ON ST. GEREMARUS, ABBOT,
AT FLAY IN THE ISLE OF FRANCE.
About DCLVIII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY
Geremarus, abbot, at Flay in the Isle of France (S.)
BHL Number: 3442
BY J. P.
§ I. His memory in the calendars: his Acts; his illustrious birth; the chronology of his life.
[ ] Flaviacum, or Flaviacus, is a village of Gaul in the Isle of France and in the district of Beauvais, with a notable abbey of the Order of St. Benedict, The Saint is inscribed in the Martyrologies on this and other days. formerly called the monastery of Flay, now everywhere distinguished by the title of St. Geremarus of Flay, commonly S. Germer de Flay, from its first founder and abbot St. Geremarus, whose memory occurs frequently, but on different days, in the sacred calendars, chiefly the more recent. The most eminent Baronius announces him thus in the Roman Martyrology at the day XXIV of September: In the territory of Beauvais, of holy Geremarus the abbot. On the same day he is noted also in the Usuardine Supplements of Belinus and Molanus, as also in the Brussels, Altemps and Queen of Sweden codices, in which one alone the name is perfectly expressed as Geremarus, since in the Brussels one he is corruptly called Gummarus, in the rest Germanus, except one edition of Molanus, where Germarus is read: Germanus likewise Canisius and Felicius wrote; but since all everywhere assign the territory of Beauvais as the place of his death, and call him abbot, there can be no doubt that our Saint is designated, and the same whom, besides those already alleged, Ménard, Wion, du Saussay and others also commemorate today.
[2] Wion however had commemorated St. Geremarus before, at the day XXI of September, on account of Galesini, Shorter Acts who, like Greven, had inscribed him in his Martyrology on that day, and of Trithemius, who, in book 3 On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapter 93, had asserted that the Saint's birthday was recalled on the same. Whence the latter learned this I do not know, any more than why he is marked in the Usuardine Supplements — in the Centula one at the XXIII, in the Reichenau one at the XXVII of September, and in Greven and in our manuscript Florarium at the XIX of October. In the codex of the Queen of Sweden he is referred also to the day XX of May, but the cause is expressly indicated in these words: At the monastery of Flay, the translation of holy Geremarus the confessor. That translation, of which we must treat below in its place, du Saussay celebrates at greater length, his eulogy being taken from the Acts, to which I proceed. Of these we have exemplars both printed and manuscript, but some more prolix than others; yet so that those which are more contracted seem to be nothing but fragments drawn out of the longer ones. A fragment of this kind is extant in Vincent of Beauvais, book 23 of the Speculum Historiale, chapter 98, and from it our manuscript differs little, which however, with a prologue added, is noted as taken from a manuscript of Rouge-Cloître, part 1 of the Hagiologium Brabantinum, and collated with a manuscript of the Canons Regular at Corsendonck near Turnhout, a town of Belgium.
[3] More prolix are the Acts printed at Paris in the year 1651 at the end of the Works of Guibert, abbot of Nogent-sous-Coucy, published by d'Achery; as also the manuscript ones from a codex of the cathedral church of Beauvais, taken from longer ones, communicated at the beginning of the preceding century to our predecessors by Pierre Louvet, author of the History of Beauvais published in French in the year 1614. Neither, however, is perfect and complete, so far as I see from passages indicating evident omissions. Those omissions, which nevertheless are not the same in both — for d'Achery has many things which are wanting in the manuscript, and contrariwise — I shall point out in the Annotations to what I shall transcribe from Mabillon's second Century of the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, as being fuller and, unless I am much mistaken, original, or at any rate more ancient than those already praised. This the very diversity in them persuades: for whatever is lacking in d'Achery's and is read in the Beauvais ones, and contrariwise whatever is wanting in the Beauvais ones and is read in d'Achery's, all of it is transcribed in Mabillon's not only in the same order of sentences but of nearly every single word; so indeed that it plainly appears that the diversity arose from this, that in d'Achery's many things were deliberately passed over for brevity's sake; but in the Beauvais ones either from the same cause, or from the carelessness of the transcribers, or their unskilfulness in reading ancient and perhaps worn characters.
[4] which we shall give as written out by a very ancient author. The author is anonymous, but very ancient, as d'Achery notes; and Mabillon in his preliminary Observation conjectures that he was nearly contemporary with the Saint and lived in the 8th century; and indeed that he lived before the incursion of the Normans becomes most likely to me too from the last number of the Life, where the biographer signifies not obscurely that in his own time the Saint's body was venerated with great honor in the church of Flay, and that notable miracles were wrought at his tomb: for it is established from elsewhere that the body was carried elsewhere for fear of those same Normans, and that the tomb lay hidden among the ruins of the monastery overthrown by them for nearly two hundred years, as the same Mabillon observes, and as we shall more fully demonstrate in its place. Baillet, in his critical table to the Lives of the Saints of the day XXIV of September, likewise places the author in the 8th century, and does not deny the gravity of his style, but judges that he was mistaken in the relation of certain deeds which do not seem able to stand with historical truth, and that he was prone to prodigies, in which the men of that century took delight.
[5] Some difficulties, As regards the prodigies, they are neither frequent nor very extraordinary; except one, which is related to have happened while the Saint was planning with St. Audoenus, bishop of Rouen, the building of the monastery of Flay, and which nevertheless is not such as ought to seem incredible to those who know in how wonderful ways God has been wont to deal with his Saints: nay, since the biographer appears otherwise sincere and pious, at most the suspicion could arise that he was here easy in admitting the circumstances with which true events, though not long past, are wont to be adorned, as we daily experience. More difficulty at first sight is presented by one or another chronological error, of which the biographer is accused by Baillet, although he expressly assigns none; but when I consider his method of writing more attentively, I judge that those errors arose either from the copyists' drowsiness, or rather from the inconsiderate alteration of names by some smatterer.
[6] One only Mabillon observed, or at any rate indicated and corrected, at the very beginning of the Acts, especially chronological ones, where in d'Achery and in our Beauvais copy, nay probably in the codices from which
Mabillon himself used, except one, from which he emended the rest, the Saint was said to have been born in the time of Dagobert, king of the Franks: whereas afterward the same Saint is said, when he had entered on the inheritance of his deceased parents, being famous for munificence toward the poor, for sanctity and prudence, to have been called by Dagobert to the court, set over his counsels, and, when not many years had been spent in the palace, to have taken a wife, of whom he first begot two daughters, and at last a son, whom king Dagobert loved above all, seeing him vigorous in arms, powerful in words, useful in counsels. And when preparations were being made for the Franks to go to war, he in all things clung to the king's side in his Father's stead. These things, as is evidently clear, taken in a strict sense, could not all have happened under the reign of one Dagobert.
[7] The said Mabillon seems to have thought the matter settled in these if it be said that Geremarus was born in the time of Chlothar, king of the Franks, as he affirms is truly read in the codex of the most illustrious Claude Joly, canon of Paris. But if in that way every difficulty ceases, it will also cease with no alteration made, nor need the other copies of the Acts be corrected on the credit of a single codex; since the biographer's meaning can conveniently be expounded by saying that, when he wrote that the Saint was born in the time of king Dagobert, he only meant to signify that at that time he began to flourish, as Mabillon himself confesses is often done by authors, and as Le Cointe must have understood it, who, although he used d'Achery's Acts here and there in his Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, formed for himself no difficulty here from the words alleged, and from another passage, to be indicated below, suspected that the Saint was born in the year 614.
[8] But whether the author wrote that St. Geremarus was born while Chlothar reigned, that occur, or said he was born, in the manner already expounded, while Dagobert son of Chlothar reigned, another knot remains, in my judgment not so easily untied. It lurks in the last words cited at num. 6, by which it is indicated that Geremarus, while Dagobert lived, had a son of some maturity; which certainly, in view of the rest of the order of the Acts, conflicts with historical truth, especially if, as is most likely, Dagobert called the Saint to court only after the death of his father Chlothar and the obtaining of the whole kingdom of the Franks, since he did not survive his father more than ten years, as is both Mabillon's and today the more common opinion of the learned. Nevertheless, that we may lessen the difficulty as much as may be, let us grant that Geremarus was called by Dagobert at the very beginnings of his reign in Austrasia alone, which he held for six years while his father lived; we shall have sixteen years — a space also too narrow to comprehend all that is narrated in the Acts.
[9] For Geremarus remained unmarried for some years in Dagobert's palace, are set forth, as is clear from the biographer's words: Not many years of his youth being spent in king Dagobert's palace, he began to treat with himself of obtaining an heir, and with the consent of the king and of the other Franks joined a maiden to himself in marriage. Let us suppose, then, that this was done in Dagobert's third year; let him have begotten his firstborn daughter in the fourth year, the second in the fifth: for that both were older than the son, the biographer signifies; nay, he hints not obscurely that the latter was born a notable time after them, saying: And when many days were fulfilled, God gave him a son. Let him then have been born in Dagobert's seventh or eighth year; he would have been a boy of eight or nine in Dagobert's sixteenth and last year. And him, forsooth, king Dagobert loved above all, seeing him vigorous in arms, powerful in words, useful in counsels; he in all things clung to the king's side in his Father's stead.
[10] and are removed. Let him untie the knot who thinks he can; I judge that it must be cut in this way. The biographer, as he had done where he was treating of St. Geremarus' daughters, whose death and burial he relates before he goes on to the birth of his son, so here too sets forth the deeds, virtues and endowments of mind of the son in his boyhood and youth, before he resumes the order of St. Geremarus' deeds. Hence what he mentions in the passage cited about the son is later in time than what he then subjoins about the Father; and since probably he had not expressed in the text the name of the king to whom the son was dear, or if he had expressed it, would have named Clovis, a copyist or some other unskilled corrector, seeing mention of king Dagobert recurring later among Geremarus' deeds, inserted the latter's name into the text, or substituted it for the name of Clovis. That conjecture the biographer confirms in another place, where he writes that the death of the said son, returning with king Clovis from Gascony, was announced to his father Geremarus, and speaks of him as of a young man, although by the biographer's own reckoning that death happened about sixteen years after Dagobert's decease.
[11] The Saint's country, illustrious family, That difficulty being removed, the rest of the chronological order flows conveniently enough, which I shall run through here together with some chief deeds, that I may be the briefer in the Annotations to the Acts. He had for his native place a villa on the border of the territory of Beauvais, by name Guarandra or Warandra, situated upon the river Itta, otherwise Epte; his father by name Rigobertus, his mother Aga, of a noble family of the Franks, as after the biographer all relate, and powerful in wealth, as is manifest from the Acts — nay, sprung of royal stock, according to the letters of John V, bishop of Beauvais, given in the year 1478 to confirm the foundation of the monastery of Flay by blessed Geremarus. They are extant in d'Achery in the Notes and Observations on the Works of abbot Guibert, pag. 601, and in tom. X of the newly enlarged Gallia Christiana, col. 279 and following, among the instruments of the church of Beauvais, whence I transcribe what pertains hither: We make known that we, desiring to shut the mouths of evil barkers, and exulting to bear testimony to the truth, do certify that in ancient books, legends, charters and writings, whose credit is free from suspicion and marked by no reproach, there are contained the things which follow: namely, that in the times of the most serene king Dagobert the glorious Geremarus, begotten of royal offspring, was of the greatest sanctity, by whose sacred counsel that king Dagobert governed the kingdom with amiable peace.
[12] the year of his birth and a brief chronology Pierre Louvet, book 3, chapter 2 of the History of Beauvais, published in the French tongue in the year 1614, exhibiting a compendium of the Life of St. Geremarus, says he was born in the year 605, yet does not add whether he learned this from some ancient monument or from conjecture alone, which, in view of the rest of the order of his deeds, does not seem improbable; but Le Cointe, at the year 655, to which he rightly attaches the beginnings of the monastery of Flay, from another conjecture no less likely and drawn from the Acts themselves, fixes his birth in the year 614; because namely at num. 25, when SS. Audoenus and Geremarus were seeking a place for founding a monastery, a voice is said to have been heard addressing them thus: Elect of God, behold this place (Flay) is to be revered; forty years have rolled by since the Lord blessed and sanctified this place and destined it for his faithful servant Geremarus. And indeed I too do not see what could more probably be understood by those words, whether they were truly heard from heaven or reported by the biographer from some tradition, than that that place was sanctified by God from the Saint's very birth; and accordingly I conjecture that he was born after 605, from which the year 655 would have been the fiftieth; yet I would not absolutely determine 614, both because the word have rolled by, especially when a round number is added, permits some latitude, and because, if it be anticipated by three or four years, what is narrated of him and his son under Dagobert's reign will be more easily arranged.
[13] Let us suppose then his birth about 610; is given, in the year 628, in which Dagobert began to reign over Neustria and Burgundy after Chlothar's death, he would have reached his eighteenth year of age; in that or the following year summoned to court, and three years being there passed in celibacy, he could of the wife he took have begotten his firstborn daughter in the year 632, the second in the following, and about 635 his son Amalbertus. Thus before Dagobert's death there will remain about three years, within which, as is reported in the Acts, St. Geremarus built the monastery formerly called Isle, afterward destroyed by the Normans, and asked and obtained of the same Dagobert that he should declare his son Amalbertus heir of all his goods. This declaration he afterward asked to be confirmed by Dagobert's son Clovis the second, in the eleventh year of the latter's reign, according to our chronology the year of Christ 648; and Clovis assenting and his wife consenting, he went off to a monastery by name Pentale, situated on the river Risle in the district of Rouen, over which, being soon made abbot, he presided for a short time; and thence he withdrew into a cave not far distant from there, and there, set as an example to all for five years and three months, he was informed of the death of his son Amalbertus, returning with Clovis from Gascony, about the year 654, which was Amalbertus' nineteenth or twentieth. The rites being duly performed for his son, he founded the monastery of Flay, which, when he had governed it as first abbot three years and six months, he holily died about the year 658, being scarcely fifty years old.
§ II. The various vicissitudes of the monastery of Flay; its destruction by the Normans about the year 851: the translation of St. Geremarus' body to Beauvais.
[ ] The monastery of Flay, fallen through age, I have no doubt that the Saint, during the time in which he lay in the monastery of Flay founded by himself, was honorably venerated, and was famous for benefits and miracles divinely wrought at his invocation, just as the biographer testifies of his own times. Yet I have found nothing worth noting either about his sacred remains or about the monastery itself before the beginning of the 9th century, in which the Chronicle of Fontenelle was written out. This is extant in d'Achery, tom. 3 of the Spicilegium published in the year 1659, and at chapter 16, in the deeds of abbot Ansegisus, pag. 232, it has these words: The lord Ansegisus received from the lord king Charles in precarious tenure the monastery of Flay, which holy Geremarus founded and where he rests [] in the body, which is situated in the district of Beauvais — namely in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ DCCCVII, which was the XXXVIIII year of Charles the Great from the time he was made king of the Franks, and the VII year from the time he was called emperor and Augustus: which he found almost destitute of buildings and reduced to want and abandoned. But within a short space of time he strove by his noble industry to recover it. For he caused all the buildings, both public and private, there, when those which had been consumed by age had been removed and cast out, to be built from the foundations and restored in greater elegance, as is plain to all who come thither.*
[15] is restored at the beginning of the 9th century; He takes up the same matter again at pag. 240: In the monastery of Flay also, he says, what gifts he (Ansegisus) offered, we have judged should be declared in this place. For there of his free kindness he bestowed ten various silver chalices, etc.; and in honor of the holy Trinity he built a basilica, before whose altar a panel with silver images
adorned he set up, and upon that same altar he placed a silver cross, and ordered the whole basilica to be adorned with various paintings. It is truly strange that the monastery, erected according to what has been said before in the year 655, should have fallen in that manner within an interval of a hundred and fifty years, and that from age alone — for no other cause is hinted — so that it was not only destitute of buildings but also abandoned, that is, empty of inhabitants. But I should believe that then first, after the restoration, canons were introduced there by Ansegisus, of whom the said chronicler makes mention thus at pag. 243: To Flay, to those canons, Ansegisus directed fifteen pounds. Certainly that it was inhabited by canons the decree of Pope Nicholas I, to be mentioned below, does not permit us to doubt. But in a shorter space of time the same monastery lost the splendor conferred on it by Ansegisus.
[16] a little after, being overthrown, it is restored; For after his death, which in tom. V of July, at the day XX, where from the same contemporary chronicler of Fontenelle we gave his Acts, we showed must be attached to the year 833, Hincmar, afterward bishop of Reims, obtained it for life from Charles the Bald, and, when it had been destroyed again by some invader — I know not who — restored it; nay, he labored much to retain it for himself, since the same Charles wished to take it from him. All these things Flodoard comprised in a few words, book 3 of the History of the Church of Reims, chapter 18, where among the writings directed by Hincmar to Charles the Bald he mentions these: Likewise concerning the cell or monastery of Flay, which the same king had given him while he stayed in his service before his episcopate, and had confirmed by a rescript that he should hold it during his life; and which, being destroyed by a certain invader, he had rebuilt, and had restored religion in it as far as he could: which afterward the same king was trying unjustly to take away from his right. Whether Hincmar was then heard or not, is unascertained by me. Nevertheless it mattered little to him; since a little after, namely in the year 851, it was utterly overthrown by the Normans. However that may be, it is sufficiently established that the place itself, whether before or after the overthrow, was granted to laymen and was subject to their lordship until about the year 863.
[17] The overthrow just mentioned is attested by another chronicler of Fontenelle, a fragment of whom, from the year 841 until 856, du Chesne exhibits in tom. 2 of the Writers of the History of the Franks, pag. 387 and following, and in which at the year 851 these things are read: at last in the year 851 it is burned by the Normans, At the same time a fleet of the Northmen entered the river Seine on the very day of the third of the Ides of October, under the leader Hoseri… Meanwhile they burned the city of Beauvais and the monastery of Flay. And when they were returning from it, being met at the place called Wardera by the Franks, very many were slain. The Annalist of Saint-Bertin, in du Chesne, tom. 3, pag. 205, at the same year, says: And coming to the city of Rouen, they come on foot as far as Beauvais. Which being burned, when they were returning, they were intercepted by our men and in some part routed. But most of the things brought forward hitherto are also clearly explained in the above-mentioned decree or bull of Pope Nicholas I, confirming the union, granted by Charles the Bald to Odo bishop of Beauvais, of Flay and of the Oratory (which was a nunnery situated not far from the city) with the same church of Beauvais.
[18] That bull, a very prolix one, Antoine Loisel exhibits in the Monuments of Beauvais, as we show by the testimonies of various writers, published in the year 1617, pag. 239, and the editors of the new Gallia Christiana, tom. X, or rather part 2 of tom. IX, among the instruments, col. 240, whence I cull what pertains hither: Nicholas the Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the most reverend and most holy Odo the bishop… Since thy holiness has reported and suggested to our apostolate that the church of Beauvais in the province of Reims … has remained deprived by earthly power of the means of substance which in former times it enjoyed, and in these modern days too has been greatly attenuated by the incursion and likewise the depredation of the pagans, … for which cause he (Charles the Bald) granted to it two monasteries established in the same church of Beauvais, namely the Oratory, which was formerly a convent of maidens, and Flay, in which canons dwelt… Which monasteries however, even before they had been conferred upon secular persons, had been not a little destroyed on account of the sedition of civil discord, and now on account of the barbarian incursion are utterly overthrown, so that not only are they deprived of their own goods, but the choir of canons and of sacred virgins which had formerly dwelt there has for the most part been taken away thence, and the churches and all the buildings alike have been destroyed, nor does any hope of their restoration remain, if they be either placed again in the hands of secular persons, or live without an ecclesiastical pastor, as hitherto they have been… Wherefore … we have decreed that what was requested be done, and by apostolic authority we ordain that the aforesaid monasteries, namely Flay and the Oratory, conferred by the kindness of the glorious king Charles upon the church of Beauvais, with all that the aforesaid churches possess, shall remain [] perpetually subject … in this order however … that both the monasteries themselves be restored and preserved according to the measure of the means conferred upon them, and that those serving God there, whether of the female or the male sex, be helped with the necessary subsidies.*
[19] Then at greater length he commends to the bishop the solicitude and care of the monasteries, against the author, and by name that he take heed lest by any means they come thereafter into the power of secular persons: then after the customary clauses the decree is noted as written by the hand of Peter, notary of the region and keeper of the archives of the holy Roman Church, in the month of April, in the eleventh indiction; and below: On the fourth of the Kalends of May, by the hand of Tiberius, primicerius of the holy Apostolic See, in the reign of our lord the most pious Augustus Louis (the second of that name, son of the emperor Lothar), crowned by God, the great and peaceful emperor, in the fourteenth year: which characters designate the year of Christ 863. Further, it has seemed good to treat this matter somewhat more widely than would otherwise have been needful, in order to explain the confusion which I notice in other monuments, especially those of Beauvais, concerning the translation of St. Geremarus' body. The History of this translation was communicated to our predecessors in the year 1678 by Claude-François de Paule le Fèvre d'Ormesson, dean of Beauvais, taken from a manuscript of the library of that same church. It had for its author an anonymous monk of Flay, who in the year 1132 was present at the bringing back of part of the Saint's relics from Beauvais to Flay, and so far he is worthy of credit; but in other matters which preceded his own age he is less accurate, and probably the first author of the said confusion.
[20] of the History of St. Geremarus' translation, After some things premised by way of preface about the life and death of St. Geremarus, and also about the first foundation of the monastery, he goes on thus: And so that same monastery flourished for nearly two hundred and fifty years under twenty abbots. This guide John, bishop of Beauvais, followed in the letters of the year 1478, praised at num. XI, writing in this manner: And this monastery, he says, built by blessed Geremarus, stood in being and in a perfect state for two hundred and fifty years or thereabouts. It flourished therefore and remained in a perfect state beyond the year nine hundred, since it was founded about 655, as was seen above. But these things cannot stand with the testimonies alleged before: for who would say that a monastery flourished beyond the year 900 which in the year 807 had been almost destitute of buildings, reduced to want and abandoned; which, renewed from the foundations, had been destroyed again by an invader; which, inhabited by canons, was burned in the year 851 by the Normans, and, as Pope Nicholas says, was utterly overthrown in the year 863? Nor can it be said that an error crept into the arithmetical figures of the historian of Flay, since he himself forbids this, when, after some things interposed, he not only expressly marks the year of the overthrow as 906, but also clothes it with other chronological characters, which, although for the greater part faulty, are yet all later than the year 863.
[21] in no way skilled in chronology, His words, unnecessary matter omitted, I transfer hither: When … Louis, surnamed the Stammerer, had held the kingdom two years, dying, he left the sceptre to his son Charles the Simple, in whose very first year, which was about the nine hundred and sixth from the Incarnate Word … Rollo … invaded Normandy, and, being a pagan, set about destroying the monasteries of men and of women… The sad report of the destruction of the monasteries … filled this monastery of Flay with dread, nor was there counsel for the brethren to delay … and, some portion of the goods of the monastery having been taken up, with the venerable body of the holy father Geremarus … they removed to the city of Beauvais on the eighth of the Kalends of October… After the departure therefore of the monks, the Normans at once destroyed that same monastery from the foundations. That all these things are later than the year 863 is plain of itself; that most are faulty, I prove thus: Louis the Stammerer did indeed die in the second year of his reign in France, but that was the year of Christ 879. And he transmitted the sceptre to Louis III, king of the Franks, his elder son, not to Charles the Simple, who was the younger son and indeed posthumous, and who obtained the kingdom only about the year 892; whence another error of the historian is detected, when he sets the year of Christ 906 as the first of the reign of Charles the Simple; and a third, when he signifies that Rollo first invaded Normandy in the same year 906 — who namely had entered it already from the year 876.
[22] Besides John the bishop, praised at num. 20, the author of the History of Flay also defers the overthrow of the monastery to the beginning of the 10th century, and those who followed him, a compendium of which we have in d'Achery among the Notes on abbot Guibert, and the brothers Sainte-Marthe in tom. 3 of the Gallia Christiana in the same words, which I subjoin: Many years after, namely about the year DCCCC, it was utterly overthrown by the Normans. And the sacred bones of blessed Geremarus were translated and placed in the church of Beauvais, where they are seen today. The writers of the new Gallia Christiana, tom. 9, do indeed acknowledge an overthrow made by the Normans in the year 851, but nevertheless judge that a restoration followed in the same century, according to the condition prescribed to bishop Odo by Pope Nicholas I: It seems to have been restored by Odo, they say, for after CCL years from its foundation the monastery of Flay is destroyed to the ground by Rollo in the year CMVI, and, the religious being dead or fugitive, it remained deserted and empty of inhabitants for a hundred and thirty years, until, the dissensions of the kingdom being pacified, bishop Drogo, that he might carry out Nicholas' mind, thought of restoring Flay in that age, which he wished to be named from St. Geremarus.
[23] For my part I should gladly agree with their opinion if I met even one author worthy of credit and older than the historian of the translation, more recent writers; the body of St. Geremarus who made mention either of the restoration made by Odo or of the destruction that followed it: but since it seems to rest on no other authority than his alone, which for those times ought to count as none, as abundantly appears from the anachronisms pointed out, I should think that the same lot befell Flay which befell the Oratory, the monastery of virgins: which the condition of Pope Nicholas equally regarded, and which nevertheless Odo did not restore, as
the writers of the Gallia Christiana themselves confess, tom. 9, col. 812. Further, our opinion Louvet expressly relates in the several-times cited book 3, chapter 3 of his History, pag. 293, saying that Odo did not think of restoring both monasteries, so that Flay remained levelled with the ground for more than a hundred and seventy-three years, until the year one thousand and thirty. From this it is concluded that the translation of St. Geremarus' body from the monastery of Flay cannot be deferred until the year 900 or 906, but must be fixed about 851, in which its last destruction happened.
[24] But whither was the sacred body first carried? All whom I have seen hitherto it was then translated designate the city of Beauvais: Mabillon however, in his Notes on the Saint's Life, has these words: That his body, together with the relics of blessed Justus the martyr, was carried to the abbey of St. Cyprian near the walls of Poitiers (which however we think altogether uncertain), Louvet proves from the Annals of Aquitaine at the year CMXL. In the year DCCCXL (nay, 851, as Mabillon himself relates in his own Annals) both monasteries of blessed Geremarus, namely Isle and Flay, were overthrown by Hastings, leader of the Normans. Affairs being thereafter pacified, the sacred remains of Geremarus were brought back to Beauvais, says the same author. Baillet here transcribes Mabillon at the day XXIV of September, adding that this is little likely. But the writers of the Gallia Christiana, tom. 9, col. 789, speak somewhat doubtfully thus: The body … for fear of the Normans was carried for refuge to Poitiers to St. Cyprian's, or to Beauvais to the little tower of St. Michael, more certainly to the greater church of Beauvais.
[25] As regards Louvet, he must have changed his opinion afterward, either in another Work or in a more recent edition: for in our copy he expressly teaches to Beauvais, and not to the monastery that the sacred bones were translated to Beauvais: in book 3, chapter 3, mentioning the overthrow of the monastery by Hastings, leader of the Normans, he says: The abbot and religious of St. Geremarus of Flay, seeing themselves separated from Normandy only by a small river next to them, called the Arle, took up the body of St. Geremarus and their other relics and carried them to the city of Beauvais. In the same book 3, chapter XI, deploring in general the damage inflicted by the Normans under the leader Hastings on the territory of Beauvais, he says: At their coming there were carried to Beauvais the bodies and relics of SS. Ebrulfus, Justus, Geremarus and Angadrisma, where they have been kept until now. These four Saints the people of Beauvais solemnly venerate as their chief patrons: St. Ebrulfus on the XXV of July, on which we illustrated his Acts; St. Angadrisma on the XIV and St. Justus on the XVIII of October.
[26] of St. Cyprian I have thought fit however to inquire into the Annals of Aquitaine, from which, on Mabillon's witness, Louvet proves a translation to Poitiers: but for the present matter I find, or judge to be designated, no others than those which in the 16th century Jean Bouchet of Poitiers set forth in French; where indeed at the cited year 940 there is discussion of the restoration of the abbey of St. Cyprian in the suburb of the city of Poitiers by Frotherius II, its bishop, and where the author speaks thus: In the said abbey there are several bodies of Saints… There too are kept … the body of St. Geremarus, confessor and abbot, of the territory of Beauvais … and the body of St. Justus likewise a martyr, sprung from the land of Auxerre; which bodies the aforesaid counts of Poitiers ordered to be carried to the said abbey: namely Ebulus and William his son, in the 10th century dukes of Aquitaine and counts of Poitiers, whom he had mentioned a little before. But from this, even supposing that Bouchet had at hand authentic instruments attesting his assertion, it is at most concluded that those bodies came to the abbey of St. Cyprian in the 10th century, and by no means that they were carried thither about the middle of the preceding century for fear of the Normans, by whom the abbey of St. Cyprian itself, built in the year 828 by Pippin king of Aquitaine, was a little after utterly destroyed, as Denis de Sainte-Marthe writes, tom. 2 of the new Gallia Christiana, col. [ ], and was restored only by Frotherius about the year 936, as may be seen in the same author among the instruments, col. 328 and following. Nearly the same things Mabillon relates in the Annals at the year 934, num. 56.
[27] near Poitiers. It is to be added that, if we must stand by the testimony of Bouchet adduced, more follows from it than Louvet himself would wish. For Bouchet speaks in such a way as though those bodies were kept at St. Cyprian's even then, while he was writing: In the said abbey, he says, there ARE several bodies… There are kept the body of St. Geremarus, etc. And so if they were carried thither in the middle of the 9th century, and laid there again in the 10th, in what way will Louvet prove that, affairs being afterward pacified, they were brought back to Beauvais? Wherefore, until stronger testimonies are brought forward, Louvet's new opinion will in no way become likely to me; and I shall believe that those bodies were carried nowhere but to Beauvais, where they are kept to this day. Nor yet even so is Bouchet to be said to have thrust falsehoods upon us, but he is to be so expounded, that by the counts of Poitiers some relics of SS. Geremarus and Justus, obtained from Beauvais, were laid at St. Cyprian's, and, as is not unusual, in the lapse of time began to be called bodies: nevertheless of these relics I have found no memory elsewhere.
Annotations* supply: in which
* read: maneant
§ III. The bringing back of part of the relics from Beauvais to the restored monastery of Flay; the Saint's notable cult in both places.
[ ] In the year 1132 the Saint's body Although in the preceding § we have disputed at some length about the first translation of the body, yet there is no need to add anything here about the things which followed it — for instance, in what place it was first laid at Beauvais, how it was afterward transported into the cathedral church, on what occasion the monastery of Flay was rebuilt in the XI century and inhabited by monks, and with how great effort these labored that the sacred treasure might be restored to its former place. For all these things the anonymous monk described at length who, as I noted above, was present at the bringing back of part of the relics, obtained with difficulty from the people of Beauvais about the year 1132. That Work, superfluous matter being cut away, I shall subjoin to the Acts, and shall elucidate after my custom with Notes. Take meanwhile the letters of the bishop of Beauvais confirming the said bringing back, which I transcribe from Louvet's History, pag. 561. Peter, by the grace of God bishop of Beauvais, to all orthodox men present and to come, greeting in the Lord. Let your charity know that we have placed the whole body of St. Geremarus, confessor and abbot, in this shrine, in the presence and with the attestation of honorable persons: Goistanus bishop of Soissons, Gerlo abbot of St. Lucian, Garinus abbot of Breteuil, Ralph abbot of St. Quentin, Roger the dean, Theobald and Henry the archdeacons, Ursio the succentor, Roger and Oger the presbyters, Fulco the chancellor, and the whole convent of blessed Peter and of all the churches of the city of Beauvais.
[29] There were present also many honorable persons, namely Ausculfus the provost, is solemnly inspected at Beauvais, Adelard archdeacon of Soissons, Odo dean of Compiègne, and other clerics of Soissons, Amiens, Senlis and Paris. We summoned besides the vassals of Beauvais: Manasses of Bulles, Odo the Castellan, Hugh of Noailles, Drogo Bretesca, Hugh brother of Ursellus, Peter son of Adam: and at the entreaty of the lord Odo, abbot of the monastery of Flay, and of the lord Odo, abbot of St. Symphorian, and by the common consent of all who were present, we transmitted to Flay the short bone of the right arm which is called the radius; and this was done in the year of the Incarnate Word MCXXXII, the tenth Indiction, on the birthday of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, in the reign of king Louis by the grace of God. Amen. By these letters there is declared primarily the translation of St. Geremarus' body from the old to the new shrine, performed with a most solemn rite in the cathedral church of Beauvais; and only secondarily and incidentally the granting of part of the relics to the people of Flay. For Odo, abbot of Flay, with his monks — from whose flock the other Odo, here called abbot of St. Symphorian, had been taken for the governance of the monastery of St. Symphorian — had indeed pressed the people of Beauvais with many prayers that, if not the whole body, at least a part of it might be granted them; but he had suffered a refusal: hence, being indignant, he neither was present himself at the festal translation, nor allowed any of his own to be present.
[30] Yet on that very day, in the midst of the celebration of the translation, the bishop of Soissons, having gained a fitting occasion, turned his discourse to the bishop, clergy and people of Beauvais, and part of it is brought back to Flay. and so moved their minds that they at last resolved to assent to the wishes of the people of Flay. Messengers were sent to them, and the abbot was bidden to be present with his own at Beauvais on the XXIV day of July next following, that he might receive the relics designated in the letters. He was present at the appointed time, and with notable pomp transferred the sacred treasure to his own monastery, as our anonymous writer reports at length, indicating that on the eighth of the Kalends of October it was laid up in a notable vessel, and so making an end of his history. The said relics, as far as I understand from the Gallia Christiana, tom. 9, col. 794, were transferred into a new shrine, in which they now stand, by William, bishop of Beauvais, in the year 1249; after whom nothing particular occurs to be said about them, as neither anything about the Saint's cult, which certainly, as of the Patron and first founder, is most solemn on the day XXIV of September, and probably also on the XX of May, on which the codex of the Queen of Sweden and du Saussay announce his translation at Flay, as was said at num. 2.
[31] His feast is kept with notable splendor on the 24th of September: But in the church of Beauvais, where his body is held in the highest veneration, and where his head was laid in a new shrine in the year 1479, according to the just-praised Gallia Christiana, col. 797, his festivity is celebrated with notable splendor on both the days mentioned, as I understand from the Calendar and the compendium of the manuscript Breviary of Beauvais published in the year 1554. For in the Calendar at the day XXIV of September these things are noted: Of Geremarus the abbot. Triple.: and in the compendium of the Breviary at the same day, these among others: Nine proper lessons. Likewise for one remaining day within the Octave. Baillet at the end of the Acts of St. Geremarus says that it is a feast among the people throughout the city, and that the Office is recited with triple rite of the third order with an octave throughout the whole diocese; and he adds that with a triple Office also the translation is kept on the XX day of May, which is likewise marked in the said Calendar and in the compendium of the Breviary: where six lessons from the Legend are prescribed, in which it is narrated how the people of Beauvais, when they had set out for Chartres to the blessed Virgin, that they might procure for themselves a remedy against a certain fiery pestilence, were admonished by a certain old man to invoke St. Geremarus, whose body lay within their borders; and that, in order to do this more worthily, they built up again his monastery, which had nearly fallen down. These things are more fully set forth in the anonymous writer's history of the translation, whence the designated lessons seem to have been extracted.
[32] likewise the translation on the 20th of May, Further, those same lessons, I think, are no longer read, and the arrangement of the Offices is now different in the church of Beauvais. This I gather from another manuscript, which, like the other instruments, was sent hither from Beauvais
and seems transcribed either from its Breviary or from its Proper of Offices. In the first place is set a compendium of the Life divided into three parts under this title: On the feast of St. Geremarus the abbot, XXIV September. Then follows, under this one, On the feast of the translation, the XX day of May, a compendium of the things narrated as done from the destruction of the monastery of Flay by the Normans until its restoration by Drogo, bishop of Beauvais; and it is likewise divided into three parts, so that there is no doubt that there are as many lessons to be recited in the second Nocturn of the Office on either day. It does not appear worth while to transcribe the former; but the latter, since they agree well enough with what I have opposed to the anonymous writer and to others as to the time and place of the first translation, I transfer hither.
[33] from whose day's Office When the Danish peoples, having gone forth from Norway, with a band of Noricans and Slavs gathered, in the reign of Charles the Bald, were cruelly bursting into the Gauls, and bringing destruction and devastation on all sacred roofs, the monks of the monastery of Flay, struck with fear of the impending danger, removed with the glorious body of blessed Geremarus to Beauvais, and placed it in a certain rather lofty turret of the walls. Where, as long as they remained alive, they devoutly discharged the appointed measure of the divine office according to the prescript of regular discipline. But when all of them had been taken out of the way, the charge of the divine worship is entrusted to certain presbyters; but since they bore themselves irreligiously in that office, that body was translated into the basilica of blessed Peter at the bidding of the clergy of the episcopal see, and laid up in a more seemly casket.
[34] From that time the blessed confessor of Christ Geremarus impressed the veneration of himself upon the minds of the citizens by very many, but especially by two, miracles. proper lessons For as often as the fields, squalid with much dust from excessive drought, threaten the people with the misery of famine, if that body be devoutly carried about through the city and outside the walls in solemn procession, straightway the earth is abundantly watered with rains. Moreover, when Beauvais first received the bones of so great a Confessor and cherished them in her bosom, she remained unharmed by every burning of the sacred fire that was raging throughout all Gaul.
[35] For the great merits of St. Geremarus, Drogo of good memory, are here given. bishop of Beauvais, restored the monastery of Flay, levelled with the ground by the Normans, in the thirtieth year after the thousandth; which the most Christian king Charles in the year eight hundred and sixty-three, with the assent of the supreme Pontiff Nicholas, had liberally conferred on bishop Odo with all its estates and possessions. The restoration being completed, Odo himself (correct here the transcriber's fault and read: Drogo himself) dedicated the basilica of the monastery, and committed its care and governance to a certain venerable monk, Galterus by name, professed of the monastery of Fossés, that in it, a new offshoot of monks being made, the ancient regular discipline might grow up again. One thing displeases in these lessons, namely the mention of monks fleeing with the sacred body to Beauvais, of whom none seem to have existed there when the translation was made, as I shall again observe in the Annotations to the History of that translation. For the rest, on Baillet's witness, the Saint's cult is established in various places of Gaul, and his relics are shown at Paris in the abbey of Val-de-Grâce of nuns of the Benedictine Order; but a more distinct account of these I have not ascertained.
LIFE
By a very ancient anonymous author
From Mabillon's edition in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, Century II.
Geremarus, abbot, at Flay in the Isle of France (S.)
BHL Number: 3437
By an anonymous author.
PART I.
The Saint's birth; his virtues; his call to the court; his wife and children; his resolve to bid farewell to the world.
The Saint's illustrious birth, In the time of Chlothar a, king of the Franks, when the faithful Christians were incurring hatred for the truth, and were suffering many things throughout Gaul from the members of the devil for the name of Christ, blessed Geremarus was born, by the assent of God's clemency, to crush the fury of the faithless and to strengthen the faith of Christians b, at the villa of Guarandra, which is situated on the border of the territory of Beauvais upon the river Itta. His father was named Rigobertus, and his mother Aga, sprung from a noble family of the Franks. For deservedly c he is proclaimed as begotten of noble parents whose life shone with such signs and virtues. A consoler of orphans, a helper of the wretched, in tribulation an assiduous defender of all, a restorer of churches by word and work. Born at last of illustrious parents, he is baptized at the sacred font and sealed with the sacred faith.
[2] his virtues in boyhood, For he is handed over to be steeped in the sacred mysteries. His parents indeed, tenderly loving him as an only Son, handed him over to the schools to be instructed and taught in the doctrine of Christ. Placed among these d, he so surpassed all his coevals in maturity of wisdom that he was held among them as it were a master and teacher. For heavenly grace and the splendor of the divine light illumined him, descending from the fount of supernal goodness. He drank in the sacred Scriptures daily with such thirst that he retained them almost by heart, and weighed them in his heart by assiduous meditation. He visited the Church of Christ, which is the house of discipline, in which, as blessed Augustine says, we therefore learn to live well that we may come to live always. For our life is Christ, through whom if any man lives, he shall not suffer the losses of eternal hunger.
[3] and in youth; Therefore in the school of this discipline he sought no other master and teacher than the Lord Jesus Christ; him he loved with his whole heart, him he set before the eyes of his mind. In his mercy he placed his hope, and with all the desire of his mind longed to cleave to him. And he said that word of David: But for me it is good to cleave to God, to put my hope in the Lord God. And again: I will love thee, O Lord, my strength, the Lord my firmament and my refuge. Revolving these and many other things with himself, he hoped that God was everywhere present with him. He applied himself to assiduous prayers, he was zealous in alms and fastings, he refreshed the poor, he clothed the naked, and, as much as he could, paid out to the needy from his father's substance. So great grace did the Lord confer on him that, while still set in his youthful years, he surpassed all men in wisdom and in the merit of sanctity. Both his parents rejoiced, and all his friends and kindred, knowing that God's mercy was poured out around him. They rejoiced that they had received such a Son, by whose teaching the faith of Christians daily increased. They rendered to the Lord God the offerings [*] of praise for so great a gift of offspring. They invoked him with assiduous prayers, that he would vouchsafe to save and guard him, and more and more to enlarge him in his works.
[4] And because they had no son but blessed Geremarus, when their death drew near, his mercy toward the poor, they made him heir of their goods. After whose death blessed Geremarus, burning more and more in the love of Christ, ceased not to pay out his substance to the poor e. He honored churches everywhere; poor clerics, whomsoever he could find, he relieved from his substance. To pilgrims whom he found without a roof he gave a roof and food for the name of Christ. He knew it had been said by the Lord: He that receiveth you receiveth me: and therefore he daily received him in his members. For he knew that what he gave to the poor he bestowed on the Lord Jesus Christ himself; as the same Lord says in the Gospel: What you have done to one of the least of mine, you have done to me. He prepared for himself eternal things out of transitory, and out of perishing things rewards that should abide without end. Strengthened by these and many other examples, he unceasingly spent his substance on captives, orphans, widows and the poor.
[5] But when it had now pleased the Lord to reveal blessed Geremarus' merit to many, his prudence and wisdom: since, as he himself says in the Gospel: No man lighteth a lamp and setteth it in a hidden place, nor under a bushel; but upon a candlestick, that they who come in may see the light; many of the Franks began to flock to him and to enjoy his most holy discourse: and feeding them daily with the bread of the heavenly word, he admonished them to hold inviolably faith, charity, the love of God and the love of neighbor, and many other heavenly arms, by which they might mount to heaven and vanquish the enemy of the human race.
[6] While he was thus acting, king Dagobert f heard the report of his sanctity and prudence, he is called to king Dagobert's court. and sending messengers summoned him to his palace []. And seeing him elegant and learned in words and wise in counsels, he set him over his counsels; and as long as he acquiesced in his counsel, so long he vigorously held the kingdom of the Franks. Who would not have trusted his counsels? Who would not have given credit to his words g? For he was full of the Holy Spirit. For it was fitting that he who had the Holy Spirit should know how to give useful counsel. The Holy Spirit spoke through his mouth, as the Lord says to his disciples: For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.* Now to speak of the quality of his body: by the keenness of his eyes h terrible to the wicked, to the good modest and humble, and like one of the angelic order. And, what is wonderful to say, his image at that time exceeded the human man. The king honored him and kept him honorably. Dukes and counts, rich and poor, all loved him, all venerated him with immense honor. But he showed himself such toward all that you would say he was the servant of all. And although he was in a layman's habit, yet in obedience he was shown to be a true monk. He was all things to all, that he might gain all.
[7] He takes a wife; begets two daughters So when not many years of his youth had been spent in king Dagobert's palace, he began to consider with himself whom he might join to himself in his inheritance. And as he was thinking of this, with the consent of the king and of the other Franks he joined to himself a maiden in marriage [], by name Domana i. This above all he did for this reason, that he might thence beget some future heir, lest after his death grievous scandals should arise among his kindred over his inheritance. For he had very many estates, and he had very many kinsmen in king Dagobert's palace. And when he had taken his wife, the Lord fulfilled his mercy toward him: he begot of her two daughters, of whom the elder, when she came to a mature age, was betrothed to a bridegroom, but remained a virgin, the death of the flesh intervening. The younger, given over to monastic discipline, remained in virginity. Thus both remaining in virginity of body [], they deserved to be counted among the prudent virgins: and blessed Geremarus buried them in the church of blessed Remigius, in the aforesaid village, where he bestowed much of his own goods.
[8] and a son distinguished by his endowments. And when many days were fulfilled, God gave him a son k; over whom blessed Geremarus, rejoicing and exulting, sent him to blessed Audoenus l, who in those days was staying in the king's palace [], by whose counsel he did all things and did nothing outside his precept. And he was [] a most familiar friend to him, and privy to all his secrets. And he told him all that had happened, and that a son had come to him. And he, hearing all these things, rejoiced, and taking the boy, catechized him; and when there had been prepared
a font of baptism, he baptized him [*] in the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, calling him by the name Amalbertus. And so, having initiated him in the mysteries which befit the sacred faith, he sent him back to blessed Geremarus; and he, growing and daily advancing, became honorable among the princes of the Franks m, and while still set in a youthful age, afforded a great spectacle of himself to all. For he was readier than all the young men of the Franks, most humble of all the poor. For no one could surpass him in anything. Perfect in faith, proved in deeds, in every work and word steadfast and devoted. For deservedly he was strong in such good works, who had been begotten of such a Father. Him king Dagobert loved above all, seeing him vigorous in arms, powerful in words, useful in counsels n. And when the Franks were being made ready for the army, he in all things, in his Father's stead, clung to the king's side.
[9] He founds a monastery: But blessed Geremarus, full of the Spirit of God, counting as nothing all things that are in the world, and now desiring a celibate life, bestowed very much of his substance on the monasteries of monks. And by the counsel of blessed Audoenus he founded from his own means a monastery which is called Isle o, and built there all the buildings befitting the holy Rule. He built churches there in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul, and placed there the relics of many Saints. He established there a congregation of monks living in holy conversation: he set over it Archarius as abbot, a man of great merit, by whose teaching and wisdom the flock of Christ might daily strive toward the things above. And Archarius himself, until the end of his life, governed the flock committed to him fittingly and vigorously.
[10] his goods being transferred to his son, But when it had pleased the Lord that blessed Geremarus' life should be an example to others, he put it into his heart to forsake all things and to give himself over to serve God alone. After such a will had fallen upon his mind, before he confessed this to any mortal, going to the king he asked of him that in the presence of all the princes of the Franks he would hand over to his son Amalbertus all that was of his own right, and would grant it to him without distinction, all the Franks being present. Which the king [p], hearing, began greatly to wonder at. At last, gladly assenting to his petition, he not only bestowed on the young man what he asked, but moreover increased it for him with many things. And when he had acquired for his son all that was in his power, he went to St. Audoenus, who was then in that same palace, that he might open to him all the secrets of his heart; and calling him aside privately, he addressed him in these words: "I beseech thee, holy father, that thou refuse not to show me the way of God, by which I may be able to come to eternal joys and to escape the shipwreck of this world. For I see that all things pass away and are reduced [*] to nothing."
[11] Hearing these things, blessed Audoenus rejoiced greatly, he consults St. Audoenus about the true way to salvation. and drawing sighs from his heart, answered him in these words: "The way of God which thou askest of me, Brother, is shown thee in the words of the Gospel: for the Lord says to Peter, asking about the recompense and the future reward: Every one that hath left house, or brethren or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess life everlasting [q]. Alas, what ignorance leads the wretched away by a devious path! For the blind endure not to know where lies the good they desire, and, sunk in the earth, they seek what has gone beyond the star-bearing pole. Happy he who could look upon the shining fount of good, and happy he who could loose the bonds of the heavy earth. If blessedness is the highest good of a nature living by reason, and that is not the highest good which can in any way be snatched away — since that excels which cannot be taken away — it is manifest that the instability of this fortune cannot aspire to the attaining of blessedness. It is agreed, and laid down by eternal law, that nothing begotten endures. Therefore, Brother, if thou wouldst warily set thy seat everlasting, and not be laid low by the blasts of the sounding east wind, shun the summit of the high mountain, namely the dignity of this world, and follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ." Hearing these things, blessed Geremarus answered holy Audoenus: "I know, holy father, that all things are true which I hear from thy mouth. I will forsake all things of this world, transitory, vain and perishing, which, when they seem most to stand, pass away and lead the wretched to destruction. And to use the Lord's words: What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul?" These holy discourses being completed between them, blessed Geremarus, returning home, instructed his son and his household concerning faith, hope and charity, and the other virtues pertaining to the care of souls.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Dagobert, namely, as is clear below at num. 12 at the beginning of part 2, where these words are read: He (Geremarus) went to king Clovis, and asked of him that he would grant to his son what his father had granted.
q. In d'Achery and in our Beauvais manuscript St. Audoenus' reply ends here, and there is presently subjoined: Hearing these things, blessed Geremarus, etc.
* al. munera
* Acher. into his own palace
* Acher. in marriage
* al. of the flesh
in the manuscript regis* is wanting
ibid. erat*
ibid. eum* is wanting
* Acher. they return
PART II.
His withdrawal from the world and his remaining deeds until his holy death.
He withdraws to the monastery of Pentale, At that same time, when Dagobert was dead, in the eleventh year of the reign of king Clovis a, blessed Geremarus was set right upon the way of eternal salvation. Seeing therefore that he was acquiring nothing in the world of perpetual reward for his soul, but rather was preparing perpetual loss for it, at blessed Audoenus' exhortation he went to king Clovis, and asked of him that he would grant to his son what his father had granted, and that he might be permitted to lay aside the hair of his head, and give himself over to serve in a monastery. And by the king's command, though the Franks refused, blessed Audoenus tonsured him and gave him the monastic habit; and instructing him in heavenly disciplines, he sent him to the monastery named by the name of Pentale, that there he might be in obedience an abbot and shepherd of Christ's sheep and an enlightener of souls. But blessed Geremarus, revolving that word of the psalmist: Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. And again: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? — placing all his hope in the Lord God, did not delay to obey the Saint's precept b.
[13] over which he is set as Abbot, With great groaning therefore and tears and sighs of heart he undertook the governance of the monastery. And leaving his wife and his son and all the cares of this world, according to the Gospel precept he followed the footsteps of Christ Jesus, and went off to the monastery which we named above c, Pentale, in the district of Rouen upon the river Risle. What his life was there, and how holy it shone before all, the healings and the very many miracles wrought upon the inhabitants attest. By day and by night he wore himself down in prayer, in vigils, in fastings, and in all things befitting the contemplative life. Prostrate in body d and with knees fixed on the ground, pouring out prayer perpetually with tears, he besought the Lord for the sins of the people, and for the holy Church of God, that the Lord would keep her unharmed. He fasted daily, passing the whole day in hymns and praises of God, and took refreshment at evening. His food was ship-biscuit e with a few small vegetables, and his drink very salt water, so that no fullness of the belly should abound. He was dead to the world, alive to Christ: and to all who flocked to him he ceased not to show the way of salvation. He forewarned each one to meditate in the law of God.
[14] he incurs a great danger, Now there was in that same monastery a very great multitude of monks, for whose governance father Geremarus had been appointed. And in this congregation many who loved the good and feared God [] gladly heard him and received his correction. But since the life of the good is always hateful to the wicked, there were there some malicious and impious men, whose part was with Belial, who, unwilling to receive his preaching, began to plot about his death, seeking a fitting place where by some ruin they might kill him. Now it was his custom at the first cock-crow to rise to the praises of God, and until the twilight of dawn to pass the night wakeful in the praises of God. And when the office was completed [], returning to the dormitory, he was accustomed to lay himself on his bed []. Knowing this, the envious and insolent men took counsel among themselves to place a knife beneath the coverings of the bed [], that the holy Man, returning from the church, might throw himself with the force of his body upon the knife, and so kill himself. Which they did. They fixed [*] the handle of the knife in the ground, and set the bare edge of the iron upright into the space of the air. O unspeakable wickedness, at every time horrible to all! Blessed Geremarus, returning after his wonted manner from the church to his bed, at the Holy Spirit's exhortation did what he was not accustomed to do. For it was not his habit to touch the bed; but he threw himself with his whole body into the middle of the bed. He touched the bed with his hand, and drawing his hand round, he found what was hidden. As soon as he perceived that a treachery had been prepared, leaving his little bed, the Friend of God returned into the church; and what remained of the night he passed in pouring out tears, in hymns and praises of God, and early in the morning he disclosed to no one the thing which had befallen him.
[15] and laying down his governance, But at the third hour of the day, after the discussion of the reading f, prostrate in chapter before the feet of all, he asked that they would release him from the pastoral care, and choose over themselves whatever better father they would. Now there was a certain crypt in a waste of solitude above the river Seine, whence holy Samson g cast out a serpent: this he asked that they would grant him to dwell in. How great was the outcry, how great the grief there of all who feared God and lamented over father Geremarus, saying: Why dost thou forsake us, Father, or to whom dost thou leave us desolate? What have we done, what have we committed against thee, how have we been contrary to thee? But he answered them: No one of you has ever in anything been contrary to me, no one wicked, no one hard, no one estranged: all are to me as fathers, as brothers, as lovers of truth h. For he was unwilling to publish abroad what he had found hidden in the bed, lest that place should be turned into an example of evils.
[16] Again and again, prostrate before the feet of all, he lives in a cave, famous for exercises of piety. he asked that they would release him from the pastoral seat: but they were unwilling; and rather they asked more and more that he would not forsake them. At last, overcome by his petitions, they granted him the crypt which he asked. And leaving the monastery to blessed Audoenus, he went off to the aforesaid place, and there gave himself to prayer by day and by night, practising very great abstinence, greater than he had been wont to practise i. Thither all the needy came to him, whom regarding for the love of Christ he did not suffer to go away with an empty hand. He covered the naked, refreshed the hungry and thirsty, visited the sick, buried the dead, comforted all who were oppressed with tribulation and anguish of body and mind. He was the Father of orphans and the Lover of churches. So great grace did the Lord confer on him, as on his chosen Servant, that he transcended in mind all things of the world, and very often was present at heavenly secrets.
[17] But blessed Audoenus, hearing the report of his sanctity he is ordained priest by St. Audoenus, and knowing his merit, ordained him in the grade of the presbyterate. To whose will he wished much to resist, but the Holy Spirit compelling him, he obeyed the holy Bishop's precepts: and being made a priest, he strove to please the Lord God. For he offered him the Sacrifice on every day with tears and contrition of heart. And when k he approached to sacrifice, so great was God's guardianship and goodness about him that, set on earth in body, he dwelt in mind before God in the heavens. O Priest worthy of God, gentle, just, kind, and filled with all piety! Thou didst guard him, Lord Jesus Christ; thou didst ever bring his steps to better things; thou hadst surrounded him with the shield of thy protection, thou who sleepest not, neither slumberest; but ever guardest and savest those who hope in thee.
[18] There, set as an example to all, for five years and three months thy faithful servant Geremarus was in all these commandments sincere and devoted. he learns of his son's death; But while he was staying there, a messenger came to him about his son Amalbertus, whom he had left in the palace. For returning from Gascony with the king, being struck with a grievous infirmity, he began to sicken. Whence, the disease growing worse, he could not escape; and, the moment of death stealing upon him, he lost the life of the body. For he was still a virgin and ignorant of worldly corruption l. And because he was dear to the king and to the Franks, he was carried as far as the place of his own inheritance. And when this had been announced, taking to himself the patience of blessed Job, he said: "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord, so it is done; blessed be the name of the Lord m." And again: "Praise the Lord, all ye nations, praise him, all ye peoples. For thy hand, O God, is confirmed upon me, and thy truth hath not forsaken me. Thou hast confirmed thy mercy in me, and hast received my son into thy glory."
[19] Going out of that crypt, and all the clerics together with him, whose body, he said the praise of God in the hymns of David: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup, it is thou that wilt restore my inheritance to me." And going on with a great choir of psalm-singers, he came into the district of the Vexin: passing through which, he entered the district of Beauvais, where his son's dead body lay. Coming thither where it lay, he was in no way moved by his death: but he praised the Lord God, that he had vouchsafed to receive his only son in virginity. And lifting him upon a bier, they carry him to the monastery which blessed Geremarus had built in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul n. There followed a multitude of the people weeping and mourning over him o. For he was dear to all, rich and poor; all loved him with equal love; and therefore to him whom they had loved in life they offered in death this sad service of love. But coming to the place which is called the bridge of Gagny, they halted a little upon the ground.
[20] prodigiously made immovable, I think that this should not be passed over in silence [p], which the Lord vouchsafed to work there concerning the dead man's body for the merit of blessed Geremarus, so that all might acknowledge that he and his son were of great merit. In that same place the body of blessed Amalbertus was so weighed down that it could not be moved by those who were carrying him. Very many more were joined to them [q]; but not even so could it be moved. There arises an outcry of all the men and women. And so great a stupor seized all, both those behind and those going before [], that they were scarcely able to walk. Then blessed Geremarus, perceiving that this was the will of God, ordered the body to be set down. And when it had been set down, prostrate with his knees on the ground, he poured out a prayer to the Lord, and before all prayed a very long while. The prayer being completed, he said to those who were carrying the body: Take away from him the pall with which he is covered, that we may see what has happened. And when they had taken away the pall and looked more carefully, they found his face wet with blood, as if he had fallen slain that day in battle []. For blood flowed through his nostrils, drenching his whole face.
[21] and after prayers and vows It is greatly to be wondered at and admired, and to be kept in memory with devout praises. So much time had flowed by since he had departed from life, as he returned from Gascony with the king and the Franks. What is plainer than this deed? His power could accomplish this, by the merits and virtues of blessed Geremarus — by whose power Lazarus, four days dead, is raised. It is shown by this token that blessed Amalbertus lives with Christ by the merits of St. Geremarus. Then blessed Geremarus ordered a church to be made in that same place in honor of St. John [r]: he established twelve monks there, whose life should be a salvation for himself and for his son's soul. And that they might live without want and serve God without murmuring, he left them many villas, namely his own estates, by the record of charters.
[22] it is easily lifted, and he buries it; These things being thus set forth, at once the body was found of such lightness that it could be carried by one man [s]. O how great is thy power, O Christ! With how great miracles dost thou flash upon those who hope! Who shall not exalt thy name? Or who shall not stand in awe of thy power toward thy servants? Moving thence, they came to the aforesaid monastery which blessed Geremarus, while still set in the world, had built [t], where they honorably buried him. Then blessed Geremarus took back his inheritance, and made the Lord Jesus Christ heir of it. For he hastened to come to the heavenly homeland and to attain the robe of immortality. He desired to have as heir him from whom and in whom and through whom is the highest good, beyond which nothing is to be sought.
[23] aspiring to a greater perfection, But after all these things had been divinely accomplished, returning into himself, he began to consider how the cunning of the ancient serpent by a thousand arts of harming strives to lead astray [] the hearts of God's servants to destruction and to the damnation of perpetual death. For on some perfected by the power of prayers, on some given to fastings, on others renowned for the praise of the solitary life, it many times thrusts a certain appearance [] of boastfulness, and with the foolish virgins makes their lamps empty. Such as these, when the Bridegroom comes, shall not enter with him to the wedding. Foreseeing this, blessed Geremarus, lest the praise of the solitary life should touch his heart, began most familiarly to address his own: O Brethren, who have suffered many labors for Christ's name, run unceasingly to the way of the highest and incomprehensible good, and abide in the work of God which you have begun. We must use this counsel.
[24] Let us hasten to St. Audoenus, and let us ask of him with Audoenus helping, that by his prayer there be shown us a place to dwell in, where until the end of our life we may persevere in good works. Blessed Geremarus' counsel pleased all. Going therefore to holy Audoenus, he addressed him thus: I beseech thee, holy father, that thou make prayer to the Lord for me, and by thy prayers show me a place to dwell in. For I trust that God will hear thee, and that thou wilt obtain what thou shalt ask. Hearing these things, blessed Audoenus answered: Do not, Brother, say such things. Who am I to do this? Not by my merits, but by thy faith shall this be accomplished. If thou hast faith, whatsoever thou shalt ask, thou shalt obtain. By faith Abraham was made the friend of God; by faith Peter was saved. Let us await God's mercy for three days with fastings and prayers, if perchance he will look upon our lowliness.
[25] These things being said most familiarly between them, a fast of three days was enjoined upon all; in a place divinely shown and on the third night, as they were set in fastings and prayers, an angel of the Lord appeared in a vision to both, saying to them: The Lord has heard your prayers, he has looked upon your affliction. Go to the place which is called Flay, and there you shall find your desire. And when morning was come, each reported what he had seen, and giving thanks to the Lord, they make for the place foretold by the angel. And when they were not far from the village, by God's nod and will they were turned aside from the straight path; and circling the waste of a vast solitude, they came to the appointed place. Where, when they had come and were much in doubt, not knowing what to do, behold a cloud came down from heaven and surrounded the whole place where the monastery was to be built, and with the cloud a voice from above, saying: Elect of God, behold this place is to be revered; forty years have rolled by [u] since the Lord blessed and sanctified this place and destined it for his faithful servant Geremarus. For it shall be habitable by a multitude of monks, so long as it shall abide in the Lord's precepts. But to women no access to it shall ever lie open. Hearing these things, both holy Men rejoiced greatly. And when they fixed their gaze upon the sight of the cloud, at once it was withdrawn from their sight. But from that same cloud, round about the place, as it were a certain surveyor's rod, a dew remained encircling the whole place, that it might be given to understand that what the voice from above sang was true. Then going about the place, they found the sign of the heavenly dew impressed [x].
[26] But blessed Audoenus, being sure of the angelic vision he builds the monastery of Flay, and of the voice from above, taking a rod in his hand, measured out by the traces of the cloud the ground round about, where the church should be built, where the workshops should be constructed and the other things useful for the monks' life: and the place being marked out for blessed Geremarus, he thus departed from him. Then blessed Geremarus, together with all committed to him, came to build the place: he built there a church in honor of the holy and undivided Trinity, and of holy Mary the Virgin, and of holy John, and of holy Peter the prince of the Apostles: and there he handed over his whole inheritance. He built there all things necessary, suited to the monastic life, and the various crafts which it is useful to practise within a monastery, so that the monks might not have need of wandering outside: because, as blessed Benedict says, It is by no means expedient for their souls. Hearing of it, monks from all around flocked to him, as to a garden of all virtues; whom he, refreshing with the grace of the word of God, admonished to persevere in their purpose, and to make themselves strangers to the pleasures of the world.
[27] and dying in it is famous for miracles. And when all his work was completed, he fixed himself in prayer, and continued in the work of God three years and six months, and so gave up his spirit in the Lord, and passed to the joys of the angels [y]. His body was buried in the same church with great honor and reverence, where through his merit many benefits are bestowed. To his tomb the sick come and are healed [z], the blind are given light, the lame are restored to their steps, the deaf are given back their hearing, demons are driven out of possessed bodies, and many are healed of various sicknesses, by the bestowal of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory, praise and power through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. D'Achery: I ought not to pass that over in silence.
q. In the same, these words are not read: Very many more were joined to them, which is an evident omission.
r. This church too, on Louvet's witness, was situated not far from Flay, but it has now been destroyed.
s. What follows, as far as Moving, is cut out in d'Achery.
t. Isle, where blessed Amalbertus' place of burial is even now seen beside the chapel of St. Peter, as Mabillon writes, adding however the following: About twenty years ago our monks, having received leave from the bishop of Beauvais to lift blessed Amalbertus' relics, when they had found the bones of two men in the same tomb, closed the tomb, the matter being unaccomplished. St. Amalbertus has a place in the Gallican Martyrology, not however in the divine Offices. So it is: du Saussay at the end of the supplement to the Gallican Martyrology inserted Amalbertus in the Catalogue of Saints, blessed and pious persons who have no proper Histories or birthdays; but without the title of Saint or Blessed.
u. That from these characters the time of St. Geremarus' birth may not improbably be gathered, was said in the preliminary Commentary, num. 12.
x. It is strange that no mention is made in the Acts of St. Audoenus of this prodigious story, on which see the preliminary Commentary, num. 5.
y. In the year of Christ about 658; return to the Commentary, num. 13.
z. Hence in the same Commentary, num. 4, we gathered the biographer's date.
* al. Dominum
al. there is added suo*
* al. strato
* Acher. lectisternio
* Acher. fixerunt
* Acher. ante incedentes
* ibid. interfectus fuisset
* ibid. subvertere
* Acher. facem
HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION
By an anonymous monk of Flay of the XII century.
From a manuscript of the library of the church of Beauvais.
Geremarus, abbot, at Flay in the Isle of France (S.)
BHL Number: 3443
By an anonymous author.
With the irruption of the Normans impending, In the time of Charles the Bald a the Danes began to lay waste France. When he had been subdued by death, and his son Louis, surnamed the Stammerer, succeeding him, had held the kingdom two years, dying he left the sceptre to his son Charles the Simple, in whose very first year, which was about the nine hundred and sixth b from the Incarnate Word, upper Denmark sent forth [*] Rollo, crueller than the tyrant c and more skilled in wars, who, a multitude of his people being gathered to him, himself also invaded Normandy, and, being a pagan, set about destroying the monasteries of men and of women, and gave the Christian people, driven as a mockery of his savagery, over to destruction with Norman ferocity. Whom Franco, bishop of Rouen, forestalling in order to appease him, by a treaty made received him within the walls of the city; and he, as soon as he obtained it, claimed the county for himself, and, busying himself to break in stubbornly upon the cities of the province that resisted, violently destroyed to the ground the towns and castles round about them, and also the most noble monasteries.
[2] the Saint's body is carried to Beauvais, While that terror thundered through the provinces, many congregations of God's servants, taking with them the bodies of the Saints which they had, withdrew as swiftly as possible into the safer cities of France. And without delay the sad report of the destruction of monasteries and of the slaughter of Christians wrought by the pagans filled this monastery of Flay with dread, nor was there counsel for the brethren to delay, since the place was situated upon the river Epte, which separates Normandy from France; but, as the shortness of the time, with danger impending, permitted, some portion of the monastery's goods being taken up, with the venerable body of the holy father Geremarus, they, mourning, removed to the city of Beauvais on the eighth of the Kalends of October, the citizens rejoicing at his coming; and, placing it in a certain rather lofty turret of the wall, they venerated it with devout honor as long as they lived; in testimony of which sojourn there is seen there today an altar of porphyry stone, which is said to have been consecrated by blessed Audoenus.
[3] and after the overthrow of Flay is kept there, After the departure therefore of the monks d, the Normans at once destroyed that same monastery from the foundations. So that place continued in its desolation about a hundred and thirty years e, until the times of Henry, who reigned third of the line of Hugh the Great in France f. Meanwhile, when the monks who attended on the holy body in the aforesaid turret of Beauvais had been taken away from the world, the office of serving the Saint was committed to certain clerics, who, being void of all discipline, obeyed the world, not the Saint: at which the clergy of the episcopal see, being indignant, having taken counsel with the more honorable men, translated the holy Man's body to the church of blessed Peter the apostle, and enclosed it in a vessel fit for that service. Thenceforth the blessed Confessor impressed the veneration of himself upon the breasts of the citizens, not by miracles done for any in particular, but necessary to the whole people of the city, by two chief prodigies, which he works to this day as often as it is expedient.
[4] in drought of the air and when the sacred fire For as often as the earth abounds in long drought, and the fields, squalid with much dust, threaten the misery of famine, the body of that same glorious Confessor is borne forth outside the city and carried about with litanies; and without delay the Creator, appeased by his intervention, waters the earth with abundant rains. Moreover, throughout the Gauls there is often condemned in men a wantonness in the immoderate care of clothing, in the unseemly composing of their bodies, in the fulfilling of the desires of the flesh, where man becomes not only as the horse and the mule, which have no understanding, but there the more greedily, where he becomes lower than the senseless beasts; because even the use of corrupted nature does not know this, but it is altogether of a reprobate sense. Wherefore the best Creator, angered on account of men's worst excesses, has sometimes with an invisible fire visibly burned men's feet in this country, so that often they are compelled to suffer them to be cut off. From the time when the precious body of holy Geremarus was brought into the city of Beauvais, it has not been heard that this pestilence has attacked its inhabitants within about two miles round about.
[5] rages through the Gauls, This they presume comes to them from God by the merits of the Confessor mighty in Christ, so that, when this wrath has begun to rage in the neighboring cities, it is their solemn custom to go round the neighborhood of their city with the holy Man's body, and thenceforth to remain the safer. For it was related to us by men decrepit with age that it had been reported to them, when they were still little children, by their own parents advanced in years, that once that terrible vengeance began to rage so fiercely through Gaul that rare was the man who did not despair of escaping. Bands therefore gathered from the several cities hastened to go to the church of Chartres g, in which, as in her own hall, the Queen of heaven, the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, is the more renowned for the quenching of those who burn with that fire. The people of Beauvais also, dreading the fierceness of that calamity, fleeing with contrite heart to the help than which there is none mightier after God, came to the city of Chartres: and as suppliants, entreating the Lady of the angels [*], they entered the threshold of the church with countless others.
[6] When therefore very great multitudes of the peoples in that same basilica with one accord of devotion were imploring the divine clemency, he brings present protection to the inhabitants. and invoking the protection of the Mother of mercy against the pressing danger, a certain cleric, an old man of approved religion and learning, rose to make a discourse of consolation to the peoples; and, the deepest silence being made by all, after some words of exhortation, turning to the people of Beauvais, he spoke thus: O men of Beauvais, he said, let not your heart be troubled nor fear; for God has furnished you a most strong barrier against this scourge of divine anger, namely the glorious confessor Geremarus, and whatever place shall keep the venerable body of that holy Father shall by his merits always be safe from this scourge. Strengthened by this consolation received from God, the citizens of that city, being made more devout toward the blessed Man's body, in no wise suffer it to be separated from them. But now we must return to the order of the narration we proposed.
[7] There was rolling by from the Lord's Incarnation the thirtieth year after the thousandth [h], The monastery of Flay being restored, while Henry, son of king Robert, reigned in France; there was then in the church of Beauvais a bishop named Drogo. Now that church is distinguished by very ample possessions, and therefore he who holds its governance is beholden to the king and to the chief men; whence also the aforesaid bishop, who out of devotion served God, out of the necessity of his prelacy took care of secular matters; accordingly, seeking to accomplish through others what he could not fulfil himself, he built monasteries suited to either order, and endowed them with possessions which should suffice for those serving God therein. He, having been taught by elderly men what they themselves had heard from men of old, how great had been that monastery's excellence in God and in the world, and weighing in the aforesaid miracles the merits of the blessed confessor Geremarus, looking with pious eyes upon the ruins of his monastery, bestowed zeal upon its restoration; and, that being completed about the hundred and thirtieth year from the time it had been destroyed, he committed it, when dedicated, to a certain venerable monk, Guntherius by name, professed of the monastery of Fossés i: he was the first abbot of this restored monastery.
[8] From which time there began to be here conversions of very many, The monks ask that the Saint's body not only of nobles but also of lettered men, who distinguished the place by religion; and communicating this without envy to the brethren, they appointed fathers from among themselves for other congregations, to restore the monastic order. And in earthly goods the divine moderation so provided for them that they should neither abound to a pernicious superfluity, nor lack a sober sufficiency both for themselves and for the multitudes who frequented them… So then, this monastery being restored, one greatest ornament was lacking to the restoration, whereby it was long inferior to the glory of the earlier monastery: namely that it received nothing of the body of the Father beloved of God and men at its restoration; save that his tomb, and whatever dust remained there, was venerated within that same church. Accordingly the brethren were held by no small sadness, and often complained to one another that they had not the body of the Father whom they unceasingly venerated; but that it was in a place where those dwelling, either hindered by the cares of household affairs, or, because they abounded in relics of other Saints, being intent on many, could the less venerate one.
[9] be restored to them; There was then, in the reign of Philip l, son of the aforesaid king Henry, a certain bishop of Beauvais named Guy m, joined to this monastery by no barren familiarity but by munificence, who, wishing to abolish the brethren's sadness and to enlarge the monastery's honor, began to take counsel with the aforesaid king about restoring to them the Saint's body, saying it was just that what had been entrusted to the mother church in a time of necessity for safe keeping ought [*] to be restored to the daughter who sought it back as her own. But what the bishop had scarcely whispered in the king's ear, being by chance made known to the citizens and the clergy, fear and grief penetrate the hearts of all, as if a general danger threatened the country. At once the elders of the clergy, taking the holy Man's body from the ancient little vessel, laid it away more secretly, with few witnesses. It was therefore published among the people that it had been taken away from its shrine; but from almost all it was hidden in what place it had been laid.
[10] it is hidden by the people of Beauvais, No one thereafter therefore judging that the blessed Confessor's bones would now be put back whence they had been taken away, the cleric who beyond the rest had received the charge of guarding the relics put the holy body back into the ancient vessel, with no one witnessing, weighing that now no one would believe it to have been placed there again, nor would it be taken by anyone by violence or theft. And so the dread of the body's being taken away was removed from the city, and from the brethren the hope of receiving it. Thereafter for many years it lay hidden from all where the most holy body was, some saying that it was laid in the altar of blessed Peter the apostle, others conjecturing otherwise. Yet the shrine in which it was known by all to have been anciently placed, and whence for the aforesaid cause it had been taken away — but that it had been put back there again was unknown to all — being kept in the church, was venerated by the peoples, and for the aforesaid necessities was carried about in processions, and the holy Man's merits liberally helped the suppliants; whence it came about that a certain canon of that same church, wishing at the end of his life to become a monk at this monastery, gave money with which a new vessel of gold and silver and precious stones should be made, where the body itself might be laid: the canon's name was Reinerus, who, while still set in a secular habit, caused a notable candlestick to be made for this monastery out of his own money; at that time it was still thought that the blessed Man's body lay laid up in the altar of blessed Peter.
[11] it is found; But two years before that vessel was finished, it happened that his old shrine was by chance moved by the sacristan of that church, when suddenly there was heard within a sound as of a stone rolling there. And opening that vessel, with a few persons of the clergy standing by, he found the most sacred body, in a leather
wrapping bound about, and the Saint's name was inscribed. Taking the body away thence at once, they lay it in a chest bound with iron, whose six keys are committed to the more trustworthy persons of the clergy and of the citizens. And there was great joy both to us and to all the people, because it had been made certain where the body was. Then, the money failing [*] which that cleric had left for the making of the vessel, the citizens decreed that what money was necessary should be borrowed upon the offerings which were hoped for at the future showing of the holy body. Accordingly the work itself was daily hastened; and when it had been fully brought to completion, a day was appointed by bishop Peter on which the most sacred body should be shown to the people.
[12] Meanwhile how many entreaties, how frequent, how humble were made by abbot Odo and by the brethren of this monastery to the aforesaid bishop, the men of Flay entreat again, to the clergy, to the citizens, that they would restore to us a part of the blessed Father's body, and how many promises were made to them by them, and how much they urged us to trust that we should receive what we asked, who could unfold? For we so trusted in them that we almost presumed already to have it. But why say more? Some days before the birthday of the Apostles Peter and Paul, on which the holy Man's body was to be shown, the aforesaid abbot came to Beauvais with some brethren, and suggested to the bishop, the clergy and [*] that they would deign to declare what they would bestow on us of the holy body. They answered that it was fair that something thence should be restored to us, and, that they might designate on deliberation what that should be, they advise that on the Lord's day before that feast-day some of the brethren should be present.
[13] The abbot therefore sends a religious and prudent man, Odo, that at least a part of it be granted them; who had been abbot at St. Symphorian's, taken from among the monks of this monastery, but had renounced the honor out of zeal for contemplation n, with other elders to the chapter of St. Peter. Now that same Odo was very well known to the city, and was thought to be greatly loved by the citizens because of the praiseworthy conversation he had had among them: and that Peter who at that time bore the office of the episcopate was succeeded in that same office of fitness by our venerable Odo, at that time abbot; after whom he too, the third, attained the rank of bishop o by the assent and favor of all the citizens. And because of his great friendship toward the citizens, our men presumed great confidence in him: wherefore, taking with him the more eminent of the citizens, he came before the bishop and clergy into the chapter. Then, before those set there, he reasonably and eloquently enough alleged the monastery's petition and their own promise, and added the justice of restoring a deposit when it was demanded back: and he said that if they restored to his own men the Saint's arm, saving friendship, it was agreeable to the brethren that they should retain the rest of the body. Straightway the staff on which he leaned appeared broken, and it was of reed [p]; all falling away from their promise and swearing together that they would give us nothing of the holy body.
[14] Our elders departed thence at once most sorrowful, they are frustrated in their hope, first, then wonderfully, and when they had reported this in the monastery, all the brethren were turned to the greatest sadness: and the abbot grieved so much that he refused to be present in the city on the Apostles' birthday, as was customary if the bishop were there; and he forbade any of our monks to be present at the showing of the relics. But let us observe that for this reason the holy relics were denied to those who sought to have them, lest anyone should boast that either by men's friendships, or by the power of kinsmen or rich men, or by his own industry he had acquired God's gift; but for this God chose the weak things of the world and the contemptible and ignoble, that in this work God's grace alone might be proclaimed. For indeed, when on the aforesaid day, with an endless multitude of the peoples who had assembled standing by, Goissanus, bishop of Soissons, showed the holy body to those thirsting to see it, there was present a certain poor man without feet, which blessed Geremarus had taken from him by that fire, and in that very city which, from the time when his body was brought thither, he had been wont always to protect from that calamity. For what reason that vengeance was inflicted on that man — as both he himself still testified and we ourselves proved with our own eyes — we briefly note … [q]
[15] the minds of the men of Beauvais being changed, And as that sort of men is wont, he was very ready of speech, whose very wordiness God sometimes turns to good uses; for what his life was, is nothing to us: since indeed the almighty Creator made even an ass utter human words to refute a prophet's folly, and granted to that same wicked man Balaam the gift of prophecy, and through his mouth, which gave the Midianites the counsel of deceiving the people of Israel, published the counsel of saving all peoples through his Son. For this man, when the bishop of Soissons was showing the holy bones to the multitude, while the rest were silent, said with a loud voice: My lord bishop, I pray you, hearken to me; I am the servant of St. Geremarus; I, because I violated his temple by theft, by his own vengeance lost both my feet — see, all of you — by that horrible fire; and by his own mercy, that it might not consume me wholly, it was quenched in his own temple. I adjure you therefore by God that you reserve some part of his body for his monks, that you may gladden sorrowful hearts. The bishop heeded and looked upon him, and said: My son, live, God has made thee speak [r]; and turning to the crowds, he said: Brethren and sons, you have heard God's command through a beggar's mouth. This Saint, whose bones you see, was the founder of that monastery; those brethren God keeps in religion and great charity by his merits; praiseworthy is their reputation for their holy conversation. You ought to restore this whole sacred body to those by whom it had been entrusted to you; but since you do not allow it, at least grant that a part be given them. All answered — and even those who at first had refused: We are willing, they said, we are willing; and many wept for joy.
[16] they obtain a great bone of the arm, Then the venerable bishop, taking counsel with bishop Peter and the clerics, chose out the great bone of the right arm — for the same Saint is known from his other bones also to have been of tall stature: which the bishop of Soissons, binding it in a white cloth, let down to the crowds by the hands of Serlo, abbot of St. Lucian [s]; and worshipping, they thronged from that hour for many days with offerings to the sacred bone with devout kisses. This, said the bishop, let us give in the name of the Lord to the monks of this Saint. Presently, one swifter than another, many came to Flay, announcing to the abbot and the brethren this joy, and being gladdened they glorified God. And the abbot went on to the city, and with the clergy and people they appointed a day, namely the Lord's day on which fell the Vigil of the holy apostle James, brother of John, that on that day they should carry the holy relics to Flay. Indeed it was decided that so holy a business should be celebrated without a summoning of the peoples, lest they should be blamed for covetousness by the evil-speaking.
[17] and festally carry it to the monastery. On that day abbot Odo hastened to the city with a great train of monks; and before we entered it, we clothed ourselves in sacred vestments, and carrying before us the ornament of the consecrated [] monastery which [] is wont to be made ready for a solemn procession, with crowds poured around us, we entered the basilica of blessed Peter the apostle; where, taking the holy arm from the sacred altar, and devoutly saluting and affectionately kissing it as truly our Father, we sang We praise thee, O God for so great a gift of grace; and, the bishop and all the clergy accompanying us, and a very great people going before and following after, having gone out of the city not far, we made a station. There were present there Serlo, abbot of St. Lucian, and the abbot of St. Symphorian, our fellow-professed, and Ralph, abbot of the Canons Regular of St. Quentin [t]; and when a sermon had been made, the bishop gave the blessing, and the people also made no small offering to the Saint. And through the whole journey multitudes of the peoples grew for the Saint, and also the nuns of holy Mary ever Virgin of the village of St. Paul [u]. On that night at St. Lucian's, in this village of Flay, we laid up the holy arm under guard. On the morrow, a great crowd which had assembled accompanying us, with solemn procession we brought back the holy Father to his own place and church, reserving it that here on the eighth of the Kalends of October it should be laid in a notable vessel — on which day it is handed down that he was taken hence and brought into the city of Beauvais. This bringing back was made for him in the year from the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and thirty-three, in the reign of king Louis, in which year Louis his son, still a boy, was anointed king in the city of Reims by Pope Gregory, who is also surnamed Innocent [x].
ANNOTATIONS.
h. Return to letter e.
still to have clung to him even then: since Peter, bishop of Beauvais, in the instrument of the year 1132, which I recited in the preliminary Commentary, num. 28 and following, says that at the entreaty of the lord Odo, abbot of the monastery of Flay, and of the lord Odo, abbot of St. Symphorian, the relics of St. Geremarus were granted to the men of Flay. The said authors of the Gallia Christiana think however that there was substituted for him at St. Symphorian's an abbot likewise called Odo, and that this man is designated by bishop Peter.
p. By the reed staff he points to the hope which the men of Flay had conceived from men's promises.
q. So little did the author keep the brevity he proposed, and with so many circumstances did he heap up the story, that I have thought fit to consider the reader's weariness and to subjoin only a compendium of it. That man, by name Guy, discharging in the monastery's church an office usually committed to laymen, stole money deposited either in the sacristy or in a place nearby, and, leaving part of it with his wife, went off with the other to Beauvais: hence, what the author does not state, it must be judged that that office was not attached to every day, since otherwise his absence would have convicted the thief. The theft was discovered the next day, but the guilty man lay hidden; until it was observed that Guy's wife lived more sumptuously than usual and dressed more richly; thence the suspicion that arose was afterward increased when he too, likewise changed in dress, was seen at Beauvais. Being cast into prison, and probably denying the deed, he was seized in both feet by the sacred fire, and so tortured that he both confessed the crime and took care that the remainder of the money should be restored; but not even so did the punishment of the fire cease. On the feast-day of Pentecost, being carried in the morning into the church of Flay before a great multitude of the people, he besought the abbot and monks as a suppliant to spare a wretched man, and to entreat pardon for him from St. Geremarus. Pardon being granted him by them, a little after, when the Gospel was being read at the solemn Mass, both feet fell off, rotted by the fire, and all his torment ceased.
r. Louvet, pag. 559 of the History of Beauvais, says that that man was deprived not only of his feet but also of his speech, and that this was then restored to him by a new miracle in the church of Beauvais: which perhaps he conjectured from these words of the bishop; yet what has been narrated hitherto persuades me of the contrary.
s. In the instrument of bishop Peter, which I recited in the Commentary, num. 28 and following, is read Gerlonis; but the bishop of Soissons is there called Goistanus, in ours Goissanus, and in other instruments Jossenus and Gossenus. Further, this monastery of St. Lucian too, of the Order of St. Benedict, is not far distant from Beauvais.
t. Nor is that monastery of canons regular of the Order of St. Augustine far distant from Beauvais.
u. Of this convent of virgins consecrated to God of the Order of St. Benedict, under the name of the Oratory, discussion has been had in the preliminary Commentary; and it is situated likewise not far from the city.
x. At the bringing back here mentioned the author, as is manifestly clear from what precedes, was present; nor yet even so was he accurate enough in marking its epoch: for it was made, according to the often-alleged letters of bishop Peter, in the year 1132, not 1133; nor in this latter year was Louis VII, by his father Louis VI's care, anointed king by Pope Innocent II, formerly called Gregory Papareschi, but in the year 1131. Probably he framed the narration when advanced in age and with failing memory, long after the matter was done, as he tacitly hints above, where he reviews two successors of Peter in the episcopal see, Odo of Flay and Odo formerly abbot of St. Symphorian.
perhaps exivit*
perhaps oratura, or oratum*
deberet*
i.e. probably non sufficiente*
add civibus*
perhaps sacrum*
read qui … solitus*