Aper

ON ST. APER, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

AT TOUL OF THE LEUCI IN BELGICA PRIMA,

About the end of the fifth century, or the beginning of the sixth.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Aper, bishop and confessor, at Toul of the Leuci in Belgica Prima (St.)

BY C. S.

§ I. The memory of the Saint in the Martyrologies and his ecclesiastical cult: the Life and Miracles, by an uncertain author, written by one or by several, and to be reprinted: other eulogies of the Saint.

[1] Of the holy bishops of Toul of the Leuci in present-day Lorraine we have already given three in this very month of September in our Work; namely holy Mansuetus at the III day, His memory in the Martyrologies on this day: St. Gauzlinus at the VII, and St. Bodo, or Leudinus Bodo, at the XI. On this day St. Aper, seventh in order among the bishops of that same see, is briefly commemorated in the Roman and in various other Martyrologies, from which according to our custom we shall give some foretaste. Concerning him the Roman Martyrology of Baronius has it thus: At Toul in Gaul, of St. Aper the bishop. On the same day Bede or Florus: On the same day, of St. Aper the bishop; Rabanus: On the same day, the birthday to heaven of St. Aper the bishop. Ado added the see of his episcopate and the laurel of a confessor, saying: On the same day, the deposition of the most blessed Aper, bishop of Toul and confessor. Similarly Usuard: At Toul, of St. Aper, bishop and confessor. In the same manner it is read in the Hagiology of Franco-Gaul in Labbe. With these agrees Wandelbert, singing thus in his Metrical Martyrology:

Bishops to be honored for the altar, for merits, and for their life, Leobinus guards the Carnutes, and Aper the Leuci.

I pass over Saussay and other more recent writers, who inserted our Saint into the sacred calendars on the same day on which he is said, in the Life to be published, at num. 13, to have died.

[2] Nevertheless in the Prætermissi at the V day of this month of September it was said His cult ancient and famous. that in the Trier Martyrology, and in the Utrecht codex of Rosweyde in Sollerius's Auctaria to Usuard at that day, namely the V, there occurs Aper the confessor; but it was also observed there, with the praised Sollerius, that that Aper, if he is the Aper of Toul, as he seems to be, must be referred to the XV day of the same month. Further, that the cult of St. Aper among his own people of Toul is most ancient, and illustrated by many miracles, will be manifest from what is to be said. St. Gauzlinus, who flourished in the tenth century, prescribed that his annual festival should be kept with cessation from servile work, as is related below in the Miracles at num. 17; but whether he

first of all introduced such an observance then, or only renewed one admitted long before, is not so certain, since the cult of the Saint is much more ancient than the age of Gauzlinus. Concerning his cult today, Calmet asserts in tom. 1 of the History of Lorraine, col. 295 of the latest edition, that it is most famous throughout the diocese of Toul and most widely diffused, and that churches dedicated to his name are to be seen in great number; nor is there any doubt that in the same diocese he is honored every year with a proper Office, such as the old Breviaries teach he was once honored with there.

[3] The Life of the Saint published, The deeds gloriously performed by the Saint, the miracles wrought after his death, and the rest that pertains to his sacred veneration, must be drawn from the History, or Acts of the bishops of Toul, published by Edmond Martène in tom. 3 of the Thesaurus Anecdotorum, from col. 991, and by Augustin Calmet, abbot first of St. Leopold of Nancy, then of Senones, in tom. 1 of the History of Lorraine of the edition of the year 1728, among the documents from col. 83; but in the later, enlarged edition of the same Work of the year 1745, likewise in tom. 1, and among the documents from col. CXXI. Concerning those Acts it has more than once been disputed in our Work at the days cited above at num. 1, and, with the praised editors, it has been acknowledged that they were compiled by various hands, although there has been no such agreement about the number of the writers and the particular persons. It has already been observed too that there is much difference between the editions of Martène and Calmet; and, so far as concerns the present subject, the Life and Miracles of St. Aper, which in the latter are inserted into the praised History of the bishops of Toul from chap. 23, out of a manuscript of the monastery of St. Mansuetus near Toul, were by no means found by Martène in the Cambron codex, which he published; and therefore, lest anyone should miss them, they were printed by him separately out of the San-Mansuetus codex, after the Acts of the same bishops. Besides this, there occurs this difference between the two editions, that in Calmet the finding and elevation of the body of St. Aper, and moreover several miracles that followed, are related, which do not exist in Martène; and on the contrary in the latter's edition some things are missing which can be supplied from Martène's.

[4] which we also have in manuscript, by Adso, Of the same Life, without the miracles worked after his death, we have three manuscript copies; one, namely, from the archives of Toul, another from a manuscript of St. Maximin of Trier, and a third finally transmitted long ago by Fr. Chifflet, which is noted as transcribed from a manuscript of the monastery of Accinctum, and of Corneolum, and of Charity. Of these one is more prolix than another: for the two latter also have the Preface which exists in the printed editions; the first, moreover, is more contracted at the end, while the second on the contrary adds at its close a certain fabulous epoch concerning the time of the Saint's death, and recounts a certain miracle written by Peter the deacon in the eleventh century. But to return to the printed editions: the praised Martène in his Preliminary Observation suspects that the Life and Miracles, such as he himself published them, with the miracle written by Peter the deacon cut away, were compiled by Adso, abbot of Der, and were inserted into the praised Acts of the bishops of Toul by some monk of St. Mansuetus, who wished to have everything relating to the bishops of Toul collected in one volume, together with the Lives and Miracles of SS. Mansuetus, Gerard, and Pope Leo IX, who before his Pontificate presided over that same church as bishop, being called Bruno. Calmet, however, believed that that whole History, as far as chap. 34, where the Life of St. Gerard begins, composed by Widric abbot of St. Aper's, must be attributed to Adso, and that his own copy had most probably been transcribed from Adso's own autograph. But from this opinion of Calmet the writers of the Literary History of France rightly dissent, tom. 6, pag. 484 and following, where they show that it is not universally true; as also among us in tom. III of September, pag. 130 and following, it was shown concerning the Life of St. Gauzlinus.

[5] Yet the same writers acknowledge, with Martène and Calmet, abbot of Der, that the Life and Miracles of St. Aper may be the work of Adso, since both a similar style occurs in his other lucubrations, and the author hints that he is a monk of the monastery of St. Aper and that he is writing not long after the death of St. Gauzlinus, both of which fit Adso, as will appear from what is to be said. To these they add another argument as well; namely, that in the brief eulogy of St. Aper which Adso inserted along with the verses prefixed to the Life of St. Mansuetus, he seemed to them also to have promised a Life of St. Aper. For toward the end of the poem, after the praises of St. Mansuetus, first bishop of Toul, he added these lines about our Saint:

If, however, the matter is to be increased by the merit of helping, let your companion Aper be equal in helping ours. For you two are twin columns above the vault * of heaven, you lead hence, being ready, to relieve * our flocks. Now therefore let confidence profit our prayers, the confidence which our hearts hold fixed within us *. O Mansuetus, defend, we beseech *, your faithful, and cause long joys to be given with the Saints. Be present too, most gentle Shepherd, to our prayers, that your peoples may hold the blessed kingdoms.

Whoever would wish to know Adso, let him consult the anonymous book on the various fortunes of the monastery of Der, published in Mabillon's Acts of the Saints of his Order, Sec. 2, from pag. 844, or the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Mansuetus in our Work, tom. 1 of September, pag. 616, num. 3 and following, where he will find a eulogy of the same man excerpted from the praised anonymous writer.

[6] It will be enough to have noted here those things which pertain to the subject in hand. it seems to some to have been written, On the testimony of that anonymous writer, Adso was flourishing in the Vosges, or in the monastery of Luxeuil, with a reputation equally for learning and for holiness, when he was summoned to Toul by the bishop and clergy of Toul for the mastership of the sacred Order. This happened under St. Gauzlinus the bishop, who had happily restored the collapsed discipline in the monastery of St. Aper, which we said in the Preliminary Commentary on the deeds of that same Saint at the VII day of September, §3, is more probably to be attached to the year of Christ 935. He had taught in that monastery through some revolutions of time when he was sent to the monastery of Der, in the diocese of Châlons in Champagne, whose restoration the same St. Gauzlinus had likewise instituted, probably about the middle of the tenth century, according to what was said in the same place, §5. Finally he was set over the monks of Der as abbot after Alberic, and in the year 992, sailing to Jerusalem for religion's sake, he departed from among the living, while St. Gerard held the bishopric of Toul, which he had obtained after St. Gauzlinus, who died in the year 962, and which he laid down in dying in the year 994. At that time, therefore, in which he lived in the monastery of St. Aper at Toul, he could have written the Life and Miracles of this saint, as the praised writers of the Literary History of France had noted above. But as for their saying that the author of these wrote not long after the death of St. Gauzlinus, I judge that they thought so because this saint is the last among the bishops of Toul whom that same writer mentions in Martène's edition.

[7] which is uncertain enough; perhaps the Life Yet nevertheless, if the Miracles too, even as they exist in Martène, are the work of Adso, he could not have carried them through to the end while he was dwelling in the aforesaid monastery near Toul. For both in Martène and in Calmet the author of the Miracles counts nearly sixty years from the time when, out of fear of the invading Hungarians, the body of St. Aper was carried within the city of Toul, and then, when bishop Drogo was contriving to keep it, was secretly removed and had lain hidden, deposited by two monks in his own church in a place unknown to all the rest, with few in the secret. Consult num. XI among the Miracles. But now in Calmet, in the History of the bishops of Toul, chap. 30, a contemporary author, and probably an eyewitness of the event, records that the aforesaid sacred body was happily found by St. Gerard in the year of Christ 978; and if from this number you subtract 60 years, you will arrive at the year 918, in which the aforesaid Drogo presided over the see of Toul, and in which we know from elsewhere that Lorraine was harassed by the Hungarians. Now Adso in the year 978 was staying not in the monastery of St. Aper at Toul, but in that of Der, to which he had been called, while St. Gauzlinus was alive, who as has been said died in 962, in order to lend his labor to abbot Alberic in restoring the discipline of that monastery too. Since therefore, as Calmet and the praised writers admit, the author of the Miracles sufficiently indicates that he was a monk of St. Aper's, indeed that he was living in the monastery of that Saint while he wrote, he could not have written the Miracles, or at any rate could not have finished them in the same monastery, even as they exist in Martène.

[8] and the Miracles have various authors; Against their opinion likewise makes that anonymous writer of Der whom we mentioned above, who in Mabillon, Sec. 2, pag. 849, enumerates various Lives of Saints written by Adso, among which the Life of St. Mansuetus also occurs, and yet makes no mention at all of a Life of St. Aper. But neither does Adso's Poem on St. Mansuetus help them much; for he could have implored the aid of St. Aper in it out of a particular affection with which he was borne toward him, as one formerly a monk of that same monastery, even though he promised no Life of him. Although therefore I cannot with certainty deny the praised Life and Miracles to Adso, I would nevertheless not dare with certainty to ascribe them to him; and therefore I have judged that they should be published under the name of an anonymous writer. That anonymous writer, moreover, could easily have been one of the monks of the monastery of St. Aper, formerly a disciple of Adso, who set about writing by his master's example and imitated his style. To the same author perhaps are owed the things related in Calmet at chap. 29 and the two following, concerning the death of bishop Drogo, concerning the episcopate of St. Gauzlinus, and concerning the finding and elevation of the sacred body under St. Gerard, and the miracles that immediately followed; since neither the account of the things related, nor that of the time, nor the very manner of writing is repugnant to it. Yet I shall not object if anyone prefers to suspect that there were more authors than one of all these things.

[9] not, however, Antimundus Baillet in the Critical Table at this day says that some believe the Life of St. Aper to have been written by Antimundus, bishop of Toul, who in the Catalogues in Calmet is reckoned now fifth, now sixth after St. Aper. Of this opinion, from which Baillet himself withdraws, I think the foundation is that these things are read of Antimundus in Calmet's Catalogue, tom. 1 of the History of Lorraine, among the Documents col. CCXXV: He cultivated with solicitous devotion the memory of Aper the confessor of Christ, whose monastery also he increased with divine religion, and in veneration of him he drew up certain writings and Responsories for the remembrance of posterity. And certainly that some Life of St. Aper existed before the times of Adso we have from the letter of abbot Wicard, which is the twelfth among the letters of Frothar, bishop of Toul, in Du Chesne, tom. 2 of the History of France,

published at pag. 717: for in this Wicard, with his monks, gives thanks to Frothar because he had transmitted to him the relics of St. Aper, and also the acts of his blessed manner of life. Now Frothar is believed to have occupied the see of Toul before the middle of the ninth century, and to have subscribed to the council held at Thionville. But the Life, such as it now circulates, even with the book of Miracles cut away, seems to have an author too far removed from the times of St. Aper for it to be safely attributed to Antimundus.

[10] But if Adso, or whoever else it may be, is one and the same author of the Life and of the Miracles, Varying credit of the Life and Miracles. he is certainly not earlier than the tenth century in its old age, and therefore so much later than our holy Bishop that he could not successfully compile his Life without more ancient documents. Now that writer confesses that few things were seen by himself. Indeed the very manner of writing sufficiently indicates this, since he everywhere celebrates the Saint's virtues only in general terms, but relates very few of his deeds. Yet nothing occurs in the Life which can be convicted of falsity or which exceeds belief. Nay, Tillemont in tom. 14 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, Note 14 on St. Paulinus of Nola, although he denies that it can be held as authentic, and although some miracles too displease him, nevertheless does not dare to reject it as a work of no authority. Concerning the second part of the little work, which contains the miracles and the other things done after his death, a more favorable judgment must be made: for the author professes that he is noting down some things seen by himself and most certainly ascertained; namely those things which he had learned partly from the report of his elders, as he had premised, and partly as done in his own time; but as for those which had happened in more remote ages, he confesses that they were not committed to writing. Many are, he says, those great and frequent miracles of his of this kind, which, if they had all been written, would perhaps weary the reader with their abundance. Yet the sloth of the authors is to be blamed, who did not transmit in writing to the knowledge of posterity even some of the things done after his passing.

[11] In reprinting both I shall follow Calmet's last edition collated with Martène's, Whence both are to be published. from which, as I hinted above, I shall also supply one lacuna and another. The miracle written by Peter the deacon, however, which exists in both the praised editors, but more fully in Martène, I shall deliberately pass over; both because it is later than the writer of the Life and the miracles, and was inserted into them by someone against the order; and because it pertains equally, and perhaps even more, to St. Mansuetus, and has already been given among his Miracles in our Work, tom. 1 of September, pag. 653 and following. I shall likewise cut away those things which in Calmet at chap. 29 are related concerning the death of Drogo, and concerning the succession of St. Gauzlinus in the bishopric and his virtues, and finally concerning St. Gerard likewise substituted in his place at the beginning of chap. 30, as not pertaining to our purpose. The manuscript Lives, which we mentioned above, will be of no use, or of little, to us; yet where some diversity worth noting occurs in them, we shall warn the reader.

[12] Other eulogies of the Saint Besides the praised published Life, two others, briefer, exist in the manner of a eulogy in the often-mentioned Calmet; one, namely, at the end of chap. 22, which is likewise read in Martène's Cambron codex; the other, more prolix than the first, in the eulogies of the bishops of Toul, or a catalogue carried down to Hector d'Ailly, who died in the year 1530, which in tom. 1 of the History of Lorraine, among the Documents col. CCX and following, is entitled Schedules of each bishop of Toul. To what authors these eulogies must be ascribed is unknown: yet that the earlier catalogue, as Martène published it, was more probably written about the year 1069, has been shown in our Work, tom. 1 of September, pag. 617, and tom. III of the same month, pag. 130. In each eulogy certain documents are cited which were before the writer's eyes. For in the earlier it is said thus: As is read in the book of his Life; and: But if anyone desires to know, let him read through the book of his Life, which is kept at the place of his tomb; and there he will find it more fully; and again: As is found in the authoritative books; which last words are also read in the later catalogue, or eulogy of the Saint which is recounted in it. This book of the Life Calmet in the annotations to the cited chap. 22 (I mean the later edition, for the first lacks these annotations) thinks to be that very Life which we are about to reprint; and this is altogether probable, since in this very Life is read that for which the book of the Life is cited in the eulogy.

[13] inserted in the catalogues of Toul. But what books he designates by "authoritative" is quite unknown to me. Calmet in the annotations to the later catalogue renders those words, In the authoritative books, thus in French: Probably in the Life of St. Leo written by Adso: books of this kind were read in the church, and their authority was held in esteem. But there is no doubt that by a slip of memory St. Leo has here been put for St. Aper: for holy Leo IX, whom he designates, called Bruno before his Pontificate, was in the eleventh century first set over the bishopric of Toul, and died supreme Pontiff in the year 1054: but Adso departed this life in the year 992, and so could not write the Life of the former. But neither is it certain that that Life of St. Aper which Calmet adjudges to Adso is here indicated by the authoritative books; both because the author of the earlier eulogy mentions the book of his Life twice in the singular number, and therefore seems to distinguish this from those; and because in the Life mention is indeed made of Adrian, judge of Chalon, but not of the emperor of the same name, under whose rule St. Aper is said in both eulogies, though wrongly, to have lived on the authority of those authoritative books; nay, the years of that same emperor are noted down in which the holy bishop was ordained and departed from human affairs, of which absolutely nothing is read in the Life. These eulogies, however, I do not judge worthy of the press, and for that reason I shall examine them in the Commentary for the sake of refuting rather than of adopting them.

* al. astra * al. relevate * al. vobis * al. primus

§ II. The fable of his episcopate under the rule of Adrian rejected: he must be distinguished from the Aper who was the friend of St. Paulinus of Nola: the time of his entering upon and of his laying down by death the bishopric assigned as far as may be.

[ ] He did not enter upon the bishopric under Adrian Augustus, If we listen to the author of the catalogue of the bishops of Toul praised in the first place, our St. Aper must be said to have flourished in the second century of Christ. For he, in the eulogy of that Saint both in Martène and in Calmet, establishes these epochs for his entering upon the bishopric and laying it down by death: As is found in the authoritative books, he is known to have lived in the times of Adrian, that most cruel emperor, who decreed that all the judges of the whole world under him should be called by his name; in whose fourth year Blessed Aper was ordained bishop, and in whose eleventh he put off the man. The same things are read word for word likewise in the other catalogue, or Schedules or Epitaphs of the bishops of the same city. Those compilers were of course also asserters of that opinion which affirmed that St. Mansuetus, the first bishop of Toul, after whom St. Aper is reckoned seventh, was sent by St. Peter the prince of the Apostles. But there is no need to discuss this opinion here, which you have refuted both in others and among us in tom. 1 of September at the III day, where St. Mansuetus is treated, the beginning of his episcopate being referred to the fourth century, or to the reign of Constantine the Great or of his sons.

[15] For removing St. Aper further from the age of the emperor Adrian, an unanswerable argument is furnished by the age of St. Auspicius, nor before the fifth century in its decrepitude. whom the collectors of the eulogies, in agreement with the other catalogues, say our Saint succeeded after Ursus. For that this Auspicius is the very man to whom the 17th letter of book 4 of St. Sidonius Apollinaris is addressed, and that his death must be placed about the year of Christ 478, our Sollerius proved in tom. VI of July, at the XXVIII day, on which he is venerated. Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, tom. 1, at the year of Christ 579, num. 78, judges that the writer of the Catalogue fell the more readily into this fable because he referred to the emperor Adrian what he had read in the Life to be published by us, at num. 6 and 7, concerning Adrian judge of Chalon. But this appears to me by no means probable, whichever of the two compilers the praised annalist may here have designated: for each of them sufficiently distinguished that judge from the emperor of the same name, while he tried, by an altogether insipid little fable, to persuade from the judge's name that an emperor of the same name was then reigning, saying no less ridiculously than confidently: He is known to have lived in the times of Adrian, that most cruel emperor; who decreed that all the judges of the whole world under him should be called by his name. To what purpose is this mention of the naming of judges, if the writer had not distinguished that judge of Chalon from Adrian Augustus?

[16] There remains another and weightier question, which has many patrons on both sides, Aper the friend of St. Paulinus of Nola, and those not to be despised: namely, whether St. Aper bishop of Toul is the same as that Aper to whom there exist three letters of St. Paulinus of Nola, which in the Paris edition of that Saint's Works of the year 1685 are numbered 38, 39, and 44, elsewhere 29, 30, and 31, from which it will be useful to have set out a summary of the Life of this Aper. This Aper, abounding in riches, had married a wife named Amanda, by whom he had also had children, as is beyond doubt from the praised letter 39, elsewhere 30. The author of the Dissertations on the Life and writings of St. Paulinus of Nola, which you have after the aforesaid Paris edition, in dissert. 5, chap. 2, attributes to him several sons and a daughter, citing the letter just quoted; from which, although it is clear that they had children, as I said, yet he will not hammer out that these were several and that among them there was one daughter. And as to the daughter, he was deceived by this sentence of St. Paulinus congratulating Aper and Amanda together on their state of most holy life: For the offices and eloquence of your letters … show what an ample possession you are to us, and what a fertile land to God; already bringing forth the thirtyfold fruit from your continence between yourselves, and approaching the sixtyfold by daily proofs of the common faith, and promising the hundredfold from virginal offspring.

[17] knowledge of whom, as also of Amanda, Virginal offspring, by which St. Paulinus without doubt designated the chaste works of continence, that author unhappily interpreted of a daughter of theirs. Concerning the number of sons or children too nothing is read in the same letter except this: You write that the possessions of your children are hindrances to your purpose, being the cause of that necessity by which you attend to earthly things, while you desire heavenly ones. But these things could truly have been said even if they had had only two or three children. It is therefore uncertain how many children they had, but it is established that there were at least two. The same Aper,

on the testimony of the same St. Paulinus in letter 38, otherwise 29, had acted as an advocate before the tribunals, and as a judge on the tribunals; nor had he been free of the pride which is wont to cling to offices of this kind. But afterwards, having turned to better things, he together with his wife Amanda gave himself wholly to God. Hence the praised Paulinus says in the same place: You have been pulled down from the proud man, taken up into the humble one, deposed from the unjust seat of power, that you might be placed on the throne of peace and justice; you have been emptied of the rich man, that you might be enriched in the poor one; and from that satiety of superfluous distension you have been emptied, that you might be filled with the true goods of pious poverty, hungering after justice.

[18] of his wife, and the conversion of both Where now are you, that man once terrible, whether as an advocate before the tribunals or as a judge upon them? Where is that neck of yours, then more truly, as you now falsely say of yourself, the neck of a fat bull; how has it been made docile and slender under the yoke of Christ, from the time you were converted and groaned? And it has pleased God well in you, as with a young calf. The bull's neck laid aside, you have been broken * into the meekness of that ox which knew its owner. Blessed are the eyes of those who behold these marvels of God in you; though most wretched are those who, seeing, do not see, etc. These words indeed signify a remarkable change in Aper; but whether he is to be said to have been converted then only to better morals, or also then for the first time from paganism or heresy to the faith of Christ, is not so agreed among the moderns. The author of the Observations on the letters of St. Paulinus, in the cited dissertation, chap. 1, and after him Tillemont in tom. 14 of the Monuments, Note 14 on St. Paulinus, and others judge that he was then first baptized, or, having laid aside heresy, embraced the Catholic faith. They give as their reason that in letter 38, otherwise 29, there occur certain sayings of St. Paulinus about Aper which cannot be explained even of a catechumen instructed from infancy in the Christian mysteries and then newly baptized.

[19] Take Paulinus's words. Blessed are you, brother, he says, and remarkable virtues and it shall be well with you, because not by flesh and blood, but by the revelation of the Spirit of the heavenly Father, you have learned what you confirmed, in the most holy conclusion of your letter to me, that you hold with unshaken faith and profess with free voice; Christ Jesus crucified, the Son of God, God, to whom bends every knee of things earthly, heavenly, and infernal; and whom every tongue confesses to be at the right hand of power and in the glory of God the Father. Him our Lord and God, since no other shall be reckoned beside him, you have embraced with the whole mystery of hidden piety, the Lord and God the Son of God before the ages, made of the seed of David in this age, and now, by the resurrection of the dead, living unto the ages in the hope of human eternity, as he is; you believe, and as you believe you preach. These words, I say, they judge can be taken as said only of one newly baptized who had long lived a pagan, or at any rate of one admitted into the Church from heresy. I do not see, however, why these same things could not have been said of a man Christian and Catholic even from boyhood, who, since he had by no means led his life according to the precepts of his religion, being moved by a more attentive weighing of the mystery of the Lord's Incarnation, and roused by the hope of a blessed resurrection, sent word of dismissal to worldly affairs and had begun to follow closely the humility of Christ, that he might deserve to become a partaker of that same blessed eternity.

[20] Certainly in none of the three letters is any mention made of paganism or heresy; from the letters of the same Paulinus, but on the contrary in that same letter 38 the whole cause of the hatred with which his former friends were persecuting Aper is referred not to his having taken up the faith of Christ but to the humility of his life. For thus Paulinus addresses him in the same place: Rightly do you glory, most venerable brother, and say in exultation that you believe yourself on this ground to be a Christian, because those who loved you have begun to hate you, and those who feared you to despise you; and you are yourself conscious that, if you were of such account in your own eyes as they were wont to reckon you, they would equally both love and revere you. Now let us proceed to the rest. In the edition of the Works of St. Paulinus which appeared at Antwerp in 1622 from the Plantin press with the notes of Fronto Ducæus and Heribert Rosweyde, the praised letter 38, which there is 29, is entitled To Aper the bishop; which dignity the author of the Dissertations attached to the Paris edition denies him at that time, contending that he was only a presbyter; which the praised Tillemont too thinks probable. But to me the opposite seems not improbable; for it is difficult to interpret of the presbyterate alone what is read in that same letter concerning his see and his priesthood.

[21] Rarely, as you write, says Paulinus there, written to them, a frequenter of cities, you have fallen in love with the familiar seclusion of the silent countryside, not preferring leisure to business, nor withdrawing yourself from the Church's usefulness, but avoiding the tumults of the churches, now almost rivals of the crowds of the forum, and their restless councils. And I judge that this very thing is being prepared for the greater advantages of the Church, that by wholesome counsel you give yourself to holy instruction, and, intent upon spiritual studies, to which solitude is a friend, you daily form and confirm Christ in yourself, whereby, being both a more useful servant and a more learned master, you may render yourself worthier of that see * in which you have been placed by God's nod, being mighty alike in work and in word, so that, in tongue and mind consistent with yourself, you may present yourself as a true pattern of Apostolic discipline, a doer and a teacher of the Lord's precept. Thus at last it will be plain that you are a priest not by human suffrage but by divine judgment. In this whole text one thing alone favors the opposite opinion, namely that Paulinus calls his Aper not a bishop but a priest, which word, however, is common to bishops with presbyters; the rest indicate a bishop rather than a presbyter.

[22] are here handed on for the studious reader Further, that illustrious pair of spouses lived together with continence most holily preserved, and made great progress day by day by mutual examples of the virtues. For his wife also (his Amanda), says St. Paulinus in letter 44, otherwise 31, to Aper, being not a leader to softness or avarice for her husband, but a restorer to continence and fortitude in her husband's bones, is admirable in her great emulation of that divine marriage with the Church; and Christ's charity joins her to you, brought back and restored into your unity, by spiritual bonds the firmer as they are the chaster, into whose body you have passed from your own. This too that excellent woman rendered to her husband, that, in order that he might be better free for God and for his office, she alone bore the care of the household and of their common means. Hence the praised Paulinus: Blessed is she, he says, among women, and faithful and most acceptable to the Lord in this devotion also, by which she set herself against the necessities of the world on your behalf, like a certain tower established on an immovable rock against the storms. He pursues these same things at greater length in the same place, and among the rest, explaining himself more fully, at last says: She takes care of the world's cares, that you may not care; she seems to possess, that you may not be possessed by the world, and that you may be possessed by Christ… For administering the business of captivity without captivity of soul, in the liberty of the spirit, she has strengthened her hands in the works of virtue, … by a necessary division rendering through herself to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, that the things that are God's she may minister to God through you. The curious reader will find more in the same place.

[23] Moreover Aper signified his conversion by letter to St. Paulinus, who without doubt had long been known to him; to which the latter replied by letter 38, otherwise 29, and inscribed it: Paulinus to the holy and deservedly venerable and most beloved brother Aper. In this letter Paulinus does chiefly two things, namely that he may congratulate Aper on his happy conversion, and that he may confirm him in his purpose against the hatred and injuries of the wicked, and admonish him that divine things and the soul's progress must be cared for with no less zeal than that with which he once handled human business. The other letter, namely 39, otherwise 30, is inscribed thus: Paulinus and Therasia (the wife of St. Paulinus), sinners, to the holy and deservedly venerable and most beloved brethren Aper and Amanda. This sets before those pious spouses, still then living in the country on their estate, salutary counsels about cultivating the field of the soul, and the manner in which it ought to be done. It seems, moreover, to have been written at least a year after the former, since St. Paulinus signifies in it that Aper had been accustomed to send him yearly letters; for he says: The offices and eloquence of your letters, which you bountifully pay to us by a yearly passage, show what an ample possession you are to us, and what a fertile land to God. Finally in letter 44, otherwise 31, inscribed in the same manner, he praises both the sweetness and the effectiveness of Aper in writing letters, follows up with a notable eulogy Amanda's diligent care and charity in administering domestic affairs, commends the education of their sons, and finally begs the prayers of both.

[24] he has seemed to some the same as the bishop of Toul; Therefore, to return to the question proposed, many have believed this Aper the same as the holy Bishop of Toul of the same name, others opposing, who judge that this can agree neither with the deeds of our Saint nor with the time of his see. Among the former was the Most Eminent Baronius, who in the Annotations on the Roman Martyrology on this day says thus: He is placed here seventh in order in the tables of the bishops of Toul which Demochares wrote out. He from a pleader became a monk, and from a monk was made a bishop, concerning whom St. Paulinus bishop of Nola writes in epist. 27, 28, and 29, in which he treats of him more at large. Pierre-François Chifflet in his Paulinus Illustrated, part 2, chap. 22, notes that indeed no letters were sent by St. Paulinus to Aper when already a bishop, but adds: Although from this no one doubts that Aper was bishop of Toul of the Leuci… The same opinion was followed by Claude Robert in the Gallia Christiana, by Jacques Longueval in tom. 1 of the History of the Gallican Church written in French, lib. 3, pag. 406, and by Baillet in the Lives of the Saints at this day. But the author of the Dissertations on the Life and writings of St. Paulinus of Nola, whom we have often mentioned above, sets out arguments on both sides and does not declare which he holds. To him Tillemont closely adhered, tom. 14 of the Monuments, Note 14 on St. Paulinus, where, weighing the same reasons, he left the question in doubt, except that he admits that Paulinus's Aper must be distinguished from the Bishop of Toul if the latter occupied that see after St. Auspicius.

[25] On the contrary, the brothers of Sainte-Marthe in tom. 3 of the Gallia Christiana, which we think is not true, François Riquet, grand Prior of Saint-Dié in the Vosges, in his French System of the bishops of Toul, which he once had sent in manuscript to my predecessors, and Calmet in tom. 1

of the History of Lorraine, lib. 6, num. 23, and lib. 7, num. XI, contend that St. Aper bishop of Toul must be altogether distinguished from the friend of St. Paulinus of the same name; which seems true to me as well. They allege these reasons: in the first place, in all the ancient Catalogues of the bishops of Toul it is read that St. Aper succeeded Auspicius immediately after Ursus; but it is established that St. Auspicius held the see of Toul long after the middle of the fifth century, and that he departed this life about the year 478, or even a year or two later or earlier, as our Sollerius proved in the Sylloge on his cult and deeds, tom. VI of July, at the XXVIII day, dissenting from Le Cointe only in this, that the latter had hinted that he might have survived until the year 486. Further, since St. Paulinus bishop of Nola, whose deeds you have illustrated in tom. VI of June, on the XXII day, died in the year 431 of the Christian era, it is manifest that that Aper the friend of Paulinus, such as the latter describes him, cannot be our Saint, the successor of Auspicius with Ursus between, unless one is willing to make him an old man of decrepit age when he was made bishop, indeed more than a hundred years old, if the Paris editor of the Works of St. Paulinus, and the author of the Dissertations which he appended, rightly referred those three letters to the years 404, 405, and 406. For what Paulinus mentions above about the life led by his Aper before his conversion argues that he was at least of a man's full age when he bade farewell to the world.

[26] Besides, Riquet and others observe that the rule of life, the pursuits and the offices of the Aper whom Paulinus praises reasons by no means agree with the deeds of St. Aper bishop of Toul, as these are related in his Life. For we have seen above from St. Paulinus's letters that Paulinus's friend was joined in marriage and had children by his wife Amanda, that he acted as an advocate before the tribunals and as a judge upon them, and that he was not without those vices which such a manner of life and such power more often inspire in men of that kind; but the Bishop of Toul is related in his Life to have been given from his very infancy to the exercises of the virtues, and especially of mercy toward the poor, and, advancing in these, to have been promoted, reluctant, to the bishopric of Toul by the clergy and the people. But nothing is read there of the office of advocate or of judge, nothing of his wife and children, and of the care expended for their sake on household affairs and estates; nay, on the contrary the Saint is said, when he received the administration of his affairs, to have paid out all that he possessed for the sustenance of the poor.

[27] which are set forth, I know indeed that neither this Life nor the Catalogues of the bishops of Toul are of such certain credit that their truth cannot be called into doubt; nevertheless I think it neither necessary nor fair to dissent from them merely on account of the name of Aper, which is read with the circumstances explained above in a writer of the same century in which that Bishop of Toul flourished. Add that the series of the first bishops which is read in the Catalogues is not a little confirmed by the finding of the sacred bodies which occurred in the year 1107, as Riquet, already praised elsewhere, rightly observed. For he, citing a certain instrument which in French he calls a Verbal Process, and which he says was drawn up by bishop Pibo, affirms that in the suburban church of St. Mansuetus in the year aforementioned the bodies of SS. Alchas, Celsinus, Auspicius, and Ursus were found. Mabillon too treats of the same finding in tom. 5 of the Annals, at the year of Christ 1107, num. 50, where he explains the matter a little more fully, and writes that it happened on the occasion of a new building on which Theomar, abbot of that place, was then engaged, and that three biers were found, two of which contained the bones of the first bishops of the church of Toul, namely Amo, who succeeded St. Mansuetus immediately, Alchas, Celsinus, Auspicius, and Ursus, with their sandals and other pontifical vestments. In the margin he cites Analect. tom. 3, pag. 459, from which in the text he teaches that they were uncovered in a crypt curved and rounded by the mason's work (the words are those of the instrument) in the manner of a triumphal arch.

[28] and persuade us of the opposite view. With these, as to the substance of the event, agrees Calmet in both editions of the History of Lorraine, namely in the earlier tom. 1, col. [ ], but in the later tom. 2, col. 317 and following; but he differs from Mabillon in this, that with Riquet he reckons the bodies of only four bishops, namely Alchas, Celsinus, Auspicius, and Ursus, Amo being omitted, and affirms that it was judged from the sandals and other pontifical vestments that these were their bodies. But in both places he cites, with Mabillon, Analect. t. 3, p. 459; what Work they designate by this I do not make out; for in Mabillon's Analecta, both in the four volumes published in the last century and in the single volume reprinted in the year 1723, I find absolutely nothing on this subject. Hence I cannot discern which of these three writers has reached the truth; for I remain uncertain whether the body of Amo too was found among those bodies, and whether it became known that they were the bodies of the aforesaid prelates from the sandals alone and the other ornaments. That we should rather believe that Mabillon erred in reckoning the body of St. Amo among them is urged by the Schedules, or Epitaphs of the bishops of Toul, in the often-praised Calmet, in which, both in the eulogy of St. Amo and in that of Hermann, the body of that Saint is said to have been translated by the same Hermann from the church of St. Mansuetus, where he had first been buried, into another church. Hermann, moreover, is numbered the thirty-fifth bishop of that see, but Pibo only the thirty-eighth.

[29] To return to Riquet: he judged that from the aforesaid finding of the sacred bodies their common burial with St. Mansuetus is confirmed, and from their common burial their succession also, as established in the Catalogues. And rightly; for that those five nearest successors of St. Mansuetus were buried in the same church with him the praised Schedules testify; but holy Aper and various other successors of his were buried in the other church which he had begun to build, until Ludelm, in the tenth century when a few years of it had begun, first of all the bishops of Toul wished to be buried in his own cathedral church within the city, although he had before chosen his burial in the suburban church of St. Aper after the manner of his predecessors. This reason would press even more strongly if, as Riquet affirms, it were established that all St. Aper's successors down to Ludelm were buried in the same church of St. Aper, and none in that of St. Mansuetus; which does not agree with those same Schedules, nor is it worth inquiring further. It is enough for me to have shown that there is no reason why we should depart from the series of bishops from Mansuetus down to Aper set forth in the more ancient catalogues of Toul, which is proved to be probable from other sources also.

[30] Further, since from what has been said it is established that St. Auspicius [From what has been said the time of his episcopate and death is drawn out as far as may be.] departed from this life about the year 478, or at any rate not many years after, and since between him and St. Aper, Ursus is inserted in the middle in the Catalogues, and how long he discharged the bishopric is not known, our Saint must be said to have come to the see of Toul of the Leuci toward the end of the fifth century, or the beginning of the sixth, as also seemed right to Riquet, to Calmet, and most recently to our Limpen in tom. 1 of September, pag. 622. Finally, concerning the time during which he held it, in the History of the bishops of Toul and in the praised Schedules it is read thus: He discharged the pontifical see for seven years; and therefore I have placed his death about the end of that same fifth century, or the beginning of the one immediately following; for what those same Schedules have, that he lived in the times of Adrian, that most cruel emperor, must from what has been said above be banished among the fables.

* al. factus * al. ei * al. reductam

§ III. The Saint's native country: whether he is the same as the friend of St. Sidonius Apollinaris: the church begun to be built by him, in which he was buried, is completed by his successor.

[ ] He is said to have been born near Troyes in the village of Tranquillus; Concerning our St. Aper's native country and parents the Life to be reprinted says this: Blessed Aper took the beginning of the present life in the suburb of Augusta of the Tricassi, in a village which is called Tranquillus, born of noble and, what is more excellent, Christian parents. With these entirely agrees the eulogy in the later Catalogue, or in the Schedules of the bishops of Toul, which was taken from this Life. That this place is to this day called Trancaust by the inhabitants, Nicolas Camuzat among others writes toward the end of the historical Miscellanies in his Promptuary of the sacred antiquities of the diocese of Troyes, and he says that it is a little village of that same diocese, nine miles distant from the city of the Tricassi, commonly Troyes, in Champagne, of which it is the capital. At an equal distance from the same city Guillaume de L'Isle sets the village of Trancaut on the little river Sorme in his geographical Table of the southern part of Champagne. But how is the Saint said in the words just praised to have been born in the suburb of Augusta of the Tricassi, if the village of Tranquillus is the very one that today is called Trancaut? This difficulty our Cuper already noted, and asked to be instructed by the men of Troyes or of Toul, in tom. IV of July at the XV day in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of the holy virgin Apronia, sister of St. Aper, in which, by a conjecture formed from this Saint's Life, she likewise is related to have been born in the suburb of Augusta of the Tricassi, in the village which is called Tranquillus.

[32] which suffers some difficulty. To reconcile these things, either the biographer must be said to have used the word suburb improperly for the territory or countryside subject to the city of Troyes, or our Saint was not brought into the light in the present-day village of Trancaut. Suburb in that improper sense was used also by the biographer of St. Salaberga in Mabillon, Benedictine Sec. 2, pag. 426, num. 12. In a similar manner it is used in the same place at pag. 1091 in the charter of Eligius, as also elsewhere in Du Cange's Glossary, which may be consulted. In a very ancient manuscript Breviary of Toul in our Museum, although the lessons about St. Aper are compiled from this Life, yet with the word village omitted it is read thus, as if Tranquillus were the name of the suburb itself. For lesson I has it thus: Blessed Aper took the beginning of the present life in the suburb of Augusta of the Trechi, which is called Tranquillus, etc. But that word village may have been omitted by the transcriber's fault, and the former explanation is the one I prefer, until the learned men of Troyes or of Toul produce something more certain.

[33] Another difficulty about the Saint's native country, Nevertheless this Trecensian native country of St. Aper can be called into doubt from St. Sidonius Apollinaris's letter 21 of book 4 and letter 14 of book 5, sent to a certain Aper, whom Tillemont in tom. 14 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, Note 14 on St. Sidonius Apollinaris, judges may be the same as our Saint. But that this Aper was born of an Aeduan father and an Arvernian mother the praised Sidonius clearly teaches in the earlier letter, when addressing him he says: Your father is Aeduan, your mother Arvernian. The same

he likewise signifies in the same place that he was born at Clermont in Auvergne, or at any rate was brought up there from infancy and imbued with letters, introducing the people of Clermont complaining of his long absence in these words: What so great wrong have we done you, ungrateful man, that for so many years you flee the soil that was once your nurse, now as though it were an enemy's land? Here we cherished your cradle; here we shaped the suckling limbs of your wailing infancy; here you were carried in the weight of your fellow citizens' arms. From here was your grandfather Fronto, gentle to you, severe to himself; who could have been an example to those whom we hold as an example. From here your grandmother Auspicia, who, when you were bereaved by your mother's death, paid out alone the care of two. But your aunt Frontina too was from here, holier than the holy virgins, whom her mother revered and her father venerated, a girl of the highest abstinence, of the highest rigor and of vast faith, so fearing God that she was feared by men. Here the flourishing studies of grammarian and rhetorician, vying in their instruction, nurtured you to be imbued with the liberal disciplines; whence you come forth not so meanly educated that it is permitted you not to love the Arvernians, if only for letters' sake. These things and others Sidonius says in the same place, in order to recall his Aper, dwelling among the Aedui, to the people of Clermont; for that was the aim of his whole letter.

[34] if he is the same as Aper: But in the other letter he invites him, dwelling among the Caienses, or Calenses or Calentes, as others read, at Baiae in Auvergne, so far as appears, into the city to spend the days of the Rogations with him; and he hopes that he will do this the more willingly the more holily those days were kept there according to the institution of St. Mamertus, bishop of Vienne. In these (Rogations), he says, which the aforesaid high priest (St. Mamertus) both brought forth and conferred, there is fasting, prayer, psalmody, weeping. To these feasts of humbled necks, and to the sighing companies of prostrate citizens, I summon you; and if I measure your spiritual mind aright, you will come the sooner, because you are called not to banquets but to tears. Farewell. Further, that this Aper should not be believed the same as the holy Bishop of Toul, nothing stands in the way except the Trecensian native country asserted by the biographer. In the first place the time agrees rightly: for holy Sidonius Apollinaris, initiated into the bishopric of Auvergne toward the end of the year 471 or the beginning of the next, died about the year of Christ 488, as was shown in our Work, tom. IV of August, at the XXIII day in the historical Commentary on that Saint's deeds, §§5 and 10. The same man, from what has been said, wrote letter 10 of book 7 to Auspicius, whom our St. Aper succeeded after Ursus; and the same man mentions the praised Auspicius as then advanced in age in letter 17 of book 4 to Arvogastes or Arbogastes. But in the letters cited to his Aper he speaks in such a way that the latter seems to have been already a bishop when he wrote; nor does he mention any advanced age of Aper, so that he could easily have been a young man when those letters were sent to him.

[35] Suppose then that Aper was 25 or 30 years old when he received them; to whom two letters exist he would not yet have attained his sixtieth year toward the end of the fifth century or the beginning of the sixth, at which time our St. Aper must be said to have been raised to the bishopric; nor are old men of that age lacking who are vigorous and fit for episcopal offices. The other things also which Sidonius recalls about the parents of his Aper, and about his pious and liberal upbringing, agree well enough with the words of the biographer, who not obscurely attributes to the Saint noble and Christian parents and a similar education. In this, however, they again differ, that Sidonius in letter 21 speaks of the estates which that man possessed in Auvergne, whereas the biographer with us at num. 2 says of the Saint: Having entered the years of adolescence, when he had begun to have power over his own goods, he had so great a care for the poor that he paid out for their sustenance all that he possessed. But this munificence of the Saint toward the poor is perhaps somewhat exaggerated, and that writer was little informed about the Saint's deeds, so that what he relates of them cannot be admitted without fear of error.

[36] François Riquet in his manuscript new French System of the bishops of Toul, of St. Sidonius Apollinaris, which Aper often praised above, thinks that that Aper the friend of Sidonius must be altogether distinguished from the Bishop of Toul, led by the arguments which I subjoin, and which do not seem to me of great weight. Sidonius, he says, in the letters which he wrote to bishops, signifies their rank by adding the word Papa, for example, To Ambrose papa, To Auspicius papa; which word does not occur in the superscriptions of the letters which he wrote to Aper and to others who were not bishops. Secondly, the Bishop of Toul was born in the place Tranquillus near Augusta of the Tricassi in Champagne; the other was begotten of an Aeduan father and an Arvernian mother, was brought up in Auvergne from his very cradle, and was there imbued with letters, as we saw above; and he says it is not probable that he was carried even as an infant from Autun to Clermont to be reared there until he had learned the humane letters. Thirdly and finally, from letter 14 of book 5 Riquet observes that Sidonius's Aper dwelt not far from the city of Clermont in Auvergne when Sidonius wrote it, since the latter invited him and awaited him for the celebration of the Rogation days, which he would not have done if that Aper had been residing in the city of Toul, eighty miles distant from Clermont.

[37] could have been our Saint, not yet a bishop. To these things I reply that the first and the last argument do nothing against that opinion, according to which those letters must be said to have been written to St. Aper when he was not yet a bishop. The second reason is of as much weight as the biographer is, who is about four centuries younger, and does not cite the monuments from which he learned what he says, and sufficiently indicates that few things about the Saint's other deeds came to his knowledge. For which reason his authority is not so great with me that I should hold the Saint's Trecensian native country for indubitable. Yet it must be confessed that the smaller distance of the city of Troyes from that of Toul favors the biographer; and that Sidonius's friend Aper could easily have been another man, and therefore I would not dare to affirm either side with certainty. But if our Saint was in fact born at Troyes, he could have been trained by St. Lupus, who governed the bishopric of Troyes most holily until the year 479, as was shown in our Work at the XXIX day of July. Among the letters of Salvian, presbyter of Marseilles, there exists also one, namely the seventh, to Aper and Verus, the former of whom Tillemont cited above thinks may be the same as the bishop of Toul; but, as he himself also confesses, apart from the name there is nothing to persuade that it is so.

[38] In the church begun by him The other deeds of St. Aper which the biographer records need no commentary, and can be sufficiently illustrated by annotations added after our custom; concerning the church, however, begun to be built by him and completed by his successor, and afterwards enlarged with a monastery, a few things must be said here, and more in the following §. The biographer has this about the beginnings of this church at num. 9: But when the time was now at hand at which the Lord had decreed to reward his Elect one after the courses of this life had been run, the same holy man of God began to build a certain basilica outside the walls of the city over which he gloriously presided, so that, with the people of the faithful gathering there, the daily gains of the Church might increase and daily losses be inflicted on the devil. But when he had already raised it somewhat in height by building, before he could put the last hand to the work, the Servant of God began to be goaded by a rival infirmity of body. As this grew heavier day by day, he was awaiting a happy ascent to Christ, whom while living he had loved with his whole heart. Commending therefore to the Lord all whom he had gained for Christ, and his whole church, … he poured back his spotless spirit to its Creator.

[39] he is buried, and it is soon completed. Then, after he has said that the holy Bishop's body was carried with the common grief of all to that church, not yet completed, and has related some circumstances of the burial, he proceeds thus at num. XI: When therefore the burial of the holy Man had been most dutifully performed, the begun building of that temple was completed with the highest devotion of the people. Exactly the same things, though with a fable mixed in, the author of the Catalogue has in the same History of the bishops of Toul in Calmet, chap. 32, where, ascribing that completion of the church to Albauld, St. Aper's immediate successor, he says: There succeeded him lord Albauld the bishop, an excellent man, conspicuous for every goodness. He fulfilled the desirable wish of his Predecessor, and with sagacious zeal built up the church which St. Aper had begun, and gathering there faithful men to live after the example of the Apostles, he obtained an Apostolic privilege for that monastery from the supreme Pontiffs and martyrs Stephen and Fabian, as is found in the most ancient rolls. The other catalogue, or the Schedules of the bishops, agrees almost in the very words, except that in it that successor is called Albinus. But that Albauld, or Albinus, is said to have obtained a privilege from the supreme Pontiffs SS. Fabian and Stephen — these are fables born of that opinion which invented that St. Mansuetus was given as bishop to the people of Toul by St. Peter the Apostle.

[40] Then, as fables are wont not to cohere with one another, A chronological error corrected. it would follow from the same Catalogues that the bishopric of Toul was vacant for a hundred years or more after the death of St. Aper. For since in them St. Aper is said to have died in the XI year of the rule of Adrian, that is, about the year of Christ 128, but holy Fabian held the Pontificate from the year of Christ 236 until 250, and Stephen more probably from the year 253 until 257, such a vacancy will have to be admitted if Albauld obtained any privilege from the praised holy Pontiffs. But this agrees in no way either with the biographer's words or with those of the catalogues just given, as will be plain to one who considers. Certainly the biographer expressly teaches that hands were set to completing the church begun by the Saint soon after his burial: and neither is it probable that the holy Bishop's body would have been buried by the people of Toul in that church, unless they had been seriously thinking of finishing it quickly. But enough of these fables. The brothers of Sainte-Marthe in tom. 3 of the Gallia Christiana make Alodius the successor of St. Aper, who is read as having subscribed to the fifth council of Orléans in the year 549, and who nevertheless does not occur in the catalogues of Toul; and they think that the same man was perhaps also called Albauld, Riquet objecting, who rightly holds that Alodius was distinct from him and succeeded later. See more about this church in the following §.

§ IV. The church dedicated to the Saint, and enlarged with a monastery: other matters pertaining hereto: other churches sacred to him: his body translated, brought back, hidden, and found: his relics carried elsewhere, and made illustrious by miracles.

[ ] The church which the Saint had begun, That the venerable body of St. Aper was buried in his own church, which he had left unfinished when he died, was said in the preceding § from the biographer. The same writer, that it was soon dedicated to the Saint himself

he affirms in the same place in these words: When therefore the burial of the holy Man had been most dutifully performed, the begun building of that temple was completed with the highest devotion of the people, and it pleased them that it should be dedicated under the name of St. Aper, where his merits do not cease to flash forth with daily miracles of power. According to this, the Saint's cult was already begun soon after his death, and a church was dedicated to him. But Calmet in tom. 1 of the History of Lorraine, in the observations on the documents, col. CXLIX and following, says that he can with difficulty persuade himself of the latter point, and judges that this church was first consecrated to St. Maurice, and was called St. Aper's only later, on account of the frequency of the miracles by which the Saint shone forth there. In favor of this opinion of his he alleges a diploma of the emperor Lothair, in which that church is said to have been built and dedicated in the honor and name of St. Maurice; and likewise another diploma of king Arnulf, in which it is called the monastery of St. Maurice and St. Aper. He sets out both privileges in tom. 2 among the documents, col. CXXXIII and CLIX, where he assigns the first to the year 845, the other to the year 894. He adds that the feast of that same St. Maurice, namely the leader of the Theban legion and martyr, is even today celebrated with great solemnity in the praised abbey or church.

[42] seems to have been dedicated to him and perhaps also to St. Maurice These reasons of Calmet prove nothing, nor do they show anything else than that that church was dedicated to both Saints, and that perhaps by the mind of St. Aper himself, who could have destined it for the praised Martyr, and thus have given cause for it to be consecrated to him also as a second patron. Certainly Fredegarius Scholasticus, a writer of the seventh century, in his Chronicle calls the church by no other name than that of St. Aper, writing thus in Ruinart's edition at the year of Christ 626: Godinus, seeing the peril of his life, turned his back and went with his wife to king Dagobert in Austrasia, and, terrified with fear of the king, took refuge in the church of St. Aper. And that this church of St. Aper is the very one of which we are treating, the praised Ruinart in his annotations, and Calmet himself in tom. 1 of the History of Lorraine, col. 295, expressly affirm. Nor did Lothair, son of the aforesaid emperor Lothair and king of Lorraine, call it by another name in his diploma by which he restored that same church, which his father had given to Leorard the chorepiscopus, to the cathedral church of Toul, to whose right it had belonged, according to the last will of that same father. For in it he calls it the cell of St. Aper, the glorious confessor, situated beside the town of the Leuci, and again the cell of St. Aper, with no mention made of St. Maurice. This instrument exists in the praised Calmet, tom. 2, col. CXXXV and following. In a similar manner, in the Precept of Louis the Stammerer in Mabillon's De Re diplomatica, pag. 548, document CX, it is called the abbey of St. Aper, and in the Precept of Charles the Fat, ibid. pag. 552, document CXIV, the monastery of St. Aper.

[43] The Rule of Agaunum introduced there. From what has been said it is likewise gathered why the feast of St. Maurice is celebrated so solemnly, namely because he was from ancient times held as a second patron, as it were, of that place, in that the church of St. Aper was from the beginning consecrated to him also, as may be gathered from the precepts of the emperor Lothair and of king Arnulf. Nay, Calmet himself brings forward another cause of that solemnity, tom. 1, in the annotations on the documents, col. CXLIX and following, rightly observing that it could easily have been introduced into the monastery of St. Aper by the monks of Agaunum. For in the Chronicle of St. Benignus of Dijon in d'Achery, tom. 1 of the Spicilegium of the earlier edition, pag. 370, it is read that Appollinaris, abbot of Agaunum, presided at the same time over the monastery of St. Aper. Appollinaris therefore, says the author of the Chronicle, we have found among the rest to have been abbot of St. Maurice and of this place (St. Benignus's) and of St. Aper at Toul, as they themselves report that they found in ancient writings. He refers these things, moreover, to the times of king Guntram, that is, to the sixth century already growing old or decrepit, at the beginning of which it is probable from what has been said above that St. Aper held his bishopric. By this abbot's work, therefore, the cult of St. Maurice, together with monastic discipline, could have been introduced into the praised monastery of St. Aper, and so promoted that that holy martyr was held as second patron of the place, and that same church was called by his name also.

[44] His monastery is endowed; its discipline restored by various men Further, Autmund or Antimund, who in both Catalogues in Calmet holds the twelfth place among the bishops, took pains to increase the same monastery, if we believe the compilers of those catalogues. For he, as is read in the same place, cultivated with solicitous devotion the memory of Aper the confessor of Christ, whose monastery also he increased in divine religion, and in veneration of him drew up certain writings and Responsories for the remembrance of posterity. Then bishop Frothar, the 26th, is said in the same place to have restored the discipline, together with the revenues, which had collapsed in that same monastery, in these words: He both exalted the aforesaid monastery with an increase of divine religion, and adorned it not a little with a supplement of outward things. Concerning this restoration Mabillon may be consulted, tom. 2 of the Benedictine Annals, at the year of Christ 836, num. 46, where he praises a charter of the same Frothar given to that end, which he recites in full in lib. 6 of De Re diplomatica, pag. 524 and following, and holds to have been written about the year 836. You also have the same in Calmet among the documents, tom. 2, col. CXXIX and following, of the latest edition. This one thing I observe here, that mention is made there of the introduction of the Rule of St. Benedict: for thus among other things Frothar speaks there: Moreover we decree that an abbot be set over that monastery who according to the Rule of blessed Benedict may be able usefully to preside and to profit.

[45] Another restoration of the same place St. Gauzlinus, likewise bishop of Toul, saw carried out in the tenth century, is restored, etc. concerning which the Commentary on that same Saint published by us in tom. III of September, at the VII day, §3, may be consulted, and therefore nothing need be added about it. For brevity's sake I pass over another too, made in the eleventh century by St. William, abbot of St. Benignus of Dijon, at the instance of Bertold, bishop of Toul, as is read in the Chronicle of the praised abbey of Dijon, tom. 1 of the Spicilegium, pag. 441, and is hinted at in the Life of St. William himself in our Work, tom. 1 of January, chap. XI. For the same reason I pass over the excellent labor and the expenses which St. Bruno, likewise then bishop of Toul, and afterwards Supreme Pontiff, called Leo IX, and many others with him, roused by the remarkable holiness of the monks serving God there, contributed toward restoring that same monastery from the foundations and endowing it; all of which the studious reader will find both in the Life of this holy Pontiff, tom. 2 of April at the XIX day, chap. 5, and in the praised Calmet, tom. 2, among the documents, col. CCLIX and the four following. These things, I say, and many others, which pertain rather to the abbey of St. Aper than properly to the Saint himself, and which are related here and there in the praised Work of Calmet, I knowingly and willingly pass over.

[46] Calmet, tom. 1, col. 295 and following, affirms that a great number of churches dedicated to St. Aper are to be seen in the diocese of Toul, Other churches and mentions besides two ancient ones consecrated to the same Saint, one namely erected in the seventh century by St. Hidulph in his own monastery, the other erected likewise in the same century, of which mention is made in the Life of St. Salaberga. For the former he cites the manuscript Chronicles of John of Bayon, which are not at my hand, and whose antiquity and credit I am wholly ignorant of: for the latter he cites Acta SS. Benedictin. t. 2, that is, Mabillon's second Benedictine Century, where in fact at pag. 422 Hermann the monk, in lib. 3 of the Miracles of Blessed Mary of Laon, chap. 22, writes that a certain church was founded to St. Aper by the praised holy abbess; but he affirms that it was of St. Aper the martyr, not the confessor, such as the bishop of Toul is. For among the seven basilicas built by her he reckons the sixth in honor of holy Aper the martyr; and again he says in the same place of his own age: Of these seven churches, then, five still remain; but two, that is, of the holy Cross and of holy Aper the martyr, have fallen away through excessive age. Further, it is noted in the same place at pag. 520 that that Hermann was a contemporary of St. Bernard abbot of Clairvaux, and therefore lived in the twelfth century. But if that church was in fact dedicated to St. Aper the martyr, he must have been another than the holy bishop of Toul, who as has been said died a confessor.

[47] sacred to the same Saint. Another church to Blessed Aper, martyr of Hallia, and a monastery of veiled virgins of the Cistercian Order at Cologne Agrippina, not far from the Porta Honoris, Erhard Winheim reckons in his Sacrarium of Agrippina, pag. 274 and following. Of the same, Aegidius Gelenius too makes mention at greater length in his De Magnitudine Coloniæ Agrippinæ, lib. 3, syntagma 57; but he expressly affirms that that St. Aper to whom he shows the church was anciently dedicated is not a martyr, but ours: St. Aper, he says, was the seventh bishop of the church of Toul, and his birthday to heaven is celebrated on the XV of September. He repeats the same in lib. 4 in the Sacred and Pious Calendars, where at the said day he has it thus: At Cologne in the church of St. Aper, the memory of St. Aper, seventh bishop of Toul. Nor do the nuns of that place acknowledge any other Aper as patron of their church than the one of Toul, so far as I gather from a certain letter once sent by Fr. Arnold Neelsbach to our Papebroch, in which the following may be read: The nuns of a certain monastery of Cologne, dedicated to holy Aper the seventh bishop of Toul, eagerly desire the Life of their holy Patron, whose feast is the XV of September, hitherto unknown here, etc.

[48] dedicated. I should therefore believe that that church is truly sacred to our St. Aper, and that Winheim erred when he thought it dedicated to Blessed Aper, martyr of Hallia. Perhaps Hallia crept in by the typesetter's fault for Gallia, and, by the writer's error, Martyr for Bishop. A similar hallucination could have stolen upon Hermann the monk too, whom we mentioned above: for I at least could find no Martyr of this name in the Martyrologies. How ancient, moreover, that church is I have nowhere read, except that the praised Gelenius in syntagma 57 writes: Of the chapel of St. Aper opposite the gate called Agrippina, Philip I archbishop of Cologne makes mention in a letter of the year MCLXIX. He adds that it was first inhabited by Franciscans, and, when these were transferred to another place, that it passed in the year 1474 to the Cistercian virgins, who laid the foundation stone of a new and larger monastery there in the year 1477 on the XXI day of April. He adds finally: From the relics of St. Bartholomew brought thither, and from the pious affection of the virgins (who had dwelt in the monastery of that same holy Apostle outside the walls), a titular and tutelary patron was added, so that the church is now called of SS. Bartholomew

and Aper. Now let us return to the Saint's burial at Toul.

[49] The Saint's body is carried to Toul; The sacred body of Aper rested in the church which he had begun outside the walls of the city, as we said above, until the tenth century, when, out of fear of the Danes and the Hungarians, it was brought into the city and deposited in the church of St. John the Baptist. The event is set out at length by the author of the Miracles of St. Aper, whose narrative we shall give after the Life, where therefore he may be consulted from num. 22; meanwhile we observed above at num. 8 that it happened about the year 918. After the departure of the barbarians from Lorraine, that venerable pledge was taken up by night, secretly from all the rest, by two monks whom the Saint himself had admonished, with a few others taken into their counsel, and with the help of two clerics, namely Allo and Barnefrid the precentor, and at last was deposited beneath the ground in his own church, in a place unknown to the others. The reason for this counsel and this deed was the wicked scheming of Drogo, bishop of Toul, who, incited by his depraved counselor, Bulso by name, had secretly decided to keep the sacred body in the city, and was gaping after the goods of the monks; but St. Aper uncovered these hidden machinations to the aforesaid monks and saw to it that they were made void. All these things the praised writer of the Miracles relates more fully than that it should be necessary to add more about them here.

[50] Now the aforesaid monks had bound themselves by an oath that no one should betray the secret or indicate to anyone the place of the hidden body. thence secretly carried into his own church, and long afterwards found. Hence it came about that that treasure lay hidden for many years, until the episcopate of St. Gerard, who at last happily found and elevated it in the year 978, since up to that time the place of its concealment had been unknown, although it was established that the body had been deposited in that church. The order of this finding and elevation, and the marvels which illustrated it, you have described among the miracles to be published after the Life, as we noted, chap. 3, to which therefore I likewise refer the reader. Of the same things Vindric, or Widric, abbot of St. Aper's and a contemporary writer, makes mention in the Life of that same St. Gerard given by us in tom. III of April at the XXIII day, where at chap. 2 he has this: He also (St. Gerard) sought out the relics of the Saints with sagacious solicitude, trusting that the grace of the Creator above was supplied to him by their help. His watchful care God did not suffer to be frustrated, and granted him to find the remains of the most blessed pontiff Aper; at whose glorious translation the divine condescension made known magnificent miracles, which are kept noted down in the deeds of that same blessed Prelate. For the rest, Calmet notes, tom. 1, col. 296, that the relics of that same holy Aper are even today preserved in the same abbey, enclosed in a precious reliquary.

[51] That the whole body, however, did not remain in the praised abbey, Some of his relics carried elsewhere but that some portions of it were already from the ninth century translated elsewhere, we learn from the letters of Frothar, bishop of Toul, reported in Du Chesne, tom. 2 of the writers of the History of France, pag. 717 and 720. For in letter 12 abbot Wicard with his monks gives thanks to Frothar for the relics of that same Saint received from him. What thanksgiving, he says, shall we repay you, best of men, for the benefits which you bestow on our littleness with an eye to heavenly reward alone, you who deign to provide not only for our inward things by pastoral care, but also for the outward things of our substance by pious solicitude? Moreover, to demonstrate the fullness of your charity toward us, you have now deigned to send to our humility what can be to us richer than gold, the relics of St. Aper, and also the acts of his blessed manner of life. But for all these things, he for whose love you do this will assuredly not forget to render you the fruit of an abiding recompense, etc. Of what place this Wicard was abbot is unknown: but if he is the same as Wighard the abbot, to whom Frothar wrote letter 19, saying, I ask that by your help you have three carts of wine from Bonn brought to us at the palace at Aachen — if, I say, he is the same, it is probable enough that his monastery was not very far from Bonn, which is a town of lower Germany on the Rhine and the seat of the electors of Cologne; as Mabillon suspected, tom. 2 of the Benedictine Annals, at the year of Christ 836, num. 46.

[52] Likewise the praised Frothar transmitted another portion of the sacred body to a certain Hugh, a most devout servant of Christ, with letter 21, in the ninth century: in which among other things he says: But that which was dearer and richer to your diligence, namely the relics of St. Aper, confessor of Christ, we send to you; imploring the aid of St. Aper that you may return hither swiftly in safety, and receive from our devotion the benefits of worthy service. Mabillon just praised, and after him Calmet, judge that this Hugh was a son of Charlemagne. The former of them alleges as his reason that in the same letter Frothar, complaining in friendly fashion of Hugh's absence, addresses him thus: We had indeed thought hitherto and desired that of so pious and lofty a progeny at least two lamps might remain to us, by whose splendor and merits we might rejoice to enlighten and better both ourselves and our neighbors. This pious and lofty progeny Mabillon interprets of Charlemagne's offspring, and the two lamps of Drogo bishop of Metz, and Hugh, sons of that same Charles, and thinks that some abbey among the Leuci had been destined for the latter by Louis the Pious: which conjecture is indeed neither certain nor improbable. For the rest, Hugh the son of Charlemagne, whom the brothers of Sainte-Marthe in the Gallia Christiana make abbot of St. Medard at Soissons and of Novalese, has been treated in our Work in the Prætermissi at the XIII day of June.

[53] St. Leo IX, carrying some with him on his journey to Rome, Moreover St. Leo IX carried some relics of St. Aper with him when, before his Pontificate, set over the church of Toul as bishop and called Bruno, he made a pilgrimage to Rome to the thresholds of the Apostles, and used them with happy effect, on the testimony of Wibert his archdeacon, in the Life of that same holy Pontiff given by us in tom. 2 of April at the XIX day of April, from whose book 2, chap. 1, it will be useful to have reported the following. He had the greatest devotion to visit the supreme Pontiff and the first Key-bearer of heaven in a yearly return, and to entreat his help with suppliant prayer for the sheep entrusted to him by God. And so at a certain time, having set out on his accustomed journey, accompanied by a company of clerics and also of laymen exceeding the number of five hundred, who for the worthiness of his merits, his affability, and his sanctity followed his train unseparated; a dire plague arose upon them all, from the corruption of the Italian air, so that for no one infected with this wasting was there hope of putting off death until the morrow.

[54] drives off the plague from his people by them: St. Gerard But the Man of the Lord, exceedingly grieved at the affliction of the throng accompanying him, found a swift remedy, divine grace running before. For when with his own hand he had dipped in wine the relics of the Saints which he carried with him, and especially the bones of St. Aper, to whom he commended himself most devoutly, whoever tasted of such a cup, however little, soon recovered, however great the sickness that had invaded him, if only he had been able to taste the flavor of that liquid. So far he: yet it must be confessed that no small part of this prodigy is perhaps to be ascribed to St. Leo, or Bruno, himself. Further, among other things, this confidence of St. Leo in the relics of St. Aper could have been kindled by the health prodigiously restored some years before to St. Gerard, bishop of Toul, through the help of that same Saint and of Mansuetus, as Vindric, or Widric, abbot of St. Aper's, relates in the Life of the praised St. Gerard at the place assigned above, chap. 3, whence I transcribe the event. He also (St. Gerard) was once tried by a desperate sickness of body, through which the almighty Lord was gloriously made illustrious in the majesty of his power. For at a certain time, weighed down by an excessive languor, his body already growing cold, he was brought to the last extremity; nor did anyone presume to promise him hope of returning health, no one was busy about anything but his funeral rites alone.

[55] Then there came upon him a thought inspired from heaven, that he should commend himself to the merciful protection of the most holy pontiffs Mansuetus and Aper, the bodies of SS. Mansuetus and Aper having been brought to him, and he ordered their venerable relics to be carried into the oratory of St. John the Baptist, in order that by their prevailing intercession either his body might receive a remedy for the desperate sickness, or his soul a propitiating solace at its last departure before the stern Judge. When therefore the consecrated pledges had been brought within the city, vigils were celebrated by night by the faithful with fitting honor, nor were funereal watchers lacking to the bishop lying in the adjoining chamber. But in the dead of night, when the noise of the thronging crowd had subsided, behold, upon him who had been sick a health-bringing sleep began, beyond hope, to steal; and soon he was visited by the holy pontiffs through the quiet of sleep in a most desirable vision. For it seemed to him, as he lay sick, that those magnificent men stood before his little bed, becomingly mitred in prelates' habit, who as it were asked of him with merciful compassion how he did, and with what kind of sickness he was so grievously ill. And when the manner and kind of the sickness had been disclosed by the sick man, it seemed to him as though they bade him follow them, and that they turned their steps back toward the oratory where their sacred pledges were kept.

[56] But he, who had been sick for not a few days, rose up whole and in haste, already near death, is suddenly healed. astounded with amazement at the glorious vision. He believed that the blessed prelates had stood by him in bodily presence, and set out upon the way, as though about to follow their footsteps. But coming to the doors of the church, and having regained possession of his own mind, he recognized the power of the Saints, which they had deigned to show forth in him; and soon he intoned the antiphon, The lame man leapt up and walked, in the praise of jubilation. Hence he prostrates himself before the venerable relics, repays magnificent thanks to the Saints for the benefit, and glorifies with unsilent mouth God, who is to be praised in his servants.

THE LIFE

by an uncertain author

From the editions of Calmet and Martène.

Aper, bishop and confessor, at Toul of the Leuci in Belgica Prima (St.)

BHL Number: 0616

By an uncertain author.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

The author, having invoked the Holy Spirit, On this present day is kept the venerable solemnity of the most blessed man, foreordained and chosen before every age and manifested and appointed to us in his own time, the pontiff Aper, on which, taken up from the earth, he sought the heavens, and, like a veteran soldier after the long contests of this life, entered the heavenly Capitol to be crowned by Christ. As often as this is renewed with the revolving circles of the years, so often is the devotion of yearly exultation heaped up for Christian peoples, and a kind of gate, as it were, of holy joys is opened to those who come after, when the festival of their own Patron is renewed. For the triumph of the Shepherd lifts up the spirits of the flock, and the veneration bestowed on the Master gladdens the hearts of the disciples. About to describe therefore the life and miracles of such and so excellent a Man of God, I invoke the Holy Spirit who dwelt in him, that he, who bestowed on him the grace of working wonders, may to me

also grant a sufficient gracefulness of speech for the narrating of them. ^a

[2] and, relying on the Saint's patronage, sets about writing. And indeed I recognize myself as unequal and less than fit for this; but by the intercession of him whose merits I am eager to make public for the profit of those present and the protection of those to come, I hope that divine grace will be at hand for me, about to hear the Lord saying to me with the prophet: "I will go before you, and I will humble the mighty of the earth, I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and shatter the bars of iron, and I will open to you hidden treasures and the secrets of secret things." For then shall I set about the narrative securely, if, with divine grace running before, and humbling the mighty of the earth, that [is,] ^b the vices of earthly senses, and leveling all that is steep and difficult, I shall be able to penetrate the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and the secrets of the heavenly mysteries. Having briefly tasted of these matters, let us, with the Lord's help, approach the order of the narrative.

ANNOTATIONS.

THE SOLE CHAPTER.

The Saint's native country, deeds, episcopate, miracles, death, and burial.

Born in the suburb of Troyes, from boyhood onward Blessed Aper, then, took the beginning of the present life in the suburb of Augusta of the Tricassi, in a village which is called Tranquillus ^a, born of noble and, what is more excellent, Christian parents; and receiving from boyhood the rudiments of the heavenly service, he was always a venerator and a chief cultivator of the Christian religion; so much so that he showed beforehand, while still of tender disposition, what manner of man he would be in his youthful age. For he was not relaxed by boyish wantonness, as that age carries with it, but, always wholly intent upon the churches and holy places, he strove to cling the more closely to all the most perfect men, so that, as one soon to be a bishop, he might drink in through them the doctrines of the Catholic faith and the examples of good works ^b. He pursued besides the works of mercy even beyond his strength, that he might, as far as he could, relieve the needy: but where the means of relieving failed him, he did the only thing he could, and with the whole bowels of mercy had compassion on the destitution of the poor. For often, returning either from school or from church, if by chance he had seen some poor man naked ^c, the holy Boy would strip off his own tunic and clothe him, and so return home naked, girt rather with the garment of justice and mercy.

[2] But when he had now entered the years of adolescence, and had begun to have power over his own goods, he was given to mercy: he follows the examples of pious men, he had so great a care for the poor that he paid out for their sustenance all that he possessed. Indeed this Saint could use the words of blessed Job, in which he says: "From infancy compassion grew with me, and it came out with me from my mother's womb." By these and such pursuits of holy conversation he had turned all men to admiration and love of himself. For he was venerable in aspect, mild in address, serene of countenance, and, so as to show by the sincerity of his manners the meaning of his native soil's name, being free from the wildness of his surname, he was to all approachable with tranquil gentleness ^d. It was also his custom to go to all holy men out of a zeal for imitation, and he turned the particular virtues of each into ornaments of his own life. He followed the continence of this one, the cheerfulness of that; the gentleness of one, the vigils of another, the diligence in reading of yet another. This man fasting, that one resting in sackcloth and ashes, he admired; the patience of one, the meekness of another he proclaimed; and keeping toward himself the charity of all in return, and watered with every kind of virtue, he would return to his own seat, and there ^e, turning over all these things with himself, he strove, like a most prudent bee, to express in himself the good qualities of all.

[3] Above all he always conducted himself with provident circumspection, he guards against the wicked. Elected bishop of Toul, bending his solicitous care lest he be deceived by the ill-persuading cunning of heretics or of any wicked men. Always mindful of the Gospel precept, he took pains to have the cunning of the serpent with the simplicity of the dove, and, like a creature with eyes on every side, he so desirably provided for good things that he skillfully guarded against evils ^f. And when by these and other marks of the virtues the Saint's fame grew widespread far and near, he was carried off — no less seized than elected — to the pontificate of the city of the Leuci ^g, by the harmonious will of the priests and the citizens and the common acclamation of all; and although he resisted with every effort, knowing indeed that, just as no one chosen to the summit of the priesthood ought obstinately to flee it, so no one ought to thrust himself importunately upon it, yet the pious desire of the devoted people prevailed, and to the boundless joy of all he was exalted to the pontifical chair. For he was a lamp kindled by the grace of the true light, and therefore most worthily to be set upon a lampstand, that he might pour the light of truth, by word and by example alike, upon all who are established in the house of God, which is the Church.

[4] But now, having taken up the episcopate, what sort of man and how great he showed himself, it is not within our power to unfold. he keeps his former rule of life: and discharges his office For he most constantly persevered the same as he had been before; the same humility was in his heart, the same meanness in his clothing; he untiringly preserved the rigor of his purpose of abstinence, never taking food at another hour than he had been accustomed to before. And so, full of authority and grace, he fulfilled the dignity of a bishop in such a way that he nevertheless did not lose the purpose of his former religious life; nay rather, the gains of virtue were increased just as much as the dignity of the priest was more exalted. Being indeed made all things to all men, according to the Apostle, that he might gain all. For who ever came to him sorrowful and did not return consoled? He believed the sufferings of all to be his own, and reckoned the prosperity of those who rejoiced to be his own. And announcing the doctrine of the divine word daily, nay every hour, to all, he allowed no time to be empty of saving preaching; rejoicing to draw all men with him to the heavenly fatherland; always Christ was on his lips, always the counsels of eternal life resounded there. For he had been set as a faithful and prudent Steward in the house of the great Father of the family, that he might pay out to his fellow servants their measure of wheat in due season.

[5] excellently. The author's observation about miracles. Consulting therefore for his subjects in a twofold manner, namely by the word of preaching and by forming them with the example of good work, he was anxious with unsleeping care for the salvation and increase of the flock committed to him. With exercises of virtue of this kind the holy Priest of God strove to adorn his life and to fulfil the grace of his pontificate. On which account the whole body of the faithful most worthily honors, embraces, and venerates him in the body of Christ, which is the Church, as a chief member. But there are perhaps some who, seeking signs with the Jews, reckon these testimonies of sanctity less than sufficient for them, taking miracles for the greatest thing and judging no one great except him whom a display of signs has declared. But those who not only hear the Lord speaking in parables with the crowds, but also enjoy his more secret teaching with his household Apostles, recognize plainly enough that the things which we have described in the Servant of the Lord are greater than all signs and prodigies; because none but the good can ever do these things, whereas the wicked too are commonly wont to display those ^h. But lest perhaps we seem to such men to make light of them or to neglect them, let us add something of those things which the divine power deigned marvelously to work through his Servant.

[6] Captives for whom he had begged pardon in vain It was habitual to the most blessed man Aper to travel through all the regions or cities round about, announcing the word of holy exhortation. If anywhere too he found shrines of idols or of heathen superstition, he went thither at once with fervor of spirit, and, the devil's workshop destroyed, freeing souls from the servitude of the creature, he restored them to their own Creator. At a certain time, therefore, while he was doing such things, he came by the nod of the Godhead to the city of Chalon ⁱ, where he then by chance found three guilty men bound for a crime committed and consigned to the darkness of the prison. Learning of their need, moved by his accustomed pity, he ran in haste to Adrian ^k, who at that time was discharging the office of judge in the aforesaid city; nor did the great Prelate of the Lord disdain to prostrate himself at his feet and suppliantly to beg indulgence and release for the guilty. But he, puffed up with the goads of his inborn cruelty and with the swelling of pride, despised the words of the Man of God; and not only would he not grant what he asked, but he even threatened that he would inflict greater and sharper torments on the wretches. But the Saint of the Lord, seeing himself thus repulsed, ran back to the aid he knew, and what he could not obtain from man he sought from the all-powerful Majesty.

[7] he marvelously frees, the obstinate judge being also punished by God: Presently the Godhead was at hand; all the bars of the prison suddenly fly apart, the chains by which they were held bound are broken with the utmost speed like threads that have caught the smell of fire. They come out of the prison, none hindering, and, running without pause, they arrive at the place where the Man of God was praying, holding in their hands the fetters ^l by which they had before been held. There arose a great spectacle for the astonished people: manifold thanks are rendered to God; the merits of Blessed Aper are proclaimed by all in common. The most insane judge too, who first had refused to hear the Man of God when he prayed, immediately experienced a vengeance worthy of his pride. For seized by a most savage demon, and dashed to the ground, and racked with excessive pains, before the Saint rose from his prayer he violently lost his spirit ^m, and obtained neither health of body nor pardon for his crime. We are assuredly admonished by so strict a punishment of a man not to presume with rash daring to offer contempt to the servants of God, especially those whom the privilege of Apostolic authority adorns, having before our eyes that vengeance follows close upon injuries done to such; for to these it was said by the Lord: "He who hears you hears me; he who despises you despises me."

[8] To this so vast a miracle another no less illustrious was consequently added. he expels a demon from a possessed man. For when the Man of God was returning to his own place from where these things were done, he saw at a distance a young man invaded by an unclean spirit, from whose mouth and nostrils — a thing marvelous to say — a sulphurous flame burst forth as from a furnace. When he caught sight of the Man of God far off, the wretch began to rage and roar and to tear with his teeth all who met him. Then, with the whole people turned to flight, the possessed man came at a swift run to the blessed Prelate. But he, undaunted and armed with the standard of the holy Cross, set himself against the raging man, and, raising his right hand against him, commanded the possessed man to stand still: but when the fiery foam spattered the holy Man's face, and with gaping mouth he threatened a bite, at once, his hand being set against him, since it was by no means permitted the unclean spirit to go out through the mouth signed with the standard of the holy Cross, compelled by pains and torments to depart, with an exit fitted to its deserts, leaving foul traces, it went out by a flux of the belly ⁿ. These are your works, O Christ, your miracles, you who are truly marvelous in your Saints, whom you deign so to glorify that you make them triumph marvelously over the enemy of the human race. Once the devil rejoiced that he had cast man out of paradise; now by a marvelous exchange, at the command of a Man

he is compelled to go out from possessed bodies; and he who, swollen with pride, boasted that he would climb into heaven and exalt his throne above the stars of God, now confounded and cast down is laid low beneath the feet of the humble servants of God.

[9] Let it suffice to have gathered briefly these miracles out of the countless ones which divine grace deigned to work through its holy Aper: but no one of sound head would ever doubt that he shone forth with many other signs. But when the time was now at hand at which the Lord had decreed to reward his Elect one after the courses of this life had been run, Having begun to build a basilica, he dies, the same holy man of God began to build a certain basilica ^o outside the walls of the city over which he gloriously presided, so that, with the people of the faithful gathering there, the daily gains of the Church might increase and daily losses be inflicted on the devil. But when he had already raised it somewhat in height by building, before he could put the last hand to the work, the Servant of God began to be goaded by a rival infirmity of body. As this grew heavier day by day, he was awaiting a happy ascent to Christ, whom while living he had loved with his whole heart. Commending therefore to the Lord all whom he had gained for Christ, and his whole church, and giving thanks to him whom he had always had as his protector in prosperity [p], he poured back his spotless spirit to its Creator; and so, leaving earthly things, he obtained the rewards of the heavenly fatherland [q].

[10] and with common mourning, and not without miracles, is buried At once the whole city gathered, vying with one another: every sex and every condition was afflicted with worthy lamentations, because it was losing such and so great a Shepherd. When therefore the offices had been performed after the manner of the Church, by the common counsel of all his body was carried to be entombed at that same place where he had begun to build the basilica. Nor were divine miracles wanting, which should testify to the holy Man's merits after death also. For when, as has been said, the Saint's remains [r] were being borne to the aforesaid place amid a great throng of people, so great an odor of marvelous sweetness poured itself pleasingly into the nostrils of all that it was believed to surpass the charm of all flowers and the fragrance of all spices. For deservedly is he thus honored by Christ after death, who while he lived had always striven to be the good odor of Christ. And when the blessed members were being laid in the tomb, it is reported that heaven was seen open by many who beheld, and two columns of cloud were seen to descend at his obsequies, and from the mouth of the holy Pontiff a dove whiter than snow was seen to fly up to heaven; which indeed is believed to have attested the merit of his simplicity and innocence.

[11] in the same basilica, which is completed and dedicated to him. A great mystery indeed, and a great sacrament, that to declare the grace of his Servant the Lord deigned to repeat the ancient miracles. For he showed a column of cloud at his burial, so that it might be most evidently plain that the mystical Israel was then hastening from the toils of this Egypt to the blessed land of promise, namely the heavenly fatherland. But he bade a dove come forth from his mouth, so that it might be established that he had been a follower of peace and holiness, and a pleasant temple of the Holy Spirit, who appeared in the form of a dove above the baptized Lord. When therefore the burial of the holy Man had been most dutifully performed, the begun building of that temple was completed with the highest devotion of the people, and it pleased them that it should be dedicated under the name of St. Aper, where his merits do not cease to flash forth with daily miracles of power [s]. There very many benefits of healing are granted to the sick, and Christ deigns to confer the relief they desire on all who approach with faith. Wherefore let us diligently implore the intercession of this venerable Father, and let us securely flee for refuge to his aid. For we assuredly have as a vigorous intercessor with God the same one whom we have deserved to have as our special shepherd.

[12] The author exhorts his readers to imitate Yet, that we may deserve to obtain what we speak of, let us take pains to follow, so far as we can, the footsteps of his sanctity. For that Saint whose solemnity we attend with the due offices despised the world so that he might love Christ alone; against the snares of the ancient enemy he held undefended [sic] the shield of provident circumspection, and fortified the gates of his city, namely the five senses of his body, with every guard, lest an entrance should anywhere lie open to the crafty ambusher. For the cunning adversary, endowed with a thousand arts of harming, applies himself to shapes, mingles himself with sounds, presses in with odors, pours himself into tastes; and so, entering by the entrance of delight, he defiles the sanctity of the soul. Hence the prophet groans, saying: "Death has entered through our windows: it has come into our houses." The history of the book of Kings shows what end Ishbosheth, son of king Saul, had; who offered his side to be struck for this reason, that the doorkeeper of the house, while cleaning wheat, fell asleep. For if he had taken care to have a wakeful and not a drowsy doorkeeper, he would by no means have lain open to the deeds of those who lay in wait. The mind therefore must be walled about with a manly guard, and the enemy's darts must be resisted with manly arms. Hence Solomon admonishes, saying: "With all guard keep your heart, because from it life proceeds."

[13] the Saint's virtues: he notes the day of his death. This that Saint, whose departure we celebrate in festive solemnity, always took most vigilant care to fulfil, and showed us that it must be fulfilled; who in the spiritual contest untiringly held the shield of faith, and the whole course of whose life was a continual conflict with the prince of this world; and because he strove to conquer confidently, with the Lord fighting in him and for him, therefore he deserved to receive the white manna and to become a pillar in the temple of God; and now, crowned with laurel, he stands beside Christ, and from the sanctuary of the Godhead demands for us the benefits of heavenly mercy, by the grant of the Lord and God most present and most holy, who never was not, never will not be, never was otherwise, never will be otherwise; who is found with difficulty where he is, with more difficulty where he is not, with whom we cannot all be [t], without whom none of us can be. And this same Father and venerable Shepherd of ours departed from the body and passed to the Lord on the seventeenth of the Calends of October, in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and power with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. In prosperis is not read in one of our manuscripts.

q. The year of his death is altogether unknown. From what was said in the Preliminary Commentary he began his episcopate toward the end of the fifth century or the beginning of the sixth; and if he presided over it for seven years, as the catalogues of Toul have it, the time of his death

can be fixed in some fashion and with some latitude. For the rest, he is venerated on this XV day of September, on which day he is said below to have died.

r. That is, his body.

s. What follows down to: He departed from the body, Calmet passed over, and indicated this by inserted points; and therefore we have supplied it from Martène's edition and from two of our manuscripts. Our third manuscript, namely the one of Toul, likewise has the first following sentence, and then subjoins: But the Saint of the Lord despised the world so that he might love Christ alone. Against the snares of the ancient enemy he untiringly held the shield of provident circumspection. The venerable shepherd Aper passed to the Lord on the XVII of the Calends of October. And here the praised manuscript ends, nor does it recount the other miracles worked after his death.

t. Do not take this as though it were not in a man's power, with God's grace, to obtain eternal salvation.

* al. adducitur * Calm. sublimatus * al. Domini * Mart. excursæ studia * ibid. catervatim * al. peractis * Mart. quod * al. indefesse

MIRACLES AFTER THE DEATH OF ST. APER

likewise by an anonymous author, perhaps the same biographer.

Aper, bishop and confessor, at Toul of the Leuci in Belgica Prima (St.)

BHL Number: 0618

By an anonymous author.

CHAPTER I.

A man lame from the womb, a woman blind and crippled, and other blind persons healed: demons driven out of possessed persons.

[ ] The writer's preface. That blessed Shepherd and Pontiff, having died to the earth in the order related above, and having been entombed in the basilica which he himself had begun to build, betrays by many tokens of miracles that he lives in heaven. For assenting with a pious ear to the prayers of those who ask faithfully, he does not disdain to be present in necessities: he often stretches out his hand and snatches men from misfortunes. Miracles are indeed reported to have been more frequently worked by him formerly than now; because the mass of our sins deserves this, that, since faithful devotion grows cold, the accustomed consolation too should be felt to be withdrawn. For our elders report that very many benefits of his miracles were both seen and heard by them, which he wrought upon the troubles of the possessed, of the blind, of the lame, and of other feeble persons; since tokens of such cures, namely the footstools of the lame and other things like them, were long wont to be kept above the doors of the basilica. Yet it is no wonder that these pious works were not written down, through torpid negligence, since it is certain that even of those things which he performed while living very few were committed to writing. Wherefore, though in unpolished words, we judge it worthy henceforth to set down something of things seen and most certainly ascertained ^a, lest perchance they be thought to grow cheap and be blotted out of memory.

[2] A certain man, then, lame from the womb, had come devoutly with the flowing throng of the people, A man lame from birth is set upright: for the sake of the yearly festival of this our Patron: and when he had been present as a suppliant at the night Offices, stretched upon the ground before the holy tomb of the divine Prelate, while the brethren were chanting the Hymn Te Deum laudamus, he suddenly began to disturb everyone with the outcry of his shouting, while he is healthfully tortured by the fresh setting-upright of himself ^b. For the joints of his hip-sockets gave out an immense cracking as they were restored to their places; his legs too, which had clung to his calves, poured out much blood there as they were torn apart. What more? When the aforesaid chant was ended, he was found standing upright on feet unaccustomed; and then a man of many years learned what until then he had not known. Wherefore it did not irk the brethren to repeat the finished hymn, and with loud voice to extol their Gladdener, whose kindly presence they felt to be at hand.

[3] A certain woman, then, from the village of Caslenae ^c, crippled for several years a woman blind and crippled, first with sight, and also blind, was carried by her parents to his aforesaid basilica the day before the festival: and when she had passed the night as a suppliant in prayers, in the morning as the light of the world was whitening, her eyes too, irradiated by God, flashed, her vision being thereafter made clear; and content with this gift, she asked to be carried back to her own home. When some space of days had passed, she was admonished in a vision of the night that she should have recourse again to the help of the faithful Physician, whose kindly power she had experienced. Brought back therefore on the Vigil of the festival of All Saints, she devoutly set a candle upon the holy altar, and passed the night, as before, in prayers. When at last the vigils were finished, while the sun's radiance had not yet fully filled the day, and all had gone outside, she alone with her father and mother was permitted to remain there. But one of the brethren, Alrauld by name, did not go out, but sitting on a bench ^d in the choir began to chant to God and to himself something of the psalms — for he had not learned them all by memory; and behold, suddenly two doves seemed to them to have flown in, one of which settled above the bier ^e of St. Aper, the other apart.

[4] and then endowed with sound limbs: other blind persons Just then by chance the father and mother, leaving their daughter lying before the altar of St. Michael, went to the spring situated behind the Saint's crypt: but soon the feeble woman, perceiving the divine medicine at hand, and resounding with a cry as though she were being tortured, redoubling her thanks at her gladdening uprightness, was found before the tomb of her Restorer by her parents, who came running most swiftly and fearing something else. Whereupon the assembly of the Brethren at once raised a hymn to God in their voices; and as soon as the clergy and people of the city learned of it, they kept that day as a feast, the woman standing by in health, who thereafter rejoiced to the very end of her life that she had been restored to herself. A certain blind man too, compelled by the calamity of his misfortune, took refuge with this famous Physician from the parts of the Meuse ^f, and knocking upon him with faithful prayers, earned light: but by chance, as he was returning home, on the very journey his former blindness revisited him. But the man, knowing how to trust, soon retraced his path with a gift in his hand to the clemency he knew, and thus at last rejoiced in a light obtained to last forever.

[5] at the Saint's tomb A certain woman also named Harchellindis, from the suburb of this city, held by the affliction of blindness, suppliantly sought from him the help of light; which, having obtained it, she lost as she returned. But returning again she indeed received it, but lost it too, as before, to her grief. On her third return, however (for necessity demanded importunity ^g), she said that she had felt as it were the hands of that merciful Physician touching her eyes: whether this be solid or frivolous is not for us; yet her sight remained thereafter changed ^h. Finally a certain boy, a little child from the village of Pavoniacum on the Meuse ⁱ, by chance lost the sight of his eyes: his parents, moved by grief at this, carried him around to various shrines of the Saints; but it pleased none of them to restore the gift of light, because they knew that this was the office of this Father of ours. Carried therefore to his patronage, he obtained his desire; of which, as soon as he was carried back, he was deprived. But being carried again to the Saint's tomb, he was enlightened, and was thereafter assigned by his master to serve there. Having obtained the light, he did not desert the service assigned him in the following years, magnifying his Healer every day according to his knowledge.

[6] are given light. The maidservant of a certain man from the region, as is reported, of the Meuse, blind for several years, when by stretching toward this Healer she had deserved to receive light, assigned herself to serve him. But having returned to her former master, avarice prevailing, and being violently forced back into his service, she soon sorrowfully suffered the affliction of her former blindness; and when that master weighed that this had happened because of his own tenacity, and sent her back again to the aid of the more powerful Lord ^k, he too assigned her to his household service, if only she might deserve to receive the lost light. And soon the returning light illumined her face, so that her fleshly possessor might perceive that he was not only not to be preferred, but not even to be equalled, to the dominion of him who has been stripped of the covering of corruption ^l.

[7] Many indeed are such great and frequent works of his, The author's preface to the following miracles. which if they had all been written would perhaps weary the reader with their abundance. Yet the sloth of the authors is to be blamed, who did not transmit in writing to the knowledge of posterity even some of the things done after his passing. But to us, set now almost at the end of the age, it would seem ungrateful and unbecoming if we did not do at least some little thing in praise of so kindly a Provider and Guardian of ours; wherein, if perchance we have offended in the structure of our theme, let the simplicity of our devotion excuse us; for we, if it could be done, would make not only men but even dumb beasts and creatures of every kind loud in his proclamation. For although he was mighty in powers and an outstanding worker of miracles, yet he was preeminent above all in vigor for pursuing demons and driving them from men, both in his life and after his death; being indeed a hater of the contagion of all vices, over which those spirits are believed to preside and in which they take delight as in sweet banquets. And indeed — to pass over the various afflictions of madmen ^m, which too he does not disdain frequently to heal according to what pleases him, although the common enemy, greedy to harm, is wont, by divine permission, to mingle himself in these also — scarcely anyone invaded by that impure spirit has sought his aid who does not rejoice to have been mercifully delivered; so much so that no one of such persons of either sex comes to our memory who went away unheard: and since their multitude is countless, it seems right that some should be commemorated.

[8] A certain cleric, then, a native of the district of Segintum ⁿ, Abraham by name, A presbyter deluded by a demon whom the country folk called Avrannus, having been promoted to the priesthood, chose a life suited to that office; and would that all might live worthily so! For he set himself to give time to prayers, to persist in fastings, to live in chastity, to give alms, to rebuild his church, and to admonish those committed to him, according to his knowledge, to act well. But because he lacked the eye of discerning prudence, and was too little learned in the utterances of the Scriptures, he deservedly suffered something grievous by the hidden judgment of God. For when on a certain day he was alone in that church of his, the wicked enemy appeared to him, of black breast indeed in secret, but openly of a white and most brilliant appearance. Then to him, astonished, he said: I come to you as Gabriel the archangel, sent from the throne of the most high God, who until now have been the messenger of your deeds before him, and I am now bidden to tell you that they stand in his sight, and that it only remains for you to go to Rome, there to complete the merit of those same works.

[9] The fool believed, and not delaying to fulfil the commands, and thereafter by him and dreading all delay as harmful, having prepared provisions for the journey and taken his nephew, Ado by name, he set out for the City. For what man could that multiform spirit of countless malice not entice by his craft, who dares even to take upon himself for this purpose the appearance of sanctity and justice? Or when are we able piercingly to weigh and examine his deceitful arts with eyes that are dusty and smeared with the filth of the world, unless God be our eye, and the one art standing at our side, guarding our feet lest we be taken? That oft-mentioned traveler, then, arriving at Rome out of breath, entered the portico of St. Peter, and there had his aforesaid angel meeting him under the said appearance, namely of a most vile light, whom he alone could see,

persuading him that entry into the monastery was not necessary for him, whose sins had all been blotted out and whose vows had obtained their effect; nay, that he should return as quickly as possible, trusting in the clemency of his God. Presently he began to turn back, fearing to be disobedient in anything, while his nephew, whose mention has already been made by name above, marveled and with entreating exhortation begged him to go in; and if not for the grace of the devotion for which he had made the journey, at least out of respect for those present and looking on, and out of shame before those who mocked.

[10] being possessed, is freed by him. But being utterly seduced and gone foolish with a blinded heart, he said: It is enough to have come thus far, since I have seen and heard what you do not know, a marvel. And so his obstinate mind could not be overcome. Swift therefore in going, swifter in returning, as soon as he touched the borders of his own parish he was invaded by a most cruel demon, striving to seize and tear apart all who came near him. Like a wild beast, therefore, he is taken, cast into bonds, and, though struggling and straining this way and that like a fierce bull, is brought to this Patron. The people of the suburb and of the city flock together, because he too had been partly known to the people. The venerable lord Gauzlinus the bishop also came running with his noble clergy, and with all joined together alike in a redoubling of the litany the help of the Lord and of this Saint is sought, that captive being placed in a tub of blessed water, with Crosses and the relics of many Saints applied. What more? The prayer was not at all hoarse, nor the Lord's ear deaf; but with the merits of kindly Aper interceding, he seemed indeed to have lost the demon; for he laid aside all ferocity, and recognized himself and his own, and performed the other ecclesiastical duties apart from the office of the altar; but with his brain worn out he did not attain his former soundness. And — what must not be passed over — when he was being drawn out of the water, constrained by many exorcisms he confessed that, with eleven departing, a twelfth remained ^o. Which thing we have thought especially to be noted down, in order that all of us, fearing more the hidden darts of the demons, that is, of the vices, than those that rage openly (since the former always defile, while the latter are sometimes wont to purge the afflicted), may in every action not avoid the prick of fear, but rather study to apply it unceasingly, whereby we may deserve assuredly to be justified.

[11] Others of both sexes But also from this territory, namely from the village of Bucculiacum [p], a certain woman marked by the name Bova was invaded by so fierce a demon that not only could she not be brought quietly, but not even bound in fetters, unless she were carried entangled with ropes in a wagon by her mournful parents; and she, the wicked spirit being put to flight, deserved to receive back her mind and to return home rejoicing. There is indeed with us the chain by which he delivered three guilty men by his powerful merits [q], and as often as it is laid upon such frenzied persons, the same pestilent enemy is put to flight, fearing the bond by which liberty was divinely given to the guilty; and so in a marvelous way chains, by God's gift, loose the bound man. Likewise too a certain other woman, brought from the village of Sarcofagus [r], utterly insane, saying and doing dreadful things, was freed from the enemy and joyfully made whole. Another man too, whose name has slipped from memory, invaded by a most savage demon, was once brought here at the first hour of the Lord's day, and the aforesaid chain was laid upon him; and he — marvelous to say! — rolling himself on the pavement of the church, and crawling over it on his hands like a beast, filling all with a mighty cry, imitated the howling of wolves, the grunting of pigs, the bellowing of bulls, the hissing of serpents and the squeaking of shrews; and he wore himself out with this torment continuously until the Gospel lesson of the public Mass. For when it was read, he suddenly laid aside his fury and clamor, and returned to himself, and learned where he was, and recognized the clemency shown upon him, and devoutly praised it together [s], and went home rejoicing.

[12] A certain young man from the village which is called Domnus Germanus [t], possessed persons, and one who was at the same time frenzied, situated not far from this city, having lost the vigor of reason and being filled with madness, and with his body now almost wholly exhausted and enfeebled, resounding only with the shout of his outcry, was brought in a little cart on the day which by the Church's custom is called Parasceve, namely before the solemnities of Easter. And since he rested neither by night nor by day, he was awaiting the Lord's clemency through the merits of this Saint: yet he was not, as was thought, afflicted with a demon alone, but with a most grievous frenzy. But the confidence was not vain by which he was believed able to be saved; since after that Lord's day, either on the second or the third weekday (which, however, is doubtful), he obtained with his parents the joy of his health, and as a gift of thanks gave also one unyoked [u] bullock, and so returned on foot.

[13] But when the space of a year had passed, and, as is thought, of two years, freed in the same place. after this man and others of both sexes who were cured, whom it would be long to commemorate one by one, a certain man plainly full of a demon was brought from the village of Trociacum on the Meuse [x], Paschalis by name, on the sixth weekday after the day of the Lord's glorious Ascension, who, strong of body, more ill-strong in madness, and vigorous [y] with a savage voice, among other dreadful things crying out that he too was God, could scarcely be covered or held, although chained; since he tried to tear with his teeth everyone who approached. Being watched there, on the following Lord's day in the morning he was perfectly restored to himself; so much so that, while we were performing the synaxis [z] of the hour of Prime, and were with much joy amazed on his account, he lay before the altar in long prayer, and rising fortified himself with the sign of the holy Cross, and afterwards related to all who stood by the outcome of his misfortune. Returning therefore sound on the eighth day from that on which he had come sick, he eagerly brought a gift of devotion, namely fish, for the use of the Brethren, and perhaps to this day exults in his health. These miracles, finally, are so numerous and frequent that the distinguishing of the persons cured by name escapes the memory, nor does it need the service of writing; and therefore we must pass on to other things.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. In Martène it is Buculiaco, with a single c. Calmet suspects that the village of Biqueley, which the geographical maps show in the field or district of Toul, is here designated; but since the writer may be seen to be speaking here of the territory of that presbyter whom he has just treated, or of the district of Segintum, that conjecture, which is uncertain in itself, is rendered even more doubtful.

q. About this miracle consult the Life, num. 6 and 7. Note also in this place that the writer indicates himself to be a monk in the monastery of St. Aper.

r. It is the village called Cercueil by the inhabitants, two miles from Nancy toward Amantia or Almentia, commonly Amance, on the testimony of Calmet in his marginal annotations.

s. The rest of this sentence down to the beginning of the following number is missing in Martène.

t. Dom-Germain, near Toul, says Calmet, which place is so noted in French both in the map of the diocese of Toul which he prefixed to his History and in the one published by Guillaume de L'Isle.

u. Martène has in juge, as though "in perpetuity." But Calmet's reading is better: for an injugis bullock is one which has never borne the yoke.

x. In Martène is read: Frociaco: but Calmet's reading seems preferable, to which the present-day French name of the village Troussey-sur-Meuse rightly corresponds.

y. In the margin Calmet notes: Perhaps vegetus or rigidus. Martène has in the text rigidus; but in the margin: Perhaps turgidus.

z. A synaxis is a common prayer, or psalmody. And from what has been said and what follows the writer himself seems to have been present then.

* i.e., he drove away * Mart. ad * al. vociferantur * Mart. operam * Marten. magno * id. præeminuit * id. Aurannum * id. fecerat * Marten. suus

CHAPTER II.

A field vindicated by a miracle for the Saint's monastery: a man who fell from the summit of the church preserved unharmed: the death of bishop Ludelm: the body deposited at Toul, and secretly brought back into his own church and hidden.

[ ] A field taken from the monks, But since, as has been said, this our Father ^a and Lord, ready to succor in necessities and in perils him who asks, does not always suffer one to go unpunished (although he does this rarely) if anyone has wrongly taken away what has been assigned by pious worshippers of Christ to the uses of his servants. For there is not far from the site of the monastery a field of no cheap price and usefulness, which so pleasingly settled upon the eyes of one of the bishops of this city that, holding cheap the weak monks who only used its produce and did not own it, out of greed for provisions he took it to himself. This he duly ordered to be cultivated and a sowing to be made: for whatever wrong hardened cupidity contrives it thinks valid and full of justice, though it be empty and straying from the Lord's rubric, and though wicked greed be the seedling of all malice. When therefore the sowing was completed, more than usual came up there ^b, bringing indeed sadness to those deprived, but gladness to him who deprived them, while

the tongue of flatterers, as is usual, was building up that seizure of the little field as blessed rather than as just, in the way it was thought to be seen; but by the equity of the governance above, hope at last mocked the greedy wish.

[15] For, as has been said, the seed brought forth pleasing blade, in a marvelous manner it is restored to them. the blade produced a shapely and thick ear, and the flowering ear heaped up joy for the farmer and the lord. But in due season, when the stalk was growing pale, that aforesaid lord bishop ordered reapers to be present for the crop, and when they set about cutting it as he had ordered, they found the harvest empty of living grain, and not a single kernel in even one ear, of which many stood there, but empty shapeliness; so that earthly cupidity might plainly learn that whatever lacks the fruit of justice is altogether empty. The notice of this thing came by a sure messenger to the ears of that same prelate, and, though unwilling, it penetrated the innermost parts of his heart, and he perceived that a matter of this kind regarded him; at once he set about correcting what he had determined without weighing, ordering that God's poor should receive their own; nor is there any doubt that they did so.

[16] At the time when this city, through carelessness and at the demand of sins, was almost wholly burned ^c, A man who fell from the summit of the church rises unharmed. so that scarcely anything could be snatched from it in the way of various furnishings, even ecclesiastical, as a strong wind blew, balls of flame were carried this way and that from outside, and the higher the buildings that stood round about, the more they lay open to the threatening peril. Whence, because the fire was attacking the roof of this basilica in many places, various engines being applied, very many, indeed as many as were able, hastened vying with one another to go up to save it. Some indeed carried water in jars, while others, sitting above the roof, took them and threw them against the evilly burning flames. And while these things were being done urgently, one of those sitting on the topmost gutter of the church, as he took a jar from a man handing it up, forgetting himself in his haste, his foot slipping from where he was leaning, rolled from the top roof to a lower one, and from this to a third, and at last to the ground, and fell within the cloister unharmed; whereas he might not only have breathed out his spirit, but also have crushed all his bones. And he at once went swiftly up again to the heights of the roof. But who would doubt that the merit of Blessed Aper guarded him? For because he had forgotten himself for his sake, rightly he whom he had in his memory ^d was not lacking to him in body either.

[17] A mill stops of itself on the Saint's festival. When lord Gauzlinus the bishop, excellent in character, desiring according to his powers ^e that the flock committed to him should obey the divine commandments and be occupied with the profit of the soul, had among other duties of religion also appointed this, that this Saint's festival should be celebrated by all the people of his diocese; some undertook gladly to observe it, but some who were negligent, of whom a lamentable multitude can be found everywhere, embraced it with a less devout heart. Whence also in the village which is called Lineium ^f on the river Orne, when a miller neglected to stop his flour-mill ^g from working in due time, by the nod of God, with no earthly obstacle intervening, from the ninth hour of the preceding day until the next ninth hour of the following day, namely of the festival itself ^h, it remained of its own accord idle and empty of work against the miller's will. In which deed it was without doubt shown how little the ordinance of our shepherds, when it proceeds according to God, is to be held cheap; nay, how in all things any ecclesiastical tradition is to be observed; nay rather, how reverend is the merit of this Saint, who was both a good shepherd of the church and a guardian and worker of many virtues, not neglectful of himself, solicitous for his people, that they might abound in the food of the word, lest it should fail in this desert, for which he is now more solicitous, present to it with the intercession of his prayers before the Lord.

[18] Bishop Ludelm, less than fair to the monasteries, Likewise another thing seems worth relating, but perhaps will be thought by some frivolous, invented and incredible, or at any rate displeasing; but what kind of thing it was, the end shows. Yet those who know how many countless admonitions divinely given to mortals through dreams we hold in the sacred books will not hasten at once to censure and despise it; but believing blessed Job, who declares that if he should seek consolation, he would be terrified by God on his bed through dreams and visions; since they will also remember that blessed Jerome reported that his shoulders were livid with many a weal from his sleep ⁱ. After many shepherds and prelates of this holy see, then, had been withdrawn from their dwelling in the world, and transferred to the different lodging of the other life, a certain Ludelm, illustrious in worldly nobility, was substituted to it, marked with the pontifical mantle. He was indeed supported by temporal dominion and power, and, as is reported, in many things useful; but, so far as human eyes could see, being a man, less devoutly intent on spiritual things, he was present to the communities of the monasteries, namely of monks and of canons, not as a kindly consul and patron, but presided over them as a rigid governor, freely taking to himself their goods, granted by good men for the redemption of their sins, as though they were his own, and distributing them at his pleasure.

[19] He therefore, having held the government for ten years, in the eleventh was struck with a grievous pain in his arms. punished by God, as the author suspects, There was indeed at that time a certain priest of the church of Blessed Maximinus ^k, situated in that same suburb; a man mature in years and grave in character, Girveus by name, to whom there appeared such a vision about him. He thought that he was standing before the altar of St. Michael in the basilica of this our Lord, whose patronage we enjoy, and that suddenly, looking round, he saw the aforesaid prelate entering the enclosures of the monastery, and leading two horses by hand, and shutting them in when he had brought them into the entrance of the blessed tomb, and setting food before them. Astonished at the strangeness of this thing, he said: Alas, my lord, what so great a crime has it pleased you to commit, unheard of by all, and a tale of infamy for the ages? Be silent, he answered, gnashing his teeth, you idle and garrulous man; nay, go as quickly as you can, and bring fodder for these horses from the meadow of the monks. This place is mine, the horses are mine, and at my own judgment I shall pasture and feed them here. And before he finished these words, a man splendid of face, reverend in bearing, in clerical habit, seemed to come forward from the tomb, and, carrying a rod in his hand, step by step to attack that same prelate, who now, however, was trembling at this sight and little by little giving ground.

[20] So the aforesaid man, coming up to him before the altar of the holy Theban martyrs, offered to a certain presbyter, said: O brother Ludelm, bishop, what fault of mine has there been against you? Why, so often and in so many ways holding me cheap and disquieting me, do you disquiet me even in my little bed so shamefully; since this place was given to me by God, but to you only committed? And when at such words of reproach, brought forth from the fount of a most sweet breast, he, being rebuked, dumbfounded in conscience, returned nothing of humility or of satisfaction, he joined blows to words, when he seemed to strike him three times on the head with the rod he carried. But it is not incredible that they should be struck by the rod of the supreme sentence who, far from the rod of discipline by which the daughter of Zion is chastised — God's zeal not departing — being unbridled and free from it, though fettered, pursue trackless ways and stray from the right. Finally the aforesaid priest, terrified by this sight and roused from sleep, was left in doubt whether to conceal it or of necessity to disclose it, and so he kept it to himself for fifteen days.

[21] At last, when these had passed, the devotion of fidelity overcame his fear, and through Bernefrid the precentor he laid the whole thing open in order to his lord the bishop. When these things were learned, and it was made plain to him, he said: What you, brother, resting in pleasant sleep, seem to have seen, I, alas! awake, feel; namely that death is beyond doubt threatening me, stricken as I am by God. But as to the correction and restitution of the goods taken from the churches, when he was admonished by the two aforesaid fellow priests with humble fidelity, as was just, he received it indeed with his ears, and answered that it was at heart with him; but being intent upon the troubles of his sickness and busy about other things, he postponed the effect too late, until after his death. For after these things, when a few days had passed, the aforesaid pain of the arm growing heavier and penetrating his vitals, he exchanged the present life for another, and gave order that he should be buried in the city; to the wonder of many, since none had done this before, who had long since chosen burial at the monastery of Blessed Aper in the suburb ^l. But we have thought these things worth noting for this reason, that although it is hidden, yet some little part of the vengeance upon the adversaries of his servants can be conjectured, which is not to be desired by them, but rather to be feared by evildoers ^m.

[22] Out of fear of the Hungarians When from the incomprehensible secret of the eternal counsel the hidden judgment of God had decreed to lay the rod of the sins of the nations upon the Church's portion, the faults of her sons demanding it, the savage plague of the Danes joined to the madness of the Hungarians, the prisons of their native dwelling being removed, like a river swelling with a sudden storm, overflowed beyond the bounds of their borders to the destruction of many nations set on this side and that, near and far. And as none resisted them (for none was able, the Lord's fury worthily threatening all), Moesia being overthrown, and the tents of the Moravians, though heathens, torn up, they burst into their own Pannonia of old. Then, having set Noricum ablaze, they overthrew Rhaetia, and raging through the borders of Istria, the affairs of the Nervii being ruined, after the slaughter of Germany they set Belgic Gaul on fire. But — as the peoples by their common wickedness had deserved to be punished by the just judgment of God — when the fields of all Neustria and Austrasia had been laid waste, the camps overthrown, and after the slaughter of men the churches consumed by flame, they overthrew Long-haired Gaul. Charles the younger, surnamed by his own people the Simple ⁿ, was passing through the times of this unhappiness together with the kingdom of the Franks.

[23] the body is transferred into the city, Amid the whirlwind, therefore, of so great a plague, what each could of his own, lest it be swept away, they hid vying with one another within the walls of the ancient cities, namely the ornaments of the monasteries, and also the pledges of the bodies of the saints; and indeed, who called himself most happy — we do not say for his goods, but if, snatching himself from the sword and from captivity, he had deserved not only the ridges of the city but those of sheer crags, where perhaps they were, and the protection of the thickest groves, and the hiding places of a valley unknown to light. Whence the inhabitants of this monastery, by the nod ^o of the Angel of great counsel, by flight from so great a peril, the things which they could having been seen to and hidden away, and what perhaps remained having been scattered, that [p] if they should abandon the place, they might rejoice that the Patron of the present life and the hope of the life to come would not be wanting to them on their return, at last, half dead, take refuge in the walls of the city with his most holy body, and, as has been handed down to us by the report of our elders, not without some injury to the blessed Man. For, they said, in that short space of the journey the coffin was so weighed down with heaviness that as many bearers as there were could scarcely bear it up; so as to give to understand that he was unwilling to enter there. Yet, that he might not deny himself most devoutly to the wishes of those who served him (for he is always kindly present to those who serve him), he permitted himself, as it were with his own unwillingness, to be carried in.

[24] and is deposited in the church of St. John the Baptist; The most holy body having thus been brought in and deposited with due reverence in the basilica of Blessed John the Baptist [q], it was there attended by his own with solemn office, until, peace being restored at the Lord's command, it might be carried back to its own beloved tomb, where he had once ordered himself to be laid, and whence in the appearance of a dove whiter than snow he had sought the heavens. The chair of this see lord Drogo [r], sprung of most noble birth, had seized, against the will of the chief men of the kingdom, partly by force, partly by cleverness, partly by the consent of the citizens; but by that time he was holding it nobly by the common wish of all. For as by the pride of his blood, so by the subtlety of his singular talent, he toiled on the one hand at public affairs, on the other at spiritual business. Wherefore he had shown himself so capable to all that he won for himself the love and veneration of all, not easily dissolved. But upon these good qualities of his came the envy of the devil, that rival which sits continually in ambush in hidden places to slay the upright of heart. For when the waves of this whirlwind had been stilled, and, Christ being propitious, the aforesaid lord bishop had obtained the long-desired peace, as his mind smiled upon prosperous wishes, deceived in this matter by the cunning of the crafty enemy, he would almost have set his foot on the slippery place, had not the merit of most holy Aper prevented both his will, brought forth in a wicked deed, from passing into the charge of guilt, and the future sorrow of his faithful people from the absence of his body.

[25] So, when after so many tearful sighs the Brethren were hastening their return to their monastery, which the bishop, using evil counsel, was scheming to retain, and taking care how they might bring back their Patron; there was a certain degenerate man, Bulso by name, to whom the aforesaid prelate used to entrust his secret, whatever it might be. He therefore, as such men are wont to be at hand if they find someone to flatter, said to the lord bishop: The commonwealth is straitened, and there is nothing left of supplies; nor do such appointments befit shepherds and dissembling monks [s]. Let it therefore be brought together into one public treasury, let there be one storehouse, one granary; and lest these seducers complain that they serve the Saint in penury, let the sacred body be retained, and let it be venerated in the royal city with the due concourse of the peoples, which is neglected by these triflers in a tiny little place. Let it be worthily placed in the mother church of this see [t], that it may be a defense to the city, and a help to you in the present and in the future; and let your nobility consider at the same time that no need of yours is cared for by them: for they do not serve you in the royal service on campaign; your city is neither fortified nor protected by any help of theirs, and there is no common advantage between us. It behooves you, if others will not, to be useful to yourselves [u], and do not turn your ear from our counsel. Nothing stands in the way of this being accomplished without fault: you will not plunder what belongs to others, but will lawfully receive your own: both true reason and present necessity demand this. The fatherland lacks soldiery; you yourselves lack money; and it is better that you should share with the partners of your labors than that men who are unworthy should have the use of so much [x].

[26] By such words and the like the mind of the lord bishop had melted away, and was scheming other unjust things, that counselor being punished by God, and was turning aside from the way of pastoral censure into the snare of the invader. Meanwhile fraud is arranged, the destruction of souls, and unlawful things are unlawfully ordered so that they might somehow be lawful; and lest they be uncovered in any matter, or be cheated of the wage of the business begun, they are covered over by the device of an oath. But since there is no cunning against God, nor wisdom, nor prudence, this counsel, like that of Ahithophel of old, was made foolish; and because it had been against God, who sees all things, it was reduced to nothing by his almighty hand. And lest it should be hidden from men at whose instigation it came forth, the iniquity that lied to itself was punished by this vengeance of chastisement, so that not long after the same Bulso, going out of his mind and raging with his teeth against the flesh of his own sons, made known that he had willed to act against the Lord. But whoever shall be reader or hearer, let him take it that we have feigned nothing falsely, but have written things ascertained by most certain report; nor will anyone be angry at our writing these things, although we believe no one so malignant, unless [y] perhaps some such sharer of that will should make light of the divine judgment which he is soon to experience. For it was not the generation of which the Lord says that the blood of the just from Abel to Zechariah shall be required, that shed that blood; but by coupling their own wishes to the will of their wicked forefathers, and willing that what was lacking to the measure of the perverse works of their predecessors should be filled up, it is bound by the guilt of the same crime [z].

[27] But indeed the merit of Blessed Aper would not let the counsel long sought in secret remain hidden. two brothers being warned by St. Aper For there were two monks of this place, of good estimation for the condition of the time, one of whom was called Gerard, the other Guinerannus, who among the rest and beyond the rest sought the increase and the peace of the place; to whom the most blessed Aper, as to members of his household and faithful men, uncovering the counsel, laid open the threatening peril, and gave counsel that they should turn it aside more quickly. These aforesaid Brethren therefore, moved by the strangeness of the affair, trusting in the aid of their most holy Patron (for he never abandons those who lean upon him), in such a business turned over all the wholesome thoughts they could to escape the snare of sorrow [aa]. At last, with a very few, summoned by God [bb], to whom they might deservedly entrust themselves, guarding against betrayal, they made a deposition with an oath sent before, that if the hand of God through the merits of Blessed Aper should bring their wish to fulfilment, they would reveal the secret to no one. Then by common decree they determined what was needful for the purpose and the necessity prepared [cc]. With no one therefore, apart from those there were, privy to their work, secretly opening the earth, they opened a cave [dd] to which they might entrust so great a treasure, neither easy of finding for seekers, nor contemptible in workmanship, though not very ostentatious. When at last all was prepared, they set about a praiseworthy theft, venerable through the ages.

[28] it is secretly removed, and lay long hidden in his own church. Meanwhile, while the lord bishop and all the rest were at their ease [ee] and thinking of no such thing, the aforenamed brothers, not indulging themselves even a little in rest, by night, with the help of two clerics, namely Allo and Barnefrid, then precentor, having taken away the Blessed one's remains, and carried them out through the back gate of the church, namely of blessed John the Baptist, which was then called the Iron gate, without any labor of burden, brought them into the prepared cave, and in the course of that same night so hid them that the place became altogether unknown not only to the young men of this our age, but even to those of their own generation, and, to the increase of error, if any inquired of them, they were told that it lay within the church indeed, but outside the crypt. Thus therefore, for nearly LX years [gg] removed from the eyes of men, showing himself alive in the sanctuary of the Godhead, he came to the aid of those who sought him, laboring under whatever adversity, with a hand made powerful before the clemency of almighty God; of whom not one comes to our memory who sought him in sorrow and did not return in gladness. For that removal of his body profited not the men of that age, but us and others yet to come, and served so that neither we nor the whole region should be deprived of so great a Patron. For it is known to nearly all how we were bereft of the body of Eliphius [hh], the precious martyr, and of other pledges of the Saints; which Blessed Aper foreseeing (for he always stands beside him from whom nothing is hidden), in order that he might continually protect, help and rule his flock, would not on this occasion deprive it of the presence of his body; but with the will of God he wills to dwell for ever and ever in the rest which he chose [ii].

ANNOTATIONS.

it was inserted by someone against the order of time, I noted in the Preliminary Commentary that it must be passed over here, and that the reader must be referred to the cited place of tom. 1.

p. The little word ut enclosed in brackets, which is missing in both editions, I have added for the sake of completing the sentence.

q. That church of St. John the Baptist is situated in the monastery of the cathedral church, which last is dedicated to St. Stephen.

r. He was the immediate predecessor of St. Gauzlinus, who was substituted for him in the year 922, as was shown in the deeds of that same St. Gauzlinus at the 7th day of September, §3.

s. Martène's edition, in which that counselor is called Bulfo, is here much mutilated, and besides somewhat different, in this manner: Hic igitur, ut tales adesse solent, si invenerint. Tui domno pontifici res, inquiens, publicatur, artatur, nihilque est residuum sumtuum, nec tales in pastores atque simulatores, (monachos autem aiebat) decet apparatus. For the rest, in both places it seems that for in pastores one should read impostores.

t. That is, in the cathedral church of Toul.

u. In Martène it is faultily read: Sit is, oportet, si alii nolunt, nobis utilis.

x. This sentence is faulty here as well as in Martène's edition, where after partiamini it is said, quanti his utantur, qui sunt indigni. But the sense is, than that these should have the use, etc.

y. This little word I have added from Martène's edition.

z. Consult the Gospel according to Matthew, chap. 23.

aa. In Martène it is cœptationes, that is, ways of carrying the thing out.

bb. The edition just praised has adeo; perhaps more correctly.

cc. In the same place, parare.

dd. Namely in the church of St. Aper, as will be plain from what follows.

ee. That is, free from care.

ff. Faultily Martène's edition has in quibus; and below, for abdiderunt, addiderunt.

gg. The body of St. Aper is said in the following chapter, num. 33, to have been found and elevated in the year of Christ 978; from which if you subtract 60 years, you will arrive at the year 918, about which accordingly the things we have just related must have happened.

hh. St. Eliphius or Elifius the martyr will have to be treated at the 16th day of October. But so far as concerns the present purpose, Vindric or Widric, abbot of St. Aper's, writes thus of him in the Life of St. Gerard bishop of Toul, tom. 3 of April, day 23, chap. 2: He (St. Gerard) also translated with religious devotion the relics of the venerable martyr Elifius, of which he conferred no small part, namely the larger bones, on the aforenamed archbishop Bruno (of Cologne), who carried them to Cologne with the highest devotion, and there they are venerated with the devout veneration of the peoples. But whether our writer here is complaining of this gift, or whether, when he wrote, the body of the holy Martyr still lay hidden, I have not ascertained.

ii. From this account one might suspect that our author wrote before the body of St. Aper was found and elevated: but the contrary is sufficiently indicated, first, when he says that that concealment of the body profited not the men of the age in which it was done, but those of his own, and would profit posterity; and why, unless because the sacred body lay hidden from the earlier men and was revealed to the later? Secondly, the nearly sixty years during which he asserts it lay hidden bring us to the year 978, in which we shall see in the following chapter that it was uncovered by St. Gerard. It seems therefore that the writer spoke thus so as to keep his readers meanwhile in suspense about the outcome of the affair. For the rest, here ends the manuscript which Martène used for his edition.

* Marten. continuoque * Marten. amminiculo * id. Leudelme * ibid. ille * perhaps, pavefactus * Maravorum * Marten. infidelitatis * id. adds, se * id. irascatur * id. Giraldus

CHAPTER III.

The Saint's body found by bishop St. Gerard and solemnly elevated: certain miracles wrought at the elevation itself and after it.

[ ] St. Gerard, having proclaimed a fast, orders the Saint's body Now the aforenamed prelate, namely lord Gerard ^a, had occupied the intention of his mind especially about the places, bodies and relics of the Saints, and not only cultivated with pious devotion those set near him, but also panted to transfer into his own diocese from wherever he could, by prayers and by price ^b, and recalled their memory with the highest devotion. Out of this love, therefore, having obtained relics of the blessed martyr Gengulph ^c from the bishop of Langres, he founded a monastery, and brought at a price to this church the body of Blessed Apronia, the sister, namely, of this our most holy Protector Aper ^d. But after he had worthily received the memorials of many Saints, his mind was tossed with a certain religious ardor, that he who had deserved joy in the pledges of many Saints might deserve to know also where and in what manner the most blessed remains of his own and our special Patron, namely of most blessed Aper, were laid; being moved to this above all because no one confessed that he knew it. Turning this over for a long while, since he was driven day by day with a greater longing, he determined at length that search should be made; but by the counsel of many, a fast being first proclaimed, he resolved to seek the will of God and of our Protector himself.

[30] While all were performing this with devout mind, near was the day fixed by almighty God before all the ages, to be sought, and coming himself, on which he had decreed to gladden his people, who then by chance could be present, with the presence of the body beloved by him. And because the whole people burned with the same longing, it was decreed that the search should be made without the trouble of crowds, wherever it could be found, and lest the searchers be burdened by the people rushing in by day, they decree that it be done by night, and the night of the XVI of the Calends of June is appointed. This, coming on, had closed the preceding day, when without the bishop they gird themselves in vain to labor at that work. For although Blessed Aper was willing to satisfy the desire of all who longed for him, he had determined it should be in the presence of him whose mind he knew to be scourged by this longing more than that of all others. Far off, then, the noise of hammers and mattocks was spread abroad, sweat had stained the garments of the laborers, and he who was sought did not appear to those who persisted. Sleep had departed from the eyes of the seekers, and equally the murk of night and of darkness was departing, and, the darkness giving way and the sun spreading abroad, day shone forth: for he who had been hidden in the fear of the night was seeking the day of exultation for his revealing; when the aforesaid lord bishop is at hand, who had passed almost that whole night wakeful in prayers.

[31] finds it; its elevation being delayed a little, But the difficulty being found: We shall not, he said, fail on this account, because the right hand of God is able to be present to our wish; for he will do the will of those who fear him, and will hear their prayer: for he is near to those who call upon him in truth. Then, to the men now weary with labor: Let us turn our hands elsewhere, he said, being about to find, with Christ's favor, what we desire. And when they at once obeyed and attended to what he had ordered, he pressed on in prayers; when suddenly, struck with great joy, they marvel at a sarcophagus, which provident antiquity had placed there empty for this reason, that if anyone should ever seek to carry off the holy members by stealth or by force, he might be turned aside by such a mockery and go no further. But the devout man ^e said: When this is moved away, our joy lies hidden beneath. All being refreshed by this word, and vying with one another in breaking up and carrying away the pavement laid over the sacred body, they suddenly came upon a shrine holding a pearl of inestimable price. And when they had uncovered it, the stone by which it was covered being removed, they find the treasure sought so long and with so great longing. Then, praises being poured forth to the most high God, by common counsel they closed up again the stone which they had taken away, the translation being postponed: and in that postponement vigils of the brethren were appointed to guard such a treasure.

[32] a melody is heard there by night: the body is elevated: two are healed: While these rested there, on each night at the tomb of the Blessed one there was heard a certain murmur of voices of inestimable sweetness, which we do not doubt came from a throng of holy angels. But when the Calends of June came on, fame had traveled through the whole region, and so from the towns, villages, hamlets and fields of almost the whole of this diocese, with the people of the neighboring cities also running together, religious men and holy women came to meet it, a column of devotion being formed. So when a not small assembly, of every condition, had been gathered, with praises and hymns the most blessed members, solemnly raised from the dug-out place of that cave, are transferred with the highest reverence by the lord bishop Gerard himself to their due place. And that he might gladden those devoted to him by the presence of his visitation, there were present at this joyful solemnity two brethren, one of whom was called Grimbert, the other Adelbert, laboring most grievously under ill health; who by the merits of most holy Aper, at that very moment of the translation, their diseases being put to flight, obtained the swiftest health, and are still unimpaired witnesses of the power wrought in them ^f.

[33] the linen with which the tomb had been wiped is health-giving to many. When at last the little place in which the holy body had lain was emptied, and the dust gathered to the last grain so far as could be done, the devotion of the faithful brethren wiped the pavement with a certain linen cloth, which, washed in water, to how many sick it granted health we have declined to write, since they exceeded number ^g. For no one was held by any affliction who, when he had faithfully drunk this water, did not at once deserve a cure, the disease that pressed him being put to flight. And this blessed Father of ours was translated in the year from the Lord's Incarnation DCCCCLXXVIII ^h, Otto ⁱ reigning on earth, but through the ages our Lord and Savior with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

[34] Not many days had passed when a certain young man from the village of Bladenacum ^k, Bodily vigor is restored to a sick man, reason to a madman. who through the circuit of a year, having lost his health, with his body worn out, had failed in all his limbs, fled for refuge to the patronage of this our Protector in hope of recovery. Coming therefore, he kept the vigils of one night; the still hour of the second was drawing near, when, as he slept, the whole church seemed to him to be shaken with an immense crash. Awakened by this, he rejoiced that he had received back the strength of the health he had once lost, and so returned home whole, and perhaps still exults in his soundness. A certain young man, an inhabitant of the district of the Orne ^l, Erembert by name, having laid aside sound reason and being twisted into madness, was carried night and day through roads and trackless places, like an unbridled horse without a rider, and halted only where weariness bade him. Long sought by his mournful parents, he is at last with difficulty found in trackless places, and is consigned to chains, that he might be presented to this our Physician. Freed from these somehow, he took to flight, and with no companion, by a straight path at God's nod, panting, not knowing whither he was making, he came with the manifold outcry of his wandering to the tomb of his Ruler;

and Blessed Aper, who is present everywhere to all, taking him into his bosom, restored to himself one who had long been ignorant of himself, and handed him over unharmed to his parents who followed after and feared his peril.

[35] A certain farmer of the countryside of Bassiniacum ^m, and a servant of most holy Aper, Two sufferers from fever, stripped of the power of health, was shaken by fevers and pains for a whole year. Despaired of by all because of the character of his disease, having heard the fame of his blessed Patron, he sought vehicles that he might use in coming. And when the Saint saw that his wish was devoted to him, he restored to him the services of his feet, long denied him, and thereafter, as he sought his retreat, granted him to return home whole, with the people as witness. Nor indeed will any of the rhetoricians, as we think, weigh our clumsiness, whereby with corrupted Latinity we presume to a sequence of speech; since he will see our devotion toward him to whom, after the Almighty, we owe whatever we are: for it was not confidence in studies, but love of so great a Father, that drove us to write something about him. Wherefore let devotion excuse our boldness, and let all, giving us their hand, render thanks with us to God in his works through the merits of most blessed Aper. A certain resident of this city, Hamo by name, had by chance entered the building of this church, and, that he might rest a little (for he was shaken with fevers), leaning on a bench ⁿ, fell asleep. And not long after, being carelessly awakened by those who were present, with his mind changed he spoke irrational things. But — lest he should grieve to be seized by these very means by which others are restored to themselves ^o — scarcely the space of two hours had passed when, the fevers being calmed, recovering his mind, he recognized himself and others, and thereafter went his way whole.

[36] A certain young man, Gohardus by name, an inhabitant of this city, and another sick from a flow of blood, are healed: worn out by loss of blood and by long affliction, was so exhausted that, with his skin now clinging to his bones, he showed only the appearance of a man without strength, and, despairing of a cure, was in a manner awaiting the presence of death. With his body worn out, therefore, from a defect of the brain he passed fasting days and sleepless nights. To him, then, laboring under this ill health, the year in its course brought round again the feast day of Blessed Aper's translation [p]. Then, with very many flocking together, he too was carried there, and, before the first watch of the night had passed, he fell asleep, which was not his custom. But when morning came, he went to the spring behind the crypt [q]; and pouring it over his head, he rejoiced to have received back at once whatever strength he had lost, and is still a witness of the clemency wrought upon him.

[37] A possessed woman is freed. A certain woman, Philista by name, a native of the district of the Seille [r], was perishing under the harassment of a spirit of error. She had a grim look with continual crying: she endured no bonds which she did not soon break like threads by an alien power. She was therefore led by her sorrowing parents to many shrines of the Saints: but it pleased none of them to help the wretched woman, since they knew that this was Blessed Aper's office. When time therefore had passed, and the wicked spirit was pressing the sick woman with continual torment, her pious parents brought her, straining in all directions, to our Physician. As the sun was sinking, the day was closing, when there is laid upon that captive the chain by which the blessed Man had once by his powerful merits delivered three guilty men [s]. Bound therefore, she is led to the guest-house, and on the way, her strength being recovered, she recognized herself and her own; and when morning came, with thanksgiving she sought again the tomb of her Healer, and afterwards returned home unharmed [t]. There are therefore also many other miracles which the Lord deigns to work through the merits of most holy Aper; and if we had wished to write them all, not only those which we have heard, but also those which we have seen with our own eyes, we should have produced a great volume. Let these few of the very many suffice for the present. Here end the miracles of most holy Aper, bishop and confessor.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. It fell on the Calends of June, as we have from num. 32.

q. Of the same spring mention is made above at num. 4.

r. Le Saunois is a district in the diocese of Metz, through which flows the river Salia, commonly la Seille.

s. Consult above at num. XI, and in the Life num. 6 and 7.

t. What follows down to the end, Calmet noted must be added to his edition, writing thus in French in the Errata of the documents at the end of tom. 1: After those words, He returned unharmed, add: In a very ancient manuscript of the abbey of St. Arnold of Metz, marked in 8. n. 2, the following are read: There are therefore, etc.

* i.e., by day * perhaps, flagrare * perhaps, recessum