title: Vita S. Mauri

source_edition: Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 144, coll. 945A–952C

source_text:
## PROLOGUS.

[0945A]

Cupientes aliquid scribere ad gloriam Dei nostri de B. Mauro pontifice, sic auditorum desiderio satisfacere cupimus, ut juxta digestae relationis modum, veritati per omnia consulamus. Contemnendus quippe pincerna est qui, dum vini copiam jactat, faecem quoque punienda temeritate propinat. Improbus opipator est, qui tanta ambitione aliis convivium praeparat, ut in semetipsum aestuantis famis incendium saevire permittat. Temerarius nihilominus narrator est qui, dum laudum praeconiis alios extollere nititur, ipse mergi in falsitatis barathrum non veretur. Nonnulli enim Deo se deferre existimant, si, ad deferenda laudis ejus insignia, falsitatis argumenta componant; qui nimirum si [0945B] egregii praedicatoris verba diligenter attenderent, talia non sentirent. Ait enim Corinthiis: *Si autem Christus non resurrexit, inanis ergo est praedicatio nostra, vana est fides vestra; invenimur autem et falsi testes Dei, quoniam testimonium diximus adversus Deum, quod suscitaverit Christum, quem* *419* *non suscitavit [n: (I Cor. III)]*. Secundum haec ergo apostolica verba falsus testis Deo merito dicitur qui, indiscrete eum cupiens laudare, mentitur; et adversus Deum procul dubio perhibet testimonium quisquis in ejus laude perversa molitur arte commentum. Propheta quoque terribiliter intonat, dicens: *Odisti omnes qui operantur iniquitatem, perdes eos qui loquuntur mendacium [n: (Psal. V)]*. Nimirum manifeste declarans quia, sicut levius est odire quam perdere, ita etiam [0945C] tolerabilius est iniquitatem ex infirmitate perficere, quam ex studio mendacia fabricare.

Hinc est quod per Jeremiam de mendacibus dicitur: *Docuerunt linguas suas loqui mendacium; ut inique agerent laboraverunt [n: (Jer. IX)]*. Qui enim simplicem veritatem ultro oblatam proferre facile poterant, satagunt, ut mendacia cum labore confingant. Hic, si quis nos longae praefationis forte redarguat, atque id quod in Machabaeorum libro scriptum est austerus censor opponat: *Stultum est,* inquiens, *ante historiam effluere, in ipsa autem historia succingi [n: (II Machab. II)]*; hanc reddimus rationem, quia, ubi [0946A] materiae abundantia suppetit, ipsa styli prolixitas prohibet in talibus immorari. Hic autem, ubi de beati viri virtutibus pauca quae scribi debeant praesto sunt, utilius arbitramur ad aedificationem audientium, ad quam omnis ecclesiastica intendit Scriptura, in prooemio contra mendacium scribere, quam pro narrationis inopia ipsam historiam mendaciorum finibus protelare.

Igitur, quae de vita vel miraculis B. Mauri ad nostram notitiam pervenire potuerunt, juxta quod quorumdam monachorum non omnino contemptibilium conjicere narratione potuimus, fidelibus Christi fideliter intimamus.

## CAPUT PRIMUM. *S. Mauri episcopatus. In eo gesta.*

[0946B]Eo itaque tempore cum adhuc Romana Ecclesia spatiosius multo quam nunc possessionum jura protenderet, et inter caetera Caesenate etiam oppidum possideret, contigit ut eadem Caesena suo privaretur episcopo. Cumque Romanus pontifex cerneret nepotem suum, beatum videlicet Maurum, virtutum gradibus ad alta conscendere, et in sanctae conversationis studio non segniter vigilare, congruum duxit ut talem virum ad sacerdotalis officii apicem promoveret, quatenus lucerna Spiritus sancti non sub modio delitesceret, sed, super candelabrum posita, omnes qui in domo Dei sunt sacrae doctrinae radiis illustraret. Quid plura? Tandem beatus Maurus Caesenatis Ecclesiae cathedram, divina providentia disponente, suscepit. Idcirco autem vel [0946C] regis qui tunc imperabat, aut ipsius apostolici *420* praesulis hic interponere nomina praetermisimus, quia cum ipsis qui nobis reliqua dictant, haec pariter ignoramus. Eorum namque vocabula in antiquis quidem tomis se vidisse commemorant, sed cum civitas ante haec flammis fuisset exusta, monumenta quoque perhibent simul fuisse consumpta.

Cum igitur vir Domini Maurus tam arduae curae sibi conspexisset onus impositum, sicut de beato Paulo legitur [n: (Gal. I)], nequaquam acquievit carni et sanguini, sed coepit se in divinis obsequiis tanto vigilantiorem reddere, quanto sibi noverat et tot [0947A] subditorum custodiam imminere. Perpendens namque quia ars est artium regimen animarum, congruum judicabat nec internorum curam exteriorum occupatione minuere, nec rursus exteriorum providentiam internorum sollicitudine funditus declinare: ne videlicet aut exterioribus deditus, ab intimis omnino corrueret, aut solis interioribus occupatus, quae foris debebat proximis, negligentius exhiberet.

Saepe namque nonnulli, velut obliti quod fratribus animarum causa praelati sunt, tanto cordis annisu saecularibus curis inserviunt, quod has, cum adsunt, se agere exsultant: ad has etiam, cum desunt, turbulentis cogitationum aestibus anhelant. Cumque ab his, cessante forsitan opportunitate, quieti sunt, ipsa deterius sua quiete fatigantur. Voluptatem namque [0947B] decernunt, si actionibus deprimantur, laborem putant, si in terrenis negotiis non laborant. At contra, nonnulli gregis quidem curam suscipiunt, sed sic sibimet vacare ad spiritualia appetunt, ut rebus exterioribus nullatenus occupentur. Qui cum curare corporalia funditus negligunt, subditorum necessitatibus minime occurrunt; quorum nimirum praedicatio plerumque despicitur, quia, dum delinquentium facta corripiunt, sed tamen eis necessaria praesentis vitae non tribuunt, nequaquam libenter audiuntur. Egentis etenim mentem doctrinae sermo non penetrat, si hunc apud ejus animum manus misericordiae non commendat. Tunc autem verbi semen facile germinat, quando hoc in audientis pectore pietas praedicantis rigat. Haec autem idcirco de diversis [0947C] pastorum moribus loquimur, ut quam prudens, quam moderata in beato Mauro fuerit discretio, demonstremus. Qui nimirum, dum neque contemplativae vitae otium sectando, activam omnino deseruit, neque per activae lassitudinem libere discurrendo, a contemplatione recessit, et, ut ita dixerim, per auream viam coelestis regni celsitudinem penetravit.

Denique dum in episcopio suo degeret, et commissam sibi Ecclesiam strenue gubernaret, coepit talem locum sollicita mentis indagatione perquirere, ubi ad tempus et a saecularium turba secedere et soli Deo posset specialius adhaerere; Domini sui scilicet non segnis imitator, *421* qui per diem in urbibus praedicabat, noctu [0947D] vero in monte orationibus insistebat [n: (Luc. XXI)]. Dumque in dies hujus anxietatis magis ac magis cura succresceret, tandem adjecit oculum ad breve quoddam promontorium, quatuor fere stadiis ab exigua urbe semotum. Vocabatur autem saltus Spatiani, locus scilicet nec praeruptis cacuminibus sublimius ad alta porrectus, nec omnino depressus in ima, ad arvalis lamae videbatur planitatem coaequatus; [0948A] sed ita erat congruo tenore in quodam meditullio constitutus, ut et super se positis liberam visendae totius pene dioecesis facultatem tribueret, se autem ascendentes nequaquam excelsior declivis processibus fatigaret. Erat enim mons ille nemorosa diversarum arborum densitate vestitus. Hic itaque mons ita beati viri aspectibus placuit, ac si montem Oliveti adjacere urbi Hierusalem cerneret, atque hunc psalmum non immerito cum Propheta concinere potuisset: *Memor,* inquit, *ero tui, Domine, de terra Jordanis et Hermoniim, a monte modico [n: (Psal. XLI, 7)]*; quem videlicet montem prius a Romano pontifice, sub cujus jure detinebatur, petiit, deinde cellulam sibi illic cum exigua ecclesia fabricavit, ubi Quadragesimali tempore perseverans, jejuniis et [0948B] orationibus operam dabat, et si quando de ecclesiasticis negotiis furari poterat, ad eamdem cellulam, velut ad dulcium epularum convivium, recurrebat. Illic denique fluentum divinae contemplationis avidis mentis suae faucibus hauriebat, unde postmodum arentia proximorum pectora sanctae praedicationis poculo recreabat. Illo plane loco quasi pro balneo utebatur. Ibi enim curabat abluere, si quam ex saecularium hominum collocutione, aut verbi, aut cogitationis maculam contraxisset; et pulverem mundanae conversationis, sine quo haec humanae mortalitatis via non carpitur, crebris illic lacrymarum fontibus expiabat. Ille igitur locus, qui sancto viro in vita tam dilectus et familiaris exstitit, post mortem quoque ejus sepultura meruit insigniri. Nam [0948C] corpus ejus, in saxea arca reconditum, juxta parvam basilicam quam ipse construxerat est collocatum.

## CAPUT II. *Translatio corporis; miracula.*

Haec igitur, quae de vita beati viri ad nostram potuerunt pervenire notitiam, non quidem sunt a nostris relatoribus visa, sed succedentium generationum celebri memoria divulgata.

Quidam autem antiquus admodum senex, et corpore marcescente jam tremulus, nostris nuper temporibus exstitit, qui se vidisse hujus B. Mauri nepotem, Constantium videlicet nomine, episcopum Caesenatis Ecclesiae testabatur. *422* Sed quoniam [0948D] de vita B. Mauri ea quae nobis audire contigit stylo currente digessimus, nunc qualiter omnipotens Deus ad gloriam sui nominis ejus merita revelaverit breviter explicemus.

Est autem nunc celebre monasterium in praedicto monte in quo vir Dei orare consueverat, ad honorem B. Dei Genitricis et Virginis constitutum, ubi mons Mauri ex antiqua populi consuetudine [0949A] dicitur, quia locus ille non immerito sancti viri vocabulo decoratur.

Cum igitur arca illa ubi beati viri corpusculum claudebatur, juxta praefatam ecclesiam, terrae undique crescente congerie, delitesceret, et vix saxi ipsius summitas solo tenus emineret, contigit ut homo quidam cum litaniis adveniens, soluta caligae ligula, repente illic pedem poneret, et, nil tale existimans, secure ligaret. Vincto igitur talo, cum jam vellet abscedere, pedem nullo modo potuit amovere. Cumque diu conaretur, et, omnia tentans, huc illucque se verteret, pes nihilominus stabat immotus et quibusdam clavis saxo tenebatur affixus. Stabat miser ignoti criminis reus, et qui sibi corrigiam ligare voluerat, semetipsum potius saxo ligasse dolebat. [0949B] Volebat stare, sed una innixus planta non poterat; optabat jacere, sed a suo pede corruere non valebat. Tandem, repentino populi adventante concursu, alii malleis, alii securibus gestientes partem lapidis praeciderunt, et post multa vix hominem de saxo exculpere potuerunt. Mox laetantis turbae clamor exoritur, mira Dei virtus attollitur, et B. Mauri tumulus dignus reverentia judicatur.

Idem praedicti coenobii monachus, Teuzo videlicet nomine, grandaevus jam et ipsa canitie venerandus, cujus haec relatione didicimus, aliud miraculum retulit quod nequaquam silentio praeterimus. Aliquando ipse praedictus frater acerrima vi febrium urgebatur. Cumque nulla medicinali cura, nullo prorsus humano studio ad incolumitatis statum redire [0949C] potuisset, cuidam suae materterae religiosae, videlicet sanctimoniali, nocturno silentio B. Maurus apparuit, eique dixit: Si vis, inquit, nepotem tuum ex ea quam patitur aegritudine convalescere, denuntia ei ut super sepulturam meam signum sanctae crucis infigat, totoque anno solemnitatem mihi se celebrare devoveat. Cumque ille beati viri oraculum, quod sanctimoniali referente cognovit, gratanter impleret, mox ut ferream crucem super tumulum fixit; deinde commotis visceribus praecipitanter evomuit, atque ita protinus omnem ignei languoris molestiam, velut ipso vomitu egerente, projecit; jamque pristinae sanitati integriter restitutus, dignas Salvatori Deo gratias retulit, et B. Mauri miraculum, quod in se expertus fuerat, ad gloriam nominis Dei [0949D] multis indicare curavit.

*423* Jam igitur celebri utriusque signi fama volitante per populum, coeperunt multi ad sacras beati viri reliquias devote concurrere, piisque ejus meritis suas animas attentius commendare; nonnulli etiam diversis valetudinum incommoditatibus laborantes, dum vel detritam sepulcralis marmoris limaturam [0950A] biberent, vel beati confessoris misericordiam fusis tantummodo precibus implorarent, sani et incolumes ad propria sunt reversi, quocunque fuissent vinculo aegritudinis obligati. Videres miserabilium languidorum soluta cadavera alieno prius adminiculo sustentante deferri, qui mox cum magna exsultatione atque tripudio remeabant saluti pristinae reparati.

Cumque tot miraculis coruscantibus magis praeclara B. Mauri fama crebresceret, et virtutes quas per eum Dominus ostendebat, non solum contigua quaeque, sed et remotiora locorum spatia personarent, tandem, convocatis episcopis vicinarum urbium multisque populorum turbis undique confluentibus, certatim arca illa in qua beati viri patrocinia reconduntur, [0950B] effoditur, et, terebrato pariete ecclesiae, inter absidam et altare cum hymnis et laudibus summa diligentia collocatur. Processu vero temporis eadem basilica major facta est, atque, ut in praesentiarum cernitur, festivius decorata, ubi, ad declaranda B. confessoris merita, multa fiunt usque in praesentem diem, Deo operante, miracula, ex quibus nos pauca perstringimus, quae nimirum hi qui nobis referunt se vidisse testantur.

## CAPUT III. *Varia ad reliquias miracula.*

Papa Gerbertus juxta Caesenam castrametatus erat, ejusque oppidum circumfusi exercitus obsidione vallabant. Tunc temporis ad B. Mauri tumulum delatus est quidam rusticus, gemina morborum [0950C] passione depressus, contractus videlicet ac caecus; sed postquam est oratum, et lux amissa ad oculos rediit, et rigida membra fugatus languor absolvit. Protinus videns se homo sanitati tam mirabiliter redditum, utpote quas valebat gratias agens, beato se Mauro servum perpetuo jure contradidit, mansurumque se in ejus obsequio, donec adviveret, devotavit. Qui, perceptae salutis munere pene per decennium fruens, postmodum fragilitati carnis enerviter cessit, uxoremque sibi non fausto conjugio copulavit. Mox enim ut luxuriandi voluptate potitus est, oculorum lumen funditus perdidit, et *424* quandiu vixit, in eadem caecitate permansit. Et certe dignum fuerat ut qui, a jure B. Mauri, cui se mancipaverat, se subtrahens, libidinis [0950D] jugo turpiter colla supposuit, donum quo a bono Domino fuerat ditatus amitteret: et qui in interiores sponte ceciderat, invitus exteriores tenebras incurrisset.

Alio quoque tempore daemoniaca quaedam ad altare beati viri deducta est, quam tanto pestifer spiritus furore repleverat ut, eam sibi quasi organum faciens, [0951A] multa per os ejus sacrilega et insana proferret, diras voces emitteret, et velut canis rabida crebris baubatibus elatraret. Triduo autem postquam illuc perducta est, vehementi quodam impetu sanguinem vomuit, et ita malignum spiritum a quo tenebatur ejecit.

Alia quaedam mulier, necessitati rei familiaris plusquam deberet intenta, in festivitate sancti Rophilli triticum purgare non timuit; sed dum beato confessori digni honoris reverentiam non exhibuit, dignae animadversionis sententiam non evasit. Nam illico, divino percussa judicio, brachiis attractis obriguit, et, eodem modo ac si capisterium adhuc ventilare videretur, tremere infeliciter coepit. Haec itaque ante beati Mauri altare deducitur, et in praedicta [0951B] solemnitate nunquam se ulterius quippiam tale facturam instantissime pollicetur; mox largissima omnipotentis Dei misericordia clementer adfuit, et stupida mulieris brachia ad libertatem proprii vigoris pleniter reformavit.

Rursus alia mulier profluvium sanguinis patiebatur; quae cum insanabili plaga jugiter vexaretur, et haec atque illa tentans nullum salutis potuisset invenire remedium, tandem in extremis angustiis constituta reperit necessitas ipsa consilium. Nitido itaque juxta possibilitatem suam linteo B. Mauri mausoleum cooperuit, et ita divinitus liberata omnem prorsus molestiam luridi languoris evasit. Enimvero cum Apostolus dicat: *Fide mundans corda eorum [n: (Act. XV, 9)]*, quia mundo corde, utpote plena fide, [0951C] beati viri tumulum tetigit, digne promeruit a profluentis sanguinis immunditia liberari.

Item alia mulier ita erat violentissimi languoris immanitate contorta, ut, soluto naturae ordine, ora teneret post se, cervicem ferret ante se. Quae similiter super B. Mauri memoriam linteum posuit, et protinus, sanitate recepta, quibusque membris jus suum natura restituit, et ad tenendum vigorem proprium arteriarum organa temperavit.

Alia quoque mulier amisso lumine de Aquitaniae *425* finibus deducta est, quae, Gallicae animositatis genium servans, et ex more patriae verba violenter infringens, obstinatissime testabatur quod nunquam [0952A] inde recederet, nisi per B. Mauri merita lumen quod amiserat recepisset. Sicque magno fidei fervore succensa breve tuguriolum juxta ecclesiae parietem compilavit, ut quodammodo potius habitaculum quam praeparare videretur hospitium. Cumque per octo dies instantissime fuisset oratum, lumen quod quaerebat divina gratia largiente recepit, et dignas illuminatori suo Deo et Mauro ejus famulo gratias retulit.

Popiliensis dioeceseos turba ad B. Arduini limina orationis causa tendebat; cumque per oratorium B. Mauri transitum habuisset, contigit ut quaedam ex illis femina, genu abbatis ipsius monasterii humiliter osculata, commeandi licentiam peteret, quae, vix unius sagittae emissione progressa, [0952B] arrepta mox a daemonio, in terram projicitur, concutitur, volutatur, et multa convicia adversus eumdem abbatem mordaciter evomebat. Haec itaque ante B. Mauri altare deducta, non multo post divinae virtutis est imperio liberata, ita ut, redeuntibus sociis, jam sibimet reddita, simul cum eis sana et incolumis reverteretur ad propria.

Haec itaque, fratres charissimi, de virtutibus quas omnipotens Dominus per beatum confessorem suum Maurum operari dignatus est, pauca perscripsimus, ut ad glorificandam divinae majestatis potentiam vestrae charitatis studium incitemus. Qui, dum nobis adhuc in via positis miraculorum suorum dignatur exhibere virtutem, per haec nos ad capessendam coelestis patriae invitat et provocat haereditatem; [0952C] testante Psalmista, qui ait: *Virtutem,* inquit, *operum suorum annuntiabit populo suo, ut det illis haereditatem gentium [n: (Psal. CX, 6, 7)]*; quatenus, dum ipsa sanctorum sepulcra tot miraculis radiare conspicimus, de immensa eorum gloria, qua jam cum Christo regnant, minime dubitemus, ut, despectis terrenis, illuc se noster animus jam per desiderium transferat ubi se gaudere in perpetuum sperat, illuc se libere spiritus dirigat ubi imperator coeli Christus cum supernae curiae senatoribus ineffabiliter regnat, cui sit gloria et imperium cum coaeterno Patre et Spiritu sancto per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

english:
## PROLOGUE.

[0945A]

Desiring to write something to the glory of our God concerning blessed Maurus the bishop, we desire so to satisfy the longing of our hearers that, according to the measure of an ordered account, we may in all things take thought for the truth. For that cupbearer is to be despised who, while he boasts of an abundance of wine, serves up the dregs as well with a rashness deserving punishment. He is a worthless caterer who prepares a banquet for others with such ambition that he allows the burning of raging hunger to rage against himself. No less rash is that narrator who, while he strives to exalt others with the proclamations of praise, does not himself fear to be plunged into the pit of falsehood. For some think they render service to God if, to render him the marks of his praise, they put together arguments of falsehood; who assuredly, if [0945B] they diligently attended to the words of the excellent preacher, would not think such things. For he says to the Corinthians: *And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is empty, your faith is vain; and we are found also false witnesses of God, because we have given testimony against God, that he raised up Christ, whom* *419* *he did not raise up [n: (I Cor. III)]*. According to these apostolic words, therefore, he is deservedly called a false witness of God who, desiring to praise him without discernment, lies; and whoever contrives a fabrication by perverse art in God's praise beyond doubt bears testimony against God. The Prophet too thunders terribly, saying: *Thou hast hated all who work iniquity, thou wilt destroy those who speak a lie [n: (Psal. V)]*. Plainly declaring, assuredly, that as it is a lighter thing to hate than to destroy, so also it is [0945C] more tolerable to carry out iniquity out of weakness than to fabricate lies out of zeal.

Hence it is that through Jeremiah it is said of liars: *They have taught their tongues to speak a lie; they have labored to act wickedly [n: (Jer. IX)]*. For they who could easily have brought forth the simple truth offered them unbidden, take pains to contrive lies with labor. Here, if anyone should perhaps reproach us for a long preface, and if a severe critic should set against us what is written in the book of Maccabees: *It is foolish,* he says, *to run on before the history, but in the history itself to be brief [n: (II Machab. II)]* — we render this account: that where [0946A] an abundance of matter is at hand, the very length of the writing forbids us to linger over such things. But here, where few things concerning the blessed man's virtues are at hand that ought to be written, we judge it more useful for the building up of the hearers — to which all ecclesiastical Scripture is directed — to write in the preface against lying, than, for want of narrative, to draw out the history itself to the borders of lies.

Therefore, what could come to our knowledge concerning the life or the miracles of blessed Maurus, according to what we have been able to gather from the account of certain monks not altogether to be despised, we faithfully make known to the faithful of Christ.

## CHAPTER ONE. *The episcopate of St. Maurus. His deeds in it.*

[0946B]At that time, then, when the Roman Church still extended its rights of possession much more widely than now, and among the rest possessed also the town of Cesena, it happened that this same Cesena was deprived of its bishop. And when the Roman pontiff saw his own nephew — namely blessed Maurus — climbing to the heights by the steps of the virtues, and keeping watch not sluggishly in the pursuit of a holy manner of life, he judged it fitting to promote such a man to the summit of the priestly office, so that the lamp of the Holy Spirit should not lie hidden under a bushel, but, set upon a lampstand, should illumine with the rays of holy teaching all who are in the house of God. What more? At length blessed Maurus received the chair of the Church of Cesena, divine providence so disposing. But we have passed over setting down here the names either of [0946C] the king who then was ruling, or of the apostolic *420* prelate himself, because along with those very men who dictate the rest to us, we are equally ignorant of these. For they recall that they saw those names in ancient volumes, but since the city had before this been burned up by flames, they report that the records too were consumed along with it.

When therefore the man of the Lord, Maurus, saw the burden of so arduous a care laid upon him, as is read of blessed Paul [n: (Gal. I)], he in no way yielded to flesh and blood, but began to render himself the more watchful in the divine services, the more he knew that the guardianship also of so many [0947A] subjects pressed upon him. For weighing that the governance of souls is the art of arts, he judged it fitting neither to lessen the care of inward things by occupation with outward ones, nor again wholly to turn aside from the provision of outward things by solicitude for the inward: lest, namely, either given over to outward things he should fall away entirely from the innermost, or, occupied with the inward alone, he should render more negligently to his neighbors what he owed them outwardly.

For often some, as though forgetful that they have been set over their brethren for the sake of souls, serve worldly cares with such straining of heart that they exult to be doing them when these are at hand; and to these also, when they are absent, they pant with the turbulent surgings of their thoughts. And when they are at rest from these, the opportunity perhaps having ceased, they are wearied worse by that very rest of theirs. For they judge it a pleasure [0947B] if they be weighed down with business, and think it a labor if they do not labor in earthly affairs. But on the contrary, some indeed undertake the care of the flock, but so desire to be free for spiritual things for themselves that they are in no way occupied with outward matters. And these, when they wholly neglect to care for bodily things, do not at all meet the needs of their subjects; and their preaching for the most part is despised, because, while they rebuke the deeds of offenders and yet do not grant them the necessities of the present life, they are by no means gladly heard. For the word of teaching does not penetrate the mind of a needy man, if the hand of mercy does not commend it to his heart. But then the seed of the word easily sprouts, when the compassion of the preacher waters it in the breast of the hearer. And we speak these things about the various [0947C] characters of shepherds for this reason: to show how prudent, how measured was the discretion in blessed Maurus. For he assuredly, since neither by pursuing the leisure of the contemplative life did he wholly desert the active, nor by running about freely through the weariness of the active did he withdraw from contemplation, made his way, so to speak, by a golden road into the height of the heavenly kingdom.

At length, while he was living in his bishopric and vigorously governing the Church committed to him, he began to search out with careful inquiry of mind such a place where he might for a time withdraw from the crowd of worldly men and cleave more particularly to God alone: being, namely, no sluggish imitator of his Lord, *421* who by day preached in the cities, but by night [0947D] pressed on in prayers upon the mountain [n: (Luc. XXI)]. And while the care of this anxiety grew more and more from day to day, at length he cast his eye upon a certain small promontory, set apart nearly four stadia from the little city. It was called the woodland of Spatianus: a place neither stretched up more loftily to the heights by sheer peaks, nor altogether sunk into the depths, seeming levelled to the flatness of a field-bottom marsh; [0948A] but it was so set in a kind of middle ground by a fitting measure that it both granted to those placed upon it free power of viewing almost the whole diocese, and yet, not being too high, did not weary those ascending it with steep stages. For that mountain was clothed with a wooded thickness of various trees. This mountain, then, so pleased the eyes of the blessed man, as if he beheld the Mount of Olives lying next to the city of Jerusalem; and he could not without reason have sung this psalm along with the Prophet: *I will be mindful,* he says, *of thee, O Lord, from the land of Jordan and Hermoniim, from the little mountain [n: (Psal. XLI, 7)]*. And this mountain he first asked for from the Roman pontiff, under whose right it was held; then he built himself a little cell there with a small church, where, persevering in the season of Lent, he gave himself to fastings and [0948B] prayers; and if ever he could steal time from ecclesiastical affairs, he ran back to that same cell as to a banquet of sweet delicacies. There at length he drank in the stream of divine contemplation with the eager throat of his mind, whence afterward he refreshed the parched breasts of his neighbors with the cup of holy preaching. That place he plainly used as a bath. For there he took care to wash away whatever stain of word or of thought he had contracted from conversation with worldly men; and the dust of worldly living, without which this road of human mortality is not travelled, he there washed clean with frequent springs of tears. That place, therefore, which was so beloved and familiar to the holy man in life, deserved after his death also to be marked out as his burial place. For [0948C] his body, laid away in a stone chest, was placed beside the little basilica which he himself had built.

## CHAPTER II. *The translation of the body; miracles.*

These things, therefore, which could come to our knowledge concerning the life of the blessed man, were not indeed seen by those who reported them to us, but were made known by the well-known memory of succeeding generations.

But there was in our own recent times a certain very ancient old man, already trembling with a body wasting away, who testified that he had seen the nephew of this blessed Maurus — Constantius by name — bishop of the Church of Cesena. *422* But since [0948D] we have set out with running pen those things concerning the life of blessed Maurus which it fell to us to hear, let us now briefly explain how almighty God revealed his merits to the glory of his own name.

There is now a well-known monastery on the aforesaid mountain on which the man of God had been accustomed to pray, established in honor of the blessed Mother of God and Virgin, where by the ancient custom of the people it is called [0949A] the mountain of Maurus, since that place is not without reason adorned with the holy man's name.

When therefore that chest in which the blessed man's poor body was enclosed was lying hidden beside the aforesaid church, the heap of earth growing up on every side, and scarcely the top of the stone itself stood out level with the ground, it happened that a certain man, coming with the litanies, the lace of his boot having come undone, suddenly set his foot there and, thinking nothing of the sort, tied it without concern. His ankle then being bound, when he now wished to go away, he could in no way move his foot. And when he had long tried, and, attempting everything, turned himself this way and that, his foot nonetheless stood unmoved and was held fast to the stone as though by nails. The wretched man stood, guilty of an unknown offense, and he who had wished to tie his own strap grieved that he had rather tied himself to the stone. [0949B] He wished to stand, but leaning on one sole he could not; he longed to lie down, but was not able to fall away from his own foot. At length, a sudden concourse of people coming up, some with mallets, some with axes, eagerly cut away part of the stone, and after much labor were scarcely able to carve the man out of the rock. Soon a shout of the rejoicing crowd arises, the wonderful power of God is exalted, and the tomb of blessed Maurus is judged worthy of reverence.

The same monk of the aforesaid monastery — Teuzo by name — now advanced in years and venerable by his very gray hair, from whose account we have learned these things, related another miracle which we by no means pass over in silence. At one time this same aforesaid brother was pressed by a most bitter force of fevers. And when by no medicinal care, by no human effort at all, he had been able to return to a state of soundness, [0949C] blessed Maurus appeared in the silence of the night to a certain religious aunt of his — a nun, that is — and said to her: If you wish, he said, that your nephew recover from the sickness he suffers, tell him to fix the sign of the holy cross over my burial place, and to vow that he will keep a feast for me all the year. And when the man gladly fulfilled the blessed man's oracle, which he learned from the nun's report, as soon as he fixed an iron cross over the tomb, then, his inward parts being stirred, he vomited violently, and so at once cast off all the trouble of the fiery sickness, as though the vomiting itself were expelling it; and now wholly restored to his former health, he rendered worthy thanks to God his Savior, and took care to make known to many, for the glory of God's name, [0949D] the miracle of blessed Maurus which he had experienced in himself.

*423* And now, as the well-known report of both signs flew about among the people, many began to run devoutly to the holy relics of the blessed man, and to commend their souls more earnestly to his devout merits; and some also, laboring under various troubles of ill health, when they either drank the filings ground from the marble of the tomb, [0950A] or implored the mercy of the blessed confessor by poured-out prayers alone, returned to their own homes sound and whole, by whatever bond of sickness they had been bound. You might have seen the slack corpse-like bodies of pitiable sick men carried in, held up first by another's support, who soon were making their way back with great exultation and dancing, restored to their former health.

And when, with so many miracles flashing out, the more renowned fame of blessed Maurus grew ever more frequent, and the powers which the Lord showed forth through him resounded not only through all the neighboring places but through more distant tracts as well, at length, the bishops of the nearby cities having been called together and many crowds of peoples flowing in from every side, that chest in which the blessed man's protecting relics are laid away is eagerly [0950B] dug up, and, the wall of the church being pierced, is placed with hymns and praises with the utmost care between the apse and the altar. But in the course of time that same basilica was made larger, and, as is now seen, more festively adorned; where, to declare the merits of the blessed confessor, many miracles are done, God working, even to the present day — of which we touch on a few, which assuredly those who report them to us testify that they saw.

## CHAPTER III. *Various miracles at the relics.*

Pope Gerbert had encamped beside Cesena, and the armies poured around were hemming in his town with a siege. At that time there was brought to the tomb of blessed Maurus a certain countryman, weighed down with a twofold [0950C] affliction of diseases, being namely crippled and blind; but after prayer had been made, both the lost light returned to his eyes, and the sickness, put to flight, released his stiffened limbs. Straightway the man, seeing himself so wonderfully restored to health, giving such thanks as he was able, handed himself over as a servant to blessed Maurus by perpetual right, and vowed that he would remain in his service as long as he lived. And he, enjoying the gift of the health he had received for nearly ten years, afterward weakly gave way to the frailty of the flesh, and joined a wife to himself in an ill-omened marriage. For as soon as he had got possession of the pleasure of indulgence, he wholly lost the light of his eyes, and *424* as long as he lived, he remained in that same blindness. And surely it was fitting that he who, withdrawing himself from the right of blessed Maurus, to whom he had made himself over, shamefully put his neck under the yoke [0950D] of lust, should lose the gift with which he had been enriched by his good Lord: and that he who had of his own accord fallen into the inner darkness should unwillingly run into the outer.

At another time also a certain woman possessed by a demon was led to the altar of the blessed man, whom the pestilent spirit had filled with such fury that, making her as it were his instrument, [0951A] he uttered many sacrilegious and mad things through her mouth, sent out dreadful cries, and barked out like a rabid dog with repeated bayings. But on the third day after she had been brought there, she vomited blood with a certain violent rush, and so cast out the malignant spirit by which she was held.

A certain other woman, intent more than she ought upon the necessity of household affairs, did not fear to clean wheat on the feast of Saint Rufillus; but since she did not show the reverence of worthy honor to the blessed confessor, she did not escape the sentence of a worthy chastisement. For on the spot, struck by the divine judgment, she stiffened with her arms drawn up, and, in the same manner as if she still seemed to be winnowing with the sieve, she began wretchedly to tremble. And so she is led before the altar of blessed Maurus, and most urgently promises that on the aforesaid [0951B] feast she will never again do any such thing; and soon the most bountiful mercy of almighty God was graciously at hand, and fully restored the woman's numbed arms to the freedom of their own strength.

Again another woman was suffering an issue of blood; and when she was being continually harassed by the incurable wound, and, trying this thing and that, had been able to find no remedy of health, at length, set in the utmost straits, necessity itself found the counsel. And so with a clean linen cloth, so far as her means allowed, she covered the tomb of blessed Maurus, and, being thus delivered by God, escaped altogether every trouble of the ghastly sickness. For indeed, since the Apostle says: *Cleansing their hearts by faith [n: (Act. XV, 9)]* — because with a clean heart, being namely full of faith, [0951C] she touched the blessed man's tomb, she worthily deserved to be freed from the uncleanness of the flowing blood.

Likewise another woman was so twisted by the monstrousness of a most violent sickness that, the order of nature being undone, she held her face behind her and carried her neck before her. She likewise placed a linen cloth over the memorial of blessed Maurus, and straightway, health being received, nature restored to each of her limbs its own right, and tempered the vessels of the arteries to holding their proper vigor.

Another woman also, having lost her sight, was brought from the borders of Aquitaine, *425* who, keeping the temper of Gallic spiritedness, and after the manner of her country breaking her words out violently, testified most obstinately that she would never depart [0952A] from there unless through the merits of blessed Maurus she had received back the sight she had lost. And so, kindled with a great fervor of faith, she put together a small hut beside the wall of the church, so that in a manner she seemed to be preparing a dwelling rather than a lodging. And when prayer had been made most urgently for eight days, she received, by the bestowal of divine grace, the sight she sought, and rendered worthy thanks to God her enlightener and to Maurus his servant.

A crowd from the diocese of Forlimpopoli was making its way to the threshold of blessed Arduinus for the sake of prayer; and when it had passed through the oratory of blessed Maurus, it happened that a certain woman of that company, having humbly kissed the knee of the abbot of that monastery, asked leave to go on; and she, having advanced scarcely the shot of a single arrow, [0952B] was soon seized by a demon and is thrown to the ground, shaken, rolled about, and she kept bitingly spewing out many insults against that same abbot. And so she was led before the altar of blessed Maurus, and not long after was freed by the command of the divine power, so that, when her companions were returning, being now restored to herself, she went back together with them to her own home sound and whole.

These few things, therefore, dearest brothers, we have written concerning the powers which the almighty Lord has deigned to work through his blessed confessor Maurus, that we may stir up the zeal of your charity to glorify the might of the divine majesty. He, while he deigns to show the power of his miracles to us still set upon the way, through these invites and calls us on to lay hold of the inheritance of the heavenly country; [0952C] the Psalmist bearing witness, who says: *He will declare,* he says, *the power of his works to his people, that he may give them the inheritance of the nations [n: (Psal. CX, 6, 7)]*; so that, while we behold the very tombs of the saints shining with so many miracles, we may in no way doubt of their immense glory, in which they already reign with Christ; that, earthly things being despised, our mind may now transfer itself by desire to that place where it hopes to rejoice forever, and our spirit may freely direct itself there where Christ the emperor of heaven reigns unspeakably with the senators of the court above; to whom be glory and dominion with the co-eternal Father and the Holy Spirit through all ages of ages. Amen.


site: migne

title: De castitate et mediis eam tuendi

author: Peter Damian

languages: en la

source_edition: Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 145, coll. 709D–716C

source_text:
## ARGUMENTUM.

Damiano nepoti inter caeteras virtutes castitatem praecipue commendat: quam ut facilius tueatur, quotidie ut Dominicum corpus percipiat suadet. Deinde contra insidias daemonis illum instruit. Postremo, ut se priori commendet, petit: quem de hospitalitate servanda admoneat.

[0709D]DAMIANO charissimo filio PETRUS peccator monachus paternae dilectionis affectum.

[0710D]Quia litterarum gerulus anxie parat exire, non possum, quae mittenda sunt, elimata styli digestione [0711A] conscribere; teque volo ut potius veri consideres sensum, quam aucuperis lenocinia phalerata verborum. Interim itaque, dum praesto rescribere nequeo, sufficiat hoc tibi simpliciter scribi, quod Timotheo velut aequaevo per epistolam Apostolus praecipit: « Dum venio, inquit, attende lectioni, exhortationi, atque doctrinae [n: (I Tim. IV)]. » Cui nimirum jam et ista praemiserat: « Exemplum esto fidelium in verbo, in conversatione, in charitate, in fide, in castitate [n: (Ibid.)]. »

## DE CASTITATE ET MEDIIS EAM TUENDI.

## CAPUT PRIMUM. *Quod castitatis virtus junioribus difficilior sit.*

Et ut de caeteris virtutibus quae nunc per epistolam enumeratae sunt interim taceam, castitatem, quam ultimam posui, non in membris tantummodo [0711B] studeas servare corporeis, sed haec eadem permaxime regnet ac vigeat in visceribus cordis. Nulla quippe virtus est quae in adolescentiae flore graviora certamina perferat, quam videlicet velut in camino surgentis incendii, titillantis illecebrae genuinus ardor impugnat. Sed cum super hoc themate nobis uberius disputare non liceat, quia prae nimia celeritate non vacat, quid mihi imperatrix, Agnes olim scilicet aureo quidem diademate coronata, nunc autem multo felicius et incomparabiliter eminentius in regis aeterni thalamo collocata, hesterno jam vespertini temporis elabente crepusculo, retulit, hic annotare succincte raptimque non pigeat; ut apud animum tuum, non tam laciniosa loquendi prolixitas quam insignis exempli dignitas convalescat. Porro dum praefata [0711C] Christi sponsa, et B. Petri filia, in omnium dispositione virtutum delectabiliter pascitur, in tractanda tamen castitatis pudicitiaeque munditia propensius immoratur. Unde factum est ut, dum nonnulla de salute animarum mutuis confabularemur eloquiis, et praecipue quasi quosdam versaremus in manibus vernantis flosculos castitatis, illa hoc in medium protulit: Postquam imperator, inquit, Otto regnum Italiae Berengario victor eripuit, captas illico duas ejus filias in Teutonicas partes exsilio transmigravit. Quae nimirum, dum venusti vultus specie et insigni corporum pulchritudine regum referrent generis dignitatem, coeperunt multi regni proceres Adelaidi Augustae vehementer insistere, ut tam elegantis formae decus dotali sibi mererentur copula [0711D] sociare. Quae nimirum puellae dum omnes procos aequa prorsus dedignatione contemnerent, et mortale conjugium sanctae superbiae supercilio fastidirent, una illarum duos pulcinos suis uberibus supposuit, et tandiu inter vestem et carnem, donec omnino putrescerent, occultavit. Cumque conspiceret homines ad suum venire colloquium, laxabat occulte vestem, et naribus colloquentium gaudebat exhalare fetorem. Cumque colloquentes ei hanc quotidie narium paterentur injuriam, tandem cessavit delusa sollicitudo quaerentium, et virgo Christi, per simulatam carnis alienae putredinem, inviolabilem sui corporis [0712A] servavit integritatem. Unde factum est ut utraeque postmodum sorores eligerent sanctimoniale propositum, et usque ad finem vitae monachicum servarent irreprehensibiliter institutum. *743*

## CAPUT II. *Quod frequens eucharistiae susceptio est praesidium castitatis.*

Quamobrem pudeat, vel, o fili, vitio libidinis enerviter, vel in cogitatione succumbere, de quo cernis infirmiorem et fragilem sexum cum tanta gloria triumphare: et, ut frementem bestiam valeas, ut ita loquar, ex agro tui juris expellere, satage te, frater, jam quotidie Dominici corporis et sanguinis perceptione munire. Videat occultus hostis labia tua Christi [0712B] rubore rubentia, quae territus perhorrescat, et mox in tenebrarum suarum latibula pavescendo diffugiat. Quod enim tu per visibilem panis ac vini speciem suscipis, ille, velit, nolit, Dominici corporis ac sanguinis intelligit veritatem.

Porro autem eadem mihi tunc venerabilis regina narravit quod nuper in Vormaciensi ecclesia, dum longiori per negligentiam tempore eucharistia reservata fuisset in buxide, sola postmodum illic caro fuerit reperta. Ita dum curiosius in eam multorum visus intenderet, nil aliud quam veram ac solidam carnem procul dubio judicaret.

Rainaldus etiam venerabilis Cumanae Ecclesiae pontifex dum adesset, quod sibi paulo ante contigerat, veridicus enarrator exposuit: Presbyter, inquit, in [0712C] ecclesia cui, Deo auctore, deservio, hodieque nisi fallor advivit, qui tam parvam ac tenuem in litterarum habet doctrina notitiam, ut aperte quoque scriptionis articulum syllabatim vix valeat legere; nimia tamen paupertate constrictus, utcunque missarum cogitur solemnia celebrare. Hic aliquando dum sacri muneris eucharistiam detulisset aegroto, ut erat utique deses ac negligens, aliquantulum Dominici sanguinis remansit in calice. Quod cum ille in ecclesiam rediens comperisset, sed fastidio praepeditus noluisset accipere, mox calicem lavit, et in labrum marmoreum in quo erat aqua sanctificata, projecit. Et, o magnum divinae virtutis indicium! illam labri partem quam id quod effusum est de calice, contigit, in sanguineum ruborem repente convertit, ubi scilicet [0712D] duae majores guttae sanguinis exprimuntur; sed neque illae, neque aliae quae juxta videntur esse minusculae, nullo possunt studio vel ablui vel abstergi, quo rubor impressi sanguinis aliquatenus valeat aboleri. Cum ergo purpureus ille cruor tam tenaciter haeserit in vase lapideo, quantum putamus jus sibi potestatis vindicat virtus illa coelestis in pectore Christiano? His itaque coelestibus sacramentis, fili charissime, te frequentius munire non differas, quibus videlicet diabolicae versutiae et subdolae machinationis argumenta repellas. Praecinctus erigere, constanter atque robustus sta semper in acie, nec [0713A] ignores indeficientem adversarium contra te infatigabiliter dimicare. *744*

## CAPUT III. *Diabolus transfigurat se in angelum lucis, ut monachum decipiat.*

Interea dum haec loquor, et illud nunc ad memoriam redit, quod Hildebrandus Romanae Ecclesiae archidiaconus, eisdem qui superius memorati sunt et episcopo praesentibus retulit: Duos, inquit, sanctos monachos vidi, et non mediocrem apud eos locum familiaritatis obtinui; qui nimirum singulis morabantur in cellulis, apud monasterium quod in loco constructum est qui dicitur Aquisgrani, quorum videlicet alter, qui majoris videbatur esse simplicitatis, Marinus; alter autem Romanus vocabatur proprio [0713B] nomine. Sed Marinus vix ulla dies erat in qua diabolum vel per speciem aliquam non aspiceret, vel per somnium non audiret, adeo ut antiquus hostis sibi saepe compsalleret, simulque cum eo divinae laudis officia celebraret. Aliquando vero tenebrarum auctor se transfiguravit in angelum lucis, eique quasi legem dictando mandavit: Cave, inquit, quia qui angelum Dei et aspicere et alloqui meruisti, indignum est ut de caetero cum hominibus loquaris. Protinus ille, tanquam mandatum divinitus accepisset, a fratrum se funditus collocutione removit, seque sub rigida silentii censura constrinxit. Cui cum frater Romanus primo, deinde abbas monasterii, ut sibi loqueretur vehementer insisteret, et ille praedantis labiis [n: ( suppl. responsum vel quid simile )] non [0713C] mitteret; abbas, fores cellulae violenter irrumpens, dignis indiscretum fratrem verberibus castigavit, et sic ad reddendum sermonis officium compulit. Cui mox admonendum subjunxit: Idcirco, inquit, antiquus adversarius, bonorum semper operum inimicus, silentium tibi tentavit imponere, ut et tu fructum fraternae aedificationis amitteres, et illi qui a te sublevandi erant tuae consolationis auxilium non haberent. Sic itaque frater, quia non malitia, sed ex simplicitate peccaverat, ad mentem quantocius rediit, et, contempta suggestione diaboli, admonitionibus pii patris humiliter acquievit.

Sed dum te, fili mi, ad evacuandas antiqui hostis insidias provoco, quid praefata regina retulerit audisse ex ore beati Leonis noni Romanae Ecclesiae [0713D] pontificis, non omitto. Ait itaque praedictus papa: Amita mea, sanctimonialis effecta, in quodam virorum erat monasterio constituta; ibique in propria degens cellula cum quadam pygmaea, id est brevis staturae femina, quotidianae laudis officia patienter et humiliter persolvebat.

## CAPUT IV. *Quod diabolus signo crucis cognoscitur.*

Quadam vero nocte cum ante nocturnae synaxis [articulum, *vel* horam *vel aliquid simile* ] maturius surrexisset, comitemque suam more solito saepius inclamasset; illaque, gravi sopore depressa, nullatenus responderet, tandem in iram commota, quid diceret non attendit: Diabole, inquit, surge. *745* [0714A] Ad quam vocem praesto diabolus, ejus quae dormiebat effigiem repraesentans, accessit; et mutuos reddendo versiculos, psallere simul coepit; cumque ad illum psalterii locum modulatione continua pervenissent ubi dicitur: « Exsurgat Deus, et dissipentur inimici ejus, et fugiant a facie ejus qui oderunt eum: sicut deficit fumus, deficiant [n: (Psal. LXVII)], » et reliqua: hic illico malignus spiritus substitit, et hos exprimere versiculos non praesumpsit. Hoc sancta mulier cum apud se miraretur, expavit; et, quod erat, non inaniter suspicans, signum sibi sanctae crucis imposuit, statimque malignus hostis evanuit; et quis esset qui sanctae mulieri psallendo comes exstiterat, se fraudulenter occultando monstravit. Huic etiam venerabili matronae nocturnis horis nequam [0714B] spiritus cadaver cujusdam hominis, qui pro suis sceleribus appensus fuerat, attulit; et, ut illi terrorem incuteret, hujusmodi sibi, ut ita loquar, xenium procuravit. Quae mox abbati loci fratrumque conventui quid sibi nequissimus hostis fecisset innotuit; atque ut pro illo misero fratres omnes in commune preces effunderent, obnoxiis [ *f.* obnixis] precibus impetravit. Postmodum vero cuidam divinitus revelatum est, per orationes fratrum illum misericordiam consecutum. Sic itaque deceptus hostis antiquus, qui dum viventi machinatur illudere, jacturam cogitur de mortuo sustinere.

## CAPUT V. *Christianae charitatis exemplum.*

Ad hoc igitur et hujusmodi diabolicae tentationis [0714C] tibi proponuntur exempla, ut et ipse contra hostis callidi deceptoris insidias solerter evigiles: et, dum te delectat aliorum cum hoste luctantium audire victorias, ipse te per languidi corporis ignaviam non remittas. Sed jam ista sufficiant. Commenda me fratribus, domno priori ex nostra parte humiliter suggere ut a fervore solito pietatis et misericordiae non tepescat, sed susceptionibus hospitum et subsidiis egenorum, in quantum res domestica patitur, insistere non omittat. Sed et illi conveniens exemplum profero, quod huic rei, quam sibi suadere gestio, non mediocriter profuturum esse confido. Nam et eadem Agnes regina quae supra inquit etiam quia vir quidam in Alemanniae partibus avia saltuum, praerupta montium, opaca sylvarum venandi studio [0714D] peragrabat. Hic itaque dum anxius huc illucque discurrit, et sollicitus curiositatis indagine ferarum lustra perquirit, invenit duas mulieres, matrem scilicet ac filiam, per illos hiemalium cumulos pruinarum et profunda nivium rudera miserabiliter oberrantes. Qui protinus misericordia ductus, comiti suo qui eum solum sequebatur, ait: Levemus in equis has feminas, singuli singulam, et ad hominum habitacula devehamus, quia vel oberrantium forte luporum sunt morsibus exponendae, vel vi nimii algoris sunt procul dubio moriturae. Quod comes penitus abnegat, et hanc se ferre posse stomachatur injuriam. Cui dominus: Ego, inquit, si tu fastidis, solus utramque levabo, et hanc quam dicis injuriam [0715A] alacriter sustinebo. Cumque unam *746* post se, et alteram, in medio residens, poneret ante se: tandem socius mente compunctus atque confusus, domino suo cessit unam, et ipse ad subvehendum corripuit alteram. Sic igitur eas per difficillima loca et longos anfractus non sine gravi periculo detulerunt, donec scilicet molendinum casu obvium reperirent, ibique eas deponerent. Adjecit etiam dominus ut uni earum vestem traderet, qua vim frigoris aliquatenus temperaret. Hic aliquanto post tempore factus est monachus, et deinceps, ingravescente molestia, ad extrema perductus est. Tunc fratribus, qui astabant, cum magna coepit animadversione clamare, dicens: Videtis innumerabilium daemonum turbam, quae me undique circumvallat, meque terribilibus oculis intueri [0715B] et impugnare non cessat? Cumque continuis orationibus et psalmodiae fratres insisterent, ille tamen nihilominus tremefactus visceribus formidaret, tandem ille qui sibi, sicut dictum est in venatione comes exstiterat, assistens propius exclamavit: Nonne vides quod mulier illa quam tecum simul ad aquimolum devectavi, vestimentum illud quod sibi tunc dedi tenens in manibus, ventilat, et omnes in hac domo daemones violenter exturbat? Paulo post, ecce, Deo gratias, ejecti sunt, et a meis obtutibus, mulieris hujus impulsu, prorsus evanuerunt. Sic igitur ille sub bonae spei securitate defunctus est, et misericordiae fructus, quos vivus exhibuit, oblatos sibi, dum moreretur, invenit. Nam saepe contingit ut inter multas carnalium actionum tenebras [0715C] unum boni operis lumen erumpat, quod hominem ad bonum finem portumque perducat.

## CAPUT VI. *Per unum opus bonum Dei pietas peccatores salvat.*

Unde non otiosum arbitror si et id quod Stephanus ejusdem reginae capellanus, vir videlicet honestus et prudens, enarravit, attexo. Ait enim quod Stedelandus imperator Galliciae retulit, quod tunc ad unius notitiam, alio postmodum referente, pervenit: Tres, inquit, meretrices erant, obscenis lupanarium foeditatibus deditae, et, ut ita loquar, omni [0716A] transeunti turpi lenocinio prostitutae, sed cum regio illa communi Saracenorum et Christianorum esset habitatione permixta, illae se Christianis quidem turpiter exponebant; Saracenorum vero consortia funditus abdicabant. Cumque se dolerent illi in hoc foedo negotio despici, suaeque genti conquererentur injuriam irrogari, tandem eas ad tribunal praesidis pertrahunt, et ut suis quoque, sicut Christianis, in luxuriae permixtione consentiant, vehementer insistunt. Sed dum scelus hoc apud eas, modo terrores, modo blanditias intentantes, aliquatenus obtinere non possent, prolata sententia praesidis, adjudicatae sunt morti. Quid plura? Protinus spiculatores accedunt, nudis cervicibus vibratos pugiones incutiunt; sed ne supremam quidem cutem incidere, cassatis ictibus, [0716B] possunt. Interea dum et istae mori alacriter *747* volunt, et illi occidere nequeunt, carcerali custodiae mancipantur. Nocte vero uni earum, quae quasi superior erat caeteris, Salvator apparuit, eique dixit: Noli timere, hodie certamini vestro finem imponam, vosque cum corona martyrii in gloriae meae amoenitate suscipiam. Sequenti vero die ad tribunalia judicis deducuntur, inquisitione facta, eadem nihilominus sententia perseverat; idem est qui fuerat animus; et Agarenorum, sicut prius, per omnia detestantur amplexus. Protinus ergo carnifices, quoniam in cervicibus earum nil se posse probaverant, earum guttur gladio defaecant [desecant], *748* et sic de meretricibus martyres efficiunt. Sed quoniam longius quam incipiendo decreverat, jam stylus iste [0716C] perducitur, cohibendus est calamus, et epistolaris compendii ponendus est modus. Tandem divinae pietatis imploro clementiam, ut inter caetera virtutum et totius sanctae religionis insignia, inviolabile tibi servandae pudicitiae robur infundat, et vasculum tui corporis in sanctificatione et honore custodiat; quatenus is qui dicit in Canticis: « Ego flos campi, ego lilium convallium [n: (Cant. II)]; » sicut pro te dignatus est fieri filius Virginis, sic etiam vernare te faciat floribus castitatis.

*Sit nomen Domini benedictum.*

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## ARGUMENT.

To his nephew Damian he commends chastity especially among the other virtues; and, that he may guard it the more easily, he urges him to receive the Lord's body daily. Then he instructs him against the snares of the demon. Lastly, he asks that he commend him to the prior, whom he is to admonish concerning the keeping of hospitality.

[0709D]To DAMIAN, his most dear son, PETER, a sinful monk, the affection of a father's love.

[0710D]Because the bearer of this letter is anxiously making ready to set out, I cannot write out what must be sent with any polished ordering of style; [0711A] and I would have you consider the sense of the truth rather than go hunting after the bedizened allurements of words. For the present, therefore, while I cannot write back at leisure, let it suffice that this be plainly written to you, which the Apostle enjoins by letter upon Timothy as upon one of like age with you: « Till I come, he says, attend unto reading, unto exhortation, and unto doctrine [n: (I Tim. IV)]. » To whom, assuredly, he had already sent these words before: « Be thou an example of the faithful in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in chastity [n: (Ibid.)]. »

## ON CHASTITY AND THE MEANS OF GUARDING IT.

## CHAPTER ONE. *That the virtue of chastity is more difficult for the young.*

And, to say nothing for the moment of the other virtues which have just now been enumerated in the letter, be zealous to keep chastity — which I set last — not only in the bodily [0711B] members, but let this same virtue above all reign and be vigorous in the inmost parts of the heart. For there is no virtue which in the flower of youth endures heavier contests, assailed as it is by the inborn ardor of a titillating enticement, as though by a furnace of rising flame. But since I am not permitted to discourse more copiously upon this theme, because in my excessive haste there is no leisure, let it not irk me to set down here, briefly and hurriedly, what the empress Agnes — once crowned indeed with a golden diadem, but now far more happily and incomparably more eminently placed in the bridal chamber of the eternal King — told me yesterday, as the twilight of evening was already slipping away; so that in your mind it may not be so much a fringed prolixity of speaking as the worth of a notable example that gains strength. Now while the aforesaid [0711C] bride of Christ and daughter of blessed Peter feeds with delight upon the ordering of all the virtues, yet she lingers the more readily upon the treatment of the cleanness of chastity and modesty. Whence it came about that, while we were talking together in mutual discourse of certain matters touching the salvation of souls, and were especially turning over in our hands, as it were, some little blossoms of chastity in their spring, she brought this forward into the midst: After the emperor Otto, she said, as victor snatched the kingdom of Italy from Berengar, he straightway carried off his two captive daughters into exile in the German parts. And since these, by the comeliness of their countenance and the notable beauty of their persons, recalled the dignity of a royal line, many nobles of the realm began vehemently to press the empress Adelaide, that they might be counted worthy to join to themselves in a dowered union [0711D] the grace of a form so elegant. But these girls, since they despised all their suitors with an altogether equal disdain, and loathed a mortal marriage with the lifted brow of a holy pride — one of them placed two chicks beneath her breasts, and hid them between her garment and her flesh until they had utterly rotted. And when she saw men coming to converse with her, she would secretly loosen her garment, and rejoiced to breathe out the stench upon the nostrils of those who spoke with her. And when day by day those who conversed with her suffered this affront to their noses, at length the baffled eagerness of her seekers ceased; and the virgin of Christ, by the feigned putrefaction of another's flesh, preserved the inviolable [0712A] integrity of her own body. Whence it came to pass that both sisters afterward chose the purpose of the consecrated life, and to the end of their days kept the monastic institution blamelessly. *743*

## CHAPTER II. *That frequent reception of the Eucharist is a safeguard of chastity.*

Wherefore let it shame you, O son, to succumb unmanfully to the vice of lust, or even to succumb in thought, seeing that you behold the weaker and frailer sex triumph over it with so great glory. And that you may be able, so to speak, to drive the raging beast out of the field of your own jurisdiction, take pains, brother, to fortify yourself now daily by the reception of the Lord's body and blood. Let the hidden enemy see your lips red with the redness of Christ, [0712B] and let him shudder at them in terror, and presently flee away trembling into the lurking-places of his own darkness. For what you receive under the visible appearance of bread and wine, he, willing or unwilling, understands to be the truth of the Lord's body and blood.

Moreover, the same venerable queen then told me that lately in the church of Worms, when through negligence the Eucharist had been kept for a rather long time in the pyx, flesh alone was afterward found there. So that, as the gaze of many was bent upon it rather curiously, one would beyond doubt have judged it to be nothing else than true and solid flesh.

Rainald also, the venerable bishop of the Church of Como, being present, set forth as a truthful narrator what had befallen him a little before: There is a priest, he said, in [0712C] the church which by God's appointment I serve — and unless I am mistaken he is alive to this day — who has so small and slender an acquaintance with the learning of letters that even a plainly written passage he can scarcely read syllable by syllable; yet, constrained by excessive poverty, he is compelled somehow to celebrate the solemnities of the Masses. Once, when he had carried the Eucharist of the sacred gift to a sick man, being as he was slothful and negligent, a little of the Lord's blood remained in the chalice. And when, returning into the church, he discovered this, but, hindered by squeamishness, was unwilling to consume it, he presently washed the chalice and cast the water into a marble basin in which there was hallowed water. And — O great token of divine power! — that part of the basin which what had been poured out of the chalice touched, it suddenly turned to a bloody redness, in the place, namely, where [0712D] two larger drops of blood stand out; and neither those, nor the others which appear beside them to be smaller, can by any effort be either washed off or wiped away, so that the redness of the imprinted blood might in any degree be done away. Since, therefore, that purple gore clung so tenaciously in a vessel of stone, how great a right of power do we suppose that heavenly virtue claims for itself in a Christian breast? And so, most dear son, do not put off fortifying yourself the more frequently with these heavenly sacraments, whereby you may drive back the devices of diabolical craft and crafty contrivance. Rise up girded; stand ever in the battle line, steadfast and strong; and be not ignorant that [0713A] an unfailing adversary fights against you untiringly. *744*

## CHAPTER III. *The devil transfigures himself into an angel of light, that he may deceive a monk.*

Meanwhile, as I say these things, there now returns to memory that also which Hildebrand, archdeacon of the Roman Church, related in the presence of the same persons mentioned above and of the bishop: I saw, he said, two holy monks, and obtained no slight place of familiarity with them; who indeed dwelt in separate cells, at the monastery which is built in the place called Aachen; of whom the one, who seemed to be of the greater simplicity, was called by his own name Marinus, and the other [0713B] Romanus. But as for Marinus, there was scarcely a day on which he did not either behold the devil in some appearance or hear him in a dream — so much so that the ancient enemy would often chant the psalms along with him, and celebrate together with him the offices of divine praise. But once the author of darkness transfigured himself into an angel of light, and, as though laying down a law, charged him: Take heed, he said; since you have been counted worthy both to behold and to address an angel of God, it is unfitting that henceforth you should speak with men. Straightway that man, as though he had received a command from heaven, withdrew himself utterly from converse with the brethren, and bound himself under a rigid strictness of silence. And when brother Romanus first, and then the abbot of the monastery, vehemently pressed him to speak with them, and he would put forth nothing from his plundering lips [n: ( suppl. responsum vel quid simile )], [0713C] the abbot, violently breaking in the doors of the cell, chastised the indiscreet brother with the stripes he deserved, and so compelled him to render the office of speech. And presently he added this by way of admonition: For this reason, he said, the ancient adversary, ever the enemy of good works, attempted to lay silence upon you: that you might both lose the fruit of fraternal edification, and that those who were to be relieved by you might not have the help of your consolation. And so the brother, because he had sinned not from malice but out of simplicity, returned to his right mind with all speed; and, despising the devil's suggestion, humbly acquiesced in the admonitions of the devout father.

But while I rouse you, my son, to bring to nothing the snares of the ancient enemy, I do not omit what the aforesaid queen related that she had heard from the mouth of blessed Leo the Ninth, pontiff of the Roman [0713D] Church. So the aforesaid pope said: My aunt, having been made a nun, was established in a certain monastery of men; and there, dwelling in her own cell with a certain pygmy — that is, a woman of short stature — she discharged the offices of daily praise patiently and humbly.

## CHAPTER IV. *That the devil is detected by the sign of the cross.*

But on a certain night, when she had risen rather early before the [articulum, *vel* horam *vel aliquid simile* ] of the night office, and had called out to her companion repeatedly in the accustomed manner, and the other, weighed down by a heavy slumber, made no answer at all, at length, moved to anger, she did not heed what she was saying: Devil, she said, get up. *745* [0714A] At which word the devil was at hand and drew near, presenting the likeness of her who was sleeping; and, rendering the verses in turn, he began to chant the psalms together with her. And when in unbroken chanting they had come to that place of the psalter where it is said: « Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered, and let them that hate him flee from before his face: as smoke faileth, let them fail [n: (Psal. LXVII)], » and the rest — here the malignant spirit at once stopped short, and did not presume to utter these verses. When the holy woman wondered at this within herself, she took fright; and, suspecting not idly what the case was, she set upon herself the sign of the holy cross, and immediately the malignant enemy vanished; and by fraudulently hiding himself he showed who it was that had stood as the holy woman's companion in the psalmody. To this venerable matron also the wicked [0714B] spirit brought, in the night hours, the corpse of a certain man who had been hanged for his crimes; and, that he might strike terror into her, he procured for her, so to speak, a guest-gift of this kind. She presently made known to the abbot of the place and to the convent of brethren what the most wicked enemy had done to her; and with submissive [ *f.* obnixis] prayers she obtained that all the brethren should pour out prayers in common for that wretched man. But afterward it was divinely revealed to a certain person that through the prayers of the brethren that man had obtained mercy. And so the ancient enemy was outwitted, who, while he contrives to mock the living, is compelled to suffer loss over the dead.

## CHAPTER V. *An example of Christian charity.*

To this end, therefore, are examples of diabolical temptation [0714C] of this kind set before you: that you yourself may keep skillful watch against the snares of the crafty and deceiving enemy; and that, while it delights you to hear of the victories of others wrestling with the enemy, you may not yourself grow slack through the sloth of a languid body. But let these things now suffice. Commend me to the brethren; humbly suggest to the lord prior on our behalf that he grow not lukewarm from his accustomed fervor of devotion and mercy, but that he fail not to persist in the receiving of guests and the relief of the needy, so far as the household's means allow. And for him too I bring forward a fitting example, which I am confident will profit not a little toward this matter which I am eager to urge upon him. For the same queen Agnes mentioned above said also that a certain man in the parts of Germany used to range, in his zeal for hunting, the trackless glades, the steeps of the mountains, the shadowy depths of the woods. [0714D] And so, while he ran anxiously this way and that, and with careful searching of his curiosity sought out the lairs of wild beasts, he found two women — a mother, namely, and a daughter — wandering miserably through those heaps of winter frost and the deep wastes of snow. He, straightway led by mercy, said to his companion, who alone was following him: Let us lift these women onto our horses, each of us one, and carry them down to the dwellings of men; for either they will perhaps be exposed to the bites of wandering wolves, or beyond doubt they will die by the force of excessive cold. This his companion utterly refuses, and testily protests that he cannot bear such an indignity. To whom his lord said: If you disdain it, I alone will lift them both, and will cheerfully bear this indignity, as you call it. [0715A] And when he had set one *746* behind him and, sitting in the middle, the other before him, at length his comrade, pricked in mind and put to shame, yielded one to his lord, and himself caught up the other to carry her. And so they bore them through most difficult places and long windings, not without grave peril, until they found a mill that met them by chance, and there set them down. The lord further directed that he should hand over a garment to one of them, whereby she might somewhat temper the force of the cold. Some while afterward this man became a monk, and thereafter, as his sickness grew heavy, he was brought to his last hour. Then he began to cry out with great alarm to the brethren who stood by, saying: Do you see the throng of innumerable demons which hems me in on every side, and does not cease to gaze upon me with terrible eyes [0715B] and to assail me? And when the brethren persisted in unbroken prayers and psalmody, while he nonetheless, trembling in his inmost parts, was still afraid, at length that man who, as has been said, had been his companion in the hunt, standing closer by, cried out: Do you not see that the woman whom together with you I carried to the watermill, holding in her hands that garment which I then gave her, is fanning it, and violently driving out all the demons in this house? A little after — behold, thanks be to God — they have been cast out, and at this woman's driving they have utterly vanished from my sight. And so that man died in the security of a good hope, and found offered to him, as he lay dying, the fruits of mercy which he had shown while alive. For it often happens that amid the many shadows of carnal deeds [0715C] one light of a good work breaks forth, which leads a man through to a good end and haven.

## CHAPTER VI. *Through one good work God's mercy saves sinners.*

Wherefore I judge it not idle if I weave in also that which Stephen, chaplain of the same queen, a man indeed honorable and prudent, related. For he says that Stedelandus, ruler of Galicia, reported what then came to the knowledge of one man, another afterward relating it: There were, he said, three harlots, given over to the obscene foulness of the brothels, and, so to speak, prostituted by base pandering to [0716A] every passer-by; but since that region was mingled by the common habitation of Saracens and Christians, they indeed exposed themselves shamefully to Christians, but utterly renounced the company of Saracens. And when those men grieved that they were scorned in this foul traffic, and complained that an injury was being inflicted upon their people, at length they dragged the women to the tribunal of the governor, and vehemently insisted that they should consent to their own people also, as to the Christians, in the commerce of lust. But when, plying them now with terrors, now with blandishments, they could in no degree obtain this crime from them, the governor's sentence was pronounced, and they were condemned to death. What more? Straightway the executioners approach, and drive their brandished daggers against the bared necks; but their strokes are made void, and they cannot cut [0716B] even the topmost skin. Meanwhile, while these women eagerly *747* wish to die, and those men are unable to kill, they are consigned to the custody of the prison. But in the night the Savior appeared to one of them, who was as it were the chief of the rest, and said to her: Fear not; today I will set an end to your contest, and will receive you, with the crown of martyrdom, into the delightfulness of my glory. But on the following day they are led to the tribunals of the judge; the inquiry being made, the same sentence nonetheless stands; their mind is the same as it had been; and, as before, they detest in all things the embraces of the Hagarenes. Straightway therefore the executioners, since they had proved that they could do nothing upon their necks, sever their throats with the sword [desecant], *748* and so make martyrs out of harlots. But since this pen of mine is now carried further than it had determined at the outset, [0716C] the reed must be checked, and a limit set to the compass of a letter. Finally I implore the clemency of the divine mercy, that among the other marks of the virtues and of all holy religion it may pour into you the inviolable strength of a modesty to be kept, and may guard the little vessel of your body in sanctification and honor; so that he who says in the Canticles: « I am the flower of the field, I am the lily of the valleys [n: (Cant. II)]; » even as he deigned for your sake to become the Son of the Virgin, so may also make you blossom with the flowers of chastity.

*Blessed be the name of the Lord.*

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license_translation: CC BY-NC 4.0

license_apparatus: CC BY-NC 4.0