Of the Parisians #

¹ The Danes covered the surface of the earth like locusts, and there was scarcely any man able easily to restrain them. Unable to endure their bestial savagery without any help, the outstanding bishop of the city of Alethina, named Salvator, took up the body of the most blessed Machutus, his predecessor, and hastened with all speed to the monastery of Lehon. For there many ministers of the sacred order had already gathered, terrified by the crash of this disaster, since that place was distinguished not only by its natural beauty but also stood out above others for the abundance of great estates granted by the generosity of ancient kings, especially because, to increase its splendour, it kept buried within it the venerable body of the most holy archbishop Maglorius. The devout community of monks there, therefore, governed with pastoral care by a most energetic man named Junanus, while keeping tireless watch in service of the eternal King, is said to have been divinely forewarned that, as the time of persecution pressed, it should withdraw into the regions of Gaul, where it would deserve to enjoy calm peace and the safest rest. Accordingly, at the urging of the venerable bishop Salvator, taking with them the relics of many saints which had been brought there from all sides by the hands of the faithful, together with the sacred books and vessels of that church and other ecclesiastical furnishings, they went forth into exile from their own lands.

² They had already passed beyond the borders of their homeland when the clergy of the churches of Dol and of Bayeux also attached themselves to their company, bringing with them the venerable remains of the holy patriarch Samson, and likewise of the glorious bishop Senator, and of the holy bishops Paternus and Scubilion, intending for a long time to journey together through foreign and unknown regions. But while this most bitter war lasted for three years, Count Richard summoned the Danes, the Alamanni, and the Deiri to his aid. As Gaul was shaken by various calamities from their ravaging, the venerable bishop Salvator, with a few faithful companions joined to him, went to Paris, the noble and strongly fortified city, because of the imminent fury of the barbarians. When they had entered it, since, as is the custom of that people, they shared with the deepest sympathy in the desolation of its inhabitants, their want was more than sufficiently relieved by the charity of certain faithful persons. After staying there for some time, however, when they observed the savagery of the pagans raging ever more frequently against the Christians, and with all hope of returning to their homeland cut off, by the provident ordering of the Ruler and Creator of all they chose not to depart any further without him, if, with divine favour, a place might be granted by the prince of that city himself—namely Hugh, duke of the Franks—where the bodies of so many saints could be worthily laid. Having formed this plan, they approached the duke himself, who was then staying in the city, carrying with them the relics of certain saints.

³ But while they were delaying the duke’s audience for a very long time, by chance they set a clod containing the holy bodies upon a table, waiting for the prince’s arrival. Meanwhile, as the hour of the midday meal was approaching, the official who presided over the princely banquet entered the hall to make preparations for the feast; coming upon the men of God where they were sitting, he struck the bodies of the saints with the staff he held in his hand insolently ordered them to leave. Nor did he escape unpunished for the enormity of so great a crime. For at once he was seized by a demon and, rushing about wildly this way and that, was savagely tormented in madness. While some were beaten by him with blows and others subjected to various insults, a great tumult arose throughout the royal hall, and for this reason the demoniac was bound with chains. The bodies of the saints were venerated by all, and news of so great a prodigy reached the prince’s ears; immediately driven by overwhelming fear, he promptly went with his household to the saints’ bodies, and, prostrating himself on the ground before them, humbly prayed that what had been done might not be reckoned to him as sin, with the saints themselves interceding for him before the Lord. Then, by Hugh himself, the most energetic duke, the sacred remains of the saints were taken up from there and carried into the church which had been built by the generosity of kings in former times and consecrated in honour of the blessed Apostle Bartholomew, in which an order of canons celebrated the divine office; and there, on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of November, they were laid to rest with due honour: namely the body of the blessed Samson, archbishop of Dol; of Maglorius, archbishop likewise; of Machutus, bishop; of Senator, bishop; of Leonarius, bishop; of Wenalis, priest; the relics of Briomaglus and Corentinus; of Lencerus, bishop; of Levianus, bishop; of Ciferianus, bishop; a portion of the precious bodies of Malorius and Tremorius; of Winganton, abbot; of Scofilus, abbot; a portion of the bodies of Paternus and Scubilion; and a tooth of Saint Budocus.

⁴ There were also in that same church relics and bodies of other saints, which had previously been brought there by the hands of kings and of the faithful, as into a royal chapel. When therefore peace prevailed and flourished throughout the whole of Gaul and Normandy, some of those who had come from Brittany to Paris, by a prompting, as we believe, of divine will, took up the bodies of the saints which they themselves had brought there—namely of the kindly Samson, of the blessed Leonarius, and of Saint Wenalis, together with certain other saints—and resolved that some of them should return to their homeland, while others should migrate to different parts of Gaul. When this was reported to the duke, although he took it ill, nevertheless, unwilling to use force against them, he allowed them to depart, retaining certain portions of the saints’ relics. As they went their way, some made for the fortress of Corbeil, others for Beaumont, where they came to rest; others again went off to different regions of Gaul. The custodians of the holy body of Samson, because they wished to return to Brittany, were permitted to do so after the greater part of that saint’s body had been retained, while another portion together with the head was granted to them. As they departed, when they were travelling through the city of Orléans, they were detained there by certain difficulties and remained for a long time. The duke, moreover, enlarged the church of the blessed Bartholomew, which seemed to be made illustrious by the relics of so many saints; and afterwards he caused it to be dedicated in honour of the same Apostle and of the most blessed Maglorius, because he had deserved to raise the blessed Samson to the archiepiscopal see of Dol. In that church he also established monks to carry out the divine office, and, by both royal and priestly authority, ordained that an abbot from their own community should always preside over them. He too, together with his venerable wife Adelaide, daughter of the count of Poitou and descended from the line of Charlemagne, bestowed great gifts, possessions, and estates upon that same church, which he ordered to be recorded and confirmed in the name of King Lothair and Louis, and to be secured with the royal seal.

⁵ Now under King Robert, the son of the same duke, a count of the Bretons named Berengarius came to Paris to visit that same ruler and to render him military service. When the monks of the church of Saints Bartholomew and Maglorius the Confessor heard this, they approached the king of the city himself and asked that, through his intercession with the said count, he might obtain that the church of the most blessed Maglorius, situated in the district of Lehon, which seemed to have been reduced to desolation by the frequent attacks of the wicked, should be granted with its dependencies to the church of Saints Bartholomew and Maglorius; for indeed it was fitting that, just as this Parisian church was seen to be made illustrious by the bodily presence of that holy confessor, so the church of Lehon, which by the saint’s absence lacked that bodily presence of so great a patron, should not be refused perpetual subjection to it. Accordingly, the same count, giving his assent to the pious request both of the king and of the monks, kindly granted the church of Lehon—which had been consecrated in honour of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and of the blessed Maglorius—to the aforementioned church situated in the city of Paris, together with its possessions; and he himself afterwards enlarged it by his own donation with very generous estates. Six monks were sent there by the venerable Harduin, who at that time presided as abbot over the Parisian community, in order to restore the monastery of Lehon to its former fabric, so that the servants of God living there in monastic fashion, with worldly display set aside, might strive to practise a celibate life. And when these monks, carrying out the commands of their father, arrived there, because of the number of builders attracted by the pleasantness of the place, it was swiftly restored to its former condition.