Odger

ON ST. ODGER, DEACON,

AT ROERMOND IN BELGIUM,

IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY,

BY JOHN BOLLAND.

Of the Saint's cult, country, uncertain monastic life, age, deeds and relics.

Odger, deacon at Roermond in Belgium (St.)

By J. Bolland.

On the fourth of the Ides of September is celebrated the birthday of St. Odger, Deacon and Confessor, [St. Odger, inscribed in the Martyrologies, is venerated on the 10th of September at Roermond,] as is expressed in so many words in the old manuscript Martyrology of the church of St. Mary at Utrecht: with which agrees the manuscript of the monastery of St. Martin at Trier, the Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490, Hermann Greven in the additions to Usuard published in the years 1515 and 1521, Canisius in the German Martyrology, and John Molanus in the first edition of his auctarium to Usuard: for in the later ones he writes of him more fully thus: Likewise St. Otger, confessor and deacon, who from Britain was the companion of the pilgrimage of the holy bishops Wiro and Plechelm, and after many exercises of piety received burial in the church of Sint-Odiliënberg near Roermond. Our Andreas Boey in the Flemish Martyrology: In the church of the Mount of St. Peter, St. Odger, deacon and confessor. Filippo Ferrari in his general Catalogue: At Roermond in Guelders, St. Otger, Deacon. Both places our Baudouin Willot expressed in the Belgian Martyrology: On the Mount of St. Peter and at Roermond is venerated St. Otger, deacon, the companion of SS. Wiro and Plechelm. He is called indifferently Odger and Otger, in Greven Othger, in a certain manuscript Oger.

[2] I do not know what came into the mind of Thomas Dempster, not in Brabant: nor was he a Bishop, or a Priest: that he should write thus in his Scottish Menologium: In Brabant, of Otger, bishop, apostle, patron of Roermond. He cites Molanus, who neither makes him a Scot nor a bishop, nor writes that he is venerated in Brabant. It is indeed probable that he passed through Brabant (which, however, at least in its entirety, by no means bore that name at that time), since into Guelders

he came; perhaps he preached also to certain peoples who are now reckoned within Brabant, especially in the Lower Maasgau; but the Mount of St. Peter, where he dwelt, is not in Brabant, much less Roermond, where he is now venerated. But neither was he a bishop; not even a priest, although John Wilson wrote this in the later edition of the English Martyrology, whereas in the earlier he had called him a Deacon. The author of the manuscript Florarium, that he might not err, embraced both opinions: And of Otger, he says, priest, otherwise deacon, and confessor, in the year of salvation 732.

[3] That he was moreover a Scot by nation Saussay writes in the Gallican Martyrology on this very day. But David Camerarius, in book 3 On the piety of the Scots, placed him at the 12th of September: I believe because he had no other Scot with whom to adorn that day. whether he was a Scot is uncertain, more probably an Englishman: Of the country of St. Otger Molanus speaks ambiguously in chapter 7 of the Chronicle of the Saints of Belgium: There came also from Scotland, he says, to Pippin, St. Wiro the bishop, St. Plechelm the bishop, both ordained at Rome, and St. Otger the levite. And certainly, when they were returning from Rome into Scotland, they seem to have led Odger thither with them, whom they also took as the companion of a second pilgrimage, since he was present with one or other of them. Moreover, the Life of St. Wiro, chapter 2, number 5, seems to hint that he was an Englishman; for it has it thus: To blessed Wiro also, with such a companion attending him, while he was travelling through the parts of the English, Othger the levite is joined by God. The Life of Odger himself also has it thus: There was in the parts of Britain a man of venerable life, Odger by name. For although the regions which the Scots and the Picts inhabited in the island of Albion were also a part of ancient Britain, yet both of these had either come from elsewhere, as Bede and other writers hand down; or, if the Picts are to be numbered among the aborigines, yet scarcely in the time of the same Bede and afterwards were those held to be Britons, except such as on this side of the Forth as far as the Gallic Ocean had before been subject to the Roman commonwealth, and then were either mingled with the Saxons or driven back by them into the western provinces of the same island. Dempster himself, in book 14 of the Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish nation, chapter 970, speaks thus: Whether St. Otger was a Scot I could not easily divine, and much less could I certainly affirm. But below he adds: That he went from Scotland to Rome the same Molanus affirmed, in the Indiculus of the Saints of Belgium, page 76, and in the Chronicle of the same, page 89. Molanus in the former place has it thus: St. Wiro, elected bishop in Scotland, went to Rome for his consecration with Plechelm and Otger. And a little after: With the same men he came from Scotland to Pippin. Which we too have confessed above. But Molanus does not say that he went with them from Scotland to Rome; but that Wiro, elected in Scotland, went to Rome for his consecration with Plechelm and Otger: nor does he affirm that they were joined to him in Scotland at that time. What Molanus has in the second place, namely in chapter 7 of the Chronicle, we have reported above.

[4] whether he was a monk is not altogether established: John Wilson, in the 1st edition of the English Martyrology, says that he was a monk in the northern region of England, where he had also been born. In the 2nd edition he omitted that about his country: yet there too he asserts that he was a monk. It seems credible, though perhaps not altogether certain, that he was sprung from England: but nothing occurs anywhere from which it can be determined from what part of England he came. That he was a monk, and indeed a Benedictine, is judged by Arnold Wion, Benedict Dorgan of St. John, Hugh Ménard, in the Martyrologies of their Order, Edward Maihew in the Trophies of the English Congregation, tome 2, and Gabriel Bucelin in the Benedictine Menologium; while Constantino Ghini reckons him among the Canon Saints. Neither is clear. Yet the latter view may seem to be supported by the Life at number 3, where these words are read: And when he long doubted which he would rather do, either to be subjected to the rules of the monastic manner of life, or to remain to the end in that habit which as a little boy he had first received in the monastery. By which words it seems to be hinted that he was indeed clothed in a clerical habit, but was not subjected to the rules of the monastic manner of life. Nor is mention made afterwards of a monastic manner of life undertaken, which neither is it established that Wiro and Plechelm professed, nor what sort of congregation they instituted on the Mount of St. Peter. Bucelin asserts that Otger, captivated by the sanctity and companionship of St. Wiro, renounced the world: he does not prove it.

[5] The age of St. Otger can be gathered from what we said at the 8th of May upon the Life of St. Wiro, his age: whence the Life here published: and what we said upon St. Plechelm at the 15th of July: but it cannot certainly be determined whether he survived them, or rather died before them; who does not seem to have been initiated into the priesthood, since he is always named Deacon: although the grade of the priesthood would at that time have brought great usefulness for the propagation of faith and piety. Unless, like very many other Saints, he begged off that honour from modesty and submission of mind. His Life we here give from a manuscript codex of the church of St. Martin at Utrecht, which is now preserved in the Charterhouse of Cologne. Who composed it is obscure. The matter is taken from the Life of St. Wiro, and amplified in wording. The same is extant, but somewhat abridged, in the second part of the Legends, as Molanus called it, which was printed at Cologne in the year 1483, and again at Louvain two years later.

[6] That Dempster affirms that he wrote one book for a German synod, whether he wrote books. he does after his manner: for indeed, as we have often warned elsewhere, he dares to judge that it would not be seemly enough if not all the Scottish Saints were said to have been famous, as for holiness, so also for erudition and published books. But what was there to be written for a German synod, or which synod was it? Was it perhaps that whose Canons were approved in the Council of Les Estinnes?

[7] The relics of St. Odger, as also those of SS. Wiro and Plechelm, Relics translated to Utrecht: some to Roermond, when the monastery of Berg, or of the Mount of St. Peter, or of St. Odilia, had been given by king Lothar to Hunger, bishop of Utrecht, in the year 858, as we said more fully upon the Life of St. Wiro, were carried off to Utrecht, some part of them however being left in the church of the Mount of St. Odilia: and these, made illustrious by frequent miracles, were translated to Roermond together with the college of Canons, and were laid in the base of the high altar of the church of the Holy Spirit, which is now the cathedral [*]: and when by a wonderful providence of the Godhead they had been withdrawn from the sacrilegious hands of the Calvinists, they were at length found in the year 1594, when the altar was being restored, and were honourably elevated. The memory of that Finding of the relics of those three Saints is recalled with an annual solemnity on the Tuesday after the feast of the most holy Trinity, with a double Office of the 2nd class, as may be seen in the Offices of the church and diocese of Roermond. But the relics which had been carried off to Utrecht had afterwards to be hidden somewhere for fear of the Northmen: until a hundred years later bishop Baldric found them, as also the bodies of SS. Isburnus, Werenfrid, Odulf, and Radbod his predecessor, by a divine revelation, and adorned his church with them, as William Heda relates.

[8] Whatever else might be asked concerning St. Otger has been treated upon the Life of SS. Wiro and Plechelm, where we also refute what is narrated in the Life of St. Swithbert, published under the name of St. Marchelm by some unknown fabler, concerning a synod of Utrecht held under St. Willibrord, at which they are feigned to have been present. Of the companions of St. Otger, as related elsewhere, Johannes Gerbrandus a Leydis treats in book 2, chapter 16, of the Belgian Chronicle, where also he writes this concerning him: his miracles: Likewise the blessed Othger, levite of Christ, living in the same monastery in great sanctity, at length full of every virtue and famous for divine miracles, is seized with sickness, and, foreknowing the end of his life, being placed in the presence of his Brethren and having received the Sacraments of the Church, passed to the Lord, to rejoice with him perpetually, as he deserved. His body was buried in the church upon the aforesaid mount of St. Peter, where by his merits many miracles are wrought.

[9] perhaps some relics formerly at Groningen and Deventer. An epitome of the Life of St. Otger is set forth by Molanus in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, and likewise by Miraeus from the Offices of the church of Roermond cited above, in which he is venerated on the 10th of September with a double Office. In the diocese of Utrecht, of Groningen (faultily in Ghini, Grudigensis), and of Deventer, the feast of St. Nicholas of Tolentino is kept on that day, with which a commemoration of St. Odger is made. As to what Molanus writes in the place cited, that his birthday is recalled by the Cathedral churches of Roermond and Groningen, because each venerates him as its preacher and patron; for my part I have nowhere read that he preached at Groningen or in its neighbourhood: nor indeed about Deventer. I should rather divine that some relics of his were formerly carried from Utrecht to both those cities.

* afterwards the church of St. Christopher was made the cathedral.

LIFE

by an anonymous author

From a manuscript of the church of Utrecht.

Odger, deacon at Roermond in Belgium (St.)

BHL Number: 6269

A. By an anonymous author, from manuscripts.

St. Odger, well instructed, conspicuous for virtue while still a boy, There was in the parts of Britain a man of venerable life, Odger by name, begotten, by God's predestination, of the stock of noble fathers, yet made nobler by his merits and by the religion of his sanctity. But his parents, recognizing his diligence in the tender years of adolescence, handed him over to religious Brethren, that he might be more studiously instructed in the sacred readings. Then, by the granting of God's holy grace, he subdued the tender years of adolescence, and clear-sightedly imitated the examples of the spiritual Fathers to whose mastership he had subjected himself. But amid these things there was in him a wonderful obedience among his fellow-pupils, an unwearied patience amid the occurrence of injuries, and, surpassing very many of his elders and juniors in the office of charity, he already prefigured in his work that he would be what those riper in age had accomplished. Then indeed the servants of God who there in the camp of Christ were content to serve the most high King, recognizing the aim of his good disposition, revered him more than his fellows in age. His kinsfolk also honoured him, and almost the whole neighbourhood of the province, and all who knew him, revering rather the diligence of his mind than regarding the nobility of his family. But when through the courses of the years he grew to manhood, and felt the way of charity burning within him, and had by no means subjected his mind to the pleasures of earthly ambition, but rather, straitening himself, shunned the enticements of all wantonness; he so advanced in the service of God that he was watered with heavenly dew, and was moreover clearly imbued with the art of letters.

[2] Meanwhile Christ our Lord and Saviour, who everywhere glorifies his servants, he is ordained deacon, and exercises virtues worthy of that grade: inspired the heart of the bishop of that place that one so outstanding in merits was not unfitted for the ecclesiastical orders: who, the divine grace dispensing it, made him ascend humbly through the ecclesiastical grades, until by the divine will he deserved to be supported by the dignity of the levitical order, which was worthy of him. Having received this, the holy Servant of God, enlightened by the fervour of the Holy Spirit, understood that he was bound by stricter bonds, whereby he should give himself wholly over to the services of God. How greatly he showed himself in the office of the diaconate's ministry surpasses the measure of telling.

For he was diligent in prayers, assiduous in readings, composed in uprightness of manners, ordered with the flowers of wisdom, generous in the open-handedness of alms, fervent in the love of the twofold charity, namely of God and of his neighbour, prompt in obedience, outstanding in piety, and endowed with every goodness. With fortifications of this kind the blessed Athlete of Christ our God walled himself about, and, armed with the marks of the saving Cross in place of an abundance of weapons, he did not tremble to fight against all the filth of wanton error. But when he was reaching the fullness of his age, straitening himself, he very often turned over before the eyes of his mind how he might engage himself in the labours of the Gospel reading.

[3] And when he long doubted which he would rather do, either to be subjected to the rules of the monastic manner of life, [deliberating about a further state of life, he joins himself as a companion of pilgrimage to SS. Wiro and Plechelm.] or to remain to the end in that habit which as a little boy he had first received in the monastery; it became known within the country of his dwelling that priests of Christ also, for the glory of eternity and the gaining of the heavenly country, St. Wiro and Plechelm, a man of equal holiness, wished to undertake a pilgrimage. When the holy Man heard this, rejoicing much in the Lord, and diligently turning over in his mind that which is set among the Gospel precepts, He that renounceth not all that he possesseth cannot be my disciple; then suddenly, despising all his own goods, he desired to betake himself to the aforesaid servants of God, longing to be instructed in the disciplines of such men, and to be the companion of their pilgrimage. This too was accomplished with the assent and support of the divine goodness: for happily panting with the desire of so great a perfection, he sets out with steadfast mind to go swiftly to the most worthy servants of God, seeking them, and, when he had found them, humbly declaring to them the aim of his will, and faithfully attaching himself to their protection, he is abundantly received as a dear companion of the journey to be made.

[4] The brethren being brought together in the name of the supreme Trinity, unceasingly desirous of eternal life out of a heartfelt love, the sea having been crossed with them, he diligently imitates them with anxious heart to entreat God, that the word of the Gospel reading might be fulfilled in them: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. But he, as he was of wonderful integrity, pleasing the aforesaid servants of God in all things, made for the shore of the sea with them, and, having together boarded a ship, with a prosperous course and favourable sails they crossed the waters of the sea, until they deserved to come to the desired land of their blessed pilgrimage. And there, taught by their life and example, poor to the world but rich to God, he stood forth illustrious in his foresight for the purpose of holy religion. The blessed Levite of Christ therefore so gave himself over to the service of God that he seemed not to be turned aside from his masters by any ambition of worldly dwelling. And when he so evidently bore himself that the most steadfast profession of his will shone clearly to all, gaping only after the endeavours of heavenly praises, he took care to be removed from the wanton figments of idle tales, and very frequently he would recall, saying: My helper, to thee will I sing, for God is my defender, my God, my mercy. With the other perfections of very many virtues, giving himself to hymns and psalmody, persisting in vigils and prayers, following the urgency of the divine majesty, loving the mercy of Christian piety, amid all the adversities of worldly change he was recognized by all to be greatly peaceable: for patience is the mother of all virtues.

[5] together they go to Pippin, from whom they receive the mount of St. Peter: Meanwhile with the aforesaid bishops of God he went to king Pippin, a vigorous man, beloved of God and acceptable to all the people; and the token of their adoption is set before the king, and the cause for which they had journeyed abroad is declared, and they are kindly received by him. And staying there long, they are honoured more than the rest. But after much time an ordinance is given them by the king, that within the bound of his kingdom they should be sent over to a certain place called Mount-of-Peter, where they might more freely be able to provide for the services of God, and utterly to flee the crimes of the world. The blessed levite of Christ, Otger, therefore took care day and night unceasingly to know, and busied himself to be a partaker, by what endeavour soever his superiors looked into the mysteries of God, and how, for the love of Christ, by preaching, admonishing, teaching, and giving alms, they profited men by watchful diligence, remembering the admonition of the Psalmist David: With the holy thou wilt be holy, and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent: mindful of these things assiduously, so agreeing with his masters that he was abundantly believed to be held of equal merit.

[6] [having received the Sacraments he dies there holily, and is honourably buried in the church.] But when the time drew near in which he had to pay the debt of all flesh, and, Christ favouring, to receive the illustrious rewards of a blessed recompense, by the dissolution of his bodily mass he began to be sick, and felt himself exceedingly weakened in all his limbs: but he rejoiced to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit, and hoped to be consoled by the recompense of eternal life. Cheerfully the Servant of God caused it to be made known to those dwelling there that he was being called with speed to the departure from this life. This was a grievous tidings to all, and when all things had been duly performed he received the Viaticum, and commended himself to the Lord, saying: Into thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit. Then, bidding farewell to the Brethren, he happily passed to Christ, to live without end in eternal rest with the blessed souls of the Saints. But to the services of the blessed Man's obsequies there flowed together a not small crowd both of clergy and of people, pricked with sorrow: and they bore his body into the church built upon the aforesaid mount of Peter, and there buried it with fitting honour, with hymns and psalmody. And there to this present day his patronage is venerated with the highest honour by the faithful dwelling round about: there are wrought there also very many mighty works of miracles, through the merits of St. Odger the confessor, by the granting of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and is glorified, God, through infinite ages. Amen.

APPENDIX

On the church of Berg consecrated to SS. Wiro, Plechelm and Odger, and on the relics of those Saints translated into it: and on the distinction of St. Plechelm from another of almost the same name.

Odger, deacon at Roermond in Belgium (St.)

BY J. S.

[ ] After the Life of St. Odger illustrated by Bolland, You have, studious reader, the Commentary of our Bolland and the Life of St. Odger prepared by him for the press almost ninety years ago. Thus at the 8th of May the Life of St. Wiro and at the 15th that of St. Plechelm were given, which Bolland undertook to illustrate together with this one, because the deeds of those Saints were connected with one another. Further, although I have not wished to change anything in what was written by Bolland, nor to add or take away anything, yet I do not judge that those things ought to be omitted which I find to have been done after his death and to pertain to the posthumous glory of those Saints. Wherefore I shall briefly transfer them hither.

[2] Johannes Knippenberg, in the Ecclesiastical History of Guelders, book 8, chapter 4, has it thus: [the church of Berg consecrated to three Patrons, whose relics were translated thither,] In this same year (1686) the church of Berg, of which mention was made above, had already been restored out of the offerings of the faithful, and by the liberality of the bishop himself and of the canons. This the bishop consecrated in honour of the saints Wiro, Plechelm and Otger (before it had had the holy apostles Peter and Paul as its patrons) on the tenth day of May in this year, the relics of the patrons being laid there: for indeed four days before, in the presence of the canons and of the parish priest of Berg, the bishop divided in the cathedral church the relics of the Saints I have named, even the smallest of them, so that the newly built church might undoubtedly possess a sacred pledge of each of the patrons: and these being prepared in this manner, the bishop appointed a general procession for the twelfth day of the same month. The parishioners of Berg therefore, and the pastors who were on the borders, on the appointed day make for Roermond, to bring the appointed relics, which, fittingly placed in a shrine or casket, four pastors take upon their shoulders, the bishop and the clergy of Roermond accompanying; the chief men of the city also, in great numbers, adorned the sacred procession with lights amid the flowing throng of the faithful from the neighbourhood, and thus, praising and blessing God along the way with hymns and songs, they lay the sacred pledges in the church of Berg; and the bishop presently celebrates the first Mass in it. But since the church could not hold the multitude of the flowing people, it was decided to hold the sermon in the open air outside it: and how pleasing to God were that devotion of the faithful and the merits of the Saints, he willed to be attested to all by an evident miracle.

[3] There was in the neighbouring village of Kerken the daughter of the sacristan or keeper, a blind girl there receives her sight at that time, six years old, Catharina by name: she, two years before, having been deprived of sight by a disease, could be helped by no labour of physicians. The girl's mother (she was called Afra), destitute of human aid, came with a religious affection to the said solemnity also with her daughter, to seek a remedy for her health through the merits of the said Saints; and behold, God, who does not spurn the prayers and vows of the humble, mercifully granted the mother what she asked. For she persevered in the church amid that throng and pressure of the people, and after prayers had been poured forth, as she now wished to go out, Let us stay, she said, daughter, yet a little while, for I begin to see; and at this word the joyful mother pressed the more ardently upon her prayer, and so by the merits of the Saints the girl received her sight, the pain of the eyes also being taken away which she continually suffered; as I have received it from William Basel, parish priest there, who related it, and it became known to the whole neighbourhood, which the girl herself, now grown older, lately affirmed to me as I was passing through Kerken, in the presence of her parish priest, master Smets, and her eyes were so bright that not even any speck or dimness appeared in them.

[4] the almost thousandth year from the death of those Saints celebrated. In this way therefore the place, hitherto neglected, began at last to be frequented with a great piety of the faithful, and as this zeal increased again and again, the most illustrious lord Angelo d'Ongnies, who at present presides as bishop over the church of Roermond, ordered a jubilee of the thousandth year to be solemnly celebrated in the same church of Berg in the year 1706 from the eleventh of July through the octave, plenary Indulgences having been obtained for it from the Pontiff: for that ten centuries before, at about the same season, under the princedom of Pippin of Herstal, the same Saints fixed their seat there, the Annals and what survives to memory everywhere affirm; and there was at the said jubilee so great a flowing of people, from the neighbouring territory of Jülich also, and of Liège, and our own of Guelders, that it filled not only the church but the mount also on which the church stands, like a camp, on which occasion also the bishop strengthened about five thousand persons with the Sacrament of Confirmation. Thus far the aforesaid writer.

[5] Pagi attacks Bolland, who distinguishes St. Plechelm from the bishop of Whithorn But now, since this appendix belongs no less to St. Plechelm than to St. Odger, it is well to observe here certain other things concerning the same Saint. Our Sollier warned in the little preface given on the 15th day of July before Bolland's Commentary on Plechelm, on what occasion Bolland undertook so early to illustrate the Lives of SS. Wiro, Plechelm and Odger, namely because Pseudo-Marcellinus, whose fables he detected on the 1st of March in St. Swithbert, had woven also certain things concerning these Saints

errors. Sollier might have added that the patronage of one of the errors of Pseudo-Marcellinus was taken up by Pagi before Bolland's Commentary on St. Plechelm was printed, in which that error is more fully refuted. I set forth the matter. Bolland at the 21st of February, in the Commentary on Bl. Pippin the duke, number 49, briefly observed that that St. Plechelm who dwelt long near Roermond and died there, and to whom Pippin of Herstal is said sometimes to have laid open the stains of his conscience, is another than the Pechthelm whom Bede writes to have been in the year 731 bishop of Whithorn, and proved it by this reasoning: For seventeen years had by then elapsed from the death of Pippin of Herstal. But Pagi, in his Critica at the year 734, number 4, having recited Bolland's words, subjoins this: But this reasoning is empty: for Pecthelm could have survived Pippin of Herstal by seventeen years and more, and the authors who have spoken of Pecthelm teach that he was the companion of Wiro. This criticism of Pagi the author of Batavia Sacra adopted at page 81 under Plechelm. But the opinion of both was abundantly refuted by Bolland in the Commentary prefixed to the Life of St. Plechelm, §3, where he further set forth and established his own view.

[6] Yet since Bolland could the less foresee Pagi's objection, the more inept it is, hence Bolland's argument is set forth, I shall in a few words set out the force of the reasoning which seemed empty to Pagi, and then I shall answer Pagi's objections. Bolland had said at number 47 that St. Plechelm with SS. Wiro and Odger, after the Gospel had been preached, fixed his seat by the river Roer on the mount of St. Peter, as Pagi himself also says, who adds that this seems to have been done about the year 700. But by the words they fixed their seat, a monastery having been built, Bolland hinted that those three Saints afterwards dwelt there until their death, as is certainly established of each. Therefore what had been premised by Bolland was equivalent to this proposition: Plechelm was in Gaul while Pippin of Herstal was alive, and remained there until his death. Then equivalently he subjoins this: But Pechthelm, of whom Bede speaks, was in the year 731, that is, seventeen years after the death of Pippin, living in Britain. From which this conclusion flows of itself: Therefore the one is distinguished from the other: for the same man was not at once either dead or living in Belgic Gaul, and living in England.

[7] Now let us examine Pagi's particulars also. Pecthelm, he says, and Pagi's reasons are refuted: could have survived Pippin of Herstal by seventeen years and more. Let us suppose it to be so. But at least the same man was not at once on the Mount of St. Peter by the Roer, and at the same time in Britain. Then it is not probable that St. Plechelm lived seventeen years after Pippin, since his Life at number 11 has it that the Mount of Peter was given by Pippin when St. Plechelm was already worn with age. This Pagi fixes about the year 700. Who then would believe that a man worn with age afterwards survived thirty years? I return to Pagi: And the authors, he says, who have spoken of Pecthelm teach that he was the companion of Wiro. This Pagi says, but he could not adduce any ancient writer who has it. From Pseudo-Marcellinus, full of fables, that opinion of the more recent writers arose. But Pagi himself, at the year 690, number 3, acknowledges that the fables of Pseudo-Marcellinus have been refuted in our Work, and various errors concerning SS. Columbanus, Ceadwalla, Judocus, Winnoc, Aidan, Wiro, Plechelm and others made manifest by sure arguments. That praise belongs to Bolland which he attributes to Henschen, at the 1st of March in St. Swithbert, §4, where he likewise distinguishes Pechthelm bishop of Whithorn from St. Plechelm, writing thus of both: But this man (Pecthelm bishop of Whithorn) was an Englishman, a learned man, a disciple of St. Aldhelm, who is read to have been consulted sometimes by Boniface by letter. But St. Plechelm was not a little older than he, to whom, as also to St. Wiro, … duke Pippin was accustomed to confess his sins, etc. Bolland brings forward no other reasons in this place for proving the distinction, and yet by sure arguments he made manifest the errors of Pseudo-Marcellinus not only concerning other Saints but concerning Plechelm also, by Pagi's own judgment.

[8] whence Pagi fell into that error is set forth. Therefore the studious reader will easily see that Pagi contradicts himself no less than Bolland, since he approves the same opinion in one place and disapproves it in another. But, so far as I judge, he attacked Bolland out of mere ignorance, because he had not seen the Life of St. Plechelm, and therefore did not sufficiently perceive Bolland's reasoning. He did not know, I suppose, that St. Plechelm died and was buried in Belgium: he did not know that he was already worn with age when he fixed his seat on the Mount of St. Peter: but he believed that he could have returned into England, and there administered a bishopric and died. He wished therefore to dispute about a controversy whose foundations he did not know, because he had not seen the monuments pertaining to St. Plechelm. These things I have wished to set out a little more at length, that the studious reader may understand with how frivolous reasons the writings of our predecessors have from time to time been attacked, even by men of great name. I could bring forward very many examples of this kind: but it will be enough if the reader understands that we are not accustomed to answer the arguments of our adversaries, except where the place gives occasion, or some other reason invites us to do it.