Gerulphus the Martyr

ON ST. GERULPHUS THE MARTYR,

AT TRUNCINIUM IN FLANDERS.

About the middle of the VIII century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Gerulphus, M., at Truncinium in Flanders (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. Notice of the place where the Saint died and is venerated: his memory in the Martyrologies on three different days, on which he is celebrated at Truncinium with an Office: other cult in the same place.

Truncinium or Trunchinium, called by the Flemings Drongene or Drongem, distant on account of the windings of the road one mile from Ghent, the chief city of Flanders, At Truncinium, whose church has long been of the Premonstratensians, lies on the river Lys or Legia, in the vernacular called de Leye, which flowing thence toward Ghent enters its walls. In that place, in the old district of Mempiscum or Menipiscum, St. Basinus in the seventh century founded and endowed a church to the most holy Mother of God Mary, which St. Amandus, apostle of the Flemings, adorned with a college of canons, or a monastery of clerics living together under regular discipline, called also the High monastery in Truncinium. The same church Baldwin, count of Flanders, surnamed the Bald, restored in the year of Christ 884 after it had been devastated by the Normans, and restored it to the canons. At length in the year 1137 or the following, Premonstratensians summoned from the monastery of St. Martin of Laon by Iwan count of Alost, Odger yielding up the provostship, were substituted for those clerics, and there they persevere to this day in serving God under their most worthy abbot, the most ample and most reverend lord Antonius de Stoop, whose grateful memory will recur below. Of the same place our Work may be consulted at the XIV day of July, where St. Basinus the martyr is treated, and at the XX of June, where St. Aldegund the virgin, venerated in the same place, is treated.

[2] Further, St. Gerulphus the martyr is announced at Truncinium by various martyrologists, on this day the Saint's birthday feast especially Belgians, and on various days; both because he is believed to have been slain there, and because his sacred body, famous for miracles, was translated thither in the X century from Merendra, his native and hereditary place, and he is there honored with worthy cult even to this day. And first, indeed, at this XXI day of September, which is held for the day of his death, our manuscript Florarium Sanctorum has this of him: Likewise of St. Gerulphus the martyr. Him from boyish age so fervent a love (of God) kindled that, whether staying at home or walking abroad, he was seen to meditate nothing else but how he might suffice to please his Creator []. Among the Usuardine supplements in our Sollier, in the Brussels codex at the same day, is read: And at Truncinium, of St. Gerolfus the martyr. In Greven's edition: In Flanders, of Gerulphus, boy and martyr. Molanus in his earlier edition has only: The passion of St. Gerulphus the martyr; but in his later editions: At Truncinium near Ghent, the passion of St. Gerulphus.*

[3] Following these, the editor of the Roman Martyrology translated into the vernacular for the use of Belgium is announced by many martyrologists; at the end of the same day, in a different type, in which he is wont to announce Saints not inserted in the Roman Martyrology but nevertheless venerated in Belgium or in the adjacent regions, records Gerulphus too in words which I subjoin in Latin: In the abbey of Truncinium near Ghent, St. Gerulphus the martyr, born in Flanders and slain near that same monastery by a certain kinsman of his own, who could not bear his pious life. The same Castellan likewise inserted in his Universal Martyrology on this day, saying thus in French: At Truncinium near Ghent, the martyrdom of St. Gerulphus, whose body, which had been carried to Merendra, his native place, was in the beginning of the tenth century brought back to Truncinium. To these add Peter Canisius, or whoever published the German Martyrology under his name, Andreas Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, and Philip Ferrari in the general Catalogue of Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, in all of whom the memory of this holy Martyr is celebrated on the same day.

[4] but at the 25th day of June the elevation of the body, The second festival of the same Saint, namely of the Translation, the above-praised Molanus assigned in his Usuard of the first edition to the XXV day of June in these words: The translation of the body of St. Gerulphus the martyr; in his later editions he rightly added the place, saying: At Truncinium, the translation, etc. Saussay agrees in his aforesaid Martyrology: At Truncinium, the translation of St. Gerulphus the martyr, who has his illustrious birthday on the XI of the Kalends of October. More correctly than these has Canisius' Martyrology: Likewise the elevation of St. Gerulphus the martyr. More correctly, I say; because on the said day there is not recalled the translation of the sacred body from Merendra to Truncinium, but the deposition of it in another and more splendid reliquary, made at Truncinium on the preceding day, as we shall see below, but whose annual memory had to be transferred to the following day, the XXV of June, on account of the birthday feast of St. John the Baptist, which is to be celebrated on that day. Hence at this latter day in our Work the same translation or elevation was recorded among the Prætermissi, and referred, as is customary, to the XXI of September.

[5] and on the 8th day of October his translation. The third memory finally of the same Saint, which treats of the translation of his body, or its coming from Merendra to Truncinium, recurs in some martyrologists on the VIII day of October. Of it Molanus in the earlier edition of his enlarged Usuard says this: The coming of St. Gerulphus the martyr; then in smaller type he subjoins: From Merendra to Truncinium. Who, having been anointed with the sacred chrism by bishop Helizeus in the convent of Blandinium, entered on his journey into the church of the Mother of God and prayed longer than pleased his godfather who was bringing him back, and for that reason was so beaten by him that death shortly followed. So writes Meyer in his Commentary on Flemish affairs, at the year DCCCCXV. Interpret this year of the translation, not of the slaying, as will be established from what is to be said. In other editions the same Molanus has it more briefly: At Truncinium, from Merendra, the Coming of St. Gerulphus. Canisius agrees in the German Martyrology, likewise saying on this VIII day of October: Likewise the Coming of the holy martyr Gerulphus from Merendra to Truncinium. Similarly Saussay in the same place says: At Truncinium on the Lys near Ghent, the conveyance of the body of St. Gerulphus the martyr from Merendra, where he had first been buried in the basilica of St. Radegund, made upon a heavenly admonition. I pass over Ferrari in the general Catalogue of Saints, where he has followed Molanus.

[6] On these three aforesaid days the holy martyr Gerulphus is venerated at Truncinium with annual Offices and Mass, In the same place, as patron of the parish church as the above-praised most ample and most reverend lord Antonius de Stoop, abbot of Truncinium, being consulted about the cult of the same Saint among his people, kindly taught us in his most courteous letter, a printed copy of the same Offices being added to the other documents. Before I bring these forward, it will be useful to have observed from the same Most Reverend's letter that the church of Truncinium is as it were twofold; for the Choir, he says, with the two altars before the choir, is Conventual; and the patroness of this is the blessed Virgin assumed into heaven. The remainder is the parish church, whose patron is St. Gerulphus. These things being observed, I proceed to the Offices. The Saint's chief festival is his birthday in heaven, and it is kept on this XXI day of September, as of a patron, with the Triple rite after the manner of the Premonstratensians, with an Octave; and therefore the feast of St. Matthew the apostle, which falls on the same day, is transferred to another. And it is celebrated solemnly in the church by the reverend lord Prior of the convent, as the above-praised abbot observed. This Office has many proper parts besides the lessons, which the same most reverend prelate suspects to have been taken from the common of martyrs for this reason, that the antiphons and responsories contain in some measure the Saint's life. Now I subjoin the Office itself.

[7] At Vespers, antiphon. There has shone upon us today the splendor of a new gladness, is venerated on the 21st day of September through the Octave while in the church the glory of holy Gerulphus shines forth. Psalms, as in the Common of one martyr.

Antiphon. As a chosen vessel imbued from heaven with virtues, he utterly despised earthly things, following the heavenly.

Antiphon. After the pursuit of holiness, in which he excellently flourished, he ascended to martyrdom, which alone was lacking to him.

Antiphon. The Lord's brave athlete went forth to do battle: he conquered; to the Victor it was granted to glory in the heavens.

Antiphon. Let us set forth his illustrious merits with due praise, that after the battles of the world he may lead us to the joys of heaven. Little chapter, from the Common of one martyr.

Responsory. Gerulphus, noble martyr, succor thy servants, and save by thy prayers those intent upon thy praises. ℣ We who rejoice daily in the praise of thy glory: through thee may we receive as rewards the joys of the heavenly life. And save. ℣ Glory be to the Father. And save.* Hymn and versicle from the Common.

Antiphon at the Magnificat, doubled. O Gerulphus, beloved of God, remember us, gaining for us the joys of the eternal light.

Prayer. God, lover of chastity and author of innocence, grant us, through the merits and intercession of thy glorious martyr Gerulphus, who fell innocent by the sword of his most cruel godfather, that we may deserve to obtain the prosperity of the present life and the unending happiness of that to come. Through our Lord.

[8] At Matins. Invitatory. To the jubilee of the voice let us join the songs of the heart, and with Gerulphus

let us rejoice in the heavens to Christ. Hymn from the Common.

In the first Nocturn, antiphon. Gerulphus, by kindly deeds from boyish years, with an annual Office of a martyr diligent in the law of God, passed his days with his nights. Psalms from the Common of one martyr.

Antiphon. While the peoples were gathering against the Saint of the Lord, trusting in the Lord alone, he conquered by his help.

Antiphon. The Lord made him victor over many enemies, adding to his victory the gift of everlasting glory. ℣ With glory and honor thou hast crowned him, O Lord.

The lessons of this Nocturn are taken from the I Nocturn of many martyrs; from the Epistle to the Romans: Brethren, we are debtors.

℞ The sacred solemnity of St. Gerulphus the martyr is at hand whom the bounteous goodness of God enriched with the highest joys. ℣ As the sun lights up the world with the light of its splendor, so did Gerulphus adorn the Church with his blood . Whom.

℞ This Boy from infancy detested vices: and he applied himself to the virtues, as the Lord commanded. ℣ To be crowned with martyrdom he made himself over to the Lord, and was gracious both to God and to men. And he applied himself.

℞ He frequented the churches out of devotion, and the memorials of the Saints , with great reverence. ℣ Those whom he knew already to rejoice happily with Christ, in their holy steps he chose to abide. With great, etc. Glory be to the Father . With great.*

[9] with proper antiphons and responsories In the second Nocturn, antiphon. The Lord made wonderful his chosen Servant, whom by consecrating him a Martyr he made a marvel to the world.

Antiphon. Protected by the shield of grace, he took the palm of victory, to whom fell as reward the heavenly blessing.

Antiphon. Excellence of honor and everlasting glory the excellent Martyr received with the citizens of heaven. ℣ Thou hast set, O Lord, upon his head. Lessons from the Common of one martyr.

℞ This Saint among men lived not after the manner of men . For he spurned things that were to perish, following the Lord alone. ℣ For he burned mightily with heavenly desire, and hurtful allurements were a weariness to him. For he.

℞ The joys of the passing world he despised as empty . And he reckoned trifling whatever had an end. ℣ What the world urged sweetly, he despised bravely, unwilling by a deceitful joy to be cheated of the highest reward . And he reckoned.

℞ Who would not with solemn zeal marvel at the grace of God ; who granted such glory to his holy Servant. ℣ Him groaning in exile he led forth out of misery, and made the glorious Martyr joyful in his fatherland . Who to his holy. ℣ Glory. Who to his holy.*

[10] through all the Hours, In the third Nocturn, antiphon. Gerulphus, renowned martyr, trusted in the Lord, through whom he trod under foot all things that flourish in this world.

Antiphon. Him whom the Lord made to be without mortal stain, he led his soul into the tabernacles of heaven.

Antiphon. Great were the battles which he endured for the Lord, yet greater the rewards abiding without end. ℣ Great is his glory in thy salvation. Lessons from the Common of one martyr.

℞ Gerulphus, the holy martyr, let us devoutly venerate: that through him we may be raised to the joys above. ℣ Who followed Christ in a saving death, let us take care always to give thanks in his praises. That to the.

℞ This holy Recruit of the Lord, armed with virtues, fought bravely: for the enemy is laid low. ℣ The enemy thought to conquer, but he himself was conquered; for to the Martyr's honor the conflict was ended. For the enemy.

℞ He who before was illustrious as a noble person, afterward shone more brightly as a Martyr, with a golden crown. ℣ By his prayers may we be protected on earth, that we may fully enjoy everlasting joys in heaven. With a golden crown. ℣ Glory. With a golden.*

[11] At Lauds. Antiphon. Let us rise to the praises of the Lord with a willing heart, such as is here exhibited. rejoicing in the joys of Gerulphus the holy martyr.

Antiphon. Now with gladness he lives in the heavenly hall, whom innocence of life led to heavenly things.

Antiphon. Watching for the Lord, he ran from the first light, that he might see the most sweet glory of his power.

Antiphon. His zeal was always to bless Christ, and the reward of that thing is to rejoice for ever.

Antiphon. Now this Saint joyfully sings new songs to the Lord, whom let every spirit ever praise with all its powers. Little chapter, Hymn and versicle from the Common.

Antiphon at the Benedictus. The Lord has raised up for us all a horn of salvation, which is, with holy manners, the life of Gerulphus the martyr.

At the Hours the antiphons of Lauds are said, with the little chapters and versicles from the Common of one martyr, and the proper Prayer, as above. At second Vespers the antiphons of Lauds, the little chapter, hymn and versicle from the Common. ℞ He who illustrious, as above.

Antiphon at the Magnificat, doubled. O Gerulphus, martyr of Christ, as thou wast a light to the world, so be to us also a lamp, by which we may be led to things above.

[12] The second festival of the same, of the Saint's body translated from Merendra, [He is venerated likewise with an Office on the 8th of October and the 25th of June,] his native place and that of his first burial, as we said above from the Martyrologies, is celebrated at Truncinium on the VIII of October; which translation was made in the X century, and is called the Coming of St. Gerulphus the martyr. And the Office is made only a double, by the Subprior of the convent, the same as on the XXI of September, except the prayer, which I subjoin. God, who by the coming of thine only-begotten Son didst free the lost world from eternal death, grant to us thy servants that we, who solemnly celebrate the venerable day of the coming of the Blessed Gerulphus thy martyr, may by his intercession obtain eternal glory. Through the same our Lord. The third festival finally of him, which is called the Translation of St. Gerulphus the martyr, is celebrated on the XXV day of June, concerning the deposition of his sacred body from the old reliquary into a new one made at Truncinium; and of it there is made, the hebdomadary celebrating, a celebrated Office (as the Premonstratensians speak), wholly from the Common of one martyr except the antiphons at the Magnificat at both Vespers and at the Benedictus, and the ninth Responsory, which are said as on the feast of the XXI day of September, and the Prayer, which is this: Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that we who venerate the translation of the Blessed Gerulphus thy martyr may by his intercession be strengthened in the love of thy name. Through our Lord.

[13] Besides the three feasts, on every Thursday throughout the year a commemoration is likewise made there of him and of St. Basinus the martyr in this manner: and with a weekly commemoration: his confraternity in the same place. Antiphon. The bodies of the Saints are buried in peace, and their names shall live for ever. ℣ Let the Just exult in the sight of God. Prayer. Let us, we beseech thee, O Lord, be helped by the prayers of thy holy martyrs Basinus and Gerulphus, and of all thy martyrs, that what our own capacity does not obtain may be granted us by their intercession. Through Christ our Lord. Martin Steyt, priest and Religious of the same abbey of Truncinium, in the Flemish Life of St. Gerulphus, which he published in the year 1658 from the presses of Ghent, in chap. 16 makes mention of a pious confraternity under the invocation of the most holy Virgin Mary and of St. Gerulphus, instituted from time immemorial in the same parish church of Truncinium, in which he affirms, from the Register of the same confraternity, that in the year 1561 more than two thousand members of either sex were reckoned. He subjoins in the same place that this confraternity, when it had for some time been neglected and diminished, was restored by the most illustrious Antonius Triest, bishop of Ghent, in the year 1629, and confirmed by Pope Urban VIII, and endowed in perpetuity with sacred Indulgences. Among the plenary Indulgences which he there enumerates, one is on the Saint's birthday feast, the XXI day of September, and another of seven years and as many quarantines on the feast of the most holy Trinity, on which day, says the author, the solemn procession of St. Gerulphus is held. Thus far concerning his cult at Truncinium.

fuerit*

§ II. The Life of the Saint which is extant, written in the X century by a Belgian monk: the Translation and miracles to be published: his native place, his parents, the time and the age at which he was slain, and his burial.

[ ] The Life with the Translation, which is extant in manuscripts, The Life of St. Gerulphus, the Coming or Translation from Merendra to Truncinium, and the Miracles are extant in manuscripts and have partly also been published. First of all we have his Life and the Coming in our Vaucelles codex, marked P. Ms. 158. The beginning of the Life is: Creator rerum Deus omnia sapienter condens; and of the Coming: Scripturi Adventum beati & gloriosi martyris Gerulfi. The same Life and Coming is read in another transcript from Soissons, which Papebroch noted as having been received in the year 1666 from brother Louis Nicquet, Librarian of the Celestine Fathers there. Yet another copy of both little Works is in our Museum, from a manuscript of Truncinium, which Bolland himself collated with the Corsendonck codex, which is inscribed The second part of divers Legends, and in which last he observed that many things were omitted. The copy of Truncinium, besides what has already been said, contains also the Miracles, whose opening is: Quia Dominus in Sanctis suis laudari præcipitur; but in the Corsendonck one both this and the greatest part of the miracles is lacking. The codex of Truncinium, from which I judge our manuscript was drawn, the most reverend lord abbot praised above, Antonius de Stoop, most courteously transmitted to us in this year 1754, for the illustrating of the Saint's Deeds, in which the same Life, Coming and Miracles are reckoned.

[15] was written in the X century, and dedicated This Life and the Coming were written by the same ancient and neat hand, but the Miracles by a second and much more recent one. The author nowhere names himself, nor gives any indication of the certain age in which he wrote. John Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii speaks thus of him: That the History was written before the year one thousand, about the time of the translation (which he had with others fixed at the year 915), seems able to be gathered from the style. For it is written that he is held in Francia beside the shores of the Ocean, and that his parents dwelt in the district of Mempiscum, at Merendra, a villa of their own right (which is distant two miles from Ghent), and that he chose burial in a monastery beside the water of the Lys, which is called Truncinias. Thus far Molanus, whose opinion I shall further establish and confirm from elsewhere. Another transcript of the aforesaid Life, from a manuscript of the monastery of St. Bertin in the city of Saint-Omer in Belgium, I have in hand, set aside by our Bolland for this day.

[16] To this a certain preface, which is absent from the other transcripts enumerated to abbot Gerard, who was perhaps and from the codices of Truncinium and Vaucelles, is prefixed with this title: Here begins the little Preface on the passion of St. Gerulphus, and on some healings wrought by him. The anonymous author, who professes himself unpolished, and therefore near the end of the same preface desires his name to be concealed, lest, as he says, the meanness of an unpolished person breed distaste, makes plain that he is a monk, and that he was bidden to write by abbot Gerard, when he begins thus: Thou compellest me, unskilled as I am, O most noble of abbots and venerable father Gerard, to undertake a very arduous work. The time also at which he wrote he there indicates thus:

That holy martyr Gerulphus, although he was lately reported to have been found, etc. He wrote therefore not very long after the finding or translation of the sacred body, which he relates to have been made under Eirard, or Airard, bishop of Noyon and Tournai, and which we shall show below to have taken place more probably between the year 923 or 924 and the year 932.

[17] Further, since through the whole tenth century and the two following no Gerard occurs in the catalogue of the provosts and abbots of Truncinium in Antonius Sanderus, tom. 1 of Flandria illustrata, pag. 122, St. Gerard, abbot of Brogne, while in the Gallia Christiana, tom. 5 col. 236, Gerard I, abbot of the same place, is first recorded in the year 1192, our biographer is more probably to be sought elsewhere than at Truncinium. Nay, that he should be sought elsewhere he himself persuades, when he calls St. Gerulphus a man of barbarous speech; for it does not seem that he would have charged with barbarous speech a Saint born and reared about two miles from the monastery of Truncinium, if he had written his Life in that same monastery. Besides, when speaking of the Saint's translation he uses the word ferretur (was reported), saying thus: The holy martyr Gerulphus, although he was lately reported to have been found, he sufficiently hints that he was further from Merendra than Truncinium is, since he would certainly have spoken more positively if he had drawn up that Life there. Wherefore, that all these things may be reconciled, it appears to me more probable that the biographer was a monk in some monastery of Belgium where the Gallic tongue was in use. And there flourished at that time in the county of Namur, as abbot of the monastery of Brogne, situated between the Meuse and the Sambre, St. Gerard, who, since he is said to have drawn his origin from the stock of Hagano, duke of the Austrasians, could deservedly be called most noble of abbots.

[18] This St. Gerard, in tom. 3 of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, col. 91, about the year 934 undertook to reform and govern also the abbey of St. Ghislain in Hainault, who also presided over other monasteries in Belgium. and in the year 944, on the testimony of Iperius in his Chronicle, being asked by Arnulph I count of Flanders, that of Sithiu, or St. Bertin at Saint-Omer, in which the Gallic tongue is likewise in use. But he is also read to have presided over the monasteries of Blandinium and of St. Bavo at Ghent, and many others, for a like cause. It is therefore probable that this Life was inscribed to him and composed in one of those monasteries of the Gallic tongue, on occasion of the translation, the memory of which was then still so recent that the biographer said it had been made lately. From what has been said gather that this biographer was indeed contemporary with the translation, but about two centuries younger than St. Gerulphus, who is said to have been slain about the middle of the VIII century, and therefore is not of equal authority in the Life as in the Translation. Yet concerning the fidelity with which he followed either monuments or the tradition of his own time in narrating the Saint's deeds, he affords no cause for evil suspicion.

[19] This Life (than which perhaps another was older), from the Bertin manuscript, But although this is the most ancient Life of St. Gerulphus which has come into my hands, it may nevertheless be doubted whether some older one, written before the translation, did not at one time exist. The reason for doubting is that the other author of the Coming or Translation to be published, of whom we shall presently treat, at num. 1 plainly cites a little book of the Passion of St. Gerulphus, in which his life, his slaying, his burial and his miracles were treated, but not the translation; which certainly cannot be taken of the Life of which we are now speaking. Neither is it clear enough whether a Life of this kind, older, was before our biographer, who in the Prologue, num. 3, says thus: I shall strive, for the profit of many, to comprise something about him in writing; nor shall I, though worthy of reprehension, be ashamed to relate, God helping, so much as is known to me to have been made known by the relation, written down, of truthful witnesses. For here it is uncertain whether the words relatione scripta are to be referred to the word constat or to the following word referre; and accordingly whether he is speaking of a written relation or of one handed down by word of mouth. Further, that an older Life, if indeed there was one, is not extant at Truncinium we ought not to wonder, since the library of this abbey was in the year 1566 utterly dispersed by the ranters of the Calvinist sect, as its manuscript Register teaches in the words which I subjoin: In the library they either cut all the books in half, or stab them with daggers, or tear out and rend the leaves. Consult also the Commentary below at num. 43 and 46. Wherefore, since we have no older Life, I shall print the Bertin one together with the Prologue, which I judge to have been hitherto unpublished, collated with the Truncinium and the other manuscripts.

[20] the Coming or Translation from the Truncinium codex In the Truncinium codex after the Life follows the Translation, which is inscribed The Coming of St. Gerulphus, and the same is reckoned also in our Vaucelles codex, as also in the Soissons and Corsendonck transcripts, but in this last much more briefly. The author of this seems to have been a canon or cleric of the church of Truncinium; but he nowhere betrays either his name or his age. There is indeed reported in the same place, in all the transcripts, after the translation has been narrated, another carrying-about of the same holy body through the villages of Flanders, made in the year 1088, than which accordingly the writer of the Coming cannot be older, if all the parts are his. But I suspect that these things were added by another. For first, the author of the Coming, setting forth in his preamble what he has undertaken to treat, says only that he will write how he was raised from the tomb in the church in which he had been buried, how he was translated to Truncinium, how, I say, he was exalted with due reverence in the basilica of St. Mary the Virgin; but of his translation through the districts of Flanders made in the XI century he here hints plainly nothing. Secondly, the style too in the latter place appears less elegant and in some measure different from the former. Yet since these things do not sufficiently prove the point, and since in all the manuscripts, and in the edition of Sanderus, the later translation is so attached to the earlier as though both were by the same writer, I can establish nothing certain.

[21] as also the Miracles we shall publish. What of these has already been published. But hence much of authority is lost to him, inasmuch as according to these things he wrote not earlier than toward the end of the XI century, that is, more than a century and a half after the first translation. But neither has he anything in the first translation that would persuade us that he wrote earlier. This Coming, which in the circumstances of things differs here and there from the biographer, we shall subjoin from the Truncinium codex after the Life. After the Coming there follow in the same Truncinium codex certain Miracles, written indeed by a more recent hand than the foregoing, but nevertheless in some measure ancient, of which the most recent is noted as having happened in the year 1309, and these we shall likewise give. Finally there are subjoined a few other miracles or benefits, even more recent, written in a varied hand, but one so difficult and careless that not all can be read. But those which can be read are of such a sort that I shall pass these too over without reluctance. Further, of the things hitherto reckoned, Antonius Sanderus published the Life and the Coming in the Hagiologium Flandriæ, first at Antwerp in the year 1625 and then at Lille in the year 1639, from a codex, as he says, of Truncinium, which is perhaps the very one which we are now using, although the edition often differs in words. Another Life in Flemish was composed, and published at Ghent in the year 1658, by Martin Steyt, a priest Religious of the sacred Premonstratensian Order in the abbey of Truncinium, to whom the same manuscripts of Truncinium served as guide. I pass over many others, likewise more recent, who have made mention of St. Gerulphus, and whom I shall cite in their places where it shall be opportune. From the writers I proceed to the Saint himself.

[22] That St. Gerulphus was born at Merendra, which was a villa of his parents' own right, The Saint born at Merendra, a village of Flanders, situated in the district of Mempiscum, all the Belgians who have written of him hand down after the biographer, nor have I found anyone by whom it is called in doubt. Among these Jacobus Meyer in the Annals of Flanders, at the year of Christ 915, says thus: We read that Gerulphus was born in Menipiscum, in the territory of Ghent, and on the paternal estate of Merendra, his parents being Leutguoldus and Ratguera. The situation of the place, and other matters pertaining hereto, Antonius Sanderus sets forth in tom. 1 of Flandria illustrata, pag. 176, in these words: Merendre is a village situated at the second milestone from the city of Ghent, happy with a rich soil and with many pastures, watered also by the waters of the Kale, and of much antiquity, as various rescripts of the monasteries of St. Bavo and of Truncinium teach … The church is sacred to the Blessed Radegund. In it the Blessed Gerulphus, born at Merendra, rested for some years. That village is extant to this day with the same name Merendre or Meerendre, on the left bank of the canal which leads from Ghent to Bruges. Nay, the parish priest of the same place, the reverend lord J. Van Coppenole, in the notices sent to me says to our purpose: The place of his birth (of the Saint himself) is today assigned (in the same place) thirty or forty paces from the church.

[23] Concerning the names of his parents too there is such agreement that only the difference of one letter or another occurs among various writers, of noble parents, flourished in the time of Elisæus which nevertheless seems to be ascribed to the copyists. For those whom Meyer, with our Bertin transcript, calls Leutguoldus and Ratguera, are in the Truncinium and Vaucelles codices and in the Soissons transcript called Leutwoldus and Ratvara or Ratwara, and in Sanderus' edition Leatwoldus and Rathwara. That they were also noble the biographer hands down, saying: St. Gerulphus therefore was sprung, according to [] the dignity of this world, of illustrious parents; which nobility … he preserved by his pious manners. The time in which the Saint flourished must be elicited from the time of the see of Elisæus in the bishopric of Noyon and Tournai, by whom he had been anointed with the sacred Chrism in the church of Blandinium at Ghent, when, on the biographer's testimony, returning thence to his father's house, he was slain near Truncinium. That this Elisæus presided over the church of Noyon about the middle of the eighth century is established from the letter of Pope Zachary, given to him and to other bishops of Gaul, which Baronius exhibits in the Annals and fixes at the year 748, with the agreement of Jacques Sirmond in the Notes on the same letter, of Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks, and of Pagi in his Critique* of Baronius.

[24] bishop of Noyon, who sat after St. Eunucius Further, the predecessor of Elisæus was St. Eunucius, whose death in our Work at the X day of September, on which he is venerated, was fixed on account of the said letter of Zachary rather broadly before the aforecited year 748, further investigation of the year of his death being left to others. And the writers of the Gallia Christiana, tom. 9 col. 986, believe that this was discovered by them, where they hold that St. Eunucius died before the beginning of the year 745, or even before the end of 744. For argument they allege that very letter of Pope Zachary, which, as they say, seems to have been written at nearly the same time at which the council of Soissons was celebrated, that is, at the beginning of the year DCCXLV. For since that letter is inscribed among the other bishops also to Elisæus bishop of Noyon, they infer that his predecessor

St. Eunucius had already died in that year 745. Why, however, they think thus about the time of the aforesaid letter they do not declare; nor can that opinion easily be reconciled with what the same writers say elsewhere. For the same writers, in the volume cited, col. 28, under Abel archbishop of Reims, write that in the same council of Soissons it was decreed that Abel should be created archbishop of Reims and Ardobert archbishop of Soissons, and that St. Boniface asked palliums of Zachary for these together and for Grimo, archbishop of Rouen, as is established from the letters of the same Pontiff.

[25] about the middle of the VIII century, and had already died in the year 757; Then indeed they rightly observe that Zachary in letter 143 wondered why St. Boniface in other letters, afterward sent anew, asked a pallium for Grimo of Rouen alone, since before he had asked one for each of him and the two others reckoned. Grimo therefore was living and presiding over the church of Rouen after the council of Soissons; and accordingly, if the above-mentioned letter of Zachary to the bishops of Gaul had been given at about the same time at which the council of Soissons was celebrated, it ought also to have been inscribed to Grimo. But it was inscribed, nevertheless, not to him, but to his successor Raginfrid bishop of Rouen. Therefore, until the aforesaid writers shall have produced their reasons for bringing the same letter to the time of the said council, nothing compels us to depart from the opinion of Baronius and of the other learned, or to place St. Eunucius' death before the beginning of the year 745 or the end of 744. How many years the same Elisæus presided over the church of Noyon is likewise unexplored. The aforesaid writers of the Gallia Christiana observe that the first mention of Adalfred, his successor, is made at the year 757 in a certain privilege to which he is read subscribed; but which year of his bishopric that was I have not ascertained.

[26] before which year the Saint's slaying must be fixed. It remains therefore that we place St. Gerulphus' slaying about the middle of the eighth century, but nevertheless before the year 757. Hence gather that Peter Cratepolius was mistaken when in his book on the Bishops of Germany he wrote that our St. Gerulphus lived in the year 915 under Baldwin — namely the Bald — count of Flanders, confounding by a monstrous parachronism with the time of his life the year to which the translation is tied by many. More rightly the same writer, in the Catalogue of the ecclesiastical Electors of the empire, pag. 319, reckoned the same Martyr among the Saints who flourished in the eighth century. Gather secondly that he did not reach the year 760, about which Sanderus referred him in the Hagiologium Flandriæ. Aubert Le Mire in the Fasti Belgici et Burgundici holds that he flourished about the year 750; Steyt in the Flemish Life fixed his death at the determined year 748; whose opinions, although they cannot stray many years from the truth, yet more rightly Dionysius Mudzaert, a priest of the Premonstratensian Order at Tongerloo, in his Universal Ecclesiastical History and in the Belgian one, published in Flemish, reckoned him at the year 748 under bishop Elisæus, determining no year of death, which from what has been said cannot be assigned. Of the day of his death all agree from the biographer, who in all our manuscripts, except in the Soissons transcript, says thus: And the glorious Witness of the Lord departed on the eleventh of the Kalends of October.

[27] Equally doubtful in some measure is the age in which the Saint died; These things seem to have befallen him in youthful age the biographer not being consistent with himself in this part. For in the Prologue, num. 2, and in the Life, num. 7, he calls him a man; but then at num. 6 a boy, at num. 8 a youth and a young man, and indeed speaking of the same time at which, struck by his impious godfather, he died. With the Bertin transcript our other manuscripts too and Sanderus' edition agree. Under the name of boy too Greven announced him, reported above at num. 2. But Dionysius Mudzaert in the Ecclesiastical History just praised, and Steyt in the Flemish Life, called him a young man or a youth. In these doubts we had recourse to the often-praised abbot of Truncinium, and asked what tradition there reports on this matter, and whether any light could be shed upon this darkness from his sacred relics. And he in his most courteous letter added the answer of the parish priest of Merendra, the lord J. Van Coppenole, in which he attests that the tradition of the people of Merendra is that St. Gerulphus was crowned with martyrdom about the eighteenth year of his age. The most praiseworthy abbot professes himself of the same opinion, who, taking up the parish priest's words, says: So too persuades the size of his head or skull, which alone survives of his sacred body and is religiously preserved at Truncinium.

[28] Certainly that he was not a boy when he was slain, the same most reverend lord confirms also by this reason, inflicted near Truncinium: that it is not probable that his noble parents would have permitted their Son at a boyish age to make on horseback a journey of about four hours; which nevertheless, on the biographer's testimony, must consequently be said, since he affirms that he rode from Merendra to Blandinium, and thence again through Truncinium toward Merendra. I too therefore judge that he was slain at a youthful age; and this is more consonant with the biographer, calling him, as I said, now a man, now a boy, now a youth, and now finally a young man. As regards the title of martyr, from what has been said it is established that St. Gerulphus is honored with it by the martyrologists, and venerated as such with an Office; not because he shed his blood for the faith of Christ under a heathen tyrant, but because he was barbarously struck by his godfather, who boiled over uncontrollably on account of prayers poured forth by him rather long in the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Truncinium, and died not long after of the wound inflicted. The place of the slaying, the same most reverend abbot asserts, is half a mile distant from Truncinium; and Steyt in the Flemish Life, chap. 4, writes that the same field in his time was wont to be called that of the chapel, from a chapel once erected there to the memory of St. Gerulphus; which, although it is not repugnant to truth, I nevertheless cannot confirm from elsewhere. But it savors more of a fable, what he says in the same chapter, that the tree under which the Saint was slain brought forth blood upon its leaves for a long time.

[29] The holy Martyr's lifeless body was buried not in the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Truncinium, as he himself dying had asked of his father, but at Merendra in that of St. Radegund, his father so willing, and shone with many miracles, of which consult the Life at num. 10 and the following. he is buried at Merendra, where his tomb is shown to this day With the biographer agrees the tradition which flourishes at Merendra to this day, and of which the parish priest praised above says this in his aforesaid answer: It is handed down that there was a great concourse of people during the whole time in which his sacred body was preserved here; and not only the inhabitants, but strangers and men from afar, flowed together in great numbers to his tomb: nor were there lacking those who were healed of infirmities through his intercession. Then of his tomb, conspicuous there in the same church even at this time, he continues thus: It is certain, finally, that there exists to this day in the parish church of Meerendre, sacred to the holy Radegund, a sepulchral monument built for St. Gerulphus, raised half a foot above the rest of the church pavement, covered with a stone which by its size displays the notable condition of the man buried: for it is handed down that he had as his father the lord of the place.

[30] once celebrated: but the Saint's cult there has ceased. The author of the Coming, whom we said to be perhaps not older than the XI century already far advanced, writes thus of the same tomb, famed in his time for offerings: Even now, to the present day, in the village which they call Merendra, the tomb of that same Martyr (his body having long since been translated to Truncinium) is adorned not with gold, not with silver, not, I say, with precious gems or polished stones, but with the staves of the sick and the stools of those who creep. After the translation that religious usage too long flourished, that every year on the feast of the most holy Trinity the body of St. Gerulphus was carried by a train of suppliants from Truncinium to Merendra, as the writer of the Miracles attests below at num. 3, where he asserts that on that occasion in the year 1295 one and another miracle or benefit took place. But from what time and for what cause this supplication ceased I have not ascertained; but from the writer just praised, who is certainly not older than the XIV century, it is established that it flourished in his time also. Perhaps, this being abolished, there was substituted that other supplication of St. Gerulphus which we recorded from the Flemish Life at num. 13 of this Commentary as wont to be made at Truncinium on the same day. For the rest, the often-mentioned parish priest of Merendra in his answers confesses that Gerulphus at this time is indeed invoked in his parish as a Saint, but nevertheless has no day specially assigned to his cult, so that his cult there seems in a manner to have ceased.

i.e. secundum*

§ III. The translation of the body to Truncinium in the X century: other translations of the same: the body dispersed by the Calvinists in the XVI century, except the skull, preserved at Truncinium.

[ ] The body is translated from Merendra to Truncinium On the biographer's testimony, chap. 2 of the Life, after various apparitions of the holy Martyr, by which he had charged Lambert the presbyter, colleague of Gonterus, parish priest of the church of St. Radegund at Merendra, to see that his body be translated thence to Truncinium, it was at length solemnly translated thither, as he had asked when dying, both presbyters taking charge. The time at which these things were done he marks as the VIII day of the Ides of October and the bishopric of Eirard, or Airard or Airald, in the church of Noyon. As to the bishop and the day the author of the Coming agrees, but he adds besides other chronological notes at num. 3 in these words: At that time Charles, king of the Franks, was in the sixteenth year of his reign (Sanderus in his earlier edition has seventeenth, in the later more clearly seventeenth); Baldwin, surnamed the Bald, had reigned thirty-six years [] in the county of the Flanders; Eirard also ruled the pontificate at Noyon under Christ its author. Then at num. 14 he adds also the year of Christ, saying: These things were done on the eighth of the Ides of October, namely in the nine hundred and fifteenth year of the Lord's Incarnation.*

[32] By Charles, king of the Franks, Charles surnamed the Simple is here designated, under Airard bishop of Noyon, and the years of his reign are reckoned from the death of king Odo, in whose kingdom, at the beginning of the year of Christ 898, he too succeeded. Therefore, if with our codices and transcripts we retain the sixteenth year of Charles, it was running in the month of October of the year 913; but if we read the seventeenth with Sanderus, the same will belong to the year 914. Or if finally that year of Charles is to be held as complete, according to our manuscripts we shall reach the year of Christ 914, according to Sanderus' edition the year 915 assigned by the author of the Coming. Baldwin II, surnamed the Bald, Iperius in the Annals of St. Bertin, Meyer in the Flemish ones, and Le Mire in the Belgian Chronicles affirm to have succeeded his father, Baldwin I count of Flanders, who died in the year of Christ 879 but in an uncertain month; to which if we add thirty-five years,

the year of Christ 914 will come out; but if thirty-six, we shall be brought to the year 915, and thus the chronological notes of Charles and Baldwin can be reconciled with the year of Christ assigned by the author of the Coming.

[33] Hence nearly all writers who have made mention of this translation of St. Gerulphus more probably however not in the year 914 or 915, are wont to refer it to the bishopric of Airard and to the year of Christ 915. Among these Meyer in the Annals of Flanders says this: DCCCCXV, on the eighth of the Ides of October, count Baldwin and Aynardus (so he calls Airard or Eirard) bishop of Noyon translated the body of the holy Gerulphus from Merendra to Truncinium, into the church of the Virgin Mother of God. Gonterus and Lantbertus, priests, were the authors of that affair, who affirmed that they had been admonished of it by Gerulphus in sleep. With him agree Molanus in the Natales Belgici, Dionysius Mudzaert in the Ecclesiastical History of Belgium, Claude Robert and the Sainte-Marthes each in his Gallia Christiana, Jean Cousin in the History of Tournai, Guillaume Gazet in the Belgian one, and others, all following one another or the writer of the Coming. Sanderus, however, in tom. 1 of Flandria illustrata, lib. 3 of the Affairs of Ghent chap. 7, unless it be a printer's error, preferred to fix the same translation in the year 914. For he has it thus: In the year DCCCCXIV St. Gerulphus the martyr is elevated at Merendra by Evnardus, bishop of Noyon and Tournai, and by count Baldwin the Bald, on the VIII of the Ides of October, and is carried to the monastery of St. Mary which is called Truncinium, an unbounded assembly of faithful peoples accompanying.

[34] But the Benedictine continuators of the aforesaid Gallia Christiana of the Sainte-Marthes, tom. 9 col. 990, under Airard observe in which he seems not yet to have been bishop, that that translation is wrongly attributed in the said year to that bishop, inasmuch as he was not initiated into the bishopric of Noyon — with which that of Tournai was joined — before the year 923 or 924. And this they prove from the synod of Reims, celebrated in one or the other year by Seulf, archbishop of Reims, which you have in Jacques Sirmond, tom. 3 of the Councils of Gaul, pag. 578, and in Labbe, tom. 9 of the general Collection of councils, col. 581. For in this it is expressly asserted, since among the bishops who took part in the aforesaid synod there is named Airard, then and there ordained of Noyon. And it is manifest that, according to these things, Airard's bishopric can be composed neither with the year of Christ nor with the years of Charles and Baldwin assigned by the author of the Coming. It must therefore be held either that there was an error in those years, or in Airard, and that what is ascribed to him is to be attributed to his predecessor Raubert, or Rambert; or at any rate that the record of the aforesaid synod is to be convicted of error. But that that translation was made by the counsel and blessing of bishop Eirard the biographer too hands down in express words, who, being contemporary with the event, could not easily err in this part, nor is he to be judged to have erred.

[35] but between the year 923 or 924 and the year 932; but whether he himself The author of the Coming, however, whom we said to have written perhaps two centuries after the translation, could much more easily stray by some years in assigning the time both of the translation and of Airard's bishopric, and, the year of the translation being once fixed by error, rightly attach to it the corresponding epochs of the king and the count, and then wrongly compose both these and it with the bishopric of Airard, under whom it was established from elsewhere that the translation took place. I judge therefore that Airard is altogether to be retained with both writers; but the authority of the younger of these is too doubtful for me, relying on it, to be able to deny that the same Airard was ordained bishop of Noyon in the above-mentioned synod of Reims. Wherefore, since Flodoard in the Chronicle of the church of Reims records the death of this Airard in the year of Christ 932, it seems to me far more probable that the translation of St. Gerulphus from Merendra to Truncinium was made between the year 923 or 924 and the year 932; but a certain year I cannot assign. The event, as it took place, since it is set forth sufficiently both in the Life and in the Coming, I do not here relate. I only observe that in both accounts some difference occurs here and there. The chief is that, according to the biographer's words, Gonterus, parish priest of Merendra, seems to have translated the Saint's body with Airard consenting indeed but not present; while according to the author of the Coming the bishop himself performed it. For the former at num. 14 speaks thus: With the counsel therefore and blessing of his bishop, the venerable Eirard, (Gonterus) came, having taken with him very many priests and clerics, and no small crowd of both sexes, to the basilica of St. Radegund, … and, lifting thence the precious Treasure, … they carried it to Truncinias.

[36] Airard was present, may be doubted. But the other at num. 12 brings bishop Airard through long stretches of road as far as the aforesaid Merendra, and makes him perform the sacred ceremonies of the translation, as may there be seen. And this opinion indeed appears in itself more probable; since custom bears that in solemnities of this kind bishops render their service in person, and the biographer by those words with the counsel and blessing of his bishop perhaps meant to signify his presence. Yet just causes too may have intervened for which Airard himself could not be present, and therefore delegated either Gonterus or another to discharge his authority and act in his stead. Not so easily shall I assent to the same writer of the Coming concerning the manner in which he says the sacred body was disinterred. For after he had said that the common people gathered to meet them were admonished by the bishop to dig up the sacred pledge, he continued after a little thus: The bishop's leave being at last given, men and women rush eagerly to the sepulchre, and some cast up the earth with the tools of iron implements, others with the nails of their hands, and they seek beneath the dust him who shone in the heavens. So indeed he; but to me this leave of the bishop, and this manner of the sacred body's being dug up by the promiscuous crowd, appears as little probable as it is little prudent and little reverent, and to be the invention of a writer embellishing the event after his own bent.

[37] To this translation I subjoin some others which took place In the year 1030 he is translated with other relics of the Saints while the holy Martyr was already resting at Truncinium. The writer of the Miracles at his very opening, citing certain Chronicles, I know not which, makes mention of the first, of the year 1030, in which Baldwin IV, count of Flanders, surnamed the Bearded and the Fair-bearded, appointed an assembly of his nation at Oudenarde in Flanders, and, many bodies of the Saints having been carried thither, willed that the chief place should be granted to St. Gerulphus, as to a martyr of his own country, in the public supplications. Of this celebrated translation Meyer in the Annals of Flanders noted the following: MXXX, an assembly was appointed at Oudenarde by prince Baldwin, at which assembly Hugh bishop of Noyon with all the dignity of Flanders, and likewise the bodies of the holy Gerulphus, Wandregisilus, Ansbert, Vulfrannus, Bavo, Amandus, Pharaildis, Donatian, Amelberga, Walburgis, Landoald, Vinciana, Vedastus, Bertin, Winnoc, and all the other sacred things of Flanders, were present: in which ceremonies so great honor is said to have been paid to the holy Gerulphus, because he was of Flemish stock, that he obtained everywhere the first place of dignity, and his shrine went before all the rest. Sanderus agrees, tom. 1 of Flandria illustrata, pag. 122, where he reports nearly the same words as the author of the Miracles, so that it seems either that the latter served him as guide, or that some older Chronicle served both.

The cause too of this assembly appointed by Baldwin both writers allege in the same words: For the swearing of peace.

[38] To these I add the continuator of the Chronicle of Sigebert of Gembloux in the manuscript of that most illustrious man Justus Lipsius, to Oudenarde for an assembly by Baldwin count of Flanders published by Aubert Le Mire, in which at the same year this is to be read: Count Baldwin, who was called the Bearded, having gathered the bodies of the Saints of his march — of Bavo, Wandregisilus, Amandus, Vedastus, Bertin, Winnoc, with innumerable other relics of the Saints — in the presence of Hugh bishop of Noyon with several other bishops and abbots, the chief men of his whole realm being gathered at Oudenarde, caused a peace sworn by all the people to be confirmed. Meyer, praised above, illustrates the fact by his own conjecture, continuing thus in the same place: I find this assembly to have been held for the peace of Flanders; that is, if I see well enough, for composing the domestic discord in which the Flemings, divided into two parties, adhered some to the Bearded father, others to his son Baldwin of Lille, as Hugh of Fleury writes. Of the same discord, and of the peace which afterward followed, the same Meyer had treated a little more at large at the year 1027, whence I here briefly touch the matter. Baldwin V, called of Lille, after marrying Adela, daughter of Robert king of the Franks (whose marriage his father Baldwin had procured for him), relying on his royal kinship, rebelled against that same father, and, the latter being basely deserted by his own men, drove him out of the county of Flanders.

[39] But the Bearded fled to Robert, duke of the Normans, for the sake of asking help; appointed for peace with his own people, and he, pitying the man's lot, having gathered an army, in a short time reduced the rebellious son to such a pass that he, with the same duke Robert as arbiter, sued as a suppliant for peace. Robert granted it to the suppliant, and reconciled him to his father, who was restored to the county. Thus, the quarrels being suppressed, he subjoins, they continued thenceforth in peace and in such love as was fitting. This he sets forth at length, again citing Hugh of Fleury. But that Hugh did not carry his Chronicle down to that time, or, if he did, none of these things occurs in the printed editions which I have consulted; but these very same words and that whole history are read in William of Jumièges in the History of the Normans, lib. 6 chap. 6, which he composed in the same XI century as it was drawing to a close. It must therefore be said that Meyer erred in the writer's name, unless he had in hand some copy of Hugh of Fleury's Chronicle into which some continuator had inserted those words of William of Jumièges. To return to our purpose, it is altogether probable that that assembly of Oudenarde was appointed and held by Baldwin the Bearded in order that he might solemnly confirm and make perpetual the peace and pardon which he had long since granted to his son and to the rebellious subjects who had adhered to him.

[40] to be solemnly confirmed. Other translations I would not, however, assert that all those bodies of the Saints variously reckoned above were then carried thither; for both in St. Bertin, tom. 2 of September, pag. 282, it has been proved that that Saint's body lay hidden underground at that time, and this is not the place to inquire this of each of the others. But as regards St. Gerulphus, nothing stands in the way of the possible truth of what the aforesaid writers have handed down about his sacred body singularly honored on that occasion. In that same year too Hugh the bishop, whom they say to have been present at that assembly, could already have been governing the church of Noyon and Tournai; since he is said, in tom. 9 of the Gallia Christiana col. 995, to have come to that chair about the year 1030, and his name already to occur in charters in that very year. I pass to other matters. Sanderus, tom. 1 of Flandria illustrata, pag. 122, makes mention of another translation or elevation, made in the year 1072, in these words: In the year MLXXII there was made a translation of St. Gerulphus the martyr by Rabodo

bishop of Tournai. Of the same, in the manuscript Register of the abbey of Truncinium, at the year cited, it is thus read: The relics of the holy martyr Gerulphus were translated by the most reverend lord, lord Rabodo bishop of Tournai, in the presence of lord Folcard and the brethren.

[41] made in the year 1072 and 1088. The same finally the often-cited Gallia Christiana records too from the records of the monastery of Truncinium — perhaps the same from which we take ours — at col. 996 under Rabodo, who is there called Ratbod II, and is said to have held the chair of Noyon and Tournai from the year 1068 until 1098. Of Folcard, of whom mention has been made from the Register of Truncinium, the authors of the same Gallia Christiana, tom. 5 col. 235, and Sanderus just praised write that he succeeded Sindrad, carried off from among the living in the year 1068, in the provostship of the church of Truncinium, and died in the year 1078. But what translation is here recorded, and whether it was rather an elevation, or a deposition of the sacred body into a more elegant case or into another place of the same church, I have not been able to learn from elsewhere. Better known is the other translation, which was instituted in the year 1088. For when Gedezo or Godezo, provost of Truncinium, had thrown down the Western part of the church in that year in order to restore it with a more elegant building, it seemed good, for the gathering of alms for that work, to carry about the holy Martyr's body through various villages of Flanders; and this was carried into execution with happy success, as may be seen at length in the Coming, num. 15 and the following.

[42] In the year 1257 the body is laid in a new case: the head is separated from it. Again in the year 1257, when the church of Truncinium had already since the year 1137 or the following been handed over to Premonstratensian religious canons, the body of St. Gerulphus was on the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, that is, on the XXIV day of June, translated from the old reliquary into a new one by Walter de Mandra, bishop of Tournai. That an annual feast is celebrated at Truncinium concerning this translation we showed above at num. 4 and 12; nor do I add more here, since the rest pertaining hereto the writer of the Miracles hands down at num. 15, whom consult, if you please. I do not know at what time his sacred head was separated from the rest of the body; but that it was separated and enclosed in a silver case will be established from what is to be said. But — a thing to be lamented — that same body of St. Gerulphus, a native martyr and one who deserved excellently well of his Flemish fatherland, preserved through so great a space of years with great reverence, the impious avarice of the heretics dispersed, having stripped it of its precious reliquary, the head alone being happily withdrawn from their rage. Of this destruction of sacred things which afflicted Belgium in the XVI century, so far as concerns Truncinium, the manuscript Register of the same monastery, already cited elsewhere, treats at length, from which I briefly relate the following.

[43] In the month of August of the year 1566, on a certain day a band of image-breakers, having gone out from Ghent at earliest morning, The body, withdrawn in good time from the Calvinists in the year 1566, raised the cry for Truncinium, and plundered that monastery and church in an unworthy manner, all the sacred things being profaned and broken. Yet the bodies of SS. Gerulphus, Basinus and Aldegund escaped those impious hands at that time, by the care and labor of the most reverend lord Livinus Baes, who at that time, fearing what was to come, had opportunely placed them elsewhere in a safe place. For, as the Register has it, the most reverend lord had very providently hidden away the relics of the Saints, namely of Basinus and of his daughter Aldegund and of St. Gerulphus the martyr, together with their shrines. And he had placed them upon the vaults of the wine-cellar, and had blocked up the opening with a wall. But fearing lest they were not placed in a sufficiently secret and safe place, he took care that the same, with the relics of the Saints, should be carried away to the castle of Cambrai, whose lord was the brother of our Prior, the reverend lord Herman van Foreest. After this storm a calmer face of affairs followed, and the Religious of Truncinium, returned to their own, began to restore the monastery and church.

[44] That the bodies of the aforesaid Saints were then also brought back, and afterward brought back to Truncinium, although I have not found it noted, is certain from elsewhere. It is indeed established that the most illustrious and most reverend lord Cornelius Jansenius, first bishop of Ghent, in the year 1569, on the 2nd day of May, the reliquary of St. Basinus being opened at Truncinium, inspected his body, and, a very few relics being taken thence for the consecrating of altars, enclosed it again in the same case, as was shown in the Commentary on the same St. Basinus, tom. III of July, pag. 700. And among the altars which in the same year were consecrated there by the aforesaid bishop in the parish church (for that the church is divided into a Conventual and a Parish one we observed at num. 6), one is reckoned in the same Register in memory of St. Gerulphus. Those sacred bodies remained there until the year 1577 or thereabouts, when through the excessive credulity of the same prelate, by whose prudence they had before been saved, they perished. For when the deputies of the Belgian Estates had ratified the Pacification of Ghent — concerning which Famiano Strada may be consulted, decade 1, lib. 9 on the Belgian War, at the aforecited year — when, I say, they had ratified that pact, which was reported to have been struck, saving the Catholic Religion and the obedience due to the king, against the Spaniards alone and those adhering to them, the abbot allowed himself to be persuaded to entrust all the furniture and treasure of his church to the good faith of the confederates, lest, as they said, they should become booty for the Spaniards.

[45] Of these matters the Register has more, whence I subjoin these things. at length coming into their hands, was lost, All the vessels of the church therefore, of gold and silver, were handed over to them, the sacred vestments and all the other ornaments of the church, which were many and precious, were carried to Ghent, and, with an inventory well secured (as was thought), faithfully placed in the chests of the city hall. Among the more precious ornaments of the abbey were three cases or shrines in which the relics of the patrons of the place were preserved; and first of all, that in which those of the holy martyr Gerulphus were laid up was covered entirely with silver chasing. But the shrines of St. Basinus and of St. Aldegund his daughter were indeed of wood, yet upon them were carved with wonderful workmanship and art some images of the Saints. All therefore were carried off; and — what is most to be lamented and to be wept over in every age — with the relics of the Saints enclosed in them. Further, the people of Truncinium not only received nothing of all these, but were also afterward expelled from their monastery. Let us hear the Register again: And when the hand of the heretics had carried off everything, on the very feast of St. Giles they expel all the brethren from the monastery; and whatever was found remaining fell to the good-for-nothings; the brethren meanwhile wandering here and there through Belgium and seeking a safe seat.

[46] except the head, which, hidden underground and recovered, Yet the Prior's piety toward St. Gerulphus brought it about that his skull, which we said above had been separated from the rest of the body and enclosed in a silver case, survived the common destruction of sacred things. So again we have from the Register, which after the words about the things handed over to the custody of Ghent, reckoned in the preceding number, continues thus: But the skull of St. Gerulphus alone was not enclosed in these (shrines or reliquaries), but in another silver case, plainly after the pattern of that which we now have of copper material. The Prior therefore, Judocus Sterck, a religious man and zealous for the holy Martyr, having received the skull, placed it in that old case which is with us, and hid it in the house of master Livinus Nemegher at Ghent. Afterward, however, fearing from the rumors spread abroad lest perchance it should come into the hands of the marauders, he wished to hide it in a safer place, and, having taken it up, buried it in the garden of the widow Elizabeth Jansens near St. Bavo's, in the street which is called de Quaetdam: and thence, the city being reconciled, it was again brought back to us with reverence; and it is still the same silk in which even today the skull is wrapped. God is wonderful in his Saints, in that neither the case, which is of soft material (for it is still the same, unless [] they have fitted a base to it), nor the silk has been rotted by damp. Further, that Ghent was reconciled to God and to the Catholic king in the year 1584, Famiano Strada teaches, decade 2, book 6 on the Belgian War*; up to which time the Martyr's sacred skull must have lain hidden buried in the aforesaid garden.

[47] survives of his whole body, I do not know whether by some like means the people of Truncinium withdrew from the heretics that part of the body of St. Basinus which Steyt in his Flemish Life and Sanderus, often cited, at pag. 123, record as surviving among them after those mournful times. Of the last of these, reckoning the relics of Truncinium, I here report the words: Truncinium once had the bodies of SS. Basinus, of Aldegund his daughter, and of Gerulphus the martyr; now, after the heretical furies, there survive the skull of the same Martyr, a part of the body of St. Basinus, and a tooth of St. John the Baptist, which, on Meyer's testimony, Baldwin the Bald, restorer of the same monastery, once gave to the provost of Truncinium. From what has been said it is clear that Arnold Raissius confused the times, when in the Hierogazophylacium Belgicum, which he published in the XVII century, he did not hesitate to ascribe the bodies of SS. Basinus, Gerulphus and Aldegund to the church of Truncinium. Certainly, as regards St. Gerulphus, that his skull alone is preserved there even to this day, an irrefragable witness is the abbot of the same monastery so often praised by me, whose words I append as a coping-stone to this Commentary.

[47] I answer (he says in his most courteous letter given to us) that in our abbey or church there is preserved nothing but the head or skull alone of St. Gerulphus, and is preserved at Truncinium to this day. wrapped in a small piece of silk cloth of a pale yellow color, which little piece is by tradition a part of the whole in which his entire body was wrapped at the translation itself and thereafter. And the aforesaid head is enclosed, with the relics of others, in a chest or wooden coffer adorned with silver chasing; and it is thus exposed on the altar on the feasts of St. Gerulphus and on the days of the other Saints whose relics it contains. More about this Saint I have not to say; wherefore I subjoin the Life.

annum*

add quod*

LIFE

By an anonymous author

From the Bertin manuscript, collated with that of Truncinium and others.

ON ST. GERULPHUS THE MARTYR,

AT TRUNCINIUM IN FLANDERS.

BHL Number: 3507

By an Anonymous author.

PROLOGUE.

The author, bidden by his abbot to write, Thou compellest me ^a, unskilled as I am, O most noble of abbots and venerable father Gerard ^b, to undertake a very arduous work, which, if it were laid upon any of the philosophers, would be difficult. For me, wholly ignorant, thou reckonest, as I see, skilled — me whom no discipline of the liberal arts has rendered polished. For I think that it is out of the charity with which thou art fragrant that thou commandest this giant's burden, which I judge it worthy to obey, though in unpolished speech. For God is charity; and he who lacks charity assuredly has not God; and out of love I am eager to comply with your bidding, intolerable though it be; but in an unpolished man you will look for nothing of urbanity and nothing of witty eloquence. For you know that the Savior of the world sought neither princes nor orators, by whose power and prudence he might redeem the world; but he deigned to entrust his Sacraments to unlettered men and fishermen, who by their urgent preaching should convert all men to salvation

the world. Therefore use in me this slender example, who lack all literary talent; but with the most kindly God as my patron I shall begin the web of a discourse, rough though it be; but by continual prayers lay on in order the threads of the words, that the form of the speech may be more sweetly woven in and may more beautifully move the reader.

[2] If therefore anything of fitting discourse shall be present, it must be ascribed to your holiness; asks pardon for his rusticity and lack of skill, if anything faulty, to my own unhappiness, who have shamelessly taken upon me the business of great men. For, being about to speak of St. Gerulphus, as you have commanded, a man of barbarous speech ^c though not of barbarous life, I confess that I shall be wholly unable to guard against the faults of barbarism and solecism. For as in a web the industry of a learned woman often repairs the broken threads of the warp of the weaver and fashions a garment pleasing to those who behold it, so indeed will the eye of a prudent reader read what is good, and with equanimity reject without ill will what he perceives to be faulty. Your authority too I shall set as a wall against detractors, who sometimes reprehend in others what they do not understand. Having therefore no confidence in artful learning, I beg with humble heart the mercy of him alone whose memory is in my mind, that by his intervention he may make the Holy Spirit propitious to me, a wretch, by whose help I may be able to carry through the work begun without harm, and that without heavy sweat my pen may be able lightly to write things worthy of praise.

[3] and begs help of God through the holy Martyr. This holy martyr Gerulphus, although he was lately reported to have been found ^d, the wonders of God being shown, is nevertheless believed to have been chosen by God before he obtained this present light in the flesh, according to the saying of the apostle Paul: Who chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Nor did the malice of his murderous godfather make him only then a martyr; but, the divine clemency so providing, in the very hour of his origin the power of martyrdom was conferred on him. Whence, if it be so — nay, since it is so — I shall strive, for the profit of many, to comprise something about him in writing; nor shall I, though worthy of reprehension, be ashamed to relate, God helping, so much as is known to me to have been made known by the relation, written down ^e, of truthful witnesses. Therefore, at his prayer, may he grant me the office of speaking rightly who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, and who made the ass of the foolish prophet speak with human speech ^f, and by whose kindness this Saint enjoys the heavenly brightness. And I ask, brethren, into whose hands perhaps this little discourse may come, that no one curiously seek the name of the writer; but let the diligent reader often read the matter of the thing, lest the meanness of an unpolished person ^g breed distaste, and, through the ill-willed, the universal brotherhood lose what it bears of best example.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's parents and native place: his pious boyhood: the Sacrament of Confirmation conferred on him: his slaying and burial, famous for miracles and vindicated from the envious.

[ ] Of his father Leutwold and mother Ratguera he is born God the Creator ^a of things, establishing all things wisely, painted the heaven with divers stars differing in brightness, and adorned the earth with the various lights of the Saints ^b. And indeed, as the stars in heaven are lit by the light of the sun, so the Saints on earth are lit by Christ, the true sun, spreading everywhere through the world the brightness of their miracles. Of which number of the Saints, Gerulphus the martyr, shining with divine light and glittering with signs, together with innumerable other Elect of God, Francia ^c joyfully embraces, resting beside the shores of the Ocean sea, displaying among the peoples clear marvels of healings, and whose blessed origin is known to have been in the district of Mempiscum ^d. St. Gerulphus therefore was sprung, according to ^e the dignity of this world, of illustrious parents; which nobility, while he lived in the world in our fashion, he preserved by his pious manners ^f: and this Infant was born of no obscure parents; for his father was named Leutgold, and his mother was called Ratguera ^g. Happy both, to whom it was granted from heaven to beget such and so great an offspring in this world.

[5] And their dwelling was in the aforesaid district, on a villa of their own right, at Merendra: anointed with the sacred chrism at Ghent, named Merendra ^h, where their blessed infant was born, even then beloved of God, Gerulphus, and there was reborn in the font of holy baptism and honorably reared. So great a love of God kindled him at a boyish age that, sitting at home or walking abroad, he seemed [*] to meditate nothing else than how he might be able to please his Creator. Loving also the priests and ministers of God with all the desire of his heart ⁱ, he went round the monasteries and churches of the Saints, and was always intent in body and mind upon the divine worship. And when he was strong in such and other deeds worthy of God, and had not yet been anointed with the sacred chrism by a bishop, he came on a certain day to the monastery which is called Blandinium at Ghent, built, as is reported, by St. Amandus ^k, where Helyseus, bishop of the church of Noyon ^l, had at that time come to perform there the services which were God's.

[6] And when there, like the rest, he had been marked by the same bishop with the unction of the sacred chrism, returning home, prays in the church of Truncinium, he began joyfully to return with his godfather to his father's house. But when they were drawing near to the monastery which is called Truncinias ^m beside the water of the Lys ⁿ, that same Boy of good disposition ^o with suppliant entreaty asked his godfather that for the sake of prayer they should turn aside into the oratory of holy Mary the Mother of God, and afterward, refreshed with food and drink, should take up the journey begun. For he had heard the Gospel thus exhorting: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all good things shall be supplied to you. Hearing which, his godfather acted, not so much from charity as compelled by the body's need. And rising from their meal, having mounted their horses, they proceeded at a quickened pace whence they had come. As the two therefore went on together, that was fulfilled which is read in the psalm: With the elect thou shalt be elect, and with the perverse thou shalt be perverted [p].

[7] and therefore is mortally wounded by his godfather. For, enticed by the devil's suggestion and made drunk in mind [q] with a deadly poison, he — no longer [] a godfather, but a most wicked butcher and a most evil murderer — said to his kindly Godson: Know, Godson, for certain, that thou shalt presently perish by my sword. That voice was not a man's, but the devil's speaking within; and he who spoke in the serpent to the first-formed man is proved to have spoken through this man also to the Godson. What then did the simple and humble Godson say to his godfather? Forbear, forbear, he said, good father, that thou perpetrate not so nefarious a thing upon me. Me indeed thou canst easily kill, but thou wilt sin grievously before our common Father. But spare me, and take counsel for thyself; for if thou do what thou sayest, to me indeed, unworthy as I believe myself, Christ will mercifully render the crown of patience in the heavens, but to thee the Gehenna of punishment abiding for ever.* Setting at naught these wholesome warnings of the wholly innocent Boy, that cruel murderer — who had travailed with injustice and had conceived sorrow and had brought forth iniquity in his heart — drawing his sword, struck and slew him; and he fell from his horse to the ground; yet he did not die at once, but was to live in this world a short time, that he might disclose the author of his death; because the divine clemency was unwilling that anyone suspected of his slaying should be charged with a false accusation [s].

[8] Dying, he asks of his father, While then he lay half alive upon the ground, his horse without a human rider returned to the house in which it was accustomed to stand. And when the pious mother of the aforesaid and often-to-be-mentioned [t] Youth had seen the horse stained with blood, she understood at once by a divine prompting that her Son had been slain by his godfather. Straightway there is a huge lamentation; while the father and mother bewail their Son, the whole household resounds with groaning, and a great cry of the grieving rises to the sky. At length, the tumult of the mourners being a little suppressed, the father with the men of his household [] takes the road to seek his Son; and when for the darkness of night they could not come to where the poor body of the half-dead Youth lay, at last by the leading of the horse which the same Young man had ridden they came to the place where they found him already nearly dead. In the deed therefore of this wicked murderer I perceive the envy of the first fratricide, Cain. For as Cain and Abel are called brothers carnally, so these too are brothers spiritually. As also the just Abel is read to have done nothing evil in word or work to his brother Cain, so neither did this St. Gerulphus injure [] his spiritual father in anything.

[9] By envy therefore was Abel slain by Cain; and this man's envious malice killed the innocent Gerulphus. that he be buried at Truncinium, and that his estate be given to that church: For by the envy of the devil death entered into the world, which both cast the first-formed man out of the happiness of paradise, and Cain, with this murderer, is banished from heavenly beatitude. Indeed the iniquity of this butcher is seen to be worse; because his penitence is not recorded, whereas Cain's repentance is read in the book of Genesis; and therefore he is believed to enjoy rest in heaven [u]. But leaving these matters, I shall pursue the rest. The holy martyr Gerulphus therefore related to his father, so far as he was able, that he had been given over to death by his godfather, and at the same time asking that he would order his poor body to be carried to the monastery of Truncinias to be buried, and for the redemption of his soul would hand over an allod [x] of his own right to the altar of St. Mary, and would give his horse to the clerics serving God there. And when he had uttered these words as he was dying, fortified with the body and blood of Christ, leaving the vale full of tears [y], he ascended rejoicing into the sky, joined to the multitude of the holy martyrs, with whom he enjoys the brightness of the heavenly powers, exulting and praising the King of angels, who deigned to grant him their glorious fellowship. [And the glorious Witness of the Lord departed on the eleventh of the Kalends of October [z].]

[10] Finally, the father of the aforesaid blessed martyr Gerulphus, out of worldly greed, retained the estate but, buried at Merendra, he shines with miracles. which

he had ordered to be handed over to holy Mary; and he caused his Son's venerable little body to be carried to his own dwelling, and there buried it in the basilica of St. Radegund [aa], where also, by the working of almighty God's clemency, many receive divers remedies of healings who with entire faith seek his benefits [bb]. The blind, the deaf, the dumb, the lame, the possessed, and whoever are burdened with various troubles of infirmities, gathering there to pray, withdraw sound, their pains taken away [cc]. For very often candles have there been lighted [] without material fire, Christ the true light showing [dd] that he keeps him laid up in the mansions of light, and that the people ought openly to venerate [] him whom Christ, the sun of justice, glorifies by the lighting of tapers.

[11] Before, therefore, these wonders had been heard by the prelate Rangarius [ee], who was the seventh from bishop Heliseus, His body is pressed down beneath the earth by the envious three clerics from the monastery of the holy confessor Bavo [ff], blinded by diabolical envy and drunk with excessive fury, going thither, took pains to lay the tomb of the most holy body — which the divine and ineffable goodness had raised on high out of the dug earth — much deeper in the earth than it had been. O nefarious envy, what art thou doing? All that the Creator loves thou strivest to hurl down to the depths. In thy motion thou thyself dost fall, and never wilt ascend, who persuadest all to fall. For thou didst prepare for our parents in paradise the pit of perdition; thou didst persuade these clerics also to hide the treasure which the providence of the Creator wished to lay open. They indeed obeyed then the wicked suggestion, but prepared for themselves the confusion of perpetual reproach. Such then is thy malignant promise, which drags the men who obey thee into the infernal pit, and in the present bestows pain and shame; as upon these unhappy men, of whom I now make mention.

[12] But so monstrous an outrage the King above did not permit to remain unavenged. not without a present divine vengeance. For one of them lost his right eye, because he was unwilling to see the Just man glorified. Another, falling from his horse with a broken hip, was carried home with great pain; since he begrudged to others [*] the visiting of the holy place. The third of them, while the others stood by and looked on, voiding a great and abundant quantity of filth [gg] to his own reproach, went away in shame; because he had reckoned the body of the holy Man, more sweetly fragrant than all spices, as though it were the putrid bodies of other unhappy men. In this view altogether, as I think, the shameless men acted, lest the place and honor of their own lord [hh] — namely of St. Bavo — should decrease, and the glory of St. Gerulphus, whom in their madness they envied, should be increased by growing day by day. For, foolish and slow of heart to believe, they did not understand that these two, like all the Saints, are neither envious nor at variance, since for their just merits they are with God, who is true peace and has made both one, joined in charity, who live with him in the unity of his love, enjoying without end an inestimable brightness in the heavens.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. On this verse of psalm 17 consult the commentators.

q. In the Truncinium and Corsendonck copies is read: made drunk in mind with the deadly poison of envy.

r. In the same place there is added: wretched and pitiable.

s. In our Bertin transcript these things are read only thus: And he fell from his horse to the ground, to live in this world a short time. But since the other words were found with the other manuscripts also in the Vaucelles codex and the Soissons transcript, suspecting a copyist's carelessness I judged that they should be supplied. From these things, further, observe that the slaying was inflicted on the Saint on account of his delay in praying, by a godfather impious and of uncontrolled anger.

t. In all the rest is read only: And when of the aforesaid.

u. I do not know where the biographer read that penitence of Cain in the book of Genesis; for what is there in chap. 4 ℣ 13 belongs to one despairing, not to one repenting. In all our other manuscripts, as also in the editions of Sanderus, the same penitence of Cain is recorded; but what is here subjoined about his salvation is everywhere lacking. I believe indeed that it was deliberately omitted by the transcribers, because it seemed too paradoxical, and not consonant with the biographer's own words; since he had said above: Cain, with this murderer, is banished from heavenly beatitude. Read, however, if you please, St. Jerome in the Epistle to Damasus, which is the first of his Critical letters in the Paris edition of his Works of the year 1699, tom. 2 col. 565, where the holy Doctor favors Cain's salvation.

x. Alodium, alodus, alodis, alaudum is a word of one and the same meaning, says Du Cange in his Glossary, where he treats of the same word at length. Here it is taken for the estate which men commonly interpret as Merendra.

y. In the other manuscripts, except in our Vaucelles one and the Soissons, there is added: he breathed forth his holy soul into the hands of the angels, and rejoicing, etc.

z. What is enclosed in brackets is lacking in our Bertin one, but is found in all the rest.

aa. Of the tomb which is believed to have been St. Gerulphus', in the parish church of Merendra, dedicated to St. Radegund to this day, read what was said in the Commentary at num. 29.

bb. The Truncinium and Corsendonck manuscripts and Sanderus' edition have: Many received divers remedies of healings who with entire faith and sincere mind sought his benefits.

cc. This whole passage too is in the same copies thus: The blind received light, the deaf hearing, and the dumb the office of speech; the lame too and the possessed received the deliverance they desired; and whoever, burdened with various troubles of infirmities, gathering there to pray, withdrew sound, their pains taken away.

dd. Rather: the true light Christ showing. The Truncinium codex, the Corsendonck transcript and Sanderus have in its place: for which cause Christ the true light was showing; but the Vaucelles codex and the Soissons transcript agree with our Bertin one.

ee. Rangarius, Rantgarius or Ragenarius is likewise reckoned in tom. 9 of the Gallia Christiana, col. 987, the seventh from Elisæus, or the sixth successor of the same in the bishopric of Noyon and Tournai, and they say that mention is made of him at the years 825 and 829. But what he did, or caused to be done, for the sacred body of St. Gerulphus, I have nowhere found.

ff. This was the other monastery, erected at Ghent by St. Amandus under the invocation of St. Peter and of all the Apostles, which was afterward called after St. Bavo, as may be seen at length in the deeds of the same St. Amandus, bishop of Maastricht, at the 6th day of February. But in the sixteenth century, at the request of the emperor Charles V, by a Bull of Pope Paul III this monastery was changed into a college of canons, who, being afterward transferred to the parish church of St. John, this too began to be called St. Bavo's, and, made a cathedral in the same century, is called by the same name to this day. For the rest, in the place of the monastery the same emperor Charles erected a citadel for the guarding of the city. Of St. Bavo, finally, we shall have to treat on the 1st day of October, on which he is venerated.

gg. In all the others is read: all the inward parts of his body, by which words the same is signified; for otherwise the impious man could not have gone away thence, as follows. But since the biographer is a whole century, or perhaps even much more, later than these events, I hardly know how much credit he deserves here.

hh. That is, of their lord or patron.

videretur*

elsewhere is added quasi*

elsewhere, virile*

rather quidquam*

elsewhere, illuminatæ*

elsewhere, a populo*

elsewhere, cum aliis*

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's body translated to Truncinium after various apparitions of his: miracles: the author's epilogue.

[ ] Lambert the presbyter, often admonished by the Saint, After this time therefore ^a, when the almighty Lord, who from heaven looks down upon the sons of men, saw also with kindly gaze his most dear martyr the Blessed Gerulphus lying hidden in the sepulchre, and mercifully willing at length at some time to disclose to mortals how much

merit he had with him, he made it plain by tokens of this kind. By the promulgation of the divine clemency the aforesaid martyr of Christ Gerulphus appeared in a night vision to Lambert, a presbyter of that place, admonishing him many times to raise him from that place in which his body had been dishonorably buried by wicked men at the prompting of the enemy of the human race, and to carry it to the aforesaid monastery of Truncinias, whither, while he lived [*], he had asked to be carried and buried. But he, making light of the commands, long and much put off obeying. But being admonished again and again by the Saint, and not now daring to defer announcing it, he humbly suggested to his teacher, Gonterus by name, a priest ^b, how the Saint had deigned to appear to him, and what he had commanded to be done with his most worthy body, and that he had appeared to his littleness not once or twice, but many times.

[14] causes his body to be translated to Truncinium, But Gonterus, God's priest, rejoicing exceedingly at such a marvelous narration, rendered thanksgivings from his heart to the almighty Lord; and, a three days' fast having been appointed for his parishioners, he admonished all to pray for the mercy of the Creator, that he might be able worthily and rightly to carry out the commands of his Martyr. With the counsel therefore and blessing of his bishop, the venerable Eirard ^c, he came, having taken with him very many priests and clerics, and no small crowd of both sexes, to the basilica of St. Radegund, where, as I said, the holy body had been buried assuredly against his own will; and, lifting thence the precious treasure, with great reverence, as was fitting, chanting psalms and praising God, they carried it to the monastery of Truncinias, and reverently laid it up in the basilica of holy Mary the Mother of God, with vast triumph giving thanks and blessing the Lord, who deigned to bestow upon them [*] so great and such a Patron.

[15] as he himself dying had asked. A cripple For the holy Martyr [] loved this place while he lived, and therefore dying had begged his father that he be carried thither — his father, whom his own greed harmed, so that he did not fulfill the wish of his kindly Son who asked it: and as I think, he was by no means worthy to perform this holy work, which was reserved to be performed by another [] and worthier man. The father therefore, out of excessive greed to retain the estate, put off fulfilling in deed what he was asked by his pious Offspring; but the presbyter gladly performed what he was urged to by his brother priest. Wicked indeed was each father, the carnal namely and the spiritual; because the one of them slew him, and the other took away the burial which, at the Savior's inspiration, he had desired. To that same place therefore where the blessed body had first rested, there came a certain man contracted in all his limbs and especially in his feet; and when he had long prayed for health to the mercy of the Almighty, and had besought with all urgency of heart the remedy of his holy Gerulphus, the divine goodness came to his aid, and the soundness which he sought was restored to him, at the holy Martyr's prayer.

[16] I behold indeed the marvelous work of the holy apostles Peter and John in the recovery of this lame man, is healed at his tomb, who healed and raised up a lame man lying for many days at the door of the temple of Jerusalem, while some looked on ^e. But I note a certain difference in these two cripples: because that one, as a Jew, sought bodily substance for his living; this one, as a Christian, likewise asked not for bodily substance ^f but for the restoration of his limbs. That one indeed troubled those who came, for the gluttony of his belly; this one besought with tears one not lying in the tomb but reigning with Christ. And in these two something still deeper may please us to behold. For the Jew's lameness declared the people of his own nation as not walking rightly in the law of the Lord, nor desiring with firm step to follow him who said: I am the way; he who follows me walks not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. But the Christian's contraction and lameness signifies the people reborn in the baptism of Christ, who, cleaving [] with the senses of body and soul to the desires of this world, are unwilling to perceive with the hearing of the mind: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.* Lame too are they who do not frequent the churches of God, who do not visit the sick and those set in prison, and who are seen sluggishly to do other worthy works, not with straight but with feigned steps. And now let me return to pursue the work begun.

[17] At another time indeed a certain possessed man, Otfrid by name, coming to the memorial of the aforesaid St. Gerulphus the martyr, a possessed man is delivered, by the help of God and the intervention of the holy Martyr, the malignant demon being cast out, returned home rejoicing in his entire health. Lest therefore the prince of demons have dominion over us, of whom the Lord says, The prince of this world comes, and in me he finds nothing of his own, let us with all our heart seek the aids of the Saints, let us imitate the examples of their patience, the proofs of their humility and charity; and thus with God's help we may be able ^h to come to their fellowship. For the enemy of the human race fights with unremitting rebellion against the sons of Adam, and rages most against those whom he sees doing any good. For he strives to call back all Christians from the fatherland of the Saints ⁱ, from which he drove our parents for envy's sake. Let us therefore strive manfully in the course of this life, that we may deserve to receive an incorrupt crown from the Lord. Let us seek with all devotion [] of mind the help of the holy martyr Gerulphus; and he will grant us the solace of his goodness, whereby we shall be able to resist the adversary's suggestion []. These things being so, I shall pursue what remains with God's help.

[18] At another time likewise a certain presbyter named Teutfrid, or Teutgrid ^k, a fever is driven off by the dust of his tomb. burning with a great force of fevers, trusting in the sanctity of the aforesaid martyr St. Gerulphus, came to his memorial with great humility of heart, praying with tearful entreaties that he would succor his infirmity by his mercy and grant the remedy of the health he sought, and that he who succored others would deign to cure him, a wretched man. And as he prayed it seemed good to him to drink a draught made from the dust of the Saint's sepulchre, believing that it would profit him; and mingling the dust with water and drinking it, the fever being wholly removed, he returned home sound and joyful. Many other signs indeed ^l are daily wrought in secret at this Blessed one's tomb, which displease human rusticity; because there are men like irrational brute animals: for they lack understanding, which under the name of a husband the Savior sought from the Samaritan woman, saying: Call thy husband, and come; that is, Bring understanding, whereby thou mayest be able to understand what I say to thee ^m. For by understanding alone are we distinguished from the brute cattle, which can by no means discern [*] what is good or evil. For the Saints, that they may be more effectually believed, work marvels outwardly.

[19] The author's observation: Plainly foolish and silly, whatever good they see the just doing, they prefer wickedly to deride rather than humbly to praise: imitating indeed the unsound doctrine of the Pharisees, who, refusing the most just wisdom of the Savior, reprehended it with garrulous interpretations, deceived by the errors of their own precepts ⁿ. But the Saints and the just do nothing without God's help, for so Christ says to his disciples: Without me you can do nothing. If therefore the elect do nothing without God, those who mock at their marvelous acts assuredly dishonor God with too great shamelessness. Let us therefore render offices of honor to all the Saints according to our capacity, that by their unremitting intercessions we may be able to have the eternal King propitious. Behold, dearest brethren, having a venerable patron, let us follow our lord and holy martyr Gerulphus with worthy observances and praises. Let us not be in doubt about his sanctity, let us not halt in his service, since very many have experienced health from him ^o. He is a renowned martyr, and triumphs with the angels in the heavens. With the psalmist too we can say concerning him: Thy friends, O God, are exceedingly honored, their principality is exceedingly strengthened.

[20] the day of the translation. It is also to be considered that this blessed Martyr, as he wished and commanded, was translated to the monastery of Truncinias on the eighth of the Ides of October, by a multitude of honorable men, praising and blessing in the highest almighty God, whose ineffable clemency deigned to grant them a hidden and desirable treasure, the most holy Gerulphus, a notable martyr, whom in the heavenly kingdom Christ embraces and glorifies with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the holy Trinity, God, to whom is honor and power through the immortal ages of ages. Amen [p].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. At the close of our Bertin manuscript, which we print, there is subjoined this clause: Here ends the Passion of St. Gerulphus, set forth in a brief and unpolished style.

elsewhere, vivus*

elsewhere, eis*

elsewhere is added Gerulphus*

alii*

i.e. adhærentibus*

elsewhere, intentione*

suggestioni*

discernere*

THE COMING

OF THE RELICS

By an anonymous author.

From the Truncinium codex, collated with others.

ON ST. GERULPHUS THE MARTYR,

AT TRUNCINIUM IN FLANDERS.

BHL Number: 3508

By an anonymous author.

The author, about to write the translation, Being about to write the Coming of the blessed and glorious martyr Gerulphus, we pass over those things which have been excellently set forth concerning his passion; but the rest, partly experienced but not yet published, we weave in below, and

we lay them before the hearing of the faithful in a sound account. In that little book of his Passion, the Passion tells the things which belonged to that time; here his Coming will likewise unroll the things which suit this feast. There is a series of miracles and mourning and the end of the funeral rites; here there resounds to the praise of God the voice of exultation and of salvation in the tabernacles of the just. There the branch of the Lord's pruning, destined to live in glory, is cut down; here the cedar of Lebanon, glowing with unfading flower, is planted in the house of God. There our Martyr and sweet friend of God lays in that admirable basket of the martyrs the treasure of a good conscience which he carried in an earthen vessel; here he commends his life-giving bones to the Virgin of virgins, until this corruptible shall be clothed with incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality ^a.

[2] Rightly indeed are the relics of the chaste Martyr fitted in their place in the oratory of the ever-Virgin Mary; He commends the Saint's patronage. because chastity is always next to virginity, nor does the rose of the martyr ill accord with the lily of the Virgin. The Mother of God herself, herself too the perpetual Virgin, rejoices that this precious Soldier of her Son is set as an ornament of her church, who both emulated her in virginity and the Lord Jesus in his passion. For — a thing indeed to be believed — in the marriage-song of virgins he exults with virgins, and in the basket of martyrs he dances with martyrs. From those who dwell in Cedar and from the mire of this misery he has been translated to the glory of the angels; there he has been made a sweet resting-place for the Son of man, and for us who keep up his memory a trustworthy propitiatory. Here we stretch all the strings of our breast to his praise and glory; there, after the uncertain courses of this life, we look for joy and gladness by the suffrage of this Martyr. Then he shall be for us intercession and confidence before the supreme Judge; and what we lack for the excusing of our fault shall overflow to us from his virtue and glory. But now it remains to unfold how he was raised from the tomb in the church in which he had been buried, how he was translated to Truncinium, how, I say, he was exalted with due reverence in the basilica of St. Mary the Virgin. And so we shall unfold the order of the matter.

[3] The Saint's sepulchre at Merendra famous for miracles. At that time, therefore, in which this glorious Athlete of God lay hidden beneath a mean tomb, it was needful for the salvation of many that he be raised from the tomb, so that in the house of God he might spread more widely the fragrances of his virtues, and kindle more abundantly the light of the Christian faith. For from his sepulchre very many streams of cures flowed, and how great his sanctity was could most easily be seen from the miracles. The deaf and the blind, the lame too, and that kind of sufferers, deserved there sure remedies; nor was anyone frustrated of the effect of his vow, save whom a feeble faith made unworthy of so great a Martyr's favor. That very manifest curing of bodies also increased in very many the hope of the salvation of souls; because it is surely to be believed that he could obtain pardon for souls to be saved, whose power shone everywhere in curing bodies. Whence to this present day in the village which they call Merendra ^b the tomb of that same Martyr is adorned not with gold, not with silver, not, I say, with precious gems or polished stones, but with the staves of the sick and the stools of those who creep. These are the precious insignia of Christ's Soldier, these are his treasuries full of virtues, which neither can a thief dig out nor the moth corrupt.

[4] And so at the aforesaid village, in the church of the Blessed virgin Radegund, Gonterus, parish priest of the same church when the bones of that Martyr had for some time rested in Christ, a certain presbyter, Gonterus by name, a man of good conversation in his time and unremitting in the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth, was shaping that same church by the example and zeal of a good shepherd; and, lest he should at any time slip into flight like a hireling, he set himself with steadfast breast against the lurking wolf. But when he was already growing weary in the Lord's threshing-floor, and his hands were burdened under the weight of the day and the heat, there fell upon him the thought of wishing to take breath from the labor which he could not himself bear, and of substituting in the same church another who should bear more abundant fruit among the people of God. It was hard to persist under the weight of the labor by which he was daily bowed down; but far harder, laying down the church's office, to neglect the Lord's sheepfold. The one necessity urged, the other charity forbade. And when in one and the same breast necessity on this side and charity on that stirred a conflict, and Gonterus himself was uncertain what he had best do, at length he made a certain presbyter, Landbert by name, fit enough both for himself and for the church, his vicar in that same church.

[5] Then that same Landbert, solicitous for the church and people, joins to himself Landbert, to whom the Saint appearing, began first to look about himself as though in a mirror, to reprehend with pure conscience the deformity of his own acts, to neglect nothing in them which he did not correct, and finally to set himself forth as a pattern of holy conversation. Then he went about the flock committed to him with pious solicitude, examined the works of each, incited the good to better things, and by holy admonition kindled the wicked to pardon and correction ^c. And when he flourished daily in such zeal, and did not spare himself even for a moment of time, at last, when he had fallen into sleep, there stood by him as he rested the blessed martyr of God Gerulphus, wholly resplendent, and such as could not be thought a man, but an angel. And he, gazing long upon him in that friendly vision, and marveling at I know not what in him beyond human bearing, is wholly caught up in ecstasy, and his spirit scarcely remains in him.

[6] Yet he beholds, with the edge of his eyes beaten back, the angelic man, bids his body be translated to Truncinium; and, captivated by his beauty and forgetful of himself, could think of nothing but him. And when he could not be satisfied with his brightness, and wept over his own imperfection in the presence of this perfect Soldier of Christ, at length he gathered his spirit, and, mingling sweet converse with him, began to speak thus: Who art thou, my Lord? Why hast thou, so great, come to one so lowly — a saint to a sinner, an angel to a man? Thou, now translated into an angelic nature, hast nothing of man; I, in this vale of tears weighed down by the burden of the body, differ but little from the beasts. Yet who thou art, or whence or why thou hast come, is thine to make known to me; and mine it shall be to magnify thy memory with eloquent mouth in all the region round about ^d. Then that blessed Martyr of God, as he was of a most gentle breast, showing a kindly aspect of countenance, smiles sweetly on Landbert; then, lest he be troubled by the fear he had conceived, bids him be undismayed; afterward he indicates the cause of his presence and his own name, and exhorts and beseeches him to translate the relics of his body. He commands that he be carried to Truncinium to the basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as to an oratory which the Lord Jesus foreordained for the honor and glory of his most loving Mother, and for the rest and praise of his most sweet Martyr.

[7] The vision withdrawing, Landbert is shaken from his bed, gathers up in himself what he had seen, is amazed at each thing, when he did not obey, a second and a third time enjoins the same. marvels at all, gives credence to the matter as certain, yet resolves to conceal all these things. Again on the following night the Blessed Gerulphus was present to him as he slept in the same form as before, and admonished him about the former business as before. But he, dreading human judgments and trusting to the weak credulity of men, began to cover the vision which he ought to have published, and, doubting between hope and fear what he should do, fought with himself in mind; when meanwhile on the third night likewise the Blessed Gerulphus, sterner than usual and showing certain threats in his countenance, displaying himself angry with his Landbert, assails him with threats, accuses him of negligence, and began rather to compel than to ask him to his elevation. Without delay the presbyter wakes, and, rejoicing at the threefold vision, wavers about the rest. Nights as well as days he spends in prayers, presses on in vigils, torments himself with fasting, and with tears begs counsel of the Lord as to how this matter may best be handled.

[8] While thus with sweet entreaty and unremitting sighs he importunes him who lives for ever, Admonished a fourth time, Landbert discloses the matter to Gonterus. suddenly there is at hand his familiar friend, our Martyr, the friend of God, the most holy Gerulphus, and gazing upon him with peaceful countenance and joyful eyes, says: Well, well hast thou begun, my brother Landbert; but now pursue to an honorable end the business begun concerning my elevation. Do not hesitate about God's help, nor is it needful to fear the superstitious talkativeness of the crowd; for the sons of distrust will not be able to hinder God's counsel. He will be with thee, and truly will be with thee, who is not deceived, the Son of the Virgin, and will lend full aid that the body of his Martyr may be brought forth from beneath the mire. There are also concerning this matter the glad counsels of those by whose pure devotion God will accomplish his works concerning me ^e. Encouraged at length by such an admonition, when the vision had withdrawn, Landbert, all fear being driven away, without any delay approaches his Gonterus, whose vicar he was, draws him apart, leads him into a private place, and, with God as witness, tells him the vision concerning this Martyr of Christ, as it had four times taken place.

[9] and both of them, to the people, whom to carry out the translation Gonterus, astounded at this novelty, enters the secret chamber of his mind, and prays about these mighty works of God to his heavenly Father; and, sobs of prayer having been poured forth in God's praise, after he ends his prayer he resolves to consult the surrounding multitude of clergy and people, that from their prudent counsel he may learn what had best be done about this hidden treasure of God. Then, a fitting opportunity of time being seized, and the whole region round about being gathered as though to a spectacle of the circus, Gonterus himself takes a central and likewise higher place; while all are amazed he first commands silence, then discourses abundantly about his Martyr. He brings in indeed the Martyr's passion, unfolds the divers kinds of cures, and recites to the assembled multitude all that the Saint of God had done from the beginning of his life to the cutting off of his head ^f. Then, about to proceed to the most certain visions concerning God's Martyr, he sets in public, as witness of his narration, the aforesaid Landbert, a man of sound testimony, and one who had come to know the whole order of the matter with his own eyes as witness. And because in the mouth of two or three every word shall stand, Gonterus narrates the blessed Martyr's vision, four times enacted, under the testimony of Landbert; and Landbert himself corroborates it by the sure authority of his own good faith.

[10] and to a three days' fast he exhorts, Straightway, as is the custom, silence being broken, all that multitude bursts into an uproar of voices, and the air resounds with the noise of the common people in praise of God. You might see some groaning aloud, others raising themselves to a jubilee of holy exultation, and very many, with breast beaten by their fists and knee bent to the ground, murmuring into the dust I know not what songs sweet to God. So, a short space having passed, Gonterus repeats the order of his narration, and, as though you should pour oil upon a furnace, kindles with wonderful exhortation the people panting toward God. He admonishes all to be of one mind for the Martyr's elevation, and pledges with pure devotion of mind that he himself will not be wanting nor slothful. He testifies that apart from the assent of all he wishes to presume nothing, and that it seems to him most useful that all should come together into one and the same judgment,

and that with equal counsel a sound business should be begun, and that, all hindrances being removed, the Martyr of God should with steadfast mind be raised from the tomb. Finally, that it was lawful for no one to approach these relics save with the body chastened; and therefore that it was wholesome for all to keep a fast for some days beforehand. And so he appoints a three days' fast for the multitude, and, his discourse being ended, dissolves the assembly.

[11] Eirard, bishop of Noyon, being asked, comes, At that time Charles, king of the Franks, was in the sixteenth year of his reign; Baldwin, surnamed the Bald, had reigned thirty-six years [*] in the county of the Flanders; Eirard also ruled the pontificate at Noyon under Christ its author ^g. This Eirard's zeal was to be solicitous for the increase of the church, and with all deliberation of mind to be willing to imitate the Lord's footsteps in his commandments. He removed from the church those little foxes of the Canticle which were destroying the vineyards of the Lord, knowing that there is no agreement of Christ with Belial, nor part of the faithful with the unbeliever. He rejoiced indeed that churches were marked with the relics of the Saints, which are for a testimony of sound faith against heretical depravities, since from the miracles of the Saints the faith of Christians is made solid. To this religious man it was suggested that the Blessed Gerulphus the martyr should be elevated, and the devotion of clergy and people demanded with one voice that he should be present for this office. That father assented to the suppliants, and invited the clergy to come with him, together with lay persons. Very many came together with like haste and no unlike desire, but more out of reverence for our Martyr than at the command of their bishop.

[12] These things therefore being meanwhile ^h arranged, the bishop, taking the road, and translates the sacred body to Truncinium, came through long stretches of way as far as the aforesaid Merendra, and admonished the crowd gathered to meet him to dig up the Martyr of God ⁱ. Meanwhile waxen lights are brought by virgin hands, incense set upon fire scatters its odor afar, clean receptacles are made ready for the sacred bones. The bishop's leave being at last given, men and women rush eagerly to the sepulchre, and some cast up the earth with the tools of iron implements, others with the nails of their hands, and they seek beneath the dust him who shone in the heavens ^k. Now began to be seen that most pure grain of wheat, which, being dug up, abounded with manifold miracle. The crowd's eager pressing being removed, the bishop hastened to sprinkle the life-giving bones with the element of blessed water, and, having censed them as is the custom, wrapped them in clean linen. The time was now at hand for setting out for Truncinium with this chosen Soldier of Christ; but all the neighborhood groaned greatly, because it was to be deprived of such a Patron. Yet they ran up sorrowing, these putting their shoulders, those their right hands beneath it; and each cried out that he was wretched whom either old age or weakness of the flesh drew back from so noble a burden.

[13] They had not yet reached the neighborhood to which they were hastening, where he is received by the canons: a possessed man when behold, from the oratory of the ever-Virgin Mary there burst forth, with tapers and the Lord's banners, a vested procession of canons, and, receiving the Martyr upon their shoulders, they bore him forth with a spiritual song. Entering with such dancing that noble oratory, they changed the grief of the people of Merendra into joy for themselves. They placed in no obscure place this Martyr of Christ, a polished stone namely in the adornment of the Jerusalem above, where before his King, whom he beholds in his beauty with clean gaze, he shows himself an intercessor for us. Glorious miracles indeed there came forth there from the treasuries of God; for the bells at the coming of St. Gerulphus, without human impulse, struck the air with a purer sound than usual ^l, and the tapers before the altar of St. Mary, no kindling of flames being applied but by God's will alone, spread their lights afar. Meanwhile a possessed man was brought, from whose mouth the foul inhabitant rolled forth horrible words, and whom, bound on every side, an iron chain could scarcely restrain. There stood by, gathered in weeping, the kinsfolk of the pitiable man, and at the misery of this wretch cried out with great wailing to the relics of St. Gerulphus.

[14] And when that possessed man with open mouth was wholly beside himself, and with wrinkled brow and threatening eyes made foul gesticulations, is there delivered. The time of this translation. one of the canons standing by seized one bone from those sacred relics, and, having dipped it in water, cast the drops hanging from that bone into the open mouth of the raving man. The demon, not enduring St. Gerulphus' merit, leaving foul traces as is his wont, went out of that seat familiar to him; and, he being put to flight, that man seized by him recovered himself. Joys therefore succeed joys, miracles are added to miracles, the whole church is filled with jubilation and praise. Those men lead back, restored to soundness, him whom they had brought mad; and the canons exalt their Martyr in the same church as a mirror of holy virtues. Let our martyr St. Gerulphus therefore say, let him say: This is my rest for ever and ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it. These things were done on the eighth of the Ides of October, namely in the nine hundred and fifteenth year of the Lord's Incarnation ^m.

[15] The sacred body is carried about to gather alms In the year one thousand and eighty-eight of the Lord's Incarnation the Western structure of the church of Truncinium is taken down in the time of the provost Gedezo ⁿ; and by his counsel too, together with that of the canons and of the laity, that it might be founded with greater elegance — the church which in ancient times had been built by the pagans, and, the idol being cast out and the banner of the holy Cross raised, had been consecrated by St. Amandus in honor of the most blessed Mother of the Lord, Mary ^o. Whence the clergy with the people of that convent wisely determined to carry the shrine [p] with the body of St. Gerulphus the martyr through the several parishes of Flanders, so that what they could not accomplish out of their own resources they might more abundantly restore the church out of the pious gifts of others. Therefore, hymns and praises having been most devoutly sung to the honor of God and of this holy Martyr, going forth gloriously they providently took with them the worthier persons of the place and those more commendable in religion, and thus, proceeding and communicating the word of life to the people, they faithfully heaped up a great substance for the church.

[16] for the restoring of the church, For who, having heard the mighty works of this most precious Saint, would not, even were he most avaricious, open wide the bowels of compassion toward his faithful — much more toward those who asked [q]? Or who, having been taught by the good stewards of God's mysteries the examples of his life, would not most swiftly forsake the ways of error which each unhappy man finds for himself without God as his author? For those men were servants of the Householder and stewards of the Lord, faithfully dispensing the measure of wheat which they had received from him. Whence the Apostle writes, saying: To each as God has divided the measure of faith. For whoever rightly dispenses the spiritual wheat of holy learning to the less learned, very often implants in their breasts the sacrament of faith and the counsel of holy action. Therefore a great part of them, when they heard the word of truth through the servants of God, and often turned over in the little cabinet of their breast the commendable life of the holy martyr Gerulphus, bravely desist from the way of sin, striving to become the flock of the good Shepherd and the household of their Redeemer. For it is written that the good Shepherd laid down his life for the redemption of his sheep.

[17] and while it lodges overnight in a village, For after the Holy Spirit through the words of the preachers had ardently consumed the rust of vices in their minds and had firmly implanted his love, they did not refuse to give all that was asked of them, but even offered abundantly of their own accord things not asked to the ministers of St. Gerulphus, for the reward of eternal beatitude. Whence it comes about that, when the discourse of teachers — which the Holy Spirit within and without disposes when it is uttered — pricks the hearts of the hearers, and roots out vices, and kindles the ardor of his love, rightly does the people, converted from error by holy preaching, rejoice constantly to sweat at just actions. Wherefore the household of God and of holy Gerulphus, greatly enriched with gifts of piety, came joyfully into the parish of Suivenghem [s] to lodge for the night, and humbly asked of the sacristan that entry into the church with the relics be made for them, as is customary. But that sacristan, angered I know not whence, or perverted by whose counsel, answered their petitions proudly, swearing and protesting that entrance should never lie open to them [*] with St. Gerulphus. Which said, disdaining to hear them further, he withdrew himself from them at a swift run, and blocked the doors of the church with bars set against them and with iron bolts, that they might not enter.

[18] Then, while the shrine of St. Gerulphus stood shut out at the door, a crippled girl is set upright. a great multitude of men and women, running together, flowed in from every side, and, lamenting that he was shut out, upheld him high upon their shoulders. A little after, a crippled girl came creeping with her stools [t], who was devoutly laid upon the shrine, and together with the people earnestly besought the Lord and holy Gerulphus that health with the use of her limbs be restored to her. Scarcely was the prayer ended when she, restored to health, received the use of her limbs [u], and, walking upright, magnified God, who had declared his Martyr in the sight of the people by so great a miracle, while many sang with her the Te Deum laudamus. Therefore that sacristan, seeing this miracle which was wrought through the blessed martyr Gerulphus, led by penitence for the hardness of his mind, constantly blessed the Lord with the rest, and, quickly unbarring the church, admitted St. Gerulphus with his household. Nor did they confer with a sparing hand gifts of piety upon God in memory of the most holy martyr Gerulphus, but whatever they could hand over they offered exulting at his shrine. Here too is fulfilled that saying of Jesus the son of Sirach []: In every gift make thy countenance cheerful, and sanctify with exultation*; which may he also deign to grant us who lives and reigns God through all the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Scrinia or scrinium here signifies a reliquary.

q. What follows, down to the words For after the Holy Spirit etc., is lacking in the Corsendonck manuscript.

r. What follows is again lacking in the same manuscript down to: Wherefore of God etc.

s. So our other manuscripts too have it, but I do not find this place on the maps. Sanderus, who in the earlier edition of the Hagiologium Flandriæ had read Suinerghem, in the other put Somerghem, which in tom. 1 of Flandria illustrata, pag. 177, he notes as a village at the third milestone from the city of Ghent toward Bruges, situated on the right of the canal. Perhaps he thought this place the same as the Suivenghem here recorded: but if it be permitted to conjecture from the likeness of the words, the village Seeverghem or Zeeverghem comes nearer to it, which in the map of the bishopric of Ghent is about a mile and a half distant from Ghent, situated toward Oudenarde on the Scheldt. There is also a village Swevegem near Courtrai.

t. That is, those low supports upon which those who creep, leaning, are wont to move themselves.

u. This passage I have restored from our Vaucelles codex and the Soissons manuscript, since in the Truncinium codex and in another copy of the same it was read truncated in this manner: and together with the people the Lord, and holy Gerulphus, health to herself with the use of her limbs she received. In the same way Sanderus has it in both his editions, following the same codex, except that he substituted the lord St. Gerulphus, and for the word usum rendered usu.

rather annum*

elsewhere, illis*

elsewhere, Sirah*

MIRACLES

From the manuscript codex of Truncinium.

ON ST. GERULPHUS THE MARTYR,

AT TRUNCINIUM IN FLANDERS.

BHL Number: 3509

From a manuscript.

The Saint's body is carried to Oudenarde for the imploring of peace; Since ^a the Lord is enjoined to be praised in his Saints, it seems absurd and utterly reprehensible to cover with silence and hide the merits and miracles of the Saints which God has deigned to show to us sinners through their merits and intercessions — and especially of the particular Native of Flanders, namely the glorious martyr of Christ Gerulphus, to whom, at the Lord's will, Baldwin the Bearded ^b, formerly count of Flanders, an excellent soldier, showed so great reverence and singular honor, as is found in the Chronicles, that in the year of the Lord MXXX, when all the relics of the holy bodies of Flanders had been gathered at Oudenarde ^c for the swearing of peace — namely of St. Gerulphus the martyr, of Bavo, Wandregisilus, Amandus, Vedastus, Bertin, Winnoc ^d, with innumerable relics of other Saints — the aforesaid count Baldwin, being asked whose relics in the order of the procession should be set before the rest or set after them, that count Baldwin himself appointed, in the presence of bishop Hugh ^e with other bishops and very many abbots gathered together, and the chief men of his whole realm, that the relics of St. Gerulphus the martyr, a native of his own country, should be honorably carried before all and magnificently set first.

[2] But now the inhabitants of that place in which the relics of St. Gerulphus rest, the writer desires to revive his former cult. namely of the Blessed Mary of Truncinium, returning to their heart and considering that through the fault of their evil silence so precious a treasure had long lain hidden, and that the light of his miracles had long been hidden under a bushel and had not shone upon a candlestick for the peoples, and especially for the Flemings, whose particular Native he is known to be — grieving, and using sound counsel, and fearing to be accused by the Lord in the day of vengeance that their glorious martyr Gerulphus had through their negligence been so long without honor in his own country — judged it worthy henceforth to glorify his holy name, and to make known to the faithful of Christ the powers and miracles which the Lord has deigned to work through his merits and intercessions; lest his fame, once so celebrated and penetrating all Flanders, should lie hidden any longer in darkness. And we have often found, both in the book of his Passion and from the faithful of Christ who visit as pilgrims the thresholds of the church of Truncinium, in which his most sacred body rests in a shrine, that no one was cheated of his desire who with his whole heart in any tribulation faithfully invoked the help of his consolation. First let us set forth, to his honor and praise, the miracles which we find in the book of his Passion …

[3] Although those things which are related by the report of the faithful are not with difficulty believed by hearers equally faithful, While the Saint's body is carried to Merendra, yet whatever things are seen by anyone with the eyes are known far more certainly — not to say are known by faith. Whence, as we have learned things about our glorious martyr Gerulphus from our elders, so we bestow pains to hand down in writing those things also which we ourselves have seen with our eyes. It is the custom among the inhabitants of Truncinium once a year, namely on the feast of the holy Trinity, to carry the shrine with the relics of St. Gerulphus the martyr to the place of his birth, to the village commonly called Merendra. On that same feast, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation MCCXCV, it happened that a certain woman from the town of Ghent visited as a pilgrim the thresholds of the church of Truncinium, in which the relics of the aforesaid Martyr are laid up in a shrine. And the woman, having entered the forecourt of the church, sat down to rest, waiting until the shrine of the holy Martyr should be carried out of the church, and so with the other pilgrims she might set out on pilgrimage to the aforesaid place. She was straightway struck by a great flux ^g, so that she was believed by all to be paralyzed in leg and foot.

[4] a woman with an ailment of the leg, and a woman possessed Meanwhile the people go out of the church with the shrine of the holy Martyr; and the woman, seeing this, while she was violently tormented, cried out with a great voice: O glorious martyr of God Gerulphus, help me out of this my infirmity, that I may accomplish the journey begun to the honor and praise of thy name. As the woman was praying this, straightway, as soon as the shrine passed before her, that infirmity was cured and utterly done away, and the woman, leaping up, set out with the other pilgrims, following the shrine, walking and blessing God, who deigned to work so great and such miracles through the merits and intercessions of his glorious martyr Gerulphus. And going on from there, they drew near to a village commonly named Wilde ^h, in which lay a certain woman possessed by a demon, whom for two years an iron chain could scarcely restrain. Presently the kinsfolk and neighbors of the aforesaid woman, standing about her, when they heard the tumult of the people and the clangor of the bells going before the shrine of the holy Martyr, knew that he was coming. And they, straightway bending their knees, began to invoke St. Gerulphus, that he who succored many might by his prayers deign to free this wretched woman from the demon.

[5] are delivered. Another possessed man cured. And as the holy Martyr drew near and passed before the door of the house in which the woman lay, the chains being broken with which the woman had been bound, she, freed from the demon, leaping up ran to the shrine, embracing and kissing it, and blessing the God of heaven, who adorned his holy martyr Gerulphus with so great and such miracles. Likewise, of his wonderful deeds this fact seems to us by no means to be passed over, but to be made known to the faithful ears of the faithful. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation MCCCVII a certain man in the parish of Truncinium was seized by a demon, who began violently to vex him, so that that man inflicted many wounds upon himself. Him, bound on every side with ropes, those present ⁱ and his neighbors, placing him on a pallet, carried into the church; and entering it he sent forth a roar like a lion. The possessed man being set before the holy martyr of Christ Gerulphus, while the clergy and people stood about and humbly implored the mercy of almighty God and the help of the holy martyr Gerulphus, before the space of many hours had elapsed that possessed man was cured. And presently he cried out that he had seen a young man clothed in purple, having an angelic countenance, who had cast out and driven the demon from him. Hearing which, the bystanders knew that he had been freed from the demon by the merits and intercession of St. Gerulphus. And they straightway glorified in hymns and praises the God of heaven, who adorned his holy martyr Gerulphus with such a miracle and glory.

[6] The body translated into a new case: the falling sickness driven off. In the year of the Lord MCCLVII ^k, on the nativity of St. John the Baptist, a venerable man, lord Walter de Mandra ^l, bishop of Tournai, translated the relics of St. Gerulphus from one chest into another, wrapping them in new cloths, the old ones being kept outside the chest; through which cloths the almighty and merciful Lord deigned to work many powers, of which we shall recite the chief and greatest. There was a certain boy in the territory of Lille ^m who seven times a day suffered from the falling sickness. And the boy's parents, having heard the fame of the holy martyr Gerulphus and the miracles which were wrought through him, had brought the boy to Truncinium, and, placing him before the holy Martyr, obtained from the priest a small piece of the cloth in which the body of the holy Martyr had been wrapped; and when this had been hung by a thread about the boy's neck, from that day the disease ceased. But after some little time, the thread being broken by the rotting of sweat, that small piece fell from the boy's neck to the ground, and presently the boy fell, suffering again from the aforesaid disease. The boy's parents, quickly taking up the aforesaid slip again, sewed it into the boy's tunic, and so he bore it sewn into his garments all the time of his life, and the disease touched him no more.

[7] A very great power still remains to be narrated and to be made known to the ears of the faithful with great devotion and solicitude, He is invoked as patron against storms that the merciful Lord may be the more glorified and honored in his holy Martyr, and that the holy martyr Gerulphus may in every tribulation and distress be the more devoutly invoked and honored by men. For we have often learned from our predecessors, who related to their sons from generation to

generation, that they had never seen nor heard from their forefathers that a storm of air, of thunder or of lightning had harmed or destroyed or torn up crops or trees in the parish of Truncinium since the Blessed Gerulphus rested there; whereas nevertheless in the neighboring parishes many storms have occurred, and crops and trees have often been torn up and perished: by which token very many of the parishioners are confident, and wish it to be held for certain, that the aforesaid parish has often been protected by the merits and prayers of St. Gerulphus.

[8] Which is manifestly plain by the testimony of two faithful men formerly dwelling in the aforesaid parish, with happy success. who related and affirmed on oath that at harvest time they were binding sheaves in the field. And while they were doing that work they saw a most violent rain-storm hanging in the clouds. As the rain fell violently from the clouds at first far from them and afterward drew near to them, bending their knees they began with great devotion and sincere faith to invoke the glorious martyr of Christ Gerulphus, that by his prayers he would protect them and their crops from the whirl of the rain. O thing to be wondered at and most worthy of all praise! While they were praying this and promising that they would visit as pilgrims the thresholds of the church in which he rests, the whirl of the rain, as though not daring to pass the bounds set for it, was spread about the boundaries of their land, while the surrounding land overflowed with wet from the exceeding whirl of rain, and not a single drop of rain fell upon their crops. The whirlwind being allayed, leaving all their work, they went on to the church of Truncinium, announcing there the mighty works and powers of God which he deigned to work by the merits of St. Gerulphus. All you who hear, rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice — and especially the people of Ghent, to whom the loving and merciful Lord deigned to grant such a Native and so great a Patron ⁿ.

[9] In the year of the Lord MCCCIX, about the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, a certain girl of the town of Ghent, A frenzied Beguine is healed. living in the Order of Beguines ^o, was violently tormented by the infirmity which is called frenzy, so that she tore her garments with her hands. Seeing which, the women dwelling with her all burst into tears, fearing that she was possessed by a demon; and invoking the help and consolation of St. Gerulphus, they all together with the sick woman promised to visit the holy Martyr as pilgrims, if the Lord by his prayers should deign to cure this sick woman. Not long after, the woman, having come to herself, began to glorify St. Gerulphus the martyr of Christ, by whose prayers she trusts that she was healed. Then all with one mind together with her faithfully and devoutly fulfilled the vow of pilgrimage, announcing there the mighty works of God which he deigned to work through the merits of St. Gerulphus.

ANNOTATIONS.