Modern British English translation — the Bollandist’s commentary, the Léon breviary lessons, and Albert le Grand’s Life as Latinised by John Colgan; followed by the start of the next article captured in the page-scan.

Preliminary commentary of the Bollandist #

The Life of him whom the Acts of St Paul bishop of Léon (to be given on the 12th) call Johavius is brought forward on this day by Albert le Grand in his volume on the saints of Armorican Brittany — he calls him Joava or Jovinus, elsewhere more correctly Joavam; and he places his death about the year 579, and says he was made bishop of Léon by St Paul forty years before the latter departed this life — from which number we shall show in the prolegomena to St Paul’s Life that twenty-one years must necessarily be subtracted. We doubt, however, whether even the remaining nineteen may be credited to Albert: for after relating the consecrations of Johavius and Tirnomallus, who each held the episcopate only one year, the Acts subjoin: “on whose death the venerable man [Paul] served again a little while in his own office, but his strength failing he ordained a certain one of his own, Cetomerinus by name, to minister in his stead.” But Albert, since he says this man was consecrated in 566, interposes no small time — fully eleven years — between Cetomerinus and Johavius and Tirnomallus.

Nor indeed is the episcopal ordination of Joava and the other two sufficiently established: for the church of Lesneven, which keeps St Golven’s feast on 8 July, says he was Paul’s immediate successor — to which I see no reason why greater credence should not be given than to the Acts of St Paul written so long after his death; especially since those Acts speak unclearly of episcopal consecration, and seem excusably enough explained by a vicarious administration of the episcopate delegated to them by Paul himself — which could give occasion for men to seem reckoned among the bishops who had only been the living Paul’s vicars. Therefore, since no mention of them as bishops occurs anywhere — and in the episcopal catalogues of Claude Robert and the brothers Saumaise their names are entirely passed over — we have not ventured to write Joava as bishop, content with the title of Saint: which, besides the aforementioned legendary, two churches bearing his name in the diocese of Léon seem to prove — one in the parish of Ker-Joan on the coast of the British Sea, seven French leagues from the town; the other farther off, in a village retired from the sea which travellers to Brest pass through (which has the name St Jovan in no charters but St Jahona in the French benefice-survey). We might suspect this second church was built over the spot where the sacred body was first buried, if any ground appeared for saying that the beasts drawing the holy relics crossed the river with it. Whatever the truth of that, the body is said to have been translated afterwards to Léon — at which we wonder the more that no breviary of his church is cited from which it might be established that he is venerated there with ecclesiastical office.

The parish of Brasparz, over which the priest Joava presided, lies about eleven leagues south of St Paul’s Léon, at the head of the stream here called the Faou which flows into the bay of Brest below the town of Faou (le Fou); from which town and from Brest itself, at an equal distance of rather more than three leagues on either side, was the abbey of St Mary of Daoulas — whose beginnings are commemorated here — and opposite, across the eastern part of the Brest bay, the town of Landévennec. The miracle of the dragon led away, and the other deeds here related of St Paul, are entirely absent from his Acts; and perhaps the dragons have been wrongly transferred here, occasioned by that which Paul is recorded to have destroyed at his first coming from the island of Baz — without any mention of the etymology derived from his staff. We should prefer to give here only the text of the ancient legendary, not doubting that Albert interpolated much — partly from his own chronology, partly from the Ivo he cites who wrote of the Léon bishops some two centuries before. But since we have nothing more sincere, we give this Life — such as it is — from Albert, rendered into Latin by John Colgan, with a few things changed that agreed less with the French. From this Life appear to have been drawn the Lessons which the church of Léon recites on his feast, after the reform of the Breviary by the decrees of Pius V and subsequent pontiffs, after the psalms of the second Nocturn, with a proper Collect for the rest of the Office.

The Life — from the Lessons of the Léon Breviary (2 March) #

Lesson IV — he spurns the world’s vanity, becomes a monk. Lesson V — consecrated priest by St Paul of Léon, he tends the parish committed to him; from where, his companions slain, he returns to Léon. Lesson VI — recalled by the Cornish he dies; his body is buried divinely in the destined place.

Joevin, the nephew of our most holy father Paul by his sister, born in Ireland, was sent to him as a boy into greater Britain to be educated; and under such a master he so profited in letters that he soon seemed perfected in philosophical and theological studies. Then, having returned to his country by his father’s command, his father aimed at one thing — to give him in honourable marriage; and for this purpose he carefully trained him in worldly pomps with a fitting retinue, which he, unwilling, touched only with the first tips of his lips. The youth, despising with generous mind the pleasures of the world he fled, silently meditated — God inspiring — the design of a stricter life. Hence, when he learned by sure messengers that his uncle Paul had crossed with twelve companions to the isle of Ossa in Léon territory and had there chosen his seat, he set sail from the nearest port and committed himself to the sea to make the crossing. But by an adverse wind his ship was carried elsewhere by divine will, and being put ashore on Cornish soil (not far from the Brest region), entering the nearest town he met Abbot Judulus, by whom he was both kindly received and gladly enrolled as a monk.

His year of probation complete and his monastic vows pronounced, Joevin came with his abbot’s blessing to St Paul in Léon — who, having trained him some years in his monastery on the isle of Baz, at last himself, being made bishop, ordained him priest with his own hand. Then he sent him back to his own abbot, that in the same coenobium where he had first devoted himself to Christ, he might offer Him the firstfruits of the unbloody sacrifice. Then undertaking the care of a certain parochial church in the Cornish diocese, he applied himself with tireless labour to cultivating the people committed to his charge, and for the most part delivered them from the blindness of heathen superstition — by threats, persuasions and examples — into the light of unshaken truth. Which things, while they ought to have won for the holy pastor the admiration and love of all, ministered to a certain powerful man such implacable hatred against Joevin and the other abbots and religious that he pondered day and night their utter destruction.

Which that impious scoundrel might accomplish, he one day attacked those holy mystics gathered in one place with a great troop of retainers; breaking through the gates he burst into the church, and driving the people from there, slaughtered with his own hand the most holy abbots Thadec celebrating the tremendous mysteries of the altar and Judulus fleeing — while the other murderers butchered most of the remaining monks: only Joevin escaped the sword, to pay his dues to the brethren. Since therefore he could not remain in that place in peace, he returned to Léon; and being enrolled by St Paul among the canons of the cathedral church, was at last assumed to the summit of episcopal dignity on Paul’s resignation, and consecrated by St Samson then archbishop of Dol. In which office he had spent scarcely a year when, pardon being asked by the Cornish people and he setting out to impart his blessing, he happily flew from there to the eternal rewards about the year of our Lord 554. His body, vested in pontificals and placed on a new bier (by the dying man’s last wish), the harnessed beasts carried — God alone guiding — into the territory of Agen, where now stands a church distinguished by his name and patronage.

Collect: O God, who are the wondrous splendour of Your saints, and have consecrated this day by the burial of Your blessed confessor and pontiff Joevin: grant us, we beseech You, ever to rejoice in his natal feast, that we may be protected by his examples and merits before Your mercy. Through our Lord, etc.

The Life written by Albert le Grand, rendered into Latin by John Colgan #

¹ Master Joava, or Jovinus, was an Irishman by nation, and uncle to Prince Tinidor the father of St Tenenan; his mother was the own sister of St Paul Aurelian, first bishop of Léon — to hear whom Joava was sent by his mother into the isle of Britain, and so diligently spent his time in studies that within a few years he became a philosopher and theologian complete in every measure. His course finished, he was recalled by his parents to his country and obeyed; and with leave sought of his uncle St Paul he returned to his father — who, admiring his learning and manners, bent wholly on this: that he should be joined in honourable marriage. He therefore clothed him in precious ornaments, gave him a retinue and servants, and bade him frequent the society of the nobles and render himself conspicuous to the world. But this holy youth, forestalled by divine love, utterly abhorred such vanities; and though, lest he grieve his parents, he feigned worldliness, yet he had resolved to leave all things and follow Christ, about to embrace the religious state.

² Meanwhile he received letters from greater Britain, by which he understood that his uncle St Paul had crossed the sea with twelve priests and landed on the Armorican isle of Ouessant to dwell there. He resolved therefore to betake himself there as soon as possible, deserting country and parents; he bade all be prepared on the nearest shore, and one morning, feigning a walk, went out with two servants and, boarding a ship, sailed toward the isle of Ouessant. Scarcely was the island in sight when a tempest arose; cast out of the Ouessant port, they escaped into unknown seas to the mainland at the river Faou. At once meeting St Judulus the abbot, they were courteously saluted and received by him; who, when he learned their name, country and purpose, bade them return aboard and led them to his monastery of Landévennec. There, when St Joava had lived some time, he dismissed his servants, sought the habit of religion, and received it from St Judulus.

³ His time of probation complete, he set out for Léon to find his uncle St Paul — who, rejoicing to see his nephew in such a habit, kept him with him some years, conferred holy orders on him, and, now ordained priest, sent him back to the monastery of Landévennec to celebrate there. There Abbot Judulus, since the parish of Brasparz needed a rector, chose St Joava for this office — who both accepted it and rendered himself fit for it. At first indeed he found many difficulties there: subjects ignorant of Christian doctrine, and a paganism full of superstitions which still raged through all Cornouaille. But St Joava by word, example, threats and prayers so wrought that he brought them back into the right way and, their evil errors repelled, rendered them partakers of divine grace.

⁴ At that time there lived in the fortress of Ker-ar-Roe in Cornouaille one Aristagnus, a man eminently Christian and of great nobility. To him was nephew by his sister the toparch of Faou — a man as hostile to religion as his uncle was its patron. But above others he execrated St Joava with all his might, because the saint daily recalled more and more of his neighbours and subjects to the true faith by his preaching. He dissembled for the time his impious purpose of vengeance, yet none the less sluggishly watched for a fit opportunity. Meanwhile he learned that the presidents of the monasteries of Cornouaille had gathered an assembly not far from his toparchy’s bounds — and among others especially the abbots Thadec and Judulus had met together with St Joava. Seizing at last the occasion, under a false show of religion he gathered a band of armed men and led them into the field.

⁵ He came to that monastery where the holy prelates had gathered; breaking into the temple’s sanctuary he routed the people, and slew Abbot Thadec, intent on the divine service, before the altars at these words “for us sinners also” — the rest raging promiscuously on the remaining choir of monks, nor sparing the fugitives: for also Judulus, slipping away in flight toward Landévennec, the toparch of Faou ran through the head with his still-reddening blade — God reserving St Joava for greater things under His protection. Who, when he had escaped by swift flight to his parish of Brasparz, sorrowing at the slaughter of his best father St Judulus, paid the just dues to his own consecrated hands and to those of the slain monks.

⁶ But in due time God, the avenger and vindicator of His own, was present: for that raging toparch of Faou had scarce quenched his thirst with the blood of so many innocents when, possessed by a mighty legion of demons, he paid the penalty of his impiety — so that, turned from fury into madness, he could scarce be restrained or brought home. Nor was this enough: for a monster like a dragon rather than a fish sprang from the sea and wrought such slaughter at Faou that it spared neither men nor beasts — so that shortly a solitude was brought in, the fields, goods and fortunes deserted, all acknowledging the avenging hand of the Lord. By counsel therefore of that town’s leading men, envoys were sent to St Paul at Léon — who then shone for the fame of holiness in the monastery of Ker-paol — that he should aid the oppressed in their calamity and console the afflicted.

⁷ Touched with compassion, the bishop bade them be of good cheer, prepare themselves for penitence; he would shortly come to remedy the matter. The envoys being thus dismissed, he girded himself for the journey with some monk companions. Now passing through the parish of Plougaran, they had turned aside from the way to pray in the place called today Mouster-Paul, that is, Paul’s Monastery. Then a youth of elegant form shone before St Paul’s eyes and admonished him to proceed intrepidly on the journey begun — all things would answer his hopes. Immediately Joava, informed of his uncle St Paul’s journey toward Faou, went out to meet him and found him at Coatgarz; where, mutual greetings and embraces given on both sides, when St Paul noted their thirst he turned to prayer and was heard from heaven. For St Joava, at his uncle’s bidding, had scarce struck the dry ground with his staff when a spring of sweetest liquor burst from the earth, which refreshed them as they sang praises to the supreme Lord of fountains.

⁸ They had now reached Faou when an innumerable multitude of inhabitants poured from the fields into the town; to whom St Paul, beholding them, made a discourse on the excellence of the Christian religion, which he ended in these words: “And now, that you may know how true are all the things I have spoken to you — if you are led by penitence for your sins, if you renounce your superstitions — in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, whom I proclaim to you, I command you be delivered at once from that furious beast.” Scarcely had he finished when a unanimous shout received his penitential call and prayer. St Paul therefore bade an altar be prepared for the sacrifice to be offered by St Joava; and the divine service finished, full of God he went out of the temple, called the dragon by name, and bade it come harmlessly. No delay: the execrable monster is present — mouth agape, eyes burning and rolling round — and at once prostrates itself at the holy man’s feet. He binds his stole about its neck and bids his nephew fix his staff in the ground — to which the dragon is fastened, not resisting, not moving from the spot, but now as it were tame and gentle.

⁹ From there he visited the toparch of Faou — who, since the slaughter of the abbots Thadec and Judulus, was tormented miserably, possessed by the evil one. Fortifying him with the Cross he expelled the demon and healed him; then instructed him in the saving precepts of the faith, and he was baptised by St Joava — St Paul assisting him in all things and imposing on him his own name. Moved by this example, all his household and subjects abjured paganism and were washed in the waters. The lady herself, mother of the newly-converted toparch, scarce mistress of herself dispatched a runner at once to Ker-ar-Roe to her brother Aristagnus, to tell him this good news — that his nephew was converted and freed from the demon. Elated by this news, Count Aristagnus sent two of his nobles to St Paul and St Joava to beg they deign to visit him — which they performed, and, attended by those nobles, set out there at once.

¹⁰ Hearing of their coming, Prince Aristagnus met them attended by a great troop of his men and received them most humanely; he promised them moreover in his nephew the toparch’s name that, in expiation of the shed blood of the holy abbots Judulus and Thadec, he would found a monastery in that very place where St Judulus was slain — and would see that for the eternal memory of the deed it should be consecrated to those two martyrs and named Mouster Daouz-gloas, that is the Monastery of the Two Wounds; with most ample revenues added for the support of the monks to be placed there. Nor did the toparch of Faou gainsay his uncle’s compact, but entrusted the care of the work to St Joava — who accepted it no more readily than he discharged it vigorously. The monastery was finished within a few years and consecrated by the Right Reverend Bishop of Cornouaille — in whose temple St Joava was also inaugurated first abbot. It is now called the Abbey of Deipara Daoulanz [Daoulas], of the Canons Regular of St Augustine in the diocese of Cornouaille.

¹¹ The affairs of Faou being thus settled, St Paul returned to Léon leading the dragon with him; and when he had come to a small wood lying between the parishes of Lan-paol and Guiemiliaw, two men sent by the inhabitants of Faou met him, saying nothing was done unless he should destroy with the dragon a new whelp lately born which threatened equal calamities to the neighbours. Loosing the dragon therefore, he bade it bring the whelp to him and harm none. The dragon obeyed and (wondrous to tell) set the little one at the holy man’s feet in the wood — which even today for posterity’s memory is called Gaotar sarpant, that is the Serpent’s Wood. From there both serpents were brought to his principal monastery on the isle of Baz, where he bound them secretly to a stake; where harming none and destitute of food they gradually died and were cast into the sea. Moreover in record of so great a miracle, that island in Breton is called Enes-Baaz, that is the Isle of the Staff, situated over against the parish of Roscoff.

¹² Moreover when the monastery of Daoulas was finished, St Joava gathered there a not-small company of religious, with whom he led an exemplary and altogether perfect life. But the evil spirit, the foe of the human race, envied him — who, indignant that he was being exterminated from those parts by the frequent preachings of the holy man and others, rendered that province so grievous to St Joava that, destitute of all quiet and patience, he was forced to resign the rectorship of Brasparz and leave the care of the abbey of Daoulas to Tusuran, Aristagnus’s son — whom, when he had instructed in the manner of ruling his parish and monastery, he betook himself with his men’s leave to Léon. It cannot be said how greatly St Paul rejoiced at his nephew’s coming: him he used as coadjutor up to the reward, him he made canon in the cathedral church, to him at last — now worn with age and loving solitude — he resigned the episcopate.

¹³ But first the canons, being asked, gave their vote and received Joava as bishop of Léon. Joava therefore set out for Dol and was consecrated by St Samson, archbishop of Dol and metropolitan of Brittany. Meanwhile St Paul leading a solitary life in the monastery of Baz, Joava summoned St Kenan to him, made him both priest and canon, and then gave him the parish of Plou-kernaw to administer — with great fruit ensuing. While St Joava governed his bishopric diligently, the Cornish — who by their depraved manners had compelled him to quit his former office — bore his absence heavily: for since he left them, so great a famine followed for three years that they were forced to seek grain from the remoter parts of Brittany. They noted that this great plague arose from their recent ingratitude toward St Joava; they therefore deputed certain men to him toward Léon, to ask in their name that he would forgive them and deign moreover to visit them, and with his blessing bestowed to pray for them. St Joava, all memory of injuries laid aside, visited them by St Paul’s counsel and by his very advent freed them from scarcity of food — for this holy man had scarce poured forth his prayers when, the earth and trees reviving, abundance of all things followed.

¹⁴ At last, so many labours borne for God’s glory, he was seized with a violent fever in the presbyterate of Brasparz and within a few days was bereft of all strength. Three days before his death, his mortal illness was revealed to St Paul in the monastery of the isle of Baz and to St Kenan in Plou-Kerneaw. Kenan at once went to St Paul, by whom he was at once sent to Brasparz to bring aid to the holy bishop in his last moments and prepare his funeral. At his coming St Joava was wondrously consoled; and fortified by him with all the Church’s sacraments, he blessed those present — and moreover bade that his body be laid on a new bier, and buried where the beasts should halt in its translation. Which done, with hands and mind lifted to heaven he rendered his soul to his Creator on the second of March, about the year 5(79?). His whole body, vested in pontifical ornaments, was laid — as he had bidden — on the new bier, and the beasts were given their licence to carry it where they would. They therefore held the great road of Brasparz until, halting at Porz-arr-chraz, the bier was shaken with such a crash that it seemed broken; but the beasts, proceeding five hundred paces, yielded up the shaken tomb in a spacious place — where a most august temple was erected to his name, in which he was laid. This holy man’s relics were afterwards translated to Léon and kept in the cathedral church — whose diocese he governed for a year and seventy days.

¹⁵ The church of Léon keeps the feast of St Joava, or Jovinus, on the second of March. His cathedral’s ancient legendary contains nine lessons — from where what we have written is for the most part drawn, but chiefly from a very ancient manuscript communicated to me by Vincent le Grand of Kerscao in Kerigonval of pious memory, in May 1621 — in which are contained the deeds of the bishops of Léon, brought to light by the noble and discreet Master Ivo le Grand, canon of St Paul’s Léon, rector of Plounéventer, almoner and ordinary counsellor of Duke Francis II, in the year 1423.

[Editorial footnotes, abridged: a) St Tenenan is venerated in Brittany on 16 July as bishop of Léon after St Golven, per Albert. b) Brest’s harbour is described as Europe’s most capacious. c) This is the ancient abbey of the Corisopitan diocese treated in the Life of St Winwaloe (3 March). d–f) Distances and names of the villages; Colgan’s hurried translation rendered “his wife also converted” and made Aristagnus the toparch’s “grandfather” where he was uncle; the Greek-formed name Aristagnus (“best and purest”) seems coined by some smatterer. g) Albert wrote from his own time’s knowledge. h–i) The villages lie midway between Faou and Léon; Roscoff serves Léon as port. k) Dol claimed metropolitan dignity into the 12th century; the dispute with Tours was quenched in 1199, Boniface IX adjudging Dol a special precedence of honour. l) On St Kenan: Colgan debates whether he is Caledoc (5 Nov.) of Duleek in Ireland, concluding this is rather another abbot of that name found in Irish martyrologies on 25 Feb. m) Nothing of these seventy days is found in St Paul’s Acts. n) Duke Francis II, last duke of Brittany — the interpreter ignorantly rendered “Duke Francis XI”; he died in 1488, and by the marriage of his daughter Anne to Charles VIII the duchy passed to the French crown in 1491.]

[The page-scan then continues into the next article of the volume, unrelated to Joava:]

Of Many Holy Martyrs Slain in Italy by the Lombards — preliminary commentary #

The irruption of the Lombards into Italy from Pannonia, and their monstrous cruelty toward holy men, temples, coenobia, and even the sepulchres and bodies of the saints, we set out at length on 9 February before the Life of St Sabinus bishop of Canosa; and that the Lombards were so called from their long “bard” — that is, axe or spear — we proved on 14 February. Of the martyrs slain by these Lombards in hatred of the Catholic faith, the present Roman Martyrology reads thus: “In Campania, the commemoration of eighty holy martyrs who, when they would not eat sacrificed foods nor adore the goat’s head, were most cruelly slain by the Lombards.” St Gregory the Great describes the history of the martyrdom in Dialogues III.27–28 and divides the martyrs into two classes — the first being forty rustics who refused to eat the sacrificed foods; in the second was a very great multitude of captives refusing to adore the goat’s head. Peter de Natalibus reports only these latter, asserting they suffered on the sixth of the Nones of March; of whom Hermann Greven writes in the Auctarium of Usuard: “Likewise of very many martyrs of the number of four hundred — of whom Gregory relates (Dialogues III.28) that when they were urged by the Lombards to adore the goat’s head consecrated to the devil, the greatest part of them, refusing, were slain.” The same is read in Molanus’s additions to Usuard (1568); Maurolycus similarly: “the same day, of about four hundred martyrs slain by the Lombards wasting Italy, as Gregory relates.” Constantius Felicius and Richard Whitford have the like in their martyrologies, the one published in Italian, the other in English. So Peter de Natalibus calls them about four hundred martyrs. And our ancient manuscript codex of these Dialogues of St Gregory has “about four hundred captives, of whom a very great multitude was slain” — but contrariwise in the printed exemplars edited by Gillotius, Pamelius and others it is read “about forty captives”, the word “four hundred” being rejected to the margin as a variant and finally omitted entirely in Sixtus V’s edition. On their authority Galesinius writes: “This same day, of the forty holy martyrs who, pressed by the Lombards to worship the goat’s head, most steadfastly detested it and were butchered.” Baronius, adding to these forty another forty rustics from the earlier class, reckons eighty slain in all. But St Gregory hands down in the second class “about forty” — or, as others, “four hundred” — captives, and of them only “a very great multitude”, not all, slain by the sword. The chapter titles in Gregory are these: of the former, “Of the forty rustics slain by the Lombards because they would not eat sacrificed foods”; of the latter: “Of the multitude of captives slain because they would not adore the goat’s head.” Whether the word “multitude” — immediately called “greatest” — compared with the number forty of the rustics in the former chapter, rather hints the captives were about four hundred than not yet forty, we leave to others’ judgement.

Baronius in his notes computes the year of the slaughter as 579. “For St Gregory affirms,” he says, “these suffered about fifteen years before, reaching to the time when he wrote these Dialogues — namely when he was in the fourth year of his pontificate, as appears from Dialogues IV.36, where, treating of the pestilence that befell in the first year of his pontificate, he testifies it happened three years before that time. If therefore from the aforementioned year 579 you reckon up those fifteen elapsed years to Gregory’s fourth pontifical year, you will find they consummated their martyrdom at the said time.” So Baronius, who in his Annals inserted this slaughter under that same year — and adds concerning the Lombards’ idolatry St Gregory’s complaint to Queen Brunhild of the Franks: “This likewise we exhort, that you ought to restrain your other subjects under the moderation of discipline, that they sacrifice not to idols, nor worship trees, nor offer sacrilegious sacrifices upon the heads of animals — because it has come to us that many Christians both run to churches and (what is impious to say) depart not from the worship of demons.” So Gregory, and from him Baronius. Ferrarius treats of the same martyrs in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, wondering from which the Roman Martyrology received them as having suffered in Campania, since St Gregory in the cited place makes no mention of Campania. Whitford and others more safely report them to have suffered in Italy.

The Acts of the Martyrdom — from Book Three of St Gregory’s Dialogues #

“In our own days it has happened that even worldly persons, of whom nothing of heavenly glory could be presumed, have by an arising occasion attained the crowns of martyrdom. For about fifteen years ago, as those testify who could have been present, forty rustics were taken by the Lombards and compelled to eat sacrificed foods. And when they strongly resisted and would not touch the sacrilegious food, the Lombards who held them began to threaten them with death unless they ate what was sacrificed. But they, loving eternal rather than present and transitory life, stood faithful and were all slain together in their constancy. What were these then but martyrs of truth — who chose to end life by the sword rather than offend their Creator by eating the forbidden?

“At the same time also, while the Lombards held about four hundred other captives, after their custom they sacrificed the goat’s head to the devil, running round it and dedicating it with an impious chant. And when they had first adored it themselves with bowed necks, they compelled those they had taken to adore it likewise. But the greatest part of those captives, preferring by dying to tend toward immortal life rather than by worshipping to keep mortal life, would not obey the sacrilegious commands, and scorned to incline to a creature the neck they had ever bent to the Creator. From where it happened that the enemies who had taken them, inflamed with heavy wrath, slew all with the sword who would not be partners in their error. What wonder then if these could have been martyrs when the persecution’s time broke out — who even in the Church’s very peace held the narrow way of martyrdom, ever afflicting themselves? When the persecution’s crisis rushed in, even those merited to receive martyrs’ palms who in the Church’s peace seemed to follow the broad ways of this world. Nor yet do we hold this we say of these elect men as a rule for all: for when persecution’s time openly rushes in, as very many can undergo martyrdom who seemed despicable in the Church’s peace, so sometimes those fall into the dread of doubt who before were believed to stand strongly in the Church’s peace. But those whom we have said could become martyrs we faithfully confess to be such — because we gather it already from their end. For they could not fall even in open persecution, of whom it stands that they persevered to life’s end in the hidden virtue of the soul.”

[The scan ends at the heading of the next day’s article: “OF ST CEADDA, BISHOP IN MERCIA” — continued in the Ceadda file.]