Ermenfred

ON ST. ERMENFRED, FIRST ABBOT OF CUSANCE,

IN THE COUNTY OF BURGUNDY.

About the middle of the seventh century.

COMMENTARIUS PRÆVIUS.

Ermenfred, first abbot of Cusance, in the county of Burgundy. (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. An account of the monastery of Cusance: the Saint's memory in the Martyrologies, not everywhere without error: his cult, Offices, and relics.

[ ] Cusantia, in French Cusance, is a village of the county of Burgundy and an old abbey, which for some centuries has passed into a priory, Cusance is a village and a monastery, first of maidens and is today still subject to the Jura monastery of St. Augendus or St. Claude. That place lies in the diocese of Besançon, about seven or eight hours' journey above Besançon, at the sources of the little river of the same name, the Cusantin or Cusancin, which about an hour and a half thence, over against the town of Baume, commonly Baume or Baume les Nonnes, falls into the river Doubs, in French le Doux or le Dou, according to the geographical map which F. J. Dunod de Charnage, royal professor at Besançon, exhibits in his Historical Memoirs of the nobility of the county of Burgundy, published in French at Besançon in the year 1740. The same historiographer, in the same place, page 116, speaks thus of the same place: "Cusance is an ancient barony under the jurisdiction of Baume, situated at the sources of the little river called the Cusancin, which winds through a pleasant valley and flows past the priory of Cusance, once a celebrated abbey."

[2] Of its situation, too, in the Life of St. Ermenfred to be printed below, no. 4, this is to be read: founded by Iserius, then of monks, "He (Iserius, a noble and powerful man) built a cell on the bank of the river. For there are, not far from that same cell, two springs, of which one is called Cusa, and the other is named Ancia; and a name compounded [of] the two entire makes one name, Cusancia." This etymology Dunod's geographical map so far favors, that in it too the monastery of Cusance is placed between two brooks, which, rising beside it and meeting below in one bed, make the little river Cusancin. Further, that monastery owes its first beginnings to the aforesaid Iserius, who, at the exhortation of St. Eustasius, abbot of Luxeuil, dismissing his unchaste wife — who in our copy of the Life is called now Randovera, now Ramdo — founded it, and handed it over to the same woman and to his daughter Islia, who both presided there over the sacred virgins. But this convent of maidens did not long continue; for when the mother had died, and all the nuns had been extinguished, as it seems, by a plague within a short time, Islia alone surviving left the monastery empty by her death.

[3] Then indeed by right of inheritance it came to St. Ermenfred and his brother Waldalenus; St. Ermenfred being its author, and subject to Luxeuil, but now who, since they were then living in the court in the service of Clothar II, king of the Franks, with his leave began a private life with their mother. And not long after St. Ermenfred, well imbued with monastic disciplines in the monastery of Luxeuil by St. Waldebert, betook himself to that monastery of Cusance, which he had restored or enlarged, and presided over the monks whom he gathered, and made the place itself subject to Luxeuil. Hence in the Life of St. Ansegisus, abbot of Fontenelle, given by us at the day XX of July, chapter 3, no. 32, Cusance is mentioned as a cell of that same monastery of Luxeuil. It remained subject to it until the twelfth century, begun a few years earlier, when it was handed over by Pontius, archbishop of Besançon, to the Jura monastery of St. Augendus or St. Claude, under which it continues to this day with the name of Priory. Peter François Chifflet, in his manuscript on the Priories established anywhere in the world which acknowledge, as members, the monastery of St. Claude as their head, says this to our purpose about the beginnings and various condition of Cusance.

[4] "The Priory of the Blessed Mary of Cusance was first founded by St. Ermenfred, for some centuries now subject to the Jura abbey. lord of the place, and made over to the monastery of Luxeuil under the abbot Walbert more than a thousand years ago. This afterward Pontius, archbishop of Besançon, in the year of Christ MCVI handed over to Hunald, abbot of the Jura, that he might restore its collapsed discipline. It is mentioned in the privileges of the years MCLXXXIV, MCLXXXVI, and MCCXLV. In it there ought to be maintained, besides the parish priest, two monks with the Prior." From these gather briefly how much the monastery of Cusance has lost of its former splendor. The same Chifflet, in the manuscript Chronicle of the Jura, under Hunald II the abbot, has almost the same things, and derives the cause of the subjection made by Pontius from its calamitous

condition at that time of the monastery of Luxeuil, and from the regular discipline there foully collapsed, praising to this end Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, book 4, letter 3 to Pope Innocent II. On these things consult, if you please, Mabillon and Martène, volume 6 of the Benedictine Annals, at the year of Christ 1136, no. CIV and the following.

[5] Further, the Martyrologies announce St. Ermenfred on this day the XXV of September, St. Ermenfred on this day both the Benedictine ones and others, which I shall review after my custom. Benedict Dorgain, in the Benedictine Calendar, mentions him thus briefly: "Of St. Hermenfred, abbot." Arnold Wion, in book 3 of the Tree of Life, says at the same day: "At Cusance in the territory of Besançon, the deposition of St. Hermenfred, abbot and confessor." The same has Hugh Ménard in the Menology, where he copied Wion. But Gabriel Bucelin in the Menology has it a little more at length: "At Cusance in the territory of Besançon, the deposition of St. Hermenfred, abbot and confessor. He, having professed as a monk in the most holy monastery of Luxeuil, and elected abbot of Cusance for the fame of his erudition and sanctity, is read to have shone with many virtues." I observe briefly that Bucelin here speaks as if St. Ermenfred had been elected abbot to rule the monastery of Cusance when it was already inhabited by monks; whereas nevertheless it is established from that Saint's Life that he was the founder of that place, and began to gather monks to himself in it, and put on the monk's habit at the monastery of Luxeuil with no other mind than to do this.

[6] inscribed in various Martyrologies, In the manuscript Benedictine Calendar of St. Saviour's of the Cistercian Order at Antwerp also, of which we have a copy, on this same day is read: "Of St. Ermefred, abbot of the monastery of Crisantia, formerly a monk of Luxeuil." Another manuscript Calendar, of St. Michael's of the Premonstratensian Order likewise at Antwerp, agrees, except that it just as faultily has Chrisantia for Cusantia. More rightly has John Trithemius in book 3 of the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapter 307: "Ermefred," he says, "a monk of the monastery of Luxeuil, and afterward abbot of the monastery of Cusance, a learned and holy man, is read to have shone with many virtues. His feast is kept on the VII of the Calends of October." To the Benedictines other martyrologists also accede; and in the first place Molanus, among the Usuardine Auctaria in our Sollier, speaks thus at this day: "At Cusance in the territory of Besançon, the deposition of Bl. Hermenfred, abbot and confessor." Following Molanus, Philip Ferrari in the General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology says also briefly: "At Cusance in Burgundy, of St. Hermenfred, abbot." Aubert Le Mire, in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti, reckoned him among the Saints of the diocese of Besançon who are venerated with an ecclesiastical Office, on the same day, in these words: "In the territory of Besançon, in the monastery of Cusance, of St. Ermenfred, confessor and abbot. The body of St. Ermenfred is in the little village commonly called Santoche, not far from Cusance."

[7] he is announced not rightly by Saussay at Santoche, The same Andrew Saussay inserted in the Gallican Martyrology, where he announces him thus: "On the same day, in the territory of Besançon, in the village of Santoche, the deposition of St. Ermenfred, abbot of the monastery of Cusance; who, as he was illustrious in life for his most chaste manners, so after death he shone again with glorious tokens of a beatitude deserved." The village of Santoche, which he here mentions, is situated on the river Doubs above Besançon, not far from the town of Clairval, commonly Clerval, but on the other bank of the river. But since it is established that St. Ermenfred died and was buried in his own monastery of Cusance, his deposition could be announced at Santoche for no other cause than that his body is said to have been at some time translated thither, as we shall see below. Saussay therefore meant to mark only the place of cult on account of his relics once deposited there, or he must be said to have erred. More do I wonder at Castellanus's hallucination, when in the universal Martyrology at the same day of September he indeed announced him among the Saints of Gaul at Cusance, but nevertheless made him abbot near Glasgow in Scotland.

[8] Receive his words turned from French into Latin: "At Cusance in the county of Burgundy, St. Ermenfred, abbot near Glasgow (in French Glasco) in Scotland." For indeed I do not know on what ground our St. Ermenfred should ever be said to have been abbot near Glasgow, which is an archiepiscopal city of southern Scotland in the province of Clydesdale. Certainly neither Dempster nor Camerarius, otherwise not at all scrupulous in ascribing Saints to Scotland, ever mentioned him anywhere in their Martyrologies. But I suspect that this error crept upon the learned man from this, that on this very day there occurs in the Martyrologies, and immediately follows in his own book, St. Geolfrid, who, although he was abbot of Jarrow and Wearmouth in England, and died abroad among the Lingones in Gaul, is nevertheless by some, on account of the translation of his body, announced also at the monastery of Glastonbury in England, and by others, on Dempster's testimony in the Martyrology, is even said to have been a Scot. From these things, I say, I suspect it came about that Castellanus, hallucinating, referred to St. Ermenfred what he had read of St. Ceolfrid, and confused Glastonbury, commonly Glassenburye, a city of England, with Glasquum or Glascovia, among the natives Glasgo, in Scotland.

[9] As to what pertains to his cult, that it is ancient, at Cusance he is venerated from the time of his death; and among the people of Cusance was begun immediately from his death, which he died in the 7th century, we have from the Life, where in chapter 3, no. 30, a glass lamp is said to have hung beside his tomb from the very day of the holy Man's burial, which down to the writer's own times had burned continuously, with the oil divinely multiplied, from which a second lamp too was fed. The same biographer had also set down beforehand many miracles done at his tomb, of which he reports some, and at the end of the Life admonishes that his birthday be celebrated with a devout mind. Now he wrote a few years into the 8th century, as we shall say later. About the ecclesiastical Office with which without doubt he was formerly venerated at Cusance, and likely is venerated today also, I have nothing certain ascertained. But Mabillon, in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, Century 3, part 2, page 461, asserts that his solemn feast was formerly wont to be celebrated at Luxeuil, but in his own time was kept only with a semidouble rite on this day the XXV of September. The Lesson of this more recent Office, which is a certain compendium of the Life, he exhibits in the same place, and I subjoin it here from him.

[10] "Ermenfred, born of noble parents, lived in the court of Clothar the second, he is celebrated with an ecclesiastical Office at Luxeuil most pious king of the Franks, together with his brother Wandalenus. But when their father had died, reckoning the courtly manner of living too little safe for them, they asked leave to depart. This being obtained with much difficulty, the brothers went to their mother, with whom they began to lead a private life. Afterward Ermenfred, renouncing the pomps and vanities of the world, left home and sought Luxeuil, where he was so well trained in regular discipline by Bl. Walbert that he deserved to preside over others. Then, sent back to Cusance, a place of his own dominion, for the sake of building a monastery, he gathered together about thirty monks, whom, teaching them the institutions of the monastery of Luxeuil, he increased in a wonderful manner in virtues, and, providing for them for the time to come, made the monastery itself subject to the abbey of Luxeuil in the third year of King Dagobert. Among other wonders, he learned from heaven of the departure of his brother Wandalenus from among the living. Him at last, when the course of a most holy life was finished, flying up to the heavenly ones on the seventh of the Kalends of October, very many miracles made illustrious. Whose body was placed beside his brother's remains in the church of Bl. John the Baptist at Cusance."

[11] With some ecclesiastical Office the church of Besançon also venerates him, or at least venerated him. and at Besançon. His body, buried at Cusance, For in a manuscript parchment Breviary of that church, which we have in our Museum, I find an Office of nine Lessons prescribed for him, but from the Common. In another likewise of the same archdiocese, published in print in the year 1590, only a simple Office is set down, likewise from the Common of a confessor abbot. From the Offices we proceed to his sacred relics. His body was kept at Cusance, where it had first been buried, even at the time when, well into the eighth century, the disciples of his disciples, over whom Egilbert presided, wrote his Life to be published. At what time or on what occasion it was afterward carried away thence, I do not know; but that it was carried away the testimonies which I subjoin persuade. In one of the copies of the Life which we received from Peter François Chifflet, the following was annotated at the end in his hand.

[12] afterward translated to the village of Santoche, perhaps perished, "The remainder of the body (besides the head), almost entire, was kept in a wooden chest in the parish of Centusca, commonly Santoche: but thence it was carried to the town of Clairval on the Doubs. When this town was plundered and burned by the Swedes, it is believed to have perished, or to have been carried elsewhere by the enemy." In another shorter copy also of the same Life, received from the same Chifflet, it is likewise read: "His body is kept in a village of the county of Burgundy, commonly Santoche, near Clairval on the Doubs." With these agrees Aubert Le Mire in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti, both as already reported in no. 6 and on page 551, where he says again: "He rests in a village of the diocese of Besançon, commonly called Santoche, not far from Cusance, of which place he was abbot." From these gather why Saussay above in no. 7 announced St. Ermenfred in the village of Santoche: see what was said there, where we also briefly indicated the situation of that place. The plundering and burning of that village, which the praised Chifflet mentions, could have happened under Louis XIII, king of France, in whose service Bernard, duke of Saxe-Weimar, with the Swedish forces which he commanded, harassed the county of Burgundy; on which matter Gabriel Daniel may be consulted, volume 7 of the History of France, in the annals of the said king at the year 1635 and the following, and others.

[13] perhaps it lies at Pompierre: his head is at Besançon. Dissenting from all these, Dunod, in the Historical Memoirs of the nobility of the county of Burgundy, which we said were published by him at Besançon in the year 1740, page 117, assigns another place in which St. Ermenfred's body rested in his own time. "Today," he says, "it is in the church of Pompierre on the Doubs, near Clairval." That place is likewise a village, which in Blaeu's geographical maps is set near the aforesaid Santoche. But whether it was at some time hidden here in a safer place from fear of the Swedes, or was first carried elsewhere and then came thither and remained, Dunod does not declare, nor have I understood it from any other source, and therefore what the truth of this matter is I leave to be settled by others who are furnished with better monuments than I. I hinted above that the Saint's head was separated from the rest of the body. So John James Chifflet taught me in his Besançon, part 2, page 260, where he says: "In the sacristy of the church of the Preachers at Besançon there is kept, among other things, the skull of St. Ermenfred, abbot of Cusance." The manuscript of Peter François Chifflet praised in no. XI agrees, in which is read: "The head of St. Ermenfred is in the church of the Preachers at Besançon." More about this Saint's cult does not

I have.

§ II. Egilbert, the writer of the Life to be published, and his age: such chronology of the Saint as can be had: certain observations about his brother Waldalenus.

[ ] Mabillon wanted his Life, Mabillon, in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, Century 3, part 2, page 461, writes thus of his Life under St. Ermenfred: "To Waldebert (abbot of Luxeuil) must be joined Ermenfred, a disciple to his teacher, he whose Life the men of Luxeuil once read on his solemn feast. A certain learned man keeps it in his own possession, having promised that he would at length publish it; while meanwhile we have been able to recover only what is used yearly in the ecclesiastical Offices at Luxeuil, in this manner." Then he subjoins the Lesson which we have given from him in no. 10. I do not know whether that learned man stood by his promises: but certainly Mabillon seems to have had nothing about St. Ermenfred beyond the aforesaid Lesson when he afterward wrote the Benedictine Annals; since in volume 1 of these, at the year of Christ 636, no. LIV, treating of the same Saint, he reports nothing beyond what is contained in that same Lesson, nor does he mention a written or published Life of him.

[15] I likewise do not know whether that Life, which Mabillon says was formerly wont to be recited by the men of Luxeuil, we have one is different from the one we have in our Museum, copied out by Bolland with this title: "The Lives of SS. Ermenfred and Waldelanus (that is, Waldalenus), by Egilbert or Gilbert, provost of Cusance, disciple of the disciples of St. Ermenfred." Whence this Life was taken, Bolland indicates in the same place thus: "I received it from a manuscript codex in octavo, which the lord John James Chifflet, when it had been granted to him, lent to me. There was written upon it that it had been granted by the lord baron d'Oyselet to the reverend lord Ubelot. The same Life had been turned into French by John Crapilet of the Order of Minors in the year MCDL, at the instance of the lord James de Rocche, Prior of St. Mary of Cusance; with which translation I have compared the Latin, as is plain in the annexed papers. Now both Lives were written in the same hand; the French version unpolished." Thus far he himself, who in the variant readings of the French Life from the Latin observes that the sections and titles of the chapters are not everywhere the same; and hence concludes that the French translator followed the Latin Life accurately neither in these nor in those. I add that he varies also in the circumstances of the matters; and therefore those annotations of Bolland from that same French Life will be of no use to me, or of little.

[16] Of our Latin copy it is to be lamented that, from a twofold manuscript, although it was neatly written out by our Bolland, yet by the fault of that codex — which by what has been said is no older than the middle of the 15th century — it has many faults and truncated periods, which do not all, at least, seem to be imputed to the earliest author. The style too is often involved and sprinkled with solecisms, which can partly be thrown back upon the biographer's age: for we shall see below that he wrote well into the 8th century. For restoring some passages we opportunely have another copy of the same Life, received from father Peter François Chifflet, and copied from an old manuscript of the lord Francis Souget, priest of Palme, curate of Dampvaux. In this copy the titles of the chapters are wanting, and the whole of chapter 2 of the ancient partition, and the last six chapters of the Life, with the greater part of chapter 15 of the same partition. But although this too is in many places more faulty than the other, yet in many it is also more correct, and, as I said, useful for correcting certain faults.

[17] Now those faults could partly have crept in from the difficult script of the manuscript but each often faulty, which we shall publish. from which it was taken; for in the margin of our copy it is annotated: "I myself saw the manuscript (of Francis Souget) and compared it with this writing: it is certainly most difficult to read." I shall therefore publish the Life from the fuller copy in such a way that, where I can, I shall correct the defects that occur from the other, the reader being warned when it shall seem worth the trouble. The same copy which is to be published, because it was received from John James Chifflet, I shall call the Chifflet one; but the other the Souget one. In the Chifflet one this title is prefixed: "The letter which was written to the lords and Religious and likewise to the convent of Luxeuil by the disciples and religious of St. Hermenfred after his decease." Nevertheless do not so take this as if this letter had been written immediately after the Saint's death and by his disciples; for the authors of it themselves, both in it and in the Life, profess themselves the disciples of the Saint's disciples, and affirm that much time had by then flowed by since his death. For which reason I do not doubt that that inscription was added by some more recent hand; and therefore I shall pass it over.

[18] This was written by Egilbert, provost of Cusance Then follows the genuine letter, which is extant in both copies, and begins thus: "To the lords in Christ Lœtricus, Melinus, Waldigisus, and Ingradus, the fathers, and to all the clerics from renowned Luxeuil, Egilbert, called provost, and your subjects from Cusance wish health." So indeed they call the men of Luxeuil their lords, and themselves their subjects, because St. Ermenfred had made the monastery of Cusance subject to that of Luxeuil, as we have already said above, and as will be established from the Life, nos. 16 and 17. But a difficulty is here raised by Lœtricus, who is named in the first place as abbot of Luxeuil; whereas in the catalogue of the abbots of that place, published by the Sainte-Marthes in the Gallia Christiana, no one of such a name is reckoned. In the Souget copy, instead of Lœtricus another word occurs, but so doubtfully written that I can make nothing else out of it than "Conmutco," for which likewise I have found no akin name in that catalogue. If for the faulty word "Conmutco" we were to read "conjuncto" or "conjunctis," the sense would be plain and entire: "To the lords joined in Christ, Melinus," etc.

[19] and by his monks, to the men of Luxeuil In the praised catalogue in the Sainte-Marthes, Miletus, by others Mellinus, is set down as the seventeenth abbot, and is said to have been slaughtered by the Vandals or Saracens at Luxeuil with his monks. Mabillon too calls him Mellinus in volume 2 of the Annals at the year of Christ 732, to which he attaches that slaughter of the men of Luxeuil. But whether this Mellinus also had the further name of Lœtricus or another, or whether by that word another abbot is designated, I cannot declare: but I do not doubt that the Melinus named by Egilbert is the same as the aforesaid abbot of Luxeuil, whether he had then already obtained that dignity, or only attained it afterward. The reason is that what Egilbert says can be rightly composed with the age of that same Mellinus. For he asserts that seven of St. Ermenfred's disciples were known to himself or to his monks, and that of these three, namely Ravenbordus, Adbertus, and Athaël, presided next over the cell of Cusance after that Saint's death.

[20] before the year 732, But from what is to be said, St. Ermenfred could easily have prolonged his life even many years past the middle of the 7th century; and so nothing stands in the way of Egilbert — who calls himself the disciple of his disciples — having been made a monk under one of his first successors and presided over the monastery of Cusance at the time when Mellinus, whom Mabillon says was slain in the year 732, was reckoned among the chief fathers of the monastery of Luxeuil, or perhaps was even already presiding over them as abbot. I believe therefore that this Life was written no later than the year 732, nay, rather some years earlier. Egilbert with his own men alleges in the praised letter a twofold cause for writing. The first is that, although the men of Luxeuil had already heard something of St. Ermenfred's deeds and miracles, yet since many of his fellow-disciples of Cusance had already departed this life, and they themselves too were weighed down with old age, they thought it altogether expedient that what they had heard about him from that Saint's disciples, their own masters, or had themselves seen, they should commit to writing, lest it be given over to oblivion.

[21] The other cause of writing they allege is that they might also promote among the men of Luxeuil, and it is sincere and worthy of belief, a few things excepted. to whom they were subject, the cult of St. Ermenfred, their founder and first abbot. We have therefore a biographer almost coeval with the Saint, the disciple of his disciples and his successor in the prelacy of the monastery, and one who professes to hand down only what he had either received from those men or seen himself, or his fellow-disciples had. Hence in reporting the Saint's deeds and miracles he is sparing enough, and asserts that he omits many of them, about which namely he was not so rightly informed. Yet he would better also have passed over what in chapter 1, going back further, he narrated of the Warasci and of the village called Vincunt-milites out of popular tradition, as it seems, though adding for caution's sake the words "as they report." For the rest, although that letter and the Life were written not in Egilbert's name alone, but also in that of his monks, yet we believe they must be ascribed to Egilbert, who has the chief part in them, and be published under his name.

[22] For such chronology of St. Ermenfred as can be had, it will be helpful to have run briefly through the chief heads of his life. The Saint lived in the court of King Clothar The biographer says he was born in Burgundy, of rich and noble parents, namely of his father Ermenricus and his wife Waldalena. He adds to him a brother Waldalenus, whom he names in the first place as the elder by birth; but in what year either of them was born he does not declare. In the Souget copy the father is called Emericus, the mother Wadalena, and the brother Wadalenus. Then he says that both, when now grown, lived in the court of King Clothar, namely of that name the second, and that Waldalenus indeed discharged the office of royal chancellor; but that Ermenfred — of whose office he makes no mention — was dear to all for the sweetness of his manners and his erudition and the fragrance of his sanctity. When their father, and Islia, lady and abbess of Cusance, had died, and they had been increased by an ample inheritance, they led with King Clothar's leave a private life with their mother.

[23] Not long after, Ermenfred sought Luxeuil, between the years 613 and 628 and there was joined to the monks by St. Waldebert the abbot: signally trained in their disciplines and consecrated a priest, he betook himself to Cusance, and there in the monastery which he had repaired or enlarged he gathered disciples not fewer than thirty, as the Chifflet copy has it, and in the third year of King Dagobert made the monastery itself subject to the men of Luxeuil, that by them it might both be kept in regular discipline and, if ever there were need, be defended against the violence of seculars. At length, after a life holily spent in that same monastery of his, he departed to the heavens, and was buried there. Now let us come to the chronology. Clothar II, of whom the Life treats, having been made monarch in the year of Christ 613, gained possession of the kingdom of Burgundy, and, departing this life in the year 628, had as successor Dagobert I, whom he had already before given as king to the Austrasians. Not before the year of Christ 613, therefore, did Waldalenus and Ermenfred frequent the court in the service of King Clothar, nor did they remain in it beyond the year 628.

[24] [made a monk at Luxeuil about the year 626, he was already presiding at Cusance in 631;] The Acts of St. Waldebert, abbot of Luxeuil, have been illustrated in our Work at the day 2 of May, where it was shown that he succeeded St. Eustasius, who died in the year 625, in the governance of that monastery; and therefore St. Ermenfred could not before that year begin his novitiate of the monastic Life under the abbot Waldebert at Luxeuil. Finally, the third year of Dagobert I reigning in Burgundy after his father coincides partly with the year of Christ 631 advanced, partly with 632, and therefore to one or the other must be referred the subjection of the monastery of Cusance, which the biographer writes was made in the third year of King Dagobert. And so, since the same biographer hints not obscurely that St. Ermenfred passed over to Clothar's court while still a young man, he seems to have been born at the beginning of the 7th century or toward the end of the preceding one. Besides, since the aforesaid subjection of the monastery is narrated in the same Life as having been made with such circumstances that he seems by then easily to have dwelt in it for two years; and since it is altogether likely that he was trained in the monastic institutions at Luxeuil for at least about three years before he handed them on to others, we cannot stray far from the truth if we refer the beginnings of his monastic life to about the year 626 or 627.

[25] in what year he died is uncertain. But to what age the Saint attained, or in what year he died, cannot be dug out of the Life. Mabillon, in the Acts of the Saints of his Order, Century 3, part 2, page 461, set his death about the year 670, and Castellanus in the universal Martyrology followed him. Dunod, in the Historical Memoirs of the nobility of the county of Burgundy, fixed it precisely at the year 670. But these things, asserted without any argument, as I cannot weaken them from any other source, so neither can I prove them. This one thing can safely be asserted, that nothing in the Life stands in the way of the holy Abbot having been able to reach or even to pass the middle of the 7th century: but whether he died after or before is like a riddle. For this cause I have thought his blessed death should be marked about that middle of the century, with a latitude of some years on either side, yet less before than after, because it appears from the Life that he presided over his monastery for a long rather than a short time.

[26] Waldalenus, although he lived very piously It remains that we add a few words about St. Ermenfred's full brother Waldalenus. We said above in no. 15 that in our Chifflet copy this title is read: "The Lives of SS. Ermenfred and Waldelanus or Waldalenus." Hence it may be asked whether he too obtained an ecclesiastical cult. Certainly Waldalenus is much praised by Egilbert, and on his testimony he did not remain secular in the world, and, if not all, at least many of his goods he conferred on the monastery of Cusance. That he also preserved his virginity to the end of his life the praised biographer asserts in chapter 2, no. 14, where, when he had said that he was happily led out by St. Ermenfred — to whom this had been divinely revealed — from the danger of losing it, he presently subjoins: "And he (the Saint) brought his brother with him to the cell, admonishing him that, as he had done hitherto, he should in nothing at all stain his virginity; for neither of them had ever known the female sex, but to the end of life they happily remained virgins."

[27] and so died, yet seems to have no cult. "Whence there are as many witnesses as there are men who tell of their most holy life. Whence their mother is said to have been troublesome to them, because they had refused to take wives." And he does not doubt, says Egilbert, that Waldalenus enjoyed with his holy Brother the eternal joys in heaven, because, he says, "living chastely in this life, they deserved the fellowship of the angels." Besides this, in no. 19 he narrates two prodigies done at that same Waldalenus's funeral: the first, that while his body was being borne to Cusance for burial, it was so light a weight to the bearers that they believed themselves rather to be carried than to carry; the other, that from the censer which was used so great a force of incense overflowed that the smoke seemed to have grown up in the manner of a cloud. But although all these things sufficiently prove that the esteem of his holiness was great, yet of his cult I have nowhere found any trace; nor do I judge that the title of Saint was ascribed in our copy by Bolland or any other for any other cause than that he had read him thus praised, as we have said, by Egilbert.

[28] For the rest, gather from what has been said what is to be thought of the tradition Another observation about him. which Dunod, in the Memoirs of the nobility of the county of Burgundy praised above, page 117, commemorates in these words in French: "The family of Cusance here (in the said county) is believed to have been begotten from Wandelinus, St. Ermenfred's brother. This can be proved by two arguments. First, that this family always possessed the lordship in which Ermenfred founded the abbey of Cusance; that it had that abbey in its protection, and that it took its name from it. Secondly, that many noble men of that family have willed to be called Ermenfred and Wandelinus." After this Dunod, weaving the genealogical series of the same noble family, produces no one before Varnerius, a Cistercian monk in the year 1130, and then Gerard I, whom he says lived, on Gollut's opinion, at the beginning of the 14th century. I wish nothing taken away from the antiquity of that illustrious family; but the reasons alleged by Dunod are too weak for me on their account, with Egilbert asserting quite the contrary, to believe that clan sprung from Wandelinus or Waldalenus, St. Ermenfred's full brother. Nay, I persuade myself that Dunod would not have admitted that opinion had he read this Life of St. Ermenfred.

LIFE

By Egilbert, provost of Cusance.

From the manuscript codex of John James Chifflet, collated with another manuscript.

Ermenfred, first abbot of Cusance, in the county of Burgundy. (S.)

BHL Number: 2608

A. By Egilbert.

The author's letter to the men of Luxeuil.

To the lords in Christ Lœtricus ^b, Melinus, Waldigisus ^c and Ingradus, The men of Cusance set forth to the men of Luxeuil the fathers, and to all the clerics from renowned Luxeuil, Egilbert, called provost, and your subjects from Cusance wish health.

It has therefore for some time been known to your paternity, from certain men, concerning the life and the virtues of the holy man Ermenfred, which the Lord deigned to work through him unto the glory of His name: although they were learned not from written records ^d, but from those who told them. But since we see that many of our own are already dead who knew ^e the same things about the holy Man along with us, and that our own time is now hastening on, and old age bends us greatly, we who also await the day of our end — we who remain have preferred, with the Lord's help, that the term of our life's course should not be finished before we strove to convey to your learned ears, what we learned from our fathers and saw with our eyes, in little letters, unskilled though they be, so that your prudence may determine whether the true account seems to stray from the right path.

[2] the reason why they write. But if perhaps you shall have approved that we have said true things, we henceforth pray that ^f your prudent pen may correct whatever it shall find uncorrected, or, if you shall judge them false, may prudently examine them; and that this so great Man's name may first be spread abroad by you, as is fitting, so that we too, as your followers thereafter, having your authority — just as in other things we always endeavor to imitate your example — may, imitating and serving him as perfectly as we shall be able, venerate on earth him whom without doubt we know to be honored by the Lord in heaven and joined to eternal life ^g.

ANNOTATA.

THE OLD PARTITION OF CHAPTERS.

Here begin the chapter-headings on the life of the most blessed Ermenfred, abbot of the church of Cusance.

Chap. I. Of the origin of the Warasci * and of the naming of the village.

II. Of the wife dismissed and the founding of the cell, and also of the assembly of virgins, and of the handing over of that cell.

III. Of the two brothers' service in the king's palace.

IV. Of the death of the two brothers' father.

V. Of the destruction of the virgins in the same cell, and of the body taken away.

VI. Of the holy Man's conversion.

VII. Of the heavenly Mass heard.

VIII. Of the monastic habit taken by the holy Man.

IX. Of the temptation of Waldalenus, the holy Man's brother.

X. Of the death of their mother.

XI. Of the subjection of that cell to Luxeuil.

XII. Of the death of Waldalenus, the holy Man's brother.

XIII. Of the holy Man's conversion.

XIV. Of the heavenly splendor seen at the holy Man's death, and of his falling asleep.

XV. Of the holy Man's disciples.

XVI. Of the blind man to whom sight was restored.

XVII. Of the girl freed from a demon.

XVIII. Of the iron broken there.

XIX. Of the light seen in the dormitory.

XX. Of the pouring out of oil at his tomb.

XXI. Of the voices of those singing heard there.

*. Warescorum

CHAPTER I.

Certain uncertain things about the Warasci: the maidens' monastery of Cusance founded: the Saint's parents and brother: his deeds down to his monastic profession.

Chap. I

St. Eustasius preaching to the Warasci, In the times therefore of Clothar, king of the Franks ^a, the blessed man Eustasius, abbot of the monastery of Luxeuil, going forth at the bidding of St. Columbanus his predecessor, converted the Warasci ^b to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ; who of old, as they report, had been cast out from the district which is called Stadevanga, which is situated near the river Regnum ^c, from the parts of the East, and who entered upon battle against the Burgundians, but, turning their backs at the first encounter, afterward came hither, and, returning to the battle and being made victors, settled in that same district of the Warasci ^d. In which, and among whom, there was a certain man, Iserius by name, at the time of their conversion, very rich and more powerful than the rest, but still held in the unbelief of heathenism; with whom the blessed Eustasius, coming to preach, is asserted by very many to have turned aside in the estate which is called Vincunt-milites ^e. But if any shall desire to know more curiously why that estate is so named, let it be told with what brevity we can.

[2] Therefore in the times of Titus and Vespasian

of the Roman princes, about whom certain fabulous or uncertain things who, when they had appointed very many men of Europe to the siege of the city of Jerusalem, for seven years, according to the assertion of very many, did not return to their own homes. But when they by no means returned, the wives of those who from that same district of the Warasci had followed them, thinking that they had fallen in battle, or had been destroyed by some death or other, no longer hoped that they would return. And when they had quite despaired of their return, each one took a servant to herself in the bond of marriage, as it had pleased each. But after this, taking counsel together, fearing lest perhaps their husbands should at some time return, and that danger should threaten them for the deed, they made themselves a fortress most firmly fortified; so that, if it should ever come to pass * that their husbands returned, they might be saved in it. But after it was announced, long afterward, of the husbands' return, the name of that place was called Mandatum-durum ^f, which to this day is called Mandorum.

[3] To those returning also everything that had been done was announced. are narrated, Iserius dismisses his unchaste wife, They, coming, hired Roman soldiers for themselves; but their servants, going forth boldly against their masters, brought war upon them. But on the other side their former masters, together with the soldiers, rushed upon them, and began to destroy them with the sword ^g. But these, seeing that they could not resist their masters, took to flight; and they pursued them as far as the estate which from that time was called Vincunt-milites. There indeed they destroyed them by the edge of the sword, so that not even one of them remained. Where also the blessed Eustasius began to preach to the Warasci the faith of the holy Trinity, and, when they had been converted to the faith with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, he made for the Boii, who are now called Boiarii ^h. Now the aforesaid man Iserius had ⁱ an unlawful wife, Randovera ^k by name, on account namely of incest, because she had been his brother's wife: for since his brother had died without offspring, at last, that he might become heir to his brother's substance, he took his kinswoman to wife.

[4] and for her and his daughter Islia he founds the cell of Cusance. But at the exhortation of the blessed man Eustasius ^l concerning a marriage of this kind, he ordered them to be separated, saying to him after the example of St. John the Baptist, who said to Herod, "It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife"; and he separated them from one another, and enjoined that they should seek a fit place on his own land where he might make a monastery, and there hand over that same wife with her daughter to serve the Lord. He, obeying his commands, found a most fitting place upon search, in which he built a cell on the bank of the river. For there are, not far from that same cell, two springs, of which one is called Cusa, and the other is named Ancia, and a name compounded [of] the two entire makes one name, Cusancia ^m; in which he handed over that same wife with his only daughter, Islia by name, to serve the Lord. Where also virgins began to come together from every side to serve almighty God, so that forty and more, gathered in that same place, served the Lord, living under the command of the aforesaid Ramdo; and when she after a long time departed this world, her daughter Islia was substituted in her place.

III

[5] From Ermenricus, Iserius's heir, were born Waldalenus and Ermenfred, Therefore, when her father and mother were dead, the aforesaid Islia, seeing after a long while that the whole inheritance had come to her, and that she was dedicated to God and had no offspring, made that same little cell subject by the instruments of charters to the blessed protomartyr Stephen of the city of Besançon ⁿ. Now ^o there was of the heirs of the aforesaid Iserius a certain man of that time, very rich and noble and more powerful among his own, Ermenricus [p] by name, and his wife was called Waldalena; who had two sons of good disposition, namely Waldalenus and Ermenfred, who, taught from earliest infancy and imbued with sacred letters, when afterward in time they were grown, are handed over to the palace to serve King Clothar [q]. They, pleasing to all, both to the king and to all his soldiers, conducted themselves most honorably. For after a long while Waldalenus obtained the king's favor, who handed over to him his ring, and he was made his chancellor in the whole palace. For he was, according to the assertion of very many, of an elegant form and very learned in temporal and even in divine things; a lover also of the servants of God, and a helper of the poor: dear indeed in no small measure to the king and to all his princes.

[6] they live in Clothar's court with great praise, But the blessed Ermenfred pleased both God and all good men on account of his holy manner of life, and the praise of his sanctity was spread abroad in the whole palace. For he was sweet in speech, learned in knowledge, most pleasing to all. But from his mouth almost no one had ever been used to hear anything but the truth; and his life and manner of living was greatly praiseworthy. Benevolent also to all, peaceable to all, and dear to all. No one speaking with him even a little went back other than [r] edified by his honey-flowing speech, and bettered. But meanwhile, while these two brothers were staying in the palace, their father Ermenricus departed from this light. Then these two sons of his, going forth from the palace and coming to their own, having set in heaven all things [s] that seemed to belong to them, or that were necessary for the salvation of their souls, arranged them *, and at length presently returned to the palace.

[7] Now at that same time there was in that same cell a great destruction *, so that of the virgins living in that same place, and when all the nuns and Islia had died, who before are said to have been forty, within fifteen days not one at all remained [t]. Further, when the often-mentioned Islia departed from this world, certain men of the city of Besançon [u] were sent to that same place, to carry her body to that same city. Namely, that they might have authority to hold that same cell with all its goods, if her body were buried among them. They, taking that body not by force [x], were carrying it to the parts of that same city. Then a certain former servant of hers, thinking cunningly, followed them for a while and led them along as if in peace; who, coming [y] with them as far as a certain estate, and having bought them wine, they were made drunk by him. And when, being drunk, they had begun to sleep, the aforesaid servant, taking the body of his lady, strove with all his effort to make his way back.

[8] Meeting a certain man, he made known to him the cause, and besought him that, if he met those who followed him, he should say they acquire that cell. that Waldalenus with no fewer than two hundred men was hastening in pursuit of their footsteps. The man therefore promised that he would so do. He, having gone forward a little, met those who, being awakened, were hastening in pursuit of that servant's footsteps. And the man did as had been asked of him. But they not only did [not] dare to pursue, but rather, as each best could, took to flight. And the aforesaid servant was saved out of their hands, and that body is buried at Cusance to this day. Therefore after some space of time the two brothers, going forth from the palace, came to Cusance, though not without a certain hindrance; but at length at some time they received it for themselves as an inheritance, because by perfect right it belonged to them by their parents' authority.

[9] Then the blessed Ermenfred, seeing that the place would be fit for the saving work which he had conceived, Ermenfred, thinking with the king's leave upon the monastic life, began to consider how he might fulfil that same thought of salvation. And because, always seeking the things that are God's, not the things that are his own, he preferred to render to God what is God's rather than to be exalted by the pomps of the world, he chose to subsist solidly within himself, lest he should be snatched by the empty glory of the world above himself. Now he had had the desire of forsaking the world and following Christ for many days already, as the Lord Himself says: "Unless a man renounce all that he possesseth, he cannot be my disciple." And therefore that holy fire had already been kindled in him, of which the same Lord said: "I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, but that it burn?" And so the blessed man Ermenfred returned with his brother to the palace, to ask namely for leave that it might be permitted him to become a monk.

VII

[10] On a certain day therefore, while he stood before the king, the king said to him: restores the cell: dwelling with his mother, "What is this, Ermenfred? Why dost thou wear thy tunic thus? Dost thou wish to be a cleric?" For the blessed Man, out of simplicity, let his tunic, which they called Silken, hang down to the middle of his shins. To this the blessed Man is reported to have answered: "I desire both to be made a cleric and a monk: and I ask that you give me leave." He, having straightway obtained leave and likewise returning to his own, the blessed Man began to give labor with the utmost zeal to renewing and rebuilding the aforesaid cell, so that he might be able there to observe what he had purposed in his mind. But on a certain occasion, while both were staying at the estate which is called Ranustal [z] together with their mother, it happened that on the Lord's day they were to go to Mass at another estate, which is called Centusca [aa]. But when morning had come, while they waited for their servants to return from the field who had been with the horses at pasture [bb], and these did not come at all — for wolves had attacked their horses, and the servants, thrown into confusion, had run this way and that toward home.

[11] together with his brother he hears a heavenly melody. Meanwhile the blessed Ermenfred went out into the orchard for prayer, and his brother likewise had done so. Now it came to pass, while the blessed Ermenfred was praying alone, that suddenly he heard in the heavens the voices of many angels singing after the manner of the Mass which is celebrated on earth. He, calling his brother, asked him whether he heard anything: but he answered that he heard nothing. But the other said, "Set thy foot upon my right foot." And when he had set his right foot upon the blessed Man's foot, they stood together through the whole celebration with a divine trembling. And when that heavenly silence [cc] was ended, prostrate straightway upon the earth they gave thanks to almighty God, who deigned so to glorify His servants. Calling their mother also to them, they narrated to her what they had heard. But she, wailing, said: "Why, dearest sons, did you not call me?" And they enjoined her that she should tell this to no one in her lifetime, unless perhaps she should wish to on the last day of her death; and so with thanksgiving they took food.

ANNOTATA.

the 29 of March, chapter 1, the anonymous author in the Life of St. Agilus, abbot of Rebais, at the 30 of August, chapter 3, and the biographer of St. Salaberga the abbess at the 22 of September, chapter 1, more rightly call them Warasci, and the last of these adds that they inhabited part of the province of the Sequani and the streams of the Duvius (that is, the Doubs, commonly le Doux or le Dou). Consult the praised Lives.

p. The Souget one has "Emericus," and below always calls the Saint's mother Wadalena and his brother Wadalenus.

q. This period I have gathered from both copies (for in both it was faulty), the word "tempore" being added, which for that reason I have enclosed in brackets. Of Clothar see above at the letter a.

r. Either "non" or "nisi" is superfluous.

s. So both copies, which I do not know what it means here: for the brothers did not then bestow all their goods upon the poor or upon pious places.

t. The French translator, about whom consult the Commentary, no. 15, expounded that destruction as by pestilence, which is likely enough.

u. The same translator says that these men were sent by the clergy of the church of St. Stephen; namely because Islia had made her cell subject to that same church.

x. The Frenchman renders: "By force, after many altercations."

y. So both manuscripts; but if for "qui veniens" you read "venit," the sense will be entire.

z. In the Souget one there is read in the margin, "others, Rantiscal," and it is added that it is perhaps Rantechaux.

aa. In the same manuscript it is noted in the margin that Centusca is perhaps Santoche, about which place see the Commentary, no. 7.

bb. Namely, these horses were to be brought so that their masters might be carried elsewhere to hear Mass.

cc. So indeed both copies have it, but manifestly "psallentio" must be read.

*. that is, if it should come to pass

*. others: "optaverunt"

*. "clades"

CHAPTER II.

His monastic life at Luxeuil: the monks gathered by him at Cusance, which he makes subject to Luxeuil: his acts there.

VIII

For at that time the blessed Eustasius, receiving the fruit of his labor, had already gone to the heavenly things ^a. Whose successor was the blessed Waldebert ^b, to whom the blessed Ermenfred went according to what had been arranged, and by him was instructed in all Regular and religious discipline, and received from him all the garments of the monastic habit. Made a monk at Luxeuil, he gathers monks at Cusance, He was made a monk, and afterward by his choice ascended also to the honor of the priestly office; and so with the blessing of the blessed abbot Waldebert he entered his own little cell of Cusance, binding himself to every religious observance. He also utterly forsook the world, and not only distributed all the other movable goods he had had; but also gave all the small vessels of gold and silver in shares to the poor, and conferred the rest upon the adornment of the church. Many also began after him to leave the world, and to hand over their goods to him, and to serve the Lord there.

[13] over whom he presides: his brother, dangerously tempted, And there was made a congregation of no small size, whose life was, according to what is read in the Acts of the Apostles, "one heart and one soul," not fewer than thirty ^c living there under regular discipline in the fear of the Lord, and serving as soldiers under the command of their lord and father Ermenfred. But his brother in the world did not remain a secular, because ^d he furnished to the blessed Man, living in that same place, the necessaries of the body, so that, according to the Apostle, having food and raiment, they should be content therewith. And so, while Waldalenus was staying at the estate of Ranustal, mentioned above, the devil, the enemy, the ancient craftsman of guile, cast enticing forms ^e before the eyes of Waldalenus, the blessed Man's brother, concerning a certain girl, his own maidservant. But when he could not draw his mind from this thought, and blushed to confess it to his Brother, he was more and more incited to commit the abominable crime. But by God's will, on that same night when the devil already thought to rejoice over him, it was divinely revealed to the holy man Ermenfred, who was living assiduously at his cell in God's service.

[14] he leads to perpetual virginity and a holy life. He, going out straightway, came in fury to his brother, and cast that girl out to another of his estates, and brought his brother with him to the cell, admonishing him that, as he had done hitherto, he should in nothing at all stain his virginity; for neither of them had ever known the female sex; but to the end of life they happily remained virgins ^f. Whence there are as many witnesses as there are men who tell of their most holy life. Whence their mother is said to have been troublesome to them, because they had refused to take wives. The holy man Ermenfred was also jealous over that brother of his with that holy jealousy of which it is read: "For as there is an evil jealousy of bitterness, which separates from God and leads down to hell, so also there is a good jealousy, which separates from vices and leads to God and to eternal life." This jealousy therefore the blessed Man exercised toward his brother with a most fervent love, desiring that he should always be free from every stain of sin, so that in eternal life they might rejoice without end with the Lord: which we do not doubt that they do, because, living chastely in this life, they deserved the fellowship of the angels. And so great was the charity in them that there was never anyone who had heard a harsh word uttered by one against the other; but there was always among them one willing and one refusing.

[15] But when the last day of their mother's decease was at hand, His mother dies; he himself grows more famous: that which the holy Man together with his brother heard, the heavenly Mass, was made known to all. Then the fame of the holy Man was more widely spread about, and many came to him to receive counsel for the salvation of their souls; but he, like a good physician, healed all who came to him, and so those who confessed their sins to him; and if anyone had come to him sad on account of the disgrace of his wickedness, he departed with compunction of heart glad in the Lord because of the hope of pardon; and he said to him the Gospel example: "Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh." But the remission of sins and the temporal penalty imposed on account of g eternal punishments and threats he did not allow to depart without some fear of heart, according to that which the Gospel word declares, saying: "Woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn." He was also venerated by all, who knew him holy and just and pleasing to the Lord, and they rejoiced to have so great a patron near them.

[16] But after this the blessed Man, thinking together with his brother about the future condition of that cell, he makes his monastery subject to Luxeuil namely after their departure, and foreseeing that it would not be of such substance that it could of itself obey the king's dominion; and if they had leaned it upon others, they feared lest perhaps it should be destroyed rather than built up ^h. Whence, considering and discussing not a little, at last they chose it better that they should subject it to Luxeuil, where regular discipline was more strictly held; because Luxeuil was the head of all the monasteries of Burgundy and of France, and that they who should be living at that cell might be taught and instructed by the monks of that monastery. And therefore, liberty having been given to many of his men-servants and maid-servants (so that letters concerning the same cell were examined, and they might have there patronage and defense ⁱ), in the third year of King Dagobert ^k he gave over the cell under the instruments of charters to the lordship ^l of those who should be the guardians of that monastery.

XII

[17] And they made two letters about this very thing, one of which should be kept at Luxeuil, in the year 631 or 632: he visits his sick brother, but the other retained at that cell, containing this: that if one brought up in that same place were such as could govern that cell according to the will of God, it should be lawful for them to do this with the consent of the abbot of the monastery of Luxeuil; but if this were not so, then, by the election of the brethren of that cell, the abbot of that monastery should set there under his rule such a man from Luxeuil as should govern that cell regularly according to the will of God. When therefore Waldalenus was staying at the estate mentioned above, he was seized with fever. Then, contrary to his custom, the blessed Man came to his sick brother, who after his conversion had never been used

to go out from the cell, except for a most certain common utility; and even this scarcely, unless he were compelled by the brethren. And so, when he had consoled his brother and strengthened his faith in the Lord, he presently returned to the cell to pray to the Lord for him.

[18] But while the blessed Man, together with the brethren, persisted day and night in prayer to the Lord for him, whose death he learns from heaven, and whose body his aforesaid brother came to his last hour. When he had passed from this corruption, as we believe, to the incorruption of eternal life, it was divinely revealed in the dead of night to the blessed Man, who was staying at Cusance. He, rising and striking the bell and calling the brethren together, made known to them his brother's departure from this life; and, entering the church with them all, he remained through the space of the rest of the night watching in prayer for him with the brethren. But when morning came, the holy Father with the brethren went to meet his brother's body as far as the estate which is called Ebriæ, that is, as far as the river Doubs ^m. Thither therefore his body was carried by four men bearing it.

[19] But when four other men wished to take up that same body to be carried across the river, he buries at Cusance not without wonders. the holy Man withstood them, saying: "There is no need," he said, "save for two only." Two men therefore, taking up the bier, carried it with such speed to the summit of the mountain, which rises very high in that same place, that the people who followed the bier could scarcely walk with them. For the bearers said that they felt so light a weight that they seemed rather to be carried than to carry. This indeed was a wonder to all the people. But another was more wonderful: for from the censer which they carried so great a force of incense overflowed that the smoke seemed to have grown up in the manner of a cloud; whence also there was no small astonishment. And carrying him to Cusance, they buried him honorably in the tomb which he had himself prepared for himself in the church of St. John the Baptist.

XIII

[20] And so the holy Ermenfred, growing daily in the sanctity of religion, The holy Abbot's pious way of living with his own and persevering in a holy manner of life, governed the people of monks subject to him in the warfare of the eternal King. No one beside him was either lifted up by excessive gladness or cast down by sadness: because he was, as the Apostle says, "rejoicing with them that rejoice, weeping with them that weep"; and his subjects lived holily with him according to what is sung in the psalm, "With the holy thou shalt be holy, and with the innocent man thou shalt be innocent." Charity too among them was very great, so that, set upon earth, they seemed to live as angels. There was no envy among them; for it is the plague of virtues ⁿ: no murmuring; for it is thoroughly known to be a grave peril, as is read of the Jewish people, that "their murmuring was their perdition"; because the Lord sent fiery serpents, namely that serpentine and venomous hearts, murmuring unjustly against God ^o, might be justly punished by the just Judge. Whence, if substance is diminished in anything, thanks are to be rendered to almighty God, and His service to be fulfilled unceasingly; because He has promised to the pious, saying: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."

[21] and his humility. Otherwise murmuring is altogether harmful, which in every way was far from the blessed Man's disciples; because all things were common to them together with their Father. The holy Man left an abbot's example to those who came after, that, living in common with the rest, charity might always increase and grow in them. They said also of the blessed Man that, for humility's sake, when on the Lord's days or the festival days of the Saints, after the completion of the Masses, as is the ecclesiastical custom, he gave the eulogies to the people, if he saw any workman or very poor man with cracked hands [p], he did not give the eulogies before the most kindly Father, turning the matter about, kissed those hands; and then at last he gave the eulogies. But this too he did for humility's sake: that when the servants beat the wheat on the threshing-floor with a rod, he alone the whole day, fasting, cleaned it with the winnowing-fan. For this he did not from necessity, but that he might give the rest an example of humility, fulfilling that of the psalmist: "For thou shalt eat the labors of thy hands, blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee."

ANNOTATA.

p. That is, with hands chapped from constant work.

*. that is, "gradi"

*. "videretur"

*. "viventibus"

*. "augeatur"

CHAPTER III.

The Saint's blessed death and burial: some of his disciples and miracles.

XIV

[ ] The Saint dies in a prodigious light: And so the holy father Ermenfred, the term of his life's course being completed, came, his body burning with fever, to that last hour in which he should render his blessed soul to heaven. Therefore in the silence of the dead of night, when the sun had already turned away his rays from the earth and drawn blind shadows of gloom over the world, in that same dormitory, with the brethren standing about on every side where that same holy Father awaited his last departure, suddenly fear came upon all, so that no one could stand there or see his holy soul going forth. And when all had withdrawn not far off, a light of such brightness was sent forth from heaven upon his holy body that it seemed to surpass the splendor of the sun, and in that same golden light on the VII ^a of the Kalends of October he sent forth his happy spirit. Which light not only the disciples who were present saw, but also all who around that same cell were keeping watch over their flocks at pasture in that same district; nor was it forbidden to any who watched outside to see this wonderful sign. Whence by the testimony of many it was spread far and wide that they had seen so great a brightness that it shone forth most plainly that then his soul with that same light passed to another life.

[23] his death is divinely revealed: he is buried at Cusance. But neither must this especially be kept silent, that a certain enclosed holy woman, who was at the monastery of virgins at Baume ^b, distant from that same cell more or less six miles, at the very moment of his death called her attendant to her and said: "Go quickly," she said, "tell Warnerius ^c and the sisters, that the lord Ermenfred is now passing from this life to the Lord." For it was a custom of old in the aforesaid monastery that one of them, whose mind the Holy Spirit had more ardently enlightened, should be kept enclosed, together with one attendant only. Aussus ^d however was straightway sent as a messenger to Cusance, who found the holy father Ermenfred already dead. But the disciples with honor and reverence buried him beside his brother's tomb, apart, in the church of St. John the Baptist, which both had once prepared for themselves of stone. Where the Lord has deigned, unto the praise and glory of His name, to show signs and mighty works even in our times.

[24] Now of his disciples we, the disciples of his disciples, have seen seven, The author sets forth why little is known about the Saint, by whom we were brought up. They had been wont to tell us many good and holy things about him; but because at that time religion, simplicity, and the work of the hands were rather studied than any art, therefore these things were not written in those times. But we, unskilled though we are, have thought it right that, while some things are still known, lest perhaps they be given over to oblivion, the examples and virtues of so great a Man should be written; and that those who come after should remember how holy and how loved by God he was, humbling himself and binding himself in every littleness ^e for God's sake; and that, holding the examples of his humility and chastity and of many other Saints, there may be no occasion of turning aside to the right hand or to the left; but that, walking by the straight path, they may always press on toward that eternal life whither they know the Saints have gone on before. Many things about what the holy Father did in his life were learned by us from our elders, which through our negligence have gone out of our memory.

[25] and what he is still about to say: he praises some But after his death also very many miracles were done at his tomb, which we do not remember, chiefly because it was the custom of our predecessors always rather to keep silence than to speak, not only about

evil and hurtful things, but also about good things and words of edification, on account of that saying of the prophet: "I said, I will keep my ways, that I offend not in my tongue." They therefore day and night, because they were held occupied with almost nothing but the work of their hands or the meditation of readings and psalms ^f; but we, lukewarm though we be, desiring to follow their footsteps, set forth the few things about the holy Man which we learned from them. But after his death we relate absolutely nothing else save what we have seen done at his tomb. For we saw of the holy Man's disciples a certain one, Wandalbert by name, a man (so to speak) angelic and holy. He indeed after the destruction which befell in that same cell ^g had remained in that same place, serving God day and night, for many days; whom also the blessed Ermenfred, when he had left the secular warfare, found there.

[26] his disciples, whom he knew. To him all our predecessors bore witness for goodness and justice; whom we too saw in decrepit age living religiously. They said therefore of him that on a certain day, when as an old man, weary from labor, he had fallen asleep at midday under the shade of a tree of the little garden, an eagle, coming from above, sat over him in the tree, and, stretching out its wings over his head, overshadowed him until the old man rose from sleep. We saw also another, the holy Man's cellarer, who was called Abæus, a just and good man. But also three others, who were provosts next after the holy Man *; namely Ravenbordus, Adbertus, and Athaël. And two others also, Caranus and Maldagis, who lived religiously down to our own time. But since some mention has now been made of the sons, let us return again to the Father of whom we began to speak.

XVI

[27] Now it came to pass after the Saint's death that whoever, being ill, came with devotion of faith to his tomb A blind man receives sight at the tomb, then loses it: were restored by the power of his former sanctity. Therefore, passing over the other things, as we have already said, which were done there before — since through our negligence they are not remembered — let us tell what we have seen. For a certain servant of ours (he had indeed been the brethren's baker) was deprived of his sight. Now some of the brethren exhorted him utterly to dismiss the concubine whom he had (for which we believe that servant deserved this), and to keep watch vigilantly day and night at the holy Man's tomb, and with a groaning of tears to labor for the washing away of his fault, and to trust that through the holy Man's intercession he could receive his sight. And when he had done this for some while, he deserved at last through the holy Man's intercession to have his sight: whom we saw both seeing * before and blind, and then enlightened through the holy Man's intercession. But the unhappy man would not after his tears restrain himself from the fault already mentioned above; he again deserved the divine vengeance, and was made blind again, and ended his life blind.

XVII & XVIII

[28] Then a certain girl, Anlilis by name, who was grievously vexed by a demon, was brought to his tomb, a possessed woman is freed: a penitent is loosed from an iron chain. who had also both her lips torn with her teeth; and when they had prayed to God for her a little while in the church *, her former health was restored to her by the holy Man's power, so that the demon dared not approach her any further. Another miracle also we saw wrought in the same place. For a certain pilgrim, coming to that same place bound with iron, who declared that for many years, on account of a certain guilt, he had gone through many places to do penance; he entered the church where the holy body rests; and when he had risen from prayer, the iron which he wore fell broken to the ground. Whence it appeared that the Lord, for the grace of the holy Man, the penance being accomplished, deigned to absolve him. And that same iron also many of ours saw hanging above the door of that church for many years.

XIX

[29] Therefore after a long space of time, while the holy Man's bed still remained in the dormitory with some of his bedding; A light believed to have been seen over his bed: since indeed it was altogether venerated by the brethren, and all judged themselves unworthy even to touch the holy Man's bedding, but set there the sign of the holy Trinity for veneration of him. Therefore on a certain night, while the brethren were sleeping in that same dormitory without a light, suddenly two of our elder brethren, awaking (of whom one was Warathio, the other Odolgarius, to whose justice we all bear witness), declared that they had seen in that same dormitory so great a brightness as they had never before experienced *. And desiring to see this more curiously, what it might be, they could not at all lift up their heads, until, as before, that house grew dark; but what that brightness was, they altogether do not know.

[30] But this too must by no means be passed over, that from the day of the holy Man's burial a glass lamp hung beside his tomb, the oil of the lamp long multiplied: into which oil had been put; which afterward was always alight, and not diminished down to our own time. And it always poured out oil little by little from above onto the ground where it was, but underneath there was a receptacle in which the oil poured from above could be received: whence another lamp too was lighted. But it happened through negligence: a dog entered that same church, and, licking of the oil poured out upon the ground, was straightway made rabid, and before it was cast out of the church its eyes were torn out from its head; which we too saw. And thereafter oil was not poured out as it had been wont before.

XXI

[31] a prodigious singing heard in the church. Last year our servants, dwelling beside that same church, on the most holy night of Easter itself, before they struck the bell for Nocturns, heard in that same church most sweet voices of people singing in melody. But he who first among them heard this took care to rouse the other two, saying: "Rise, for the brethren are already celebrating the nocturnal Hours in the church." When they * were awakened, great fear, as they say, smote them all: and while, attending to this a little while, they listened with fear, and often signed themselves with the sign of the holy Cross, and said the Lord's Prayer, which they knew, meanwhile the bell was struck for Nocturns. But then fear smote them still more, knowing that the brethren were not there at that time. But at another time also they declare that they heard like things there. But we, who are lovers of Christ ^h, must needs be imitators of the holy Man, and celebrate his birthday with a devout mind, that we may deserve to have him as intercessor for us with Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

*. add "fuerunt"

*. that is, "vidimus"

*. "deprecantibus"

*. add "meminissent"

*. rather "fusum"

*. "eruti sunt"

*. read "quos," etc.