damasus inscribed upon his monument with verses composed in a most pious manner, which to this very day is to be seen in the title of Equitius, or the church of blessed Martin in the mountains, together with several other sepulchral inscriptions which happened to be transferred thither from the cemeteries, of the following tenor.

> This tomb of a martyr beneath the great summit of the mountain > holds Gorgonius, who keeps the altars of Christ. > Whoever comes hither, let him seek the thresholds of the Saints, > He will find the Blessed dwelling in a neighboring seat, > whom piety bore alike to heaven as they went. > > Of Damasus the bishop.

The same epigram, which is commonly understood of our St. Gorgonius, may be read in the Annals of Baronius at the year 384, num. 5, as also among the Works of St. Damasus published by Marzio Milesio Sarazani.

[15] In this cemetery the sacred body of the Martyr lay in part until after the middle of the VIII century, The body is translated by Pope Gregory IV in which we shall say at §4 that a great portion of it was translated into Gaul, and in part until the IX century, in which what remained of it was honorably brought by Pope Gregory IV into the basilica of St. Peter the prince of the Apostles. So the Roman Breviary teaches, which at the IX day of September has thus: The body of St. Gorgonius, at one time carried to Rome, was buried between two laurels on the Latin Way (in the older it is on the Lavican Way), and afterward, under Gregory the Fourth, supreme Pontiff, was translated into the basilica of the Prince of the Apostles. These things are drawn from Anastasius the Librarian, a writer of the same century, in the Life of Gregory IV, whose words I transfer hither. And since he was then kindled with divine love, he took the body of blessed Gregory (the first of that name), Prelate of this universal Church, through whom the grace of the Holy Spirit brought in over the whole world the inextinguishable gift of wisdom, from the place of burial [\] where it had been before, and brought it with the highest honor not far from it into another newly constructed within the church of blessed Peter the Apostle, and adorned its sacred altar on every side with silver plates, and titled the oratory with his holy name, and painted the apse of the same with gilded mosaic. Into which oratory, namely, he brought the bodies of the Saints, of the blessed martyrs Sebastian, Gorgonius and Tiburtius, from the cemeteries in which they before lay, and placed each of them upon separate altars. For whom finally in the time of his Pontificate he decreed that the monks who are appointed to discharge the Office in the church of blessed Peter the Apostle should not cease on all days to sing praises there to the almighty Lord.*

[16] And he offered in the same oratory larger veils, or eighteen small silken ones. Vestments over the altar beneath which the body of the most holy Gregory rests, three: one with a chrysoclave in the margin: into the Vatican church: (purple with gold) bearing a history … and over each altar of the aforesaid Martyrs one vestment of fundatum (it is a certain kind of cloth). Finally three images above, silvered and also overlaid with gold, bearing the countenance of the Lord and of those depicted whose particular bodies, buried there, are mighty in miracles and virtues. The most eminent Baronius at the year 827, num. 33, thinks that the aforesaid translation of St. Gregory was accomplished in the first year of the Pontificate of Gregory IV, and therefore refers to that year the things which we have just now reported from Anastasius. And he seems to judge thus because the praised Anastasius writes that Gregory, immediately upon his election and consecration, turned the mind of his prelacy to the restoring of churches; and that first indeed he raised up from the foundations the temple of St. Saturninus the martyr outside the Salarian gate, which had fallen through age, and that the same man, while that was being completed, took care that the oratory of St. Gregory should be built and the rest that we have said. But these things do not prove that they were accomplished in the year 827, after the middle of which he was elected Pontiff.

[17] but it is uncertain in what year. Of the same translation of St. Gregory John the deacon treats, likewise a writer of that century, in book 4 of the Life of St. Gregory I, in our work at the XII day of March, pag. 205, num. 80; but designating no certain time, he only notes that it happened after very many years from his death. But in the Annotations it is observed that in the printed text there is wrongly read after about fifty years, since between the death of that holy Pontiff, that is the year 604, up to the beginning of the Pontificate of Gregory IV, 223 years elapsed. The most eminent Baronius in the place cited, num. 35, reads after about two hundred and fifty years, and notes in the margin two hundred and twenty: but the first of these reckonings leads to the year 854, in which Gregory IV had already been dead nearly six years, and the second to the year 824, in which he had not yet been raised to the chair of St. Peter. And so we cannot determine the certain year of the translation of St. Gregory, and consequently neither of Gorgonius, whether it happened in the same year, or one or another later. For the rest, that the body of the same holy Martyr was in his own time also laid up in the Vatican basilica in the confession of St. Gregory, the praised most eminent Annalist testifies at the year 764. The same Sarazani asserts of his own century, that is the XVII, in his Annotations to the epigram of Damasus recited above, adding that his relics are exhibited there to the people on the second feria of Easter. To these are added Aringhi in the Roma subterranea, book 4, chap. 6, and Carlo Bartolomeo Piazza in the Hemerologium sacrum Romanum, part 2, at the IX day of September. But in what manner all these things can stand with the translation made into Gaul in the VIII century, we shall say at §4.

[18] The Saint's Mass in the Sacramentary of Gelasius. Another document of the Saint's ancient veneration in the city of Rome we have from the Sacramentary of the Roman Church which is ascribed to St. Gelasius I, and was published by Giuseppe Tomasi from the codex of the most serene Queen of Sweden, who permitted it to be made public. In this Sacramentary, book 2, which is entitled Prayers and supplications for the birthdays of the Saints, the following are read for the Mass of St. Gorgonius:

On the birthday of Saint Gurgonius, v of the Ides of September.

May Saint Gurgonius, O Lord, gladden us by his intercession, and make us rejoice in a holy solemnity. Through our Lord.

May the offering of our service be pleasing to thee, O Lord, for which Saint Gurgonius the martyr intercedes. Through.

May that sweetness reach and quicken thy family, O God, whereby in thy martyr Gurgonius it may be continually fed with the good odor of thy Christ. Through our Lord.

From these it is clear that in the V century, in which St. Gelasius flourished, a Mass of St. Gorgonius was wont to be celebrated at Rome. Further, St. Gregory I compressed the Gelasian codex on the solemnities of Masses into the volume of a single book, withdrawing much, altering a few things, adding some for the setting forth of the Gospel lessons, says John the deacon in the Life of this Saint, in our work tom. 2 of March, pag. 150, num. 17. This Gregorian codex Hugh Ménard published, and after him the Benedictines of the Congregation of St. Maur in tom. 3 of the Works of St. Gregory: but in it the aforesaid prayers are not found; they note however that in the published Vatican text there is read after the feast of St. Hadrian: V of the Ides of September, the birthday of St. Gorgonius mart.; and that this reading is favored by the manuscript codex of Jumièges, as also by another of the monastery of St. Thierry near Reims, which they judge to have been written at the end of the VIII century or the beginning of the IX; Ménard too in his Observations notes that the same things are found in the codex of Ratoldus, whom he sets down as having died in the year 986. Let these things concerning the Saint's veneration among the Romans suffice.

\ al. sepultum al.* sepulturæ

§ III. The Gorgonius venerated at Rome seems the same as the Nicomedian martyr, whose body is defended to have been translated to Rome.

[ ] There are set forth the reasons which, against certain writers, From what has been said it is manifest that some holy Gorgonius was anciently venerated at Rome: and that he indeed is the Nicomedian martyr, the Roman Breviary hands down, and the same is judged by Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, cent. 3, part 2, pag. 204, by Sarazani in his Annotations to the Works of St. Damasus, by the often-praised Aringhi, and by others: whom all the martyrologists favor who record that the body of Gorgonius was translated from Nicomedia to Rome. But Tillemont, tom. 5 of the Monuments of Ecclesiastical History, annotation 6, although he defines nothing, yet seems to incline to believe that the Gorgonius venerated at Rome was another than the Nicomedian Martyr. Tillemont was followed by Baillet in the Lives of the Saints, tom. 3, writing however somewhat more confidently, and calling that translation pretended. Florentinius likewise doubts, in the Hieronymian Martyrology, and Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology. Sollerius however in his Usuard deferred this question to the present day.

[20] But to me, although I confess that nothing certain can be settled, persuade that the Gorgonius venerated at Rome it appears more probable that St. Gorgonius, who is established from what has been said to be venerated today at Rome, is no other than the Nicomedian Martyr, who is commemorated in the Hieronymian at the XII day of March together with his Companions. The reason is that none of the arguments which are opposed to this opinion compels us, against the authority of the ancient Martyrologies and of the Roman Breviary, to invent another Gorgonius plainly unknown to all the rest. Certainly the Little Roman of Rosweyde teaches this expressly, when at this day it has thus: At Nicomedia, of Dorotheus

and Gorgonius martyrs, of whom one, Gorgonius, is translated to Rome. There is no doubt that he treats of that Gorgonius who on that day was venerated at Rome. But at the XII of March, on which the martyrdom of St. Gorgonius and his Companions at Nicomedia is celebrated by the other martyrologists, he announces Peter alone, yet studiously gives notice that the same was a comrade of SS. Dorotheus and Gorgonius. Take his words: At Nicomedia, of Peter the martyr, comrade of Dorotheus and Gorgonius the martyrs. Why, I ask, did he not announce along with Peter his two comrades, except because the author judged them the very same whom, on account of the translation of one, he wished to refer to the IX of September? Why also, while he celebrates St. Peter alone, does he so studiously mention his Comrades, except because these were known and famous at Rome on account of the translation of St. Gorgonius, and therefore the mention of them could impart esteem to him? It was otherwise with Peter, of whom for that reason, I think, he makes no mention while he treats of these at the present day.

[21] is the Nicomedian Martyr. Ado and Usuard judged the Little Roman should be imitated, who at the XII of March referred Peter alone, but Dorotheus and Gorgonius, with a summary of their martyrdom taken from elsewhere, and with mention likewise made from their Acts of the translation of Gorgonius, to this day, as was shown at num. 1 and 2. After an interval of time, says Ado, blessed Gorgonius is translated to Rome, and was laid with veneration on the Latin Way between two laurels. Usuard has the same, omitting however the words between two laurels. But it must be observed that the authority of the Little Roman is of no small weight in this controversy: for it cannot be denied that Gorgonius, of whom the most ancient Martyrology of Bucherius makes mention, was famous at Rome, as is plain from the verses of Damasus, the Sacramentary of Gelasius, and the honorable translation made by Gregory IV. Hence it does not become likely enough that that same Martyr was in the VIII century of so obscure a name there that the author of the Little Roman, who then wrote, had need to fetch him by a fictitious translation from Nicomedia to Rome, and thus, from a Roman martyr, as some will have it, to make a Nicomedian one. Would not the author of the Martyrology, who was composing it for the use of the Roman church, rather have assigned Rome to him as his arena, for the gratification of the Romans, if there had then been any doubt about the matter? The same seems to have been the opinion in the IX century, in which we said the Saint's body was translated by Gregory IV; since at that time, about thirty years after the aforesaid translation, Ado wrote, who expressly testifies that that Gorgonius is the Nicomedian martyr.

[22] Answer is made to the objections of Tillemont Now let us see what others oppose to our opinion. The praised Tillemont takes his chief argument from Eusebius, who in book 8 of the Ecclesiastical History, chap. 6, in Valois' rendering, after relating the martyrdom of SS. Peter, Dorotheus, Gorgonius and others, thus continues concerning the impiety of Diocletian and Maximian: But the bodies also of the royal chamberlains, which after death had been given a fitting burial, their own lawful masters judged ought to be dug up out of the sepulcher and cast into the sea, lest anyone, reckoning them, laid in their tombs, as gods, as they at least supposed, should thereafter adore them. Hence Tillemont reasons somewhat thus: It cannot be doubted that Eusebius signifies that the bodies of St. Gorgonius, whom above he had numbered among the ministers of the court, and of others, were cast into the sea. It is also certain that it is nowhere handed down by the same writer that his body or those of his companions were brought forth from thence; whence he thinks it must be said that the body of St. Gorgonius of Nicomedia could not have been translated to Rome, and that therefore that which is read to have been laid and honored on the Lavican Way belongs to another. He adds that Rufinus records nothing either of the body rescued from the sea, or of its being translated to Rome, although he could have known that some holy Gorgonius was held in sacred veneration at Rome in his own time.

[23] from Eusebius. So it is: Eusebius' judgment is that the bodies of the royal chamberlains, dug up from their sepulchers, were cast into the sea by the emperors' command, as Rufinus also interpreted the same passage in these words: But to such a degree did the madness of cruelty blaze up among them, that when the royal servants who had been made martyrs had been consigned to burial according to the order of humanity, they dug them up again and cast their bodies into the sea. But these things do not prove that the often-mentioned translation of St. Gorgonius is to be held fictitious. For neither does Eusebius assert that that decision of the Augusti was carried into execution in the case of Gorgonius also; much less does he deny that his body was drawn up out of the sea. It could therefore have happened that that sacred pledge had already been taken from the tomb by the faithful before that impious mandate went forth, or was ransomed from the officers with their money, or was drawn out of the sea by religious care, as we read to have happened more than once by divine providence in the case of the remains of other martyrs. Nor does the silence of Eusebius stand against these things, who, being wholly occupied there in setting forth the monstrous ferocity of the Augusti and in enumerating the martyrdoms which were then being heaped up in the East, did not set forth every circumstance so accurately that he must be judged to have omitted nothing.

[24] But that I may not seem to have said this gratuitously, in that very chapter, after the contest of Peter has been narrated, he thus continues: by Rufinus, The martyrdoms of the rest, though in no way inferior, we shall nevertheless omit here for brevity's sake. It will suffice to have related this only, that Dorotheus and Gorgonius, together with several others who ministered in the palace, after contests of every kind, obtained the reward of the divine victory, their throats being crushed by the noose. What wonder if he passed over the pious care of the faithful for preserving the Martyr's body, who touched but lightly, for brevity's sake, upon the remarkable contest of two illustrious Men, and wholly omitted the martyrdom of several others who likewise ministered in the court? But in which of the two ways the sacred remains of the Martyr were preserved, and whether they were really cast into the sea, I do not divine: it suffices to have shown that they could, with the authority of Eusebius and Rufinus left intact, have been preserved and afterward carried to Rome. But neither shall we greatly wonder at that translation, if we consider that Gorgonius was among the chief ministers of the court, and perhaps a Roman and very well known at Rome. Certainly Eusebius calls him most celebrated, when in book 8, chap. 1, treating of the illustrious ministers of the court and those who stood out above the rest, he writes: Of such a sort was that Dorotheus, who declared the highest good will and fidelity toward them (the Christians), and for that cause deserved great honor above all magistrates and governors of provinces. To him must be joined that most celebrated Gorgonius etc. That translation therefore could have been procured either by kinsmen whom he perhaps had at Rome, or by the rest of the Roman faithful on account of his remarkable services to the Christian commonwealth. Further, the silence of Rufinus, which is besides objected by Tillemont, proves nothing; since he acts only as the interpreter of Eusebius, and so was not bound to insert into his Work every particular that he knew about the veneration of the holy Martyrs.

[25] Next Tillemont objects Wandelbert, a writer of the IX century, drawn from Wandelbert and the verses of St. Damasus. who in his metrical Martyrology expressly, as he thinks, asserts that St. Gorgonius, who is celebrated at Rome on the IX of September, suffered also at Rome. I subjoin the words of Wandelbert as they are read in the Spicilegium of d'Achery reprinted at Paris in the year 1723:

> Gorgonius holds the fifth by fame and merits, > whom Gaul, venerating him now, claims as having suffered at Rome.

Or, as it is asserted to be read there also:

> whom Gaul now, adoring, claims as having suffered at Rome.

Finally, from the verses inscribed on the Saint's tomb by Damasus, which we recited at num. 13, he lays down that the companions of the Gorgonius venerated at Rome were buried there along with him, and that hence it may seem that these martyrs are distinct from the Nicomedian ones. As regards Wandelbert, nothing certain can be laid down from him. For first, our Sollerius in his Usuard and Luc d'Achery in tom. 5 of the earlier Paris edition of the Spicilegium, that namely of the year 1661, punctuate those verses altogether otherwise, in this manner:

> Gorgonius holds the fifth by fame and merits > at Rome; whom Gaul, venerating him now, claims as having suffered.

If it is to be read thus, it is manifest that Rome is assigned by Wandelbert not as the arena but as the place of veneration, and that passum is used for the word martyr. Secondly, Wandelbert's authority is here objected in vain, since he is a whole century later than the author of the Little Roman and more remote from the place of veneration. From the verses of Damasus it can at most be concluded that companion martyrs were buried in a neighboring seat; but that these were the companions of Gorgonius is not even hinted.

[26] Baillet's arguments are refuted Besides these, Baillet objects certain other things, but of far less moment. Of this kind are, that already from the IV century, at whose beginning the Nicomedian Martyr was crowned, some Gorgonius had rested at Rome on the Lavican Way between two laurels, and that his feast on the IX day of September is read as inserted in the most ancient Roman Martyrology, that namely of Bucherius, composed in the time of Liberius. He judges also that the Hieronymian and the Martyrologies of Bede and Rabanus favor him; because the former two announce Gorgonius without companions at Rome on this day, and the latter, though it joins many companions to him, yet reckons none among them of those who are alleged to be companions of the Nicomedian Martyr. Hence he is of opinion that the Office which is set forth in the most ancient Sacramentary of St. Gelasius was written for the Roman St. Gorgonius, and that when the use of that Office had fallen into disuse through the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, and had afterward been renewed, then to the ancient prayers of the Roman St. Gorgonius there were added lessons about the Nicomedian Martyr of the same name.

[27] his arguments, But Baillet cites the Hieronymian and Bede wrongly for a Roman arena: for in the most ancient of Florentinius the place of veneration, not the arena, is assigned to Rome: At Rome, he says, on the Lavican Way, within two laurels, in the cemetery of the same, the birthday of Gorgonius: but the genuine Bede, omitting the place both of the contest and of the veneration, has only: V of the Ides, the birthday of St. Gorgonius. Who shall hammer out from this a Roman arena for the Saint? Nor does it matter that they record Gorgonius without companions: for he alone was venerated at Rome, on account of the body translated thither. But in Rabanus he looks in vain for Dorotheus or any other of the companions of the Nicomedian Gorgonius: for he here repeats again, and wrongly announces at Rome, the forty martyrs who suffered at Sebaste in Armenia, among whom one is a Gorgonius, and whom he had already commemorated at the IX day of March, as will be plain to one who compares Rabanus with our Acts at the X day of March. Finally, what he adds about lessons of Gorgonius the Nicomedian Martyr having been added by error to the ancient prayers after the times of St. Gregory I, is Baillet's conjecture, resting on no other reasons than those we have already discussed.

[28] and certain others. To the argument which might be sought from this, that the body of St. Gorgonius the Nicomedian Martyr is said in the Acts and in certain Martyrologies to have been deposited on the Latin Way, while in others, as also in the most ancient of Bucherius, the Gorgonius venerated at Rome is announced today on the Lavican Way, we have answered at num. 12 and 13. In the Martyrology of Fulda, which Dominicus Georgius subjoined to that of Ado, and which he thinks was written in the X century, there is today a peculiar announcement conceived in these words:

v of the Ides. At Rome, the birthday of Saint Gorgonius the martyr. On the same day, of the saints Dorotheus and Gorgonus, at Nicomedia under the emperor Diocletian etc. There is no doubt that the author of the praised Martyrology acknowledges two martyrs in this place, namely Gorgonius and Gorgonus, and assigns one of them to Rome, the other to Nicomedia: but since the same writer, after recounting the same torments which we have already reported from others, presently adds: The body of blessed Gorgonus, after an interval of time, is translated to Rome, it is clear enough that he wrongly pulled Gorgonius apart into two, and made a Gorgonius and a Gorgonus. From what has been said I conclude that nothing has thus far been adduced which compels us to depart from the Little Roman Martyrology, from Ado, Usuard, the present Roman Breviary and Martyrology, and the Acts, so as to believe that some Gorgonius who suffered at Rome, unknown to all writers, was anciently venerated at Rome on this day and is today announced.

§ IV. A part of the body is carried by St. Chrodegang bishop of Metz from Rome into Gaul and deposited in the monastery of Gorze: the remaining matters pertaining to the same relics.

[ ] The body is translated by St. Chrodegang bishop of Metz Frequent among the chronologists is the mention of the translated body of St. Gorgonius, which St. Godegrandus or Chrodegang bishop of Metz carried from Rome into Gaul together with the bodies of SS. Nabor and Nazarius. Paul the deacon of Friuli, in his book on the Bishops of the church of Metz, written at the entreaties of Angilram, who had immediately succeeded St. Chrodegang in the episcopate, has these words: He (Chrodegang) finally sought from Paul the Roman Pontiff three bodies of holy Martyrs, that is, of B. Gorgonius, which rests at Gorze, and of B. Nabor, which is laid up in the monastery of Hilariacum, and of B. Nazarius, which he placed beyond the river Rhine in the monastery which is called Lorsch, having built a basilica of wonderful beauty in honor of that martyr. The time of this translation various Chronicles mark, of which I produce a few. The Masciacensian Annals of the Franks, carried from the year 726 to 796, in Labbe's Bibliotheca Ms. tom. 2, speak thus: DCCLXV. There came the bodies of the saints from the city of Rome into France, Gorgonius, Naborius and Nazarius. The Petavian Annals, woven from the year 708 to 800, in Duchesne, tom. 2 of the writers of French History: DCCLXV. And there came the bodies of the saints from the city of Rome into France, of Gorgonius, Nabor, Nazarius. The same year the Fulda Annals note, from the year 714 to 900, in the praised Duchesne: DCCLXV. Hruodgangus bishop of the city of Metz asked from Paul, the Apostolic of the Roman See, the bodies of the holy martyrs Gorgonius, Nabor and Nazarius, and obtained them, and brought them with honor from the city of Rome and translated them into France. And again: DCCLXVI. He laid the body of Saint Gorgonius in his own monastery, which he himself had built anew, whose name is Gorze; Saint Nabor in another monastery, which is called Nova-cella; but Saint Nazarius in the monastery of Lorsch, which is in Germany; in which places they live in miracles and glory.

[30] to the monastery of Gorze in Gaul: To these is added Hermann Contractus in his Chronicle, writing at the year 765: The bodies of the saints Gorganius, Nabor and Nazarius are carried into France. Lambert of Hersfeld, On the deeds of the Germans: DCCLXV. Bishop Ruotgangus brought the bodies of the saints Gorgonius, Nabor and Nazarius from Rome. Marianus Scotus refers the same translation, omitting however Gorgonius, likewise to this year, speaking thus: In this year Ruggandus archbishop of Metz translated the bodies of the saints Nabor and Nazarius from the city of Rome into France. Finally the monk of Gorze in the history of the Translation, which he wrote in the X century, and which we shall give below, expressly says that he placed the Blessed … Gorgonius, whom he had premised that he had brought from Rome, with himself in the place which is called Gorze, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord seven hundred and sixty-five. Among all these there is right agreement about the year of the translation: but Sigebert in his Chronicle assigns the year 764: DCCLXIV, he says, Chrodogandus translated the bodies of the martyrs Gorgonius, Nabor, Nazarius from Rome to the Gauls: and Gorgonius indeed he laid at Gorze, Nabor at Hilliriacum, but Nazarius in the monastery of Lorsch. What is to be judged concerning this discrepancy, we shall presently see.

[31] the memory of this translation Nor is that translation unknown to the martyrologists. Rabanus at the XII of June mentions it thus: At Rome on the Aurelian Way, at the V milestone, the passion of the martyr Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius; of whom Nabor and Nazarius, together with Gorgon (or Gorgonius) the martyr, Hruocgangus bishop of Metz translated from Rome into Gaul, with the permission of Paul the Roman Pope, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation DCCLXV, and the aforesaid bishop placed S. Gorgon in the monastery which is called Gorze etc. Rabanus was followed by Notker, and by Molanus in the Supplements to Usuard. In our manuscript Florarium mention is made of it also at the VI day of March, on occasion of St. Chrodegang, of whom it is there said: He translated the bodies of the holy martyrs Gorgonius, Nabor and Nazarius from Rome to the Gauls in the year of Salvation DCCLXIV. Further, the day on which the sacred relics of Gorgonius were received in the monastery of Gorze was the XII of March, as we learn from tom. 1 of that month, where at the VI day, in the Acts of St. Chrodegang, it is said from the ancient monuments of Gorze: St. Godegrandus brought the body (of St. Gorgonius) to Gorze in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord DCCLXV, in the third Indiction, on the fourth of the Ides of March. On the same day Grevenus in the Supplements to Usuard says: Likewise near Metz, the Translation of Saint Gorgonius the martyr. Similarly the author of the German Martyrology ascribed to Canisius: Likewise near Metz the translation of the holy martyr Gorgonius. Wherefore I do not know whence Baillet learned that that reception took place on the XI of March: perhaps he judged so because, as he says, the feast of the Reception was celebrated at Gorze on that day: but this could have come about because the XII day was hindered by the feast of St. Gregory I the Pope.

[32] in the Martyrologies. There is added Ferrari in his General Catalogue, following the aforesaid Martyrology; but Saussay in the Supplement to his Gallican writes thus: At Metz, the receiving of the bodies of the holy martyrs Gorgonius, Nabor and Nazarius, which blessed Godegrandus, prelate of Metz, having set out to Rome a second time, received as a sacred gift from Paul the First, Pope, and thence brought into Gaul to his own see; but afterward, for their better veneration, he so distributed each of them that he carried the sacred pledges of Gorgonius to the monastery of Gorze, to be preserved with perpetual veneration; placed the honorable remains of Nabor in the monastery which he built in his memory on the estate of Hilariacum; and worthily laid up the venerable spoils of Nazarius in the abbey of Lorsch beyond the Rhine. Nevertheless he willed the venerable head of Gorgonius to remain at Metz in the cathedral temple, where to this very day it is preserved with great reverence. Saussay therefore judged that on the XII day of March the reception of the three martyrs' bodies took place at Metz, not that of St. Gorgonius at Gorze; but that the latter must be said is clear from what has been said. But what he says about the head of St. Gorgonius being preserved at Metz in the cathedral church, we shall examine below.

[33] Further, since some attach the translation or reception of the sacred pledges to the year 764, That translation was made others commonly to the year 765, and some indeed to the years 765 and 766, it must here be inquired first of all to what year it is to be referred. Those of these who set down the year 764 can easily be reconciled with those who assign the year 765: easily, I say, can they be reconciled by saying that the former began the year from Easter, the latter from January. For Easter in the year 765 fell on the XIV day of April, but the reception of the relics, as we have shown, took place at Gorze on the XII of March, a day which, according to the different manner of beginning the year, belonged to either year. And that Sigebert and the author of the Florarium, by whom the translation is fixed to the year 764, began the year from Easter, becomes likely from this, that the same writers refer the death of St. Chrodegang to the year 765, whereas that Saint is said by others to have died, and really did die, in the year 766, on the VI of March, which day could likewise be reckoned to either year, Easter then falling on the VI of April. If this explanation please anyone less, he can say that the praised authors assigned the year 764 because those sacred pledges were then in fact translated from Rome, although they did not reach the monastery of Gorze in the same year, as will be plain from what follows.

[34] The Fulda Annals, which say that the sacred relics were indeed carried into Gaul in the year 765, in the year 765, but were first deposited at Gorze in the year 766 by the same holy Chrodegang, must be corrected: for it is established that they were received at Gorze on the XII of March, but that holy Chrodegang died on the VI day of the same month of the year 766: and so he could not have laid them there on the XII of March of the same year. Faulty too are the reckonings of Hugh of Flavigny in the Verdun Chronicle, where at the year 765 he writes the following: There were carried from the city of Rome by the venerable Godegrandus archbishop of Metz the bodies of the saints Gorgonius, Nabor and Nazarius, granted to him by Paul the Pope, the successor of Stephen, in the ninth year of his Papacy, and in the following year both departed from the world, in the fifth Indiction; and Godegrandus is venerated, entombed in the monastery which is called Gorze, which he himself had built, where afterward the body of saint Gorgonius was placed in the fourth year after his death, that is in the year of the Lord's Incarnation DCCLXVIII, his sons Carloman and Charles reigning after Pippin. Faulty, I say, are these reckonings: for first, in the year 765, to which he rightly attaches the translation, on the XII of March there was running only the VIII year of the Pontificate of St. Paul I, who was substituted for Stephen when the latter died on the XXVI day of April of the year 757. Secondly, St. Chrodegang did indeed die in the next year after the translation, that is 766, but not St. Paul, who died first in the year 767, in the fifth Indiction as he notes. Thirdly, St. Chrodegang himself deposited the body of St. Gorgonius at Gorze. Finally, the year of Christ 768, with Carloman and Charles already reigning, that is in the month of September or October, was not the fourth from the holy bishop's death, but the third.

[35] by St. Chrodegang, Another difficulty is here raised by a fragment of the Chronicle of Lorsch in the often-praised Duchesne, tom. 3: for while the other monuments everywhere hand down that the sacred pledges of the three Martyrs were translated by Chrodegang himself from Rome into Gaul, that expressly affirms that this was indeed done at his request, but through legates, and that Willihar bishop of Sion was the one who translated them. Take the words: The reverend pontiff Rutgangus … meanwhile, having sent legates to the Apostolic See, for whose deliverance from the oppression of Aistulf king of the Lombards he had labored with much insistence, sought from Pope Paul the bodies of holy Martyrs, in whose honor he might consecrate the churches of monasteries built by himself. Whose devotion and merit toward the Roman Church the Apostolic Pontiff, following up with due favor, transmitted to him saint Nazarius, Nabor and Gorgonius, carried by Willihar bishop of Sion to the monastery of Gorze. Then when the circle of the year had rolled by, in the church

of Gorze he placed saint Gorgonius, in the church of Hilariacum saint Nabor. These Annals were followed by Jacques Longueval of the Society of Jesus, in his History of the Gallican church, written in French, tom. 4, at the year 765, pag. 444.

[36] who himself had brought the sacred body, received from St. Paul the Pope, But Mabillon in his Annals at the year 765, num. 6, observes the following: This opinion is favored by the fact that, since Chrodegang was present at the assembly of Attigny, held a little after the Easter of this year, he could hardly himself have procured this translation in the same year. Although, since this is said in the Gorze monuments to have taken place on the IV of the Ides of March, the bishop could have returned from his Roman journey in good time to be present at that assembly. Further, there is the same difficulty concerning Willihar bishop of Sion, if he is the same as Wilicarius the bishop from the monastery of saint Maurice, who likewise was present at that assembly. But nothing hinders one from holding that they are two; since it is little likely that Wilicarius the bishop resigned the see of Vienne in order to take up the government of another church. But of these things let each judge as he pleases. However, Le Cointe, tom. 5 of the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, at the year 765, num. 56, does not hesitate to give credit rather to Rabanus, the Annalist of Fulda, the monk of Gorze, Marianus Scotus, Sigebert of Gembloux, the monuments of Gorze, etc.: for of all these none says that this was done by legates or by Willihar bishop of Sion, nay some expressly ascribe it to St. Chrodegang: and although some of them could be conveniently explained away, that opinion cannot be reconciled with the author of the Translation, as will become manifest to the reader. Nor does any strength accrue to it from the authority of the praised Fragment of the Chronicle, since its author is perhaps much younger than the author of the Translation, seeing that he reaches to the end of the reign of Henry the Fowler, and certainly lived after some of the Ottos: for near the end of the fragment is read: After king Conrad, a general assembly of the princes having been held, Henry surnamed the Saxon, son of Otto duke of Saxony, is raised to the kingdom; from whom the divine genealogy of the Ottos proceeded. But how far he carried his Chronicle, since it is mutilated, I do not care to divine.

[37] Nor does Mabillon's observation hinder us at all from following, with Le Cointe, the author of the Translation and the rest of those recounted without any scruple. from Rome And this I show thus from the praised writer of the Translation. He writes that St. Chrodegang, having set out for Rome, asked from Paul the Roman Pontiff some pledges of the Saints, and obtained the bodies of SS. Gorgonius, Nabor and Nazarius; and that, when he was making for Gaul with these, he lodged on the way in the Agaunian monastery of St. Maurice, which was situated in the Valais, whose monks, having secretly opened the casket and craftily closed it again, stole the sacred pledges. Then he adds that Chrodegang, having discovered the fraud of the Agaunians, complained to Pippin of the injury done him, and received from him this reply: The horrid winter now impending forbids attempting anything: when the winter is past, take your brothers the co-bishops, of Trier, of Verdun, of Toul, and a duke of the kingdom, and go to the aforesaid place, commanding that what is yours be restored to you. If he shall despise this, take saint Maurice with his Companions and hasten back to your country, rejoicing to have them. It was done as the king had commanded, and there was a return to saint Maurice with a strong hand; and thus the recovered relics were brought to Gorze in the year, as he had premised, 765, and that on the XII of March, as we have shown above.

[38] Everyone sees that some of these things happened in the year 764, In the immediately preceding year. some in 765, and that holy Chrodegang was already back in Gaul toward the end of the former year or the beginning of the latter, whence, when the winter was past, he returned to the Agaunians, and translated thence to Gorze the recovered sacred relics, where they were deposited on the XII of March in the year 765. Now the assembly of Attigny was held only after Easter, as Le Cointe shows at the year 765, num. 1, and Mabillon confesses: and since Easter in that year fell on the XIV of April, it is at any rate clear that St. Chrodegang's presence at the praised assembly in no way hinders his having been able himself to carry those sacred relics from Rome in the preceding year, and to deposit them at Gorze in the year 765. For the rest, Le Cointe judges that Willihar, who having left the bishopric of Vienne had withdrawn to the Agaunian monastery, is in the cited Annals of Lorsch less accurately called bishop of Sion, since he received that see only after the assembly of Attigny, at which he had been present as abbot of Agaunum, and therefore is read subscribed: Bishop from the monastery of Maurice. But these things, since they make nothing to our purpose, I do not examine.

[39] A fragment of Annals from the year, as it is noted, 769 to 806, Another deposition of that body: published in Duchesne tom. 2, records that the body of St. Gorgonius was deposited in the church of Gorze in the year 769. In the year, it says, DCCLXVIII the body of saint Gorgonius was placed in the basilica which is built in the monastery of Gorze. And abbot Droëgangus died. For the year DCCLXVIII it seems that DCCLXVIIII must be read, both because it is so put in the title, and because the year 770 and the rest follow presently without interruption, and finally because of what is to be said. With these agree the Petavian Annals, praised at num. 28, in which at the year 769 it is thus read: The body of S. Gorgonius was placed in the monastery of Gorze. But that you should not understand these words of the first coming of that sacred body into Gaul, these very Petavian Annals stand in the way, when at the year 765 they expressly say: And there came the bodies of the saints from the city of Rome into France, of Gorgonius, Nabor and Nazarius, as Le Cointe has already observed. To this too Hugh of Flavigny seems to have looked, by the words recited at num. 34, in which he first asserts that the bodies of the aforesaid Martyrs were carried into France in the year 765, and then adds that afterward the body of St. Gorgonius was laid in the monastery of Gorze in the fourth year after the death of St. Chrodegang, that is of Christ 768. For if for the year 768 you substitute 769, from whose VI of March the fourth year from the holy bishop's death began to run, Hugh's words will be rightly understood of the deposition which the aforesaid Annals record. Perhaps then there took place some elevation of the body, or a deposition into a more precious reliquary. Mabillon however in his Annals at this year, num. 26, to which he also refers the death of abbot Droëgangus, suspects that the church of Gorze was first completed at this time, and that therefore they waited until then for the sacred pledge to be deposited in it.

[40] the relics are examined, carried to Pont-à-Mousson, and brought back. The same learned Benedictine in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, part 2, pag. 211, lit. b, notes that the reliquary of St. Gorgonius was unsealed in the year 1088 by Henry the abbot of that place, and that the holy Martyr's head and the chief parts of his body were found, which the praised abbot laid up in a more precious casket. If this is so, how then does Saussay, reported at num. 32, say that the head of St. Gorgonius, deposited by St. Chrodegang in the cathedral church of Metz, is preserved to this very day? Was that sacred treasure perhaps afterward translated thither from the church of Gorze, or is the head of another Gorgonius honored there, and did Saussay wrongly judge that one or the other of these had been given to that church by St. Chrodegang? Certainly besides himself I have read no one who asserts it. Finally, the praised Mabillon has these words at pag. 205 concerning the famous abbey of Gorze, which had long been named by the name of St. Gorgonius, and concerning the relics of the same Saint: That abbey of Gorze, which had been a seminary of holy monks, in the disturbances of the last century was first indeed occupied by heretics in the year MDXLII; then in the following year plundered and burned by the garrison soldiers of Thionville; next in the year MDLII overthrown almost to the ground by the forces of Henry II king of the French; and at length in the year MDLXXX was reduced to a college of twelve canons, the relics of S. Gorgonius, which had been carried to Pont-à-Mousson, stripped of their casket, being restored to Gorze in the year MDXCV, as is more fully related in the Benedictine Chronicles at the year DCCLII. Baillet has the like, who however says that the relics of the holy Martyr are said to have been carried to Pont-à-Mousson before the plundering of the monastery, lest they should be exposed to the fury of the soldiers and heretics, which the monks not idly foresaw.

[41] At Gorze there was not the whole body of the Saint, Further, since it is the constant opinion of the men of Gorze that the body of St. Gorgonius which they received from St. Chrodegang is that of Gorgonius the Nicomedian martyr, whom we have said was anciently venerated at Rome, someone may here ask how it could have been carried into France in the year 765, since at num. 15 and following we have shown that that Martyr's body was elevated at Rome in the IX century by Pope Gregory IV. This very thing the most eminent Baronius already observed, tom. 9 of the Annals, writing thus at the year of Christ 764: When the report had already spread abroad in the Gauls that very many bodies of the Saints had been translated by the most holy Pontiff Paul from the cemeteries into the City, the Franks, desirous of them and most zealous for the veneration of the Saints, send a legate to Rome to that Pontiff, asking that some of the recently found bodies of the Saints might be given them to be translated into the Gauls. They relate that Chrodegang, a most religious man, bishop of Metz, discharged this legation, and that he received from him the bodies of the holy martyrs Gorgonius, Nabor and Nazarius. But we would rather say that he received a part of them than the entire bodies themselves: since, to say nothing of the rest, the body of Gorgonius himself is held to this day laid up in the Vatican basilica in the confession of S. Gregory the Pope.

[42] The most eminent annalist judges therefore that a part of the body of St. Gorgonius was in his own time still preserved at Rome in the Vatican basilica, but only a great part: into which Gregory IV, as we have premised, had brought it. This assertion is favored by what we reported at num. 40 from Mabillon about the inspection of the relics made in the already decrepit XI century: namely that not the whole body, but only the head and the chief parts of his body were found. It is favored also by the Acts, to be reported at num. 44, in which not the body but the relics of St. Gorgonius are said to have been carried into Gaul. Some part of them indeed had already then been translated to Minden in Saxony, but that does not seem to have been so great that it could be called the remainder of the whole body. Nor is Anastasius the Librarian on that account to be blamed, nor the writers adduced by us, because these call the Gorze relics, and he the Roman, the body of St. Gorgonius, since such was the ancients' manner of speaking. Hear again the most eminent Baronius in the same volume, at the year 827, num. 38, on occasion of the body of St. Sebastian, which he had said was earlier carried off into the Gauls, and then relates to have been translated together with St. Gorgonius, whom he wrote by mistake Gregory, into the Vatican church; hear him, I say, discoursing upon this matter. For after he had said that only a part of that holy martyr could be said to have been translated into the Gauls, he thus continues: But we too have often experienced that, when elevations and translations have been made in the City, the bodies of the Saints have not been found entire, nay in some cases not even half of them, but the rest carried away elsewhere.

[43] But by no means with evil guile and a mind to deceive has the piety of the faithful been wont to profess by imposture that it possesses the bodies of Saints in what sense these were called a body. of whom it has received only a part: since in them they do not feel that they possess something halved, or in any way diminished, in the working of powers, but plainly whole and perfect; so that those who have received the relics of the holy martyr Sebastian (judge the same of the relics of St. Gorgonius) would not lie if they said they had Sebastian himself with them, the Theologian especially testifying in his invective against Julian that any tokens whatever of their passions afford the same as their whole bodies, and that their bodies can do the same as their souls blessed in heaven: so that the same martyr remains whole in any thin dust of his body, though demons bark and heretical saint-fighters blaspheme. Thus the most eminent.

§ V. Some relics of St. Gorgonius translated to Minden; the Saint's veneration in that bishopric.

[ ] A part of the relics translated to Minden The Acts which we are about to publish subjoin to the earlier translation another in these words: After these things, again after a long interval of times, the relics of saint Gorgonius are translated by Grodegangus the venerable bishop of the church of Metz to the monastery of Gorze: thence afterward, as the Christian religion grew in the parts of Saxony, a portion of the same relics is assigned to Saxony; where the same saint Gorgonius is patron of the Saxon people and of the church of Minden. Now Minden is a city of Germany in Westphalia, situated on the river Weser; imperial and free, distinguished with an episcopal chair as the VIII century was growing old, to whose prelate the principality of Minden formerly was subject: but in the XVII century by the Peace of Westphalia the bishopric was extinguished, and its principality passed to the Elector of Brandenburg. The Breviary of Minden, published at Mainz in the year 1516, setting forth the Coming of the relics of saint Gorgonius to be recalled on the V of the Ides of March, more probably treats of relics then received at Minden: but in what year or in what century this happened I find neither there nor elsewhere. Mabillon in tom. 3 of the Annals judged that it was done about the year 978, or at least under bishop Milo, whom in the Benedictine Century 3, part 2, pag. 205, he writes to have presided over the church of Minden from the year 974 to 996. Take Mabillon's words at the aforesaid year in the Annals: The monastery of Gorze was then administered by abbot Immo… He received Milo bishop of Minden honorably in his monastery, and granted him a part of the relics of saint Gorgonius the martyr to be carried away into Saxony. But Milo in return transmitted to him a book on the passion of saint Gorgonius, which was wanting among the men of Gorze, with a letter prefixed which runs thus etc.

[45] long before the year 978 There is no doubt that he here speaks of that translation which is treated of in the Acts cited at the beginning of the preceding number; since he himself in the praised Benedictine Century, page 204, writes: In process of time a part of the relics of S. Gorgonius was translated into Saxony into the church of Minden: of which city the bishop Milo sent to the monks of Gorze the Life of S. Gorgonius which he had found: which translation on the following page he proves from those same Acts, the letter of Milo, which he had said was sent with them, being inserted. But this assertion of Mabillon does not appear to me even probable, and it conflicts first of all with Mabillon himself. Certainly the monk of Gorze, the author of the Translation to be published, says among other things concerning his own time: Flying report was filling the peoples with the tale that saint Gorgonius was by no means held whole here (at Gorze), but rather that beyond the Rhine, in a bishopric most fittingly distinguished by his name, a half of him was held. Spurred by which anxiety, namely the prelate Adalbero, the abbot of the place, and very many other elders, sought whether perchance it might be pleasing to God to discern the truth. He adds that they were divinely prevented from inspecting the sacred pledge. These words, beyond the Rhine in a bishopric most fittingly distinguished by his name, Mabillon in the same place, pag. 211, lit. a, thus takes up: Namely in the church of Minden, as was said in the preliminary observations, num. IV, referring, that is, to those things which we have just reported from him. And rightly indeed: for by a bishopric distinguished by the name of St. Gorgonius nothing seems designated but the church of Minden, which, as we shall show below, had already before been dedicated in honor of the same Saint.

[46] Now however, on the testimony of the same Mabillon, Adalbero, whom the monk of Gorze there mentions, and before the episcopate of Milo: was the first bishop of Metz of that name, and died in the year 964, which year Gabriel Bucelinus in Germania sacra et profana, tom. 1, likewise sets down for him as the year of his death among the bishops of that see. How then could Milo, whom both he himself and the Minden Chronicles write to have been initiated into the bishopric of Minden not before the year 974, have translated to his own see those relics of St. Gorgonius which he affirms had already been carried thither before his episcopate? Further, although that report, by claiming half the Martyr's body for the men of Minden, somewhat enlarged the truth, as usually happens, yet that it was not altogether false, if it be taken of some portion of the body, we gather from the Acts of the Saints which Milo, having found them himself, transmitted to the men of Gorze, from which Mabillon recites the very words which we adduced from them at num. 44. The one thing which could here be objected is that Milo may perhaps have added those words to the Acts after receiving the relics: but besides that this would be asserted gratuitously, what shall we plead as the reason that that bishop names neither himself nor Immo, if by the latter's kindness and the former's care that sacred treasure fell to the church of Minden? Add that in the whole of that letter, which Mabillon recites entire, no mention at all is made of relics received. In it indeed he renders great thanks to Immo for the most kindly hospitality which he had enjoyed with him; but of a gift of relics not a word.

[47] From what has been said I gather that the relics of St. Gorgonius were already honored at Minden before Milo's episcopate. Nay it is even necessary but at what time is uncertain. that they were carried thither long before, since in Milo's time the monks of Gorze had it only from report that beyond the Rhine, in a bishopric most fittingly distinguished with the Saint's name, a half of the sacred body reposed, and therefore they with bishop Adalbero determined that it must be explored whether that report brought back what was true or false. Assuredly, if within a few years, or even in that same X century, some part of the Gorze relics had been translated to Minden, it does not appear likely enough that the memory of that matter should about the middle of the same century have been so far obliterated that none of the men of Gorze knew whether, or what sort of, relics they had granted to the men of Minden. The men of Minden therefore could have possessed some portion of St. Gorgonius already from the IX century, although at what time they received it is altogether uncertain.

[48] The Chronicle of Minden, published by Pistorius in tom. 3 of Rerum Germanicarum, records the fire These relics in the general fire of the church by which the cathedral church of that city was reduced to ashes after the middle of the XI century under bishop Egilbert or Engelbert. In the time of that man, it says, the greater church of Minden in the year of the Lord MLII, on the day of S. Vincent the martyr, was destroyed by fire, and the treasury burned: so that whatever the emperor Charles and Wedekind, king of the men of Minden and of the Angarians, had left out of royal magnificence in ornaments and very many offerings for the honor and adornment of the often-named church, was consumed and destroyed by the flame of fire. The church indeed was restored by the same Egilbert: but the loss of the treasure could not easily be repaired. Certainly a whole century afterward, that is as the XII was growing old, the XXVI bishop of that see, Anno by name, in a letter to Conrad abbot of Corvey, laments the irreparable loss of the sacred relics which had perished in that deadly fire, and asks that he would deign to transmit some to him from his monastery.

[49] seem to have perished. That letter is extant in the Chronicle of Busso Watenstedt in Paullini's Syntagmata, from which I cull the following. Anno by the grace of God bishop in Minden, to the Rev. abbot and the whole congregation of the holy martyrs Stephen and Vitus at Corvey, greeting and everlasting grace in the Lord. Let your charity know, beloved brethren, how irreparable a loss our church suffered from the fire under my predecessor Engelbert of good memory, in which not only all the ornaments, jewels and offerings, faithfully guarded from the very time of the foundation, perished in one day; but (what we grieve and bewail the more) so many relics of the Saints, never to be repaired. A great loss indeed! Since therefore we are anxiously striving with a father's care in some measure to repair this loss, and have learned for certain that a great and rare treasure is in your power, we shall ask you as friends that, for the arousing of greater devotion, for the adornment of the church, and for the alleviation of our loss, you would deign to bestow some upon us etc. That the men of Minden lost the relics of St. Gorgonius in the same flames we gather from Watenstedt in his account of Anno, when he observes it as notable that the relics of B. Mary Magdalene remained unharmed among so many burned. Similarly Lerbeck in his Chronicle in Leibniz, tom. 2 of the writers of Brunswick, says: The rest (of the relics) having been consumed by fire in the time of Engelbert, those of Mary Magdalene alone are found remaining untouched by the fire. In Pistorius it is read a little more obscurely: But in the time of the fire the relics of B. Mary Magdalene remained untouched among the other relics touched by the fire. By that same fire therefore the pledges of St. Gorgonius seem to have been consumed, unless they were perhaps withdrawn from the flames in time.

[50] The Saint's arm, richly adorned, In the Chronicle of Minden in Pistorius mention is made of an arm of the holy Martyr, enclosed in a precious casket. In the time of that bishop (Sigeward, who is there said to have been consecrated in the year 1124, and to have held that see until the year 1140) Henry duke of Brunswick bestowed upon the church the arm of S. Gorgonius richly adorned. Lerbeck agrees: In the time of this man Henry the Lion the duke bestowed upon the church the arm of S. Gorgonius beautifully adorned. Watenstedt also reports the same: but others place this donation some years later. Among these the author of the Chronicle of Minden published by Heinrich Meibom in tom. 1 of Rerum Germanicarum assigns the year 1174 in these words: But after the death of that bishop (Werner, who died, as he says, in the year 1173) in the following year, on the Kalends of February, Henry duke of Saxony gave the court at Lothen with all its goods and appurtenances to the church of Minden; likewise the arm of S. Gorgonius richly adorned. But in the Chronicle of Osnabrück in the praised Meibom, tom. 2, it is thus read: About these times, namely in the year of the Lord MCLXIX, duke Henry of Brunswick, called the Lion, gave the court and goods of Lothen or Lode of the diocese of Minden, and the arm of S. Gorgonius the martyr richly adorned, to the church of Minden to the honor of God, because Mechtild the daughter of the king of England had been joined to him in marriage in the aforesaid church before the altar of blessed Peter. It matters little in what year that donation was made; the latter two however seem to come nearer the truth. Now that Henry of Brunswick was the third of that name, duke of Bavaria and Saxony, concerning whom the writers of Saxony may be consulted.

[51] Further, from the words adduced it is not altogether clear whether Henry then gave to the church of Minden the sacred arm of Gorgonius, and other relics honored there. or relics enclosed in a precious casket, or whether he only took care that relics preserved there should be adorned with a casket of this sort. The same Chronicles hand down that Anno, praised above, enriched his church with various relics. That holy bishop (so it is said in Pistorius) seeing the greater church of Minden pitiably bereft of the relics of the Saints by the fire, gathered from divers places the bodies and relics of the Saints, and conveyed them to the aforesaid church. Then among the Saints, of whom the greatest part (Meibom has a great part) of their bodies is said to have been then preserved there, St. Gorgonius is numbered, and after a few words again the precious arm of S. Gorgonius (Pistorius has of George) is recounted. It is likely that those relics of our holy Martyr, or some of them, were given to Anno by the men of Gorze. This suspicion is raised in me by Lerbeck, when he says this of him: Visiting for devotion's sake the monastery of Gorze, where saint Gorgonius rests, he renewed the fraternity formerly had between the church of Minden and the said monastery. Here indeed there is no mention of relics received: but since Anno is said to have sought out the relics of the Saints so studiously, in order to repair the loss formerly inflicted by the fire, and since from what has been said it is likely that the pledges of St. Gorgonius perished in that same disaster, it is likely too that the journey to Gorze was undertaken by him in order to obtain something of the bones of the holy Patron of his church.

[52] Take the remaining matters pertaining to the Saint's veneration among the men of Minden. The church dedicated to him is restored: The cathedral church, which we have said was burned down in the year 1062, venerated Gorgonius among its patron Saints. So we learn from ancient diplomas and instruments of donation, in which it is read to have been built in honor of S. Peter the Apostle and of saint Gorgonius the martyr. These are extant in the Spicilegium ecclesiasticum Germaniæ, tom. 3. But in the often-mentioned Chronicles, the words of one of which I adduce from Paullini's edition, these things are contained: Helmward, Helinward, Helmwerd, a monk of the Benedictine Order (and the tenth bishop of Minden), doubting concerning the consecration of the greater temple, in the year DCCCCLII summoned Dudo of Paderborn and Drogo I of Osnabrück to Minden for the dedication of this basilica in honor of the holy martyrs Gorgonius, Laurence and Alexander. It is indeed said in the same Chronicles that bishop Engelbert dedicated the church, restored after the fire as the XI century was growing old, in honor of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Cross, the glorious Virgin and all the Saints: but nothing of the kind is to be found in the instruments of donation, and it will be plain from what is to be said that our holy Martyr was always held the patron of that church.

[53] Various donations, which may be read in the writers mentioned, a tapestry representing the martyrdom: declare indeed the ready piety of the men of Minden toward their Patron. These I have judged by no means to be transferred hither, except one, which teaches that the Gorgonius whom they venerated was, by their judgment too, no other than the Nicomedian Martyr. Lerbeck, in his account of Anno, whose episcopate he attaches to the XII century as it grew old, hands down that Oda, the mother of Anno, gave two dorsals, or tapestries, of woven work for each choir of the church of Minden, containing the Passions of Peter and Gorgonius. One of the tapestries displayed these verses:

> Blessed be thou, O God, Gorgonius and Dorotheus, > For whom they are beaten with torments, nor by the king's > monuments are they bent; but they follow Christ by death, > and mock the fear of penalties; salt and vinegar > they scorn, they are roasted, and at last are tormented by nooses. > The confessor of the sacred faith, the Companion of Dorotheus, > despised the torturer, contemned the honor of the world, > that so with Christ he might be saved in this world, > and take counsel with God together with his fellow Dorotheus.

[54] the unhappy death of bishop Folmar: Wonderful is what is reported in Pistorius, in the Chronicle, concerning the slaying of bishop Folmar, in this manner: Folmar or Volmar, the nineteenth bishop of Minden. That bishop, on account of his frivolous invasion of the episcopal see, as is truly asserted, was slain by S. Gorgonius the martyr and patron of this church about the year of the Lord MXCIV; and therefore his memory has not been wont to be kept. For it happened that on the same night in which the said Folmar was slain, blessed Gorgonius appeared to the guardians of the greater church, commanding that they should make the signal for a dead bishop. But when they were unwilling to believe them, he showed them for a token the frontal of the altar bloodied and gory, on which he had wiped the sword of the slaying; which for many years afterward was preserved as a miracle. And they rising at once performed all that was commanded them obediently and with fear. And he died on the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist, in the year as above, in the second Indiction. The same things are contained in the remaining Chronicles; Lerbeck adds that his body, when it had been buried in the cathedral church, was afterward dug up thence and interred in a profane place.

[55] death: Nicolas Schaten in part 1 of the Annals of Paderborn, at the year 1089, reckons this Folmar among the schismatic prelates whom Henry IV, otherwise III, thrust into the bishoprics of Germany. In this year (these are Schaten's words) after the death of Reinward, bishop of the men of Minden and a most vigorous champion of the Catholic party, Volcmarus a canon of Hildesheim was imposed by king Henry upon the church of Minden by force of arms, who already before, while Reinward was still living, had begun to be intruded by the pseudo-synod of Mainz. The same annalist at the year 1094 narrates the tragic death of Folmar in the same manner indeed, but deservedly with hesitation, saying if indeed the narrative is true. He adds however: But if one recall the wretched departures from this life of other schismatic bishops, it is not incredible that Volcmarus too died by some wretched kind of death; but however these things may stand, this Chronicle of Minden certainly deceives us, which hands down that he died in this year, since he subscribed, still surviving, to letters to be produced by us in the year MXCVII etc. Thus Schaten: nor do I admit that narrative as certain: it seemed good however to report it here, leaving the credit with the Chronicles. Let us return to the Saint's veneration.

[56] various memorials of the Saint in the Breviary of Minden. I have at hand the Breviary of Minden, printed at Mainz in the year 1516, on whose first page SS. Peter the Apostle and Gorgonius are exhibited as patrons of the church. In this Breviary a twofold Office of nine lessons is prescribed to be celebrated concerning our holy Martyr. The first, which is the Coming of the relics of saint Gorgonius, is set forth at the XI day of March, and has nearly everything proper to it, composed for the greatest part from the Acts: in the third Nocturn a homily on the Gospel Nolite arbitrari is prescribed. There is no room to report every particular here: it will be profitable to have recited one verse or two in which mention is made of the same Saint's patronage both at Rome and at Minden. The IV Responsory has thus: Gorgonius, laid at Rome, comes to the aid of those who cry to him, and his merit is widely spread abroad, who is patron also of the Saxon people. ℣. O truly ineffable God in his Saints, so great benefits does he afford to his servants! But the fifth is of this sort: Through blessed Gorgonius divine mysteries are here wrought; through his prayers the blind are enlightened and the sick are healed.

[57] The other Office, likewise composed from the same Acts, the memory. is set forth to be celebrated with an Octave on the IX day of September, unless it fall on the feast of the Dedication of the cathedral church: for then indeed throughout the diocese the feast of Gorgonius was solemnly kept, but in the cathedral itself the Dedication was to be recalled. Besides these, on every free fifth feria from the Octave of Corpus Christi until the Advent of the Lord, and from the Octave of the Epiphany until Quinquagesima, an Office of three lessons of the same Saint is commanded to be recited, to be begun from first Vespers, just as on third ferias it was celebrated of St. Peter the Apostle, and on Sabbaths of the most holy Mother of God. Finally, among the common suffrages of the Saints, prayers to the same Saint are read, who is also inserted in the Litanies immediately after the name of St. Stephen.

PASSION

by an anonymous author,

From an ancient parchment codex of our museum, marked O Ms. 19.

Dorotheus M. at Nicomedia in Bithynia (S.)

Gorgonius M. at Nicomedia in Bithynia (S.)

BHL Number: 3617 ^a

By an Anonymous writer.

The author's prologue. Great ^b zeal above all must be had by us in searching out the Passions of the Saints, because precious in the sight of the Lord is their death. For it does not harm ^c if they are unknown to us, but it will be reckoned to us for the greatest loss if they are not faithfully and profitably searched out by us. We know indeed that they endured temporal torments for God, and so, when the contest of their struggle was finished, passed over by the favor of the divine clemency to heavenly glory; because according to the testimony of holy Scripture, the Just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. For being hearers of the divine word, in which it is said, Fear not them that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, with God quickening them to this, they feared to undergo no punishments of this temporal life. The holy martyrs therefore are so to be venerated by us that by their intercessions we may deserve to be found sharers of the glory which they received. For their contests, when they are read by the faithful, afford an incitement to faith, and, lest we fall away from the way of God, touch our minds by their examples and admonish them not to grow slothful in the labor for God ^d.

[2] When persecution had arisen at Nicomedia, While Diocletian therefore was managing public affairs, so savage a storm arose ^f against the Christians ^e that no one ^g dared to profess himself a Christian, lest he should succumb to punishments and intolerable torments. The father indeed betrayed the son, the brother the brother, if he were found of that sect, as an enemy, by open inquisition; and therefore each one, as best he could, hid himself in caves or lurking-places; nor did he presume to confess to a parent or to any of his kinsmen that he was a worshipper of Christ. For at that time, while Diocletian was staying in the parts of the East, the same storm against the Christians blazed up at Nicomedia more heavily than usual; and the imperial majesty inflamed the inhabitants of whatsoever cities, like a consuming fire, to search out the Christians wherever they might be found. Then blessed Gorgonius, secretly and in hiding a Christian ^h, no longer able with his consort Dorotheus to lie hid any longer, flashed forth like a heavenly star, and disclosed more clearly than the light what he was doing within. He was indeed the provost of the royal bedchamber and master in the offices which were performed within the palace: to whom blessed Dorotheus, not unequal in the same office in faith and greatness of soul, was rendering vigorous and not sluggish service.

[3] SS. Dorotheus and Gorgonius They were also excellent worshippers of God, and fit preachers and witnesses for teaching the way of truth: for within the palace they shone like great luminaries, and instructed with salutary admonitions nearly all the ministers of the bedchamber, that they should persist watchfully and freely in the faith of God; so that in them that word of David seems to be fulfilled: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity. Diocletian therefore, like a roaring lion against the Servants of God, ordered a throne to be prepared for himself in the consistory of the palace, and the Confessors who were held in chains and in prisons to be presented before his eyes. He ordered also statues or effigies of his gods to be set up, to which incense should be burned; but the holy Martyrs, placing their hope in the Lord

and despising his engines as dung, cried out steadfastly, saying: The gods of the gentiles are demons, but the Lord made the heavens.

[4] confess themselves Christians of their own accord; At these words Diocletian, indignant, ordered some of them to be beaten with bull-hide whips and leaded scourges, some to be hung up and torn with hooks, others to be flayed alive. One ⁱ however, whom he saw resisting his madness more steadfastly and bravely, this one he ordered to be tormented with crueler punishments than the rest. Then blessed Gorgonius steadfastly and freely broke out into this utterance, saying: Why, O emperor, dost thou more cruelly and savagely punish in this man alone an opinion which is strong in us all? Why is that called a crime in him which is firmly confessed by us? This is our faith, this our worship and unanimous and the same our opinion. Thus far, O emperor, we have served thee as soldiers; now at last permit us to serve God, whose creatures we are: thus far we were thine, from now on, whether thou wilt or no, we shall be God's. To him have we vowed our service and have received the seal of his service: take away the belt of thy service, that we may follow Christ our King without hindrance. Come to thyself, wretched man, from this madness in which thou art held, lest thou be led away to eternal torments: for these punishments with which thou dost afflict the Servants of God have an end; but those which shall abide eternally find no end ^k. whom Diocletian, having first flattered them in vain,

[5] Therefore at the most steadfast profession of the blessed Man Gorgonius ^l Diocletian is confounded in mind, and, not knowing whither to turn himself, is kindled with most raging anger; yet he anxiously deliberates with himself what he ought to do about a Man so familiar to him, having indeed been reared within the palace. For it was with difficulty that he determined that such a Man must be destroyed, whom the discipline of his manners and the nobility of his birth adorned. Then, when he had been brought before him with his consort Dorotheus, he was soothing them with flatteries, that they might return to his rites, and was promising that ampler honors of service should be heaped upon them. But the blessed Men, sighing to God in the regard of their inmost mind, committed themselves to his clemency, saying: Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in thee. And the blessed Martyrs, turning to the emperor, said: Do not, O emperor, err in vain, that it should befall us to turn aside from the way of God: for we shall not fall away from him to whom we have destined ourselves to be soldiers. Thou settest before us a temporal and bodily nobility, but the eternal fasces and the high birth by which souls are ennobled thou dost put after, since thou knowest not what they are. Away with thy flatteries, away with thy threats: for he shall never be absent who promises a share of his kingdom to those who serve him in simplicity.

[6] Then Diocletian, filled with wrath, ordered them to be consigned to custody and, bound with chains, to be shut up in the darkness of a prison, he consigns to prison, and, steadfast in the faith, until he should decide with himself what he ought to do about them. On the morrow the emperor ordered again that a judicial seat be built for him before the tribunal, and that examiners and executioners with divers instruments of punishment stand by. Then the blessed men, Gorgonius and Dorotheus, are brought into the midst, and are admonished to take counsel for their safety. Take counsel, said the emperor, for your life and your nobility, since you must either live gloriously or die ignobly. If you resolve to live, you will obtain very many honors and will always rejoice among the nobles of the kingdom: but if you choose to die, you shall perish not by any ordinary death, but by the worst. For if you persist in your obstinacy, without doubt the injury to the gods must be avenged. Then saint Gorgonius answered for both: Christ, who called us to his faith, will strengthen us by his grace that we fail not in torments: but thou, son of the devil, do the works of thy father. Christ stands before the door, who will lead us to eternal glory: in a short time indeed the pain of thy torments will pass away, but eternally shall abide the promised rewards of our labors.

[7] Then he ordered them to be hung on the rack ^m and to be mangled over the whole body with scourges and hooks, and, their inward parts being now stripped of the skin, they are ordered to be drenched with vinegar and salt. after the rack and various Amid these things the holy Martyrs, looking up to the Lord with joyful countenance, said: We give thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast deigned to strengthen us in torments: now with our whole heart we sigh for thee, because we hope to see thee the sooner: the sight of thee, in which the angels rejoice to gaze upon thee, is eternal satiety and eternal life; because this temporal life, which shall pass away, is rather to be called want and death than life. And so Diocletian, seeing the gladness and exultation of the blessed martyrs Gorgonius and Dorotheus, began to have the greatest anxiety and indignation, because his executioners were failing in the mangling of the holy Martyrs; and they, made more joyful amid their torments, were exulting in the praises of Christ.

[8] Then he began anxiously to consider with what penalty he could punish them. torments, he orders them to be roasted on a gridiron. Steadfastly indeed and bravely they were bearing the kinds of torment which were heaped upon them, and, as though they felt no pain, were rejoicing in the Lord. The vinegar poured upon their naked inward parts they endured for Christ, whom they believed to have been given vinegar to drink for their sake as he hung on the cross: the salt sprinkled on their raw inward parts they did not feel as pain, because they knew that they were steeped in the salt of heavenly wisdom. At the last therefore, on the deliberate counsel of the executioners, a gridiron with coals strewn beneath it is set down, and what remained of their bodies consumed by blows and hooks is laid upon it, and is kindled not suddenly but by slow degrees, that the labor of the martyrdom might be made so much the crueler as it had been the more prolonged amid the delays of the burning.

[9] These being borne most steadfastly, Then the holy Martyrs, turning with joyful mind to the Lord, said: Glory be to thee, O Lord, because thou hast deigned to make us thy servants a living sacrifice to thee: may the vapor of the smoke ascending to thee from our bodies reconcile us to thee, and join us in the seats of paradise to the number of thy servants; that we may deserve to be present in the assemblies of those whom we imitate in sufferings. Blessed therefore, O Lord, are they that dwell in thy house; because they shall praise thee for eternal ages: receive, O Lord, the sacrifice of our passion, and let it ascend as a sweet odor in the sight of thy Divine Majesty. Thine it is, O Lord, if we persevere; but ours, if we fall in the torments; remember, O Lord, our frailty and thy mercy, and strengthen us in this passion: let thy right hand raise us up, O Lord, and protect us against the temptations of the devil: arise, O Lord, help us, and for thy name's sake deliver us. And when this prayer had been made, all the heat of the coals grew cool, and the faces of the blessed Martyrs shone forth like the brightness of the sun, and it seemed to all as though they lay upon a flowery bed and felt nothing of pain or of evil. Again the blessed martyrs, Gorgonius and Dorotheus, turning to their accustomed duties of prayers and thanksgivings, said: Thou hast saved us, O Lord, from them that afflict us, and hast confounded all that hated us: let all that do iniquity be confounded, O Lord; because thou savest all that hope in thee.

[10] they are put to death by the noose. When these things had been said, they are lifted from the gridiron, and all the faithful standing by, who until then had lain hid for fear, are incited and strengthened by the contest of their passion to better works. And again the holy Martyrs, singing psalms to God, said: It is good to hope in the Lord, rather than to hope in princes. Then Diocletian, grieving that he was overcome by the constancy of the Martyrs, and perceiving that he could prevail nothing further against them, having given sentence, ordered Gorgonius and Dorotheus, as rebels against the worship of the gods and against the imperial command, to be hung up by the noose and killed: who, having been dragged away by the executioners and led out to the place of the contest, obtained from them a delay for making a prayer, and so, turning to God, said: Grace and glory be to thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast deigned to strengthen us until this hour: but now we pant with our whole heart, and desire to see the glory of thy Majesty as speedily as may be. Complete, O Lord, our course, because into thy hands we commend our spirit. And when the prayer was finished, rising and offering the kiss of peace and salvation to the faithful Christians who had stood by, they are bound by the executioners and, hung by the knots of the nooses, are cruelly put to death.

[11] Their bodies, buried by the Christians, are famous for miracles. After their happy death the unhappy Diocletian ordered their bodies to be cast to the dogs to be devoured: Lest, he said, the Christians make sport for themselves over the bodies, and out of them, insulting us, make themselves Martyrs, let their bodies, mangled by the bites of dogs, perish, and let dogs and wolves drag them apart through all the streets, never to be gathered into one. But it turned out far otherwise than that savage tyrant had prefigured in his malice: for on the following night the faithful Christians snatched away their bodies, untouched ⁿ by dogs and wolves, and buried them with fitting honor; where, to the praise and glory of Christ, numberless benefits are afforded, and among the possessed and other sick people, by the patronage of the same Martyrs, divine miracles are wrought, so that it may be made clearly plain to all of how great merit their martyrdom stands before the divine clemency.

[12] Then after the courses of some years had intervened, the body of blessed Gorgonius is translated to the Roman ^o The body of St. Gorgonius to Rome, and, laid on the Latin Way [p] between two laurels, is honorably and gloriously venerated: for Christ has prepared a great patronage for his faithful in his holy Martyrs, who after their entrance into eternal life divided their bodies [q], that one might be patron of Greece [r], the other of the holy Roman Church: but although their bodies are divided, yet the patronage of both, when we shall have knelt at the tomb of one, is present and joined. O God truly wonderful in his Saints, who affords so great benefits to his servants! Dorotheus is entreated in Greece that he may intercede, and saint Gorgonius, laid at Rome, shows himself with his Colleague that he may bring aid: and when the Romans weep at the tomb of saint Gorgonius, the consent and help of blessed Dorotheus is not absent.

[13] After these things, again after a long interval of times, the relics of saint Gorgonius are translated by Grodegangus, thence some part to Gorze and hence some to Minden is translated. the venerable bishop of the church of Metz, to the monastery of Gorze [s]: thence afterward, as the Christian Religion grew in the parts of Saxony, a portion of the same relics is assigned to Saxony, where the same saint Gorgonius is patron of the Saxon people and of the church of Minden [t], our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and is glorified as God through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Should it not be read: on the Lavican Way? Go to the Commentary, num. 12 and 13.

q. The praised codices read so he divided.

r. Where in Greece the body of St. Dorotheus rests, I have nowhere found.

s. Go to the Commentary, §4.

t. Consult the Commentary, §5.

THE TRANSLATION AND MIRACLES OF ST. GORGONIUS

by a monk of Gorze, a writer of the X century.

From the Reims manuscript, collated with the edition of Mabillon, Benedictine Cent. 3, part 2.

Dorotheus M. at Nicomedia in Bithynia (S.)

Gorgonius M. at Nicomedia in Bithynia (S.)

BHL Number: 3621 ^a

By an Anonymous writer.

CHAPTER I.

St. Chrodegang bishop of Metz carries the bodies of SS. Gorgonius, Nazarius and Nabor MM. from Rome into Gaul: he demands back the body of St. Gorgonius, carried off by theft by the men of Agaunum, and deposits it at Gorze.

[ ] Invocation of the divine help and the reason for writing. Being about to describe the miracles of our patron, blessed Gorgonius, which I have learned by sight and by hearing, I exhort those who have been the persuaders of a matter of this kind to entreat with me the ineffable clemency of almighty God; that is, that he himself, who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, and who says through the Prophet, Open thy mouth, and I will fill it, may open the full understanding of my heart, and, according to the Prophet already mentioned, may fill all my inward parts with the gift of his abundance. Which I do not doubt that I shall obtain as much by the merits of our excellent Patron as by the prayers of those whom I have mentioned: since, as blessed Ambrose says, it is hard that the prayers of many should not be heard. Let no one, then, captivated by the charm of worldly eloquence, come hither for this reason, that he should seek anything of the sort here, since he will not find it, for the reason that I am ignorant of it: and even if I had thoroughly mastered it, I should have refused to insert it here, for this reason, that it is disapproved by the Lord, as the Scripture says: I will destroy the prudence of the prudent, and the wisdom of the wise I will reject: and likewise blessed Paul the Apostle confirming this very thing: If any man, he says, among us wishes to be wise, let him become a fool, that he may be wise ^b. Let him alone approach who strives with a fervent heart to praise our Patron, and, like a most prudent bee, takes care to gather the little flowers of the virtues, by which he may profit, for the increase of his soul. If therefore anyone shall have found anything of profit, let him ascribe it to the merits of saint Gorgonius: if anything of dullness, let him pardon my error. For I have not begun this work with a rash mind, but with a heralding of praise fervent in his love, whose pious intercession may be with the Lord the longed-for remission of all our sins. Amen.

[2] St. Chrodegang the founder of Gorze I shall therefore at length approach, with God's help and by his prayer, to unfold certain of his deeds which he has deigned to show us as wonderful. In the times of king Childeric ^c there was a certain bishop of the city of the Mediomatrici ^d, by name Chrodegang ^e. He, filled with that love of which blessed Gregory says, Never is the love of God idle, for it works great things, if it be present, performed very many and praiseworthy works, which he who desires to know, let him read the deeds of the pontiffs of Metz, and there he will be more fully instructed. Therefore, that he might fulfill that word of the Psalmist, I will add, O God, above all thy praise, he built a monastery in the place which is called Gorze ^f: and he enriched it with very many estates of no small price for the remission of his sins, as the same man writes in his apologies ^g, which are kept among us to this day with diligent guard. In which he took away utterly from all — not only from laymen, but also from his brothers the co-bishops — under the terrible threat of almighty God, every power of taking away from the monks of Gorze anything of those things which he himself had given, or which the aforesaid monks should be able to acquire in the future, or which the Faithful were about to confer thither for the remedy of their souls; and every power of contriving to disturb their quiet in the service of God. And he said of those ^h who should be opposed to his decision — inasmuch as he was neither willing nor bound to curse anyone — that they must be summoned before the tribunal of the dread Judge, that there complaint might be made together with blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles and saint Gorgonius concerning those who, dishonoring God and his aforesaid Saints, in whose protection he had placed that same place, had been disturbers and destroyers of holy religion. Which some of his successors the prelates, alas, little guarded against, who proved to be the extirpators (if I may so say) of all religion. Who indeed in part paid their penalties in the eyes of men; but how they fare in the world to come, the Judge above knows: of whose most wretched manner of life it is better to be silent than to speak. But let us return, laying aside this sad matter, to the former man of pious memory.

[3] carries three bodies of Saints from Rome: When the aforementioned prelate Chrodegang had fulfilled all things regarding the works of religion which were revolving in his holy desire, wishing to enrich the often-named place more abundantly with heavenly treasures, which he had filled abundantly with earthly ones, he went to the Roman Apostolic, Paul ⁱ by name, asking that some pledges of the Saints be given him, which might distinguish these parts of the region. And he, moved and by God's will granting his prayers, delivered to him three bodies of holy Martyrs, Gorgonius, Nabor and Nazarius ^k. Saint Nabor the martyr he assigned to the monastery of Hilariacum ^l; but saint Nazarius he delivered to a certain religious woman, who placed him on her estate beyond the Rhine, which is called Lorsch ^m, for the reason that she had delivered that same estate of hers, together with her son, to saint Stephen; but blessed Gorgonius he set with himself in the place which is called Gorze, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord seven hundred and sixty-five ⁿ, where also he caused himself to be buried when he should be called by the Lord out of this toilsome life.

[4] The men of Agaunum steal the body of St. Gorgonius; What of miracles blessed Gorgonius had wrought in ancient times is unknown, for the reason that we are younger in time: but this only has flying report brought us, that when he was being carried by the holy pontiff Chrodegang, and Ausonia ^o had been crossed, through which the Lord had glorified him with many portents of powers, and in which also he had acquired very many farms and estates — the citizens who had bestowed these upon him being summoned and fired by his fame and by desire of him — the people of the Faithful accompanying him came to the college of S. Maurice [p]. And when they lodged there for some while, the clerics, ensnared by the lofty fame of the Martyr of Christ, which had been spread far and wide, approached secretly the shrine in which the precious bones were covered, and, opening it, cut the seal with all diligence ingeniously, so that it could not be detected, stealing him, and immediately restored that same seal to its place. Therefore, after the newcomers [q] had rested as long as seemed good to them, the sacred pledges being taken up, they departed. When a journey of one day had been accomplished, no miracle happened; likewise when a second and a third had been added. The archchaplain, seeing this, said to his companions: What is it, brethren, that is happening? Perhaps we have offended God together with our Patron, who was continually gladdening us with his pleasant miracles. Let us return searchingly to our consciences, let us confess humbly one to another, if we have negligently transgressed in anything, on account of which we perhaps grieve to lack the accustomed benefits. But diligently searching one another, they by no means found it to have happened by the blemish of their own fault.

[5] Approaching therefore and opening the shrine, the seal at once sprang apart, not touched by them, which he demands back: and they found themselves defrauded of their own possession. What had happened is disclosed with tears to the bishop: but he, groaning heavily, in sorrow went to king Pippin [r] of that time, laying before the ears of the royal majesty what unhoped-for misfortunes had befallen him. To whom the king said: The horrid winter now impending forbids attempting anything; when the winter is past, take your brothers the co-bishops, of Trier [s], of Verdun [t], of Toul [u], and a duke of the kingdom, and go to the aforesaid place, commanding that what is yours be restored to you: if they shall despise this, take saint Maurice with his companions, and hasten back to your country, rejoicing to have them. It was done as the king had commanded, and there was a return to saint Maurice with a strong hand. The king's edicts are unfolded, diligent inquiry is made, it is stoutly denied. Then the venerable prelate thus harangued them: Since you have inflicted upon me at length the expense of a journey accomplished, and moreover despise the king's ordinances; I set about doing what that same king commanded me. And straightway, having seized an axe, with the companions who had come with him, he began to break up the pavement of the church; which they by no means supposed that they would dare to do. But seeing this, with submissive voices they humbly begged a truce, that it might be lawful for them to make search [x]. And the devout pontiff, granting their wishes with a ready mind, left off what he had begun. When morning came, they restore the stolen treasure: which the prelate receiving, goes out from that same church with great exultation. And so as soon as he touched the doors of the church,

he restored to a blind man his lost eyes.

[6] Thereafter, when many spaces of country had been traversed, they arrive at a farm called by the name of Waringisus [y]. nor without miracles And when the time for sleep had come, they laid the clod of the holy Martyr in the middle of a field, where at his head there was only a single thorn-bush of the measure of a cubit, on which they hung the wood of the Lord which the clergy carried with them. Which thorn-bush in one and the same night grew to so great a height that the clerics, returning for the wood of the Lord which they had forgotten there, were in no way able, standing on the ground [\], to reach the top of its height, but rather climbed up to it by means of certain contrivances made for the purpose. Out of devotion for which miracle they built a church in that same place [z], and dedicate it, built in the name of saint Gorgonius; where his powers are mighty to this day. Nor is it to be doubted that he shone forth with more prodigies than these through so many courses of years, who in so brief a space of time in our own days has shone with so many signs: but through the folly and carelessness, as I think, of those who, alas, were ungrateful both to God and to their own Patron, it has passed from the memory of posterity; so much so that not even a trace of any evidence can be found. But we, fearing to be imitators of those men, hammer out [\] certain things, though in unpolished speech.

[7] Therefore after these things, when the venerable bones of the same most blessed martyr Gorgonius had been carried into the estate of two illustrious brothers, along the way called Mons-Vironis [aa], they were laid in a meadow which existed at that time, in which now a church is founded on account of his precious memory. And so the sacred vigils were celebrated by night, devoutly, as was fitting. But it had happened by chance, and rather (as may be believed) by God's disposing, that both brothers were present. Effort was made that he should be raised, but it was not possible for him to be lifted. Which one of the brothers prudently observing said: This holy Man [\] of God wishes to be our heir; and I willingly assent and confirm it by my authority. Meanwhile indeed, while I live, I enjoy the honor of my estate; but after my death let him happily stand as heir of my portion. The other answering said: As long as he wishes, let him lie there; he shall never be a sharer of mine.* Scarcely had he finished the words, when presently, tormented by a demon, he was rolled upon the ground until he unwillingly gave what before he had of his own accord refused to give. Then at last, when he had been freed from the demon, the Martyr of Christ also was straightway lifted with a light movement, to be carried on the shoulders of rejoicing men to the appointed place.

[8] by deeds The often-named Man of God was indeed a most swift chastiser of the harsh and hard-hearted, and after their correction an excellent restorer. For on that same journey, which we here append, a stupendous miracle happened. When the bearers of the holy pledge came to a place named Novient [bb], they set down there the precious burden. Now it was the custom with this holy Martyr that whatever place he had a liking for, his venerable body could not be lifted until that same place with all its appurtenances should be made subject to his dominion. Therefore, coming in the morning, that they might take up the journey begun, they strove to lift the clod of the holy Martyr; but the effectiveness of no effort followed. But knowing of this difficulty, they at once go to the lord of the place, who happened in those days to be staying there: they set forth the custom, they make known the will, they instruct him what blessed Martyr portended by such a lying down. But he, swollen with the wind of pride, answered that he cared nothing how long he lay there, nor that on this occasion anything of those things which were of his right should in any way be yielded to him.

[9] he deposits at Gorze. Straightway divine vengeance pursues the unbridled mouth. For when he had finished these words, his mouth was horribly and shamefully twisted, so that it seemed to draw near to his ears. Then the wretch feels whom he had stirred up to his own ruin. But at once his beastly mind, resuming its own conscience, humbly offered to the precious Martyr what before, puffed up with vain glory, he had obstinately denied: and presently, being restored to his former soundness, he paid back thanksgivings, and the Saint, taken up with all ease, is carried to the appointed monastery. These are the pleasant and wonderful works of almighty God, by which he deigns to glorify his Servants in the polity [cc] of this life, catching the wise in their own craftiness. For that man thought that he could resist a Servant of God, as being dead; but his watchful Guardian from heaven — nay, the Guardian of all the faithful — not only punished him with a stripe upon his own body, but also compelled him by force to do the good which he had not cared to bestow of his own accord.

ANNOTATIONS.

o. That is, Italy.

p. He denotes the once famous Agaunian monastery of S. Maurice and his companions, which Sigismund king of Burgundy founded at the sepulcher of the aforesaid martyrs in the Valais on the river Rhône, already swelled by the Dranse, toward the lake of Geneva. But as to the author of the Translation, who wrote in the X century, calling Agaunum a college, and its inhabitants presently below clerics, not monks, Le Cointe in tom. 5 of the Annals of the Franks at the year 764, num. 15, thinks that this was done by error; because, that is, long after this translation, namely in the IX century under the emperor Louis the Pious and abbot Adalongus, canons were substituted for the monks, as the Sainte-Marthes have in tom. 4 of Gallia Christiana in the catalogue of the abbots of Agaunum, and Mabillon in tom. 2 of the Annals at the year 824, num. 68.

q. In Mabillon it is observing: but our reading is clearer.

r. Namely Pippin surnamed the Short, who, having deposed Childeric, had obtained the kingdom of the Franks.

s. Of Trier is wanting in Mabillon's edition. In the catalogue of the archbishops of Trier prefixed to tom. 1 of Calmet's Ecclesiastical History of Lorraine, Veomadus is said to have then held the see, whom the brothers Sainte-Marthe in tom. 1 of Gallia Christiana call Wiemadus.

t. Le Cointe, tom. 5 of the Annals at the year 764, num. 15, notes that St. Madelveus then presided over the church of Verdun: Calmet's catalogue agrees, where he is called Magdalveus.

u. The praised Le Cointe thinks that this was Godo: but in the catalogue of the bishops of Toul in Calmet, in the Work cited, about that time Jacob and Borno are read: which of the two is more correct, there is no leisure to inquire.

x. That is: That it might be lawful for them to make search.

y. Hadrian de Valois in the Notitia Galliarum has this concerning that place: "There is another cell situated in Warengisus' Farm, which likewise monks are known to inhabit without my leave": as Frotharius bishop of Toul says in a letter to Drogo bishop of Metz. Warengisus' Farm therefore belonged to the diocese of Toul, which today too is called Warangeville, and is placed on the bank of the river Meurthe within the bounds of the Lotharingians, between Rosières and Nancy, still famous for a cell or Priory, named after its former lord. But that this place at least in the X century belonged to the bishopric of Metz, we shall see below.

z. To this church there seems to have been added, either then or afterward, a certain cell, concerning which Frotharius — whom Calmet in the Catalogue of the bishops of Toul notes to have died in the year 846 — writes in the Annotations at the preceding letter. Of the same place the discussion will recur below.

aa. Godfrey abbot of Göttweig, in the geographical Chart of Germany of the middle age, which he inserted in part 2 of tom. 1 of the Chronicon Gottwicense, places Mons-Vironis between the rivers Moselle and Saar, not far from the bank of the latter, at nearly an equal distance from Nancy and Pont-à-Mousson. This situation rightly suits the journey which is here described.

bb. Mabillon reads Nomantum: but I judge that Noviantum should be read; and it seems to have been that place which Calmet in the geographical chart of the diocese of Metz, prefixed to tom. 1 of the Ecclesiastical and Civil History of Lorraine, calls Noveant: for this lies between Gorze and Mons-Vironis, as the plan of the journey undertaken, of which we here treat, requires.

cc. In Mabillon it is more correctly read politia, which word is here used for government.

\ read deferretur*

\ id*

\ Mabil. nimis prolixæ*

\ the same, stantis*

\ the same, audemus*

\ ibid. socius*

CHAPTER II.

For fear of the Hungarians the relics are carried to Metz: a monk is divinely prevented from giving away a part of them: Gorze is restored, and certain estates are recovered.

[ ] The relics carried to Metz; the giving away of a portion of them prevented: At that season in which the Hungarians were roaming through these regions ^a, while Wigeric ^b the prelate presided over the city of Metz, the monks fled to that same city, carrying all their goods with them: among which, bearing away the most precious pledge of saint Gorgonius, they placed it in the church of S. Salvator, for the reason that the circuit of the monastery was not yet fortified with an enclosure of walls. There was at that time a certain venerable and religious priest, rector and guardian of that same church. He, kindled with a holy desire, approached a certain monk, whom I myself as a small boy ^c saw very aged, a centenarian [\] as it was said, asking that relics of that same body be given him, by which he might deserve to be made worthy of so great a blessing; which the other did not delay to promise him at once. But when both came together on the appointed day, on which they were to carry out secretly the compact mutually confirmed, immediately upon touching the clod ^d of the holy Martyr, they fell to the ground as though lifeless, nearly dead, having no feeling at all nor any strength [\]. And when after the space of three or four hours they had come to themselves, they experienced in themselves the power of the Martyr. But again after a little while, when they had now recovered, as though forgetful of their former chastisement, the venerable presbyter said again to the aforesaid monk: Behold, I was not worthy to enjoy the blessing of his sacred members: at least now ^e do not delay to give even some portion of the shrine in which his sacred bones are contained. But he, as I think, reckoning that what was asked would be a slight thing, again approached the same shrine, and, putting forth his hands to touch the aforesaid shrine, they fell to the ground in the same manner as before, and became as dead men. By which deed the holy Martyr struck such terror into the rest that no one thereafter presumed to disturb him.

[11] Adalbero restores the place: a blind man is cured. Likewise in the times of the aforementioned prelate of Metz, when the lord Adalbero ^f was still flourishing in youthful age, touched by a divine prompting he went with bare feet from the city to the monastery of Gorze for the sake of praying: and as he was going through all the altars [\], with keen diligence he found the dung both of asses and of the other animals round about the altars. Then, sighing heavily and groaning bitterly, he goes with tears to the tomb of the blessed martyr Gorgonius, and, prostrate on the ground, prayed with tears for a very long while, among which prayers he said this last one: Almighty God, if ever I shall have deserved to have the honor of the pontificate, I will try to restore this deserted and horribly profaned place to its former state.* How that faithful and truthful promiser fulfilled this, it is easier to grasp with the eyes than to touch upon with the tongue ^g. Almighty God however heard these prayers, and by the favoring merits of the aforesaid Martyr he obtained the episcopal chair. But after no long time there was the anniversary solemnity of the same Martyr, and the lord Adalbero himself, now by God's favor a prelate, came to be present at the sacred solemnities. And as the monks were rising to render the nocturnal praises, a certain blind man, who had lacked the light of his eyes now for twelve years, was begging saint Gorgonius to have mercy on him. And behold, while the antiphon is taken up for the singing of the Invitatory, the lights long denied are restored to the blind man. Which the bishop perceiving, is raised to the greatest joy, rendering praises to God and to saint Gorgonius; and taking the pallium which he had brought with him, he lays it upon the holy tomb.

[12] The same Adalbero, certain estates At the instigation of the enemy of the human race, who envies the happy deeds of all men, and most of all of the good, he kindled the aforesaid prelate Adalbero into grievous anger against the place of Gorze. For he grieved exceedingly that he was being driven far off from a place long possessed and strongly attached to himself. Whence the shifty one, the persecutor of all virtues, was busy in manifold ways to tear up by the roots the shoots of the tender trees, before they should be more deeply rooted: and he would have been made master of his wish, had not the most clement Lord, the giver and favorer of all good things, stretched out his hand of rescue as soon as possible to those who serve him. For nearly three years had now passed since he had begun to hold that same place in hatred, so much so that he loathed even to see the monastery and the Brothers themselves; and these same men had determined, leaving the place, to hasten as far as Trier ^h. Which would at once have happened, had not almighty God withstood them as they fled the world and sought the safe harbor of the monastery, and granted them a fit means of serving him and saint Gorgonius. Now this was the cause of the hatred and division: the often-mentioned monks had asked that the farm called Waringisus', with its appurtenances, be restored to them, which saint Gorgonius had once acquired ⁱ for those who serve him. For the plunderers and devastators of the holy Church of God had torn that same place in pieces — as cruel wolves a sheep seized upon — and so had they cut into various portions all the things conferred upon the monks by the holy men of God for the fruit of their souls. Now one of his brothers ^k, dearer than the rest, held that farm: wherefore he could not bear that anyone should ask for it back.

[13] While therefore they are being agitated with disturbances of this kind, behold, in the silence of the untimely night a certain Man of venerable habit came to him, divinely admonished, of most beautiful aspect, of wondrous splendor, and accosts him with such words as these: A good thing indeed thou hast well begun, but growing weary [\] thou hast quickly failed. Let there therefore be in thee a careful concern for amendment, lest it be the cause of thy destruction. Assuredly, unless thou correct thyself, thou wilt be carried into other falls, from which thou wilt not be able to extricate thyself: and having said this, he vanished. But he began to grow frightened, to grow pale, to tremble. And so, having called his most trusted chamberlain ^l, when day had come he said to him with a most sorrowful countenance: Go in fullest confidence with all speed to Gorze, and summon the abbot ^m most swiftly: who, obeying the words of his lord, most quickly mounted his horse and was about to hasten toward Gorze; when suddenly he found him and certain of the Brothers at the gate of the city, awaiting a way out of the city, because the keys were still held by the warden of the town. And he, being made exceedingly glad, said: Ho there, I congratulate you, because you have relieved my labor, which now would have fallen to me. For I was bound to make my way toward you: go therefore most swiftly to my lord, because he awaits you and eagerly desires to see you. When therefore the chamberlain had fulfilled the charge appointed him, the abbot returned most zealously. When he had entered, the bishop, rushing to his feet, proclaiming himself guilty, himself culpable, kept repeating with weeping that he had offended God and had incurred the anger of his most bountiful patrons, namely of saints Peter, Paul and Gorgonius. After this he said: Go before me on my journey, which without any hesitation shall follow at the third hour of the day, awaiting me all together with the whole company of the Brothers. Do not, said the abbot, set out on the journey today, because these are the chief days of fasting, which it is not possible to violate ⁿ. And he answering said: By no means can my following after be delayed, because the divine command urges me.*

[14] He sets out therefore to the monastery, as had been appointed. to the monastery of Gorze But coming as far as the place which is called of the Cross ^o, he came unshod as far as the place, walking with bare feet, and, prostrated at the feet of all in the assembly of the Brothers, he rendered himself culpable for his obstinacy. And straightway by his staff [p] he restored the farm with all its appurtenances [q]: and immediately calling his officer, he bound him under the threat of divine punishment that, if he did not wish to be smitten with the curse and vengeance of Dathan and Abiram, and of Ananias and Sapphira also, he should by no means presume to touch whatever had been gathered there to serve for various uses: which just command he faithfully fulfilled. Finally there was fulfilled the sentence of the wise Solomon, saying: When the ways of a man shall please God, he will turn even his enemies to peace. For truly the ways of those elders had pleased the Lord, who so beat upon God with frequent prayers that he turned their enemies to a peace so perfect that they who before had been unwilling either to restore what belonged to them, or even so much as to listen if anyone presumed to appeal to them by reason of his need — now, when those men had already lost hope, granted both without delay at the Lord's command.

[15] restores. Another time likewise the elders of the often-named monastery were very importunately and frequently urging the aforesaid bishop, since the want inherent in them was pressing upon them, asking with earnest prayers that the farm of Langeium be restored to them, in addition to those things at Molins [r] which were of their own right. But he, hard as flint, was moved by no discourses. Seeing therefore that they were profiting nothing, they left him, commending their whole complaint to the Most High. A little while had passed, and, sending for the abbot and certain of the chief Brothers, he said: Take what you long and earnestly sought without any effect. Render no thanks to me, but to S. Peter, who this night with vehement terror thrust upon me these words: A good thing indeed thou hast begun, but hast by no means completed it; and therefore, if thou dost not profitably correct thyself, thou shalt most swiftly be struck by divine vengeance. These things I have made known to you, that you may know to whom you ought to render thanks: here he made an end of speaking. Truly the Lord, mindful of his promises, had fulfilled what he said: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.

[16] Count Boso, holding a like estate A certain count, Boso [s] by name, a person of ample dignity, noble by birth, had invaded our farm in Champagne,

by name Wasnau, to whom one [t] of our elders had gone, to appeal to him on that same matter while he was stationed in the castle of Vitry [u]. Being therefore brought into his presence, he set forth the very great need which the Brothers were suffering, thinking that he ought to have compassion. But he on the contrary grew hard within, being made as it were of stone. And so the envoy said to the count: If you do not restore it to us, we shall cry out. But he answered: To whom? Surely not to the king? In truth the king is of the least account to me: duke Gislebert [x] is to me as if he were my most worthless servant. To whom the elder: If we lack earthly help, we shall turn to a greater support. And he said: What is that? The elder answered: Almighty God, my maker and remaker, as he is yours, regarding your person equally with mine. But he added: Be silent, and make haste to hurry back, lest I make you pass your life with great dishonor. But his wife answering said: Far be it, far be it that you should ever incur this infamy, and brand this dishonor upon your family, by inflicting any injury upon a servant of God: nay rather let him depart safe and unharmed, as he came. Therefore, these things being said, there was a departure. And so he [\*] was seized with a grievous sickness for eight continuous days, all power of eating, drinking and sleeping being taken from him. And he had himself carried to Langres [y] for the sake of being healed; but the sickness divinely sent was not lessened, nay rather it was increased.

[17] seized with disease, restores it. Then he sends with all speed for the envoy lately directed to him, that he should hasten to come quickly to him: who was immediately sent, another elder being added to him as companion. And when they had come before him, he said to the envoy first sent: Lately, when you came to me, I could by no means believe that your petition would be granted so quickly. Take therefore (holding out to him a staff) [z] without delay what was lately sought by you with so much seeking, for which, in return for humble and suppliant prayers, we paid back insulting words, nay rather contrived to inflict injurious deeds. He spoke, and made them full of thanks; but for himself he rejoiced that his ill-health was step by step relieved: and, with the return of a health-bringing hunger, which for eight days in his sorrow (as we said above) he had lacked, he asked that food be brought him: by which being somewhat refreshed, he laid himself down to rest, and for a little while gave himself to the sleep long denied, and in the morning too prolonged his sleep almost to the third hour. And when, being roused, he had asked whether the monks had now come, answer was made that both had been waiting since morning: and he without delay ordered them to be brought in together. When they had been brought in, he thus addresses them first: In truth I have learned that saint Gorgonius is of greater power with God than the arrogance of my pride is on earth. Whence from now on have me, if it please you, as a most faithful advocate, whom until now you have had as a most savage invader; and whatever you have lost, I will make good in refined gold. He spoke truly, and fulfilled it stoutly until the day of his death, the sentence of the Psalmist being fulfilled which says: This is the change of the right hand of the Most High.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. This passage teaches the custom of the ancients, who used a staff or some other thing as an instrument of deliveries or donations. Hear on this matter Jacques Sirmond in the Annotations to Geoffrey abbot of Vendôme, book 1, Epist. 6, lit. c, where these words: He (Archembald) in my presence in his chapter had utterly resigned the abbey beforehand into the hands of the bishop of Angers together with the Rule of S. Benedict; because, as he himself and the whole congregation with him publicly confessed, he could not bear so great a burden for weakness of mind and body; where, I say, he thus takes up these words: That is, by holding out the book of the Rule, he had abdicated the abbey. Drawn from the ancient custom of those times, by which, for the sanctioning and confirming of the transactions of cessions and investitures, they employed a staff, a small knife, or something else of that kind; sometimes also the book of the Rule of S. Benedict, among monks that is. Then, having adduced a twofold example, he continues: As in these the book of the Rule, so in other charters we read of a small knife, a staff, gloves put into the hand and laid upon the altar: for there are extant even today in that same monastery of S. Albinus (at Angers) and in very many others, memorials of the old custom; staves, I say, and gloves and other things, inscribed with the titles of the investitures and deliveries which they had marked. Mabillon too may be seen, De Re diplomatica, book 2, chap. 5, book 3, chap. 4, etc.

q. What has thus far been said about the restored Farm of Waringisus the author of the Acts of B. John relates in nearly the same manner in chap. XI, except that he does not trace the cause of the dissension to the Farm of Waringisus demanded back. Consult, if you please, the place cited.

r. The often-mentioned Acts, suppressing the names of the places, say that the men of Gorze pressed Adalbero for a certain possession near to them. Perhaps Molins is Moulin, and the farm of Langeium is Longeville, which places the geographical Chart inserted in tom. 1 of Calmet's History of Lorraine exhibits on the bank of the Moselle at a small distance from one another: but Moulin is there a little more than three common French miles, and Longeville three and a half, distant from Gorze.

s. Of Boso the Acts of B. John have this, chap. 12: A certain Boso, son of Richard formerly prince of the Burgundians, claiming for himself some part of the kingdom, and keeping himself within most strongly fortified camps, had utterly rejected the dominion of anyone. Holding Victoriacum, a castle of Champagne, he had usurped, among the rest of the surrounding lands, certain possessions of the monastery of Gorze, as though by hereditary right. Go to the Annotations there, which are not to be repeated here.

t. B. John is said in his Acts to have been this man, and to have been sent by abbot Einold and the Brothers.

u. In Mabillon it is Vitry: in Latin it is written Victoriacum, Victuriacum and Vitriacum. It was an ancient town of Champagne, on the river Saulx, but now only a village, in French Vitry le Brûlé, in Latin called Victoriacum burned. Not far thence Victoriacum of king Francis, in French Vitry le François, a new town on the river Marne, was built after the ruins of the other.

x. Mabillon reads Gillebertus: but Sigebert at the year 927 and elsewhere calls him, with the transcript, Gislebert: the same does the author of the Life of B. John, chap. XI, where see the annotations at lit. a, as also lit. g at chap. 8. It will suffice here to have observed that Gislebert was the son of Reginar count of Hainault and duke of Lorraine.

y. Lingones, commonly Langres, an ancient city of Celtic Gaul, sits in the province of Champagne on the river Marne, episcopal under the archbishop of Lyon.

z. Consult the annotations to this chapter at lit. p.

\ Mabil. centenarium*

\ ibid. calorem*

\ ibid. perlustrans*

\ ibid. prope*

\ Mabil. utraque*

CHAPTER III.

The men of Gorze are divinely prevented from exploring whether they had the body of St. Gorgonius entire: speech given to a mute: an estate restored to the monastery: possessed men freed: a fever-stricken man healed: one meditating apostasy chastised.

[ ] Whether they had the Saint's body entire, Flying report was filling the peoples with the tale that saint Gorgonius was by no means held here whole, but rather that beyond the Rhine, in a Bishopric most fittingly distinguished by his name ^a, a half of him was held. Spurred by which anxiety, namely the prelate Adalbero, the abbot ^b of the place, and very many other elders, sought whether perchance it might be pleasing to God to discern the truth. Wherefore, gathered together, they determined by common counsel that, afflicting their bodies with a three days' fast of bread and water, they should explore the knowledge of a matter hidden from them, appointing besides the time and the day on which they should undertake these things. And so it was done: when the appointed time came, after Compline, all the others withdrawing, only the named persons assemble, and clothe themselves in white: after this, all the bolts being carefully fastened, and lights kindled throughout the whole monastery, they draw near the altar: then, beginning the litanies with the utmost devotion, they complete them to the end. When all had been duly finished, the bishop, approaching the shrine, first lifted it, but a second time, moving his hands to the aforesaid shrine in which the precious pledges were covered, and which is marked (as we have heard) with very many seals, when he had taken up a small knife to cut the first seal, so great a dread and trembling seized them all that they thought they would die on the spot.

[19] they are divinely prevented from exploring. All strength, counsel and confidence withdrew from them: nor could anyone give the others the boldness to venture, since the fear of calamity and of anguish wrapped them all utterly and alike. Leaving the seal thus, as it had been in part loosened, for fear, as has been said, they hastened swiftly to reseal it as they had found it, thinking that they would presently be deprived of life on that very spot. They fled therefore, being by no means able to know what it pleased God to be hidden ^c. This only they perceived, that a treasure dear to Christ was deposited there, which the human eye is not worthy to have in its sight. But they also recognized the weakness of their own wretchedness, considering that saying of blessed Gregory, that we are, alas, cast down in so great a dejection that we are not able so much as to behold that for which we were created. But would that his merits and prayers may succor our wretchedness, as is expedient, whom God has deigned to give us in this toilsome age as Patron and defender, Amen.

[20] Speech given twice to a mute: There was a certain man mute from his earliest age, of the city of Autun ^d, who had very often gone through the places of many Saints, begging that by their suffrages and merits they would at last now help him. Among which he came last of all to saint Gengulph ^e: to whom it was indicated by night that he should hasten to saint Gorgonius. And he, when morning came, asking his way, as is the custom of those ignorant of the roads, hastened his journey toward Gorze, as had been revealed to him. Where [\*], staying for some days, he was exceedingly importunate day after day to the guardian, a religious man, as best he could by the nods of signs, that it might be allowed him to lie on some night in the church: who at length, overcome by weariness, permitted him to lie beneath the steps by which one ascends to the altar. But behold, in the silence of the untimely night, while all were sleeping, the shrine of the blessed Martyr resounded with a wondrous crash, so that the same guardian, struck with fear at that sound, was awakened. Then, as the mute man afterward related, it seemed to him as though a certain young soldier, coming from the couch of the blessed Martyr, put the finger of his index into his mouth and cut his tongue from the palate: from whom a great deal of blood flowed from his mouth upon those same steps, all the Brothers seeing it: and thereafter, glorifying God and our patron saint Gorgonius, he had free power of speaking. And when he wished to return to his own country, coming to Arnold's-Farm ^f, kindled by the goads of anger, he harshly afflicted his servant with blows, for I know not what cause. Straightway therefore, as before, he was deprived of the power of speaking: but quickly finding a salutary counsel, he returned to the mercy of the aforesaid Martyr, and speech was given him again. Then, returning thankfully to his own, he was afterward not seen by us.

[21] At almost the same times there was a certain veteran soldier ^g of our lord the prelate Adalbero, Adalbero a certain farm very hostile to our religion, for the reason that he held very much land of our abbey. It happened therefore that, as the term of his life drew near, he departed from this world. But by a chance occurrence, or rather, as we believe, by God's will, that same lord ^h of ours was then with us: and it was now evening when the soldier's death was announced to him, and his supper was already prepared: whom straightway one ⁱ of our elders approached about a certain excellent farm of ours, which among very many others that same soldier had held. But he, wonderfully angered, and marvelously turned black through anger (as was his custom) — for as very many grow red from anger, so very many grow black — not only gave the petitioner no answer, but also, when all the elders begged that, laying anger aside, he would deign to taste something, so hardened himself against all who asked that he was willing to listen to none at all, but went to sleep supperless, gnashing with anger. All of us therefore being saddened at his sadness (for we would rather have had the greatest loss than see his spirit saddened, fearing lest on this account he should hold in hatred the place which he had before greatly loved), saint Gorgonius with his accustomed compassion consoled us apart from any merits of ours. For our lord, lying all night in his bed, could do neither of the two, neither wake well nor sleep. He was tormented, he was troubled, he was disquieted with phantom visions, he was turned this way and that in his bed, no quiet of repose was given him.

[22] At length, coming to himself, he rose from his bed, and, taking his staff, restores to the men of Gorze. he went on into the monastery, restoring the farm by that same staff ^k to saint Gorgonius: and falling to the ground he asked pardon of the Saint, that he would forgive him for having resisted the petitioners with so obstinate a mind. Therefore, having left the staff at the head of saint Gorgonius, he returned to his own bed: then he passed the remainder of the night in the utmost quiet, sleeping, with nothing at all disquieting him. And so when morning came, having summoned that same elder who had before appealed to him about the aforesaid farm, together with the abbot, he ordered his staff to be brought to him, which he had placed at the head of saint Gorgonius: and when it had been brought, taking it he gave it to the abbot of the monastery, saying: Behold, take the farm for which you asked yesterday evening: and render thanks to the holy Martyr, not to me, since I do this not of my own accord, but by his own compelling impulse. And so the aforesaid elder, who thought that he would be assailed with very many insults of words, heard only such an insult as this. Finally he so loved our place that, though almost the whole city was hostile to him on our account, yet he, by the favoring merits of our Patron, never loosed himself from the love of charity he had proposed; but moreover showed himself unconquerable to all: to whom, as we ask day and night, may the Lord grant the joys of the highest life. Amen.

[23] Possessed men A certain young man of Montfaucon ^l was tormented by a most savage demon. He, being led through divers places of the Saints, was by no means freed: not that the merits of the Just were not worthy to obtain this; but rather he was reserved for him to whom God had granted it, according to that word of the Apostle: To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ. Thus to saint Gorgonius this sign was given more especially. He had come indeed in the days of Quinquagesima [\*] to the memorial of the Martyr of Christ, terribly tormented by a demon, staying with us nearly a whole week. He raised voices, or rather cries, savage, horrible, confused, to heaven day and night: he reverenced not God even in the church, while the Brothers came together to discharge their due task: nay rather he increased the cries of his voice, and did not cease to gnash with his teeth, to bite any and all, to tear them, to strike them, and to spit against the very venerable altars. Prostrate with his whole body on the ground, he swept the pavement of the church with his own hands as strongly as if they were of stone. When he rose from the ground, with the malignant spirit raging within him, he was broken and rolled together like an eel or a small lamprey, so much so that his neck for the most part seemed to cling to his buttocks. It was a thing of misery to see how, filled with the furies of the assailing enemy, he seemed by no means to feel the torments which the wretch heaped upon his own body. Or did he feel them, who, inflicting very many pains upon his own body, rejected them as another's by increasing them, in his madness? Why say more? The days of the week are filled with these torments, one remaining: at length the Lord, taking pity, by granting the prayers of saint Gorgonius, healed the wretched man.

[24] freed: For on a certain day, Mass having been celebrated, some of the Brothers departing and very many remaining, that frantic man, raving this way and that, while he was running about through the church, came at length to the abbot's station, where by custom there hung a little silver crown with a candle; which, seizing and breaking the little silver chain, he folded together between his hands as though it were lead, and cast down to be trampled by his feet, until it was taken from his hands by force: and straightway the holy Martyr, as though he said, I will render good for evil — who, if he did not say it in words, proved it by deeds, fulfilling the commands of the Lord who says, Pray for them that persecute you, do good to them that hate you — restored him to entire soundness. Being freed from the demon, he most keenly felt the bodily pains which the enemy of the human race had driven him to bring upon himself: whence also he uttered such lamentations as betrayed the enormity of the affliction which he had endured. Rendering therefore thanks to his Deliverer, he returned to his own, and appeared to us no more. Another possessed man likewise was brought to the often-named monastery by his providers, who kept up a din day and night with horrific hissings, imitating indeed that slippery serpent who overcame Adam the first-formed in paradise, and received the sentence of bodily death with all his stock, the Lord justly inflicting it. This man was cured after two days. And so, not unmindful of himself, he ungirded his belt and put it about his neck, and by the same delivered himself over as a servant to saint Gorgonius ^m, feeling that the yoke of the Lord was far sweeter to bear [\*] than that of most savage Satan, who before had tortured him with the cruelest torments. He therefore diligently, as long as he lived in this flesh, discharged for so many years the due task to his most kindly Helper.

[25] Here I append two examples, to make manifest how great a bounty of solicitude the holy Men of God exercised toward their clients, a fever-stricken monk healed: another, meditating a second apostasy, namely blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles and saint Gorgonius the Martyr; the one by soothing the devout, the other by terrifying the reprobate. A certain one of the Brothers of that same monastery was tormented by a grievous heat of fevers. And failing both from sleeplessness and from sickness, he fell to the ground before the steps of the altar, about to make supplication to the almighty Lord for his infirmity, then also calling upon the holy Martyr as intercessor. And when in the very words of his prayer he had fallen asleep, he saw in his sleep as it were a bear going out of his mouth. Being at once awakened, he told the vision to the Brothers, and rejoiced that he was free of that burning of fevers. Another Brother likewise, long meditating contrivances of flight, set out on a journey, bringing two losses upon the monastery,

first, that by withdrawing himself from God he apostatized from him; second, that he led away with him an excellent horse. He, having stayed abroad for some time, returned to the monastery — it is not known whether by God's inspiration or under compulsion of necessity. Being received therefore according to the precept of the Rule, he was doing penance for his former transgression and for the pledge [\*] of a broken promise, not from the heart, as could be observed and as afterward became plain: but, refreshed after his weariness, he was again contriving devices of flight, with bitterness of soul, having long deliberated, as was judged from his various gestures. By these depraved schemes he was day and night increasing the heaps of his thoughts; when behold, the days of the solemnity of the Martyr of Christ had passed. But when the third day had already gone by, on one of the nights, when he had given himself to sleep, it seemed to him as though he stood in the church of saint Peter in the choir: and suddenly he saw entering, as it were through the principal window, an old man of venerable countenance, before whom went one flourishing in youthful age, as it were an attendant ⁿ.

[26] Whom the old man first accosting said: Thou, wicked servant, chastised by the Saints appearing. what fraudulent attempts art thou now again contriving? Long since thou didst flee from hence, and I spared thee: and now dost thou again meditate the same? Far be it, far be it, that thou shouldst now be pardoned with impunity. But he answered: No, lord, I have not planned these things nor wished to perform them: why is that imputed to me of which I am guiltless? But he added: Why, unhappy man, dost thou pursue lying words? Does not my gaze see and search out the secrets of thy heart? For these things thou art now turning over in thy heart, that thou mayest be able to flee: but it shall by no means turn out prosperously for thee: wherefore, cast down upon the earth, pay the penalties to be inflicted on thee for this crime; since it cannot remain unavenged: for before I pardoned thee, but now I by no means spare. Saying this, he ordered him who stood by to take a scourge, which is a whip made of leather: and, when the man had been prostrated, to inflict many stripes. And as he cried out loudly that he would never again think such things or perform them in deed, amid these cries the vision departed, and what was thought to be a phantom was found true. When morning came, calling the treasurer, he said: Hear what mockeries I suffered this night: and beginning, he disclosed the whole sight of the revelation in order, as we have woven it above, adding at each point derisively: O what ravings of phantoms, which the common enemy heaps upon us! When he had said this, sickness and death together seized him; for having been afflicted four months, at the end of the fourth month, when he now saw the day of his death impending, being compelled by necessity he made known all things to the abbot, and at length made an end of life. These things I have said for the sake of those who either do not believe, or do not fear at all, that the Lord cares for and weighs all our thoughts.

ANNOTATIONS.

\ i.e. ubi*

\ Mabil. Quadragesimæ*

\ ibid. fore*

\ ibid. fide* is absent

CHAPTER IV.

The Hungarians and a certain soldier divinely prevented from plundering Gorze: a cripple set upright: the duke of the Franks healed: certain other miracles: the author's apostrophe to his men of Gorze.

[ ] The Hungarians from plundering Gorze When at one time a storm of seditions had arisen among the princes of this kingdom, a certain man, acting against his own faith, that is against the Christian name, sent legates and brought in the nation of the Hungarians ^a. Which faithless nation, while it roamed through the regions situated round about, came at length to our place. There happened then to be a third part of the wall in ruins, for the reason that the smallness of the fortification was being enlarged by the elders: the height of the new wall had risen a little; yet a vast breach in the walls lay open in some places, so much so that they could ride without any obstacle right up to the doors of the monastery. For nearly a whole week it was keenly surveyed by them round about every day, in the morning, at midday, in the evening: but they were as careful not to approach near as though it were a great sacrilege committed, or shunned it as though it were a burning column in which they themselves would be burned at once if they drew near. There was no doubt at all that if they had come and been willing to give battle, they would without postponement have taken it, had not his prayer hindered them, whose too was that repulse. The abbot of the place was tormented, was troubled, was afraid, clapped [\] his hands, and complained sorrowfully, saying: I have lost all the young Brothers whom I have reared for God: would that I had long since brought them within the enclosures of the walls of Metz, that they might remain after us serving Christ! If we old men alone were slaughtered, it would be no loss* ^b.

[28] wonderfully restrained: Almighty God heard these tearful voices, and rescued us from our common enemies no otherwise than if we had been placed in [\*] an open field, and they in a circle round about us dared by no means come near us. This I have said in order to show that the prayers of the defenses of saint Gorgonius are more excellent than those fortifications of walls, even if they were of iron. And indeed the man who went before them, leading them, namely the duke ^c of the kingdom of Lothar at that time, was most hostile to us: who would in no way have left us unharmed, had not the divine hand, by the intervening merits of our Patron the martyr of Christ, kept him away from us. When they had withdrawn, in order that the Lord might make plain both that duke's hatred toward us and our defense by the darts of the prayers of saint Gorgonius, three times he caused his whole army to be assembled, that he might rush upon us suddenly while we knew nothing of it: and as often as he saw such things in the evening, so that they knew without hesitation that we were to be besieged at dawn, when morning came a keener care so restrained him that he utterly forgot us. Which was hidden from us during his lifetime; but God, the knower of hidden things, was unwilling that it should be unknown forever. For one of his soldiers, beloved by him above the rest, coming to us, when he asked for suffrages both spiritual and carnal, confessed these same things, declaring truly that God was in that place where so great a safeguard of defense reposed. Which, as I have said, was altogether unknown before: and if it had been known, it would not easily have been believed.

[29] likewise a soldier prevented: In those same days too there was another certain soldier of the aforesaid duke, busy in laying snares for us: whose wickedness the safeguards of the holy Martyr repelled in their accustomed manner. For, the watch of the walls having been neglected, since it was now well fortified, and the sedition growing somewhat cool, especially too since no suspicion was had of the aforesaid soldier nor of any others, he came secretly in the silence of the untimely night, with no one at all standing on the wall, not even a single small boy, that he might climb the wall by ladders, about to do the evils which he had revolved in his perverse heart, if the Lord should permit. And when he had already crossed the middle of the rampart, both horse and rider saw such a thing that he could not and would not go any farther forward. For the horse, though violently urged with spurs, could not be moved from the place: he too hastened to hurry back swiftly, because that alone he could do, who could not draw near the wall: for the reason that it seemed to him as though crashing stones threatened him from above from the wall. Terrified by which fear, he fled with all haste to Vandières ^d, and, seized with sickness, fell into his bed, and humbly asked that for God's sake there be sent to him one to whom he might disclose his affairs. There was sent at once one of the Brothers, to whom he confessed all the things which we have related above, which were wholly hidden from us; adding that it had been indicated to him by a manifest revelation that unless he received a blessing from the monastery, he could by no means deserve to obtain health. Which also was done: for as soon as the blessing was sent, namely of bread, cheese and wine, immediately, the food being taken, his strength recovered and his sickness departing, he grew strong again to his former vigor, and thereafter professed that he would be forever faithful to that place.

[30] an example is adduced The Ecclesiastical History relates matters almost most like these. For it relates that on the border of Persia and of the Roman empire there was a notable city

^e. There was at that time a division between the Romans and the Persians, for the reason that the Persians avoided being made subject to the Romans. The almighty Lord wonderfully struck the citizens of that city, and still more wonderfully gladdened them on the instant. The Persians had agreed with the Romans to take away that same city and to subject it to their own dominion. And so, when evening had come, on whose morrow it was to be besieged, the whole wall ^f of the city fell utterly: which peril being seen, the whole people together with the bishop poured out prayers to God with tears. After there had been long crying out, and night coming on, the multitude of the common people withdrawing, he betook himself with his whole heart to making supplication to God: and behold, when dawn arose, they found the whole circuit of the wall restored ^g. Rejoicing therefore exceedingly, they glorified the almighty Lord for the mercy bestowed. The phalanx of the enemy therefore was hastening as quickly as possible to besiege the city: and when it had been besieged all around, Christ almighty, who had begun to let fall upon them the gift of his mercy, brought it to completion even to the end. For so great an abundance of gnats filled the nostrils of the elephants that they could not stand there at all, but were rather driven this way and that.

[31] To the king ^h of the Persians himself too there appeared a man, terribly gleaming in golden arms, from the Ecclesiastical History. standing upon the wall and defending the city. For he was a messenger of the most high God sent for the protection of the faithful people. But that king of the opposing party, thinking that it was the Roman prince ⁱ, said to his fellow-soldiers: Let us flee, because they have hired against us the Roman emperor. And when these had been put to flight in this way, the Lord wonderfully and mercifully delivered his own from their anguish. Those men therefore, without the obstacle of a wall, he protected as long as it pleased him: us likewise he powerfully fenced about with the rampart of the prayers of saint Gorgonius, without stone walls. Was it not enough without a wall, we who lacked a third part of it, especially too with the greatest breaches open and gaping on both sides? Those elephants he put to flight by the harrying of gnats: the horseman desiring to lay snares for us he repelled in a not dissimilar manner, when it seemed to him that he was being battered by stones cast from the wall; whereas, as we have said above, there was not even a single small boy standing on the wall. Wonderful indeed is God in his Saints, most merciful toward sinners most like myself.

[32] At another time there was a certain cripple who could not walk otherwise than with little stools [k], The use of his limbs restored to a cripple: which hang fastened to this day, in testimony of the miracle, at the doors of the monastery. He was healed in this manner. The festival of our lord had come, and the aforesaid cripple had flocked thither with the rest of the multitude of the common people, about to make supplication to the Lord for his affliction by the intercession of the blessed Martyr. And so it came to pass: and behold, as the Brothers were beginning the nocturnal synaxis ^l, the aforesaid sick man began to cry out with a loud voice. The Brothers ask by the nod of signs what that so grievous outcry of his meant. He answered: Do you not see how my sinews are being stretched, which bring upon me an exceedingly grievous and almost intolerable torment? Nor is it a wonder: for the sinews could not be restored to their former condition without torments to him, since they had grown limp by long bending. The abbot kept him for some time for love of the miracle wrought upon him, and cherished him as if he were his own kinsman. But the unhappy man, growing used to the place, entered the granaries of the Brothers by night, and made haste to continue his thieving. Which the abbot hearing, cast him out with great dishonor, whom before he had kept and nourished with a father's love. There was fulfilled in him the proclamation of the Psalmist who says: Man when he was in honor did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is become like to them. These things therefore I have inserted for this reason, that I might signify into how great a dregs the human race has, alas, sunk down: for when it ought to have answered to the divine benefits which he deigns to display both by himself and by his servants, this wretched creature does not do so: but rather shows malice in return for benevolence, namely disobedience, contempt and pride. And most worthless ash and dust do not at all dread to provoke God the most high and immeasurable in greatness, being entangled in the masses of their crimes: nay rather they increase their contempt toward the Lord, as also this man, who for the health restored to him brought in the wages [\] of robbery. Wherefore we exhort all men to beware of that saying of the most wise Solomon: They who render evil for good, evil shall not depart from their house.*

[33] Health restored to the duke of the Franks. Moreover in recent time the duke ^m of the Franks fell into a violent sickness. For a whole week and more, being grievously afflicted by fever and dysentery, he had lost all power of taking any food, trembling that death was impending over him. Under the pressure of this necessity, in the days of the Epiphany he went to the merits of saint Gorgonius, humbly asking that he be helped. To these prayers saint Gorgonius lending his ear, by his intercession granted him to be able in the evening to take food with pleasure, which before he had for many days ceased to be able to do, as has been said: and being at once filled with food, he completed what follows upon it, namely a plenty of sleeping. When suddenly, rising in the morning wholly strong and sound, he rendered thanks to almighty God: nay, not unmindful of himself, he delivered to saint Gorgonius a splendid pallium in memory of the health afforded him: and finally, brisk and sound, on the morrow he hurried back to his own house.

[34] Various miracles are touched upon. It would be long to discourse one by one of what and how great prodigies of powers God has made known through our Patron. This only we append, that in our sight he restored sight to very many blind, walking to the lame, the restoration of hands to the maimed, deliverance to the possessed, to the frantic, the falling-sick and those cheated of their senses their former health and a swift cure of all diseases: which prolixity we avoid for weariness' sake, since to repeat the same things in the same manner so often would be a nausea to readers and hearers, though to those healed it is a dance of gladness. But even if Gorgonius the athlete of God had done none of these things, it would suffice and more than abound, which is more excellent and dearer to the Lord, namely the healing of souls, which we have thought fit to touch upon here for the time: so that we who have unfolded certain fleshly remedies may at least not put off running briefly over certain spiritual ones.

[35] Setting forth the rewards of the good and the penalties of the wicked, For since this place was despoiled of all supports both spiritual and bodily, and since the wild boar was laying it waste and the solitary beast devouring it; the God of all powers, turning, looked down from heaven, and saw and visited this vineyard, and gathered thither from all ages, namely from Greece, Burgundy, and from the Britons wholly divided from the world, from the men of Metz ⁿ, of Toul [o], of Verdun [p]: and, joining together one company of the faithful, he made them brothers not only in flesh but in spirit, keeping one heart and one soul in God. When they were few in number, few things sufficed them, because they had also but few: but when the multitude grew, God also increased their means, by the merits of saint Peter and Gorgonius, not only in possessions without, but also in divers treasures within. The altars, which had long been profaned by the stalls of asses and swine [q], and the walls too, once of clay and without covering, were marked with beauty [r] and honor, as it pleased the Lord. Poor men following the poor Lord, walking in simplicity, were enriched with virtues — with spiritual ones, which God more accepts. Very many too received cures of their bodies according to their merits: but those who, walking fraudulently, corrupted their ways, and did not render fitting service to Gorgonius the holy servant of God, were punished with divers scourges. Some were restrained by demons, others by ruptured bowels, others by the loss of health in the middle of the body, others by being burned from the loins downward with an incorporeal fire. But the followers of goodness deserved before the day of their departure to be called by the Lord, in the hearing of those Brothers who were found worthy to hear: while others learned in the secret of their mind when they should be led out of this prison-house of the flesh. We saw them truly desiring the Lord alone, seeking eternal things by their words and manners, sighing for him day and night, counting all fleeting things as nothing, taking up as a great thing whatever was most worthless and what we now scarcely wish (so to speak) even to look at, fulfilling it reverently as though God himself were visibly attesting it, faithfully committing to memory and performing in deed that saying: He that humbleth himself shall be exalted: and that: The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things, and thou shalt find rest before God.

[36] But we, alas, swelling within and reckoning ourselves great, the author spurs on his men of Gorze to virtue. wish to be exalted by the Lord hereafter, while we are unwilling to be humbled for him even a little. But let us beware lest this be said to us by the Lord at the time of each one's calling: Thou hast not done what I commanded; with what shameless [\] brow dost thou seek what I promised? For this place, like all other places, grew by humility; nor will it be destroyed except by pride: since in truth by that same it was formerly destroyed. Let us therefore humbly implore the clemency of almighty God, by the intercession of the Saints and of all the faithful who serve Christ, that he who has bedewed this place with a drop of his unspeakable mercy, as much by the free gift of his abundance as by the labor of our predecessors, may not let it perish through the masses of our sins, but rather may increase and enlarge it day by day with earthly abundance, and, what is more to be desired, with spiritual delights, as he himself knows how: nor, provoked by our evils, may the fount of mercy, our Lord Jesus Christ, withdraw himself from us, in the washing of the sinner and of what is unclean; but, keeping his mercies in the way, may he blot out and wipe away whatever we transgress with the scourge of a father's discipline, nor deliver us over to perpetual punishment as most wicked servants; but may have mercy on us as on sons, of whom he himself deigned to say through his Scriptures: Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.* So may the Lord chastise us too in this toilsome life by scourging, that, all the blemishes of filth being shaken from our soul, as the grains are separated when the ears are strongly threshed; and being made as gold tried and purged in the furnace, we may deserve to be admitted with rejoicing into that desirable fellowship of the Blessed, where, all tears being wiped away, death and crying and mourning shall be no more, but perpetual peace, unfailing light, unspeakable joy from the everlasting contemplation of our most loving Redeemer Jesus Christ and of the holy angels and of all the elect who have been created from the beginning of the world; to whom may almighty God, who lives and reigns in perfect Trinity for ages of ages, deign to bring us the sooner. Amen [s].

ANNOTATIONS.

doubt is the same dissension and the same irruption of the Hungarians of which our author treats. Further, concerning the aforesaid dissension, as our Bolland noted at the chapter cited, Sigebert in his Chronicle at the year 952 has thus: Lidulph son of the emperor Otto, at the instigation of duke Conrad, rebelled with him against his own father etc. But of the Hungarians summoned by Conrad he writes at the year 955: Duke Conrad, a deserter from God and from the emperor, transferring himself to the Hungarians, led them into Lorraine as far as the Carbonarian forest, and, the power of God having been shown against them at Lobbes, being forbidden to advance further, they return unpunished. Flodoard just praised has the like at the year 954.

[ ]. Scamellum, scamella, scammellum is a footstool; but properly it is used for those footstools upon which those who creep lean with their hands, says Du Cange in the Glossary, where he proves it by various examples. It will suffice to have recited here the verses of Rodulfus Tortarius on the Miracles of S. Benedict, which are of this kind:

> But the boy, bending forward, creeping on his accustomed stools, > sought Fleury, and thence returned safe and sound.

p. Verodunum, to the French Verdun, likewise a city of Gaul within the same duchy of Lorraine, on which it does not depend, situated on the river Meuse, episcopal under the same archbishop of Trier, and it is the capital of the district of Verdun. Further, in the praised Life of B. John, chaps. 6, 7 and 8, the reader will find some illustrious monks of Gorze recounted.

q. Go to chapter 2, from num. 11, as also to the Annotations there.

r. This restoration of Gorze was made by the care and industry of B. John under abbot Einold, as may be read in the Life of that same Blessed, chap. 10. Of the wall with which he girded the monastery, these things are contained at num. 90: Having brought in from every quarter masters of divers arts, he first enclosed the cloister on all sides with a wall after the manner of a fortress; which today too is seen to serve not only for fortification but also, if there be need, for defense against assault.

s. In our manuscript this closing clause is subjoined: Here ends the little book of the miracles of saint Gorgonius, the glorious martyr.

\ Mabil. plaudebat*

\ ibid. medio* is added

\ Mabil. dispendium*

\ ibid. imprudenti*