ON ST. AMATUS OF SENS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT BREUIL IN WEST FLANDERS.
In the year 690.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Amatus, bishop of Sens and confessor, at Breuil in West Flanders (St.)
BY J. T.
§ I. An account of the places: the sacred calendars in which he is read as inserted: the time of the saint's birth and his native land uncertain: his cultus: the Acts to be published.
[ ] Three places St. Amatus, whose deeds we here publish, made illustrious by his sanctity: An account of Péronne and Breuil, in which places the saint lived in exile. Péronne, the monastery of Breuil, and Douai. Péronne, a town of Gaul in Picardy on the river Somme, eight miles distant from Amiens to the east and seven from Cambrai to the south, was formerly, on the testimony of the author of the Life of St. Fursey the abbot, called the Mount of Swans. There St. Amatus, cast out of his episcopal see by the order of Theuderic III, ruling Burgundy and Neustria, lived in exile for no small space of time under the keeping of St. Ultan. The second place is the estate of Breuil, commonly Bruel, in the town called Merghem or Merville, which some learned men judge is called Minariacum in the Itinerary of Antoninus — among whom Marchantius says that by common opinion it is taken for it. But Sanderus in Maurontus' villa shows that it is not rightly confused with that Minariacum, and places it in the district of Cassel. For, on the testimony of the old papers of Douai, he says, when this place was called Broylus from its marshy site, the abbot Morandus or Maurontus, at the year 701, no less famous for sanctity than for nobility, called it from his own name; and whereas before it was called in French Moranduille, or in Dutch Morandghem, at length for ease it began to be called Meerville and Moereghem, and presently Merville and Merreghem. Then in Steenwerck or Minariacum he writes thus: That Minariacum is not the village which today is called Merville, but was in that place where now on one side of the Lys is the county of Steenwerck, on the other the boundary of the Artois at the bridge of the Lys, which is now called the bridge of Steenwerck, Adriaan Scriecq, senator of Ypres, noted, who long held the praetorship of Cassel and Steenwerck: "Merville," he says, "which by most is called Minor Villa, was first called the Villa of Morandus, from the lord Morandus, who in that place, once a corner of the wood of Nieppe, lived in all holiness. But there were never any traces of antiquity there, so far as has been handed down to memory, or fortifications; nor is the place so situated that it could have been ancient Minariacum. But at the place and bridge of Steenwerck everything so concurs that no ground for doubting remains." On this estate of St. Maurontus, after the death of St. Ultan, holy Amatus ended his exile by a most holy death, and was buried; then he was translated into a new church built there by St. Maurontus.
[2] At Douai his body is kept. The third place which St. Amatus made illustrious is Douai, a most well known city of Gallic Flanders, which keeps the body of St. Amatus in a church of his name. For, as is read in the codex of Douai, when the persecution of the Danes was threatening about the year of Christ 870, the brethren serving God and St. Amatus at Merville carried the body of St. Amatus their patron to Douai, that it might be withdrawn from the fury of a most savage nation profaning all sacred things; where to this day it rests and is venerated. For, on the testimony of the same codex, the persecution of the Danes ceasing in the year 874, the aforesaid brethren consulted Charles, king of the Franks, Arnulf, count of Flanders, John, bishop of Cambrai surnamed the Fair, and very many other bishops, as to what should be done with the body of St. Amatus; and it was decreed by common consent that, their privileges and possessions being retained, they should remain at Douai with the saint's body.
[3] To the places already recounted, illustrious for his dwelling or for the keeping of St. Amatus' relics, there can not undeservedly be added Sens, a very large city of Gaul, He was bishop of Sens. The time of his birth and his native land uncertain. archiepiscopal, situated in a most beautiful plain on the river Yonne, which is there joined by a stone bridge; for, as we shall show below against certain persons who doubt of it, St. Amatus was bishop of that city. The narrative of our saint's Life does not express the time of his birth and his native land; whence both these are left uncertain to us. Malbrancq in his History On the Affairs of the Morini, book 4, chapter 11, writes that he was sprung of a Gallic house; but whence he drew this he nowhere indicates. Perhaps from this, that the anonymous writers of his Life not obscurely hint that St. Amatus, when by the unanimous consent of the clergy and people of Sens he was raised to the episcopate, was dwelling in this city, he conjectured that he was of Sens by birth — which can seem not altogether improbable, especially since nowhere is his coming to this city from another place read of.
[4] Likewise I do not find the memory of our St. Amatus among the ancient martyrologists; His memory only among the more recent martyrologists. which can seem the more strange, the sooner we shall presently show that the saint was honored with public cultus. This defect, however, the more recent supply. The Roman Martyrology at this day has thus: At Sens, of St. Amatus, bishop and confessor. Menard in his Martyrology of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict announces him at Douai in the following words: At Douai, in the monastery of Breuil, the deposition of St. Amatus, bishop of Sens and confessor. The same words Molanus uses in his supplement to the Martyrology of Usuard. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology embraces our saint's deeds in a very long eulogy, which, because it will have to be discussed when we treat of the saint's exile, we here pass over, as also what Galesinio writes at the 13th day of September; for he has nothing which is not read in the saint's Life to be published.
[5] The martyrologists praised thus far make the 13th day of September the saint's day of death. The day of his death. With them agrees the narrative of the Life, which we have communicated to us from Douai, excerpted from the most ancient books of the collegiate church of the same St. Amatus, in which it is thus read: Amid these voices therefore of those singing psalms with tears, bidding all farewell, on the Ides of September he passed from this light to the Lord. The Anchin codex, however, in our Sollier in the supplement to Usuard, mentions the aforesaid day as that of our St. Amatus' translation: At Douai, it says, the translation of St. Amatus, archbishop of Sens, who, cast down from his bishopric by Theuderic, king of the Franks, at the counsel of Ebroin the Mayor of the Palace, was banished into this province by the order of the aforesaid king. And Baillet in the saint's Life at the 13th of September, although he admits that that day is commonly held for St. Amatus' day of death, yet says that there are some who are of opinion that the twenty-ninth day of April was the last of this life for him. But the Marchiennes codex, which exhibits the Life of St. Amatus, has it that this opinion took its origin from a certain Stephen. Receive the words which are read at its end, on Mathoud's testimony: That the passing of blessed Amatus, determined by our predecessors on the Ides of September, was rashly fixed by a certain Stephen on the third of the Kalends of May, is clear from the old books which are found at St. Medard's and in the Archive of Marchiennes, and in the chests of many convents. Hence I prefer, with the more common opinion, to fix our saint's death on the thirteenth of September rather than on any other — at least until something more certain be brought forward.
[6] That his cultus began very quickly is shown from miracles I said at no. 4 that it can seem the more strange that the memory of our saint is not found among the more ancient martyrologists, the sooner his sanctity began to be acknowledged. For whoever shall attentively consider the prodigies by which it pleased the divine omnipotence to declare the sanctity of his servant — namely a paralytic destitute of nearly all motion, restored to the vigor of his limbs by the mere touch of the tomb; blind men endowed with sight; and other sick persons restored to soundness; the saint's chamber, straightway from his death, so sweet-smelling that it was thought to be seasoned with spices — from these he will easily determine what an opinion of Amatus' sanctity the people of Breuil had straightway from his death. That the fame of his sanctity and miracles was indeed so great the narrative of the Life teaches us, that it moved Theuderic — by whose order he had before been cast down from his episcopal see and driven into exile — to fly to his tomb, and with tears to ask pardon for the deed he had committed, and to heap the monastery with not a few gifts.
[7] and from a church dedicated to him That our St. Amatus was very quickly after his most happy death honored with public cultus is drawn out still more evidently from the deeds of St. Maurontus. For when Amatus was dead and buried in the church of St. Peter at Merville, Maurontus built another church, which he caused to be dedicated to the holy bishop Amatus, as the manuscript Silver Book of the church of Douai reports; or, as George Colvenerius in his Notes on the Chronicle of Cambrai has from a manuscript Lectionary of the aforesaid church of Douai: Which the same Maurontus caused to be built and dedicated in honor of Mary the Mother of God and of that same holy bishop. Into this, when now completed, Maurontus saw to it that the body of St. Amatus was translated. On what occasion and with what solemnity he performed this, Jean Buzelin hands down in the Annals of Gallic Flanders toward the end of the second book: To Maurontus, leading his life within the enclosure of the monastery of Breuil, it is signified from heaven that the body of St. Amatus must be carried into that building which he had lately built, and there honorably placed. What therefore was needful for that matter — a man conspicuous in dignity and virtue — he asks Bainus, pontiff of the Morini at Thérouanne, to lend his help, to whose bishopric Merville, or, as others will have it, Minariacum belonged, within whose bounds the monastery of Breuil was situated. He does not delay to take the road to Merville; there, with all the pomp he could, the body carried from the old
place, he sets the body of St. Amatus in a new seat. But how much Christ Jesus esteemed Amatus he made plain especially at that time, when he showed himself to be seen by very many of those celebrating the feast, with many angels openly flowing round about. And at the same time a great power of healing was a help to very many; for light was restored to those condemned to blindness, the limbs of the crippled were loosed, the ears of the deaf were opened. That this translation was carried out in the same manner in which we have given it from Buzelin, Jacques Malbrancq of our Society also testifies, tom. 1 On the Morini and the Affairs of the Morini, book 4, chapter 44.
[8] three years after his death; the Acts, In the manuscript Lectionary of the church of St. Amatus it is added that the translation happened on the 4th of the Kalends of May. Le Cointe at the year of Christ 693, no. 15, gathers from the character of the day that it was made in that year, which had the Dominical letter E; from which it follows that three years after his death St. Amatus was not only honored with public cultus, but also had a church dedicated to his name; for, as we shall show below, it is the common opinion that the saint departed from among the living in the year of Christ 690. These things leave no doubt of his very ancient cultus; but less certain are the things which we find written of his deeds. I have a threefold narrative of the Life. One from a parchment manuscript of Marchiennes; another excerpted from the most ancient books of the collegiate church of St. Amatus; the third, which our Henschen in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Eusebia, no. 4, testifies that he copied from a manuscript codex of the cathedral church of Arras; but in what century, or by what author, they were written we are altogether ignorant; nor are they free from errors, as we shall show in § III of this Commentary. Certain things too concerning our saint Hucbald, a monk of St. Amand, has in the Life of St. Rictrude, which Baillet in his Critical Tables judges should be added to the narrative of the Life, since Hucbald excels the anonymous writers in authority; but these are very few, and not omitted by the anonymous writers. I shall therefore publish only that one which Henschen copied from a manuscript of the church of Arras, which, although it scarcely differs from the rest in the substance of the things narrated, is nevertheless defiled with fewer errors and is preferable in style — informing the reader, however, wherever any notable difference can be noticed, or where there shall be an error.
§ II. The saint's boyhood: was his bishopric that of Sion or of Sens? In what order he should be inserted into the Catalogue of the archbishops of Sens: what can be determined concerning the Amatus venerated on the same day by the people of Sion.
The saint's boyhood. The youth of St. Amatus all his biographers celebrate. They hand down that he chiefly gave heed to this, that to his skill in the liberal arts and in sacred letters he should add a piety toward God not inferior. From this fountain I judge flowed the eulogies of various writers, in which they extol the saint's adolescence more oratorically than conformably to the biographers. I transfer hither what Jacques Malbrancq has in his History which he wrote on the Affairs of the Morini, book 4, chapter 11, p. 457. He sprang, he says, from a Gallic house, from which he drew the dew not so much of native nobility as of inborn virtue. His boyhood gave almost a second Nicholas. In seizing upon the good arts, and in the sacred disciplines also, second to none of his contemporaries, so that he was enrolled in the order of clerics before the riper years. Then the gifts of his wit, the zeal of his virtues and courage, the flowing force of his sacred eloquence, so raised him that, when Senecio was dead at Sens, upon Amatus alone eyes were cast, voices coalesced, and hands were almost laid upon him as he strove against it. Willing or unwilling, he must needs put on the archbishop's dignity. Things like these Saussay has in the Gallican Martyrology at the 13th of September, and other writers everywhere concerning the saint — which would please more if they had been reported by a more ancient writer, though in a simple style.
[10] Nevertheless the codex of St. Mary of Arras, that of Marchiennes, and that of the collegiate church of the same St. Amatus at Douai agree with the writers already praised in this, that they hand down that the saint so happily advanced in doctrine and virtue He is chosen bishop of Sens, of which nevertheless there is doubt. that, the archbishop of Sens being dead, he was with unanimous voice raised to this bishopric, being not a little unwilling. Notwithstanding which, I find a twofold difficulty raised concerning St. Amatus' bishopric of Sens. For there are not wanting those who doubt whether he was bishop of Sens or of Sion; and then, as to the order in which he ought to be inserted into the Catalogue of the bishops of Sens, authors vary very much. Of both we must treat in this place.
[11] What Mabillon has for the bishopric of Sion is set forth, Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals at the year of Christ 674, no. 41, touches on both: That he (St. Amatus), he says, was bishop not of Sens but of Sion, Hucbald the monk says in his book on the Life of St. Rictrude. Indeed the published Lists set forth that at that time Amatus was made bishop of Sion from abbot of St. Maurice's. Hugh, monk of St. Marianus, in the Chronicle of Auxerre says that this St. Amatus was indeed bishop of Sens, but next after Lupus — which conflicts with the right reckoning of times. For if Amatus presided over the church of Sens, he cannot be placed except after Emmo, so that it may agree with the rule of Theuderic.
[12] and are discussed. Let us weigh each point. For St. Amatus' bishopric of Sion there fights the testimony of Hucbald, whom the published Lists favor, reporting that a certain Amatus sat at Sion about this time. As concerns Hucbald, I consulted the Life of St. Rictrude written by him, which Mabillon published, restored according to the Marchiennes codex, and illustrated with notes. In it I found that St. Amatus was raised to the bishopric of the city of the Sidunenses. But I could wish that Mabillon had declared what published Lists hand down that a certain Amatus was made bishop of Sion from abbot of St. Maurice's about that time. Certainly in several I have read the contrary; for the time of which Mabillon speaks, and in which St. Amatus sat either in the see of Sens or in that of Sion, can be no other than that in which Theuderic III obtained the rule of Burgundy and Neustria, since Hucbald too testifies that he was cast down by him from his episcopal see. But I find one, François Augustin, who in the series of the bishops of Sion fixes the bishopric of Sion of a certain St. Amatus about this time, namely the year 670. Nearest to him come Pantaleon in the Prosopography and Heinrich Murer in Helvetia sancta, who do not indeed determine the time at which he came to the bishopric, but the first writes that he flourished in the year 650, the latter in the year 666, and both that he was promoted to the episcopal miter of the church of Sion.
[13] Nothing can be concluded from the published Lists But the Gallia Christiana of the Sainte-Marthes has it that St. Amatus was consecrated bishop from abbot of the convent of Agaunum in the year 716. As to this year our Riccioli agrees, in his Reformed Chronological History, where he ties his bishopric of Sion to the year 716. Riccioli's opinion Sébastien Briguet, canon of the church of Sion, strives to establish in the History of the diocese of Sion. On p. 87 he writes thus: But our Amatus, attending to the uniform List and order of the bishops both of the episcopal Castle of Majoria and of the canons of Sion of the Castle of Valeria, was created about the year 716, toward the end of the life of Dagobert III. From the published Lists therefore nothing can be concluded so as to say that St. Amatus ruled the see of Sion rather than that of Sens — especially if to what has been said you add that in absolutely all Catalogues of the bishops of Sens St. Amatus is found inserted.
[14] Nor do I judge that more can be concluded from Hucbald. For although, as has been said, more authority is to be attributed to him than to our saint's biographers, nor from Hucbald, for the bishopric of Sion of our St. Amatus. because he seems to have been nearer to his age, and wrote the Life of St. Rictrude from the account of elders and from various fragments received which alone survived at that time, yet nothing else can be elicited thence than that Hucbald must be assented to before the rest, if it were established that he is not corrupted in this place. But this is not established; nay, the contrary is most probable. For first, Mabillon himself, at the word Sidunenses, which he found in the Marchiennes codex, notes that Senonenses should be read, which — these are his words — is established from the Life of St. Amatus himself and from other authors. Then in the Life of the same St. Rictrude which our Papebroch gave from the Marchiennes codex and others at the 12th of May, it is read that St. Amatus was raised to the bishopric of Sens. Besides, although we do not know the age of the biographers, yet it is most likely that they wrote after Hucbald; certainly they would not have written so undoubtingly that St. Amatus was bishop of Sens, if they had read the contrary in Hucbald, or if in their time there had been doubt on this matter. There is added the author of the Life of St. Eusebia, whom Rosweyde thinks to be Hucbald, and Henschen in the Commentary prefixed to the Life thinks older than Hucbald. He in express words writes that the saint was promoted to the miter of Sens. There can be added the consent of nearly all writers attesting that that St. Amatus who was first an exile at Péronne under abbot Ultan, and afterward by the order of Theuderic III handed over to the keeping of Maurontus, died in the convent of Breuil, and, the persecution of the Normans raging, was translated to Douai, was archbishop of Sens — so much so that Briguet, who most diligently recounts whatever he judged pertained to the Amatus of Sion, confesses that this man must be distinguished from that one. Receive, reader, what he writes on this matter in Vallesia sacra, p. 88. It follows also from these things (which he had said of the Amatus of Sion), he says, that our Amatus is far different from Amatus, archbishop of Sens, although not unlike him in manner of life and sanctity. I judge therefore that in Hucbald St. Amatus was bishop of Sens; but that in some manuscripts, in place of Senonensium, Sedunensium was set, or that by someone who thought the saint presided over the people of Sion, Sedunensium was substituted for Senonensium.
[15] I judge it worth the labor to discuss more fully what is handed down concerning the Amatus of Sion. The deeds attributed to the Amatus of Sion are more fully discussed, Hence what we have said thus far will become clearer, and the learned reader will be able to determine what is to be judged of the Amatus of Sion. A synopsis of his Life the often-praised Briguet gives on p. 86. I transfer it hither. In the time of Dagobert, king of the Franks, the sanctity of Amatus, bishop of Sion, shone forth greatly; for he from his earliest age gave a specimen of holiness, and, having put on the monastic habit in the convent of Agaunum, so excelled in pious and religious virtues that he furnished to all a norm of perfection. Then, when, impelled by a greater desire of the solitary life, he had chosen to live alone on the rock of a neighboring mountain, a little cell and an oratory being built there, the servant of God in that place breathed forth so great an odor of sanctity that very many men of every condition flew together from every side to visit him; wherefore he, preserved by divine power for greater things, was called by the common suffrage of the bishops of the province to the bishopric of Sion, with the applause of both the clergy and the people of Valais. But when he discharged that ministry with great faith and with no unequal diligence and prudence, through calumnies driven upon him by ill-wishers he became so hateful to king Theuderic that the same cast the holy bishop into exile. He bore exile and insults
and the hatreds of the malicious with unconquered patience, chiefly by the help of assiduous prayer; and at length, famous for many miracles, he died, buried in the church of Mount Romaricus in Lorraine, as the Gallia Christiana of the Sainte-Marthes has under the word bishop of Sion, and everywhere those who have written of our affairs — Pantaleon in the Prosopography and others. From Briguet's synopsis Pantaleon, praised just now, does not dissent in substance, except that he asserts that Amatus, driven from his episcopal see, was made abbot of a certain monastery. There agree also with what has been said thus far the things which Heinrich Murer has in Helvetia sancta. He adds, however, that the saint was sent into exile by Theuderic III at the counsel of Ebroin, Mayor of the Palace — which displeases Briguet at the place praised, since Ebroin, as he says, ceased to live in the year 681, and he holds it for certain from the documents of the church of Sion that his Amatus was made bishop only in the year 716.
[16] and are compared with what authors write concerning the Amatus of Habend If these deeds be more attentively weighed, we shall see that they are excerpted partly from the Life of St. Amatus of Habend, partly from the Life of Amatus of Sens — from the former, namely, those which he is said to have done before his episcopate, but from the latter those which happened after his episcopate. In a few words I show it. From what we have just now reported from the praised authors we have it that the Amatus of Sion was first a monk of St. Maurice's; but then, out of desire of greater perfection, the monastic life being left, withdrew into the wilderness. There he built himself a little cell and an oratory, and led a most austere life. He was very dear to the bishop of Sion for the exceptional sanctity of his life, and was very often visited by him. Compare these things with what the contemporary author writes of him in the Life of St. Amatus of Habend, in Mabillon, p. 130, no. 3: When, continually applying himself to monastic rules, he had given himself wholly for nearly thirty years, seeking the secret of a greater wilderness, going out secretly from the enclosure of the monastery, a little way off on the sloping rock of a very lofty mountain, the champion gave himself to fight against the devil. And at no. 10: The bishop of that place (of Sion; for the convent of Agaunum was situated in the diocese of Sion) was bound to him with the most familiar charity; who, since he took delight in the frequent visitation of the man of God, following poverty for the love of Christ, resolved to comfort him with a quantity of gold etc. It is manifest that these things agree with what we have given from Briguet concerning the Amatus of Sion.
[17] and are shown to agree. Altogether agreeing also are the things which the same Briguet on p. 88 asserts are narrated by some concerning his Amatus. If, however, he wishes to adopt them, I do not know how they can be reconciled with his own opinion about the time at which he came to the episcopate. These are his words: There are those who say that our Amatus betook himself to Luxeuil, impelled by the prayers of Eustasius, abbot of that place, who desired that by the example of that holy man a norm of a more observant life should be breathed into his monks. For in the praised Life of St. Amatus of Habend, at no. 12, is read: But in those times in the parts of the Vosges there was an excellent man and most famous in religion, the abbot Eustasius. Then it happened by chance that, going out, he penetrated to the borders of Italy; and entering the convent of Agaunum, he began to ask who among the chief men was there held first in sanctity. Then they say: "Do you perhaps not know the holy man Amatus, who on this very lofty rock has now for nearly three years led a hard life?" And he, hearing this, straightway climbed the very narrow path of the mountain, almost slipping under his step; and finding the man, he embraced him with such charity that he would by no means suffer him to be absent from him. What more? Returning therefore from Italy, he took the holy man away and led him as far as Luxeuil, affirming that a lamp is not to be hidden under a bushel, but rather that light must be furnished to those who are in the house of the Lord, and that he can hold a more perfect way who has left his own dwelling. I said that, if Briguet adopts these things, I do not know how they can be reconciled with his own opinion about the time at which he lays down that his Amatus came to the episcopate; for he assigns the year 716, whereas Eustasius the abbot is handed down to have departed from among the living about the year 625.
[18] These are the things which I have been able to find concerning his monastic and eremitical life. [What they write of his episcopate agrees also with what happened in the episcopate of Amatus of Sens.] No less do the things which they write happened in the episcopate of the Amatus of Sion agree with what is recorded of the one of Sens. The biographers write that Amatus of Sens was driven into exile by the order of Theuderic III. The same of the one of Sion Heinrich Murer and Pantaleon hand down. As the cause the biographers allege the hatreds and calumnies of the malicious. The same cause the praised writers with Briguet allege for the exile of the Amatus of Sion. Certain writers suspect that Amatus of Sens was cast out of his see at the instigation of Ebroin, Theuderic's Mayor of the Palace; the same Pantaleon and Heinrich Murer have of the one of Sion. The former adds that the Amatus of Sion, being now driven out, was made abbot of a certain monastery; which too is consonant enough with the one of Sens, for they write that he too was appointed abbot of the convent of Breuil by Ultan, at the counsel of his mother St. Rictrude. Finally Briguet testifies that his Amatus bore exile, calumnies, and the hatreds of the malicious with unconquered mind, chiefly by the help of assiduous prayer. The same may be read in the Life of our St. Amatus.
[19] Nor does it stand in the way that Briguet is of opinion that the exile of the Amatus of Sion happened not under Theuderic III but under Theuderic IV. Briguet's opinion about the exile of the Amatus of Sion is refuted. For first, we have seen that in this part Heinrich Murer and Pantaleon dissent from him. Then, for no other cause does he defend this opinion than because he judges that the series of the bishops of Sion requires this place for his Amatus. But in my judgment it must first be proved that a certain St. Amatus is to be inserted into the Catalogue of the bishops of Sion, before there be treatment of the place to be assigned him. But this neither Briguet nor anyone else proves: not from the deeds which they attribute to him, which are almost the very same as those which we have shown are handed down of SS. Amatus of Sens and of Habend; nor from this, that his exile is said to have happened under Theuderic IV — for that this is asserted by Briguet quite gratuitously is manifest even from this, that no one makes mention of this matter, whereas no writer of French affairs passes over the exile of Amatus of Sens under Theuderic III. Nor finally from the series of the bishops of Sion praised by Briguet, in which besides his name, inserted with vast confusion, I find nothing — which nevertheless can seem strange if the length of episcopate granted him be considered; for as successor of Amatus, who is written to have held the bishopric in the year 716, Wilcharius is made, who presided over the church of Sion in the year 764. Receive, reader, what the old Gallia Christiana has of him: St. Amatus, abbot of the monastery of Agaunum, held the bishopric in the year 716, Dagobert II being king of the Franks; and he lies in the church of Mount Romaricus in Lorraine. It is certain that St. Amatus, who was first a monk in the convent of Agaunum, then dwelt in the monastery of Luxeuil, and at length was made abbot of Mount Romaricus, rests at Mount Romaricus and is there recalled with a yearly feast, as is clear from his Life illustrated at this same day in our work. But he was not a bishop; and whose other St. Amatus' remains rest there I do not know, and I judge that it is likewise unknown there.
[20] [It is concluded that the Amatus of Sion is not distinct from the one of Habend, and that a bishopric is wrongly attributed to him.] We have seen that all the deeds of this Amatus, whom the praised authors write was bishop of Sion, are excerpted either from the Life of the Amatus of Habend or from that of the one of Sens; now we see that the same place of burial is attributed to him as to the one of Habend. From all these things which we have said thus far it appears easy for me to conjecture that the St. Amatus whom the people of Sion insert into the Catalogue of their bishops is truly he who rests at Mount Romaricus, but that the bishopric and the exile were wrongly attributed to him — perhaps from this, that by some St. Amatus, bishop of Sens, was thought to have ruled the church of Sion. For they assert the exile, but do not declare to what place he was banished. I believe they feared that, if they had assigned the same place in which it was established that Amatus of Sens lived in exile, they would too openly have indicated the confusion. We publish therefore only the Lives of the one of Habend and of the one of Sens — yet ready to illustrate the deeds of the one of Sion likewise, if anyone, the confusion being removed, shall prove from ancient documents that a certain holy Amatus held the miter of Sion.
[21] [The difficulty concerning the order in which St. Amatus is to be inserted into the Catalogue of the bishops of Sens.] We proceed to the second difficulty, of which we said we must treat in this paragraph. It has been shown that our St. Amatus at some time governed the church of Sens. But in what order, or at what time, he presided over the aforesaid church, writers vary. This we hold certain from Hucbald, the biographers, and the other writers: that the saint was expelled from his episcopal see under Theuderic III, at the counsel, as some say, of Ebroin the Mayor of the Palace. The anonymous author in the saint's Life writes that our St. Amatus presided over the church of Sens when Theuderic III, on account of the most grievous tyranny which he exercised against the princes of the Franks, was thrust into a monastery, and that at length he was sent into exile at Péronne under abbot Ultan by the same king, after, Childeric being slain, he had recovered his kingdom. If we stand by these things, it must be said that our saint sat at Sens during both reigns of Theuderic III.
[22] The episcopate of St. Amatus is more probably placed after St. Emmo. Le Cointe at the year of Christ 669 writes that Theuderic, when Clothar was dead, governed Neustria and Burgundy for some months in that year; but Pagi at the same year proves that Clothar was still alive at the beginning of the year 670, and departed from life in that same year. Pagi's opinion our Papebroch had handed down before, in the Life of St. Rictrude, p. 87, letter b. This being granted, if we judge that the biographer must be believed, St. Amatus was bishop of Sens in the year 670. From which it is manifest that Hugh, monk of the convent of St. Marianus, errs, who in the Chronicle of Auxerre, p. 66, writes that he was the successor of blessed Lupus; nay, and Jacques Malbrancq too, who in his History on the Affairs of the Morini, p. 475, reports that, Senecio being dead at Sens, our saint was promoted to the bishopric. For that neither blessed Lupus nor Senecio presided over the church of Sens about that time Mathoud clearly shows in the Catalogue of the archbishops of Sens, pp. 29 and 30; where from Bede, book 4 of the History of the English, chapter 1, he hands down that Adrian, companion of Theodore, named bishop of Canterbury, sent from Rome into England, was received by St. Emmo, bishop of Sens, in the year 668. He proves further that St. Emmo held the miter of Sens about this time, from the privilege of liberty and exemption which, with the consent of thirty bishops, he granted to the convent of St. Peter the Living of Sens in the council held at Mansolacum in the year 665, in the times of king Clothar III. Likewise from a like privilege given to the monks of St. Peter of Corbie about the same time, to which St. Emmo is said to have subscribed
is clear from tom. VI of the edition of the General Councils, in which it is had entire at the year 668. I conclude therefore with Mabillon, praised above, that our St. Amatus must be inserted into the Catalogue of the archbishops of Sens after St. Emmo. And St. Emmo is read — which Mathoud also shows at the place praised — to have lived to a great age, conspicuous for the sanctity of his life and the fame of his miracles, until the year 670; toward the end of which, and while Theuderic III was reigning in Neustria and Burgundy, our saint was raised to the bishopric.
§ III. The saint by the order of Theuderic III lives in exile at Péronne under the keeping of St. Ultan the abbot: his manner of life in the aforesaid abbey: St. Ultan being dead, he is brought from Péronne to Breuil: a miracle which is written to have happened on the journey: his coming to the monastery of Hamage: his deeds there are illustrated.
[ ] The saint's exile and its cause. Our St. Amatus was ruling the church of Sens with unwearied labor, a pastor careful of his flock, when by the order of king Theuderic he was compelled to leave his episcopal see and to withdraw into exile. This exile the biographer describes in these words: When therefore various men thought various things about the monarchy of the kingdom, and the parties wavered on this side and that, those who, being evil, are wont to envy the prosperity of the good accused blessed Amatus the pontiff before the king with a false accusation; who, being neither summoned to the king's court nor called or questioned by the king on this business, at the persuasion of the malicious, king Theuderic willingly assenting, was ordered into exile without any hearing. And he, commending the sheep entrusted to him to the Holy Trinity, rejoiced at the persecution, not being ignorant that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us. And so, grieving for the flock he left, deprived of his honor by the tyrant's order, but clothed with the simplicity of innocence, he was led as far as Péronne, which is a royal stronghold in the borders of the Vermandois, and is committed to the keeping of the honorable abbot Ultan. More briefly, and with the cause of the exile added, Hucbald narrates the matter in the Life of St. Rictrude, abbess of Marchiennes: The blessed man Amatus, he says, elected and raised to the bishopric of the city of the Sidunenses (of Sens), at that time in which king Theuderic exercised an unjust tyranny, being falsely charged with disloyalty before him, was ordered to undergo exile in the monastery of Péronne, situated in the town of the Vermandois, over which the holy abbot Ultan presided.
[24] As to the cause of the exile, nearly all the moderns follow Hucbald, Saussay is refuted. except that most add that the saint was accused of treacherous machinations against the royal majesty by Ebroin, Theuderic's Mayor of the Palace. Saussay, however, at the 13th day of September in the Gallican Martyrology makes no mention of Theuderic, but attributes the whole to the raging Ebroin. For when our saint had fearlessly reproached him with the nobles and prelates who had been slain, and had not ceased to threaten the thunderbolts of divine anger unless he should set a measure to his savage mind, he writes that he so incurred his hatred that it lacked little but that he should be butchered by the raging man with a bloody death. At length, he says, he was intercepted by Ebroin's satellites, and detained under military guard in the town of the Vermandois whose name is Péronne, until, being committed to abbot Ultan, he remained for some time shut up in a corner of the convent. On what authority Saussay has these things I do not know. Certainly all these things were unknown to Hucbald; the anonymous writer of the Life of St. Eusebia did not know them; our saint's biographers were ignorant of them, and the latter words are openly opposed by them: for they do not write that he was shut up by St. Ultan in a corner of the convent, but (the words are taken from the manuscript of St. Mary of Arras) he was refreshed by the blessed abbot Ultan with manifold consolation in the support of food and in words of grace. Nor does it appear at all likely that Ultan, a man famous for sanctity, to whom the savagery of Theuderic and Ebroin could be no less known than the exceptional virtues of St. Amatus, dealt so harshly with the holy man as to wish him shut up in some corner of his convent — especially since nowhere do we read that this was enjoined upon him by Theuderic. Whence I judge that these things were written by Saussay after his custom and good pleasure, for the sake of explaining the matter.
[25] The time at which the saint was sent into exile is uncertain; In the preceding number it was said that, according to most of the moderns, St. Amatus' exile happened at Ebroin's instigation, by the order of king Theuderic. So have Hugh the monk in the Chronicle of Auxerre, Jacques Malbrancq in the History of the Morini, Marchantius in book 1 of Flanders Described, under Merghem, Sanderus in tom. 2 of Flanders Illustrated, under Maurontus' Villa, and very many others. Yet no mention of Ebroin is made in Hucbald, none in the anonymous writers of the saint's Life; of Ebroin Baldric too is silent in the Chronicle of Cambrai. That impelled Le Cointe to place St. Amatus' exile at the beginning of the year 674 after the birth of Christ, at which time Ebroin was not yet in king Theuderic's friendship. He thinks his opinion not a little confirmed by the length of that exile: For, he says at the year 690, no. 15, if Theuderic commanded it in the year of Christ 679 in order to comply with Ebroin, why, when Ebroin was taken from among the living, did Amatus not cease to be in exile? But in no one have I read that the exile was enjoined upon St. Amatus by king Theuderic in order to comply with Ebroin. The praised authors write indeed that it was done at Ebroin's instigation, by his counsel, or even by a certain false accusation of treachery against the king made by him; but in my judgment it is one thing to do something in order to comply with another, another to do it at his instigation or counsel; for what is done in the latter way can be so done that it is also done by one not unwilling, whereas what is done solely in order to comply with another is ordinarily said to be so done that it would not be done if the other were willing to acquiesce without the deed. Nor do I see how Le Cointe could be impelled by that consideration to make St. Amatus an exile before Ebroin had become the friend of Theuderic. For why could not the saint have been driven out by the king when Ebroin was already reconciled to Theuderic, without Ebroin advising or instigating? Certainly Le Cointe will not easily persuade us that nothing was ever done by Theuderic without Ebroin's counsel after he was in his friendship. I confess, however, that it seems to me plainly uncertain whether our saint was banished by Theuderic at Ebroin's counsel, or was accused by him before the king of some treachery — both because of the silence of the praised authors on that matter, and because of the uncertainty of the time at which he was cast out of his episcopal see.
[26] Le Cointe, however, relying, as we have seen, on a slight foundation, determines the beginning of the year 674. [yet it is more probably to be fixed between the year 673 and 679. It is also uncertain] Others prefer the year 679. Papebroch in the Life of St. Rictrude, at the place praised above, asserts that it is handed down that St. Amatus was sent into exile by Theuderic in the year 678. If it were certain in what year Theuderic recovered the kingdom, the year of St. Amatus' exile could at least be understood with a certain latitude; since from his biographer we have it that he was made an exile after Theuderic recovered the kingdom, and from Landebert, bishop of Sens (elsewhere Landebercht and Lambert), that in the fifth year of his reign he no longer sat at Sens. For the latter, in the fifth year of Theuderic's reign, is read in Mathoud, praised at p. 31, to have come to Marlacum by his order with other bishops and nobles for the state of the Church, or for the confirmation of the peace established after the battle between Theuderic and Dagobert for the determining of the kingdom's boundaries, and to have subscribed to it. Since, however, this certainly happened before the year 680, in which Dagobert is handed down to have been killed by the hands of his own men, it is clear that St. Amatus was an exile before the aforesaid year; but in what determined year is not clear. If with Le Cointe and Pagi you should wish Theuderic to have been restored to his kingdom in the year of salvation 673, it will have to be said that our saint went into exile before the year 678; but you will be opposed by Mathoud, who in his older Parchments observes that he sat peacefully at Sens only five years; for we have shown from the anonymous writer of the Life that St. Amatus governed the church of Sens in the time of Theuderic's first reign, which we have already said is more probably fixed in the year 670. Whence I judge it more correct to leave the year of the exile uncertain, yet in such a way that he cannot stray from the truth who shall assert that it happened in some year between 673 and 679.
[27] No less uncertain have the biographers left for us how long our saint remained an exile at Péronne under the keeping of St. Ultan. how long the saint lived in exile at Péronne. They write indeed that he was there for no small space of time, nay that he remained until the death of blessed Ultan. But how many years this "no small space of time" embraces, as it cannot be conjectured, so they do not indicate. Concerning the year in which St. Ultan passed to immortal life, and in which therefore our St. Amatus was compelled to change the place of his exile, writers likewise do not agree. Our Henschen, in his Life illustrated on the 12th of May, marks the year of his death as 680. Jean Buzelin, on Le Cointe's testimony, is of opinion that St. Ultan died about the year 679. He must have died still earlier in the opinion of Jacques Malbrancq; for in his Chronology, tom. 1 On the Morini, he hands down that St. Amatus was made abbot of the convent of Breuil in the year of Christ 678. Le Cointe at the year of Christ 686 embraces the opinion of Luc d'Achery, who, as he has it there in his Notes on the works of Guibert, abbot of Notre-Dame of Nogent, published a chronological Summary of the abbots of the monastery of St. Quentin of the Mount, drawn out by the lord Étienne le Gris from the old charters and rubble of the same convent, in which the happy passing of St. Ultan is assigned to the year of Christ 686.
[28] Which of these authors' opinions comes nearer to the truth cannot be said. That this must be guarded against appears from what has been said: that the year of St. Ultan's death be not so anticipated that there be not left at least some years The matter depends on the time of St. Ultan's death. in which St. Amatus could live with him at Péronne, or that his life be not so prolonged that time be wanting in which St. Amatus could do those things which the biographers hand down were done by him, both in the convent of Hamage and in that of Breuil. For this last reason Le Cointe's opinion pleases me less, fixing St. Ultan's death in the year 686; for it is established from the Silver Book of the collegiate church of St. Amatus at Douai, where his body is kept, that St. Amatus departed from among the living in the year 690; whence it follows that on Le Cointe's opinion our saint survived St. Ultan only 4 years — which time can seem too short for the rest of his deeds to be set forth. I prefer therefore to fix St. Ultan's death some years earlier, yet in such a way that I judge it happened after the year 680. Further, the biographer embraces in few words what St. Amatus did at Péronne under St. Ultan's keeping; nor is it strange, since, leading a private life, he doubtless gave himself wholly to God. But he asserts that the saint was chiefly occupied in the reading of the sacred Scriptures, from which he drew no small fruit of consolation.
[29] St. Amatus is handed over to the keeping of St. Maurontus. St. Ultan being dead, the offended mind of king Theuderic against St. Amatus was not yet quiet; for, the death of the holy abbot being learned — the words are the biographer's — St. Maurontus is called by the king, and to him blessed Amatus, who was held an exile at Péronne, is handed over to be committed to his keeping; who, compelled by the injunction of the emperor's edict, coming to Péronne, took the bishop and hastened to return to his own place. With the biographer Hucbald agrees in the often-praised Life of St. Rictrude: Ultan being dead, he says, Amatus was handed over to Maurontus the abbot, that he might keep him under guard in the monastery of Breuil, which he himself had very lately built in the territory of the Lys. Here let the reader note in passing that St. Maurontus, when he undertook the keeping of St. Amatus, was not a layman, as some prefer, but was already then abbot of his monastery of Breuil — which is further confirmed from this, that by St. Amand, whose death is everywhere believed to have fallen in the year 679, he was ordained a cleric, the hair of his head being cut after the ecclesiastical manner. But let us return to St. Amatus.
[30] God makes plain the sanctity of Amatus by a great prodigy; St. Maurontus, obeying Theuderic's command, leads the saint to his monastery; but on the way, the biographer narrates, God declared the sanctity of his servant by a notable prodigy. For when they had come to Cambrai, and the saint had entered the church of Blessed Mary for the sake of prayer, he is read to have used a ray of the sun as a servant, laying his cape upon it. This miracle Baldric in the Chronicle of Cambrai, book 1, chapter 22, recounts in these words: He used as a servant a ray of the sun which shone through an opening in the wall. For, being wearied with the journey, laying aside his material burden that he might take up the spiritual one more lightly, he unknowingly cast his cape and his sleeves upon the ray of the sun, as upon a rod stretched out there. Which the sun itself receiving, held them in service while he lay prostrate at prayer. That Maurontus, astounded at this miracle, began to acknowledge the sanctity of his exile and to hold him in the place that was fitting, the biographer and the praised Baldric subjoin; for when, following his footsteps, he had entered the church and had found the saint's garments hanging from the sun, he, prostrate on his knees, asked that whatever he had sinned against him might be forgiven.
[31] Their strength being restored, SS. Maurontus and Amatus resume their journey also, and at length come to Hamage; in which place, if we must stand by the Life excerpted from the manuscript of St. Mary of Arras, SS. Amatus and Maurontus come to Hamage, where they stay for some time. they stayed a very long while. But if by the anonymous writer in the parchment manuscript of Marchiennes: They remained a little while in the convent of Hamage. This last, however, I judge is more correctly written; for it does not seem likely to me that St. Maurontus dared to stay there a long space of time with St. Amatus, since, on Hucbald's testimony, it had been enjoined upon him by the king that he should lead St. Amatus away to be kept in his monastery of Breuil.
[32] Nor are the things which are read subjoined in the same manuscript of Arras free from blemishes, Errors committed in the saint's Life from the manuscript of Arras, since they are opposed to right chronology. Blessed Maurontus, it says, strengthened both by the example of the deeds of this his holy companion Amatus the bishop and by the constancy of his sacred learning, most urgently persuaded his mother Rictrude, for the greater heaping up of her salvation, that they should consecrate themselves and their goods to the Lord; who, although with a chiding speech she seemed to hinder her son's devotion, yet inwardly rejoiced at so great an advance of her son, as one who had long since been kindled and was burning with a desire of this kind. In the district of the Menapii therefore, on her own estate which is called Breuil, they built a church, conferring there very many estates of her possession. For if what the anonymous author here hands down is true, then when St. Maurontus was coming with St. Amatus to the monastery of Hamage, St. Rictrude had not yet bidden farewell to the world and consecrated herself to God, and St. Maurontus had not yet built his monastery of Breuil; both of which are repugnant to Hucbald in the Life of St. Rictrude, in which he writes that St. Rictrude, by the prudent counsel of St. Amand — who died in the year 679 after the birth of Christ — refused a second marriage proposed by king Theuderic, and, the sacred veil being placed on her head before him and secular cares laid aside, shut herself up in the convent of Marchiennes; but that it was enjoined upon Maurontus by the king that he should lead St. Amatus away from Péronne, to be shut up in his monastery of Breuil, already recently built. It must be therefore that, when St. Amatus came to St. Rictrude, she had already then consecrated herself and her goods to the Lord, and the convent of Breuil had been built — to the doing of which St. Maurontus, in the words alleged, exhorts his mother.
[33] Still more do those things conflict with just chronology which Hucbald or his interpolator has concerning our saint in the Life of St. Rictrude, [and several others in the Life of St. Rictrude and of St. Amatus from the Douai and Marchiennes codices are shown,] and the anonymous authors in the manuscript of the collegiate church of St. Amatus himself at Douai, and in the Marchiennes one. In the Marchiennes one the following is read: These two, neighboring and convenient to one another (the convents of Marchiennes and Hamage), lived as friends under one law and fellowship, so that, although separated in place, yet the vows of all were obeyed, mingled with a simple concord of holy life. In the one flourished holy Gertrude, grandmother of St. Adalbald, with her great-granddaughter and virgin Eusebia; in the other, with like zeal, Jonatus, disciple of the renowned pontiff Amand, and Rictrude with her two daughters; in both also a very great flock illustrious with lofty virtues. Amatus the confessor, joined to such companies, pleased them exceedingly, like a gem in golden settings. To these the Douai manuscript adds others: Meanwhile Gertrude, the handmaid of Christ, heaping up the fullness of days of her holy old age with works, departed from the world and was there buried with great veneration by the blessed pontiff Amatus. But her great-granddaughter Eusebia, sister of blessed Maurontus, brought up by that same Gertrude in the same monastery in holy manners, was a girl of good disposition; who, when she was of tender age, being twelve years old, through the preaching of blessed Amatus consecrated her virginity to Christ, and succeeded to the place of superior of her great-grandmother. She, going daily to the preaching of the holy prelate and retaining from him the words of salvation, so lived on earth that she prepared for herself an everlasting dwelling in heaven. But before she had completed two courses of years, as is reported, in the office of this superiorship, on the seventeenth of the Kalends of April, full of holy virtues, she was taken up by Christ. And her sacred body the holy prelate Amatus buried in the above-said monastery of blessed Peter the apostle, in which her venerable great-grandmother Gertrude had been buried by him. Almost the same things, with great confusion of matters and times, are read in the Life of St. Rictrude, if you look at the order and sequence of the things narrated; in this, however, it is besides written that St. Eusebia, while the most holy bishop, Amatus by name and by religious manner of life, was living in exile there (in the monastery of Marchiennes) for a time under the care of the holy abbot Maurontus, when she was thought to be taking rest, leaving her sandals before her bed, in the silence of the dead of night went to the monastery of Hamage, that she might there be present at the divine office.
[34] [from the time at which St. Amatus changed the place of his exile; perhaps they pertain to St. Amand.] That all these things are opposed to just chronology the time abundantly teaches at which our St. Amatus departed from Péronne with St. Maurontus to live in exile in the monastery of Breuil. For it is certain from what has been said thus far that this could have happened only about the year 680, taken with some latitude; by which time SS. Gertrude and Eusebia had already passed to Christ, as is clear from their deeds illustrated. Our Henschen rightly observes in the Life of St. Eusebia that most of these things which we have drawn from the praised anonymous writers were wrongly transferred to St. Amatus from St. Amand, who then chiefly resided at Elnone, called from him Amandopolis. This may be seen at no. 4 in the Preliminary Commentary to the praised Life of St. Eusebia given on the 16th of March, in which he confirms this opinion of his. Papebroch in the Life of St. Rictrude at the 12th of May, p. 89, letter B, notes that he has excluded from the text those things which we have just now reported as written by Hucbald in the Life of that same saint: For, he says, when perhaps it was read "with faithful and beloved companions," he (St. Amatus) was taken up — who long after the death of St. Eusebia was made bishop, and at length under Theuderic was banished, first to St. Ultan, then to St. Maurontus. Papebroch's conjecture does not displease me; for easily could some smatterer, or an interpolator copying the Life of St. Rictrude, take up St. Amatus instead of with faithful and beloved companions, and add the rest of his own for the sake of declaring the sanctity of Amatus. I am confirmed in that opinion from this, that it seems little likely that Hucbald erred so shamefully on this point. However it be, certainly it is more correctly read in the manuscript codex of the cathedral church of Arras, in which a conversation of St. Maurontus with his mother St. Rictrude is indeed indicated, but no mention is made of SS. Gertrude her great-grandmother or Eusebia.
[35] The presidency of the convent of Breuil is handed over to St. Amatus, Some space of time therefore being passed — which we have said was more probably not long — with St. Rictrude, SS. Amatus and Maurontus began to think of continuing their journey to Breuil. Over the recently built convent presided its founder and abbot Maurontus; but the virtues of St. Amatus being perceived, it was resolved by Maurontus to lay the presidency of his convent upon his shoulders, which he, on the biographer's testimony, at the prayers of St. Rictrude took up almost unwillingly. Malbrancq in book 4 On the Morini, chapter 17, exhibits the contract of donation which SS. Amatus and Maurontus entered upon, in words transmitted to him by a certain parish priest of Merville from ancient paintings still remaining at that time in the town. Thus speaks St. Maurontus: In whom I trust, Prelate: my goods and myself I give to you. St. Amatus replies: I gratefully receive what you give me — your goods and yourself. The antiquity of those paintings I do not know; but that those words were not the saints', but were made by the painter himself, or by some other, to express St. Maurontus resigning from himself the presidency of the convent of Breuil and holy Amatus accepting it, is undoubted to me.
[36] It can seem strange that an exile by the king's order, such as our saint was, Le Cointe's conjecture on this matter should be made abbot in the very place of his exile by the spontaneous cession of him to whose keeping he had been handed over. For who, says Le Cointe at the year of Christ 686, no. 49, would persuade himself that the king's command was so despised? Wherefore he judges that the thing was done not without the king's knowledge, but with his consent. At the place praised he speaks thus: We judge that the whole business was carried out in this order: Maurontus informed king Theuderic by messengers of the virtues which shone in Amatus, and of the miracles which God worked through him, and most ardently asked that a bishop so notable, whose innocence so many prodigies had declared, should be restored to the royal friendship and to his former liberty, and should be set over the congregation of Breuil as abbot.
asked. The king assented to his petitions, when he had heard the account of things so marvelous. And below: But his innocence being proved by so many signs, the king easily laid aside his hatred, and most willingly consented that he should be abbot at Breuil whom, deceived by the fraud and calumny of slanderous men, he had cast down from the see of Sens.
[37] It is read indeed in the biographers that king Theuderic, moved after the saint's death by the multitude of miracles, is refuted. His death. and led by penitence, came to his sepulcher and suppliantly asked pardon for his offense; but that the hatred was at any time laid aside by the king before the saint's death, and that he was reconciled to him while he lived, I nowhere find. Nay, this very penance performed by Theuderic after the saint's death renders Le Cointe's opinion, in my judgment, little likely. For why would he have come so hastily to the saint's sepulcher, impelled by the fame of the miracles, for the sake of doing penance, if already before, from the multitude of the miracles, his innocence and sanctity had been established for him, and, being reconciled with him, he had most willingly consented that he should be abbot? I prefer therefore to believe that Theuderic was ignorant of St. Amatus' presidency of the convent of Breuil — if he ever held it — or, if he learned of it, cared little, being intent on this alone, that no fraud should be contrived against himself by him. I say, if he ever held it; for of it Hucbald is silent in the Life of St. Rictrude, who nevertheless hands down that the saint was led to Breuil by St. Maurontus, and marvelously extols the union between the two saints. More certain is what both Hucbald and all the biographers hand down: that our saint in the monastery of Breuil shone before all the rest as an example of true sanctity, until in the year of salvation 690 he exchanged this wretched life for the happier and eternal one, as we draw out from the manuscript Silver codex of the church of the same St. Amatus at Douai. I subjoin the Life from the manuscript of St. Mary of Arras, which I illustrate with my own annotations.
THE LIFE
By an anonymous author
From the Arras manuscript of St. Mary.
Amatus, bishop of Sens and confessor, at Breuil in West Flanders (St.)
BHL Number: 0362
By an anonymous author.
[From boyhood St. Amatus cultivates virtue together with learning. He takes up the orders of clerics.] The holy prelate Amatus, sprung from Christian and just parents and handed over to the study of letters, in the very beginnings of his boyhood surpassed his contemporaries in learning; which, because he chose it before all things desirable, understanding was given him, he called upon and the spirit of wisdom came upon him. But since the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, by pressing on with the commandments of the Lord he became an assiduous meditator in the observance of God's law. And so, not a deaf hearer of the Lord's commandments, striving to have a part in the inheritance of the Lord's portion, having first received the blessing, his hair and the superfluity of carnal desires being laid aside, he desired to be made and to be a cleric. Master of his own desire, he was found so strenuous in the office of God he had taken up, that scarcely was one found like him who kept the law of the Most High; for, adorned with learning and conspicuous in honorable character, like a ray of the flashing sun he shone in the church of God for the multitude of the riches of justice, and devout Amatus showed himself to all as an example of a praiseworthy life.
[2] [Then, the greater orders being received, he is chosen bishop of Sens, and watches assiduously over his flock.] O man worthy of God, and blessed servant of the Lord in the clerical lot! who, while he kept the ways of the Lord, being promoted to sacred orders, ascended in each order from virtue to virtue, that he might see the God of gods in Sion. Whence, our Lord not suffering so great a lamp to lie hidden under a bushel, but that, set upon a candlestick, it should shine in the house of the Lord, when the archbishop of Sens a was taken from their midst, and the bishops of the neighboring cities were called to choose a pastor there, blessed Amatus is chosen, and, although unwilling, with the clergy and people acclaiming, is raised to be bishop b. And he, having received with blessed Peter the apostle the power of binding and loosing, the divine grace of the Holy Spirit enlightening him, instructing the people entrusted to him with assiduous preaching and confirming them with his blessing, did not permit the Lord's sheep to be torn by diabolical assault, but, refreshing them with the pious pastures of doctrine, kept the due watches in the Lord's sheepfold with sleepless care.
[3] Bountiful to the needy, sparing to himself, he drives away demons. Not ignorant, moreover, of the name and ministry of a pontiff, he offered himself to all in all things as a praiseworthy example of character and good works; for, instructed in the law and justice of God, sparing to himself, bountiful to the needy, serene in speech, chaste in body, given to vigils and prayers, a faithful and prudent servant, bringing back from the household entrusted to him the hoped-for hope, he felt the divine power to be present with him; for, hostile to demons, armed with the power of God, he drove unclean spirits from the bodies of the possessed by making the sign of the cross. But he also enjoyed frequent converse with angels, and was instructed by their manifold ministry. [by the order of Theuderic III, being falsely accused and unheard, he is driven into exile,]
[4] At that time Theuderic, son of Clovis c, who had drawn his origin from Dagobert d, was exercising a grievous tyranny against the chief men of the Franks e; who, being grievously persecuted by them and at length taken, is shorn and sent into a monastery f; to whom his brother Childeric g succeeds in the kingdom. But when he had been killed by the Franks for the detestable insolence of his deeds h — his brother Clothar having died long before in his youth i — Theuderic k recovered the royal dignity which he had lately lost. When therefore various men thought various things about the monarchy of the kingdom, and the parties wavered on this side and that, those who, being evil, are wont to envy the prosperity of the good accused blessed Amatus the pontiff before the king with a false accusation l; who, being neither summoned to the royal court nor called or questioned by the king on this business, at the persuasion of the malicious, king Theuderic willingly assenting, was ordered into exile without any hearing. And he, commending the sheep entrusted to him to the Holy Trinity, rejoiced at the persecution, not being ignorant that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us.
[5] And so, grieving for the flock he left, deprived of his honor by the tyrant's order, [and, being led away to Péronne, is committed to the keeping of St. Ultan, where he spends his time in the reading of the holy Scriptures;] but clothed with the simplicity of innocence, he was led as far as Péronne, which is a royal stronghold of the Vermandois m, and is committed to the keeping of the honorable abbot Ultan n; where the holy prelate Amatus, armed with true philosophy, drew from the readings of the sacred Scriptures the fomentation of consolation, reading and noting that word of the Apostle who says: Count it all joy, brethren, when you fall into various temptations; for he knew that through many tribulations one must enter into the kingdom of heaven. And since the Lord does not forsake those who hope in him, the blessed man Amatus was refreshed by the blessed abbot Ultan with manifold consolation, both in the support of food and in words of grace. And so blessed Amatus lived in exile at Péronne no small time o under the said abbot and servant of God, until the abbot, worthily to be praised, laying aside the burden of the flesh, received in heaven from the Lord the long-desired crown which he had merited by the works of his virtues.
[6] In those days blessed Maurontus [p], son of the most noble man and Frank Adalbald [q] and of Rictrude [r], [but, St. Ultan being dead, he is handed over to St. Maurontus to be kept in his monastery of Breuil.] who was held glorious and illustrious in the king's court [s] — his mother after her husband's death dwelling with her three daughters [t] and some flock of nuns in the convent of Marchiennes [u], which had been granted her by St. Amand [x] — having been ordained cleric and abbot by the same bishop and raised to the grade of the diaconate, on his own estate which is called Breuil [y], in honor of blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, an inheritance being assigned, built a monastery for those serving there. Ultan the abbot therefore having entered the way of all flesh, St. Maurontus is called by king Theuderic, and to him blessed Amatus, who was held an exile at Péronne, is handed over to be committed to his keeping; who, compelled by the injunction of the emperor's edict, coming to Péronne, took the bishop and hastened to return to his own place.
[7] Some part of the journey being measured, they turned aside for the sake of passing the night to the city of Cambrai [z], [About to pray in the church of the Blessed Virgin at Cambrai, he hangs his cape and sleeves on a ray of the sun,] where, their baggage being laid down, that blessed exile Amatus entered alone the church of the Blessed Mother of God Mary, to pour out a prayer for himself and his companions. And entering it, laying down from his neck with his holy hands the cape by which he was weighed down and both his sleeves, he hung them, as though unknowing, upon a ray of the sun that streamed in. The Lord therefore, wishing to magnify his saint, leads Maurontus to the oratory of that same building; and, that admirable sign of the heavenly dispensation being seen, exceedingly astounded at so great a miracle, he straightway fell to the ground at the feet of the holy man Amatus, and, wailing and asking pardon with all his vows, said: "Most blessed man and beloved of God, mercifully forgive me the office \* which I undertook of guarding you, and whatever I have unknowingly sinned; for from this time I am ready in all ways to obey you not as leader or guardian, but as the servant of your fatherhood." And so blessed Amatus, understanding the humble devotion of his conductor, raising him from the ground as quickly as possible, as he was full of all kindness, follows with a honeyed answer, saying: "My brother, let it not seem to you troublesome or sad that it has befallen me to come with you, because I am ready, wherever the Lord shall bid, to go both to prison and to death, and in the place where it has been foreordained by him, there gladly to remain." Pardon therefore being granted, in token of true love and brotherly charity they received one another in the kiss of peace.
[8] [by which miracle Maurontus and his companions are moved to begin venerating the saint.] The aforesaid miracle therefore coming to the knowledge of the others, a marvelous exultation of joy at so great a companion grew in the travelers, and now a devout gladdening of heart, so that each cried out: All shall glory in thee, as the Psalmist says, who love thy name, for thou wilt bless the just. And so all, coming to him with equal and pious devotion, commend themselves to his prayers, believing that by his intercession they could be manifoldly helped. Nor was spiritual grace at all wanting in the saint of God on that very journey, since in his words and acts such an abundance of divine sweetness abounded that it more and more encouraged his conductor and companion of the journey, blessed Maurontus, to contempt of secular things, and kindled others more fully to the love of the heavenly country. And so, lessening the labor of the journey by the sweetness of mutual converse, at length they come to Hamage [aa]; in which place, staying a very long time [bb], they rendered no small fruit to God.
[9] [They come to Hamage, where St. Amatus at the prayers of SS. Rictrude and Maurontus takes up the presidency of the convent of Breuil:] And so blessed Maurontus, strengthened both by the example of the deeds of this his holy companion Amatus the bishop and by the constancy of his sacred learning, most urgently persuaded his mother Rictrude, for the greater heaping up of her salvation, that they should consecrate themselves and their goods to the Lord; who, although with a chiding speech she seemed to hinder her son's devotion, yet inwardly rejoiced at so great an advance of her son, as one who
had long since been kindled and was burning with a desire of this kind. In the district of the Menapii [cc] therefore, on her own estate which is called Breuil, they built a church, conferring there very many estates of her possession; which, as their own possession, blessed Amatus most devoutly consecrated in honor of the most blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles. All things therefore being disposed and ordered which were necessary, it seemed good to the blessed deacon Maurontus and to his holy mother Rictrude that they should set blessed Amatus the prelate over that same church, which he had dedicated to the Lord [dd], as ruler and leader [ee]; and he yielded the more readily to the urgency of the petitions of both, because he had heard that that place was most fitted for the life which he had desired; for he had before wished to be apart from the crowd, and, freed from the affairs of the tumultuous world, to be more strictly given over to the service of God.
[10] [where, being brought, he stirs his people to virtue, and leading an austere life;] And so, the monastery of Hamage being left, a blessing being given to the holy multitude of those serving God there, he is led as far as Breuil and is set, though unwilling, over the governing of the matter which he had taken up at the great urgency of St. Rictrude and her son; to whom blessed Maurontus subjected himself with so great a zeal of humility that he showed himself not at all the founder of the place, but by the lowliness of his serving a servant to the saint of God — not a deaf hearer, since he who humbles himself shall be exalted. And so, remaining there with the worthy deacon of God, the venerable priest Amatus cultivated the garden of God with the tillage of diligent preaching, provoking the multitude of peoples flowing together there from every side by his honeyed discourses to increases of virtue, and manifoldly rooting out the tares of vices with the hoe of chaste rebuke. Yet, since from his purpose of dwelling there he had it to live as a solitary and to give himself more secretly to God alone, as was his wont, he did not dare to hide the talent committed to him, lest he should deserve to be reproved by the Lord for the talent committed to him. Whence he feared to deny the pastures of the divine word to the peoples gathering there; for a city set upon a mountain could not be hidden, nor a lamp fitted upon a candlestick fail to shine. Yet, lest at any time he should be wearied by too frequent vigils, prayers, and fastings, and be more straitly bound by a very great mass of iron hung upon his breast, he determined that a little cell should be built beside the church. There, applying himself day and night to contemplation and wearing himself down with temporal penalties, going out on the Lord's days he ministered the word of preaching to the flock committed to him and to the multitude of those who came.
[11] His term of service [ff] being thus completed, the most rich King of kings, disposing of the triumph, amid the voices of those singing psalms he piously dies. deigns to call his excellent soldier to the rewards of the kingdom. And when the most blessed Maurontus knew, the sickness growing heavy, that he was hastening to his end, and, beholding his own desolation and that of the people whom blessed Amatus had established in the faith, and all hope cast away by the death of so great a prelate, wholly flowing in tears, wholly worn with grief of heart and with sighs, he said: "Who will establish your people in the faith? Who will minister to us further the seed-plot of eternal food and of holy preaching? I fear for your flock, which, most holy father, you forsake." To this father Amatus, grieving with the tearful sighs and words of his most dear son, as he was most loving, answered: "Do not, I say, most dear son, do not mourn for my departure — whose presence has profited little, whose converse has brought little advantage. You yourself will take up those whom I forsake; you will establish them in faith; you will minister the food of life; for the hand of the Lord will help you, and his arm will strengthen you." While they set forth these and like things to one another for the comfort of their separation, those who had gathered for the departure of so holy a soul, amid sobs and tears, sang hymns and psalms before his little bed; to whom the blessed servant of the Lord Amatus, enjoining silence with a nod of his hand, his eyes and hands raised to heaven, with lowered voice but with his heart crying within, poured out silent prayers. But afterward, a sign being given that they should return again to the psalmody, amid the voices of those singing psalms he renders his holy soul [gg].
[12] At his passing the little cell was sprinkled with the fragrance of so great an odor The cell breathes a sweet odor, a paralytic is cured, that you would maintain the place itself was filled with a manifold composition of perfumes; and although the most loving deacon Maurontus, destitute of the comfort of so great a man, deservedly grieved, he most diligently took care that his body should be most worthily rendered to the earth. And so, when the body was handled after the manner of those preparing for burial [hh], they found a very great weight of iron hung from his neck upon his breast [ii], so that by this most certain sign of hidden affliction, together with the effect of his other virtues, all with one accord believed that the saint of God had passed to the joy of the angels. And when it was the third hour of the following day, a certain paralytic, destitute of the power of his limbs, at the touch of the coffin in which the holy body lay received health.
[13] Besides, many possessed and blind persons, coming to the saint's obsequies, [possessed persons are freed, and the iron mass which the saint had worn is health-giving to the sick.] returned home whole. And blessed Maurontus, taking the mass of iron which the holy man had worn hung from his neck, touching the bodies of the sick, restored them to health by the invocation of Christ. And the most blessed body was buried with all diligence and preparation in that same church beside the altar of Peter, Prince of the Apostles, an inscription of his sanctity and name being most fitly composed above. And Maurontus himself, a most strenuous man, handed over many estates of his patrimony to his honor and praise by the instruments of charters; and from that iron which had hung from his neck he ordered a chain to be made with all care, which, fixed on the saint's sepulcher, he wished to leave to posterity as an evident sign of his approved patience. To declare therefore on earth the measure of the glory of this saint which the most blessed confessor of God enjoyed in heaven, many held by various infirmities recovered the desired health at the touch of the chain.
[14] [Hearing which, Theuderic, led by penitence, comes to the sepulcher and heaps it with gifts,] But king Theuderic, hearing that many and innumerable miracles were done by the merits of the most blessed pontiff Amatus, coming to his sepulcher fell to the ground with all humility and devotion shown inwardly and outwardly, asking that he might deserve to obtain, by the intercessions of that same Amatus, pardon for the indignation of almighty God on account of the tyranny which he had undeservedly exercised against his saints Amatus and Leodegarius [kk]. And he also, in expiation of so great a crime, conferred very many benefits of gold, silver, possessions, and servants on those serving in the place of his burial.
[15] [But St. Maurontus sees to it that the sacred body is translated into the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary recently built by himself.] And not far from the aforesaid monastery, St. Maurontus, desiring to consecrate his whole inheritance to God, determined to build another church, which he consecrated in honor of the Mother of God and Virgin Mary [ll]; into which the holy body of Amatus, being translated by the revealing of divine grace [mm], the bishop of the Morini named Bainus [nn] being summoned, and a multitude of clergy and people, on the fourth of the Kalends of May he honorably laid beside the altar on the eastern side — our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.
NOTES.
p. St. Maurontus is venerated on the 5th of May, on which day we gave his Life.
q. St. Adalbald's feast day is the 2nd of February.
r. St. Rictrude is venerated on the 12th of May.
s. It would more correctly be read: he had been held. For in § III of the Preliminary Commentary it was noted that St. Maurontus, when St. Amatus was handed over to his keeping, was already then, the court being left, abbot of his monastery of Breuil. But what functions he exercised at court, see in his Life on the 5th of May.
t. The daughters of St. Rictrude are named: Bl. Clotsendis, the 30th of June; St. Eusebia, the 16th of March; Bl. Adalsendis, the 24th of December.
u. This convent St. Amand built on the river Scarpe on the estate of St. Adalbald the duke, husband of St. Rictrude, as was said at the 6th day of February before his Life. It is situated between Douai and Amandopolis.
x. His Acts were given on the 6th of February, which may be consulted.
y. An estate in the town of Merville. See the Preliminary Commentary, §1, no. 1.
z. A city of Belgic Gaul situated on the very border of Artois and Picardy; it is now archiepiscopal.
aa. It is situated not far from the convent of Marchiennes, from which it is said to be four stades distant.
bb. That SS. Amatus and Maurontus did not stay long in this convent was said in the Preliminary Commentary, § III. It is more correctly read in the Marchiennes manuscript that they remained there a little while.
cc. That is, in the territory of the town of Cassel, which is situated in West Flanders. For in §1 we showed from Sanderus that Merville, in which the estate of Breuil was, belongs to the district of Cassel.
dd. St. Maurontus, after the death of St. Amand, at whose persuasion he had bidden farewell to the world.
ee. Of this presidency of St. Amatus consult the Preliminary Commentary, § III, near the end.
ff. Understand: the course of his life.
gg. In the year of salvation 690.
hh. That is: when they were duly disposing the saint's body for burial.
ii. In the parchment manuscript of Marchiennes it is read that the holy prelate secretly made for himself a huge chain out of a mass of iron, which he wore girded about his body. But it conflicts with the Life published by us, in which it is handed down that St. Maurontus ordered a chain to be made after his death out of the mass of iron which he had worn. Which of the two attained the truth cannot be said; but with our anonymous writer there agree the manuscript of the church of the same St. Amatus at Douai, and writers everywhere.
kk. From this deed of king Theuderic we said in the Preliminary Commentary, § III, that it is little likely that our saint was reconciled to him while he lived, which Le Cointe judges. The praised Commentary may be consulted.
ll. In the manuscript Silver Book of Douai it is said: which he caused to be dedicated to the holy bishop Amatus; Colvenerius in his notes on the Chronicle of Cambrai adds: and of that same holy bishop. See the Preliminary Commentary, §1.
mm. See the Preliminary Commentary, no. 7.
nn. He, on Malbrancq's testimony, was made bishop of Thérouanne from a monk of Fontenelle.
\ elsewhere, do not impute it to me as a sin*
APPENDIX
Of the various translations of the sacred body of St. Amatus, and of the places in which he is venerated and to which relics of his body have been granted.
From a manuscript codex of the collegiate church of St. Amatus of Douai.
Amatus, bishop of Sens and confessor, at Breuil in West Flanders (St.)
BHL Number: 0367
From a manuscript codex.
[ ] The body of St. Amatus is moved. That, the persecution of the Danes raging, the sacred body of our saint was translated to Douai into the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, now St. Amatus', and remained there, was said in the Preliminary Commentary. The people of Douai kept the most precious treasure, which on the occasion of the persecution already mentioned they had obtained, in the place that was fitting, and venerated it with the veneration that was proper. This is clear from their manuscript codex, from which I set forth to the reader the following, drawn from it. In the year 1078 (that is, four years after the persecution ended) Gerard II, bishop of Cambrai, having first devoutly fasted for three days, moved the aforesaid most holy body from the bier in which it had formerly been laid up into a certain shrine, of wood within and of lead without, and a third of marble above, most excellently prepared by the diligence and at the expense of Walter the Castellan, in the crypt beneath the high altar, wrapped in a silken cloth and excellent gold-fringed work, with the seal of blessed John the bishop surnamed the Fair and his own, on the fourteenth of the Kalends of November. But outside the leaden shrine and within the marble one, namely at the feet of St. Amatus, was placed another leaden shrine full of the bones and ashes of many saints, which with their names had been burned by barbarous nations in the church of St. Amatus at Merville.
[2] Again after 128 years. In the above-said place the sacred body rested a whole century and 28 years, when the praised codex teaches that it was again moved, and on what occasion, with what solemnity, and by whom. For it is thus read in it: Afterward, when this church was being built greater and more beautiful, the high altar was broken up and placed elsewhere. Whence it happened that in the place in which the body of the blessed confessor Amatus was before honorably kept, an open pit remained which by no means suited such great relics, hindering the ministers of the altar and disfiguring the choir enormously. Consequently that same holy body, for the advantage and honor of the church, was translated from that place and placed in a more eminent and more beautiful place, with as much veneration as was fitting. In the year 1206, having first devoutly fasted for three days, with unshod feet, a three days' procession being first celebrated with the bier of St. Maurontus and other biers and other relics, with the whole clergy of the entire town, Radulph of Arras, Gerard of Châlons, and Goswin of Tournai, bishops, showed plainly to the people standing round the glorious body of blessed Amatus, from the leaden shrine in which it had formerly been laid by Gerard II, bishop of Cambrai, from a platform made outside the town toward Arras on account of the countless multitude of people, which could be contained neither within the church nor even within the forecourt; and afterward they raised that same body, wrapped in a silken cloth and in another leaden shrine, with a great marble tomb above, in a more eminent place, the head being kept outside, in the presence of the bodies and relics of many saints and of many religious men, placing within the leaden seal of the aforesaid John, and another of bone of Gerard II, bishops of Cambrai, with an old inscribed leaden plate telling how that same body had been moved by Gerard II, bishop of Cambrai; adding also, within the covering and floor of the leaden shrine, a new leaden plate, on which is written: "John, bishop of Cambrai, long ago laid this body of St. Amatus in a shrine adorned with silver, with his own seal; but after the space of many years had rolled by, Gerard II, bishop of Cambrai, by the work and diligence of Walter the Castellan, laid that same body again in a certain leaden and marble one, with the seal of the aforesaid John and his own, on the 14th of the Kalends of November, on the sixth feria, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1078, in the time of Pope Gregory VII, of Philip king of the Franks, of Manasses archbishop of Reims, of Robert count of the Flemings, and of Remarus the provost. But Radulph, bishop of Arras, placed that same body in this place, in the presence of Gerard of Châlons and Goswin of Tournai, bishops, in the year of grace 1206, on the 14th of the Kalends of November, in the time of Pope Innocent, of Philip king of the Franks, of Baldwin emperor of Constantinople, count of Flanders and Hainaut, the see of Reims being vacant, in the presence of the bodies of the saints — of St. Rictrude, St. Eusebia of Marchiennes, and St. Ulganius the confessor of Lens — and of many relics of other saints, in the time of Godfrey the provost." But on the outside of that leaden shrine is inscribed: "Here are the bones of St. Amatus the confessor, bishop of Sens, placed by Radulph bishop of Arras, in the presence of Gerard of Châlons and Goswin of Tournai, bishops, in the year of grace 1206, on the 14th of the Kalends of November, on the sixth feria, in the presence of the bodies of the saints, St. Rictrude and St. Eusebia of Marchiennes and St. Ulganius the confessor of Lens, and of the bier of the Holy Savior of Anchin, and many relics of other saints, with many religious men." But within the marble tomb there was placed by the same bishops another small bier which Arnulf, count of Flanders, brought from St. Amand's, in which are contained some of the hairs of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the wood of the Lord, of St. James the brother of the Lord, of the beard of St. Martin, of the bones of St. Vedastus and of St. Cecilia the virgin, and of the bones of many saints whose names were found effaced by age at the translation of St. Amatus. After that bier, toward the east, there was placed by the same bishops another leaden shrine which was found at the feet of St. Amatus, full of the bones and ashes of many saints, which were burned with their names by barbarous nations in the church of St. Amatus at Merville.
[3] These things being thus disposed, to increase the piety of the faithful toward St. Amatus the aforesaid bishops granted indulgences from the treasury of the Church to all Indulgences granted. who on the day sacred to the elevation of the aforesaid relics should visit the church of St. Amatus, and they commanded that the feast should be celebrated with an office of nine lessons and among the people. This is clear from the public letters given on that matter, which I transfer hither: G. of Châlons, R. of Arras, and G. of Tournai, by the grace of God bishops, to all the faithful of Christ to whom the present letters shall come, greeting in the Lord. Among the other benefits of the divine bounty, the clemency of the Giver has bestowed this chief one upon us: that for the relief of our defects he has placed with himself in glory glorious patrons and defenders for us — namely the happy souls of the Blessed, who now, glorified in spirit with the Lord himself, whom they imitated in the flesh, await secure the glorification also of their bodies, and, having compassion on our miseries, intercede for our excesses and miseries with the Mediator of God and men, whose presence they enjoy. Whence, most reverend brethren, it befits us with the highest devotion and humble service to venerate such great lords and friends, that we may both enjoy their glory and glory in their fellowship. Among these companies and hosts of the Blessed shines gloriously the blessed pontiff and confessor Amatus, at whose elevation we were present with a great attendance of people and clergy, and, though unworthy, rendered our service to his sacred relics. And because we know that his life on earth was famous before God and men, and do not doubt that his merits with the Lord will greatly profit those who venerate him, for your advantage and salvation we exhort you, most reverend brethren, that you commend yourselves to so great a patron, and, pressing on to his honor, visit his relics, which you have present on earth, both by bodily presence and by the benefits bestowed on you by God. And trusting in the mercy of God — who for the least things bestows the greatest, and for temporal things eternal — and in the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of that same most blessed Confessor and of all the saints, to all who each year shall devoutly visit his basilica from the vigil of his elevation until the eighth day of the aforesaid feast, we mercifully relax ten days of the penances enjoined upon them. All the aforesaid, and those who at any time shall confer or send benefits to the fabric of that same basilica, we make partakers of all the benefits which by God's grace shall be done in all the conventual churches of our dioceses, and we confirm it by the testimony of the present charter with the appending of our seals. Given in the year of grace one thousand two hundred and six, in the month of October.
[4] The feast is ordered to be celebrated among the people. But since the feast of blessed Amatus was held less solemnly outside Douai in those days, the lord R., bishop of Arras, commanded in full synod that in each church of his diocese on the translation of that same St. Amatus nine lessons should be said of him, and the feast solemnly celebrated each year among the people; and in his own cathedral church he instituted that the feast of the same saint should be made a double yearly, with the will and assent of the chapter of Arras, providing from his own means a revenue of forty Paris shillings, which should be distributed at that same feast to the canons present.
[5] The names of those who were present at the translation. Then the praised manuscript codex subjoins the names of all who were present at the aforesaid translation. Thus it has: These were present at the translation of St. Amatus. Gerard of Châlons; the greatest part of the convent of Marchiennes with the two biers of St. Rictrude and St. Eusebia, and other relics. The abbot and a great part of the convent of Anchin with a bier and other relics. Peter the provost and the Chapter of St. Peter of Douai with two biers and other relics. Alleric the Dean and the chapter of Lens with the bier of St. Ulganius and other relics. The abbot of St. Amand's. The abbot of Hasnon. Hugh, abbot of St. Peter of Chant. The abbot of St. Martin of Tournai. The abbot of Cysoing. The abbot of Henning. Walter, abbot of St. Foillan's. Wermus, abbot of the Castle of Mortagne. The abbot of St. Maternus of the Mount. Pontius the archdeacon, John the dean, with a great part of the chapter of Arras. Godfrey Sygerus and Nicholas, archdeacons, and Guido the cantor, with a great part of the chapter of Cambrai; Theodoric the archdeacon and dean with a great part of the chapter of Tournai. A great part of the chapter of Lille; Giselinus, dean of Soignies, with other clerics, and another countless multitude of clerics and laymen.
[6] The aforesaid codex testifies also that very many churches, whose chief administrators were present at the translation, were presented with relics of the sacred body. These, it says, had some of St. Amatus. The church
of Arras, one arm. The churches to which relics of St. Amatus were granted. The church of Châlons, the church of Tournai, the church of Cambrai, the church of St. Gaugericus — from which the dean with a great part of the chapter were present at the elevation — the church of St. Peter of Douai, the church of Leuze, the church of Lisseweghe, the church of Lille, the church of Harelbeke, the church of Soignies, the church of Marchiennes, the church of Anchin, the church of St. Amand's, the church of Cysoing, the church of St. Martin of Tournai, the church of Henning, and Gerard the provost of Douai. And the secular churches which had some of the relics of St. Amatus firmly promised that they would each year make nine lessons of his feast, but the monks twelve. From this it can also be determined in how many places the cultus of St. Amatus flourished at that time.