From: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum V, ed. B. Krusch & W. Levison (Hannover, 1910), pp. 613–641. Latin text as printed — Levison’s critical preface, the dedication to Abbot Hildbert, and the Life in 36 chapters. Translated into modern British English; the editors’ Latin notes are rendered in English.

The editor’s introduction #

Ansbertus — or rather Ansebercthus, as the name was formerly written — first, as referendary, offered charters to Chlothar III (657–673); then, leaving the palace, became a monk at Fontenelle; and after Abbot Lambert, in the closing year 677 or the following years, was advanced to govern the see of Lyons and resigned the monastery, he succeeded him. Finally he obtained the bishopric of Rouen, Bishop Audoinus having died on 24 August 684 — to whom, while living, he had dedicated a rather barbarous poem which exhibits in the last letters of its verses the words Ansebertus orator definit. To Ansbert are also referred the Questions addressed to Siwinus the recluse, a copy of which Hardwinus, monk of Fontenelle (d. 811), transcribed; the little work seems to have perished. On the day of the Lord’s Ascension in 688 (7 May) he translated the body of his predecessor, resting in the basilica of St Peter, to another place of the church. In the same year or the beginning of the next, he is said at Rouen to have granted a privilege to the monastery of Fontenelle — the bishops, abbots, Genardus the vicedominus and the archdeacons subscribing — whereby he confirmed to the brethren the faculty of freely electing an abbot from among themselves, and likewise ordained that if they neglected the Rule they should be brought back to its norm by a convent of priests, and if they despised the bishops’ authority they should lie under excommunication. Not long after, accused before the prince Pippin, he was sent into exile about the year 690; and he died an exile at Altus Mons in the monastery of Hainault on 9 February, in an uncertain year. His body was brought to Fontenelle and placed in the basilica of St Paul, from which Bishop and Abbot Bainus is said to have translated the relics on 31 March, at the beginning of the eighth century, into the church of Peter the apostle. Among the monks of Fontenelle, “the great prelate Ansbert,” together with the founder Wandregisilus, was celebrated above the rest.

Among the men of Fontenelle was also one who, almost an age after the bishop’s death, committed his deeds to writing. For although he wished the Life to be taken as dedicated to Abbot Hildbert (d. c. 701), Ansbert’s successor, yet not only does the style — free from Merovingian barbarism — savour of the Carolingian age, in which Abbot Gervoldus (788–806), finding nearly all the monks ignorant of letters, established the school of Fontenelle; but the author himself — whatever his name, or Aigradus as he calls himself — by manifest tokens betrayed his fictions, forgetful of the person he had assumed. For one contemporary with Hildbert could not have known that the bier on which the saint’s body was laid remained a long time in the church at Fraxinidum, nor would the translation of Audoinus, celebrated by the citizens from 688 “onwards through succeeding times,” fit him. Finally, the incursion of the Agarenes — that is, the Arabs — into Provence, which befell in 737, the author would better have suppressed had he wished to seem the saint’s contemporary; and he mentioned the “accursed race of the Agarenes” in the same words as the author of the second recension of the Life of Pope Gregory II. The preface, in which he professed the feigned date, is certainly by the same author as wrote the Life, since in both the sermon of Bishop Hilarius of Arles (429–449) on his predecessor Honoratus is alike excerpted and pillaged. So the author, in the same manner as the biographers of Wulframnus and of the second Wandregisilus — themselves Fontenelle men — lied about his own age; and those who have held the primitive Life to have been contaminated by interpolators have been led into error, since the more severe judgement is confirmed by the fact that in two places (chs. 11 and 34) certain words are read drawn from Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, which furnished richer matter to other Fontenelle authors as well. The biographer of Ansbert seems to have written not long before the end of the eighth century, nor after 811, when the priest Hardwinus died who had transcribed, among other codices, “the book of the lives of Saints Wandregisilus, Ansbert and Wulframnus.”

Yet not a few things are found in the Life which are by no means to be despised. For as he was of the Fontenelle authors, the biographer of Ansbert used the charters of the monastic archive — though those things which he alone has handed down concerning the council of Rouen in 688/9 are to be judged spurious. The Life of Audoinus and, unless I err, the Liber historiae Francorum were at his hand; nor is it strange that besides the Dialogues of Gregory the Great (cf. chs. 21, 25, 27) the Rules both of Columbanus and of Benedict were known to him, which were kept at Fontenelle joined with the martyrology in one codex. The same author, on his own testimony, had previously composed the Life of Lambert, from which he repeated particles in this second little work.

The Life of Ansbert was used by the writers of the Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium, the second Life of Audoinus, the second Life and the Miracles of Wandregisilus, and the Translation of Guthlac (1136). A epitome from a manuscript Flinandus inserted in book XLV of his Chronicle, which Vincent of Beauvais used in the Speculum Historiale (XXIV [XXIII], 99–100), together with the Life itself.

The manuscripts #

The codices divide into two classes, of which the first seems to be referred to the book which the monks of Fontenelle, wandering in the ninth century on account of the Norse incursions, carried down into the Flemish parts:

• 1a. Codex Saint-Omer no. 764, tenth century, formerly of St Bertin, fol. 52v–75.
• 1a¹, 1a². Codices Saint-Omer no. 715 vol. I (twelfth century, formerly of St Bertin) and no. 716 (thirteenth century, formerly of St Mary of Claromarisco), which most closely approach 1a and, dissenting from it, rarely show better, oftener worse readings, being most closely joined to each other.
• 1b. Brussels codex no. 3182, thirteenth century, formerly of the Bollandist museum.
• 1c. Rouen codex no. 1400, eleventh century, formerly of Fécamp — ending at ch. 8, only tatters of the remaining folios surviving.
• 2a. Rouen codex no. 1380, eleventh century, formerly of Jumièges.
• 2b. Le Havre codex no. 332, eleventh century, formerly “the great Fontenelle chronicle.”
• 2b′. Paris codex no. 2627, eleventh century, formerly of Moissiac — depending on 2b itself or a very similar book. In the same codex is a brief fourteenth-century epitome containing the interpolation whereby Ansbert abbot of Fontenelle is confused with an Ansbert abbot of Moissiac: partly fabricated, partly drawn from an interpolated codex of the Life of Desiderius of Cahors.
• 2c. Cambrai codex no. 846, twelfth century, formerly of the Holy Sepulchre at Cambrai — ending at ch. 24 and lacking chs. 18–19.
• 2d. Gray’s Inn codex no. 3, eleventh/twelfth century — lacking the middle part of the Life, folios 3–6 being lost.
• 2e. British Museum Cotton Otho D. VIII, twelfth/thirteenth century, much affected by the fire of 1731 — lacking the prologue and chs. 9–11 and the latter part of ch. 18.

Other codices are recorded at Alençon, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent (a fragment), Paris and Rouen; and one of the Life was among the books of St Peter’s, Rebais, in the eleventh century.

The editions #

Laurentius Surius first published the Life (De probatis sanctorum historiis I, Cologne 1570, pp. 906–917) from a codex like 1a, omitting the prologue; this edition was repeated by François Lanovius (1634), and partly by André Du Chesne (1636) following Surius nearly everywhere. Godfrey Henschenius (Acta Sanctorum, Feb. II, Antwerp 1658, pp. 347–356) corrected the Surian text against several manuscripts and added the chapters of the Vita Ansberti pertaining to Lambert to the Life of Lambert there edited (April II, 1675, p. 218). Jean Mabillon (Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti II, Paris 1669, pp. 1048–62) used other codices and 2b. Martin Bouquet repeated fragments; likewise Joseph Ghesquière from Henschenius; and finally Hénet (1895) repeated portions on his predecessors’ shoulders.

The shorter text (B) is contained in a Brussels codex, eleventh/twelfth century, formerly of St Laurence, Liège; the Bollandists published it (Analecta Bollandiana I, 1882, pp. 179–191), believing they had found the older Life — but incorrectly, for it is excerpted from a class-1 codex of the larger Life. Finally codex 1a exhibits a Life of Ansbert drawn from the larger and written in hexameter verses, which gets no further than two chapters; L. Deschamps published it (1841).

W. Levison.

Here Begins the Preface to the Life of St Ansbert, Bishop and Confessor #

To the venerable and honour-worthy eminent priest of Christ Hildbert, abbot of the monastery of Fontenelle — Aigradus, the least servant of the Lord’s servants.

By the bounty of divine mercy we set ourselves to narrate the acts of the eminently holy Ansbert, pontiff of the church of Rouen, humbly fulfilling the command of your holy devotion. But for two causes I am greatly straitened in so eminent a work — on the one side the exiguity of my wit and the vileness of my speech holding me back; on the other the bidding of your pleasant fatherhood provoking me, to whom we deem it wicked to be disobedient. Yet with that fidelity wherewith the acts of his famed conversation have come down to us, aided by his intercessions, we set them forth in unlearned but faithful discourse. For as the angel said to Tobias: It is good to conceal the king’s secret, but to reveal the works of God is best. For to cover in silence the deeds of the Lord’s elect, and not to publish them in writing for the profit and edification of hearers, is held to be the part of the greatest torpor and sloth. For in the deeds of the saints His praise is recollected, and the edification of innocent desire is kindled in the minds of the faithful peoples. But lest a long preamble breed weariness in readers — and rather that a small narrative may excite in hearers the fervour of hearing — obeying your commands I take up, with God’s help, the road of telling. For though there were present to me the eloquence of a serene mind and a tongue obedient in fitting service, the praise of his conversation and holiness could not be set forth by my words — it remains in the memory of your religion.

HERE ENDS THE PREFACE.

Here Begins the Life of St Ansbert #

1. In the time, then, when Chlothar, son of King Hlodovius and Queen Balthildis, together with his brothers Hilderic and Theoderic, governed the sceptres of the kingdom of the Franks, Ansbert, bishop of holy memory of the church of Rouen — illustrious in virtues and worthy of the priesthood — was born of a noble stock, his father being named Siwinus, of the district of the Veliocasses and of a patrimony called Calcegius [Chaussy, in the Vexin]. But he, rebutting the stem of his fathers, chose, as soon as he could, to be enrolled under the paternity of his Creator alone. The aforementioned father of his served as a soldier under the said kings, and paid the debt of the present life common to all mortals. But this origin of earthly dignity and glory of fathers we deem need not be enumerated in the blessed man, since all his glory was of the love of truth and the contempt of the world. For already in the age of boyhood despising as it were the nobility of his birth, panting with desire of Christ alone, he shuddered at all honours as superfluous. Then he is delivered by his parents to strenuous masters to be instructed in letters. He is instructed without any urging of his own; for in him was a sweet infancy, a modest boyhood, a grave adolescence. And when, grown up, he passed the years of puberty, his secular father, loving him as an only son, wished him to be occupied with huntings and armed with the sweetness of the world. But whatever the aged father delighted in, the young son in all things loathed.

2. In those days a certain illustrious man named Hrotbertus, sprung from a generous stock, was bearer of King Chlothar’s ring. Whose most religious and noble daughter, Angadrisma by name, the aforementioned illustrious Siwinus sought from the same renowned Hrotbertus, wishing her to be joined to his young son Ansbert. And without delay the said illustrious Hrotbertus, granting assent to his petition, on the appointed day the chaste maid is betrothed to the chaste youth. But both, desiring to keep the integrity of mind and body chaste, besought the Almighty Lord to deign to repel the poisons of lusts from their hearts. Then, the blessed virgin Angadrisma praying that her comeliness might be turned to deformity, the Lord at once heard her prayers. For her face appeared at once so ulcered and covered with most foul leprosy that whoever saw her would have adjudged her at once to be cut off from the fellowship of men. Then at her father’s bidding a throng of physicians assembled, that if they could aid his dear offspring with united remedies, they should be rewarded with worthy gifts. But the more instant they were upon the work, the more deformed and ulcerous did Christ’s bride appear. Then her father, perceiving that this was divinely wrought about his offspring, enquired of her whether she had chosen to end her life in the vow of virginity. “I desire it, my father,” she said, “and with all my might I implore the pity of the Most High that I may deserve to be made the handmaid of continence and chastity, not of unbridled luxury. For Christ, whom I have desired for bridegroom, Himself brings this molestation on my body to bestow brightness on my soul; He will be my everlasting guardian, and will grant me to persevere perpetually in the resolve of virginity. This present life delights, pious father, but it deceives, since all that is in the world is vanity and the concupiscence of the eyes; and the world passes away and the concupiscence thereof; but he that does the will of God remains for ever — as the Lord also remains for ever.” The father, hearing this, called in the illustrious Siwinus and lucidly unfolded what had been wrought about his daughter. To this Siwinus answered: “The will of the Lord must in all things be followed, nor must we in any way wish to go against His nod; whose judgments, although hidden, are ever just.” Blessed Ansbert also was present, being called; where he made the writing of divorce, that the holy virgin Angadrisma should be called the bride not of himself but of Christ. This done, she was sent to the city of Rouen to the holy bishop Audoinus, that, his blessing received and covered with the sacred veil, she might deserve to be consecrated in the resolve of virginity. Which accomplished, she was at once restored to her former beauty and elegant appearance, so that all who heard said that Christ had chosen her for His own perpetual bride and handmaid.

3. In the following time the holy woman was made governess of the monastery of the Oratory [Oroër], which is situated in the Beauvaisis near the walls of the city of Beauvais. The father of this holy virgin, the illustrious Hrotbertus, and her brother Haltbertus, were uncles of the holy father Lambert, Wandregisilus’s successor in the order of government, drawing their origin from the territory of Thérouanne. Of whom the said Haltbertus in the following time, under the said Abbot Lambert, was made a monk in the monastery of Fontenelle.

4. After these things the man of the Lord Ansbert, brought into the king’s hall by his father although unwillingly — being, as he was, renowned for the acumen of his wit — began to be a court scribe, learned and a maker of royal privileges, and bearer of the king’s ring wherewith the same privileges were sealed. Where being placed, turning himself to the Lord by examples of pious doctrine and of humility, he took care to leave the world and to make for the monasteries; and so, still in the lay habit, he invited many by holy preaching and the doctrine of wisdom to the rewards of eternal felicity; and thus daily profiting and increasing in the Lord, he took care to augment the grace conferred on him by Christ. And when before the king and princes, after the wonted manner, he heard the various instruments of the musical art sounding in harps and pipes, he would say to himself: “O good Creator, what a song shall it be to hear unfailing in the heavens them that love You — the song of angels; and how sweet and delectable, the choirs of saints singing together and sounding forth Your praises, Creator, unfailingly — if You give mortals such skill that by the art’s cunning and the sweetness of singing they may provoke the souls of hearers devoutly to praise You, God, the Creator of all!” And he would add: Praise you the Lord, all you faithful, in the timbrel and choir; praise Him in the strings and organ — and the rest to the end of the psalm.

5. So remaining in the king’s hall, nor forgetful of the gospel which says Unless a man leave all, he cannot be my disciple — God providing and inspiring him — he chose to leave the earthly warfare and to serve the heavenly King. Then kindled with the fire of divine love and suffused with the light of the Holy Spirit, he went out from the palace and, wishing to confess his will to none of his comrades or servants, took the road which leads to the province of Rouen, and came to the monastery of Fontenelle, situated in the territory of Rouen upon the great river Seine, where the renowned priest of the Lord Wandregisilus had built a monastery and with a great company of monks led a laudable life under the yoke of the holy rule. And when in that same monastery, by the holy man’s command, he had been received in the guest-house according to the monastic order, he began humbly to implore the minister that he might deserve to see the holy father of the monastery. And when the ministers had announced the request to the pious father, at length he bade the aforementioned elegant youth be brought into his presence. Then, prostrate on the ground, humbly adoring Christ dwelling in so great a father, he begged of him to be made a monk. For he said he would renounce the world in body and mind, and he besought submissively that the hair of his head should be commanded to be laid aside in the love of Christ. And the venerable father, hearing his holy and God-worthy petition, said he wished time for deliberation to be taken upon it — that, as the apostolic and monastic rule teaches, he might know to what he was coming. Which being accomplished, the renowned father, receiving the counsel of the spiritual brethren, fulfilled his pious vows as he had requested, and made him comely in the habit of the clerical tonsure.

6. And so from that time the man of God began to glow with love of the holy scriptures in reading, and assiduously to cull their sweetest fruits in understanding. And when the blessed father Wandregisilus perceived that the acumen of wit in the said youth was strong, he bade a store of various volumes be granted him at once. Which as he earnestly ran through in reading, he found written the saying of a certain holy father [Jerome] containing this manner: Let a monk live in a monastery under the discipline of one father and the fellowship of many, that he may learn humility from one, patience from another. Reading through these things and the rest, and bedewing his eyes with the rain of tears, he began most attentively to consider how he could fulfil them in working. First of all he studied to lay in his heart humility, the foundation and guardian of all virtues, imitating Him who says: Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. And so submitting his neck devoutly to Christ’s sweet yoke and His light burden, he was made in the company of the monks humbler than all and obedient to all — frequent in vigils, assiduous in prayers, fervent in spirit, rejoicing in hope, serving the Lord without ceasing; to whom also was given the effusion of tears out of compunction of heart through the infusion of the Holy Spirit. And when, rising before the hour of vigils, he grew weary bending to devout prayers, at the striking of the signal for waking the brethren to chant the Lord’s praises, he presented himself before all in the convent of prayer — in this also, as in his other acts, showing the monks an imitable way, so that the man of God who presided over the place’s government reproved many by rebuke and taxed their pusillanimity, because the aforementioned youth, lately converted, outstripped them in God’s work and the keeping of the law. And he began to love him the more dearly — as the monastic norm teaches, that he who is found excelling devoutly in the brightness of religion is to be loved in all things. For one day in the convent of all the monks he humbly besought the renowned priest of the Lord Wandregisilus that it might be lawful for him, with the father’s licence, to insist on the daily work of hands beyond the wonted work of the brethren, that he might mortify his members which were contrary to him upon the earth. When he implored this, the brethren, giving thanks to Almighty God, wondered at his God-worthy devotion. And when he rejoiced that what he had asked was granted him by the spiritual father, he began to fulfil the request with great devotion.

7. In which time the blessed Wandregisilus, at the exhortation of the same man of God, began to plant and cultivate a vineyard at a distance of about five hundred paces from the aforementioned monastery towards the southern quarter. In which place, while the said man of the Lord Ansbert was working together with the brethren, Theoderic, the youth who was to be king — practising huntings, as was his gentile custom — approached the said man of God, because he knew him prudent in doctrine, humble in worship, most holy in imitation. For he had already been consecrated priest by the holy pontiff Audoinus of the church of Rouen. Whom the same man of Christ both fortified with the benediction of holy religion and instructed with priestly authority in very many exhortations of holy doctrine, and moreover foretold that he should be king. And when he denied that it should so come to pass, the man of God answered: “Know that you shall be exalted with the honour of the kingdom; but know also that you shall suffer many adverse things in the kingdom, and so most laboriously shall obtain the triumph over your foes” — which the event afterwards proved. To this the youth Theoderic replied: “If the pious ordination of Almighty God shall set me on the height of the ruling kingdom, I desire you to be made a bishop worthy of God, that through your holy doctrine the church of the faithful may increase.” And when the priest of the Lord said that he was unworthy to bear so great a burden and made known that the youth himself ought rather to ascend the heights of the kingdom by hereditary succession, and the other still dwelling in doubt, the holy man added: “In this you shall know that credit is to be given to my words — if this day, in the wintry season, the place wherein this tent stands, which now is trodden with the footmarks of them that tread it, shall have put forth green grass, and so beside the footmarks of the same tent it shall remain greener than the other parts of the field for ever.” And that it so came to pass according to the word of the man of God is a token to all who come there, so that to this day that place appears greener than the rest of the field in the fashion of the tent once pitched there, whether in wintry or in summer time. O great and renowned glory of that saint, whose laudable merit Almighty God willed to be demonstrated by such a sign — that he who flourished like a palm in the house of Christ should be manifested to the peoples by such a presage of virtue! And when the said man of the Lord had rested a little from the work of his hands, refreshed with the briefest sleep, he was again insistently devoted with all endeavour to divine meditation. And while he shone with the light of so great humility and obedience and devotion, the fervour of true charity had enflamed all hearts about him, so that he was venerated by all with wondrous affection. But he, ever burning with desire of the glory to come, was unfailing in the work of the Lord.

8. So now it seems worth the while to narrate how the holy man was substituted and set in the place of government. For when the renowned priest of the Lord Wandregisilus had held this monastery in rule for about twenty years from the first day of its building, and was now set in decrepit age, he was seized with weakness before the day of his passing from this life and came to his end. And the whole company of the monks asked him with tearful voice whom they should elect from among themselves as rector. To whom he is said to have returned this answer: “There are two present among us, my most renowned sons; substitute these as rectors, and protect my frail departure with your prayers, and remember my admonitions always. To Christ the supreme shepherd I commit your care this day — may He keep you in perpetual ward to the end.” And when he had been received into the society of the heavenly kingdom by the angelic choirs, all the company of the monks, celebrating a three days’ fast, implored the pity of the Lord Christ. Which accomplished — God commanding — they elected the servant of the Lord Lambert, renowned for religion and of noble birth, sprung from the territory of Thérouanne; whose father was named Erlebertus, who bestowed very many estates on the said Fontenelle house in the same region of Thérouanne by a happy gift. And the same venerable father Lambert was full of charity, supereminent in chastity, firm in faith, provident in counsels, laudable in goodness, affable in converse, comely in countenance and stature, venerated by all, and fervent in the religion of Christ. And, by the inspiration of divine charity’s grace, the same laudable father venerated the blessed servant of Christ Ansbert as a father and loved him as a son; and there was to them in the Lord one heart and one soul. And he who had received the care of government, at the counsels of the holy father Ansbert, managed all things in the tending of the Lord’s flock strenuously and blamelessly according to the norm of the holy fathers. By whose examples of pious action and sedulous exhortations of words very many were stirred and took the roads of holy conversation.

9. To this venerable father Lambert Theoderic the king, son of King Hludovius and Queen Balthildis, granted a certain patrimony named Dusera [Donzère], which was situated beyond the river Rhône in the region properly called Provence — on this condition, that the estate should furnish lights to the church for the monks dwelling in the monastery of Fontenelle, in oil and other necessaries of that matter. In which place the aforementioned father founded an excellent monastery of monks, sending monks from the monastery of Fontenelle who diligently accomplished that laudable work; and from a small estate there stands to this day a great monastery of monks, eminent among others in that region. Which for many revolutions of years was subject to the sway of the said monastery of Fontenelle, until by division of the kingdom and discord of princes and the incursion of the accursed race of the Agarenes it was depopulated for a season with the other venerable places and made an end of subjection.

10. Under his government also the blessed Ermenlandus, sent from the said monastery of Fontenelle by the father Lambert himself at the request of the venerable bishop Pascarius of the city of Nantes into the same region of Nantes, built a venerable monastery of monks in a certain island of the Loire’s bed which was called Antrum [Indre], befitting the property of his own name. In which grant the said bishop Pascarius ordained that after the same venerable father Ermenlandus’s departure from the monastery of Fontenelle, all the inhabitants of the said place should for all succeeding times institute rectors for themselves — as the deeds of gift of the same place, which are still kept in the said monastery of Fontenelle, most plainly declare.

11. Also while the aforementioned father Lambert held the government of the place, the blessed pontiff of Christ Erimbertus of the city of Toulouse and the holy priest and anchorite Condedus, born in the island of Britain, took up in the said monastery of Fontenelle the monastic name and habit worthy of God. For very many things worthy of God and profitable to the place, wrought by and under the rule of so great a father, might have been told, had we not hastened to other matters — which we once committed to memory more fully in his Acts, to be made known to posterity.

12. In what order he was substituted as pontiff in Lyons, the most renowned city of Gaul, we will narrate in brief discourse. So when the holy bishop Genesius of that city had died — whose God-worthy life his laudable acts commend — at once the pious king Theoderic and the renowned prince Pippin, son of Ansegisilus (namely, the cousin of the blessed father Wandregisilus), taking salutary counsel with the nobles of the palace — divine ordinance truly directing — appointed him bishop of the same city with the unanimous vote of the people of that region. But when he long resisted with exceeding humility and would not undertake it, compelled by the royal command and the sacerdotal election he was ordained pontiff of the aforementioned metropolitan city. And so directed to the same province with the honour of his priesthood duly condign, he ruled Christ’s flock blamelessly with sedulous government by the examples of humility and holy preaching and pious action; and there, called by the Lord and loosed from the bonds of earthly corruption, he happily migrated to the joys of the heavenly city.

13. But in the aforementioned monastery of Fontenelle, after the withdrawal of the same holy pontiff Lambert, the unanimous monks of that congregation, the divine nod aiding, elected blessed Ansbert to be rector over them. And he, after receiving the care of government, constantly meditated what a burden he had undertaken — namely, to rule the souls of a flock committed by the Lord and to serve the manners of many. And because he was abundantly imbued above all with the knowledge of the holy scriptures, he ceaselessly dispensed to the flock committed to him the pastures of eternal greenness, showing by words and acts the roads of holy conversation. For he was, as he was set over the rest, so humbler than all — mean in clothing, moderate in food, given to unbroken abstinence, most adorned in chastity, renowned for cheerfulness of heart and body, and most abundantly heaped with the virtue of patience, the service of charity, and the largess of alms. Adorned with these works of holy virtues, he shone in the middle of the brethren like a lighted lamp. For one day, when after the wonted manner he was reciting the edicts of the divine law in the convent of all, the hearts of the hearers were rendered so flame-vomiting by the abundance of his eloquence in the exceeding ardour of charity, that very many of them, compelled to tears, rendered immense thanks to Almighty God, saying: “Blessed be Almighty God, who has given us such a rector, not by our merit but by the regard of His own goodness.” For he was loved by all as a true father, and they by him as devoted sons. And he studied ever to be loved rather than feared, and to fix his mind with ever-wakeful care on the saving of souls. So when the renown of the same blessed man’s merits shone more widely, very many flocked to him from all sides, seeking the salutary counsels of their salvation. And since he shone with the dignity of the priesthood, he received the confessions of them that flocked to him, imparting to them admonitions of salvation — how they could be saved and keep the ways of justice immovably without failure of any weariness. By whose doctrine and exhortations very many, strengthened and armed and hastening to the grace of conversion, brought very many gifts in various kinds of precious metals, and also not a few estates of possessions in various territories — all which the curious reader will easily find on inspecting the testaments or deeds of gift of the same faithful; which also, as is manifest to many, made up a total of manifold thousands. For he was adorned in all things with the sanctity of religion according to God, prudent also in the astuteness of secular argumentation; and the opinion of his goodness and religion ran everywhere, laudable — no, imitable — far and wide.

14. In the said venerable monastery of Fontenelle, moreover, among the happy deeds of his goodness he also established a guest-house for feeble and decrepit poor after the likeness of the twelvefold apostolic number, assigning them revenues wherewith they should be sufficiently furnished with sustenance. Two other dwellings he likewise established in the same monastery for feeble poor of Christ, whom he made to dwell eight by eight in the sacred number of eight, chosen out of many; to whom he decreed that daily provisions should be granted in perpetuity without want. Their occupation was none other than to abide in the house of the Lord at the appointed hours day and night, to devote themselves to prayer and the divine office, and at the time of the holy sacrifice to offer the saving victim for the salvation and safety of Christ’s people and of the Catholic church everywhere diffused. O great and renowned works of this holy father, which fly not so much in words as they stand firm in virtues!

15. But these things being meanwhile omitted, I now essay — the grace of heavenly pity aiding — to narrate how the same venerable man ascended the degree of the pontificate. For in these days it befell that the blessed Audoinus, pontiff of the city of Rouen, full of virtues and holy acts, called by the Lord, migrated happily from the world. At whose obsequies the blessed father Ansbert was present, together with a very great company of his monks and of clerks and priests of Christ. Who, solemnly celebrating the vigils of his sacred deposition, honoured him with the due obsequies of owed service. After whose sacred passing — lest the church should suffer the loss of a pastor taken away — all the citizens of the city of Rouen, sending a petition to Theoderic the glorious king, with his permission and authority elected blessed Ansbert to be consecrated their bishop. And the king, rejoicing in their election — since he had learned that wisdom abundantly overflowed in the same holy father and that religion prevailed — at once assenting to their petition’s election, at once despatched legates who should conduct the same servant of Christ to the royal dwelling. Without delay the legates, arriving at the blessed father Ansbert, disclosed the king’s commands and compelled him to go to the royal hall — for the said king was then dwelling in the villa of Clippiacum [Clichy], which is situated in the Parisian territory, where, holding a great assembly of peoples, he was treating of the kingdom’s utility and protection — that Ansbert, as was his custom (for he was the king’s confessor), should treat of the realm’s affairs at his counsel. But when the said man of God heard this, he at once knew that this summons was for no other cause than that the king wished to give his assent to the election of the citizens of Rouen. And he is said to have answered the king’s legates, out of eminent humility, that he was unworthy of the office of pastoral care. Who hastily reported to the king what answer they had received. And the king, sending to him a second time, cunningly intimated that he in no wise wished to act against his own will concerning the order of the pontificate, once they had spoken together. But he, being full of the wisdom of holy simplicity, resolved to go to the same king. Then — the citizens of the said metropolitan city electing — he was chosen with the unanimous vote of the holy priests, the king and the princes; was drawn; and in the same palace was consecrated pontiff of the church of Rouen by the holy Lambert, archbishop of the see of Lyons, and other holy prelates who had convened for that general placitum — divine providence truly ordaining that he who had been faithful in a few things should be set over many by the Lord, and give his household in due season their abundant measure of wheat.

16. Then, exalted in the honour and burden of the pontificate, he began to shine the more in the work of sanctity — to radiate everywhere with the light of preaching, and like a burning lamp set not now under a bushel but upon a candlestick, to show the way of truth to all, the darkness of errors being driven away; to give the work of pity and mercy to all; to take care of the poor unceasingly; to defend the causes of widows and orphans; to be zealous for the reception of pilgrims and guests; to administer the distribution of alms largely and cheerfully to all. These and like examples he ceased not to show to the people subject to him. For Christ’s church flourished under him as the monastery had flourished before. It increased in graces, though it waned in metals. For sometimes entering the place where the church’s treasures were stored, he bade them be presented to him and had some of them sold off, reserving very many, that the pious largess of alms might proceed benignly from the bosom of holy mother church with the fruit of piety. For the things which had been idly heaped up for long he at last assigned to the worthy uses of the needy, to repress the want of a violent famine which then sorely oppressed the peoples on every side; and he sent his treasures before him to them long dead. The vows of another’s time he made his own dispensation. For it then befell that a throng of the poor cried out at the gates begging alms. Which he hearing, and remembering the divine sentence which says: He that stops his ear at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry and shall not be heard, bestowed alms on them largely and made them all return rejoicing to their own. And so afterwards, when in the seat of his city he solemnly celebrated the solemnities of the mass, the peoples of his diocese flocked to him from all sides — a very great multitude of men and women. And the lesson of the holy gospel being read, turning to the people he began to foretell them many things to come — that adversities and prosperities alike must be guarded against; that neither should the one break them nor the other puff them up; he admonished them that the rewards of eternal felicity are to be sought with eager intention. And when he foretold them many things present and future by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, all, pricked by so excellent a grace of preaching given him and kindled with the fire of divine fear, were stirred to do penance and to perform the other exercises of good works — rendering all manner of thanks to the supreme bestower of all goods, who had granted them such a teacher not by their own merit but by His own goodness, that He might temper in manifold wise their grief for him whose pastor they had lately lost to bodily sight. And because the whole church rejoiced over the pious pastor, the city rejoiced with him the eminent preacher, and the whole country exulted greatly in so wise and prudent a counsellor. And the solemnities of mass being accomplished, he bade all the citizens — noble and ignoble — be brought in to the prepared feasts. Where, when he had made them all sit down orderly and disposed, he himself sat down at the table of the poor, imitating Him who, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor — who also promised that in the recompense of the just He will say: Inasmuch as you did it to one of these my least, you did it to Me. O how renowned a pontiff, who gave his household a double sustenance daily — since he both filled their bodies with earthly food and refreshed their souls with the divine word!

17. And while he watched most attentively for the salvation of souls, he also summoned the archdeacons and sedulously admonished them to take the greatest care concerning the preaching to the peoples and the restoration and honour of the churches. The rents also which from the public vici used to be paid to the pontiff’s part in canonical order, he most benignly remitted by gratuitous kindness to the priests of the same houses of God for the churches’ restoration. He studied moreover to rule by love rather than to domineer by terror. For as soon as he had obtained the pontifical degree, his first care was for concord, and his principal labour that brotherly affection should be kept inviolable. But that flowing charity of his towards all no tongue can ever fully declare.

18. Meanwhile, while I recount his manifold grace towards all, the authority of his privilege also witnesses what sollicitude and ever-wakeful care he had unceasingly for the holy congregation of the monks of the monastery of Fontenelle — which he issued with the utmost devotion for the love of God and the reverence of the saints to the inhabitants of that monastery. For when he had been consecrated pontiff by the election of the holy priests and all the citizens of Rouen and the consent of the glorious king Theoderic, in the exceeding fervour of the love which he had ever borne to the said venerable monastery he issued to it the authority of his privilege — that through succeeding times, as the authorities of the privileges of the preceding kings Hlodovius, Chlotharius, Hildericus and Theoderic teach, they should elect an abbot for themselves from their own number for all time. In which also he bound by the word of just obligation the present and the future who should be serving the Lord there, that as under his rule, so thereafter both they and their posterity should faithfully serve Christ according to the rule of the holy father Benedict. And if at any time — their sins compelling, or through pastoral negligence — they should attempt or be forced to deviate from the way of rectitude and the observance of the rule of St Benedict, then a convocation of the holy priests and the other soldiers of Christ should be made unanimously, and they should be brought back to their pristine state by their counsel. But if, setting aside this pontifical authority, they should choose by any cavilling to hold a sinister life and conversation, they should know themselves to be eternally condemned under the bond of anathema. Now this authority of privilege was made in the year of our Lord’s incarnation 682, indiction 10 — which was the sixteenth year of the said glorious king Theoderic and the fifth year of the pontificate of the said venerable prelate — in a general synod in the city of Rouen, where very many things acceptable to God and profitable to the uses of holy church were debated. There were present also the holy pontiffs and other venerable men summoned by the same eminent prelate, whose names are subscribed below:

Ansbertus, archbishop of the city of Rouen, presided over this council and subscribed. Ratbertus, bishop. Regulus, bishop. Airadus, bishop of the city of Chartres. Ansoaldus, bishop of the city of Poitiers. Aquilinus, bishop of the city of Évreux. Chadoenus, bishop. Armonius, bishop. Salvius, bishop. Desiderius, bishop. Fulcramnus, bishop. Johannes, bishop. Willebertus, bishop. Gerebaldus, bishop of the city of Bayeux. Taurinus, bishop. Aunobertus, bishop of the city of Séez. Celsus, abbot. Audomarus, abbot. Scladio, abbot. Bosochindus, abbot. Genardus, the glorious vicedominus of the aforementioned great pontiff. Ermentramnus, Ferrocinctus and Forcianus, venerable archdeacons. There was present also a great number of priests sitting and deacons standing round. Ragnomirus the lector reviewed the acts of this holy council and this authority of privilege, at the command of the holy pontiff himself, and subscribed.

19. And when the powers flocked to him, the same venerable prelate ever exhorted them with devout mind to keep the fervent commands of Christ, and ever admonished them to render great thanks to Christ — who by His own death and resurrection quickened our death with the hope of resurrection, offering eternal life, the horror of eternal death being driven off. And so he persuaded them to hold life that they should not fear the end of life.

20. And among the rest of his works of goodness which he wrought in the bishopric, we essay to narrate how he also translated, Christ being propitious, the venerable body of the holy bishop Audoinus into a more eminent place of the church of St Peter which is situated in the suburb of the city of Rouen. So when he had assembled many artificers from various provinces, he built over his sepulchre a shrine of wondrous size, adorned with the precious metals of gold and silver and decked with precious gems — as it appears to human sight even to the present. So the day being appointed — on the solemnity of the ascension of the Lord Christ — a multitude of priests and monks and other clerks being gathered, he caused the sacred body itself to be raised with great reverence and with the praises of hymns, the clergy singing, and laid it happily in the apse of the aforementioned church of St Peter the apostle with joy and great honour. And there was present in this holy convent, among other venerable men, the most renowned Genardus the vicedominus, who caused great feasts to be prepared, because the people had convened from every side in numbers for the holy translation of so venerable a prelate. And the solemnities of mass being accomplished, the said Genardus with the noble men sat down to feast at the holy pontiff’s command; but the renowned pontiff Ansbert, sitting with the pilgrims and poor after his wonted manner, rejoiced to feast with them. For that day, bearing the office of a minister, he humbly showed service to the poor and needy in their refection. For he was of cheerful face and merry countenance, because he had deserved to be the minister of the poor — no, of Christ the Lord, who promised to bestow eternal rewards on the givers of alms to the same needy. Great was his care amid these things for strangers and guests; there was moreover present to his munificent mind a like substance, ministered with like faith. And not only did he bestow sustenance sufficiently on the needy, but also coverings for their bodies and money he bestowed largely. Hence now there had come to him a frequent concourse of various persons from various regions, whom he enriched both by himself and by approved men with the gift of exhortation and with pontifical benediction and gifts worthy of God, and to whom he gave subsidies of bodily need cheerfully and unfailingly. For very many wondered from where so profuse a substance of the pious dispenser issued forth. For though the substance of the dispensing were sometimes exhausted, the faith ever remained solid. And in the aforementioned venerable translation of the holy bishop Audoinus, all the citizens of his own city of Rouen and also the inhabitants of the neighbouring monasteries — clerks namely and holy women — deserved to be abundantly refreshed by the venerable prelate’s gift. And from that day onward, through succeeding times, this day was solemnly kept by the citizens of that city in commemoration of the blessed pontiff Audoinus. And the same pontiff of excellent conversation, ever mindful of the people committed to him by the Lord, frequently went about his own parishes according to the ministry enjoined on him, ceasing not to taste of the dew of holy preaching and the sweetness of pious conversation to their minds. Whom also for this work of the divine ministry he ever retained with him men of approved conversation, with whose aid supported he might lead the people entrusted to him to the kingdom of the eternal vision. So the grace of one preacher had many dispensers.

21. But the enemy, the foe of the human race, ever envious of the good — through whose envy death was proffered to man — wrought with most cunning art that the man splendid in the world and more splendid in Christ should be deprived of his own pontifical seat, and that the removal of so great a pastor should be the people’s loss. For when a savage discord had arisen among the princes of the Franks by reason of the manifold division of the kingdom, the cunning enemy of the human race made the envy of malignant men rage against God’s servant, who should fraudulently suggest to the prince Pippin that the said holy man had plotted contrary counsels against him. For when the illustrious Waratto departed from the order of the principate, and his son and supplanter the wicked Gislemarus, Pippin obtained the prefectorial administration, the Lord granting it. At which time the said holy pontiff, accused before the same prince, was by his command deported into exile to the monastery of Altus Mons [Hautmont], which is situated in the territory of Fanum Martis in Hainault above the river Sambre — over which at that time the venerable Abbot Aldulfus presided. For though no crime stood proved, he humbly underwent the distress of exile.

22. And arriving at the said monastery, he began by the wonted works of holy conversation and pious religion to show examples of light to all the inhabitants of that place. Whom he found fervent in divine religion, but within the space of a little time he made them the more fervent by his example and doctrine. For he afflicted himself unceasingly with the urgency of fasts and the protracted night-watching of vigils, and was bedewed assiduously with the rain of prayers and tears. To whom the Almighty granted this grace, that all the inhabitants of the place, beholding his imitable devotion in Christ, at once loved him with a single affection, and by no interval of time would they have his opportune converse absent. For also within the very circuit of the monastery he dictated many works useful to the inhabitants, which remain useful to their need even to this day. But the ancient enemy’s cunning instigating, he kindled the envy of malignant men against the same man of God, who essayed again to suggest to the said prince that he should inflict on him greater losses of exile. Therefore the same renowned pastor, summoning the said venerable father Aldulfus, sent him to the said most excellent prince together with other venerable men — humbly satisfying the will of his mind, adding also that he had not taken up the degree of the bishopric of his own will, but had humbly undertaken that ministry at the command of the princes and the election of the citizens. Therefore the said father of the monastery, going to the same renowned prince and supported by heavenly aid, deserved to obtain at once what he sought. And the same prince, remembering his kinsman the holy father Wandregisilus — under whose holy discipline the said holy pontiff Ansbert had of old been reared in the regular order — clemently forgave whatever things had been done amiss, and moreover granted him licence to return to the seat of his own city. But that this should come to pass he was prevented by the divine calling, as we shall tell in what follows.

23. So the said venerable Abbot Aldulfus returning disclosed the prince’s commands. To this the same holy pontiff: “Thanks to You, good Jesus, who have broken the bonds of Your servant and granted pleasing words in the prince’s sight, and have delivered me from the hand of them that rise against me, and have cast into me even in this distress of exile the bonds of Your love.” And recounting what he had somewhere read — that great men suffer many things, and are born for an example that they may teach others to suffer — he ceased not to afflict himself incessantly in humbled spirit and contrite mind, offering to the Most High the most worthy holocausts of daily praise. For had he been present in the time of the Neronian or Decian persecution, there is no doubt that for the confession of Christ the Lord he would have feared neither the force of fires nor the tearing of beasts nor the rack’s suspension — nor, lastly, the sword of the persecutors.

24. And perceiving by divine revelation that the day of his calling drew near — for he was also granted an angelic visitation concerning it — he sent again to the said religious prince an humble petition: that it might be lawful for his body’s members to be carried back to the monastery of Fontenelle, where he had long served the Lord in the regular order. Who, assenting to his petition, at once granted that it should freely so be done. And though few of his own were present with him, they were much comforted by the Lord — since that father, who enjoyed the angelic ministry, had little need of human solace. For on the fifth of the ides of February [9 February], the hour of his calling drawing near, convoking the company of the brethren, he caused the sacred solemnities of the mass to be celebrated for himself. Then, fortifying himself with the reception of the Lord’s body and blood, and signing himself and all who stood around with the standard of the holy cross, taken by the last sleep, sleeping in the rest of death, he passed happily from the world; and his holy soul — noble, sincere, and unpolluted by all contact of the world — was received by the angelic choirs to be set in the fellowship of the saints and of perpetual felicity for ever.

25. And when after the washing of the body they came to clothe it, they found in the hams of his knees and the elbows of his arms the skin hardened by the protracted urgency of his prayers; and so the flesh, now done, disclosed what he had wrought while living — mortifying his members that are upon the earth. And so that holy body was vested with great ambition of faith and wrapped over with waxed linens, since he had foretold that this had been obtained for him from the Lord — that his bones should be carried to the aforementioned monastery of Fontenelle for burial. For as he had been custom to assist at the holy altars of Christ, so the brethren took care to clothe him. But when they wished to set the waxed sudarium on his head, he seemed to have opened his eyes, presenting the image of one living — so that some said he was alive again; for the aspect of his face was greatly suffused with a rosy colour. And some said he was as it were indignant that the waxed sudarium was set on. For they saw, not without their own glory, the glory of God triumphing in His saint — and that religious devotion of the obsequies was of faith. And as it was joyful to have had such a patron, so it was grievous to have lost him. Afterwards they buried him with decorum and the highest honour.

26. And when a lamp full of the liquor of oil had been lit by the faithful before his sepulchre and unceasingly day and night not only burned but even overflowed — the brethren marvelling at the deed and ascribing it to the divine glory — they set another vessel into which the droppings of the same divinely-given oil should be poured back. O great and renowned, most illustrious pastor Ansbert, your happy glory! For your merit needed not to be proved by signs, since the admirable and glorious working of your conversation, full of virtues, ministered a perpetual sign of holy virtues. But what more? Many miracles of signs indeed the Lord deigned to work through him in that same place.

27. And when the circuit of seventeen days was accomplished, the legates who had been sent to the said prince returned — licence being obtained from him that they might transfer him where his own will had decreed, none resisting his holy ordination. And when they had opened his sepulchre and deemed that his venerable body already stank by reason of so long an interval, from there flowed so great a fragrance of sweetest odour — as if the whole church were filled with various flowers of aromatics and droplets of balsam. And when the brethren who had come from his own province to visit him, together with those whom he had had with him in exile, wished to change the garments taken from him wherewith he had been laid in the sepulchre — desiring to clothe him in new clothing, as they did — they found on his arms the sign of the Lord’s cross, bearing the likeness of a rosy colour; that it might plainly be given to all the faithful to understand that He whose arms he had borne in his heart while living, His stigmata were shown on the dead man’s body.

28. Then, clothed in the pontifical vestment and set upon a litter — aromatics and incense borne before it — the citizens of Rouen and the monks of the monastery of Fontenelle who had come received the venerable body; and so, bearing the precious burden, rejoicing and weeping, they took the road. And the said venerable Abbot Aldulfus accompanied them with a very great company of his monks and an innumerable folk of both sexes, with the standards of the holy cross and various wax-tapers and lamps, singing none the less the songs of hymns and divine canticles in his praise with sweet modulation — and in the dissonant choirs of various tongues having consonant love, since as it was exceeding joyful to have had such a pastor, so it was sweet to have received such a patron; and they trusted that his patronage was present to them in the heavens, whose holy bones they venerably bore on earth. And with these troops of the faithful peoples the venerable body of the precious confessor, hedged about and honoured with canticles, was brought even to the monastery of Fontenelle. But the venerable Abbot Aldulfus, together with the companions of his journey who served him, escorted them with exceeding reverence as far as the royal villa of Venitta [Venette], which is situated in the Beauvaisis beside the river Isera.

29. And when, pursuing the begun journey, they had turned aside into the villa called Solemnium [Solesmes], which is set above the river Selle in the territory of Hainault, for the sake of lodging because of the weariness of the long journey and for their own refreshment — there ran up a certain man bearing his own daughter, dissolved in her members with the paralytic malady, who could neither walk on her feet but seemed as it were dead; crying and with great prayers weeping he implored the merits of the holy bishop Ansbert to heal his only daughter. And when by the ministers and keepers of the most holy body she had been suffered to remain beside his bier for the night, and all that night they kept vigils and hymns divine — in the morning her father found her whole. And so rejoicing and rendering all manner of thanks to God and to the holy bishop Ansbert, he returned rejoicing with his own daughter to his home. O God, wonderful in Your saints, who through the glorious merits of Your servant Ansbert wrought such a miracle!

30. So when they had the appointed places to which they ought to turn aside for abiding, coming to a certain villa they wished to pass the coming night in resting there. But when they would have turned into it, the venerable body of the most holy bishop remained immobile like a huge burden between the bearers’ hands. Then they added the greater solace of men — but none the less it was immobile as before. And when they perceived that this was divinely wrought and turned into another part of the way, at once with swift motion — divine virtue attending — they came to a place apt and, as is believed, worthy of God and the holy bishop for abiding; and so thereafter through all the places of the pious journey the Almighty granted fitting helps to His servants for the bearing of His servant’s members.

31. And coming to the said villa of Venitta, there were present to meet the holy bishop’s body his fellow-provincials of the city of Rouen — bishops namely and the fathers of the holy monasteries with the venerable clergy of the Lord, and the kinsfolk of the same holy pontiff, and an innumerable crowd of both sexes with great devotion; and they began to go before it singing psalms. And from there the venerable Abbot Aldulfus returned with the companions of his journey to the dwellings of his own monastery.

32. That miracle also which was wrought through the same servant of Christ in the villa of Fraxinidus [Fresnoy], which is situated in the Beauvaisis, it has pleased me to commit to the style of writing. And when his holy body had been brought to the same villa, a certain woman, bound in chains by her kinsfolk — being vexed by an unclean spirit — was brought there. And the unclean spirit cried out through the possessed woman: “Why have you brought Ansbert, the servant of Jesus Christ the Lord, into this province — who drives me from my own seats?” And when the same woman had drawn near and touched the pall wherewith the bier was covered, crying with a loud voice — by the merits of the holy bishop Ansbert she at once vomited forth the enemy of the human race with the gore of blood; and a great miracle was wrought there. And she, rendering thanks to Almighty God and St Ansbert through whom she had been cured of the pestiferous spirit, returned whole to her own. Blessed be Christ the Lord, King of all ages and creator and preserver of all saints, who for His servant’s merits deigned to work such miracles! Finally in the same villa a church in honour of St Ansbert the bishop was built by the faithful, and his bier remained in the same church a long time; and divine signs of virtues are wrought there for the same saint’s merits.

33. And when now the courses of twenty and more days had run by, they came into the territory of Rouen to the place which is called Paldriacus [Paudiacre]; and there Almighty God deigned by the same holy bishop’s merits to show a miracle like the former. For a certain woman, seized by a demon, was brought bound in chains by her own kinsfolk to seek the saint’s patronage. Who when she had come to the bier where the holy body was kept and had touched the linen wherewith it was covered, uttering great cries to the stars — at once by God’s grace and the merits of St Ansbert she was freed from the demon and made most whole, and returned safe to the dwelling of her own right. Be to our God glory, honour and dominion, who so triumphs by the signs of miracles in the merits of His holy bishop!

34. Now this place in which the Almighty wrought that miracle was the patrimony of certain illustrious men — Bertoldus and Radamastus — distant four miles from the monastery of Fontenelle. And it is said that when they essayed to lift up the most sacred body from there, it remained so immobile — as though pressed to a huge rock by nails and iron stays — that it could not be moved. Then the possessor of the place, Radamastus, is said to have spoken thus: “Well done, Ansbert, faithful servant of Christ, set among the companies of Christ’s worshippers — remember us, whom you did love in life, whom the world’s joys assail. Now at last Christ brings you back to us; therefore this estate I offer to Almighty God, and to you, most holy bishop, I yield it through all the courses of the ages.” And the same Radamastus, a man of honour, and his brother Bertoldus at once forsook all that they possessed in estates and bondsmen, and delivered it to the blessed bishop Ansbert and likewise to the monastery of Fontenelle. And so they shook off the yoke of freedom and at once took up with bowed necks the yoke of the Lord’s service — and alike took up the monastic name and habit. And in the said possession of the same men — namely, on the public and paved road which lies beside it and leads to the city of Rouen — where the venerable body of the holy pontiff Ansbert had rested, a wooden cross was set up by the faithful in his honour and memory; where the sick, vexed by various maladies, have frequently received many gifts of healings — the Lord granting — through the merits of St Ansbert. Where, about the day of his body’s resting and coming to the same place — which is the sixth of the ides of March [10 March] — innumerable peoples with the utmost devotion assemble in his honour and for his intercession, solemnly rendering to the Lord pious vows of vigils and divine hymns and various gifts. And there through his merits many signs of miracles are continually wrought, which by their enormity surpass the knowledge of the teller. For there the deprivation of bodily light receives sight, the withered receives walking, the bonds of the tongue the sequence of words, the ears the office of hearing long denied, and the expulsion of demons from human bodies is frequent.

35. For in the returning time, on the sixth of the ides of April [8 April], in the same place where the standard of the holy cross had been set up, a certain woman who had been contracted for the courses of many years — going to the same place with right faith — was restored to her pristine health; and the ground which her feeble steps had long not pressed was amazed to be so suddenly touched by the once-weak footmarks. Let us render innumerable thanks to our God, who for the merits of His aforementioned servant deigns to show such miracles! And in the following time a church was built in the same place in honour of the holy bishop Ansbert, with splendid and polished work, by the venerable Abbot Hildbert, the same holy father’s successor in the order of government.

36. But these things being passed over, let us follow out the order of the said servant of Christ’s translation with the pen of writing. So at last the bearers, coming with his body to the monastery of Fontenelle, brought it into the church of the holy apostle Paul. And the old men wept and the young men wept, the boys wept and the infants and all the choir of monks. Then the venerable Abbot Hildbert approached the venerable body, taking with him brethren of approved life and adorned with the merit of sanctity — deeming that it must by now, by reason of so long an interval of time (for the thirtieth day was at hand), suddenly stink. And when they had unveiled his holy head covered with its veil, from there flowed a fragrance of such sweetness — as if the whole church were filled with the odours of various aromatics and incenses. For his face also was so turned to redness — bearing the image of one alive, as though he were in slumber. And many holy bishops and venerable fathers and the rest of the crowd saw it, since it was permitted to all who were present to see this sign of the stupendous miracle. Then with all diligence and awe, wrapped in a clean sindon and a pall, they laid his venerable body in the sepulchre which they had prepared for him in the same church of St Paul the apostle, with praises — beside the sepulchre of the most holy father Wandregisilus at his left hand — on the fifth of the ides of March [11 March], in the year of the incarnation of our Lord God Jesus Christ 695 — to whom be honour and power, glory and dominion, through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.