Austindus

ON ST. AUSTINDUS, ARCHBISHOP OF AUCH AND CONFESSOR,

IN UPPER GASCONY,

In the year MLXVIII

HISTORICAL-CRITICAL COLLECTION.

Austindus, archbishop of Auch, confessor, in Upper Gascony. (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. An account of his archbishopric: his memory in

the Martyrologies, and his cult: his few deeds to be gathered: his native place and condition down to the episcopate: the time of his taking it up.

Augusta Ausciorum, an ancient city of Gaul in Novempopulania, formerly called Climberris, At Auch, by others also Auscii, Auscium, and Auxium, but now in French called Auch or Ausche, and sometimes also Aux, is situated in Upper Gascony, in the county of Armagnac, of which it is the head, founded on the river Ægircius, commonly le Gers. Baudrand in the geographical Lexicon indicates its distance from the surrounding cities thus: "Distant six (elsewhere he has eight) leagues from Eauze toward the winter sunrise, and nearly as many from Condom to the south, and XI from Toulouse to the west, toward the Adour." It once had a bishopric suffragan to the metropolis of Eauze; but when that city — which today is only a slight town, called by the French Euse — had been laid waste by the barbarians, it came forth as the metropolis of the whole ecclesiastical province; which Denis de Sainte-Marthe in volume 1 of the Gallia Christiana, column 970, refers to about the middle of the 9th century. See however what was said by us under St. Taurinus in volume 2 of September, page 632 and following.

[2] Formerly the city of Auch belonged by full right to its archbishop, whose archbishop he was, is announced today, but now he shares its lordship equally with the count of Armagnac, or now, as the praised Sainte-Marthe has it, column 971, with the king of France. Further, in the see of Auch, long since raised to metropolitan dignity, there flourished in virtues in the 11th century St. Austindus, who, although celebrated in few Martyrologies, yet has a certain cult on this day, the XXV of September, on which he is believed to have died, among his own people of Auch. The Paris Martyrology, published in print in the year 1727, announces him today thus: "At Auch, of St. Austindus, archbishop." Castellanus had gone before, in the Universal Martyrology, where, having the same things, he called him in French Saint Ostent. Of him Andrew Saussay treats a little more at length in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology on this same day, not however without fault, weaving for him the following elogium.

[3] "At Auch, of St. Austindus, bishop of that church, then metropolitan, and confessor; in few Martyrologies; who, born at Bordeaux, ascended by the paths of justice to this chair; and when for fifty-nine years he had governed the flock entrusted to him in great sanctity and vigilance, had repressed heresies, had presided over the synod of Jaca (at which eight bishops and three abbots were present), had been present with many pontiffs at the consecration of the church of Moissac, and, his own church being enlarged and the college of Nogaro founded, being called to the adornment of the heavenly sanctuary, he was received as a vessel of glory among the purest initiates of that supernal temple." Thus he, to be examined and illustrated by us below. Among the other martyrologists I have found nothing of him; which is to be wondered at in the Benedictines, if from abbot of the monastery of St. Orientius of the Order of St. Benedict he was made archbishop of Auch, as Denis de Sainte-Marthe writes; on which matter we shall treat below. Mabillon too reviewed him not even among the Prætermissi in the Acts of the Saints of his Order; but in the Annals he recorded him in more than one place as archbishop of Auch, yet nowhere with the title of Saint or Blessed.

[4] and there he is venerated with an ecclesiastical Office; Yet that this title is due to him we learn from the Gallia Christiana of the brothers Sainte-Marthe, volume 1, page 103, where they say this about St. Austindus's ecclesiastical cult: "Most famous for holiness of life among the pontiffs of his age, he flies up to the heavenly ones on the XXV of September; for on this day his feast is kept: and Austindus, whom they call Ostendus, is believed after his death to have been reckoned among the Saints. Whoever desires to know more of his piety and praises, let him consult the Breviary and the ancient Hours of the church of Auch." The continuator of the same Work, Denis de Sainte-Marthe, agrees, volume 1, column 980, saying: "St. Austindus flew up to the heavenly ones … on the day XXV of September, on which day he is venerated in the church of Auch." Philippe Labbe, in volume 2 of the Bibliotheca of Manuscripts, page 598, exhibits some rhythmical verses or a hymn about our St. Austindus, which in the Syllabus of writers, section 3, no. 28, he says was copied from the Collectanea of the most illustrious lord bishop of Montpellier, and which I here subjoin from him.

[5] a hymn about him. Of St. Austindus, confessor, archbishop of Auch, XXV of September.

O leader and glory of Gascony, Austindus, archbishop of the men of Auch, Who from the Bordeaux city didst take Thy origin and thy honor. After fifty-eight metropolitans, For thirty-nine years, well deserving, Thou didst govern the province of Auch, And didst enlarge the church To the praise of God and of the blessed Mary, Begun long after Taurinus. Thou didst raise the town of Nogaro, Founding there a college To the honor of the heavenly court, And of blessed Nicholas especially. In the years one thousand and sixty-two Thou wast our archbishop.

All these things leave no doubt about his ecclesiastical cult; but what is asserted in this hymn will come to be examined below.

[6] I have no Life of him, nor have I found an ancient one praised by anyone. I also lack the Breviary and Hours of the church of Auch, to which the brothers Sainte-Marthe just praised remit the reader for fuller information. Of the more recent writers, John Baiole, priest of the Society of Jesus, in the Sacred History of Aquitaine, which he published in French at Cahors in the year 1644, book 2, chapter 15, page 164, indicates that he wrote some Life of this Saint, which doubtless is one of those of the Saints and men illustrious in piety of Aquitaine which in the Preface to the reader he had promised to publish in volume 2 of that same History. But this volume seems never to have been published in print, since in the Library of the writers of our Society only one volume of that History is recorded, and that published by him in the aforesaid year and place. Although that writer is almost six centuries later than St. Austindus, yet he had documents which I lack, and therefore could have been useful to me. It only remains, therefore, that I gather the few things from his deeds which I have found handed down among others.

[7] Austindus was a native of the city of Bordeaux, as the Saint himself testifies — He was a native of Bordeaux. these are his own words — in the charter of the foundation of Nogaro, which we shall recite below in no. 22. The same native place the old hymn from Labbe's Bibliotheca of Manuscripts just reported assigns him. I forbear more, since even the more recent critics agree on that matter. Now Bordeaux, in French Bourdeaux, is a very ample and famous city of Gaul in Guienne, of which it is the head, set on the river Garonne, made illustrious by an archbishopric and by the council of the whole province which they call the Parlement, and a celebrated mart. Arnaud Oihenart, in the Account of the two Gasconies, book 3, chapter 8, exhibiting a Catalogue of the prelates of Auch, says that the same man, whom he calls Austindus or Ostendus, was also a cleric of Bordeaux when he was promoted to the archbishopric of Auch. This same also the brothers Sainte-Marthe assert in the Gallia Christiana, following Oihenart.

[8] But Denis de Sainte-Marthe in the same enlarged Work, Someone says that he was the first abbot of St. Orientius volume 1, column 980, affirms that he was created archbishop of the said see from being abbot of St. Orientius. Then at column [ ] he sets him in the first place in the series of abbots of that same monastery, and repeats that he was promoted to the mitre of Auch. This monastery, which took its name from St. Orientius, bishop of Auch — whose Life was given by us at the Kalends of May — and is called in French Saint Orient d'Auch, Denis de Sainte-Marthe says in the same place was an abbey of the Order of St. Benedict, founded by Bernard Luteus, count of Fézensac; but then in the year 1068 was given to the Cluniacs under St. Hugh the abbot, and turned into a Priory; and finally afterward its monks by virtue of a certain Bull put on the secular gown. Thus he there; but at column 974, under St. Orientius, he had called the founder of that abbey Bernard Otho.

[9] Oihenart, in the Account of the two Gasconies, book 3, near Auch; chapter 9, reviewing the counts of Fézensac, names three sons of William Garsia, namely Otho or Odo, Bernard, and Fredelo. But of Bernard he says: "To whom they give the surname of Luscus, and they say he was the founder of the monastery of St. Orientius of Auch." But Otho's son he calls Bernard-Otho, who, on his testimony, was surnamed Mancus-tinea. It seems therefore that Denis de Sainte-Marthe wished [ ] to indicate the same Bernard Luteus who is by Oihenart called Bernard Luscus, and so agreed with him about the founder of the monastery of St. Orientius. But if William Garsia, father of Bernard Luscus, lived under Charles the Simple, king of the Franks, who died in the year of Christ 929, as Oihenart there affirms, the reckoning of time scarcely permits us to believe that St. Austindus — whom we shall see still surviving among the living in the year 1068 — was the first abbot of a monastery founded by Bernard Luscus, son of that same William.

[10] which is not sufficiently established. The difficulty is less in Bernard-Otho, nephew of Bernard Luscus by his brother Otho; but I do not know on what argument Sainte-Marthe ascribed that foundation to him, and I am compelled to doubt whether he confused those two Bernards, or whether he [ ] the opinion which he had handed down at column 974. Nor does he praise any witness or document by which to prove that the praised monastery was then already of the Benedictine Order, or that Austindus held its prelacy. If we believe John Baiole in the Sacred History of Aquitaine, book 2, chapter 19, the monks who served the monastery of St. Orientius were not Benedictines until after the middle of the 11th century, when under St. Hugh they embraced the Cluniac institute. However it be (for I from the scarcity of documents can settle nothing here), that prelacy of St. Austindus seems to me quite doubtful, since the praised Denis asserts it baldly, and the brothers Scévole and Louis de Sainte-Marthe with Oihenart say the contrary, and Mabillon and the Benedictine martyrologists do not number St. Austindus among their own. Yet because Denis de Sainte-Marthe perhaps found some document unknown to the rest, I leave the matter in doubt.

[11] The year in which he was made archbishop is unknown The year in which the Saint entered upon the archbishopric cannot be determined with certainty: nay, it is even difficult to designate it approximately; nor do writers agree about the place and order in which he must be inserted in the catalogue of the prelates of Auch. In the hymn which we gave in no. 5 he is said to have sat "after fifty-eight metropolitans"; which certainly strays far from the truth, unless in that same number are comprised also the bishops who held the same see before it was raised to metropolitan dignity. The same hymn attributes thirty-nine years of episcopate to him, which, being subtracted from the year 1068 — in which we shall prove he ended his days — will yield the year 1029; or 1030, if those thirty-nine years were not full but only begun. To one or the other year therefore, namely of Christ 1029 or 1030, the beginning of his episcopate must be referred, if we are willing to stand by the hymn's author. Claude Robert in the Gallia Christiana placed St. Austindus immediately after Otho or Odo, of whom, as we shall presently say, the last mention is made in a certain instrument at the year 1029.

[12] he was made; Oihenart, in the Account of Gascony, book 3, chapter 8, sets Raymond Copa between the two, and says that he was degraded for the crime of simony, which perhaps was the cause why in a certain manuscript catalogue of the bishops of Auch — which the praised Oihenart writes is kept in the Cartulary of that same church — the name of that Raymond, on his testimony, is omitted. With Oihenart agree John Baiole in the Sacred History of Aquitaine, and the brothers Sainte-Marthe in the Gallia Christiana; nor is there any doubt that that Raymond must be admitted among the archbishops of that see. Denis de Sainte-Marthe in the same enlarged Work, volume 1, column 979, after Raymond Copa sets before St. Austindus a certain other Garsias, the second of that name, and thus places the beginning of his archbishopric even later than the others, and it can less be composed with the hymn's author. Let us see therefore which of these opinions is the truer, so that we may then be able somehow to conjecture about the beginning of Austindus's prelacy.

[13] nor do the more recent writers agree, Odo or Otto is read to have subscribed a certain charter in the month of November in the year of Christ 1020 in Denis de Sainte-Marthe from Mabillon's Annals at this year, no. LXXXIV. That the same reached the year 1029 is made credible by the instrument of the election of Guadall or Guadaldo Dumnucius to the bishopric of Barcelona, in which it is said to have been done "with the assent of the lord Otto, venerable archbishop of the first see of Auch." So Francisco Diago teaches in the History of the counts of Barcelona, book 2, chapters 33 and 34, where he recites those words from the autograph itself, which, as he says, is kept in the chapter of that same church. How long after this Otto survived is not known. Equally unknown is the beginning and end of the episcopate of Raymond Copa, whom we have said succeeded Otto; but some of his deeds are reported. The chief is that he founded a college of canons in the city of Auch, of which matter Denis de Sainte-Marthe exhibits a charter among the instruments, page 160, but destitute of every chronological note, save for the day ascribed, the day before the Kalends of March. Of the same notes there is likewise lacking another instrument, to which he is read to have subscribed in Mabillon in the Annals at the year of Christ 1020, no. LXXXIV, and 1054, no. LIX.

[14] They add also that a cemetery was made by the same archbishop by the church of the blessed Mary, in what order he sat in the episcopate. which was the origin of great lawsuits with the monks of St. Orientius, among whom until that time had been the only cemetery of the city of Auch. If we believe Baiole, book 2 of the Sacred History of Aquitaine, chapter 19, that cemetery was begun in the year 1045, and the monks of St. Orientius obtained a Brief against it from St. Pope Leo IX, then staying at Cluny in the year 1049, and brought it about that Raymond was deposed by that same Pontiff as a simoniac. But it may be doubted whether that presence of St. Leo in the monastery of Cluny does not rest on the sole testimony of Otto of Freising, who affirmed that that Saint, when as Pontiff designate he was making for Rome, passed through Cluny; which our Henschen proved to be fictitious in the Commentarius prævius to that same holy Pontiff's Acts, §2, at the day XIX of April, and after him Pagi in the Critique. Besides, it is established that St. Leo at the time when Otto judged him to have been at Cluny by no means bore himself as Roman Pontiff, but persisted in this opinion, that he would not accept the Pontificate offered by the emperor Henry III unless he were elected by the Romans at Rome, as was done. And so, if Baiole means that the aforesaid things were then done there, they cannot be admitted. Yet in the year 1049, returning from Rome into Gaul, he was perhaps at Cluny: then too he celebrated a council at Rheims, in which various bishops were condemned; but whether among these was also Raymond of Auch is unascertained by me; at least he is not named among them in that council.

[15] Denis de Sainte-Marthe after the aforesaid Raymond sets Garsias II before St. Austindus, But he must be said to have sat led by these reasons. "Garsias, archbishop of Auch, is named in the charter of the foundation of the priory of St. Doda, 'in the 1st year of the reign of King Henry,' that is, in the year of Christ MXXX. We believe it is the same who is called Garsianus, and is recorded in the instrument for the foundation of a monastery, in the place anciently named Auriovellum, which William, count of Astarac, took care to have built, and made subject to Otto, abbot of Simorre, and to his successors, 'in the days of Pope Benedict, and of Garsianus, archprelate of Auch.' See Mabillon at the year MXXXIII, no. XXV. Perhaps that Garsias was created archbishop in the place of Raymond Copa, who nevertheless did not cease to preside." So he. No one who reads this can doubt that two different instruments are here alleged, in one of which Garsias, in the other Garsianus is named, and one of which must be bound to the year of Christ 1030, the other to 1033.

[16] not after Garsias the second, Nevertheless that this is one and the same, which is noted as done "in the reign of Henry, king of the Franks the first, in the days of Pope Benedict, and of Garsianus, archprelate of Auch," with no mention made of Garsias, anyone will clearly perceive who is willing to compare Sainte-Marthe's words alleged above with what he has in the same place, column 1015, under Odo or Otto, abbot of Simorre, and with the instrument itself which he prints on page 168, column 2, and finally with Mabillon in the Annals at the year 1033, no. XXV, whom he praised. Let us see therefore how much that charter is to be valued. Of Henry I, king of the Franks, a twofold date may be set: one from the year 1027, in which he was taken by his father Robert into partnership of the kingdom and crowned king; the other from the year 1031, in which he succeeded his deceased father. From whichever you begin his reign, no Benedict was Roman Pontiff in his first year, but John XIX, whom at last, as the year 1033 was drawing to its end, Benedict IX succeeded, when Henry had already begun the third year of his reign from his father's death.

[17] inserted by Denis de Sainte-Marthe Perhaps the praised Mabillon observed this, who, omitting the word "first," only put: "This was done, in the reign of Henry, king of the Franks"; and then in the type in which he is wont to review the words of instruments, subjoined: "In the days of Pope Benedict, and of Garsianus, archprelate of Auch." That word being thus omitted, or, as the words of the instrument conveniently bear, referred to Henry, who was really the first of that name king of the Franks, the difficulty objected indeed ceases; but then no determinate year can be dug out thence, and that addition of a number to the king's name savors not of Henry's own age, but of some later century. I add another suspicion also. The praised Denis de Sainte-Marthe at column 978 has Garsias I, archbishop of the same see of Auch, whom he judges could have sat in it from the year 982 to 999 or 1000. But among the instruments, page 167, no. 17, he recites a charter in which William, count of Astarac, is said to have handed over the monastery of Pessan to the men of Simorre, and in the same is read thus: "This our charter of those testifying, Benedict (the VII of that name), Pope of the city of Rome, with his own hand ratified, Garcia the archprelate," etc.

[18] in the catalogue; The same names occur here, namely William count of Astarac, Pope Benedict, and Garcia the archprelate; nay, in both charters William's father is called Arnald; and the name of William's mother in both places differs little; for in one Arnald's wife is called Talesa, in the other the mother of that same William is called Tarasia, which difference could easily have been brought in by a copyist. All these things, I say, move me to suspect that one and the same Garsias I is recorded in both charters; although some unskilled person referred one of them, long after the times of Henry I, to his reign, or set in it persons foreign to that time. This suspicion is also favored by this, that on Sainte-Marthe's own opinion Otto or Odo — in whose time the priory of St. Doda is in the same charter said to have been founded by count William and given to the monastery of Simorre — was already presiding over that same monastery when Garsias I was sitting in the chair of Auch. Finally the praised Denis himself, before volume 3, in the Animadversions on volume 1, at the paragraph of St. Austindus, notes from an old charter of Auch that this must be added: "But when he (Raymond Copa) had been deposed for simony, Austindus succeeded as archbishop." And again from an old Notice of Auch: "After him (Raymond) Austindus, wise and Catholic," namely, was made archbishop.

[19] From all these it is permissible to gather, first, that St. Austindus did not sit thirty-nine years, as the Hymn has it, and much less fifty-nine, as Saussay said in his Martyrology. Secondly, but after Raymond Copa about the middle of the 11th century; that no Garsias must be inserted between Raymond and St. Austindus. Thirdly and finally, since the year of Raymond's degradation is plainly uncertain, that it is also uncertain in about what year Austindus was raised to that see. In ancient instruments I have not found his name before the year 1042, and that only in a certain charter of a donation made to the monastery of St. John of Saint-Mont, whose chronological notes do not agree, and hint at a later time. This is extant in the brothers Sainte-Marthe in the Gallia Christiana, volume 1, page 99 and following. But, as I said, its chronological notes are faulty; for among other things, to the year of Christ 1042 is ascribed the 1st Indiction, whereas then the tenth was running; and the charter is said to have been made "with Bernard the count, made a monk, being patron of the province of Armagnac" — whom we shall say below in its place put on the cowl only many years after. Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals at the year 1054 reported a certain other instrument of a donation made to the monastery of Simorre in the diocese of Auch, "in the time of Pope Victor II, and of Austindus the archbishop." But I do not know why the learned man did so, because from those words we have only that it was done in the time of Victor's Pontificate, which he held from the year 1055 to 1057.

[20] I do not doubt, however, that St. Austindus was already presiding over the church of Auch before the said year 1054. [at which time he seems to have been present at the dedication of the church of Maguelone.] It is also altogether likely, as the writers of the History of Occitania judge, volume 2, page 193, and Note XXX on the same, as also the continuators of the Gallia Christiana, volume 6, column 739, that our St. Austindus was present at the dedication of the cathedral church of Maguelone, founded by Arnald I, bishop of that same see, and that he must be substituted for "Austenchus of Avicium," who in Arnald de Vardala, volume 1 of the Bibliotheca of Manuscripts, page 797, published by Labbe, is reckoned among the bishops who attended the praised dedication. Further, the writers of Occitania judged that solemnity should be referred to about the spring season of the year 1054, but the continuators of the Gallia Christiana to the end of that same year or the beginning of the following. Consult both, if you please.

§ II. He grants the monastery of Saint-Mont to the Cluniacs: he founds the church of Nogaro: he presides over the council of Jaca: he is present at the dedication of the church of Moissac.

[21] He resists the count of Armagnac, After the middle of the 11th century St. Austindus built a church from the foundations in the place of Nogaro, and dedicated it with great solemnity in the year 1061. To this belongs the hymn reported in no. 5, in which is read:

Thou didst raise the town of Nogaro, Founding there a college To the honor of the heavenly court And of blessed Nicholas especially.

By "college" the author of the hymn here designates the church with the clerics who should perform the divine offices in it, and at the same time indicates that thence it came about that that place grew into a town. Now Nogarolium, which is also called Nogariolum and Nugarolium, but in French Nogarot and Nougarot, is a little town of Gascony in the lower county of Armagnac, of which it is the head, and situated in the diocese of Auch, distant three French miles from Eauze and four from the Adour. Further, occasion for building this church was given by a dispute that arose between St. Austindus and Bernard, surnamed Tumapaler, count of Armagnac.

[22] the monastery of Saint-Mont This Bernard, wishing to embrace the monastic life, had asked the holy Archbishop to hand over to the Cluniacs the monastery of St. John of Saint-Mont, which was held by unworthy men. And when he refused, lest that place should be withdrawn from his church of Auch, the count nevertheless brought Cluniac monks into it. Austindus, since he could do nothing but speak, bought the place of Nogaro, and began to build a church in it, that so at least he might repair the losses of his church. But since for the possession and immunity of that same place he needed the consent of the said count Bernard, at last it was happily agreed between them. The whole matter, as it was done, the Saint himself set forth at length in an instrument which the most illustrious Pierre de Marca in book 4, chapter 7 of the History of Béarn exhibits from the chartulary of Auch, and which I report from him here. "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be it known to the age both of present and of future time, that I Austindus, a native of the city of Bordeaux, metropolitan of the province of Novempopulania, bought, acquired, built and edified the place which is called Nuguarol, with great labor, with what mighty vigor I could, to the honor and memory of the blessed Mary ever Virgin, as shall be narrated in what follows.

[23] "Bernard the count, surnamed Tumapaler, seeking to withdraw from his archbishopric, touched by the divine hand, knowing himself guilty, feeling himself sick, striving to be cured, laboring to be freed, wished to take up the monastic habit. But at that time monastic religion had utterly fallen away within Gascony, until, by the disposing of God the provider of all, by the teaching and instruction of the abbot of Cluny, by name the said Hugh, it began in some measure to grow warm again and to revive. A certain place was held within the county of Armagnac, which by the inhabitants of that land was commonly called Saint-Mont; and there were monks, or rather cowled men, possessing the world in a worldly manner; not according to the Apostle's word in which it is said, 'As having nothing and possessing all things'; nay, falsifiers of their own purpose, whom that same Bernard, wishing to bring back to the standard and Rule of the blessed Benedict, sought out our littleness, and, opening his mind to us, professed that he wished to become a monk. I, at once perceiving beforehand the spirit of the speaker, began of set purpose to dissemble, for this cause namely, that the above-written place of Saint-Mont, although it was in the allod and lordship of the said count, was nevertheless always by ecclesiastical right of the chamber of the archbishop of Auch, so that assemblies there, episcopal or clerical or popular, had always been wont to be celebrated there by my predecessors.

[24] afterward, a compact being made with him, he hands it over to the Cluniacs, "At length, leave being denied him by our littleness, and it resisting so far as it could, he prepares monks to come secretly, and, making them invaders of our place and in his own power, compels them to dwell there. But I Austindus, taking it ill but not prevailing, kept silence indeed for the time, leaving to my successors the order of the deed, and the voice of crying out, complaining and lamenting. Thereafter, knowing myself burdened, and crying out with a certain one of the nobles of the land, William Raymond by name, counsel being taken, I bought from him the land of that allod, XL shillings being given him of the money which then and there was current. After this, count Bernard, as is wont to be done in such cases, and as is the custom of the region, began to demand of me the warrantor of that purchased ground; whom, having him at hand, I offered to him; and he, having nothing to say, kept silence. At last laying the foundations of the church to be built, I set in order the framework of the town to be built. But the aforesaid consul, seeing me thus press on with the labor and give my toil to it, both by himself and by his men began to ask more urgently that I should withdraw from the monastery of Saint John, and no longer hold episcopal assemblies there; and that moreover for love of him I should give him the quarters of eleven churches, whose names are noted below; which churches namely, together with their estates, were called Consular Courts. And at that time that monastery seemed to have no honor in all Armagnac, except only two parts of the church which is called Arrigada.

[25] "I satisfied therefore the prince, and according to what he had demanded, and founds and dedicates the church of Nogaro, at my own pleasure I released those quarters, on this compact, that he by himself with hand and voice should become warrantor for the land bought by me, by the release of William, son of William Raymond, who, being his father, had sold me the above-written land — which he could by no means do. But afterward, the Armagnac monks pressing on, namely the prior and the rest, and, on account of the disquiet which I brought upon them, wishing to depart, the count, being compelled, coming before our presence, made a Guerpition both for himself and for his son and his son's son and all their stock, to hold to the end, that they should never presume to exact Clam nor Saied, nor justice, nor any custom in the whole town of Nogaro. These things being thus accomplished, with Christ for leader, an assembly of bishops being gathered, it pleased my mind to dedicate the church to God, and to His apostle and holy confessor Nicholas. There came together therefore from all the province of Novempopulania bishops, abbots, consuls, proconsuls, and the other faithful lords, and an infinite multitude of both sexes, bringing the tombs of the holy martyrs Lupercius, Mames, Clarus, and of Austrigisilus archbishop of Bourges, and they celebrated the dedication of the church, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and sixty-two, in the XV Indiction, Pope Nicholas presiding in the Roman See, Philip holding the helm of the kingdom of the Franks, in the second year of his reign.

[26] "Bernard also, the count Tumapaler, and his wife Eumengardis, and makes it with its place immune. and their son Gerald with his brother Arnald, before the altar of St. Nicholas in the sight of the whole holy assembly, and there under attestation of an oath, reconfirmed the above-written guerpition, that at no time ever should the abbot of Cluny or his monks look for tribute or any custom from the inhabitants of that place; and that if he should do so, straightway the archbishop of Auch should recover, will he nill he, also that which his predecessor had released of the place of Saint-Mont. All these things I Austindus, archbishop of the men of Auch, have taken care to enjoin upon my successors, that they may always be held in their breasts by a tenacious memory. But the names of the churches whose quarters, namely, I had released to the monks of Saint-Mont by the above-written agreement, are these: Marquet, Custaied, Arblade, Alormes, Sarrameiam, Lartiga, Bozon, Fustroal, Favaroles, Balambits, Ariscle." Thus far the instrument, upon which some things must now be observed and cleared up.

[27] In the first place the praised most illustrious de Marca rightly warns [It is not sufficiently established whether this charter was made in the year 1061] that an error crept into its chronological notes. For the dedication of the church is noted as made "in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and sixty-two, in the XV Indiction, Pope Nicholas presiding in the Roman See, Philip holding the helm of the kingdom of the Franks, in the second year of his reign." But Pope Nicholas II, who is here designated, did not reach the year of Christ 1062, having died in the month of June or July of the previous year. Hence the same most illustrious man judged that for the year of Christ 1062 and the XV Indiction must be substituted the year 1061 with the XIV Indiction. He alleges as reason that Philip I, crowned king in the year 1059, his father Henry living and willing it, was in the second year of his reign in the said year 1061, at which time Nicholas II also presided over the whole Church of Christ. Mabillon in the Annals at the year of Christ 1062, no. CXXII, prefers to retain this year noted in the instrument — which he says is marked in other letters also — and to set in the place of Pope Nicholas II Alexander II, who on the Kalends of October of the year 1061 succeeded that same Nicholas in the Pontificate. But he counts the second year of King Philip, taking the beginning from the IV day of August of the year 1060, on which, his father being dead, he began to reign alone.

[28] or in 1062. The matter is on both sides altogether in doubt: in the former opinion the year and Indiction must be changed, in the latter the name of the Roman Pontiff. The latter, however, the author of the often-mentioned Hymn seems to favor, who after the words which we gave in no. 21 about the church of Nogaro built by St. Austindus, presently subjoined:

In the years one thousand and sixty-two Thou wast our archbishop.

For I do not see what the author meant to designate by that number of years, unless the time of the founding of the church of which he was treating; since it is established from elsewhere that the holy Archbishop reached by his living to the year 1068. Thus far about the time. The praised Pierre de Marca observes besides that the immunity asserted in the instrument was kept whole for the people of Nogaro even in the 17th century, in which he was writing. "Which," he says, "the town of Nogaro enjoys even today, paying no tribute, no dues of inheritance and of purchase (in French it is 'ni lots ni ventes,' which words can also be taken more widely) to the king, just as it had paid none to the counts of Armagnac, his predecessors."

[29] Certain barbarous words are explained, In the same instrument some barbarous words occur, which, lest I should interpolate the text, I have kept to be explained here. "Allod" suffers various expositions. More commonly it is taken for some ground or estate of one's own right, acquired by inheritance or otherwise. In this way it is taken when the Saint is said to have bought from William Raymond "the land of that allod." But when the monastery of Saint-Mont is said to have been "in the allod and lordship of count Bernard," it is indicated that it, although it was of the chamber of the archbishopric of Auch, that is, belonged to that see, yet obeyed Bernard as count, and perhaps was also tributary. "Pageramentum" Du Cange inserted into his Glossary from this charter, and explained by a linear outline. I doubt however whether it is not the same here as "pagmentum" in Vitruvius, and does not signify a joining together of wrought timbers for building huts. "Ejicium" is derived from the forensic verb "ejicere," to release, to renounce some immovable thing, or to be deprived of it. And so, that the land was bought "by the ejicium of William, son of William Raymond the seller," is that it was so bought that that son William should consent to the sale and lose all his right in that same land.

[30] which occur in that charter In like manner "Guerpitio" is the cession of some thing or of one's right. And so when Bernard is said to have made a guerpition

of the place of Nuguraol, he ceded in perpetuity all his right which he had over it as count of Armagnac, and rendered it altogether free. To this liberty it belonged that neither he nor his posterity could exercise "Clam" or "Saied" in that same place. "Saied" in Du Cange's Glossary, enlarged by the Benedictines, is explained as absolute jurisdiction, the higher justice or justice of blood, that is, the right of punishing with the penalty of blood. I should not dare, however, to assert this for certain, since in the same place this single instrument of which we treat is adduced as an example, and the word "Saied" is said to be of the same signification as the word "blood." The word "Clam" is not reported in the same Glossary; but I suspect it is the old and obsolete French "Clam," which in the Trévoux Dictionary is now called in French "ajournement," in Latin a summoning to law.

[31] In the aforesaid Glossary is also reviewed the old word "Clama," occur. which in the statutes of the Dauphiné signifies a certain kind of tribute, or money wont to be paid for letters of Clamæ, without which no one could compel his debtors to pay their debts. Sometimes also the same word is there said to be used for a fine imposed by the judges on the party who lost the case. Finally, by those two words "Clam" and "Saied," and the following "Justice" and "Custom," are indicated the rights of the count of Armagnac over Nogaro, which Bernard ceded by compact. The "quarters" of churches are the fourth part of the ecclesiastical tithes. By "consuls" are signified counts, but by "proconsuls" viscounts; and thence at the same time it is clear what "consular courts" or estates are. Finally the verb "clamare," which is read in the same charter, is used for to complain, to claim, and to demand at law. I proceed to other matters.

[32] In the year 1063 St. Austindus, with three bishops suffragan to his metropolitan see — He presides over the council of Jaca John of Lectoure, Heraclius of Bigorre or Tarbes, and Stephen of Oloron — having set out into Aragon, presided over the council of Jaca. Jaca, which Ptolemy in book 2 of the Geography, chapter 6, numbers among the inland cities of the Vascones in Tarraconensian Spain, is a city of Aragon, of whose county it was once the head. It lies at the foot of the mountains of the same name, which are part of the Pyrenees, and is distant, according to Baudrand in the geographical Lexicon, about sixteen Spanish miles from Saragossa to the north. To this city Ramiro or Ranimirus, first king of Aragon, summoned a council, at which, with Austindus presiding, besides the aforesaid bishops of Gaul there were present also five Spaniards, namely those of Urgel, Calahorra, Jaca, Saragossa, Roda, and three abbots, and Ramiro himself with his sons and the nobles of the kingdom.

[33] But because it may seem wonderful why Austindus, archbishop of Auch in Gaul, in Aragon, King Ramiro being present, presided over a council of Aragon, it will be helpful here to have set down first that the archprelates of Auch, while the Saracens ruled in Spain, were acknowledged as metropolitans by the bishops of Aragon, as Pagi also proves by other examples in the Critique of Baronius at the year of Christ 1032, no. 4. For the same cause, and at the same time on account of the small number of the bishops of Aragon, St. Austindus seems to have brought those three prelates of Aquitaine with him to that synod; nor is it therefore so necessary to suspect with Zurita, to be praised below, that that part of Aquitaine on this side of the Pyrenees which is called Gascony obeyed King Ramiro at that time. Further, the reason for celebrating the synod was, both that ecclesiastical discipline and rites, which amid continual wars had suffered much, might be restored; and that the episcopal chair, which had formerly been at Huesca, then subject to the Saracens, might be transferred to Jaca; and finally that the new cathedral church of Jaca might be solemnly dedicated.

[34] Jerónimo Zurita, in the Indices of the Affairs of Aragon, at the Spanish Era MXCVIII, in which many things concerning morals but the year of Christ 1060, writes thus about all these things: "Sancho, bishop of Aragon (he is the same as him of Jaca), Paternus bishop of Saragossa, Arnulf bishop of Roda. These prelates, and William of Urgel, son of Wifred count of Cerdaña, Heraclius of Bigorre, Stephen of Oloron, Gomez of Calahorra, John of Lectoure, bishops, sitting with Austindus archbishop of Auch, celebrate at Jaca, an ancient town of the Vascones, a council of that province; which, both on this side of the Pyrenees and in that region of Aquitaine which was in those times called Vasconia and now is called Gascony, either obeyed King Ramiro or was joined to him by treaty, I persuade myself not only by opinion but even plainly according to truth from this one document. In the first session of the council, with the king sitting together with his sons and the nobles of the kingdom, with the greatest concourse and applause the people bursts forth into the praises of God most good and great. It addresses the king as a most kindly and most serene prince, and with prosperous acclamation implores the divine Godhead that he might come forth victor over enemies and nations.

[35] and rites were decreed, and the bishopric of Huesca "With the utmost religion in that council the sacred ceremonies, interrupted with great corruption because of the assiduous tumults of wars, are sanctioned, and the depraved manners of the fathers are reduced to order, and the perfect institutions of the Ancestors are recalled. Lest anything of the rite of the holy Fathers should be passed over by negligence or fraud, all the sacred rites are restored piously and duly from the Catholic decrees and sanctions of the holy Roman Church; lest amid the very disasters and fierce issues of wars, or the continual use of arms, our people should seem the more negligent of sacred religion. A law was given to the priests that they should pray in no other manner than the Roman; nor should the Gothic, as foreign, expiations be performed. The ecclesiastical see is set at Jaca, which in former times had been placed at Huesca: and they decree that, whenever the head of the diocese (Huesca) should be snatched from the dominion of the impious, the see of Jaca should be made subject to it, and as a daughter should piously and holily cherish its parent. The bounds of the diocese are limited and circumscribed.

[36] was translated to Jaca; and endowed. "Paternus, bishop of Saragossa, by leave of the sacred council, gave and granted to the church of Jaca, bestowing it upon and gratifying the royal honor, the church of the holy Masses of the city of Saragossa, which had been compacted of the ashes of innumerable martyrs, built in ancient times at the meeting banks of the Orba and the Ebro, which had been consecrated with sacred relics and dedicated to St. Encratis; and this matter and the bounds thus limited Gregory VII, supreme Pontiff, afterward confirms by his decree. Besides the tithes, a third portion of the tributes which the Moorish kings of the peoples of Saragossa and Tudela pay is assigned to ecclesiastical uses. From that time the bishops, who to that day had used the surname of Aragon, are also called of Jaca." Thus Zurita, which Labbe and Cossart inserted in their Collection of Councils, volume 9, column [ ], and which Cardinal José Sáenz de Aguirre also reviewed in volume 3 of the Councils of Spain, page 230.

[37] This council, About the year of the council held, and the things done in it, John Mariana in book 9 on the Affairs of Spain, chapter 5, Cardinal Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals, volume XI, and others agree. But as regards the year, that this was of Christ 1063, José Moret in book 2, chapter XI of the Investigations of the antiquities of the kingdom of Navarre, and after him Antonio Pagi in the Critique of Baronius, and the Most Eminent Aguirre just praised, page 228, have already observed. This learned Cardinal produces the charter of the foundation of the bishopric of Jaca made in that same council, and subscribed by King Ramiro himself and by the Fathers of the synod, of which he prefaced this. "Its Acts (the council's), two hundred and forty years having passed, namely in the year of Christ MCCCIII, were read from an authentic copy in the palace of the bishop of Huesca, whence the church of Toledo had a transcript, which sent us another faithfully copied out." But in this (on the testimony of the same Cardinal) is read: "This charter of donation made in the year one thousand and sixty-third of the Lord's Nativity, in the Era one thousand one hundred and first, in the thirteenth Indiction."

[38] This era and year of Christ rightly agree, and therefore no heed is to be given to the XV Indiction, was celebrated not in the year 1060 but in 1063 which by the common manner of reckoning belongs to the year 1060; for experience teaches that Indictions are easily corrupted. Exactly the same era with the year of Christ the instrument of the dedication of the church of Jaca reports, made by the Fathers of that same council (as Zurita himself also has it in volume 1 of the Annals of Aragon), from which Moret praised above recites these few words: "This charter of dedication made in the year MLXIII, in the Era MCI." For the rest, since Zurita from ancient Annals asserts, and Moret, and after him Pagi in the Critique, also prove from elsewhere, that King Ramiro departed from this life on the VIII day of May of the year 1063, it must consequently be settled that the synod of Jaca was celebrated in one of the first months of that same year. Nor can there be opposed to these things the instrument of a donation made by Raymond Arnald to the monastery of Curte, "under the testimony … of Raymond, bishop of Lectoure" — the successor of John, whom we have said was present at the synod of Jaca — which in Mabillon in the Annals is bound to the year 1061.

[39] That instrument, I say, cannot be opposed to the aforesaid: for the Benedictine writers of the History of Occitania, volume 2, among the instruments no. CCLV, is proved to have been celebrated: page 280 and following, reviewing it, note in the margin that for the year 1061 must be read the year MLXXI, and prove this in the same place in the Notes, page 576, note XIX, no. 10. Therefore the Gallia Christiana of Denis de Sainte-Marthe, volume 1, column [ ] and following, must be corrected, where in the series of the bishops of Lectoure that John is said to have been present at the praised synod in the year 1060, and Raymond Ebbo, his successor, to have stood as witness in the aforesaid donation in the year 1061. That John died in the same year 1063, and that the aforepraised Raymond Ebbo was substituted for him in the see of Lectoure, we learn from the old inscription of the dedication of the church of Moissac made on the VIII of the Ides of December of the said year 1063, in which among the bishops by whom it was performed that Raymond is named in this verse:

Auch gave Ostendus, Lectoure gave Raymond.

Of this dedication discourse will recur at more length below, after I have set forth the rest that pertains to the synod of Jaca.

[40] The bishops who celebrated it at Jaca, and the others who were present, the names of those who took part are reviewed. are read to have subscribed in the charter of King Ramiro in Cardinal Aguirre in this order: "I Ranimirus, though unworthy, by Christ's providence king, confirm this donation with my own hand, and I sign † and I ask all the bishops gathered in this sacred council to confirm and subscribe these things. Sancho the king's son. But another Sancho his brother. Austindus, archbishop of the church of Auch. William, bishop of the church of Urgel. Heraclius, bishop of the church of Bigorre. Stephen, bishop of the church of Oloron. Gomesanus, bishop of the church of Calahorra. John, bishop of the church of Leyure . Sancho, bishop of the aforesaid church . Paternus, bishop of the church of Saragossa. Arulph, bishop of the church of Roda. Belasco, abbot of the monastery of St. John the Baptist. Banzo, abbot of the monastery of St. Andrew the apostle. Garusus, abbot of Asinum. Sancho the count. Fortunio Sancii, noble. Lope Garseanus, noble. And all the nobles of the aforesaid king brought up in that manner in the king's court."

[41] King Ramiro's charter about the acts of the council, Of the things done in that same council Ramiro speaks there thus: "Under the name of Christ and by His ineffable providence, Ranimirus the glorious king, and Sancho his son, to all lovers of the divine law and of the Christian

religion set under our rule. We will that it be made known to your love, that for restoring the state of holy mother church in our parts, almost ruined by our negligence and that of our Ancestors, we caused a synod of nine bishops to be gathered in the place formerly named by the ancients Jaca; in which synodal assembly, with all the primates and magnates of our principality present and consenting, we restore and confirm very many institutions of the holy canons by the judgment of the bishops. And also the bishopric anciently established in the city of Huesca, but invaded and destroyed by the pagans, we have striven to restore, in its own diocese established by God for our Ancestors and for us, namely in the above-written place, by decree of the consecrated council."

[42] and about the bishopric of Jaca, Then he subjoins very many donations for the founding of that same bishopric, to which Sancho, Ramiro's own son, adds also his house which he had at Jaca, with all that belongs to it. Yet he added a certain condition to the foundation: "On this reckoning namely," he says, "that if at some time, God so disposing, we shall be able to recover the head of that bishopric (Huesca), this church which we restore shall be subject to it and be one with it." There is added another decree also for ecclesiastical liberty in these words: "We establish also that the causes of clerics, on account of which hitherto the church in our parts had been not a little burdened, be henceforth left to the bishop alone and to his archdeacons to be examined; that undue covetousness of seculars about them, cauterized by our judgment, may be utterly cut away in such matters, and each man's right preserved to him according to the standard of justice." At the end of the charter is added the glad acclamation of the people, and among other things it is said: "Thanks be to the heavenly Christ, and to the most kindly and most serene prince Ranimirus, who applied his care to the restoration of holy mother Church," etc.

[43] and certain observations From all these it is indeed manifest that the Fathers of Jaca made decrees for restoring ecclesiastical discipline and for eliminating by the authority of the sacred canons the abuses which had crept in; but whether among these there was also one about abrogating the Gothic or Mozarabic liturgy, as Zurita and others after him assert, cannot be elicited thence. Consult, if you please, our Pien in the treatise on the Spanish Liturgies before volume VI of July, chapter 6, §1. Nothing likewise is read in that same charter of Ramiro about the church of St. Encratis, which Zurita says was then given to the church of Jaca by Paternus, bishop of Saragossa, with the consent of that same synod; nor do I find the letter of St. Pope Gregory VII in which he writes that the same donation was confirmed by him. Yet, that this donation may appear more likely, made at the time when Saragossa obeyed the Moors, it will be helpful to have observed from the same Zurita and other writers of Aragon that Almugdadir, the petty king of Saragossa, was tributary to the praised Ramiro, which he himself also sufficiently hints, when in the often-mentioned charter he gave to the church of Jaca the tithes of various things which "the tributaries … both Christians and Saracens" paid him, and namely "of Saragossa … of all things the third part of that tithing."

[44] Martín Carrillo, in the bishops of Saragossa, writes besides that Paternus the donor, of whom we treat, upon the same. when Almugdadir had been made tributary, held his see at Saragossa, whereas it had been vacant for many years already because of the Moorish rule. Ramiro therefore, who always displayed a notable zeal for the Christian religion — whence too he is said to have received the surname of Most Christian king — seems also to have made a compact with the aforesaid petty king of the Moors about the advancement of the same Saragossa; and so it is easily understood how both Paternus, bishop of Saragossa, could be present at the synod of Jaca, and could make to the church of Jaca that donation which Zurita records. Further, it has seemed good to me to report these things a little more at large, because in all of them St. Austindus as president of the council had a great part. Then, having returned hence into Gaul, Austindus in the month of December of that same year solemnly dedicated the church of Moissac in the diocese of Cahors in Aquitaine.

[45] So teaches the old inscription of that matter carved on stone in that same church, He is present at the dedication of the church of Moissac, which Labbe exhibits in volume IX of the Councils, column [ ], whence I transfer it here.

On the eight Ides of December this house was dedicated, It rejoices that these famed pontiffs came together. Auch gave Ostindus, Lectoure gave Raymond, Comminges gave William, Agen sent William, And kindly Béarn bade Heraclius not be absent, Oloron granted Stephen, and the Adour Peter, And thee, Durandus, Toulouse, its patron and ours. Fulco Simonis is rejected, giving laws to Cahors. A myriad, adding three to twelve lustra, Then gave to the world the Virgin's birth to be venerated. This, O Christ God, King Clovis founded for thee: After him magnificent Louis increased it with gifts.

But that you may understand the time of the dedication from those obscure verses, receive what Cossart annotated in the same place: "In the word 'Myriades' the author of this poem sinned twice, in that he used it in the singular number, when MYRIAS should have been said; and took it for A THOUSAND, when it signifies ten thousand. Thus therefore interpret rightly a very bad verse: one myriad of years, that is, in his usage, a thousand years, WITH TWELVE LUSTRA, namely sixty years, ADDING and joining THREE years, GAVE and designated THEN the Virgin's birth, that is, the year of the Virgin's birth. William Catel did not understand it, and thought the year MLX was indicated."

[46] In the same way William de la Croix interpreted these things, in the Bishops of Cahors, made in the year 1063. where nevertheless he doubted whether "lustrum" is there used for a complete five-year period or only for a four-year one; and therefore whether the year of Christ 1063 or 1051 is marked. But that the year 1063 is marked is manifest, since from what was said above Raymond, bishop of Lectoure, who was present at the dedication, first succeeded John in the episcopate in this very year. Yet in neither year was the VI day of December the Lord's day, which in the year 1051 fell on the VIII day, but in the year 1063 on the VII. But why Fulco, bishop of Cahors, in whose diocese Moissac was, was not admitted to that solemnity, Denis de Sainte-Marthe in volume 1 of the Gallia Christiana, column 127, and the praised de la Croix form conjectures, and judge that the word "Simonis" is Fulco's surname, not an indication of simony; which it is not for me to inquire here. I omit also to examine other things which do not make for our purpose.

*. that is, of Lectoure

*. that is, of Jaca

§ III. He celebrates a provincial council at Auch with an Apostolic legate: certain other things asserted about him are examined: the year and day of his death: his body at Auch.

[ ] He celebrates a council at Auch, an Apostolic legate presiding, Of the Saint's deeds from the year 1063, in which we have just said he dedicated the church of Moissac, to the year 1068, we have nothing certain. But in this year he celebrated a synod in his own city of Auch, with Hugh, surnamed Candidus or the White, cardinal priest of the Holy Roman Church, presiding, whom, when he was sent by Pope Alexander II as Apostolic legate into Spain and was passing through Gaul, he seems to have invited to that end. The Acts of this synod, or a compendium of the Acts, Luc d'Achery first published from ancient parchments of the abbey of Cluny in volume 2 of the Spicilegium, page 592 and following, and from him Labbe and Cossart reviewed them in volume 9 of the Councils, column [ ] and the following. These in the praised d'Achery run thus: "In the year one thousand and sixty-eight of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ a council was held at the metropolitan city of Auch. And the lord Hugh, who was called the White, cardinal of the holy Roman Church, held the council with Austindus the archbishop of good memory, and all his suffragan bishops and abbots and the magnates of all Gascony.

[48] where among other things it is decreed about tithes, and a privilege "Among the other ordinances which they there sanctioned, they decreed that all the churches which are contained within the bounds of Gascony should each always render a fourth part of the tithe to their sees (that is, to the cathedral churches). For before they by no means did so. Hearing this, the lord abbot Raymond of St. Orientius said that he by no means consented in this, that the churches of the holy confessor, which through so long a time had remained free, should be subjected to such a yoke. Hearing this, the aforesaid Cardinal — because in his monastery there was entombed so most friendly a confessor, and one of so great authority above all the archbishops who have been in the see of Auch — decreed with the lord Austindus and the whole assembly of bishops and abbots that for love of the aforesaid holy confessor his churches should on this condition remain most free, as they had been wont to do before. And the lord Cardinal with Austindus the archbishop sanctioned and confirmed to Raymond, abbot of St. Orientius, that all the customs which they had before been wont to hold in his honor and in his churches should remain unshaken, without any harassment of envious bishops or archdeacons.

[49] is granted to the monastery of St. Orientius "They approved also that the governor (that is, the abbot) who shall govern the place of St. Orientius should hold in his honor the office of archdeacon over the churches and clerics; and that he himself, if they shall have fallen, should do justice. Yet if they be unwilling to repent, let him present them before the presence of the lord archbishop, and let him enjoin penance upon them as it shall please him, save that he require no fee from them. But we forbid the archdeacon that banquets after the manner of club-feasts be held in his churches, or that anything be usurped in his honor contrary to old custom. Therefore if any perverse rival shall rashly attempt to trouble the holy place against this, being warned a second and a third time, if he shall not amend with fitting satisfaction, let him incur the wrath of God and of the holy confessor; so be it, so be it. Amen. I Hugh, cardinal of the holy Roman Church, have signed. I Austindus, archbishop of that see, have signed. These are the churches which the said Cardinal of the Roman Church, with the assent and will of Austindus the archbishop and of all the suffragan bishops and abbots of all Gascony, willed, decreed, and confirmed to be immune, as was said above." Then follow the names of the churches, twenty-six in number, which I forbear to report.

[50] Of the fourth of the tithes, which all churches, even parochial ones, were bound by the ancient canons to pay to their bishops, is granted. Louis Thomassin may be consulted, in the Old and New Discipline of the Church, part 3, book 2, chapter 24, and elsewhere. This right of his church, therefore, injured in many places of the province of Auch by the iniquity of the times, he vindicated in the present synod. I said, in many places; for that by some at least that fourth part was then wont to be paid is clear from the donation made by St. Austindus himself in the year 1061 or the following to the monastery of Saint-Mont, which we reported in no. 24 and following. But that from this common law the churches of St. Orientius were exempted in this synod, Denis de Sainte-Marthe thinks was done at St. Austindus's instance, because he believes that he was created archbishop of Auch from being abbot of that same monastery: on which matter see what was said above in no. 8 and following. Besides these, other things also were sanctioned in the same council

, the author of the compendium of the Acts teaches in these words: "Among the other ordinances which they there sanctioned," etc.; but these he did not take care to hand down to posterity — likely a Cluniac monk — being content to have noted what pertained to his own. For by that same abbot Raymond, who obtained that privilege, the monastery of St. Orientius is said to have been handed over to the Cluniacs.

[51] John Baiole, in the Sacred History of Aquitaine, book 2, The Saint is said first to have excommunicated and laid under interdict chapter 17, writes that Raymond Copa, whom we mentioned above, being infected with the taint of simony, sold many goods of his church to noble men, and permitted many also to be usurped, and for that cause was accused by the monks of St. Orientius and cast out of his bishopric. He subjoins that St. Austindus, that same Raymond's successor, after he had labored in vain to recover them, a sentence of excommunication being passed on all those iniquitous possessors, departed from his province, but, being recalled by those same men promising better things while he was at Rheims, after a voluntary exile of two years returned to Auch. He says finally that, having returned thither, he used the occasion which Cardinal Hugh's journey into Spain offered for celebrating the synod of Auch, in which both the aforesaid matters were happily composed, and the fourth part of the tithes of all the churches (the churches of St. Orientius being excepted from that law) was adjudged to the archbishopric of Auch. "And on this head," he says, "the archbishop now enjoys at least a fourth part of the tithes of his whole diocese, which is the portion that noble men had usurped for themselves, and in many of them he obtains also two or three fourth parts."

[52] Baiole seems to have learned these things from an old manuscript Notice of the church of Auch, [the invaders of the church's goods, and to have gone into voluntary exile for two years;] from which Étienne Baluze had excerpted the following, which Denis de Sainte-Marthe before volume 3 of the Gallia Christiana, among the Animadversions on volume 1, column 980, under St. Austindus, reviewed in these words: "After him (Raymond, deposed for simony) Austindus, wise and Catholic (was made archbishop); who, when he had not found in his diocese whence he might live (for soldiers held the archdeaconries, and laymen all the tithes), gave notice to the soldiers that they should release the archdeaconries, and to the laymen that they should release to him the fourths of the tithes, which by canon law belonged to the bishop. When they despised this as a new word, he passed a sentence of excommunication and interdict upon the whole diocese; and betook himself to the lord Gervase, archbishop of Rheims, and was with him for two years, until his parishioners, divinely inspired, recalling him, released to him the fourths of the tithes and the archdeaconries. Afterward he lived but a little, and so had not the space and opportunity of pursuing his right."

[53] These things, I say, the praised writer of the Sacred History of Aquitaine seems to have read, then, recalled, to have held that synod and to have recalled them to the times of the council of Auch. And that indeed altogether likely; provided you do not so interpret the words of the Notice of Auch as though St. Austindus is believed to have excommunicated the aforesaid iniquitous possessors and gone into voluntary exile soon after entering upon the episcopate, or even in its first years; for this cannot be composed with what was said above, nor is it asserted in the praised Notice. The rest indeed rightly agrees: for it is established both that Raymond was degraded for simony, and that in the synod of Auch of the year 1068 the fourth part of the tithes was adjudged to the archbishopric, and other things decreed in the same which we do not know, and finally that St. Austindus died not long after that synod, namely in the same year; so that it is deservedly said in the Notice: "Afterward he lived but a little, and so had not the space and opportunity of pursuing his right." Too much exaggerated, however, is what the same Notice has, that the Saint, when he was promoted to the archbishopric, did not find whence he might live.

[54] at Auch. Certain other things are reported I do not know whence Baiole learned what he says, that the same synod was celebrated on the XXV day of September of the aforecited year, namely on that day and in that year in which St. Austindus is believed by others to have died. For the rest, it is likely that Cardinal Hugh had it also in his mandate from Pope Alexander II that, passing through Gascony, he should remedy that evil; and that the people of Auch, being warned of the Apostolic legate's imminent coming, were rendered more inclined to better counsels. The praised Baiole in book 2, chapter 19, writes besides that our St. Austindus was also involved in the famous suit which was long and sharply agitated between the clergy and the monks of St. Orientius, in the time of St. Leo IX, who held the Roman Pontificate from the year 1049 to 1054. He adds also other things done by the Saint on that occasion, which I have kept to be examined here together, lest I should mingle uncertain things with certain. Receive a compendium of Baiole's narration.

[55] about the Saint's deeds in the suit Above in no. 14 we have already said from him that the cemetery of Auch, erected by Raymond Copa, was the cause of a great suit between him and the monks of St. Orientius, to whom belonged the only cemetery which had until then been in that same city. The matter went so far, if we believe him, that the aforesaid monks not only obtained Apostolic letters from St. Pope Leo IX for the removal of that new cemetery, but even by their accusations brought it about that Raymond, being convicted of simony, was thrust out of his archbishopric. Whatever be the case about the circumstances of the matters, it seems established enough both about the suit itself and about Raymond's deposition for simony. Denis de Sainte-Marthe too, under the same Raymond, observes that that cemetery was the origin of suits and altercations between the aforesaid monks and the canons of the metropolitan church, for whose sake it was made.

[56] about the cemetery of the canons of Auch, Further, on the same testimony of Baiole, St. Austindus, substituted for Raymond, judged St. Pope Leo's letters surreptitious, and buried in that same cemetery two clerics, precentors, who had died at the beginning of his episcopate. But the monks sent two of their own to Rome to plead their cause with the praised Pontiff against the Archbishop. Hearing this, Austindus entered the church, and there prostrate before the altar of the blessed Virgin Mary demanded justice against those two monks, and obtained what he asked, both dying on the way before they reached Rome. Frustrated of that hope, the monks of Auch forge other letters of Pope Leo, which they said had been sent to them by those two, then dead. But the holy Archbishop, though he made nothing of them, likewise set out for Rome, that he might himself defend the rights of his church with the Pontiff.

[57] Meanwhile the sacristan of the church of Auch, Sanchez de Area, died, and in summoning the Cluniacs to Auch, and his body, as he had asked while living, was enclosed in a wooden coffer and kept unburied, so that — what was confidently hoped — when the suit had been won at Rome by the Archbishop, it might be buried in the often-mentioned cemetery of the canons. Nor did it happen otherwise; for the holy Austindus obtained from St. Leo not only that he should then revoke the Brief which he had given in favor of the monastery of St. Orientius in the preceding year, and confirm the new cemetery by his authority; but also that that same monastery should be handed over to the Cluniac monks. These things being so happily done, Austindus, having returned from Rome to his see, brought monks summoned from Cluny as new inhabitants into the said monastery on this law, that they should never attempt anything against the cemetery. Baiole believes, however, that that compact was entered upon by words only, not in writing; because after the death of St. Austindus and of his successor William the same controversy blazed up in the year 1096 more fiercely than before; which he then sets forth also at greater length: I shall here examine only those things which pertain to our Saint.

[58] The praised Baiole drew these things from a manuscript of the church of Auch, which are shown partly contrary to the ancient writer, whose author he called the Collector. He in the same collection reviewed a History of that same controversy written by a certain monk of St. Orientius, and not agreeing with him in all things; namely because the latter defended the part of his monastery, but the collector that of the canons. Of the age of neither have I found anything annotated by Baiole; but it is altogether likely that the monk is older than the collector, who copied out his little Work. Now that monk, on Baiole's testimony in the same place, asserts that St. Austindus, substituted for Raymond, stood by the sentence which they say was passed by St. Leo IX in favor of the monastery of St. Orientius. Perhaps the words of that same monk are what Denis de Sainte-Marthe set down before volume 3 of the Gallia Christiana, among the addenda to volume 1 in St. Austindus's entry, from Baluze's posthumous manuscripts, saying thus: "In an old charter of Auch it is thus held: 'But when he (Raymond) had been deposed for simony, Austindus succeeded as archbishop, who attempted to do no such thing'"; that is, to build a cemetery, says Baluze.

[59] Baiole nevertheless prefers to agree with the collector; and answers the objections: partly not likely "I believe therefore that the aforesaid monk, when he saw that Austindus's memory was in benediction, and that he was honored by the people as a Saint, did not dare to write that he pursued his predecessor's errors; but wrote that he acquiesced." But to me that whole narration of the collector, as it is reported by the historian of the Sacred Aquitaine, appears less probable, than that I should charge that monk with a certain falsehood. For it is little likely that the holy Archbishop demanded justice from the Virgin Mother of God against two monks who were setting out to the Apostolic See to defend the right of their monastery, and that it was effected by his prayers that both died on the way.

[60] Still less likely is it that their fellows of Auch, hearing of their death, forged other letters of St. Leo, and exhibited them to St. Austindus as though sent by them; unless one would have them not only liars of hardened brow, and partly even false, but also so stupid as to believe that so manifest a fraud could long lie hidden while Pope Leo lived. Truly this was to make their own case much worse than it had been before. Thirdly, I shall not easily believe that the monks of St. Orientius stirred up that suit anew at the end of the 11th century, if, as Baiole asserts, the Cluniacs received that monastery from St. Austindus in the year 1050 on the condition that they should never attempt it. For St. Hugh was living even then, and presided as abbot at Cluny until the year 1109, with whom that compact would have been made; and he by no means seems likely to have permitted his own men to violate their given faith.

[61] is shown. Why say more? Finally the very donation of the monastery is said to have been made to St. Hugh not under Leo IX, but much later, in the instrument of that matter, which, although it is variously praised by Mabillon in the Annals at the year 1066, and in volume 1 of the Gallia Christiana among the instruments, page 171, yet in both places agrees in the Pontificate of Alexander and the reign of Philip in France. But Alexander II was first made Pontiff in the year 1061, which was the eighth from Leo's death, between whom and Alexander three other Pontiffs had already sat.

Philip began to reign with his father Henry in the year 1059, but alone in the following year, in which Henry died. Besides, no mention is made of Austindus in the same place in the praised writers. These things therefore make me prefer to believe the monk of St. Orientius, that St. Austindus did nothing or little in the famous suit about the cemetery, and to hold for fables what Baiole narrated about his Roman journey undertaken for that cause, and about the Cluniacs brought into the monastery of St. Orientius. The Saint's other deeds are hidden from me, and therefore I proceed to the time of his death.

[62] The Saint died in that same year 1068, That the year of Christ 1068, in which we said the council of Auch was celebrated by him with the Apostolic legate Cardinal Hugh presiding, was his last among mortals, is gathered from the synod of Toulouse which the praised Hugh held in the same year, and at which William, St. Austindus's successor in the episcopate, is read to have been present, in Labbe, volume 9 of the Councils, column 1197. This synod, both here and in Catel in the Monuments of the history of Occitania, book 5, under Durandus, is noted as in "the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and sixty-eight, in the sixth Indiction, in the eighth year of the lord Pope Alexander, namely the second, but in the second year of the reign of Philip, king of the Franks, and under the guardianship of Baldwin, count of Flanders." All these chronological notes agree perfectly with the ascribed year of Christ 1068, except the second year of King Philip together with the guardianship of count Baldwin, which belongs to the year 1061 or 1062.

[63] in which he celebrated the synod of Auch; For Philip, the first of that name, after his father Henry died on the IV day of August of the year 1060, as we have already said above, on account of his minority began to reign under the tutelage of Baldwin V, count of Flanders, and so the second year of King Philip under Baldwin's guardianship ran partly with the year of Christ 1061, partly with 1062. But I indeed believe the passage is faulty, and that, with a single letter changed, for "ac tuitione" must be read "ab tuitione"; and thus all things will most rightly agree. For since that Baldwin, on the testimony of Jacob Meyer in the Annals of Flemish Affairs, ended his day on the Kalends of September of the year 1067, on the same day and month of the following year began the second year from which the praised Philip reigned "from the guardianship of Baldwin, count of Flanders," that is, after the tutelage ceasing from his death. In Hardouin too, volume XI of the Councils, in the Appendix, column [ ] and following, there is extant the council of Gerona, celebrated in the same year 1068, to which likewise subscribed that same successor of St. Austindus, William, archbishop of Auch.

[64] The year of the Saint's death therefore seems certain; the day of his death not so certain: his body at Auch. and hence it is at the same time clear why in the old Notice of Auch, reported in no. 51, it is said of him: "Afterward (after the council of Auch) he lived but a little, and so had not the space and opportunity of pursuing his right." Deservedly therefore Denis de Sainte-Marthe, under St. Austindus, column 980, charges with error a certain instrument of the monastery of Saint-Sever in the head of Gascony, which makes a certain Heraclius archbishop of Auch in the year 1061; for whom he judges the bishop of Bigorre or Tarbes of the same name in the same province of Auch, who then flourished, must be substituted. The day of the Saint's death, which is commonly believed to have been the XXV of September, is not so certain to me; since I find it asserted only from the cult which he has on that day. Baiole, praised in no. 54, wrote that the often-mentioned council of Auch, at which the Saint was present, was held on the same day, the XXV of September; and if that be so, his death must be set a little later; but I do not know on what foundation that assertion of Baiole's rests. For the rest, that St. Austindus's body is kept in the metropolitan church of Auch, which is dedicated to the most holy Mother of God under the title of her Nativity, the often-mentioned Denis de Sainte-Marthe asserts. More about this Saint I have not hitherto found.