Lambert and Bb. Peter and Andoletus

ON ST. LAMBERT AND BB. PETER AND ANDOLETUS: BISHOP OF MAASTRICHT AND MARTYR,

AT LIÈGE IN BELGIUM,

More probably in the year DCCIX.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Lambert or Landebert, bishop of Maastricht and martyr, and on that occasion BB. Peter, Andoletus etc., at Liège in Belgium. (S.)

BHL Number: 4682, 4689, 4691, 4692, 4693, 4694

BY C. S.

§ I. An account of the Saint's seven biographers, among whom Reiner is not to be reckoned: four Lives to be published.

[ ] Of St. Lambert, Landebert, or Lantbert, bishop of Maastricht, seven ancient writers chiefly wrote the Life, Of the Saint's seven chief biographers namely Godeschalc, Stephen, an anonymous poet, Anselm, Sigebert, Nicholas, and Giles; of whom the first was a deacon, the second a bishop, the fourth and sixth canons, all of the church of Liège; the fifth and seventh monks, the former of Gembloux in Brabant, the other of Orval in the duchy of Luxembourg; and the second, finally, namely the poet, of uncertain profession, but probably by country of Liège. To these others add Reiner, a monk at St. Laurence's near Liège; but wrongly, as we shall prove. The aforementioned Anselm, in John Chapeauville's Work on the Deeds of the Bishops of Tongres, Maastricht, and Liège, tom. 1, chapter 32, in Agilfrid, thus points out Godeschalc: He (Agilfrid, bishop of Liège) first caused the Life of St. Lambert to be written by a certain cleric of his own, Godeschalc by name. With Anselm agrees Sigebert of Gembloux in the Life of St. Lambert, where he says: The Life of St. Lantbert was first written, by order of bishop Agilfrid, by Godeschalc, a deacon of that congregation, who lived in the time of Pippin the third and of Charlemagne.

[2] To these add Nicholas, who in the dedicatory Epistle prefixed to the Life, the first is Godeschalc, treating of those who earlier wrote the Life and martyrdom of Bl. Lambert, and to whom, as he himself says, even among us a not light but venerable antiquity has established the greatest authority, presently subjoins: The first of these (as we have received from our elders) was a certain Godeschalc, deacon of our church, in the time of Charlemagne, emperor and augustus, and of Agilfrid our bishop. Further, that the Life which is circulated under Godeschalc's name is truly his, even the moderns acknowledge, so that there is no need to bring forward more testimonies for it. But there are two points about which there is not so much agreement: first, the time at which Godeschalc wrote it; second, whether he himself did not have before his eyes another biographer earlier than himself, whose little Work he merely polished. The writers of the Histoire littéraire de la France, tom. 4, century 8, in Godeschalc, do not doubt that that Life was composed — contrary to what Nicholas and the man whom they call Reiner, and after these the moderns, believed — before the episcopate of Agilfrid, but nevertheless by the praised Godeschalc. The reasons by which they say this is proved it will be useful to have weighed here.

[3] who seems to have written that Life not after the middle of the eighth century, It is certain that Godeschalc learned the deeds of St. Lambert for the great part from Theodoenus, a disciple or servant of that holy bishop, about whom Godeschalc himself in the Life to be published says this at num. 6: Landebert the bishop went on to the monastery which is called Stavelot; nor did more than two boys remain in attendance on him: one of whom, by name Theodoenus, was wont to tell us much about his life and work. But now, they say, Agilfrid presided over the church of Liège in the year 773, and between that year and the year 674, in which they place the holy Exile's betaking himself to the praised monastery, too much time has elapsed for the Life to have been first written then with the circumstances which we have reported. The second argument they draw from the Life of St. Hubert, written by a disciple or intimate of his. The Life of St. Lambert already existed, they say, when that anonymous writer was composing the Life of St. Hubert, his successor, since the latter praised it. Certainly in the fragment to be recited below at num. 191, Hubert's biographer, after narrating St. Lambert's translation, expressly says: But with how great and what kind of miracles the Lord commended his own will in such a deed throughout the whole journey of their return, the little sheet noted with the deeds of that same holy Pontiff contains.

[4] Further, they judge that this Life of St. Hubert was written before the middle of the eighth century, but long before its middle, because they hold for certain that the first translation of that same holy confessor, which they tie to the year 743, gave the anonymous writer occasion for writing, as they have it in the same place, page 75. And it favors them not a little that the same anonymous writer concluded his little Work with the aforesaid translation and with the gifts offered on that occasion by Carloman, and made no further mention of the miracles afterwards done at the tomb. Finally they add a third argument too, from which they judge it can be concluded that the Life of St. Lambert was composed about the year 729 or 730. For they observe that it is manifest that Godeschalc did not publish it except after the translation of the holy Martyr, which they refer to the year 720; nor before the death of St. Hubert, which they fix in the year 727. And both of these Godeschalc seems to them to mention as though they had happened a little before, in such a way as to signify that he himself wrote a few years after the year of Christ 727, and therefore about the year 729 or the following.

[5] seems to have written that Life, The words by which they think this is indicated are doubtless these, from Mabillon's edition: With the Lord's help, we wish to narrate that lately, after some years, St. Landebert appeared through a vision to a certain venerable man, that his body should without any delay be carried to Liège… And St. Hubert … was at that time bishop in this region, etc. I embrace the opinion of those learned men so far as this, that I judge the praised Life of St. Lambert to have been written long before the episcopate of Agilfrid (whose beginning in tom. 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, col. 831, is tied to the year 768 or 769), and not many years after the translation of that holy Martyr made in the year 721 or 722; but I should not wish to determine the year itself with them. The first the reasons alleged by them persuade, but not the second. But neither does the mere space of time which flowed between the Saint's withdrawal to the monks of Stavelot and the episcopate of Agilfrid prove that that Life was not composed by Godeschalc under Agilfrid; since it is not so great but that Godeschalc, when already an old man, could then have written what he had once as a younger man heard from Theodoenus in his old age; if the latter too was a young man when he went into exile with his holy Bishop, and likewise reached old age.

[6] The other doubt is raised by Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks, at the year of Christ 636, nor merely to have polished an anonymous writer, num. 10, where he does not hesitate to affirm that that biographer who says he learned much from Theodoenus is an anonymous writer, the most ancient of all who wrote about the deeds of St. Lambert. Then he places Godeschalc the deacon, under the praised Agilfrid, nearest to him in age, who read and polished the earlier author, as is established from a collation of the two, he says. And he asserts that the little Work of the first, anonymous, writer was published in fragments by Du Chesne, tom. 1 of the Writers of the History of France; but Godeschalc by Henry Canisius, tom. 2 of the Lectiones antiquæ, and by John Chapeauville, tom. 1 De Gestis pontif. Tungrens. etc. Canisius, he says, in tom. 2 of the Antiqua lectio published Godeschalc, thinking him to be the very man whom Godeschalc had in hand; the error is shown by the Godeschalc published by Chapeauville. Le Cointe is favored by what we said above about the time of the Life's writing and Agilfrid's episcopate, and observed could not be sufficiently reconciled.

[7] Nevertheless I prefer, with Anselm and all the rest, to ascribe the said Life to Godeschalc as its first author; as Le Cointe wrongly judged. although the same Anselm was mistaken in assigning the time at which he wrote. But that the fragments published by Du Chesne differ in various places in phrasing from the others published by Canisius and Chapeauville proves plainly nothing: for this happens frequently in other Lives of Saints too, namely from the carelessness or the license of copyists, who judge that solecisms and badly twisted periods must be corrected, lest they be a weariness to the reader. And this could have had place especially in the Life written by Godeschalc. For that it was not written so correctly as Canisius and Chapeauville published it is clear from Sigebert of Gembloux,

who in the Life to be given speaks thus at num. 63 about his autograph: Although (Godeschalc) set forth the Life of St. Lantbert … with many faults of barbarism and solecism, on account of the simplicity of his sense, yet he himself, a writer in gold, wrote the whole of it in letters of gold to the honor of the holy Martyr.

[8] From what has been said thus far gather that Godeschalc was near enough to St. Lambert both in time and in place, and that other helps were not lacking to him for writing his Life rightly and truthfully. Godeschalc's authority and credit. But although he could have had a clear view of his deeds, yet he took care to set forth few things out of many, being intent rather on adorning his Saint with general encomiums than on unfolding his deeds one by one. Yet what things he did review out of them have always been held in esteem, as handed down by a truthful and fit writer, and are held so to this day — if you except the cause of the martyrdom which he hands down; which, because it seemed to some less glorious than they would have wished, began after two centuries to displease, then to be called into doubt, and at last to be rejected as feigned out of fear: whether rightly, we shall see in its place. Certainly to Stephen, who at the beginning of the tenth century was created bishop of Liège, nothing in that Life displeased except the style, as will presently be established. That the authority of both authors was very great among the people of Liège even in the growing twelfth century, Nicholas asserts, reported at num. 2. Godeschalc is likewise praised for truthfulness (excepting, however, the cause of the martyrdom) by Sigebert of Gembloux in the Life to be given, num. 63. Now I proceed to the other biographers.

[9] The second biographer is Stephen: why The second writer of the Life of St. Lambert we said was Stephen, bishop of Liège, whose elogium exists in tom. 6 of the Histoire littéraire de la France, from page 168, where from the testimonies of the ancients he is praised also for erudition and eloquence. He points himself out thus in the dedicatory Epistle prefixed to the Life: To the lord father Herimann the archbishop, Stephen, humble bishop of the Tungri. Now he presided over the church of the Tungri, that is, of Liège, from the year 903 until 920, as both the writers of the praised Histoire littéraire and those of the Gallia Christiana, tom. 3, col. 836 and the following, affirm. At the same time Herimann discharged the archbishopric of Cologne, as may be seen in the last-named Work, col. 643 and following. Stephen himself sets forth the cause of his writing in these words: By certain men who were keeping the feast of St. Lantbert with us, who seemed to themselves endowed with literary knowledge, we were provoked with no small injuries of scornful laughter; since the Life and Passion of the aforesaid Father was read among us as published by the ancients in speech by no means polished, and no proper modulation of the Offices was sung.

[10] and how he wrote The rude style of Godeschalc therefore displeased some at the beginning of the tenth century; and, that he might satisfy their prayers and those of others, bishop Stephen professes that he had adorned the ancient Life of St. Lambert with the style of a more powerful talent, and had subjoined, by an authentic method of the musical art, … new responsories with antiphons, in which the sequence of tones answers to the order of the lessons. But however his erudition or eloquence may have been praised by the ancients, he certainly carried out his purpose Col. 00519F in rude speech, and deserved in this part almost no other praise than that of religion and sincerity, by which he both strove to increase the glory of St. Lambert on earth, and faithfully interpreted the first biographer. This whole Work exists in a parchment codex whose characters are not out of keeping with the age of Stephen, and which was once Cornelius Duyn's, now our Museum's, and is marked P. Ms. 16. And first indeed there is a proem, then the Life divided into nine lessons. There follow Antiphons and Responsories for Vespers, Matins, and Lauds, written with ancient musical notes. There are subjoined ancient Miracles, a Gospel, and homilies. Further, the writer of the Miracles makes plain that he lived under bishops Franco and Stephen, that is, in the ninth and tenth centuries.

[11] Contemporary with him was the anonymous poet. In the same codex there follows next a metrical Life of the same Saint, written in heroic verse, by an anonymous author indeed, but one whom it is established to have written in Stephen's time and by his order, from the last verses of the Work, which are of this kind:

To the sacred bishop Stephen be praise and glory, by whose command these things have been spoken in shining meter, and may he pluck a bright crown from the utterance of his name.

Further, I find only one Stephen — namely him of whom we have just treated — in the catalogue of the bishops of Liège. And that poet seems to have written at the same time at which Stephen wrote: for since the latter wove into the prose life various verses of his own invention, but at the end of that same Life took over ten verses in all, and all the antiphons except one, for the Nocturns and Lauds, from the praised poet, it is likely that that metrical Life was completed and handed to Stephen while he had nearly finished the prose one and had not yet arranged the Office. That Work is divided into forty chapters, whose titles are set at the front. The beginning is such:

The pagans by their rite worshipped the temples of the gods.

And I had indeed determined to publish this poem, so far as I know still unpublished; but because I found it mutilated — namely the latter part of chapter 40, chapters 41, 42, 43, and the earlier part of chapter 44 — I shall insert only its shreds in the Commentary, lest the whole perish.

[12] About Anselm, whom we named in the fourth place, and who wrote a little after the middle of the eleventh century, After these Anselm, augmented by Giles. Sigebert the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Theodard, §1, num. 5 and 6, tom. 2 of September, page 581, may be consulted. His Work was augmented in the thirteenth century with many additions by Giles of Liège, a monk of Orval, which you have published together with Anselm in Chapeauville, already praised elsewhere. Another copy of the same without the additions of Giles was published by Martène and Durand from an ancient codex of the monastery of Saint-Hubert in the Ardennes, tom. 4 of the Collectio ampliss., from col. 843. After Anselm in age follows Sigebert, a monk of Gembloux in Brabant, who flourished at the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth. He, in his book On the Illustrious Writers of the Church, in the last chapter, reviewing his own Works also, says this to our purpose: The Life also of St. Lambert, after I had at first elegantly improved it, I afterwards, at the request of Henry, archdeacon and dean of the church of St. Lambert, culled with comparisons of the ancients according to the sequence of events. Although some rather embrace the earlier one, as being simple, and transcribe it more carefully: for it is plainer in sense and clearer in words.

[13] Of the Life written by him in the second place, hitherto unpublished, wrote two Lives, of which one is wrongly I have a copy from our college of Louvain, whose first part is noted as copied from the second part of the Hagiologium Brabantinorum, collated with a Ms. of Rouge-Cloître, from which also the second part has been added in another hand. The title prefixed to it is this: The Life and passion of holy Lantbert the bishop, according to Sigebert of Gembloux. But from the alleged words of Sigebert I can no longer doubt that the Life published by Chapeauville under the name of Reiner or Rener, a monk at St. Laurence's near Liège, is not Reiner's, but that same Sigebert's, namely the one written and praised by him in the first place. The reason is manifest, that, besides the comparisons inserted in various places, drawn chiefly from the Old Testament, and one miracle of St. Lambert in his boyhood, everything else in both Lives is so alike that they differ only in a few words here and there. And this discrepancy can be attributed to Sigebert himself, who, while he was weaving the said comparisons into the earlier Life, could easily have added to the rest that single miracle afterwards learned of, and have changed some phrases, as is wont to be done.

[14] I could demonstrate this here by texts brought forward from both Lives; but that I may not be too long, I prefer to send the reader to compare the Life to be published with the one published by Chapeauville. I add, however, another argument, attributed to Reiner. Nicholas wrote in the twelfth century: namely the silence of Reiner himself, who, when in book 2 On the Writers of his own Monastery he reviews his own little Works, and among these several Lives of saints too, and the Triumphale Bulonicum of St. Lambert, makes not even a word of mention about his Life. And that little Work about the said Writers exists in Bernard Pez, tom. 4 of the Thesaurus anecdotorum, part 3, col. 19 and following. In the same twelfth century in which Reiner flourished, so did Nicholas, reviewed by me in the last place among the Saint's biographers, who in the dedicatory Epistle of the Life makes himself known in these words: To his lord Wedericus, beloved in Christ and truly to be loved, venerable abbot of the church of Liessies, Nicholas, the last of the canons and deacons of the church of St. Mary and holy Lambert which is in Liège, greeting. That this Wedericus presided over the abbey of Liessies in Hainaut, commonly called Liessies, from the year 1124 until 1147, the authors of the Gallia Christiana write, tom. 3, col. 124; whence one may gather the time when the Life was written.

[15] it is set forth why he wrote, Further, what impelled him to write, he himself likewise sets forth thus in the same place: Certain of our lords and priors have often exhorted my littleness that I should diligently investigate the worthier cause of the blessed Man's passion, and his deeds now buried by age, and by writing should draw them as it were back into the light… I have undertaken this work, full of labor and anxiety; because absolutely nothing about this could be found in the books of those who earlier wrote the Life and martyrdom of Bl. Lambert, to whom even among us a not light but venerable antiquity has established the greatest authority. Then he names the first biographers Godeschalc and Stephen, and goes on thus about them: Who, although they have discoursed magnificently enough about certain things of his life and most holy conversation, it is greatly to be wondered at why they passed over in silence the glorious cause of his martyrdom, worthy of so great a Priest, writing things which both seem to obscure the glory of the Martyr and to furnish an occasion of mockery to calumniators and unbelievers.

[16] and what documents he used. You have here, reader, the cause of forging the Life — namely the Saint's martyrdom, set forth by the first biographers, of whom the first was contemporary or nearly so, not rightly, as some indeed thought, or at least less honorably than they would have wished. But what authors Nicholas himself employed, after four and more centuries had elapsed from St. Lambert's martyrdom, for forging a new Life, he then enumerates, saying: These things indeed I have taken care to excerpt partly from the deeds of the kings of the Franks, partly from the Chronicles of Regino, abbot of Prüm, and of Sigebert, the venerable monk of the monastery of Gembloux, partly from the epistles of various bishops, partly from the Life of Bl. Landoald the presbyter, or of St. Landrada the virgin, partly from the report of our elders and from the writings of faithful men, and to reduce them to the form and sequence of a little book. Thus far Nicholas, whose words I have judged should be given here more at length on account of the said controversy about the cause of the martyrdom, to be discussed in §9 and following.

[17] Whence the four Lives Of the Lives mentioned thus far we shall publish four. The first by Godeschalc, of which we have a copy in an old Ms. codex of our Museum,

which I should certainly use for the edition, had not the multitude of faults, which make the reading not only unpleasant but frequently scarcely intelligible, and which are for the greatest part to be ascribed to the copyist, deterred me. Hence I am compelled to follow the edition of Mabillon, which he himself prepared in Benedictine Century 3, part 1, from page 69, from the editions of Chapeauville and Henry Canisius and from manuscripts. Nor yet shall I neglect our own codex, but from it I shall several times correct the Mabillonian edition, the reader being warned where it shall be worth while. And the book of miracles and of the translation, which he separated from the Life, I shall annex under one and the same title; for although in our codex too this is separated from that by the usual clause: Here ends the Life or death of holy Landebert the bishop, who suffered on the XV Kal. of October, yet without a new title there is presently subjoined about the miracles and the translation: After these things in the aforesaid village, etc.

[18] And Mabillon agrees that these things are by the same author as the Life: and why they are to be published. because the style agrees, and the author of the Life had promised that he would write the Life and virtues of the holy Bishop and martyr, and at the end of the miracles and translation he again says that he had narrated a few things … about his Life and about his virtues, that is, his miracles. In our codex there is added at the end of the little Work an excuse of the writer, asking pardon for his humble style; but that very excuse is of so barbarous a speech that, although otherwise unpublished, it is irksome to report it. After Godeschalc I shall publish Stephen from the codex praised at num. 10, and where a difference of any moment from the Chapeauville edition occurs, I shall warn the reader in the Annotations. The ancient Miracles, however, which are reviewed in that same codex of ours, because they contain almost throughout very prolix and gloomy observations which by no means pertain to the history, I shall — these being cut away — insert in the Commentary. In the third place I shall subjoin Sigebert, hitherto unpublished, from the Ms. which I indicated at num. 13. Finally I shall add Nicholas also from the recension of John Chapeauville, tom. 1 De Gestis pontificum Tungrensium etc., from page 317. And it has seemed good to print all these four Lives, both because some contain more things than others, and that those who think variously about the cause of St. Lambert's martyrdom may see on what authors they rely. About Anselm and Giles we shall also treat now and then in the Commentary.

§ II. The Saint's country and illustrious parents, his name and baptism: fables about his nurse.

[ ] The Saint is born at Maastricht on the Meuse That Maastricht, which is now a notable city of Belgium, situated on the bank of the river Meuse, fell to our St. Lambert as his native place, Godeschalc and all the biographers who wrote after him have handed down. That his parents too were illustrious both in nobility of family and in wealth, and in the Christian religion, the same agree. The glorious man Landebert the bishop, says Godeschalc, was sprung and nourished from the town of Maastricht, of wealthy parents, venerable among governors according to the dignity of the world, and Christians of long lineage. Stephen agrees in these words: Landbert … was sprung of a notable lineage in the town of Maastricht. But he also calls his parents most Christian. Likewise the anonymous poet sang:

The Lord determined to seek a just Pastor after his own heart, taking pity on the labors of the people, causing him to be born in body in the city of Maastricht of a stock which flourished in lofty nobility.

Anselm in Chapeauville likewise agrees, by whom he is said to have been born of the most noble stock of the people of Maastricht at that time. But although all these celebrate the parents of St. Lambert for nobility, yet none of them discloses their names.

[20] of illustrious and pious parents, But Sigebert and other later writers affirm that his father was called Aper and his mother Herisplindis. Let us hear Sigebert, who speaks of them at length in the Life. Lantbert … was sprung of a notable lineage in the town of Maastricht, and born of good and religious parents… This brightness of family, derived to himself from afar, his father and mother made illustrious near at hand. Posterity has received from the fathers that his mother, most noble among the nobles of the Franks, was called Herisplindis. But his father, named Aper, since he was of the first order of senators, who are called illustrious men, and who in the king's court are set before the second and third order of senators, who are called respectable men and most distinguished men, excelled among those first men. Things agreeing with these Nicholas the canon has, saying: Lambert … was sprung of a notable lineage in Maastricht, which is a great town above the river Meuse, not far from the ruined walls of the city of Tongres.

[21] His father Aper, an illustrious man, strenuously governed there the dignity of a county left to him by hereditary right from his ancestors. Aper and Herisplindis. But his mother, Herisplendis by name, adorned the brightness of her nobility with the manners of chastity and honor. I pass over Giles, who has very similar things in his Additions to Anselm, and calls the Saint's father Aper, his mother Hysplindis and Herysplendis. Further, this nobility of family and religious piety of the parents agree excellently with what the same writers afterwards narrate about the holy Boy's education and the other things pertaining to him. As for the paternal house in which the Saint was born, I know not what obscure tradition makes it a part of our college of Maastricht on the Meuse, which even to this day is called the house of St. Lambert, and has in a certain chamber a statue or bust of that Saint with an inscription which affirms that he was formerly born there, and is the patron of that house as its heir.

[22] More probably he was born The year in which the Saint beheld the first light we cannot determine as certain, nor yet stray far from it, if the chronological notes are true which Sigebert and Nicholas appended in the Life. The former of these has it thus about the time of his birth in the Life to be published, num. 2: And the kingdom of the Franks at that time was ruled, after Lothair the Middle, by his son Dagobert, who, reigning in Neustria, had committed the kingdom of the Austrasians to his son Sigebert, and had given as guardians to him, still a boy, Cunibert bishop of Cologne and Pippin I the Mayor of the Palace, the father of the holy Gertrude and Begga. Nicholas too in the Life, num. 5, says thus: At that time Heraclius, after Phocas, had obtained the summit of the Roman empire; and that part of the kingdom of the Franks which is called Austria was prudently governed under his father by Sigebert, son of king Dagobert, quite a young man, through Cunibert bishop of Cologne and Pippin the first, Mayor of the Palace. But Le Cointe observes at the year of Christ 633, num. 2, that Pippin is wrongly named by them, and that the whole administration of the kingdom of Austrasia was in the hands of Cunibert and of duke Adelgisus, or Adalgiselus, who filled the place of Pippin the Mayor of the Palace. The same Sigebert also assigns duke Adelgisus with Cunibert as guardian to the young king, in the Life of that same St. Sigebert, tom. 1 of February, page 228, chapter 3; but this question does not make for our purpose.

[23] According to these things the birth of St. Lambert is to be placed between the years of Christ 633 and 638. For in the year 633, by the opinion now received, St. Sigebert was endowed by his father with the kingdom of Austrasia together with the aforesaid guardians; between the years 633 and 638. but in the year 638 the same Dagobert died: and it is established that the years which flowed between the two epochs coincided with the empire of Maurice. Hence Le Cointe judged that the birth of St. Lambert should be referred to the year of Christ 636, saying: At these times St. Lambert was born. Further, as it is manifest that from the words of Sigebert and Nicholas produced no certain year can be hammered out, so I should easily believe that one of those which intervened between the beginning of Sigebert's reign among the Austrasians and the death of Dagobert was our Saint's birth-year; because on this opinion the Saint will have been of a fit age for the episcopate when he was promoted to it in the year 669 or the following, as we shall say in §4; nor does anything from elsewhere stand in the way to persuade the contrary.

[24] I have already hinted above that the Saint's name is variously written. The more ancient called him Landebert, Landibert, and Lantbert; His name variously written: he was not baptized now he is wont to be called Lambert, and so has been called for some centuries. The anonymous poet wrote Landbert, and sang thus about the etymology of this name:

Whom then his happy parents wished the Boy to be called Landbert; with a voice presaging the future we say this was done, that he should be the defender of his country, the form of the barbarian tongue sufficiently signifying it beforehand.

He alluded, namely, to the Belgic words Land and Berd, of which the first signifies a region, the other a beam; as though the holy Boy had been so called because he would be as it were a bar for his country against enemies. Now I proceed to uncertain and fictitious things. Sigebert of Gembloux in the Life, num. 1, writes that St. Lambert was baptized by St. Remaclus, or at least was received by him from the sacred font. Born, he says, of good and religious parents, he was also reborn in Christ through good and religious men. For he was the spiritual son in baptism of Remaclus, afterwards bishop of Maastricht.

[25] Giles of Orval also understood this of baptism in the Additions to Anselm, chapter 5, by St. Remaclus. Giles's insipid where he says: Who (his father) … had a Boy of his freeborn wife Hysplindis, and handed him to Remaclus, the Man of God, to be baptized, and he, being his spiritual father in baptism, imposed on him the name Lambert. Thus they; but not even probably. For St. Remaclus, in that space of years within which we have said that Lambert was more probably born according to Sigebert's own statements, was still living in Neustria, and was not summoned into Austrasia until later, as is plain from the Preliminary Commentary to his Life, tom. 1 of September, page 673, §3. Much less shall I suffer myself to be persuaded of the insipid fable which the same Giles reports in the same place in this manner: It is also said that the same nurse (of the Saint) was called by the name Lina, and that she had been born blind, the daughter of a certain widow of noble Frankish race.

[26] Who was admonished by an angelic vision to go to the house of count Aper at Maastricht, a fable about his nurse because he was about to have at that same time a son of his wife Herysplendis, whom, when she had taken him up and he had sucked her virginal breasts, she should anoint her eyes with that virginal milk flowing down, and should receive the light of her eyes, as Montanus the monk did at the birth of Bl. Remigius from the milk of the decrepit old woman Cilinia. And when the virgin Lina had come thither, and had fulfilled what she had been taught, straightway she received the light of her eyes, and thereafter deserved to nourish the infant Lambert with her virginal milk. Who could bear without disgust the ineptitudes of a fabulist of this kind, who did not blush to furnish a virgin nurse for the holy Boy, namely that he might the better persuade us that he was slain for chastity? Of St. Remigius, bishop of Rheims, there will be occasion to treat on the 1st day of October: meanwhile tom. 1 of May, pages 25 and 26, may be consulted, where that holy Montanus was treated of. But from that Montanus

deed Giles strives in vain to persuade us of his own fiction, since Montanus is said to have received his sight when his eyes were anointed with the milk of Cilinia, an old woman indeed, but nevertheless the mother of St. Remigius, whom she was suckling; whereas Giles invents something far different.

[27] it is rejected. Another narration of his Fisen, however, was pleased to report that fable without censure both in his History and in the Flowers of the Church of Liège. I marvel still more that that nurse of St. Lambert is called the holy virgin Madalberta by a certain anonymous writer of the fifteenth century in Chapeauville, tom. 3, page 225, when in the same place, in the History of the solemn showing of the relics of Liège, he says: For the fourth time (there was shown) the shrine of St. Magdalberta the virgin, nurse and governess of St. Lambert in his boyhood, etc. Of this most chaste virgin you have the Acts illustrated in our Work on the VII day of September; but so far is it that anything like this occurs in them, that rather the contrary is proved from them. From these things gather how much credit that other prodigy deserves which the same Giles reports in the same place to have happened to St. Lambert while as an infant he was committed to the care of that nurse, in the words which I subjoin. But almighty God, says Giles, who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, to whom nothing is impossible, himself marked Lambert's infancy with a devout and marvelous miracle; and by it he plainly expresses also what kind and how great the affection of sons toward their mothers ought to be.

[28] about the holy Infant speaking prodigiously When on days of fasting the mother of the boy Lambert wished according to custom to go around the places of the Saints, she admonished in secret, as humbly as she could, the Infant's nurse, who was familiar to her and her household; and enjoined that she should prepare against her return a hearth-cake suitable to the day; adding besides that she should watch carefully over the Infant, still wailing in the cradle, by the law of a nurse. To make manifest, therefore, the future holiness of Bl. Lambert, both the nurse forgetfully neglected her lady's command, and the lady, her prayers being finished, hastened her return. At the very moment of her return, therefore, the Infant, to whom his age altogether denied the use of speaking, said to the nurse in these words: My mother, O devout nurse, is now almost knocking at the door; see whether by her command you have the hearth-cake ready. The nurse therefore, since all were absent except herself and the Infant, began to marvel and to look about who it might be who spoke thus; when behold the Infant, doubling the same words, began openly to speak to the nurse.

[29] unknown to the more ancient biographers. Presently therefore, when the lady arrived, the nurse, stupefied at the miracle, made herself guilty before her lady for her neglect, and truthfully disclosed how the Infant had admonished her in plain words about preparing the cake. The divine power, which for the mark of unbelief toward a heavenly messenger closed for a time the mouth of Zachary, itself in like manner marvelously opened the mouth of the infant Lambert before the time — one who, after the example of his son John, was in his own place to rebuke a prince's adultery, and thence to obtain the palm of martyrdom. Thus far Giles, on whose statements Fisen thus prefaces, book 3 of the History, num. 14: The reader will give it what credit he will. There is one witness of the deed, the girl. But I, although I acknowledge that nothing at all is impossible to the divine Omnipotence, shall not easily believe that that prodigy really happened, not because there is one witness of the deed, the girl, but because, when all the more ancient biographers are silent about it, Giles alone, who insipidly invented that virgin nurse, is by no means fit to persuade us of it.

§ III. The education of the holy Boy: was it under St. Landoald? His training under St. Theodard: the latter's body brought by him to Liège.

[ ] The holy Boy is trained; was it by St. Landoald, That the Saint's religious parents diligently took care that a Boy of great promise should be cultivated in human as well as in divine letters and precepts, according to the brightness of his family, Godeschalc and Stephen expressly teach in the Life. The former of these has it thus at num. 2: When his father had seen so great an industry in his Son, and that he was beloved by all, he exulted and gave thanks to God, and rejoiced with gladness because he saw his Offspring adorned. From nearly his earliest age he handed him over to wise men and historians to be taught in sacred letters. And he, with great zeal using assiduous diligence, clave to it and swiftly completed it. Stephen, as I said, has like things, on whose testimony too while still a boy he was instructed … in the divine doctrines, and was abundantly strengthened in the monastic sanctions; but neither of them names those teachers. Yet that one of them was St. Landoald the archpresbyter, the first, so far as I have seen, to hand down was Nodger, bishop of Liège in the tenth and eleventh centuries; or he who by his order wrote the Life of that St. Landoald, published by us on the XIX day of March. For in this not only is mention made of the pious training of St. Lambert by Landoald, but also two remarkable miracles are reported which commend the holy Disciple not a little.

[31] It is reported, says the biographer in that place, chapter 1, with whom he is said to have drawn forth a spring that the same Bl. Landoald nourished our special patron, namely holy Lambert, in his earliest boyhood; on account of which also the illustrious man Aper, the father of that Boy, granted to him by perpetual right an estate by the name of Wintershoven, situated upon the river Ark, to dwell in and to build a church, and determined that the same Boy should remain with him to be steeped in the divine doctrines. Where, while the workmen were pressing on with the work and loathed the water, as being muddy from the marshes; Bl. Landoald with the boy Lambert, the name of Christ being invoked, with the stretching forth of the cross made a most limpid spring bubble up for the use of all by the pressing of his staff, which gives credit to these words even to this day. At another time likewise, when fire seemed lacking for necessary use, the Boy, being summoned by the holy man, is bidden to bring in fire. He began to resist the command, and openly to confess why he had not straightway satisfied him who bade. You see, lord, he said, that a vessel is lacking by which fire might conveniently be brought in; and in what manner do you bid this to be brought? My mind is indeed ready to obey you; but the lack of a vessel compels me to seem to go against your wishes.

[32] But the devout father, when he perceived the mind of the hesitating Boy; and to have brought him burning coals in his garment unharmed Is it pleasing, my son, he said, that delay be made to a father's bidding, when fire can be brought in conveniently enough by the garment with which you are covered? And the Boy, moved by this rebuke, since moreover he was constrained by the example of obedience, indeed obeys his father's command, and, having gone a little way, hastens to seek fire. Having at length found it, seeing that nothing was at hand with which he might more conveniently carry it, he opens the fold of his garment for the burning coals, and, without delaying at all, places them within, and so, his garment unharmed, carries them all the way to his father. Then the holy man considers more deeply with himself the novelty of the miracle, and does not hesitate to compare the merit of the happy Boy with the virtues even of the perfect; by whom indeed the burning element either feared to show its own nature, or was altogether compelled to conceal it. But when the still fresh miracle came to the ears of the people, then the Boy is extolled by the mouth of all, then too the deed divinely wrought is ascribed, together with the merit of him who obeyed, to the command of him who bade. And so from the holiness of both the same power is believed to have been wrought. Christ also worked many other miracles there through their merit, at the report of which king Childeric, then having his seat at Maastricht, being touched with compunction, sent him daily the necessary means. Thus far that biographer of St. Landoald.

[33] out of obedience: Him then Sigebert of Gembloux in the Life of St. Lambert, Nicholas the canon, and Giles followed. It must therefore be inquired how much credit these things deserve. Nodger, or the biographer Hariger writing in his name, in the same Life of St. Landoald in the place cited, chapter 2, indicated in these words whence he drew his materials: At this reburial (of the bodies of SS. Landoald and his companions, made by St. Florebert, bishop of Liège) there was present a certain Frangerus, a man very aged in our own time, who also for nine years before the infestation of the pagans had been the steward and bailiff of that same village (Wintershoven): also Hildebrand the presbyter, whom with his own hand a few years ago Sarabert, likewise a presbyter, buried, the most faithful reporter of this knowledge, who also used to relate — many attesting it — that he had heard these things which we have set forth from that same Frangerus, and had likewise seen a little book about their life (which, because he mentions that it was written in an antiquarian hand and almost soaked with the dripping of wax, we know that its reader must have been very rare); but that what we have thus far touched on in a few words he had culled from thence, and that very lately, in the incursion of the Hungarians (after the middle of the tenth century), through the carelessness of the keepers, that same little book was burned up with other things.

[34] both of which we show to be not sufficiently certain, From these things we have it that there once existed another Life of SS. Landoald and his companions, much more ancient than Nodger and Hariger, since about the middle of the tenth century it was read written in an antiquarian hand, from which Sarabert the presbyter put together his memoranda, which Nodger or Hariger followed in writing the Life. It remains, therefore, that we see whether that training of St. Lambert by Landoald does not conflict with the rest of the chronology. That St. Landoald, given in the year of Christ 651 by St. Martin I the Pope as companion and helper to St. Amandus, came into Belgium, our Henschen proved in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of that St. Amandus on the VI day of February, §12. According to what was said above at num. 22 and following, St. Lambert was then about his fifteenth year of age, or had even already passed it, and so could not have been trained by him in his earliest boyhood, as is said in the Life of St. Landoald. The same is confirmed from the time of his taking up the episcopate: for since he succeeded St. Theodard, slain in the year 669, he must in the year 651 have long passed his earliest boyhood, unless we should wish to say without a solid foundation that he was endowed with that sacred infula while quite a young man.

[35] from the Saint's age as asserted by the more ancient writers, If we should wish to take boyhood more broadly for adolescence, the difficulty proposed will indeed vanish, but that will seem little in conformity with the statements of Godeschalc, who in the Life at num. 2 and 3 asserts that St. Lambert, while still a boy, returned from his masters to his father's house, and there passed beyond the years of boyhood, and at length, being now an adolescent, was handed over to the discipline of St. Theodard. But when he had been steeped in learning, he says in the same place, by most prudent men, he returned to his father's house. And passing beyond the years of boyhood, he bore the age of adolescence with the industry of old age… At the same time Theodard, the supreme pontiff, presided over the pontifical chair in the town of Maastricht by the dispensation of the divine providence. Straightway his father commended him to the already aforesaid bishop, to be instructed in the divine doctrines and in monastic disciplines in the royal court. For he was a wise adolescent, etc. Most similar things Stephen has, by whom he is expressly called a Boy of good disposition when he returned to his father, and a memorable youth when he was committed to St. Theodard.

[36] But these too must be interpreted more mildly, and from the time of his entering upon the episcopate. both because it seems little likely that the Saint

was called home from the discipline of his masters before the years of boyhood were completed; and lest the same man be said to have succeeded St. Theodard in the episcopate about the year 670, to whom about six or seven years before he had been handed over, scarcely a youth, to be trained. We proceed here on the more common opinion of the learned, according to which St. Remaclus, the immediate predecessor of St. Theodard, did not resign the episcopate before the year 660. But if he really did so before the death of king Sigebert, which is now commonly believed to have happened not later than the Kalends of February of the year 656 (as Limpens doubted on the X day of September, in St. Theodard, §3), the difficulty in the statements of Godeschalc and Stephen will be less: because thus he could have passed some years earlier into the discipline of St. Theodard. From all these things determine that what we have reviewed about the Saint's training under Landoald is at the least of very doubtful credit, and that the authority of Nodger and Hariger cannot make us certain, especially since in the same Life other historical errors also occur, as when the bishopric of Maastricht is said to have been vacant for nine years after the resignation of St. Remaclus; whereas it is nevertheless established that Theodard succeeded Remaclus soon after his resignation, as has been shown elsewhere in our Work.

[37] We said above that St. Lambert, after he had employed the best masters and had been excellently steeped in human and divine precepts, He is handed over to St. Theodard the bishop returned to his father's house, and stayed in it until he was handed over by his devout father to St. Theodard, raised about the year 661 to the bishopric of Maastricht, to be instructed in the divine doctrines and in monastic disciplines in the royal court, as Godeschalc says. It may deservedly be doubted in what sense St. Lambert is here said to have been instructed in monastic disciplines in the royal court. Hence on those words Mabillon in Benedictine Cent. 3, part 1, page 70, annotated the following: Here I interpret by the name of the royal court the episcopal house. For it is not likely that Theodard, a holy man, was assiduously engaged in the king's court. Unless perhaps someone should say that Landebert was indeed commended to Theodard, who took care that he should be trained in the divine doctrines and in monastic disciplines in the royal court by the abbot and the palatine monks. But to me both interpretations are displeasing: the first indeed, both because that use of the word royal court for the episcopal house is unusual, and because Godeschalc himself, in the words presently to be recited, seems sufficiently to distinguish the two houses. But the second interpretation is even less in conformity with Godeschalc, who assigns Theodard himself, not others, as master to the Saint, as will be manifest to the reader.

[38] I prefer therefore to expound Godeschalc, one little word and being added, in such wise to be trained in monastic studies that he means that St. Lambert was handed over to Theodard, that he might be instructed by him both in monastic disciplines (for he had been a monk) in the episcopal house, and also in transacting business in the king's court. That I should so think the context itself persuades, in which there presently follows: For he was a wise adolescent, lovable in aspect, affable in conversation; with upright conversation he began to serve both with the bishop and in the royal house, so that he was conformable to all men. And although Childeric II, of whose court it is here a question, and the other kings of Austrasia, had their seat chiefly at Metz, yet he stayed frequently at Maastricht, as Henschen observed both from diplomas given by him there and from the Life of St. Landoald, in the Annotations to it, chapter 2, letter b; and Le Cointe agrees, tom. 3 of the Annals, at the year of Christ 667, num. 33. Nor do I see that it stands against Theodard's holiness if for the business of his church and kingdom, and for his office's sake, he was frequently engaged in the Maastricht court of his king, still almost a boy, which is established to have been done also by other holy bishops for just causes.

[39] and to frequent the palace with him. In the same way as we, Sigebert of Gembloux understood Godeschalc in the Life, num. 7, saying: Lantbert too is commended to him (Theodard) by his father, that he might be trained by his example — one who both in the church and in the court seemed much to be taken up. Further, it is established that St. Theodard lived as a monk under the discipline of St. Remaclus before he was initiated into the episcopate, and therefore he could steep and exercise his holy disciple Lambert in monastic precepts, so far as the episcopal office and manner of living permitted. Stephen, however, mentioning nothing about monastic disciplines, only says: To him (St. Theodard) the memorable youth Lantbert, most renowned in nobility, most elegant in form of body, is commended to be educated in the royal court; that like a precious stone he might be polished by manifold proofs, and might become fit for heavenly ornaments. We believe therefore that St. Lambert was then by no means a monk, although he imitated their life together with his holy master Theodard, so far as ecclesiastical business allowed. But what progress he made under so great a man, his holiness and his episcopal as well as monastic virtues afterwards proved.

[40] The body of that St. Theodard, slain among the Nemetes, St. Theodard being slain by impious men among the Nemetes about the year of Christ 668 or 669, as was proved on the X day of this month of September, and being honorably buried there, St. Lambert, judging it unfair that he and his people should be deprived of the sacred body, which was what remained on earth of his most beloved master, flew thither, and after his first fruitless attempts at length laid it, when obtained, in the village of Liège. Godeschalc, Stephen, and the anonymous poet are indeed silent on this subject; but besides the others who wrote after them about our Saint, the biographers of St. Theodard also treat of it, whose lucubrations you have published on the day of September just named. Among these the very ancient anonymous writer, published in the first place, has it thus in chapter 2, num. 16 and following. These things therefore being done, rumor, which knows not how to stand still and gains strength by going, came to the knowledge of Bl. Lambert, who, as is clear, was afterwards substituted in the bishopric; namely that Theodard, slain among the Nemetes in Germany and buried there, had shone with miracles. And that kindly Man, turning over the horrid crime with long sighs, stirred up groans from the depth, and bedewed his fair cheeks, now blooming with their first flower, with the warm river of his eyes: and who could refrain from tears who beheld an angelic countenance clouded with so great grief?

[41] Therefore, snatching himself away as soon as possible from his custom, the happy man happily sought the presence of the master he had long desired, and found what he sought. The people opposing him, in no way obtaining him whom he had desired with his whole heart, and considering that the hope he had conceived was taken from him, he straightway returned. he seeks him twice over on two journeys, Nor is delay given, nor rest. A second time also, much money being made ready, he betook himself with happier auspices to the same place. Presently the sudden return of the venerable Man made the settlers of that land exceedingly anxious; and like flocks of birds in thickened wedges the nobles sought his presence; and feeding their breasts with most wholesome commands, he speaks thus with placid mouth: Dearest brothers and most steadfast fellow soldiers, it is always better to suffer than to do an injury. Do not refuse the body of our father Theodard the bishop, now sought on a second journey, whom, having departed from us in sound life, it is established was taken from human affairs within your borders. Do not, I beseech you, deprive sons of their own father; when rather by the divine precepts you ought to bestow a profitable solace on the bereaved. Let it suffice you that he consecrated your lands with his blood. Now at last give back his lifeless body.

[42] These words being said, the hardness of all who stood by began to be bent to mercy; and, having translated it, he buries it for before the honey-flowing supplication of the angelic Man no one had been able to remain unbending: and, opinion being compared, they determine to hear him as he most humbly entreats. Therefore the Man devoted to God, that he might bind them the more closely to himself and make them consenting to his purpose, opening the most opulent coffers which he had brought with him, did not delay to give out not only gifts of silver to each of the men and women and little ones according to each one's measure; and, to be silent about very many things, he never desisted until he had comforted each of the men, old and young, with single coins, and pregnant women with a double gift. At length, giving thanks to almighty God, who had granted him happy successes, and bidding all farewell, he happily carried off with him the body of the most blessed martyr with hymns and praises.

[43] Then at last, having obtained his purpose, in the village (today Liège) which the wave of the river (Meuse) washes on one side, in the village of Liège: but it is uncertain whether this happened before, where the same man afterwards succeeded as Bishop, and where by departing from this light he consecrated the ashes of his own body, he chose with the highest honor a resting place for Theodard, the holy bishop of God. Thus far that anonymous author, with whom agree Sigebert both in the Life to be published and in the one published under Reiner's name, Nicholas, Anselm, and Giles; of whom, however, the first two do indeed report the deed before they speak of St. Lambert's episcopate, but yet do not expressly assert that it happened before he entered upon it; while the other two later writers ascribe that same deed to him when already bishop, unless perhaps they used prolepsis. Among the moderns too there is not sufficient agreement on this matter: for Le Cointe at the year of Christ 668, num. 13, Bartholomew Fisen in the History of the Church of Liège, book 4, num. 2, and John Roberti in the Life of St. Lambert, turned into French and contracted into a compendium by Alard le Roy, chapter 5, refer both the Saint's journey to the Nemetes and the translation of the body to the beginning of his episcopate; but Foullon, book 2 of the History of Liège, chapter 12, judged that it should be set before the episcopate, and for this opinion stands the greater authority of the ancients.

[44] or after he entered upon the episcopate. If it be permitted to divine, we shall perhaps not stray from the truth if we say that St. Lambert obtained, when adorned with the sacred infulæ, what he had attempted in vain on his first journey when not yet a bishop. By this reasoning it appears more easily why he buried the body of his holy master in the village of Liège, which is now the very ample city of Liège, rather than at Maastricht, where the seat of the bishops was; because, namely, in that village there was a certain estate and buildings belonging by proper right to the bishops of Maastricht; and there was also a chapel or small church of SS. Cosmas and Damian, erected in the sixth century by St. Monulph. That this place, because it was most apt for prayer and sacred solitude, was beloved by St. Lambert above the rest, Nicholas says in the Life; and therefore it is likely enough that he wished to lay the sacred remains of Theodard there, that he might, as often as he pleased, more safely and quietly give himself to prayers beside them.

§ IV. His election to the bishopric of Maastricht, and his acts in it down to his exile.

[ ] About the year 670 he becomes bishop of Maastricht, St. Theodard having been taken from the living by martyrdom, as we have said, his holy disciple Lambert succeeded to the episcopate with the highest zeal of the clergy, the people, and the nobles, Childeric II, king of Austrasia, consenting: which, since it is said to have happened not long after the slaying of that same Theodard, is wont to be referred to the year 668 as it drew to its close, in whose month of September, on the X day, Theodard is commonly believed to have been slain. Nevertheless from those things which in

us were observed in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Theodard, §3, num. 24, it could easily have happened only in the year 669; which, on account of what is to be said in §§8 and 10, pleases us better. He was then, according to what was said about the time of his birth at num. 22 and following, about the thirty-second year of his age; nor indeed can we assent to Giles of Orval, who asserts without any witness that he entered upon the episcopate in the twenty-first year of his age. This opinion of Giles, however, pleased Fisen too, book 4 of the History of the Church of Liège, num. 1, and Bucherius in his Chronicle of the Bishops of Maastricht, at the years of Christ 635 and 656, admitted it doubtfully. But Henschen, tom. 1 of February, in St. Amandus, page 834, num. 91, and Le Cointe at the year of Christ 636, num. 9, to whom Foullon, book 3 of the History of Liège, chapter 1, comes closest, more rightly rejected it.

[46] and for his virtues he is dear to Childeric II: Perhaps Giles went into this opinion because he had deduced from Nicholas that St. Lambert was born about the year 638, from which year until 659, in which, according to the Chronicles, as he says, he fixed the martyrdom of St. Theodard, twenty-one years are counted. What the holy Bishop did in the first years of his prelacy down to his exile, Godeschalc and Stephen do not unfold, except that they say that he discharged his office excellently, and had much weight with king Childeric in authority and counsel; on which matter the anonymous poet also sang thus:

But when bishop Theodard departed from the said city, pierced by the goads of an unjust death, the nobles constantly and the order of the lesser folk prayed that they might deserve to take for themselves holy Landbert as Pastor, who should feed the Lord's worthy lambs. Because the pontifical chair, about to receive him, shone, he began to be resplendent in the divine buskin. The lofty command of the king assented to these prayers: holy Landbert, sought thrice and four times over, the glory of the bishopric and the chair together received. Whom the king above the rest, as worthy of the gift of honor, during the time he lived, dearly and reverently loved.

[47] Nicholas the canon in the Life, num. 16 and 17, says but not to Clovis II, whose diploma that he was also in the highest veneration and esteem with Clovis II, the father of Childeric, and to this end praises a certain diploma given by him in his favor, in which he adorned him with honorable titles. I subjoin his words: Not undeservedly did Clovis, king of the Franks, use him familiarly, and commend himself to his prayers, and submit to his counsel; nor did anything in the ordering of his kingdom seem to him valid enough which was not strengthened by the prudence and authority of so great a Man. But of how great esteem and authority Bl. Lambert was with the king, manifestly appears; since that same peaceful king calls him not only bishop, but also father and an apostolic man, in that privilege which he promulgated, at the request of the holy Prelate himself, for the immunity and possessions of the church of St. Mary the perpetual Virgin, in whose name and honor at that time there flourished at Maastricht, after Tongres, a certain dignity of a pontifical chair: which privilege it is not doubtful is preserved among us to this day.

[48] Nicholas was followed by Fisen, book 4, num. 6, Nicholas wrongly praised. Or to Theodoric III, who nevertheless confesses that he sought the said diploma long in vain; And this, he says, we would have given to the reader, if, sought with great zeal, we could anywhere have found it. Foullon likewise believed Nicholas; but he makes no mention of that privilege as found by him. No more did Chapeauville find it, who passed over those statements of Nicholas without any annotation. But Fisen certainly sought in vain, since Clovis II, who died according to the received chronology in the year 655 or 656, could not have given it to St. Lambert, first raised to the episcopate in the year 669 or 670. Wherefore, if we should wish to believe Nicholas that some diploma of this kind given by a Clovis in favor of St. Lambert existed, it must have been not of Clovis II but of Clovis III of that name, who succeeded his father Theodoric III in the kingdom at the close of the seventh century.

[49] Likewise there cannot be admitted what Sigebert of Gembloux says in the Life to be published, num. 14, as Sigebert says? namely that the holy Bishop was no less acceptable to Theodoric in Neustria than to Childeric in Austrasia, both reigning at the same time, so that neither of them decreed anything in their kingdoms without his counsel. This, I say, cannot be admitted; for Theodoric reigned in Neustria with Ebroin the Mayor of the Palace for too short a time; nor is it likely that he would have used the counsels of an Austrasian Bishop for administering his kingdom, even if he had not soon been thrust out of his kingdom. Wherefore, if the holy Bishop ever flourished in favor of this kind with him, it must have been done while he afterwards obtained the monarchy.

[50] Among the disciples of the Saint when already bishop, one is handed down to have been the holy virgin Landrada, He seems to have veiled St. Landrada, and to have dedicated the church of Bilsen who, veiled by him, is said to have founded the maidens' monastery of Bilsen, two miles from the city of Maastricht and as many from Tongres, at the entrance of Taxandria or in Hesbaye, and to have caused its church to be dedicated by him. Of this most noble virgin you have the Life illustrated in us on the VIII day of July, written by Theodoric, abbot of Saint-Trond, who died a few years after the twelfth century had begun. He, further, at num. 7 of the Life, after he had narrated the church built by her in a place divinely marked out beforehand to the most holy Mother of God, proceeds thus to our purpose: But then she (St. Landrada) calls Lambert the bishop, afterwards to be a martyr of Christ, and, admonishing him by the devout familiarity by which they had from the beginning bound themselves to a holy soul, obtains according to her wish the consecration of her new church and the placing of relics. Then he says that many virgins subjected themselves to her discipline, and subjoins: By such a soldiery of virgins, by these training-schools, the place in a short time grew up, and, increasing to a fullness of every kindliness, it began to be called not, as before, Belua from the beasts, but Belisia, that is, Well-Elysian.

[51] about the beginnings Of these things Godeschalc and Stephen mentioned nothing: but Sigebert and Nicholas followed Theodoric, and affirmed that she used the counsels of St. Lambert for all these matters. The time of the monastery's building and of the church's dedication Theodoric did not indicate; but, if we believe Sigebert in the Life, num. 33, these things happened while Pippin (of Herstal) was prince of the Franks; who, since he, having first been made Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia in the year 681, brought St. Lambert back to his see from Stavelot, where he was living in exile among the monks, these things cannot, on Sigebert's opinion, be placed before the year just cited. Nevertheless, since from the Life of St. Landrada itself, which lighted Sigebert's way, it was shown in the Preliminary Commentary there, num. 3, that she must have been born about the year 620, we have preferred to refer these things to the first years of St. Lambert's episcopate, lest we should say that a virgin accustomed from her adolescence to ascetic exercises began her monastery so much later. Nor is Sigebert's authority great here; who, since in the place cited he also sets forth St. Landrada's death and the burial cared for by St. Lambert, which happened under Pippin, could easily have confused the times.

[52] of his episcopate. He trained St. Hubert Further, Le Cointe at the year of Christ 669, num. 6, judged that the said dedication of the church should likewise be tied to the first years of the Saint's episcopate, and the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, tom. 3, col. 995, referred the beginnings of the maidens' house of Bilsen to the year 669. For the rest, about the same monastery, commonly called Munsterbilzen, you will find more in the Preliminary Commentary on St. Landrada, §1. It still exists today, but has been changed into a chapter of illustrious canonesses. The same Nicholas in the Life mentions two other disciples of St. Lambert, namely holy Hubert, afterwards bishop, and holy Oda the widow, Hubert's aunt, who, he says, on account of the tyranny of Ebroin withdrew from Neustria into Austrasia, and were there so kindled by the admonitions of St. Lambert that the one of them succeeded his holy Master in the episcopate, and the other spent the rest of her life at Amay in holy widowhood. As regards St. Hubert, John Roberti published in the year 1621 a little book On his Conversion, written by an anonymous author, in which that same coming from Neustria into Austrasia, and his training under St. Lambert, is set forth; but since that fabulous consecration of St. Hubert by Pope Sergius I is narrated there in chapter 3, it cannot be of great authority.

[53] and perhaps also trained St. Oda. Nevertheless that he was a disciple of St. Lambert the other biographer of Hubert, contemporary and an intimate, published by Surius on the III day of November, does not allow us to doubt, who says this about him when already raised to the episcopate: For the aforesaid servant of the Lord was helped not only by the examples of Christ, but also by the most recent institutions of his Predecessor. This same thing Godeschalc teaches still more clearly and in express words in the Life of St. Lambert, num. 29, saying: But holy Hubert, who was once the disciple of Landebert, etc. That St. Oda was a companion to Hubert as he forsook Neustria, the aforesaid author of the Conversion writes in chapter 1 in these words: And there clung to him, as an undivided companion, his aunt Oda, who was the widow of Boggis, duke of the Aquitanians, lately deceased. She is venerated in the diocese of Liège on the XXIV day of October with a semi-double Office, in whose lessons for the second Nocturn it is likewise said that, her husband Boggis, duke of the Aquitanians, being dead, she came into the parts of Austrasia, and, together with Hubert stirred up by the admonitions of St. Lambert, took up a holier kind of life. She is also much praised there for the hospices and churches erected, and for her devout munificence toward the poor and the ministers of the church, especially at Amay near Huy in the diocese of Liège, where, as we have said, she most holily ended her life and is venerated: all which things, as also the time of the events, I leave to be examined on the XXIV day of October.

[54] Sigebert in the Chronicle, or rather its interpolator, published by Miræus, He was not present at the translation of St. Vedast, writes at the year of Christ 658 that our St. Lambert was present among the other bishops at the translation of the body of St. Vedast made by St. Autbert, when St. Audomarus, who likewise was present, received the light of his eyes, of which he had been deprived, and obtained to be deprived of it again. Hence the presence of St. Lambert at the aforesaid translation Massæus in his Chronicle, book 13, Miræus in the Origines Benedictinæ, chapter 5, Locrius in the Chronicon Belgicum at the year 687, Malbrancq, book 4, chapter 1, De Morinis, and Fisen and Foullon already praised elsewhere, have handed down as undoubted. This translation Henschen on the VI day of February, in St. Vedast, page 787, num. 22, tied to the year of Christ 667, from whom Le Cointe did not much dissent, who referred it to the year 666,

about which Mabillon also judged that it happened. Henschen's opinion, as nearest to the truth, was admitted anew on the IX day of September in Audomarus, page 390; yet in such wise that the said translation could have been made a year or two later or earlier.

[55] But now, from what has been said above, St. Lambert was not initiated into the episcopate before the year 669 or 670, as the interpolator of Sigebert asserted. and so, according to the opinion of Henschen, Le Cointe, and Mabillon, he could not have been present at the translation of St. Vedast. But that he was not present at it at all is persuaded by the silence of the three chief writers about that translation, namely the anonymous monk of St. Vaast, Alcuin, and Fulbert, whose lucubrations Henschen reviewed on the cited day of February, and who all, as Le Cointe rightly observed, mentioned St. Audomarus in them, but none of them St. Lambert. Nothing about this subject either is to be read in the ancient biographers of St. Lambert, not even in Sigebert: whence Miræus's opinion can in some fashion be confirmed, namely that what is read about that translation in the praised Chronicle is to be attributed to the interpolator of Sigebert. Henschen's suspicion as to whence that interpolator may seem to have been led into this error we shall presently mention.

[56] He in Vedast, num. 27 of the Preliminary Commentary, was of opinion that St. Lambert the bishop could have been present at another twofold dedication — first of the church of Honnecourt, and then of St. Vaast's at Arras — under St. Vindicianus, who succeeded Autbert immediately in the bishopric of Arras. He could nevertheless have been present at the dedication of the churches For the first he praises Balderic in the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras, where in book 1, chapter 26, the following are had: Moreover the same aforesaid bishop Vindicianus consecrated, in the village which, distant nearly VII miles from the see of Cambrai, received from the ancients the name Hunolcurth, a monastery, having summoned with him not a few fellow bishops, and together also with Bl. Lantbert of Liège, that most precious martyr, to the praise of God and the veneration of St. Peter, and there established clerics and nuns. This monastery is the same as that of Honnecourt, which in the year 684 Amalfrid gave to St. Bertin, abbot of Sithiu, and about which, in the deeds of this Saint, the Preliminary Commentary in tom. 2 of September, page 575, num. 117 and the following, may be consulted.

[57] of Honnecourt The Life of St. Vindicianus, written by Francis Doresmieux, abbot of Mont-Saint-Éloi, Henschen published on the XI day of March, in whose chapter 2, num. XI, very similar things are narrated about the dedication of that same church. Henschen himself in the Preliminary Commentary tied the beginning of that Vindicianus's episcopate to the year 676, on account of his own opinion about the years of Theodoric's reign, which he afterwards corrected in the preliminary Exegesis before tom. III of April, num. 18, and warned that that same beginning should be taken back to the year of Christ 670. But Le Cointe assigns the year 669, which small difference makes nothing for the present controversy; since on the opinion of either St. Lambert could have been present at the said dedication before he was driven from his see about the year 674. But in what year that dedication was made is unknown. Yet when Amalfrid gave that monastery in the year 684 to St. Bertin, Auriana, the daughter of that same Amalfrid, was already presiding there over the nuns, and probably had already presided for some years, and so the church too had already been founded there. Hence it can easily be that the praised dedication happened before St. Lambert's exile.

[58] and of St. Vaast at Arras. Further, from the reported words of Balderic Henschen suspected that our St. Lambert was summoned by this same man to dedicate the church of St. Vaast at Arras, which St. Vindicianus had completed, as he had been summoned to that of Honnecourt. And since in this latter dedication the body of St. Vedast was again elevated, hence he judged it came about that St. Lambert was believed by others to have stood by at the earlier translation under St. Autbert, the immediate predecessor of Vindicianus: which suspicion indeed he confirms in the same place, observing that the earlier translation, which in the Anchin and Ortelian Ms. of Sigebert's Chronicle is rightly attributed to St. Autbert, is in the Gembloux and Leipzig one attributed to Vindicianus. But this of Henschen's is only a suspicion or conjecture, from which nothing certain can be determined, and the less can be determined because the year even of the last dedication has not become known from elsewhere.

§ V. The holy Bishop's expulsion from his see, Faramund being intruded: his withdrawal to Stavelot, and a remarkable example of obedience and endurance.

[ ] Childeric being slain, the Saint is driven from his see, Meanwhile, while the holy Bishop was diligently watching over his flock, king Childeric being slain, the face of the kingdom was changed, and he himself, driven from his see, spent seven years in exile among the monks of Stavelot, as all his biographers testify. Among these Godeschalc at num. 5 and following says thus: Therefore when the glorious king Childeric had been slain by impious men, then the devil, the envier of all good things, rose up in haste against the blessed Man, with most savage adversaries devising wicked and false counsels, that they might cast him down from the pontifical see. And so far did their iniquity prevail that they deposed him from his see without cause; and he was deprived of his honor without fault. After this they established Faramund in his chair. But Landebert, God's elect bishop, went on to the monastery which is called Stavelot, etc. Similarly Stephen, cleaving to Godeschalc: He (the devil) stirred up hatreds, excited quarrels, disturbed the peace of the church, made dread the foundation of the kingdom. With the rage of cruelty he so kindled the hearts of men that they did not behold heaven, nor remember the judgments of God. This poison therefore being grievously scattered through the limbs of the devil, the prince of the kingdom is slain, namely the glorious king Childeric.

[60] For presently he stirred up the weight of envy and hatred against Lantbert, the servant of God. and Faramund Hence, as hostile rage raged more and more, and the envy of the devil wickedly blazed up, Lantbert, the renowned priest of Christ, is deprived of the dignities of his due honor, and a celibate [] man is cast out of the pontifical chair without cause. O the wickedness! Royal sublimity perished, the iniquity of the depraved prevailed, priestly holiness was confounded, the equity of justice was profaned! Alas! I am compelled to set forth in writing a matter of truth. Then the robber Faramund ineptly seized the pulpit of the church of Maastricht!* etc. To these I add also the anonymous poet, contemporary with Stephen, who on the same subject sang thus in chapter 7:

But after the king paid the debts owed to worldly flesh, then the rage of the chief men compelled the holy Bishop to depart, driven from his own see. He, for as long a time as he remained present with the peoples, because he poured the lights of doctrine through dark trackless places, girt about the loins, strove to carry burning lamps in his hands, and sent forth heavenly seeds; giving examples to the good, and striking the depraved with the sword.

illumined his own house with light: but there can be no fellowship of light with darkness; therefore worldly men, willing it, cast out the Holy one, lest he should be able to drive out the depraved. Those who did this seize a certain man, Faramund by name, and set him in the see of the already named kindly Bishop, whereby, O Holy one, thou mightest be more blessed: for the Lord Christ says that those are more blessed whom rejection makes to suffer for justice' sake. For the Bishop then, entering the monastery which by name they call Stavelot, followed the teachings of the monks for seven years.

Thus far they, indicating no certain author of the disturbed kingdom and of the holy Bishop's exile, which Sigebert and Nicholas rightly affirm was Ebroin. Ebroin was still discharging the mayoralty of the royal house, which he had held in Neustria and Burgundy under Clothair III, when his brother Theodoric succeeded to the kingdom: but he soon so offended the Franks and Burgundians, to whom he was hateful, that after a few months of Theodoric's reign they summoned Childeric from Austrasia, where he was reigning, and set him over themselves as king, Theodoric and Ebroin being tonsured and the first of these thrust into the monastery of St. Denis near Paris, the other into that of Luxeuil.

[62] Then, Childeric being slain before he had completed four years in the kingdom of Neustria, This was done under Ebroin Theodoric, released from the monastery, was restored to his former kingdom. But Ebroin too, having himself gone out of Luxeuil, won over to himself many of the Austrasians, and first indeed raised to a share of the kingdom of Austrasia a certain Clovis, whom he falsely gave out to be the son of Clothair III; but then, having deserted his party, and peace being made with Theodoric, he obtained the mayoralty of the palace under him; as may be seen at more length in Le Cointe, Pagi, and other writers of Frankish affairs. Further, Ebroin, among the other crimes of which he is accused, had nothing more at heart than, for the strengthening of his own power, to cast from their place and to banish into exile great and holy men, by whom he thought himself once injured, and whom he knew would by no means consent to his tyranny. Of these he took care that St. Leodegarius, bishop of Autun, refusing to break the faith which he had given to Theodoric and to go over to the party of the pseudo-Clovis, should have his eyes torn out and be led away from Autun to be destroyed by hunger; and then, as though guilty of Childeric's slaying, to be beheaded after dire torments; about all which the Life of that same St. Leodegarius published in Mabillon, Century 2, and written by a contemporary author, may be consulted.

[63] But among the other men illustrious in holiness, whose priestly constancy Ebroin dreaded, about the year 674; not however in the pseudo-synod, our St. Lambert was not in the last place, whom the highest authority which he had once enjoyed with king Childeric also made the more hateful to him. And him therefore, being driven from his see, he compelled to go into exile, Faramund, most like Ebroin in character, being substituted in his place. This deed Le Cointe and Pagi refer to the year 674, about which it is clear it must in fact be referred, from his return from exile after seven years, which we shall see below at num. 83 happened about the year 682. Sigebert in the Life, num. 18, writes that this expulsion of the holy Bishop from his see was made in a synod convoked by king Theodoric at Ebroin's counsel, in these words: A crowd of bishops having been convoked to a synod by king Theodoric at the counsel of Ebroin, who, like dumb dogs, were unable to bark against the testimony of falsehood, they deprive some bishops of their order, others they ordain with a doubled injustice.

[64] which was assembled some years later. And lest anyone should remain in the kingdom or the church who by the example or instigation of Lantbert would dare to raise the shield of faith for the defense of the truth — Lantbert, who above the rest dared more freely to oppose injustice — all the accomplices of the devil rise up against Lantbert, the friend of truth, and, causes of injustice being contrived, depose him from the episcopate. Similarly in the Chronicle at the year of Christ 685 he says: King Theodoric receives Ebroin into favor, and at his counsel assembles a synod of bishops, and in it deprives many of them of their bishopric according to Ebroin's opinion, and condemns some of them also to irrevocable exile. Under so stormy a tumult of domestic persecution, holy Lambert too, being removed from the bishopric of Maastricht, seeks in the monastery of Stavelot the harbor of monastic quiet, and there dwelt with himself for seven years.

[65] Following Sigebert, the most eminent Baronius in the Annals at the cited year 685 adopted his words: but besides the fact that in that year

we shall see below that St. Lambert had already been restored to his see, no other of the biographers, not even Nicholas, makes mention of that synod. Wherefore what Pagi judged about Baronius at the year 674, num. 7, I believe happened to Sigebert: that he believed St. Lambert to have been deprived of his bishopric in the pseudo-synod which the anonymous writer of the Life of St. Leodegarius in Mabillon, Century 2, says was held by the order of Theodoric and Ebroin, and in which both the bishops who were enemies of that same Leodegarius were punished by the just judgment of God, and St. Leodegarius was unjustly condemned; which is by no means consonant with the statements of Godeschalc and Stephen. For both so report our Saint's exile after the slaying of Childeric as to signify that it happened not long after it. The words of both we recited at nums. 59 and 60. But that the aforesaid synod was convoked some years later is established from the same Life of St. Leodegarius, and Le Cointe and Pagi tied it to the year 678, when St. Lambert was already staying for some years among the monks of Stavelot.

[66] The man intruded into the see of Maastricht Godeschalc, and after him all, call Faramund; The opinions of some about this Faramund, Stephen loads him with many crimes; but neither of them, as neither the anonymous poet, declares what he was before he invaded the bishopric. First of all Sigebert at num. 18 of the Life asserted that he was a cleric of Cologne: It is reported, he says, that the bishop of Cologne conspired in this faction of the depraved; who also suffered Faramund, a cleric of his own church, to be promoted to the bishopric of Maastricht against right and divine law. This same thing he has in the same words in the shorter Life, published under Reiner's name, in which he accuses that same bishop of a nefarious use of money in that matter. Receive his words: It is reported that the bishop of Cologne conspired in this faction of the depraved, led by the zeal of envy, and that, money being given, he stirred up the chief men of the people to hatred of Lambert; who also suffered Pharamund, a cleric of his own church, to be promoted to the bishopric of Maastricht against right and divine law. Nicholas the canon had seen Sigebert, and yet did not dare to affirm as certain that Faramund was a cleric of the church of Cologne, in the Life, num. 19, where he says: (Ebroin), thrusting in there a certain Pharamund, as they say a cleric of Cologne, all reverence for the sacred canons being trampled, violently enthroned him.

[67] Hence Gelenius, On the greatness of Cologne Agrippina, page 41, praising Nicholas and other writers of Liège, and the other circumstances are weighed. says thus about Faramund, whom he reviews in the twenty-first place among the bishops of Cologne: He is thought to be the same who from the clergy of Cologne had been intruded into the chair of the exiled St. Lambert. Yet much more rightly the writers of the Gallia Christiana, tom. 3, col. 629, remove that infamy from the see of Cologne; since neither the reckoning of time nor anything else besides the name favors that opinion; nor is it likely from elsewhere that so nefarious a man, expelled from the see which he had invaded, should have ascended to so illustrious a bishopric. The same Gelenius in the same place, page 277, judged that Anno I was that bishop of whom Sigebert speaks, and suspected that he had consented in the adultery of Pippin of Herstal with Alpaïs, and, a synod being convoked, had pronounced the sentence of deposition against St. Lambert, who was reproving that concubinage: which the praised writers of the Gallia Christiana, col. 628 and following, deservedly observe to be certainly alien from the truth. Wrongly too does Fisen, both in the Flowers and in the History of the Church of Liège, fasten that crime upon Aldwin, the beginning of whose episcopate, in the place of the Gallia Christiana just cited, Le Cointe places at the year 680, but the Sainte-Marthes at 690 — that is, both of them some years after the Saint's expulsion. But I, on account of that assertion of Sigebert's, which he himself indicated was doubtful to him by adding the word it is reported, prefer to hold none of the bishops of Cologne suspect of so great a crime, rather than undeservedly to charge a particular one.

[68] The Saint betakes himself to Stavelot, That the holy Bishop, being cast out of his see, betook himself, together with two disciples or servants, to the monastery of Stavelot of his own diocese in the Ardennes, all his biographers narrate with one mouth. About this monastery, which is famous to this day, commonly called Stavelot, and about its founder St. Remaclus, likewise bishop of Maastricht, there has been treatment at more length in our Work on the III day of September, on which he is venerated. That this same St. Remaclus was then still presiding over the monks of Stavelot Nicholas believed, since in the Life to be published, num. 32, he wrote that he was still alive there when our Saint after seven years was restored to his bishopric. Hariger too in Chapeauville, in St. Remaclus, chapter 51, reckons Lambert among his disciples; and Notger in tom. 1 of September, page 683, so reviews Lambert's stay in the monastery of Stavelot that it can seem to have happened under him. Hence Fisen, book 4 of the Hist. eccles. Leod., num. 14, as also in the Flowers of that same church, embraced that opinion as undoubted.

[69] not under St. Remaclus, but perhaps under Sigolinus; Whatever be the case about the Saint's discipleship under Remaclus, from what has been said it is certain that he, who went to heaven between the years of Christ 667 and 671, was not presiding over Stavelot when our holy Exile came there. More rightly Mabillon, tom. 1 of the Annal. Benedict., at the year of Christ 674, num. 40, Le Cointe at the same year, num. 12, and the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, tom. 3, col. 940, are of opinion that this was done when Sigolinus was abbot. Of the two companions of his exile one was Theodoenus, from whom Godeschalc testifies that he received much about St. Lambert. Yet the life which the Saint most holily led there, apart from one remarkable example of obedience and endurance, both he and the other biographers touched on only with a general commemoration of his virtues, as may be seen in its place. Nevertheless I judge it will not be unwelcome to the reader if I here review what the anonymous poet sang about that heroic deed. And so he has it thus.

[70] where, for a sound made by a shoe, he is ordered For the Bishop then, entering the monastery which by name they call Stavelot, followed the teachings of the monks for seven years; but how he passed those same years you will be able, reader, to know well enough from other writings. For now I speak only a little, being held back by the reckoning of meter, setting forth what simplicity or what patience remained to him among the other acts of the brotherly name. It happened then, as he watched in the night in wintertime, when he wished to pay his accustomed praises to the Lord, that, rising, he took up his shoes with swift effort, and one, slipping, fell away and struck the ground, from whose sound a vexation clung to the brethren, by which their rest, being driven off, oppressed some with disturbance, and stirred the father of the place to such anger that he gave commands, saying: Whoever has done this deed, let him go outside, standing and laboring now at the stall of the cross, and let him feel the snow and the wintry colds, which are the cleansings of a fault committed. This the father said, not knowing who had made the sound. Taking this in with his ear, the Holy one, through the great silences, set his step, and going out began to walk with naked soles, and beside the cross remained with rejoicing breast, standing and singing to God above these torments of the flesh, "A contrite heart," he says, "which a gentle making girds, God does not spurn, but adorns it with his light." Namely that as a suppliant, imitating by these pains the footsteps of the Lord Christ, he might bear in his body the example of him who suffers such storms in the flesh.

[71] Meanwhile the Holy one, set in deep torments, stood, and loosed the reins of his heart to praises. barefoot under the open sky at the cross On this side anguish shakes him, on that stiffness; snow flows in, coming from lofty seats, that hoary companion of winter, a harsh softness hateful to warmth, and a cruel whiteness, and a chill to the naked and the gentle, whose clothing knows how to carry no warmth, and, as it clothes, the mantle grows cold the more swiftly. Moreover the north wind gave harsh blasts to the hard waves, which had already fed a stony shower. So disturbed was the air, so thick did it bristle, because it saw the Lord's Holy one suffering so much. These things too Lambert, since he was now most holy, enduring above what has been said, sang with sweet utterance, that he might be held a skillful imitator of Christ. For he was intent, beneath the keenness of a learned mind, on this: that flesh cannot be joined in worthy fellowship to the spirit, unless first worn down by hard beating it forsake the wicked enticements of the polluted garment. Whence Paul sings, a friend faithful enough to us, that it is not for flesh of blood to climb on high, nor shall corruption now seize incorruption; setting these things forth sufficiently, he said this first, which he had said.

[72] Thus instructed were the acts of bishop Lambert, brave in the war, lest the prince of this air in wintertime he passes the night in prayers; should prevail, he tamed his own flesh with the lash, knowing for certain that unless there be suffering for the flesh, it cannot be bound by any joining to the hosts of heaven, so as to pluck the joys of the true paradise. When therefore the brethren had completed the solemnities of the sacred rite, desiring to drive off the cold, they then go to the room where a pleasant abode of warmth is wont to be, and ask together which brother was absent, and by what he had been kept from the sacred hymns [*]. Then one of the brethren standing by says to the abbot: I heard you, father, this night appointing a certain man to go to the stall of the cross to lay down his fault. Then another said: The lord Lambert is found standing before the cross, he chants hymns and prays, with bared soles, and covered with a hard covering; whom the cruel winter will take from our name, unless help be swiftly given after a fatherly manner. The father, noting this, being frightened in mind, began with suppliant prayer to appoint certain of the brethren to go and to beg him to return to the sheepfold.

[73] the abbot and monks being astonished. Straightway they go, and behold him exulting in breast, with eyes uplifted and hands stretched to the stars; "Thee, lord," they say, "the abbot and the brethren beseech that thou wouldst go hence in mercy, and stand before their sight": and he, breaking off delay, came to their threshold. Then the devout abbot, weeping, prostrates himself before him, and together the brethren ask pardon from their heart: "Holy Father, forgive us our offense from thy heart; in ignorance indeed, we confess, we did what we did." These things they said to him: and holy Lambert to them, "May the merciful Lord pardon you these things," he says: "for Paul says: To the naked and to those touched by cold the service of the Lord stands from a worthy body." Straightway he is led to the warm waves of the waters, and, clothed in other garments, they ever honor him, and now by the hands, now by the feet, they give him kisses, and joyfully venerate him as a disciple of God, and thus their voices beat upon the stars: "Alas! now my brother, alas, our little brother! Why has the Lord hidden from us this night, that these hidden deeds, so exceedingly dear to God, should be ours; and we were worthy neither to feel nor to behold them. That from his merits a greater glory may grow, and that torpor may blacken us with a dire dripping, we have remained without share in this Holy one's affliction!"

[74] About that manner of doing penance These same things the other biographers also have, who add that the Saint, apart from the rough hair-shirt with which he was clothed, was otherwise naked: from which deed indeed

one may easily judge about his other heroic virtues, which he exercised there among the monks for seven years. About the cross at which the holy Bishop gave that remarkable example it will be useful to have observed some things. This, set under the open sky, on the testimony of Nicholas in the Life, num. 26, was by the custom of the monastery the discipline for correcting men of this kind. Its situation and use Sigebert too indicates at num. 22 of the Life, saying: This stone cross was set between the oratory and the dormitory. The sons of Israel in the desert, murmuring on account of weariness at the long journey and labor, and for this offense perishing by the striking of fiery serpents, were healed by the sight of the bronze serpent, lifted up by Moses for a sign, in the figure of the Son of man to be crucified. In this manner it is credible that this cross too was set for a sign, that at the sight of it those who were Christ's might crucify their flesh with its vices and concupiscences, and that if any, wearied with long labor, grew faint on the way of God, they might at the sight of the cross take up again from the death of Christ the long-suffering of hope, and so escape the fiery venoms of the ancient serpent. And below he says again: Assigned to which, those did penance according to rule, if any offended with somewhat graver faults.

[75] And that a manner of doing penance of this kind was in use in other monasteries too, some things are observed. we learn from the Life of St. Austreberta, abbess of Pavilly, contemporary with St. Lambert, in which, in us, tom. 2 of February, page 422, num. 15, a like example is read. For when the holy abbess, going through the dormitory with soft step, was inquiring whether all the nuns were resting properly, the prioress, not knowing that it was the handmaid of God, rebuked her sharply, saying: Why do you act so, sister? Why do you disturb those who rest? Go, she said, to the cross. But she, rejoicing, ran as quickly as possible, and stood motionless chanting psalms, until at the fitting hour, the signal being struck, all rose. But the prioress, when she learned what she had done, falling at her feet, begged pardon. But let us return to Stavelot. In the same place there stands to this day a sign of the Cross in memory of the deed, says Mabillon in the Annotations to the Life of St. Lambert. Fisen too, often praised, says: The cross today is of iron, in the same place, as they say; but low, and a monument too little seemly for so noble an example.

[76] John Bertholet in the French History of the duchy of Luxembourg, published a few years ago, A monument of this deed at Stavelot, tom. 2, page 133, notes something singular about the same place, which I have not read in others. His words, turned from French into Latin, I subjoin. There is shown to this day at Stavelot the place in which he underwent that penance, and for veneration's sake there has been built over it a roof of the breadth of that ground which the snow did not cover. So he, hinting at I know not what prodigy of a space of ground kept free from the snows, entirely unknown to the biographers. Certainly Godeschalc in the Life, num. 7, writes that the Saint stood there in the midst of the snows, and was covered with snows. Meanwhile, he says, so great a quantity of snow was continually poured down that it came up above the ankles of that Bishop. And below at num. 9: And his head and shoulder were entirely covered with snow. With Godeschalc agrees Nicholas at num. 27 of the Life, where he is said to be covered … with snow rather than with a garment: and again, He is dug out from that thickness of snows. Sigebert indeed says at num. 27, Although the snow flowed down abundantly, yet it did not rise above the Bishop's ankles; but this very thing too is contrary to the prodigy hinted at. Wherefore I do not see over what space of ground, untouched by the snows on that occasion, a roof could have been built for religion's sake, unless perhaps over that tiny space which, standing there, he pressed with his feet.

[77] Nicholas further hands down at num. 28 of the Life that from that heroic deed of the holy Bishop there arose among the people of Liège a custom and at Liège, as is reported, one set up. that within the enclosures of the principal church a cross should be erected under the open sky in perpetual memory of the deed done. Especially therefore, he says, in memory of this triumph, in the principal church of Liège, where that same precious Martyr rests in body, this custom first grew up, that within the cloister enclosures the standard of the Lord's Cross should be perpetually established under the open sky; although some churches seem to claim this for themselves, but from another kind of religious motive. As Nicholas rightly added this last, so his bare assertion, without any testimony of the ancients, by no means removes from me the doubt whether, like the other churches, the church of Lambert at Liège too erected that cross of old from some other religious motive rather than in memory of the said deed. Finally, that opinion is to be numbered among fictions of which Fisen in the Flowers of the Church of Liège, page 17, says thus: Nor are there wanting those who think St. Hubert had regard to this when he gave to the city of Liège for its device a golden shoe with a golden cross fixed in it. As though in the age of St. Hubert the use of devices of this kind by cities had already existed.

[78] It is most likely that the Saint among the monks of Stavelot It may here be asked whether St. Lambert, while he was in exile at Stavelot, wore the monastic habit as a monk. To the question Mabillon thus replied in the preliminary Observations to the Life, num. 8. It is established that he lived seven years as an exile in the monastery of Stavelot. But at that time it was the custom that even those relegated or thrust into monasteries should take up Religious garments. Witnesses are St. Leodegarius, Ebroin at Luxeuil, Childeric king of the Franks at Sithiu, and his son Theodoric at Fontenelle, shorn as monks. How much more may this be affirmed of Landebert, who, although he was driven from his see, withdrew to Stavelot willingly? Hence Stephen the bishop in his Life: "Among whom" (namely the monks of Stavelot) "he came last in order, but stood first in holiness; last in number, but chief in the zeal of devotion." Finally in Sigebert's Chronicle some Ms. codices have thus at the year DCLXII: "St. Lambert is made a monk." Thus far Mabillon, whose opinion appears to me also very likely.

[79] professed the monastic state. Nevertheless this is not established from the examples brought forward: for those men were bidden, even unwilling, to be shorn, lest they should stir up anything in the kingdom: but holy Lambert, since he betook himself of his own accord to the monks of Stavelot, could have stayed among them not as a monk until, the face of affairs being changed, he should be restored to his see. And this opinion is favored by Godeschalc, who at num. 6 of the Life affirms that two boys or servants remained in attendance on the Saint while he stayed at Stavelot; Nor did more, he says, remain in attendance on him than two boys. Did the monks of that time then sometimes keep some servants for themselves? Stephen's statements likewise prove nothing, which would be true even if the Saint had not put on the monk's habit. Sigebert's authority too, who asserts his monastic state also in the Life, num. 20, does not suffice to make certain what happened nearly four centuries before him. Nevertheless, since from Godeschalc it is established that St. Lambert at Stavelot used even the common dormitory among the monks, I judge it altogether most likely that he professed the monastic state there.

perhaps celebris* (famous)

read lucis ad instar* (after the likeness of light)

hymnis* (hymns)

§ VI. The holy Bishop's restoration to his see by Pippin of Herstal: his care of the diocese and his episcopal virtues.

[ ] He is restored to his see, That St. Lambert stayed seven full years among the monks at Stavelot, when at length, the invader Faramund being expelled, he was restored to his chair of Maastricht, Godeschalc testifies at num. 10 of the Life, and after him all the other biographers. The time and the author of so happy an event the praised Godeschalc signifies in these words: At that time Pippin was prince over very many regions and cities situated in Europe. The works of the blessed Man being heard of, within the space of a single day he ordered him to be called back with great honor to his own see. But Stephen writes this on the same subject in the Life, num. 23: At that time Pippin held the monarchy of the kingdom and the principate of the people, a man strenuous in arms and a chief cultivator of the divine religion. And Sigebert says thus at num. 25 of the Life: Pippin the second, son of Ansegisus and Begga, when he had manfully conquered all those who by contending among themselves were tearing France apart, alone under king Theodoric obtained the principate of all France, and set about to make better the disturbed state of the kingdom and of the church, etc.

[81] Nor less clearly does Nicholas speak in the Life, num. 29, by Pippin of Herstal, where he says: Meanwhile, the seven years being elapsed, the wrath of God being turned into mercy, after the dreadful storm there was made a calm in the church of God: for Ebroin, who had long vexed France with fraud, cruelty, and avarice, is wretchedly slain by the just judgment of God. But the duke of Austria, Pippin the second, son of Ansegisus, grandson of Pippin the first through his daughter Begga, whose heir he was in name and honor as also in justice and religion, a man keen in counsel and strenuous in hand, turned all his power and zeal to the honor of God's holy Church and the liberation of his country, and compelled king Theodoric, no less by warlike array than by his own justice, to change tyrannical cruelty into princely clemency. Therefore, affairs being quieted under Pippin, since now no storm of wars hindered the execution of the laws, etc. By these words all of them designate Pippin of Herstal, but not the same years; which therefore must here be distinguished in a few words.

[82] Ebroin, by whom our holy Bishop was driven from his see, as we said in §5, being slain in the year 681, not in the year 687, Warad or Waratto, substituted as Mayor of the Palace of king Theodoric, entered upon peace and concord with Pippin of Herstal, who as leader of the army presided over the Austrasians hostile to Theodoric, as Le Cointe and Pagi show at this year. The same deservedly judge that the condition of the peace was chiefly this, that Pippin, acknowledging Theodoric, should discharge the mayoralty of the palace in Austrasia. After this, in the year 687, Pippin led out the Austrasians again against Theodoric and his Mayor of the Palace Berthar, and routed them on the field of Tertry. And not long after, that same Berthar being slain, he was made Mayor of the Palace of the whole monarchy of France. Consult, if you please, the praised annalists and Henschen in the Exegesis to the Diatriba Dagobertina, prefixed to tom. III of April. Now let us return whence we digressed. Nicholas with Sigebert, as is clear from what has been said, refers St. Lambert's return from the monastery to his bishopric to the year of Christ 687. Nor do Stephen's words present anything else; unless perhaps he understood, contrary to common usage, by the monarchy of the kingdom the governance of Austrasia alone, which Pippin as leader of the army was defending against Theodoric, whom the Austrasians refused to obey for some years.

[83] But on the contrary nothing stands in the way of taking the words of Godeschalc, the biographer nearest to the events, but in the year 681 or 682, as referring to the mayoralty of Austrasia alone, which we have said Pippin obtained through the peace entered upon in the year 681. For since he says that he did not administer the monarchy, but only over very many regions

and cities situated in Europe he was prince, his statements can conveniently be taken of the mayoralty of Austrasia alone: and so I judge they must altogether be taken. For if we defer the end of St. Lambert's exile, which he endured for seven years, to the year 687, it will be necessary to tie its beginning too to about the year 680. But then in what way will both Godeschalc and Stephen be able to be reconciled with themselves? For on their opinion, when the glorious king Childeric had been slain by impious men (namely in the year 673, as Pagi with Le Cointe thinks, or 675, as Henschen), then the devil, the envier of all good things, rose up in haste against the blessed Man, … that they might cast him out of the pontifical see; and presently, as the second says, … he stirred up the weight of envy and hatred against Lantbert, the servant of God, and cast him out of the episcopal chair. The words of both we gave at nums. 59 and 60.

[84] in which Pippin, having been made Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, A like difficulty occurs in the statements of Nicholas and Sigebert: for both of them too review the holy Bishop's exile among the first crimes of Ebroin after the slaying of Childeric, although, confusing the times, they set before that exile, without reckoning of times, things which happened after. Then thus our Saint could not, contrary to what the two later biographers assert and the modern critics admit, be expelled by Ebroin; but either by king Dagobert II, who died in the year 678, or certainly not later than the year 680, or after his slaying, while Martin with Pippin, or the latter alone, held the leadership of the Austrasian army, which is by no means to be admitted. I said "by Dagobert": for that Maastricht obeyed him, like the other cities of Austrasia generally, after the slaying of Childeric and the repulse of the pseudo-Clovis, Henschen solidly proves in the Diatriba on the three Dagoberts, book 2, chapter 8, and in the Exegesis on that same Diatriba, chapter 3, before tom. III of April, with Pagi agreeing in the Critica at the year of Christ 674, num. 14 and following.

[85] called the Saint back to his bishopric after seven years of exile; We believe therefore that the end of this exile fell in the year of Christ 681 or the following, to which from the year 674 or 675 are counted the seven years which St. Lambert spent among the monks of Stavelot. For then Pippin, as we said, discharging peacefully among the Austrasians the mayoralty of the royal palace through the peace entered upon with Theodoric and Warad, seems to have set his mind on repairing the damages of the church, and to have restored the holy Bishop to his see. The same opinion is maintained by Le Cointe and Pagi, of whom the first at the cited year 681, num. 64, and the other in the same place at num. 31, judge besides that the occasion of restoring Lambert then fell to Pippin because, among the other Austrasian cities which, compelled by force, had up to then clung to the party of Ebroin, Maastricht with nearly the whole diocese came by the said peace into Pippin's lot. And on this opinion indeed it is more easily understood why the Saint was in exile for the whole seven years; but since from what has been said above Maastricht had already for some years obeyed Dagobert, and we do not know from elsewhere that that same city was occupied after his slaying by the party of Ebroin, that assertion is not likely enough. To this Pagi did not attend, who at the year 674, num. 12 and following, had asserted against Le Cointe, with Henschen, that Maastricht clung to Dagobert.

[86] and expelled Faramund. It seems therefore that St. Lambert was cast out of his chair not long after the slaying of king Childeric by Ebroin, who had joined a great part of Austrasia to his own party, and stayed in exile as long as Maastricht obeyed first Ebroin and then also Dagobert. But the cause why Dagobert did not recall so holy a Bishop is undiscovered by me; unless perhaps because Dagobert, having returned some years before from Ireland, where he too had been in exile, judged that nothing should be innovated in a kingdom obtained by him not long since, or because the Saint himself had adversaries among the nobles of Austrasia, as often happens, who hindered his restoration. As regards Faramund, Nicholas the canon writes in the Life, num. 30, that he, affairs of the kingdom being pacified by Pippin, conscious to himself of a bishopric most wickedly seized and no better administered, since he dreaded the judgment of the bishops, fled of his own accord, and, no one compelling him, left the see vacant.

[87] But here, as often elsewhere, Nicholas strays from the truth: for Godeschalc, The holy man, Faramund being cast out, Stephen, and Sigebert expressly teach that Faramund was cast down from the see which he had invaded, and expelled from the whole province. After seven years were completed, says Godeschalc, Faramund was deposed from the pontifical see, and was cast out of the province of Maastricht. About the same Stephen says at num. 23: Meanwhile the unhappy usurper of the church of Maastricht, Faramund … his faults demanding it, being accused by the reproaches of very many, was expelled from the pontifical chair and cast out of that same province. For seven years he presided there in name only, yet on no day was he of profit by the work of action. Sigebert finally has it thus: To him (Pippin of Herstal) among other things this material for praise occurred: Faramund, the hireling of Maastricht, at length being renounced by the just sentence of clergy and people, is expelled not only from the church of Maastricht, but also from the whole province.

[88] With how great exultation the holy Bishop was received by his flock, is received with the greatest joy: and what, being restored to his own, he presently performed, may be seen in the biographers, and needs no comment. Wherefore I here only subjoin the verses of the anonymous poet about these things.

Seven years therefore being happily completed from when the Saint went to the already named monastery, Rumor, having wings, tells that Faramund had gone away, and had been cast outside, and driven from the threshold of the country. Then people and clergy lift their voices to the heavens, and you would see prayers with a cry flying through the high clouds, reader, had you perchance been there at last. From every side the gentle bleatings of the sheep demand that the grace of holy Lambert be given back to them, of their former Pastor fitted to their voices. This voice goes through the heights, through the fields, runs through the depths, penetrating all the ears of the secret breath. Then Pippin was prince in those regions, to whom the fame of the Man, gliding down in swift flight, enters and sets forth the miracles of so great a Saint.

[89] Straightway the prince, touched with divine love, commanded that they should restore the sacred Bishop, led out from the seats of the cell, to the fitting prayers of the demanding people, and give back the due things of his see. For while the Saint is led to the folds of the city, his own flock exults in bright hymns, praising the Lord together, who gave back to them what was lost, their troops spread widely over the plains of the country. Thence through the outer cities of the neighboring realm a very great exultation gave lofty praises, because the holy care of the kindly Pastor had revived, and, flourishing again, sends forth the seeds of words. Hence therefore Lambert, being received in his own see, eminent in character and famous in the acts of his life, strove to be clothed in the covering of the divine garment! Hence unfailing he remained under the law of the Lord, to whose flesh no passing contagion clung, because the reins joined it to divine fear.

stood for him, and he sent darts against the bitings of wolves. He asked with all prayers from a humble breast that his heart and eyes be filled with divine light, that his wisdom might lead the Lord's people, to be ruled by the straight path, clean under his hands. With him the person of a depraved powerful man had no weight, whence he had for a time suffered banishment; but whomever he saw living a good life, to him he was a consolation, leading him from a fatherly mind. He indeed, living poor under the holy breath, fittingly bestowed gifts on the poor of Christ. And when he had begun to visit the brethren in the monasteries, giving alms, he preaches heavenly things to them; whatever he bestowed on them, he rejoiced to have bestowed on Christ, turning it over indeed in his mind, that Christ said that those are blessed who are called from a pitying heart, and the merciful likewise, whom mercy shall so gird that they may pluck pardon for every stain of guilt. For he wished to be seen in a cheap garment; but his mind was covered with the thread of a precious warp; he did not seek to make a show by dearly adorning his own seat, shining with the ornament of an honorable mind.

which the surpassing seemliness of the world seeks, he often put on a garment cut short of the shining purple, and made bright honor grow gentle. He was subject to Christ with fervent breast, and to his praise, a plunderer by earthly gift, worthy of sacred honor, of doctrine, of light, of the word, a corrector of crimes, a sweet lover of the upright, strong in adversity, humble through the prosperities of peace, desirous of justice, turning aside for no upright man, neither could he be worn down by terror nor broken by a gift. For he preserved his flesh to God in chaste honor, and fed his own flock with worthy love. Solicitous for his people, he surveyed the countries and cities, confirming the faith born of the Threefold name, that whoever has loved the One may believe that the Godhead of Father and Son with the holy Breath is God; here, where error flowed among the wretched heathen, the Pastor, standing in the way, strengthened their breasts.

§ VII. His apostolate among the Taxandrians: certain uncertain matters about his dealings with St. Willibrord, and among the people of Mechlin.

[ ] He preaches Christ to the idolatrous Taxandrians, Nor did his charity keep the apostolic Man within his own flock, but sent him out also to enlighten the heathen with the Gospel light. A very ample field for this work was offered him by the neighboring Taxandrians, whom ancestral barbarism still held then bound to the worship of idols. The situation and boundaries of the region of the Taxandrians, which others write Toxandria, Texandria, and Thessandria, Nicholas the canon sets forth in the Life. And first indeed at num. 35 he thus assigns its boundaries toward Maastricht: The region whose name is Taxandria … is separated from the town of Maastricht toward the North by scarcely three miles. And at num. 42, treating of the monastery of Belisia, commonly Bilsen, That place, he says, set at the entrance of Taxandria, is distant two miles from Maastricht and two from the ruined walls of the city of Tongres. But its boundaries, where it stretches to the North, he indicates in the same place at num. 39, when he says: The river Meuse, mingled with and swollen by the stream of the Rhine, and now greater than itself and in all things unlike its own spring, not far from the English sea divides the Taxandrians and the other inhabitants of that region from the Frisians.

[93] Hence our Henschen in the Exegesis on the Bishopric of Tongres and Maastricht, not without peril of his life, before tom. VII of May, chapter 12, teaches against Philip Cluverius that the Taxandrians dwelt on the right side of the river Demer very far toward the North, as far as the Caninefates and the borders of the Batavians. Hadrian Valois too in the Notitia Galliæ more expressly extends Taxandria from the third milestone from the city of Maastricht as far as the confluence of the Meuse and the Waal, which is a part of the Rhine. But that the reader may marvel less why a people so near to the Tungrians and the people of Maastricht persevered until that time, that is, until the seventh century was already at its close, in idolatry, it will be useful to have heard Nicholas. For this region, he says at num. 35, by vast and almost continuous marshes

being overgrown, and on that account not sufficiently known or passable even to its neighbors by any right of commerce, contained within itself a multitude of a rustic people, whose barbarous manners the very solitude and superstition had made savage. To these barbarians, then, St. Lambert, not without present peril of his life, as the biographers hand down, and as the thing itself makes likely, announced Christ with so happy a success that he is deservedly called the apostle of the Taxandrians.

[94] For, on the testimony of Godeschalc in the Life, num. 13 and following, but with a most happy outcome, he destroyed very many temples and images (there), and by his apostolic preaching effected so much that those barbarians who at first, like most ferocious beasts, desired to tear him in pieces, afterwards, attending to the goodness of the holy Man, were converted with so great gentleness and confirmed in the faith of Christ … that they desired to imitate him. These same things Stephen also has more clearly at num. 36 of the Life, saying: Then, after strenuous preaching, that excellent Doctor and most eloquent Preacher cast down the idols, sanctioned the people with baptism, built churches, ordained priests, and consecrated that whole region to Christ the Lord, and made it over forever into the service of God. It will be useful to have reported here the anonymous poet also, singing thus:

Afterwards, where a greater madness lay among the pagans, in the land indeed which bears the name Texandria, thither he went undaunted, anointed with the fervor of faith, and, beholding the shrines of false gods, he preaches that they ought to be broken with everlasting ruins, that new dwellings may be made for the divine saints. Hence too, the ancient error being taken from the peoples, now the images, once built in evil years, fall headlong everywhere through fields and through cities.

[95] Then the roaring of the people, overflowing with heathen voice, is much heard; but thou standest unterrified, many of them being converted: to his labors holy Lambert of God, powerful in words, in acts. For all those who before, kindled in mind with fury, came together to tear the Saint in pieces alive, having heard the words of faith about the gift of the Threefold One, departed, faithful enough to Christ from the heart. Thus was the barbarian custom cast off from them.

Further, through this preaching of St. Lambert a great accession was made to the diocese of Maastricht, about which Nicholas in the twelfth century wrote this in the Life, num. 41: That whole region, therefore, which takes various names from its inhabitants, and which stretches on the right side of the course of the Meuse as far as the Northern ocean, owes to the apostolate of Lambert, the martyr of Christ, that it deserved to know its own error, and to obtain the grace of the Christian faith; and therefore it is subject, as we see today, to the parish of Liège. Yet I do not know whether it is owed to St. Lambert alone, and whether St. Hubert, his successor in the episcopate and in apostolic labors, does not deservedly claim some part for himself. For in his Life, written by his disciple and published by Surius on the III day of November, the Taxandrians are reviewed among the peoples converted by him to the faith. The biographer's words I subjoin.

[96] St. Hubert afterwards succeeded. For all the Ardennes, hitherto enslaved to these worships (of idols), he in a short time subjugated, free from sacrilegious servitude, to the service of the Lord. But if any survived when the general worship of idols was departing, who in sacrilegious fashion either held their dust in reverence, or thought by nefarious use that other things of this kind ought to be observed, these he brought to himself and punished with a three years' penance; and so the Lord's warrior, strenuously pursuing and trampling down the adverse powers within their borders, enlarged far and wide the Lord's dominion within their borders, so that in Taxandria and Brabant, by uncovering their snares, he utterly brought them to nothing, and the peoples, enlightened by the grace of Christ, broke their images and utterly renounced them, etc. However it be, it is established that St. Lambert is deservedly called the apostle of Taxandria, and that to him as author is owed that great increase of the diocese of Maastricht, now of Liège, which Nicholas mentions — a diocese which by lapse of time, and especially in the sixteenth century, through the new erection of bishoprics in Belgium, has been much curtailed.

[97] What Nicholas hands down is not sufficiently certain Nicholas in the Life, num. 39 and following, is authority that St. Lambert carried the light of the Gospel still further toward the North, to the peoples bordering on Taxandria and Frisia. For after narrating the conversion of the Taxandrians he thus proceeds: The grace of Gospel preaching went down to the peoples bordering on Taxandria itself, where the river Meuse, mingled with and swollen by the waters of the river Rhine … not far from the English sea divides the Taxandrians and the other inhabitants of that region from the Frisians. Thus he designates the ancient seat of the Caninefates and the Batavians. Then he subjoins that St. Willibrord, who, ordained bishop by Pope St. Sergius I, was at the same time preaching the faith of Christ to the Frisians also in the fortress which is called Utrecht, was met by him, and that these two men, counsels being exchanged, strenuously gave themselves to the apostolic office. But he also affirms that the place to which St. Lambert was wont to come together with that same Saint for the sake of preaching to the neophytes was situated, by the tradition of the ancients, in the district of Teisterbant.

[98] about the joint work of SS. Lambert and Willibrord Receive his words. If the report of the ancients is believed, there is a place in the district which they call Teisterbant, not far from the Meuse, shaded by a certain pleasantness of trees, to which Bl. Lambert, having taken to himself into the work of the Gospel the man of God Willibrord, was wont often to go down, and to set forth the works of the Christian religion to the crowds of the newly baptized flowing together to him, announcing to them that, as the Apostle says, "Faith without works is dead." Finally, he hands down that the same place, while he was writing this, was famous through a church formerly built there to St. Lambert and through the yearly flocking of the people, in these words: In the same place a church dedicated in honor of Bl. Lambert is today held in such veneration among the inhabitants of that region that they who each year flock thither to obtain the Martyr's benefits reckon it a sacrilege even to touch with iron the very trees which shade the courtyard. Henschen in the Exegesis before tom. VII of May, chapter 12, notes that in the division of the kingdom of Lothair made in the year 870 a county Testrebant is named, which he ascribes to the Caninefates. About the same district Hadrian Valois in the Notitia Galliæ, from Godfrey Wendelin, canon of Tournai, observes that it is called Testrebant or Teisterbant, as it were the boundary of Taxandria.

[99] I can scarcely doubt that St. Willibrord was known to St. Lambert before he took up the order of the episcopate. in the preaching of the Gospel, So Alcuin persuades me in his Life in Surius, on the VII day of November, where Pippin of Herstal is said to have received St. Willibrord kindly, and to have detained him for some time to preach the word of God in Austrasia, before he sent him to Rome to Pope Sergius for obtaining episcopal consecration. Alcuin's words I subjoin. Who (namely Pippin), receiving him with all honor, but unwilling to deprive himself or his nation of so great a teacher, provided him with suitable places within the bounds of his kingdom, where he might be able to root out the thorns of idolatry, and to scatter the purest seeds of God's word more abundantly over clean fallow. Now Pippin ordinarily stayed in the diocese of Maastricht, and not far from Maastricht; namely at Herstal, where he had a palace. Hence it is not likely that these things were done without the counsel of St. Lambert, the bishop of that region, whose holiness and apostolic zeal were certainly well known to Pippin; unless perhaps the holy Bishop was at that very time far from his see preaching to the Taxandrians.

[100] The same St. Willibrord, at Pippin's request, was consecrated bishop of the Frisians at Rome by Pope Sergius I in the year 696 on the feast of St. Cecilia, about which the other biographers have nothing. and was sent back to preach the Gospel to them, as was proved from Bede in the deeds of this holy Pontiff on the IX day of September, §6 of the Preliminary Commentary. Whether at the same time at which he was discharging his apostolate in the fortress of Utrecht and among the Frisians, Lambert had crossed over to the furthest Taxandrians, is undiscovered by me; nevertheless nothing occurs from which I might convict of error, or confirm, Nicholas's assertions about the counsels shared and compared by both holy apostles, and about their acts in Teisterbant. Yet he is favored by the tradition praised by him, and by the church and the yearly concourse of the people to it, frequented in his own age. But since neither the more ancient biographers of St. Lambert nor those of Willibrord left anything noted on that matter, I cannot give undoubted credit to Nicholas alone, who is rather far removed from the age of both.

[101] Contiguous to Taxandria is our Brabant, in which is the district of Mechlin, The Saint is believed to have preached also where St. Lambert is likewise thought to have preached. Certainly Cornelius van Gestel, tom. 1 of the Sacred and Profane History of the archbishopric of Mechlin, page 23, writes that he is honored by the people of Mechlin as their apostle before the coming of St. Rumold. It is certain (he says) that St. Lambert, bishop of the Tungrians, brought in here (at Mechlin) and in the neighboring places the light of the Christian faith with a mighty example of virtues, by preaching and by miracles; and for that reason the Taxandrians and the people of Mechlin all venerate St. Lambert as their apostle… Nay, it is reported that the church of the Mother of God at Mechlin, now the parish and collegiate church second in dignity and in number of citizens, was consecrated by him in old Mechlin. Finally Muizen, Battel, and Zemst (they are villages in the neighborhood of Mechlin) boast that their churches too were formerly dedicated by St. Lambert. Further, after his death they returned to the remnants of superstition which they had scarcely wholly laid aside.

[102] to the people of Mechlin, among whom, as apostle of the place Hither likewise pertains what our Sollerius reports in the Corollary to the Acts of St. Rumold, published separately, chapter 1, in this manner: For the rest, in that place (in the village of Malinas) the holy patriarch of the people of Mechlin, Rumold, the second apostle of that region after St. Lambert, began his mission, or, as Balderic says, his eremitic life. That he too preached the faith at Mechlin, or at least where Mechlin was afterwards founded, and in the neighboring places, manuscript Chronicles and other authorities brought forward in the Preliminary Commentary testify; so much so that a hill near Hofstade is said still to bear the name S. Lambrechs-berg (in Latin it is Mount St. Lambert), because from that hill he preached to the heathen. Certainly that St. Lambert was of old held in the highest veneration among the people of Mechlin — whether because he was their first apostle, or because they acknowledged the church of Liège as their mistress — is most clearly given to be understood not only from a chapel dedicated to him, but from the formula of the civic oath, communicated to me from the city's Registers by the most noble Cuyper, which it is most certain was in use down to the end of the sixteenth century. By this one about to be given citizenship bound himself to be faithful to Lord St. Lambert, to Lady St. Mary, to the king, and to the city.

[103] he obtains an ancient cult, He was wont to be painted in the habit of a fighting horseman, as though under his leadership and patronage the Normans had been vanquished and put to flight. The same saint they will have to have overthrown an idol at Muizen, and, the idolaters being cast out, to have substituted clerics or canons, who afterwards joined themselves to St. Rumold; by which name are to be understood the companies of those warring for God gathered together there, of whom Theodoric so expressly makes mention,

the biographer of St. Rumold. Thus far Sollerius. Consequently upon this tradition of the Gospel preached among them by St. Lambert, the archdiocese of Mechlin celebrates his birthday to this day with an Office of double rite, in whose fifth lesson the following is read about him: Desirous of martyrdom, having gone off to the Taxandrians, the Brabanters, and other neighboring peoples, he converted them to Christ by continual preaching and admirable patience. The same Office, but with a semi-double rite only, is read in the neighboring diocese of Antwerp. In the Breviary of Liège too, printed in the year 1636, on the XXVII day of October there stands an Office of St. Rumold, in whose fourth lesson that apostolate of Lambert among the people of Mechlin is likewise asserted, in the words which I subjoin. Thence he (St. Rumold) came where the river Scheldt discharges itself into the sea at Mechlin; and there he so watered the faith of Christ, planted by St. Lambert the bishop, that after him he is held the apostle of the people of Mechlin. Note, however, in passing, that it is wrongly said here that the river Scheldt, which does not wash Mechlin, discharges itself there into the sea.

[104] and is narrated to have done certain things, Finally I add in Latin what our Papebroch copied out from a certain manuscript Chronicle of Mechlin, written in Flemish, among the Regular canons at Tongres, and set aside for this day. When St. Lambert heard that the Danes had burst into the district of Mechlin, he set out for Muizen, where the temple of an idol stood, as is said; and there he performed many miracles. This temple was still standing in the year MD, and is now the church of St. Lambert. He gathered a troop of the people, and met the unbelievers, who had pitched camp by the bank of the river on the hill now called Battel from the battle joined there (the common people call a battle Battallie), and put them to flight. In memory of which the church of St. Lambert is seen there. Besides, it is read that near the chapel outside the gate called Audogems he healed a boy who had fallen upon a knife, which he drew out. After many devout works displayed at Mechlin, he left clerics and presbyters there; and therefore there must also have been a church there. And since Mechlin was then situated on one bank of the river (the Dyle) in the district of Grimbergen, that church must have been that of St. Mary. For if some other had then existed, some memory of it would survive. The first church which St. Lambert dedicated was at Muizen, from which the canons of St. Rumold draw their origin.

[105] No other bishop before him is read to have preached there; partly fabulous, and because he defended the region against the unbelievers, the people of Mechlin hold him as their protector, and display his image in the likeness of a horseman with his hand armed with a sword… In the year MCCCIV the name of St. Lambert was inserted into the formula of the oath which the city takes or admits, and the ancient memory of St. Lambert was renewed, and there was added that of St. Mary Magdalene, the old patroness, before the name of St. Lambert had become famous. In these things many false and uncertain matters are mixed with true ones: of which kind is chiefly that battle against the Danes or Normans, who in the age of St. Lambert had not yet come into these parts. Wherefore occasion for feigning that fable was perhaps given by his help being happily implored against those same barbarians by the people of Mechlin a very long time after the Saint's death, whence his equestrian image too could have arisen. What he says about the temple at Muizen I cannot weaken, nor admit as certain; since love of antiquity is wont to feign many things of this kind, and that Chronicle, which Papebroch noted reaches down to the year 1530, is by no means fit to persuade us of it.

[106] That a church of St. Mary was already then on that bank of the Dyle partly uncertain. is little likely, from what Sollerius discussed in various places both of the Preliminary Commentary and of the Corollary to the Acts of St. Rumold, about the situation and state of Mechlin at that time. Nevertheless, from the nearness of the city of Maastricht, it is likely enough that St. Lambert announced Christ to the people of Mechlin and to other Brabanters as well as to the inhabitants of Taxandria, and therefore that he is not undeservedly honored by them as their apostle before St. Rumold. Further, how many years the holy Bishop spent in converting the Taxandrians and the rest I have nowhere found. For the rest, Sigebert and Nicholas then treat of the devout death of St. Landrada in her maidens' house of Bilsen, of her apparition, and of her burial marvelously cared for by St. Lambert; about which, since we have nothing further to note here, the praised biographers may be consulted: we proceed to the same Saint's martyrdom.

§ VIII. The Saint's martyrdom, about whose time opinions vary, more probably to be tied to the year 709: fables about SS. Sergius and Hubert: a reply to the arguments objected.

[ ] His martyrdom, which happened in the eighth century, About St. Lambert's martyrdom two things are controverted, the cause and the time, of which the last we shall examine in the present §. The writer of the Life of St. Hubert, and his disciple or intimate, in the Life published by Surius on the III day of November, expressly asserts that St. Lambert, his immediate predecessor, strenuously held the pontifical summit at the city of Tongres for forty years. The same number of years in the episcopate is attributed to him by Nicholas in the Life, num. 73, and likewise by Sigebert both in the Life to be published, num. 63, and in the one published under Reiner's name, in the last chapter, and by others. These forty years the praised Sigebert interpreted as incomplete, who wrote that he underwent martyrdom in the XL year of his episcopate; and that is more in conformity with the biographer of St. Hubert, because otherwise so few months would have been lacking to complete the forty-first year that he ought rather to have been said by him to have spent forty-one years than only forty. Hence, according to their varying opinion about the beginning of that episcopate, the learned have fixed the year of his death. Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, Cent. 3, part 1, pages 66 and 77, placed his slaying about the year 708, which in tom. 2 of the Annals at the same year, num. 1, as also Le Cointe, they determined, the beginning of those 40 years being taken from the year 668; which others too have done, whom it is of no interest to have named.

[108] is more probably to be tied to the year of Christ 709. But Pagi in the Critica at the year of Christ 698, num. 1, contends that that martyrdom is to be tied to no other year than 707, both because he believed that St. Theodard was slain in the year 667 and that Lambert succeeded him in the same year, and because he believed that this Saint's body was translated from Maastricht to Liège in the year 720; both of which have already been refuted on the X day of September, in St. Theodard, §3, and we shall refute the latter part below in §13. But neither do we dare to assign the year 708 as certain for his death. For since, from what was said at num. 45, it is not sufficiently established whether St. Theodard was crowned with martyrdom in the month of September of the year 668 or of 669, it is likewise uncertain in which of the two years St. Lambert succeeded him in the episcopate, and so whether he survived until the year 708 or 709. Wherefore, since certain arguments for determining one or other year are not at hand from elsewhere, that is more probably to be held as the Saint's year of death with which the other statements of the most ancient biographers can more easily be reconciled, and which creates less difficulty. And that this is the year 709 we shall prove below in §10, num. 147 and following, and therefore we have noted this in the margin as more probably the Saint's last; for we judge that we must altogether stand by the biographer of St. Hubert, from whose authority nothing compels us to depart.

[109] It is more probably to be attached to that year. Yet not all writers, as I have said, are of the same opinion on this matter. Our Henschen, although so long an episcopate of 40 years displeased him, nevertheless in the Diatriba on the Bishopric of Maastricht, book 2, chapter 6, judged that his martyrdom should be placed in the year DCCVII, or even later, as will be said, he says, on the XVII of September. Again in St. Amandus, tom. 1 of February, page 837, num. 104, he pronounced that this same thing could not be fixed before the year 707. Nevertheless in the Exegesis on the bishopric of Tongres and Maastricht, prefixed to tom. VII of May, chapter XI, wavering in that same opinion, he says: About the year of the slaying it is not sufficiently established. Beyond the rest there pleases me what is written in the Ms. codex of Orval, that he suffered in the second year of king Childebert, which would be the year of Christ DCXCIX: and not far from this is Sigebert in the Chronicle, asserting that he suffered in the year DCXCVIII. But these things will have to be discussed more accurately on the XVII of September, his birthday. To the end of that seventh century also many other writers, especially of the affairs of Liège, refer his death, but relying on an altogether different head than Henschen, and on another history, which he in more than one place rejected among fictions.

[110] Namely, Nicholas narrates in the Life, num. 55, What is narrated about his slaying being revealed to Pope St. Sergius that St. Hubert, at Lambert's urging, went to Rome to the Thresholds of the Apostles, at which time St. Sergius I held the Chair of St. Peter there. Then at num. 73 and following he writes that St. Lambert's martyrdom was announced by an angel to the praised Sergius at the same time at which it happened, and that it was commanded him by the same that he should ordain, as successor of the holy Martyr in the episcopal see, a man by name Hubert, whom on that same day he should recognize by certain signs as he entered the basilica of the holy princes of the Apostles. He adds besides that the pastoral staff, or crozier, of that same St. Lambert was handed to the Pontiff by that same angel, lest any ground for doubting should remain, and that consequently Hubert was recognized by Sergius and consecrated bishop. But whence Nicholas drew these things he indicates thus: But how (St. Hubert) was recognized by Pope Sergius on the same day, and was made certain of the slaying of his beloved master Lambert by the sign of his staff, if anyone desires to know more fully, let him read again that little book which, published by faithful men about the life and conversation of that same Hubert before his episcopate, it is not doubtful is both had and read by very many among us.

[111] This little book John Roberti, a presbyter of the Society of Jesus, published in his History of St. Hubert, and about St. Hubert being consecrated by him, in whose chapter 3 not only are those things reported which we have just touched on from Nicholas, but also other things no less marvelous are narrated. For on the testimony of its anonymous writer, while St. Hubert was begging off the episcopal office, behold he is divinely clothed in all the pontifical garments of Bl. Lambert, which were suddenly translated to him by angels from the place of the martyrdom. And when, being clothed in these, the stole alone was lacking, straightway a stole of white silk woven with gold was transmitted to Hubert by an angel from the blessed Virgin Mary, patroness of the church of Tongres. Giles of Orval, a monk, copied Nicholas in his Additions to Anselm, chapter 21, in St. Hubert, and Fisen judged that he, or the anonymous writer cited, should be followed both in the History and in the Flowers of the Church of Liège. Further, since the praised St. Sergius died at the beginning of the eighth century, namely in the year 701 or 702, as in the Commentary on him on the IX day of September

was proved, various writers have referred St. Lambert's martyrdom to the end of the seventh century, but to a different year according to their likewise varying opinion about the beginning of that episcopate.

[112] Sigebert in the Chronicle, where he had fixed that beginning to the year 658, placed the Saint's slaying, the 40 years of the episcopate being added, at the year 698; these are fables exploded by the learned, which both Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, and Baronius in the Annals, following both, did. But Bucherius in the Chronicle of the Bishops of Maastricht and Liège, and Miræus in the Fasti Belgici, tied the episcopate to the year 656 and the slaying to 696. But that whole narration about SS. Sergius and Hubert has long since been exploded as fabulous by the learned, among whom are Henschen in the Diatriba on the bishopric of Maastricht, book 3, chapter 9; Mabillon, Benedictine Cent. 3, part 1, in the Annotations to the life of St. Lambert; Le Cointe at the year of Christ 708, num. 43; Pagi; and, finally, all who do not hesitate to refer our Saint's martyrdom to the eighth century when it had already begun some years. In our work, on the IX day of September, the Preliminary Commentary on that same St. Sergius, §6, may also be consulted, where these things were held as unknown to the more ancient writers and deservedly suspect. But I do not hesitate to convict them of certain falsehood, since from what has been said above it is certain that St. Sergius died some years before St. Lambert's martyrdom. Then, who would believe such prodigies from an anonymous writer of uncertain time and credit, when the biographer of that same St. Hubert, his own disciple or intimate, keeps deep silence about them — one who therefore could neither have been ignorant of these things nor ought to have passed them over?

[113] and unknown to the ancient biographers. It is a pleasure to report here his words about St. Hubert raised to the episcopate, from the edition of Surius. After the glorious departure from human affairs of the most blessed and most excellent bishop Lambert, who, strenuously bearing the pontifical summit at the city of Tongres for forty years, left indeed examples of life to posterity, but by manfully bearing the perils of a bitter death both clung to the footsteps of the supreme Pastor and disclosed how great a love he had toward the Lord's sheep; inasmuch as to them, while living, he furnished the pastures of life, and for them he did not fear to undergo the losses of death — Hubert, a venerable prelate, is substituted as bishop in his see, to whom he was second in no virtue. Thus he, beginning the Life of St. Hubert from his episcopate, pursues his praises and deeds, no mention being made of so prodigious an ordination, than which he could have brought forward nothing more illustrious for commending the holiness of his holy bishop. What cause too shall we say there was that the said revelation about St. Lambert's martyrdom, made by an angel to St. Sergius, was unknown to, or passed over by, Godeschalc, Stephen, the anonymous poet, Anselm, and Sigebert? What cause, I say, shall we bring forward, save that nothing of the kind happened?

[114] A reply is made to the arguments for the end of the seventh century There would be no need to treat of this controversy at more length, were there not extant a certain little book entitled On the time and cause of the martyrdom of Bl. Lambert, bishop of Tongres, a chronological and historical Diatriba, printed at Liège in the year 1679, in which the said prodigies are indeed not asserted, but it is defended by various arguments that St. Lambert's martyrdom happened under the Pontiff St. Sergius. That the author of this Diatriba, who did not prefix his name to it, was René François de Sluse, canon of Liège and abbot of Amay, and full brother of the most eminent Cardinal Sluse, I have learned from elsewhere. Occasion for the writing was given by the most illustrious Antoine Godeau, bishop of Vence, who, when in his Ecclesiastical History, published in French, he had denied both the cause and the year of St. Lambert's martyrdom, such as they are commonly believed by the people of Liège, together with the learned moderns, stirred up the praised Sluse to write a vindication, that is, the said Diatriba. It is not for me to refute or to prove Godeau's particular assertions, which make nothing for the substance of the matter, nor the replies which Sluse opposed to them; but I shall report and confute only those things by which he here contends that the Saint's martyrdom is to be placed about the end of the seventh century, while Sergius sat in the Apostolic Chair.

[115] And so in chapter 3 he says this against our Henschen: brought forward by Sluse; and first it is shown Some writers report that the death of the blessed Man was known, God admonishing him, to Pope Sergius, and that by him Bl. Hubert was ordained by divine command as the successor of our Martyr. This narration Henschen reckons among fables; how rightly, let others see. Yet he cannot deny that it is ancient, since it is reported by Nicholas, who wrote in the twelfth century, as handed down by our Elders. Let the author of this fable then have lived (that I may concede this to Henschen) at least in that age in which the memory of Bl. Hubert's ordination was more recent. And so, if he wished to gain credit for his narration, unless he was altogether out of his mind, he must be believed to have assigned it at least to those years in which it could have happened, lest at first sight it should be convicted of falsehood. Whence, whether this narration be fabulous or not, is of little interest to us, since from it it is established that the passion of our blessed Martyr was even then referred to the years of Sergius, and not of Constantine, between whom and Sergius fall John VII [], John VIII [], and Sisinnius.

[116] I answer that it is nowhere asserted by Nicholas that that narration was handed down by our elders, that that opinion is not so ancient as he would have it: or reported by him as such; since he only says that it is read in a little book which, published BY FAITHFUL MEN about the life and conversation of that same Hubert before his episcopate, it is not doubtful is both had and read by very many (of the people of Liège). Not only our elders are faithful men: but of what time these were, Nicholas does not indicate. Nay rather, since he himself claims no authority from antiquity for his narration, and since neither the contemporary biographer of St. Hubert, nor Godeschalc, nor Stephen, nor the anonymous poet, nor Anselm, nor finally Sigebert seems ever to have seen or heard it, it is more likely that it is not older than the twelfth century. What wonder therefore if he erred in assigning the Pontiff under whom St. Lambert was slain, and believed him to be Sergius, who had departed from the living only seven or eight years before that martyrdom? Further, that he erred is clear from the time of St. Theodard's death, and from the forty years during which not only the first biographer of St. Hubert asserts that Lambert held the episcopate, but also Nicholas himself, and the others named above. Add that a writer who invented such prodigies, unknown to all the more ancient authorities, deserves no credit for the rest either, when other things stand in the way. I proceed to the second argument.

[117] But lest we should seem to rely on conjectures alone (the words are Sluse's), secondly, the basilica of St. Lambert, it is permitted to exhibit a certain and ἀναμφισβητον (indisputable) mark of that time from the death of Grimoald, son of Pippin and Plectrudis, who, as we saw in the preceding chapter, was slain in the year of Christ DCCXIV, in the month of April, by Rangarius in the basilica of St. Lambert at Liège. The writer of the Life of St. Hubert, his intimate and disciple, narrates that this basilica was built by the blessed man (St. Hubert) about the XIII year of his ordination. For in that year he translated into it the relics of Bl. Lambert on the IV Kal. of May, of which translation the annual festivity is celebrated with solemn rite to this day. Rener the monk reports that Grimoald was slain a few years after the translation. Set it at one year at least; for you cannot set less, since the translation was made at the end of April, and the slaying of Grimoald also fell in April. Unless you should feign that Grimoald was slain at the very translation of the relics, which you will never prove by any witness. Therefore in the year of Christ DCCXIV the fourteenth year at least of Bl. Hubert's ordination was running, and his first year will have to be counted at least from the XVII of September of the year of Christ DCC, when Sergius still held the Apostolic See. Thus far he.

[118] in which Grimoald was slain in the year 714, We admit that Grimoald, the son of Pippin of Herstal by his wife Plectrudis, was slain in the basilica of St. Lambert at Liège: for the Deeds of the Kings of the Franks, the History written by order of Childebrand, the author of the little book On the Mayors of the Royal Palace, and the Annalist of Metz, whom Le Cointe exhibits at the year 714, num. 1, testify this with unanimous consent. The year too of the slaying and the month the Chronicle of St. Denis expresses thus in the same place: DCCXIV. Grimoald deposed in the month of April, and Pippin deposed in the month of December. To the same year Ado in his Chronicle, praised by Sluse, refers that slaying, where he also adds that Theudoald was substituted by Pippin in the place of his dead father Grimoald in the year of the Lord's Incarnation DCCXIV in the month of April. We admit also the authority of the biographer of St. Hubert, according to whom he translated St. Lambert's body from Maastricht to Liège in the thirteenth year of his prelacy, and placed it in the spot where he suffered. But we deny that, before the church was founded or enlarged by St. Hubert, there was no other at Liège which was called St. Lambert's; which the biographer of Hubert does not assert, and the opposite of which Godeschalc expressly teaches.

[119] existed at Liège He in the Life, num. 23 and following, has much about his cult begun in the village of Liège not long after the Saint's death, which, contracted into a compendium, I subjoin. After these things, he says, in the aforesaid village of Liège, within the chamber where the Saint of God shed his happy blood, lights kindled by divine power shone forth. He subjoins that a certain man was twice admonished and chastised by that same Saint for the theft of his own wife; and likewise that two other blind men, divinely bidden to venerate that same cell, received their sight. Which being heard, Godeschalc goes on, men began with due admiration to seek out the Saint of God continually from day to day, and with great diligence to venerate that place; and when the people had already begun to build a basilica there, the miracles being heard through that whole region which the Lord deigned to show for his Servant, all the people gave praises to God. He adds also that a virgin, Oda by name, likewise blind, when, led by hope, she came to that same place, and was now drawing near, having invoked the Saint, obtained her sight. Then he goes on: Likewise from this a people of both sexes, mingled with the common folk, old men and little ones, flocked the more to the building of a basilica in honor of that Saint, and so, with God's help, it was swiftly completed. Likewise, where the virgin received light through faith, a basilica was built in his name as a testimony to believers, and is assiduously venerated.

[120] long before St. Hubert Faithful and devout men fearing God also made a bed, and arranged it with the craftsman's art, and so placed it in the spot where the Bishop had been struck down. There the Lord daily wrought great and numberless powers and marvels. After this Godeschalc reports the Saint's apparition, the circuit of a year after his death being completed, and the divine vengeance upon Dodo and the other murderers, and finally another apparition of the same, bidding that his body be translated to Liège,

and sets it forth. And then at last, about to treat of the translation, he says: But holy Hubert, who was once the disciple of Landebert, and who at that time was bishop in this region, having heard these miracles, … diligently inquired into the order of the matter, etc. In the Ms. which Chapeauville published, chapter 12, the same things are narrated, and after the twofold apparition of the Saint complaining about the theft has been reported, after the two blind men enlightened and the flocking of the people to the place of the martyrdom, it is said in express words that a basilica had already been built there before the body was translated thither. Receive the words.

[121] Afterwards the people there began (being encouraged by the magnificence of his powers and by admiration) to build to his honor and name a church of honorable worship, translated St. Lambert's body thither. which profited much to the increase of the spreading of his glory, so that, although that place lacked his body, yet both from the building of the church and from his merits and miracles it might be plain that he was always present there, namely by obtaining from God benefits for those imploring his help there. Sigebert agrees in each Life, namely in that one too which Sluse praises under Reiner's name, in whose chapter 25, after the same miracles, one reads: By these things the fresh veneration of the new Patron was increased, and the kindled devotion of the people was building a basilica for the Saint the more quickly, the more devoutly. Then he begins chapter 26 thus: This devotion of the people of Liège so pleased the Lord that now frequently a vision from heaven appeared to many of God's faithful, that the holy Martyr should be carried back from Maastricht and restored to the place of his martyrdom, etc. In this basilica of St. Lambert at Liège, therefore, whatever it may finally have been, Grimoald the son of Pippin, praying for the health of his sick father, was slain in the year of Christ 714, but in the fifth or sixth after the Saint's death, when it, the sacred body still resting at Maastricht, having been made illustrious by God with various miracles, had already become famous; and therefore the author of the Diatriba tries in vain to prove from the year of Grimoald's slaying that the year of St. Lambert's death must be brought back to the Pontificate of Sergius, and from the Saint's translation, which we shall prove in §13 happened in the year 721 or 722, and in the month of December, not April. Nor ought the authority of Reiner or Sigebert to detain us, when he places Grimoald's slaying after the translation, since it is by no means so great that it can in any way be set against the weight of the reasons which we have produced.

[122] The last argument for confirming his own opinion the author of the Diatriba takes from the number of years Sluse's third argument which St. Hubert spent in the episcopate. From the same history of St. Hubert, he says, what we assert is confirmed. For writers narrate that he held the episcopal chair for thirty years at least; and the things done by him require no less a space of time. For after the relics of the blessed Martyr had been translated, he raised Liège from an ignoble village, as Godeschalc calls it, into a city, the episcopal see being translated into it, girt it with walls, adorned it with laws, built a basilica to the lord Peter the apostle; and, to finish in brief, he did things which seem to require not XVII or XX years, which are narrated to have flowed from the translation of the blessed Martyr's relics to his death, but a far greater interval of time. But the relics of this blessed confessor were translated in the XVI year after his death (as the writer testifies who was present at the translation, namely the biographer of that same St. Hubert), in the third year of king Carloman (that is, of the Mayor of the Palace), which coincides with the year of Christ DCCXLIII or DCCXLIV. Count now backward XXX and XVI years, or XLVI, and you will come upon the end of the seventh century and the Pontificate of Sergius; under whom, namely, both Lambert's death and Hubert's ordination must consequently have happened.

[123] likewise proves nothing. About the time of the translation I gladly assent, but those thirty years of the episcopate I cannot believe on the credit of writers of whom he names none. Nor does Sluse prove that the things done by St. Hubert after St. Lambert's body was translated to Liège were of such magnitude that they could not have been done between the year 722, in which we shall say the translation was made, and the year 727, in which Hubert died. Certainly nothing of the kind is read in his contemporary biographer and intimate, and Foullon did not hesitate, book 3, chapter 4, to say that many things on this subject handed down by more recent writers are fabulous, where he numbered the Hubertine walls of Liège among the other fictions. For the rest, it is not the place here to treat more fully of those things which can be examined and refuted at more length on the III day of November, on which that holy bishop and confessor is venerated.

* rather VI

* rather VII

§ IX. The cause of the martyrdom, one being assigned by the two first biographers, another by the rest.

[ ] For the cause of the martyrdom Godeschalc and Stephen The other controversy ventilated by writers, which is of greater moment, is about the cause on account of which St. Lambert was crowned with martyrdom; while some prefer to cleave to the writings of the first biographers, others to claim for the holy Martyr, with the less ancient, a more specious laurel. Godeschalc, the first of all the Saint's biographers, who perhaps lived with him for some time, as has been said, and who testifies that he learned much about him from Theodoenus, his servant and the companion of his exile, alleges no other cause of his slaying than the slaying of Gallus and Rioldus; who, when they were impiously and cruelly raging against the goods and men of the church of Maastricht, were killed by the joined hands of friends of that same holy Bishop, he being wholly unaware of it. For a certain Dodo, their kinsman, a man of the first power in the court of Pippin of Herstal, is said to have borne their slaying so impatiently that, a band of henchmen being gathered, he flew to the house of St. Lambert at Liège, and slew not only the slayers of Gallus and Rioldus, but also whatever servants met him, and the holy Bishop himself prostrate in prayer. But since this controversy is the chief one in the deeds of St. Lambert, it will be worth while to have reported Godeschalc's words here.

[125] assign the slaying of Gallus and Rioldus. He in the Life, num. 15 and the following, says thus: And when now the Lord had called St. Landebert, that for so great merits he might render him a worthy reward, there rose up two most wicked men, Gallus and his brother Rioldus, against him, raging against his church in such perverse deeds that no one could bear them; nor was there any place of escape before them. But the friends of the Bishop, filled with anger and sadness, and driven by great calamity, and pressed down by humiliation, killed them according to their desert. In those days Dodo was the domestic of the already aforesaid prince Pippin, the near kinsman of those who had been killed; and he had many possessions, and many boys in his service. And when he heard of the slaying of his kinsmen, he gathered a great host of very brave men for war, and presently rushed to kill the blessed man Landebert the bishop in the village whose name is Liège, situated upon the river which is called the Meuse. Thus Godeschalc, who then goes on to set forth the unworthy slaying of that most holy Man, no other cause of the martyrdom being assigned. Nor does Stephen, bishop of Liège in the tenth century, the second, as we have said, of St. Lambert's biographers, hint at any other, who narrates the same things, though in other words.

[126] But the anonymous poet, contemporary with Stephen, besides the cause alleged, The anonymous poet adds to this another mentions another from report, namely Dodo's hatred of the Saint on account of his condemnation of the concubinage of his sister Alpaïs with the king, that is, with Pippin of Herstal, Mayor of the Royal Palace. The poet's words, because I cannot give them elsewhere, I shall subjoin here, beginning where he left off above.

For the Saint, as often as he bore holy fasts, carried them into the nights, foul breezes pressing on; often, when he would bring food together with his inward parts, the moon shining gave a dew-flowing lamp: for the last day always stood before his eyes, whence he made a good course in the contest. Alas! muse, singing, about to sing the causes of grief! What inborn breath has power to bring in bright voices for thee, breathing out from lips stretched this way and that? What shrill pipe shall break forth sweet songs, soothing hollow ears with the chatter of neighings? What jesting player, dancing before us and smiling, shall lift up seemly yelpings with his voice? Whence before thou didst breathe out from full reeds with a foaming face, thy chin shaken and drawn in, thence, grown limp, thou shalt bring on overflowing weepings, sending out a trembling voice from a mourning breast, when thou hast begun to handle in song the kindly death of sacred Lambert, slain by a dire cutting of the throat.

[127] Therefore, as the end of his last day drew near, when the Lord's Holy one was duly to be called, namely Pippin's concubinage with Alpaïs to be adorned for his sacred merits with everlasting light; behold two brothers — for Gallus and then Rioldus they were called by name, distilled from a twisted dregs — rise up together, and through the villages and through the fields they consign to death the servants of the church, oppressed by plunderings [] and the lash;* who, not being able to endure it, make that disgrace known far and wide through the friends and the nephews of the kindly bishop Lambert. And these, over-bold — when report brought this, each man kindled with goads, and wounded in the heart's hurt, and provoked, as men who had suffered frequent perils — could not endure that such men should return unpunished. Hoping then to be led by a just indignation, they rise up more swiftly, trusting in mind or in arms, and their adversaries wretchedly into the darkness of death: for by these words they thus offended, being compelled. Meanwhile the author of this crime in the house of prince Pippin was one called by the name Dodo, in whom, trusting, the aforesaid brothers, his kinsmen in flesh, are thought to have vexed the country.

bishop Lambert was hateful to the dire friends of depraved Dodo, being pale on account of the defilement of his sister with the king — whom the king, his wife yet living, was keeping as a concubine, trampling on the laws of modesty. Hence too Dodo was exalting his own honor the more. And he, learning the deaths of the said brothers in body, mindful enough in his words of what concerned his sister's flesh, began to seek out the sacred Bishop's destruction, exploring the ways by which he might kill him and those likewise whom report had given up for the offense.

From these things we have it that in the tenth century, some years begun or grown, it was judged by many that Dodo was incited to inflict death on St. Lambert not by the slaying of Gallus and Rioldus alone, but also by that Saint's evangelical freedom in condemning the adultery of Alpaïs and Pippin; which the anonymous poet judged should be embraced, but Stephen the bishop judged should be rejected, or at least passed over, as unknown to Godeschalc, a contemporary or nearly contemporary writer. Both those causes are also brought forward, and more fully set forth, by Anselm, canon of Liège, who wrote a little after the middle of the eleventh century, in Chapeauville's Deeds of the Bishops, tom. 1, chapter XI, in St. Lambert, whence I have excerpted the following: By such exercises of virtues one comes to a glorious martyrdom, whose cause was twofold.

[129] assigned by Anselm the canon, And the first indeed was that certain two brothers, invaders of ecclesiastical goods, had been killed by some of the blessed Martyr's kinsmen, he being unaware of it; and a certain Dodo, their kinsman, turned this into a cause of his hatred against the holy Bishop.

The other cause was that Pippin, Mayor of the royal palace, kindled with the torch of adulterous lust, had brought in Alpaïs, the sister of the said Dodo, over his lawful wife Plectrudis. Concerning which matter Lambert, the Saint of God, shuddering at so great a crime in a prince, did not shrink from convicting him of the crime of adultery; and now by threatening the terrors of the divine judgment, now by commending the honorableness of the lawful marriage bed and detesting the obscenity of adultery, the apostolic Man had brought this about with that fierce mind, that he now raged less after the harlot. And when she was first able to perceive this, driven by the furies of lust, groaning she approached her brother through go-betweens, recalls the contumely inflicted upon her by the Priest, complains that at his instigation the prince's mind was turned from her, and that it would be more convenient for her that Lambert should be deprived of life than that she should be separated by divorce from so great a man: that by the destruction of the plotter this could be procured for her, that thereafter no misfortune of any quarrel between them could intervene. He drank the venom poured over from his sister's viperous tongue; straightway he arms auxiliary soldiers from the household of the royal house for the killing of the Bishop; and the wretch, while he cruelly rages toward the Priest's death, does not know that he is bringing eternal death upon himself, and upon the other an end of labors and perpetual life, etc.

[130] who in another edition, praising Regino From this edition of Chapeauville's there differs the one which Martène and Durand prepared, tom. 4 of the Amplissima collectio of ancient writers, from col. 843, from a Ms. codex of Saint-Hubert in the Ardennes, which they there pronounce was written six hundred years ago, while Anselm was alive, and is his genuine offspring, of which the copy published by Chapeauville is only a compendium. Here, then, at col. 848 and the following, in the whole of chapter 6, not a word being said about Alpaïs, the sole cause of the martyrdom is cast upon Dodo, spurred, namely, by the slaying of Gallus and Rioldus. Then the Saint's slaying, burial, translation to Liège, and several miracles are mentioned to the end of the chapter. Then follows chapter 7 with this title: Likewise another opinion about the same. To this most blessed Man testimony is borne by Regino, abbot of Prüm, writing thus among other things in his Chronicles, which he extends from the first year of the Lord's Incarnation to the nine hundred and eighth year of the same Lord. "In the time of Pope Vigilius," he says, "a synod was held at Aquileia against heretics, who affirmed that blessed Mary had borne only a man, not God-and-man; in which synod it was Catholicly established that Mary ever Virgin should be called Theotokos; because she bore not only a man, but true God and Man.

[131] At that time there flourished Lambert, bishop of the church of Tongres; and I know not what writing who, when, kindled with the zeal of religion, he had rebuked the royal house: (so has the account of yet another writing, left us by our predecessors,) king Pippin, at that time holding the monarchy of the kingdom, had brought in the sister of the said Dodo as a concubine over his lawful wife, and, at the devil's urging, had set lawful loves after unlawful ones: for which matter he alone by priestly authority did not shrink from publicly convicting the prince of adultery; and now by threatening the terrors of the divine judgment, now by commending the honorableness of the lawful marriage bed, and by detesting the baseness of adultery, the apostolic Man had brought this about with his fierce mind, that now he raged less after the harlot. And when she was first able to perceive this, seething at once with fury and with lust, such as Jezebel toward Elijah, or Herodias toward John, groaning she went to her brother, recalls to her brother the contumely inflicted upon her by the Priest; that at his instigation the king's mind was turned from her; that it was better to die than to be deprived with disgrace of such honorable fires; let him bring it about that the Priest perish, and there would thereafter be no quarrel of the royal marriage bed.

[132] He drank in his deep breast the venom poured over from his sister's viperous tongue: confused the words of Regino straightway he arms auxiliary soldiers from the household of the royal house for the killing of the Bishop; and the wretch, while he cruelly rages toward the Priest's death, does not know that he is bringing eternal death upon himself, and upon the other an end of labors and perpetual life." This cause of his passion the writer of his Life passed over in silence, I judge, for this reason, lest, as happens, he should incur the offense of those whose ancestors were branded with such infamy. There is no leisure, nor is it worth while, to inquire here whether that copy from Saint-Hubert is the genuine Work of Anselm, as the praised editors judged; but, what pertains more to our argument, I observe that not everything here marked with quotation marks from the praised edition is Regino's, but only a few things, and those shamefully truncated against historical truth and torn away from the rest. For Regino, in the Strasbourg edition of the year 1609, page 390, after the year 622 has it thus: At this time a synod was held at Aquileia, which through unskillfulness in the faith mistrusted to receive the fifth universal council. Which synod had been held in the times of Pope Vigilius against heretics who affirmed that blessed Mary had borne only a man, in which synod it was Catholicly established that Mary ever Virgin should be called Θεοτόκος; because she bore not only a man, but truly God and man. At that age (namely at which the synod was held at Aquileia under Pope St. Sergius) there flourished Lambert, bishop of the church of Tongres, who, when, kindled with the zeal of religion, he had rebuked the royal house, being unexpectedly shut in by the most wicked Dodo and other men sent from the palace, is killed within the house of the church in the village of Liège. Thus Regino, and nothing more on that matter.

[133] Hence, moreover, it is clear, first, how unskillfully Anselm, or whoever is the author of that seventh chapter, by truncating Regino's text fastens upon him that error, foully. as though he had confused the synod or conventicle of Aquileia, held about the year of Christ 698 under Pope St. Sergius I, with the fifth œcumenical council, celebrated at Constantinople in the year of Christ 553 under Pope Vigilius; whereas nevertheless the same Regino expressly distinguished both synods. It is clear, secondly, how ineptly, by thus confusing the synods, the author of that chapter put together the age of St. Lambert with the Pontificate of Vigilius. It is clear, finally, thirdly, that that whole history about Pippin's concubinage with Dodo's sister, and the holy Bishop's slaying that followed from it, which is subjoined marked with quotation marks, was not handed down by Regino, but by another writer of a time and credit unknown to us, who therefore ought to have little weight for settling the present controversy which we are treating. Let us proceed now to others who completed that history thus begun, and adorned it with new circumstances.

[134] Sigebert greatly embellished the same history of Alpaïs, Sigebert of Gembloux in the Chronicle at the year of Christ 698 thus interpreted Regino's statements, reported at num. 32: St. Lambert, having dared to rebuke prince Pippin because he had brought in the concubine Alpaïs over his lawful wife Plectrudis, is martyred at Liège by Dodo, the brother of that Alpaïs. In the Life, chapter 4, weaving a more prolix history, he tries to reconcile the first biographers with the rest, having borrowed something from both, and sets forth many things until then unknown to the rest as though he himself had been present as a spectator; all which, contracted into a compendium, I subjoin. St. Lambert, freely and frequently addressing Pippin about his concubinage with Alpaïs, sharply convicts him, and all but brings him back to his duty. Hearing this, Alpaïs complains to her brother Dodo about the injury inflicted on her by the Bishop, and prays for help and vengeance. He promises, and, having taken with him more powerful friends, labors to restrain the holy Bishop from convicting his sister of adultery. But when he sees that nothing is gained by words, he sends his kinsmen Gallus and Rioldus with an armed band against the household and goods of the bishopric; and when the Saint had striven in vain to check these two from their undertaking by fatherly admonitions, Peter and Andolecus or Andoletus, he being altogether unaware of it, joined battle and slew them.

[135] Their death being learned, Dodo determines on the killing of St. Lambert, to be inflicted when opportunity offered. Meanwhile Pippin came to his own villa of Jupille, next to which was the village of Liège, in which the Saint had a certain estate with a house, where, as often at other times, delighted with the solitude of the place, he was then staying. Thence, being summoned by Pippin for counsel, he hastens to Jupille. During the banquet Pippin, for religion's sake, demands and obtains that his cup be handed to him by the Bishop's sacred hand; and without delay all the other guests follow his example. This seemed to the concubine a fit occasion for extorting some kind of communion with her holy Bishop; and while others run up in throngs, she secretly thrusts herself into the crowd, and, mingling her hands with those of the rest, tries to snatch some cup from him. But Lambert, having scented what the matter was, repels the adulteress, expostulates with Pippin about womanly boldness, and goes out of the hall. This hope being frustrated, the concubine suggests to Pippin that he should not allow the Bishop to depart from the palace without saluting her. He gives the order; but the Saint, calling God to witness that he would never communicate with an adulteress, departs thence. The woman rages at being spurned, and drives her brother Dodo to take the Bishop from the living without further delay: and this he carries out at dawn the next day.

[136] You have here, reader, a compendium of that tragedy from Sigebert's account, whom Nicholas and Giles nearly followed. according to which the cause of the martyrdom is far more illustrious and more apt for commending St. Lambert than that which is alleged by Godeschalc and Stephen. But since Sigebert knew that nothing of this kind is read in the praised biographers, at the end of the whole Life he notes the following about Godeschalc: Having indeed pursued his deeds truthfully, he spoke with too little freedom of mouth about the cause of the martyrdom. Which he is believed to have done for this cause, lest he should seem to reproach the kings of his own time with the fault of their ancestors. For from the unlawful marriage of Pippin and Alpaïs was born Charles Martel, from Charles Pippin the third, who was promoted from prince to king of the Franks, from Pippin Charlemagne. Further, however more glorious that cause of the martyrdom may be, yet about the middle of the twelfth century — that is, between the year 1143 and 1147, in which we said in §1 that Nicholas wrote — no other Life of him was read in the church of Liège than that which was written by Godeschalc or Stephen. For then some, to whom that narration of the first biographers was displeasing because it seemed less worthy of so great a Martyr, urged Nicholas to write a Life in which another cause of the slaying should be handed down; as is manifest from Nicholas's own statements, which, because I have already recited them at num. 15, I do not here review. But what writers he himself followed in this part he sufficiently declares, when among the documents which he used for putting the Life together he names Regino of Prüm and Sigebert of Gembloux; whom, the latter, he so followed that he silently passed over what the other had mixed into his account from Godeschalc about Gallus and Rioldus wickedly vexing the church and afterwards slain; in order, I believe, that a purer and more illustrious cause of the martyrdom might appear. In Nicholas's footsteps followed Giles of Orval, a monk, in the Additions to Anselm, chapter XI, in St. Lambert, in Chapeauville.

prædis* (plunderings)

§ X. The cause of the martyrdom handed down by Godeschalc and Stephen is asserted, and a reply is made to the arguments of those who think otherwise.

Godeschalc's authority is now commonly admitted, The ancient writers varying in the way we have said about the cause on account of which St. Lambert was crowned with martyrdom, those who wrote after them long embraced that side which seemed more glorious for the holy Martyr; and that doubtless the more confidently because the reason for Godeschalc's and Stephen's silence which Sigebert alleges appeared altogether likely. Hence the same Stephen is vehemently beaten in Baronius, tom. 3 of the Annals, at the year of Christ 698, num. 1, as though out of zeal to flatter princes he had kept silence about the adulterer Pippin being rebuked by St. Lambert. Then, as criticism advanced among the learned, that opinion was not only called into doubt, but even deserted by many as fictitious, so that the opposite is now the more common, if you except the writers of Liège. The first, so far as I have known, was our Henschen in the Diatriba on the three Dagoberts, book 4, chapter 7, and elsewhere; then Bolland in St. Suibert, tom. 1 of March, page 79, num. 45, held that history as at least suspect. The same was rejected as fabulous by Hadrian Valois, tom. 3 of Rerum Francicarum, book 23; Mabillon, Benedictine Cent. 3, part 1, in St. Lambert; Le Cointe at the year of Christ 708, num. 9 and following; Pagi in the Critica on Baronius at the year 698, num. 2 and following; Longueval, tom. 4 of the History of the Gallican Church; and others.

[138] [whom the followers of the contrary opinion say kept a studied silence about Alpaïs,] The contrary opinion too has its followers, among whom are John Roberti, Fisen, Foullon, and Sluse in the Diatriba already often praised in §8. It will therefore be useful to have diligently weighed the reasons which can be produced on either side. Not so inept is the reason on account of which the said writers assert that Godeschalc kept silence about Pippin's concubinage being rebuked, but that it could have been brought in, if the aforesaid rebuke had really given cause for the martyrdom. For whether you determine that Godeschalc wrote under Charlemagne, or under Pippin the Short, or under Charles Martel, it was certainly odious to consign to writing things by which both the base lust of Pippin of Herstal, otherwise an excellent prince, branded by the shedding of so holy a Bishop's blood, and the disgraceful birth of Martel, would be recalled to the memory of the readers of his own age and transmitted to posterity: which certainly could not but displease Martel himself, and his son Pippin, and his grandson Charles. A like reason could also have moved Stephen to silence at the beginning of the tenth century, the more because he had promised to publish the Life written by Godeschalc only in a more polished style, and because he was a kinsman by blood of Charles the Simple, as is said in the latter's diploma in tom. 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, col. 837.

[139] the statements of the other ancients about the Saint's martyrdom do not prove Mabillon indeed says in the Observations on St. Lambert's martyrdom that the fable about the damnation of Charles Martel is far more atrocious, which nevertheless Hincmar, Adrevald, and others did not hesitate to spread among the common people while Charles the Bald, his great-great-grandson, was reigning: but even if an equal infamy had thence redounded upon Charles the Bald, only this would follow, that some men were bolder than others in writing. Yet the alleged reason for silence avails only for this one thing: that, if that rebuke of the adulterer Pippin, and the death inflicted on St. Lambert on that account, be handed down by other sufficiently fit testimonies, that silence of Godeschalc and Stephen alone loses much of its weight. Let us see therefore on what documents, and how ancient, that opinion rested when it came forth. The writer of the Life of St. Hubert, contemporary and an intimate, speaks thus about St. Lambert's martyrdom: But by manfully bearing the perils of a bitter death he both clung to the footsteps of the supreme Pastor and disclosed how great a love he had toward the Lord's sheep: inasmuch as to them, while living, he furnished the pastures of life, and for them he did not fear to undergo the losses of death. The venerable Bede in his Martyrology only mentions St. Lambert the martyr after his manner; about the cause and the manner he teaches nothing.

[140] the new opinion, Florus too, mentioning nothing about them, has it thus in the Supplement to Bede before tom. 2 of March: In Gaul, in the village of Liège, the birthday of St. Lambert, bishop and martyr, who by following justice obtained the palm of martyrdom. Nor have we anything more certain from Wandelbert, who in his metrical Martyrology says:

Lambert crowns the fifteenth day with his virtue, whom the faction that slew him, ever trembling, dreads.

Of Dodo alone Rabanus Maurus makes mention in his Martyrology likewise, where, when he had said that St. Lambert was recalled from exile with the consent of Pippin, then prince, and restored to his bishopric, he subjoins: And there he lived nobly for many years in the Church of God. But Dodo, the domestic of the already aforesaid prince Pippin, caused him to be killed by a most wicked contrivance. And he by an innocent death passed to the Lord. Something more is said by Ado, likewise in his Martyrology, in these words: In the diocese of Tongres, at Liège, a public village, the birthday of holy Lambert the bishop. Who, when, kindled with the zeal of religion, he had rebuked the royal house, as he was returning and bending himself to prayer, being unexpectedly shut in by most wicked men sent from the palace, is killed within the house of the church.

[141] Notker, following Ado, says: In the diocese of Tongres, gave the occasion for the new opinion, the birthday of holy Landebert the bishop: who, when, kindled with the zeal of religion, he had rebuked the royal house, is killed within the house of the church. The same things too which Ado has, Regino of Prüm has in the Chronicle, except that he names Dodo in the first place among the Saint's slayers: his words we gave at num. 132. But Usuard more simply says: At Liège, of blessed Lambert, bishop of Tongres, who, being innocently killed by the guilty, entered the hall of the heavenly kingdom to live forever. You have here the most ancient writers who besides Godeschalc made mention of St. Lambert's martyrdom. And it is manifest that nothing can be had from the first five of them and the last for establishing the opinion which ascribes the Saint's slaying to Alpaïs. The other three seem to me to have given the first occasion for forging this history. For since in them it was read that the holy Bishop was killed for having rebuked the royal house, and since it was established from elsewhere that Pippin was entangled in the unlawful loves of Alpaïs, by whom he begot Charles Martel and Childebrand, it was easy that all those to whom the cause of the martyrdom handed down by Godeschalc and Stephen was displeasing, as less worthy of so great a Priest, should eagerly seize their words and interpret them of Pippin's concubinage being rebuked — as Nicholas testifies in the dedicatory Epistle that it displeased very many in his own age.

[142] Hence therefore first of all the anonymous poet, whose words we reviewed at num. 128, but they are easily reconciled with Godeschalc said, from a discourse worn among many, that Dodo was both the brother of Alpaïs and hostile to St. Lambert on account of his condemnation of her adultery with Pippin, although in other respects he clung to Godeschalc's narration. Then Anselm reported a twofold cause of the slaying, as was said at num. 129 and following. After him Sigebert of Gembloux strove to put both together, and adorned it besides with that famous banquet. Nicholas finally, the former cause being wholly passed over, judged that the second alone should be retained, and adopted Sigebert's remaining statements. So I believe that history was gradually put together, into which many circumstances are mixed which its authors could only have invented according to their own wit. But those statements of the martyrologists and of Regino reported above are not of such a kind that they cannot easily be reconciled with the Saint's first biographers, and so they ought to be; for it is not lawful to interpret the plain statements of the more ancient from the ambiguous ones of the more recent, where nothing compels it.

[143] But now it is by no means likely, as Mabillon and others have observed before me, and are easily reconciled. that St. Lambert, when he saw the ecclesiastical goods and his flock so unjustly and cruelly invaded by Gallus and Rioldus, did not complain about the injustice of those plunderers to Pippin, if he was there, or to others who filled his place; and, when he was making no progress, that he did not also rebuke them, and threaten the divine judgments unless they abstained from the oppression of the church and of his flock. Meanwhile, while the Saint was steadfastly doing these things, Gallus and Rioldus could have been killed by his kinsmen, and Dodo, more vehemently incited by their slaying, could have been driven, the opportunity for revenge being given, to destroy the troublesome Monitor, hateful to his family. This exposition is contrary neither to the statements of the praised martyrologists and of Regino, nor to those of Godeschalc and Stephen; nay, the narration of the last-named requires it, since it is not likely that St. Lambert did not interpose his own authority for his flock with the nobles of the court, of whom Dodo was one. The same interpretation is plainly in conformity with the biographer of St. Hubert, who in the words recited at num. 139 testifies that Lambert did not fear to die for the Lord's sheep.

[144] Godeschalc nowhere hints Thus far, therefore, we have nothing from which we might charge Godeschalc and Stephen with having, out of zeal to flatter princes or from fear of displeasing, kept silence about the true cause of the martyrdom, to the loss of truth and of the holy Martyr's glory; since none of the writers brought forward asserted that it was other than what was handed down by them — of whom some flourished in the same century in which the Martyr fell, others in the next. But Sluse in the praised Diatriba, chapter 4, wishes it to be believed that Godeschalc sufficiently indicated to a reader who was not drowsy what he did not dare to say openly about the rebuking of Pippin. For he narrates, he says, that the blessed Bishop was "assailed with reproaches and contumelies, and oppressed with heavy losses in the plundering of his household property." He does not express the cause of so many injuries, but so hints at it that you may recognize the emissaries of Alpaïs. "Their kinsman," he says, "was Dodo"; who rejoiced that he had at last found from the slaying of Gallus and Rioldus the occasion which he was seeking for raging against the Bishop. Godeschalc goes on, and after the blessed Man's slaying narrates the tears of the people and of the nobles, but of all "with silence, lest they should be accused of having condemned Dodo's crime by the evidence of weeping." About Pippin, a second silence. But how could it come about that so great a prince, who is not moderately commended for piety and justice, did not go to avenge the slaying of his own Bishop, cruelly perpetrated before his eyes, and did not attend it at least with some feeling of grief, if there was nothing underlying which called him back from his duty? It is surely more easy to believe that Pippin had fallen through human weakness, and (what blessed Augustine says about Solomon and our first parent) "was unwilling to sadden his own delights."

[145] that the Saint was slain But let us hear Godeschalc again. "The lifeless body," he says, "covered with a cheap covering," was carried back down the Meuse to Maastricht to be buried. Where the clerics, "not daring to linger in adorning his sepulcher with honorable worship, in the tomb of his father Aper, who rested in the same place, not so much laid him as hid him, and, a great stone being cast over, not so much covered as pressed him down." Whence this fear, if not from Pippin, if not from Alpaïs, who had maddened Pippin with womanly enticements? Thus Sluse; which, lest, being reduced to a compendium, they should lose something of their force, it has seemed good to report in his own words. Now receive the reply. The cause of the injuries with which Gallus and Rioldus afflicted the holy Bishop, Godeschalc did not in fact disclose;

but neither did he call Dodo the brother of Alpaïs. No more did he assert that he rejoiced that he had at last found from the slaying of Gallus and Rioldus the occasion which he was seeking … for raging against the Bishop. His words in the edition of Chapeauville, which Sluse followed, are these: A certain kinsman of these (of Gallus and Rioldus), called Dodo, one of the palace chiefs, being an intimate of duke Pippin, abounding in possessions of many servants, and hedged about with the service and retinue of soldiers, when he had heard of the deaths of his kinsmen, is stirred to seek vengeance, and judged that blood must be avenged with blood. Who would dig Sluse's assertion out of this, and not rather say that the slaying of his kinsmen alone drove Dodo to vengeance?

[146] Further, as many as are the depraved lusts of perverse men, so many things could have stirred up Gallus and Rioldus against St. Lambert, so that it is not necessary to determine the rebuking of Pippin, of which Godeschalc nowhere makes mention, or any other certain cause. on account of Pippin's adultery being rebuked, As regards the fear of the people and of the rest, there is likewise no need to trace it to Pippin or Alpaïs, since that power of Dodo and his favor with Pippin, such as Godeschalc has just described, must have been more than enough to strike fear into them, lest they should be accused of having condemned Dodo's crime by the evidence of weeping (add also by the adorning of the tomb). And that fear was indeed the more just, the more certainly it was established from the recent slaying of the holy Bishop and of his household that Dodo's audacity for crimes was not inferior to his power. Finally, that I may answer both to this and to the other arguments objected thus far, I say that it is most likely that the said vexations of the church of Maastricht by Gallus and Rioldus, and the very slaying of St. Lambert, happened while Pippin, the Mayor of the Palace, was absent and detained by the Suevic war in Alemannia. Receive the reason for this assertion of mine.

[147] We said above in §8 that it is probable that St. Theodard lived until the year of Christ 669, who more probably, then warring in Suevia, and was slain in its month of September; and therefore that the slaying of St. Lambert too, who succeeding him immediately held that chair for forty years, probably fell in the year of Christ 709. And that in this year Pippin led an army into Alemannia or Suevia, four ancient annalists testify in Du Chesne's Writers of the History of France. The Annals of Lorsch there, tom. 2, page 3, have it thus: DCCIX Pippin went on into Alemannia: the Petavian, page 6: DCCIX when the lord Pippin went on into the Suevian lands against Willarius; the Tilian, page XI: DCCIX Pippin fought in the Suevian lands: the Metz annals finally, tom. 3, page 267: In the year from the Lord's Incarnation DCCIX Pippin, leading an army against the Alemanni, magnificently triumphed over them and over all that region. But now, if Pippin was at that time so far from Maastricht, that whole narration of Sigebert and Nicholas falls, and neither is the credit of Godeschalc and Stephen to be blamed, nor is Pippin to be arraigned as guilty of so atrocious a deed as the murder of his own holy Bishop. Certainly on this opinion everything stands rightly, and the difficulties which could be objected vanish.

[148] In the first place, thus the authority of the first biographers remains unshaken, was far from Maastricht, and their narration becomes much more likely. For to me at least that so dire oppression of the church of Maastricht, and the barbarous slaying of St. Lambert and of his household which followed, perpetrated with Pippin present and as it were looking on, has always seemed hard to believe, unless some grudge had come between him and the other. But when we tie these things to the year 709, we easily understand that Gallus and Rioldus, made bolder by Pippin's absence, could apply the said violence, and, supported by the powerful patronage of their kinsman Dodo, could continue it for some time with impunity, St. Lambert protesting in vain, and finally could be killed by Peter and Andoletus, when no help was brought from the court, repelling force by force. The same absence of the Mayor of the Palace could also add spirit to Dodo, blazing the more uncontrollably at the slaying of both, so that he should take out of the way not only the slayers, but also the Bishop himself, who had doubtless bravely pleaded against those plunderers before the palace officials, lest he should afterwards create trouble for himself and his people with Pippin. And as these things have nothing alien from likelihood, so they are in conformity with the statements of Godeschalc and Stephen, who cast the whole cause of St. Lambert's martyrdom upon Dodo, raging at the slaying of his kinsmen, but keep deep silence about Pippin and Alpaïs.

[149] when Lambert was killed. But, you will say, if Pippin had no part in that deed, why did he leave it unavenged? But besides the fact that the crimes of the more powerful often remain unpunished, that very absence of Pippin favored Dodo, both that he might invent causes by which he might extenuate his crime before the absent prince, and that he might use friends as intercessors. The slaying of his kinsmen favored him, of which he could feign the Saint to be guilty: his own power favored him, and his former familiarity with Pippin. Besides, the preparation for continuing the Suevic war favored him, which the annalists praised above affirm that Pippin pursued for three following years, partly in person, partly through his generals. And turbulent times of this kind are wont to make the minds of princes more intent on warlike cares than on avenging the injuries of private persons. However it be, on this opinion of mine the reputation of Pippin suffers far less than on the opposite one — Pippin who, on Sluse's testimony, is not moderately commended for piety and justice.

[150] A reply is made to the arguments There remain two arguments of Sluse's, to be dissolved with lighter labor. The first he takes from the authority of Marcus Welser, as though he had read in writers of the eighth century that St. Lambert was slain at the instigation of Alpaïs. The passage which Sluse praises is had in book 4 of the Res Boicæ, where Welser, treating of St. Corbinian, first bishop of Freising, narrates from Aribo that he, invited by Grimoald duke of the Bavarians, refused to come to him as long as he kept Pilitrudis, the widow of his brother Theobald, as a wife. Then he subjoins: It was near that the shameless woman (Pilitrudis) should repeat the old tragedy of Herodias; and the recent examples of Alpaïs against Lambert, and of Geila against Kilian, were before her eyes: for it is established that counsels of that kind were stirred, Corbinian not being ignorant of the peril. Welser's statements Sluse thus takes up: This Marcus Welser has from authors, as he professes, almost συνχρόνοις (contemporary) with our Godeschalc. Behold therefore, it was known and public among the Bavarians, what was kept silent in Austrasia: that Lambert and Kilian were equal in cause as in punishment; namely that each was slain by the fury of an unchaste woman, the latter by Geila's, the former by Alpaïs's.

[151] drawn from Marcus Welser, I answer that those are the statements and opinions of Welser, not of an author almost contemporary with Godeschalc — namely Aribo in the Life of St. Corbinian, which he himself often praises, and which we gave on the VIII day of this month of September, in which not a word is read about St. Lambert or Alpaïs. This one thing therefore Sluse has for himself from the passage brought forward, that Welser was of the same opinion as himself about the cause of our Saint's martyrdom, and that he therefore judged that it was known to Pilitrudis, who, it is established from Aribo, plotted against the life of St. Corbinian through a certain Ninus. For the rest, the authority of Marcus Welser ought not to detain us. Finally, the last argument Sluse forms from the title of Martyr, which he observes was ascribed to him soon after his death by the common consent of all; and thence he deduces that he shed his blood not for a private quarrel of his family, but for a cause which pertained to religion. For a martyr, he goes on, as blessed Augustine often inculcates, is made not by the punishment but by the cause. And therefore in the Roman Martyrology his memory is celebrated with this elogium, that "when he had rebuked the royal house with the zeal of religion, being innocently killed by the guilty, he entered the hall of the heavenly kingdom to live forever."

[152] But I gladly admit all these things, and venerate holy Lambert as a Martyr. and from the title of Martyr But I deny that it follows even thence that he was killed on account of Pippin's incontinence being rebuked, or, on my own opinion, on account of a private quarrel of his family. On the X day of September St. Theodard, Lambert's immediate predecessor in the episcopate, is read as inscribed in the Martyrologies as a Martyr, who, as the Roman has it, laid down his life for his sheep. The same the people of Liège venerate as a Martyr with an annual Office; nor yet do they bring forward any other cause of the martyrdom than that, having set out to appeal to Childeric II, king of Austrasia, for the possessions of his church, which he had demanded back in vain from wicked invaders, he was butchered on the way by adversaries of this kind. For a like defense of the goods of the church and of his flock I judge that St. Lambert was killed. For Gallus and Rioldus were plundering him and them; nor does the apostolic virtue of the Man permit us to doubt that he acted against those plunderers before the palace officials, of whom Dodo was one, with just complaints and admonitions, and, when he made no progress by these, even with threats. It is likely then that Dodo hence so blazed against the Saint that, having heard of his kinsmen's slaying, as though the opportunity for revenge were given, he flew to his slaying, which he himself, on Godeschalc's testimony, received most calmly.

[153] And it is plain that on this reckoning the holy Bishop cannot be said to have been slain on account of a private quarrel of his family, drawn and brought forward on the contrary side. although Dodo used this as a convenient occasion. These things can be solidly confirmed from the often-praised biographer of St. Hubert. He had certainly seen the first Life of St. Lambert, since he sends the reader to it in these words: But with how great and what kind of miracles the Lord commended his own will in such a deed (in the translation of our Saint's body) throughout the whole journey of their return, the little sheet noted with the deeds of that same holy Pontiff contains. He had therefore seen, I say, what was read in it about the Saint's martyrdom; nor had that happened so long before but that a sufficiently recent memory of it then survived, whence he might have a clear view of the true cause of that slaying. Nonetheless, in agreement with Godeschalc's statements, he says that he underwent death for his sheep. By manfully bearing, he says, the perils of a bitter death he both clung to the footsteps of the supreme pastor and disclosed how great a love he had toward the Lord's sheep; inasmuch as to them, while living, he furnished the pastures of life, and for them he did not fear to undergo the losses of death.

[154] Further, the palm of martyrdom not only the more recent writers, St. Hubert's devout feelings about him. but all the ancients too, acknowledged as due to St. Lambert, as is abundantly established both from Godeschalc and the other writers, and from the martyrologists already alleged and to be alleged hereafter. Yet it is a pleasure to set down here the devout feelings of St. Hubert, a man beyond all exception, about it, from his Life. Remembering, says the same biographer, the perfection of his Predecessor, he burned with desire of martyrdom, reckoning himself to have less of perfection, in that he had not yet handed over to death for the Lord even the offices of his body. For witnesses of that inward grief and bitterness of soul, by which he burned with love of martyrdom, were the tears which are wont to betray the inmost things of conscience, which at the remembrance of Bl. Lambert he was wont

grief to draw forth, and to bathe the orbs of his cheeks with unceasing wetting. Whence amid the devout overflowings of his weepings, the deep sighs of his lungs, he often complained thus: O unhappy me, and thrice to be pitied, whose sins have raised themselves into so great a heap that I cannot be found fit and worthy for the fellowship of so great a Man, who underwent the triumph of martyrdom and seized the palm of victory!

[155] The Saint doubtless tried to bring Pippin back to right conduct. Finally, before I put an end to the treating of this controversy, it may be asked whether St. Lambert is then to be said to have done nothing in the matter of Alpaïs's concubinage with Pippin. For since about that concubinage, from which Charles, surnamed Martel or the Hammer, was born, it is established among all from the most approved writers, it must indeed seem strange if our holy Bishop bore in silence so great a disgrace in his own diocese, and as it were before his eyes. I answer that, although the writers nearest to his age have handed down nothing on this subject, yet it cannot prudently be doubted that the holy Bishop — whom, among his other illustrious virtues, his first biographer deservedly commends for a heroic zeal for souls, and who on the same testimony at num. XI of the Life clemently taught, orderly instructed, and strove with all virtue to draw men back from the habit of sinning; and, as he says at num. 12, who did not regard the person of the powerful — it cannot, I say, be doubted that so great and such a Man labored in every way to extricate the prince, otherwise religious and excellent, from bonds so shameful, and to take away the stumbling-block of his flock.

[156] It is not sufficiently certain what is narrated But when Pippin yielded to his holy efforts is not at all established; although it may be permitted to gather that they were not fruitless from the historical Commentary on St. Suibert, §6, tom. 1 of March, page 78 and following, where many things devoutly done in the last years both of St. Lambert and of Pippin by him and by Plectrudis, his lawful wife, are narrated, which persuade that Alpaïs had then been cast off. Bartholomew Fisen in the Flowers of the Church of Liège, among persons illustrious in virtue, reviews that same Alpaïs on the XVII day of September as doing penance in the maidens' house of Orp and as dying holily, praising a Liège manuscript, Wassebourg, and Raissius. Le Cointe believed Fisen at the year 692, num. 4; but Pagi in the Critica at the year 698, num. 5, deservedly requires testimonies of more ancient writers. Further, there are two Orps in Brabant, Greater and Lesser; the Greater, of which it is here a question, is a village, now of the diocese of Namur, where a monastery of sacred virgins flourished of old, in which lived St. Adilia, of whom on the XXX day of June there was brief treatment in our Work. In the preceding century no traces of it survived, on the testimony of James, baron Le Roy, in the Topographia historica Gallo-Brabantiæ, page 249.

[157] about Alpaïs's penance in a monastery About Alpaïs buried at Orp he adds this in the same place: I have heard that her tomb, and the inscription of Alpaïs the countess, consort of duke Pippin, existed before these disturbances, in the greater church, but now there is not even a trace. About the same Aubert Miræus also treats in the Fasti Belgici on the XXV day of June, in St. Odwin, where he says thus: At the second milestone from Hoegaarden and from the town of Tienen is seen Greater Orp, a famous village of Brabant, in the diocese of Namur, where the same Alpaïs, converted to better conduct, had founded a monastery of virgins, which is thought to have been overthrown by the Normans or other barbarians. And the tomb of Alpaïs was found in the parish church of Orp behind the altar of the Mother of God in the year MDCXVIII. Wrongly, however, had he said in the same place that that Alpaïs was the concubine of Charles Martel, whose mother she was. It is also uncertain whether she founded the monastery of Orp, since others assign other founders.

[158] Nor do I know any better whether the college of canons of Hoegaarden owes its beginnings and its endowment to that same Alpaïs, and the other things pertaining hereto. as the praised Miræus set down in the place cited. For Fisen in the History of the Church of Liège, book 7, at the year 980, num. 7, mentions a certain countess Alpaïs of Hoegaarden, by whose devout munificence the chapter of St. Paul at Liège received an increase of revenues. And hence another suspicion arises in me, that she is perhaps that very Alpaïs whose tomb was formerly found at Orp, and which was perhaps falsely believed to be that of Pippin's concubine of the same name. However these things may stand, I, as I have said, can scarcely doubt that Pippin, obeying the most wholesome admonitions of St. Lambert and of other holy men, whom it is established he greatly favored, sent Alpaïs away. If it were established from elsewhere that Dodo was the brother of Alpaïs, it could be admitted with less difficulty that he was kindled with some private hatred to vex and destroy the holy Bishop on account of his sister being rejected by Pippin; but we have this only from those who, against the authority and credit of the first biographers, invented a new cause of the martyrdom.

§ XI. The place and circumstances of the martyrdom: the martyrdom of BB. Peter and Andoletus is weighed: their bodies anciently honored: the narration of the anonymous poet.

[ ] The Saint was killed at Liège Those things being discussed which pertain to the time and cause of St. Lambert's martyrdom, there remain a few things to be said about the circumstances of that martyrdom, and about those who were slain together with him. About the place in which the Saint suffered all the biographers agree; namely that it was Legia or Liège, then a small village, now one of the amplest cities of all Belgium, the head of the dominion of Liège, and the seat of its bishop and prince. The ancient situation and appearance of this place Nicholas sets forth in the Life to be published from num. 57, deservedly observing that the greatness to which it has grown is owed to the holy martyr Lambert; since, being first purpled with his blood, then enriched with his sacred body through St. Hubert, it deserved to be made illustrious by an episcopal chair, and presently also by the seat of a principality. Now the Saint had there a certain estate and buildings belonging to his church: there was also a chapel dedicated to SS. Cosmas and Damian by St. Monulph, formerly bishop of Maastricht, if we give credit to his biographers in each Life, given in tom. IV of July from page 157, as also to Nicholas in the Life of St. Lambert, and to Giles of Orval in St. Monulph, chapter 33. In this estate of his, therefore, the holy Bishop was staying when he was unexpectedly surrounded and killed by the impious Dodo and his henchmen.

[160] But as all acknowledge Legia or Liège as the Saint's arena, in his own chamber, so they somewhat disagree about the determinate place of the slaying. Godeschalc both in our ancient Ms. codex and in Mabillon, and Sigebert in each Life, expressly affirm that he was slain in his own chamber. Stephen too mentions only a chamber, the anonymous poet a cell; but Anselm designates no place other than that same Saint's house. On the contrary, in another copy of Godeschalc published by Chapeauville, chapter 8, it is narrated that the holy Man entered an oratory and was killed there: the same place is there said to be consecrated by the invocation of the name of the holy Trinity. Nicholas too in chapter 6 of the Life, num. 72, writes that Lambert was transfixed with a dart before the altar of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian, namely in that oratory or chapel of which we have just made mention, and in which the same biographers of St. Monulph report that he suffered. The later writers Fisen and Foullon follow them, of whom the first, in his Notes on the History, book 4, num. 36, sets forth the reason of his opinion and refutes a certain fiction of the painters.

[161] not in the oratory of SS. Cosmas and Damian, And he has it thus: Godeschalc (such, namely, as Chapeauville published) calls the place of the martyrdom an oratory, and a place consecrated by the invocation of the most holy Trinity. Nicholas speaks in the same way, and affirms that the holy Bishop was slain before the altar of the holy Cosmas and Damian: whom I have followed, although another says that he was slain merely at home or in a chamber. But the former is more agreeable to the report handed down through our Elders to this age. Today too in the old choir, which is the place of the martyrdom, there is seen an altar before which Lambert fell as a sacred victim. And finally every year the church of Liège itself sings on the holy Martyr's feast day that Lambert obtained the palm in the building of the holy martyrs. Yet I by no means assent to the painters, who paint him being killed while performing the sacred rites. Not one of the ancients handed this down. And indeed who would believe that the Bishop, just now roused from sleep, at that moment of time when he saw death with his eyes, turned himself to celebrating the Sacrifice? Thus far Fisen; and rightly indeed, because he had seen only Chapeauville's copy of Godeschalc, or one like it, or judged it genuine.

[162] as is read in some writers. But it pleases me better to cleave to our own copy and to Mabillon's, since Stephen, the anonymous poet, and Sigebert agree with it, and Anselm does not disagree, so that it may deservedly be suspected that the copy which Chapeauville followed was interpolated. As regards the tradition, and what Fisen praised from the Office of Liège, these are of small weight, since in Nicholas's time the Life written by Stephen, in which this is not read, was still read in the church of Liège, as we observed above, and how ancient that tradition is Fisen does not declare. Mabillon in his Annotations thus took up the words of Nicholas, in which he says that the Saint was butchered before the altar of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian: That is, in the place where in Nicholas's time the altar of SS. Cosmas and Damian was seen. For St. Landebert was killed not in the oratory, but in his chamber. But although Nicholas can somehow be so explained, this certainly cannot be done in Godeschalc's copy published by Chapeauville, in which not only is the Saint, about to die, said to have entered the oratory, but his slayer also is said not to have reverenced that same place consecrated by the invocation of the name of the holy Trinity. But, as I have said, I think we must stand by our own copy.

[163] The Saint's first impulse, About the manner and the movements of soul with which St. Lambert at first received the coming of his enemies, the biographers likewise vary somewhat. Godeschalc in our Ms. has this on the matter: And when he (the aforesaid boy Baldoveus, the Saint's servant) had seen these things (the enemies bursting in with the doors broken), running suddenly he announced it to the Bishop; which Bishop, not yet turned to slumber, was still expecting to sleep a happy sleep, not knowing that he was about to hasten to the contest; but this message being heard, rising most swiftly. Then the priest Landibert straightway, with unshod feet, that most valiant warrior, at once seizing a sword in his hands, went forward as though about to fight against his enemies; and Christ, whom he had always asked for his help, was not far from him. But he entered upon a counsel with the Most High that would remain everlasting, trusting in the Lord with a silent mind. And without delay, changing his purpose, he cast the sword from his hands to the ground, saying: If I flee, I can avoid the sword: but if I stand fast, either I must fall or I must conquer. But never shall I lose my victory; because it is better for me to die in the Lord than to lay warring hands upon the wicked. With these things, as far as

the substance goes, Mabillon's edition, which we are to reprint, agrees.

[164] by which he wished to repel force by force, Stephen also agrees, differing in this, however, that he affirms that St. Lambert was not warned by a servant, but roused from sleep by the tumult of arms. Straightway Lambert, he says, that most valiant contender of God, awakened by the clash of arms, rose from his bed, snatched a sword with his hand, and resolved to fight against his enemies. Nor was there delay: he changed the resolve of his first mind, casting the sword upon the ground, and saying this in his heart: Deliver me from my enemies, my God, etc. These same things are read a little differently in Godeschalc, in the copy which Chapeauville used, in which at chapter 8 it is narrated that the Saint brandished a sword as if fighting; and when he noticed that no enemy was yet in the chamber, he changed his counsel and threw it away. Receive his words. Lambert is struck by their shouting and by the crash and clashing of arms, is shaken out of bed, and, forgetful of the heavenly armor by which spiritual wickednesses are conquered, unmindful too of the Apostolic precept, "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God"; he snatched a sword, and, having brandished it, no enemy being found whom he might strike, he held back his hand; and, having returned to himself — for he had gone a little out of his mind — he cast the sword away, and defended himself with this sword of prayer: Deliver me from my enemies, my God, etc.

[165] he is free of all fault, Sigebert, both in the Life to be published and in that published by Chapeauville under Reiner's name, likewise makes mention of the sword snatched, and presently subjoins: But, having returned to himself, he condemned himself of rashness; and because he had at least unlawfully attempted arms, he assigned himself to a fitting penance before God. The anonymous poet had gone before him, who had said, from a report, certainly uncertain, that Lambert had therefore determined to do penance for seven years if he should survive. His words we shall report below at num. 174. On the contrary Anselm in the Life, chapter XI, denies that he attempted anything of the kind; But the Man of God, he says, is awakened within by the unexpected crash of those making tumult, from the sleep in which after his vigils he had laid down his weary limbs, and straightway, seeking to devise nothing even in return, although he could (for he knew that the warriors of Christ, after the example of their Master, know how to conquer by dying rather than by fighting back), prostrating his whole body in prayer, most steadfastly awaits a precious death. Anselm's statements Giles of Orval adopted; Nicholas too kept deep silence about the sword seized and that first desire of defending himself.

[166] But I, on account of the authority of the first biographers, cannot doubt nor did it harm his martyrdom. that the holy Bishop, heavy with sleep, and suspecting nothing of the kind, presently struck by the unlooked-for approach of his enemies, took up arms for the defense of himself at the first impulse of a mind not yet deliberating, and cast them away when the command of reason immediately succeeded. So he indeed suffered something human, but yet can be charged with no sin, especially since it is lawful even for bishops to defend their life. But as it is manifest that by casting away the sword he repented of his impulse, so that seven years' penance enjoined upon himself smells of a little fable, which the same poet afterwards uses for forging another fable, as we shall see in its place. Further, since for martyrdom it is required that the martyr should have accepted the death inflicted upon him, it is useful to observe here in passing that St. Lambert, after that impulse of defending himself had been suddenly checked, not only did not fight back, but also persuaded his two nephews or kinsmen, and the rest of his household, who were bravely resisting the enemy, to cast away their arms and to receive death calmly; and that he finally, without even attempting flight, was killed prostrate on the ground in prayer, as all his biographers agree.

[167] Peter and Andoletus have long been Not the same is the case with the praised nephews of St. Lambert, Peter and Andoletus, to whom some also ascribe the little laurel of martyrdom, whom Philip Ferrarius, following them in the Catalogus generalis Sanctorum, thus mentions on this XVI day of September: At Ledium (that is, Liège), of the holy martyrs Peter and Adoletus. Then in his Annotations he praises the Passion of St. Lambert the bishop, with whom they were crowned with martyrdom. The same as holy martyrs Fisen reviews in the Flowers of the Church of Liège on the day just cited together with St. Lambert, where after a very brief elogium of the latter he subjoins: His holy nephews, Peter and Andoletus, are companions of his glory as of his contest; and therefore this their place had to be given them. Yet their glorious contest, because it had to be described in the Life of St. Lambert, the reader will find there. Let us see therefore what the ancient biographers asserted for their martyrdom. Godeschalc in Chapeauville's copy, chapter 8, speaks thus about their slaying: Meanwhile, the doors being unbarred and the enemy let in, Peter and Andoletus are the first and morning sacrifice immolated to God: then the rest of the crowded household is overwhelmed and slaughtered, no distinction being made of boy and old man, of ripe age and unripe.

[168] held as holy martyrs. With these agrees Stephen in the Life, num. 32, where he says: And when undaunted (yet unarmed and ready to receive death) they had burst out from the door of the chamber, straightway, as the adversaries struck, being worthy of martyrdom, they were immolated in the divine sight. Anselm too in chapter 10, naming no one, numbers among martyrs all who were slain on that occasion, in these words: The adversaries bursting in on every side, many are sent ahead to heaven before their Pastor by the sword of the butchers, being without doubt made martyrs. The same Giles transcribed, but named Peter and Andoletus in the first place. Sigebert affirms that they were all encouraged by St. Lambert to fall for justice and innocence; Nicholas that Peter and Andoletus, burning with love of martyrdom, steadfastly offered their necks to the raging and striking adversaries. But in our copy of Godeschalc, to which the one published by Mabillon is conformable in this part also, those two Nephews of the holy Bishop are indeed said to have been induced by his saving admonitions to desist from repelling the enemies' force, and to receive death calmly for the washing away of the slaying of Gallus and Rioldus which they had committed; but no mention is made of a laurel of martyrdom thus obtained. It will be useful to have reported the very words from Mabillon's edition.

[169] The various narration of the biographers about them is weighed. Then his two nephews, Peter and Audolecus, rising and snatching up cudgels, began bravely to strike those who had entered the house, and presently drove them from the front of the house. Then the man of God Landebert said to his nephews, and to his younger men who were there in the house: If you truly love me, love Christ as I do, and confess your sins to the Lord Jesus Christ: it is fitting for me to be dissolved, and to live with the Lord… And he said to his nephews: Remember that you were accused and guilty in that crime (namely in the slaying of Gallus and Rioldus). Do you not know that God will not judge sinners twice, nor dismiss sins unjudged? But what you then did unjustly, now receive justly. Why do you come to me? Walk before their sight, and there receive what you gave. It is better to hand over your flesh to be torn, and to keep your hands harmless, that your spirit may be saved forever. Then one of his nephews answered: Read now in the volumes of your Lord, and finish the work which you have happily begun; and as the Lord wills, so shall it be with us. Then the holy man Landebert, snatching up the Psalter, found this verse first: "Because the Lord will require the blood of his servants."

[170] Just as Zachary, whom they killed between the temple and the altar, as he was dying said: May the Lord see and require it; so this man also remained unconquered and firm. These things being said, all being cast out of the chamber, he prostrated himself upon the ground, his arms stretched out in a cross, pouring forth prayer with tears: and suddenly the executioners arrived, and, entering the house, killed with the edge of the sword all whom they found there. Certainly this whole narration makes the palm of their martyrdom more obscure. Further, Godeschalc too in Chapeauville, Stephen, and Sigebert acknowledge that they were induced by St. Lambert to expiate with their own blood the aforesaid slaying of Gallus and Rioldus. Of the same slaying Anselm likewise makes mention in chapter XI; so that Nicholas and Giles alone silently passed it over, doubtless that they might derive the cause of the martyrdom solely from the condemned concubinage of Alpaïs: with what credit, let the fair reader judge. Yet it must be confessed that the praised SS. Peter and Andoletus ended their life — which from their companionship with the holy Bishop they had most probably adorned with very many virtues — by a Christian heroic death, freely accepted from love of virtue; whence too they could be called martyrs, less strictly, after the manner of the ancients. And indeed who would not admire men to whom nobility of stock, a flourishing age, and the use of arms gave mighty spirits for a lawful defense of themselves, for having presently at the Saint's admonitions abstained from what they had happily begun, and for having offered themselves unarmed of their own accord to be slaughtered by the enemies' swords, that they might atone for the slaying of the church's plunderers, which they had perhaps committed in defense of ecclesiastical goods and men against them, in good faith and with the restraint of blameless self-protection, as the Theologians speak.

[171] However these things may stand, it is established that they were long ago held by the people of Liège as holy martyrs, Their bodies and that their bodies were preserved at Liège among the relics of the Saints and held in sacred veneration. Hence Fisen in the Flowers of the Church of Liège, chapter 15, deservedly marvels that nothing is found in the biographers of St. Lambert about their first translation or elevation. What was done, he says, with the bodies of Peter and Andoletus and of the rest who fell, no one has disclosed. That they were laid in the building of SS. Cosmas and Damian I persuade myself, since thereafter no mention is made of them by those who wrote that St. Lambert's body was brought back to Liège. But it is established that from of old the bodies of SS. Peter and Andoletus are preserved and venerated at Liège. So much the more do I marvel that the rest, whose cause in death was equal, lie hidden obscure in darkness and silence. But with God, the most just rewarder, there are no darknesses, who will never leave any right deed inglorious. This observation of Fisen pleases me: for as regards the burial, the convenient nearness of the place makes it likely, to which their bodies could easily be carried without the ill will and fear of Dodo.

[172] preserved in sacred veneration at Liège. But what he has about the cult shown to both at Liège already in ancient times is manifest from Anselm, Giles, and other ancient documents, which we shall produce below. Anselm, a writer of the eleventh century, in Chapeauville, tom. 1, chapter 30, in St. Florebert, has it thus: His body (that of St. Florebert, bishop of Liège) was laid in one sepulcher with Peter and Andoletus, who were killed with Bl. Lambert. Giles in the same place says of St. Florebert: He rested in Christ in great sanctity, … and was buried in the church of St. Lambert, where, shining with many signs and miracles, after some time he was raised

his body, and fittingly placed in a shrine… But after many years the bodies also of SS. Peter and Andoletus, who were martyred with Bl. Lambert, were raised, and were placed with the body of Bl. Florebert in one shrine; which shrine is placed in a canopy beside the body of Bl. Lambert unto this present day with the other pledges of the Saints. The time of their elevation I could not attain; but that they really were elevated the documents praised and to be reported in their places prove. For the rest, I have found that their memory is celebrated with no ecclesiastical Office in the Breviaries of Liège. Nor have I anywhere discovered anything about the rest who were slain with them. Now, after my custom, I subjoin what the anonymous poet sang about St. Lambert's martyrdom.

[173] The slayings of St. Lambert and of the rest It happened then that the Man worthy of a heavenly gift withdrew to the parts outside near the city. And he came to the village which is called by the name Legia, not knowing the day which the last day wills to bring, bringing the final end, when he should go to the heavens, and which would close the bright windows of his body, and would join him to the lofty companies. And when the friends of depraved Dodo knew this beforehand, they prepare themselves for the doings of a maddened mind, and thence he and his together, loosing their hearts to fury, rise up with spirits mastered by a most bitter mind, and, their accomplices joined, they go to the Father's funeral: so Dodo holds himself an executioner with a savage column. Behold, drawing near, they gird the roofs of the houses; and then, where the dwellings of holy Lambert are, above they behold the marvelous sign of the Cross, pressing on as with the shining rays of pure gold. Of these some repented after a time, by whose words these signs of comeliness remain made known. Afterwards therefore Dodo and his men broke off delay, and what they began by guile they brought forth worse to grief. Pressing on, they enter the doors of the defense by the way, the bars being burst, now passing freely through the openings.

[174] set forth in verse by the anonymous poet. Then the companions and the servants of the house, and the said nephews, snatching up swords, resist with brave courage, and so prevail that they drive them outside the halls. Then the Lord's Holy one, arms of warfare being taken up with sturdy breast, began to be present as though about to fight; and hence, turning over with himself the commands of Christ, that it did not befit a man fitted for the sacred altars to gird himself with these irons and arms; nor now to be terrified under those who slay bodies, who can kill the soul with no darts; he gave his arms to the ground, and noted that he had repented of having taken them up, since he was present as a soldier of Christ. Hence there is a flying rumor, with wings stretched on high, that the Saint had said in the utterance of his mind that he had wished to bring himself back with penalties for seven years, if the breath of life should be borne in his body. Then he gave these commands to his nephews: Do not put your hands [] to the darts,* but rather acknowledge the fault committed by you; of your own accord now pluck the punishment worthy of you. For it is just to join to the scourges that flesh from which disgraces rush forth through the loosened veins in the body, that the spirit may be saved in everlasting light, which came down from the shining seat of the heavens. What God punishes here, he does not judge twice; and indeed he forgives sins to no one without the lash.

[175] These things he says, and compelled all to leave the cell, and pressed his limbs to the ground under the covering of the cross, set forth in meter. praying that Christ, to whom he had vowed himself to be had, would swiftly lead him rejoicing to the joys of paradise. The executioners, their strength being made firm again, running close by, mingled in wedge-shaped columns, break in more strongly, and shatter the door-posts and thresholds, and those whom they find they straightway add to the clouds. The air was exceedingly frightened at the flying darts, and seemed stripped of its conspicuous veils; so too the pale air was sad up to the cloud, so that it brought forth no streams for the ill-dried fields; that is, the Almighty gave no proofs of faith to the malignant, because he saw that they were not to be saved. Then they come to the cell where the Saint, praying, had his limbs laid upon the ground, with hands stretched toward the stars, desiring to be dissolved, and reckoned it better with a pure breast to be joined to Christ in bright fellowship, as, Paul, the words are brought forth in thy speeches. And one of them, climbing upon the heights of the cell, piercing him with a dart, increased for himself the wounds of guilt. So he rendered his soul to the bright stars of the heavens, which a sacred company of angels led to the upper air.

Thus the anonymous writer, in which, by poetic license, a few things are to be taken with a grain of salt. But what he says at num. 174 about a penance of seven years enjoined by the Saint upon himself, no one besides him mentions, and it is to be banished among fables.

vestras* (your) was wanting

§ XII. The translation of the sacred body from Liège to Maastricht; his burial there famous for miracles: his cult and churches at Liège: the punishment of the murderers divinely foretold.

[ ] The body is carried to Maastricht: fables about the angel's pointing St. Lambert and his household being slain in the manner we have said, the few who had escaped the common slaughter, returning after the departure of the enemy, placed the sacred body of the Bishop (for about the rest there is no mention in any of the biographers) in a boat and carried it from the village of Legia down the river Meuse to Maastricht, about five miles distant, that it might be buried where he had had his episcopal see. When it arrived, the whole city received it with great mourning and lamentation, as the funeral of their best Father, as the biographers testify, and as the Man's own merits demanded. The XVII day of September, that is, the same on which he was slain, Fisen in the Flowers of the Church of Liège, chapter 15, altogether probably assigns to this funeral procession. But it smacks of a vulgar fable, what he there adds about the news of his coming being received through an angel, in these words: They report that it was announced to the people of Maastricht by an angel, who, visible to all above the church of the Mother of God, with his finger stretched toward the Meuse pointed out the glorious remains of the unconquered Martyr: a monument of which survives today, the figure of an angel on the summit of that same church, with his hand stretched toward the river. I judge rather that that statue of an angel gave occasion for inventing the said prodigy, of which none of the biographers makes mention, than that it is a monument of it.

[177] and about the repulse of concubines. I make no more of the other alleged miracle, which, likewise unknown to the ancients, Sigebert of Gembloux first, and then Giles, handed down as having happened at this same translation. Let us hear Sigebert at num. 53. It was delightful and devout to see all bestowing on their Pastor the pledge of their love; but it was pitiable and marvelous to notice the anger of the devout Pastor toward the straying sheep. For it is handed down by our elders that, while free access to kiss the Saint lay open to all, if any concubine thrust herself forward to kiss the Martyr's body, she went backward as though whirled by a kind of whirlwind. By the repulse of concubines, therefore, it shone forth exceedingly that that concubine was hateful to God and to the holy Martyr, who by a twofold crime had disgraced France and had disturbed the holy church. By this concubine he designates Alpaïs, by whose order, contrary to what Godeschalc and Stephen hand down, he had reported above that St. Lambert was killed. But I vehemently suspect that that prodigious repulse of concubines from the sacred body was devised for somehow confirming the aforesaid fable about Alpaïs, or was born from it; which the reader will marvel at the less if he remembers what we reported in §2, that Giles did not hesitate, for paving the way to it, to give the infant St. Lambert a virgin nurse.

[178] The body is laid in the church of St. Peter, The holy Martyr's body, presently taken down from the ship in a bier, was carried to the church of St. Peter, where his father lay buried, as Godeschalc, the poet, Stephen, and Sigebert have it; the first two of whom also add that the clergy and people kept sacred watches by it the whole night. The situation of this church, which to this day is a parish church outside the walls of the city, Nicholas set forth in the Life, num. 76, in these words: And it was solitary, situated almost on the very bank of the Meuse at the eastern slope of the hill which the inhabitants call Castra, having between itself and Maastricht as it were a certain boundary, the little river Jeker. Of the same church Hugh II, bishop of Liège, also makes mention, and calls it the inheritance of St. Lambert, in Henschen in the Exegesis on the bishopric of Tongres and Maastricht, before tom. VII of May, chapter XI, num. 60, where a part of the praised bishop's diploma is recited, in which in the year 1296 he grants to John, duke of Brabant, that the whole town of Maastricht and Wyck with their suburbs should be in the duke's dominion, except two parishes, namely St. Mary's, where, he says, our see was formerly placed, and also St. Peter's, existing in the suburb of Maastricht, which was once the inheritance of St. Lambert.

[179] and, buried in his father's sepulcher, shines with miracles. On the next day the people of Maastricht, struck with fear — which we have said arose not from Pippin but from Dodo — did not dare to prepare a sepulcher worthy of so great a Bishop; and therefore, his father's own tomb being opened, they laid the Martyr's venerable body with his father's bones and covered it with a stone, as all the biographers agree. Nicholas, however, differs in this, that he says the sacred funeral was carried into the aforesaid church of St. Peter not on the same day on which it arrived, but on the morrow morning, with this design, that Pippin's indignation should not be aggravated if he were buried in the more famous church of St. Mary or of St. Servatius. But the authority of the earlier writers is to be preferred; and that nothing was on that account to be feared from Pippin we think we have shown above at sufficient length. Nor were divine prodigies wanting by which God made plain the merits of his Martyr. For all the biographers hand down that at his sepulcher a heavenly melody of angels, and mingled with it the very well-known voice of St. Lambert himself, was heard by day and by night. Besides, about a most sweet odor divinely poured forth while he was being buried, Stephen, and after him others, made mention.

[180] These obsequies of the Saint, and what happened at them, the anonymous poet celebrated in the following verses: The poet's narration about these things.

Whose sacred body, after so great perils, placed in a little boat, a few returning, is thence carried and led to the honors of its own see; and when [] the harbor had duly begun to open its bosom,* a very great mourning is heard through fields and through towns, that so precious a Man had gone as a martyr to the heavens. While the cry is borne on high with clapped hands, a cautious cause of fear was to restrain the sound. Hence they place him on a bier, and lead it to the heights of the see, where Peter the Apostle received it. Then the clergy and people so pray with sacred laments that they add the night, wakeful, with divine praises. They did not dare to adorn it with a sepulcher of its own; knowing well, they determined to place it in his father's tomb [],* then the father's bones are the more hallowed by those bones. Thereafter with the bright voices of angels [] the kindly* temple of the church resounded with sweet song. How subtle was the kindly voice of the said Bishop! Thither the neighbors, led by much wonder, come rather often, and seek to know what it is; who they may be, or what they sing, or what the gifts of the voice may be. But then, while they desire to stretch their own gaze within, that voice is withdrawn on a thin breeze, as it is wont to be heard when a vessel of bronze is touched, and the rising sound is gradually drawn to the stars.

But while they skillfully draw back, to be further off, the air resounded with voices sweet to hear. In the first suns such a celebration remained, kindly Lambert, in thy place, with heavenly hymns.

[181] The Saint's sepulcher at Maastricht being made illustrious in that manner, His chamber at Liège being made famous by miracles, his chamber at Liège too, in which he had shed his sacred blood, began to grow so famous by miracles that in a short time it grew into a church. Religious awe was first won for the place by the lights frequently kindled in it by divine power, with whose brightness the whole house shone. There was added a twofold apparition of the Saint: gently admonishing in dreams a certain Theodoenus that he should see to the returning of his comb, which that man's wife had stolen away from there; and, when it was not returned, sharply rebuking and chastising him with a dire wound. Besides these, two blind men, Baldegisilus and Raginfredus by name, were likewise admonished in dreams — the first indeed that he should keep watch in that venerable chamber of the Martyr, the other that he should clean it; and Baldegisilus, being presently roused, having received the light of his eyes, did what was commanded: but Raginfredus, while he was girding himself to the work enjoined, was likewise given his sight, and thenceforth made himself over to that same place. These miracles the ancient as well as the more recent biographers narrate, and they add that from this it came about that, a frequent crowd flowing together thither from every side, a basilica began to be built there.

[182] two churches are erected there. Oda enlightened But for finishing the begun work more quickly, the healing of a certain blind virgin Oda contributed much, who, having conceived a hope of sight from the miracles she had heard of St. Lambert, took care that she too should be led thither; and when she perceived that she was now not far from it, the name of that same Saint being invoked, she was presently made mistress of her wish, and came to the desired place to give thanks. Likewise from this, says Godeschalc, a people of both sexes, mingled with the common folk, old men and little ones, flocked the more to the building of the Saint's basilica; and so it was swiftly completed. He adds that as a monument of this miracle another church too was erected. Likewise, he says, where the virgin received light through faith, a basilica was built in his name as a testimony to believers, and is assiduously venerated. Yet I should believe that this latter one, or even both, was rather a chapel than a basilica, if this word be used, as it is wont to be, for some greater church.

[183] is she the same as her namesake venerated at Rode? Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, on the XXVII day of November, reviews St. Oda the virgin, patroness of Rode in the diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch, and makes her the same as her of whom we now speak. The same Miræus also announces in the Fasti Belgici et Burgundici; but whether she was the very one of whom Godeschalc speaks he does not declare. Fisen followed Molanus both in the History and in the Flowers, where he also says that the church founded by her in the place where she had received her sight was consecrated to the name of St. Walburga, and that from this a name was left to the whole hill down to his own time. Whether the St. Oda who is venerated at Rode is the same as ours can be examined on the aforecited day of November: but what Fisen says, that that church was then dedicated to St. Walburga, can be reconciled neither with Godeschalc nor with Fisen's own statements. For Godeschalc expressly says that it was built in his name (that is, St. Lambert's, as the thing itself demanded). Then, since Fisen himself, with Molanus and Miræus, places St. Oda's death about the year 713, how could she dedicate a church to St. Walburga, who first came from England into Germany about the year 748, and died about the year 780, as may be seen in her deeds in tom. III of February on the XXV day, on which she is venerated? But let us return to Liège.

[184] The Saint's cult at Liège; in his church About the cult which the people of Liège persevered in paying to St. Lambert in the same place in which he had been killed, Godeschalc goes on thus in the same place. The faithful and devout also made a bed, and adorned it with the craftsman's art; and so placed it in the spot where the Bishop had been struck down. There the Lord daily works great and numberless powers and marvels. By bed in the Lives of the Saints a bier or reliquary is often designated; and therefore here it is to be taken for a like thing, which, namely, they set over the pavement which he had sprinkled with his own sacred blood, for religion's sake and as a monument. And this is that basilica of St. Lambert in which various ancient writers have handed down that Grimoald, son of Pippin of Herstal and Plectrudis and Mayor of the Palace of Neustria, was killed in the year 714 while he was praying for the health of his sick father. They can be consulted in Le Cointe at the year cited, num. 1 and 2: it will suffice here to have produced one or two. In the History written by order of Childebrand it is read thus about him: Pippin being sick at Jupille upon the river Meuse, when that same Grimoald had come to visit him, and had gone forward to prayer in the basilica of St. Landbert the martyr, he was killed by a most cruel man, impious Rantgarius by name.

[185] The annalist of Metz agrees, who says: In the year from the Lord's Incarnation DCCXIV, Grimoald is killed. Pippin being sick in the public village of Jupille, which is situated upon the river Meuse, when his son Grimoald was hastening to visit him, and had gone forward to prayer in the basilica of St. Lambert the martyr, and was persisting rather long prostrate in prayer, he fell, struck with a sword by a most wicked man, by name Rangarius. For the rest, we have observed in §8, against Reiner or Sigebert, who wrongly placed it a few years after his translation, that that slaying of Grimoald happened in the aforesaid year and before St. Lambert's body had been carried thither. Such were the beginnings of St. Lambert's cult in the village of Legia, with which this afterwards grew into a very ample city, his sacred body and the episcopal chair being presently translated thither. There follows in Godeschalc and others the divine vengeance upon the impious Dodo and upon those whom he had had as companions of the sacrilegious slaying, which St. Lambert, appearing to Amalgisilus the treasurer, foretold with truthful mouth.

[186] The praised apparition, and what presently followed, Appearing, he foretells the punishments of Dodo Godeschalc affirms happened when the circuit of a year was completed (namely after the Saint's martyrdom); and, coming nearest to him, Anselm in chapter XI tied the punishment divinely inflicted on Dodo to the very year of that martyrdom. But the anonymous poet differs more, who invented that a whole seven years intervened between the two, during all which time he fables that St. Lambert was unwilling to reveal anything about himself, that he might wholly complete the seven years' penance which he had set himself on account of the arms he had seized. Nevertheless let us hear him even so as he fables.

This Saint therefore the Lord decreed should grow famous by many signs, by powers thereafter noted, after the pen had performed what was to be written above, showing the gentle end of the sacred Bishop — things which our Calliope, playing, does not dare to touch with her quills, because they are miracles of the highest Father, who from his lofty circuit beholds all things: and to him the wisdom of the foolish world is cheap. But what report once brought to good ears, that I shall sing, with the fibers pressed beneath my breast. She, leading a devout voice through the heights, through the depths, cannot be silent: A Martyr precious in body!

[187] When therefore his sacred end was at hand before him, and, arms being taken up, he had wished to be held a soldier, and of his companions: and hence had weighed it with the balance of an upright heart, so that, his arms cast away, he prostrated himself upon the ground — because he had said that for seven years he would bear repentance for the good, if life should remain to his flesh; since he ought to bear himself to God in sacred hymns, and not in the exceedingly cruel arms of warfare. Whence through these seven years, in a silent time, he bade that no commands about himself should be done by revealing them. But after the years of the said time were now completed he is narrated to have come, in brightness, to that same man who then stood ready to render the key-bearing cares of the sacred church: so then they began to speak: "Whence comes my lord, not seen for many years?" He indeed said, "We have gone to visit Rome; but now the time is at hand, and we have therefore come that Dodo and his men, brother, may receive the rewards of a worthy wage, and may render what is due to the lords whom they had given themselves to serve with malignant zeal. Now go thou swiftly, and carry these things to Dodo: Prince, having heard from this time the word of him who calls, thou shalt go, and shalt lay before God the utterances of thy reckoning, why through thee Lambert reached the thresholds of death." The messenger came to Dodo and brought forth such things.

[188] which prophecy is presently fulfilled. Thus far the poet, whose little Work, one or two leaves being torn from our parchment codex, is thereafter mutilated, as we warned at num. XI. But that seven years' interval, plainly unknown to the other writers, and which rests on another little fable rejected at num. 175, is plainly fabulous, and little honorable — not to say injurious — to the holy Martyr, whose glory God had already manifested both at Maastricht and at Legia. For the rest, Godeschalc, Sigebert, and others hand down that Dodo paid the penalties of his crime by a dreadful death, his bowels rotting and being foully cast out through his mouth. Sigebert adds, from report or tradition — I know not how certain — that his corpse was thrown into the Meuse on account of the intolerable stench. That the others guilty of so great a deed perished in various ways, the same writers testify, so that within the space of one year after the prophecy of the Saint appearing, few out of so great a number of murderers survived, who themselves, however, the same Sigebert asserts led a life more horrible than death. Hither pertains what Wandelbert sang in his Martyrology on the present day:

read cui* (to whom)

* i.e. a sepulcher

* i.e. of angels

§ XIII. The translation of the sacred body from Maastricht to Liège by St. Hubert: its time and certain circumstances.

[ ] St. Hubert, divinely admonished, To the cult of St. Lambert in the village of Legia, so happily begun and increased, a new and great increment was added by the translation of his sacred body, made by St. Hubert, his immediate successor, as we have said elsewhere, in the episcopal chair. The cause and manner of the translation were commended to posterity by the two first biographers of SS. Lambert and Hubert; of whom the former, having pursued the event somewhat more at length, assigned the time only confusedly, saying that it happened lately, after some years: but the other expressly declared the time and some other circumstances; but for the miracles done at it he sent the reader to the first. Hence the narration of both will be of great use to us. And so the biographer of St. Hubert in Mabillon, Cent. 3, part 1, page 81, writes the following on this subject. But in the twelfth year of his (St. Hubert's) ordination there were disclosed to him frequent visions offered in the quiet of night, by which he confessed that he was admonished to raise the bones of St. Landebert from the town of Maastricht, and to bring them back to be buried again in the place where he knew his passion had been celebrated. The admonition of these refreshed his mind with inestimable joy.

[190] brings the Saint's body back from Maastricht to Liège Nevertheless, being set in a kind of middle course,

since he neither gave certain credit to the vision nor altogether distrusted it, he judged that what was thus hidden must be sought from the Lord. For, a fast being enjoined upon all, both upon the monastic and upon the clerics of the city, and also upon the laity, he strove earnestly to inquire what the divine will might command him to do about these things. And at length being taught, the doubtful judgment being removed, in the thirteenth year of his prelacy, a company of clerics being joined to him, and a throng of the people gathered, venerable bishops and priests also being summoned, he went to the tomb of the Man of God, and there, keeping spiritual watches, and knocking at the Divinity with prayers and honoring it with praises, they begged that he would grant that the things which he had commanded his bishop to do should be accomplished, and, by bestowing favorable outcomes, would show openly to all his will that they should so be done. To their devout prayers it pleased the omnipotence of the Divinity to assent. For, approaching with the greatest veneration the urn in which the most holy ashes were kept laid up, without any difficulty they brought forth the remains of the blessed Man from the coffin, and, carrying them back with great joy by the way they had come, committed them to the earth in the place in which he suffered.

[191] But with how great and what kind of miracles the Lord commended his own will in such a deed throughout the whole journey of their return, not on the 28th day of April, the little sheet noted with the deeds of that same holy Pontiff contains. In what manner the fabric of that same basilica, in which the relics of the blessed Man were laid, was ordered by that same holy man Hubert, because it offers itself to the eyes of those who see it, I have forborne to say anything about it. Thus far he about the praised translation, in what year of Christ it happened being what must first be investigated. In various Martyrologies the memory of that translation is read as inscribed on the XXVIII day of April, on which day too there stands an Office of it in the Breviaries of Liège. Nevertheless that it was not made on this day we learn from Reiner, a monk of St. Laurence's near Liège, in the Triumphale Bulonicum, in Bernard Pez, tom. 4 of the Thesaurus anecdot., part 3, col. 152, where in book 5, chapter 3, he has this: It was moreover sanctioned (in the year 1143, on the occasion of the castle of Bouillon being recovered through St. Lambert's patronage) by episcopal authority, the church of Liège approving the same, that on the IV of the Kalends of May a solemn memory of that same triumph, and also of the translation (because that same Martyr was translated from Maastricht to Liège), should thereafter be kept; since the translation itself was first made on the VIIII Kal. of January, and on that day, on account of the vigil of the Lord's Nativity, it could not be celebrated with the due honor.

[192] Now that Reiner lived in the twelfth century at Liège, and at that very time in which the said decree was made; and therefore we cannot hold his testimony suspect. but on the 24th of December, Reiner's words Giles adopted in the thirteenth century, chapter 38, in Albero II, bishop of Liège, in Chapeauville, tom. 2, page 92, where nevertheless, by the fault either of himself or of a copyist or of the editor, for ninth is read eighth of the Kalends of January — a manifest error, since this day is said by him, in the same words which Reiner used, to have been hindered on account of the vigil of the Lord's Nativity. In the more recent Breviary of Liège, however, which I have in hand, the festivity of the said triumph is indeed said to have been then instituted on the aforecited XXVIII day of April, but it is added: And likewise through it that former aforesaid translation (made by St. Hubert), whose memory recurred on this day from of old, was rendered more famous. But although these words assert that the annual memory of the said translation was wont to be recalled at Liège on the XXVIII day of April even before the year 1143, yet they do not affirm that it was made on that day, or, if they do affirm it, I prefer to believe Reiner rather than the compiler of the Breviary.

[193] About the same decree Fisen makes mention from Giles in the History, book 5, as is shown, num. 2, and book 10, num. XI, nor does he refute it. But to Foullon, book 3, chapter 3, it appears incredible that so solemn a day as that of the Lord's Nativity, and the wintry month of December, was chosen by St. Hubert for making the translation. Nor is this observation of Foullon's inept, who, when he noticed that the XXV day of December assigned by Giles coincides not with the Vigil but with the nativity feast itself, consequently believed that it was affirmed by him that the translation was made on this and not on that. To this difficulty, moreover, you have the reply from Reiner, who rightly put together the XXIV day with the Vigil, and assigned it to the translation. As regards the wintry month, there is no reason why we should on that account convict Reiner of error. For what appears so incredible in this, if St. Hubert, already often admonished by heavenly signs, and interpellated by others — as we shall presently see — to whom St. Lambert appearing had given the same commands, and, besides, a fast having been kept by the whole clergy and people, being now plainly taught about the divine will, judged that a translation divinely commanded should by no means be deferred to the next Spring?

[194] and that in the year 721 or 722; Certainly from Godeschalc we shall presently say that the holy Martyr commanded that his body should be carried without any delay to Liège. Add that Maastricht is distant only about five Belgic miles from Liège, so that on a winter's day that sacred procession could easily be carried out. Besides, on the opinion of those who judge that the episcopal see, together with the holy Martyr's body, was translated by St. Hubert from Maastricht to Liège, it can be seen that he chose that day above the rest, that on the morrow he might solemnly perform the sacred rites there, and that so the day which was the Nativity for Christ the Lord should be the same for the church of Liège. From what has been said it follows that the said translation is to be tied to the year of Christ 721 or 722, as I show in a few words. We said in §8 that St. Lambert more probably obtained the palm of martyrdom in the year 709, on the XVII day of September. To him succeeded St. Hubert, who in the thirteenth year of his prelacy, as we have just proved from his biographer, took care of the translation, and that on the XXIV day of December, on Reiner's testimony. And so, if St. Hubert was initiated into the episcopate before the XXV of December, on that same day of the year 721 the thirteenth year of his prelacy was running; but if later than the day cited, his twelfth year was still running on the XXIV of December of the year 721; and so the translation of which we treat is to be placed in one or the other of the assigned years.

[195] which is proved against Pagi, Le Cointe in the Annals agreed most nearly with us, who, since he had determined that St. Lambert was slain in the year 708, that is, one year earlier than we, and, not having seen Reiner or Giles, was following the Martyrologies in which the memory of the translation is recalled on the fourth of the Kalends of May, did not hesitate to say that the body of that Saint was translated in the year 721. Similarly Mabillon in his Annotations assigned the year 720 or the following; because he had fixed the martyrdom about the year DCCVIII. But since from what has been said the holy Martyr was more probably slain in the year 709, and since it is not established in what month St. Hubert was substituted for him, and the translation according to Reiner was made on the XXIV day of December, I should not dare to assign the year 721 as certain rather than 722. But certainly I can by no means assent to Pagi, who in the Critica at the year 698, num. 1, to persuade us that it happened in no other year than 720, reasons thus. First, from what he has said before, he determines that St. Lambert was already bishop from the year 667; then, forty years of episcopate being added, he ties his martyrdom to the year 707; and at last he refers the translation, in the thirteenth year after, to the aforecited year 720.

[196] About the beginning of that episcopate he had treated at the year 658, who wrongly placed the Saint's martyrdom in the year 667 num. 5, where he rejected as futile the argument of Le Cointe by which the latter had proved that St. Theodard was not slain earlier than the year 668, from the day of his death, which is read as the X of September in the Martyrologies, and from the precept of king Childeric given in his favor at Maastricht in the year 667 on the VI day of the same month. For since St. Theodard, when he was approaching king Childeric II for the causes of his church, was slain among the Nemetes, and since the Martyrologies refer this to the X day of September, Le Cointe had rightly determined from the distance of both places that St. Theodard's slaying did not happen in the year 667, in whose month of September, on the VI day, both Childeric and Theodard had still been at Maastricht. But that argument seemed futile to Pagi, because the Saints, as he says, for the most part passed to God on other days than those on which they are venerated, and because he promised that he would show, in the death of St. Lambert, that Theodard died in the year 667. Let us see therefore in what way he carries out his promise.

[197] After what we set forth in the preceding number, he goes on nearly thus: and the translation in the year 720. The translation of St. Lambert is celebrated on the XXVIII of April, on which it is indicated in very many Martyrologies both manuscript and printed: but since solemnities of this kind were by custom performed on Sundays, and in the year 720, which is the thirteenth from the year 707, the twenty-eighth day of April fell on a Sunday, in that year that translation seems to have been made, and therefore also Hubert to have succeeded Lambert. Then he indeed acknowledges that that day is mentioned neither in the Life of St. Hubert nor in that of St. Lambert, and that translations of saints have been written down in the Martyrologies on days other than those on which they happened: but since Hubert, he says, translated from Maastricht to Liège not only the relics of St. Lambert, but also the pontifical chair, and Legia or Liège, St. Lambert's body being recovered, grew into a great city and began to be frequented even by remote peoples for the sake of prayer, it is easy to judge that that day was always sacred to this translation, and therefore that Lambert obtained the glory of martyrdom in the year DCCVII. So he seemed to himself to have shown what he had promised.

[198] The whole force of his reasoning therefore rests on the Martyrologies, wrongly. in which St. Lambert's translation is marked on the XXVIII day of April. But that these are deceptive we have proved from Reiner, until someone should produce a Martyrology of this kind older than the year 1143 — which Pagi did not furnish, who had not seen Reiner, and perhaps had not even consulted Giles. In vain therefore did Pagi on that account deny that St. Theodard underwent martyrdom on the X day of September, on which he is inscribed in the Martyrologies; in vain did he tie his slaying to the year 667, and the death of holy Lambert to the year 707, and finally the translation to the year 720. Whether St. Hubert on the same day translated the episcopal chair, together with his Predecessor's sacred body, from Maastricht to Liège, I do not here inquire: yet if he did so, as Pagi will have it, we have shown that the XXIV day of December, on which Reiner affirms the translation of the body was made, was exceedingly fit, so that on the morrow, on the very feast of the Lord's nativity, he might inaugurate the bishopric at Liège. About the rest who dissent from us in this part, let it suffice to have said that, according to their varying opinion about the year of the death of SS. Theodard and Lambert, they set down a varying year for the translation. Thus far about the time of the translation: now let us treat of some other circumstances of it.

[199] Revelations preceding the translation We have seen above from the Life of St. Hubert that he was admonished in the twelfth year of his ordination by frequent vision to translate St. Lambert's body to Liège. About these visions Godeschalc makes no mention, but asserts that St. Lambert himself appeared to a certain venerable man and commanded this. He adds that others too were divinely admonished about the same matter. Let us hear his words: Lately, after some years, St. Landebert appeared through a vision to a certain venerable man, that his body should without any delay be carried to Liège; and this same thing was revealed in many ways to priests and to faithful men fearing God. But lest we should believe that that venerable man was St. Hubert himself, he presently goes on thus in the same place: But holy Hubert, who was once the disciple of Landebert, and who at that time was bishop in this region, having heard these miracles, hastening with the fear of God, diligently inquired into the order of the matter, etc. He seems therefore to have been ignorant of the apparitions made to St. Hubert; perhaps because the latter long concealed them, so that the things which had befallen others were reported to have given the cause for the translation. But the other biographer, St. Hubert's disciple, and so better instructed about his affairs, probably preferred to report what properly pertained to his holy master.

[200] What of the bishops who are said by some to have been present? About the bishops whom the biographer last praised says were summoned by St. Hubert to that solemnity, Godeschalc mentions nothing at all, by whom it is only said that that holy bishop performed the translation with many priests and levites and other clerics chanting psalms, and besides with a great multitude of Christians. And no reason indeed appears why he should be said to have been ignorant of the bishops' presence or to have deliberately passed it over; but since we know from elsewhere that it was the custom for neighboring bishops to be invited to solemnities of this kind, there is no reason why we should not believe that this was done here too, unless perhaps the festivity of the Lord's Nativity kept them at home. John Roberti in the Annotations to the Life of St. Hubert reviews the bishops whom he had learned really to have been present at the said translation. The most distinguished man, he says, lord Claude Despretz, in his Analects sent to me, writes from ancient manuscripts that at this translation there were present Anno archbishop of Cologne, Rigobert archbishop of Rheims, Vindicianus bishop of Arras, Garulph of Tournai, Berkembodus [] of Thérouanne, Dominic of Amiens, and Willibrord of Utrecht.*

[201] Roberti's Annotations were followed by the brothers of Sainte-Marthe, tom. 2 of the Gallia Christiana, in the catalogue of the bishops of Amiens, in Dominic, and by Adrian de la Morlière, book 2 of the Antiquities of Amiens, chapter 15; where, however, Rigobert being omitted, he wrongly called Anno, who was of Cologne, archbishop of Rheims. The same too Fisen numbers with Roberti, book 5 of the History, chapter 2, who also observes that Agrebert, bishop of Verdun, is added to the rest by Wassebourg (book 2 of the Antiquities of Belgic Gaul, fol. CXIIII). But since we do not know how ancient, or of what credit, those manuscripts seen by Claude Despretz were, and no other documents of that matter are at hand for us, it would have to be inquired not so much whether the praised bishops were present at this translation, as whether they could have been present; which I have judged would not be worth while. This one thing I can safely assert, that the time of the episcopate of some of them, such as it is handed down by writers, did not coincide with the time of the translation; that of others is quite doubtful; and finally that the presence of the rest is plainly uncertain.

[202] Another thing is to be observed in both biographers, The body was found incorrupt. that in the Life of St. Hubert the remains of the blessed Man are said to have been raised from the sepulcher. But that this is not to be so taken as though nothing but the bones and ashes of that sacred body survived, is clear from Godeschalc, who not obscurely signifies that it was found entire and incorrupt, in the words which I subjoin. The venerable limbs of Christ's Martyr, fragrant with a most sweet odor, Hubert the bishop found solid and unimpaired, and, raising them from the sepulcher with fear and the greatest honor, wrapped them in precious garments; those too in which he had long been clothed he laid away under seals with great care. Similarly in the copy published by Chapeauville, chapter 14, his venerable limbs … fragrant with a most sweet odor … are said to have been found safe and undefiled; and the same about the garments changed and preserved is to be read in the same place. Anselm too, although in St. Hubert, chapter 21, he writes that the bones of the holy Martyr were translated by him, yet in chapter XI, in St. Lambert, he had expressly said: By divine revelation, his blessed successor Hubert acting, the body of the most holy Martyr was translated to the place of his passion, namely to Liège, when it had been found incorrupt. This I have judged the reader should be warned of, lest from the words of the other biographer he should bring himself to think that St. Lambert's body had already then gone to ashes.

[203] The other things pertaining to that translation which need some elucidation we shall illustrate in the Annotations. The anonymous poet's verses Meanwhile I subjoin the anonymous writer's verses about it, who in our mutilated codex thus pursues the translation:

Hence indeed they take up the body, found with solid flesh, with sacred hymns flying on high. Then the city binds its dark sadness with praises; because it beholds itself driven away from the sight of its Guardian: the flock of sheep adds mourning with high bleatings, because the care of the Pastor leaves it deserted. The gentle veneration of the people leads the journey begun, and miracles accompany it with frequent signs. So they came to the place prepared for the Saint to sleep, and anointed with the rosy dew of his flesh. Thence the people of that place rose up exultingly, and hasten to adorn their chambers with lavish gifts, and are busy to scatter sacred perfumes.

while the buzzing trumpet attempted to seek bright bellowings through byways, the muses snarling on every side: the shrill pipe took its way to cut through the heights duly with tuneful roads: with such honor Lambert, Martyr and excellent Bishop, being led to the inmost place, rests there in the flesh, where he rendered his life to the stars. The people of which [] land is marked as having built an excellent* and fitting house, shining with gems and gold, joining gifts to gifts and estates to donations, adorning the mausoleum and giving paneled ceilings on props, which the light of the Lord Christ's power so honors that it may bring forth Lambert as beloved by his gift.

Thus far the anonymous writer, who, setting a coping-stone to his little Work, indicates that he wrote by the order of Stephen, bishop of Liège, who, as we said at num. 9, sat at the beginning of the tenth century, when he subjoins thus:

To the sacred bishop Stephen be praise and glory, by whose command these things have been spoken in splendid meter, and may he pluck a bright crown from the utterance of his name.

* Erkembodo

Cui* (to whom)

§ XIV. Certain miracles anciently done in the church of Liège: Giles's narration about the Normans divinely terrified etc. discussed: a new church built.

[ ] The church at Liège is made more illustrious by miracles: The holy Martyr's body being translated to Liège, his church began to grow famous more and more by miracles, about which Godeschalc speaks thus: But the few things which we have narrated about his life and about his virtues ought to furnish certain credit to all hearers, since today beside his tomb, in proof of the things to be proved, broken stocks are shown, and very many chains and fetters are burst, and the lame with their steps made firm, and those vexed with various infirmities, every languor being taken from their bodies and soul, return whole to their own homes. And whereas in the short preceding times many miracles indeed have been wrought, who shall now comprehend with worthy estimation how great and of what kind those will be that are to be wrought through the long spaces of times, since signs and marvels never cease to be done beside the tomb of the blessed Bishop and glorious Martyr unto this present day? This he in the eighth century; but what those miracles were he does not further set forth.

[206] seven cripples and blind men healed at once; The author of the Ancient Miracles, whom we said at num. 10 lived under Franco and Stephen, that is, at the beginning of the tenth century, reviews three kinds of miracles which happened in that same church. The first of these, which pertains to the Saint's reliquary, we shall review at num. 215. The other two, done in the author's own time, because they cannot conveniently be given elsewhere, receive here. At length, in the course of many times afterwards, we beheld with common sight such a thing as is to be remembered by all the successions of the ages. For on the night of his Birthday, while the tuneful worship of the Vigils was being performed, and the hymn-uttering melody of the eighth Responsory was now sounding on high, in one point and in one moment the functions of the limbs, poured back from heaven through the pores long accustomed to them, breathe again restored, rejoicing in the number of seven, for cripples and likewise for blind men. In which deed to add anything of praise is assuredly rather to take away. The reflections which he subjoins there at length according to his own wit, because they are frivolous and inept enough, and do not pertain to the history, I knowingly pass over, and proceed to the other which follows after these.

[207] a woman born blind, divinely admonished to go to the church, When, moreover, straightway (after Franco) the succession of the bishopric was held by a man illustrious in holiness and nobility, the notable bishop Stephen, we beheld a prodigy of the Son of God alone wrought in the loftiness of the aforesaid Father, such as we have never known about another, either by sight or by report. A certain woman born blind, and, however many children she had borne, thus punished (that is, having already borne several children, remaining blind), deserved in this manner to hear in a dream from a voice of the Lord, thrice on single nights beginning thus to her: Why dost thou remain long enduring in thy native blindness? Rise swiftly, go to the thresholds of Lambert the martyr: there shall be given thee a draught of a health-bearing taste, and having drunk it thou shalt receive thy sight, of which alone, since his glory was to be shown in thee, thou hast hitherto been deprived and empty. And when she had received this a third time by the office of her ears, and had made it known to her neighbors set close by, by frequent rimate (Ῥῆμα in Latin is sermo, word) set forth, being compelled by the exhortation of all, she left her dwelling and, directing her journey, came all the way to Liège. Then, as she drew near with her step to the doorways of the gates, straightway, as though thanata (that is, dying, from Θάνατος, death), she fell to the ground, quivering. And while many who stood by awaited her patiently, and desired to know what perchance the outcome might give as an end, by a happy augury she, after a long while gradually breathing again, and striving to raise herself a little in a seated posture, called out with cries that a biberem (that is, a cup or drink) [] should be handed to her, sounding dreadfully.*

[208] And when she had drunk it wholly down, not at all delayed for long, is marvelously given her sight there. with her own hands she began to pluck as it were scales from her eyes; and unless she had been opposed by others holding her tightly, beyond need they would have been rubbed by her and rooted out from the roots. Thus beginning to see, she recognized neither her husband nor her sons; but, as of men whom she had not yet had, she asked, in ignorance, who they might be, as they pressed upon her. The substances of created things, which before she knew only by their names, marveling in great amazement, through the whole following week she sought, in her dullness, to learn their distinctions; so that the opportunity was given openly to all of noticing that she had never used her own light. Yet by many who knew her

it was testified with every oath that she had been so born to her parents. The drink of which the author there speaks was probably some liquid blessed with some relics of St. Lambert, or at his invocation, or offered in a small vessel which he himself had formerly used. For the rest, this is what that writer has about the miracles obtained in the basilica of Liège, who had prefaced that out of very many he would report only three to the glory of the most holy Trinity, because, as he says in the same place, if all were heaped upon pages and committed one by one to writing, they would, occupying the space of an excessive lengthiness, be found to inflict weariness.

[209] Memorable too is what Anselm, canon of Liège, Another cripple, who wrote a little after the middle of the eleventh century, noted as having happened there in his own age, in the Deeds of the Bishops of Liège, in Martène and Durand, tom. 4 of the Collectio ampliss. of ancient writers, col. 852 and following, where in chapter 12, whose title is On a cripple manifestly set upright, the following is read: Let it be permitted still, to the praise and glory of the Lord and of his precious Martyr, to narrate one thing done within our memory in the present church, where his venerable body rests, of which there can be as many witnesses as there are survivors who saw this same thing. A certain youth from the first years of his boyhood was wont to creep along with little stools to the church, and wherever we went, and for seven continuous years to be diligent about ringing the bells, bolting and unbolting the doors: daily he was fed from the dole of the brethren's alms; nor did he know how to live otherwise. Whence it happened, when discourse arose among the brethren about certain vagabonds falsely claiming that signs had been done upon them, that it was asserted that, if this man were set upright, without doubt this ought to be believed; since he, from his exceeding simplicity, so far from feigning anything, could far sooner be deceived than deceive.

[210] Having lived among us in such wise seven years, a little more or less, on a certain occasion, as he was cheerful and nimble at performing such tasks, but in all else altogether lame and feeble, hastening to meet the brethren at table, in the service of the holy Martyr he goes to shut the crypt in which is the holy Martyr's mausoleum. He comes to the door of the left side, and while, leaning on the tips of his joints, he was stretching to draw the bolt, he felt his shins little by little loosened, disjoined from the hips; so much so that he now believed he could raise himself not by the support of his joints, but so that he was able to rise wholly upright for this purpose. The simplicity of the youth marvels and is amazed at the new power in himself of walking rightly; and, not being able to understand whence this had befallen him, from fear or from shame I know not, he publishes the matter to no one. And so he goes for some time in vain with his stools, being now much more helpless than before, when he was truly feeble; and at length, secretly calling to himself one of the churchwardens, he showed him what by God's gift he could do. He at first fled through fright at the unwonted thing, but presently, his strength being recovered, returning, inquired the time and manner of the healing.

[211] is suddenly set upright. Devoted to the Saint, into the church And when he narrated it simply, he learned it, and told it to us, and from that time, his stools being left before the Martyr's tomb as a testimony of the power, he learned to guide his new steps with a staff supporting him. We saw him a cripple before and set upright afterwards; we saw him live some years after; we keep the stools as a testimony of the power. These things we say not that we wish to make little of God's daily benefits toward us on account of the holy Martyr's merit, which are so many and so great that the human mind can scarcely comprehend them; but that we might satisfy those who are wont to marvel at new and unwonted things, and that by recalling new things the zeal of the studious might be stirred to inquire into the daily ones. Thus far Anselm. To these Giles added two in Chapeauville's edition, tom. 1, in St. Lambert. The first, chapter 18, is about a certain layman of Liège devoutly affected toward the Saint, who, when he seemed to himself thrice by night to have heard the bronze bell rung for the morning Office, and had as many times gone in vain to the church, which he found closed, while he was making some little delay in prayer before the chapel of St. Agatha, it seemed to him that he saw a certain honorable and reverend person, with white head and a shaven crown, wrapped in a cloak, coming out of that chapel, who took him by the hand and beckoned him to follow.

[212] wondrously brought in; a blasphemer punished is healed on repenting. And when they had come to the door of the church, straightway at their coming the gate was opened miraculously, and thus that man is brought into the church as far as the middle. And when he wished to enter the choir, that person closed the door of the choir and left him outside the choir. Then he heard within a crash and a sound about the shrine of Bl. Lambert, and certain signs by which he understood that it was Bl. Lambert himself who had brought him into the church; and so, glorifying God and his Saint, he waited for the hour of matins. The other he reviews in chapter 19, and it is of this kind: There was a certain soldier of the district of Hesbaye, who was wont to mock the deeds of Bl. Lambert, and by mocking to blaspheme. Some little time passed without vengeance; but when he set little store by his correction, on a certain day, the just Judge judging, his blasphemous mouth was so distorted that he seemed to have his mouth at his ears. This vexation gave understanding to his hearing. He came at once to Liège to the mercy of the glorious Martyr, acknowledging his fault before all. He lay in prayers beneath the shrine about three days; and so at last he obtained pardon, and through the blessed Martyr received his former soundness: and from that time he remained devout and humble toward the veneration of Bl. Lambert. Thus Giles, who, on account of the fables which he retails elsewhere, is of small authority with me in matters of this kind.

[213] The same writer in chapter 12 narrates that that same basilica of St. Lambert was burned by the Normans while Franco was bishop, Giles's narration about the Normans but that the Saint's precious reliquary was preserved by divine power, first from their greed and then also from the injuries of the weather. And he has it thus: In the course of time, Franco discharging the dignity of the prelacy of Liège, the Normans, a nation breathing with beastlike ferocity, violently burst into Liège, and, the fortifications being broken and burned, the citizens too being poured out in immoderate slaughter and their substance taken away, at last they consumed the church of St. Lambert with fire, leveling it with the ground, and left only traces of ruin and burning. Then, wishing with barbarian presumption to approach the place in which the holy body was venerated, and to plunder the best things they might find, being struck with a dread from heaven, they leapt back and fled. And fleeing in this manner, they consoled their flight by saying that a loss had come upon them, in that they had not carried off the sole and not so precious workmanship gleaming about the Martyr's body.

[214] And so, the sanctuary and the holy sepulcher being uncovered and exposed to the blasts of the winds, driven back by divine power, and about the prodigy of the snows, to snows and rains, the marvelous power of the Almighty appeared in praise of his Martyr, in that, though the earth was so often drenched on every side with showers and covered all around with snows, upon his sepulcher neither did a drop of rain flow down, nor did a curled sprinkling of snows settle. It was strange and unwonted that the place of the sacred body, lying open to the bare air, received the dry air, but rejected the moist. Fisen, book 5 of the History, num. 45, can scarcely believe that the Lambertian basilica was then burned by the Normans, because he believed Giles to be the first author of this matter, and no one else makes mention of a new church built at that time, and Giles himself finally writes that the one built by St. Hubert, and falling down through age, was afterwards restored by Notger. Hence Fisen prefers to judge that the Normans were divinely frightened off from violating both St. Lambert's church and his reliquary. But he is mistaken: for first, indeed, the Bertinian Annals of the Franks, published by Du Chesne, tom. 3 of the Scriptores, page 261, expressly affirm that at the year of Christ 882 the monastery of St. Landbert at Liège was burned by them.

[215] Secondly, the writer of the Ancient Miracles, of whom we made mention at num. 206, he is corrected from a writer contemporary with or nearest to the event, hands down this same thing; but in a style so barbarous and so entangled that it can scarcely be understood what he means. So then he writes: Therefore, while the hall of his own see, in which he rests in body [] (the holy Martyr), was, by the savage Norman pestilence raging everywhere in laying waste whatever it might, altogether burned up, and was not yet at last built by the hastening even of a middling repair, and while his guardians, having brought him back from the places to which he had fled, were passing the night in watchful care, a huge exuberance of snows, flowing in as the whole was open to the windows, left nothing of the inner parts uncovered, save only his sandalia. And yet neither anywhere above, nor sideways as far as half a palm's breadth, did it stand daring to approach, keeping their venerableness for these. Which, being straightway known openly in the morning by the multitude of the common people, sounded everywhere exalted in the extolling of a mighty marvel. And the beholders in the times of each, still living among us, remain as narrators.* After this the author, turning to devout admonitions, observes that it rightly came about that the snows should spare the sacred body of him whom, for obedience's sake, they had formerly tortured as he passed the night in psalms under the open sky in the monastery of Stavelot.

[216] contemporary with the event. Further, I interpret the obscure and barbarous narration thus: After the Norman devastation, when the guardians of St. Lambert's body were passing the night beside it — it having now been brought back from the place to which it had been carried for fear of the Normans — in his burned church, not restored even with rough work; a mighty force of snows, rushing in through the open vault, covered whatever was in the church except the sandalia, that is, the veil with which the Saint's reliquary was covered. Nothing of the snows fell upon it from above, nothing either round about within the space of half a palm, upon the pavement, as it were out of reverence for the sacred pledge: which, when the people understood it in the morning, they celebrated with the highest praises. Now let us return to Giles. That anonymous writer seems to have lighted his way; nor can we deny that the Lambertian basilica was burned by the Normans, since the praised writer of the miracles so expressly asserts it. Nor can the silence of others about the church being restored, objected by Fisen, stand against his authority, since from it only a negative argument can be drawn. Much less does it stand in the way that Notger afterwards restored the church founded by St. Hubert and falling down through age: for after the Norman burning it could have been repaired in some fashion, according to the calamity of those times, and then, in the closing tenth century, when the walls which had survived the fire threatened ruin, a new one could be raised from the foundations by Notger, as was done.

[217] and is corrected from a writer nearest to the event: But from the account of that same anonymous writer Giles is convicted of an added fable about the plundering of the sacred reliquary attempted by the Normans, and about their headlong flight through a dread divinely struck into them — which he, perhaps not having understood the anonymous writer, since he had read that it had been done several times at the bodies of other Saints, judged had happened here too. But since the anonymous writer, nearest to the events, not only makes no mention of that miracle, but affirms that the reliquary was translated elsewhere for safety's sake, it is clear that Giles told a fable. Add that

it is also more likely from other considerations that St. Lambert's body, lest it should fall into the hands of the barbarians, was timely hidden or translated to a safer place, as Foullon, book 3 of the Hist. Leod., chapter 10, although he had not seen the anonymous writer, already observed against Giles, adducing translations of other sacred bodies prudently undertaken for the same cause. Besides, that miracle of the snows, which is handed down by the anonymous writer as having been done once, Giles liberally multiplied; So often, he says, as the earth was drenched on every side with showers and covered all around with snows, upon his sepulcher neither did a drop of rain flow down, nor did a curled sprinkling of snows settle.

[218] The new church founded by Notger. About the church built by Notger, who was consecrated bishop of Liège in the year 972, Anselm in chapter 50, in Chapeauville, has this: The church of holy Mary and of holy Lambert (which is one and the same) he enlarged with wider buildings, adorned with richer ornaments, and renewed the cloisters for the buildings of the houses. In Martène's edition one reads: The house of holy Mary and holy Lambert, as it is at present, he renewed, with its ornaments, cloister, and the buildings of the bishop's palace. These same things Giles pursued a little more at length in this manner: The monastery of Bl. Lambert our patron, whose life was venerable and death precious, who by cause and by punishment a martyr consecrated the site of our city to divine worship in his own blood, he changed far for the better than it had been. For the church which Bl. Hubert had built had declined to collapse through the weakness of a lesser work and the age of the time pressing upon it. This being pulled down, he raised up, according to the magnificence of his enlarged heart, a temple for sixty canons, according to the amplitude and loftiness of the work which is seen, as the head and protection of the city and country to be protected, and adorned it with richer ornaments, etc. It is uncertain, however, whether Notger wholly completed it; because the same Anselm hands down in chapter 59 that it was first dedicated by Baldric, his successor, saying: He himself, in the presence of the archbishop of Cologne, namely Heribert, dedicated the church of holy Mary and holy Lambert. For the rest, this is that church in which flourishes that illustrious college of canons, in whose hands is now the whole power of electing the prince and bishop, and the highest authority among the orders of the principality.

sibi* (to himself)

* i. e. in body

§ XV. The translation of the sacred shrine with part of the body to the camp of the people of Liège before Bouillon: miracles wrought on that occasion.

[ ] Two contemporaries, one of whom, Reiner, About the middle of the twelfth century, namely in the year of Christ 1141, there happened the famous translation of St. Lambert to the camp of the people of Liège, who with their bishop Albero II were besieging Bouillon; whose memory, on account of the most happy outcome, is recalled at Liège with an annual solemnity on the XXVIII day of April, as we have already said above. The course of the event two contemporaries wrote at length: one anonymous, the other Reiner or Rener, a monk at St. Laurence's at Liège, of whom other little Works also survive. The anonymous writer's book, which is entitled The Triumph of St. Lambert the martyr over the castle of Bouillon, divided into 22 chapters, Chapeauville published in tom. 2 De Gestis Pontif. Leod., and judged that its author was Nicholas the canon, by whom we also have a written Life of St. Lambert: which, although likely enough, is nevertheless not certain; and therefore we shall praise him under the name of the anonymous writer. Reiner's little Work, divided into five little books, Bernard Pez published from a Ms. codex of the monastery of St. Laurence in tom. 4 of the Thesaurus Anecdot., part 3, with this title: The five little books of the Triumphale Bulonicum.

[220] These Reiner himself acknowledges to be his own in book 2 On the Famous Writers of his own Monastery, chapter 9, miraculously healed by the Saint, in the praised Pez, col. 42, where, reviewing his lucubrations, he says among other things: Besides, I have written out in a Work of five little books how in our days the church of Liège recovered by divine power the castle of Bouillon, its invaders being triumphed over, and I marked it beforehand with the title: Triumphale Bulonicum. As the cause of writing he alleges the duty of a grateful mind toward that Saint, by whose patronage he had been freed from a grave disease. For thus he speaks in the Prologue: But that I, sluggish and unskilled, presumed to undertake so great a business, love only toward the Saint, and devotion, led me. For I was a debtor of thanks, which I have not held it idle to pay from a history so solemn. For when for nearly a year I was afflicted with two quartan fevers, and was either burned with heats or drawn together with colds, so that, weary of present things, it was already a misery and a burden to me that I lived; after the venerable body of the Saint was lately raised from its place of rest, as will be clear below, I came among other flocks of the languishing to implore his suffrage; and when he, of inexhaustible clemency, deigned to hear one unworthy, I had by experience the benefit of soundness.

[221] wrote about the triumph of Bouillon. As regards the time of writing, in the last chapter he mentions another victory won in the year 1153, and ascribes it to the patronage of that same Saint. Wherefore he must be said not to have written his Triumphale before that year, unless perhaps he added those few things to the rest afterwards. About the credit with which he wrote out those little books he says thus in the Prologue: Many indeed say many things, and, as is wont in matters of this kind, the opinions of different men are different. Nevertheless, as I could investigate more diligently from those who were present, I have set down the truth… In which (Work), if anything has been set down beside the truth, whether it be more fairly imputed to the reporters or to the writers, I leave to the judgment of the benevolent reader. But truth is a friend to religious men; whence I should by no means suspect that those from whom I received these things feigned anything, since the modesty of the persons excuses this. Further, each writer is worthy of credit, and they agree as to the substance of the matters, although some circumstances are reported differently by the one. But because both are lengthy in narrating warlike matters, which is not of our purpose, I have thought it more advisable to review only those things which properly pertain to St. Lambert, and to set forth the rest briefly, so far as is necessary for knowledge of the translation and the triumph.

[222] Bouillon, which Obert had bought, Godfrey of Bouillon, afterwards king of Jerusalem, when toward the end of the eleventh century he was meditating the sacred expedition to the Holy Land, had pledged his castle of Bouillon, commonly Bouillon, situated within the forest of the Ardennes on the border of the dominion of Liège, to Obert bishop of Liège, with this condition added, that unless it were redeemed by certain persons, it should belong forever to his diocese. Obert eagerly seized the condition offered, because that castle was very strongly fortified by nature and by art, and the people of Liège had suffered much from the plunderings of its inhabitants. The bishop therefore, says the anonymous writer, having compassion on the miseries of the poor, devoutly violent, stripped the memorial of the blessed Martyr, namely the coffer in which his most sacred relics lay, of its covering of gold, and in the greater church and in all the churches of the whole bishopric drew off the gold, gems, and the rest which adorned the altars, pulpits, and gospel-books of the churches with a comely setting, and, one thousand three hundred marks of purest silver being scraped together from every side (Reiner adds three marks of gold), this sum of money being handed to the duke, he bought the aforesaid castle, and redeemed plunderings, captivities, beggaries, perils, and deaths.

[223] seized by the count of Bar, Albero II besieging it, After this, when none of those whose interest it was by the compact had redeemed the said castle, and Eustace, count of Boulogne, Godfrey's brother, on Reiner's testimony, had also solemnly ceded his own right, it passed into the right and dominion of the bishopric of Liège, and remained so until the episcopate of Alexander. But then Rainald, count of Bar, on the title of reclaiming his ancestral inheritance, the guards being bribed, as they say, occupied it. Alexander was succeeded by Albero II, who, after he had appealed in vain both to the emperor and to the Roman Pontiff for recovering it, girt that same place with a siege, to reclaim by force and arms what he had not been able to obtain otherwise. The beginning of the expedition Reiner ties to the fifth year of his episcopate, on the XVI Kalends of September; the anonymous writer to the year of Christ 1141. Over the besieged presided two sons of duke Rainald, Hugh and Rainald, whom the army of Liège had driven into the castle as they were plundering in the fields, and who were awaiting help from their father. Meanwhile, while the people of Liège were laboring to press the siege, and the besieged were bravely defending themselves, as may be seen at more length in each writer, a mind was cast into the former about imploring the help of their holy Patron at his coffer brought down into the camp.

[224] While these things are being done, says Reiner, by the will of God, who sweetly disposes all things, the army demanding it, he orders the body of St. Lambert it seemed good to the bishop (who was present in the camp) and to the chief men of the church that the venerable body of Bl. Lambert, moved from the place of its repose, should be carried down to the camp, so that by the presence or protection of so great a Patron a fuller courage might grow for the army, and that where human strength should fail, the divine Omnipotence might deign to work through its own Martyr. For the princes too and all the army, and finally the people of the city, who were to go forth by episcopal edict, demanded this most earnestly. Wherefore, although with much hesitation and much drawing out of deliberations, yet at last it was resolved that so great a necessity should be satisfied. The anonymous writer, setting forth these same things more at length, when he had brought in the bishop exhorting his men to fight bravely, goes on thus in chapter 10: After the bishop made an end of speaking, all, rising up as if moved by a divine oracle, answered: We shall strive with all our strength in every way, and shall give our labor that our affair may be prosperously carried out, if there shall come into the camp that Martyr of ours for whom we fight, who may pour constancy into our minds, and provide health for our bodies, and obtain eternal salvation for our souls.

[225] He at last, if he be brought hither, will console the afflicted, to be brought from Liège to the camp strengthen the weary, cure our wounds, and take away every languor, will hasten the work begun, and will take thought for our peace, and will pray God for us, and make him appeased. The bishop answered that these things were difficult, that a Treasure so long hidden should be uncovered without his own presence; since by himself too he would scarcely dare to move that most sacred body, much less to transport it, without the solemnly summoned presence of the archbishop and his suffragans, of the counts too and princes and the other chief men of the realm. He would indeed send word to the people of the city and of the villages and towns to come to his aid abundantly with arms and victuals; but the blessed Martyr, as being present in devotion, would not cease to intercede for them. And when these words did not satisfy them, but they pressed more and more, saying that they would abandon the place and the business if what they, divinely inspired, were calling for were not fulfilled, the bishop at last being overcome — namely he whom the necessity of the time was pressing — counsel being shared with the archdeacons whom he had with him, consented that the blessed Martyr's relics should be brought thither.

[226] He had indeed sent ahead a messenger with letters by which he ordered the army to be gathered; to the clergy of Liège but lest perchance less credit should be given him, he admonished the venerable Henry, archdeacon and provost, a man whose humility was to be imitated, and whose zeal and fidelity were greatly necessary, to discharge this legation, that through him a matter which was most difficult to urge might be accomplished by the sons of the church for the common benefit and peace. Various rumors were scattered here and there, as is wont to happen in such a matter; and although for the most part feigned things were said, according to the quality of the words they poured into many a fear and a hope, partly of dread, partly of joy.

But when the archdeacon came, having gathered in the schools of Bl. Lambert his fellow archdeacons and religious men, and besides certain men of the clergy and people whom he knew to be of sounder counsel, he briefly performed his charge. The bishop and the count (Henry of Namur), he said, are keeping watch [] with their barons, lacking necessaries, and with small forces holding a multitude of enemies always suspect, day and night under arms scarcely sustaining the labor; but by hope and patience still overcoming all adversities; and they send word by friendship and fidelity that you should bring them swift succor, if you love safety, if the common peace, if in short their life.*

[227] Come with arms and victuals; and because necessity so presses, the bishop enjoins upon you by your highest and true obedience that you carry down thither with you the most sacred shrine of our blessed Patron. reluctantly consenting. There is no long deliberating, nor must you succor them slowly: for every delay is ruinous; but let whoever faithfully love the blessed Martyr fulfil this the more quickly. It is a common danger if it be neglected; a solemn dancing for joy if the bishop's commands and the prayers of your defenders be obeyed. The archdeacon pursuing these things with what faith he could, and with tears too, the spirits of all were kindled to bring help, and to send thither the common people of the city and all the men of war with the necessary supplies. But about moving the body of the blessed Martyr different men thought differently. There were those who said that one of the companions of his passion (say Bl. Peter or Andoletus) should be taken, that under this veil they might satisfy the petitions of the princes. But when it was commanded to the people that all should go forth, every excuse being set aside, and that the goods of those not going out should be confiscated, they answered that they would not go, nor bring any help, under the threat of any inconvenience or loss, unless the blessed Martyr went before them. Whence, although it displeased many, at the urging of lord John of Louverval the archdeacon, necessity compelled consent.

[228] Certain marvels done at the Saint's shrine; And so it was resolved that after the matins hymns the fitness of the places should be noted, and that in the morning, before the sight of the people, the most sacred body should be moved with humble devotion. But what the sacristans of the church saw that night, what they heard, at how great marvels they were astounded, I forbear to write; especially since even they who saw these things did not pour them into the ears of many, and judged it better that they should be concealed than disclosed. Thus far the anonymous writer. About the same prodigies Reiner makes mention, having gone on thus after the words reported at num. 224: That the Martyr also approved this (the counsel of carrying his body into the camp) is sufficiently known both from the outcome of events and from certain revelations and signs, the guardians of the place asserting that about those days the shrine in which the happy pledges were enclosed was for the most part shaken with such motions, and so great a divine terror came upon them, that they did not dare to approach it or enter, especially at night: for carnal things are astounded while spiritual things flash forth. Assuredly this was done for the heaping up of thy glorification, O Martyr, O honor and crown of the glory of Liège, that thou wert translated from the place of thy former rest, so that through thyself thou mightest receive thine own — thou who, being now made a coheir with Christ in the kingdom, wert made to need nothing except for thine own people's sake.

[229] at which, being placed in the middle of the church, a deaf woman I go on to narrate from the same Reiner, chapter 2, what was then done. Therefore on the VI of the Kalends of September, as monks as well as clerics and a numerous throng of both sexes and every age were assembling, the abbots and religious men, entering the sacristy of the crypt which kept so great a treasure, brought forth the sacred shrine with due reverence, and, honeyed assemblies of praises resounding with the voice of exultation and confession, it was placed in the middle of the church. Many vows were there, many prayers and tears poured forth: the Saint's power too shone forth marvelously. A certain woman, who had grown deaf with pain of the head, when she had come to the shrine and had implored help with faithful affection and devout weeping, suddenly felt a certain heavy weight fall from above upon the crown of her head, and as it were two little iron pins driven penetratingly into each ear. Whereat, being cast down upon the ground, when she had thus fully recovered by heavenly medicine the sense of hearing, she rendered thanks to God and to the Martyr.

[230] Finally a certain girl was pitiably afflicted with a threefold kind of suffering. and other sick persons are made whole. For now with fever, now with paralysis, and sometimes with the trouble of epilepsy she was shaken. Her parents, being exceedingly affected on her account, vowed a vow to the Martyr, and determined to bring to his martyrium (that is, his reliquary or chapel) an offering of any kind whatever, balanced against the sick girl's weight. The devout working of the holy Trinity was present to the devout devotion of the suppliants, which straightway freed the girl entirely from those same sufferings. A boy too of wandering sense and troubled mind was set in a sober state of reason. Other remedies of health also were said to have come about. But miracles are done for increasing devotion: he therefore becomes more advanced in devotion who is more inclined to belief. About these miracles the anonymous writer has nothing, although he likewise asserts that St. Lambert's body with its reliquary was brought out by religious men from that secret place in which it had long lain, into public view, and placed in the middle of the church, and was frequented with great joy of the people crowding round, with prayers and tears. But he seems to have been less rightly instructed about some circumstances of the matter than Reiner, as is clear from what the same anonymous writer presently subjoins.

[231] For he goes on thus in the same place: On the next day, at the fitting hours, the Regular offices being said, the relics were placed and carried in that shrine which bishop Obert had once stripped of its gold, when duke Godfrey was selling Bouillon to the church of Bl. Lambert. A part of the body enclosed in a coffer Certainly the anonymous writer here speaks as though the whole body of St. Lambert had been translated to the camp; which Reiner expressly denies, whose narration I resume. Then the chief men (he says in the chapter cited, 2) and the sounder sort, anxious with a provident fear lest perhaps something sadder should happen to the Martyr's body if it were carried down into the camp (for the outcomes of wars are uncertain, and now on this side, now on that, adverse and prosperous things are mingled), decreed that, the same shrine being unsealed, it should be raised out of it and meanwhile laid away in a safer place. Which indeed the religious abbots and approved men chosen for this carried out, who with immense fear, as was fitting, and devotion, transferred the blessed bones to the nocturnal silence beside the altar of the holy Cross, situated in an oratory adjoining that same basilica. Yet, laying certain relics in that same shrine, they sealed it anew, and gave this to be carried to the camp.

[232] It was not therefore the whole body of the holy Bishop and martyr, is carried with a particle of the holy Cross but only certain of his bones, that were translated in the coffer to the besiegers: and the anonymous writer could easily have been ignorant of this, since the thing was done in the silence of night and in secret; or, if he knew it, he judged it should be kept silent, lest he should create ill will for the clergy among the people. Reiner's statements Giles of Orval adopted, chapter 31, in Albero II, whom Foullon, who doubtless had not read Reiner, therefore wrongly rejected, relying on the anonymous writer. I return to Reiner beginning chapter 4. Nor did the piety of the people cease to vow vows and to make offerings, until, being taken thence with a tablet laboriously wrought, in which was a little portion of the Lord's Cross, it was carried down to the camp, choirs of monks and clerics following so great a Father with due affection and veneration, and escorting it with the office of canticles as far as the river Meuse by the Publemont, praises being first honorably chanted through the monasteries of the Saints established there. Nor was a mighty throng of the common people wanting; they too sounded forth their own praises, their own canticles.

[233] But the devout flock, having received the venerable coffer in a ship, commending its devout Pastor with much beseeching and tears, that he might go prosperously and return more prosperously — because it could no further follow on foot, yet long following with prayer and with eyes — at last returned to its own. it grows famous by miracles along the way, But from every side a multitude of both sexes ran together from hamlets and little villages to meet the holy shrine, and very many healings were done, both by the power of the healing Wood and by the merit and prayer of the blessed Martyr. For when they came to the village of Nandrin, a languishing man, whom a bitter contraction of the limbs had unstrung, being applied to that shrine, and the Saint's clemency being besought, was restored with swift soundness. Then in the village of Phriere (by the anonymous writer it is called Freitura) a blind man received the light of his eyes. Whence, when it had departed, a certain soldier, who had long labored with a quartan typus (that is, fever), and was constantly troubled with an ailment of the head, when he had touched the health-bringing coffer, and, his shoulders being set under it, had carried it some distance, was freed from his troubles. And he, straightway taking up his arms again, rendering dutiful thanks, followed on the expedition. About the cripple healed in the village of Nandrin the anonymous writer has nothing; in the rest they agree.

[234] it is honorably escorted. On the following night (the words are again Reiner's) a lodging being arranged at the village of Uphei (in the anonymous writer, Ufey), where the army of Liège was waiting, the devout diligence of the faithful with the inhabitants of the place kept a famous vigil. Thence, when they had set out in the morning, one came who said that on the following day, namely the III of the Kalends of September, count Rainald (of Bar) with five hundred horsemen and fifteen thousand foot would join battle. Wherefore, the journey being hastened, the sun now sinking to its setting, they came to the little village of Theux… Therefore at midnight, a courier being sent from the army to the bishop, who should learn about the war, as the dawn was now breaking into light, going on from there, they made in haste for the village of Vilantia. The envoy returning thither announces that the battle would without doubt be on that day. But an unfavorable rumor easily unnerves the fearful. Whence very many were broken by an inept dread, and were wounded by hearing alone. Therefore in distrust they fled away in womanly fashion. And the rest, armed rather with confidence in the life-giving Wood and in the holy Martyr than with steel, hastened with manly heart through the narrow stretches of the paths to the help of their comrades. But scouts sent by each army, who were to trace out and report how the sides stood, when they had met one another, silently and dissembling betook themselves to their allied camps: and the enemy indeed, learning from their own men how great was the force of the besiegers, how great of those who had then flocked together, judged it better to desist from a rash attempt than of their own accord to summon danger upon themselves. Here is the end of the second little book.

Excubant* (they are keeping watch)

§ XVI. The solemn arrival of the reliquary in the camp: Hugh's disease divinely inflicted, his penance and devout death: the surrender of the castle.

[ ] The sacred relics received in the camp Reiner in book 3, chapter 1, thus goes on to set forth the arrival of the sacred relics in the camp, and what followed it: After it had been heard in the camp that the ensign of the Lord's Cross was present with so great a patronage, it was met under arms by the bishop and the army, drawn up in expectation of battle. The place in the camp in which the Saint's reliquary was laid the anonymous writer sets forth in chapter 17 in these words: The bishop ordered the coffer of the blessed Martyr to be carried into that part of the castle opposite Malpertuis, into the meadow which is called St. Lambert's, which the Semois washes, where both a place for the camp and provisions for the army were at hand. There they set the shrine in a small and quite narrow little tent, their men being appointed round about in their huts with the lord

John the archdeacon, clerics who evening and morning and midday should tell forth and announce the praises of the Lord, that in a fitting time he might hear their voices. There too the citizens and people of Liège pitched their tents, over whom Eustace, advocate of Hesbaye, was ordered to preside.

[236] I return to Reiner, who assigns the same place in the camp to the sacred relics in a few words, and thus goes on to narrate the mighty briskness with which the arrival of them affected the people of Liège, and the fear with which it affected the besieged: they fill the people of Liège with joy, the enemy with fear. Such gladness therefore came upon them, such voices of those leading choirs resounded, that you would have thought that Israel had then received the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts. And the sacred shrine indeed, being received within the tent prepared for it, in the place which is called the Meadow of St. Lambert, and guards being appointed, and clerics who at fitting times should say the divine praises, straightway began to declare by marvelous power what it contained within itself, how great help it had brought, so that it became clearly plain to all that God had come into the camp. For indeed at his presence those who were in the castle or in the outposts, and who thought themselves impregnable by the unconquered situation of the place, being as it were struck by lightning with a sudden dullness and fear, would by this — had their mind not been perverse — have noticed that it was foretold to them that they were to be stormed by such an engine.

[237] Nay more, Hugh (son of Rainald, count of Bar), At the sight of these Hugh, falling down, who had received that castle to possess after his father by hereditary right, while, seeing the shrine from afar, he was insulting it with youthful arrogance, straightway, unstrung in his whole body, began to tremble, and, his senses being lost, fell backward, senseless and insolent, who had not understood whose coheir he was unworthily attempting to become. But when he gradually recovered himself, he calls aside his brother Rainald with the chief of his household; he discloses how much terror he suffers; that his intention is to make satisfaction to the holy Martyr and to restore his castle to him. About which his father's will too must be sought, and it must be intimated to him by what danger he is pressed. That he besought them in every way to look to one perishing with a father's affection. They promise him that they will carry out what he asked. A truce is set for a week, within which this could be reported to him (to his father). With what has been narrated thus far the anonymous writer agrees, except in what is said about Hugh, which he reports somewhat differently.

[238] desires to surrender the castle: For first indeed he does not say that he arrogantly insulted the Saint's shrine when he saw it, as Reiner is authority. Receive his words in chapter 13: Hugh, son of Rainald, an excellent soldier, the head and chief of the besieged, was standing in the porch of the basilica, looking through the windows, who, suddenly forsaken by his strength and seized by a sudden dread, fell down lifeless at the sight of the holy relics. Secondly, he writes that he, after he came to himself from his swoon, wished to surrender the citadel to the bishop of Liège under honorable conditions without any delay, and he brings him in saying this among other things to his men: Therefore, an honorable agreement being made, let us yield to the Divinity, let us humble our souls to his Omnipotence, while meanwhile our safety and life is still spared; because the veteran Soldier who now comes into the camp, whether we will or not, shall not be defrauded of his own house. Wherefore, if your kindness suffer it, I shall go down and hand over this house together with myself to the perpetual Virgin and to the devout Martyr, lest indignation come upon us and God seize us, no longer in mercy, but in judgment.

[239] the rest refusing and deferring the surrender Then the anonymous writer subjoins that Rainald and the rest denied that they could hand over the castle to the enemy without consulting their father: but that they would send men to him who within a week would bring back his commands; and that Hugh, though with difficulty, acquiesced in their words. These things being observed, I return to Reiner. He, having narrated the burning of a certain mill in which there was a hostile garrison, goes on thus in chapter 2: The days of the truce being elapsed, when the aforesaid youth (Hugh) asked his men what they had done, what they had treated about his safety, or what his father's judgment was, and when he had understood that nothing had been done (namely that no one had been sent to his father, as the anonymous writer has it), being angered with grave indignation, he said: Whether they will or not, the Saint shall receive what is his. But behold, I am punished by a divine chastisement, and by your cruel obstinacy — behold, I die! But, O soldiers, O friends! if you spare a wretched man, take now at last a wholesome counsel for me and for yourselves. While he pressed more vehemently, they, no longer bearing that he should be so direly tormented, on the following night sent through hidden woodland paths the steward of the castle and the standard-bearer of the soldiery, who should carry the matter to his father and bring back his judgment: who confirmed even with an oath that on the following Sunday he would without doubt return, unless perchance prevented either by capture by the enemy or by death.

[240] But he neglected his faith and the promise was set aside: he is grievously tormented. for he neither performed the legation nor returned to his fellows; but, joining himself to a certain soldier, he carried on plunderings of the things which were being brought into the camp. The youth, who was weary of the slowness of the delays, asking his men again on the appointed day what his father's will or deliberation might be, and they answering that they had indeed sent a messenger, but that he had by no means returned; then he, seething with the sharpest grief and out of his mind, began to be shaken in a horrible manner, to tear himself, to attack his hands and arms with his teeth, to try to burst forth to the Saint's shrine. But, being bound by his servants, he was kept in the more remote parts, the report being spread that he was ill. But since he admitted no rest, nay, tore with bites his lips and tongue, which alone had remained free to him, and shouted this rather often amid disordered cries — "Seek counsel, seek counsel" — his men, surrounded with grief and anxiety, determined that his brother Rainald should be the messenger of so sad a matter to their father: perhaps he might be drawn by the sight of the one present and by affection for the other absent son, and would set little store by another's inheritance for whose sake he would lose so beloved an heir.

[241] But when they wished to bring out a most choice horse for the youth about to set out, Rainald tries in vain to go to his father; the beast could so far neither be urged by blows nor moved by the voices of those encouraging it, that with fixed step it was thought to have stiffened into a statue. This difficulty being made, the industry of art was also brought to the test: for they veiled the eyes of that horse, and drove it, that so at least it might go forward. But because there is no counsel and no effort against the Lord, it standing fast, the craft and skill of men was emptied out. Thus therefore the youth's journey was hindered. But the owner of the horse, taking it very ill that he was deprived of the use of so great a mount, lest, failing also, he should behold it die, on the following day ordered his squire, if by any means he could, to lead it out to water and to give it to some one at least of the adversaries. And it, immediately following of its own accord the will of him who threatened, was led down from the brow of the hill to the water; and one of the soldiers presently mounted it when brought across, and proved it both fit for war and most excellent in running. The same about the said horse the biographer narrates, who adds that the other horses which were in the castle failed in strength; but that this one had been lent by Theodoric of the Tower on this condition, that if it were lost and not restored to him, he should receive sixty pounds in exchange for the horse. Finally he adds that it was then sent to Henry, count of Namur, who was serving in the army of Liège, and that he used it.

[242] Therefore those in the castle could conjecture (Reiner goes on in chapter 3) that they were being divinely hindered, a captive marvelously escapes. and that by the resistance of the aforesaid beast their own rebellion and obstinacy was being convicted. Nor did the Saint make his power less known in them than in those youths, who, after quarrels of fury and of contentions, were for the most part armed against themselves with such madness that they attacked one another with swords. A foul darkness too of horror and of a certain terrible dread had settled upon them. For, as they themselves afterwards confessed, it was then a singular misery which they noticed in themselves, that they were not only hedged in by the outward straitness of the siege; but — than which nothing was graver — were tearing their own vitals with the inward evil of discord. Whereas, on the contrary, when a certain captive, who had already spent very much time there in fetters, had invoked the Martyr's power, casting himself down from the high place of a tower, however he rolled down through the roughest precipices, not only did he suffer nothing of hurt, but rather the chains with which he was bound, being loosed by a benefit from above, were carried by him before the shrine and hung up as a proof of so great a power. For faith and devotion earn grace; treachery and presumption incur offense.

[243] In chapter 4 Reiner treats of the engines of war which were being prepared with great effort, both to prevent the besieged from drawing water and to storm the castle itself. Many having now slipped away from the camp of the people of Liège, But since the soldiers of the army of Liège were weary of the longer delay, and to the scarcity of grain and the continual rains there was added also fear of Rainald, count of Bar, who was said to be about to be present with very many forces as soon as possible, a great part of them slipped away from the camp: so much so that, on the anonymous writer's testimony in chapter 17, scarcely in two nights and three days did three hundred remain on all the plain about that part in which the little tent of Bl. Lambert shone, very many withdrawing partly from weariness, partly from lack of necessaries, partly from fear of the enemy who were expected to come upon them. This matter drove the bishop and the chief men of Liège to attack the castle, the construction of the engines being broken off. And so on the fifteenth of the Kalends of October (says Reiner, book 4, chapter 1), which day shines with the glorious birthday of Bl. Lambert, it was proclaimed in the camp that each should make himself ready for the expedition: for on that day the more was the Saint's power hoped to be present to his warriors. It was acted manfully by the whole army; but not with the success they had hoped.

[244] the count of Salm makes a truce: Hugh and Rainald Nevertheless, Reiner subjoins, there too the Martyr's hand then wrought: for although very many fought too rashly, and were exposed to the enemy with naked body and with breasts open to them, yet there was none who complained that he had been hurt in that assault. This too was noticed, that many of the besieged, as though unmindful of their own defense and safety, even then attacked one another with mutual hatred. For the rest, the evening now closing the day, the army came down from the hill, only the mailed soldiers pressing the shut-in men with sharper zeal. But the surrender of the castle was nearer than the besiegers thought; since it took place a few days after, and indeed without any bloodshed or peril, as Reiner narrates in chapters 2 and 3 in the same place, whose words I again transfer hither. There came then into the camp Henry, count of Salm, sprung of a sister of count Rainald. He, a truce being asked and obtained from the bishop and the princes, went into the castle to confer with his nephew Hugh, whom he had heard to be unwell, and to exhort both them and the rest to surrender…

[245] the sick brought to the reliquary: Hugh dies. Finally the count (of Salm), seeing the youth's (Hugh's) so deadly evil, perceived that it was a divine vengeance, and, pricked to tears, admonished the rest to beware of the like. For the wound of one ought to be a caution to many. A promise therefore being received from all, that unless

within seven days they were succored by their lord, they would surrender themselves and the castle; he obtained that that same Hugh should be carried out to the Martyr's shrine, and be loosed from excommunication by the bishop, and deserve pardon for the offenses he had committed against the Saint. Nevertheless such a compact was interposed, that until the surrender should be made, that youth (Hugh) should be kept as a hostage with the bishop. Nay, his brother Rainald too, who had stubbornly resisted lest the surrender be made, being worn out by a grave pain of the limbs, is led to the shrine, makes satisfaction to the Saint, and binds himself by a vow that he would thereafter violate none of his goods by invasion, provided he might deserve to escape the impending danger. Some also of the adversaries were punished, one in one way of vengeance, another in another, lest anyone should reckon it a light thing to lay hands upon the Lord's Saint. Meanwhile Hugh, consumed by the long anguish of his torments, and much crying out the Martyr's name, closed his last day, thereby indeed hinting at whose indignation had driven him to his end. Thus Reiner, from whom the anonymous writer differs here and there, as we shall show below, after we have reviewed the rest from the same Reiner.

[246] The reliquary is brought into the surrendered castle. He therefore goes on to weave his narration thus: To whose side the aforesaid count (of Salm) sets out in haste, sets forth to the astounded man the wrath of the indignation from above, the death of his firstborn, the other's ill state, the miseries of his people, and urges that he should at last take counsel for himself and his own. For since matters are in so narrow a strait, he must yield, and must let go what he cannot hold. And so, weighing… that to wish to resist the Divinity would be to go beyond human efforts, being wrung by the vehemence of his evils, he consented to a surrender, in the twelfth year from the invasion. O triumphal day! Then plainly, as the sun glows red at its rising, so the Martyr's name shone forth in magnificence, who, fighting from heaven against the enemy, accomplished by the might of divine power what human strength could by no means have done. The adversaries therefore being cast out of the castle, on the XI Kal. of October the venerable shrine was brought in with splendid triumph and placed in the middle of the church, which, vaulted with an arched work, presents the aspect of a comely structure. This is consecrated under the title of St. John the Baptist, whom Lambert splendidly imitated, having likewise fallen for the testimony of justice and chastity. And so praises were said to God according to the multitude of his greatness, and proclamations to the Martyr, since he had humbled the proud man like one wounded, and in the strength of his arm had scattered his enemies.

[247] I warned just above that the anonymous writer of the Triumph differs from Reiner in some things. Hugh's serious penance, The difference is in the time of Hugh's death, and in the conditions therefore agreed upon about giving back the castle: which before I set forth, it is a pleasure to hear him about Hugh carried to the camp in penitence. These conditions being confirmed (on both sides through count Henry of Salm), he says, the sick man (Hugh) is carried down on a bed before the bishop, of whom alone he kept recognition, calling him lord, and asked that he would absolve him from excommunication, and would bestow in this last extremity forgiveness of what he had offended against the Saint by invading his goods. And the bishop wept, and with the affection of charity had compassion on the wretched man; and, lest he should add anything to the grief of his wounds, he did not deny him absolution and forgiveness, as he asked. Then the count of Salm returns to his father, and, as he subjoins in the same place, sets forth to him the peril of life in which his elder son Hugh was; and persuades him to permit the castle to be surrendered, yet under this condition, if Hugh should still be alive.

[248] Weighing, he says, that the fierce man was going against himself when he went against God, he assented that what he asked should be done; provided, however, that the son who was sick should be found still living: but if he had departed from life, the younger son should pass into hostageship with the bishop, and the surrender should be deferred until his own coming. and his devout death, narrated by the anonymous writer, The envoys go back, find the youth living, and straightway make the surrender of the castle. O triumphal and blessed day! Then about Hugh's devout death and the time at which he died he has this in chapter 21: And so on that night, while the lawful possessors were exulting in the castle, our former adversaries, who had seen with their own eyes the marvels of God, are tormented with doubled grief, Hugh being dead, a most illustrious youth, a soldier excellent enough and industrious. Of whom indeed many of ours have good hope that he can obtain pardon and mercy, if the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God permit, whose ways are unsearchable and his judgments incomprehensible. For on the third day before he departed he had with humble affection received the Viaticum, and after the blessed Martyr, the glorious Victor, was carried into the castle, he had himself carried into his little tent; in the place in which he had lain he was restored to a sound mind, gave thanks for the Martyr's triumph and for the citadel given back, and returned thanks also to those who had rendered service to him in his sickness in the camp. And although he did not escape temporal death, God is able to free from eternal death him who does not judge twice for the same thing. And who knows whether he was snatched away for this reason, lest malice should again change his understanding?

[249] as also the penance of Rainald the younger. From these things it is manifest that one or the other, namely Reiner or the anonymous writer, erred in assigning the time of Hugh's death; since the latter affirms that he died after, but the former before, the citadel was surrendered: but whichever spoke the truth, it makes nothing for our purpose. Rainald's approach to the Saint's relics too, which Reiner set before, the anonymous writer reports after the surrender, and writes about it thus: After this Hugh's younger brother Rainald, being led before the Martyr's shrine, almost useless in his whole body, asks and deserves absolution, and promises that he will forever usurp nothing of Bl. Lambert's possessions, if it be granted him to escape the present judgment. By this means the castle of Bouillon, which seemed impregnable by arms, was happily recovered by the patronage of St. Lambert.

§ XVII. The reliquary brought back to Liège not without miracles, and richly adorned: an annual feast decreed: two other victories: Offices instituted.

[ ] The reliquary, miracles being wrought along the way, The matter being so prosperously accomplished, the reliquary of St. Lambert was solemnly brought back to Liège by way of Dinant and Namur, and not without miracles: about which matter the anonymous writer, an eyewitness, writes the following in chapter 22: In the morning after the solemnities of the Masses, with exultation and gladness the renowned Triumpher was carried out of the castle, whose sacred shrine, placed upon a wagon, was conveyed as far as the town of Dinant (commonly Dinant on the river Meuse). Why should I report the solemn glory, the magnificent triumph, with slender wit and with a scarcely stammering tongue, when, if I had the eloquent readiness of Maro or Homer, it would not suffice to unfold it? Yet I shall serve thy devotion, blessed Martyr, according to the strength thou shalt give, and shall say what I saw: how gloriously at Namur thou didst enlighten a boy of seven years blind from birth: at Andenne (by the inhabitants Andenne, a town on the Meuse in the county of Namur) thou didst call back [] a young cleric from the very jaws of death: at Huy (which is a town commonly Huy in the dominion of Liège) thou didst give a step to a cripple whom his parents had never seen walking. And now, being brought to Liège, with what devotion thou wert received, with how great honor thou didst crown thy city, let thy sons say, whom thou dost sweetly nourish*, etc. So he, leaving the rest to be narrated by the people of Liège.

[251] is brought back to Liège, But Reiner in book 5 likewise touches briefly on the journey from Bouillon to Liège; but what besides happened at Liège he mentions, though in few words, and therefore it will be useful to have set forth his narration here after my custom. The enemy being triumphed over, he says, after our Strong One in arms had recovered his own, and all his affairs were now being ordered in peace, it pleased him to seek again his own [] Liège. Whence, the solemnities of the Masses being celebrated early after two days, the shrine, placed upon a wagon, was conveyed to the town of Dinant: thence Namur is sought. There to a boy of seven years, blind from birth, the use of seeing came through the Martyr. At Andenne too (above it is called Andana) a cleric, exhausted by a bitter ill state of body, was drawn back from the very gaping of death to life and health. Nor did the grace of such healing pass by the town of Huy. There it granted the services of a new step to a cripple whom his parents testified had never walked.*

[252] Now further, when the shrine reached Liège by ship, [where, the rest of the sacred body being received, it shines with miracles again;] the whole city, crowned with triumphal joy, poured itself out to meet it, and with applauding canticles and festal ranks set forth the fashion of a procession to the veteran Leader. And, being received in the harbor of St. James by monks and clerics with ecclesiastical worship and carried through the monasteries of the island, and hymns being rendered with tuneful modulation, it was brought back again to the greater church. Then the body of the blessed Martyr was raised from the altar of the holy Cross, beside which it had been laid, and, placed in a comely shrine, was kept in the middle of the church with due observances. Nor did the munificence of the divine piety cease, which for proving his merits deigned to repeat works of healing. For while a certain languishing man, whom sickness possessed wholly, was being carried in a vehicle to his martyrium, the grace of healing meeting his faith, in the midst of the journey he was saved after the ancient example of the ten lepers, who, while they were going to show themselves to the priests at the Lord's bidding, before they arrived were cleansed of the trouble of leprosy. That man therefore leaped up, stood, and walked; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

[253] A certain captive too, whom the barbarity of the enemy had cast into chains and close custody, it shines again; he heard as he invoked him, so that the devout Martyr's merit delivered him. For suddenly the shackles with which he was bound sprang apart, and thus, having obtained the opportunity of fleeing, that he might honor his Deliverer, he carried those same shackles to the church with thanksgiving as a sign of the power. But the true blessedness of the Saints needs no testimony of signs: wherefore I reckon it vain to add more to these, since it is plainly and undoubtedly clear, and infinite documents attest, that nothing is impossible to the holy Martyr with God. But these things were done in the year of the Lord's Incarnation MCXLI, in the IV Indiction, Conrad II [] reigning over the Romans, in the fourth year of his reign, and in the fifth of the episcopate of lord Albero II. The praises of his merits, and the proclamations of the marvels which he did, they shall send to later ages, that every generation may know them.* I pass over what the same Reiner, passing from God's benefits to his just vengeance upon sinners, sets forth in the same place about hidden fires in human garments, and about the burning of the city, which he judged happened on account of the carrying about of St. Lambert by unworthy men; and I return to our purpose.

[254] In chapter 3, the last, he goes on thus: Nearly two years having elapsed after this, the Martyr's venerable body was relocated with immense glory and honor in the crypt beneath the altar of the holy Trinity on the XIV Kal. of January, being richly adorned it is laid away: an annual memory is decreed. through this space of time, namely, both the shrine and that same sacristy being splendidly adorned with gold and gems, and also with stone panels on the outside representing with laborious sculpture the triumph of the preceding events. It was moreover sanctioned by episcopal authority, the church of Liège approving the same, that on the IV of the Kalends of May a solemn memory of that same triumph, and also of the translation (because that same Martyr was translated from Maastricht to Liège), should thereafter be kept

memory, since the translation itself was first made on the VIIII Kal. of January, and on that day, on account of the Vigil of the Lord's Nativity, it could not be celebrated with the due honor. And how this was of old accomplished by holy Hubert at a divine admonition, and with how many and how great signs of powers the Lord then made his Saint marvelous, because it is found written in many ways by many, it has seemed good to my littleness to keep silence thereon.

[255] Fisen in book 10 of the History, num. 37, writes that that precious shrine, when the Lambertian basilica was burned in the year 1185, on the XXVIII day of April, sacred to the translation of St. Lambert, on account of the sins of the people, was stripped by the force of the fires of its metal, that is, of its golden plates, Fisen's narration about the same reliquary and that the wooden coffer alone, in which St. Lambert's body lay, by an immense miracle remained unharmed. And he says thus: But the resting-place of holy Lambert, which for the sake of imploring help (against the fire) they had brought out into the middle of the church, did not withstand the force of the fires, as though the holy Martyr, angered at their crimes, refused to bring aid. All the metal with which it had been adorned flowed away by the violence of the flames. The altar of wood set beneath, and the very marble on which alone it was laid, the burning of the flames consumed and reduced to ashes. And, that no one might doubt that St. Lambert could, but would not, quench the avenging flames of impiety, the inner and wooden resting-place of the sacred body neither flame nor even the smoke violated. Then after many things he says again: That august church being thus miserably overthrown, the body of St. Lambert with the other sacred relics of the Saints was carried to St. Bartholomew's, while the new work was rising. So indeed Fisen, but not indicating on what author's authority he writes these things.

[256] is not very likely. Nor can we easily believe it on the assertion of Fisen alone. About that fire Giles of Orval makes mention in chapter 53, in Chapeauville, in bishop Radulph; but about the aforesaid miracle he makes no word. Chapeauville too has nothing about it in his Annotations, where he praises various Chronicles, in some of which the said fire is referred to the said year 1183, in others to 1185. He adds besides that the same things which Giles has are read in the Life of St. Odilia, written by a writer, as he says, contemporary — whence Giles and others must be said to have taken them. It doubtless seemed likewise fabulous or lightly asserted to Foullon, who in his History, at the year of Christ 1185, narrates the same fire, but, keeping deep silence about that miracle, only says: The bier of the divine Lambert, notable with gold and gems, was indeed carried out, yet the more excellent of its gems were lost. But I judge that he too was mistaken, when he took the lectricium, which is read in Giles, as he noted in the margin, for St. Lambert's bier. For Giles, reviewing the loss of sacred furniture made on that occasion, says among other things: The lectricium, notably wrought with gold and precious gems, was indeed carried out, but of those gems the more excellent were lost. But by lectricium I prefer, with Du Cange, to understand a lectern. For the rest, Foullon rightly observes that the often-mentioned fire happened in the year 1185, if the little verses reported by Giles in the same place stand rightly, which are of this kind:

A thousand two hundred years having passed from Christ, three times five being subtracted, this place fell by fire; on the feast of Vitalis such was the Lord's vengeance.

[257] Two other victories The same Reiner in the same place mentions another victory won in the year 1153 by Henry, second of that name, bishop of Liège, over Henry, count of Namur, and ascribes it to the patronage of St. Lambert. About the same victory Giles of Orval treats in chapter 43, using Reiner's very words, but he adds that St. Lambert's body is said then too to have been translated to the camp, saying thus: The body of Bl. Lambert too is said to have been carried thither, and placed in a certain meadow under a tent, where by the canons who had come with the shrine the canonical Hours and Masses were devoutly chanted night and day. On whose testimony, or on what rumor, Giles wrote these things, we do not know; but since nothing of the kind is read in Reiner, nothing either in others, we cannot admit them on the authority of Giles, who is both elsewhere too easy in retailing fables from uncertain rumor, and here too sufficiently indicates that he has no certain surety for his assertion.

[258] There is also another victory famous at Liège, celebrated formerly and to this day with an annual Office on the XIII day of October, ascribed to the Saint's patronage: under the name of the Triumph of St. Lambert, won over Henry, duke of the Brabanters, in the year of Christ 1213. A sufficiently prolix history of this you have in Chapeauville, tom. 2, from page 604, entitled The Triumph of St. Lambert the martyr at Steppes. The anonymous author indicates that he was a canon of Liège and a contemporary. About the same triumph Giles of Orval treats at length, in the same place, in bishop Hugh de Pierrepont. But since the lucubration of each contains almost entirely wars and things which pertain properly to the history of Liège, not to St. Lambert, I judge that no place at all should be given it here. Let it suffice to have mentioned here that in it various apparitions or revelations of St. Lambert are reported, made especially to John Abbatulus and to his mother Odilia, whom the writers of Liège honor with the title of Blessed — by which revelations both the impending calamities of the people of Liège and that remarkable victory were believed to be foretold. A certain citizen too, on the testimony of the anonymous writer of the Triumph, confessed that he had truly seen the Martyr himself going in the battle-line.

[259] That the memory therefore of so remarkable a victory should be celebrated with an annual Office about the last an annual Office is made; was sanctioned by the people of Liège. But in the year MCCXIX, says the same anonymous writer in chapter 19, the pontiff, that is, the bishop of Liège, being asked by the duke (of Brabant), entered the church on the very vigil of the Triumph, forbidding that feast to be kept any longer, which had now been celebrated for seven years; and, the chief men being called together and giving assent to his wish, he thus withdrew. But the citizens took this ill, and John Abbatulus, who, just as if the feast were to be celebrated, prepared the lights. And on the Vigil indeed nothing was done about the Triumph: But on the following night (the words are the same anonymous writer's) the man of God (John) rises more swiftly, beseeching the Lord that the revelations which he had seen about this feast should be fulfilled. And the bells being rung solemnly for the vigils, and the lights prepared, sufficiently festal vigils are chanted at God's will… When morning therefore came, the clergy unanimously went to the bishop, by no means consenting further to the prohibition made; and so, returning to the church, he carried out the remainder of the solemnity, that is, the Mass and Vespers, more solemnly than he could. And from that time an annual memory of this Triumph was made. The same, as he said, persists there to this day, and is celebrated each year on the XIII day of October with a double Office, whose Lessons of the second Nocturn set forth the history of the Triumph.

[260] Nor did the people of Liège wish to testify their grateful mind toward St. Lambert to posterity with an annual festivity only: a weekly Office is prescribed. for when their army returned from the slaughter of the enemy, it was decreed, says the same anonymous writer in chapter 19, by common consent of the chapter, that in every week a memory of the blessed Martyr should be kept at the greater church, as it has also been appointed about the blessed Virgin on Saturdays… And when through the carelessness of the elders forgetfulness had omitted this in the week which follows after the White Days, and the man of God himself (John), as he had foreseen in a vision, reproved the clergy about the aforesaid, it was appointed that thereafter, the Paschal feasts being presently past, the memory of this holy Patron should never be omitted in any week. There stands to this day in the Breviary, or in the Proper of Liège, that weekly Office of St. Lambert, to be recited on all Thursdays outside Advent, Lent, the Ember days, vigils, and days hindered by an Office of nine Lessons. I proceed to other matters.

revocaveris* (thou didst call back)

suum* (his own)

* III

§ XVIII. The inspection of the bodies of SS. Lambert, Peter, and Andoletus: the solemn carrying about of St. Lambert's head: the public showing of those same sacred bodies.

[ ] In the year 1489 the Saint's body As the fifteenth century was drawing to its close, an inspection was made of the sacred bodies which are preserved in the Lambertian basilica at Liège; of which matter there exists a certain instrument written by an anonymous contemporary, as it appears, and published by Chapeauville in the little Work of Suffridus Petri, tom. 3 De gest. Pont. Leod., page 213 and following, bearing this title: The history of the visitation of the shrine of Bl. Lambert, martyr and bishop, and of the other relics of the church of Liège. I shall here review, in the anonymous writer's own words, what pertains to our St. Lambert and to his companions in death, the rest being passed over. In the year from the Lord's Nativity one thousand four hundred and eighty-nine, on the fourteenth of the month of April, at the sixth hour of the evening, the venerable and noble men, lords and masters Godemillus de Eldris, scholasticus, Henry ex Palude, cantor, John Biliton, presbyters, William de Liberme and James de Corswarem, subdeacons, canons of Liège, together with the lords Crispin Roefs, canon of the little table and notary, and also Bruno de Tills of St. Maternus, John Jorlet likewise of the little table, John de Dyck, otherwise de Wert, and Christian de Goe, chaplains of the church of Liège, as witnesses, by the mandate and will of the venerable and noble men, the lords dean and chapter of Liège, having confessed and being contrite, solemnly clothed in sacred vestments, with lights and all decency approached the shrine and place of the glorious martyr, the most blessed Lambert.

[262] Which being opened, there breathed forth a heavenly odor, most sweet beyond all human sweetness, lasting continually. most sweetly fragrant, with inscribed plates, And in that shrine they found a most beautiful sarcophagus, built with noble workmanship, red, in whose superscription these words are had: THE COFFER OF HOLY LAMBERT, MARTYR AND BISHOP, written in an ancient letter. Which being opened and lined within with a most clean linen [], the oft-named lords found first a cloth, or golden baldetrinum, entire and most clean; but a second baldetrinum, in which most blessed Lambert had from the beginning been buried, and afterwards translated, somewhat consumed on account of the exceeding lapse of time. And between those two baldetrina they found one leaden epitaph, on which in an ancient letter these words are had: HOLY LAMBERT, MARTYR AND BISHOP; together with a certain other epitaph of gilded copper, on which these words are had:* THE MARTYR OF CHRIST, AND THE TWENTY-NINTH AND LAST BUT ONE BISHOP OF THE TUNGRIANS, LAMBERT, RESTS HERE, WHOSE MOST SACRED BODY WAS LAID HERE BY ALBERO THE SECOND, BISHOP OF LIÈGE, ON THE XIV KALENDS OF JANUARY, IN THE YEAR FROM THE LORD'S INCARNATION MCXLIII, BUT IN THE THIRD YEAR AFTER BOUILLON WAS TRIUMPHED OVER AND RECEIVED.

[263] And also a certain other record of this tenor: and with a certain document "At the request of the illustrious lord Guy de Humbercourt, who most devoutly asked of us some relics; We, the lords canons of the present church of Bl. Lambert, generally assenting to his prayers, conferred on him a precious gift, taken from about the bases and venerable feet of Bl. Lambert the martyr, in the presence of the lords, namely the dean, lord John de Seraing, and his fellow canon, likewise a canon

Master Theodoric Godeschaldi, etc. Together with the chaplains of the same church who were present. Given and inspected in the year of the Lord 1449, in the month of January, on the day of John Chrysostom, on a Friday, in the presence of me the undersigned notary, called as a witness together with the aforesaid, precisely at the fifth hour after vespers. Thus have I signed, John Junenis.”

[264] Then, when all the wrappings had been opened, they came to the venerable body of the most blessed Lambert, it is inspected, and enclosed again: which they found there preserved and laid up together with the most venerable skull (that is, the cranium) of the head of that same glorious Martyr, with a wonderfully fragrant odor. These most blessed relics they most worthily replaced among corporals sprinkled with the most sacred blood of Christ (the word Martyr seems to be wanting, adds the editor here), together with the skull, and left and dismissed them, along with a certain portion of the hair of the most blessed Lambert, and also a certain knotted cord which that same glorious Martyr was accustomed to use. And again they closed first the sarcophagus and then the shrine with their keys, and made them fast; and then, having said the Te Deum laudamus in a low voice, they took off their vestments, and when their hands had been washed and the water of the washing of hands had been sent to the sacristy, they departed to their own homes.

[265] On the fourth day after, the relics of BB. Peter and Andoletus were inspected in like manner, the bodies of BB. Peter and Andoletus are also inspected, concerning which the following is subjoined in the same place: On the eighteenth of the same month there was inspected, by the said cantor under the same commission and in the presence of the aforesaid notary and witnesses, the shrine of the blessed martyrs, the companions of the most blessed Lambert, namely Peter and Andoletus, whose bodies were found entire, with one head lacking, namely that of St. Peter, who was the shorter of them in stature; the chin, however, or jawbone of that same head, with its teeth, is kept there. In this shrine two slips of parchment were found and replaced, of which slips one, without a seal, contained these words: These are the relics of Peter and Andoletus, kinsmen of Bl. Lambert bishop and martyr, who suffered along with him. The other, however, bearing a great round seal impressed, as it appeared, in virgin wax, which had the image of the most blessed Lambert, contained these words: Here lie the bodies of the holy Peter and Andoletus, kinsmen of Bl. Lambert. And the writing, in an ancient letter, which was carried round the circumference of the said seal, was as follows: Saint Lambert, bishop of Liège and patron.

[266] and the relics of others, and they are laid back in their places. When all these things had been duly inspected, and all the relics duly gathered together, the same lord cantor wrapped them in and into their shrine in silken cloths and in clean linen, and most becomingly laid them there together with the said slips and with another protocol of the present visitation, written and subscribed by the hand of the said lord Crispinus the notary; and he ordered that shrine to be closed then and there most firmly, and had it, and gave order that it be, becomingly restored to its former place. On the next day the relics of SS. Maternus the bishop and Magdalberta the virgin, and of other Saints, were inspected in like manner; concerning which one may see volume III of September, page 109, at St. Madelberta, and volume IV of the same month, page 397, at St. Maternus. After these things the aforesaid instrument is concluded with these words: At length, when all these most sacred relics had been most worthily laid in their places, the keys of the shrine, both the outer and the inner, were carried by my lords the dean and chapter and placed in the archives of the church, in the upper chest, which is entitled Mechlinia.

[267] In the same year 1489, on account of the calamitous times There follows in the same Opusculum of Suffridus Petrus, in Chapeauville, the History of the most solemn festival of the venerable head of St. Lambert, held at Liège in the same year of the Lord 1489, by the same anonymous author. But since that writer sets forth at very great length the festive apparatus, the order and pomp of the procession, and other such matters as are wont to be employed at like solemnities, lest I be longer than is fitting I shall only touch briefly upon these things, or pass them by, and shall recount the rest in his own words. After the Prologue he begins thus: In the year, therefore, from the Nativity of the Lord 1489, and in the fifth year of the pontificate of the most holy father in Christ and our lord, the lord Innocent, by divine providence Pope the eighth, and finally in the fifth likewise of the episcopate of the reverend father in Christ, the lord, the lord John of Horn — when the peace of the land of Liège and the quiet of the surrounding regions were growing cold, because of the inclemency of the times and the assaults of wars *, which then were raging everywhere the more harshly, and were laying waste villages and towns, the shepherd being absent — then, for the sake of appeasing the heavenly Godhead by the merits and intercession of the Patron, by the venerable and generous men and lords the dean and chapter of the church of Liège, divinely inspired, as it is piously to be believed, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, since they hoped that deliverance would come not by human help but only by the intervention of the Saints, this most solemn festival of which I intend to speak was appointed.

[268] the head of St. Lambert In it, with especial honor, that awe-inspiring head of the most holy pontiff and martyr Lambert, our patron — which for the space of three hundred and forty-six years and more had lain in the tomb above the entrance of the choir almost hidden and untouched together with the body, without any especial and singular honor shown to it — was carried about the circuit of the market-place and the cloister. The anonymous author goes on, and records the festive apparatus of the church, and first of all the adorning of the Saint's reliquary with precious cloths, the concourse of the other churches, of the clergy, of the Religious and of the people to the basilica of Lambert, and other things of this kind. Then he continues thus: After, therefore, the abbots of SS. Lawrence, James, Giles and of the Val-Saint-Lambert, and likewise the prelates and subordinates of the greater church and of the secondary ones, in elegant and most ornate habit in the midst of the temple, and the religious clothed in priestly vestments, along the order of the seats in the choir, and the invested clergy of the parishes and the other bearers of relics, had each taken his stand in his own place upon the benches of the sanctuary about the step, the reverend father in Christ and lord, the lord Jaspar abbot of Stavelot, a man already far advanced in years, his head adorned with the miter and supported by the pastoral staff, accompanied by the venerable and distinguished men and lords Peter de Hoelnoes, discharging the office of deacon, and James de Corswarem, that of subdeacon, went forward to the altar to celebrate the solemnities of the Mass.

[269] Thereupon, as he ascended with modest step, with lights and censers, to the place raised out of the reliquary in which the most glorious Martyr rests, together with those same ministers, the lord cantor with two canons on bended knees began in the midst of the temple, with glorious chanting, that most devout Tract, Adjuva nos Deus, etc. The clergy take it up after him, all are stretched upon the ground, silence arises, the noise ceases, coughing is restrained, and every man listened with the closest attention of mind and senses to the words spoken in French by a man of noted eloquence, the lord Peter de Hollengnoel, who set forth excellently, nay most elegantly, the cause and occasion of this most festal day, of a reverence so celebrated devised for our Patron, a thing unseen by our forefathers and by all past ages. Then a general confession of sins is made: the abbot confers absolution on the clergy and people kneeling; and, conversely, the clergy on him. And straightway that ever-to-be-honored head, so greatly longed for by the people, is taken up out of the tomb by the aforesaid abbot, deacon and subdeacon, and immediately shown to all.

[270] At the sight of it, the hearts of all were stirred, their breasts trembled, with great solemnity and there was no one of so iron a breast as not to be moved to tears; and at once, the cantor beginning, the whole clergy on bended knee sang that antiphon, Lætare et lauda, most devoutly and with a joyous melody. This done, the abbot signed the people with the venerable head both toward the West and toward the East; he bears it to the altar, and devoutly carries out the office of the Mass, etc. After the Mass there was a most solemn procession, which the anonymous author describes at length, and among other things concerning the sacred bodies carried in it he has this: Next the shrine of Saint Theodard was borne by four canons of the lesser table, and in like manner after them, by as many others, that of St. Maternus, and another more precious one, that of St. Lambert, all with solemnity clothed in red copes; about which the torch-bearers * of the ministries were most worthily conducted with lights of divers kinds, of which there was so great an abundance that it would be exceedingly difficult to set down the number in writing.

[271] In the same train of suppliants the head of St. Lambert was carried round, separated from the sacred body, it is carried about Liège, and shown to the people; and above it also a precious canopy was borne by four of the younger chaplains, clothed in most beautiful dalmatics of red color. When the procession was ended, the same head was brought back into the basilica of Lambert, and they set it, with the venerable Sacrament, all being prostrate on the ground, upon a table piously arranged with exquisite adornment beneath a crown, after the fashion of an altar; about which three mitred abbots, when relics and shrines had first been set upon it, took their rest most worthily in their chairs. After the hymn Te Deum and other things sung in praise of St. Lambert, the venerable Sacrament and the venerable head with the relics were carried back to the altar. Straightway the side doors of the choir were opened; two of the lords and as many of the beneficed clergy are appointed to the custody of the most worthy head, to show it to the people running up to gaze upon it, of whom there was on that day so great a multitude and concourse that access to it scarcely lay open to a man of small strength because of the excessive pressing; whence also, by ropes tied about the brazen columns, the crowds were kept back from too near an approach to the altar.

[272] then it is laid back. Afterwards it is enclosed in a precious case. In the afternoon, after solemn Vespers, as the sun was sinking toward its setting, when all the lords together had assembled with lights, the distinguished men Godenolus de Eldris, Peter de Holgnoel and Henry ex Palude, most richly adorned in priestly vestments, carried that most awe-inspiring crown of the Saint's head, with drums and choirs sweetly sounding, in the presence of a very great throng of the people and with the sweet jubilation of singers and of pipes, with exceeding glory to the former place of its repose; and having received the blessing from these same men, the young clerics singing their songs of jubilee, and the people following with praises the supreme Ruler of Olympus for the magnificence of their Patron, returned to their own homes. This solemnity fell upon the 28th day of April, on which the memory of the first translation of St. Lambert, made from Maastricht to Liège, and of the triumph of Bouillon was being celebrated. Foullon, at the said year, observes from the outcome that it was pleasing to God, since the party of bishop Horn thereafter received no grievous disaster. That sacred head Erard de la Marck, bishop of Liège, adorned in the sixteenth century with a precious case, as Chapeauville witnesses in volume 3, in the life of Erard, chapter 3, where these things are read under the year 1508: Kindled with zeal for the honor of God and of Bl. Lambert the martyr, he had a silver case, gilded, in which the skull of the venerable Martyr might be kept and venerated with greater religion, skillfully made, goldsmiths being summoned from everywhere at very great cost.

[273] In the same year 1489 the relics of St. Lambert, of Peter and Andoletus In the same year 1489, in the month of July, the sacred relics of the church of Lambert were again solemnly shown to the people for the same end; the History of which matter follows next in Chapeauville, whose author is believed to be the same anonymous writer. It is not worth while to weave in that Opusculum here, however small it is, and therefore I shall relate only those things which concerning

the relics of SS. Lambert, Peter and Andoletus are said in it. That public showing of the relics began in the month of July of the aforesaid year 1489, on the 10th day, and was continued on various days, sometimes however with interruptions, to kindle the piety and confidence of the people of Liège. On the first occasion, then, there was exposed to public veneration the amice of St. Lambert, martyr and pontiff. On the sixth occasion, the shrine of the holy martyrs Peter and Andoletus, the companions and kinsmen of Bl. Lambert, who suffered along with him. In which shrine all their bones are contained, with one head lacking, whose jawbone, however, is in the same place; and of their venerable martyrdom great signs appear in their bones. On the eighth occasion, the knotted cord of Bl. Lambert, martyr and pontiff. On the ninth occasion, the amice full of blood, in which the glorious martyr Lambert underwent his martyrdom. On the tenth occasion, the head of the glorious martyr Lambert, together with the hair of his head.

[274] the relics are again publicly shown. Finally, on the last occasion there was shown the shrine of the most blessed Lambert, in which the venerable bones of his glorious body are most becomingly contained. Likewise the pastoral staff which, at the very hour in which Bl. Lambert endured martyrdom, an angel of the Lord miraculously presented to Pope Sergius as he slept in the morning at dawn, and announced to him the martyrdom of Bl. Lambert, and that he should set St. Hubert, who was staying at Rome as a pilgrim in the church of St. Peter, over the see of Tongeren as bishop. Which Pope Sergius did, and to Hubert, found at Rome in prayer in the church of St. Peter, he assigned the staff, which the same Hubert carried back to Liège. Likewise the stole, the maniptilum *, the gloves, the sandals, the shoes of the same most blessed Lambert. Thus far he himself; upon which we have nothing else to observe, save that this history of the pastoral staff of the holy Martyr carried to Rome by an angel, and the other things which are there said of SS. Sergius and Hubert, have already been refuted by us above in §8.

* withdrawn

* i. e. of wars

* i. e. torches

perhaps manipulus* (maniple)

§ XIX. Portions of the Saint's head at Rome, and perhaps also at Freiburg im Breisgau: it is the body of another Saint that is at Pesaro in Italy, and likewise that which is said to be kept in the diocese of Girona in Catalonia.

[ ] The relics of St. Lambert at Rome The most eminent Baronius, at the year of Christ 828, num. 23, writes that certain relics of our St. Lambert were venerated at Rome both formerly and in his own time. For after he had said that the relics of SS. Marcellinus and Peter the martyrs, given by Einhard or Eginhard — formerly secretary to Charlemagne, then abbot of Seligenstadt — to the church of St. Servatius at Maastricht, had grown famous there by miracles, he subjoins: But the church of Maastricht made a return to the Roman Church for the sacred pledges of the two holy martyrs received from Einhard, by sending to it the chin of St. Servatius and other sacred relics of St. Lambert, bishop of the same church and martyr, which to this day are kept in the basilica of St. Peter at Rome, and are venerated with worthy honor. It is uncertain whether Baronius meant by these words to indicate that the said relics of St. Lambert were carried to Rome about the same time in which the men of Maastricht received a portion of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, or only long afterwards; but the latter is the more likely from what is to be said. It is likewise uncertain whether by the church of Maastricht, which gave them to the Romans, he designated that of St. Servatius, or that of Liège, to which the bishopric of Tongeren first, and then that of Maastricht, was transferred. There is reason to doubt, because it is established from what has been said above that the entire body of St. Lambert was translated to Liège in the eighth century.

[276] The Vatican Proper expressly mentions these same sacred Relics, in the Vatican basilica, that is, the Proper Lessons of the Saints whose bodies or notable relics are venerated in the most sacred Vatican church; where on the 17th day of September an Office of St. Lambert of double rite is prescribed, and in the sixth lesson one reads thus: The body was first buried at Maastricht, and thence carried to Liège with great pomp; a part of it was translated to Rome and placed in the basilica of St. Peter. With this agrees Carlo Piazza in his Hemerologium sacrum, at this day, saying of the place of St. Lambert's cult: At St. Peter's, where there is a part of his body, which is venerated at its own altar in the sacristy. Francesco Torrigio in the Diario Vaticano, at the same day, affirms that the Saint's head is in the same place. Likewise the author of Roma antica e moderna reckons his head among the relics that are kept in the sacristy of the Vatican church, vol. 1, page 61. Nevertheless the writers of Liège warn that it is not the entire head of the holy Martyr, but only a notable part of it, that is kept at Rome; and the Roman canons of the Vatican agree in this matter, as Chapeauville witnesses, who cites and recites in favor of that opinion the letter of Gerard Vossius, provost of Tongeren, given at Rome in the year 1604. It will be useful to have set down here what Chapeauville says.

[277] they are not his whole head, In the often-praised Work, vol. 3, page 638, he says this: Gerard Vossius, provost of Tongeren, an investigator of antiquities, had asked in a letter sent from the City of the reverend lord John Dullard, dean of Liège, whether it was certain that the head or skull of St. Lambert the martyr, patron of the people of Liège, was kept in the church of Liège, since it was said to have been for four hundred years at Rome, along with the chin of St. Servatius, in the archives of the basilica of St. Peter. The lord Dullard had the question more closely examined by men skilled in the history of Liège, and among others by the lord Daniel Raymundi, canon at St. Maternus in the church of Liège; who from the ancient writers of our church and from continuous tradition made it clearly attested that the true skull of the Martyr, translated in the thirteenth year from his passion, and in the year of the Lord 711 (rather, later), from Maastricht to Liège by the divine Hubert, is that very one which is today seen and venerated at Liège. When this was known, the said Vossius, having examined the business in the City with those to whom the matter pertained, obtained that the Romans should no longer profess that they had the skull, but at least some part of it: for so he wrote back to dean Dullard from the City on the fourth of September.

[278] but a notable part of it, There follows the letter of Vossius, which I here subjoin. I have at length obtained — as I lately intimated to our Le Bel in a letter given to him — from the canons of the basilica of St. Peter in the City, that they should no longer say they had the head of St. Lambert (since from that too great a prejudice would be generated against the church of Liège), but relics of the head of St. Lambert; in which manner they have now also changed the inscription on their reliquary, and have likewise so recited it at the solemn showing of the relics on the second day of Easter (that is, on Easter Monday), no longer saying: “In this case is the head of St. Lambert bishop and martyr, etc.”; but: “In this case are relics of the head of St. Lambert, etc.” And these they now show in a beautiful case of silver gilt. And it makes for the greater honor of the holy Lambert and Servatius that their images have been painted, in a notable picture, at the principal chapel in the greater sacristy of the same basilica, with their names set beside them there: for which to be done I labored a long time, that those Saints of our fatherland might be honored in that place, etc. Thus far the letter of Vossius, in which the passages marked by inverted commas I have turned from Italian into Latin. For the rest, concerning Gerard Vossius and his Works, the Bibliotheca Belgica of Valerius Andreas may be consulted, in which he is said to have died in the year 1609.

[279] perhaps carried thither in the thirteenth century, Fisen, book 12 of the Historia ecclesiæ Leodiensis, num. 22, from the span of about four hundred years during which the Vatican canons, as Vossius witnesses, affirmed that that portion of the sacred head had been kept at Rome, gathers that it was carried to Rome by Hugh of Pierrepont, bishop of Liège, when he set out thither to be present at the Fourth Lateran Council, celebrated under Pope Innocent III in the year of Christ 1215, and from the same Pontiff he also obtained notable relics. Foullon agrees with Fisen in his History at the same year; and with sufficient probability, since this opinion is conformable to what the canons of St. Peter say, and at the same time assigns the occasion on which those sacred relics were given to the Romans. This is certain, that SS. Servatius and Lambert were anciently venerated at Rome in a special manner. And this is clear from the chapel with an altar dedicated of old to the name of both, in the old church of St. Mary of the Fevers, which is now the sacristy of the Vatican basilica, to which it adjoins, and which survives to this day.

[280] Paolo de Angelis, praised by our Janninck in vol. VII of June, and by an ancient altar and chapel page 157, in his work on the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter, among the other chapels of the said church of St. Mary of the Fevers reckons this one thus: The chapel of the holy Lambert and Servatius, by Giorgio de' Cesarini the canon, to which the body of St. John Chrysostom was translated, and it is the burial-place of all the canons of the basilica. The same says Giovanni Ciampini, De sacris ædificiis Constantini Magni, chapter 14, section 13, from whom we learn that that chapel was enriched with a most ample endowment by the said Giorgio de' Cesarini (which de Angelis asserts obscurely). Concerning the same chapel one may read this in Raffaele Sindone, in the Description of the altars of the most sacred Vatican basilica, published at Rome in the year 1744, chapter 18: Toward the south (in the church of St. Mary of the Fevers) there follows another most ancient chapel, dedicated to the holy bishops Lambert and Servatius, and increased in revenues by Giorgio de' Cesarini, canon of the basilica; onto whose altar (as will be said below) the body of St. John Chrysostom, before it was transferred by order of Urban VIII into the chapel which we call the choir, was brought with the highest honor, and was laid in a noble Egyptian marble basin.

[281] On the occasion of the body of St. John Chrysostom being translated thither, that altar was consecrated anew in the year 1567, honored in the church of St. Mary of the Fevers. and dedicated to the same SS. John, Lambert and Servatius, as is established from the instrument which is exhibited in the same place. At length it is subjoined: In this chapel, finally, nearly all the relics of the Saints that belong to the basilica are kept with great honor, and are shown to the people on the second weekday after Easter. There are also in its pavement the tombs of the canons, and it was formerly called the Chapel of the Canons, now commonly La capella delle sacre reliquie; that is, the chapel of the sacred relics. Let these things suffice as said concerning the relics of St. Lambert and the cult shown to them at Rome; with which, as I have said, the people of Liège readily agree, because, as we shall presently see, they cannot deny that the entire head of the same Saint is not kept among them. Not so easy was the concord with the people of Maastricht, who thought that they likewise had his head among their sacred treasures, and used to exhibit it, until they were forbidden to do so; for what they showed cannot be called even some part of that head which is at Liège.

[282] Concerning this controversy, long since decided, Fisen, praised above, writes the following: The head of another at Maastricht. For the people of Maastricht display the sacred head of the same Lambert… But assuredly we have related from ancient writers that the body of the blessed Martyr was uncorrupted and unharmed by any taint of putrefaction when it was conveyed from Maastricht to Liège. Who, then, would believe that the neck was cut through with an iron blade applied to it, so that the head might be left at Maastricht? Certainly no memory of such a thing has been left by anyone. And that it was afterwards at some time sent from Liège, not one man says. Wisely, therefore, was it enacted that the men of Maastricht should not thereafter publicly exhibit for veneration by the people the head which they have, nor affirm that it is St. Lambert's. In the same sacristy, however, they keep, as of old, what cannot be denied to belong to some holy man; perhaps to one of those who were the companions of Lambert in the same palm. So he himself, after the suit, as I have said, was already ended: nor have I anything to add besides; save that I myself have seen that same head in the sacristy of relics there, exhibited under the title of some unknown saint.

[283] The people of Freiburg im Breisgau believe Another difficulty concerning the same Saint's head is raised by the people of Freiburg im Breisgau, of whom Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, at the 17th day of this month of September, speaks thus: There is… a most celebrated memory of the Martyr among the people of Freiburg im Breisgau, who glory that they have the head of the holy Martyr by the gift of Rudolph the bishop, who was the brother of Berthold IV, duke of Zähringen. The same things are asserted by Philipp Engelbrecht Engentinus in the metrical Life of St. Lambert, which at the request of the senate of that same city he composed and published in the year of Christ 1519, and at the end of which, inviting the people of Freiburg to the cult of St. Lambert, he sang thus:

Whose head the city born under the auspices of Zähringen possesses, free Freiburg of the Breisgau, by Rudolph's authorship. Honor this Hero, O joyful citizens, year by year, when Phœbus turns his light into the dark claws, about to look upon the black Scorpion along his slanting path. Hang up your festal garlands, ye crowned maidens, and let all, both mothers and young wives, conceive their vows: Keep this one, ye old men, and ye smooth-cheeked youth: he can ward off whatever is grievous to bear. He keeps off plague, and the savage wrath of Apollo. Now sing to tuneful measures a glad pæan! Great father Lambert, defend thy clients, who here in supplication have vowed to thee these altars; Turn hither thine eyes, and against a life rushing headlong into servile wickedness set the beams' nails as a bar, That we who confess Christ with sincere heart may, under thy leading, after the last times, be received into the heavenly seats, into lights subject to no fates.

[284] that the head of St. Lambert is with them, Further, what he means by the head of St. Lambert, and whence it was received, he declares in the dedicatory Letter to the senate of Freiburg in these words: But here your zeal is most greatly to be commended, in that with untiring labor and at great expense you cease not to adorn this our tutelary Saint, almost the whole of whose head, clothed round about with gold and silver, we venerate with great ceremonies. Which gift Rudolph, duke of Zähringen, wishing to gratify his brother Berthold IV, when he was bishop of Maastricht on the Meuse, conveyed hither from Liège. That Rudolph, whom others call Radulph, is said, in vol. 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, col. 875 and following, to have held the bishopric of Liège from the year of Christ 1158 until 1191: and at that time, therefore, that donation must have been made. Nevertheless it does not seem that those sacred relics had public veneration at Freiburg in the same century, but that they lay long hidden in the sacristies of the counts of Freiburg, until at length they were brought thence into the light.

[285] So teaches the same poet just praised, who in the same dedicatory Letter again says thus: which Fisen explains of a portion of it. Excellently, therefore, do you act, who so piously bring forth so unspeakable a gift, found some years ago in the sacristy of the counts of Freiburg. Since, then, that author published that little Work in the year 1519, and asserts that the aforesaid head was first found some years before, its public veneration seems to have begun at Freiburg not before the sixteenth century. The way in which these things may be composed with the relics of the Saint at Liège is that which Fisen suggests, book 5, num. 8, where, after he has treated of the Romans and the men of Maastricht, he says: There will now remain the contest with the people of Freiburg, which indeed will be settled with easy business, if with the Romans they confess that they have a notable portion of that sacred head. Nor can the people of Liège deny it, since the head which they venerate and display is by no means entire. And rightly indeed, if the poet Engentinus used exaggeration when he called the relics of Freiburg almost the whole head; on which matter I, who have never seen either these or those, can determine nothing.

[286] Our Papebroch in his little book on his Roman Journey observes It is the body of another Saint, that at Pesaro, which is a city of the duchy of Urbino, there is kept in the parish church of St. Cassian a great part of the body of some holy martyr, whom the people of Pesaro have confounded with our St. Lambert. For thus he says in his description of that same church: But in the sacristy (there is) a wooden chest containing the head, the principal bones, and a box full of ashes, from the body of a certain St. Lambert, martyr, brought hither from Basque, that is, Lower Gascony; whom, confounding him by the inept conjecture of some smatterer with the great Lambert, they venerate on the 17th day of September as a bishop and martyr. The verses written on the sides of the chest neglect and time have almost effaced, of which now scarcely any but these survive. There follow the mutilated verses, which I here subjoin entire from a manuscript sent to us in the year 1660 by Nicholas Nicolinus, prior and rector of the same church.

Christ, under the holy law, had passed two hundred olympiads, and ninety and two; Then Pius the Second, who was of Siena, was giving the Roman laws sacred to the faith; John was the prelate ruling the shrines in peace, who was a firm pillar of the priests: Under duke Alexander flourished the lofty walls of Pesaro, whom warlike Sforza begot; This duke, drawing his descent from the nation of the Gauls, of a Bishop brought forth from Basque these consecrated members. These, therefore, of the martyr Lambert, left behind in crumbling earth — the wooden chest holds his body.

[287] Further it is to be noted that olympiads are here used for lustra or periods of five years, which is kept at Pesaro in Italy; and that thus the year of Christ 1460 is designated, in which Pius II held the Roman Chair of St. Peter, and Alexander Sforza was lord of Pesaro, of whom mention is likewise made in the verses; but who was bishop there at that time I have not ascertained: for in Ughelli, vol. 2 of the reprinted Italia sacra, col. 864, one reads that John de Benedictis sat at Pesaro from the year 1419 until the year 1455, and that Barnabas Merlonius was substituted for him, then dead, in the year 1471; unless perhaps in one or other year there is an error, as the vacancy of the see for so many years makes one suspect, or unless some intervening bishop has dropped out. But however these things may stand, from the very place from which the praised verses affirm that sacred body to have been received, it is sufficiently clear that it is not that of St. Lambert bishop of Maastricht, since of any translation of him into Gascony no memory anywhere exists — nay, the opposite is beyond all controversy.

[288] as also is that which is said to be in Catalonia. With no more probability did certain Spaniards believe that they had the body of our St. Lambert with them; on whose credit Juan Tamayo in his Spanish Martyrology, at this day of September, speaks thus: At Girona in Spain, the Deposition of the sacred body of Bl. Lambert, bishop of Maastricht and martyr, which, enclosed in an honorable tomb in the church of Bl. Mary of the town of Lledó, is venerated with pious religion by those who dwell nearby. Yet here Tamayo did not follow the Chronicle of Dexter, or the adversaria of Julian, or like fictitious writings, as he often does elsewhere; but Antonio Domenech and others, to whom nevertheless he himself does not dare to assent in his Annotations. Our Catalans, he says, contend that the body of that holy Martyr was translated to the collegiate church of St. Mary of the town of Lledó, in the diocese of Girona, and honorably buried there. Hear Antonio Vicente Domenech, De Sanctis Gotholanis, book 1, on the 17th day of September, folio 88; who, after he had described the life, death and burial of the blessed Martyr, continues: “Afterwards, when many centuries had run their course, the body of this glorious Saint was translated to the collegiate church of St. Mary of Lledó in the bishopric of Girona, where it is guarded with great veneration.” Thus our Catalans; but beyond doubt possession stands for the people of Liège, and the multitude of writers, and the height of presumption. I would believe that some sacred pledges are kept among the people of Lledó, upon which the collegiate church, often supported, presumes that it has the whole. Thus far Tamayo: whose judgment I approve; although to me also it is very doubtful whether any portion of St. Lambert of Maastricht is kept there.

§ XX. Notable relics of the Saint in the abbey of Liessies: others also elsewhere, and several places dedicated to him.

[ ] The abbey of Liessies in Hainaut No difficulty of this kind attends the relics of St. Lambert which for many centuries now have been religiously venerated in the abbey of Liessies. This illustrious monastery of the Benedictine Order, called in Latin Lætiæ, and by the natives Liessies, was founded in Hainaut on the river Helpe, and acknowledges as its first founders count Wibert and his wife Ada, after the middle of the eighth century, and is dedicated to our St. Lambert. A great treasury of sacred relics is kept in it, concerning which a Cimeliarchium was composed and published at Mons in Hainaut in the year 1645 by Philippe Brasseur, priest of Mons. He, in part 2, reckoning up the relics of the four patrons of the place, of whom he says St. Lambert is the first, speaks thus: In antiquity of time St. Lambert and the lady Hiltrudis (a veiled virgin) excel; which thing is attested by the very tall gilded phylactery, containing a notable particle of each Saint, on the back of which, at the top, one reads thus: “St. Lambert and St. Hiltrudis, patrons, obtain from God a blessing for their monastery of Liessies”.

[290] Now, as concerns the other relics of St. Lambert, it has notable relics of St. Lambert certain of them were given to the said founder Wibert by Walcand, bishop of Liège; certain also to Wedericus, third abbot of Liessies, by Albero, likewise bishop of Liège, in the year 1143. Of which donation by Albero, for the sake of fuller knowledge, I bring forward a testimony of venerable antiquity, namely a copy of the letters, which runs thus: “In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand one hundred and forty-three, on the fourteenth of the Kalends of January, there was made at Liège the reposition of the relics of Bl. Lambert the martyr, out of the little vessel in which after his passion he had been placed by St. Hubert, into another vessel, which shone forth becomingly wrought in honor of the Martyr himself, in the presence of the bishop of Liège, namely Albero II, with a throng of nobles and of clergy standing by. At this reposition there was present dom Wedericus, third abbot of this church of Liessies, and returning thence he brought back very great and precious gifts,

namely a bone from the body of the Martyr himself, and of the ashes both of his flesh and of his garments and of the little bed in which he was first buried.

[291] Which things, received with joy at Liessies on the tenth of the Kalends of January, the relics, in a precious case lie hidden away for the honor and protection of the church in a silver vessel prepared in his honor. It has pleased us to renew the gladness of this receiving with a solemn festival on this very day year by year, that both the church may rejoice the more often in its Patron, and posterity may acknowledge the truth of what was done”. To these letters was appended a red seal, but whitening with age, on which one might see St. Lambert seated on a throne, bearing in his left hand a pastoral staff and having his right hand raised, around whose circuit this superscription is read: The sign of Saint Lambert, martyr, of Liessies. The same instrument Fisen recites in his Notes on book 10 of the History, num. 4, received in the year 1636 from the most reverend lord Antoine de Winghe, abbot of the same monastery, who testified that he had transcribed it and collated it with the original written on parchment and fortified with a seal. In both, however, one or two discrepancies of letters of slight moment occur; the chief is in the inscription, which Fisen published thus: the sign of St. Lambert of Liessies. I return to Philippe Brasseur, who in the same place continues his Cimeliarchium.

[292] For the rest, the relics of the said St. Lambert, both those given to Wibert enclosed in silver, and those given to Wedericus, were enclosed together in a common reliquary with other holy relics until (that is, up to) the year 1623; and then the lord Antoine de Winghe had them separated apart from the others and enclosed in a magnificent triangular tower, three parts * high, wrought of pure and unalloyed silver, as is established from the three inscriptions subjoined. The first inscription: “The chalice which was buried with St. Lambert”. That this chalice is of ivory and of white color the author notes in the margin. Then he goes on to report the same first inscription. “Of the priestly garments of St. Lambert. Of the linen cloth stained with the blood of the holy Martyr. Pious beholder, here venerate the relics of St. Lambert the martyr, bishop of the Tongrians, apostle of Toxandria, patron of the people of Liège and of Liessies: which Walcand and Albero II, bishops of Liège, gave to Wibert, founder of the monastery of Liessies, and to Wedericus the third abbot.”

[293] which partly Wibert the founder of the place, The second inscription: “Here are laid up the ashes of the flesh and of the garments of St. Lambert, and of the little bed in which he was first buried; which Wedericus, third abbot of Liessies, brought back with him to Liessies along with other relics from the first translation of the body, on the 10th of the Kalends of January in the year 1143”. The third inscription: “These relics of St. Lambert, bishop and martyr, given by his successors to the church of Liessies, and enclosed in a common reliquary with other holy relics, Antoine de Winghe, the thirty-seventh abbot, and the monks of Liessies caused to be transferred hither apart, out of singular veneration for so great a Patron, in the year 1623”. Thus Brasseur concerning the relics of St. Lambert in the abbey of Liessies; upon which certain things come to be observed. The anonymous writer of the Life of St. Hiltrudis, virgin and recluse of Liessies, which Mabillon in the third Benedictine century, part 2, judges to have been written in the eleventh century, expressly mentions the relics of the same St. Lambert obtained by Wibert and deposited in the monastery of Liessies, which he was founding with his wife Ada, in the cited place, page 421 and following, whence I have transcribed what I subjoin.

[294] is said to have received from the people of Liège, When at length the oratory was finished, and the walls of the church raised and the roof set on, and the cloister well provided with workshops, they go to the bishops or abbots dwelling round about, and especially to the pontiff of Tongeren, and ask and obtain relics of the Saints and * the consecration. The pontiff gave precious relics of very many Saints, and especially of St. Lambert: whence, by familiarity, friendship and persuasion, he pressed that they should dedicate their new oratory to his merits. They announce the matter to the bishop of Cambrai, to whose diocese the oratory belongs; and he with due honor and reverence dedicated it to the name of St. Lambert on the third day of the Nones of November. This anonymous writer is indeed, according to Mabillon's opinion, three centuries later than that foundation, but perhaps he had more ancient records; or if he had not, yet from him it is clear that the tradition concerning the relics of St. Lambert at Liessies is by no means recent. Brasseur, praised above, observes however that in place of bishop Walcand, from whom Wibert is said in the inscription on the reliquary to have received them, it should perhaps better be St. Florebert who is substituted, since he judges that this man, and not that one, sat at Liège in Wibert's time.

[295] and partly abbot Wedericus Walcand certainly stands too far from the time to which the beginnings of the place are wont to be referred for that donation to be easily ascribed to him. Whether St. Florebert was still then living may likewise be doubted. The controversy hangs upon the time of the first foundation of the same monastery, which may be treated of on the 27th day of September, on which St. Hiltrudis, virgin and recluse of Liessies and daughter of the founders, is inscribed in the Martyrologies. It must moreover be said that these same relics were withdrawn in time — by human effort, or by chance, or by God's providence — from the hands of the Northmen, who laid waste that monastery as they did other places of Belgium, so that those which are said to have been given to Wedericus survive there to this day. It might also be asked how Wedericus, who presided over the community of Liessies about the middle of the twelfth century, is called the third abbot of that place: but to this Fisen has already replied in his Notes on book 10, num. 4, teaching, from the letters of the reverend lord Antoine de Winghe the abbot, that the abbots began to be numbered anew from the restoration of the monastery long after the Norman devastation, no account being taken of those who had preceded it.

[296] That abbot Wedericus was present at the deposition of the body of St. Lambert at Liège in the year 1143, carried from Liège to Liessies: as is asserted in the instrument recited at num. 287, cannot be denied. He is the same man to whom, as we said in §1, Nicholas, canon of Liège, dedicated the Life of St. Lambert to be published, written, as many think, on the occasion of that same deposition. In his dedicatory Letter he mentions thus the relics of our holy Bishop and martyr at Liessies: And since your church of Liessies glories especially in the patronage of Bl. Lambert, and embraces his relics with undoubted love, I send this little Work of my littleness to your holiness. There are those who interpret this of the relics brought back to Liessies by Wedericus on his return from the aforesaid solemnity; which, although it is likely enough, is nevertheless not certain, since Nicholas could have written that Life earlier, and have been speaking of the earlier relics. See what was said in §1. This certainly is beyond doubt from the testimony of the praised Nicholas, that the relics of St. Lambert, as patron of the monastery, were even then held in esteem and sacred veneration and kept at Liessies.

[297] Of the most reverend lord Antoine de Winghe, who had the precious shrine made of which we spoke at num. 292 and following, Three memorials of the Saint are kept there. the memory will always be dear to us and to our posterity; and there exists a notable eulogy of that man, who deserved excellently well of our Museum, in Bolland's Preface to the reverend lord Thomas Luytens, abbot of Liessies, before vol. 1 of January, chapter 4, §1. The same reliquary, which he had seen, Arnold Rayssius greatly praises in the Hierogazophylacium Belgicum, page 284, where he says that it is a certain tower, truly lofty and of very great weight, wrought of pure and unalloyed silver by the highest hand of the craftsman and with a workmanship nearly admirable; and he reckons up the same inscriptions which we have reported. Further, there is a threefold memorial of St. Lambert among the people of Liessies in the manuscript Martyrology of the same monastery, an enlarged Bede, which you have in our Work before vol. 2 of March, among the supplements to Bede and Florus. The first is at the 28th day of April, where one reads: And the commemoration of the translation of the relics of St. Lambert, bishop and martyr; that translation, namely, which was made from Maastricht to Liège, though not on that day or in that month, as we have already shown above. The second is set on the 17th of September, which is the Saint's birthday into heaven. The third, finally, at the 23rd day of December, is that very one which we said was instituted by Wedericus, and which is announced there in these words: On the same day, the arrival of the relics of St. Lambert, martyr and pontiff, which Unedricus * of venerable memory, third abbot of this place, having most devoutly obtained them from Albero II, bishop of Liège, solemnly brought into the church of Liessies on the 10th of the Kalends of January, and solemnly appointed the memory of that day to be celebrated year by year.

[298] Fisen, in his Notes on book 5, num. 2, likewise asserts that notable relics of St. Lambert, famed for miracles, are kept in a village of Flanders near the city of Lille, in the words Other relics of his in Flanders which I subjoin. There is a village at the first milestone from Lille called Watignia (by the inhabitants Watignies), on the king's road which leads to Arras. Here in a silver tower and a silver arm the relics of St. Lambert the martyr are kept, and are venerated with notable devotion by the people, who flock thither in great numbers; but most of all on the birthday of the holy Martyr and on the seven days following. God very often repays the piety of mortals with miracles. The feast of the translation itself was wont to be celebrated on the same day as at Liège, with abstinence from servile work: but a few years ago it was abolished by the bishop of Tournai, at the request of the pastor, because of the inconveniences to the country folk; and only the feast of the 17th of September was retained. Which in my judgment surely proves the antiquity of the cult of St. Lambert, whose beginnings surpass the memory of men. It is established from the accounts of that church that already from the year one thousand four hundred and ninety-four the concourses of the multitude and the offerings were famous. These things our John Matho received from the pastor of Watignies and sent to me.

[299] and in Artois, Concerning two other places in Artois he presently subjoins in the same place: There are in Artois two churches of St. Lambert made famous by miracles and by the concourse of the multitude. The one, close to Aire, in a village almost suburban, which they call Lambert, keeps not ignoble portions of his sacred relics. The other is in the territory of Saint-Omer. I have reported these things on his own credit, because concerning none of those three places have I found anything elsewhere. For the rest, I cannot doubt that some relics of the same Saint are held in veneration also elsewhere: for Pessina too, page 518 of the Phosphorus Pragensis, in the Diary of the sacred relics which are kept at Prague in the metropolitan church of St. Vitus, at this 17th day of September mentions two notable fragments of St. Lambert, bishop and martyr, brought by Charles (namely the Fourth) in 1357; and we have related from the authentic instrument at num. 263 that some were given to the illustrious lord Guy de Humbercourt in the year 1449 by the canons of St. Lambert.

[300] and in Brabant near Louvain There is also in our Brabant a village by the name of Lovaniolum, commonly Lovenjoul, distant about one Belgic mile from the city of Louvain toward Tienen, whose parish church has for many centuries now venerated our St. Lambert as its tutelary saint. Certainly there already stood there some ancient church dedicated to his name, and famous for his patronage,

in the time of Anselm, canon of Liège, who a little after the middle of the eleventh century continued the Gesta of the bishops of Liège. For in these, in Martène and Durand, vol. 4 of the Amplissima Collectio of ancient writers, col. 851, he himself expressly mentions it thus in chapter 8, where the title is, What happened at Lovenjoul at his memorial. Nor do I think that among these things certain matters concerning the miracles of the same holy Martyr ought to be passed over, which two years ago I happened to hear from a certain priest named Waritius. There is a certain small holding of this church (of Liège) very close to the town which is called by the name Louvain, and which imposes on that same little village a diminutive from its own name; for it is surnamed Lovenjoul.

[301] an old church, once famous for its cult. There is contained in that same holding a church which, being of wood, was long preserved by the ancient devotion of the fathers; now they are eager to improve its lesser walls with a structure of cement and stones. The aforesaid priest used to relate that he had heard and seen many miracles of Christ the Lord in that same place; which, since for the greater part they have slipped from memory, I have determined to record briefly the few that come to mind. Then he recites three, as he himself calls them, miracles. The first in chapter 9, Of a horse turned mad: the second in chapter 10, Of a certain man who struck his foot against the doors of the church, and lost it when it putrefied: the third in chapter 11, Of him who by vomiting betrayed a theft. I do not know whether Anselm learned better things than these from Waritius; but no one, I think, will with good reason complain that those three have been passed over by me. Anselm finally subjoins: On account of such miracles of the Lord no small reverence is preserved for that place, and they believe that nothing unseemly can happen about that same church or its forecourt without being avenged.

[302] The same Anselm had set down before, in the same chapter 8, two other places in Germany Other places in Germany likewise famous for the ancient cult of St. Lambert. The title prefixed to the chapter is: That in Bavaria and in the district of Würzburg miracles frequently occur at his memorial*. Then follows: In divers parts of the earth indeed, where oratories are had built in honor and memory of the venerable Martyr, miracles frequently occur through his merits; so that it may be clearly established to the faithful that his prayers are no less strong where his ashes are seen to be absent than among us, where he is present in body. There is in Bavaria a lake which laps with the gentle circuit of its standing water a certain island within itself. On this there is set a monastery in honor of Bl. Lambert, which was built there by the predecessors of the lord Pilgrim, archbishop of Cologne, with a cloister and the workshops necessary to a monastery, and was enriched by the same men with most opulent revenues of estates: where, that miracles of Christ very often occur at the memorial of our holy Martyr and bishop, we have frequently heard. But let these things be said on Anselm's credit; for I indeed have found nothing about that monastery in other writers. Pilgrim, whom he praises, presided over the church of Cologne before the middle of the eleventh century.

[303] Not far from the city of Würzburg (Anselm continues in the same place) a village by the name of Duckelinhusen has a church in honor of the same holy Martyr, dedicated to St. Lambert. to which on the anniversary of his passion a throng of the provincials is accustomed to flock from all sides; and to convey hither abundant gifts of grain, wine and cattle to the holy Martyr; and while they devoutly strive to offer carnal things, besides the invisible supports of their souls they very often rejoice to carry back thence also remedies for the parts of their bodies that were injured, in whatever part. Witness is the lord Thicuvinus the bishop, and as many clerics or laymen as are wont to come to us from those parts. That Thicuvinus, or Theoduin, was contemporary with Anselm, with whom he is also said, in vol. 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, col. 859, to have set out for Rome. Martène also rightly observes from the Chronicle of Alberic that he was a Norican by nation and from Bavaria, and therefore a fit witness of that matter.

[304] Finally, that I may put an end to these things, famous is the abbey marked with the name of the same St. Lambert, formerly in Carinthia, now in Styria, concerning which Bucelinus may be seen in his Topographia. I have at hand a little book on the chief colleges and monasteries of Styria, published at Graz in the year 1740, in which the same monastery is treated of, and concerning the most ancient church founded there before the monastery the following may be read. The antiquity of the church another written codex likewise commends, in which one reads that it was built by Carastrus, prince of the Carni, with this purpose, as one may conjecture, that, since he drew his blood from those who were the authors of the murder inflicted on the divine Lambert, the crime of his ancestors might be expiated in this sacred building by perpetual religious observances. Thus far that book: how truly, I do not know. Now, before I put an end to this Commentary, I subjoin a few things concerning the memory of the same St. Lambert in the sacred Calendars, and the feasts and Offices by which he is venerated in various places.

or pedes* (feet)?

perhaps ad*

read Wedericus*

* Bavaria

se* is superfluous

§ XXI. The Saint's memory in the Martyrologies; feasts and Offices of him in various dioceses.

[ ] The Saint's memory in the Martyrologies Most celebrated indeed among the classic martyrologists is the memory of our St. Lambert at this 17th day of September, which, as has often been said, was consecrated by his martyrdom, which he then underwent; and although we have already reported some of them elsewhere, yet after our custom we shall here review them. Bede, contemporary with the Saint himself, in his Martyrology published before vol. 2 of March, announces him briefly, as is his wont, thus: The birthday of St. Lambert, bishop and martyr. Hence one may wonder why in the metrical Martyrology published under his name in d'Achery, vol. 10 of the Spicilegium, the memory of St. Lambert is celebrated not on this day but on the Nones of June, in this manner:

June on its Nones marvels that in the world the soul of the exalted Lantbert was carried beyond the stars.

More correctly Wandelbert, in his likewise metrical Martyrology, assigned him with Bede's prose Martyrology and the other martyrologists to this 17th day of September, in these words:

Lambert crowns the fifteenth * with his virtue, whom the faction that slew him ever trembling dreads.

What he meant to indicate by these words we have shown at num. 188. In the same ninth century Rabanus wove for him at the aforecited day a fuller eulogy, embracing his deeds, in these words: In Gaul, near the city of Maastricht, in the estate of Liudovicus *, the passion of Landebert the bishop, who from infancy was devoted to the service of God. He, leading a holy life for seven years, dwelt among monks. But after Faramund was deposed from the pontifical seat and cast out of the province of Maastricht, then the ranks of the clergy and the common people with one and the same mighty voice were asking the Lord that they might receive back the lord Landebert as their shepherd; whom, with the consent of Pippin, then prince, they were found worthy to receive back to their own, and there for many years he lived nobly in the church of God. But him Dodo, steward of the aforesaid prince Pippin, had killed by a most wicked contrivance. He himself, however, through an innocent death, passed over to the Lord.

[306] at the 17th of September Likewise also other martyrologists of the same century celebrated him on the same day. Ado has it thus: In the diocese of Tongeren, at Liège *, a public estate, the birthday of St. Lambert the bishop; who, when, kindled with zeal for religion, he had rebuked the royal house, on his return, as he was giving himself to prayer, was suddenly shut in within the house of the church by most wicked men sent from the palace, and is slain. Whose tomb is made illustrious by very frequent miracles, and whose death nonetheless is commended as precious in the sight of the Lord. Notker copied Ado almost word for word; but Usuard preferred to use his own words, saying thus: At Liège, of blessed Lambert, bishop of Tongeren, who, slain innocently by the guilty, entered the hall of the heavenly kingdom to live forever. I pass over many other Martyrologies in which he is inscribed on the same day, and add one, the Roman of Baronius, in which one reads: At Liège, of Bl. Lambert, bishop of Maastricht, who, when he had rebuked the royal house out of zeal for religion, being innocent, was slain by the guilty, and entered the hall of the heavenly kingdom to live forever. Thus far concerning his birthday.

[307] Among the supplements to Usuard in our Sollier, at the 28th day of April, his translation is announced by the Brussels Codex, and at other months the Register of the Utrecht Charterhouse, the Lübeck-Cologne edition, and Greven; of which the last two say thus: At Liège, the translation of Saint Lambert, bishop of the same place (rather, of Maastricht) and martyr. In the praised Register he is wrongly called a confessor. More correctly Molanus in the same place: At Liège, the translation of St. Lambert the martyr. Of this translation we treated in §13, and there observed that this feast is famous among the people of Liège, and that on it a twofold translation is commemorated: the first by St. Hubert, made however on another day and in another month, from Maastricht to Liège; the other made to the castle of Bouillon, which is also called the Triumph of Bouillon. Molanus moreover mentions a twofold translation, saying in the same place at the 24th day of May: The translation of Saint Lambert; and at the 23rd of December: On the same day, the translation of blessed Lambert from the church of Saint Mary into the crypt, and the dedication of the same crypt in honor of All Saints. So he indeed; but I do not perceive what translations he here indicates, because I have found none made on those days; unless it be the one to Liessies, on which see num. 297. It is credible, however, that some Calendar was his guide.

[308] From a little book of this kind certainly, or a like one, he must be said to have drawn what he again has at the 28th day of October, and a day was assigned him. saying: On the same day, the dedication of the basilica of Saint Lambert the martyr. And this dedication was made in the sixth year of the episcopate of Baldric our bishop, by that most holy man of God Heribert, archbishop of Cologne. This dedication of the basilica erected by bishop Notger, Fisen assigns to the same day of the year 1014, in book 7 of the History, num. 26. Finally, Greven and Molanus announce another festival on the 13th day of October. On that very day, says Greven, the Triumph of St. Lambert, bishop of Liège and martyr. But since the people of Liège celebrate a twofold Triumph of their holy Patron, Molanus says more expressly: On the same day, the Triumph of Saint Lambert at Steps. That the annual memory of the victory of Steppes, to be celebrated perpetually on an appointed day, was decreed by the people of Liège in the thirteenth century, we have related above in §17, num. 258 and following, to which we refer the reader.

[309] To prove the cult of our holy Bishop and Martyr would be to do what is already done, both because it is clearer than light from what has been brought forward hitherto, and because it is better known by report than to need our illustration. Yet since he has not yet a place in the Roman Breviary, according to our practice I shall review some dioceses in which he is venerated. That his sacred veneration is ancient both at Maastricht on the Meuse, where he discharged the episcopal office and was buried in his father's sepulcher, and in the estate of Liège, in which he suffered martyrdom at the hands of impious men, is abundantly established from what has been said above. But how greatly in the latter place that cult grew, after by St. Hubert

his body was carried thither, Liège cries aloud though I be silent — Liège, from an estate long since one of the most ample cities of Belgium, made illustrious by the seat of a prince-bishop and by the most illustrious Lambertian chapter of canons.

[310] At Liège he has three days sacred to him each year. The first is the 28th day of April, are celebrated in the church on which, as we said just now, the first translation of St. Lambert and at the same time the Triumph of Bouillon is commemorated. This day, assigned to the praised festival by Albero II, bishop of Liège, as early as the twelfth century, Erard de la Marck, bishop of the same city and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, rendered far more solemn in the year 1526, with the consent of the chapter of canons, that thereafter it should be a feast among the people, and should be celebrated with an annual procession, for which he himself established perpetual revenues, and with a fair, which continue to this day. So we learn from Chapeauville, vol. 3, in the life of Erard, chapter 15, from Foullon in his History, and from the Breviary of Liège, in whose sixth lesson one reads: Which (translations) Erard de la Marck, Cardinal and legate of the holy Roman Church, afterwards adorned with a more solemn modern rite. For the rest, an Office of double rite is prescribed from the Common of one martyr, with proper Lessons of the second Nocturn and a proper Collect.

[311] of Liège; an Office of him Again, at the 13th day of October the memory of the triumph at Steppes, but without a feast among the people, is commemorated with a double Office with proper Lessons; concerning which triumph consult §17 from num. 158. More solemn is the Saint's birthday feast on the 17th of September, which is celebrated with a preceding vigil and through an Octave, and has everything proper, composed out of his Lives. Finally the people of Liège have a weekly Office of him, perpetually prescribed on the occasion of the victory won on the fields of Steppes, as we said in the place just cited. Nor did the cult of St. Lambert confine itself within the bounds of the diocese of Liège: for we have also said above that the Roman canons of the Vatican basilica of St. Peter read an annual Office of him of double rite at the 17th day of September, and we have mentioned other places in which his veneration flourishes. Many other dioceses also recite an Office of him at the aforesaid day of September, or certainly did so formerly, as is clear from many Breviaries, or Propers of various dioceses, partly new, partly ancient, which are kept in our Museum.

[312] in various dioceses, and among the Cistercians. Of this kind are, in Belgium, the dioceses of Mechelen, Antwerp, Roermond, Utrecht, Tournai, Namur and Saint-Omer: in Germany, those of Cologne, Mainz, Osnabrück, Hildesheim, Augsburg and Passau; in the Gauls, that of Paris, and others which it would be too long to review. Of his cult among the people of Liessies in Hainaut we have said enough in the preceding §. Of the Cistercians, Giles of Orval writes, in Chapeauville, vol. 2, page 266, that in the thirteenth century, at the persuasion of Robert of Langres, bishop of Liège, they decreed in their general chapter that throughout the whole Order the feast of the aforesaid Martyr should be solemnly celebrated every year, of whom formerly only a simple commemoration was made. I have at hand a Cistercian Breviary, published at Paris in the year 1643, in which at this day of September an Office of twelve lessons from the Common of one martyr is in fact prescribed. But since no one can doubt his famous cult, I do not linger over these many things, and subjoin the Lives with the Annotations.

* Kalends

* i. e. at Liège

elsewhere Leogio*

FIRST LIFE

By Godescalc, deacon of Liège, in the eighth century, from Mabillon's edition, collated with a manuscript.

BHL Number: 4678

By Godescalc the deacon.

PROLOGUE.

If the pagans ^a are eager to commend to their books, with prolix pomp, savage and abominable fictions and very many lies, so that their empty glory may run abroad, why should we Christians be silent about the saving miracles of Christ, when we are able, even in slender speech, to unfold to men edifying things from the history of the Saints? Therefore, although in the narration of so great a matter we may seem unworthy to speak of the works of the holy man Landebert the pontiff, yet the love of Christ has often demanded an author; and, if God's favor also assist, I shall attempt to relate what has been known to me from my youth ^b, and what I have learned from prudent men affirming it — seeking no charm of style in my mind, but full of devotion and animated by his own prayers — and I shall endeavor to bring into public, albeit in unpolished speech, the course of his life and his glorious accomplished martyrdom, so far as it has come to our hearing; so that he whose life is with Christ may have the memory of his glory celebrated in the world by the telling; especially since we are admonished by ecclesiastical tradition and by apostolic authority to commemorate some of the lives or virtues of the Saints, as it is written: “The memory of the Saints with praises”; and “Let us praise glorious men,” who despised the kingdoms of the world. Therefore we believe it fitting that, as often as we celebrate the solemnities of the Saints in the yearly round, we ought to recite something from their deeds, for the edification of the Christians assembled, in the praises of the Lord: since in truth it is Christ's gift, whatever praiseworthy thing is found in his Saints. Therefore, with the help of grace from above, though in unskilled speech and unpolished language, I set about to begin the Life and Virtues of the holy and most blessed bishop Landebert.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's birth and education: the bishopric of Maastricht, and his expulsion from it: his deeds at Stavelot.

[ ] Nobly born and instructed in letters, The glorious ^a man Landebert the pontiff, then, was born and reared in the town of Maastricht ^b, of wealthy parents, venerable according to worldly dignity among the governors, and Christians of long descent. He himself in boyhood was comely and noble, choice among his people and his kindred; he grew up kindly among his servants and kinsmen, with shining countenance, and had strength in every affection of a more advanced age ^c. But when his father saw so great diligence in his Son, and that he was beloved by all, he exulted and gave thanks to God, and rejoiced with gladness because he saw his Offspring adorned. From nearly his earliest age ^d he handed him over to wise men and historians ^e, to be taught in the sacred letters. And he, with great zeal, applying himself with assiduous attention, clave to them and swiftly completed his course. And when he had been instructed by most prudent men, he returned to his father's house. Passing beyond the years of boyhood, he bore the age of youth with the diligence of old age. The spirit of wisdom and the grace of humility shone in him, and he increased daily in good works.

[3] he is instructed by St. Theodard At the same time there presided over the pontifical chair in the town of Maastricht the supreme pontiff Theodard ^f, by the dispensation of divine providence. Straightway his father commended him to the aforesaid bishop, to be trained in divine doctrines and in monastic discipline in the royal hall ^g. For he was a wise youth, lovely in appearance, affable in converse; and with upright behavior he began to serve both with the pontiff and in the royal house, so that he was agreeable to all. And though he was of outstanding form, strong and swift, agile and very steadfast in war ^h, bright in spirit, adorned in appearance, grounded in charity, chastity and humility, yet he also gave himself to reading ⁱ as a work. Finally he was found worthy to obtain such great favor in the sight of the pontiff that the latter would have chosen to adopt him as a son, his heir and successor, had it been lawful for him because of the canonical rule.

[4] whom he succeeds in the bishopric of Maastricht; When therefore the aforesaid bishop Theodard ^k had been slain, a great multitude of the men dwelling in that region, knowing Landebert's prudence and works and most noble manner of life, in secret speech among themselves were disposing to elect him to the pontifical seat. Therefore the chief and most illustrious Men, who at that time were seen to be the rulers of the palace, made known the reputation of the blessed Man to the glorious lord Childeric, of the kingdom ^l, and not keeping silent about his deeds, bore witness that he was worthy to discharge the priesthood and to receive the pontifical burden. Their petition, therefore, had its effect, and they willingly obtained what they devoutly asked. Then * the people, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, having taken one counsel, together with the king's command, and by the Lord's favor, by whom he had long since been chosen, he was substituted, that he might be father of the church of Maastricht.

[5] But he, filled with the fear of the Lord, having taken up the office, in which, while he discharges it excellently, he is wickedly expelled was daily multiplied ^m in good work. Moreover the king, when he had come to know his kindliness and prudence, loved him above all his bishops and nobles. Now Landebert the pontiff was tall of stature, comely of face, with beautiful hair, renowned for his eyes, with honorable hands, long fingers, and fair flesh: from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head he was blameless. He was moreover clear-sighted in counsel, and bore all wisdom with care and moderation: with the king he held the highest place. Therefore, when the glorious king Childeric had been slain by impious men, then the devil, envier of all good things, rose up in haste against the blessed Man, along with most savage adversaries contriving wicked and false counsels, that they might cast him down from the pontifical seat. And their iniquity so prevailed that they deposed him from his seat without cause; and he was deprived of his honor without fault. After this they set Faramund in his chair ⁿ.

[6] But Landebert, God's chosen pontiff, went on to the monastery which is called Stavelot ^o, nor did more than two boys remain in attendance upon him. One of these, by name Theodoënus, was accustomed to tell us much about his life and work: how for seven years he there led a holy life and an angelic manner of living with the most intent devotion — in labors, in fastings, in vigils, in prayers, in charity, in long-suffering, and in every watchfulness he imitated the example of the Saints. And the father of the monastery loved him greatly, and the whole community venerated him with great piety and kindness. The virtue of constancy shone in him more and more. And while the venerable Man Landebert the bishop was in the aforesaid monastery, it happened that in the middle of the night he was awakened according to the customary order, that he might devoutly go to his solitary prayer; and when he had put forth his hand and seized his sandals, one of them slipped and, falling from his hand, dropped upon the pavement, and the noise of it disturbed the ears of those who were resting.

[7] Hearing this, the father of the monastery, not knowing who had done it, an illustrious example of obedience and endurance said: Let him who made that noise go at once to the cross [p]. Then the religious Priest

at once followed obedience without delay, and leaving behind all that he had in his hands, carrying nothing with him but only the one rough hair-shirt with which he was clothed, and with bare soles and unshod feet, leaping secretly from his little bed, with silent step he ran in haste to the place where he had been commanded. Now it was mid-winter, with excessive cold, and a most violent chill had come on with the winter season [q], so that the ice froze hard and the snow fell thinly. But when the Servant of God, remaining motionless, with hands outstretched and arms unbending, lingered a long while, effectually discharging the singing of psalms; and meanwhile so much snow was continually poured down that it came from above right up to the ankles of that Pontiff.

[8] Nor was the Lord unmindful, who foresees all things by day and by night, he affords an example, and knows all things before they come to pass; he looked upon his Servant laboring so very long, when in the forty-first psalm he was singing: “When shall I come and appear before the face of my God!” And the Lord, ready to pardon, heard him praying; and it was brought about by the Lord, as he was wont: in the night-time the cock-crow came more quickly than usual; and, no delay having passed, the brothers of the monastery, the signal being struck, enter for the vigils. When the Office was ended, they went out of the sanctuary in haste, and because of the excessive cold entered at once into a house to warm themselves. Meanwhile the holy man of the Lord, striving the more bravely, stood ever unconquered * at the cross. Then the father of the monastery, making inquiry, said: And have we all our brothers? One of them said: I heard you this night appoint the cross; but I do not know who it was. While he was still speaking, another of the brothers came in, saying: Truly the lord Landebert has been persevering at the cross this long while, unshod. And the abbot himself, terrified and turned to fear, said to the brothers: Go quickly, and humbly ask him to come to us.

[9] to the wonder of the abbot and the monks. And they, running out, found him standing at the cross. And his head and shoulder were covered all over with snow. But the apostolic Lord was then uttering with his mouth: “A contrite and humbled heart God does not despise,” and the rest. And those who had been sent said in entreaty: Lord, our father entreats, and the brothers urge, that you now come into the lodging to them. And he went with them: and when he came inside, at once the father of the monastery, together with the throng of monks, prostrating himself on his knees at the Pontiff's feet, asking pardon, said: Forgive me, Father, forgive; for I sinned unknowingly, in that I acted so foolishly: grant indulgence to your devoted servants. And he: May indulgence be given you by God, because you did not act foolishly, but did prudently, as Paul said: In cold and nakedness I subdue my body. And straightway the brothers prepared a bath for him, and changed him * into other garments, and kissing his hands and feet, said to one another in turn: The Lord willed not to make it known to us this night, but for the increasing of his glory and for the winning of profitable penance [r] it was hidden from us.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. That cross was set in the open air, at which the monks by the command of their superiors expiated their faults. See what we have said concerning this manner of doing penance, and the cross of Stavelot, in the preceding Commentary, num. 70 and following.

q. In Mabillon one reads: Erat autem media hieme, nimio frigore, vehementissimusque algor: brumalis circulus ingruerat. In the following clause also I have restored a few things from our codex.

r. Our codex has: Pro ipsius augenda gloria & lucri promerenda præmia. Mabillon's reading is a little better. In both, however, it is indicated that by God's will it happened so, that the holy Bishop might heap up his own merits.

a plebo*

elsewhere moto*

Et* is superfluous.

Mabillon: junctus*

illum*

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's restoration to his see and his pastoral care: the conversion of the Toxandrians; his martyrdom.

[ ] Restored to his see with the applause of all, Therefore, after seven years were completed, Faramund was deposed from the pontifical seat, and cast out of the province of Maastricht. Then the ranks of the clergy and the common people with one and the same mighty voice were asking the Lord that they might receive back the lord Landebert as their shepherd. At that time Pippin was prince over very many regions and cities situated in Europe ^a. Having heard of the works of the blessed Man, within the space of a single day he ordered him to be recalled with great honor to his own * see. It is long to tell how great was the exultation in the whole people, how great the praises and hymns at his coming. Dancing for joy, the priests with the deacons sang psalms; the throngs of monks and all the clergy cried aloud the praises of Christ; strangers and pilgrims, the needy and the poor, widows with orphans, rejoiced throughout the cities. Thus the whole land rejoiced, as if they had received one of the Apostles of Christ.

[11] he shines with many virtues, And the apostolic Lord ^b, having returned to his own city, daily increased for the better the rule of his own training: but what and how great he at length showed himself to be, who could worthily set forth, or who thinks himself furnished with so great an abundance of words, or what discourse, overflowing with the richness of such affluence, could pursue, as is fitting, all his good qualities? For he persisted in the law of the Lord without weariness; he defiled himself with no harmful conduct. He watched over the acts of his life at every hour; he kept the eye of his mind ever fixed upon the Lord; his counsel and his work he ever turned toward the Lord; his feet were directed to prayer and to preaching the gospel of peace. Even as a faithful and prudent servant appointed by the Lord to give food to his household in due season, so did he hasten in every way to refresh with spiritual food the people committed to him. He taught gently, instructed in due order, and strove with all his strength to draw men back from the habit of sinning.

[12] and vigorously discharges his office For he was fervent in spirit and untiring in solicitude ^c; adorned with works and very illustrious, a mean between the rich and the poor; he had no regard to the persons of the powerful, but rather to elegance of character. The more holily he saw each one live, the more eminently did he honor him. He also lent food to the poor, and looked with his eyes to heaven; he stretched out his arms * to give, and without doubt awaited his reward from on high. But when he visited monasteries, almsgiving followed his preaching ^d: whatever was conferred there, he rejoiced to have conferred upon God, ever turning over in his mind that which the Lord said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” He was also mean in his clothing, and never adorned his own seat in private ^e; and when precious garments were prepared for him according to the pontifical custom, he sometimes wore them cut down and unshapely, because from the very thing whereby others seemed to be exalted, he was eager always to humble himself. Under a seemly appearance a kindly spirit did its warfare.

[13] instructing his own; and the idolatrous Toxandrians He was therefore always subject to Christ, and armed with devotion, worthy of the pontificate and fortified with doctrine; humble in refusing worldly honor, submissive in receiving, vehement in correcting, and brave in danger, patient in adversities, glorious in mercy, vigorous in discipline, terrible in the severity of justice, prompt to favor, ready to pardon, persevering in chastity of body, a nourisher of the flock, a perfect shepherd of the church, setting before the people the precepts of Christ as their admonitions. Diligent in pastoral care, he traversed the cities and towns committed to him on every side, and shone with the light of the Gospels. He increased the faith of Christians, and often cast out the pitiable error of the heathen with its foul reeking; and when he learned of that error, thither he went undaunted, and inflamed with the warmth of the faith. And so he once entered

into Toxandria ^f, where he destroyed very many temples and images. Therefore, like a standard-bearing warrior, having cast off fear for his body, unarmed, strengthened by the fervor of faith, he pressed on against the roaring of the heathen; secure in the love of Christ, he filled the hearts of the erring abundantly with his holy preaching, and led them to the way of truth.

[14] But those who at first, like most savage beasts, desired to tear him in pieces, afterwards, considering the goodness of the holy Man, converting them to Christ, were converted with so great gentleness and confirmed in the faith of Christ that they longed to imitate him. And so at last he showed forth a light as it were from heaven, and lit up those regions like a ray of the sun, the practice of the barbarians being cast away. And so he sprinkled the stenches of idolatry with a most sweet fragrance as of spices ^g. With all authority he preached to the nations, and always had a most sweet discourse concerning the things that are of God. He kept the apostolic rule in the teaching of men; he set forth against their wounds an honorable rule, and rightly reproved with gentleness; and what he believed he taught, and what he taught he imitated. And he strengthened himself in vigils, in prayers, in fastings, in almsgivings: he kept the faith, and looked for the course of his consummation and the crown of justice: before his eyes the last day was always present. Landebert the pontiff, exercised in virtues of this kind, accompanied by divine grace, wrought many and great things more abundantly, accomplishing good deeds which the tongue does not suffice to unfold.

[15] And now, when the Lord had called St. Landebert, that for such great merits he might render him a worthy reward, He suffers wrongs from impious men: two most wicked men rose up against him, Gallus and his brother Rioldus, raging against his church in such perverse deeds that no one could bear them; nor was there any place of escape before them. But the Pontiff's friends, filled with wrath and sadness, and driven by great calamity and pressed by humiliation ^h, killed them according to their deserts. In those days Dodo was steward of the aforesaid prince Pippin, a near kinsman of those who had been slain; and he had many possessions, and many servants in his following. And when he heard of the slaying of his kinsmen, he gathered a great host of very brave men for war, and straightway rushed to kill the blessed man Landebert the pontiff in an estate whose name is Liège ⁱ, situated upon the river which is called the Meuse. But the Pontiff's glory drew near, and the steward's ^k punishment.

[16] Then the man of God Landebert the pontiff, coming to the aforesaid estate which is called Liège, while he dwells piously at Liège, rising up alone about the middle of the night as he was wont, leaving his disciples, went alone and devout to his night prayer, committing all his hope to God; and with songs of psalms and the zeal of vigils he prolonged his praying almost until the rising of the light. But afterwards coming, and striking the door of the chamber with the staff which he held in his hand, calling his disciples, he said: Awake and arise; already it draws near and it is the hour that we should sing to the Lord in the morning of gladness. And when the brothers had risen together, then along with them he rendered to the Lord the observance of Matins; and when the Office was ended and the course completed, he returned home: and for such great labors in many good works, which he had ever from the beginning of his infancy performed most happily — and on that very night, as he was accustomed, he lingered long in vigils and poured out many plaintive prayers to the Lord. But from excessive weariness (for he was very heavily burdened), going to his bed, he desired to rest a little. And he, lying down on his couch, was still expecting to sleep a happy sleep.

[17] his house is surrounded by Dodo But when morning came, as the shining dawn gave beginning to the day, a certain one of his servants, a boy by name Baldoveus, who had been ordered to keep watch that night before the apostolic Lord, went out into the porch of that house, and saw a great throng of a hostile army coming in troops and wedges, which a following mist covered. And some who followed of that same army saw above the house where the apostolic Lord himself was, on high in the air between heaven and earth, the sign of the Lord's cross, shining more brightly than the metal of gold. And there was a copious multitude of fighting men for battle, and they were clad in breastplates and helmets, with shields and lances, and girt with swords, and armed with arrows and quivers; and they went before the son of perdition, the most impious Dodo; with iron teeth, like most ravening wolves ready to devour, and they were intent on immolating the Sheep of the Lord, whom Christ promised ^l to set in the midst of wolves. And when Dodo and a very great multitude of his companions with him had drawn near, and had begun to enter — the gates being broken, the doors and fences torn down — they began to climb up * from above.

[18] is encircled by armed men; And when the aforesaid boy had seen this, running suddenly he announced it to the Pontiff: which Pontiff, not yet ^m fallen into slumber, was still expecting to sleep a happy sleep, not knowing that he was about to hasten to his contest; but on hearing this message, rising most swiftly. Then Landebert, God's priest, at once with unshod feet, like a most valiant fighter, seizing a sword in his hands, that he might go forth to fight against his enemies. But Christ, whom he had ever asked to his aid, was not far from him. But with the Most High he entered upon a counsel that should abide forever, trusting in the Lord with silent mind ⁿ. And without delay, changing his purpose, he cast the sword from his hands upon the ground, saying: If I flee, I can avoid the sword; but if I stand fast, I must either fall or conquer. But never shall I lose my victory, since it is better for me to die in the Lord than to lay warring hands upon the wicked. As he was saying this, behold, suddenly the impious men came to the door of his house, and fixed their lances in the walls, and some had entered ^o.

[19] he exhorts his own to receive death holily Then two of his nephews, Peter and Audolecus [p], rising up and seizing cudgels, began to strike hard those who had entered the house, and presently drove them from the face of the house. Then the man of God Landebert said to his nephews and to his younger companions who were there in the house: If you have loved me as your vicar, love Christ as I do, and confess your sins to the Lord Jesus Christ: it behooves me to be dissolved and to live with the Lord. And one of his nephews, by name Audolecus [q], said to him: And do you not hear, my Lord, what the enemies of God cry outside: Bring fire, that the house may be set alight and they burn alive? Then the man of God Landebert said: Let us not fear the savagery * of our persecutors; for the fire shall be to them for vengeance, which shall eat their flesh even to the marrow, until they fail: but we shall do valiantly in God, and he himself shall bring our enemies to nothing. And he said to his nephews: Remember that you were guilty and blameworthy in that crime [r]: do you not know that God does not judge sinners twice, nor dismiss sins unjudged? But what you then did unjustly, now receive justly.

[20] Why have you come to me? Go before their face, and after the rest is slain. and there receive, in God's judgment, what you gave. It is better to give over your flesh to be torn, and to keep your hands guiltless, that your spirit may be saved for eternity. Then one of his nephews, Audolecus [s], answered: Read now in the volumes of your Lord, and complete the work which you have happily begun, and as the Lord wills, so shall it be with us. Then the holy man Landebert, seizing the Psalter, found this verse first: “For the Lord shall require the blood of his servants.” As Zacharias, whom they slew between the temple and the altar, said as he was dying: May God see, and require it; so this man also remained unconquered and steadfast. When he had said these things, and all had been cast out of the chamber, he laid himself on the ground with arms outstretched in a cross, pouring forth prayer with tears; and suddenly the executioners arrived, and entering the house slew with the edge of the sword all whom they found there [t]. And one of them, climbing upon the roof of the chamber where holy Landebert was praying, struck him with the cast of a spear; and he, his blessed course completed, gave up his spirit [u], to whose service angels render attendance, and with great brightness bear away his soul.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Audolecus both our codex has, and the manuscripts which Mabillon used; by others, however, he is called Andoletus, and under this name he is better known among the people of Liège.

q. In Mabillon this is Audoënus: but I judged that Audolecus should be retained with our codex, because Stephen also so has it in the Life, num. 35.

r. He speaks of the slaying of Gallus and Rioldus; which nevertheless could have been without fault, as we observed above in the Commentary, num. 170.

s. Audolecus is wanting in Mabillon.

t. It is not established who these companions of the martyrdom were, apart from Peter and Andoletus; whom, as two holy martyrs, their bodies being religiously kept among the sacred relics, it is clear that the people of Liège honor — without an ecclesiastical Office, however — from what was said in the preceding Commentary, § XI, num. 167 and following, and §18, num. 265 and 273.

u. That the year of his martyrdom was more probably the year of Christ 709 we have said in the Commentary, §8. And he presided over the bishopric of Maastricht, as the biographer of St. Hubert witnesses, for forty years, in which the seven years of exile are included. As to the day, the biographers and martyrologists agree, who say that he was crowned on the 17th day of September, except Bede in the Metrical Martyrology in d'Achery, vol. 2 of the Spicilegium, where he is treated of on the Nones of June.

Mabillon: primam*

Mabillon: vulnus*

elsewhere supermontare*

Mabillon: insidias*

CHAPTER III.

The translation and burial of the sacred body at Maastricht: the chamber at Liège made illustrious by miracles, two churches erected: the punishment of his murderers: the same body carried back to Liège and deposited.

[ ] The body translated to Maastricht The body, therefore, of the most blessed man Landebert, a few of his servants who were at the doors ^a and escaped laid in a little boat, covered under a mean covering, and sailing they came to his own pontifical see ^b of Maastricht. When this news was heard throughout the towns, that the lord Landebert had been consummated by martyrdom, the whole region trembled and was turned to terror; and they said one to another: If he had dwelt longer in the world, he would rather have increased his works still further. Would that we had been slain along with him, for we cannot bear his absence. And already, as they said these things, they could in no way restrain their weeping. Then, as the messenger ran suddenly, the report filled all the streets; the whole city lamented together; all were filled with sadness and dread, and the chief men wept most bitterly in silence. And so, when the little body had come to the harbor, they asked that he be set down from the ship on a bier according to custom; and when he had been placed on it, the clergy with hymns and the people with lamentations bear him into the basilica of St. Peter ^c, and there, keeping watch by turns, they pass the night in vigil.

[22] But on the next day they did not dare to prepare an adorned sepulcher, and buried in his father's sepulcher, is made illustrious by miracles; but with great dread the Saint was consigned to his father's tomb together with his father's body, and, covered over very hastily with a stone, is there kept under great honor, walled about by the tomb, to rise again in glory ^d. Almost the whole city rushed to attend the funeral. With such pomp did the Shepherd shed his blood at the last, and thus, with the crowd pressing close, was he laid in the sepulcher: whose monument the angels of God guarding, day and night singing psalms in that same basilica, and resounding, after the likeness of the voice of that same holy and most blessed Landebert, with others in a like most sweet melody. And many of the citizens of that place, hearing them and marveling, and desiring to enter the basilica, in no wise dared to go in.

[23] Even when some drew near to the holy place, as is also his cell at Liège, that they might more surely understand what they had heard, presently the voices of those singing gradually fell silent; when they withdrew farther off, the songs of the singers resounded, and thus the angelic service continued ^e. O ineffable power of the Creator of the human race! Who can search out that power and mercy, thou who hast deigned to show such great things to thy servants, that thou permittest not only their souls, but their very bodies to be guarded by thine angels? Who can doubt of thy promises, Redeemer of the world, thou who dost not suffer the human race to perish ^f? After these things, in the aforesaid estate of Liège, within the chamber where God's holy one shed his blessed blood, lights kindled by divine power shone forth very often, so that that whole house glowed like a ray of the sun.

[24] And so there had remained there a very fine comb of the Pontiff: where a theft is avenged by the Saint. and a certain woman, seeing it and driven by the goad of covetousness, seized it and carried it off to her own dwelling. But on a certain night the most blessed Landebert appeared in a vision to a certain man, the husband of this woman, by name Theodoënus , and said to him, addressing him with gentle speech: Let your wife restore our comb, which she unjustly keeps. And he, when he had awakened from sleep, told the order of the vision to his wife. But she, holding this vision as nothing, used the comb without any scruple. After a little while he appeared a second time to the aforesaid Theodoënus, and with great threatening added, repeating what he had before commanded; and as if coming out of a ship, holding a staff in his hand, with a sudden blow in the vision he struck him upon the breast; on which there presently appeared an incurable wound in that very place, and from it there flowed a discharge mixed with blood. Then in dread he restored what he had not understood when kindly asked.

[25] Now in the aforesaid estate of Liège there was a certain blind man, Two blind men being enlightened there, a church is begun, to which by name Baldegisilus: he was admonished in a vision to rise and keep watch at the place where the Man of God shed his blood by martyrdom for the name of Christ. Awakened from sleep, he at once received his own sight, as though he had never been deprived of it, and performed the obedience enjoined upon him, magnifying the Lord and St. Landebert, by whose merit he received the light of the present life. Likewise another in the same place, by name Raginfredus, having lost the two lights of his head, being admonished in his sleep to cleanse the place venerable for the holy Pontiff's martyrdom, when he girded himself to begin this work, received his sight: being made whole, he at length did not depart from that place, but resolved to serve at that very place. When this was heard, men began day by day continually to seek out God's Saint with due veneration, and with great diligence to venerate that place. And now, when the people had begun to build a basilica there, the miracles being heard through all that region which the Lord deigned to show for his Servant, all the people gave praises to God.

[26] Oda also being enlightened, another is added. In those days there was a certain blind maiden, by name Oda ^g, who, when she had learned of the manifest signs and mighty works of God, with great faith began to make her way to the holy place. And when she had drawn near, and those who were with her saw that place, they told her that she was now close to it. She with joy from her inmost heart began to call upon the holy Man's name. Straightway the merciful God, propitious to all who call upon him, gave back to her what she had never before had, namely clear light in her eyes. And she, giving thanks to God, came to the appointed place. Likewise from this time the common people flocked together the more, of both sexes, old men and little children, to build the basilica in honor of that Saint; and thus, with the Lord's help, it was speedily completed ^h. Likewise, where the maiden received her sight from faith, a basilica was built in her name as a testimony to believers, and is assiduously venerated ⁱ. The faithful too and the devout who feared God made a couch ^k, and adorned it with the craftsman's art, and so set it in the place where the Pontiff had been struck with the spear. There the Lord daily wrought great and numberless mighty works and marvels.

[27] The Saint foretells the punishment of his slayers, After the circuit of a year was completed, St. Landebert appeared in a night vision to the treasurer Amalgisilus, who had formerly been his judge ^l, and began to speak gently with him. And he by diligent questioning sought the cause of his coming. But St. Landebert answering said to him: We have been visiting Rome, and returning thence we are concerned about our friend Dodo and his companions. For it is time that they pay their debt, and receive things worthy of what they once impiously did against us. When the vision was taken away, works of this kind straightway followed the words. And now Dodo, who first and as chief ran to the slaying of the Bishop, struck by divine vengeance, all his inward parts having putrefied and been cast out foully through his mouth, ended his unhappy and most wretched present life ^m; and after so great worldly pomp, thrust down into the depth of hell, he is tormented without end.

[28] the outcome following. But the others, whose number is not to be reckoned, near kinsmen who were there, slew one another with swords. And he who with his own hands pierced him, cruelly slain by his own brother, remains utterly walled in in hell. And others of them, vexed by demons and howling with divers kinds of cries at which human nature trembled, dreaded to hear and to hearken to the name of Landebert: and, a few of them remaining when the year was completed, all the rest, overtaken by a most wicked and most shameful death, lost their most miserable and most bitter life, and in the perpetual fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels are unspeakably tormented with pains and torments. But holy Landebert, the notable martyr, crowned with the palm of victory, ever exults with the angels and archangels and with all the just for ever ⁿ.

[29] With the Lord's help we wish to relate that lately, after some years, St. Landebert appeared in a vision to a certain venerable man, that without any delay his body should be carried to Liège; St. Hubert, after preceding apparitions, and this same thing was revealed in many ways to priests and to faithful men who feared God ^o. And St. Hubert, who had once been Landebert's disciple, and who at that time was pontiff in this region, having heard these miracles, hastening with the fear of God, diligently inquired into the order of the matter. And when he had inquired of everything, taking counsel with the elders of that place, and knowing that all had been revealed by God's will, he commanded that they should carry the body of the blessed Pontiff without any delay to the appointed place with great honor. He prepared also adorned garments which would be needful for the care of the most sacred body, and came with many priests and deacons and the rest of the clergy singing psalms, and with a great multitude besides of Christians, who round about the body of the blessed Martyr chanted psalms and hymns and canticles with pious devotion according to the rite of divine religion.

[30] But bishop Hubert found the venerable members of Christ's Martyr, fragrant with a most sweet odor, whole and unharmed, finds his body entire and transfers it to Liège. and lifting them out of the sepulcher with fear and the greatest honor, wrapped them in precious garments; those also, in which formerly

he had been clothed, he laid up with great care under seals. On this side and on that the choirs of the brothers faithfully singing psalms sang together with tuneful cymbals and with organs sounding in most sweet melody. And thence hosts of angels singing psalms on high, and praising the almighty Lord for the triumph of the martyr Landebert, were seen and heard by fit witnesses. Moreover all the common folk, singing together with varied harmony and mingled groaning, and with the sound of antiphons also, could scarcely for the greatness of their sorrow bring out these following words: O good Shepherd, to whom dost thou commit this people to be kept? O sweetness of the poor, O enlightener of the nations, do not forsake us, whom with divine words and spiritual exhortations, as a father his only son, thou didst admonish and console.

[31] And when these things had been said, the great crowd, taking the straight road, On the way a blind man and a cripple are healed. followed St. Landebert. And when the people had been refreshed in the place which is called Nivialla [p], it happened that another poor blind man, desiring to touch the bier, both received his sight, and with great joy crying aloud the praises of God, and giving thanks to him and to Landebert, went on his way. Going out thence, the crowds carried the holy body into an estate whose name is Herimala [q]. And while they had stayed there a little, for the increase of the people's faith and for the heaping up of the Saint's renown, at the Lord's prompting another cripple was brought in the sight of the people; and when he had looked upon the bier, suddenly all the joints of his limbs were made solid and firm, and as he followed Landebert, all the people glorified the Lord. And in the aforesaid places, in which the Lord deigned to work these mighty deeds, venerable basilicas were built in honor of St. Landebert by faithful and devout Christians.

[32] After these things the whole crowd came with the Saint to the desired place; He is magnificently laid to rest at Liège, and is continually made illustrious and all the inhabitants of that place, rejoicing and exulting, went out to meet the longed-for body, and received it with great honor, and prepared for it a worthy little dwelling, which was so fashioned — by the wondrous work of craftsmen and with an abundant mass of gold, silver, gems and precious stones, and with divers kinds of construction, contributed to that place by the powerful — that scarcely does the speech of a narrator suffice to set it forth [r]. And there, as was fitting, a stately and venerable and wonderful memorial [s] was composed in this very great church, and daily devout Christians venerate him more abundantly. There the blind receive their sight, very many lepers are cleansed of their scab, paralytics are cleansed of the injury of their body, those vexed by demons come to their senses and are made whole by the divine bounty and grace. But if anyone should now wish to make known one by one all the marvels which God assiduously works there through the merits of St. Landebert, as they were done, he would inflict weariness upon his readers.

[33] by many miracles But the few things which we have related of his life and of his mighty works ought to afford sure faith to all who hear, since today beside his tomb, as an argument for proving these matters, broken stocks are shown, and very many chains and fetters are burst, and the lame with steadied steps, and those vexed with divers infirmities, all languor being taken away from their bodies and their soul, return whole to their own places. And since in the short preceding times many miracles indeed have been wrought, who shall now comprehend with worthy estimation how many and of what sort will be wrought over long spaces of time, since signs and marvels never to this day cease to be done beside the tomb of the blessed Prelate and glorious martyr [t], by the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father lives and reigns, God, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen [u].

ANNOTATIONS.

[ ] Stephen below, in the second Life, num. 38, says that that heavenly harmony lasted for the space of the first days. The anonymous poet chimes in, saying:

In the first days such a celebration remained, kindly Landbert, in thy place, with heavenly hymns.

For how many days it continued, however, I have not found.

p. In the Life of St. Hubert in Surius one reads that this Saint gave his attention to the catching of fish on a certain estate of his called Nuvella or Nivella: this place, which is far other than Nivelles the town of Brabant, I judge to be that very one which in the map of the Bishopric of Liège by Nicolaes Visscher is marked, on the left bank of the Meuse, less than a full German mile from the city of Maastricht toward Liège, as Nay, otherwise Nyvels.

q. In the praised map the village of Hermael is marked on the same bank of the Meuse, and at nearly the same distance from Nyvels as this place is from Maastricht. In the cited Life of St. Hubert he is said to have lodged in the estate of Hannale or Harmalia, which place perhaps is the same as Hermael.

r. Of this church the biographer of St. Hubert, reported at num. 191 of the Commentary, speaks thus: In what manner the fabric of that same basilica, in which the relics of the blessed Man were laid, was ordered by that same holy man Hubert, since it offers itself to the eyes of those who see it, I have forborne to say anything about it.

s. Memoria signifies either the holy Martyr's church itself, or his tomb or reliquary. As to the time of the translation, in the preceding Commentary, §13, we have proved that it was made on the 24th day of December of the year 721 or 722.

t. Some miracles anciently obtained there we have related in the Commentary, §14.

u. In our codex there follows the author's epilogue, in which he excuses his own unskillfulness in writing; but in a style so barbarous and so faulty, perhaps from the ignorance of the copyists, that I judged that epilogue should be omitted.

elsewhere Theodoino*

Mabillon: manet in eo*

SECOND LIFE

By Stephen, bishop of Liège, from our ancient codex P. Ms. 16, collated with the edition of Chapeauville.

BHL Number: 4683

By bishop Stephen.

PROLOGUE.

To Heriman, archbishop of Cologne To the lord ^a father Heriman the archbishop ^b, Stephen, humble bishop of the Tongrians ^c.

Since daily men strive to scrutinize the doings of others, and, if anything reprehensible has been in them, a shameful purpose does not delay to stain it, the contagion deservedly blamed is judged to be wholly wiped away, whereby also the cackling derision of blasphemers may now cease. For by certain men dwelling among us the feast of the holy

Lambert — men who seemed to themselves endowed with literary knowledge — we have been provoked in no small degree by the contemptuous injuries of their laughter, since the Life and Passion of the aforesaid Father was read among us as published in the by no means polished eloquence of the ancients, and no proper melody of Offices was sung. Thereafter indeed, asked by the frequent entreaty of our brothers, I was very often compelled to undertake the renewing of all these things by the expenditure of my own understanding, and the mark of such infamy to be driven away from us all. But while they argued about this in many ways, and stipulated that it must be done after the likeness of very many others, calling back my spirit I resisted, fixed in mind, and I questioned within myself with tall hesitation whether that which they urged would be good.

[2] he sets forth the cause and manner Behold at last the syllogistic serpent, widely coiled through winding folds, and swollen in his scaly neck with three-forked tongues, plunged in by pouring himself into the lights of my heart, stood before me as a herald of dialectic of this kind, saying: Every good, he said, is useful, and every useful thing good: a useful good is no evil; no evil is a useful good: no good is every evil; every evil is no good. Therefore what is celebrated with praise to the Creator in his Saints is a useful good to the creature that celebrates it in his own endeavors. And what by being bettered is best, is proved by existing to be no evil: on the contrary — which God forbid, for chance turns all things — what is left behind by neglect holds the good of neither. Then indeed, believing him the more truly, since he is wont by constant practice to separate true things from false, I preferred, eager to gain some of the profit urged upon me, rather than, by the tenacity of mute silence, to lack negligently the fruit of labor.

I invoke not the Dryad nymphs, nor cry upon the Naiads, that they may bring forth songs and grant flowing verses; Nor do I seek Mercury, proud in tongue and speech, who might more swiftly bear winged words to be scattered *; But I entreat the true Lord, King of all, who grants all things and never feels the loss, who aids all things by his utterance, whose commands nothing at all delays, who dwells in the citadel of heaven, governs earth and sea, and who ^d so penetrates all things as though he shut them all in his fist. He is Father and Offspring, and likewise the kindly Spirit, subsisting Three, but believed to stand under as One. For subsistence numbers three Persons, yet substance numbers no proper being. May he grant light to my feet, may he grant the lights of the heart, may he deign to give help to a wretched servant *.

[4] For indeed, neither swelling with the arrogance of pride, nor holding any of the fathers in contempt, and submits the Life to his judgment. but rather willingly obeying the aforementioned usefulness, I have hastened to adorn it with the pen of a more powerful genius. Thereafter, by the authentic reckoning of the musical art, new responsories with antiphons are appended, in which the sequence of the tones answers to the order of the Lessons, so far as their number can be extended to match. And still further it stands as a delight to the eye of the mind to linger in the praise of so great a Patron.

Wherefore the songs, adorned with the charm of the Muse ^e, repeat these things concisely, and retell his deeds.

All which, father, I commit to your judgment to be corrected,

By the knowledge ^f of the truth, whereby you have never known to deceive, but strive to lay low all false things by means of the true, which ought to be held by faith greater than by sense.

Wherefore let the wavering of my mind now rest in the solidity of your breast, defended man by man, if indeed it deserves it, by the crook of your pastorship; but if not, let it be chastised * in secret by the gentle rod of your fatherhood.

ANNOTATIONS.

discurrere*

elsewhere vernæ*

elsewhere castiga*

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's noble birth: his excellent education: the bishopric of Maastricht, and his expulsion from it.

[ ] Nobly born, he is properly educated: Therefore the glorious martyr Landebert, and priest most beloved of the eternal King, was born of a distinguished lineage in the town of Maastricht. He, in short, living as a little boy among most Christian parents, and beginning to be of good disposition, at once consecrated his earliest tender years, purified by the water of holy Baptism, to Christ the Lord, and gave over his whole self, so far as he then knew and was able, to the divine will. Wherefore, by the leading of heavenly grace, his kinsfolk unanimously decreed that he whom from the years of boyhood a life of holiness made illustrious, the authority of letters should educate, and should help by leading him to the summit of the highest perfection. And so, this counsel being found by dispensation — nay, God's clemency disposing it — the Boy, notable in form and most teachable in understanding, is handed over to most skilled men to be educated. He is much marked out by ecclesiastical religion, and is inwardly inflamed with a fiery love of the heavenly mysteries; and he drank up the streams of the liberal arts the more swiftly, the more ardently he had once poured his whole self into the love of God. Nor were any obscure matters hidden from him, since there is no delay in learning where the Holy Spirit is present as teacher.

[6] returning home, he shines with virtues. Instructed at length in divine doctrines, and abundantly strengthened by monastic ordinances ^a, the Boy of good disposition determined in his heart to return to his father's house. What he conceived with sagacious mind, he carried through to the effect of the deed. Then his kindly father, receiving his dearest pledge lovingly, understood that in spiritual mind he not moderately surpassed the years of boyhood.

Both rejoiced: Lantbert in his father's honor, and the distinguished father in Lantbert's kindly deeds.

Indeed the vigorous Boy, striving with all his strength to become a perfect man, went daily, according to the Psalmist's word, from virtue to virtue, preparing himself to accomplish those works which the unchangeable providence of God predestined before the ages of the world to be done through him. Although he was a youth in age, yet full of years in uprightness of character, he shunned boasting, and manfully trod down the pomp of the world: whatever he was able to have, he gave out to the poor ^b, laying up treasures in heaven, where he might possess them when, happily loosed from things transitory, he should begin to live more happily among things that abide.

[7] At the same time the holy pontiff Theodard, and one who was to be a most illustrious martyr of Christ, a man full of priestly reverence with St. Theodard as his master and a priest to be beatified before the divine gaze, was administering the episcopal dignity in the town mentioned above. To him the memorable youth Lantbert, most renowned in nobility and most elegant in bodily form, is commended, to be brought up in the royal hall; that, like a precious stone, he might be polished by manifold proofs, and might become fit for the heavenly adornments. Then indeed the dove of Christ without the gall of bitterness, Lantbert namely, the praiseworthy pupil, cleaving skillfully to the tutelage of the aforesaid bishop, began to venerate him as his lord, to love him as a most dear father, and in all his acts to obey him according to the Apostle's precept, as befitted a Servant of the Lord. For indeed from the fellowship of so great a father he was more abundantly filled with grace, more richly enriched with wisdom, and daily increased in the affluence of merits. Which the same bishop, contemplating in silence *, and searching out by subtle inquiry, understood how great and of what sort he was, and therefore transferred his whole self into love of him, as toward a beloved heir and most welcome successor ^c.

[8] Having obtained the love of the great priest, and being thoroughly taught to hold to the admonitions of the Scriptures, he advances wonderfully; and when he was slain he fulfilled the twofold precept of charity, loving God with his whole mind, and embracing his neighbor with entire love, as himself. He set little store by present things, as he had vowed in boyhood ^d, reckoning all as nothing, save what was of the grace of eternal salvation. He gasped in mind after heavenly things; he offered himself as a holocaust to him who had become his singular desire. But after holy Theodard, slain by impious men, received the palm of blessedness ^e, the faithful company of the people of Maastricht, widowed of their pious shepherd, began vehemently to seek out another like him in holiness, whom they might put in his place. When all had long been sought and diligently examined, no one was found holier than Lantbert. Him therefore, enriched with the honors of holiness and made illustrious by the dealings of frugality, the people of Maastricht, assembled together, with the clemency of the Holy Spirit going before, chose to be made bishop, and acclaimed that he should succeed in his master's place.

[9] The royal highness also and the multitude of the nobles of the palace, by common consent in the bishopric of Maastricht, when his repute was known, appointed that he should without delay be raised to the pontifical throne. But the gentle Man, filled with all goodness and grounded by Christ in the degrees of humility, declared himself unworthy of the priestly mysteries, with many pleadings. Great, he said, my brothers, is the pontifical honor; but heavy is the weight of that honor. I declare that I am unworthy; I cannot undertake what you wish; my strength does not suffice me; the works of holiness are not ready at hand; I know that I by no means hold the rule of an innocent life: therefore I distrust to take up the helm of ecclesiastical governance. Against such efforts at excuse the company of the people of Maastricht brought forward the words of this reply:

You are strong in lineage, you shine with the light of merits, you are adorned in character, you are held resplendent in piety, you excel all men; therefore you shall feed us on every side.

[10] Hence, murmuring after the common fashion, and rushing upon him with the din of the crowd, after long resistance, he is appointed. all said together: Lantbert our fellow-citizen, famous in the fullness of his works — it behooves that he be made our bishop: so is God's will, so the princes of the kingdom decree. Him all the clergy has chosen, him the whole people acclaims. But since the most humble Man still did not fully acquiesce in these petitions, they, more deeply moved and kindled by divine inspiration, all from the greatest to the least said to him: Do not, Lantbert, put us off any longer, but know for certain that, will you, nill you, you shall be our bishop, and shall be called the shepherd of the people of Maastricht. Thus, with all the clergy crying out and both sexes so shouting, the clamor is lifted to heaven, and Lantbert's mind is governed by so many voices. He acquiesced in their petitions, taking up the care of the prelacy, lest he should abandon obedience, which is wont to be the companion of the other virtues. So, exalted by God's right hand and consecrated by the blessing of the bishops, the venerable Lantbert was installed as pontiff in the dignities of the church of Maastricht.

[11] Shining with episcopal virtues, Having at length obtained the summit of religion, he who had been increased with the pontifical mitre was zealous to increase the works of perpetual piety. Every day he offered a holocaust to the Lord, not from another's flock, but from his own body. Nor was he ever free from the solemnities of the Masses, celebrating the memory of the saving passion, and offering to God a libation for those for whom he knew he would render an account. He was plainly most cheerful in face, most serene in mind, most sweet in address, most gentle in conduct, dead to earthly pleasures, living in spiritual riches. For in his house truth was his glory, and in his works equity and justice shone. He pressed on with assiduous preachings, reproving offenders with words of truth. He rebuked the slothful with most temperate corrections, entreating those who walked rightly with fatherly exhortations. There abounded

in almsgiving, he shone with miracles, and those whom he admonished with teachings he formed by examples.

Neither can it be written with the pen, nor is it lawful to bring forth in words, what good things the vigorous Man, relying on the divine gift, taught by his words, and at length displayed by his deeds.

[12] he is honored by king Childeric; But because the lamp, set from heaven upon the lampstand, could by no means lie hidden under the shadow of a bushel, he began to be held foremost among his own, whom Christ the Lord had disposed to be made manifest to the world by such tokens. Meanwhile, when the report of his holiness had been spread far and wide, it came to the knowledge of king Childeric, who at that time held the scepter of the kingdom among the Franks ^f, that Lantbert, shepherd of the church of Maastricht, was held pre-eminent above all mortals in the service of the supreme Creator. Whence it came about that he was venerated with the highest honor by the king, and claimed the first rank of his friendship, standing forth as a beloved prince in the palace of the kingdom, and an affable pontiff in the royal council. By his foresight the doings of the nobles were directed; by his prudence the useful concerns of the commonwealth were handled. Magnificent the king and the army, which obeyed the commands of so great a Priest!

Although many served God, sin being conquered, yet the instigator of crimes poured out his poison through the hearts of the wicked, rejoicing that every kind of men should go to the worse, that it might not be able to attain the heavens.

[13] and when he was slain, he is driven from his bishopric, Wherefore he stirred up hatreds, aroused quarrels, disturbed the peace of the Church, and made terror the foundation of the kingdom. With the madness of cruelty he so kindled the hearts of men that they saw not heaven, nor remembered God's judgments. And so, when this poison had been grievously scattered through the members of the devil, the prince of the kingdom is slain, namely the glorious king Childeric. For presently he stirred up the weight of envy and hatred against God's servant Lantbert. Hence, as hostile madness raged more and more, and the devil's envy blazed up wickedly, Lantbert, renowned priest of Christ, is deprived of the dignities of his due honor, and the celibate man is cast out of the pontifical chair without cause. O wickedness! The royal loftiness perished, the iniquity of the depraved prevailed, priestly sanctity was confounded, the equity of justice was profaned ^g.

[14] Alas! I am compelled to set forth in writing a matter of truth. Then the robber Faramund ^h foolishly seized the throne of the church of Maastricht. and Faramund is intruded. For the most wretched man snatched the care of the prelacy for worldly pomp, not for the palm of everlasting life. Indeed he usurped the bishopric, invaded the lordship, stood forth a robber of souls, a public plunderer of the church. He violated the Sacraments of the Lord's Body, defiled the summit of canonical rectitude, violated the sanctuary, profaned the priesthood, confounded religion, altered order, destroyed innocence, took nature captive. He warred down equity, shuddered at justice, despised to have a blessing, feared not to acquire a curse, execrated no wicked deed, left no crime untouched. He showed by word and deed with what intention of mind he had been brought into the government of the church. It is shameful to relate more of what that master of guile did.

ANNOTATIONS.

tacite*

CHAPTER II.

His withdrawal into a monastery, and the life led there for seven years: the expulsion of Faramund, and the Saint's restoration to his see.

[ ] The Saint, amid the lamentation of his flock But Lantbert, Christ's athlete, bearing all things with clemency, left the scepter of the prelacy, commending the care of the sheep to him who washed them in baptism and redeemed them by his Blood. And when the most gentle Man departed, given over to the injuries of insults, and never brought down to anger, all the people lamented him, all the clergy mourned, and following after him with groans they said: To whom do you commit us, most watchful Shepherd; to whom do you abandon us, most holy Priest? For what cause do you leave your devoted flock, and why your suppliant clergy? Who will guard us from the snares of the enemy? Who will pray to God for us? Who will drive away pestilences? Ravening wolves will invade us; most savage enemies will tear us in pieces. There will be no one to drive them off, no one to refuse them. You are the steadiness of the strong, the repair of the weak, a defender in adversity, an ornament in prosperity, a consoler of the poor, a helper of orphans, a receiver of widows. We will all follow you, we will all die with you. If the proud despise you, and the sons of Belial persecute you, we your sheep love and venerate you.

[16] departing, hastens to Stavelot, The cry of the brothers goes to heaven, and the tears of those who groan. Then the Father, overcome, with tears springing up speaks thus: For the matter I shall say a few words: A shepherd shall not be lacking to you, nor care for your salvation. There is one thing which I charge, repeating it, and shall admonish again.

O most dear sons, and sheep of the highest Shepherd, serve the Lord in fear, and exult before him with trembling. Turn aside from evil, and do good; a most mighty helper will be at hand for you, who is a true promiser, and will not suffer to perish those whom by his passion Jesus Christ the Lord redeemed, who is blessed for ever. After these things, raising his sacred hands and directing his eyes to heaven, he blessed the clergy and the people, signing them with the seal of Christ. And when he had also sweetly kissed them all, the Lord himself with a few companions ^a sought a certain monastery, which of old received the name Stavelot ^b. There especially the memorable Man, sequestered from the guardianship of the Lord's flock, dwelt with the senators of heaven within the court of an earthly paradise.

[17] where, living among the monks, There a company of monks lived under regular discipline, whose way of life the testimonies of very many virtues declared to be among heavenly things. Among them he came last in order, but stood first in holiness; hindmost in number, foremost in zeal of devotion. The fathers of the monastery honored him as a most dear father; to him all the brothers rose up, as to a lord and father. Him whom God had suffused with grace, was lovely to all good men. Meanwhile, dwelling in the aforesaid monastery, he served God with all his efforts, thirsting to please him whose temple he had pledged himself to be. He gave himself to very frequent prayers, and indeed the more freely, the more he had for a while been withdrawn from pastoral care. How great humility he showed toward his superiors, how great kindness he maintained with all! No one can unfold it in word, no one comprehend it with the pen. For it is not needful that frugality be praised in him, which he practiced so wondrously that the very leanness of his body proved him to be for all an accepted odor of sweetness to the Lord.

[18] commanded by the abbot, in winter time But what the piety of the Almighty willed to display toward the sum of his perfection, though it must be commemorated briefly, yet is not to be passed over in the present discourse. In the silence, then, of a certain night, while he was resting together with the brothers in the dormitory, he wished secretly to rise from his little bed, that he might be able to give himself the more attentively to prolonged prayers. And when he took one of his boots, the other slipped from his hand, and striking the pavement of the floor, struck a noise upon the rest of the brothers. But the father of the monastery, being awakened and ignorant of this secret, said: By whose reprehensible boldness this negligence has just now occurred, let him fulfill our custom, let him go at once to the cross, and what he negligently transgressed let him obediently wash away. Then Lantbert, most patient priest, most firm in hope and most cheerful in spirit, most willingly fulfilled his superior's command, and hastened to the cross like a sheep to the sacrifice. He brought nothing with him to keep off the immense cold, but only the one hair-shirt with which he was clothed.

[19] And indeed that night was most harsh with the frost of a most violent chill, almost naked, he passes the night in the open; and most cold with snowy ice. He burned plainly within with the flame of the Paraclete Spirit; therefore outwardly he despised the torments of the cold. And while the Victim of the holy Trinity stood there, and untiringly entreated the aid of his Savior, heaven, as we truly believe, lay open to his most pure prayers, and they reached even to the hearing on high. Therefore, when he sang in mind and uttered with his mouth that word of David, “When shall I come and appear before thy face, O Lord,” it was brought about from heaven that the cock-crow was heard sooner than usual. And so the devout brothers rose to celebrate the vigils after the solemn manner. Then, when the Office had been duly performed, they all went out of the sanctuary, eager to kindle a fire in the house whereby they might be stripped of the most severe cold; and while they crowded round it with excessive eagerness and, as was fitting, surrounded it on every side, the abbot, when he looked upon those standing by, perceived that Lantbert was absent. Having asked the others where the venerable Priest might be, it was answered him by the brothers that it was he who had been adjudged to go to the cross.

[20] At this the kindly abbot, turned to amazement and sighing, the abbot, recognizing his mistake, and drawing his voice from the depth of his breast, said:

Alas! all too unhappy, what madness has seized you?

To condemn the innocent is a wickedness; to consign a Priest to icy frosts is an execrable crime. So he spoke in grief; after this he begins to those standing by: Go, brothers, go, I beg, swiftly; ask our Father humbly that he come to us in haste. And they, hurrying at a run and carrying out what was commanded, found the most gentle Priest in cold and nakedness wonderfully singing to the Lord: A contrite and humbled heart, O God, do not thou despise, but kindly receive the sacrifice of our service, that the walls of Jerusalem may be built to the glory and honor of thy name, which is blessed for ever. Moreover, when the Lord's most constant Confessor, and acceptable shrine of the Holy Spirit, was directing the intention of his heart to the following parts of the Psalter, the brothers who had been sent stood by, imploring pardon for the rest, and announcing this by the abbot's command.

[21] The abbot, sweetest Father, entreats that you come to the brothers as soon as may be. calls him back, asks pardon, Their words he did not refuse, but hastened with them to the house, where the throng of monks had been gathered by an unspeakable warmth ^c. As he crossed the threshold of the house, and his most blessed face glowed again unspeakably, the abbot with the whole troop of Christ's worshippers prostrated himself at St. Lantbert's feet. Whom straightway they addressed with such words: Pardon us, venerable Father, pardon your brothers, and do not impute it — we suppliantly beg — that we acted so foolishly against you. Have mercy on those who pray, granting indulgence to those who ask.

To which the Hero rendered this answer in few words:

Do not, I beseech you, dearest ones; do not, I beseech, say such things.

Of the Lord — rise up, I adjure you, more swiftly; nay, pardon my own excesses: you have transgressed nothing against me which I could forgive you. And when they had been raised up and were exceedingly distressed, the lovable Father, glad and cheerful, said: I ask, fathers, that you be troubled no longer; the onset of the cold in no way terrified me. The Protector of my life was at hand for me, guarding me in the tribulation of necessity, and hearing me in his generous compassion. For which render thanks to him, and bless his name.

[22] and he refreshes him with a bath and a garment. Hence he raised his pious hands to heaven, and blessing the college of the brothers, said:

O God almighty, filling the heavenly places with light, who governest heaven, lands and sea by thy rule, that all things may in their season be subject to thy will, bless, I entreat, these thy servants for ever. Protect them from snares, keep them in kindly virtues, until they see thee and lay hold of the kingdoms of heaven, by thy granting, O God, who now and always for ever art held blessed in the threefold power of thyself.

Therefore, when all had answered, Amen, so may God do, the elders with the younger men perceived that the Lord had exalted holy Lantbert with immoderate gifts of rewards. Then, desiring to render him the offices of charity, and wishing to refresh their most beloved Father after his intolerable contest, they took pains to prepare a bath for him, and clothed him about with shining garments. Thus the most valiant worshipper of Christ and most patient Athlete of God is honored after his obedience, is exalted after his trophy — not as the sincerity of his endurance deserved, but as the capacity of mortals allowed. Amid such tokens of miracles Lantbert, Christ's victim, passed his life, standing forth daily as priest and sacrifice received in an odor of sweetness; crucified to this world, living to his Redeemer; cast down by pestilent men, chosen by the citizens above; driven from his bishopric, taken into the college of eternity; put to flight from the care of the sheep, invited to the palace of heaven.

[23] Faramund being expelled, the Saint by Pippin Meanwhile the unhappy usurper of the church of Maastricht, namely Faramund, son of iniquity, falsely named shepherd of the sheep, deservedly to be called an angel of darkness, his own faults requiring it, accused by the reproaches ^d of very many, was expelled from the pontifical chair and cast out of that province. For seven years he presided there in name only, yet on no day did he profit by the work of any action. Deservedly was he persecuted on earth by the faithful, who was manifestly opposed to God. But the people, grievously torn and mercifully delivered by God's compassion, began to seek with all their strength, and to establish by manifold arguments, how they might be found worthy to receive back Lantbert as their excellent bishop and modest father. At that time Pippin bore the monarchy of the kingdom and the princedom of the people ^e, a man vigorous in arms and a chief cultivator of divine religion. He, having inquired into Bl. Lantbert's gentleness and thoroughly learned his holiness, sent legates to the monastery mentioned above ^f, who should request holy Lantbert that he would deign to come to the king and receive back the dignity of his prelacy.

[24] is restored to his see Those who had been sent by the king, coming, addressed Lantbert the priest in this manner: You, Father, the king entreats, and all the people demand, that you come out from the monastery, receive back the flock which formerly you did not willingly forsake *, and finish the work of the Lord as you began it.

Then the Elder ^g for the matter thus speaks, with tears springing up:

I confess, I ruled, not as was fitting; I lived, not as I ought: I am not fit to feed them further; I do not desire to preside any longer, who am able to profit no one.

The men added, saying this to the Elder:

You, noblest of men, you, holiest of priests, by the charity of God we beseech, by the love of our neighbor we adjure, that you come with us and worthily receive back the governance of your sheep.

Behold, groaning more deeply, the Hero gave this answer:

To refuse what you say, brothers, I do not dare; the king's edict I ought not to despise; I desire to come to the aid of my neighbors' needs. I shall not delay to go with you; what you command, I shall begin: God is able to complete it, and to bring it through to a sure end.

[25] with the highest joy of all. Hence therefore the most blessed confessor Lantbert, having entered upon a happy exchange, tested by manifold examination, returned to his own see. Thus the most sacred Exile, and most full of unspeakable patience, received back his flock, magnificently protected it, and untiringly guarded it. How great an exultation boiled up in the whole people at his return, which of the most skilled can comprehend in writing? The citizens of heaven exulted, rendering to the undivided Trinity immense praises of proclamation. All the earth rejoiced, jubilant to the Lord in gladness. All applauded on high, and said not so much with lifted voice as with devout mind: Let us render acts of thanksgiving to the Lord; for the dayspring from on high has visited us; since the Lord has given us back our Shepherd, our Father and most watchful Guardian.

Thus king and peoples, alike the rich and the needy, sang eagerly, and praises resounded on every side.

So the veteran Soldier, a Man purged by the very greatest tribulation, is worthily exalted by the voices of his sheep, and is fittingly set back in the chair of the people of Maastricht ^h.

ANNOTATIONS.

i. e. dereliquisti* (you abandoned)

CHAPTER III.

The Saint's episcopal virtues: his diocese traversed by him: the Toxandrians brought to Christ: his martyrdom: the translation of his body and his burial made famous by prodigies.

[ ] He shines with episcopal virtues, Being raised again to the episcopal throne, he began to gleam with such holiness as it is agreed befitted a Pontiff of God. In his heart was sincerity and the fullness of the law; in his mouth truth and the beauty of gentleness; in his counsel vigor and wisdom; in his acts equity and abundance; in his manner of life innocence and chastity; in his bearing glory and honorableness. He was indeed most constant in faith, most firm in hope, most entire in charity, marked with prudence, endowed with temperance, strengthened with fortitude, enriched with justice, singular in the display of good works, admirable in doctrine and in virtues. The piety of the eternal Father had adorned him, as with merits of life, so also with miracles of prodigies ^a. He had no regard to the persons of the powerful, but rather aimed at elegance of character. Whomever he knew to live more religiously, him he honored more eminently. He had become all things to all men, that he might gain all.

[27] he traverses his diocese, preaches to the Toxandrians, Within the enclosure of his house his seats were never adorned ^b, but he turned over in his humble memory what he was to possess in the everlasting life. He wore no very precious coverings of garments: his first covering was a sack of haircloth. He was zealous to humble his body on earth, that his soul might be found worthy to be exalted in heaven. He traversed the estates and towns committed to him by Christ, knowing that he would find men whom he might make sharers of the eternal inheritance. Serving indeed these solicitudes, and having this hunger for justice unfailingly, he entered Toxandria ^c, given over to the errors of the heathen and profaned by the filth of idols. Therefore, when he had there begun with most eloquent discourse to expound the Catholic faith, the country folk * of that province came together into one place, wishing with one accord to tear the Preacher of truth in pieces, and after the mockeries of insults to consign him to the torments of a shameful death. Them, gnashing with wrath and savagery and raving with a diabolical spirit, Lantbert the Lord's confessor, undaunted and brave, addressed with words of this sort.

[28] and setting forth to them O men and brothers, since you are capable of sense and reason, hear, I ask, patiently, and fix reasonably in your minds those things which I shall say to you ^d. Almighty God, the unbegotten Father, whose servant I am, and who alone has immortality and dwells in light inaccessible, himself begot of himself one Word without time, through which he made out of nothing all things that are in this world. Which birth without beginning, and generation without end, we can admire with spiritual understanding, but are by no means able to behold with bodily sight. Neither is the Father earlier, nor the Begotten later. For from these two persons, but one indivisible and incomprehensible essence, proceeds the Holy Spirit, like to the Father and the Son in majesty, and consubstantial in undivided Godhead. This Trinity in persons and one and coequal Divinity in essence, after it had created the whole world out of nothing, framed the first man from the slime of the earth; from whom as he slept it took a rib, and from it formed woman, that from their unstained offspring the ruins of the apostate angels might be repaired.

[29] Whom he placed in the paradise of delights, and bade them eat of every tree, the Christian mysteries, from idols and commanded them only to abstain from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so that through obedience they might one day have been able, without the death of the flesh, to pass over to the heavenly homeland of the angels, if they bound themselves by the bond of charity through obedience to their Creator. But, alas for the grief! by the envy of the serpent, man was enticed by the allurements of desires, and thus, being for this made liable to death, was cast out of paradise. Nor had the presumptuous one alone felt the deserved wrath; but he drew with him all the offspring of his race, and brought it into the bitterness of a death-bearing crime. Hence the prince of the world subjected all men to himself, until he who wrought it ^e took flesh of the Virgin, whereby he might redeem from the guilt of transgression the man whom, through the weakness of the flesh, the malice of the crafty enemy had seduced. And he whom I have said was born of the Father without time, was born in time of an undefiled Mother, namely Mary ever Virgin, and after the likeness of electrum, one in each and from each nature, both remained God with the Father and, for our redemption, was made mortal man of a Virgin Mother. Who, true God and man, coming forth from the Virgin's womb, was circumcised after the manner of mortals, and baptized by John in the Jordan. Then he chose disciples; he performed very many signs of mighty works, and openly declared to the world what he truly was.

[30] At the last, by the power of his own will, he laid down his life upon the cross, he brings them over to Christ. that he might redeem us by his blood, whom the devil from the first origin of the world had held bound in his captivity. When at length the mystery of the passion had been celebrated, and the dominion of death destroyed, he rose again living on the third day, restoring to us the privilege of nature which we lost in our first parent. And thus, having been manifested to his disciples for forty days, he appeared to them at the last as they reclined at table,

and commanded them to go into the whole world, that they might preach the remission of sins and announce to all nations what they had learned. And at last, as they beheld, he returned to the heavens, and as conqueror of death sat down at the right hand of the Father. And they, filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit, were scattered into all the ends of the earth, and announced to all this faith which we without doubt believe, and which in his name and for love of him we constantly preach to you. As the most blessed Lantbert pursued these things and things like them, and preached the gospel wonderfully, there were converted to the Catholic faith as many as were foreordained to eternal life. Then the excellent Teacher and most eloquent Preacher cast down the idols, sanctified the people with baptism, built churches, ordained priests, consecrated that whole region to Christ the Lord, and made it over into the service of God in perpetuity.

[31] Meanwhile, while the lordly Shepherd was pressing on with such cares, fighting the wars of the most victorious King, Gallus and Rioldus, raging in the bishopric as an unconquered and valiant fighter, he, rightly master of it, bore off the triumphal palm of martyrdom in this manner ^f. For two most wicked brothers, namely those called Gallus and Rioldus, rose up against the servants of blessed Lantbert, afflicting them with dire and manifold calamity. And when the most patient Bishop entreated them with the humblest prayers to come to their senses, and reproved them with very frequent rebukes, they tore the flock of the church the more obstinately, the more patiently, like the Lord's sheep, they endured their savagery. Wherefore the Pontiff's dependents and kinsmen, who were of most noble lineage and richest in goods, are kindled with the zeal of grief, are goaded by the affliction of their subjects, and, without his knowledge, resolve by common counsel that they ought to prosecute the evildoers. For as the insolence of the aforesaid brothers grew and persisted in malice, it in no way * shamed men most famous in birth and notable in arms to call back their mind from the work they had begun.

[32] are slain: hence Dodo comes with armed men. What more? They fell upon them in battle, and gave both over to the expiation of death. When they had been thus slain and plunged into the pit of hell, the unhappy Dodo, the near kinsman of those who had been punished, took up the inheritance of an unspeakable crime. For he received the succession of persecution to sate the monstrousness of his own fury, not for the soundness of his own advantage. For he, swollen with pride, and stiff in counsels taken and in arms ^g, began to meditate in his heart the death of the blessed bishop Lantbert on account of the slaying of his kinsmen, and to lie in wait for him in deed. Whence, joining to himself wicked companions, bold and most valiant for fighting, he had come to Liège, where the Celibate ^h chanced in those days to be staying. That same night the most worthy Pontiff, who was to be exalted with the crown of martyrdom, leaving his companions asleep in the house, went alone to prayer, and prolonging it very long and untiringly performing it, drew it out until the twilight of the light, and committed all his hope to the Lord.

Already the fiery sun was passing to the star-bearing citadels, and dawn with rosy locks was putting the darkness to flight,

when the memorable Father returned home, roused his disciples from sleep, and commanded them to sing the morning hymns with him.

[33] he hastens to Liège, and they break into the Saint's house, When these had been vigorously and, as was fitting, religiously completed, the Lord himself was exceedingly wearied with fastings and prayers: wherefore, at the urging of his servants, he was compelled to return to his bed, that for a while he might relieve the weariness of his afflicted body with the quiet of sleep. But in vain did he seek relief there, where he wished to have no softness. For his body, which by day he wasted without remission, by night he afflicted without intermission. Having been cleansed long since by holy baptism, and exalted at length by priestly consecration, he was purified by the illumination of the Paraclete Spirit, to be made white at the last by his own blood. But he had not yet fallen asleep, but was expecting to rest more happily, when one ⁱ of the servants went out of the house, and saw a hostile column coming at a distance. And he in haste returned within, and did not delay to announce to his companions what he had seen. Then all of them, suddenly turned to the stupor of dread, did not dare to wake the lord bishop. They waited long in silence, until the adversaries drew near as they came.

[34] above which a cross appears: But neither do I think it should be passed over, what the loftiness of almighty God showed to certain men following the army in the rear.

I shall set it forth in writing, I shall cry it with loud voices, that the whole order of the ages may know it from the beginning.

They plainly saw a wondrous sign, in the likeness of the Lord's Cross, glowing red above the Pontiff's house; which for the splendor of its brightness was neither easy for any to look upon, nor utterable * in speech. This surely Christ the Lord willed to display to mortals so that by it might clearly be given to understand that he was truly redeemed by the Blood of Christ and crucified to the desires of the world. But when the most savage Dodo, girt with the arms of wickedness, together with his unspeakable accomplices joined to him, had come to the estate named above, the minister of malice began to clash his arms, to provoke his companions, and, raging this way and that, to search out God's holy Priest. Hence his attendants, obeying the commands of the frenzied executioner, having broken the doors and torn down the fences, entered the courtyard fiercely, like wolves among sheep.

[35] Straightway Lantbert, God's most valiant contender, awakened by the clash of arms ^k, the Saint, casting away his sword, exhorts his own to suffer, rose from his bed, snatched a sword in his hand, and resolved to fight against the enemy. Nor was there any delay: he changed the resolve of his former mind, casting the sword to the ground and saying these things in his heart: Rescue me from my enemies, my God, and deliver me from them that rise up against me: since it is neither my iniquity nor my sin for which the strong and the wicked have risen up against me. Behold, the assemblies of the mighty seek my soul, which I entreat that thou receive in peace, who art compassionate and merciful, O Lord. And so, while Bl. Lantbert implored these things with tears, the impious officers roared insolently, and fixed their lances in the walls, and tried to penetrate the house. But two of his nephews, namely Peter and Audolecus, stoutly resisted those who wished to enter the house. And as they raged thus and acted manfully, the most serene Man said: If, my sons, you have hitherto truly loved me, now obey the precepts of my counsel. Confess your sins to Jesus, and pray for one another, that you may be saved. So the holy Shepherd spoke; and thus, in answer, Audolecus replied: Fire, dearest Father, they threaten to bring fire, whereby this house may be set alight and we likewise burned up.

[36] To this the venerable Man said: Do not fear, my sons, and these being slain, the flames of the burning: surely God's right hand is able to snatch us from the imminent peril. Them, as I fear, everlasting confusion shall clothe: upon us, as I believe, God's sanctification shall bloom. Yet you, who were guilty in that crime ^l, receive now the sentence of vengeance, lest the hell below torment you, but that everlasting life may receive you cleansed. Thus instructing them all, and strengthening them by priestly authority, he ordered his nephews to go out from the inner rooms, that they might be found worthy to become a holocaust of the eternal King. When undaunted they had burst forth from the door of the chamber, at once, as the adversaries cut them down, they were sacrificed, worthy of martyrdom, before the divine gaze ^m. Thereupon the excellent Father and most constant Pontiff is stretched out on the pavement of the floor in the form of a cross, and entreats the merciful God with the humblest prayers: but what his happy soul then spoke to God, what mortal tongue is able to bring forth? Yet without doubt he asked such things as he straightway deserved to obtain. And the adversaries, entering within in fury, slew with the edge of the sword all whom they found there.

[37] Finally one of that most cruel band, inflamed with the madness of a most monstrous fury, he too is killed. The body carried to Maastricht climbed the roof from above, and beheld the blessed Pontiff stretched upon the ground; and presently, driven on by a diabolical spirit,

He struck with a spear him who was to live forever with Christ.

Thus Lantbert, the Lord's precious priest and glorious witness, was consecrated by a happy martyrdom, and in such wise entered, living and crowned, happily into the kingdom of heaven which he had long desired. For the blessed Man's body lay lifeless, drenched with the shower of his own blood; but his soul was borne by angels into heaven and set among the fellowships of the citizens above, where, rejoicing and exulting, it enjoys the society of the Apostles, the glorification of the prophets, the sitting together * of the martyrs, the coheirship of the confessors, the integrity of the virgins; and it obtains the palm of everlasting glory and the robe of eternal gladness. At length the few who escaped the peril of the slaughter swiftly placed the most sacred body in a ship, and, when it had been carried to Maastricht, buried it honorably in the church of the Prince of the Apostles ⁿ.

Nor did heavenly power forsake the lifeless limbs; it showed to the peoples of how great goodness he was, whom, raging in savagery, the maddened Dodo had destroyed.

[38] and buried; it is made illustrious by God. The time of the martyrdom. For while he was being laid in the tomb, an immense fragrance came from heaven, surpassing with its sweetness the fragrance of all spices. Nor was the loftiness of the angels absent from his sarcophagus, guarding him for the space of the first days, and showing by the measure of their song what rewards of gifts his soul possessed in the heavenly hall.

How subtle was the kindly voice of the said Prelate! Thither the neighbors, drawn by much wonder, draw near very often, and seek to know what it is, who they may be, and what they sing, or what the gifts of that voice may be. But then, while they desire to stretch their own gaze within, that voice is withdrawn on a slender breeze, as is wont to be heard when a vessel of bronze is touched, and the rising sound is drawn away little by little to the stars. But when they skillfully draw back, to be farther off, the air resounded with voices sweet to hear ^o.

Almost the whole province also came together, mourning his absence with unspeakable sadness and sending forth deep sighs even to the heavens. And Lantbert, most sacred pontiff and most glorious martyr of Christ, completed the course of his contest on the 15th of the Kalends of October, in the reign of the living and true God in the fullness of the Trinity and the majesty of Unity, to whom belong praise and the jubilation of the Saints, and also perpetual thanksgiving, now and always through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

i. e. ethnici* (heathen)

nequaquam* is superfluous

effabile*

elsewhere confessione*

THIRD LIFE

By Sigebert of Gembloux, from a manuscript of Rooklooster and the Hagiologium Brabantinorum.

BHL Number: 4687

By Sigebert of Gembloux.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's illustrious parents: his education under SS. Landoald and Theodard: the endowments of his body and mind: the body of St. Theodard translated to Liège.

[ ] Born of most noble parents, The glorious man Lantbert, a martyr acceptable to the eternal king, and a priest beloved of the true Priest, was born of a distinguished lineage in the town of Maastricht; and, born of good and religious parents, was also reborn in Christ through good and religious men. For he was the spiritual son in Baptism of Remaclus ^a, afterwards bishop of Maastricht. Much grace of this Boy and of his forebears shone in the Church of God, and much glory stood forth in the kingdom of the Franks: for their unshaken faith of Christianity increased their reverence among the orthodox, and the nobility of their flesh through the opulence of their goods brought forth worldly dignity and much power among the nobles of the kingdom. This brightness of family, derived to them from afar, his father and mother made illustrious near at hand. Posterity has received from the fathers that his mother, most noble among the nobles of the Franks, was called Herisplindis. His father, named Aper, since he was of the first order of senators, who are called illustrious men, and who in the king's court are set before the second and third order of senators, who are called respectable men and most distinguished men, excelled among those first ones.

[2] And at that time the kingdom of the Franks was ruled, after Lothar the Middle, by his son Dagobert ^b, and endowed with the gifts of nature, by his pious father who, reigning in Neustria, had committed the kingdom of the Austrasians to his son Sigebert ^c, and had given him, still a boy, as guardians Cunibert, bishop of Cologne ^d, and Pippin the First, Mayor of the Palace, father of the holy Gertrude and Begga ^e. What sort of man this Boy would be in the world, God's dispensation showed beforehand from the cradle: for whatever rudiments of good disposition, whatever lineaments of beauty nature — or, what is truer, the Author of nature himself — is wont to form beforehand in a boy of good promise, all these already appeared in his infancy; for already he seemed both comely in his limbs and, for his age, kindly in face and affection among his kinsfolk and servants, and thereby worthy of the love of all. Whence his father, not ungrateful to God, who promised him so much in his Son, tempers his own will to the divine will and makes over his Son to the divine service, to which he already saw him in a manner aspiring. And because teaching promotes an inborn force, and right cultivation strengthens hearts, he chose a holy master for his holy Son, lest any fault of the master should darken the Disciple's single eye.

[3] he is handed over to St. Landoald to be educated, Therefore, that he might be initiated in the study of letters, he committed him to Landoald ^f, a man well approved in wisdom and knowledge, in holiness and diligence. This Landoald was a priest of the holy Roman Church, and being appointed by Pope Martin ^g to Amand, bishop of the people of Maastricht, as a help in carrying on preaching, he came to Gaul, and, ordained archpriest of the church of Maastricht, served God there. And because that same bishop had freed himself of the episcopal burden for zeal of preaching, he himself diligently and opportunely supplied the bishop's place, and for nine years ruled the church, which was without a bishop, until Remaclus took up the chair of the church of Maastricht ^h. Landoald therefore, receiving the tender years of the holy Boy into his fatherly bosom, formed the manners of that earliest age to the rule of a holy life. Once the spirit of Elijah rested upon Elisha: nor did this suffice Elisha; but he asked a difficult thing, yet possible to God, that the spirit of Elijah might be doubled in him: so now also the spirit of Landoald rested upon Lantbert, and I believe that the master's spirit was doubled in Lantbert, whose grace grew beyond his master's grace in the world.

[4] by whose praying, The illustrious man Aper, that he might make his son Lantbert more tenacious of his purpose, made over by perpetual right to him and to his guardian Landoald an estate of his own property, by name Wentreshovum ⁱ, so that, a church being built there, they might give themselves the more urgently, the one to the desire of teaching, the other of learning, the farther removed they lived from the vanity of the world. And while the work went on there of building the church, the craftsmen complained about the lack of drinkable water; because the water there, collected from a marshy overflow, rather tormented those who drank it with bitterness than refreshed them with any sweetness. The holy master, and the Disciple holier than the master, having faith in him who put sweetness into the bitter waters from Mara, joining their vow, together entreat the mercy of the Almighty.

[5] he draws forth a spring: Therefore, the name of the holy Trinity being invoked, the place is marked with a staff in the form of the holy Cross: a wondrous thing, but not unusual to faith! A most limpid spring at once flowed forth there, which both revealed how much the Saints could avail with God, and from that time and now has been serviceable to the inhabitants for every use. And while the fathers, telling of it generation by generation, hand down the memory of this benefit to their sons, they heap up the merits of the Saints, because through them they cause the name of the Lord to be blessed. Thus for Lantbert and Landoald, who loved God, all things work together unto good, who, that they might be Saints, were called according to God's purpose. Here the history of antiquity is renewed: Moses and Aaron, bidden by God to relieve the want of the thirsting Hebrews, striking the rock twice with the rod, brought forth abundant waters. But they, rebuked for unbelief by the Beholder of hearts, did not deserve to enter the Land of promise: these men, however, being strengthened in faith, sanctified God before all.

[6] Once, when the holy Boy was ordered by his master to bring fire for his needs, he carries fire in his garment: he returns to his father. since there was nothing in which he might carry it, and he counted it a wickedness not to obey his master, he brought the fire placed in his garment to his marveling master. And he who so preserved the three boys, thrust with their garments into the furnace of the Chaldeans, that not even their garments were altered, preserved this boy's garment also unharmed, that it might be made plain that by the fire of the Holy Spirit, with which he burned inwardly, he had overcome material fire. And indeed the vigorous Boy, already then striving with all his strength to become a perfect man — how much he profited under the rod of his holy master, with how pure a heart he took in the words of piety and knowledge, it is idle to press here in words, since we see the fruit of so profitable a labor still today abounding everywhere. Under Landoald the happy Youth, having been exercised not gently, returned to his father; nor is it easy to say with what joy each was affected, while both the Son rejoiced at his father's affection and the father at his Son's advancement.

[7] When holy Theodard had been appointed bishop of the people of Maastricht ^k, He is instructed by St. Theodard: Lantbert is commended by his father to him also, that he might be trained after his example, who seemed greatly to be looked up to both in the church and in the court. From that man's side he so profited that in all affairs he was to all not only an example but even a marvel. For he was truly worthy, lovely in appearance, affable in converse, in upright conduct agreeable to all, scarcely imitable by any. He set little store by present things, as he had vowed in boyhood, reckoning all as nothing save what was of the grace of eternal salvation; cleaving in mind to heavenly things, he offered himself as a holocaust to the Lord. Here I seem to myself to see Joshua the minister of Moses, who, while Moses tarried with God on Mount Sinai, keeping watch at the foot of the mountain, took no part in the banquets and sports of sinners; and when Moses returned to the camp, he did not withdraw from the tabernacle of the Covenant; and therefore, when Moses laid his hands upon him, he deserved to become Moses' successor.

[8] But what need is there to color with the paints of praises sought from here and there with the endowments of body and mind him whom wisdom colored with the virtues themselves? It is superfluous to seek matter of praise from without, when the Creator formed him to such grace that in his whole body scarcely any blemish of nature crept in, and in his mind scarcely any harmful stain appeared. Yet since he must be praised, it is fitting that we praise him from the truth. He who either knew the habit of his body, or learned it from those who knew him ^l, wrote that he was strong, swift, very agile, steadfast in war, outstanding in form, tall of stature, comely of face, with beautiful hair, with renowned eyes, honorable hands, long fingers, and fair flesh; so that from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head he was blameless. And, to come to the goods of the mind, he was full of charity, girt with chastity, grounded in humility, intent opportunely on prayer, opportunely on reading, opportunely on secular business or household affairs. Behold, you see a Man so enriched with the gifts of grace, so with the goods of nature, that you would say he was formed by God into a perfect man. Behold, I say, you have a man fit to be conformed to any station, in whom, if you consider the things that belong to a layman, what of the layman would you say was lacking to him? If you seek the things that belong to a cleric, you would find him wholly a cleric.

[9] excelling in very many things, Who now would marvel at the beauty and good disposition of Moses the lawgiver, whom for his elegance Thermuth the daughter of Pharaoh nourished and adopted as a son, in whom so excellent a grace of comeliness is read to have been that, as often as he was carried or walked through the streets, all, held fast by the sight of his beauty, would leave the things in which they were occupied and delight rather in the appearance of Moses. Moses, set in Pharaoh's hands by his daughter, and disdaining, when the king caressed him, to have the diadem of the kingdom set upon his head, cast the diadem to the ground and trampled it with his feet ^m: Lantbert likewise, spurning the prince of the world who ill caressed him, cast down and trampled the diadem of his pride by his own humility. Moses, warring bravely and wisely against the Ethiopians, Tarbis the daughter of the king of the Ethiopians admired and loved, and preferring love of him to the safety of her father and her country, clung to his embraces ⁿ: Lantbert, who manfully warred down the Ethiopians of the world, holy Church chose for her bridegroom.

[10] He is held in veneration by all. The body of St. Theodard, who was slain, For these reasons it had easily come about that Lantbert was judged worthy of every honor and every love. And on this account it was at heart with bishop Theodard that he would have preferred to choose him as his successor, had he not known that it was decreed by Apostolic authority that priests should not dare to substitute others for themselves by designated names, lest the episcopate be thought not a divine gift but a hereditary profit; and lest anyone think that what is God's is owed to man. Moreover in the king's hall there was no slight esteem for the name of Lantbert, whom both the royal highness and the multitude of the nobles reverenced. When bishop Theodard had been brought by the way of innocence to the glory of the martyrs ^o, the Vangiones [p], in whose territory he had met his death, did not believe that this had happened by chance, but hoped that by the will of God, who sweetly disposes all things, the present protection of a new martyr had been procured for them; and therefore they did not suffer his body to be carried away from their parish, in whose presence they desired to glory eternally.

[11] he transfers from the Vangiones to Liège. The bitterness of this matter had exceedingly stricken the people of Maastricht, and had, I believe, dismayed the mind of Lantbert more than all. But he, moderating his grief (since it was upon him, after God, that the whole city inclined and rested), girded himself to reclaim the prelate's body. And at first, though disappointed, he did not desist, but employing all his mind and understanding to accomplish the task, brought the matter about according to his purpose. And so, when the Saint's body had been brought back, he buried it in the public estate of Liège [q], foreknowing that the Divinity foresaw that it should be specially consecrated also by his own blood and name, and was preparing to enlarge it into a city for the enlarging of the glory of the martyrs [r]. Such appeared the piety of Joseph toward his father Jacob who died in Egypt: such also was the diligence of Moses in seeking out the bones of the patriarch Joseph, buried in Egypt, so that each of them might be brought back to the burial-place of their fathers.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. A people of Germany, whose head is the city now called Worms.

q. Of the body of St. Theodard reclaimed and translated by St. Lambert, nothing whatever is read in Godescalc and Stephen. But Sigebert could have learned these things from the very ancient anonymous author of the Life of St. Theodard, given by us at the 10th day of September, page 588 and following, in which, in chapter 2, the same things are related more fully which we reviewed from it in the preceding Commentary, num. 40 and following. The same translation the same Sigebert relates in the Life of St. Theodard, printed in the third place at the aforecited day of September.

r. These things I take to be said from Sigebert's conjecture: for neither Godescalc nor Stephen related that St. Lambert had already then been instructed concerning his own martyrdom.

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's bishopric of Maastricht, useful to the Church and to the kingdom: the bishops and abbots contemporary with him: his expulsion from his see: the monastic life at Stavelot.

[ ] Made bishop of Maastricht by the consent of all, Who ought to be appointed bishop for the church of the people of Maastricht was much deliberated in the church, and much was it treated of in the hall of king Childeric ^a, who, on the death of his uncle Sigebert ^b, had received the kingdom of Austrasia from his father Clovis ^c. And now little by little the word was running from the palace to the church, from the church to the throng of the people, that none was better than Lantbert, and thereby none worthier of the bishopric of the people of Maastricht: that it belonged to him by canonical authority that in his own church he should receive the fruit of his service. With the palace the church agrees, the clergy consents with the people, the hearts of all desire one man, thousands of the people acclaim with one voice. He denies that he is equal to the burden, and thereby the more deserves to be compelled. As unanimous a fervor as once inspired Israel and Judah to choose for themselves as king David, whom the Lord had found according to his own heart, so favorable was the consent of clergy and people in choosing Lantbert, whom likewise the Lord had found according to his own heart, one who would do all the wills of God. And though the heart of all was one, yet before the rest you would believe that the people of Maastricht said to Lantbert what the men of Judah said to David their fellow-tribesman: We are your bone and your flesh; yesterday too and the day before you were the one who led out and brought back Israel: for the Lord your God said to you: You shall feed my people Israel; and, You shall be prince over us.

[13] for the splendor of his virtues he is dear to kings Childeric At length the Man, enriched with the honors of holiness and made illustrious by the dealings of frugality, consented, one man, to comply with all, that all might be able to glory in him alone in Christ. Having attained the summit of religion, he who had been increased with the pontifical mitre was zealous to increase the works of perpetual piety. Every day he offered a holocaust to the Lord, not from another's flock, but from his own body. His counsel and his work he ever turned toward God; his heart and his feet he directed to preaching the gospel of peace. For the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are in Christ substantially, were present in him also accidentally, according to human capacity. The spirit of counsel flourished in him excellently, and whatever he did he moderated by the spirit of wisdom. But king Childeric, seeing that he surpassed all men, held him of more account than all the chief men of the kingdom and its bishops, and gave him the first place in his mind, in his ears and in his speech; and whose heart he believed to be an oracle of the Holy Spirit, and whose tongue he held for an instrument of truth, to him he had of his own accord given the sum of his friendship, and had made him his private counselor, who, as is reported, was also his keeper of records. Whence all Austrasia hung upon his heart and his mouth, and the whole royal court reverenced him.

[14] and Theodoric, and is their counselor. The Saint's bishops The brother also of king Childeric, Theodoric, who reigned in that part of Francia which is called Neustria, sought the presence of Lantbert, and among his nobles and friends kept for him an abundance of favor. And if anything in his kingdom was to be authorized, he did not think it would be sufficiently ratified unless it had been approved also by Lantbert's counsel ^d. Indeed those kings of the Franks, Theodoric and Childeric, though from simplicity they were less wise of themselves, yet in this were wise, that they hearkened to wise men. For the first degree of wisdom is to be wise; the second, to hearken to a wise man. Whence, because the affairs of the kingdom were disposed by the counsel of Lantbert, so holy and so prudent a man, and of other holy bishops, the face of things in both kingdoms was fair, and the faith of the Church prospered. For there were at that time holy bishops who, endowed with knowledge and wisdom, holily and justly aided the secondary parts of the kingdom. Among these were pre-eminent Ouen of Rouen ^e, Austregisilus of Bourges ^f, Eligius of Noyon ^g, Vindician of Cambrai ^h, Audomar of Thérouanne ⁱ, Leodegar of Autun ^k, Faro of Meaux ^l.

[15] Among these Lantbert stood out, the golden star of the Church, and the abbots contemporary with the Saint, as the moon gleams among the lesser fires. These Lantbert looked up to as fathers and elders, and by imitating them drew from each of them something of grace. Moreover they loved Lantbert from their inmost heart as a son, one now sending forth fruits from the flower of his age, and they rejoiced that after them the government of the church belonged to him as by hereditary succession, whom they saw walking just before God and men, without reproach in all things, and going day by day from virtue to virtue. There were besides also abbots, then and now renowned for holiness: Bertin ^m, Philibert ⁿ, Wandregisel ^o; Ursmar of Lobbes [p] was growing up into a young soldier of Christ. These were Lantbert's contemporaries; such were his companions. These, like the Cherubim, beat the wings of their virtues one toward another, and stirred the world to the praise of God.

[16] These and others, who in that age shone like stars in the firmament of heaven, by whose merits the church and the kingdoms were long tranquil. as it were the thirty-six mighty men of king David, prefiguring by the equality of a square number the firmness of faith, together with our David, namely Lantbert, by the strong hand of Christ enlightened the world with wisdom and fortitude, and in their hands the wars against the enemies of God prospered. Among whom Lantbert, like another David, given by God for the government of the church; like a son of the forest growing up to the summit of perfection; like the most tender worm of the wood, demolishing hard and strong things by the virtue of humility; like a weaver of many-colored cloth [q], with various virtues

both adorned himself and adorning others, attained to the three first degrees of the virtues, easy of ascent to very few: governing the throne of the church by wisdom, marking out by humility the footsteps of following Christ, warring down adversities for God by fortitude. By the merits of these men the church of God was long made tranquil, and long the state of the kingdom prospered. Afterwards, on account of the sluggishness of the people, while Jesus slept in the ship of holy Church, behold, a great commotion arose in the sea of this world. It is easy to learn the cause of so great a commotion.

[17] Theodoric and Childeric, brothers, ruled the divided kingdom of Francia; Ebroin, when Theodoric was restored to the kingdom, but because Theodoric was of duller wit, Ebroin the Mayor of the Palace, abusing his simplicity, stirred up the hatred of the whole people against the king. For the Franks, turning back another's odium upon Theodoric, cast him down from the kingdom, and inviting his brother Childeric from Austrasia, set him over themselves as king: and as long as Childeric held them with moderation [r], he powerfully presided over both kingdoms. But when he too exceeded measure, acting more insolently, he could not long stretch his arms against the torrent. For because, more severe than was just, he had a certain noble of the Franks, by name Bodilo, bound to a stake and beaten against the law, he was ambushed by that same Bodilo while hunting, and perished. Theodoric receives back the whole kingdom; the malice of Ebroin breaks out afresh: whomever they find to have favored the party of Childeric too obstinately, these they ruin, butcher, deprive of honors, punish with proscription, and banish into exile.

[18] drives the Saint from his bishopric, Because no one was more faithful or more friendly to Childeric than Lantbert, the whole weight of tribulation fell upon him. For it seemed that nothing had been accomplished by the death of Childeric, if Lantbert, Childeric's intimate, went unpunished, of whom they held it certain that he would never assent to the faction of their iniquity [s]. Therefore by Ebroin's counsel a crowd of bishops was convoked to a synod by king Theodoric, who like dumb dogs were not able [t] to bark against the testimony of falsehood; some bishops they depose, others by a twofold injustice they ordain. And lest anyone should remain in the kingdom or the church who by the example or prompting of Lantbert would dare to raise the shield of faith for the defense of truth — Lantbert who beyond the rest and for the rest dared more freely to oppose injustice — all the devil's accomplices rise up against Lantbert, the friend of truth, and, causes of injustice being contrived, depose him from his bishopric [u]. It is reported that the bishop of Cologne conspired in this faction of the depraved; who also suffered Faramund, a cleric of his own church, to be promoted to the bishopric of Maastricht against right and law [x].

[19] and when Faramund was intruded, he withdraws The wretched Faramund therefore, because he went in their counsel, sat in the chair of pestilence; of whom what else could be said than what the Truth says: “He who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up another way, is a thief and a robber: but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The thief does not come except to steal and to slay and to destroy.” Lantbert, the good shepherd, after the example of the Shepherd essentially good, ready to lay down his life for his sheep, did not flee as a hireling, but turned aside from the stormy shipwreck of domestic persecution; and bearing all things with clemency, he left the scepter of the prelacy, commending the care of the sheep to him who washed them in baptism and redeemed them by his Blood. The patient Man had indeed as the leader of his exile king David, who, when at the prompting of his son Absalom his own men conspired against him, took up the shield of patience; and lest he should be a cause of ruin in Israel, fled weeping with covered head and bare feet, committing the cause of his justice to God.

[20] to Stavelot, where under monastic discipline Seeking, then, the monastery of Stavelot [y], founded some years before by king Sigebert and everywhere renowned for the fervor of holy religion, he chose the harbor of monastic quiet, and there for seven years, leading an angelic life, he dwelt with himself. But out of the whole number of the ecclesiastical household only two boys clung to his service, of whom the one named Theodoënus was a truthful reporter and fit witness of his works to him who first wrote the Life of the holy Man [z]. Behold, we have a Man set before all as a pattern of virtues, who, knowing what alone the supreme Master had bidden be learned from him, in the humility of a meek heart and in his patience sought the rest of his soul. And in obedience he conformed himself to Christ his coheir, who obeyed the Father even unto death. What a thing, I ask, was it to see a Man noble by birth, renowned for holiness, a prelate in office, formerly powerful in goods, in so short a space of time already showing himself an approved monk — which scarcely any other could attain in a great number of years?

[21] In truth, prosperity did not delight beyond measure the man whom its change did not shake: he shines in a wondrous manner. for never is that lost without grief which is possessed with love. He who desires, also fears: he who fears never lives free or secure [aa]. Our Lantbert grieved to lose nothing of the world, because he coveted nothing; and thereby he was always secure in himself and free in Christ. Removed from his bishopric by injustice, when did he protest at the wrong inflicted on him? What person did he appeal to? To whose hearing did he betake himself? To what jurist did he commit his cause? He stirred up no scandal for the kingdom or the church; he wished to mix no one's ruin with his own ruin. Revealing his cause to God alone, he said what the Son of God said to the Father through the Prophet: “Arise, O Lord, and attend to my judgment, my God and my Lord, to my cause.” Now let us see, in one testimony of obedience, at how great a price Lantbert's monastic manner of life was esteemed. Always tending toward perfection, he added something to the purpose of his service, knowing that whatever he spent over and above would be repaid him by the true Samaritan. Whence, by night anticipating the Canonical vigils, he paid God private watches.

[22] To this end, wishing on one of the nights to go out of the dormitory, Because of a noise stirred up by a sandal, almost naked he disturbed the sleeping brothers, one of his sandals having slipped from his hand: and knowing that by the censure of the Rule he ought to go to the cross who had troubled the brothers' rest, at once at the nod of the indignant abbot [bb] he leaped from his bed, and leaving his sandals and what he had in his hands, clothed only in a single rough hair-shirt, with bare and unshod feet, and almost naked, he went to the cross. This stone cross had been set up between the oratory and the dormitory. The sons of Israel in the desert, murmuring from weariness of the long journey and labor, and for this fault perishing by the stroke of fiery serpents, were healed by the sight of the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses for a sign, in a figure of the Son of man who was to be crucified. In this manner it is credible that this cross also was set up for a sign, so that at the sight of it those who were Christ's might crucify their flesh with its vices and concupiscences; and if any, wearied of the long labor in the way of God, grew faint, at the sight of the cross they might resume from Christ's death the long-suffering of hope, and so escape the fiery venoms of the ancient serpent.

[23] Lantbert therefore, with that same patience, that same obedience with which Christ obeyed the Father even to the death of the cross [cc], he passes the night in the open at the cross: went to the cross, at which those adjudged to it did penance according to the Rule if they transgressed by somewhat graver faults; and there, intent upon psalms and hymns, he passed the night motionless. The cold of that night was made harsher by frost, and though snow fell abundantly, yet it did not rise above the Prelate's ankles [dd]. The whole face of winter was utterly and exceedingly grim: but that most gentle man, because he burned plainly within with the flame of the Paraclete Spirit, therefore felt not outwardly the torments of the cold. Heaven lay open to his prayers, and his prayer reached the hearing on high. Meanwhile, as he sang the verse of the psalm: “When shall I come and appear before the face of God?” the cocks gave their crow sooner than usual. The brothers rise for the prescribed duties of the vigils, and after these, having entered the house, they kindle an abundant fire. While they warm themselves, the abbot asks where Lantbert may be, who is absent from the brothers' assembly. One of the brothers said that it was Lantbert who by the judgment of the Rule had been assigned to the cross through the dead of night.

[24] The abbot is aghast, and urges the brothers to go and call him back. They go, and find him singing [ee]: “A contrite and humbled heart God does not despise.” When he had been called back, the abbot and the whole community fall at his knees. The abbot accuses himself, and excusing his fault, asks pardon for his ignorance or intemperance. Lantbert, his own accuser, imputes the fault to himself, being called back, he is refreshed with a bath and a garment. saying that there is nothing for him to pardon them. The brothers repay the grace of his benevolence, and preparing a bath for him, change his garments. Then, kissing his hands and feet, they with one accord congratulate him, saying that this had happened for the increase of his glory. And the excellent Prelate, with hands spread out to heaven, thus blessed the brothers:

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Of him see at the 18th day of April.

q. He seems to designate the patriarch Joseph, of whom in Genesis, chapter 37, verse 3, one reads: And (his father) made him a coat of many colors.

r. This word I have thus restored, since in our manuscript there was read only modera, with a blank space of two or three letters left after it.

s. Concerning all these things consult the preceding Commentary, §5.

t. For valebant, deleted in the text, another hand has written in the margin volentes.

u. That this pseudo-synod, in which St. Leodegar, bishop of Autun, was most unjustly condemned, was held some years later, while our Saint was already in exile at Stavelot, we have said in the Commentary, num. 63 and following.

x. That Faramund was unjustly intruded into the holy Bishop's see, Godescalc and Stephen also teach; but neither of them makes any archbishop of Cologne guilty of that crime. Consult the Commentary, num. 66 and the following.

y. Consult the Commentary, num. 68 and the following.

z. So he himself, from the first Life, num. 6.

aa. In the margin of our manuscript, for vivit, another hand notes erit.

bb. Godescalc, who could have heard it from Theodoënus, expressly says that the abbot, who did not know by whom that noise had been made, so commanded it.

cc. That is, imitating Christ's example so far as he could. For the rest, concerning that manner of doing penance we have observed something in the Commentary, num. 74 and the following.

dd. I do not know what prodigy of snow, of which neither Godescalc nor Stephen makes mention, Sigebert wished here to indicate.

ee. In the margin of the manuscript, for offendunt, another hand again notes: attendunt.

ff. These verses he borrowed from the second Life, num. 22.

CHAPTER III.

The Saint's restoration to his see, and his pastoral care: the Toxandrians brought from idols to Christ: the burial of St. Landrada by him made famous by a miracle.

[ ] When seven years had rolled by, it at length pleased the Most High to make the face of heaven serene after the dreadful and long-lasting storm. Faramund being cast out, he is restored to his see; Pippin the Second, son of Ansegisel and Begga ^a, when he had manfully conquered all those who by striving among themselves were tearing Francia apart, alone under king Theodoric obtained the princedom of all Francia, and set about to better the disturbed state of the kingdom and of the Church. To whom, among other things, this matter of praise occurred: Faramund, the hireling of Maastricht, at length repudiated by the just sentence of clergy and people, is expelled not only from the church of Maastricht but even from the whole province ^b. Straightway the prayer of all is lifted to heaven, the embassy of all is directed to prince Pippin, that the people of Maastricht might no longer lack the consolation of their pious father Lantbert. When Absalom, the invader of his father's kingdom, had been punished by God, as great as was the exultation over this among the people of God in Israel, so great was then the gladness of the people of God at the repulse of the invader Faramund; and as much as these strove for the recalling of Lantbert to the bishopric, so much had those labored for the bringing back of David into his kingdom. The just petition pleases the prince, and he decrees that the Shepherd be restored to his sheep.

[26] Thus the veteran soldier, purged by the very greatest tribulation, he restores the church's losses, traverses his diocese: is exalted by the voices of his sheep, and is fittingly set back in the chair of the people of Maastricht. And rightly so, because in his heart was sincerity and the fullness of the law, and in his mouth was truth and beauty. How great was the exultation at his return for every order, age and sex! In what manner all rejoiced, each in his own cause, he knows who alone discerns the affections of all. And so the apostolic Man, having returned to his own city, repaired the rule of ecclesiastical institution which had been corrupted by false Christians. And as David used to say, I am not ignorant that today I have been made king over Israel, so he too, believing that he was now first made bishop, forgetting the things that are behind, stretched himself out to the things before. Preferring, then, to be a bishop rather than to be called one, he watched the more urgently over himself and over the whole flock, not shrinking from declaring to all the whole counsel of God; and fearing the mark of the bad and slothful servant who laid up his lord's money in a napkin, he granted nothing slack to his heart and his body; but traversed cities and towns, and through hearts tilled with the hoes of the word he cast in due season the seed of life.

[27] To the Toxandrians, not without peril of his life, Sometimes too he went beyond the bounds of his diocese, lest by the Lord he should be called an unprofitable servant, because he had done only that which he ought to have done. Nearby was the province of the Toxandrians ^c, where idolatry still flourished; and Christ's brave Athlete, grieving that the enemies of the Christian name should be opposed to the kingdom of his King from so close at hand, is girt with the arms of faith, and inflamed with the warmth of virtue, harassed them with frequent assaults, and, the Lord's peace being offered them, tried in every way whether by any means his peace might rest upon the sons of peace. When they roared like barbarians and desired to tear him in pieces, he of his own accord threw himself into the battle and destroyed their temples and images; and sometimes, soothing them with the sweetness of the word, he discoursed to them. That I may admonish you, brothers, he said, of true salvation, both my advantage and yours urges me; that you may be saved, and I may have from you the fruit of my labor. Nothing is more useful to a man than to seek salvation: but who shall seek salvation unless he know what salvation is? How shall he seek, if he know not whence it is to be sought? He who seeks it elsewhere than from God, who is salvation itself, accomplishes nothing. If a man, neglecting his soul, takes thought only for his body, he differs nothing from the beast, which, according to the habit of its body, looks upon the earth and attends only to the body. Since he is a man who knows himself: know, O man, who you are, of what sort you were created, and what you shall be.

[28] reproving idolatry, You are a man, because you were fashioned from clay ^d; you are a rational and mortal animal, midway between beasts and angels. By reason you are better than the beast, by mortality lower than the angel. And of what sort you were created, the habit of your body shows. Why was man alone created with uplifted face, upright breast, and straight hands? Surely that in body and heart and act he might ever aim at heaven. Do you wish to know what you shall be? You are earth, and to earth you shall return. If, however ^e, you seek the salvation of your soul, you shall attain immortality. To attain this it is necessary that a man know who or what God is. If he knows not who or what God is, let him at least know who or what God is not. Do you wish to know what God is? God is he who created all things out of nothing, who rules all things, who ever lives without beginning, without end, without circumscription of place and time, without mutability of substance. Hear also what God is. God is eternal, and eternity itself; wise, and wisdom itself; and whatever of virtue is present in anyone by accident, this is in God alone substantially. But who among men does not know who God is not? Man, stone, wood, or anything of the kind is not God: finally, no creature is God. Neither ^f is God any of those things which are named by the privation or the contrary of good; as that he should be unjust, evil, or anything of the sort. He who is a man will learn these things by the teaching of nature alone, and, having looked upon the creature, will understand the Creator.

[29] God created heaven and earth, and last of all creatures he fashioned man, he preaches Christ, giving him freedom of choice, that by a voluntary appetite for good ^g he might also deserve the reward of good; making him such that, if he did not sin, he would be immortal; if he sinned, he would become mortal. And he, believing the devil rather than God, fell into death together with all his race, which broke out into so great malice that it repented God that he had made man; and by the flood he blotted out all flesh from under heaven, preserving only eight souls in the ark for a whole year. Their descendants, wishing to have a refuge against God, while they raised a tower even to heaven, God, laying to heart the pride of the sons of Adam, divided them from himself by dividing human language, which was one for all, into seventy-two tongues. Heavier than every evil grew idolatry, which, because Abraham almost alone abhorred it, he deserved a blessing from God and a promise that in his seed, which is Christ, all nations should be blessed. He, born of a Virgin, true God and true man, doing in his one person the works of the divine and the human nature, whatever belongs to man apart from sin, he performed and endured in man; and shining in words and signs, he did not hide what belongs to God.

[30] But as by one heat of the sun wax softens and clay hardens, and at last, them so at the warmth of the divine word the good were softened unto faith, the evil hardened against faith. That God, therefore, might work his work — namely, that he might save man — he wrought a strange and alien work, that he himself, who is the life of all, in man and for man should taste death, and the death of the cross. Who, when hell had been despoiled, rising from the dead on the third day and ascending to the heavens and sending the Holy Spirit to his disciples with the knowledge of all tongues, sent them into the world to preach and to baptize in the name of the holy Trinity. Hence into all the earth went out the sound of the Apostles and of apostolic men. This sound has at length come even to you. Whence for you, brothers, I grieve even to my soul, because, repelling the word of God, you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Flee, dearest ones, from idolatry. I speak to the wise; do you yourselves judge what I say. What does it profit that images be worshipped, which have neither soul nor life? Flee, I say, from idolatry, because there is no greater injury than this against God, who says through the prophet: “My glory I will not give to another.” Flee from darkness, you who have the light of natural reason.

[31] Already almost the whole world has believed. As the sun touches with its presence three quarters of the world — the East, the South, the West — but the Northern quarter it lights from afar with its cast rays; to the Christian mysteries so Christ, the Sun of the world, hallowed the East by being born, visited the South by fleeing into Egypt, and did not forsake the West, whither he sent his Apostles, through whom already Rome, the head of the world, has bent her neck. This fourth quarter, which you inhabit, although because of the sun's absence it admits the light more slowly, yet sees those who are lighted from afar; and if it lacks the sun's presence, it nonetheless has no less need of the use of the sun's light. In this manner, dearest ones, if you have not seen Christ himself, if you have not seen Christ's Apostles, you are blessed if you believe in him whom you have not seen. If you cannot fix your gaze upon the Sun himself, direct your eyes to the mountains lighted by the Sun. Through these mountains, that is, through apostolic men, far and wide by the light of faith

having been transmitted, already Spain has believed, and threefold Gaul, and Germany, and, remote under another world, Britain and Scotland. Francia close at hand convicts you of obstinate unbelief. Since the earth is full of the Lord's mercy, why does the wrath of God remain upon you as upon sons of unbelief? Run to the light, believe in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his son, and in the Holy Spirit. Believe in the future resurrection of the flesh, fear the last day of judgment, on which we must all be judged: the evil, that they may go into eternal punishment; the good, that they may have eternal life with the angels — not changed into angelic nature, but according to the variety of their merits raised in the various orders of the angels to angelic glory.

[32] he happily brings over. By these and such things Christ's Preacher, gradually abolishing from their hearts the barbarism of heathenism, allured them to the gentleness of Christianity; and removing the stench ^h of idolatry, he scattered everywhere the good odor of Christ. They, however, drawn by regard for his humanity, considered the virtue and piety of the holy Man, who fulfilled in deed what he preached with his mouth; and wishing to imitate him, they suffered themselves to be confirmed by him in the faith of Christ. Nor did Christ's Standard-bearer desist before he had led over that whole people, driven out of the devil's kingdom, to the kingdom ⁱ of the King of kings. This is thy grace, O Christ: this is the constancy of thy good Soldier, who, having undertaken an Apostolic work, brought to thy camp a notable triumph. Behold the Apostle of Toxandria, deservedly to be compared with the Apostles and apostolic men. For when the Prince of shepherds shall come to judge, and each of the shepherds shall present to him how great a part of the world he brought by his preaching to the faith, this our Shepherd will not appear empty among the shepherds; but he too will draw after him many drawn back by his labor from idolatry or from malice, and will receive a manifold crown of glory.

[33] St. Landrada, appearing to Lambert, bids How glorious God is in himself would in no way be perceived by men, unless he wrought certain things wondrously in his Saints, by which he might be understood by us to be truly wonderful. While Pippin was prince over the Franks, St. Landrada the virgin ^k built a monastery in the estate of Bilzen, in all things animated by St. Lantbert's counsel and aided by his help; and she, when the day of her departure was at hand, that being ready she might enter to the nuptials of her Bridegroom with the lamp of good works alight, familiarly summoned that same St. Lantbert, that she might receive from him the viaticum of Life. While the holy Man hastened on his way, she meanwhile was loosed from the prison of the flesh; but God, to whom nothing is more pleasing than brotherly charity, suffered neither him nor her to be deprived of the fruit of mutual friendship. For as he went, a joyful vision appeared to the Prelate. Before the eyes of him as he lay, and as it were half-waking in an ecstasy, that same virgin of Christ, Landrada, stood clear to see, and addressing him with a friendly grace of countenance and speech, said: Whence, O my friend, comes this unwonted neglect of me in you, that so great a delay has held you from visiting me?

[34] that her body be buried at Wentreshovum, Lantbert, showing the affection of familiarity, gave back these words of excuse: You have no ground to accuse me either of neglect or of delay, for as I hastened to come to you the swifter necessity of your death outran me. Behold, since I am here, and you have now entered into the joy of your Lord, I shall pay you what is just, as I owe; do you, I ask, show me in what place I am to bury your little body according to your pleasure. And she said: Look up to heaven, and diligently mark that place on earth in which you see the sign of the holy Cross now appearing from heaven in a flashing light. Lantbert, following her as she pointed with eyes and mind, behold, he sees a place on earth marked out by heavenly light in the form of the holy Cross, and from the mouth of the virgin speaking with him receives these last words: This place, Lantbert, made known to you from heaven, know to have been long since appointed by God for my burial. When these words were exchanged and the holy virgin received into heaven, the holy Man, loosed from sleep, applauded himself for the oracle of the heavenly vision. And the place which was irradiated by the sign of the heavenly light was Wentreshovum ^l, which St. Lantbert himself, having been brought up there by St. Landoald, had made notable by the first disposition of his novitiate.

[35] Lantbert indeed hastened on his way the more speedily, which, against his will, being buried at Bilzen, the more he knew this would be pleasing to God and to his bride; and coming to Bilzen later than his wish, though not than his feet (for to a desiring mind nothing is hastened enough), he unfolds the vision to all, and strives to bend them to carry it out as gently and as eloquently as he can. All cry out against the one, all with one voice shout in tumult: Far be it, Lantbert; far be it, O blessed Prelate. Here that same holy virgin was consecrated to God by you: this church, built by her labor and at her expense, was dedicated by you through her: here all her goods were made over to God by her through you: here the throng of those who serve God has grown up through her and through you; and where shall her bones rest more worthily than here, where the testimonies of so many of her good works appear present? And all these things indeed heap up also the merits of your holiness, Lantbert, since through the zeal of your pastorship the gifts of faith and virtue abound here, the faithful people being increased both in merit and in number. Lantbert, offended by the obstinacy of all, said: It is pleasant to preside over citizens; but it is hard to please all. Behold, since the word of God and my own does not take hold in you, I will unwillingly follow you all: yet I am certain that the effect of the heavenly oracle will not be lacking.

[36] Lantbert therefore, the holy virgin having been buried rather by the people's pleasure than by his own, three days after is found at Wentreshovum. wavered in mind, on the one hand certain of the heavenly oracle, on the other uncertain about the virgin's buried body. For this reason, giving himself to every manner of praying, he sought the matter from him whom he knew nothing to be impossible for. When three days had thus been spent, calling the people together he said: The virgin of Christ lately dead was, I say, of great merit, by your own judgment also; and therefore I count it no light thing that I hold indicated to me from her mouth as she now reigns with Christ. Therefore do not take it ill that I ask that, the virgin's tomb being opened, we may test the matter itself with our eyes. He is obeyed by all; the tomb is opened; but nothing is found of the holy body buried there, the sarcophagus itself having been moved elsewhere. The face of all grows pale; Lantbert alone rejoices, and soothing the astonished as a father, says: Since you have experienced your own distrust, now let us experience God's wonderful working, and let us seek the clod of the holy body in the place marked out for me. With him as leader they run to Wentreshovum; and he, retracing in mind and eyes the traces of the heavenly sign shown him, points out the place well-pleasing to the holy virgin. O new thing! There they find the clod of the holy body, carried across with the sarcophagus itself, so composedly and so becomingly set down again that it was doubtful to none that the holy virgin had been translated thither by angelic ministry.

[37] And what wonder if he who prepared a dwelling for his martyr Clement in the sea, in the form of a marble temple, by angelic hands ^m, The author's observation, and the Saint's praise. transferred so fittingly the body of this virgin also by angels, the ministers of God's mysteries ⁿ? If anyone disbelieves this miracle as unusual, let at least the argument from the contrary move him. For since he knows that the bodies of many unworthily buried in holy places have been cast far off by evil angels, let him not doubt that holy angels at God's nod bestowed their labor on the holy virgin, and gave credit to the vow and words of St. Lantbert. All therefore extol the power of God, and above all proclaim the faith and merit of the glorious Lantbert, whose conversation was already in heaven, though he was still held on earth in the body, in whom they saw fulfilled that word of the Lord: “All things are possible to him that believes.” O Man worthy of God, to whom nothing is lacking for the sum of perfection, ready also to ascend to that charity than which no man has greater, that he should lay down his life for his friends! For what greater thing could the King give to his veteran Soldier than that, crowning him with martyrdom, he should give him the discharge of eternal rest. That we may put the finishing hand to the work, let us now raise the banner of his passion.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV

Pippin rebuked for taking Alpaïs as a concubine: the concubine's hatred and snares: the Saint's martyrdom at her instigation.

[ ] Pippin, because he had taken, while his wife lived, Pippin, as we said before, was excellently prince over all the princes of the Franks, whose glory the frequent titles of victories increased, and whom the memorials of nobility and holiness derived from both parents might have incited to virtue. For, to be silent about the holiness of Gertrude his maternal aunt ^a, or of Chlodulf ^b, bishop of Metz, who was his godfather; who would not admire the life of St. Begga his mother? Who does not know the sanctity of Arnulf ^c, his father's father, who was first mayor of the palace to the king, then bishop of Metz, and both in life and in death was wonderful to the world? And now the power of his sons too flourished in the kingdom, of whom Drogo ^d was duke of the Champenois, and Grimoald ^e awaited his father's hereditary princedom. These his lawful wife Plectrude had borne him. And though nothing of glory, nothing of power, nothing of happiness was wanting to Pippin, never was fortune to him beyond his diligence.

[39] O nothing is ever safe with the devil! A man so victorious could not triumph over himself, and suffered his iron breast to be pierced

by the soft dart of lust: he took to himself, over his lawful wife Plectrude, a noble and elegant girl by name Alpaïs, of whom he also had a son Charles, who afterwards, on account of his untamed bravery in war, had the surname Tudites, or Martel. She was the sister of Dodo ^f, who was steward of prince Pippin, a man full of wealth, distinguished in family, and through friends and kinsmen and many servants attending upon him having attained great power in the kingdom. And since there was none of the bishops who stood in the breach and set himself as a wall for the house of Israel, that he might stand in the battle in the day of the Lord, Lantbert in season and out of season reproved the prince, and showed himself another Elijah or John; and whose zeal he imitated, to their merit also he aspired, so that those to whom he was equal in constancy in contending, to them he might be equal in glory in conquering. Elijah endured and conquered Ahab … king of Israel as an enemy, and by reproving him drew him to this, that he put off from himself the wrath of God that was threatened, which perhaps he would have escaped altogether, had not Jezebel his wife, stirring him up against God, sold him under sin.

[40] Herod feared John when he reproved him, and did many things for him; he incurs the hatred of the concubine; but Herodias his wife too, through the wantonness of her dancing daughter, drove him to an oath and thereby to the Saint's death. A third Elijah, or another John of ours, namely Lantbert, in the spirit and power of Elijah and John, was himself also directed to prepare the way of the Lord, and freely reproved prince Pippin, nor did he fear the fury of a second Herodias. For what Herodias had in her mind when Herod willingly lent his ear to John reproving him for adultery, this Alpaïs ^h also had in her mind when Pippin obeyed Lantbert reproving him for his concubinage. Indeed the man, otherwise praiseworthy and religious, this one thing excepted, greatly rejoiced in Lantbert's counsels and was bent by his admonitions; and if he had been able to deceive the concubine he loved, doubtless he would have heard with profit the Prelate who deservedly rebuked him. Elijah, caught up into heaven, still awaits the palm of victory through the sword of Antichrist; John devoted his head to martyrdom for the truth; the third of the two, Lantbert, showed himself also worthy to drink the Lord's cup.

[41] The concubine reports the matter to her brother Dodo, and laying before him all her counsel, whose brother Dodo harasses the Saint's household, besought that by his help the reproach of her family might be abolished, which would grow too strong if through Lantbert's censure her divorce from the prince should come about. He, sharing his own and his sister's cause with the more powerful of his family, labors by himself and through them to restrain the Bishop from rebuking the prince; and because he found him unbending, and perceived that he reverenced no man's face against justice, he promises to his kinsmen and friends vengeance for his sister's cause. Hence two brothers, Gallus and Rioldus, kinsmen of Dodo ⁱ, pitying the lot of their kinswoman Alpaïs, seek an opportunity of provoking the Bishop, and rising up with all their followers against the whole household of the church of Maastricht, they contrive a calumny against them by whatever art, and omit no molestation which they can bring upon them; hoping if by any means they might thereby bend the Prelate's sentence, so that at least for his own people's sake he might desist from reproving the prince. But the matter turned out otherwise than they had reckoned. For the just man, confident as a lion, protected himself with the shield of patience against all assaults, and girded himself with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, against the threats of earthly power; and putting on the helmet of salvation, he unhesitatingly carried on the cause of truth. And at first indeed he addressed them gently, and by whatever means a Father's piety and a Prelate's censure could, he deterred them from unjust violence.

[42] and when two of his men are slain, decrees his death. But because he poured out his words upon the wind, casting himself as familiarly as he might upon God, he said: Arise, O Lord, and judge my cause; be mindful of the reproach of thy servants. But the sons of Belial assailed God's faithful the more sharply, and afflicted the innocent with every kind of harm. Those, for whom the matter was one of life, and whose whole hope hung upon innocence alone, without consulting the Bishop, prepare to go against them in arms, either to avenge their wrongs or not to die unavenged. They came together; they fought. Those fight out of rashness, these fight back for safety: pride sets Gallus and Rioldus, Dodo's kinsmen, in the first front of the battle; justice sets Peter and Audolecus, the Prelate's kinsmen, opposite in the first line. Fear convicts the degenerate spirits of Gallus and Rioldus; innocence raises the right hands of Peter and Audolecus to valor. Valor favored innocence; the victory fell to the church's side: Gallus and Rioldus, chiefs of the wicked faction, are cut down and perish; Peter and Audolecus, the church's avengers, bring back the banner of victory ^k. The impious were confounded, and did not blush; they were conquered, but though worn out did not yield: for Dodo, who had been the kindler of all these evils, now becomes himself also the author of war; and setting at nought what is said of priests from the mouth of God, “He who touches you touches the apple of my eye,” he rages against the very head of the holy Bishop, devotes him to death, and turns upon him alone the vengeance for his nephews.

[43] The Saint at Pippin's banquet Prince Pippin in those days had come to Jupille ^l, an estate adjoining Liège, where the holy Man, invited as it were on business of the kingdom to his court, did not deny his presence. The prince and the prince's concubine make their countenance serene toward him; some dissemble their wrath, others feign gladness, many change the habit of their heart each according to his own judgment. And the concubine was contriving opportunely to prepare for herself some intercessor, by whose intervention she might conciliate the Bishop's mind to herself, or at least for the present soften the prince's importunate reproof. A banquet is prepared; the Bishop is invited; the whole throng of courtiers rejoices utterly. The prince signals that the cup offered him by the cupbearer be brought to the Bishop, counting it in the place of a blessing if he might receive the cup from the consecrated hand of the holy Bishop — which he knew that the emperor Maximus had once sought from Martin, bishop of Tours ^m. But Pippin would have received a greater blessing from Lantbert than the emperor Maximus received from Martin, if Pippin's wife had deserved such favor with Lantbert as Maximus's wife earned with Martin ⁿ.

[44] Martin esteemed his own presbyter better than the emperor Maximus, to whom he handed the cup before the king; Lantbert preferred no one to Pippin. Following the prince's example, the lesser nobles refuses to bless Alpaïs's cup, all beg that the cup be handed to them from the holy Bishop's holy hand. While all rush together for this and press forward confusedly, each to anticipate the other, behold, the concubine, secretly mingling her hand among the hands of the others, was contriving even so to snatch the cup from the Bishop's hand. But he, watchful before and behind, guarded against the woman's snares with shrewd mind, and turning to the prince, complains of the excess of the woman's presumption, who by crafty art had sought to brand him with the mark of a communion not pleasing to God. Thereupon he hurried out of the hall, and diminished all the gaiety of that princely banquet ^o. Nor did the woman's cunning rest even so, since she wished to leave nothing untried. In the evening, as the Bishop was preparing to return, he is ordered by the prince, at the concubine's suggestion, not to depart without saluting his consort.

[45] The Bishop, the Spirit of truth speaking in him, said: I call to witness, and to salute her: hence, at her instigation, Dodo O greatest prince, I truly call to witness Jesus, the hope of our life, that I shall never have communion with a fornicatress; for Paul commanded us, “Do not mingle with fornicators.” I call God to witness, I say, that I shall never salute her; for I know that God's friend John said: “If anyone does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, do not receive him, nor say to him Hail: for he who says to him Hail communicates in his evil works.” That you have communion with her I greatly grieve; that you will not come to your senses I bear ill; on this account I fear God's wrath for you. The concubine therefore, seeing that nothing was left for her cause, and fearing that already, if Lantbert should live long, divorce hung over her, sends word of the whole matter in order to her furious brother, and adding oil to the furnace, adjures him to act as quickly as possible about killing the Bishop. The grief which Dodo had over the slaying of his nephews was heightened by a redoubled grief at his sister's rebuff; and now he was wholly bent on this, to satisfy himself and his sister.

[46] Lantbert, the herald of truth, now pressing toward the prize of the heavenly calling, hastens with a band of armed men to the Saint's dwelling had come to Liège; but Dodo had withdrawn to the village of Auridum, close enough to Liège: he prepares arms, gathers companions, and calls out auxiliaries procured even from the royal house, in his own name or his sister's. He hates the delays of postponement, gathers up wrath by putting off, and by growing angry sharpens the goads of his fury on the whetstone of his most hard heart. Lantbert meanwhile, foreknowing that his contest was at hand, passed that night sleepless; not because any dreams of death terrified him, but because in hope he anticipated the future joys of rest. For rising in the very stillness of the night to give praise to the Lord, he exercised himself on earth in angelic service. At the hour for celebrating the nightly assembly [p] he said to his awakened disciples: Rise more quickly; God has promised a crown to those who watch. When the Office was completed, the rest return to their beds; he himself stands forth *, completing the course of good work. About dawn, as the corruptible body weighed down the soul, he began, after the example of the Lord going to his passion, to be wearied, and with eyes heavy with sleep he caught a little rest as he slept.

[47] Then behold, about the dawn, as the darkness thinned, at first daybreak. A shining cross the watchman of the episcopal house, by name Baldoveus, sees and announces a hostile army advancing in wedges; and although the mist rising in the morning blunted a clear view, it was easy to perceive the matter either from the multitude of men seen or from the clash of arms heard. Breastplates gleamed, helmets stood out upon their heads, their left hands were covered with shields, their right hands armed with swords and lances; slingers went before with archers. Hear a wonderful thing, a token of divine love! For that it might be made plain that Lantbert gloried in nothing save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world was crucified to him and he to the world, and that for him an ascent from earth to heaven was now being prepared in the heavens by the power of the Cross, certain men following the army see with amazement above the house in which the Pontiff was an admirable sign, in the likeness of the Lord's Cross, glowing red from earth up to heaven, brighter than any metal. It is agreed that the holy cross was visible to certain men who followed Dodo in hope of the wages agreed on, not from greed of shedding blood, and only to increase the number of soldiers, not to perpetrate the crime; while on the contrary it was hidden by the interposed mist from those who, from covetousness of plunder and expectation of reward, breathed out destruction for the holy Pontiff [q].

[48] appears above that same dwelling. To the first Constantine, as emperor, on his way to war against a rival, there appeared in heaven the sign of the cross, glowing with fiery brightness, on which was seen inscribed Τούτῳ νίκα, that is, In this sign you shall conquer [r]. To Lantbert

also, standing girt for battle, the sign of the cross appeared above his house, plainly portending that for him who had borne the marks of Christ's cross in his heart and body, victory and a crown were now being prepared by God. To the Lord's beloved Benedict also there appeared to certain men a way strewn with cloths and made ready with lamps from earth up to heaven, by which he should ascend to heaven [s]: but for Lantbert a more glorious way was prepared than for Benedict, who by that very cross, glowing red from earth to heaven, ascended the heavens. Lantbert too was happier than Elijah himself: for Elijah, caught up into heaven in a fiery chariot, with his death deferred, still holds the long hope of eternal life: Lantbert, having met death and been led into heaven by a cross of fiery light, rejoices in eternal life with Christ.

[49] As the enemy break into the dwelling, the Saint The line of the enemy was now approaching as if to the very enclosure: the watchman of the house cries out to the sleepers, to whom the army now standing round could itself be a messenger of horror. Christ's witness Lantbert, stunned by the heaviness of sleep and by the bitterness of the matter, rises with unshod feet and snatches a sword, as if to defend himself and his own: but coming to himself, he condemned himself of rashness, and because he had at least unlawfully attempted arms, he assigned himself before God to a fitting penance [t]. Thee, he said, good Jesus, who saidst, “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay,” thee I entreat that I may not lose my victory, since it is better for me to die in thee than to lay hands upon my enemies in fighting. Thou mighty warrior, take arms and shield, and rise up to help me. Now, the gates being burst and the doors broken, they were driving their lances against the very walls of the house; some too, having entered, threatened fire. Peter and Audolecus were driving out those who had entered, and with the strength of so few strove vainly to resist so many; whom the Saint, consoling them for the moment, said: If, brothers, you have loved me as your vicar, love Christ as I love him: confess your sins to Jesus, and pray for one another, that you may be saved. It behooves me now to be dissolved and to live with Christ.

[50] having exhorted his own to die piously, You know, O my nephews, that you were guilty and blameworthy in that crime [u], for which vengeance is now sought; what you then did unjustly, now, I beg, expiate justly and patiently. God will not judge twice for the same thing, nor shall a twofold tribulation arise. Let not, I ask, your sin overflow before God, nor let blood touch blood through your hands. Let us not fear the savagery of our persecutors, for to them the sword and the fire shall be for vengeance, which shall eat their flesh even to the marrow. Do you only keep your hands guiltless, that your spirit also may be saved for eternity: give even your flesh to them to be torn in pieces. By these last admonitions of their Father, now set in his agony, all were animated to fall for justice and innocence. He himself, seizing the Psalter and taking as a presage the first verse of the psalm that met him — “For the Lord shall require the blood of his servants” — added this as his last word: May the Lord see, and require it. And when all had gone out of the chamber and were exposed like lambs in the midst of raging * men, he himself with hands outstretched is laid upon the ground in the form of a cross, and praying with tears, commended his soul into the Lord's hands, so that no one ever commended himself to God more fervently.

[51] Meanwhile the executioners slew Peter and Audolecus, lying on the ground, he is transfixed by a spear. and as many of the church's dependents as they found there. One, more savage than the rest, having climbed the ridge of the roof, and seeing him clinging to the floor of the pavement, pierced his heart with a cast spear [x]; but the angels bore his soul, with the very murmur of his prayer, into heaven. Therefore Lantbert, the Lord's precious priest, who here had been a partaker with all who keep God's commandments, there enjoys, rejoicing and exulting, the fellowship of all the Saints. With the continent and the virgins, crowned with the garland of chastity; a confessor with confessors, before God he drinks the second cup of confession; a monk with monks, he receives the hundredfold of eternal recompense; an apostle with the Apostles, he sits in the seat of judiciary power; a prophet with the prophets, he rejoices in hope; a patriarch with the patriarchs, he shines in faith; lastly, a martyr with the martyrs, receiving the cup of salvation, he calls upon the name of the Lord, because he had nothing greater to render to the Lord for all that he had rendered to him. Among the nine orders of angels also he has a place, in which he shares with each according to the merit of his office. And so, made a partaker of all, he was chosen as a fellow-citizen in the eternal court, where he obtains the palm of everlasting glory and the robe of eternal gladness.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. That is, the nocturnal Office.

q. To whom that cross was seen and from whom it was hidden, Sigebert seems to have said from mere conjecture; for the older biographers say only that it thus appeared to some of that army, or to those following the army.

r. The deeds of St. Constantine the emperor are illustrated at the 21st day of May, and there, in chapter 3, the prodigious cross which he saw when about to march against Maxentius has been treated of. I have restored the Greek words, since in our manuscript it was read faultily Duthoyca.

s. The Life of St. Benedict, founder of his Order, by St. Gregory the Great, is given on the 21st day of March, where in chapter 6 that vision is related.

t. That the Saint, having presently cast away the sword which, heavy with sleep, in the first impulse of his mind he had snatched for his own defense, changed his purpose, Godescalc and Stephen also say; but of a penance enjoined upon himself on that account neither makes mention. The anonymous poet, reported at num. 174, fabled from rumor that he had resolved to do penance for seven years if he lived. See the Commentary, num. 166 and 188.

u. Namely, in the slaying of Gallus and Rioldus, concerning which consult the Commentary, num. 167 and following.

x. Sigebert was the first to write that St. Lambert's heart was pierced. Godescalc says: In ictu teli jaculavit eum (he struck him with the cast of a spear); Stephen: Percussit telo victurum in secula Christo (he struck with a spear him who was to live forever with Christ); the anonymous Poet: Hunc telo figens, auxit sibi vulnera culpæ (piercing him with a spear, he increased for himself the wounds of guilt).

perhaps perstat*

read furentium*

CHAPTER V.

The burial of the body at Maastricht: the punishment of Dodo and his companions: the miracles done at Liège, and the church built there: the Body translated thither: the slaying of Grimoald divinely punished: the Northmen repelled from the sacred body: the author's observation: the time of the martyrdom.

[ ] The body carried to Maastricht, to the church of St. Peter, A few of the holy Martyr's retinue who escaped the peril of death, covering with a mean covering the body drenched with rosy blood, conveyed it as quickly as possible by ship to Maastricht. Report flies through the peoples, shaking all with fear and horror: all are afraid because of the prince's offense ^a, all shudder at the undeserved slaying of the Prelate; the people of Maastricht lament that they have lost the goodwill of their pious Father, and yet they do not sufficiently dare to show the reverence due to so great a Father. Scarcely is there leisure to mourn the dear, scarcely to hate the guilty. When the holy body had been set down at the harbor, a people without name and without number ran together, and how greatly St. Lantbert was esteemed by all could be judged from the confused lamentations of all. Placed on a bier, the holy Martyr is carried to the basilica of St. Peter with due honor; the clergy follow with psalms and canticles, the people beat their hands together with lamentations: the people keep vigil solemnly through the night, the clergy duly frequent the watches.

[53] It delights all to touch the footsteps of their pious Father; repelling concubines, he is buried in his father's tomb: he thinks himself to have earned great intercessions to whom it fell to press kisses on the holy limbs. Delightful and pious it was to see all bestowing on their Shepherd a pledge of love; but pitiable and wonderful it was to observe the pious Shepherd's anger toward the straying sheep. For it is handed down by the elders that, while free access to kiss the Saint lay open to all, if any concubine pressed forward to kiss the Martyr's body, she was whirled back as if by a kind of whirlwind ^b. By the repulse of concubines, therefore, it was made abundantly clear that that concubine ^c was hateful to God and to the holy Martyr, who by a twofold crime had brought infamy upon Francia and had troubled the holy Church. And so great a fear had come upon the people of Maastricht at the bitterness of this matter that they did not even dare to prepare a mausoleum worthy of a Man of so great a name: therefore, opening the tomb of Aper, the father of that same St. Lantbert, when morning came they resolved that the body of his most holy Son should be buried, until the proper time, together with his father's bones.

[54] Nor did heavenly power forsake the lifeless limbs,

it showed to the peoples of how great goodness they were. a heavenly melody heard there. For lest the peoples should be terrified by human terror, so as not to venerate the Lord's holy Lantbert with worthy honor, there began to be heard at his tomb by night and sometimes by day the angelic harmony of those singing psalms, as often as human silence seemed to be there. Nor were there wanting those who searched out the truth of the matter itself; and when they applied all the diligence of mind and ears, it seemed to them from the quality of St. Lantbert's voice, well known to them [d,] that the Saint himself, with the others who had fallen with him, was singing a sweet melody to the divine Majesty ^e. If anyone at that hour wished to enter the basilica, for awe he could not go in; and the nearer one pressed forward, the less did his blunted ears take in the angelic voices: but when he withdrew farther off, the angelic melody was repeated more fully. O thine ineffable power, O Christ! Who can weigh thy mighty works? Behold, thou makest plain what thou saidst with thy mouth: “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” For all live to thee, who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

[55] The Saint, appearing, foretells the death of Dodo and his companions Lantbert, Christ's glorious Soldier, began at once to make plain on earth how great he was with the King of kings in heaven, and was by this far more blessed, that through him even after death the name of the Lord was blessed among the peoples. For appearing by night to the treasurer, by name Amalgisus ^f, once his own judge, he addressed him with gentle speech: and being diligently asked by that man about the cause of his coming, he said: We went to Rome; from Rome, behold, we return, to visit Dodo and his accomplices; for the blood of the innocent, which was poured out with me for Christ upon the earth, even now demands vengeance from him, nor will God long withhold his grace from them. Having said this, he vanished. But that the vision was not a mere fancy, the outcome of events taught. For Dodo, the slayer of the holy Bishop, at once incurred the wrath of the divine vengeance: for casting out through his mouth all his vital parts putrefied and foul, he showed to all his own unhappiness by a pitiable exit from life; and he who here abused the pomp of the world was assigned in hell to a fire * unquenchable and to the worm that does not die.

[56] a true prophet. It is reported also that, because of the intolerableness of the excessive stench, his body was cast into the river Meuse, corrupted with worms and decay ^g; nor did he deserve any other burial, who acquired for himself the pitiable memory of so great a crime. That man, to be reckoned equal to Dodo in crime, who slew the Lord's Saint with his own hands, wretchedly engages his own brother in battle, and slaying his brother, is in turn slain by his brother. As they say, to sum up everything in few words: within the space of that same year scarcely anyone escaped who was guilty in the slaying of the holy Martyr: and if any survived, he grieved to find himself so far annulled in mind ^h that he counted those happy who were consumed by a swift, though pitiable, death. But Christ's Martyr, crowned, triumphs, and holding the palm of victory ⁱ, exults in Abraham's bosom. Thus, O Christ, in thy Saints thou triumphest over thine enemies, and loving those who love thee, thou honorest those who honor thee.

[57] The Saint's chamber being made illustrious by God, sight is given to the blind Liège, which deserved to be made illustrious by the martyrdom of its Patron, although it grieved to be for a time widowed of his body, yet was not without his miracles. For in the chamber that was witness of his martyrdom, lights kindled by God shone forth very often, so that the whole house glowed like a ray of the sun, so that a human eye could scarcely bear [k that light.] These beginnings of his fame the following grace of miracles verified, of which the sum must here be set down in brief. A certain Theodimus ^l the holy Man once admonished in a vision to restore his excellent comb, which had been snatched from him by that man's wife: on the third occasion ^m he afflicted with an incurable blow the breast of the man who did not obey him, and thus received his own from one unwilling. Baldigisilus, bidden in a vision to keep watch at the place of his martyrdom, and another certain man, Raginfrid, admonished to cleanse that same place — both received the sight of their eyes, of which they were deprived, each in his own time.

[58] The maiden Oda came in faith to this place, herself also blind; and when, close to the place, she called upon the name of the holy Martyr, she received what she desired ⁿ. By these things the fresh veneration of the new Patron was increased, and the kindled devotion of the people builds a basilica for the Saint, the more quickly, the more devoutly. The Saint's couch too, fashioned by the faithful, was set in that place where the Saint was pierced by the wicked man's spear. This devotion of the people of Liège so pleased the Lord that now frequently a heavenly vision appeared to many of the faithful, that the holy Martyr, brought back from Maastricht, should be restored to the place of his martyrdom. St. Hubert, disciple and successor of the most holy Lantbert, did not go against the will of God and of the Martyr. In the thirteenth year, therefore, of his episcopate ^o, opening the Saint's tomb, he found his body solid and unharmed and suffused with a wondrous fragrance: he changed the garments, and sealed up the former ones to be kept for giving as relics [p].

[59] It became clear even in the translating that this was well-pleasing to the Lord: he is translated thither not without miracles: for while the people rested in the estate of Nuella [q], a poor and blind man was enriched by the office of his eyes restored to him. And not long after, in the estate of Hermala [r], while all were relieving their labor with rest, a paralytic [s] brought there, at the sight of the holy bier, with the framework of his limbs made solid, was restored to himself. In each of these places basilicas were at once founded in honor of the holy Martyr. With such dancing for joy they drew near to thy township, O Liège [t]! How great and of what sort was the procession of clergy and people, how great and of what sort the exultation of those flocking from every side, how great the liberality of all in giving gifts to the Saint, how great the purity of the faithful in praying and in paying their vows — these things and things of this kind can more easily be estimated by a wise man than told by anyone's mouth or pen.

[60] You have, Liège, your joy; behold, you hold your own special patronage. how much good hence accrued to Liège. Hence began the beginning of your advancement *; through him you have been exalted into a city and are advanced from daughter to mother [u]: through him promoted to an episcopal see, you have advanced to every honor. While other cities in a manner incline toward old age, you through him have flowered into the state of a fair youth. May the Martyr protect you for ever by his holy intercessions, who advanced you to this, that on earth you should be magnified in merit and in name. From that time onward there is no measure or number of miracles; since to all who there in truth call upon God through Lantbert's name, the door of divine mercy has ever lain open. There one might see the chains of the fettered, the crutches of the weak, hung up as an argument of God's power. Whoever came holding fast to faith never returned unavailing.

[61] Here too the holy Martyr, as he was a pious and ready helper to the pious and faithful, the slaying of Grimoald in the Saint's church divinely punished: so was he against the impious either a severe corrector or a just avenger. For a few years after his translation [x], while the often-named Pippin the Mayor of the Palace lay sick, his son Grimoald went to visit him; and being devoted to St. Lantbert — perhaps the more so because he had fallen in defense of the marriage of his mother Plectrude [y] — he turned aside to Liège, and came to the Saint's tomb to pray. While praying he is there surprised before St. Lantbert's altar and slain by a certain attendant of Radbod, duke of the Frisians, whose daughter, betrothed to him by his father Pippin, he was awaiting in marriage [z]. But Radbod, by whose prompting the innocent Grimoald fell, did not bear this unpunished: for not long after, the same Radbod, wondrously mocked by a demon, perished by a sudden and eternal death [aa].

[62] After St. Lantbert's death the Norman people, breathing with beastly ferocity, violently broke into Liège, that is, Legia; and having broken and burned the strongholds, and having slain the citizens too with unmeasured slaughter and plundered their goods, at the last they consumed the church of St. Lantbert with fire, and leveling it with the ground, the Northmen repelled from the Saint's body. left only the traces of ruin and burning. Then, wishing with barbarian presumption to approach the place in which the holy body was venerated, and to plunder whatever best things they might find, they leaped back and fled, a dread struck into them by God; and fleeing in this manner, they consoled their flight, saying that a loss had befallen them in that they had not carried off that one structure, now so precious, gleaming thus about the Martyr's body [bb]. Since it is long and wearisome to recount one by one each of St. Lantbert's miracles, let us praise in general the power of God working through him.

[63] The author's observation on the first biographer: the time of the martyrdom. The Life of St. Lantbert was first written, by order of bishop Agilfrid, by Godescalc, a deacon of that community, who lived in the time of Pippin the Third and Charlemagne [cc]; which, though from the simplicity of his understanding he expressed it with many faults of barbarism and of style [dd], yet he himself, a writer in gold, wrote the whole of it in golden letters to the honor of the holy Martyr; and while he pursued his deeds truthfully, concerning the cause of the martyrdom [ee] he spoke with too little freedom of mouth. Which he is believed to have done for this reason, lest he should seem to reproach the kings of his own time with the fault of their forebears. For of the unlawful union of Pippin [ff] and Alpaïs was born Charles Martel; of Charles, Pippin the Third, who was promoted from prince to king of the Franks; of Pippin, Charlemagne [gg], than whom no one before him or after him was greater; concerning whom it may be doubted whether he was braver or more fortunate, more powerful in the commonwealth or more religious in ecclesiastical discipline. And St. Lantbert suffered on the 15th of the Kalends of October [hh], in the fortieth year of his episcopate, under Childebert, king of the Franks, son of king Theodoric; from which Theodoric the kings of the Franks reigned in name only, the power of the kingdom being established in the hands of the mayors of the palace, until Pippin the Third was promoted to be king.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. That is, to be distributed as sacred relics.

q. In the shorter Life one reads Nivella. See the Annotations on the first Life, chapter 3, letter p.

r. In the same shorter Life it is Harmala. Consult the aforecited chapter 3 of the first Life, at letter q.

s. By Godescalc he is called a cripple.

t. Legia, or Liège, while St. Lambert lived, had been only an estate; but it is nevertheless likely that, because of the place of his martyrdom, made illustrious by miracles and by a church, it had even then begun to grow.

u. Matrem I have restored from the shorter Life; for in our manuscript is wrongly read martyrem.

x. What he here relates we have proved in the preceding Commentary, num. 118 and following, to have happened in the year of Christ 714; and therefore Sigebert erred when he asserted that these things happened some years after the Saint's body had been carried thither.

y. Consult the Commentary, §§9 and 10, where we have refuted this.

z. Sigebert errs; for Le Cointe, at the year of Christ 711, num. 7, proves from the Annals of Metz and the Deeds of the kings of the Franks that Teutsinda or Theodosinda, daughter of Radbod duke of the Frisians, was in fact married to Grimoald, namely in the year 711 according to the cited Annals.

aa. Here again Sigebert fables, when he says that Radbod died, mocked by a demon, not long after Grimoald's slaying, of which he indeed came under suspicion. For it is established from the Annals cited by Le Cointe at the year of Christ 719, num. 14, that he first departed this life in the aforesaid year 719, since he had already before fallen with his army before Charles Martel, as may be seen in the same Le Cointe at the year of Christ 716, num. 1. As to what he says of the mocking by a demon, consult the Acts of St. Wulfram, bishop of Sens, vol. 3 of March, from page 146 in the Appendix.

bb. Concerning this Norman irruption consult the preceding Commentary, §14, where it was shown from a more ancient anonymous writer that what Giles of Orval relates of the fear struck into the Normans at St. Lambert's body is by no means likely; but in the same place I had not observed that in this part Sigebert had led the way for Giles. Yet we think the anonymous writer is to be followed.

cc. Of Godescalc and of the time at which he wrote we have treated in the Commentary, §1.

dd. In our manuscript is wrongly read represserit.

ee. Thus I have corrected it from the Life published under the name of Reiner; for our manuscript faultily has & cum martyrii.

ff. The word Pippini had dropped out of our manuscript; which I have restored from the Life just praised.

gg. Concerning this alleged cause of his silence consult the preceding Commentary, §10.

hh. On the day of the martyrdom all agree: of the year we have treated in the Commentary, §§8 and 10.

igni*

elsewhere provectus*

FOURTH LIFE

By Nicholas, canon of Liège, in the twelfth century, from the edition of Jean Chapeauville.

BHL Number: 4688

By Nicholas the canon.

PROLOGUE.

Excusing his own unskillfulness, To his lord Wedericus, beloved in Christ and truly to be loved, venerable abbot of the church of Liessies ^a, Nicholas, the least of the canons and deacons of the church of holy Mary and of holy Lambert which is at Liège, greeting. As there is nothing which we ought to deny to friends and brothers who ask honorable things, so it belongs to them not to demand of us what, being too arduous, we are unable to attain through slowness or slenderness of wit. For it is very rash that certain men set about to write the illustrious deeds of distinguished men, worthy of memory, to whom neither has nature granted wit, nor learning erudition, nor eloquence splendor of speech. And so it comes about that, since they cannot unfold in words the greatness of the matters which they ought to have adorned, they are compelled to make plain the dryness and unskillfulness of their own wit. For, as Jerome says to bishop Heliodorus, small wits do not sustain great subjects, and in the very attempt, having dared beyond their strength, they sink down. Which I do not blush to confess has happened to me also, who, being neither distinguished in oratorical eloquence nor conscious of a subtle wit, am not sufficient to set forth in worthy words the life and passion of the blessed martyr Lambert, which I had determined to write.

[2] he says that he was asked to write, in order to reveal another Which work indeed let your fatherhood know I did not take upon myself by any motion of levity or by pride of boasting; but certain of our lords and superiors have very often exhorted my littleness that I should diligently investigate a worthier cause of the blessed Man's passion, and his deeds now buried by antiquity, and by writing should as it were draw them back into the light. Long and much did I hesitate over this, because both to undertake so great a matter was very invidious, and to contradict the authority of my superiors was presumptuous and truly irreligious. But, as I judge, he deserves and need fear the envy of no detractor who is incited to write not by love of his own praise, but is compelled by the command of one presiding. I obeyed therefore the things enjoined, and amid my manifold occupations I took up this work, full of labor and anxiety; because nothing at all of this could be found in the books of those who first wrote the life and martyrdom of Bl. Lambert, to which also among us a venerable, not a light, antiquity has established the greatest authority ^b.

[3] cause of the martyrdom: the argument of the Work The first of these (as we have received from our elders) was a certain Godescalc, deacon of our church, in the time of Charlemagne, from among the kings of the Franks august emperor, and of our bishop Agilfrid ^c. The second was Stephen of happy memory, the tenth bishop of Liège after Bl. Lambert ^d: and though they discoursed magnificently enough of certain things concerning his life and most holy manner of living, it is greatly to be wondered at why they passed over in silence the glorious cause of his martyrdom, worthy of so great a Priest, writing down things which seem both to obscure the Martyr's glory and to afford an occasion of mockery to calumniators and unbelievers ^e. Yet I do not disparage their writings, nor do I compare this my little Work with the memorable sayings of venerable men; in which I promise not an ostentation of eloquence, but in simple words the truth of the history, desiring wholly to set forth in whose princes' time, or of what parents, Bl. Lambert took the beginning of his birth; under what teacher he learned the sacred Letters, or by what miracles he flourished in boyhood; how regularly he was promoted to the bishopric, how unreasonably he was cast out of the church of Tongeren, and how gloriously he was again enthroned, yet always kept patience and humility; at what age he was famous, and how, after the conversion of the Toxandrians, after many works of his holiness, he ended his life by martyrdom, and how the Roman Pontiff manifestly knew the hour and glory of his passion through an angel ^f.

[4] These things indeed, partly from the Deeds of the kings of the Franks, partly from the Chronicle of Regino, abbot of Prüm, and reviews his authors. and of Sigebert, venerable monk of the monastery of Gembloux, partly from the letters of various bishops, partly from the Life of Bl. Landoald the priest, or of St. Landrada the virgin ^g, partly from the report of elders and the writings of faithful men, I have taken pains to excerpt, and have reduced into the form and sequence of a little book; imitating in a manner the industry of the bee, which, gathering juices from divers flowers and disposing them in combs, changes a varied savor into the one sweetness of honey. And since your church of Liessies glories especially in the patronage of Bl. Lambert, and embraces his relics with undoubted love ^h, I send this little Work of my littleness to your holiness, venerable father, most earnestly beseeching you that you look in it not to the unskillfulness of the writer, but to the magnificence of the things written and of the Martyr. Farewell, and pray for me.

ANNOTATIONS.

cogantur*

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's illustrious and pious parents, and his education under SS. Landoald and Theodard: the translation of the latter's body to Maastricht made by him: his succession to the bishopric.

[ ] Born of illustrious parents, Aper and Herisplendis, The glorious man Lambert, chosen as priest and martyr for the eternal King, was born of a distinguished lineage at Maastricht, which is a great village upon the river Meuse, not far from the ruined walls of the city of Tongeren. His father Aper, an illustrious man, vigorously governed there the dignity of a county left to him by hereditary right from his forebears. His mother, by name Herisplendis, adorned the brightness of her nobility with the manners of modesty and honorableness. At that time Heraclius, after Phocas, had attained the summit of the Roman empire: and that part of the kingdom of the Franks which is called Austrasia, Sigebert the son of king Dagobert, still quite young, prudently governed under his father, through Cunibert, bishop of Cologne, and Pippin the First, Mayor of the Palace, men notable for faith, justice and counsel ^a. Under these princes, therefore, Lambert was born of illustrious parents, as has been said above. And they, since they were most Christian, striving in their conjugal union to please God, when they had deserved of God such an Heir of their riches, resolved, and not without divine Providence, that he should be steeped in sacred letters and made over to ecclesiastical ministries; which also the blessed infancy of the Boy himself seemed to breathe.

[6] with St. Landoald as his master, he profits greatly, And because his father was a prudent man, he chose a holy master for his holy Son, lest boyish innocence and dove-like simplicity should be infected by the depravity of any teacher. Therefore, that he might be initiated in the study of letters, he committed him to the venerable man Landoald, whose integrity of life and richness of knowledge and speech was then held famous in this region. For this Landoald, ordained archpriest of the church of Tongeren under St. Amand the bishop, had served God there, and had diligently ruled that same church for nine years while it was without a bishop, until the priesthood of Bl. Remaclus. Landoald therefore, embracing the tender years of the holy Boy in a fatherly bosom, formed the manners of that earliest age to the rule of a holy life. For by divine grace,

which had poured itself abundantly into his heart, was manifestly advancing the tenderness of his boyhood into the maturity of manly understanding. And how much he profited under that same blessed man, with how pure a heart he drank in the teaching of piety and sobriety, we judge it superfluous to press in words, since we see the fruit of so happy a tree still today abounding everywhere.

[7] and building a church with him, he draws forth a spring; But the illustrious man Aper, exulting in no moderate degree at his Son's advancement, and rendering thanks to God in words and deeds, made over by perpetual right to him and to his guardian Landoald an estate of his own property, which is called Wentershovium, so that, a church being built there, they might give themselves the more urgently, the one to the zeal of teaching, the other to that of learning, the farther removed they lived from the vanity of the world. And while the work went on there of building the church, the craftsmen complained about the lack of drinkable water, because the water there, collected from a marshy overflow, rather tormented those who drank it with bitterness than refreshed them with any sweetness. The holy master, and the Disciple holier than the master, having faith in him who put sweetness into the bitter waters from Marah, who brought forth waters from the rock, with a common vow together entreat the mercy of the Almighty. Therefore, the name of the holy and undivided Trinity being invoked, they mark the place with a staff in the form of a cross. A wondrous thing, but not unusual to faith! A most limpid spring at once flowed forth there, which, being agreeable to the uses of men, while it refreshes the inhabitants with a daily benefit, does not allow the memory of so great a miracle to perish.

[8] Likewise on a certain day, when the winter chill had already grown harsh, ordered by the same man to bring coals, it chanced that the fire in the dwelling of the venerable priest Landoald had wholly gone out: and he, calling the aforesaid Boy, said: Run, Son, and bring from the neighboring house burning coals, needful for our uses. And when the boy Lambert had no vessel at hand for carrying fire, and his teacher's command pressed him, yet he ran the more swiftly, lest even a slight delay should make his service unwelcome to his master. Now the men of that region, scattered through the woods and marshes in which they abound, dwell far distant from one another. And so he came in haste to a neighboring cottage in which he had noticed from afar an abundant fire burning, and asked those sitting around that coals be given him. And when they asked in mockery (since he had no vessel) whether he would receive them in his clothes, he, being of dove-like simplicity, carefully fitted his little cloak stretched out with both hands and arms, and having received in it a sufficient quantity of burning coals, he bound it firmly lest any could fall out, and returned gladly and in haste.

[9] And when he had humbly laid them down before his master and shaken out the garment, he carries them in his garment unharmed. no sign at all of damage appeared on it, no trace even of slight scorching. The venerable priest began to marvel within himself and to give thanks to almighty God; because as he saw the garment unharmed by the fire, so he had marked the Boy's mind sincere and clean from every vice of pride ^b. Meanwhile the happy youth Lambert, having been exercised in no moderate degree under Landoald in the knowledge of divine and worldly letters, was also sufficiently taught the way of the Lord according to the measure of his tender age; clean and whole in mind and body from those vices against which the slippery age of young men is too little on its guard, especially of those whom both nobility of flesh and opulence of goods impel to wantonness.

[10] And so, when he was now reaching the flower of youth, he is commended by his father, Further instructed by St. Theodard, whom after God he venerated with wondrous affection, to the most holy man Theodard, who, the successor of Bl. Remaclus, then presided over the church of Tongeren ^c. Whom the venerable pontiff Theodard, receiving and embracing with spiritual desire as a most beloved pledge and only son, and searching out his manners and acts with silent and subtle consideration, began to venerate and to admire; because he had discovered in the Youth manifold gifts of divine grace, reckoning himself far happier in the service and companionship of such a Pupil than Moses in that of Joshua, or Eli in the ministry of Samuel. For Bl. Lambert was truly worthy, lovely in appearance, affable in converse, holding upright conduct with all men. He set little store by present things, as he had vowed in boyhood, reckoning all as nothing save what was of the grace of eternal salvation.

[11] he stands out in the gifts of grace and of nature. Cleaving in mind to heavenly things, he offered himself as a holocaust to the Lord. And as those wrote who handed down to memory the measure and quality of his form, the supreme Artificer and the reckoning of nature so composed him that in his whole body scarcely anything could be found which seemed to exceed the measure of comeliness and elegance. Finally, so great was his humility in serving the bishop, his assiduity in sacred reading, his devotion in prayer, his moderation in fastings, his largeness in almsgiving, his cheerfulness in hospitality, that in a populous town, and amid the frequent assemblies of great princes at which the affairs of the church of Tongeren often compelled him to be present, he alone deserved by the quality of his life that both the good could truthfully praise him and the wicked feared to disparage him.

[12] He reclaims the body of St. Theodard, and buries it at Liège. Meanwhile it happened that the blessed prelate Theodard came by the way of innocence to the crown of martyrdom in the territory of Speyer ^d. By the bitterness of this matter and by so mournful a message Lambert was dismayed: for although he did not doubt that he had been exalted with the glory of the holy martyrs, yet he did not refrain from tears, which were drawn forth not by the distrust of unbelief, but by the longing of love. He was most of all distressed that he had not at least been present at his sweetest father's last obsequies. Therefore, that he might honor dead him whom he had loved living, for the consolation of all his grief he girded himself steadfastly to reclaim the lifeless body of the priest and martyr: and although at first he attempted this in vain, yet by a second expedition he obtained what he desired. And so, having brought back so most sacred a pledge, he buried it not without great pomp of obsequies, and honored with its tomb the estate of Liège ^e — then indeed an ignoble village, but now by divine ordinance and by the patronizing merits of Bl. Lambert himself, the head of this whole region and the dwelling of a princedom.

[13] The author's observation on the see of Tongeren. For at that time the city of the Tongrians, long since utterly overthrown by the Huns, more than two hundred years having rolled by since its destruction, was inhabited by scarcely a few, and the greatness of its own desolation and solitude had blotted out all the marks of its ancient nobility and brightness; but the dignity alone of the pontifical chair, which it had received from Bl. Maternus ^f, the first bishop of that city, it still held unshaken in the church of St. Mary ever Virgin, amid the very ruins of its walls. And since the people of Maastricht, who were near enough to it toward the East, were then held more powerful in that region in wealth and in the great throng of their people, by their ordering and disposition the see of Tongeren, like a decrepit and half-dead mother, was governed by a stronger and more prudent daughter; so much so that until the priesthood of Bl. Hubert it was called no less the bishopric of Maastricht than of Tongeren ^g.

[14] To St. Theodard in the bishopric, Therefore who should be appointed bishop for the church of Tongeren was much desired in the church of God, and much was it treated of in the hall of Clovis, king of the Franks, and of his son Childeric ^h, who reigned under his father in Austrasia. For Sigebert ⁱ, Clovis's brother, had already died without children. And so gradually the word ran within the church, and from the church to the throng of the people, that none was better than Lambert, none worthier than he of the bishopric of the people of Tongeren, whom they most surely knew to be enriched with the honors of holiness and made illustrious by the dealings of frugality. Therefore, by the inspiration of the grace of the Holy Spirit, the people of Maastricht, assembled together, acclaimed that he should be chosen for themselves as bishop and should succeed in his master's place. The royal highness also and the multitude of the nobles of the palace, among whom the esteem of Lambert was no slight thing, gave their vote by assenting to the election. But the man of God Lambert, who had striven to deserve the priesthood, not to undertake it, pleaded that he was unworthy of such honor, unsuited to so great a burden.

[15] But the more he resisted, the more he stirred up the zeal of all toward himself; after some little resistance, he is appointed. for he was judged by all the more to be sought after, the less ambitious he was found in seeking the bishopric. And so, when all acclaimed and now threatened that they would do pious violence to him unwilling and resisting, the Man full of God began to consider within himself that whoever, under the appearance of humility, obstinately shuns to profit his neighbors by the goods which he has, deserves to lose the gifts of divine grace. He feared to resist God's manifest will, and to exceed the bounds of charity and obedience; and so, being in all things truly humble, truly subject to God, and not unmindful of human frailty, he feared to undertake the governance of so great a people; but presuming upon the power of God who called him, he consented. Thus approved by the testimony of the people of Maastricht and by the judgment of the bishops of the province, receiving through the ministry of sacred unction the power of the Holy Spirit, he presided over the chair of Tongeren as the twenty-ninth bishop ^k.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The bishopric excellently administered by the Saint: his expulsion from his see: the Life led for seven years at Stavelot.

[ ] For his episcopal virtues dear to kings Clovis Having thus obtained the summit of ecclesiastical dignity, he who had been increased with the pontifical mitre was zealous to increase the works of piety. The excellence of the power conferred did not diminish in him, but multiplied, the grace of his former life; nor did that plague at all have place in his mind which, often overturning the state of religious minds, is too familiar to those who preside over others — namely, pride. Every day he offered a holocaust to the Lord, not from another's flock, but from his own body. His counsel and his work he ever turned toward the Lord; his heart and his feet were directed to preaching the gospel of peace. And now, through the grace of spiritual gifts received superabundantly, his repute was famously proclaimed far and wide, not only by the prerogative of his merits but also by the brightness of his miracles. Whence not undeservedly did Clovis, king of the Franks, treat with him familiarly, commend himself to his prayers, and submit himself to his counsel; nor did anything in the disposing of his kingdom seem to him sufficiently valid which was not strengthened by the prudence and authority of so great a Man ^a.

[17] and Childeric, he obtains a privilege. And of how great esteem and authority Bl. Lambert was with the king, plainly appears; since that same peaceable king calls him not only bishop, but also father and apostolic man, in that privilege which he promulgated, at the holy Prelate's own request, for the immunity and possessions of the church of St. Mary ever Virgin, in whose name and honor at that time there flourished at Maastricht, after Tongeren, a certain dignity of the pontifical chair: which privilege it is not doubtful is preserved among us to this day ^b. Likewise, after the death of Clovis, Childeric, who had succeeded his father in the kingdom of Austrasia, venerated St. Lambert with exceeding familiarity ^c. For that part of the kingdom of the Franks was called Austrasia which extends from Burgundy as far as the sea of the Frisians, and is bounded on this side by the Rhine, on that by the Charbonnière forest or Hainaut ^d. All this sought the holy Man's authority and counsel; and by his merits the church of God was made tranquil, and king Childeric for some while flourished in goodness and prosperity.

[18] Theodoric being monarch, Ebroin, persecuting the Saints, But because kings, as they will not serve anyone, so never cease to desire greater dominion, Childeric, setting aside the counsel of God's Man and casting off the affection of brotherhood, stretched his mind and his hand toward the kingdom of his brother Theodoric, who reigned in Neustria; and, having driven him out, usurped the princedom of his brother's kingdom not without bloodshed ^e. But power sought by crime is not lasting: for a little after, Childeric, on account of the insolence of his conduct, being ambushed while hunting by the snares of certain Franks and grievously wounded, perished ^f. But Ebroin, a cruel and malicious man, who as Mayor of the Palace under king Theodoric had often troubled Francia, hearing of Childeric's death, cast off the habit of holy religion: for from fear of Childeric he had professed as a monk at Luxeuil. So, gathering from Burgundy a very great army of his own faction, he brought Theodoric back into the kingdom of the Franks ^g; not because he loved him, but because he desired to avenge himself through him. Finally he turned the whole vengeance for his own wrongs chiefly upon the church of God, and removing out of the way great and priestly men whose holiness and freedom of speech were suspect to him, he afflicted some of them with the proscription of exile, others with the wasting of prisons and torments.

[19] Of whose number he made Bl. Leodegar, bishop of Autun, a martyr for Christ by wondrous modes of torture. And because Bl. Lambert had been joined to Childeric in intimate and spiritual familiarity, he drives St. Lambert from his see, intruding Faramund: the aforesaid wicked man, fearing lest he who surpassed the rest in holiness and authority should be opposed to his faction and a defender of justice and of public liberty, expelled him from the bishopric of Tongeren, and, trampling on all reverence for the sacred canons, by thrusting in a certain Faramund, a cleric of Cologne as they say, violently enthroned him there ^h. And how great a confounding of all divine and human law was wrought in the church of Tongeren by this invader, what desolation of all good things, how oppressed was equity, how unrestrained was depravity — if we should wish to set it forth in writing, we should now seem not to be weaving the history of the Work begun, but to be composing a tragedy in our lamentation. Through him the church of Tongeren learned more by experience than by reading that the thief does not come except to steal and to slay and to destroy.

[20] And so, when this horrible storm had been raised in the kingdom of the Franks, which the Saint bearing with an even mind, all things were utterly confounded, utterly troubled by the aforesaid wicked ministers — Austrasia by Ebroin, the church of Maastricht by Faramund. But almighty God, the praise of whose glory is magnified when the virtue of his Saints is declared, mercifully permitted this to happen, that how great was the fortitude of patience and the power of true humility in his servant and priest Lambert might be made manifest through the scourge of tribulation. For Lambert, Christ's athlete, bearing all things with clemency, left the scepter of the prelacy, commending the care of the sheep to him who washed them in baptism and redeemed them by his blood. And him whom neither the loftiness of dignity had made swollen, nor great possessions covetous, nor long tranquillity slack, when the moment of persecution came upon him the equanimity of patience so strengthened, God's Man, that neither did vehement tribulation see him broken, nor the loss of honor see him confounded, nor the damages of temporal goods see him wretched.

[21] He wished to resist by priestly authority the tyrants and oppressors of God's Church; and congratulating himself, but anxious for his flock, but considering both their multitude and the excessive obstinacy of their mind, prudently declining a fruitless labor, he judged that he must yield to the time, lest he should also seem to be exercising vengeance for the honor taken from him, rather than contending for justice. He rejoiced that he had escaped transitory honors and the tumults of public cares, and now pronounced himself blessed and happy, since, free from all things, he could obtain the long-desired security of monastic quiet. The chief and only anxiety of the pious Father was the destitution of his sons, whose salvation, as he had always desired it in the charity of Christ, so he could not see their ruin without the greatest contrition of heart. Nor did filial affection appear less in the bereaved people of Maastricht toward him, whom, though because of the savagery of the persecution they did not dare to keep, yet from his presence and embrace they could scarcely be torn away.

[22] amid the tears of his own he departs, And when the most gentle Man departed, all the people with the clergy lamented him, and following him a long way from the town, with groans and tears they said: Why do you forsake us, most holy Priest? To whom do you commit us, most watchful Shepherd? Why do you leave your devoted flock, and why your suppliant clergy? Who will pray to God for us, and who, the Shepherd being taken away, will keep off the snares of the wolves from our flesh? You formed the priests by word and deed, you formed the people by the exhortation of preaching; you gave consolation to the destitute, ransom to captives, food to the hungry, covering to the naked. O ornament, O light of the Church, O guardian and father of the fatherland! Lead us with you, that we who in tranquillity were trained by your precepts and gladdened by your benefits may be found worthy to be sharers of your tribulation. But the venerable Priest, greatly moved by such voices and tears of his own, himself also pouring forth tears of pity, stayed a little while; and turning to them, taught them how they should keep the word of God, the way of justice and salvation, which they had heard from his mouth; and adding the examples and precepts of the Saints concerning patience, he very often admonished them not to fail in their present tribulations, and to hope steadfastly in God, because God does not confound those who hope in him.

[23] and with two young servants to the monastery of Stavelot After these things, lifting his sacred hands and eyes to heaven, he poured out a fatherly prayer to God for the sons who stood by and were devoted to him; and signing them with the saving sign of the Cross, and absolving them in the kiss of peace, he sent them back to their own homes with quieter minds ⁱ. And so great was the power and cruelty of the aforesaid tyrants that out of the whole number of the ecclesiastical household scarcely two boys did not fear * to cling to the service of so great a Man; of whom the one, by name Theodoënus, as our elders left in writing, was a truthful reporter and fit witness of his works. With these, therefore, as companions, the man of God Lambert sought the monastery situated in the place whose name is Stavelot. For this place, among the vast and rugged glades of the Ardennes, then fit for no human habitation, bristled squalid, with barren and dying soil, not fit for crops or for fruit-bearing trees, not pleasant for feeding cattle, not profitable for commerce; than which, except for the watering of some brooks or springs, neither Paul nor Anthony inhabited a more dreadful solitude of the desert.

[24] he withdraws, where among the monks he passes seven years: Here St. Remaclus had built and ordered a monastery by the devotion and at the expense of king Sigebert ^k, gathering in it many of the faithful, over whom for many years he vigorously presided there under regular discipline, and showed his life and his whole manner of living to those subject to him as a shining mirror of monastic perfection. This place therefore, because, being solitary and thus suitable, it afforded a dwelling for monks, the holy pontiff Lambert chose to seek out. And so so great a Man, who seemed, and was, venerable in holiness and in the excellence of his dignity, desiring in the highest degree to imitate the obedience of the Son of God, not by an affected bowing of body or words but by true and profound humbling of mind, asked and obtained that the yoke of obedience and subjection be laid upon him by the abbot; and there for seven years he spent a holy and angelic life in the observance of every virtue. And to declare the true virtue of his mind and the fortitude of his patience, let us subjoin one example of his obedience, that the perfect may hear in him what to imitate, and the weak what to venerate.

[25] The memorable Man was accustomed, among the other marks of his arduous purpose, by a solemn custom to anticipate the public vigils of the brothers by a religious theft, because of a slight noise made by a shoe and through the devotion of secret prayer to taste the sweetness of divine contemplation. When therefore on a certain night, withdrawing himself secretly from his little bed to perform this, he was piously hastening, one of his sandals (which kind of footwear we commonly call boots) slipped from his hand and fell, and striking the pavement of the dormitory, with a noise indeed slight but unwonted, interrupted the deep silence of so great a community. O how strict was the correction of grave faults among those same servants of God, since in accidental lapses of this kind they were punished with so severe a judgment! For the father of the monastery, disturbed by this sudden noise, did not delay to apply the Regular medicine to such a fault; but not knowing the author of the fault, he commanded by certain signs and nods ^l that whoever had broken the silence and quiet of the brothers by a rash noise should go out to the cross.

[26] Straightway the man of God Lambert, striving to fulfill the precept of obedience as though prosperous things were commanded, just as he was, still almost naked, covered only by a little hair-shirt, with unshod feet went out of the dormitory and came to the cross, which, set in the open air, was according to the custom of the monastery the discipline for correcting such things. It was winter, which with snow and icy

harshness had grown fiercer and more grim; and, as we hold for certain, almost the whole region of the Ardennes, and most of all that which surrounds the aforesaid monastery, among the inconveniences which we have mentioned is specially pressed by so great an inclemency of the air that it always suffers a longer and harsher trouble of snows and wintry grimness than the other parts of Austrasia. The most gentle Priest therefore stood in the likeness of the cross set before him; there stood plainly a living victim of Christ, crucified to the world and to the desires of the flesh, offering to God with the chanting of psalms the sweetest fruits of obedience. He burned plainly within with the flame of the Paraclete Spirit; therefore outwardly he despised the torments of the cold. What more devout than his affection? What purer than his prayer? So that we can steadfastly confess that heaven lay open to his prayers, and his prayer reached the hearing on high.

[27] Truly a blessed Man, and by this suffering to be compared to the sacred martyrs of Christ, he perseveres in prayer in the open: called back thence, whom divine Providence both exercised with present tribulations and reserved, for the salvation of many, for the glory of a greater contest. And so, covered with snow rather than with a garment, our Martyr, purer than gold which is tried by fire, persevered unmoved in the devotion of prayer, until the brothers, when the solemnity of the vigils was over, being compelled by the utmost necessity, entered the winter house, and, an abundant fire having been kindled, refreshed with its warmth their bodies, now almost dead among their many garments from the immensity of the cold. There the abbot, perceiving too late, by the absence of God's Man, what he had done to him, grew pale in confusion, and protesting with tears that he was sacrilegious and guilty of homicide, struck into all the brothers the stupor of dread, that for a slight lapse he had assigned so great and priestly a Man to so injurious a penance. The brothers run, each striving to outstrip the other in pious haste; and him whom they supposed half-dead they find chanting psalms to the Lord with alacrity of spirit. He is drawn out of that thickness of snow, and honorably restored to the assembly of the brothers who longed for him, bringing back both an example of obedience and the miracle of his own deliverance.

[28] he accuses himself. The memory of this at Liège. But the abbot and the whole body of the brothers, not refraining from tears, humbly fall at his feet, entreating pardon for their ignorance. But the just Man, accusing himself, as it is written, in the first place, as toward the penalty imposed on him he showed himself truly patient and humble, so toward pardoning what he was asked he was not obstinate or difficult. O truly manifest working of divine power in his servant Lambert, whereby the alacrity of his mind was inflamed to carry out so arduous a precept of this obedience, that scarcely will any posterity believe it. And so, especially in memory of this triumph, in the principal church of Liège, where that same precious Martyr rests in body, this custom first grew up, that within the cloister enclosure the banner of the Lord's Cross should be perpetually set up in the open air ^m; although some churches seem to claim this for themselves, indeed for another kind of religious reason.

ANNOTATIONS.

timuerint*

CHAPTER III.

His return to his episcopal chair: ecclesiastical discipline restored: the Toxandrians and others brought to Christ: his meeting with St. Willibrord.

[ ] Pippin of Herstal being made Mayor of the Palace, Meanwhile, when seven years had rolled by, God's wrath being turned to mercy, after the dreadful storm there came tranquillity in the church of God: for Ebroin, who had long vexed Francia with fraud, cruelty and avarice, is by the just judgment of God wretchedly slain. But Pippin the Second, duke of Austrasia, son of Ansegisel, grandson of Pippin the First through his daughter Begga, whose heir he was in name and honor as also in justice and religion, a man keen in counsel and vigorous of hand, turned all his power and zeal to the honor of God's holy Church and the deliverance of his country, and compelled king Theodoric, no less by warlike preparation than by his own justice, to change tyrannical cruelty into princely clemency. Therefore, affairs being made tranquil under Pippin, when no storm of wars any longer barred the execution of the laws, there began among the Lord's priests easy comings and goings, and frequent assemblies for the handling of ecclesiastical business.

[30] Which Faramund, the invader and pest of the church of Maastricht, considering — he who in the commotions of affairs and in doubtful times had hitherto had his firmest hope — began to dread the state of a peaceful time and the equity of ecclesiastical examination; and, as it is written, “The wicked man flees when no one pursues,” the consciousness of his own crime pressing him, he abandoned by a worse flight the episcopal see which he had long ill occupied; and, as is said, he never afterwards appeared in all that province ^a. Thus at length, by God's mercy, the church of Maastricht, freed from his tyranny, began both to recall pitifully how much it had endured, and how unjustly it had lost its beloved father Lambert, and freely to complain; and turning to the Lord with all their affection, with many sighs and tears they besought that Christ the true shepherd would deign to restore to the destitute flock, exposed to the bites of wolves, and to his desolate sons, their spiritual shepherd and most longed-for father Lambert.

[31] And because God had delivered Austrasia through Pippin, who, he obtains from Pippin that St. Lambert be given back to them as we said before, under king Theodoric vigorously administered the commonwealth of the Franks, they go with one accord to that same prince, and, having first bewailed their past calamity, they say: Take counsel, most illustrious prince, for the church of Maastricht, pitiably and long afflicted, and by your diligence restore to this destitute multitude, to this desolate flock, its own Shepherd — from whom by your peaceful coming, and by the mere report of your moderation and justice, you drove away the terrified invader and hireling. And because this time needs not a long speech but a swift consolation, send men to seek out and bring forth from the monastery of Stavelot the most blessed man Lambert our bishop, in whom is sound doctrine and an angelic manner of life; for most certainly either by his teaching or by no one's will there be reformed the sincerity of the Christian faith and ecclesiastical religion, which has been depraved and corrupted among us by that son of perdition, Faramund.

[32] the Saint, returning from Stavelot But duke Pippin, a man who, although occupied with military pursuits, yet did not hold the worship of the Godhead and the tranquillity of God's churches in second place, revered the bearing and the desire of the people of Maastricht; and judging that their petition was not to be spurned, when he had searched into the matter with deeper diligence, he sent to the aforesaid monastery the greatest and most religious men, whose familiarity and counsel he much used, so that what was sought by the authority of such great envoys might not seem empty and light. Bl. Remaclus, the founder and ruler of that monastery, had not yet departed this life; but in a good old age he was happily awaiting the day of his calling and the reward of eternal retribution ^b. Therefore, when that venerable assembly of holy men had heard from the envoys both the devotion of the people of Maastricht and the religious petition of the pious prince, and of the peace restored to the churches through him, they gave immense thanks to God the giver of all good things; and, conferring much with one another about the love of God and the salvation of their neighbor, they sent forth the holy man Lambert, beloved of God, to save the people entrusted to him and to reform the rule of the Catholic faith, drawn away not without many groans and tears from that sweetness of divine contemplation; and, escorting him with religious honor, they compelled him to be, for the salvation of many, what he was.

[33] is received with the common gladness of all, Who could sufficiently express in words the greatness of the joy of the devoted flock at the return of their pious Shepherd? Who could grasp in reason the running together of both sexes, of every age and order, out of the fields, the pouring forth out of the towns? The tears of the crowds going before, full of joy, the voices, the applause, the congratulations, resounded on every side of those saying: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! But indeed among the clergy and people of Maastricht so great an abundance of exultation boiled up that, to see and embrace the Father and Preserver of their souls, the very walls and roofs of the town seemed almost to be torn from their foundations and to rejoice. For the church of Tongeren and Maastricht, having now sufficiently learned, more by lacking than by enjoying, what spiritual benefits it had in its prelate Lambert, seemed to follow him with greater joys of prayer, and to embrace him restored, than at first when he was enthroned after his election. And so the Shepherd, long desired, is exalted by the pious voices of his sheep, and is fittingly set back in his pontifical chair.

[34] and restores the fallen discipline. He was truly and without superstition religious, in nothing changed from a monk by the priesthood. Nor under the pretext of his resumed dignity did he relax the rigor of monastic discipline, so that it could seem doubtful to all whether his diligence and greatness of soul were more especially and wonderfully fitted to his single profession and humility, or to his episcopal prelacy and this common manner of life. And being very anxious to restore the rule of ecclesiastical religion, which had been depraved by false Christians, he did more toward those needing correction

by gentleness than by severity, and provoked offenders more to the healthfulness of obedience by the exhortation of charity than by the rigor of power. For the teaching of him could not be contemptible who in all his action seemed, and was, blameless. For, to be silent of the other virtues conferred on him by God, so greatly and especially did that purity of angelic chastity shine in him, without pride, that not only had fornication no place about him, but neither was any uncleanness or scurrility named.

[35] But so great a breadth of the Lord's charity glowed in him While he preaches to the idolatrous Toxandrians, that, as he exulted in God at the salvation of the faithful, so the error and perdition of the neighboring heathen afflicted * his heart. For the region whose name is Toxandria, which is separated from the town of Maastricht toward the North by scarcely three miles, not yet knowing the grace of Gospel preaching, was foul with the worship of idolatry. For this region, beset with vast and almost continuous marshes, and on that account not then well enough known and passable even to its neighbors by any right of commerce, contained within itself a multitude of a rustic people, whose barbarous manners the very solitude and superstition had made savage. Into this Lambert, the preacher of Truth, steadfastly entered; and turning the eyes of his mind to the passions of the holy martyrs, or even of our Lord, he prepared himself for the endurance not only of every insult but even of every punishment, for the salvation of the unbelieving.

[36] And because the inhabitants of that region were not contained in cities, these, about to avenge their idols, run together in arms, but dwelt in many scattered villages, he sought out undaunted their shrines, in which they held frequent and crowded assemblies for the worship of their gods, preaching and announcing the word of salvation, the light of the Gospel; and he plainly testified to them how profane and how hateful to God was the service of images, since what by right is singularly owed to the one and true God, the Creator of all, this is unreasonably rendered by men, to his injury, to a creature — nay, to demons. But the barbarians, very tenacious of their superstition and inveterate error, marveled indeed at the holy Man's unwonted preaching; but they could not bear with an even mind the injury and reproach cast upon their gods. And so the report of his preaching ran through and stirred up all that province, and, the priests of the temples urging and instigating, its inhabitants, raging in barbarian fashion, assemble in arms and unanimously resolve that, when they had found the Lord's Priest, they would first afflict him with the insults of blows and words, and afterwards destroy him with the punishment of a shameful death.

[37] But when all that armed multitude of the raging people had burst into the presence of the holy Pontiff, but seeing him, they are tamed and instructed, so great a light of heavenly grace shone in his face that, terrified by God's will, they laid down their arms and their spirits and stood ready to obey, who had come to kill. Then Bl. Lambert, who was skilled in the Teutonic tongue (and the speech was carried on without an interpreter), began to unfold to them the origin of man's creation and transgression; and how the Son of God, born of a Virgin for the salvation of men, by dying on the cross destroyed the most grievous dominion of death. And when he had set forth to them the dreadful judgment of that last day after this brief and fleeting life; and how blessed and perpetual would be the retribution of the Saints and of those who fear God, and how pitiable the damnation of the impious, they were pricked in heart, and pouring forth tears of penitence, confessed that they had sinned.

[38] But Lambert, Christ's most holy priest, understanding through the Holy Spirit that their heart had been visited by God, said to them: Let none of you be broken by despair of his salvation; and are baptized, their idols cast away. let not the obstinacy of a hardened heart turn away the fountain of the divine Mercy from the remedy of penitence; for the kindness of our Savior has opened the greatest approach of his mercy to all who desire to be saved; and if the affection of true penitence is in you, confess with mouth and heart, believing, the one and true God, the Creator of all, and his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and cast away the images of false gods, by whose most filthy rite you have offended him through ignorance; and, to obtain pardon and remission of all your sins, receive the purification of most sacred Baptism. And so, when at this word of the holy Preacher they had vied with one another in crushing or casting away their idols, they flocked with the greatest humility and contrition of heart to receive the Sacrament of divine regeneration; and an unnumbered multitude of the people was baptized by him.

[39] Matters being settled here, preaching elsewhere, And when, to nourish and form the tender and as it were still trembling and untaught infancy of this new Christianity, he had built churches in suitable places and ordained priests and deacons in them, the grace of Gospel preaching went down to the peoples bordering on Toxandria itself, where the river Meuse, mingled with the waters of the river Rhine and swollen, and now greater than itself and in all things unlike its own source, divides, not far from the English sea, the Toxandrians and the other inhabitants of that region from the Frisians ^c. There was at that time in the stronghold which is called Lower Maastricht ^d Willibrord, Christ's confessor, whom the blessed Pope Sergius ^e, at the request of the aforesaid duke Pippin, had ordained bishop; and calling him by the changed name of Clement, had honorably sent him to preach to the unbelieving * nation of the Frisians, in whose kingdom that same stronghold is situated upon the bank of the Rhine. And so, when Bl. Lambert had heard of this holy Man's name and zeal, he desired to see him, reckoning within himself, as one truly humble in all things, that it would be very needful for his own salvation and that of others if he might be found worthy to have the presence and fellowship of so great a father in the work of the Gospel.

[40] he confers with St. Willibrord at Teisterbant Likewise the venerable priest Willibrord, also called Clement, having learned of the reputation of the holy man Lambert, was inflamed with the greatest desire of seeing him, and, so many obstacles of intervening waters being crossed, came to him; and binding one another mutually in brotherly embraces, they told each other what and how great things divine grace had wrought among the nations through their ministry. And, if credit is given to the report of the ancients, there is a place in the district which they call Teisterbant, not far from the Meuse, shaded by a certain pleasantness of trees, to which Bl. Lambert, having taken the man of God Willibrord into the work of the Gospel, was accustomed very often to go down, and to set forth the works of Christian religion to the throngs of the newly baptized who flocked to him, announcing to them that, as the Apostle says, “Faith without works is dead ^f.”

[41] where a church was founded in his honor. In that same place a church dedicated in honor of Bl. Lambert is today held in such veneration among the inhabitants of that region that, flocking thither year by year to obtain the Martyr's benefits, they count it a sacrilege even to touch with iron the very trees that shade the forecourt. And so that whole region, which receives various names from its inhabitants, and which, enclosed on the right side by the course of the Meuse, stretches northward to the ocean, owes to the apostolate of Christ's martyr Lambert that it came to know its error and deserved to obtain the grace of the Christian faith; and therefore it is subject, as we see today, to the diocese of Liège ^g.

ANNOTATIONS.

read afficeret*

read incredulæ and genti*

Septentrionalem*

CHAPTER IV.

The nunnery of Bilzen founded by St. Landrada, with the Saint as its author: that virgin's apparition, and her burial miraculously procured by him: SS. Hubert and Oda kindled to holiness.

[ ] St. Landrada, once veiled by the Saint, There were also at that same time several in secular garb who, animated by the admonitions and examples of so great a Father, for the love of the heavenly homeland spurned the allurements of their riches and betook themselves to a stricter life. Of whose number the virgin Landrada, born of illustrious family, gave herself and her goods over to God, and, a monastery having been built at Bilzen *, an estate of her own property, and being marked with the veil of unblemished virginity from the blessed Pontiff's hand, she undertook with very many other maidens the arduous purpose of angelic chastity ^a. That place, set at the entrance of Toxandria, is two miles distant from Maastricht and two from the ruined walls of the city of Tongeren; glorious most of all in this, that to this day it deserves to contain the church dedicated by St. Lambert in honor of Bl. Mary ever Virgin.

[43] appearing to him, charges that her body Here, then, when Landrada, Christ's most sacred bride, after she had for some while fervently rendered to God the service of her virginal profession, on the coming of a severe sickness of the flesh drew near to death, she sent a messenger and, with the boldness of holy familiarity, summoned the blessed Man, that in her last moments she might obtain the consolation and support of his prayers, whom she had had in the way of God, in her virginal profession, as her teacher and confidant. And by chance the Bishop was then farther off; but hearing of her sickness he was dismayed in mind, and redeeming every delay with haste, hurried to Bilzen. The holy virgin meanwhile was loosed from the flesh; which was revealed also to the blessed Man in a vision, in the place where he had taken lodging that night. And the virgin herself appeared in his sleep with joyful face, resplendent with heavenly garment and light, so that by the brightness of her very habit he might know beyond doubt that she had already passed over to the blessedness of immortality. And when the Bishop

addressed her, congratulating her familiarly on the crown of virginity conferred on her by Christ, he added: If, absent in body though not in mind, I could not be present with you at your end, beloved daughter, and now truly the bride of my King, at least teach me now in what place I ought to bury your body.

[44] be buried at Wentershovium: the nuns refusing, To whom she said: Look upward, Father, and that place which a light in the form of the holy cross makes visible to you upon the earth (and behold, a light glowing red in the form of a cross was seen) — this place, I say, know to have been granted me by God for burial. And that place, which was marked out to the blessed Man upon the earth by a brightness sent down from above in the form of the holy cross, was Wentershovium, which St. Lambert himself, under Landoald, as we said before ^b, had made notable by his own disposition. And so, awaking, and hesitating in nothing about so great a vision, he came with all speed to Bilzen; and calling together the faithful, a very great multitude of whom had assembled for the obsequies of the holy virgin and was awaiting his presence, he disclosed the mystery of the vision revealed to him, laboring in every way to bend the minds of so great a multitude to carrying it out, with eloquent address and fatherly sweetness. But this was attempted in vain: for as soon as this word struck the ears of the nuns, who with filial affection and virginal diligence were watching about the sacred body, their grief passed into stupor, and it seemed to them more tolerable to have lost her alive than not to have her at least dead.

[45] she is buried at Bilzen, but three days after, And so, resounding with plaintive weeping, falling at the holy Pontiff's feet, they said: Why, most holy Father, do you contrive the ruin and destruction of this place, of this our profession, whose beginning you founded? For most certainly you compel us to abandon this place of our profession, which is by you reckoned on our account so foul and unworthy that it cannot hold even clean earth for laying up our mother's ashes. And O we, unhappy and wretched, who have lost the presence of our most sweet mother even in the flesh, and, to the heaping up of our grief, shall not deserve to have or to look upon her burial-place! But spare our modesty, sweetest Father, and let the groans and tearful sighs of your daughters move you, and suffer that our mother have here the place of her burial, where for so many years she kept the purpose of holy virginity, acceptable to God and approved by your testimony. So mournful a bearing and speech of the sacred virgins had bent the minds of the hearers to compassion; and it is cried out by that whole multitude of bystanders that so pious, so humane, so reasonable a desire of theirs ought not to be despised.

[46] The Bishop, hard pressed on this side by the certainty of the vision, on that by the clamorous petition of so many of the faithful, not at Bilzen, but together with the coffin said: Be it as you wish: yet know most certainly that the oracle of the heavenly vision made manifest to our fatherhood will not be void. And so the virgin's holy body is honorably buried in that same place, not by the Pontiff's will, but by the judgment of a clamoring multitude. But the man of God, resorting to the help of prayer customary with him, did not cease for three whole days to implore the divine clemency that almighty God would make manifest to the unbelieving the counsel of his will concerning the burying of the virgin, which he had revealed to him. And after three days, rising from prayer, with the highest reverence and faith he approached the virgin's tomb, and calling together many of the faithful who were present, he said: Come, my sons, draw near and open this sepulcher, that you may find by experience that what was revealed to us by a vision has been fulfilled by a manifest display of divine power. And so, girding themselves zealously to this work, with all diligence and fear they open the tomb; but they find no traces at all of a burial, no relics of the virgin so recently buried, not even the stone sarcophagus itself in which she had been laid.

[47] While all who were present marveled and were amazed at the novelty of the thing, she is found at Wentershovium. the man of God Lambert alone was gladdened by the miracle he had desired; and soothing them as a father, he said: Do not be troubled, but doing penance for your unbelief with all humility and contrition of heart, hasten to Wentershovium, praying the Lord that he may deign to make manifest to you both the place foreordained by him and in it the tomb of his virgin. Straightway with the utmost devotion they hasten to Wentershovium: and Lambert, God's priest, without delay went to the place marked out for him from heaven in the vision; and when at his bidding they had penetrated it by digging a little and carrying off the soil, they found and recognized the sarcophagus, and in it the virgin's little body, just as it had been at Bilzen, so becomingly laid away that it was plain to all beyond doubt that this * had been done by nothing but the ministry of angels. All that wonder of the people running together is turned into the praise of almighty God, and with worthy proclamations they extol the merits of the holy Pontiff, who, set upon earth, dwelt in mind in the heavens.

[48] At that time also, in which the cruelty of the aforesaid Ebroin was grievously oppressing the kingdom of the Franks, SS. Hubert and Oda, coming into Austrasia, there was a noble youth, an Aquitanian by birth, count of the palace under king Theodoric, by name Hubert ^c, both learned in the studies of letters and vigorous in the exercise of arms. He, because he was of prudent wit, considering that Ebroin was most ready for every malice and especially a singular enemy to ecclesiastical men, execrating all his acts, forsook the Francia of the Sequani and betook himself into Austrasia to Pippin, whose justice and warlike valor had crushed almost all the tyrants about him. There clung to him, as an inseparable companion, his aunt Oda, who was the widow of Boggis, duke of Aquitaine, lately deceased ^d. When therefore the illustrious man Hubert had dwelt for some while in the diocese of Tongeren about the said prince, he learned, as report ran everywhere, of the famous name of the blessed Pontiff and the great renown of his angelic manner of life and apostolic teaching; and desiring to see and hear him, he went down to Maastricht.

[49] at St. Lambert's prompting, despise the world; Whom the man of God gratefully received and kept with him many days; and from his most holy companionship and example and frequent converse the heart of the most illustrious count was so changed and so thoroughly kindled with desire of the heavenly homeland that, casting off the belt of military service and trampling on the glory of worldly power, he wished to be enrolled in the Lord's camp in clerical garb: and he would have made effectual so pious an affection of holy devotion, had not the bond of lawful marriage, by which he was bound, held him back ^e. Yet following the Apostle's counsel, he had a wife as though he had none, and so used worldly things that he seemed not so much to possess his own house as to administer it. Then, wholly changed into another man, by a new manner of living he professed worldly dignity in habit alone, but in the thing itself and in affection he was not a soldier but a cleric, not a count but Lambert's disciple.

[50] the first of whom succeeded him, For even then the Holy Spirit was working secretly in him through the ministry of his priest Lambert, what was afterwards manifestly spread more widely for the salvation of many, when, by an angelic vision ^f, succeeding as a worthy heir to his blessed Master himself in the episcopal governance, by his holy manner of life and apostolic preaching he both made illustrious the church of Maastricht and afterwards happily founded that of Liège, which not without God's will he raised from an ignoble village to the brightness of a city, from the dignity of a daughter to that of a mother. But his aunt Oda also, a venerable matron, of whom we made mention a little above, gratefully sought the teaching of the holy Pontiff; and laying aside the ambition of worldly glory, humbly sitting at his feet, she assiduously heard from him words of chastity and sobriety, which, laying up in her heart as seed in good ground, and meditating on them day and night, she brought forth in her season the sixtyfold fruit of holy widowhood, acceptable to God.

[51] the other died in holy widowhood. For being manfully girded by the spiritual exhortation of Christ's priest Lambert to contempt of the world, she began abundantly to lay out the revenues of her possessions, which were very ample, for the uses of the poor and of the servants of God: and at the last, when after St. Lambert's passion she had written Christ heir of all that she had, on her estate which they call Amay, not far from Liège, she built a church in honor of Bl. George the martyr, where, untiringly serving God in the holy purpose of widowhood, she happily fell asleep. These things indeed and many others the Lord deigned to work through his priest Lambert; which, if they were written one by one, would seem to breed weariness in readers. But that we may put the finishing hand to this work, let us now raise the banner of his passion.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere Belisia*

add non*

CHAPTER V.

Pippin's concubinage with Alpaïs reproved: St. Hubert's journey to Rome: the ancient site of Liège, and St. Lambert's dwelling in it: the rest of his deeds in the affair of Alpaïs.

[ ] The Saint, concerning the repudiation of Plectrude, But Pippin, as we said before, at that time under king Theodoric vigorously governed the kingdom of the Franks, whose princedom was made illustrious especially both by the brightness of the deeds done by him in wars and by the equity of his justice joined with temperance of manners. But O the wretched condition of human frailty, ever uncertain and liable to chance! So great a man and outstanding warrior, when temptation came upon him, could not triumph over himself; whom, as valor and diligence had made modest and brave amid the adversities of wars, so, when his enemies were overcome or pacified, security and power dissolved into the baseness of adultery. For while his sons Grimoald and Drogo ^a adorned the glory of their father's felicity most of all in this, that already in the very flower of youth they seemed not to be degenerate from the splendor of their nobility, Pippin repudiated their mother Plectrude, his lawful wife, and brought in over her an elegant girl,

by name Alpaïs ^b, who was the sister of Dodo ^c, a man noble and powerful among the nobles of the Franks. And this adultery became public in the eyes of all Francia.

[53] But this baseness of incest ^d, which stained the glory of so great a prince, and having taken Alpaïs as a concubine, he reproves him, became for Lambert the bishop, a lover of purity, a most worthy occasion of an honorable death. For the rulers of the churches of Austrasia, though they manifestly considered the guilt of so great a crime in the prince, were zealous not to heal the offense by rebuking it, but wholly to increase it by dissembling through flattery; and thus, while they fear either to lose his benefits or to incur his displeasure, they became like dumb dogs unable to bark. But Lambert, the herald of truth, who had long loved Pippin with spiritual affection, and could not see his fall without grave affliction of his heart, conceived with his whole mind the zeal of Phinehas or of Elijah; and desiring in this cause to profit so great a man rather than to please him, he went in to him in the spirit and words of John the Baptist, keeping in his heart the holy sweetness of his former love and bearing in his mouth the authority of priestly constancy: It is not lawful, he said, for you to have her as a wife ^e.

[54] and strives to bring him back to right conduct. Pippin had received the words of this saving reproof in humility of heart, and being wholly full of confusion in the blessed Pontiff's sight, seemed to wish that, his marriage being restored and the concubine cast off, he might strive to obtain the remedy of penitence. But as soon as the beauty of the beloved concubine thrust itself upon his eyes, his sick and still uncertain mind, not prevailing to bear the force of so great a temptation, easily succumbed; and the desire of unlawful love, which seemed already extinguished in him, revived the more sharply. Nor even so did Lambert's constancy desist; and very often seeking Pippin's presence, like a good and spiritual physician he poured into his wound now harsh things by rebuking, now gentle things by soothing; sometimes too he recounted in praise the frequent titles of his victories, very useful to his country, asserting that he alone was especially the prince by whose labor and diligence, through God's providence, peace and justice flourished in the kingdom of Francia and the state of ecclesiastical religion prospered; and on this account he said it was to be feared by him lest the reproach of this infamy should discolor the proclamation of so great a glory.

[55] St. Hubert sets out for Rome. Incited by Alpaïs Meanwhile, while the Pontiff's admonition does not cease, while the fruitful correction of the prince is hoped for and awaited, the memorable man Hubert, who in all things used the blessed Pontiff's counsel, set out for Rome ^f. For he had resolved to visit the triumphal thresholds of the Apostles, that by their merits he might bring to effect the fervor of religion and contempt of the world which he had already conceived from the discipline and instruction of his master Lambert, and might commend himself to the prayers of the Prelate of the Apostolic See. How Pope Sergius received him, and revealed to him at Rome, by an angelic vision, the death of that same Bl. Lambert the martyr, we shall relate in what follows, God granting: but now let us pursue the sequence of our narrative. But Alpaïs, conscious to herself of the unlawful union, having fallen into fear and suspicion, was grievously distressed within, and daily bewailed to her brother Dodo the insults which she endured from Lambert the bishop, who presumed to call her union with the prince fornication, and labored with the utmost zeal to brand upon them and upon all their posterity the reproach of so great an infamy, if through his importunity a divorce should be made between her and the prince.

[56] Dodo, having in vain tried Lambert with promises, Dodo's mind could easily be driven to any unspeakable vengeance for this wrong, in whose breast pride and cruelty naturally reigned, and who despised all severity of the public laws on account of his kinship with Pippin. And although Dodo, moved by grave indignation, had already resolved to wipe away his sister's disgrace by the slaying of the holy Pontiff, yet he did not carry out the matter in a furious rush. For he saw that a Man of such holiness and authority could not be killed without the greatest disturbance and scandal of all Austrasia. And so, dissembling his fury for a time and covering the motion of his indignation, he judged that the blessed Man should first be approached under some appearance of reason through his servants and intimates, trying carefully * whether by any means, with the promise of greater gifts and services, he might corrupt the freedom of his speech and break the constancy of his mind. He boasted also how great a brightness and power of his family had grown up in the kingdom of the Franks, which the Prelate himself would grievously feel roused to his own destruction if he did not, at least by keeping silence, approve his sister's marriage.

[57] But the mind of the blessed Prelate, which glowed with zeal for religion, determines to kill him. The old face of Liège could neither be deceived by blandishments nor softened by terrors so as to seem, by silence about the truth, to give consent to so great an iniquity. And the wicked man Dodo, turning his religion and constancy into contempt of himself, began to rage against him with sharper envy, and to seek a fitting time in which he might satisfy his will in the slaying of him; for the accomplishing of which a ripe occasion came. It chanced in those days, namely about the beginning of autumn, that Pippin had come to Jupille ^g, a royal estate, and one apt and abundant for supplying princely expenses both from itself and from the resources of the adjacent regions. At that same time also Lambert, Christ's priest, was staying in the little village called Liège, mentioned by us a little above, which, situated in a valley amid the shade of groves, amid steep mountains, with springs and little streams running down the slopes, was very delightful and well-watered. And it is distant from Tongeren toward the South by scarcely three miles.

[58] This place, as antiquity relates and the writings of the fathers teach, and St. Monulph's prophecy about it. when Bl. Monulph ^h, the twenty-first bishop of the Tongrians, had one day entered it with his people, being captivated by its situation and pleasantness, he halted, and touched by a prophetic spirit, said to those standing by: Behold a place which the Lord has chosen for the salvation of many of his faithful, and which, afterwards made magnificently illustrious through the merits of a certain servant of his, he will make equal to the greatest cities. And straightway he commanded a little church to be built there, which he dedicated to the Lord in honor of SS. Cosmas and Damian the martyrs. These things we have inserted concerning the state and condition of Liège, that we may clearly know from what beginnings it took its increase, and, comparing the state of that time and of this, may deservedly magnify God in his martyr Lambert, our patron, by whose merits and by the presence of whose body this place was advanced into the amplitude of a city and into the loftiness of an episcopal chair. Which cause indeed, in its own time and its own order, if the Lord permit, we shall take care to write.

[59] This place therefore the man of God Lambert greatly loved, St. Lambert had a dwelling there, in which and frequently inhabited it, that there he might more freely give himself to prayer or reading; because at that time it was so pathless and solitary that it seemed to have a certain likeness to a desert. For on the Western and Northern side it was shut in by mountains and very great woods; and the river Meuse, encircling the Southern part with a drawn-back and slightly curved bend, made it inaccessible; but where it looks toward the East it could be approached more easily, the mountains withdrawing somewhat from the Meuse and extending gently along its bank for nearly five miles as far as Maastricht in a straight and fair length. There, beside the aforesaid oratory of the holy martyrs, Lambert had a cell built of suitable materials, and other buildings of this kind needful for the uses of his people, in which those who were held worthy of the companionship of so great a Man lived after his manners and were formed by his example.

[60] And the Pontiff's house itself seemed to differ in nothing from the dwelling of any private man, he often stayed, shining with virtues. having no mark at all of worldly pomp, none of lust or luxury; but bearing manifold tokens of patience and abstinence. And although outwardly in the eyes of men, to avoid ostentation, he used a moderate and becoming, and not utterly abject, garb, yet within his flesh was worn away by a mean and very rough hair-shirt. And his weaker age, which had already passed its sixtieth year ⁱ, in no way slowed the assiduity and urgency of his abstinence and of his vigils or prayers. And though he is rightly believed equal to the greatest dwellers in the desert in every perfection of spiritual virtues, yet he was more especially and peculiarly adorned with the grace of humility and of chastity. There shone in his angelic aspect both fatherly sweetness and the authority of episcopal holiness, so that the mere contemplation of his face could be the greatest instruction to others.

[61] Hence, summoned from there to Jupille by Pippin, Therefore, as we said before, when at that time Pippin was residing for some while at Jupille to handle the affairs of the kingdom, and Lambert was making his Liège illustrious by his holy and truly angelic manner of life, that same Man of God is summoned one day to the palace for the highest causes of the commonwealth, to which, because of the nearness of the places, the passage was not laborious or difficult for him; for Jupille and Liège are distant a small space from one another, with two rivers, the Meuse and the Ourthe ^k, flowing between and there mingling together. He went down to Jupille; and when the matters for which he had come were finished, he was invited by the prince to a banquet, and being overcome by his many entreaties, he took his place at table, to the great joy especially of the highest and most illustrious men who were present, that they had deserved to obtain it. But when, during the meal, a servant had offered Pippin a cup, he very religiously signaled that it should be handed to the Bishop, desiring in the highest degree to take it back sanctified by his blessing.

[62] refusing to bless Alpaïs's cup, he departs: Following the duke's example, the other nobles who reclined with him, when with the utmost devotion they were sending their bowls to the Man of God to be blessed, and there was among the cupbearers themselves, while each strives to outstrip the other, a certain religious contention, so far as the discipline of a princely banquet allowed, a diabolical temptation was not wanting. For the aforesaid Alpaïs, believing that on the occasion of this pious gaiety what she saw thus distributed to all ought not to be denied her, secretly thrust her cup upon the Bishop to be sanctified. Lambert perceived this, and turning to Pippin, charges the woman with importunity and boldness; and leaving the meal, he goes out of the hall itself, lest through the fellowship of any communion or blessing he should seem to have given any consent to the guilt of a shameless adulteress. And straightway all that gladness of the banqueting nobles was changed, as they feared lest, fury overcoming reason, Pippin at the woman's suggestion should be driven to do something graver against the safety and life of the Pontiff.

[63] called back, he steadfastly refuses Yet Pippin, having rather dissembled than calmed the motion of his mind, sent honorable men from his side and called Lambert back again to the palace, and assailed him with many blandishments and great promises of benefits, that he might bend his severity and constancy to approving Alpaïs's marriage, saying that she suited him in the brightness and power of her family, from whom he might beget lawful heirs of his princedom; and that it ought not to be called adultery, but rather a doubling and increase of honorableness. He affirmed besides, under the attestation of the divine name, that he could bear the breaking of this union no more lightly than the loss of his own life and honor ^l. But when Lambert was little moved by these things, and would not relax the rigor of his former sentence, Pippin, the heat of his indignation hitherto dissembled, within himself further

could not restrain; and transgressing in his whole bearing the moderation of a lawful and Christian prince, full of fury, he showed himself such toward him as the sacrilegious Ahab toward Elijah, or the adulterous Herod toward John the Baptist.

[64] And so, swelling with wrath, he commanded him, if he would not incur peril of his life or his honor, that he will hold communion with her, and Pippin to appease Alpaïs, as the prince's honorable wife, with humble satisfaction, and to honor her with the due office of salutation, before he withdrew from the palace ^m: for the day was already declining toward evening. But then the lover of chastity and defender of truth, Lambert, Christ's priest, kindled with the utmost fervor of religion, raised himself undaunted against Pippin, and, the Holy Spirit manifestly speaking in him, said: Hitherto, having hope of your salvation, I have not ceased with fatherly sweetness and gentler words to exhort and urge you to the remedy of penitence, as a humble and religious and truly Christian prince; but, as I see, the loftiness of your power disdains to acknowledge the monstrousness of the crime committed by you, and through it you wish us, compelled, to transgress the precept of the divine law, if, by dissembling so great and so manifest an iniquity of yours, we should be willing to have with your adulteress the fellowship of a condemned communion.

[65] The almighty God lives, whose servant I am: being sharply rebuked, he returns to Liège. I shall never have communion with this fornicatress, by whose union the glory of your former virtue is so shamefully obscured; and — what I grieve at more grievously — the destruction of eternal perdition is most certainly being prepared for you, unless you come to your senses. But if you change into tyranny the power you have received from God, I am ready for the truth, for the defense of chastity, gladly to receive whatever persecutions you may bring, and even death itself. And straightway upon these words he withdrew with the utmost constancy from the prince's sight and from the hall, and, the river Meuse being crossed, returned to the solitude of Liège that was dear to him ⁿ.

ANNOTATIONS.

pertentaturus*

CHAPTER VI.

The Saint's martyrdom: the revelation of it made to St. Sergius the Pope: the translation of his body to Maastricht and his burial there, illustrious by prodigies.

[ ] Dodo, incited by Alpaïs, with arms prepared, But Alpaïs, full of exceeding confusion, like another Herodias, inflamed with womanly fury for vengeance for this insult, easily drove Pippin's mind, grievously exasperated by Lambert's words, to the counsel of killing him. And at once, sending in the night from the palace many attendants and bold men, she sends word by a malicious report to her brother Dodo, who was not far off, of what Lambert had lately done with the duke and what he had said, the words being distorted and carefully composed to persuade toward the worse. She adds besides, like oil to the furnace, that while it pleases the prince, while his grief is fresh, he should hasten to kill Lambert; because his life was their reproach and ruin. On hearing these things he, wholly turned to rage, scarcely contains himself; he eagerly seizes the offered opportunity, which he had long desired, of accomplishing this unspeakable slaughter; and although, estranged from reason, he was already being driven headlong to the shedding of innocent blood, yet he puts the matter off till the morrow, fearing lest he should suffer the greatest loss of his cruelty if Lambert or any of his companions, by hiding or fleeing, should be taken out of this slaying by the benefit of the dark night ^a.

[67] And so, as the consciousness of the iniquity he had conceived goaded him, sleepless and impatient of rest, he was hurried this way and that as if not master of his mind, while the Saint, having spent the night in prayers, gathering armed men and being schooled for so detestable a crime, very often complaining of the too slow withdrawal of the night, which alone delayed the effect of his desire. But Lambert, Christ's most gentle priest, was rendering to God the customary watches of his sacred vigils, offering in the sight of the Most High, out of great contrition of heart, the spiritual and appeasing victims of most pure prayer. For he was accustomed, having tasted the rest of a little sleep, to rise alone in silence to prayer after the first watch of the night, and, being set in fervor of spirit, to pour out fuller prayers, which proceeded from the ardor of charity, when he made supplication for the flock committed to him, for the salvation and tranquillity of the whole world and of those who are in high place; or when, for the benefits of divine mercy conferred upon him, now recalling things past, now things present, or contemplating and hoping with the eyes of a most pure mind for the rewards of the Saints laid up in the future, he rendered unspeakable thanks to God.

[68] And so, when in these things he had passed more than the middle part of that night, he rests a little; his dwelling, above which at a given signal he roused his disciples from sleep, with whom he celebrated with the utmost devotion the nightly hymns, as was instituted by the holy fathers. And when these had been solemnly completed, he fell to prayer again, and devoutly prolonging it until the very approach of dawn, he laid his little body — worn out by long practice of fastings and vigils — upon his little bed, to refresh it with a small rest of sleep; because it was very well known to the spiritual experience of his discernment that immoderate and unreasonable night-watchings and vigils have frequently cast down those whom sleep could not overcome. And so, as the darkness thinned and the light was now appearing, behold, Dodo, to fulfill the detestable office of an executioner, was coming with raging spirit and with an armed multitude of his attendants. But we do not judge it beside the purpose that there should be inserted into this work what almighty God, to declare the merit of his martyr Lambert, deigned to show to those whom he willed.

[69] For certain of the military men who followed Dodo's army, a cross appears from God, he sets about breaking in. when Liège was already in sight, lifting their eyes upward, saw above the cell in which that same man of God Lambert was resting, in the very clear air, the sign of the Lord's most victorious Cross glowing red with a flaming color beyond the rays of the sun. For, as we truly believe, to Lambert, who was crucified to the world, both victory over the ancient enemy was promised by the cross, and by the brightness of its splendor the glory of martyrdom in the heavens. Dodo's attendants therefore and comrades, surrounding their leader with fierce tumult and terrible clash of arms, assailed as enemies the place of peace, the dwelling of religion, the cell of so great a Priest; while all who were there in his service were astonished at the unwonted line of armed men, and, trembling in expectation of death itself, ran hither and thither. But the man of God, suddenly roused from sleep, could not easily at first perceive what so great a disquiet and trembling of his people meant beyond the usual.

[70] But when he had heard from outside the disorderly shouting of the raging men and the clashing of arms, Lambert stirs up his own to die piously, he truly understood the matter as it was, namely that he himself was sought; and at length, coming to himself, he fled for refuge to divine help ^b; and seizing the shield of faith and the customary arms of prayer, he said: Arise, O Lord, and judge my cause; and forget not thy poor unto the end. There were present there two of his nephews, namely Peter and Andoletus by name, men distinguished in family and riches and great-souled in military affairs. These, being caught with the blessed Man in so unlooked-for and so grave a peril, not unmindful of their former valor, seizing cudgels which chance had offered, are borne with bold onset against the sacrilegious men who, the doors of the forecourt being broken, were trying to burst into the Pontiff's inner house; and having driven them far off, sharpening themselves and their people to valor by mutual exhortation, they manfully prepare to resist their adversaries. And when Lambert, Christ's most gentle priest, had perceived this, calling his nephews he said: Restrain your hands, most beloved sons, and keep them guiltless from the shedding of human blood: for it is very foreign to faithful men, and to the followers of our discipline, to render evil for evil, and to wish to avenge with one's own hand the wrongs inflicted.

[71] and his two nephews and the others Hear therefore, dearest ones, these last words of your father, and firmly raise the hope of your heart toward him with whom is mercy and plentiful redemption; and humbly confessing all your guilt before his sight, condemn yourselves by your own judgment. Then Peter and Andoletus, having conceived through the Holy Spirit the affection of true penitence, cast away their arms and implore, by the humility of confession, the saving grace of indulgence and reconciliation. And when Christ's Priest had absolved them according to the urgency of the pressing peril, and had strengthened them with the episcopal blessing, he said: Go out now, O truly soldiers of Christ, with all confidence to those who seek to kill you, and the nobility of your spirit

show manfully through contempt of wrongs and of death itself, so that, as in you the cause is more just and the conscience purer, so also the virtue of patience, which Christ loves and crowns, may shine forth today the stronger. Concerning me, for whom I see you greatly anxious, let the Lord's will be done. And they, as though they had received a divine oracle, straightway hastened as to great delights prepared for their bodies; unarmed, but with undaunted countenance, they rush forth from the door of the chamber, drawn not by the hands of executioners but glowing with love of martyrdom, and steadfastly offering their necks to the raging and striking adversaries.

[72] being slain, he too is killed with a lance. When these had been cruelly slain, Dodo's attendants, as though goaded by a certain taste of this slaughter to a sharper madness of savagery, the fences being torn down and the walls broken, rush within more savage than beasts, tearing and slaying the small flock of God's servants found there; who, preserving their innocence even amid the swords of executioners, not by resisting or fleeing but by steadfastly receiving death, adorned their victory most of all by brave patience. But Lambert, God's chosen one, before the altar of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian ^c, himself soon to be a martyr, had laid himself down in the form of a cross, awaiting the hour of his martyrdom in a place consecrated and befitting a priest, in the highest devotion of prayer. But one of that sacrilegious band of the impious Dodo, bolder than the rest for the crime, flies up armed without delay upon the roof-ridge of the oratory, as though about to do a welcome thing, an excellent thing, in his prince's sight; and straightway, the tiles being flung apart with violence, when he had looked in upon the blessed Man praying prostrate on the ground, he gave not honor to God, but driven by a diabolical spirit, with the lance ^d which he held, poised with great effort, he struck him, and pierced him with a mortal wound. The Saint's martyrdom is announced to Pope Sergius by an angel,

[73] Thus the sacrilegious Dodo, hateful to God, having avenged by an unspeakable slaughter, through the ministry of a crowd * of executioners, upon God's man Lambert the constancy of apostolic authority and the saving rebuke of a priestly tongue, both incurred the destruction of eternal damnation and left to his posterity the perpetual punishment of so great a crime, and a reproach unfailing to this day. Thus Lambert, most blessed martyr, having venerably discharged the priesthood of the church of Tongeren for forty years [e], a man venerable in divine religion and in age, adorned with the grace of all virtues, conspicuous for the purity of angelic chastity, the special apostle of the Toxandrians, like a morning sacrifice offered in the sight of the Lord at earliest dawn, truly priest and victim, fell at the base of the altar; and thus, amid the very secret words of fervent prayer, he breathed out his last breath in the praise and contemplation of God. O how precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints! For Rome herself, that city lofty in the rule of the whole world and glorious in the Apostolic See, had already known the death and merit of the blessed martyr Lambert in that very moment of time in which the divine disposition had handed him over, in the then humble and ignoble village of Liège, to be torn by the hands of wicked men.

[74] For Sergius of blessed memory ^f, who, as we said before, adorned the Priesthood of the Roman Church by the merit of his life, who, handing over his staff, commands that St. Hubert wearied with vigils and prayers and granting a little sleep to his frail limbs, had fallen asleep about the dawn of that same day on which Lambert, Christ's priest, obtained martyrdom by the hand of the wicked Dodo, for the defense and testimony of virtue and chastity. And behold, an angel of the Lord, conspicuous with heavenly light, standing by him in a vision, said: Attend diligently, brother, to those things which are made manifest to you by the Lord through me, and give credence to my words, and carry out the more zealously what shall be commanded. Lambert, bishop of the Tongrians, this very hour has been offered up by impious men within the Lord's sanctuary for piety's sake; and because on earth he was zealous to imitate the faith and constancy of Christ's martyrs, he has deserved to obtain their fellowship and glory in the heavenly court. Lo, receive his pastoral staff, in which he vigilantly ruled and fed the flock of Christ committed to him, suddenly carried to you from the place of his passion. And it seemed to him that he held out a staff, saying: In this you shall appoint for the governance of the church of Tongeren an heir and successor worthy of such a Man, trained in the teaching and manners of Lambert himself, already chosen by God to be priest, Hubert by name, whom, as he comes today to the thresholds of the Apostles, you will be able to recognize among others by these and these signs.

[75] And straightway the Pope, awaking, while he still hesitated about the vision, who had then come to Rome, be appointed in his place. found laid beside him, just as he had received from the angel in the vision, the pastoral staff of Bl. Lambert: which, receiving with fear and the greatest wonder, and examining with his eyes, he understood the vision to be not now empty and fanciful, but full of faith and certainly divine; and to the religious men whom he had in his service he disclosed in order what he had seen, what he had heard, what sign he had received. Therefore, prayer having been made and a sacrifice of praise offered, he sat down about the thresholds of the Apostles as a diligent scrutinizer of those coming, to carry out the vision's precept. And it happened that the memorable man Hubert, the long labor of his pilgrimage being finished, had taken lodging that same night in a village next to the City. But how he was recognized on that same day by Pope Sergius, and was made certain of the slaying of his beloved master Lambert by the sign of his staff, if anyone desires to know more fully, let him read again that little book which, published by faithful men concerning the life and manner of living of that same Hubert before his episcopate, it is not doubtful is both had and read by very many among us ^g. But let us return to our subject.

[76] Dodo and his companions divinely punished. And so the impious Dodo, having gained so wicked a victory, returns in much pride of heart by the ascent of the neighboring mountain which is now called Publicus, which, extending from the Western quarter with a long indeed, but gentle stretch and easy slope toward the East, ends almost on the very Northern side of the aforesaid oratory. But what punishment for this crime committed, and what a dreadful exit from his wicked life the sacrilegious Dodo with his army incurred, the following little book will be able to indicate, which we have resolved to write concerning the Translation and miracles of Bl. Lambert the martyr ^h.

[77] The holy Martyr's body is conveyed to Maastricht, Therefore the few of the holy Man's household who had escaped the peril of death, although that band of murderers had withdrawn, yet still exceedingly fearful and scarcely masters of themselves, find the most sacred lifeless body of their Priest and Martyr, drenched with the precious dew of his own blood, in that same posture of one praying in which death had overtaken him prostrate before the altar of the holy martyrs. Which, kissing with much groaning and tearful sighs, they carry forth reverently from the oratory, and, placing it in a little boat, they direct it down the flowing channel of the Meuse to the neighboring town of Maastricht, to be buried. Almost the whole region rushed to attend the funeral, which report, the swift messenger of so great a crime, had already roused on every side. And when the little boat had put in at the harbor of the people of Maastricht and had set down the Martyr's sacred body, both banks of the river Meuse resounded with vehement outcry and weeping and lamentation, namely of men and women, an innumerable multitude of whom had flocked thither in longing for their slain Shepherd.

[78] and received with the great lamentation of all, The wailing of the poor, of widows, of orphans was most of all heard, who with hands stretched out to heaven complained that they had been left destitute of so great a Father, so great a Consoler and Defender, by the envy and malice of wicked men. But the sacred ecclesiastical order also, standing by their Pontiff in mourning garb, interrupted the celebration of the obsequies and the spiritual chanting of psalmody with frequent sobs and sighs, which the force of inward grief and bitterness drew forth at the remembrance of their lost Father. Thus they continue the night following that day, no laments being omitted which the greatness of grief suggested in such a case. But a sudden rumor gravely dismayed so great a multitude of mourners: for it was said (nor was it groundless) that Pippin and his household were greatly indignant at this ⁱ, reckoning it as done zealously to their own reproach — so free, so public a complaint of the people about the killing of the Pontiff; so illustrious and, amid tears, so glorious a memory of his benefits; so crowded a throng of mourners about his obsequies.

[79] for fear of Pippin and Dodo, without pomp And so, when all were terrified, especially because Pippin was not far off, the common lamentation is turned into silence; nor did they now believe that any of them would escape the cruelty of Dodo, to whom they saw so much had been permitted against the Lord's Priest. Wherefore those who seemed the more powerful among them, and with whom the care of his obsequies especially lay, having taken counsel together, resolved, to mitigate the prince's indignation, to bury him in a lowly place, with less display indeed than the dignity of so great a Priest and Martyr required. There were in that same town of Maastricht two famous churches, of which one, that of Bl. Mary ever Virgin ^k, was at that time held to be the second seat of the pontiffs of Tongeren; and the other that of the blessed Apostle Bartholomew, which was magnificently adorned by the merits and body of the most holy confessor and bishop Servatius ^l. But in these they by no means presumed to entomb the venerable body of the blessed Man, lest the brightness of the place should seem to increase the glory and honor of him who was buried.

[80] Whence, when morning came, they carried his bier without any pomp of funeral into a certain church of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles ^m, he is laid in his father's tomb, breathing a wondrous fragrance, in which the illustrious man Aper, whom we mentioned above as St. Lambert's father, rested in body in a stone sarcophagus. And it was solitary, situated almost on the very bank of the Meuse at the eastern slope of the mountain which the inhabitants call Castra, having between itself and Maastricht, as a kind of boundary, the little river Jeker ⁿ. Therefore, opening this tomb, they reverently laid in it the most sacred limbs of the Martyr son together with the bones of his father, then truly happy, while many of the faithful stood by, whose devotion in the remembrance of their slain Shepherd could neither hide its affection nor restrain its tears. And while those blessed obsequies were being celebrated, a very great fragrance of most sweet odor was poured out from heaven in that same place, with whose wondrous sweetness all who were present were refreshed ^o.

[81] But greater things follow great: for when the Martyr's tomb had been closed and carefully sealed, and is honored with heavenly light and harmony. The time of his martyrdom. and the throng of the people had withdrawn, there was there the manifest guardianship of the holy angels with heavenly hymns and immense light, whose presence and sweet-sounding melody many religious men very often deserved to hear and to see; and they testified that they had truly heard the voice of blessed Lambert, as one known to them, among that happy choir of blessed spirits chanting hymns to the holy and undivided Trinity [p]. Which vision was daily spread abroad on every side, and the people of Maastricht and all the neighborhood frequented the Martyr's sepulcher with all alacrity and devotion, holding public and frequent assemblies there. Nor could the violence of any power now deter them from the veneration of the Martyr, about whose sepulcher they beheld so great a glory and magnificence of our Redeemer, who lives and reigns, God, through all ages of ages; amen. He suffered

And Bl. Lambert suffered on the fifteenth of the Kalends of October, under Childebert, king of the Franks [q], son of king Theodoric, at which time Tiberius, also called Absimarus [r], had seized the summit of the Roman empire, Leontius having been excluded from the empire and thrust into custody.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. The same things are read in Godescalc and the other biographers.

q. The death of Childebert III Le Cointe and Pagi bind to the year of Christ 711: and therefore, since St. Lambert's martyrdom from what has been said more probably fell in the year 709, it is rightly said to have happened under Childebert.

r. Tiberius Apsimarus had then been deposed from the empire which he had seized, namely from the year 705, as Pagi holds.

or per turpe*?