MGH, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum V (1910), ed. B. Krusch — translated from the Latin. The file contains the alternative prologue (B), Krusch’s bibliographical notes, the full primitive Passion (recension A) in thirty-nine chapters with its prologue, and the opening of Krusch’s critical preface to the Passions of St Leodegar of Autun (text breaks off mid-sentence).

The alternative prologue (recension B) #

The heavenly charity of Christ, at whose nod the stars alternate with day and night alike, ceases not to show to His holy Church, through the merits of His servants, fresh increases of virtue. Therefore it behoves us diligently to relate to the assembled people the examples of the saints and to disclose them with the pen and commit them to pages, to stir up souls toward the rewards of paradise. For as after the Lord’s resurrection the throng of martyrs multiplied in manifold wise, so even in modern time through the bishop Praeiectus are many signs of Christ displayed.

Krusch’s note on the editions: The more recent text B was the first to be published, while the primitive work, lacking both beginning and end, long lay neglected until I myself took pity on it. Laurentius Surius (De probatis sanctorum historiis, Cologne 1570, vol. I, pp. 603–607) published the Passion B without prologue, rendered in places paraphrastically — for he so reworked the style that he seems almost to have composed a new recension. André du Chesne (Historiae Francorum scriptores coaetanei, Paris 1636, vol. I, pp. 671–672) admitted fragments drawn from recension B; and perceiving that it had gaps — a man of great judgement — he added on p. 673 the history of Claudia’s inheritance and of Praeiectus’s second journey, there omitted, from recension A, namely chapters 23–27, using, it is true, a mediocre codex, namely A 5. Jean Bolland (Acta Sanctorum, Antwerp 1643, January vol. II, pp. 630–632) published chapters 14–31 of Passion A — that is, the history of the episcopate down to the martyrdom — from codex A 6, and on pp. 633–636 subjoined recension B, prefixing both the prologue of A and that of B; both he found in a single codex of Ste-Marie-de-Ripario (our B 2a), besides which he employed one codex of James Sirmond, unknown to us, and another of the monastery of St Maximin at Trier (our B 3). But from the former prologue he concluded that the author of B was also the saint’s contemporary and an eyewitness — for he could hardly divine that it actually belonged to Passion A. Jean Mabillon (Acta sanctorum ord. S. Benedicti, Paris 1669, Saeculum II, pp. 640–645) reprinted Bolland’s edition A, being destitute of codices, and on pp. 645–651 added recension B, prefixing the prologue of A but suppressing its own. The Compiègne codex which he cited had both texts, and at the end exhibited the miracle which I have found in codex B 7 alone. For the emendation of text A that man, otherwise most deserving of these studies, contributed nothing; and the changes he ordered made in text B after that Compiègne codex seem to me of sufficiently doubtful authority. Certainly our Praeiectus was little advanced by Mabillon’s industry.

The history, then, of what the martyr did before his episcopate, together with that of his burial and miracles — such as the contemporary author A once committed to letters — lay unedited, and the middle part, drawn from a book of inferior note, nobody had yet cared for; when I chanced upon a most precious monument. Codex A 1 having been found, I held nothing more urgent than to publish for the first time in our Annals the parts unknown hitherto, from it and from codices A 4a and b, with a brief preface on the credibility of the contemporary author. Nor indeed would I now affirm all that I then set forth concerning his condition, since so many years have again slipped by while I was occupied in so laborious a matter. — B. Krusch.

Here begins the prologue to the Passion of St Praeiectus, bishop and martyr #

It was the custom among the ancients and most learned men to publish with sagacious zeal, under Christ’s auspices — without whom nothing good is done — the deeds of those whose miracles they saw to be mighty in holy acts, that posterity to come might glory in the merits of their predecessors, whether by imitating them or by commending them to memory. For Eusebius, bishop of the city of Caesarea, a man mighty in eloquence and facility, following the examples of his elders, described the countless struggles of the martyrs; whom Rufinus imitated, drawing them out in writing even to the consulate of the emperor Theodosius. But to come to the sacred anchorites and confessors: the blessed Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, published the acts of Antony; and the holy and most learned of all men, Jerome, those of Paul and Hilarion and the rest whom the worship of a good life rendered worthy of praise. Postumianus, Severus and Gallus bequeathed to us the deeds of the excellent Martin in their little books. The most blessed Gregory too, pontiff of the Roman church, to whom even the secrets of heaven lay open, compiled in the books which he entitled Dialogues the struggles of the saints in manifold and honey-sweet narrative. Jonas also, an eloquent man of our own memory, published most luminously the life of the blessed Columbanus and of his disciples Athala, Eustasius and Bertulf. In comparison with whom we are counted but sorry homespun men; yet mindful of that precept of the Lord and our Saviour — Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you — and of that oracle of the psalmist — Open your mouth and I will fill it — though with temerity, yet not with stealth or the effort of presumption, satisfying your commands, I will attempt to weave the deeds which I have found concerning the most excellent bishop Praeiectus, both by searching investigation and by the report of very many. Therefore I beseech the reader — whoever, caught by love of the bishop, shall resolve to read — that he look not here for Tullian eloquence nor the fluency of orators, nor the flowers of philosophers and the various assertions of historians, but the purity of holy Church. For not even the eagle, with wings outspread, flies ever into the ether, but more often diverts to earth on lowered pinions; and amid royal feasts even humble apples and field lettuces are reckoned among the best dishes. God the Father is therefore to be entreated, that He unveil the clouds of my dense and sluggish understanding. And our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ is to be entreated, that He deign to breathe upon me the breath of the Holy Spirit, that He may rub off the darkness of my heart and grant me the faculty of speech, that so I may be able to discourse of the deeds of the aforementioned bishop, who ever burned with love of Christ — that his example may be bound to propagate virtue of soul in posterity; and may He, the eternal sower of things, grant it, who made the tongues of infants eloquent — your prayer aiding me. Amen.

Here begins the Passion of St Praeiectus, bishop and martyr #

1 #

St Praeiectus, then, was born in the province of the Auvergnats and shone with the stock of a Roman family. His father was Gundolenus and his mother was called Eligia; they drew their origin from an ancient lineage, being Catholic folk most worthy of the Christian religion, through whom the Lord also declared many miracles. But it must not be passed over in deaf ears that, when his mother was about to bring him forth into the world after the manner of mortals, a few days before she is said to have seen in an ecstasy her son as it were issuing through her side, whom thereafter a flood of blood followed and drenched. She, shaken in herself and trembling at the sight, began to wail this way and that, desiring to have determined what such things portended for her. While she thought on this it befell that the most holy man Peladius, an archpriest, arrived; and her brother began to enquire point by point why she was trembling beyond her custom. She told the vision; the saint of God declared to her the whole — that she would bear such a son as should be great among his own while he was in the world, and should fulfil his course for the sake of martyrdom. The mother, rejoicing at what was spoken, stood, as I believe, beseeching the Lord; and consenting in faith to the priestly utterance, prayed that it might come to pass for the boy.

2 #

The boy is born, wails in his cradle, is nourished on milk. What more? He grows as a man does, and when the time came for him to take up the sharpening of letters he was handed to a master to be taught in the diocese of Issoire. O truly the Lord filled His boy everywhere! So quickly was his faculty filled that he was no lesser than all who were present — no, he even outstripped his contemporaries in the sounds of the grammarians and in the antiphons. He is able to do this who showed the prophet to all men while the sycomore was plucked at.

3 #

These things done, Peladius, of whom we have made mention — who was a kinsman of Praeiectus — told the boy that he was bidden by a certain deacon named Babo to a dinner, and that he would go with him. The boy followed his uncle; they came to the house of the host. But as is the custom of evil men to heed rather things of infamy than those profitable to the soul’s need, this Babo kept dogs, the beasts which are accustomed to give men comfort and to terrify the savagery of wild things, chained with chains guarding his house before the doors. Their madness was so great that they stinted not to wound men’s bodies. But that God’s grace might already be revealed in our boy Praeiectus, he resolved to draw near before the doors. When the wretched dogs saw him they burst their chains and barked furiously at the boy, eager to tear him in pieces. But He saved him whose servant he was afterwards to be among the people, in wondrous wise, so that the dogs’ ferocity did the boy no harm. But when the others arrived they turned their madness upon them and wounded the wretches — that it might be understood that him whom the Lord loved they had not dared to rend with their bites, who had armed his brow beneath the defence of the Lord’s cross.

4 #

These things done, Praeiectus was commended by his parents in the hall to Genesius, then archdeacon, who not long after was raised to the pontifical summit. Receiving him, he nourished and instructed him with paternal affection and all diligence; and when he was made bishop he had him as counsellor at his ear, and made him dispenser of the money committed to him for the poor. Him he so proved and trained in delights and disciplines alike in all things — as that age took up the causes of letters — that many thereby filled their throats with envy. And as is the custom of clergy to weigh down the knowledge of others which they cannot fill into their own cells, they desire to drench with malignant hate the others who are given to wisdom. From where they stirred up a certain Martin, who sounded the chanting voice for the beauty of the holy churches in manifold modulations, with the poisons of the clergy into envy against Praeiectus, and poured into his ear that he should make the boy render among the rest a certain tune which he had not learnt, whereof he himself was ignorant — which his rivals had now for a long age been singing aloud; so that at last, so to speak, he made the middle note sound forth. The boy is bidden to render what he had never prepared. But the boy arms his brow, fences his breast, seeks patience, invokes the holy martyr Julian to be his helper — and that he might neither fail the master’s command nor break his temper and quell the malice of the other rivals, the Lord filled His boy so that he sang with a master’s voice the tune he had never held. Thus his rivals were tormented by their own malice: while they desired to give the boy punishment, they lifted him to praises. The blessed Praeiectus used to relate to his companions afterwards that it so slipped from his memory that he was never again able to render it. What else is to be understood but that He compassed him with His own defence, by whose grace he was inwardly mighty?

5 #

Not long after, the blessed bishop Genesius had the will to commit the diocese of Issoire to St Praeiectus to govern. How greatly and in what manner he showed himself in that governance is not to be kept silent: how frequent in fastings, how prompt at the synaxis, how glad in pursuing the scrolls of the Scriptures — they are witnesses who are said to have seen. For he was custom in the days of abstinence to place himself as a dweller beneath the cloister of his cell; save only when he took the accustomed meals with the faith of his own household, he shunned the sight of laymen. Why should we tarry longer? He so showed himself, as far as he could by God’s grace and in humility, in that governance, that even then he appeared a standard-bearer to us and a most kind teacher to his own.

6 #

Then, when his means had been increased, he began to distribute not a few gifts of money into the fields of Christ — that is, the laps of the poor. For once when he had given to a certain Gundobertus, his kinsman, a small sum of alms-money to be kept, the poor arrived, importunately knocking at the doors. Praeiectus’s scantiness distressed him — what he might distribute among so many, since he had no more than two coins. His armour-bearer returns to his accustomed solace; he prays the Lord, who is the giver of all, to bestow on him what he may lend at interest to the rest. He calls Gundobertus, bids the few coins be brought. But when the man seeks the smallness of the coins, a miracle happened in wondrous wise: the Lord poured in there as much money as was the throng of poor standing before the doors.

7 #

Nor is the miracle he wrought at the coming of guests to be kept silent. When he had resolved, with the blessed custom of provident charity, to take food with them, he asked the steward whether he had any provision of fish. The butler replied that he had not even the smallest particle. The bishop bade a boy go to the river and bring water. The boy drew, and took into the vessel such a fish as might nourish the hunger of the guests for the meal. Nor is the Lord’s hand powerless to bestow anything freely on His own, who at His will brought all things into forms at His bidding.

8 #

And as is the custom for rulers of parishes to present themselves to the bishop’s sight at the Easter days, very many priests came as usual to the city, among whom was the presence of the blessed Praeiectus. He, after the greeting given, came into the same city to his own house and prepared a feast; and as is usual on such days for companions to be brought together, he ordered a meal to be prepared in an upper chamber. A great throng of guests arrived, among whom reclined three penitents whose names were these: Venerianus a servant of God, who fulfilled his name with his work; Gosoaldus, a witness of Christ; Marialdus a monk. They reclined as usual, the dishes were served — and the penitents were mocked by the fellow-guests, who lifted themselves into guffaws and vain laughter and stood forth as no small detractors of penitence. The most blessed Praeiectus on his side, with his wonted custom, warned them that such things ought rather to be done than derided. But they ceased not to detract from God’s servants, no, they lifted themselves more loftily into the air of exalted laughter. But that Judge who with merciful governance disposes and rules all things, and who does not vainly give solace to His own, stood by Praeiectus as no small defender. The timbers of the upper chamber burst and slid to the pavement in fragments — the envious detractors fell to the depths. But the blessed Praeiectus, with the penitents his companions, sat down again rejoicing at the table; that it might be understood that He is mighty, according to the psalmist’s word saying: I will reprove you and set it before your face — He saved those worthy of Him and set a bridle on the evil speakers; and they, saved by God’s grace, drawn out of the ruin of the house, returned to their own dwellings. So, so let the banqueters learn to receive a bridle from the Lord and not dare to threaten His penitent servants.

9 #

It is to be wondered what and how great a library the Lord had stored in the cupboard of his heart — for while he yet exercised the office of deacon he began to go before the seniors in their pleas, and published a little book of the holy martyrs given from heaven, the best of all — that is, of Cassius, Victorinus and Antolianus and their other companions: how they had fought against the worship of idols and how, Christ favouring, they had come to the receptacles of heaven; and with wondrous skill he dedicated to the Christian peoples a most worthy fruit of his lamp-lit labours. Also the deeds of the holy martyr Austremonius — whose sepulchre is agreed to be at the church of Issoire over which he himself presided — he fittingly adorned at the same time with a worthy discourse. But that the guardian of his humility might be present, he withheld such things from the public, lest perchance the people’s flattery, poured into his ears, should draw him back from the benevolence of his Maker.

10 #

After this he was bidden by Felix, then bishop, to undertake the burden of the senior dignity of the monastery of Chantoin — that, as he ever sought for himself delectable consolations and held the ministry of holy souls, he might exercise the profit of healing in the clergy no less than a shepherd’s care. How greatly he bound himself there under Christ’s command and rendered himself an example, the inhabitants of that place declare in their praises.

11 #

But it were long to set forth in order all the miracles the Lord deigned to show in that office through him. But to touch briefly on a few of the greatest: when he had resolved to renew an ancient building in the town quarter, it befell, as is the builders’ custom, that workmen ran about over the scaffolding to raise the already ancient fabric higher and make it firm. The bishop was present; the height of the scaffolding was about sixty feet from the ground. It befell that, as the builders moved along the scaffolds, the masonry broke, and with a countless multitude of stones fell to the ground and crushed one of the bystanders — so that under so innumerable a heap of rocks he was thought to be found dead or crushed to pieces. But the holy Praeiectus, with weeping, entered the neighbouring basilica of St Adjutor; he proclaimed himself guilty of the death, the slayer of that man; pouring out a shower of tears he cried prayers to the God of hosts, begging moreover that the countless stones raining down upon the man should be cast aside, or at least that they should draw out his corpse. They, fulfilling his commands, found him whom they had thought dead, unhurt and alive. Whose doing was this, unless the most merciful grace of almighty God wrought these miracles through Praeiectus?

12 #

Not many days after, while the Lord deigned to work not a few signs through His servant — at which time in the aforementioned city of the Auvergnats a bishop named Felix exercised the pontifical charge — by God’s ordering he paid the debt of nature. And when the aforementioned blessed Praeiectus had buried him with much grief, he returned with mourning to the memory of the vision which in former times he had learnt from his kinsman and by his mother’s telling. He deemed it fitting to unfold it openly to the whole people; but this only he received in answer from all — whether he knew himself to have so great a store of gold and silver wherewith to undertake that work. But he in answer rendered that if the Lord willed to give him that service, he believed He would give him also, according to canonical authority, no lack of monies — which afterwards the event proved.

13 #

Now in the time of the bishop Felix who had just died, Garivaldus — who then discharged the levitical ministry — had gained the burden of the archdeaconry. It came about that five of the senior abbots, being joined in fellowship — namely the aforementioned Garivaldus of holy memory, the aforementioned Praeiectus, and also Ariwaldus, set over the priesthood in great faith, and Aginus the priest, and fifthly Stephen the deacon — had unanimously drawn up a letter, because they held the leadership of the clergy in that city, to the effect that where these five agreed, after the departure of the aforementioned bishop Felix he should receive the pastoral governance, the Lord favouring. And this covenant had been made at the instance and solicitation of the aforementioned arch-minister, because he believed himself the successor in that ministry — since the custom of the ancients had been that he who discharged this levitical service in the place should, if the see fell to him, obtain the pastoral charge. And when the aforementioned Garivaldus learnt that the blessed Praeiectus was relating the vision he had learnt from his parents, he openly produced the letter against him to be read aloud before all the church. But the aforementioned men who had confirmed it with their own hands accommodated their will to the election of the blessed Praeiectus. And Garivaldus, when he knew himself hemmed in on all sides, and suffering loss in that part of the clergy from which he believed his security came — the others and the rest of the clergy being forsaken and brotherhood abandoned — sought by the fomenting of gold and silver the solace of laymen. And they, having received the money, crushed the whole clergy by violence and raised the aforementioned Garivaldus to the pastoral dignity. But Garivaldus himself, not many days after — yet when forty days were fulfilled — paid the debt of nature, and left the see which he had usurped unworthily to a better man who sought it.

Thus far what he did before he received the pastoral charge; now follows the order of his deeds.

14 #

Under the of blessed memory King Childeric, who held the principate of Germany — when the church of the Auvergnats was almost destitute of the sacerdotal summit and at that time Genesius, a man of industry and noble birth and rich in wealth, held the countship in the aforementioned city — that city, untamed, once mighty, now richer in martyrs’ blood: a land pleasant, save that it is often harassed by the blasts of the west winds and the onsets of thunderbolts, near which the Loire, flowing with headlong course, half-girdling the Aquitanian province, after many windings and long stretches of land enters broadly into the Ocean sea. But let us return to our purpose. When the rumour of obtaining the priesthood ran the rounds — as is custom in such matters — and one strove to be preferred to another and they disputed among themselves, but when the greatest part had determined with the utmost effort by royal edicts to raise the aforementioned Genesius to the pontifical summit, he, smitten with fear lest he should act against the decrees of the canons and declaring himself unworthy of the priesthood, declined; but the citizens gave voice to the election of Praeiectus, who in those days exercised the office of the priestly order in that city. And when this agreement had come to the ears of the people, the voice of all, clergy and laity and men, became one — that Praeiectus was worthy of the priesthood. What need of more? With God as author he was ordained bishop. For he was most pious and conspicuous with all sweetness, cheerful of countenance, mild in speech, endowed in alms and fasts, mighty in virginity, fair in body, diffused in charity, conspicuous in humility, illustrious in knowledge and eloquence, adorned in manners — so that beneath a human form you might discern an angelic life being led.

15 #

For he had at that time as a companion of sacred religion a man of most sagacious and conspicuous holiness, Euodius, who had recalled many of the peoples of the Auvergne and the neighbouring cities, entangled in the toils of the old serpent, to the bosom of holy Church catholic by the wholesome antidote of penance. But when he had long been mighty in these goods under Christ’s presidency — without whom nothing good is done — he began ever to give wholesome counsel to the aforementioned count Genesius: that since he lacked offspring who should succeed him by hereditary right, he should adopt for himself the Church which has neither spot nor wrinkle. Which counsel the illustrious man at last, though hardly, received: he set himself with all effort and striving to build a monastery of holy virgins in the suburb of the aforementioned city in a place which is called Châtel-Maladerie — under the rule, that is, of the holy men Benedict, Caesarius and Columbanus. In which monastery, for the exercise of the norm of faith and religion and the keeping of mortification, he set over it with the utmost zeal the aforementioned Euodius of whom we have made mention, and assigned to their needs certain things of his own lawfully obtained. And the holy bishop Praeiectus instituted as mother there a certain woman of illustrious birth, whom he had loved from her girlhood in the vigour of Christianity, by name Gundila.

16 #

The man full of God therefore, seeing Christ’s family increase abundantly, ordered another monastery to be built in the suburb of the aforementioned city on the little field of a certain woman named Cesaria, and consecrated it with maidens dedicated to God. For before his time a nunnery of maidens was scarce found in those parts. A xenodochium also he caused to be built on his own property, after the eastern manner, in the place called Columbarius; and he ordained physicians and energetic men to exercise that charge — yet so that twenty sick might ever be tended there, to receive their allowance of food, and when they had recovered should give place to others to be cared for.

17 #

But because prolixity of narrative is custom, as Orosius says, to breed both curiosity and obscurity, we discourse in few words — and it is not only his life that is unfolded but his passion that is woven by the issue of events. For a tradition is held that in the same city under pagan princes a holy legion once fell and shed its own blood for Christ’s name. Antiquity confirms that the leaders of this legion were Cassius and Victorinus, and also Anatholianus. In that place he had also vowed to build a monastery, but hindered by human obstacles he left the work begun unfinished. Yet he had purposed in his mind that whomever he found of the aforementioned companions he should translate to fitting places. And when he had appointed vigils through the abbots and clergy at the places of the saints, that he might speedily find the truth of the matter in their relics — and when he had taken up the iron tool and ordered the field in which the holy bodies had been buried to be opened — by divine appointment a certain poor man who had been held infirm for nearly fifteen years received health there. And lest this should seem incredible to anyone — that it was the virtue of St Praeiectus; nor undeservedly does the Lord deign so to reward His saints on earth who crucified their own wills for His sake — so far does the truth lie open that he who saw it himself made it known in words. Now the bodies of the saints were wondrously translated by Avitus, the successor of the aforementioned bishop.

18 #

And while he was mighty in these and other miracles, Chrodobert bishop of the city of Tours, hearing of them, sent his deacon to him with eulogiae for the purpose of visiting him. And when he had received him with a cheerful mind he made him recline with him at table. The deacon having taken the cup, his wonted affliction followed him — he was wearied by the falling sickness. And when the venerable bishop saw him frenzied and raving with chattering teeth, he began to comfort him with gentle effort, adjuring him by the divine help that the adverse part should no longer usurp a body dedicated to Christ. Immediately he was made whole in wondrous wise, and was never again wearied by that affliction.

19 #

At another time also, when he had held a feast on the most holy Lord’s day of the Easter resurrection, a certain one of the servants whose office it was to bring him his food secretly stole a little silver vessel which he ought to have kept, and tried to hide it, placed under the earth. And when the other servants began to search among themselves what had become of the silver, the crime came secretly to the bishop’s ears. So he ordered all who served in that office to be presented to his sight. He began to warn them with a father’s address, that he who had wrongfully taken it should confess and produce the stolen thing; and that if not, he would himself implore the Lord’s help in the dark of night, that He might reveal the crime committed and the thing unlawfully usurped, keep the innocent and expose the guilty in His mercy. So, the watches of the vigil completed, when the man full of God had given himself to sleep, he saw in a dream a man shining in white clothing as it were an angel of peace, who showed him where the aforementioned vessel lay hidden, covered with earth. Awaking from sleep the blessed Praeiectus ordered all the officers who served in that ministry to be summoned. And when he had spoken with all in turn as to what they had discovered about the theft, all unanimously denied, declaring they knew nothing of it. Then the man of God, beckoning with his hand and pointing with his finger and naming the thief, added also: “Go to such and such a place and you will find the hidden theft.” And when the servants had come to the named place, they brought to the aforementioned bishop the vessel they had lost the day before. And charging the thief before all and exhorting him to do penance, he granted him indulgence so far as pertained to himself.

20 #

About the same time it befell that the man of God went to the hall of King Childeric for the affairs of the church. The journey begun, he made his way through the vast wilderness called the Vosges, and after the toilsome path over the ridges of mountains and valleys came at last to the place which the barbarians call in their native tongue Doroangus. Where not far off the venerable man Amarinus of blessed memory had with utmost labour built a cell by the permission and connivance of the optimat Warracharius. It is manifest that at that time he kept there God’s recruits in poverty, so that they took scarce a measure of baked bread with a drink of waters, and though in want of poverty they served Christ the Lord according to that precept of the gospel which says: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

21 #

But what miracle the Lord there showed through His venerable bishop Praeiectus is not to be kept silent. Now the aforementioned Amarinus had long been seized with a fever — to such a degree that he could neither move a step nor take any nourishment save only water. Which when it came to the ears of the blessed man Praeiectus, the brethren reporting it, he poured out his wonted prayers to the Lord; and armed with the shield of faith he entered the cell where the venerable abbot lay sick, entered the hut making the sign of the cross; the health was brought — the fever departed from his body. And taking him by the hand he led him unharmed — wondrous to tell — to the refectory of the house. The brethren rejoiced to have received back their father in former health. What joy there was, that so great a miracle was wrought by God through His servant Praeiectus in the wilderness — that the sick man suddenly received health!

22 #

But after the sacred and salutary words, when he had given himself to sleep and passed the night in watches and vigils until the dawn, and when now the ruddy sun of dawn had been most gratefully restored to the earth, with the brethren’s blessing he resumed the journey he had begun and went on to the prince in peace. To whom the Lord granted such favour with the mayor of the palace that what he had set forth in words he obtained with the greatest honour. The king rejoiced, and his courtiers, nobles and optimats, and he was strenuously received by the priests of the Lord’s palace. And with the privilege of the church confirmed by the prince’s authority he returned home, Christ favouring.

23 #

There was at that time in the aforementioned territory of the Auvergne a certain woman dedicated to God named Claudia, to whom he used to come assiduously for the purpose of preaching; and she had bestowed her property partly on the aforementioned bishop and on the poor whom he governed. But not long after, she paid the debt of nature — and was buried by the blessed Praeiectus with the greatest honour. These things done, there was a certain infamous man named Hector, who had obtained the honour of patrician at Marseille; who had wickedly ravished and wedded the daughter of the aforementioned Claudia, and thereafter essaying the misery of concubines, had come — to Childeric the prince, who at that time governed both realms — in partnership in crime with a certain Leodegarius. Which afterwards proved a kindling of scandal for the consummation of his martyrdom. The bishop is accused, in that he claimed for himself the estates of the aforementioned woman Claudia; and he set forth causes before the king, and obtained of the prince that he should send envoys from his side who should put him under bail and have him presented in the king’s hall.

24 #

And when the man of God, instructed in the case, came to make answer — constrained with much grief, because the day of holy Easter was at hand and he could not celebrate that most holy Easter night solemnly in his own city — but as the true proverb says: The integrity of priests does not fear the king’s command — armed with faith and clad with the helmet of salvation after the excellent preacher Paul, he hastened to the palace and entered, as is the custom at the king’s hall, into the place where causes are ventilated, to hold an account with the aforementioned Hector concerning the aforementioned business. He began to refuse and render a true account according to the canons’ statutes and the law which is called Roman — that since it was the great day of the sabbath on which the vigil of holy Easter is accustomed to be kept, he could in no wise answer in that cause. But, as is the custom of disputants, all began to compel him not to delay giving answer in such a cause. And when the man of God knew himself straitened on all sides, compelled by necessity he so answered that he confessed the causes of the church to be commended to the queen Chimnechild. And when they knew this assertion, the work remained unfinished. Then the blessed Praeiectus set forth at last the labour of his journey and how he had been brought under bail. And the king and queen, smitten with fear, begged pardon of the aforementioned bishop before all and were grieved for his labour.

25 #

Now the bishop Leodegarius was at that time under Hector’s protection. And when the sun had already illumined the midday quarter and was sinking toward its setting, and the hour — as is the custom — was already at hand at which it was lawful to celebrate the solemn vigils of Easter, by royal permission and that of the elder men, the bishops and priests who had been gathered in the city of the Aedui for the royal business begged the blessed man Praeiectus with suppliant voice most earnestly — no, prayed — that on that sacred night he would himself offer sacrifice to God for the king’s estate and the peace of the Church. And when Hector knew of so great veneration — and especially because he had abused the confidence of Vulfoald the mayor of the palace — in the dead of night, St Leodegar being evilly treated(?), both took to flight. To whom, in turn, that eulogy may be fitted which is described in the acts of St Sylvester concerning Perpenna Tarquinius — where it is inserted that at the same hour at which the blessed Sylvester had foretold the man would be at his tribunal, he was carried out of his house on a bier to the tomb.

26 #

But when the dawn was already giving the day its beginning and the sun’s beam now shone upon the earth, the king, learning through the nobles that Hector had turned tail, began more and more to busy himself with the bishop’s honour. And Hector, taken, was slain by royal edicts. But Leodegar, moved by penitence, was thrust into exile at Luxeuil; and afterwards taken from there and within his own city, at the hands of a certain Waimer, a faithless and most wicked man who afterwards sat over the city of Troyes, his eyes were torn out; and not long after, most impiously slain by Ebroin count of the palace — a strenuous man otherwise, but too fierce in the slaying of priests — he obtained the palm of martyrdom and now is mighty in holy virtues.

27 #

The blessed Praeiectus then, by royal edicts and the king’s munificence, as had pleased him, gave judgement concerning the estate which the aforementioned Hector had sought — in what wise the church should possess it by perpetual right. Bidding farewell to the king and the optimats, magnificently honoured, he returned home.

28 #

The aforementioned abbot Amarinus, hearing that all had prospered with the man of God, followed him into the city of the Auvergnats — solely that the aforementioned bishop might be a protection and help there for the sustenance of the brethren and the want and lack of labour which they exercised in the wilderness for Christ. Seeing him, the excellent man received him as a divine gift; day and night he kept him as a companion of the heavenly journey — as the event afterwards proved.

29 #

But while they stayed in these good things under Christ’s presidency, the enemy of mankind, unable to bear it — envying the charity of the one and the reception of the other, of whom it is written, whose are a thousand arts of harming — approached a certain most wicked son of Belial, and through a certain Agricius hastened to the men of industry of the Auvergnat peoples, to incite their minds by whatever craft he could to the death of the man of God. At that time Agricius, having got the counsel of the wicked, and no delay after this — like an unbridled beast, wholly entangled as it were in the coils of the old serpent — came to the man of God at the villa of Volvic, girt with a throng of attendants; and when a mile distant from the aforementioned villa they let loose like ravening wolves at the sheepfolds, crying with the sound of the war-horn from the forest. And the blessed Praeiectus and Amarinus, when they heard the sound of the horns, both gave themselves to prayer, expecting to receive from the Lord the unfading crown. And all the officers who were in the aforementioned bishop’s retinue, hearing the blare of the trumpets, smitten with dread, stripped of their garments and despoiled of their arms, turned tail through the thorn-brakes and thick forests. And when the wicked men had already come to the door of the house and wished to enter — then, as it is said, one of the man of God’s officers and doorkeeper of the house, named Gundolenus, gave himself in the struggle for the man of God, choosing rather to submit his neck to the sword than to proclaim a truce in the world above the man of God’s death.

30 #

But when twenty attendants, companions of the wicked, had entered the house armed, then the venerable Amarinus is said to have said to the man of God Praeiectus: “Lord mine,” said he, “if it was your counsel, let us give place to these howling and wicked men; perchance the immense mercy of God might deign to deliver us from the snares of the wicked.” To this the man of God Praeiectus answered: “Be silent, brother, be silent; for if you now cheat yourself of this crown, you shall never find it hereafter.” At these words Amarinus was silent. And the blessed Praeiectus, pouring forth longer prayers to the Lord, commended his holy spirit. And when the prayer was finished, the most wicked men entered and in the corner of the house first slew Amarinus, God’s servant, taking him for the blessed Praeiectus; and while the man of God lay on his couch and watered his bed with tears, the lictors went back the way they had come and left the blessed Praeiectus unharmed. Which the man of God perceiving — that the crown was being cheated from him — offered himself of his own accord to his persecutors, saying: “Here is he whom you seek; fulfil what has been commanded you.” And at these words one of the apparitors, who was the bolder in crime, named Radbertus, a Saxon by race, seized a dagger and thrust it into the blessed Praeiectus’s breast. And the man of God, drenched in a flood of sacred blood, not bearing to see the blade, put his fingers on his eyes. And after this the lictor swung the sword upon his head and dashed out his brain. So that holy soul, loosed from the bonds of the flesh, departed to the Lord.

31 #

Now Bodo and Placidus, men of the senators who had given their consent to the occasion of the martyrdom, standing not far off, saw three stars proceeding from heaven above the very house in which the saints of God lay slain; and one of them gave a greater brightness. Which vision the aforementioned men confirm to this day that they saw. We believe this miracle both declares their glory and recalls these men to penitence. For none placed in this life is to be despaired of for pardon, if he will be converted — as it is written that Longinus the soldier pierced the Lord’s side with a lance and afterwards, being converted, merited to obtain the crown of martyrdom. But the attendants who perpetrated this crime dragged the blessed Praeiectus’s body with bloodstained hands out into the persecutors’ sight, to show that their crime was accomplished. And the same Radbertus, who had stretched his murderous hands upon God’s priest, smitten by divine vengeance and consumed by worms, ended his unworthy life by a worthy death.

32 #

And when Gundila the mother of the maidens had heard these things by messengers, confounded for a little she arose and began to seek everywhere for religious men to send to wash the saints’ bodies — which also she did. And the bishop, the man of God’s successor, sending religious men, commanded their bodies to be buried as was fitting.

33 #

There were at that time two of the aforementioned bishop’s own kinsmen, namely Eligius and Godo, whom he kept ever with him in his company. Truly, as the event proved, the aforementioned bishop had often learnt from their own report how they aspired to the death of the aforementioned men; but he gave them answer: “I am not worthy,” said he, “as you say, to receive the crown of martyrdom; for I believe I was born in sins and afterwards contracted faults in this world. Yet if I so deserve to obtain it, I believe my sin is forgiven through the effusion of my blood.” What need of more? One of the aforementioned was consummated in martyrdom, but Godo took his way to the parts of Agaune.

34 #

But when the merciful Lord was already working not a few miracles at the tombs of the aforementioned, and many strove with fullest devotion to hasten to the holy places — Avitus, the man of God’s successor, learning surer tidings, began to weigh within himself and implore God’s help, that if he wrought a worthy work in that place it might be shown to him. Not many days after, through Rago the monk of the aforementioned monastery he caused abbot Godo to return to his own region. Then the aforementioned bishop took counsel with him that he should build a monastery of men in the aforementioned place of Volvic. Which also was accomplished — a regular community gathered at that place, and for the reverence of the saints he bestowed many gifts there.

35 #

And there was a village not far off, by name Ricomagus, from the aforementioned place of Volvic, and in that neighbourhood a certain sick man lay worn out with the labour of fever. And when for many days he had endured his wonted affliction, he began with fullest devotion to vow that if he could find health through the saints’ intercession, he would at once hasten, laden according to his strength, to render thanks to Christ’s poor dwelling there. And when he had been comforted for a time and had loaded upon his own shoulder certain of his provision as he had freely promised — and had borne a little vessel of wine on his own shoulder — he set out on the journey to the predestined holy place; and going with some difficulty he came to the foot of the mount which leads up to that holy place — and there failed, and began to think within himself what he ought to do about the aforementioned vow, that he might return home. Looking from far away he saw, not far off, a throng of poor, and gave them the votive gift he had brought. And he, entering for prayer at the saints’ threshold, left the vessel before the church doors — and returning from his prayer found it full which he had left. Which deed became known to all.

36 #

But enough of these things; now let us bend our discourse to another miracle. There was a bench within the aforementioned city on which the aforementioned bishop had been custom to lie; and it was carried off from there by jesters and given over to the mimes’ play. But when some miracle had been made manifest at that bench, fear seized upon them and they carried it into the basilica of St Symphorian; and there the Lord deigned to show a great miracle. For there was a man of venerable life named Venerianus, surnamed the Saint, whose life equalled his name. The same man had learnt from many men’s report that many miracles were unfolding at the aforementioned bench. And when he had gone early to see this work, and the sun, already splendid from its rising, was lighting the earth, he, prostrate in prayer, perceived that all the lamps were extinguished; and wetting the floor with tears, looking upward he saw the lamps burning, lit at the Lord’s command. Which miracle became known both to the bishop of the place himself and to all the rest of God’s servants.

37 #

Afterwards the bishop Avitus consigned to abbot Godo as much as he had by his own effort acquired for the saints’ tombs. And the aforementioned abbot began to press the aforementioned Venerianus to give him a written deed concerning that family. But he — because on behalf of the bishop he exercised certain functions — began to hesitate how he should draw up the aforementioned deed. Which afterwards, under Christ’s presidency, was prosperously accomplished. The aforementioned abbot Godo began to have anxiety within himself how he should obtain this advantage; yet he resolved in his heart that on such and such a day, other business laid aside, he should betake himself for this matter to the aforementioned Venerianus wherever he could find him. The same night the Lord appeared to the same Venerianus in a dream, showing him what was the aforementioned abbot’s disposition. And he, rising early and taking notaries with him, drew up the aforementioned deed with all haste. Moreover he ordered a feast to be prepared and informed everyone that abbot Godo would take food with him that day. And when he unfolded this to all, the aforementioned abbot appeared at his doors. And he, rising and receiving him with thanksgiving, showed and rendered to him all that had been bidden him in the dream, and declared openly to him and to all how he had learnt both of his coming and of the aforementioned deed through divine help.

38 #

Now on a certain day one of the very authors of the murder, named Ursio, while exercising the chase rather swiftly in the forest, sitting his horse, slipped and was cast to the ground; at last, his arm broken and other limbs disabled, he was carried home enfeebled. And when many physicians had come to him for the purpose of healing, and other emulators, and neither the care of physicians nor that of enchanters could heal him — returning to himself he began to speak earnestly with his wife, that she should send to the blessed Praeiectus’s tomb and have some of the oil of his lamp brought to him. Wondrous to tell — as soon as he was anointed with the oil, he was found worthy of his former health. And when he perceived that he had come to wholeness, he sent a silver vessel weighing ten pounds to adorn that same tomb. Hearing which, the others who had been forward in that persecution began each one to bestow gold or other gifts to adorn the same tomb.

39 #

At another time the aforementioned Ursio, moved by devotion, went for the sake of prayer and gain of grace to the place which is called Vesedo. And there, since the aforementioned martyr had been brought up from boyhood — the property seeming to be his — and had been greatly instructed and had kept a continual dwelling, the Lord deigned to declare so many miracles in his chamber where he had been custom to lie that scarce human sense can unfold them. And when the aforementioned Ursio, as has been said, was keeping vigil there, he asked one of the officials to bring a little vessel of oil for preparing the lamps. As the man afterwards affirms on oath, though it held no more than a pound or two, he affirms that he filled as many lamps as were there, and found the vessel still full; and moreover in the other basilica which he had built in the aforementioned honour he filled twenty or thirty lamps also — and still found more in the same vessel, from which he sent abundantly from there to other places of the saints.

Enough has been said of these things; let us keep future things for future men.

Here it ends. Amen.

The Passions of Leodegar, bishop and martyr of Autun — the editor’s preface #

Of the kings of the Franks after Chlothar III and of the most powerful mayor of the palace Ebroin, scarcely fuller accounts have been handed down than those contained in the Passion of his rival Leodegar — whom others call Leodegarius — an industrious bishop but fired with the highest ambition, who follows the martyr Praeiectus in this volume, carried off by a crueller death: a man perhaps destined to be happier had he cared only for his own church and not mixed himself in public affairs.

Leodegar, eminent for nobility of birth, was instructed in the liberal studies by his uncle Dido, bishop of Poitiers; yet he sought not the courtly life for which he had been prepared, but undertook office in the same church and, made archdeacon, exercised ecclesiastical discipline the more keenly the more he was versed in civil law. Now the city of Poitiers then belonged to Austrasia, and bishop Dido assisted Grimoald the mayor of the palace about 661 in having Dagobert, son of King Sigibert, banished into Scotland. Under better auspices Leodegar was joined through his brother Gaerin with the court of King Chlothar III and his mother Balthild — Gaerin being made count of Paris and discharging an ample office. Certainly it was by the queen’s favour — who from 657 ruled the realm for her son, both Neustrians and Burgundians — that he was created bishop of Autun after 660; by which time Bagnobert governed the same church, subscribing the privileges of Ste-Colombe and St-Pierre at Sens. That church had been nearly ruined for almost two years by two rivals contending with each other, of whom one was slain and the other driven into exile for the crime committed. Leodegar compelled the church’s and city’s adversaries to concord by the terror of justice. Giving his care to sustaining the poor, he established a matricula at the church door. Golden vessels of the ecclesiastical ministry, a baptistery most beautifully adorned, the church itself furnished with pavements, golden veils and a new atrium testified to his industry — he who also translated St Symphorian’s body to a new place of burial; no, he repaired the walls and houses of the city and seems to have renewed almost its whole aspect.

Bishop Leodegar, inflexible, advancing by the height of justice, seems to have had such great successes as to give suspicion to certain of the nobles; and they went to Ebroin the mayor of the palace and incited him against him, as though he despised his commands. For Ebroin then alone assisted King Chlothar, after Sigobrand bishop of Paris, swollen with pride, had been removed and his patroness Balthild sent to the monastery of Chelles. He seems indeed to have had no great confidence from the Burgundians, the Neustrian realm being now entangled in him. He administered the realm’s government strenuously from the time he succeeded to the place of Erchinoad the mayor, and had already subscribed the privilege of the monastery of St Denis in 654 with the other nobles. Among ecclesiastical writers and contemporaries he earned no good fame — as though by excessive greed he had only deemed just the cause of those who gave him most money, and had shed the blood of many nobles for a slight offence — and posterity has inveighed against him the more. Yet that he was himself strenuous even Praeiectus’s biographer conceded (ch. 26), though he blamed him for being too prompt to slay priests; and another weighty author testifies that proud and wicked men were suppressed by him, celebrating times of peace.

Nor was Ebroin a stranger to the worship of religion — no, he strove to advance ecclesiastical studies, and by some early connexion must have been joined even with Leodegar. With his wife Leutrude and his only son Bobo he built a monastery of virgins at Soissons, over which he set the abbess Aetheria, and for the virgins obtained from bishop Drauscius in 667 a privilege that they should be governed after the manner of Benedict and the rule of the monastery of Luxeuil. Now to this privilege, among other bishops, our Leodegar subscribed with these words: “In the name of Christ I, Leudegarius, a sinner bishop, have consented to and subscribed this privilege.” Not far from the same city of Soissons Ebroin lived in the pagus of Meaux, namely at the villa of Latiniacum (today Lagny-le-Sec, dep. Oise), which after him both Waratto and Ghislemar the mayors held — and which the kings of the Franks seem to have handed to each successive Neustrian mayor together with the office itself. As he then bore the supreme charge of the Frankish realm, he granted strangers the faculty of passage through it (the German Geleit); and in 668 he detained Hadrian, abbot of Naples, fearing lest on some imperial embassy to the kings of Britain he might act contrary to the Franks. He issued an edict to the Burgundians that none from Burgundy should dare approach the palace save one who had received his mandate; and he held all the nobles suspect, whose party Leodegar followed. Among the Gascons Duke Lupus aspired to the kingship, from which Chlothar moved a line of battle against them in 672. Leodegar also showed himself by no means obedient to the royal mayor, nor was he terrified by his threats.

Ebroin, after the death of Chlothar III in 673, retained his brother Theuderic III, that he might the more freely dominate; nor did he solemnly appoint him king with the optimats convened — and they, about to hasten in throngs to the king’s salutation, obtained no access from the mayor. So the Franks prepared snares against Ebroin and cast Theuderic from the throne. They went in counsel to Childeric king of the Austrasians, his younger brother, who coming with Vulfoald the mayor gained the three realms. Ebroin, fleeing to the church altar, was stripped of his treasures; yet by the intercession of, among other bishops, Leodegar too, he was not slain but banished to the monastery of Luxeuil. Theuderic, his hair shorn, was ordered to reside in the monastery of St Denis — from where, occasion given, he afterwards returned to his father’s throne; but though banished, followers were not wanting to him.

Childeric, preferring Leodegar before all for his eminent wisdom, kept him ever with him in the palace and used his counsel constantly — so that whatever the king did, just or unjust, was imputed to the bishop. Leodegar and his brother Gaerin and other bishops and nobles — such as Vulfoald the mayor, Waning, no even Queen Belichild — obtained of Childeric in 673 a grant of estates in the pagus of the Tellau to the monastery of Fontanelle. The king, consulting the customs of the inhabitants, issued decrees through the three realms that the judges of each land should keep their own laws as of old, and that rectors should not pass from one province into others, and that none following Ebroin’s example should seize a tyranny and despise his fellows. Nevertheless he kept Vulfoald the mayor with him, and instigated by youthful levity soon annulled what he had confirmed. For which cause he was rebuked by Leodegar — who moreover blamed in him his marriage to his uncle’s daughter, namely Belichild daughter of Sigibert his father’s brother. But the king gave more credit to the counsels of his nobles and is said to have sought an occasion for slaying the bishop.

Meanwhile, at Leodegar’s own invitation, King Childeric came to Autun in 675 to celebrate Easter — where Hector the patrician of Marseille had also come to claim Claudia’s inheritance; and as Hector thought to accomplish by the bishop’s intercession what he had purposed, it is agreed that he still carried some weight with the king. Leodegar received his friend into his hospitality; and by that conjunction he fell under suspicion in turn, as though they had conspired to overthrow the royal dominion and usurp the power themselves. The king, forewarned chiefly by the recluse Marcolinus, celebrated the Easter vigil in the monastery of St Symphorian and would not betake himself into the city. But at night, sated with wine, he entered the church of St Nazarius and demanded Leodegar — and found him not; from which he took his seat in the church-house prepared for him. There the bishop came to him; and when he knew himself to be in peril of his life together with Hector, he chose to take flight. They pursued both swiftly — Hector and certain companions they slew, but Leodegar they took. The captive the king ordered to be taken meanwhile to the monastery of Luxeuil by counsel of the optimats and bishops. Then, a judgement being held, it was declared with consenting voice by the chief men of the palace that Leodegar must suffer perpetual exile at Luxeuil if the king granted him his life; and he confirmed the sentence, certain bishops consenting. It seems to have been a synod in which bishop Leodegar was deposed for the crime of treason. Among the accusers Hermenarius, abbot of the monastery of St Symphorian, frequented the palace — and the bishopric he coveted, that of the city of Autun, was granted him by the king. From where it may justly be doubted whether the same Marcolinus had not stood on the adverse side against Leodegar in that monastery. At Luxeuil the exile met Ebroin, now a monk, and the two were reconciled with each other.

Childeric, hated by the optimats for his loose rule, was slain a little after — in the same year 675 — by Bodilo, while Vulfoald fled into Austria. The exiles, returning home, laid at Leodegar’s charge whatever they had suffered; and the realm was greatly troubled, no king being yet appointed. Ebroin, at first feigning to follow Theuderic’s party, they set up as leader to avenge Leodegar; and he, leaving the monastery, would almost have been taken by him before he reached Autun, had not Genesius bishop of Lyons and the strong hand at his side come to his aid. Both, now reconciled with each other, came to the city of Autun, and Leodegar received back his church as bishop — Hermenarius being expelled. On the next day they went to meet King Theuderic; but midway on the journey Ebroin, departing, threw off the clerical state, took his wife Leutrude veiled from the monastery — perhaps of Soissons — and joined her to himself again. He joined himself to the Austrasians, and they set up Chlodovech as a puppet king, feigning him to be Chlothar’s son — while the other part of the Austrasians brought Dagobert, son of King Sigibert, back from Ireland. Beside Ebroin there followed Chlodovech as it were palace-wardens: Desideratus surnamed Dido, and Bobo — once bishops, the one of Chalon, the other of the city of Valence. But Leodegar stood strenuously on the part of the lawful king Theuderic; and with his and his brother Gaerin’s consent, Leudesius, son of Erchinoald, was created mayor by the Franks.

When the bishops and optimats, Theuderic being confirmed king, had returned from Neustria into Burgundy, Waimer duke of Champagne and the aforementioned Dido came with Chlodovech’s army to besiege the city of Autun. They feigned that King Theuderic was dead and demanded that bishop Leodegar swear fealty to the Austrasian king — and if he refused, they purposed to seize him. But he broke not the faith he had pledged to the lawful king. The wealth he had he either gave to the poor or added to the church’s treasure, and of his own free will he offered himself to the enemies for his city. Then they tore the light of his eyes from his head. The bishopric of Autun they handed to his friend Bobo, who had shortly before been smitten with anathema and stripped of the bishopric of the city of Valence. To ransom the city the church’s silver was divided, and the enemies carried off five thousand solidi besides the plunder they took from the citizens’ fortunes. Leodegar they handed to Waimer to be guarded, who returned in haste with the army to his own country, namely Champagne. The rest — that is, Dido with Bobo and duke Chadalric, whom they wished to be patrician of Provence, namely Hector’s successor — went on to besiege Lyons, to bring bishop Genesius from there; but they could not break into the city. All Chadalric’s goods King Theuderic confiscated in September 676.

Leodegar Ebroin ordered to be thrust into a forest to perish of hunger. But Waimer, moved by pity, received him into his own house; and there not only was his wife converted by him, but the husband’s ferocity was so tamed that he restored the silver lately taken from the church of Autun. Meanwhile Ebroin, coming up with the Austrasians, pursued King Theuderic residing at the villa of Novy and Leudesius his mayor — and the treasure plundered, he received the king; but Leudesius his godfather he slew. Turning now from Chlodovech he acknowledged King Theuderic, whose mayor he himself was made again. Ebroin as mayor is named in Tironian notes in the charters of King Theuderic of September 677. The same issued an edict that goods taken should not be reclaimed — from which the plunder heaped upon himself remained intact; and again he began to persecute the optimats or slay them or drive them, stripped of their means, to foreign peoples. He destroyed the monasteries of noble women, banished those pre-eminent in religion, and spared not the church’s treasure. On this occasion the bishopric of Autun seems to have been conferred anew on Hermenarius — after both Leodegar restored and Bobo had held it.

Ebroin, feigning to avenge Childeric’s murder — by which he had himself been freed from exile — had Leodegar brought in, asserting him and his brother Gaerin to be the chief authors of the death. Leodegar was punished with his lips and face cut and his tongue taken away; Gaerin was crushed with stones — who, admonished by his brother and giving thanks to God, breathed out his last breath. Leodegar, thus dishonoured, they handed to Waning to be stripped; and he was brought to Waning’s lodging on a sorry beast, where he lay on straw, covered with an old rag and palpitating with a feeble breath. Yet the use of his tongue, though gravely wounded, he is said to have gradually recovered. And Waning, when he had known the miracle, did not accomplish the evil he was bidden, but prepared him a lodging in the monastery of virgins which he himself had once built — namely Fécamp — where he himself, his wife and all his household tended and cherished him most diligently. Dwelling at Fécamp nearly two years he recovered the better, but received not the light of his eyes. His adversaries meanwhile were either slain or for the fault of treachery driven into other regions.

His mother Sigrada, broken by the adverse fortunes of her sons, betook herself to the monastery of virgins of St Mary at Soissons, subject to the rule of the abbess Aetheria. Leaving the world she had dissolved the bonds by which she was joined to her sons, and could mourn them as dead — though Gaerin alone was then dead. To her, newly converted, Leodegar gave a magnanimous letter which we still have; and that it was dictated at Fécamp may perhaps be concluded from a certain codex’s title. The son, though gravely afflicted, admonished her to suppress hatred against his enemies — no, to love them: he set before her eyes the advantages she had gained: first that for the service of servants she had received holy brothers — monks, who daily prayed for her (from which the monastery may be conjectured to have been double, both of men and of virgins); then that for the service of handmaids she had received holy sisters, and for the labour of the present life, the quiet of the monastery. Leodegar had filled the letter with the treasures of the holy scriptures, the less inasmuch as he still lacked earthly ones. Sigrada’s memory was entered in the calendar of the monastery of St Mary at Soissons — later of Longpont — written c. 1200, on the Nones of August and the 16th Kalends of April.

One of Leodegar’s adversaries, Ebroin, remained — lest the work should be incomplete. He ordered the bishop to be brought back to the palace, that he might be accused in a council of bishops of Childeric’s murder. Leodegar, though he detested the charge, was condemned, and his tunic was torn from his head that he should no longer offer sacrifice. Since Ebroin was restored as Theuderic’s mayor in 677 and Leodegar spent nearly two years in exile at Fécamp, that council can scarce have been held before 679; nor have they rightly identified it with the council which King Theuderic, with Ebroin the mayor assisting, ordered to be convened from Neustria and Burgundy at the palace of Maslac in 677 to give judgement on the unfaithful bishops — among whom was Chramlinus of Embrun.

Leodegar was not only removed from his order by the synod but also condemned to death by sentence pronounced through the king’s judgement. Ebroin handed him to Chrodobert count of the palace to be slain, who led him to his own house; and there, he preaching, all were converted to penitence — and chiefly the host’s wife, moved by his adverse fortunes. Meanwhile his sad fate pressed on: he was led out by the executioners into a wood and punished with beheading; and since they had not found a pit in which — as Ebroin had ordered — the corpse might be plunged for burial, they hid it in the thickets. But the matron I spoke of, not unmindful of the vow she had made while the martyr lived, caused the body, when found, to be carried into a neighbouring oratory; and when miracles appeared in the place where he had first lain, she built an oratory there also and established a congregation of monks chanting perpetually. The place to which the martyr was translated, the villa of Sarcing in the diocese of Arras, Ursinus (ch. 20) names — which is taken to be the village of Saint-Léger (Sus-Saint-Léger, canton of Avesnes-le-Comte, Pas-de-Calais). That Leodegar was slain in 679 or the following year is probable; I do not agree with Vacandard, who puts it in 677. That the martyrdom was consummated on 3 October (the fifth Nones) is testified both by the earliest biographer and by the oldest interpolators of the Hieronymian Martyrology — the Berne codex reading “the deposition (passion, in another hand) of Leodegar, martyr and bishop of Autun”, and the Labbean Breviary similarly; the same day was first sacred to Leodegar in the Weissenburg codex also, though the place being erased the words were added later to the preceding day. Ursinus first assigned to Leodegar the day of the sixth Nones of October (2 October); and since he wrote that he was buried on the same day and not slain, it may be conjectured that he mistook the day for the following, namely 4 October; and all later authors have followed his example.

That Leodegar was a strenuous censor of morals may be gathered not only from what we have narrated above but also from the canons of monastic discipline which he and other bishops sanctioned, he subscribing: “I Leodegar, a sinner bishop of the city of Autun.” He also provided that the right faith should be observed by the clergy. That in those canons appeal is made to the order or rule of Benedict alone, I am not sure whether the text has been transmitted entire — for Leodegar stood on the Luxeuil monks’ side and therefore followed the norm of both Benedict and Columbanus, as may be gathered from Drauscius’s charter. Certainly by that gravity and severity he was bound to offend others, and above all the royal stock — and the danger he brought upon himself was the greater the more he was drawn by the palace’s breath. He was of the highest authority with the king before he came into the greatest hatred, and when he was believed to have conspired against him, the lawful mayor could easily remove him. He pardoned his enemies; he consoled his mother. To the canons of the church of St Nazarius at Autun he had granted revenues that they might implore the divine mercy “for the princes” — whom bishop Jonas in 859 at last bade pray also for the rulers of the whole church and the whole flock, adding a certain estate. The testament which survives under Leodegar’s name I am persuaded is not merely interpolated but wholly forged. It is certain, however, that the villa of Tilionacum was given by Leodegar to the church of St Nazarius — which was indeed afterwards taken from it but restored by the emperor Charles.

Syagrius, bishop of Autun, who died about 600, had built the monasteries of St Mary (of virgins) and of St Martin (“of the clergy”), no even a xenodochium, either alone or with Queen Brunhild; and at the petition of the same queen and Theuderic her grandson he had obtained three privileges from Pope Gregory I in 602 — similar to those then required by the Scots. Now it is certain that Syagrius was entered in the Hieronymian — or rather the Scottic — Martyrology together with the earlier bishops of Autun, and that in the same a Placidus, priest of Autun, is found on the Nones of May. That Placidus is beyond doubt the priest and abbot of St Symphorian who was noted in a certain codex of the Queen of Sweden on the day before the Nones of May. Since Placidus’s name belonged to the ancient text of the Hieronymian Martyrology by consent of the codices, he must have been one of the predecessors, not the successor, of abbot Hermenarius as others have held. To the monastery of St Symphorian also bishop Ansebert of Autun in 696 assigned ‘clerks’, as Gregory I had to the monastery of St Martin. Beneath the basilica of St Symphorian an oratory of Leodegar had been built, in which Ansebert wished his own body to be buried.

Meanwhile Ebroin too, the mayor who had resisted the optimats strongly, was smitten with the sword by one of them, Ermenfred by name, on a Sunday as he was going forth to the solemnity of matins. And when the king had learnt of Leodegar’s miracles he believed, and began to venerate as a martyr the wretched man to whom he had formerly attributed the guilt of his brother’s death (ch. 39). The corpse was translated not to Autun but to his former country, namely to Poitiers, by Audulf abbot of St-Maxentius — who had been ordered to subscribe bishop Ansoald of Poitiers’s charter in 677. To honour the martyr, Ansoald ordered a basilica of wondrous size to be built by Audulf, in which the holy body was buried. The dedication of the new basilica was celebrated on 30 October — and it may be noted that that day fell on a Sunday in 684. The translation of the body is assigned to mid-March. The monastery of St-Maxentius in the territory of Poitiers, “where St Leodegar rests in body”, was given to counts by the earlier kings in feudal right, until the emperors Louis and Lothar, following the example of King Pippin I of Aquitaine, restored it to its former state in 827.

Lastly, Eberhard the count — grandson of duke Chadalric, who had himself persecuted the martyr — built a monastery at Murbach in the pagus of Alsace in honour of Mary, Michael the archangel, Peter and Paul, and the martyr Leodegar, and others; which, calling pilgrim monks and bishop Pirmin to it, he named Vivarium Peregrinorum (today Murbach). To the pilgrim monks full liberty, such as the Scots claimed, was granted by Widegern bishop of Strasbourg in 728; and King Theuderic confirmed the privilege and added royal protection and immunity, which King Pippin (752–762) renewed. Since the Scots’ institutions are so exactly described in Widegern’s privilege — neither the coenobial bishop being wanting nor the rule of Columbanus beside Benedict — the pilgrims are to be understood as Scots and not Anglo-Saxons; and from this testimony it may be concluded how highly Leodegar was esteemed by them. Amic, abbot of Murbach, more than once implored Charlemagne’s aid together with the congregation “of St Peter and St Leodegar”.

Leodegar’s relics were also kept in the treasury of the greater church of Sens; and there still survives a slip written in Merovingian letters attesting their authenticity in these words: “Relics of St Leodegar; his dedication on the second day, which was the month of July.”

The mass of St Leodegar martyr is found in the sacramentary of the church of Autun (today codex Vaticanus Reginensis Christianae 317, written in uncial letters of the late 7th/8th century — once called the Missale Gothicum), at no. 65, beginning thus: “Most high, almighty, eternal God, who did bid the life of Your blessed bishop Leodegar the martyr pass through the troubles of this world…” Truly noteworthy are the things expounded in so ancient a document concerning the martyr’s torments and relics: “— where Your blessed martyr Leodegar the bishop, torn from the height of this world by the alternations of custom, trod underfoot the pomps of the world’s frailty; whose aid You, Lord, did deign to bear, that he might despise the love of the present world and deserve to attain heavenly things; yet taking up his cross and following You the shepherd, that he might possess the delights of paradise, he forsook all present things. O blessed man Leodegar the bishop! — who by the counsels of the wicked, his body loosed from its bonds, his mouth mutilated in the lips and his eyes torn out, exile endured, the world’s slipperiness despised, various torments suffered — left an example to bishops by his passion and patience; and restored at last to perpetual life, he entered the heavenly kingdoms, is joined to the angels’ choirs, is rewarded with the crown’s unfading flowers — from which afterwards his many relics have blossomed in Gaul.”

The deeds and passion of Leodegar were first written by a monk of the monastery of St Symphorian at Autun (recension A), at the bidding of bishop Hermenarius and of his spiritual brothers, that is, his own fellows — and sent to him that he might examine the book privately alone and either himself emend the uncultivated style or have it emended by the help of other prelates. As Leodegar was most powerful in public affairs as King Childeric’s intimate counsellor, so his life, composed by a contemporary author, most greatly illuminates the history of that age — from which we grieve that his name has perished who handed down so many unknown and weighty facts about the Frankish kings. Since Ansebert, Hermenarius’s successor, made his testament in 696 and perhaps occupied the see of Autun as early as 692, it follows that the most precious little book arose scarce a decade after Leodegar’s martyrdom. The author could bring forward many illustrious men as witnesses (ch. 24) of the constancy with which Leodegar suffered his eyes to be dug out. He also mentions the comet (ch. 15) which appeared in 676 after Childeric’s death. He has not always kept the order of time (end of ch. 20). Hermenarius, from abbot of St Symphorian made successor on Leodegar’s banishment and expelled on his return — another being interposed and then himself again appointed bishop — stood in some need of the author’s care for his own fame; and he on whom he had laid the task seems to have satisfied his wishes. For he twisted the whole history in his lord’s favour, refuting the reproaches that could be cast upon him. On his testimony, then, some wrongly supposed that Hermenarius frequented the palace to obtain the bishopric — whereas he had rather wished to vindicate Leodegar from the punishment, as was afterwards made plain by his deeds. Those deeds belong to the time when the martyr lay gravely mutilated in Waning’s lodging. Then abbot Winobert, “one of our brothers”, followed him at a distance to prepare his funeral; and when he was recovering he was much moved and quickly reported the matter to Hermenarius, then first called bishop — who himself at once set out and took care to dress Leodegar’s wounds and refreshed him with food and drink and furnished him with better clothing. “For which thing,” says the author, “he merited from him not only indulgence for the past but also a blessing for the future.” The pardon of past fault was therefore to be obtained for Hermenarius from Leodegar, and to that end the author laboured. Now it is probable that Winobert was abbot of St Symphorian and successor of abbot Hermenarius; and that the author of the earliest Passion, attributing him to his own brothers, was best informed of the things done in that monastery — but he seems to have spared his Hermenarius a little too much. After he has related the journey which both Winobert and Hermenarius made to Waning’s lodging, the narrative returns to Leodegar’s being brought there (ch. 31) — and the things we read above are then exaggerated: that the lips together with the tongue began to grow again; no, the eyewitness reported not only the recovery of his wonted speech but “I saw words flowing from his mouth incessantly beyond his custom.” Since the author of the Passion has by no means recorded that he himself also went to Waning, I once held the passage to be Hermenarius’s interpolation — which still seems probable to me today.

Of the miracles which followed the martyr’s body when translated into the monastery of St-Maxentius at Poitiers, Audulf, abbot of that monastery, sent a true account to the author of the Passion at Autun at the request of certain brothers and of the abbess Hermina — asserting that the multitude of them would exceed a volume of psalms if he had wished to write them all. Abbot Audulf subscribed bishop Ansoald of Poitiers’s charter granted to the monastery of Héri in July 677. The abbess Hermina, who urgently pressed the author — the monk of St Symphorian’s monastery at Autun — to write the Passion, must have presided over the virgins in the same city; and I have elsewhere shown that she was by a grave error once assigned to the pagus “Coturninus” or rather “Carnutinus”. If she was of Autun, she doubtless governed the monastery of St Mary, whose origin I have narrated above. Now the author wrote down summarily and briefly what he had learnt through Audulf’s account.

The second Passion (B) Ursinus is said to have composed at the bidding of bishop Ansoald of Poitiers and the insistence of Audulf abbot of St-Maxentius. Though he too claimed contemporaneity for himself, he brought forward no eyewitnesses as the Autun author did — no, he contends that the things which the martyr, arisen in ‘modern’ times, did blind in hidden lurking-places can be told by no one. The things he had learnt by the report of many he chose to publish in uncultivated speech, that they might be understood by rustics and the unlettered. We know an Ursinus, fellow-monk of the monastery of Loches not far from the city of Poitiers — the “nourisher”, that is, of Defensor the grammarian, whose book of Scintillae or sentences of the catholic fathers we still have; and that book seems to have been at our author’s hand. By the words “of this city” (ch. 1) he most clearly designated his own country. That he was a Poitevin may also be concluded from this: that he passes lightly over Leodegar’s Autun career, merely touching it, while he describes the Poitevin part more fully. He asserts indeed that Leodegar, while archdeacon of Poitiers, was made abbot of St-Maxentius at the bishop’s bidding and governed the monastery six years before he was called to the palace and appointed to the bishopric of Autun; and returning to the same monastery at the book’s end, where he treats the translation of the body more amply, he does not omit to add the words “in which he had formerly been appointed abbot” (ch. 30) or “in which he had formerly been made father of the monks” (ch. 31). He laboured, then, for the monastery of St-Maxentius at Poitiers, in which the martyr’s translated body rested — and I should hold him a monk of that house. Meanwhile the abbot whose successor he makes Leodegar he designates indistinctly as “a certain father from the monastery” (ch. 8) — seeming not even to have known his name, whose place abbot Audulf, the author’s patron, is said then to have occupied. This Audulf, once nourished by Leodegar, he afterwards calls “a certain man of God” (ch. 25) — so that one could scarce divine that it was at his insistence the Passion was written, nor does he mention that the account of the translation was composed by the same. On the whole Ursinus follows in the footsteps of author A but compresses into brief compass what A treated most amply, and passes over the most precious matters — such as Chlodovech’s kingdom — in utter silence. On the other hand what he himself has added is highly suspect: he makes Leodegar not only of the highest authority with King Childeric but even his mayor of the palace — ignorant that this dignity was by no means open to clerics, ignorant also that Vulfoald the mayor had come with the king out of Austria into Neustria. It is hardly probable that Gaerin (ch. 12), Leodegar’s brother, returned to the palace from the region of the Gascons — to which he is said to have fled with other Frankish nobles — by Theuderic’s and Ebroin’s command to be crushed with stones; for only after the brothers’ death did their companions flee to the Gascons, as the Continuator of Fredegarius (ch. 2) witnesses — whom Ursinus probably used.

The same supplied the name both of the monastery of virgins at Fécamp and of the abbess Childemarc (ch. 15) to whom Waning had handed Leodegar; nor did he wish him to have remained there two years but “many days” — no, he states that the same man had previously lived a monastic life in a certain monastery (ch. 11) for two years, although by author A’s testimony (ch. 27) he was then thrust into the forests’ secrets. Yet the same Ursinus spoke in the prologue of the “hidden lurking-places” in which Leodegar, deprived of the sight of his eyes, stayed with no minister standing by — so that he must have had the same Passion A before his hands. Thus he is convicted of having altered the primitive text. Also his account of the synod, as Ursinus narrates it (ch. 16), is much to be suspected — namely that Leodegar’s adversaries were first condemned and only then a “conference” held apart with him. The other “conference” between the bishops of Poitiers, Autun and Arras concerning the translation of Leodegar’s body, which the same author sets in ch. 24, I have elsewhere proved to be suspect in the same way. Ursinus strove to purge Leodegar of his stains and adorn him with the greatest possible splendour. He doubled the number of the lictors (ch. 19), deeming two insufficient for the martyr’s glory; and he states that the stricken body stood erect for the space of one hour (ch. 20). The author assigns long speeches to his personages, but by the added words “as is said”, “it is reported”, “it is conjectured”, he himself recalls what he has added into uncertainty. He divided the reckoning of times so as to give Leodegar ten years as bishop (663–673), nearly three years to him as mayor (673–676), and wished Ebroin to be slain again nearly three years after Leodegar. The maiden healed (ch. 25) he concedes lived long and much afterwards; and that Chrodobert bishop of Tours (ch. 27) was then no longer present; but of the other maiden he noted: “who, following him even to his tomb, serves him devotedly to this day” (ch. 29) — a testimony either added to prove contemporaneity or going back through Passion A to Audulf’s Translation. On the whole Ursinus recast the contemporary author’s style and preserved few of his words. He emended the Merovingian diction, writing exercitus (ch. 10) for hostis, chori psallentium for psallentium (ch. 10, 27). That Ursinus was by no means versed in the public institutions then in force I have concluded from the dignity of mayor attributed to bishop Leodegar. Therefore I hold that in the latter half of the eighth century, in the monastery of St-Maxentius at Poitiers, he recast Passion A of the Autun author into the form we read. Yet he must be assigned to the forgers, since in the prefatory letter he has advanced himself into the age of Ansoald.

A third author C accurately transcribed the primitive text A, but from ch. 21 onward began to interpolate passages copied verbatim from Ursinus’s book — nor did he notice that the same things were there retold which he had already drawn from Passion A, nor did he fitly join the diverse parts to one another. With author A he maintains that Leodegar went into the forests’ secrets (ch. 27), but would have him brought out of a monastery (ch. 29) with Ursinus. Hence he added the end of the speech which Leodegar and Gaerin are said to have held before Ebroin. Not a few things he admitted twice over — among them the synod’s description (ch. 32–33) and Ebroin’s death (ch. 37–38) — following both texts, A and B; but the drier and truer primitive book he sometimes wholly neglected, delighting more in Ursinus’s speeches and fables. And since Ursinus especially increased the translation of the body with his interpolations — whose vestiges I have examined above — from ch. 40 author C does not part from his company save rarely. Yet in that very part he preserved, drawn from the other and more precious source, the account of the abbess Hermina and Audulf the author of the translation (ch. 41) — though he interposed it in a sufficiently alien place — and returning to the same afterwards (ch. 43) he tells of the multitude of bearers and the gifts offered. On the whole, almost a third of Ursinus’s book has been admitted into Passion C. Whichever author he pillaged, he everywhere joined to Ebroin contumelious words such as crudelis, iniquissimus, nequissimus and the word tyrannus, which even A used more rarely (ch. 30, 31); Leodegar on the other hand is honoured with the added word sanctus. Since author C has treated the translation into the monastery of St-Maxentius at Poitiers most amply, and at the end records not only the days of the martyrdom and the translation but also of the dedication of the same monastery’s new basilica, I should think he joined the fuller history A with Ursinus for that monastery. The author must have undertaken the work in the late eighth or early ninth century, since we have recovered the excellent codex C 1 of the ninth century from the Vienna library.

Now that down to the present the most learned men have gravely disagreed as to which author, B or C, the greater faith should be given — some esteeming C the more for its abundance of matter, while the antiquity of Ursinus’s aspect did not escape others — I first, after about half of the primitive text A had been discovered, discerned the true relation subsisting between the three recensions and set it forth in our Annals; and so far as I know all have assented to my arguments. But since the book A has not come down to us except deprived of beginning and end, the missing parts had to be supplied from recension C — which is also of no small moment for emending the middle. Ursinus’s book, fabulous though it is, yet for its antiquity had to be published entire. Now let the several codices of the three recensions be enumerated in order, and then let it be examined on what foundations the edition of each book, A and B, rests, and what advantage each derives from C.

A) The Paris codex no. 17002, formerly Notre-Dame 97, of the tenth century, largest size, once of the monastery of Moissac, then of Claude Joly, canon of Paris, transferred in 1080 into the church of St Mary, and in 1756 into the royal library, folios 102–104v, exhibits the primitive text of the Passion of Leodegar from the words of ch. 23 “graviter lesus” to the words of ch. 37 “ad matutinarum solempnia”, with the subscription added: “Here ends the passion of St Leodegar bishop.” To the shapeless fragment which he had, the scribe prefixed this prologue:

“Here begins the Passion of St Leodegar the martyr, who suffered under Ebrin the prince and Vaing the duke in Gaul on the sixth Nones of October.

Hear, brothers, and understand how the devil hastens to fight against the human race — as the blessed John says, because he preached last and subdued all the prophets: Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation — for your adversary the enemy gos about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, because he persecutes only the just, since the unjust hasten to fulfil his desires. He himself, most cruel, instilled into the hearts of his enemies that they should lay siege in the very city where the just man of God Leodegar was — who under Ebrin the prince and Vaing the duke merited to attain the crown of martyrdom for Christ’s name and His righteousness and faith. When that city had long been besieged and he himself, gravely stricken by the words that follow…’ — and so he passed to the precious leaves whose beginning and end he had not.

The scribe of codex A thus, addressing the brothers, referred the siege of the city of Autun and Leodegar’s martyrdom, by his own effort, to the devil’s snares prepared for just men. The passion itself… [the text breaks off here]