Gregory of Tours: LIBRI HISTORIARUM

Decedente atque immo potius pereunte ab urbibus Gallicanis liberalium cultura litterarum, cum nonnullae res gererentur vel rectae vel inprobae, ac feretas gentium desaeviret, regum furor acueretur, eclesiae inpugnarentur ab hereticis, a catholicis tegerentur, ferveret Christi fides in plurimis, tepisceret in nonnullis, ipsae quoque eclesiae vel ditarentur a devotis vel nudarentur a perfides, nec repperire possit quisquam peritus dialectica in arte grammaticus, qui haec aut stilo prosaico aut metrico depingeret versu: ingemescebant saepius plerique, dicentes: 'Vae diebus nostris, quia periit studium litterarum a nobis, nec reperitur rethor in populis, qui gesta praesentia promulgare possit in paginis'. Ista etenim atque et his similia iugiter intuens dici, pro commemoratione praeteritorum, ut notitiam adtingerint venientum, etsi incultu effatu, nequivi tamen obtegere vel certamena flagitiosorum vel vitam recte viventium; et praesertim his inlicitus stimulis, quod a nostris fari plerumque miratus sum, quia: 'Philosophantem rethorem intellegunt pauci, loquentem rusticum multi'. Libuit etiam animo, ut pro suppotatione annorum ab ipso mundi principio libri primi poniretur initium, cuius capitula deursum subieci.

As the cultivation of liberal letters was departing, or rather perishing, from the Gallic cities, while certain deeds were being done either righteous or depraved, and the ferocity of the nations raged out, the fury of kings was being whetted, churches were assailed by heretics, were covered/defended by catholics, the faith of Christ burned hot in very many, grew tepid in some, the churches themselves too were either enriched by the devout or stripped bare by the faithless, nor could anyone be found skilled in dialectic in the grammatical art who might depict these things either in a prosaic style or in metrical verse: many often groaned, saying: ‘Woe to our days, because the zeal for letters has perished from among us, nor is a rhetorician found among the peoples who can promulgate present deeds upon pages.’ Continually beholding these things and their like to be said, for the commemoration of things past, that those who are coming might attain knowledge, although in uncultivated utterance, I could not, however, veil either the contests of the flagitious or the life of those living rightly; and especially, being urged on by these goads, because I have often marveled to hear from our own that: ‘Few understand a rhetorician philosophizing; many a rustic speaking.’ It also pleased my mind that, according to the supputation of years from the very beginning of the world, the beginning of the first book be set, whose chapters I have subjoined below.

Liber primus

Book one

Scripturus bella regum cum gentibus adversis, martyrum cum paganis, eclesiarum cum hereticis, prius fidem meam proferre cupio, ut qui ligirit me non dubitet esse catholicum. Illud etiam placuit propter eos, qui adpropinquantem finem mundi disperant, ut, collectam per chronicas vel historias anteriorum annorum summam, explanitur aperte, quanti ab exordio mundi sint anni. Sed prius veniam legentibus praecor, si aut in litteris aut in sillabis grammaticam artem excessero, de qua adplene non sum inbutus; illud tantum studens, ut quod in eclesia credi praedicatur sine aliquo fuco aut cordis hesitatione reteneam, quia scio, peccatis obnoxium per credulitatem puram obtenire posse veniam apud Deum.

About to write of the wars of kings with adverse nations, of martyrs with pagans, of churches with heretics, I first desire to proffer my faith, so that whoever reads me may not doubt that I am Catholic. It has also pleased me, for the sake of those who despair at the approaching end of the world, that, the sum of earlier years collected through chronicles or histories, it be explained openly how many years there are from the world’s origin. But first I beg pardon of the readers, if either in letters or in syllables I should overstep the grammatical art, in which I am not fully imbued; striving only this: that what in the church is proclaimed to be believed I may hold without any varnish or hesitation of heart, because I know that, though liable to sins, one can obtain pardon with God through pure belief.

Credo ergo in Deum patrem omnipotentem. Credo in Iesum Christum, filium eius unicum, dominum nostrum, natum a patre, non factum, non post tempora, sed ante cunctum tempus semper fuisse cum patre. Nec enim pater dici potuerat, nisi haberit filium; neque filius esset, si patrem utique non haberet.

I believe therefore in God the omnipotent Father. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, begotten of the Father, not made, not after times, but before all time to have always been with the Father. For indeed he could not have been called Father unless he had a Son; nor would he be Son if, assuredly, he did not have a Father.

Illos vero, qui dicunt: 'Erat quando non erat', execrabiliter rennuo et ab eclesia segregare contestor. Credo Christum hunc verbum esse patris, per quem facta sunt omnia. Hunc verbum carne factum credo, cuius passionem mundus redemptus est, et humanitatem, non deitatem subiacuisse passione, credo.

Those, indeed, who say: “There was when he was not,” I execrably reject and I attest that they are to be segregated from the church. I believe that this Christ is the Word of the Father, through whom all things were made. I believe this Word made flesh, by whose Passion the world was redeemed, and I believe that the humanity, not the deity, was subject to suffering.

Credo, eum tertia die resurrexisse, hominem perditum liberasse, ascendisse caelos, sedere a dexteram Patris, venturum ac iudicaturum vivos et mortuos. Credo sanctum Spiritum a Patre et Filio processisse, non minorem et quasi ante non esset, sed aequalem et semper cum Patre et Filio coaeternum deum, cumsubstantialem natura, aequalem omnipotentia, consempiternum esse essentia et nunquam sine Patre fuisse vel Filio, neque minorem Patri vel Filio. Credo hanc Trinitatem sanctam in distinctione subsistere personarum, et aliam quidem personam Patris, aliam Fili, aliam Spiritus sancti.

I believe that he rose on the third day, freed lost man, ascended to the heavens, sits at the right hand of the Father, and is to come and to judge the living and the dead. I believe the Holy Spirit to have proceeded from the Father and the Son, not lesser and as if he had not existed before, but equal and always with the Father and the Son, a coeternal God, consubstantial in nature, equal in omnipotence, co-sempiternal in essence, and never to have been without the Father or the Son, nor lesser than the Father or the Son. I believe this holy Trinity to subsist in a distinction of persons, and that the person of the Father is one, another that of the Son, another that of the Holy Spirit.

In qua Trinitate unam Deitatem, unam potentiam, unam essentiam esse, confiteor. Credo beatam Mariam, ut virginem ante partum, ita virginem et post partum. Credo animam inmortalem, nec tamen partem habere Deitatis.

In which Trinity I confess there to be one Deity, one potency, one essence. I believe the blessed Mary, as a virgin before birth, so a virgin also after birth. I believe the soul to be immortal, yet nevertheless not to have a part of the Deity.

Et omnia quae a 318 episcopis Nicaene instituta sunt credo fideliter. De fine vero mundi ea sentio quae a prioribus didici, Antechristum prius esse venturo. Antechristus vero primum circumcisionem inducit, se asserens Christum, deinde in templo Hierusolimis statuam suam collocat adorandam, sicut Dominum dixisse legimus: Videbitis abhuminationem desolationes stantem in loco sancto.

And all the things that were instituted by the 318 Nicene bishops I faithfully believe. But concerning the end of the world I hold what I learned from the elders: that the Antichrist is to come first. The Antichrist, indeed, first introduces circumcision, asserting himself to be Christ; then in the temple at Jerusalem he sets up his own statue to be adored, as we read that the Lord said: “You will see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.”

Sed diem illam omnibus hominibus oculi ipse Dominus manifestat, dicens: De die autem illa et ora nemo scit, neque angeli caelorum neque filius, nisi Pater solos. Sed et hic respondibimus hereticis, qui nos inpugnant, asserentis, minorem esse Filium Patri, qui hanc diem ignoret. Cognoscant ergo, hunc filium christianum populum nuncopatum, de quo a Deo praedicetur: Ego ero illis in patre, et ipsi erunt mihi in filios.

But that day the Lord himself makes manifest to the eyes of all men, saying: But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, except the Father alone. But here too we will respond to the heretics who impugn us, asserting that the Son is inferior to the Father, since he is ignorant of this day. Let them know, therefore, that this “son” is the Christian people denominated, concerning whom it is proclaimed by God: “I will be to them as a father, and they will be to me as sons.”

Si enim haec de unigenito Filio praedixisset, nunquam ei angelos praeposuisset. Sic enim ait: Neque angeli caelorum neque filios; ostendens non de unigenito, sed de adoptivo populo haec dixisse. Noster vero finis ipse Christus est, qui nobis vitam aeternam, si ad eum conversi fuerimus, larga benignitate praestabit.

If indeed he had foretold these things about the Only-begotten Son, he would never have set the angels before him. For thus he says: Neither the angels of the heavens nor the sons; showing that he said these things not about the Only-begotten, but about the adoptive people. But our end is Christ himself, who will bestow upon us eternal life, if we shall have been converted to him, with lavish benignity.

De subpotatione vero huius mundi evidenter chronicae Eusebii Caesariensis episcopi ac Hieronimi presbiteri prolocuntur et rationem de omni annorum serie pandunt. Nam et Horosius diligentissime haec inquaerens, omnem numerum annorum ab initio mundi usque ad suum tempus in unum colligit. Hoc etiam et Victurius cum ordine paschalis solemnitates inquirere fecit.

But concerning the computation of this world, the Chronicles of Eusebius of Caesarea, bishop, and of Jerome, presbyter, speak plainly and unfold an account of the whole series of years. For Orosius also, investigating these things most diligently, gathers the entire number of years from the beginning of the world up to his own time into one. Victorius likewise did this, when he made inquiry into the order of the Paschal solemnities.

Ergo et nos scriptorum supra memoratorum exsemplaria sequentes, cupimus a primi homines conditione, si Dominus dignabitur suum commodare auxilium, usque ad nostrum tempos cunctam annorum congeriem conpotare. Quod facilius adinplemus, si ab ipso Adam sumamus exordium.

Therefore we also, following the exemplars of the above-mentioned writers, desire, from the creation of the first humans—if the Lord will deign to lend his assistance—down to our own time, to compute the entire aggregate of years. We accomplish this more easily, if we take the beginning from Adam himself.

1. De Adam et Ewa.

1. On Adam and Eve.

Principio Dominus caelum terramque in christo suo, qui est omnium principium, id est in Filio suo, furmavit, qui post creata mundi totius elementa, glebam adsumens fragilis limi, hominem ad suam imaginem similitudinemque plasmavit et insufflavit in faciem eius spiraculum vitae, et factus est in animam viventem. Cuius dormienti ablata costa, mulier Ewa creata est. Nec dubium enim est, quod hic primus homo Adam, antequam peccaret, tipum Redemptoris domini praetulisset.

In the beginning the Lord formed heaven and earth in his Christ, who is the beginning of all things, that is, in his Son, who, after the elements of the whole world had been created, taking a clod of fragile clay, shaped the man to his own image and likeness, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and he was made into a living soul. From him, as he slept, the rib having been taken away, the woman Eve was created. Nor indeed is it doubtful that this first man Adam, before he sinned, had borne the type of the Lord Redeemer.

Ipsi enim in passionis sopore obdormiens, de latere suo dum aquam cruoremque producit, virginem inmaculatamque eclesiam sibi exhibuit, redemptam sanguine, latice emundatam, non habentem maculam aut rugam, id est limphis ablutam propter maculam, extensam in crucem propter rugam. Hi ergo primi hominis inter amoena paradisi beati viventis, anguis astu inlecti, divina praecepta transiliunt, eiectique ab angelica sede, mundi laboribus depotantur.

For he, falling asleep in the slumber of the Passion, while from his side he brought forth water and blood, presented to himself a virgin and immaculate church, redeemed by blood, cleansed by water, not having spot or wrinkle—that is, washed by limpid waters on account of the spot, stretched upon the cross on account of the wrinkle. These therefore, the first humans, while living blessed amid the delights of paradise, enticed by the serpent’s astuteness, transgress the divine precepts, and, cast out from the angelic seat, are borne off to the labors of the world.

2. De Cain et Abel.

2. On Cain and Abel.

Cognitum autem satellitem, mulier concipit peperitque duos filios. Sed dum Deus unius sacrificium dignanter suscipit, alius invidia inflammante tumiscit, et in fraterni sanguinis effusionem novus parecida consurgens, fratrem opprimit, vincit, interimit.

His companion having been known, the woman conceived and bore two sons. But while God deigns to accept the sacrifice of the one, the other, envy inflaming him, swells; and, rising up as a new parricide to the effusion of fraternal blood, he overpowers, conquers, and slays his brother.

3. De Enoch iusto.

3. On Enoch the just.

Exhinc cunctum genus in facinus exsecrabile ruit praeter Enoch iustum, qui ambolans in viis Dei, ab ipso Domino propter iustitiam adsumptus, de medio peccantes populi liberatur. Sic enim legimus: Ambolavit Enoch cum Deo, et non conparuit, quia Deus tulit eum.

From here the whole race rushes into an execrable crime, except Enoch the just, who, walking in the ways of God, being assumed by the Lord himself on account of righteousness, is liberated from the midst of the sinning people. For thus we read: “Enoch walked with God, and he did not appear, because God took him.”

4. De diluvio.

4. On the deluge.

Dominus ergo commotus contra iniquitates populi, non in suis semitis gradientes, diluvium mittit cunctamque animam viventem de superficiem terrae diluvium inundante delivit; tantum Noe fidelissimum ac peculiarem sibi suique tipus speciem praeferentem cum sua vel trium natorum coniugibus posteritates reparandae gratia in arca reservavit. Increpant nobis hic heretici, cur Scriptura sancta Dominum dixissit iratum. Cognoscant ergo, quia Deus noster non ut homo irascitur: commovetur enim ut terreat, pellet ut revocet, irascitur ut emendit.

Therefore the Lord, moved against the iniquities of the people, not walking in his own paths, sends a deluge and, as the deluge was inundating, blotted out every living soul from the surface of the earth; only Noah, most faithful and peculiar to himself and bearing the appearance of his own type, with his own wife and with the wives of his three sons, for the sake of repairing posterity, he reserved in the ark. Here the heretics upbraid us, why holy Scripture should have said that the Lord was angry. Let them know, therefore, that our God is not angered as a man: he is moved so that he may terrify, he drives away so that he may call back, he is angered so that he may amend.

Sed nec hoc ambigo, quod species illa arcae tipum matris gessisset aeclesiae. Ipsa enim inter fluctus et scupulos huius saeculi transiens, nos ab inminentibus malis materno gestamini fovens, pio amplexu ac protectione defendit. Ab Adam ergo usque ad Noe generationes 10, id est Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Malalehel, Iareth, Enoch, Mattusalam, Lamech, Noe.

Nor do I doubt this either, that that appearance of the ark bore the type of the mother church. For she herself, passing through the waves and crags of this age, cherishing us from impending evils with a maternal bearing, defends by a pious embrace and protection. From Adam therefore up to Noah, generations 10, that is Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah.

In his ergo decim generationebus inveniuntur anni 2242. Adam vero in terra Enacim sepultum, quae prius Ebron vocabatur, liber Iesu Nave evidenter explanat.

In these ten generations, there are found 2242 years. But that Adam was buried in the land of Enacim, which previously was called Ebron (Hebron), the Book of Jesus Nave (Joshua) plainly explains.

5. De Chus adinventorem staticuli.

5. On Chus, the inventor of the statuette.

Habebat ergo Noe post diluvium tres filius, Sem, Cham et Iafeth. De Iafeth egressae sunt gentes, similiter et de Cham sive de Sem. Et, sicut ait vetus historia, ab his dissiminatum est genus humanum sub universo caelo.

Therefore Noah after the Deluge had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. From Japheth the nations went forth, and likewise from Ham or from Shem. And, as ancient history says, from these the human race was disseminated under the whole heaven.

Primogenitus vero Cham Chus. Hic fuit totius artis magicae, inbuente diabolo, et primus idolatriae adinventor. Hic primus staticulum adorandum diabuli instigatione constituit; qui et stellas et ignem de caelo cadere falsa vertute hominibus ostendebat.

But the firstborn of Cham was Chus. He was, the devil imbuing him, of the whole art of magic, and the first inventor of idolatry. He first, at the instigation of the devil, set up a small statue to be adored; and he used to show to men, by false virtue (power), both the stars and fire to fall from heaven.

Hic ad Persas transiit. Hunc Persi vocitavere Zoroastren, id est viventem stelam. Ab hoc etiam ignem adorare consuiti, ipsum divinitus ignem consumptum ut deum colunt.

He passed over to the Persians. The Persians used to call him Zoroaster, that is, the living star. From him they also became accustomed to adore fire; they worship the fire itself, divinely consumed, as a god.

6. De Babillonia.

6. On Babylonia.

Cumque multiplicati hominis dispergerentur per universas terras, egressi ab Oriente, Senachar gramineum repperiunt campum. In quo aedificantes civitatem, turrem qui caelos adtengeret nituntur struere. Quorum vana cogitatione simul et lingua ipsiusque confutans Deus, mundum late patentem in universa terra dispersit, vocatumque est nomen civitatis Babel, hoc est confusio, eo quod ibi confudisset Deus linguas eorum.

And when man, multiplied, was being scattered through all the lands, having gone out from the East, they found the grassy plain of Senachar. There, building a city, they strive to construct a tower that might touch the heavens. But God, confuting both their vain design and their language itself, scattered the world far and wide over the whole earth, and the name of the city was called Babel, that is, Confusion, because there God had confounded their tongues.

Haec est Babilonia a Nebroth gygante aedificata, filio Chus. Et, sicut Horosi narrat historia, mira campi planitiae in quadrum disposita est. Munis eius ex coctili latere infusu bitumine in latum habet cubitus quinquaginta, altitudinis cubitus 200, in circuitu stadia 470.

This is Babylon, built by the giant Nebroth, son of Chus. And, as the history of Orosius narrates, it was arranged in a square on the wondrous flatness of the plain. Its wall, of baked brick with bitumen poured in, has in breadth 50 cubits, in height 200 cubits, and in circumference 470 stadia.

Unus stadius habet aripennes quinque. Vicinae quinae portae per unumquemque latus sitae sunt, quae faciunt 100. Harum portarum ustia mirae magnitudinis ex aere fusile sunt formata.

One stadium has five arpents. On each side, five neighboring gates are set, which make 100. The doorways of these gates, of wondrous magnitude, are formed from cast bronze.

Multa et alia de hac civitate isdem historiographus narrat, addens: Et cum tanta fuissit honestas aedificii, attamen victa atque subversa est.

Many other things also about this city the same historiographer relates, adding: “And although the splendor of the edifice was so great, nevertheless it was conquered and overthrown.”

7. De Abraham et Nino.

7. On Abraham and Ninus.

Primus autem filius Noe Sem; de quo generatione decima natus est Abraham: id est Noe, Sem, Arphaxath, Sale, Eber, Falech, Rheu, Saruch, Thare, qui genuit Abraham. In his ergo decim generationibus, hoc est a Noe usque Abraham, inveniuntur anni 942. Eo tempore regnabat Ninus, qui aedificavit Ninum civitatem, quam Nineven vocant; cuius in tribus mansionibus spatium amplitudines Ionas propheta determinat.

Now the first son of Noah was Shem; of whom in the tenth generation Abraham was born: that is, Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Salah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Terah, who begot Abraham. Therefore in these ten generations, that is from Noah up to Abraham, there are found 942 years. At that time Ninus reigned, who built the city Ninus, which they call Nineveh; the prophet Jonah determines the span of its breadth at three mansions (day-journeys).

Huius quadragisimo tertio regni anno natus est Abraham. Hic est Abraham initium fidei nostrae. Hic accepit repromissionis.

In the forty-third year of his reign Abraham was born. This is Abraham, the beginning of our faith. He received the promise.

Huic se Christus dominus noster nasciturum ac pro nobis passurum in victimae conmutationem monstravit, ipso in euangeliis sic dicente: Abraham exsultavit, ut viderit diem meum; et vidit, et gavisus est. Hoc vero holocaustum in monte Calvariae, quo Dominus crucifixus est, oblatum fuisse, Severus narrat in chronica, sicut et hodiequae in ipsa Hierusolimorum urbe celebre fertur. In hoc monte crux sancta, in qua Redemptur adfixus est, stetit, de qua et beatus illi cruor efluxit.

To him Christ our Lord showed that he would be born and would suffer for us, in commutation of a victim, he himself thus saying in the Gospels: "Abraham exulted that he might see my day; and he saw, and rejoiced." This very holocaust to have been offered on the Mount of Calvary, where the Lord was crucified, Severus relates in his Chronicle, just as even today it is reported as celebrated in the very city of Jerusalem. On this mount the holy cross, on which the Redeemer was affixed, stood, from which also that blessed blood flowed forth.

Hic ergo Abraham accepit signum circumcisiones, ostendens, ut quod ille gessit in corpore nos portemus in corde, dicente propheta: Circumcidite vos Deo vestro, et circumcidite praeputium cordis vestri; et nolite sequi deos alienos; et iterum: Omnes incircumcisus corde non intrint' in sancta mea. Hunc Abraham Deus post adiectam nomini sillabam patrem multarum gentium nuncupavit.

Here, therefore, Abraham received the sign of circumcision, showing that what he bore in the body we should carry in the heart, the prophet saying: “Circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise the prepuce of your heart; and do not follow alien gods”; and again: “Everyone uncircumcised in heart shall not enter into my holy things.” This Abraham, after a syllable had been added to his name, God named the father of many nations.

8. De Isaac, Isau, et Iob et Iacob.

8. On Isaac, Esau, and Job and Jacob.

His cum centum esset annorum, genuit Isaac. Porro Isaac sexagisimo aetatis anno nati sunt fili gemini de Rebecca. Primus Esau, qui Edom, id est terrenus; qui propter gulam vindedit primogenita sua.

At this, when he was 100 years old, he begot Isaac. Moreover, to Isaac, in the 60th year of his age, twin sons were born from Rebecca. The first was Esau, who is Edom, that is, terrene; who, on account of gluttony, sold his primogeniture (birthright).

Ipsi est pater Idomeorum, de cuius generatione quarta natus est Iobab, hoc est Isau, Raguel, Zara, Iobab, qui et Iob. Is vixit annos 249, octugisimo nono anno ab infirmitate liberatus est. Post infirmitatem autem 170 annis, restituta in duplum omni facultate, cum tantis sicut perdederat filiis iocundatus est.

He himself is father of the Idumeans, from whose fourth generation was born Jobab—that is, Esau, Raguel, Zara, Jobab, who is also Job. He lived 249 years; in his eighty-ninth year he was freed from infirmity. But after the infirmity, for 170 years, with every resource restored in double, he was gladdened with as many sons as he had lost.

9. De Ioseph in Aegipto.

9. On Joseph in Egypt.

Secundus Iacob. Iacob dilectus Dei, sicut ait per prophetam: Iacob dilixi, Esau autem odio habui. Hic post angelicam luctam vocatus est Israhel, a quo Israhelitae.

Second, Jacob. Jacob, beloved of God, just as He says through the prophet: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” He, after the angelic wrestling, was called Israel, whence the Israelites.

Hic genuit duodecim patriarcas, quorum haec sunt nomina: Rubin, Semeon, Levi, Iudas, Isachar, Zabulon, Dan, Neptalem, Gad et Aser. Post hos genuit Ioseph de Rachel, cum esset nonagisimo secundo aetatis suae anno. Hunc coeteris filiis plus dilexit.

Here he begot twelve patriarchs, whose names are these: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. After these he begot Joseph by Rachel, when he was 92 years old. He loved this one more than the other sons.

Habuit ex ea et Beniamin ultimum omnium. Ioseph autem sextum decimum aetatis suae annum habens, tipum praeferens Redemptoris, vidit somnia quae fratribus retulit: quasi manipolus legens, suum fratrum manipoli adorarent; et iterum, quasi sol et luna cum undecim stelis procederent ante eum. Quae res magnum ei cum fratribus odium generavit.

He had from her also Benjamin, the last of all. But Joseph, being in the sixteenth year of his age, bearing the type of the Redeemer, saw dreams which he reported to his brothers: as though, while gathering a sheaf, his brothers’ sheaves were adoring his; and again, as though the sun and the moon with eleven stars were proceeding before him. This thing generated great hatred for him with his brothers.

Unde et inflammati invidia, triginta eum argenteis Ismahelitis in Aegypto transeuntibus vindedirunt. Inminente autem fame, cum discendissent hi in Aegypto, cogniti sunt a Ioseph, nec tamen ipsi Ioseph cognoverunt. Ipse tamen se his post multas eorum fatigationes et adducto Beneamen declaravit; de Rachel enim matre sua natus et hic fuerat.

Whence also, enflamed with envy, they sold him for thirty silver-pieces to Ishmaelites passing into Egypt. But with famine impending, when these had descended into Egypt, they were recognized by Joseph, yet they themselves did not recognize Joseph. He, however, after many of their vexations and with Benjamin brought in, declared himself to them; for this one too had been born of Rachel, his mother.

Post haec discendunt cuncti Israhelitae in Aegyptum et per Ioseph Faraonis gratiam abutuntur. Iacob autem post benedictus filios suos in Aegypto moritur et in sepulchro patris sui a Ioseph sepelitur in terra Chanaan. Mortuo autem Ioseph atque Faraone, subicitur cuncta generatio servituti.

After these things all the Israelites go down into Egypt and, through Joseph, avail themselves of the Pharaoh’s favor. Jacob, however, after blessing his sons, dies in Egypt, and in the sepulcher of his father he is buried by Joseph in the land of Canaan. But with Joseph and the Pharaoh dead, the whole generation was subjected to servitude.

Quae per Moysen post decim plagas Aegypti liberatur, dimerso Pharaone in mari Rubrum.

Which through Moses, after the ten plagues of Egypt, is liberated, with Pharaoh sunk in the Red Sea.

10. De transitu rubri maris.

10. On the crossing of the Red Sea.

Et quoniam de hoc maris transitu plures multa dixerunt, visum est, ut de situ loci illius vel ipsius transitus aliqua huic inseram lectione. Nilus per Aegyptum, sicut optimae nostis, decurrit et ipse eam inpetu suo inrigat, unde et Aegypti Niliculae appellantur. Cuius nunc litora multi locorum perlustratores referta sacris monasthiriis dicunt esse.

And since about this transit of the sea many have said many things, it seemed good that I insert in this reading some account either of the site of that place or of the transit itself. The Nile runs down through Egypt, as you know most well, and by its own impetus irrigates it, whence also the Egyptians are appellated Nile-dwellers. Whose shores now many surveyors of places say are crammed with holy monasteries.

Super ripam vero eius non Babilonia, de qua supra miminimus, sed Babilonia civitas collocatur, in qua Ioseph horrea miro opere de lapidibus quadris et cimentum aedificavit, ita ut ad fundum capatiora, ad summa vero constricta sint, ut per parvolum foramen ibidem tritecum iacteretur; quae horrea usque hodie cernuntur. De hac civitate rex ad persequendum Hebraeos cum exercitibus curruum ac multa pedestri manu dirictus est. Antedictus vero fluvius ab oriente veniens, ad occidentalem plagam versus Rubrum mare vadit; ab occidente vero stagnum sive brachium de mare Rubrum progreditur et vadit contra orientem, habens in longo milia circiter quinquaginta, in lato autem decim et octo.

Upon its bank, however, not Babylonia, of which we made mention above, but the city Babylon is situated, in which Joseph built granaries of wondrous workmanship out of squared stones and cement, such that at the bottom they are more capacious, but at the top constricted, so that through a very small aperture wheat might be cast in there; which granaries are seen even to this day. From this city the king was directed to pursue the Hebrews with armies of chariots and a large infantry force. The aforesaid river, coming from the orient, goes toward the occidental region, toward the Red Sea; but from the west there proceeds a pool or arm from the Red Sea and goes toward the east, having in length about 50 miles, and in width 18.

In huius stagni capite Clysma civitas aedificata est, non propter fertilitatem loci, cum nihil sit plus sterele, sed propter portum, quia navis ab Indis venientes ibidem ob portus opportunitatem quiescunt; ubi conparate merces per totam Aegyptum deportantur. Ad hunc stagnum per desertum Hebraei tendentis usque ipsum mare venerunt, inventisque dulcibus aquis , castra metati sunt. In hoc ergo artum locum tam ab herimo quam ab ipso mari considerunt, sicut scriptum est: Audiens Pharao, quod conclusissit eos mare atque desertum, nec esset eis via, qua possint pergere, ad persequendum eos dirixit.

At the head of this lagoon the city of Clysma was built, not on account of the fertility of the place, since nothing is more sterile, but on account of the port, because ships coming from the Indies rest there on account of the harbor’s opportuneness; there the goods that have been procured are carried throughout all Egypt. Toward this lagoon through the desert the Hebrews, making their way, came to the sea itself, and, fresh waters having been found , they pitched camp. In this narrow place, therefore, they settled, hemmed in both by the desert and by the very sea, as it is written: Pharaoh, hearing that the sea and the desert had shut them in, and that there was not for them a road by which they could proceed, directed to pursue them.

Cumque inminentibus his Moysi populus adclamasset, secundum iussum Divinitatis proiectam virgam super mare, divisum est, illisque per sicca gradientibus et, ut Scriptura ait, murum aquarum undique vallatis in litus illud quod est contra montem Sina inlaesi prursus, demersis Aegyptiis, Moyse duce transgrediuntur. De quo transitu multa, ut dixi, narrantur; sed nos quod a sapientibus et certe illis hominibus, qui in eodem locum accesserant, virum cognovimus, ea inserere studuemus paginae. Aiunt etiam, sulcos, quos rotae curruum fecerant, usque hodie permanere et, quantum acies oculorum videre potest, in profundo cerni.

And when, with these things impending, the people had cried out to Moses, according to the command of Divinity, the rod having been stretched out over the sea, it was divided, and as they went on the dry ground and, as Scripture says, with a wall of waters hemming them in on every side, they cross over, Moses as leader, to that shore which is over against Mount Sinai, the Egyptians having been sunk, entirely unharmed. About which crossing many things, as I said, are told; but we strive to insert into the page what we have truly learned from the wise, and certainly from those men who had approached that same place. They say also that the furrows which the wheels of the chariots had made remain even to this day and, as far as the acuity of the eyes can see, are visible in the deep.

Quos si modicum commotio maris obtexerit, illo quiescente, rursum divinitus renovantur, ut fuerant. Dicunt alii, quod ad ipsam ripam, factum modico per mare circuitum, unde ingresse fuerant, sint reversi. Alii vero asserent, unum cunctis ingressum, nonnulli, unicuique tribui suam patuisse viam, illud testimonium psaltirii abutentes: Qui divisit mare Rubrum in divisiones.

Which, if a slight commotion of the sea has covered them, when it grows quiet, are again divinely renewed, as they had been. Others say that, to the very shore, having made a small circuit through the sea, they returned to the place whence they had entered. Others indeed assert one entrance for all; some, that there lay open to each tribe its own way, abusing that testimony of the Psalter: “Who divided the Red Sea into divisions.”

Quas nos divisiones spiritaliter et non secundum littera intellegere oportit. Sunt enim et in hoc saeculo, quod figuraliter mare dicitur, multae divisiones; non enim aequaliter possunt aut per unam viam ad vitam cuncti transire. Alii autem transeunt in horam primam, id est qui renati per baptismum, inmaculati ab omni inquinamentum carnis perdurare usque ad vitae praesentes exitum possunt; alii ad oram tertiam, videlicet qui maiore aetate convertuntur; alii ad sextam, qui luxoriae fervore coerceunt.

Which divisions we ought to understand spiritually and not according to the letter. For there are also in this age, which figuratively is called the sea, many divisions; for not all are able equally, nor by one way, to pass across to life. But some pass at the first hour, that is, those reborn through baptism, immaculate from every pollution of the flesh, are able to endure unto the end of the present life; others at the third hour, namely those who are converted at a greater age; others at the sixth, who restrain the fervor of lust.

Et per has quasque horas, sicut euangelista conmemorat, ad operam dominicae viniae secundum fidem propriam conducuntur. Haec sunt divisiones, quibus per hoc mare transitur. Illud vero quod a mare usque venientes, litus stagni tenentes revertuntur, illud est quod Dominus ad Moysen dicit: Reversi castra metentur e regione Phiahiroth, quae est inter Magdalum et mare contra Belsephon.

And through each of these hours, as the evangelist commemorates, they are hired for the work of the Lord’s vineyard according to their own faith. These are the divisions by which one passes through this sea. But that point that, coming all the way from the sea and keeping to the shore of the pool, they turn back—this is what the Lord says to Moses: “Having turned back, they shall pitch camp opposite Pi-hahiroth, which is between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal-zephon.”

Nec enim dubium est, quod transitus ille maris vel columna nubis tipum gesserit nostri baptismatis, dicente beato Paulo apostolo: Nolo vos ignorare, fratres, quia patris nostri omnes sub nube fuerunt, et omnes in Moysen baptizati sunt in nube et in mare. Colomna vero ignis typum sancti Spiritus praetulit. A nativitate ergo Abrahae usque ad egressum filiorum Israhel ex Aegyptu vel transitum maris Rubri, quod fuit Moysi octuaginsimus annus, subpotantur anni numero 462.

For there is no doubt that that crossing of the sea and the column of cloud bore the type of our baptism, as the blessed Apostle Paul says: I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. The column of fire, moreover, presented the type of the Holy Spirit. Therefore from the birth of Abraham up to the going-out of the sons of Israel from Egypt, or the crossing of the Red Sea—which was Moses’s eightieth year—the years are reckoned as 462 in number.

11. De populo in deserto et Iosue.

11. Concerning the people in the desert and Joshua.

Exin per 40 annos Israhelitae herimum utuntur, inbuuntur legibus, probantur victibusque pascuntur angelicis. Deinceps enim post acceptam legem transgressuque cum Iesu Nave Iordanne terra repromissiones accipiunt.

Then for 40 years the Israelites make use of the wilderness, are imbued with the laws, are proved, and are fed with angelic victuals. Thereafter, indeed, after the law has been received and, with Jesus Nave (Joshua), the Jordan having been crossed, they receive the land of the promises.

12. De captivitate populi Israhelitici et generationebus usque David.

12. Concerning the captivity of the Israelitic people and the generations up to David.

Post cuius transitum, dum praecepta divina postponunt, saepe in alienigenarum servitio subiugantur. Sed cum conversi ingemiscunt, tribuente Domino, per virorum fortium brachium liberantur. Post haec per Samuelem regem, sicut reliquae gentes habent, a Domino postolant; accipiunt primum Saul, deinde David.

After whose crossing, while they postpone the divine precepts, they are often subjugated into the servitude of foreigners. But when, having turned back, they groan, with the Lord granting, they are freed by the arm of valiant men. After these things, through Samuel, they ask from the Lord for a king, just as the other nations have; they receive first Saul, then David.

Ab Abraham ergo usque ad David generationes 14: id est Abraham, Isaac, Iacob, Iudas, Phares, Esdrom, Aram, Aminadab, Naason, Salma, [Booz], Obeth, Iesse, David. David autem genuit Salamonem de Bersabee. His per Nathan prophetam, fratrem suum, et matrem in regno evectus est.

From Abraham therefore up to David, 14 generations: that is, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez, Hezron, Aram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, [Boaz], Obed, Jesse, David. But David begot Solomon from Bathsheba. By these—through Nathan the prophet, his brother, and his mother—he was elevated into the kingdom.

13. De Salamone et aedificatione templi.

13. On Solomon and the building of the temple.

Defuncto autem David, cum [filius eius] regnare coepisset, apparuit ei Dominus et, quod peteret ut indulgeat, pollicitur. Ad ille terrenas divitias posponens, sapientia magis expetiit. Quod ratum Domino fuit, ita ut ab eodem audiret: Quia non quaesisti regna mundi nec divitias eius, sed postolasti sapientiam, ideo accepias eam.

With David having died, when [his son] had begun to reign, the Lord appeared to him and promises to grant whatever he would ask. But he, setting earthly riches aside, sought wisdom rather. Which was ratified by the Lord, so that he heard from the same: Because you did not seek the kingdoms of the world nor its riches, but asked for wisdom, therefore you shall receive it.

Ante te non fuit sapiens sic, et post te non erit. Quod postea iudicium illud, quod inter duas mulieres de uno infante litegantes intulit, conprobavit. Hic Salamon aedificavit templum nomini Domini miro opere, multum ibi auri argentique, aeres ac ferri ingerens, ita ut diceretur a quibusdam, numquam simile mundo fuisse aedificium fabricatum.

Before you there was not such a wise man, and after you there will not be. This was later confirmed by that judgment which he rendered between two women litigating over one infant. This Solomon built a temple to the Name of the Lord with marvelous workmanship, heaping in much gold and silver, bronze and iron, so that it was said by some that never had a similar edifice been fabricated in the world.

Ab egressu ergo filiorum Israhel ex Aegypto usque ad aedificationem templi, quod fuit annos septimus regni Salamonis, inveniuntur anni 480, sicut Regum testatur historia.

From the exodus, therefore, of the sons of Israel out of Egypt up to the building of the temple—which was the seventh year of the reign of Solomon—there are found 480 years, as the history of Kings attests.

14. De divisione regni Israhelitici.

14. On the division of the Israelitic kingdom.

Post mortem autem Salamonis divisum per duritiam Roboae regnum in duas partes, restiterunt duae tribus ad Roboam, quod Iuda appellabatur; ad Hieroboam autem decim tribus, quod Israhel vocabatur. Post haec igitur ad idolatria declinantes nec prophetarum vaticinia nec eorum interitus nec cladis patriae nec ipsorum etiam regum eos excidia domuerunt.

But after the death of Solomon, the kingdom, through the hardness of Rehoboam, was divided into two parts, two tribes stood with Rehoboam, which was called Judah; but to Jeroboam, ten tribes, which was called Israel. After these things, therefore, turning aside to idolatry, neither the vaticinations of the prophets nor their deaths nor the calamity of the fatherland nor even the destructions of the kings themselves tamed them.

15. De captivitate in Babillonia.

15. On the captivity in Babylonia.

Donec iratus contra eos Dominus excitavit Nabuchodonosor, qui eos in Babiloniam cum omnia templi urnamenta captivos abduxit. In qua captivitatem et Danihel propheta eximius, inter esurientes leonis inlesus, et tres pueri in medium igneum rorulenti abiere captivi. In hac captivitate et Hiezechihel prophetavit, et Hesdras propheta natus est.

Until, angry against them, the Lord raised up Nebuchadnezzar, who led them away captive to Babylon with all the ornaments of the temple. Into this captivity too the most distinguished prophet Daniel, unharmed among the hungry lions, and the three boys, bedewed in the fiery midst, went as captives. In this captivity as well Ezekiel prophesied, and the prophet Ezra was born.

A David autem usque ad desolationem templi et transmigrationem in Babilonia generationes 14, id est David, Salamon, Roboam, Abia, Asa, Iosaphath, Ioram, Ozia, Ioatha, Achaz, Ezechihel, Mannases, Amon, Iosias. In his ergo 14 generationibus anni inveniuntur numero 390. De hac vero captivitate per Zorobabil liberantur ; qui postea et templum et civitatem restituit.

But from David up to the desolation of the temple and the transmigration into Babylonia, 14 generations, that is David, Salamon, Roboam, Abia, Asa, Iosaphath, Ioram, Ozia, Ioatha, Achaz, Ezechihel, Mannases, Amon, Iosias. In these therefore 14 generations years are found, in number 390. From this captivity indeed they are freed through Zorobabil ; who afterwards restored both the temple and the city.

Sed haec captivitas typum illius captivitatis, ut poto, gerit, in qua anima peccatrix abducitur, quam nisi Zorobabil, id est Christus, liberaverit, horribiliter exsulavit. Ipse enim Dominus in euangelio dicit: Si vos Filius liberaverit, vere liberi eritis. Ipse enim sibi in nobis templum, in quo dignitur habitare, constituat, in quo fides ut aurum luceat, in quo eloquium praedicationes ut argentum splendeat, in quo omnia visibilis templi illius ornamenta in nostrorum sensuum honestate clariscant.

But this captivity bears, as I suppose, the type of that captivity in which the sinning soul is led away, which, unless Zorobabel, that is Christ, shall have freed, has horribly been an exile. For the Lord himself says in the Gospel: If the Son shall have freed you, you will truly be free. May he himself establish for himself in us a temple in which he deigns to dwell, in which faith may shine like gold, in which the eloquence of preachings may glitter like silver, in which all the ornaments of that visible temple may grow bright in the honorable integrity of our senses.

Bonae etiam voluntate nostrae ipse salubrae effectu indulgeat, quia: nisi ipse aedificaverit domum, in vanum laborant qui aedificant ea. Haec vero captivitas annis 70 fuisse dicitur.

May he also indulge our good will with a salutary effect, because: unless he himself shall have built the house, they labor in vain who build it. But this captivity is said to have been for 70 years.

16. De nativitate Christi.

16. On the nativity of Christ.

Reversi autem per Zorobabil, sicut dixemus, nunc contra Deum murmorantes, nunc post idola conruentes vel abuminationes, quae gentes exerceunt, imitantes, dum Dei prophetas contempnunt, gentibus traduntur, subiugantur, intercedunt; donec ipse Dominus patriarcharum prophetarumque vocebus repromissus, virginis Mariae utero per Spiritum sanctum inlapsus, ad redimptione nasci tam illius gentes quam omnium gentium dignaretur. A transmigratione ergo usque nativitatem Christi generationes 14, id est Iechonias, Salathiel, Zorobabil, Abiud, Eliachim, Azor, Sadoch, Achim, Eliuth, Eleazar, Mathan, Iacob, Ioseph, vir Marie, de qua dominus noster Iesus Christus nascitur; qui Ioseph quartus decimus conputatur.

Having returned, however, under Zorobabil, as we have said, now murmuring against God, now falling down before idols or imitating the abominations which the nations practice, while they despise the prophets of God, they are handed over to the nations, they are subjugated, they are cut off; until the Lord himself, promised by the voices of the patriarchs and prophets, having entered the womb of the virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit, deigned to be born for the redemption both of that nation and of all nations. From the transmigration, therefore, up to the nativity of Christ there are 14 generations, that is: Iechonias, Salathiel, Zorobabil, Abiud, Eliachim, Azor, Sadoch, Achim, Eliuth, Eleazar, Mathan, Iacob, Ioseph, the husband of Mary, of whom our lord Jesus Christ is born; which Joseph is counted the fourteenth.

17. De diversis gentium regnis.

17. On the diverse kingdoms of the nations.

Ergo ne videamur unius tantum Hebreae gentes habere notitiam, reliqua regna, quae vel quali Israhelitarum fuerint tempore, memoramus. Tempore Abrahae Ninus regnabat super Assirios; Sicionis Eorops; apud Aegyptios autem sexta decima erat potestas, quam sua lingua dinastiam vocabam. Tempore Moysi apud Argivus regnabat septimus Tropas; in Attica Caecros primus; apud Aegyptius Cencris duodecimus, qui et in mare obrutus est Rubro; apud Assirios sextus decimus Agatadis; apud Sicionius Maratis.

Therefore, lest we seem to have knowledge only of the Hebrew people, we recount the remaining kingdoms, which, and of what time relative to the Israelites, they were. In the time of Abraham, Ninus reigned over the Assyrians; of Sicyon, Eorops; but among the Egyptians the sixteenth authority was in power, which in their tongue they called a dynasty. In the time of Moses, among the Argives the seventh, Tropas, was reigning; in Attica, Caecros the first; among the Egyptians, Cencris the twelfth, who also was overwhelmed in the Red Sea; among the Assyrians the sixteenth, Agatadis; among the Sicyonians, Maratis.

Tempore vero Salamones, quando regnabat super Israhel, apud Latinus quintus regnabat Silvius; Lacidaemoniis Fistus; Corinthiis secundus Oxion Aegyptiorum Thebei centissimo vicissimo sexto anno; super Assirios Eutropes; Athiniensibus secundus Agasastus. Tempore quo Amon regnabat super Iudeam, quando captivitas in Babilonia abiit, Macedoniis praeerat Argeus; Laedorum Cyces; Aegyptiorum Vafres; apud Babiloniam Nabuchodonosor, qui eos captivos abduxit; Romanorum sextus Servius.

In the time of Solomon, when he was reigning over Israel, among the Latins Silvius the fifth was reigning; among the Lacedaemonians, Fistus; among the Corinthians, Oxion the second; among the Egyptians, at Thebes, in the 126th year; over the Assyrians, Eutropes; among the Athenians, Agasastus the second. In the time when Amon was reigning over Judea, when the captivity went away into Babylonia, Argaeus was presiding over the Macedonians; over the Laedians, Cyces; of the Egyptians, Vaphres; at Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, who led them away captive; of the Romans, Servius the sixth.

18. Quo tempore Lugdunos sit condita.

18. At what time Lugdunum was founded.

Post hos imperator primus Iulius Caesar fuit, qui tutius imperii obtenuit monarchiam; secundus Octavianus, Iulii Caesaris nepus, quem Augustum vocant, a quo et mensis Agustus est vocitatus. Cuius nono decimo imperii anno Lugdunum Galliarum conditam manefestissime repperimus; quae postea, inlustrata martyrum sanguine, nobilissima nuncupatur.

After these, the first emperor was Julius Caesar, who more securely held the monarchy of the empire; the second, Octavian, the nephew of Julius Caesar, whom they call Augustus, from whom also the month August is so called. In the nineteenth year of his rule we have most manifestly found Lugdunum of the Gauls to have been founded; which afterwards, made illustrious by the blood of martyrs, is called most noble.

19. De muneribus magorum et necem infantum.

19. On the gifts of the magi and the slaughter of the infants.

Anno XLIII imperii Agusti dominus noster Iesus Christus, ut diximus, ex virgine Maria in Bethleem David oppidum secundum carnem natus est. Cuius inmensum sidus magi ab oriente cernentes, cum muneribus veniunt et puerum subplicis oblatis donis adorant. Herodes vero ob zelo regni sui, dum Deum Christum persequi nititur, parvolus infantes interimit.

In the 43rd year of the reign of Augustus, our Lord Jesus Christ, as we have said, was born according to the flesh from the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, the town of David. The Magi, discerning his immense star from the East, come with gifts and adore the boy, with suppliant gifts offered. But Herod, on account of zeal for his own kingdom, while he strives to persecute Christ, God, puts the little infants to death.

Ipse quoque postmodum iudicio divino percussus est.

He himself also afterward was struck by divine judgment.

20. De mirabilibus et passione Christi.

20. On the wonders and the passion of Christ.

Domino autem Deo nostro Iesu Christo paenitentiam praedicante, baptismi gratiam tribuente vel caelestem regnum cunctis gentibus promittente atque prodigia et signa per populos operante, hoc est dum de aquas vina profert, dum febris extinguit, dum caecis lumen tribuit, dum sepultis vitam restituit, dum obsessus ab inmundis spiritibus liberat, dum leprosus miserabili turpentes cute reformat, hac dum alia multa signa faciens manefestissime se Deum populis esse declarat, in Iudaeis ira succenditur, invidia exagitatur, ac mens de sanguine profetarum pasta, ut iustum interimat, iniuste molitur. Ergo, ut veterum vatum conplerentur oracula, a discipolo traditur, a pontificibus condemnatur, a Iudaeis inluditur, cum iniquis crucifigitur, a militibus, amisso spiritu, custoditur. His igitur actis, tenebrae super universum mundum factae sunt, et multi conversi ingemiscentes, Iesum filium Dei confessi sunt.

But when the Lord God of ours, Jesus Christ, was preaching penance, granting the grace of baptism, and promising the heavenly kingdom to all the gentes, and working prodigies and signs among the peoples—this is, while he brings forth wines from waters, while he extinguishes fevers, while he grants light to the blind, while he restores life to the buried, while he frees those possessed by unclean spirits, while he reforms the leprous, made unsightly by a pitiable skin—while doing many other signs besides these, he most manifestly declared to the peoples that he is God; in the Jews wrath is kindled, envy is driven on, and a mind fed on the blood of the prophets, to slay the just man, unjustly plots. Therefore, that the oracles of the ancient seers might be fulfilled, he is betrayed by a disciple, condemned by the pontiffs, mocked by the Jews, crucified with the unjust, by soldiers—his spirit having been given up—he is kept under guard. These things therefore having been done, darkness was made over the whole world, and many, being converted and groaning, confessed Jesus the Son of God.

21. De Ioseph, qui eum sepelivit.

21. On Joseph, who buried him.

Adpraehensum autem et Ioseph, qui eum aromatibus conditum in suo monumentu recondedit, in cellolam includitur et ab ipsis sacerdotum principibus custoditur, maiorem in eum habantes sevitiam, ut Gesta Pilati ad Tiberium imperatorem missa referunt, quam in ipsum Dominum, ut cum ille a militibus, hic ab ipsis sacerdotibus custodiretur. Sed resurgente Domino, custodibus visione angelica territis, cum non inveniretur in tumulo, nocte parietis de cellola, in qua Ioseph tenebatnr, suspenduntur in sublimi, ipse vero de custodia, absolvente angelo, liberatur, parietibus restitutes in locum suum. Cumque pontifecis custodibus exprobrarent et sanctum corpus ab eisdem instanter inquirerent, dicunt eis militis: 'Reddite vos Ioseph, et nos reddimus Christum; sed ut virum agnuscimus, neque vos benefactorem Dei neque nos Dei filium reddere nunc valemus.

But Joseph also, who laid him, seasoned with aromatics, in his own monument, is shut into a little cell and is guarded by the very chiefs of the priests, having greater savagery against him, as the Acts of Pilate sent to Emperor Tiberius report, than against the Lord himself, so that while that one was guarded by soldiers, this one was guarded by the priests themselves. But when the Lord rose again, the guards being terrified by an angelic vision, when he was not found in the tomb, by night the walls of the little cell in which Joseph was being held are suspended on high; he himself, moreover, from custody, the angel absolving him, is set free, the walls being restored to their place. And when they reproached the guards of the pontiff and urgently inquired the holy body from the same, the soldiers say to them: 'You restore Joseph, and we will restore Christ; but, as we recognize the man, neither are you now able to restore the Benefactor of God, nor are we able to restore the Son of God.

Tunc illis confusis, milites sub hac excusatione liberantur.

Then, with them confounded, the soldiers are liberated under this excuse.

22. De Iacobo apostulo.

22. On James the apostle.

Fertur Iacobus apostolus, cum Domino iam mortuum vidisset in cruce, detestasse atque iurasse, numquam se comisurum panem, nisi Dominum cerneret resurgentem. Tertia demum die rediens Dominus, spoliato tartaro cum triumphum, Iacobo se ostendens ait: 'Surge, Iacobi comedi, quia iam a mortuis resurrexi'. Hic est Iacobus iustus, quem fratrem Domini nuncupant, pro eo quod Ioseph fuerit filius ex alia uxore progenitus.

It is reported that James the apostle, when he had seen the Lord already dead on the cross, had detested and had sworn that he would never eat bread, unless he should behold the Lord resurgent. At length on the third day the Lord returning, Tartarus despoiled in triumph, showing himself to James said: 'Arise, James, eat, because I have now risen from the dead'. This is James the Just, whom they call the brother of the Lord, for the reason that he was the son of Joseph, begotten from another wife.

23. De die resurrectiones dominicae.

23. On the day of the Lord’s resurrections.

Dominicam vero resurrectionem die prima facta credimus, non septimam, sicut multi putant. Hic est dies resurrectiones domini nostri Iesu Christi, quem nos propriae dominicum pro sancta eius resurrectione vocamus. Hic primus lucem vidit in principio, et hic primus Dominum resurgentem contemplare meruit de sepulchro.

But we believe that the Lord’s resurrection was made on the first day, not the seventh, as many think. This is the day of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we properly call the Lord’s day on account of his holy resurrection. This day first saw light in the beginning, and this day first was deemed worthy to behold the Lord rising from the sepulcher.

A captivitate vero Hierusolimae et desolationem templi usque ad passionem domini nostri Iesu Christi, id est usque Tiberii septimo decimo anno, subpotantur anni 668.

From the captivity of Jerusalem and the desolation of the Temple up to the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, up to the 17th year of Tiberius, 668 years are reckoned.

24. De ascensione Domini.

24. On the Ascension of the Lord.

De ascensione Domini et de interitu Pilati atque Herodis.

On the ascension of the Lord and on the demise of Pilate and of Herod.

Resurgens autem Dominus, per quadraginta dies cum discipolis de regno Dei disputans, videntibus illis in nube susceptus evectusque in caelis, ad Patris dexteram resedet gloriosus. Pylatus autem gesta ad Tiberium caesarem mittit et ei tam de virtutibus Christi quam de passione vel resurrectione eius insinuat. Quae gesta apud nos hodie retenentur scripta.

Moreover, the Lord, having risen again, for forty days with the disciples discoursing about the kingdom of God, while they were looking on was received in a cloud and carried up into the heavens, and sits glorious at the right hand of the Father. Pilate, moreover, sends the acts to Tiberius Caesar and intimates to him both about the virtues of Christ and about his Passion or Resurrection. Which acts are retained written among us today.

Tiberius autem hoc ad senatu recensivit, quod senatus cum ira respuit pro eo, quod non ad eum primitus advenissent. Hinc etenim contra christianos prima odiorum germina pullularunt. Pylatus autem non permanens inpunitus, ob suae malitiae scelere, hoc est pro nece quam in dominum nostrum Iesum Christum exercuit, propriis se manebus interfecit.

Tiberius, moreover, recounted this before the senate; but the senate rejected it in anger, on the ground that they had not come to him first. Hence indeed the first seeds of hatred against the Christians germinated. Pilate, however, not remaining unpunished, on account of the crime of his malice—that is, for the slaying which he exercised against our Lord Jesus Christ—killed himself with his own hands.

Quem Manicheum fuisse multi putant secundum illud quod in euangelio legitur: Venirunt quidam de Galileis, nuntiantes ei, quorum sanguine miscuit Pylatus cum sacrificiis eorum. Sic et Herodes rex, dum in apostulos Domini saevit, percussus divinitus ob tanta scelera, intumiscens ac scatens vermibus, accepto cultro, ut malum purgaret, propriae se manus ictu liberavit.

whom many think to have been a Manichee, according to that which is read in the Gospel: “There came certain from Galilee, announcing to him, whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices.” Likewise King Herod, while he raged against the Lord’s apostles, struck divinely on account of such great crimes, swelling and teeming with worms, having taken a knife, that he might purge the evil, freed himself by a stroke of his own hand.

25. De passione apostolorum atque Nerone.

25. On the passion of the apostles and Nero.

Beatus Petros apostolus sub imperatore Claudio, quarto ab Augusto, Romam adgreditur, ibique praedicans, in multis virtutibus manefestissime Christum esse Dei filium conprobavit. Ab illis enim diebus christiani apud civitatem Romanam esse coeperunt. Cum autem nomen Christi per populos magis ac magis dilataretur, oritur contra haec antique serpentes invidia, et totis se imperatoris praecordiis inmittit saeva malignitas.

Blessed Peter the apostle, under the emperor Claudius, the fourth from Augustus, approaches Rome, and there, preaching, by many virtues most manifestly proved Christ to be the Son of God. From those days, in fact, Christians began to be in the city of Rome. But when the name of Christ was being spread more and more among the peoples, there arises against these things the envy of the ancient serpent, and savage malignity inserts itself into the emperor’s whole heart.

Nam Nero ille luxoriosus, vanus atque superbus virorum succuba et rursum virorum appetitor, matris, sororum ac proximarum quaeque mulierum spurcissimus violator, ad complendam malitiae suae molem primus contra Christi cultum persecutionem excitat in credentes. Habebat enim secum Simonem magum, virum totius malitiae et omnes magicae artis argumento magistrum. Hunc elisum per apostolus Domini Petrum atque Paulum, commotus contra eos, cur Christum, filium Dei, praedicarent et idola adorare contempnerent, Petrum crucem, Paulum gladio iubet interfice.

For that Nero, debauched, vain and proud, a concubine of men and again a pursuer of men, the filthiest violator of his mother, his sisters, and whatever women nearest of kin, to complete the mass of his malice, first stirs up a persecution against the worship of Christ upon the believers. For he had with him Simon the Magus, a man of all malice and by demonstration a master of every magical art. This man having been cast down by the apostles of the Lord, Peter and Paul, he, provoked against them because they preached Christ, the Son of God, and contemned the adoration of idols, orders Peter to be killed on the cross, Paul by the sword.

Ipse quoque excitatam super se seditionem fugire temptans, quarto ab Urbe lapide propria se manum interfecit.

He himself also, attempting to flee the sedition stirred up against him, at the 4th milestone from the City, killed himself by his own hand.

26. De Iacobo, Marco et Iohanne euangelista.

26. Concerning James, Mark, and John the evangelist.

Tunc Iacobus, frater Domini, et Marcus euangelista pro Christi nomine glorioso martyrio coronati sunt. Primus tamen omnium hanc viam levita Stefanus [et] martyr intravit. Magna post Iacobi apostoli necem Iudaeos calamitas adsecuta est.

Then James, the brother of the Lord, and Mark the evangelist were crowned with a glorious martyrdom for the name of Christ. First, however, of all, the deacon Stephen [and] martyr entered upon this way. A great calamity overtook the Jews after the killing of the apostle James.

Nam adveniente Vispasiano et templum incensum est, et sexcenta milia Iudaeorum eo bello gladio et fame adfectae sunt. Domicianus autem secundus post Neronem in christianis saevit, Iohannem apostolum in insolam Pathmos relegat in exilium et diversas crudilitates in populus agitat. Post cuius mortem beatus Iohannis apostolus et euangelista de exilio rediit; qui senex et plenus dierum perfectaeque in Deum vitae vivens se deposuit in sepulchro.

For, with Vespasian arriving, the temple was set on fire, and six hundred thousand of the Jews in that war were afflicted by sword and by famine. Domitian, moreover, the second after Nero, raged against the Christians, relegates the apostle John to the island of Patmos into exile, and inflicts various cruelties upon the peoples. After whose death, the blessed John the apostle and evangelist returned from exile; who, an old man and full of days and of a life perfected in God, while still living laid himself down in the sepulcher.

Hic fertur non gustare morte, donec iteratis Dominus iudicaturus adveniat, ipso in euangeliis ita dicente: Sic eum volo manere, donec veniam.

He is said not to taste death, until the Lord, about to judge, shall come again, he himself saying thus in the Gospels: “So I will that he remain, until I come.”

27. De persecutione sub Traiano.

27. On the persecution under Trajan.

Tertius post Neronem persecutionem in christianos Traianus movet. Sub quo beatus Clemens - tertius Romanae eclesiae fuit episcopus - passus et sanctus Simion Hierusolimitanus episcopus, Cleuphe filius, pro Christi nomine crucefixus adseritur, et Ignatius Anthyocinsis episcopus Romae ductus, bisteis deputatur. Haec sub Traiani temporibus acta sunt.

The third after Nero, Trajan, sets in motion a persecution against the Christians. Under him the blessed Clement — the third bishop of the Roman church — suffered, and Saint Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, son of Clopas, is asserted to have been crucified for the name of Christ, and Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, led to Rome, was consigned to the beasts. These things were done in the times of Trajan.

28. De Adriano.

28. On Hadrian.

De Adriano et adinventionibus hereticorum et passione sancti Policarpi atque Iustini.

On Hadrian and the inventions of the heretics and the passion of Saint Polycarp and Justin.

Post hunc Helius Adrianus imperator creatus est. Unde et Hierusolima Helia ab Helio Adriano vocatur, successore Domiciani, eo quod eam reparaverit. Post has vero passiones sanctorum non fuit satis parti adversae gentes incredulas contra christicolas excitasse, nisi commoveret et in ipsis christianis scismas.

After him Helius Adrianus was created emperor. Whence Jerusalem is also called Aelia from Helius Adrianus, the successor of Domitian, because he had repaired it. But after these passions of the saints, it was not enough for the opposing party to have stirred up unbelieving nations against the Christ-followers, unless it also stirred up schisms among the Christians themselves.

Concitat hereses, et divisa fides catholica aliter aliterque disseritur. Nam sub Antonini imperio Marcionitana et Valentiniana hereses insana surrexit; et Iustinus philosophus post scriptos catholicae ecclesiae libros martyrio pro Christi nomine coronatur. In Asia autem, orta persecutione, beatissimus Policarpus, Iohannis apostoli et euangelistae discipulus, octoginsimo aetatis suae anno velut holocaustum purissimum per ignem Domino consecratur.

He rouses heresies, and the catholic faith, once divided, is discussed now this way and now that. For under the rule of Antoninus the insane Marcionite and Valentinian heresies arose; and Justin the philosopher, after writing books for the catholic church, is crowned with martyrdom for the name of Christ. In Asia, however, when a persecution arose, the most blessed Polycarp, disciple of John the apostle and evangelist, in the eightieth year of his age, was consecrated to the Lord through fire as a most pure holocaust.

Sed et in Galleis multi pro Christi nomine sunt per martyrium gemmis caelestibus coronati; quorum passionum historiae apud nos fideliter usque hodie retinentur.

But also in Gaul many for the name of Christ were crowned with celestial gems through martyrdom; the histories of whose passions are faithfully preserved among us even to this day.

29. De sancto Photino, Hirineo vel reliquis martyribus Lugdunensibus.

29. On Saint Photinus, Irenaeus, and the other Lugdunensian martyrs.

Ex quibus et ille primus Lugdunensis ecclesiae Photinus episcopus fuit, qui plenus dierum, diversis adfectus suppliciis, pro Christi nomine passus est. Beatissimus vero Hireneus, huius successor martyris, qui a beato Policarpo ad hanc urbem directus est, admirabili virtute enituit; qui in modici temporis spatio praedicatione sua maxime in integrum civitatem reddidit christianam. Sed veniente persecutione, talia ibidem diabulus bella per tyrannum exercuit, et tanta ibi multitudo christianorum ob confessione dominici nominis est iugulata, ut per plateas flumina currerent de sanguine christiano; quorum nec numerum nec nomina collegere potuimus, Dominus enim eos in libro vitae conscripsit.

Of whom also that man was the first bishop of the Lugdunensian church, Photinus, who, full of days, afflicted with diverse tortures, suffered for the name of Christ. But the most blessed Irenaeus, the successor of this martyr, who was directed to this city by blessed Polycarp, shone forth with admirable virtue; who, in the space of a little time, by his preaching made the city for the most part entirely Christian. But when the persecution came on, the devil through a tyrant waged such wars there, and so great a multitude of Christians was slaughtered there on account of the confession of the Lord’s name, that through the streets rivers ran with Christian blood; of whom we were able to collect neither the number nor the names, for the Lord has inscribed them in the Book of Life.

Beatum Hirenaeum diversis in sua carnifex praesentia poenis adfectum Christo domino per martyrium dedicavit. Post hunc et 48 martyres passi sunt, ex quibus primum fuisse legimus Vectium Epagatum.

The executioner, in his own presence, subjected the blessed Hirenaeus to various punishments and dedicated him to Christ the Lord through martyrdom. After him also 48 martyrs suffered, of whom we read that Vectius Epagatus was the first.

30. De septem viris in Galleis ad praedicandum missis.

30. On the seven men sent into Gaul to preach.

Sub Decio vero imperatore multa bella adversum nomen christianum exoriuntur, et tanta stragis de credentibus fuit, ut nec numerari quaeant. Babillas episcopus Anthiocinus cum tribus parvolis, id est Urban, Prilidan et Epolon, et Xystus Romanae eclesiae episcopus et Laurentius archidiaconus et Hyppolitus ob dominici nominis confessionem per martyrium consummati sunt. Valentinianus et Novatianus maxime tunc heretiquorum principes contra fidem nostram, inimico inpellente, crassantur.

Under the emperor Decius indeed, many wars arose against the Christian name, and there was such slaughter of believers that they cannot even be numbered. Babylas, bishop of Antioch, with three little ones, that is, Urban, Prilidan, and Epolon, and Xystus, bishop of the Roman Church, and Lawrence the archdeacon, and Hippolytus, for the confession of the Lord’s name, were consummated through martyrdom. Valentinian and Novatian, especially then the leaders of the heretics against our faith, with the Enemy impelling, waxed strong.

Huius tempore septem viri episcopi ordenati ad praedicandum in Galliis missi sunt, sicut historia passiones sancti martyres Saturnini denarrat. Ait enim: Sub Decio et Grato consolibus, sicut fideli recordationem retenitur, primum ac summum Tholosana civitas sanctum Saturninum habere coeperat sacerdotem. Hic ergo missi sunt: Turonicis Catianus episcopus, Arelatensibus Trophimus episcopus, Narbonae Paulos episcopus, Tolosae Saturninus episcopus, Parisiacis Dionisius episcopus, Arvernis Stremonius episcopus, Lemovicinis Martialis est distinatus episcopus.

In his time seven men, bishops ordained, were sent to preach in the Gauls, as the history of the passions of the holy martyr Saturninus recounts. For it says: Under Decius and Gratus as consuls, as in faithful remembrance it is retained, the city of Toulouse first and foremost had begun to have Saint Saturninus as priest. Therefore these were sent: to the Turonics, Catianus bishop; to the Arelatenses, Trophimus bishop; at Narbonne, Paulus bishop; at Toulouse, Saturninus bishop; to the Parisiacs, Dionysius bishop; to the Arverni, Stremonius bishop; to the Lemovicines, Martial was appointed bishop.

De his vero beatus Dionisius Parisiorum episcopus, diversis pro Christi nomine adfectus poenis, praesentem vitam gladio inminente finivit. Saturninus vero, iam securos de martyrio, dicit duobus presbiteris suis: 'Ecce ego iam immolor et tempus meae resolutiones instat. Rogo, ut, usque dum debetum finem impleam, a vobis paenitus non relinquar'. Cumque conpraehensus ad Capitulium duceretur, relictus ab his, solus adtrahitur.

Of these, indeed, the blessed Dionysius, bishop of the Parisians, afflicted with diverse penalties for the name of Christ, brought the present life to an end with the sword imminent. But Saturninus, now secure about martyrdom, says to his two presbyters: 'Behold, I am now being immolated, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I beg that, until I fulfill the due end, I be not utterly abandoned by you.' And when, having been seized, he was being led to the Capitol, abandoned by them, he is dragged alone.

Igitur cum se ab illis cerneret derelictum, orasse fertur: 'Domine Iesu Christe, exaudi me de caelo sancto tuo, ut numquam haec eclesia de his civibus mereatur habere ponteficem in sempiternum'. Quod usque nunc in ipsa civitate ita evenisse cognovimus. Hic vero tauri furentes vestigiis allegatus ac de Capitulio praecipitatus, vitam finivit. Catianus vero, Trophimus Stremoneusque et Paulos atque Marcialis, in summa sanctitate viventes, adquisitus eclesiae populos ac fidem Christi per omnibus dilatatam, felice confessione migrarunt.

Therefore, when he perceived himself forsaken by them, he is said to have prayed: 'Lord Jesus Christ, hearken to me from your holy heaven, that this church may never merit to have a pontiff from these citizens unto everlasting.' Which we have known to have so come to pass even to this day in that very city. He, indeed, bound to the hooves of raging bulls and hurled headlong from the Capitol, ended his life. But Catianus, and Trophimus and Stremonius and Paulos and Marcialis, living in the highest sanctity, having won peoples for the church and with the faith of Christ spread through all, with a happy confession departed.

Et sic tam isti per martyrium quam hii per confessionem relinquentes terras, in caelestibus pariter sunt coniuncti.

And thus, both those through martyrdom and these through confession, leaving the lands, are together united in the heavenly realms.

31. De aecclesia Bituriga.

31. Concerning the Church of the Bituriges.

De horum vero discipulis quidam Bituricas civitatem adgressus, salutare omnium, Christum dominum populis nuntiavit. Ex his ergo pauci quodadmodo credentes, clerici ordinati, ritum psallendi suscipiunt, et qualiter ecclesiam construant vel omnipotenti Deo sollemnia caelebrare debeant, inbuuntur. Sed illis parvam adhuc aedificandi facultatem habentibus, cives cuiusdam domum, de qua ecclesiam faciant, expetunt.

But of their disciples indeed, a certain man, having approached the city of the Bituriges, announced to the peoples the salvation of all, Christ the Lord. From these, therefore, a few, in some manner believing, having been ordained clerics, receive the rite of psalm‑singing, and are imbued as to how they ought to construct a church and to celebrate the solemnities to Almighty God. But since they as yet had little capacity for building, they request the house of a certain citizen, out of which they might make a church.

Senatores vero vel reliqui meliores loci fanaticis erant tunc cultibus obligati; qui vero crediderant ex pauperibus erant, iuxta illud Domini quod Iudaeis exprobrat, dicens: Quia meretrices et publicani praecedunt vos in regno Dei. Hi vero, non obtentam a quo petierant domum, Leocadium quendam et primum Galliarum senatorem, qui de stirpe Vecti Epagati fuit, quem Lugduno passum pro Christi nomine superius memoravimus, repererunt. Cui cum petitionem suam et fidem pariter intimassent, ille respondit: 'Si enim domus mea, quam apud Bituricam urbem habeo, huic operi digna esset, praestare non abnuebam'. Illi autem audientes, pedibus eius prostrati, oblatis tricentis aureis cum disco argenteo, dicunt eam huic ministerio esse condignam.

But the senators and the other better men of the place were then bound to fanatical cults; whereas those who had believed were from among the poor, according to that of the Lord which he reproaches the Jews with, saying: Because harlots and publicans go before you into the kingdom of God. But they, not having obtained the house from him of whom they had made request, found a certain Leocadius, the first senator of the Gauls, who was of the stock of Vectius Epagatus, whom we have mentioned above as having suffered at Lugdunum for the name of Christ. And when they had made known to him their petition and their faith together, he replied: 'If indeed my house, which I have in the city of Biturica, were worthy for this work, I would not refuse to furnish it.' But they, hearing this, prostrate at his feet, with three hundred gold pieces offered together with a silver dish, say that it is condign for this ministry.

Quod ille, acceptis de his tribus aureis pro benedictione, clementer indulgens reliqua, cum adhuc esset in errore idolatriae inplicitus, christianus factus, domum suam fecit aecclesiam. Haec est nunc ecclesia apud Bituricas urbem prima, miro opere conposita et primi martyres Stephani reliquiis inlustrata.

He, having received from them three aurei for a blessing, graciously remitting the rest, although he had still been entangled in the error of idolatry, once made a Christian, made his house a church. This is now the first church at the city of the Bituriges, composed with wondrous workmanship and made illustrious by the relics of Stephen the first martyr.

32. De Chroco et de delubro Arverno.

32. On Chrocus and the Arvernian shrine.

Vicinsimo septimo loco Valerianus et Gallienus Romanum imperium sunt adepti, qui gravem contra christianus persecutionem suo tempore conmoverunt. Tunc Romae Cornilius, Cyprianus Cartaginem felici sanguinem inlustrarunt. Horum tempore et Chrocus ille Alamannorum rex, commoto exercito, Gallias pervagavit.

In the 27th place Valerian and Gallienus obtained the Roman imperium, who in their time stirred up a grievous persecution against the Christians. Then at Rome Cornelius, and Cyprian at Carthage, made illustrious with happy blood. In their time also that Chrocus, king of the Alamanni, the army having been commoted, ranged through the Gauls.

Hic autem Chrocus multae adrogantiae fertur fuisse. Qui cum nonnulla inique gessisset, per consilium, ut aiunt, matris iniquae, collectam, ut dixemus, Alamannorum gentem, universas Gallias pervagatur cunctasque aedes, quae antiquitus fabraecatae fuerant, a fundamentis subvertit. Veniens vero Arvernus, delubrum illud, quod Gallica lingua Vasso Galate vocant, incendit, diruit atque subvertit.

This Chrocus, moreover, is reported to have been of great arrogance. Who, when he had done some things iniquitously, by the counsel, as they say, of his iniquitous mother, having gathered, as we have said, the nation of the Alamanni, ranged through all Gaul and subverted from the foundations all the edifices which had been constructed of old. Coming indeed to the Arverni, that shrine which in the Gallic tongue they call Vasso Galate he set on fire, demolished, and subverted.

Miro enim opere factum fuit atque firmatum. Cuius paries duplex erat, ab intus enim de minuto lapide, a foris vero quadris sculptis fabricatum fuit. Habuit enim paries ille crassitudinem pedes triginta.

For by wondrous workmanship it had been made and made firm. Whose wall was double: for on the inside it was of small stone, but on the outside it was fabricated of carved squared blocks. For that wall had a thickness of thirty feet.

Intrinsecus vero marmore ac museo variatum erat, pavimentum quoque aedes marmore stratum, desuper vero plumbo tectum.

Inside, moreover, it was variegated with marble and mosaic; the pavement too of the building was laid with marble, and above, indeed, it was roofed with lead.

33. De martiribus qui circa Arvernum passi sunt.

33. Concerning the martyrs who suffered around Arvernus.

Iuxta hanc urbem Liminius Antolianusque martyres requiescunt. Ibi Cassius ac Victorinus in dilectione Christi fraterno affectu sociati, per effusionem cruoris proprii caelorum regna pariter sunt adepti. Nam refert antiquitas, Victorinum servum fuisse ante dicti templi sacerdotis.

Near this city Liminius and Antolianus, martyrs, rest. There Cassius and Victorinus, associated in the dilection of Christ with fraternal affection, through the effusion of their own blood together obtained the kingdoms of the heavens. For antiquity reports that Victorinus had been the slave of the priest of the aforesaid temple.

Qui dum plerumque vicum, quem christianorum vocant, ad persequendos christianos adit, Cassium repperit christianum. Cuius praedicationibus atque miraculis motus, credidit Christo, relictisque fanaticis sordibus ac baptismo consecratus, magnus in virtutum operatione enituit. Nec multo post per martyrium, ut diximus, in terris sociati, ad caelestia pariter regna venerunt.

Who, since he very often went to the vicus which they call “of the Christians” to persecute Christians, found Cassius, a Christian. Moved by his preachings and miracles, he believed in Christ; and, the fanatical filth left behind and consecrated by baptism, he shone forth great in the operation of virtues. Nor long after, through martyrdom, as we said, associated on earth, they came alike to the celestial kingdoms.

34. De sancto Privato martyre.

34. Of Saint Privatus the martyr.

Inruentibus autem Alamannis in Gallias, sanctus Privatus Gabalitanae urbis episcopus in criptam Memmatinsis montis, ubi ieiuniis orationibusque vacabat, reperitur, populum Gredonensis castri monitione conclusum. Sed dum oves suas ut bonus pastor lupis tradere non consentit, daemoniis immolare conpellitur. Quod spurcum ille tam exsecrans quam refutans, tamdiu fustibus caeditur, quoadusque putaretur exanimis.

When the Alemanni were rushing into Gaul, Saint Privatus, bishop of the Gabalitan city, is found in the crypt of Mount Memmatinsis, where he was devoting himself to fasts and prayers, the people of the fortress of Gredonensis having been shut in by a monition. But while, as a good pastor, he does not consent to hand over his sheep to the wolves, he is compelled to immolate to the demons. Execrating and rejecting that foul thing, he is beaten with cudgels so long that he was supposed lifeless.

Sed ex ipsa quassatione, interpositis paucis diebus, spiritum exalavit. Chrocus vero apud Arelatinsim Galliarum urbem conprehensus, diversis adfectus suppliciis, gladio verberatus interiit, non inmerito poenas, quas sanctis Dei intulerat, luens.

But from that very battering, with a few days interposed, he breathed out his spirit. Chrocus, however, arrested at the Gallic city of Arelate, afflicted with various punishments, smitten by the sword, perished, not undeservedly paying the penalties which he had inflicted upon the saints of God.

35. De Quirino episcopo et martyre.

35. On Quirinus, bishop and martyr.

Sub Diocliciano, qui tricesimo tertio loco Romanum rexit imperium, gravis contra christianos per annos quattuor persecutio exagitata est, ita ut quadam vice in ipso sacratissimo die paschae magni christianorum populi ob veri Dei cultum interficerentur. Eo tempore Quirinus Sisciensis ecclesiae sacerdos gloriosum pro Christi nomine martyrium tulit, quem, ligato ad collum molare saxo, in fluminis gurgite sevitia inpulit paganorum. Igitur cum cecidisset in gurgite, diu super aquas divina virtute ferebatur, nec sorbebant aquae, quem pondus criminis non praemebat.

Under Diocletian, who as the thirty-third ruled the Roman empire, a grievous persecution was driven against the Christians for four years, such that on one occasion, on the most sacrosanct day of Pascha itself, great multitudes of Christians were slain on account of the worship of the true God. At that time Quirinus, priest of the church of Siscia, bore glorious martyrdom for the name of Christ, whom, with a millstone bound to his neck, the savagery of the pagans thrust into the river’s whirl. Therefore, when he had fallen into the eddy, for a long time he was borne upon the waters by divine virtue, nor did the waters swallow him, whom the weight of crime did not press under.

Quod factum admirans multitudo populi circumstantes, dispecto furore gentilium, ad liberandum properant sacerdotem. Haec ille cernens, non passus est, se a martyrio subtrahi, sed erectis ad caelum oculis ait: 'Iesu domine, qui gloriosus resedis ad dexteram Patris, ne patiaris me ab hoc stadio removeri, sed suscipiens animam meam, coniungere me tuis martyribus in requiae sempiterna dignare'. Et his dictis reddidit spiritum. Cuius corpus a christianis susceptum venerabiliter sepulturae mandatum est.

Admiring this deed, the multitude of the people standing around, the fury of the gentiles disregarded, hastened to free the priest. He, seeing these things, did not allow himself to be withdrawn from martyrdom, but with his eyes lifted to heaven he said: 'Jesus, Lord, who in glory sit at the right hand of the Father, do not suffer me to be removed from this stadium; but, receiving my soul, deign to join me to your martyrs in eternal rest.' And with these words said, he gave back the spirit. His body, taken up by the Christians, was committed to burial with veneration.

36. De nativitate sancti Martini et crucis inventione.

36. On the nativity of Saint Martin and the invention of the Cross.

Romanorum tricesimus quartus imperium obtinuit Constantinus, annis triginta regnans feliciter. Huius imperii anno undecimo, cum post excessum Diocliciani pax reddita fuisset ecclesiis, beatissimus praesul Martinus apud Sabariam Pannoniae civitatem nascitur parentibus gentilibus, non tamen infimis. Hic Constantinus anno vicessimo imperii sui Crispum filium veneno, Faustam coniugem calentem balneo interfecit, scilicet quod proditores regni eius esse voluissent.

The thirty-fourth to obtain the imperium of the Romans was Constantine, reigning felicitously for thirty years. In the eleventh year of his imperium, when after the decease of Diocletian peace had been restored to the churches, the most blessed prelate Martin was born at Sabaria, a city of Pannonia, of gentile parents, not, however, of the lowest. This Constantine, in the twentieth year of his imperium, killed his son Crispus by poison, and his consort Fausta in a heated bath, namely because they had wished to be traitors to his realm.

Huius tempore venerabile crucis dominicae lignum per studium Helenae matris repertum est, prodente Iuda Hebraeo, qui post baptismum Quiriacus est vocitatus. Usque hoc tempus historiographus in chronicis scribit Eusebius. A vicessimo primo enim eius imperii anno Hieronimus praesbiter addidit, indicans, Iuvencum praesbiterum euangelia versibus conscripsisse, rogante supradicto imperatore.

In his time the venerable wood of the Lord’s cross was found through the zeal of Helena the mother, with Judas the Hebrew revealing it, who after baptism was called Quiriacus. Up to this time the historiographer Eusebius writes in the chronicles. For from the 21st year of his reign the presbyter Hieronymus added, indicating that the presbyter Juvencus had composed the Gospels in verses, at the request of the aforesaid emperor.

37. De Iacobo Nisebeno episcopo.

37. On Jacob, bishop of Nisibis.

Sub Constantis autem imperio Iacobus Nisebenus fuit, ad cuius praeces inclinatae aures divinae clementiae multa pericula a civitate eius reppulerunt. Sed et Maximinus Treverorum episcopus potens in omni sanctitate repperitur.

But under the empire of Constans there was Jacob of Nisibis, at whose prayers the ears of divine clemency, having been inclined, repelled many dangers from his city. But also Maximinus, bishop of the Treveri, is found potent in all sanctity.

38. De transitu Antonii monachi.

38. On the passing of Antony the monk.

Nono decimo Constantini iunioris anno Antonius monachus transiit centesimo quinto aetatis anno. Beatissimus Helarius Pictavinsis episcopus suasu hereticorum exilio deputatur, ibique libros pro fide catholica scribens, Constantio misit; qui quarto exilii anno eum absolvi iubens, ad propria redire permisit.

In the nineteenth year of Constantine the Younger, Antony the monk passed away in the one hundred fifth year of his age. The most blessed Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, by the persuasion of heretics was consigned to exile, and there, writing books on behalf of the catholic faith, he sent them to Constantius; who, in the fourth year of his exile, ordering that he be absolved, allowed him to return to his own home.

39. De adventum sancti Martini.

39. On the arrival of Saint Martin.

Tunc iam et lumen nostrum exoritur, novisque lampadum radiis Gallia perlustratur, hoc est eo tempore beatissimus Martinus in Gallias praedicare exorsus est, qui Christum, Dei filium, per multa miracula verum Deum in populis declarans, gentilium incredulitatem avertit. Hic enim fana distruxit, heresem oppraessit, eclesias aedificavit et, cum aliis multis vertutibus refulgeret, ad consummandum laudes suae titulum tres mortuos vitae restituit. Quarto Valentiniani et Valentis anno sanctus Helarius apud Pictavus, plenus sanctitate et fide, multis virtutibus aeditus, migravit ad caelos; nam et ipsi legitur mortuos suscitasse.

Then now our light too arises, and Gaul is illuminated throughout by new rays of lamps; that is, at that time the most blessed Martin began to preach in the Gauls, who, declaring Christ, the Son of God, to be true God among the peoples through many miracles, turned aside the incredulity of the gentiles. For he overthrew fanes, suppressed heresy, built churches, and, while he shone with many other virtues, to consummate the title of his praises he restored three dead to life. In the 4th year of Valentinian and Valens, Saint Hilary at Poitiers, full of sanctity and faith, endowed with many virtues, migrated to the heavens; for it is read of him also that he raised the dead.

40. De Melanea matrona.

40. On Melania the matron.

Melania vero matrona nobilis et incula urbis Romanae Hierusolimis ob devotionem abiit, Urbano filio Romae relecto. Quae ita se in cuncta bonitate ac sanctitate omnibus praebuit, ut Thecla vocaretur ab incolis.

But Melania, a noble matron and inhabitant of the city of Rome, went to Jerusalem on account of devotion, her son Urbanus having been left behind at Rome. She so presented herself to all in every goodness and sanctity that she was called Thecla by the inhabitants.

41. De interitu Valentis imperatoris.

41. On the death of Emperor Valens.

Post mortem autem Valentiniani Valens integri successor imperii, monachus ad militiam cogi iubet, nolentes fustibus praecipit verberari. Post haec bellum saevissimum in Thracias Romani gessire, in quo tanta stragis fuit, ut Romani, amisso equorum praesidio, pedebus fugirent. Cumque a Gotis internitione maxima caederentur et Valens sagitta fugiret sauciatus, parvum tugurium adgressus, inminentibus hostibus, super se incensam casulam, optatam caruit sepulturam.

After the death of Valentinian, however, Valens, the successor of the entire empire, orders monks to be compelled into military service, and those unwilling he commands to be beaten with cudgels. After these things, the Romans waged a most savage war in Thrace, in which there was so great a slaughter that the Romans, the protection of their horses having been lost, fled on foot. And while they were being cut down by the Goths with the greatest extermination, and Valens, wounded by an arrow, was fleeing, having approached a small hut, with the enemies looming, the little cottage was set ablaze over him, and he was deprived of the desired sepulture.

Sicque ultio divina ob sanctorum effuso sanguinem tandem emissa processit. Hucusque Hieronimus; ab hoc vero tempore Horosius presbiter plus scripsit.

And thus divine retribution, on account of the poured-out blood of the saints, at length, having been sent forth, proceeded. Up to this point Jerome; from this time indeed Orosius the presbyter wrote more.

42. De imperio Theudosi.

42. On the empire of Theodosius.

Igitur cum Gratianus imperator distitutam cernerit esse rem publicam, Theodosio collegam imperii facit. Hic Theodosius omnem spem suam atque fidutiam in Dei misericordiam ponit; qui multas gentes non tam gladio quam vigiliis et oratione conpescuit, rem publicam confirmavit, Constantinopuli urbem victor ingressus est.

Therefore, when Emperor Gratian saw that the republic was left destitute, he makes Theodosius a colleague in the imperium. This Theodosius places all his hope and confidence in the mercy of God; who restrained many peoples not so much by the sword as by vigils and prayer, strengthened the republic, and entered the city of Constantinople as victor.

43. De interitum Maximi tiranni.

43. On the destruction of the tyrant Maximus.

Maximus vero cum per tyrannidem oppraessis Brittanis sumsisset victuriam, a militibus imperator creatus est. In urbe Treverica sedem instituens, Gratianum imperatorem circumventum dolis interfecit. Ad hunc Maximum beatus Martinus iam episcopus venit.

Maximus indeed, when, through tyranny, with the Britons oppressed, he had taken victory, was created emperor by the soldiers. Establishing his seat in the Treveric city, he killed the emperor Gratian, who had been circumvented by wiles. To this Maximus blessed Martin, now a bishop, came.

In loco ergo Gratiani Theodosius ille, qui totam spem in Deum posuerat, totum suscepit imperium. Qui deinceps divinis affatibus fretus, Maximum spoliatum imperio interfecit.

Therefore in the place of Gratian, that Theodosius, who had placed all hope in God, took up the whole imperium. Thereafter, relying on divine utterances, he slew Maximus, stripped of the imperium.

44. De Orbico Arvernorum episcopo.

44. On Orbicus, bishop of the Arverni.

Apud Arvernus vero primus episcopus post Stremonium episcopum praedicatoremque Urbicus fuit, ex senatoribus conversus, uxorem habens, quae iuxta consuetudinem ecclesiasticam, remota a consortio sacerdotis, religiose vivebat. Vacabant enim ambo orationem, elemosinis atque operibus bonis. Cumque haec agerent, libor inimici, quae semper est aemula sanctitate, conmovetur in femina; quam in concupiscentiam viri succendens, novam Evam effecit.

Among the Arverni, indeed, the first bishop after Stremonius, bishop and preacher, was Urbicus, converted from the senators, having a wife who, according to ecclesiastical custom, removed from the consortium of the priest, lived religiously. For both devoted themselves to prayer, to alms, and to good works. And while they were doing these things, the livid envy of the Enemy, which is always a rival to sanctity, is stirred up in the woman; and inflaming her into concupiscence for the man, made her a new Eve.

Nam succensa mulier a libidine, operta peccati tenebris, pergit ad domum ecclesiae per tenebras noctis. Cumque obserata omnia repperisset, pulsare fores ecclesiasticae domus coepit hac voce huiusmodi dare: 'Quousque sacerdos dormis ? Quousque hostia clausa non reseras? Cur satellitem spernes?

For the woman, inflamed by libido, covered by the shadows of sin, proceeds to the house of the church through the darkness of night. And when she had found everything bolted, she began to pound the doors of the ecclesiastical house and to give forth a voice of this kind: 'How long, priest, do you sleep ? How long do you not unbar the closed door? Why do you spurn your satellite?'

Cur obduratis auribus Pauli praecepta non audis? Scripsit enim: Revertimini ad alterutrum, ne temptet vos Satanas. Ecce!

Why with obdurate ears do you not hear Paul’s precepts? For he wrote: “Return to one another, lest Satan tempt you.” Behold!

ego ad te revertor, nec ad extraneum, sed ad proprium vas recurro'. Haec et his similia diu declamanti, tandem sacerdotis tepescit religio. Iubet eam cubiculo intromitti, ususque concubitum eius, discedere iubet. Dehinc tardius ad se reversus et de perpetrato scelere condolens, acturus paenitentiam, diocesis suae monasterium appetit, ibique cum gemitu ac lacrimis quae commiserat diluens, ad urbem propriam est reversus.

'I return to you, and not to a stranger, but I run back to my own vessel'. As she declaimed these and similar things for a long time, at length the priest’s religious restraint grows tepid. He orders her to be let into the bedchamber, and, having made use of sexual intercourse with her, he orders her to depart. Thereafter, returning to himself more slowly and grieving over the perpetrated crime, about to do penance, he makes for a monastery of his diocese, and there, with groaning and tears washing away the things he had committed, he returned to his own city.

Qui, impleto vitae cursu, migravit a saeculo. Nata est enim filia ab hoc conceptu, quae in religione permansit. Ipse quoque sacerdos cum coniuge et filia in cripta Cantabennensi iuxta aggerem publicum est sepultus.

Who, the course of life having been completed, migrated from this age. For from this conception a daughter was born, who remained in religion. The priest himself also, with his spouse and daughter, was buried in the Cantabennensian crypt next to the public embankment.

In cuius loco Legonus episcopus subrogatur.

In whose place Bishop Legonus is appointed.

45. De sancto Hillidio episcopo.

45. On Saint Hillidius the bishop.

Quo defuncto, sanctus Illidius successit, vir eximiae sanctitatis ac praeclarae virtutis, qui in tanta sanctitate emicuit, ut fama eius etiam extraneos fines adiret. Unde factum est, ut imperatoris Treverici filiam expetitus ab spiritu inmundo curaret, quod in libro illo, quem de eius vita conscripsimus, memoravimus. Fuit autem, ut fama refert, valde senex et plenus dierum plenusque bonis operibus; qui felici consummatione vitae huius perfunctus tramitem, migravit ad Christum, sepultusque in cripta suburbano civitatis illius.

Upon his death, Saint Illidius succeeded, a man of exceptional sanctity and of preeminent virtue, who shone forth in such holiness that his fame reached even foreign borders. Whence it came to pass that he healed the daughter of the emperor at Trier, who was beset by an unclean spirit—a matter we have recalled in that book which we composed concerning his life. He was, moreover, as report relates, very aged and full of days and full also of good works; and, the course of this life having been happily consummated, he migrated to Christ, and was buried in a crypt in the suburban district of that city.

Habuit autem et archidiaconum nomine et merito Iustum; qui et cursum vitae bonis consumans operibus, magistri tumulo sociatur. Iam vero post transitum beati Illidi confessoris ad gloriosum eius sepulchrum tante virtutes apparent, ut nec scribi integre queant nec memoriae retineri. Huic sanctus Nepotianus successit.

He also had an archdeacon, by name and by desert Justus; who, consummating the course of life with good works, is associated with his master’s tomb. Now indeed, after the passage of the blessed confessor Illidius, at his glorious sepulcher such great virtues appear that they can be neither written down in full nor retained in memory. To him Saint Nepotianus succeeded.

46. De Nepotiano atque Arthemio episcopis.

46. On Nepotianus and Arthemius, bishops.

Igitur apud Arvernus sanctus Nepotianus quartus habebatur episcopus. A Treveris vero legati in Spaniam mittebantur, ex quibus Artemius quidam admirabilis sapientiae atque pulchritudinis et prima aetate florens, vi febrium est correptus. Praecedentibus vero aliis, hic apud Arvernus aegrotus relinquitur; nam eo tempore apud Treverus sponsali erat vinculo nexus.

Therefore among the Arverni Saint Nepotianus was held as the fourth bishop. Now from Trier legates were being sent into Spain, among whom a certain Artemius, of admirable wisdom and beauty and flourishing in the prime of youth, was seized by the force of fevers. With the others going on ahead, this man was left behind sick among the Arverni; for at that time at Trier he was bound by the bond of betrothal.

A sancto autem Nepotiano visitatus atque oleo sancto perunctus, tribuente Domino, redditur sanitati. Qui cum ab eodem sancto verbum praedicationis accepisset, oblitus tam sponsam terrenam quam facultates proprias, sanctae copulatur eclesiae, factusque clericus, in tanta praelatus est sanctitate, ut beato Nepotiano successor exsisteret ad regendas dominici gregis caulas.

But, visited by Saint Nepotianus and anointed with holy oil, by the Lord’s granting he was restored to health. And when he had received from that same saint the word of preaching, forgetting both his earthly bride and his own resources, he was joined to the holy Church; and, having been made a cleric, he was so advanced in sanctity that he became the successor to blessed Nepotianus for governing the sheepfolds of the Lord’s flock.

47. De castitate amantium.

47. On the chastity of lovers.

Per idem tempus Iniuriosus quidam de senatoribus Arvernis cum magnis opibus similem sibi in coniugio puellam expetiit, datumque arrabone, diem statuit nuptiarum. Erat autem uterque unicus patri. Adveniente vero die, celebrata nuptiarum sollemnitate, in uno strato ex more locantur.

At the same time a certain Iniuriosus, from among the senators of the Arverni, with great opulence sought a maiden similar to himself in conjugium, and, an arrha having been given, he set a day of the nuptials. Moreover, each was an only child to his father. But when the day arrived, the solemnity of the nuptials having been celebrated, they are placed in one bed according to custom.

Sed puella graviter contristata, aversa ad parietem, amarissime flebat. Cui ille: 'Quid', inquid, turbaris? Indica, quaeso, mihi'. Illaque silente, adiecit: 'Obsecro te per Iesum Christum, filium Dei, ut mihi quid doleas sapienter exponas.

But the girl, grievously saddened, turned away toward the wall, was weeping most bitterly. To whom he: 'Why,' he said, 'are you disturbed? Tell me, I beg'. And she being silent, he added: 'I beseech you by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that you would wisely expound to me what you are pained by.

Tunc illa conversa ad eum ait: 'Si omnibus diebus vitae meae plangam, numquid tantae erunt lacrimae, ut queant abluere tam inmensum pectoris mei dolorem? Statueram enim, ut corpusculum meum inmaculatum Christo a virili tactu servarem, sed vae mihi! qui taliter ab eo relicta sum, ut quod obtabam perficere non valerem et quod ab initio aetatis meae servavi in hac novissima die, quam videre non debueram, perdidi.

Then she, turned toward him, said: 'If I should lament on all the days of my life, would my tears be so great as to be able to wash away so immense a pain of my breast? For I had resolved to keep my little body immaculate for Christ, from a virile touch; but woe is me! that I have been left by him in such a way that I was not able to accomplish what I was wishing, and what from the beginning of my life I preserved, on this very last day—which I ought not to have seen—I have lost.'

Ecce enim relicta ab inmortali Christo, qui mihi dotem promittebat paradisum, mortalis hominis sum sortita consortium; et pro rosis inmarcescibilibus arentium me rosarum non ornat, sed deformat spolia. Et cum debui super quadrifluo Agni flumine puritatis stolam induere, haec mihi vestis onus exhibuit, non honorem. Sed quid amplius verba protrahimus?

Behold, having been left by the immortal Christ, who was promising me paradise as a dowry, I have been allotted the consortium of a mortal man; and instead of unfading roses, the spoils of withered roses do not adorn me, but disfigure me. And whereas I ought to have put on the stole of purity upon the four-flowing river of the Lamb, this garment has shown me a burden, not an honor. But why do we prolong words further?

Infelix ego, quae debui sorte mereri polos, hodie dimergo in abyssos. O, si mihi haec futura erant, quare non dies vitae meae ipse fuit finis, qui fuit initium! O, si ante introissem mortis ianuam, quam lactis acciperem alimenta.

Unhappy I, who ought by lot to merit the poles of heaven, today I sink into the abysses. O, if these things were going to be for me, why was not the very day of my life its end, which was its beginning! O, if only I had entered the gate of death before I received the nourishment of milk.

O, si mihi dulcium nutricum oscula in funere fuissent expensa! Horrent enim mihi terrenae species, quia pro mundi vita transfixas manus suspicio Redemptoris. Nec cerno diademas gemmis insignibus coruscantes, cum illam spineam miror mente coronam.

O, if the kisses of sweet nurses had been expended upon me at my funeral! For terrene forms make me shudder, because I behold the pierced hands of the Redeemer for the life of the world. Nor do I discern diadems coruscating with distinguished gems, since in my mind I marvel at that crown of thorns.

Respuo longe lateque diffusa spatia terrae tuae, quia amaenitate concupisco paradisi. Horrent tua solaria, cum Dominum resedentem suspicio super astra. Talia cum magno fletu iactanti commotus pietate iuvenis ait: 'Unicos nos nobilissimi Arvernorum habuere parentes et ad propagandam generationem coniungere voluerunt, ne recedentibus de mundo succederet heres extraneus'. Cui illa: 'Nihil est mundus, nihil sunt divitiae, nihil est pompa saeculi huius, nihil est vita ipsa quam fruemur, sed illa magis vita quaerenda est, quae morte terminante non clauditur, quae labe ulla non solvitur nec aliquo occasu finitur, ubi homo in beatitudine aeterna permanet, luce non occidente vivit et, quod magis est his omnibus, ipsius Domini praesentiam iugi perfruens contemplatione, in angelico translatus statu, indissolubili laetitia gaudet'. Ad haec ille: 'Dulcissimis, inquid, 'eloquiis tuis aeterna mihi vita tamquam magnum iubar inluxit, et ideo, si vis a carnali abstinere concupiscentiam, particeps tuae mentis efficiar'. Illa respondit: 'Difficile est sexum virilem mulieribus ista praestare.

I spurn the spaces of your earth diffused far and wide, because I desire the amenity of paradise. Your solaria make me shudder, when I look up and behold the Lord seated above the stars. As she was throwing out such words with great weeping, a young man, moved with piety, said: 'Our parents, most noble of the Arverni, had us as their only ones and wished to join us for the propagating of generation, lest, as they departed from the world, an alien heir should succeed'. To whom she: 'The world is nothing, riches are nothing, the pomp of this age is nothing, the very life which we enjoy is nothing; but rather that life is to be sought which is not closed when death sets a limit, which is dissolved by no stain nor finished by any setting, where a man remains in eternal beatitude, lives with a light not setting, and—what is greater than all these—enjoying by continual contemplation the presence of the Lord himself, translated into an angelic state, he rejoices with indissoluble joy'. To these he: 'Sweetest, he said, 'by your sweet words eternal life has shone upon me like a great radiance, and therefore, if you wish to abstain from carnal concupiscence, I shall be made a participant of your mind'. She replied: 'It is difficult for women to bestow these things upon the male sex.

Tamen, si feceris, ut inmaculati permaneamus in saeculo, ego tibi partem tribuam dotis, quam promissam habeo ab sponso domino meo Iesu Christo, cui me et famulam devovi esse et sponsam'. Tunc ille armatus crucis vexillo ait: 'Faciam quae hortaris'. Et datis inter se dextris, quieverunt, multos postea in uno strato recumbentes annos, sed cum castitate laudabili, quod postea in eorum transitu declaratum est. Nam cum, impleto certamine, puella migraret ad Christum, peracto vir funeris officio cum puellam in sepulchro deponeret, ait: 'Gratias tibi ago, domine Iesu Christe, aeternae domine deus noster, quia hunc thesaurum, sicut a te commendatum accepi, ita inmaculatum pietati tuae restituo'. Ad haec illa subridens: 'Quid', inquid, 'loqueris quod non interrogans?' Illamque sepultam ipse non post multum insequitur. Porro cum utriusque sepulchrum e diversis parietibus collocatum fuisset, miraculi novitas, quae eorum castitatem manifestaret, apparuit.

Nevertheless, if you shall do so, that we may remain immaculate in the world, I will bestow to you a portion of the dowry which I have as promised by my bridegroom, my lord Jesus Christ, to whom I have vowed to be both handmaid and bride'. Then he, armed with the standard of the cross, said: 'I will do what you exhort'. And, their right hands given to each other, they were at rest, afterwards reclining for many years on one couch, but with praiseworthy chastity, which was later declared at their passing. For when, the contest completed, the girl migrated to Christ, the man, the office of the funeral performed, when he was laying the girl in the sepulcher, said: 'I give thanks to you, Lord Jesus Christ, eternal Lord, our God, because this treasure, just as I received it entrusted by you, so immaculate do I restore it to your piety'. To this she, smiling a little, said: 'What', she says, 'are you saying without being questioned?' And with her buried, he himself follows not long after. Moreover, when the sepulcher of each had been placed in different walls, a novelty of miracle appeared, which made manifest their chastity.

Nam facto mane cum ad locum populi accederent, invenerunt sepulchra pariter, quae longe inter se distare reliquerant, scilicet ut, quos tenet socios caelum, sepultorum hic corporum non separet monumentum. Hos usque hodie Duos Amantes vocitare loci incolae voluerunt. Meminimus de his in libro Miraculorum.

Now when morning had come and they were approaching the people’s place, they found the tombs side by side, which they had left far distant from one another—namely, so that those whom heaven holds as comrades the monument here of the buried bodies might not separate. These, even to this day, the inhabitants of the place have wished to call the Two Lovers. We have made mention of these in the Book of Miracles.

48. De transitu sancti Martini.

48. On the passing of Saint Martin.

Arcadi vero et Honori secundo imperii anno sanctus Martinus Turonorum episcopus, plenus virtutibus et sanctitate, praebens infirmis multa beneficia, octuaginsimo et primo aetatis suae anno, episcopatum autem vicissimo sexto, apud Condatinsem diocisis suae vicum excedens a saeculo, filiciter migravit ad Christum. Transiit autem media nocte, quae dominica habebatur, Attico Caesarioque consolibus. Multi enim in eius transitum psallentium audierunt in caelum, quod in libro virtutum eius primo plenius exposuemus.

In the second year of the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, Saint Martin, bishop of the Turoni (Tours), full of virtues and sanctity, granting many benefices to the infirm, in the eighty-first year of his age, and the twenty-sixth of his episcopate, at Condat, a village of his diocese, departing from the world, happily migrated to Christ. He passed, moreover, in the middle of the night, which was considered the Lord’s Day, while Atticus and Caesarius were consuls. For many, at his passing, heard the singing of psalmists up into heaven, which in the first book of his virtues we have expounded more fully.

Nam cum primitus sanctus Dei apud Condatinsem, ut dixemus, vicum aegrotare coepisset, Pectavi populi ad eius transitum sicut Toronici convenerunt. Quo migrante, grandis altercatio in utrumque surrexit populum. Dicebant enim Pectavi: 'Noster est monachus, nobis abba extetit, nos requiremus commendatum.

Now when at first the holy one of God at the Condatinse village, as we have said, had begun to be ill, the Pectavi peoples assembled for his passing, just as did the Toronici. As he migrated, a great altercation arose between both peoples. For the Pectavi said: 'He is our monk, to us he was abbot; we will reclaim the one commended.

Sufficiat vobis, quod, dum esset in mundo episcopus, usi fuistis eius conloquium, participastis convivio, firmati fuistis benedictionebus, insuper et virtutibus iocundati. Sufficiant ergo vobis ista omnia, nobis liciat auferre vel cadaver exanimum' . Ad haec Toronici respondebant: 'Si virtutum nobis facta sufficere dicitis, scitote, quia vobiscum positus amplius est quam hic operatus. Nam, ut praetermittamus plurimum, vobis suscitavit duos mortuos, nobis unum; et, ut ipse saepe dicebat, maior ei virtus ante episcopatum fuit, quam post episcopatum.

Let it suffice for you, that, while he was a bishop in the world, you made use of his colloquy, you shared in the convivial banquet, you were strengthened by blessings, and moreover were gladdened by virtues. Let all these things, therefore, suffice for you; let it be permitted to us to carry off even the exanimate cadaver' . To these things the Toronics answered: 'If you say that the deeds of the virtues suffice for us, know that, while he was positioned with you, he operated more than he did here. For, to pass over very much, for you he raised two dead men, for us one; and, as he himself often used to say, greater was his virtue before the episcopate than after the episcopate.

Ergo necesse est, ut, quod nobiscum non inplevit vivens, expleat vel defunctus. Vobis est enim ablatus, nobis a Deo donatus. Virum si mus antiquitus institutus servatur, in urbe qua ordenatus est habebit Deo iubente sepulchrum.

Therefore it is necessary that what he did not fulfill with us while living, he complete at least when defunct. For he has been taken away from you, to us given by God. If the custom instituted of old is observed, the man will have, God bidding, a sepulcher in the city in which he was ordained.

Certe si pro monasthirio privilegio cupitis vindecare, scetote, quia primum ei monasthirium cum Mediolaninsibus fuit'. His ergo litigantibus, sol ruente nox clauditur, corpusque in medio positum, firmatis serra usteis, ab utroque populo costoditur, futurum ut mane facto a Pectavensibus per violentiam aufereretur. Sed Deus omnipotens noluit urbem Toronicam a proprio frustrari patrono. Denique nocte media omnes Pectava somno falanga conpraemitur, nec ullus superfuit, qui ex hac multitudine vigilaret.

Certainly, if you desire to vindicate by privilege on behalf of the monastery, know that his first monastery was with the Milanese'. Thus, as they litigated, with the sun collapsing, night is closed, and the body, placed in the middle, the bars made firm, is guarded by both peoples, with the plan that, when morning came, it would be carried off by the Poitevins by violence. But God omnipotent did not wish the city of Tours to be frustrated of its own patron. Finally, in the middle of the night the whole phalanx of Poitiers is pressed down by sleep, nor did anyone remain from this multitude to keep watch.

Igitur ubi Toronici eos conspiciunt obdormisse, adpraehensam sanctissimi corporis glebam, alii per fenestram eiciunt, alii a foris suscipiunt, positumque in navi, cum omni populo per Vingennam fluvium discendunt, ingressique Legeris alveum, ad urbem Toronicam cum magnis laudibus psallentioque dirigunt copioso. De quorum vocibus Pectavi expergefacti, nihil de thesauro quem costodiebant habentes, cum magna confusione ad propria sunt reversi. Quod si quis requiret, cur post transitum Catiani episcopi unus tantum, id est Litorius, usque ad sanctum Martinum fuisset episcopus, noverit, quia, obsistentibus paganis, diu civitas Toronica sine benedictione sacerdotale fuit.

Therefore when the people of Tours see that they had fallen asleep, having apprehended the clod/mass of the most holy body, some cast it out through a window, others from outside receive it; and, once placed in a ship, with all the people they descend the Vigenna river, and entering the channel of the Loire, they direct it to the city of Tours with great praises and copious psalmody. Awakened at the sound of whose voices, the Poitevins, having nothing of the treasure which they were guarding, returned to their own with great confusion. But if anyone should inquire why, after the passing of Bishop Catianus, only one—namely Litorius—had been bishop up to Saint Martin, let him know that, with the pagans resisting, for a long time the city of Tours was without sacerdotal benediction.

Nam qui christiani eo tempore videbantur, occultae et per latebras divinum offitium celebrabant. Nam si qui a paganis repperti fuissent christiani, aut adficiebantur verberibus aut gladio truncabantur. A passione ergo Domini usque transitum sancti Martini anni 412 conpotantur.

For those who were seen as Christians at that time celebrated the divine office secretly and in hiding-places. For if any had been found by the pagans to be Christians, they were either afflicted with beatings or cut down by the sword. Therefore from the Passion of the Lord to the passing of Saint Martin, 412 years are counted.

Explicit liber primus, continens annos 5596, qui conpotantur a principio usque ad transitum sancti Martini episcopi.

Here ends the first book, containing 5,596 years, which are counted from the beginning up to the passing of Saint Martin the bishop.