July XVIII

St. Symphorosa

and her seven sons, martyrs

From their genuine Acts In Ruinart, c. 18. Some manuscripts attribute them to the celebrated Julius Africanus, who wrote a chronology from the beginning of the world to the reign of Heliogabalus, now lost, but commended by Eusebius as an exact and finished work. See Ceilier, t. 1, p. 668.

a. d. 120.

Trajan’s persecution in some degree continued during the first year of Adrian’s reign, whence Sulpicius Severus places the fourth general persecution under this emperor. However, he put a stop to it about the year 124, moved probably both by the apologies of Quadratus and Aristides, and by a letter which Serenius Granianus, proconsul of Asia, had written to him in favor of the Christians* Nay, he had Christ in veneration, not as the Saviour of the world, but as a wonder or novelty, and kept his image together with that of Apollonius Tyanæus. This God was pleased to permit, that his afflicted church might enjoy some respite. It was, however, again involved in the disgrace which the Jews (with whom the Pagans at these times in some degree confounded the Christians) drew upon themselves by their rebellion, which gave occasion to the last entire destruction of Jerusalem in 134. Then, as St. Paulinus informs us,¹ Adrian caused a statue of Jupiter to be erected on the place where Christ rose from the dead, and a marble Venus on the place of his crucifixion; and at Bethlehem,² a grotto consecrated in honor of Adonis or Thammuz, to whom he also dedicated the cave where Christ was born. This prince, towards the end of his reign, abandoned himself more than ever to acts of cruelty, and being awaked by a fit of superstition, he again drew his sword against the innocent flock of Christ. He built a magnificent country palace at Tibur, now Tivoli, sixteen miles from Rome, upon the most agreeable banks of the river Anio, now called Teverone. Here he placed whatever could be procured most curious out of all the provinces. Having finished the building, he intended to dedicate it by heathenish ceremonies, which he began by offering sacrifices, in order to induce the idols to deliver their oracles. The demons answered: “The widow Symphorosa and her seven sons daily torment us by invoking their God; if they sacrifice, we promise to be favorable to your vows.”

This lady lived with her seven sons upon a plentiful estate which they enjoyed at Tivoli, and she liberally expended her treasures in assisting the poor, especially in relieving the Christians that suffered for the faith. She was widow of St. Getulius or Zoticus, who had been crowned with martyrdom with his brother Amantius. They were both tribunes of legions or colonels in the army, and are honored among the martyrs on the 10th of June. Symphorosa had buried their bodies in her own farm, and sighing to see her sons and herself united with them in immortal bliss, she prepared herself to follow them by the most fervent exercise of all good works.

Adrian, whose superstition was alarmed at this answer of his gods or their priests, ordered her and her sons to be seized, and brought before him. She came with joy in her countenance, praying all the way for herself and her children, that God would grant them the grace to confess his holy name with constancy. The emperor exhorted them at first in mild terms to sacrifice. Symphorosa answered: “My husband, Getulius, and his brother Amantius, being your tribunes, have suffered divers torments for the name of Jesus Christ rather than sacrifice to idols; and they have vanquished your demons by their death, choosing to be beheaded rather than to be overcome. The death they suffered drew upon them ignominy among men, but glory among the angels; and they now enjoy eternal life in heaven.” The emperor changing his voice, said to her in an angry tone: “Either sacrifice to the most powerful gods, with thy sons, or thou thyself shalt be offered up as a sacrifice together with them.” Symphorosa answered: “Your gods cannot receive me as a sacrifice; but if I am burnt for the name of Jesus Christ, my death will increase the torment which your devils endure in their flames. But can I hope for so great a happiness as to be offered with my children a sacrifice to the true and living God?” Adrian said: “Either sacrifice to my gods, or you shall all miserably perish.” Symphorosa said, “Do not imagine that fear will make me change; I am desirous to be at rest with my husband, whom you put to death for the name of Jesus Christ.” The emperor then ordered her to be carried to the temple of Hercules, where she was first buffeted on the cheeks, and afterward hung up by the hair of her head. When no torments were able to shake her invincible soul, the emperor gave orders that she should be thrown into the river with a great stone fastened about her neck. Her brother Eugenius, who was one of the chief of the council of Tibur, took up her body, and buried it on the road near that town.

The next day the emperor sent for her seven sons all together, and exhorted them to sacrifice and not imitate the obstinacy of their mother. He added the severest threats, but finding all to be in vain, he ordered seven stakes with engines and pulleys to be planted round the temple of Hercules, and the pious youths to be bound upon them; their limbs were in this posture tortured and stretched in such manner that the bones were disjointed in all parts of their bodies. The young noblemen, far from yielding under the violence of their tortures, were encouraged by each other’s example, and seemed more eager to suffer than the executioners were to torment. At length the emperor commanded them to be put to death, in the same place where they were, different ways. The eldest called Crescens had his throat cut; the second called Julian was stabbed in the breast; Nemesius the third was pierced with a lance in his heart; Primativius received his wound in the belly, Justin in the back, Stacteus on his sides, and Eugenius the youngest died by his body being cleft asunder into two parts across his breast from the head down wards. The emperor came the next day to the temple of Hercules, and gave orders for a deep hole to be dug, and all the bodies of these martyrs to be thrown into it. The place was called by the heathen priest, The seven Biothanati; which word signifieth in Greek and in the style of art magic, such as die by a violent death, particularly such as were put to the torture. After this, a stop was put to the persecution for about eighteen months.* During which interval of peace the Christians took up the remains of these martyrs, and interred them with honor on the Tiburtin road, in the midway between Tivoli and Rome, where still are seen some remains of a church erected in memory of them in a place called to this day, The seven Brothers.^† Their bodies were translated by a pope called Stephen, into the church of the Holy Angel in the fish-market in Rome, where they were found in the pontificate of Pius IV., with an inscription on a plate, which mentioned this translation.³

St. Symphorosa set not before the eyes of her children the advantages of their riches and birth, or of their father’s honorable employments and great exploits; but those of his piety and the triumph of his martyrdom. She continually entertained them on the glory of heaven, and the happiness of treading in the steps of our Divine Redeemer, by the practice of humility, patience, resignation, and charity, which virtues are best learned in the path of humiliations and sufferings. In these a Christian finds this solid treasure, and his unalterable peace and joy both in life and death. The honors, riches, applause, and pleasures with which the worldly sinner is sometimes surrounded, can never satiate his desires; often they do not even reach his heart, which under this gorgeous show bleeds as it were inwardly, while silent grief, like a worm at the core, preys upon his vitals. Death at least always draws aside the curtain, and shows them to have been no better than mere dreams and shadows which passed in a moment, but have left a cruel sting behind them, which fills the mind with horror, dread, remorse, and despair, and racks the whole soul with confusion, perplexities, and alarms.

St. Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, C.

We know nothing of this saint’s country, only that he quitted it and the house and inheritance of his ancestors, like Abraham, the more perfectly to disengage himself from the ties of the world. He lived in perfect continency, and often passed whole nights in meditating on the holy scriptures. Being ordained priest he travelled through many provinces to oppose the infidels and heretics, especially the Arians, whose fury was at that time formidable over the whole Church. His zeal and lively faith gave him courage to rejoice with the apostles in suffering for the truth, and to bear in his body the marks of the stripes which he received by a severe scourging which he underwent for Jesus Christ. At Milan he vigorously opposed the endeavors of Auxentius, the impious Arian wolf, who labored to destroy the flock of Christ there; and our saint was its strenuous guardian before St. Ambrose was made bishop of that city. He afterward went to Brescia, and finding the inhabitants of that place savage and barbarous, almost entirely ignorant in spiritual things, yet desirous to learn, he took much pains to instruct them, and had the comfort to see his labors crowned with incredible success. He rooted out the tares of many errors, and cultivated this wild soil with such assiduity that it became fruitful in good works. Being chosen the seventh bishop of this see, he exerted himself in the discharge of all his pastoral functions with such vigor as even to outdo himself; and the authority of his high dignity added the greater weight to his endeavors. He was not equal in learning to the Am broses and Austins of that age; but what was wanting in that respect was abundantly made up by the example of his life, his spirit of perfect humility and piety, and his unwearied application to every pastoral duty; and he is an instance of what eminent service moderate abilities may be capable of in the Church, when they are joined with an heroic degree of virtue.

To caution his flock against the danger of errors in faith, he wrote his Catalogue of Heresies, in which he does not take that word in its strict sense and according to the theological definition; but sometimes puts in the number of heresies certain opinions which he rejects only as less probable, and which are problematically disputed; as that the witch of Endor evoked the very soul of Samuel.* He everywhere breathes an ardent zeal for the Catholic faith. St. Gaudentius extols his profound humility, his meekness, and sweetness towards all men, which was such that it seemed natural to him to repay injuries only with kindness and favors, and he never discovered the least emotions of anger. By his charity and patience he gained the hearts of all men. In all he did he sought no interest but that of Jesus Christ; and sovereignly contemning all earthly things he pursued and valued only those that are eternal. Being most mortified and sparing in his diet and apparel, he seemed to know no other use of money than to employ it in relieving the poor; and he extended his liberality, not only to all that were reduced to beggary, but also to tradesmen and all others, whom he often generously enabled to carry on, or when expedient to enlarge their business. Though he communicated himself with surprising charity and goodness to all sorts of persons of every age, sex, and condition, he seemed always to receive the poor with particular affection. He trained up many pious and eminent disciples, among whom are named St. Gaudentius, and one Benevolus, who in his life was a true imitator of the apostles; and being afterward preferred to an honorable post in the emperor Valentinian’s court, chose rather to lay it down than to promulgate a rescript of the empress Justina in favor of the Arians. St. Austin saw St. Philastrius at Milan with St. Ambrose, in the year 384.¹ He died soon after, and before St. Ambrose, his metropolitan, who after his death placed St. Gaudentius in the see of Brescia. This saint solemnized every year with his people the day on which his master St. Philastrius passed to glory, and always honored it with a panegyric; but of these discourses only the fourteenth is extant. See the life or encomium of St. Philastrius by St. Gaudentius, published by Surius. Also the accurate history of the church of Brescia, entitled Pontificum Brixianorum series commentario historico illustrata, opera J. H. Gradonici. C. R. Brixie, 1755, t. 1.

St. Arnoul, Bishop of Metz, C.

Among the illustrious saints who adorned the court of king Clotaire the Great, none is more famous than St. Arnoul. He was a Frenchman, born of rich and noble parents; and, having been educated in learning and piety, was called to the court of king Theodebert, in which he held the second place among the great officers of state, being next to Gondulph, mayor of the palace. Though young, he was equally admired for prudence in the council and for valor in the field. By assiduous prayer, fasting, and excessive alms-deeds, he joined the virtues of a perfect Christian with the duties of a courtier. Having married a noble lady called Doda, he had by her two sons, Clodulf and Ansegisus; by the latter the Carlovingian race of kings of France descended from St. Arnoul. Fearing the danger of entangling his soul in many affairs which passed through his hands, he desired to retire to the monastery of Lerins; but being crossed in the execution of his project, passed to the court of king Clotaire. That great monarch, the first year in which he reigned over all France, assented to the unanimous request of the clergy and people of Metz, demanding Arnoul for their bishop. Our saint did all that could be done to change the measures taken, but in vain. He was consecrated bishop in 614, and his wife Doda took the religious veil at Triers. The king obliged Arnoul still to assist at his councils, and to fill the first place at his court. The saint always wore a hair shirt under his garments; he sometimes passed three days without eating, and his usual food was only barley and water. He seemed to regard whatever he possessed as the patrimony of the poor, and his alms seemed to exceed all bounds. His benevolence took in all the objects of charity, but his discretion singled out those more particularly whose greater necessities called more pressingly upon his bounty.

In 622 Clotaire II. divided his dominions, and making his son Dagobert king of Austrasia, appointed St. Arnoul duke of Austrasia and chief counsellor and Pepin of Landen mayor of his palace. The reign of this prince was virtuous, prosperous, and glorious, so long as Arnoul remained at the helm; but the saint anxiously desiring to retire from all business, that he might more seriously study to secure his own salvation before he should be called hence, never ceased to solicit the king for leave to quit the court. Dagobert long refused his consent, but at length, out of a scruple lest he should oppose the call of heaven, granted it, though with the utmost reluctance. St. Arnoul resigned also his bishopric, and retired into the deserts of Vosge, near the monastery of Remiremont, on the top of a high mountain, where a hermitage is at this day standing. Here the saint labored daily with fresh fervor to advance in the path of Christian perfection; for the greater progress a person has already made in virtue, the more does the prospect enlarge upon him, and the more perfectly does he see how much is yet wanting in him, and how great a scope is left for exerting his endeavors still more. Who will pretend to have made equal advances with St. Paul towards perfection? yet he was far from ever thinking that he had finished his work, or that he might remit anything in his endeavors. On the contrary, we find him imitating the alacrity of those who run in a race who do not so much consider what ground they have already cleared, as how much still remains to call forth their utmost eagerness and strength. Nor can there be a more certain sign that a person has not yet arrived at the lowest and first degree of virtue, than that he should think he does not need to aim higher. In this vigorous pursuit St. Arnoul died on the 16th of August in 640. His remains were brought to Metz, and enrich the great abbey which bears his name. The Roman Martyrology mentions him on the 18th of July, on which day the translation of his relics was performed; the Gallican on the 16th of August. See his life, faithfully compiled by his successor, in Mabillon, Act. Bened. t. 2, p. 150. Also Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, t. 1, l. 9, n. 10, &c. p. 378, 381, &c. Bosch the Bollandist, t. 5, Jul. p. 423; and D. Cajot, Benedictin monk of St. Arnoul’s Les Antiquités de Metz, an. 1761.

St. Arnoul, M.

He preached the faith among the Franks after St. Remigius had baptized king Clovis. He suffered much in his apostolic labors, and was at length martyred in the Aquilin forest between Paris and Chartres, about the year 534. His name is highly reverenced at Paris, Rheims, and over all France. See Cuper the Bollandist, Julij, t. 4, p. 396.

Saint Frederic, Bishop Of Utrecht, M.

He was descended of a most illustrious family among the Frisons, and according to the author of his life, was great-grandson to Radbod, king of that country, before it was conquered by the French. He was trained up in piety and sacred literature among the clergy of the church of Utrecht. His fasts and other austerities were excessive, and his watchings in fervent prayer were not less inimitable. Being ordained priest, he was charged by bishop Ricfrid with the care of instructing the catechumens, and that good prelate dying in 820, he was chosen the eighth bishop of Utrecht from St. Willibrord.* The holy man, with many tears, before the clergy and people, declared, in moving terms, his incapacity and unworthiness, but by the authority of the emperor Louis Debonnaire was compelled to submit. He therefore repaired to his metropolitan, the archbishop of Mentz, and at Aix-la-Chapelle received the investiture by the ring and crosier, and was consecrated by the bishops in presence of the emperor, who zealously recommended to him the extirpation of the remains of idolatry in Friesland. The new bishop was met by the clergy and others of his church, and by them honorably conducted from the Rhine to Utrecht. He immediately applied himself to establish everywhere the best order, and sent zealous and virtuous laborers into the northern parts, to root out the relics of idolatry which still subsisted there.

Charlemagne, by treating with severity the conquered Frisons and Saxons, had alienated their minds from his empire; but upon his death in 814, Louis his son, whom he had made in his own life-time king of Aquitain, came to the empire, by excluding his little nephew Bernard, king of Italy, grandson, of Pepin, elder brother to this Louis, whom their father made king of Italy, but who died in 810, leaving that kingdom to his son and grandson both named Bernard. Louis upon his accession to the throne eased the Saxons of their heavy taxes, and showed them so much lenity that he gained their hearts to the empire for ever, and from his courtesy and from this and other actions of clemency was surnamed The Debonnaire, or the Gracious. He lost his queen Irmingarde, who died at Angiers in 818, by whom he had three sons, Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis. The first he made king of Italy,^† the second king of Aquitain, and Louis king of Bavaria; reserving to himself the rest of Bavaria and France. In 819 he married Judith, daughter of Guelph, count of Aldorff, by whom he had Charles the Bald, afterward emperor and king of France. She was an ambitious and wanton woman; her adulteries gave great scandal to the people, and her overbearing insolence and continual intrigues embroiled the state, and drove the three eldest sons into open rebellion against their father.^‡ Nothing can excuse the methods to which these unnatural princes had recourse. under pretence of remedying the public disorders, which sprang from the weakness of their father, and the malice of a hated mother-in-law. But the scandals of her lewdness stirred up the zeal of our holy pastor to act the part of a second John the Baptist. The contemporary author of the life of Wala, abbot of Lorbie, who was deeply concerned in the secret transactions of that court, confidently charges her with incest and adultery with her relation and favorite minister, Bernard count of Barcelona. The author of the life of St. Frederic says, her marriage with Lewis was incestuous, and within the forbidden degrees of affinity; but this circumstance could not have escaped the censure of her enemies; and from their silence is rejected by Mabillon and others as fabulous.

Whatever the scandals of her gallantries were, St. Frederic, the neighborhood of whose see gave him free access to the court, then chiefly kept at Aix-la-Chapelle, admonished her of them with an apostolic freedom and charity, but without any other effect than that of drawing upon himself the fury and resentment of a second Jezebel, if we may believe the historians of that age. Our saint suffered also another persecution. The inhabitants of Wallacria, now called Walcheren, one of the principal islands of Zealand, belonging to the Netherlands, were of all others the most barbarous, and most averse to the maxims of the gospel. On which account St. Frederic, when he sent priests into the northern uncultivated provinces of his diocess, took this most dangerous and difficult part chiefly to himself; and nothing here gave him more trouble than the incestuous marriages contracted within the forbidden degrees, and the separation of the parties. To extirpate this inveterate evil he employed assiduous exhortations, tears, watching, prayer, and fasting; summoned an assembly of the principal persons of the island, and earnestly recommended the means to banish this abuse from among them, broke many such pretended marriages, and reconciled many persons that had done sincere penance to God and his Church. He composed a prayer to the Blessed Trinity with an exposition of that adorable mystery against heresies, which for many ages was used in the Netherlands with great devotion. The reputation of his sanctity made him to be considered as one of the most illustrious prelates of the Church, as appears from a poem of Rabanus Maurus, his contemporary, in praise of his virtue, published with notes among his poetical works, together with those of Fortunatus by F. Brower, S. J.¹

Whilst this holy pastor was intent only upon the duties of his charge, one day when he came from the altar having said mass, as he was going to kneel down in the chapel of St. John Baptist to perform his thanksgiving and other private devotions, he was stabbed in the bowels by two assassins. He expired in a few minutes, reciting that verse of the hundred and fourteenth psalm,—I will please the Lord in the land of the living. The author of his life says these assassins were employed by the empress Judith, who could not pardon the liberty he had taken to reprove her incest. William of Malmesbury² and other historians assert the same; and this seems clearly to have been the true cause and manner of his martyrdom; William Heda,³ Beka,⁴ Emmius,⁵ and many others confirm the same. Baronius in his annals, Mabillon, Le Cointe, and Baillet think these assassins were rather sent by some of the incestuous inhabitants of Wallacria, but this opinion is destitute of the authority of ancient historians. The martyr’s body was buried in the same church of St. Saviour, called Oude-Munster, at Utrecht. His death happened on the 17th of July, 838, as Mabillon has proved. See the life of St. Frederic with the notes of Cuper the Bollandist, Julij, t. 4, p. 452, and Batavia Sacra, p. 99. Also Heda’s History of the Bishops of Utrecht, Beka and Emmius.

St. Odulph, Canon of Utrecht, C.

He was born of noble French parents, and distinguished in his youth by the innocence of his manners, and his remarkable progress in learning and piety. Being ordained priest, he was made curate of Oresscoth in Brabant. St. Frederic afterward, by urgent entreaties, engaged him, for the greater glory of God, to be his strenuous assistant in reforming the manners of the fierce Frisons; in which undertaking it is incredible what fatigues he underwent, and what proofs he gave of heroic patience, meekness, zeal, and charity. Contemplation and prayer were the support and refreshment of his soul under his continual labors and austerities. Several wonderful predictions of things which happened long after his death, are recorded in his life. In his old age he resided at Utrecht, and died canon of the cathedral. To his last moments he allowed himself no indulgence, and never relaxed his fervor in labor; but rather redoubled his pace the nearer he saw his end approach, knowing this to be the condition of the Christian’s hire, and fearing to lose by sloth and for want of perseverance the crown for which he fought. His fasts, his watchings, his assiduity in prayer, his almsdeeds, his zeal in instructing the people, and exhorting all men to the divine love and the contempt of all earthly things, seemed to gather strength with his years. Being seized with a fever, he with joy foretold his last moment, and earnestly exhorting his brethren to fervor, and commending himself to their prayers, he promised, by the divine mercy, never to forget them before God, and happily departed this life in the ninth age, on the 12th of June, on which day his festival was kept with great solemnity at Utrecht and Staveren. Several churches and chapels bear his name; but the chapel at the New Bridge in Amsterdam, called Olofs-Kapel, was erected by the Danish sailors in memory of St. Olaus, king of Norway and Martyr, not of St. Odulph, as the Bollandists and some others have mistaken. See the life of St. Odulph in the Bollandists, Junij, t. 2, and Batavia Sacra, p. 106.

St. Bruno, Bishop of Segni, C.

He was of the illustrious family of the lords of Asti in Piemont and born near that city. From his cradle he considered, that man’s happiness is only to be found in loving God; and to please him in all his actions was his only and his most ardent desire. He made his studies in the monastery of St. Perpetuus in the diocess of Asti. Bosch proves that he never was canon of Asti, but enjoyed some years a canonry at Sienna, as he himself informs us. In the Roman council in 1079, he defended the doctrine of the Catholic Church concerning the blessed eucharist against Berengarius; and pope Gregory VII. nominated him bishop of Segni in the ecclesiastical state in 1081. Bruno, who had been compelled to submit, after a long and strenuous resistance, served his flock, and on many important occasions the universal Church, with unwearied zeal. Gregory VII. who died in 1085, Victor III. formerly abbot of mount Cassino, who died in 1087, and Urban II. who had been scholar to St. Bruno (afterward institutor of the Carthusians) at Rheims, then a monk at Cluni, and afterward bishop of Ostia, had the greatest esteem for our saint. He attended Urban II. into France in 1095, and assisted at the council of Tours in 1096. After his return into Italy he continued to labor for the sanctification of his soul and that of his flock, till not being able any longer to resist his inclination for solitude and retirement, he withdrew to mount Cassino, and put on the monastic habit. The people of Segni demanded him back; but Oderisus, abbot of mount Cassino, and several Cardinals, whose mediation the saint employed, prevailed upon the pope to allow his retreat. The abbot Oderisus was succeeded by Otho in 1105, and this latter dying in 1107, the monks chose bishop Bruno abbot. He was often employed by the pope in important commissions, and by his writings labored to support ecclesiastical discipline* and to extirpate simony. This vice he looked upon as the source of all the disorders which excited the tears of all zealous pastors in the Church, by filling the sanctuary with hirelings, whose worldly spirit raises an insuperable opposition to that of the gospel. What would this saint have said had he seen the collation of benefices, and the frequent translations of bishops in some parts, which serve to feed and inflame avarice and ambition in those in whom, above all others, a perfect disengagement from earthly things and crucifixion of the passions ought to lay a foundation of the gospel temper and spirit? Paschal II. formerly a monk of Cluni, succeeded Urban II. in the pontificate in 1099. By his order St. Bruno having been abbot of mount Cassino about four years, returned to his bishopric, having resigned his abbacy, and left his abbatial crosier on the altar. He continued faithfully to discharge the episcopal functions to his death, which happened at Segni on the 31st of August in 1125. He was canonized by Lucius III. in 1183, and his feast is kept in Italy on the 18th of July. See his anonymous authentic life, and Leo of Ostia and Peter the deacon in their chronicle of mount Cassino, with the notes of Solier the Bollandist, t. 4, Julij, p. 471. Also Dom. Maur Marchesi, dean of mount Cassino, in his apparatus (prefixed to the works of this saint) printed at Venice in 1651; Mabillon, Annal. Bened. l. 70, Ceillier, t. 21, p. 101.

* The emperor Adrian, nobly born at Italica, near Seville, in Spain, was cousin-german to Trajan; and having been adopted by him, upon his death ascended the imperial throne in 117. He was extremely Inquisitive, and fond of whatever was surprising or singular, well skilled in all curious arts, mathematics, Judiciary astrology, physic, and music. But this, says Lord Bacon, was an error in his mind, that he desired to comprehend all things, yet neglected the most useful branches of knowledge. He was light and fickle; and so monstrous was his vanity, that he caused all to be slain who pretended in any art or science to rival him; and it was accounted great prudence in a certain person that he would not dispute his best with him, alleging afterward that it was reasonable to yield to him who commanded thirty legions. The beginning of this prince’s reign was bloody; yet he is commended in it for two things: the first is mentioned by Spartian, that when he came to the empire he laid aside all former enmities, and forgot past injuries: insomuch that, being made emperor, he said to one who had been his capital enemy: “Thou hast now escaped.” The other is, that, when a woman cried to him as he was passing by: “Hear me Cæsar;” and he answered, “I have not leisure.” The woman replied: “Then cease to reign.” “Noll ergo imperare.” Whereupon he stopped and heard her complaint.

¹ St. Paulin. ep. 11. ad Sever.

² St. Hieron. ep. 13. ad Paul.

* Adrian became more cruel than ever towards the end of his life, and without any just cause put to death several persons of distinction. At last he fell sick of a dropsy at his house at Tibur. Finding that no medicines gave him any relief, he grew most impatient and fretful under his lingering illness, and wished for death, often asking for poison or a sword, which no one would give him, though he offered them money and impunity. His physician slew himself that he might not be compelled to give him poison. A slave named Mastor, a barbarian noted for his strength and boldness, whom the emperor had employed in hunting, was, partly by threats, partly by promises, prevailed upon to undertake it: but Instead of complying, was seized with fear, and durst not strike him, and fled. The unhappy tyrant lamented day and night, that death refused to obey and deliver him who had caused the death of so many others. He at length hastened his death by eating and drinking things contrary to his health in his distemper, and expired with these words in his month, “The multitude of physicians hath killed the emperor.” “Turba medicorum Cæsarem perdidit.” (See Dio et Spartian in Adr.) He med in 138, being sixty-two years old, and having reigned twenty-one years.

^† A sette Frate, in the villa of Mafiei, nine miles from Rome See Aringhi, Roma Subter. l. 3. c. 14.

³ Ado. Usuard: Mart. Rom. cum notis Baronii et Lubin.

* The best editions of St. Philastrius’s book De Hœresitus, are that printed at Hamburg in 1721, by the care of Fabricius, who has illustrated it with notes; and what procured by Cardinal Quiriai at Breecia in 1738 together with the works of St. Gaudentius.

¹ St. Aug. Pref. l. de hæres.

* Utrecht was an archbishopric in the time of St. Willibrord, but from his death remained a bishopric subject first to Mentz, afterward to Cologne, till, in the reign of Philip II. Paul IV. in 1559, restored the archbishoprics of Utrecht and Cambray, and erected Mechlin a third with the dignity of primate. To Utrecht he subjected the new bishoprics of Haerlem, Middleburg, Deventer, Lewarden, and Groeningen; to Mechlin, those of Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Ipres, Bois-le-Duc and Ruremond; to Cambray, those of Arras and Tournay, with two new ones, St. Omer and Namur.

^† He also gave him Austrasia, great part of which from that age has been called Lorrain, either from this Lothaire or rather his younger son of the same name, whom he left king of that country.

^‡ Louis left to her the management of all affairs, made her elder brother Rodolph Guelph, governor of Bavaria, and her younger brother, Conrad, governor of Italy, and destined the best part of the kingdoms of Germany and France to Charles the Bald, the son which she bore him: to which dominions the sons by the first wife thought they had a prior claim. They, by an unjustifiable breach of their duty, twice took up arms against their father; first in 830, when the empress Judith was banished to a nunnery in Gascony, and the emperor imprisoned; but he was soon released by the Germans, and recalled Jndith and her two brothers. In the second rebellion, in 833, Lothaire, the eldest son, banished Judith to Verona in Italy, and shut up her son Charles in the abbey of Pruim, near Triers, and the weak emperor himself In the abbey of St Medard’s at Soissons, after he had in an assembly of the states at Compeigne basely confessed himself justly deposed from the empire, and guilty of the crimes which were laid to his charge. He was afterward sent to the abbey of St. Denys near Paris, and there clothed with the habit of a monk; but soon after delivered by his two younger sons. Pepin and Lewis, and restored to his throne. Jndith after all these disturbances so dexterously no naged him that, at his death in 840, he left to her son Charles the monarchy France.

¹ P. 204.

² L. 1, de gestis Pontif. Angl. p. 197.

³ Hist. Episcop. Ultraj.

⁴ Chron.

⁵ Ubho Emmius, Rerum Frisic. l. 3, p. 74.

* The works of St. Bruno of Segni, or of Asti, with a preliminary dissertation of Dom. Maur Marchesi were printed at Venice in 1651, in two vols. folio, and in the Bibl. Patr. at Lyons in 1677, t. 20. They consist of comments on several parts of scripture, one hundred and forty-five sermons, several dogmatica treatises, and letters; and a life of St. Leo IX. and another of St. Peter, bishop of Anagnia, whom Pascha II. canonized. This latter the Bollandists have published on the 3d of April.

 Butler, A. (1903). The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (Vol. 3, pp. 143–152). New York: P. J. Kenedy.