Techildis or Theodechildis

ON S. TECHILDIS OR THEODECHILDIS, DAUGHTER OF CLOVIS I, KING OF THE FRANKS, VIRGIN AND FOUNDRESS OF S. PETER-THE-LIVING AT SENS.

6TH CENTURY.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Theodechildis, a Royal Virgin, devoted to God, among the Senones in Gaul (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

§. I. The Diploma of Clovis, by which the Saint, his daughter, and foundress of the monastery is maintained to be.

Vivus Le Vif was a suburban village of the city of Sens, where there was a church dedicated to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, with a plainly royal monastery, The title of Foundress is established from her Epitaph, which is commonly called, S. Peter-the-Living. The Foundress in the year 1643 was still spoken of by her Epitaph, inserted in the wall of the Choir at the side of the Gospel, after which the sacred body of the same was then found, thus written.

This place the Queen built for the Monks from the foundation, Techildis, ennobling it with her possessions. Although now this body be enclosed in this cave, Her spirit lives in the starry vault, with God, Imploring for upright Pastors, "Well done, blessed one"; May God give to those who snatch hence, alas! the deserved punishment.

To the Epitaph agrees that of Count Basolus, and other documents of near time. there also deposited, his Epitaph, concerning which below; and also the Privilege of Emmo, Bishop of Sens, in the third year of Clothair III, which was 653, perhaps not yet a hundred years elapsed from the death of the Saint, granted to Abbot Agnilenus and the Brethren residing with him of the monastery of S. Peter and Paul, which the Lady Theodechildis the Queen once by her own work built, or she herself there seems to have her sepulchre, below the town of the city of Sens. Which Privilege whole may be read in part 2 of the 3rd Benedictine century, page 613, and so fittingly illustrated by the most learned Mabillon, that no place is left for doubting of its sincerity, although the unskillfulness of the transcribers perhaps roughened the style with more solecisms, than there had been in the original parchment.

[2] Clarius, a Monk of the same place and Chronologist, who indicates himself to have lived in the year 1108, She is said to have been the daughter of Clovis the King and up to 1184 with his writing he reaches, beginning from the year 446, after the narrated baptism of Clovis the first Christian King among the Franks, and the sons begotten of Chrothildis the most Christian Queen; There was, he says, to the aforesaid King and Queen a daughter by name Techilda, who, baptized, vowed virginity to God. … Who, her father and brothers still living, began to build, on the eastern side of the city of Sens, a monastery, in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul. in the Chronicles of the monastery and the Bulls of the Pontiffs, Following Clarius, at the beginning of the 13th century, Robert of Auxerre in his Chronicle; and at the end of the same century Gaufridus a Collone in his tract on the Relics of that church have similar things; then as many as thereafter made mention of that monastery. Nay even the Roman Pontiffs (whose band Paschal II leads, at the beginning of the 12th century holding the helm of the Church) repeatedly are said to repeat these words, namely Which monastery Theodechildis, daughter of Clovis the King, is known to have founded, and with gifts of her possessions enriched: nor do I think anyone at all doubted, concerning which however it began to be doubted in this century; until in this curious century there began all the monuments, even the most ancient, of past affairs to be brought into examination; not indeed without slight annoyance to those, to whom it seemed unjust to be compelled to render account, not always easy, of their affairs; but not without great profit to themselves, while, agitated by contradictions of this kind, the truth of such matters shines more; and at last, the dust being wiped off, which too-secure-of-itself antiquity had brought, the certain from the uncertain, the probable from the certainly false are distinguished.

[3] Which indeed seems to happen to those first records of Clovis the King and of Theodechildis the Royal Virgin, in which the aforesaid foundation is contained. especially concerning the instrument of the King, These namely, having been winnowed by the judgment of several critics, and almost by common consent of the learned rejected, D. Hugo Mathoud is said to have vindicated from the calumny of forgery, in a little work not yet seen by me on the true Christian origin of the Senones and on the Bishops of Sens, published in the year 1687. But lest I should want for it, the diligence of D. Tossanus du Carroy, there in the year 1691 Subprior, who deigned by a prolix letter to answer the doubts moved by me in the Propylaeon to volume 2 of April, provided; in so far as those seemed to be against the aforesaid instruments' sincerity. But many of them already had satisfied in his most learned work on diplomatics D. John Mabillon; and, with the light which from that letter I drew being added, and which from the aforesaid little works it will be easy to draw for those having them; for me there is no need more laboriously here to reproduce; only the difficulty remained of saving the Chronotactic notes which in them offer themselves, or of the fault if any crept into the ancient transcripts of the old and now faded originals, to be corrected by the true reckoning of time. I begin from the very diploma of the King, of which this is the tenor, described from the collation of a twofold transcript, the variety of the slightly differing reading being omitted, which the exemplar sent to us accurately has noted in the margin.

[4] who says, that in the 3rd year after his baptism, he In the name of Christ, Clovis, King of the Franks, to all the faithful of Christ, who dwell in my whole kingdom. Peace and truth be always with us. In the third year, after I received the grace of baptism by the hands of my Father Remigius, Bishop of Reims, and was catholicly imbued with all the Christian law; while I resided in the city of Paris, with my wife Chrothildis, by whose exhortation I came to the Christian law; together with my sons, namely Theodoric, Chlodomir, Childebert, and Clothair, [gave to his daughter goods of her maternal inheritance, on the part of the father, R. of the Burgundians,] and the other Nobles of the Franks; there came before my presence my daughter most dear, Theodechildis, who devoted herself a virgin in Christ, asking of me with many prayers, that I would bestow on her whatever portion of my inheritance, or of the inheritance of her mother; asking moreover, that in that inheritance it might be lawful for her to build a monastery of Monks, in honor of the Apostles. Hearing therefore I so just a petition, I delivered to her the part of my inheritance, which came in my lot, on the part of my wife Chrothildis, which inheritance was of the father of the same my wife, Chilperic, King of the Burgundians.

[5] First therefore I deliver to her my two churches, one in honor of the blessed Martyrs Savinianus and Potentianus, the other in honor of B. Serotinus the Martyr, with all the tithing, and whatever seems to pertain to them: situated in the field and city of Sens, for those churches are distant from the city of Sens one mile; but between those churches are about fifty paces. Therefore in the cemetery of those churches. … For there is in those churches of the blessed Martyrs, from ancient times, the burial of the Prelates of Sens or of the Clergy of S. Stephen, and of the Nobles of the same city, and of the people of that district, on account of the bodies of the Martyrs; and their successors, the venerable Pontiffs of the city of Sens, that is, Leontius, Severinus, Audatus, Eraclius, Lunanus, Simplicius, and Theodoricus the Archdeacon, with other holy men. I deliver also to her my demesne village, Vicus [Vif] by name, with its appendages: in which, as we said, my most dear daughter desires to build her monastery, that is, Planta, Malfiacus the lower, and the water Venanda, which there runs, with the Mills, and the wood; also the land which is at Spinetum, or whatever in the circuit of that village of S. Peter I seem to have and possess. A market also in that village on Thursday I grant her: a yearly Fair likewise I grant her, on the festivity of the Apostles Peter and Paul, etc. There follow the names of several churches and villages, which, situated in the diocese of Sens, hitherto in part the monastery enjoys, the rest by Archembald the Bishop and other Magnates (as the ancient Chronicles bear) injuriously alienated and retained, whose enumeration, easily to be found elsewhere, more laboriously to transcribe Tossanus thought superfluous. But I deem it to concern him, who about the whole writing is to judge, whether it be sincere or not, and how far; that he have the whole text before his eyes. Therefore from the curious Miscellanea of our Labbe, page 389, have the following.

[6] A yearly Fair likewise I grant her on the festivity of the Apostles Peter and Paul, which is on the third of the Kalends of July. Likewise, that none of our Ministers, with all immunity as the Burgundians held them, neither Count, nor Viscount, nor any Judge, publicly in the market, nor in that yearly fair, take any custom, except the Monks themselves who there shall serve God; nor wheel-tolls, nor men to be constrained: but let them hold securely without any contradiction, as my predecessors the Kings of the Burgundians held. But I deliver to her the land which is called Castellum-Britonis, and Villa-Mari. But my church, which is in honor of the Martyrs Savinianus and his Companions, with all the tithing, I grant her. The village also which is called Saucerys, with the wood which is in it. I deliver to her likewise the village, which is called Seligniacus the greater, together with the wood, which is in it; and the village, which is called Seligniacus the lesser, I grant her. But in the city (that all the people may know, that a Catholic I have become, and that this which I do with a willing mind I do) beside the gate which is at the Eastern part, I deliver to her my demesne chapel, dedicated in honor of holy Peter, which built my wife Chrothildis: plots also sixty in the city. But beyond the Yonne, lands cultivated and uncultivated with vineyards: likewise the bridge which is over that river, and the plots beneath the bridge; a fishery having forty-six poles, and two dexters. But I retain in my own hand plots very many in that city, and Massiliacus-the-greater with its appendages.

[7] Besides the things which I deliver by this charter to my daughter most dear, still other things I deliver, of which these are the names. The church which is in the village which is called Vianaretum, with the tithing; and that whole village, with its appendages, and the wood which is in it. Likewise the Church, which is called Villa-Jaso, with all the tithing; likewise many other things of his own proper right and the whole village, with the woods subject to it. The Church also which is called Ciconias, dedicated in honor of S. Peter, and all the tithing; the whole village itself, with the woods subject to it, and with all its appendages, of which these are the names. The village which is called Bardellus, upon the Yonne river, with mills and fishing, with meadows, vineyards, lands cultivated and uncultivated, etc. All these with the bondservants remaining thereon, farmsteads, houses, buildings, cultivated lands, open lands, vineyards, woods, fields, meadows and pastures, waters and water- courses, the whole and entire matter unsought-into with all solidity, to the aforesaid monastery for the honor of our special Patron the Apostle, founded for those, who there day and night henceforth are known to serve God, may it advance in increase. We command therefore and establish the same monastery, for the building of the monastery; under royal protection, which my daughter most dear desires to found, with all things pertaining to it, under our defense and mainbour guardianship; and this confirmation of our royal authority, from all disturbance and authority of judiciary power, so free and secure we decree to be; that no public Judge, or anyone supported by the authority of judiciary power, into the churches, or places, or fields, or any possessions, which at the present time, in whatever territories within the dominion of our rule, justly and lawfully the aforesaid monastery seems to possess, or into those which henceforth shall come to the dominion of that Monastery, to hear causes, or freda or tributes to exact, or lodgings or provisions to make, or fidejussors or men of that monastery, both freeborn and serfs, dwelling upon its land, by his rashness to restrain; nor any redhibitions or illicit exactions to require; through laticos, nor toll-collectors, nor wheel-tolls or port-tolls or river-tolls to take, in our or future times, let him presume to enter or to take away: but let all be secure and peaceful with fullest defense: and so let the Monks hold them, as my predecessors the Kings of the Burgundians held securely and quietly, and with fullest liberty without any contradiction. These things transcribed from Labbe, I proceed with the transcript of Tossanus.

[8] I deliver to her also Duke Basolus, very proud and swollen, but now humbled, likewise the possessions of Duke Basolus in the Aquitanian Provinces, whom in chains I hold, with all his inheritance, with castles, villages, lands, churches, and the rest of his possessions, on this condition, that from this present day and henceforth the whole and entire matter unsought-into, to the aforesaid monastery of S. Peter of Sens, at all times to remain we decree, for the sustenance of the servants of God, who there in time shall succeed, and the assiduous receiving of the poor, and the lights to be continued, and the Sacrifice to be offered, or the house of God itself to be directed, those things in the future may remain. But these things of Basolus are in the Arvernian Auvergne province, and in the Limousin, and in the district of Cahors, and the district of Périgord, and in the district of Gévaudan.

[9] I therefore, Clovis, King of the Franks, ask my successors the Kings that this donation, which I have conferred on God and his Apostles, and on my most dear daughter Techildis, and the Monks there serving God, that firm and stable to remain they may cause through all the ages. Amen. But if anyone shall attempt to come against this writing, first let him incur the wrath of God, and in no way be able to prevail: the Kings and their children subscribing, 5 but almighty God, who said, To me vengeance, I will repay; let him condemn the one who this our charter into any calumny shall have brought. Amen. * Done publicly in the city of Paris before his sons. † I Clovis in the name of God King of the Franks, with my own hand confirmed and subscribed. † I in the name of God Chrothildis the Queen. † I in the name of God Theodoric the son, King. † In the name of God Clodomir the King, his son. † I in the name of God Childebert the King his son. † I in the name of God Clothair the King his son. and 8 Bishops, † I in the name of God Theodechildis, his most dear daughter. † I in the name of God Eraclius, Archbishop of Sens.

[10] † I in the name of God Remigius, now old, Bishop of Reims. † I in the name of God Principius, Bishop of Soissons. † I in the name of God Medardus, Bishop of Noyon. † I in the name of God Vedastus, Bishop of Arras. † I in the name of God Germanus, Bishop of Paris. † I in the name of God Austregisilus, Archbishop of Bourges. † I in the name of God Genebaudus, even after the time of the granting. first Bishop of Laon. These last seven were not present when the instrument was written; some even could not be, by the reckonings of times and ages, but afterward, being asked (according to the custom, approved by Mabillon in book 2, chapter 20, and bringing forward examples of the very records, sculpted from the autograph, in book 5, table 17 and table 21, number 2) these seven, I say, in no order subscribed, a space being left empty for that end; and finally signing, the King's first Counsellor (whom later generations called Mayor of the palace) and the Chancellor or Notary, † I in the name of God Aurelianus, Counsellor of the King. I Geilebertus wrote and subscribed this testament. † Given in the month of October, in the first Indiction, in the name of God at Paris in the royal city. Worthy of consideration here are certain signs prefixed to the subsignatures of nearly all. Vedastus alone lacks it: and Chrothildis sets it after her own name. The signs themselves, which by the lack of such singular types could not be expressed in their place, thou wilt find below in the Epitaph of Basolus, from Duke a monk.

§. II. The faith of the Diploma as to its substance is asserted, the interpolations are noted, the year of the Saint's birthday is sought.

[11] These things most faithfully from a twofold legal copy, one of the year 1368, Somewhere the year of Christ 500 is intruded, the other of 1485, with his own hand D. du Carroy transcribed for me, where at * only is read, Done publicly in the city of Paris before my sons. A less sincere transcript Labbe had, from which moreover he read, In the year of the Lord five hundred; but the sixteenth of his reign; but from his baptism the third year. Where three things it is fitting to note. First, that then about noting the year of the Lord had not yet begun to think, perhaps not yet fit for any graver study, Dionysius Exiguus, with Indiction 1, which do not agree: of his reign 16 a Roman Abbot, the first inventor of numbering the years from the Incarnation, about the year 533; Second, that the year of the reign, which is set as 16, then ought to have been 21 according to Henschenius; according to others at least 19: for the King died, according to the man of Tours, in the year of his reign 30, of his age 45; of Christ according to Henschenius, 509; according to others, 11. Third, that about that Baptism the chronologists of the middle age variously hallucinated: but every place of doubting the Epistle of Pope Anastasius II removed, congratulatory on its having been received: for this Pontiff began to sit in the year 496 on the 12th day of September, nor lived beyond the 8th of September of the year 498, as I think I have sufficiently proved. But from this foundation, there is no contradiction, so that the Donation could have been made in the third year of his received baptism, and the same year of the Lord five hundredth. But it remains, that this year was intruded by later generations, and indeed wavering about the beginning of the reign; but more grievously they erred, when to those characters they presumed to add the Indiction I, which in October of the year 500 was altogether numbered Indiction IX. That Indiction I is read, not only in the transcript which Labbe used, but also in those which the Monks of Vif preserve and esteem; whence certainly it appears that neither are these altogether pure from interpolations. Indeed I do not think that for the complete sincerity of their transcripts the people of Vif will fight more pertinaciously, wherefore neither does Mabillon believe the diploma sincere. since Mabillon, among the Benedictines most learned, could never persuade himself that they were truthful, not even as to substance, nowhere daring to assert their foundress Theodechildis, the daughter of Clovis, whom, he says, some call the daughter of Clovis, others of Theodoric his bastard son; some a virgin, others married.

[12] Those who deny that she was the daughter of Clovis, almost also maintain that she could not have been at least of Chrothildis, scarcely eight years before the day of the diploma, If the Saint be said to have been born of Chrothildis as they at least think, married. If therefore it can be maintained that she was married earlier, it will be possible so far for the diploma to be true; which I, in so constant an asseveration of the Chronologists of Vif, would not wish to deny, unless convinced by evident reasoning. Let us see therefore whether the marriage of Chrothildis, and (which would be consequent) the birth of Theodechildis up to the year 490 must necessarily be deferred, from the mind of S. Gregory of Tours. He narrates in book 2, chapter 27, how the King, still a Gentile, many wars and victories made: for in the tenth, he says, year of his reign, on the Thuringians he made war, and them to his dominions subjugated; then about to pass to his baptism, to which his wife, taken from the Burgundians, gave occasion, he begins to weave the history of those Kings; of whom one, Gundobad, the two daughters of his brother whom he had slain, condemned to exile, married not in the year 492 of whom the younger was called Chrothildis. Furthermore Clovis, while a legation into Burgundy he often sent, the maiden Chrothildis is found by his legates: who when they had seen her elegant and wise, and known that she was of royal race, announced these things to Clovis the King. And not delaying he, to Gundobad a legation directs, her for himself in marriage asking: which he, fearing to refuse, delivered her to the men: and they receiving the maiden, to the King quickly present her. Whom seen, the King exceedingly rejoiced, joined her to his own marriage, having already of a concubine a son by name Theodoric. Hence the learned Annalist wishes it to follow that at least two years intervened between the Thuringian war and that royal marriage: (which is assumed from the man of Tours, from which, although Theodechildis were supposed to have proceeded first, before Ingomer, who immediately after baptism procured by his mother died, and Chlodomer surviving baptism; scarcely could she in that opinion have been eight years old in the third year after her father's baptism; but her three brothers ought to have been by degrees younger, when they are read as subscribed to their father's donation.

[13] I, the more attentively I consider the history of the man of Tours, especially in the first two books; the less do I find observed by him an order of years. He rather summarily and in a heap touches matters: but ill understood) and so nothing compels [us] to make the treaty of the Burgundian marriage later than the Thuringian war. Let us suppose therefore the King eighteen when he begot Theodoric, twenty when he married Chrothildis; the year then would have been the fifth of his reign, of Christ 484 or 486; and so the royal offspring would already have begun to grow up in the third year after baptism received, but about 486; of Christ 500. Yet to this third year why we should tenaciously be held to adhere, I do not see. For as much could this year have been corrupted in the transcripts aforecited, or from the fancy of the transcriber been added, as the note of the Indiction, unused by the Kings of the Merovingian stock, and some others. Adhering therefore to the common opinion of the learned, referring the Royal Baptism to the Lord's Birthday of the year 496, and if for the 3rd year after baptism, the 13th be taken, of Christ 509. there could for the third year from thence, be substituted the year thirteenth, and the Donation be believed signed in the month of October of the year 509 even in the Henschenian calculation; by which the King is said to have died in that very year, on the 27th day of November; much more in the opinion of others, deferring that death to the year 511: when not only Theodechildis, but even the youngest of all, Chlothair, could have attained puberty.

[14] Such a change of the third year, into the thirteenth, escapes a by no means slight annoyance, Aquitaine having already long ago been subdued from the year 504 or 6, which against the substance of the donation itself the learned Annalist objects, following our Labbe, while he asks, what right Clovis could have through Aquitaine in the year of Christ five hundred, the Gothic war, in which he removed King Alaric, and all Aquitaine subdued, not yet undertaken? For by the testimony of Gregory of Tours Clovis died after the Vouillé war, in which Alaric was conquered, in the year fifth, and so that battle was first joined in the year 504 or 6. But the Arvernian province, and the Limousin, and Basolus being given into chains. Cahors, Périgord, and Gévaudan, districts, in which his possessions, transcribed to Theodechildis, Basolus had, pertain to Aquitaine: but Duke Basolus himself from his own Epitaph is understood under the title of treason to have been cast into chains, certainly after faith given to the King, found with the Goths driven from Aquitaine to be plotting new things, so that deservedly his captivity to the last years of Clovis altogether seems to be referred. Eraclius the Bishop also can Nor here let anyone object to us the death of Eraclius, Bishop of Sens, referred to the year 507 by Baronius, who therefore could not have subscribed living a donation made so much later; but he is found not only subscribed to the instrument of Clovis, to have lived beyond the year 520, but also to the other of Theodechildis, in the year after her father's death the ninth. For him in the Episcopate his brother succeeded, and probably survived a short time; but the next from these as Bishop of Sens, Leo, is not held known before the year 533; and therefore gratuitously is Eraclius said to have died in the year 507, and what without argument and witness is said, freely is denied, since hitherto nothing hinders that he lived to the year 522 and beyond.

[15] Charles le Cointe, resolved to indulge nothing to that antiquity, nor is it proved that she founded a maidens' monastery long before: but to hold both instruments as ridiculous and false, confidently pronounces those found for no other cause, than that the monastery of S. Peter, which is of men, in antiquity might be believed equal to the convent of virgins, which Eraclius the Bishop founded in the suburb of Sens. But first he ought to have shown some maidens' convent founded by Eraclius, Clovis still living. For of that monastery no high memory survives, except in a certain Chronicle of Sens, by D. Tossanus cited to us, where it is read, that S. Eraclius founded a monastery; and because he loved virginity, in honor of the B. Apostle and Evangelist and Virgin, he founded there holy Virgins, placing it near S. Peter the Living. The same his Life published on the 8th of June confirms, saying, that the Church aforesaid the same Pontiff out of his own means handsomely endowed; and Virgins who worthily to God in it should serve he gathered. Tossanus adds, that they remained there until the year 735. Which being granted, these words of Emmo the Archbishop in the aforenoted privilege, that none of the Bishops, except asked by the Congregation itself or the Abbot, should dare to approach the secret or feminine enclosures, whereas it is enough if it be granted that she did it at some time, must be understood of the holy Virgins, having dwellings contiguous to the greater church of S. Peter, and a proper or private oratory dedicated to S. John the Evangelist, not far from the greater area of the convent, where, says Tossanus, a Cross even now stands erected from ancient times. But also in the greater church the same Virgins seem to have had above the principal door a hanging choir, whence they had a view into the high altar to hear Masses and other divine Offices; yet so, that the chanting monks the Virgins did not see, nor by them were beheld: for in the Processional of the year 1661 even now is named the Seat of B. Theodechildis, which she has in the Choir of the Virgins.

[16] But of these none confirms the aforesaid censure, so long as it is not proved that some maidens' monastery was founded earlier than the men's: and that after the men's monastery was founded by the Saint; nay rather the very silence of the ancient diplomas about that which otherwise was to have been subjected to the men's convent; makes it probable enough that not until after the men were founded was it thought about gathering Virgins, of whom the first may be presumed to have been those, who to S. Theodechildis, serving God short of monastic profession, and retaining the title and state of Queen, were present for familiar ministry; and whom, she being dead or still living, S. Eraclius by the imposition of the veil consecrated. Which veil that the Queen herself also before her death received, as nothing prevents believing, so neither does any authority of fitting antiquity persuade. From maiden age indeed Devoted to God both she herself and her Father the King call her, but such an appellation a Monastic profession by no means implies, as Mabillon ingenuously acknowledges on the life of S. Ebbo, number 6, citing the words of Clarius narrating, how the Lady Ingoara consecrated to God, [who does not seem to have been made a Nun, but only to have lived a Virgin by vow.] the sister of S. Ebbo, and another sister of his, Leotheria or Mummia, likewise consecrated to God, gave all their inheritance to S. Peter… and there they lie in the oratory of S. Mary, where also S. Ebbo himself [is] buried together, who shone after death with innumerable virtues, having died before the year 744, as Mabillon demonstrates, nor inscribed in any sacred Calendars hitherto, because the day is unknown. Of Ingoara no instrument is brought forward, whence may be discerned, whether she was truly the sister of Ebbo, as Clarius presumes; of both adding, that they so disposed their goods while still living and confirming Ebbo their brother: of Leotheria it is rightly doubted, since her testament, solicitous about the eternal retribution and her own burial, is signed in the fifth year of the reign of Clovis the King, namely the Younger, concurring with the year of Christ 695, Ebbo having already died 42 or 43 years before.

[17] There remains a final difficulty, and that in my judgment most grave, The King could not say that he held Sens on the part of S. Chrothildis because it touches more closely the very substance of the matter, nor is it correctable by a change of number. All the estates comprehended in this donation, besides those which had been Duke Basolus's, within the diocese of Sens are comprehended, in which to the Burgundians, before they were subjected to the Franks, not even one foot of land fell: and yet Clovis professes, that to his daughter he delivers a part of his inheritance, which came in his lot on the part of his wife Chrothildis; which inheritance was of the father of the same his wife, Chilperic, King of the Burgundians. Then twice commands the same law, (over which the Burgundian Kings had no right) those estates to be held by the Monks, securely and without any contradiction, as his predecessors the Kings of the Burgundians had held. Rightly here asks the Annalist, which of the ancients wrote, that the territory of Sens passed from the Burgundians to the Franks, because Clotildis the Burgundian had married Clovis, King of the Franks? Indeed I do not think there is anyone who would wish to maintain that the King so wrote; but that there will be many, who would wish the people of Vif asked, how they think it could have come into the mind of their writer, to note a matter so alien from all probability, and to be condemned of falsity by anyone even moderately versed in the deeds of the Franks. I conceive the matter to have been done in this way.

[18] The King had asked for himself the maiden and received [her], no mention being made of a dowry, much less of the paternal inheritance, which he knew could not by Gondebad without arms be recovered. unless perhaps by an exchange made, with that While he prepares these things against the tyrant, who had killed his brother the King, and the orphaned daughters despoiled of a fitting part for each had sent away; he may have ceded to Chrothildis a part of Sens for the right which she had in Burgundy as hereditary, to be possessed by the same right by which she would have possessed it, if her father Childeric had truly held it. So Clovis may have begun to hold the same no longer by his own right, as before, but by his wife's right, and to call them the inheritance of Chrothildis, by a certain legal fiction, by which to her the direct dominion of Sens, but to the King her husband only the indirect was reckoned to belong: by force of which exchange the Burgundian kingdom the King might claim for himself by full and direct right. But this, when in terms very obscure the original donation insinuated, nor sufficiently understood the second or third writer of the same perhaps lost donation, or by a donation made to her by himself by cause of the marriage. so he preferred to speak, as if truly Chilperic and his ancestors had been Kings of Sens. Usual to the ancients, especially the Lombards, and probably also the Franks, was the Donation on account of marriage; Morgengab they called it, because after the first night it was given to the bride by the bridegroom for a "good morning," as says Ernest, Duke of Bavaria, in Cange in the Glossary. But such a donation corresponded to the dowry, which to the bridegroom the bride had brought: yet by law it was provided among the Lombards, that such a donation should not exceed the fourth part of the goods of the bridegroom. But such a title had not the character of inheritance, and so is less apt to this place; where it is asked, how of Sens Clovis could dispose, as of his wife's inheritance; which is had by the title of exchange made with the inheritance itself.

§. III. The aforesaid foundation, completed by Theodechildis's own testament, in the ninth year after her father's death.

[19] The aforementioned donation of Clovis being thus excused, so that as to substance only it can be verified, It is more certainly proved that Theodechildis was the daughter of Clovis, but not as to the other circumstances; and so it ought not for an original or sincerely transcribed from originals to be held; it will seem to have not great force, to prove that the daughter of that King was truly the foundress of the often-said monastery; unless that from elsewhere more certainly were proved. from her more sincere testament: But it is proved, as I said above, from the Epitaphs and the most ancient tradition of that very place, to which it mattered nothing, whether its Foundress was Clovis's daughter or granddaughter, whether at the beginning or the maturity of the 6th century she flourished, so that on that account men consecrated to God should wish entirely to invent Charters and Epitaphs. These certainly still speak their own antiquity to those who behold them; and of these the first, weaker for faith, is supported by another far more sincere, and in which thou canst reprehend nothing except the year of the Indiction, intruded by the transcriber. The Testament, I say, of S. Theodechildis herself, which from a transcript of the year 1221 the aforepraised Tossanus thus transcribed for me.

[20] To the lordly and sacrosanct monastery, in honor of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, below the town of the city of Sens, to which she cedes the monastery by our work from the foundations built. I in the name of God Theodechildis, daughter of Clovis the late King.

Let everyone trust that this pertains to the increase of his reward, the Lord requiting him, if anything of his own goods, toward the places of the Saints, many estates and churches in the district of Sens, with full devotion of mind, with divine inspiration, in future times, for the sustenance of the servants of God or of the poor, he shall have wished to assign. Therefore I, considering the case of human frailty, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the dangers of my misdeeds and of our parents to be washed away, by this letter of cession, I cede to that holy place, and ceded forever I will it to be, and from my right into the right and dominion of that church I transcribe and transfer, that is the thing of my property, which from our progenitors came to us in inheritance. That is, Massiliacus the lower and Planea, or what in the circuit in that village of S. Peter I seem to have and possess or in the district, both of what is purchased or of whatever acquired, is known to have come to us. Likewise the villages, whose names are, Saliniacus, Sanciacae, Viciniae, Cicuniae, Fontanae, Villacatum, Curtemaurum, Fusciacum, Villare, Tresmons, Paridum, Vogadrum, half of Bajona. In Geminiacum a church in honor of S. Peter, and whatever there seems to look to it in entirety; Baniacum in entirety: also a fishing plot in the Yonne river, beneath the bridge, having poles 46, and two dexters, which from my father the aforesaid Clovis for this very thing I obtained. In the district of Maglidon, a village which is called Villa-vetus of Champagne, Silviniacum in entirety; and in the district of Auxerre a little place named Misciacum. All these with the bondservants remaining thereon, farmsteads, houses, buildings, farmyards, vineyards, fields, woods, meadows, pastures, waters and water-courses, the whole to the aforesaid place in honor of our special Patron Peter the Apostle founded, for those who henceforth day and night there are known to serve God, may it advance in increase.

[21] with the goods ceded to her by Basolus in Auvergne This also it has pleased us to add in the present letter of cession; that the things which a certain man by name Basolus, for the redemption of his life, in Aquitaine bestowed on us by his Instrument, in the places whose names below are contained inserted, fully to the aforesaid place perpetually in the name of God may advance in increase. That is, in the district of Auvergne in the vicariate of Mauriac, first in that very village of Mauriac a church built in honor of S. Thyrsus the Martyr, or whatever in that village a portion of mine seems to be in entirety; and a demesne house, in a place called Cucinianum with appendages; these are Turpiacum, Cartigiae, Muntesugum, Albolum, Viriliacum, Carice, Fagidum, Farrum, Abbierolae, Ternesugum, Bolon, Erausinum the upper in entirety, Mons-tredens, Nova-villa, Villa-barbarorum, Carmina, Biavera, Areae, Magniacum, Rigniacum, Surigniacum, Bion, Mons-sagin, Metiacum, Toliniacum, or whatever to those places seems to pertain, both in farmsteads, houses, buildings, serfs and freemen, lands cultivated and uncultivated, woods, accesses, meadows, pastures, waters and water-courses, the whole and entire matter unsought-into. Also and in that very district of Auvergne, a village which is called Ursicide, with farmsteads and serfs there dwelling, and the demesne vineyards in entirety.

[22] Likewise also in the district of the Limousin, at Sancticiacum, four churches, one in honor of S. Mary, S. Peter and S. Sulpicius, another in honor of S. John the Baptist, the third in honor of S. Julian the Martyr, the fourth in honor of S. Martial: and the district of the Limousin; to which are subject the places named Logunzanicae, where a demesne house of the aforementioned Basolus is recognized to have been; a village which is called Pungum upon the channel of the Dordogne; the village Rigatum, Clusa, Vapra, Villa-hibernalis, Mons-majorinae, Casanica; likewise Mons-cisternae, Vuaradum, Papulaniae, Pomenus, Lonena Riberia, Eredia, Culippia, Lucus, Fanzanicae, Eugavicae, Casanicae, Clanciacum; likewise Mons-villa which is called, Latissima, Marimilla, Ursinanicae, Adilla, Eagia; likewise Jasuniae, Mariscus, Transmons, Cabianiae, Reufeniae, Halmabrae, Milla, Milla-Vetula, and also in that very district of the Limousin Ingrafia, Canteleusa, Brutia, Lucus, Vuapra, Nubriacum, all and from all whatever in the aforesaid districts or territories we have, both in farmsteads, coloni, buildings, woods, vineyards, fields, meadows, pastures, waters and water-courses with goings, returns, looking to those places above named, the whole and entire matter unsought-into, to the aforesaid monastery of S. Peter at all times to remain we decree, for the sustenance of the servants of God, who there through the times shall succeed, and the assiduous receiving of the poor; namely in the alms of the Lord and my Begetter Clovis, and for the remedy of my soul, let it have the lights to be continued, or the house of God itself to be directed, let those things remain.

[23] But if anyone against this our writing, under a dire imprecation by which the aforesaid to the aforementioned monastery with full and entire will to write we have asked, and presently delivered, at any time ever of our heirs, or any opposed person anything to object or to reclaim or to contradict shall attempt; first the wrath of God almighty let him incur, and from the Christian people separated, and from communion alien let him become: and moreover let him pay, against the invaders, to the parts of that monastery, the fisc enforcing, 15 pounds of gold, 50 weights of silver; and nonetheless what he desires to claim let him not be able: but let this cession of our will, the Lord being its author, obtain perpetual vigor of firmness, with the appended stipulation. Done at Sens in the month of September, in the ninth year, my brother Chlothair reigning, in the second indiction, in the name of God happily, Amen.

† I in the name of God Theodechilda, devoted to God, Bishops and various Abbots attesting, with my own hand confirmed.

† In the name of God Heraclius, Archbishop of Sens. In the name of God Geritus, Bishop, asked. In the name of God Helatius, Abbot. In the name of God Moschardinus, Archdeacon. In the name of God Gualdebertus, Abbot. In the name of God Tudebertus Deacon. Sig. Guinemarus. Signum Waldebertus. In the name of Christ Germanus, Bishop of Paris. In the name of God Medardus, Bishop of Noyon … Agedulphus. Sign. Doannus. Sign. Ragnardo. Sign. Elario. Sign. Adrebertus. Sign. Ecreberti. Sign. Elerico. Sign. Aistulpho the Count. Sign. Boniverto the Defender. I in the name of God Amalbertus the sinner, Abbot, this testament, my Lady Theodechilda asking, wrote.

[24] The 9th year of Clothair, reigning at Soissons, counted from his father's death, is the year of Christ 518 or 520, the year 518 or 520, as we indicated above: but then that SS. Germanus and Medardus were not yet Bishops is confessed: but that difficulty from Mabillon we solve, by saying that most of them, who between Eraclius the Bishop and Amalbertus the scribe signed, at successive times did this, as it befell them to have the aforesaid testament offered for confirmation. To this however not adverting Odorannus, by le Cointe, I know not whence, nor in his own proper words cited (for the former part of his Chronicle, printed by Andreas du Chesne in volume 2 of the Franks, is still wanting) Odorannus, I say, in le Cointe at the year 564, number 36, is said to write that the monastery of S. Peter was founded, when Clothair ruled over all France, that is after the year of Christ 558, whence the ninth year reckoned, would be 567; not indeed denying the first donation, made to the daughter by Clovis the father so much earlier; but deferring the completion of the work until the last years of Theodechildis; but not the year 567. whom he holds to have lived 75 years from the common opinion of those ascribing to the Foundress of S. Peter the years, which Fortunatus ascribes to her, as below we shall say, namesake granddaughter.

§. IV. The monastic profession and burial of Duke Basolus preserved through S. Theodechildis. The church of Mauriac erected on her estates in the 9th century. The diploma of Clovis again weighed.

[25] As concerns Duke Basolus the captive, and delivered to Theodechildis with all his possessions; In the year 1643 the chest of S. Theodechildis being opened, he has in this charter no difficulty, since it only supposes this done after the Aquitanian war. Yet because the Annalist silently passes him over, as unworthy in Frankish history to be named, whose true existence wholly depends on the faith to be given to the aforesaid charters, which to these he himself has none; it pleases [me] here to refer the notice communicated to us by letters from Tossanus. The whispers, says he, of certain pupils of the new criticism wishing the donation of Clovis to be spurious or doubtful and the cession of Basolus, Duke of the Auvergnats, for us the very conventual walls refute, the body of Basolus the Monk being also recognized, while they still retain and exhibit the most ancient Epitaph of him, contiguous to the former sepulchre of B. Theodechildis, and in nearly equal character sculpted on stone, under which rests even now his body in a chest, which in the year 1643, the bones of B. Theodechildis being translated, opened Octavius de Bellegarde, Archbishop of Sens: but since it was not established, that he was worthy of sacred honors and the vows of the faithful, the body untouched there he left, nor of its detection in the verbal Process did he judge mention to be made. This Epitaph moreover in as similar a form as I could, says Tossanus, sent by me, the most learned Sirmond, himself also an Auvergnat, esteemed so much, that that sincere token of venerable antiquity for the public good he wished to be given engraved in brass.

[26] whom the Epitaph still speaks of as taken by Clovis, I will not be loath to follow the judgment of the most learned man; and what he judged should be done, exhibited in the very work to give. Behold it therefore, as it was lawful from Tossanus's trust to sculpt it. The verses inscribed on the stone, the rule of orthography being kept, thus thou canst more easily read.

Duke of Aquitaine, at last Monk of Sens, Here is covered Basolus, blessed Peter, thine, Whom Techildis thy daughter, and the King Clovis gives thee, With many possessions of the country of Aquitaine, Which whoever shall take from thee shall lack the flower of Paradise; Increasing these, may he have life; with Basolus may he fare well.

[27] Reading these things, Sirmond, which in nearly the same character were written, in which we shall give below the Epitaph of Theodechildis, engraved in brass, not only set more recently in the 13th century; although above already given printed in type; could indeed praise the felicity of the hand, thus imitating antiquity, so that both Epitaphs now can seem sculpted at the same time: but he could not likewise not observe, how much after the 6th century the use of rhymes was received, for composing poems of that kind. Since therefore it is established, that the bodies themselves, in that place in which they were lately found, were placed (as below it will be said) within the years 1240 and 69; it is credible that the Epitaph indeed of Theodechildis together with the body was translated, and is the very one which was first set up; but also a more ancient one, afterward found, but for the old Epitaph of Basolus, which had perished, or among the rubble of the burnt church had been cast out by those not recognizing it, this new one was composed and sculpted, in imitation of antiquity, in the 13th century. There would not therefore be of this stone great authority with me, unless the true Epitaph of Basolus good fortune had preserved for us, if not on stone, at least in the Mss. of Gaufridus de Collone, in the year 1297 enumerating the Relics of his church; such namely as it had once been read in the Oratory of S. Bartholomew, in which first he is said to have been entombed. This from Gaufridus seems to have transcribed Urban Raversey, from whose Ms. History of the church of Sens, thus Mabillon recites it, before the Life of Ebbo aforecited.

[28] Here the limbs of the Consul rest, whom the Auvergne land Of the magnificent Basolus gave to be its own. where he is said himself to have ceded his goods to the monastery, Duke of Aquitaine, happy because he blessed the countryside, Consolidating the peoples in the increase of peace. Conquering Clovis, King of the Franks, in body, He disclaims this one to be his own proper Lord. By various arts at last the King, whom a traitor * Bound he held in the darkness of prison. But the royal offspring by merits, Queen Techildis, Him snatched away by prayers, made a Monk. The district of Aquitaine, or as much as the Auvergne land

Of his wealth held, here he conferred on the Monks; namely that what was taken from him by the right of war, the King is said to have given to his daughter; but she to have ceded [it] to the monastery; and he himself, as much as in him was, may have wished it given in his Profession: which I think he made in the order of Conversi, as nearly all the other Princes who passed from secular warfare to spiritual and mostly unskilled in sacred letters [did], having died on the 17th of February. even in the very monasteries which they had founded. But I think that, just as in the sepulchre of Theodechildis was found a little tile, signifying the day of her death, as below: so also was found in the burial of Basolus one, thus noted, On the 13th of the Kalends of March PASSED AWAY LORD BASOLUS THE MONK: and from such a foundation the aforesaid Raversey wrote in Mabillon, that the same Basolus died on the 17th of February.

[29] The strumentum or instrument of the cession made by Basolus, above indicated by the Saint, still lies hidden; In his goods the cell of Mauriac was built, the aforesaid more certainly to define, if at some time it come forth into the light. Meanwhile it appears, that first and chiefly were named there, the things which the same Basolus had possessed in the village of Mauriac. Hence Clarius in his chronicle, volume 2 of the Spicilegium, page 710, the ordination of Jeremias to the Archbishopric of Sens being narrated, in the time of Louis the Pious; He, says he, built a cell in Aquitaine, in a place which is called Mauriac, changing its name and calling it Noviacum, in honor of S. Peter, on the proper estate of that very S. Peter of Sens, which Theodechildis daughter of King Clovis, and Basolus, Count of Auvergne, for the love of God, for the stipends of the Monks had left; at the entreaty of Frodbertus, Abbot of S. Peter of Sens, that cell he built, because the men of that district the lands and estates of S. Peter were plundering, Monks being brought thither from Sens and retaining for themselves. He instituted also Regular Monks from the church of S. Peter of Sens, who there should serve God; so that that place, the estates and lands, which there it still possessed, might not wholly lose; and that that cell, God being its author, through all times, under the guardianship of Frodbertus the Abbot and his successors might be, and there might govern the villages and churches, which lie together in Aquitaine and Auvergne and in the district of the Limousin, as their predecessors governed. But the same Jeremias the Archbishop and Frodbertus the Abbot asked for a Privilege concerning the same cell.

[30] At these words the aforepraised Tossanus notes, that the Privilege itself is preserved in the archive of the Archbishopric of Sens, and is said to be signed in the year 824: under a privilege of the year 824, to which year that foundation also notes Gaufredus de Collone. Then the same Tossanus subjoins, that the constitution of the convent of Mauriac confirmed Paschal, Honorius, Lucius, Innocent, of those names the Second, Alexander III and Lucius likewise III, all in these words: The cell of Mauriac, constituted in the district of Auvergne, under the right always and direction of your monastery to remain we sanction, with all things and possessions pertaining to it, as justly and peacefully you possess, to your monastery we confirm. The same Honorius III in the year 1216 confirmed to the Abbot and monastery of S. Peter the right of instituting the Dean of Mauriac, and the direction of the Abbot of Vif. to whom Cardinal Ottobonus in the year 1269 prescribed laws, by which toward the Abbot of S. Peter the Living he should be bound, which afterward, having been made supreme Pontiff, he confirmed. Among them the seventh was such; It is the Abbot's right to visit the monastery of Mauriac, to correct, to establish things necessary; and that he could do yearly; but through others not except from triennium to triennium: and coming to Mauriac the Abbot, with a solemn procession by the Monks and villagers or townsmen shall be received, as their Lord in spiritual and temporal things. Likewise, the Dean dying, the faculty of subrogating another in his place asked the Convent of Mauriac from the Abbot of S. Peter the Living, whose also it was to confirm the elected Dean, from whom then the sacrament of obedience according to the established laws he exacted.

[31] Furthermore from the premises concerning the testament of S. Theodechildis, and the cession of Basolus, the diploma of Clovis I seem to myself at last to be able more distinctly to pronounce something about the Charter of Clovis, and to say; that it seems from two, which have perished, compounded, the substance of the matters being saved, but the circumstances from the fancy of the writer little happily invested. The first the King and Queen may have given, in the year after his baptism the third, of Christ 499; by which to Theodechildis, now having attained puberty, and at least twelve years old, after virginity offered to God, they may have ceded to her those possessions, which the King to the Queen in the district of Sens had given, either by title of exchange, or by cause of marriage; and that perhaps without any expression of the place, in which the maiden was to found the monastery, and beside it to live. Meanwhile it began, as the years went on, to be founded at Sens; and about the last years of the King, Basolus being cast into chains, it seems compounded from two, and given to Theodechildis, and made a Monk, may have offered to her for his life the allods of his right in the district of Auvergne and elsewhere, concerning which, if not Basolus himself, the King at least may have caused to be written a second instrument; to which the sons born of Crothildis subscribed, for to the first at the most could subscribe the one born of a concubine before the marriage, Theodoric. Thus the beginning of that, which we now have, diploma may be taken from the first instrument, and to be corrected in a few things. or rather from the memory of that, whose text was no longer had; and that with that base hallucination concerning Kings of Burgundy once dominant at Sens; so perhaps from the mind of the King correctable: I delivered to her a part of my inheritance, which came in the lot of my wife Crothildis, for the inheritance which was of the Father of the same my wife Chilperic, King of the Burgundians. And this correction admitted, there where the Monks are ordered to possess as the predecessor Kings of the Burgundians had possessed, must be substituted Kings of the Franks. And these things in the first part: but the second part will keep unvaried the end of the second charter; because all the King's sons could by their age have subscribed to this, not likewise to the first.

* Otherwise, "From three" and "Of the traitor."

§. V. On Theodechildis the Younger, daughter of Theodoric of Austrasia, praised by Fortunatus, confounded by many with her aunt.

[32] About to give the Life of S. Germanus of Paris, composed by Venantius Fortunatus, on the 28th of May, our Master Godefridus Henschenius, on the age of the Author thus prefaces: This is he, by his written poems most celebrated in his age, from Italy into Germany, and thence into Gaul brought, Fortunatus brought into Gaul about 565, about the year 565: where, after contracting with Gregory of Tours a friendship, adhering to S. Radegund, he fixed his domicile at Poitiers, made Presbyter of the same Church; and in that grade he seems to have persevered, as long as S. Radegund lived, about the year 590 deceased; he himself perhaps not before the death of Gregory, who died in the year 594, made Bishop of Poitiers, and made Bishop of Poitiers after 594, and about the year 600 deceased. These things to resume with a few changes here it was fitting, since a certain Theodechildis, a Queen, the same Fortunatus praised alive with a Eulogy, dead with an Epitaph. And it can be doubted, first, whether one or two he praises. Second, which of them, or whether at all any, was the foundress of the monastery, on whose account we treat these things. Concerning the first the order of the poems moves doubt, while the Epitaph is read in book IV, but the Eulogy in book VI. Concerning the second and third it can be doubted, because both in one and in the other writing of Fortunatus she seems to be indicated married: but their own foundress the people of Vif venerate as a Virgin: and from her very early adolescence devoted to God to have been, her father indicates in the Donation aforementioned.

THE EPITAPH OF QUEEN THEODECHILDIS,

In which, judging the order of the verses disturbed by the transcribers, I make the first and second distich, what hitherto was the fourth and fifth, and so I read.

Illustrious nobility, glittering with the light of her birth, Here, the day hastening, Theodechilda lies; To whom Brother, Father, Husband, Grandsire, and forebears, By a descending summit, were of the Royal order. Although the age of old age now bent her years, he praised with an Epitaph, Theodechilda the Queen, Yet the hope of many was quickly snatched away. If by prayers the debts of nature could be bent, The people with tears would make her survive for them. How great joys of the needy are shut under this tomb! renowned for her ancestors, grandsire, father, brother, husband Kings, And how many vows of peoples one day took away! The orphan, the exile, the needy, the widows, and the naked lying there, To have buried here their Mother, their food, their covering, they grieve. One thing alone pleased, for the heap of rich reward; She gave all things before help was asked. Hiding her gifts from her own, lest perchance they should forbid; But what closed she gave, the Judge being witness, she teaches. A cultivatress of the temples of the Lord, offering pious gifts; having died at the age of 75 years: Reckoning as her own whatever the needy had. One only lot is to die, and to render earth to the earth, Happy she, for whom by merits the day stands without end! Pressing on with these acts, brought back into the light of earth, Thrice five lustra she lived in the world, an ornament.

Tossanus thinks that in the ninth verse, by the name of Conjux Spouse not necessarily a husband is understood; but the father's wife can be taken; because that "Mother" might be set, the final short syllable did not permit, unfit with the word Avus Grandsire to make a dactyl: but if the Poet had regarded this, he could "Genitrix" Mother have written. The Eulogy given to her living is this.

The Eulogy of Queen Theodechildis.

Illustrious offspring, glittering from a Royal stock, as long before he had praised her living, To whom her origin gave a lofty name from her great-grandsires: There runs flying through the world the new glory of your race, And at once hence the Brother resounds, thence the Father. But although the noble progeny of the Parents shine, From your character the honor is multiplied. We discern in you whatever is praised in them: from the glory of her father and brother, Thou hast adorned, Theodechilda, the ancient race. A mind venerable, comely, skillful, pious, dear, kindly, Although thou art mighty in offspring, a greater grace is present. Avoiding causes of hatred: ample power shines forth; By which with less terror, more in love thou comest. Mild from the mouth the sound, most sweet sayings echo back: And the words of converse, are as the honey of the comb. from her excellent disposition, As much as thou precedest the feminine sex in honor, So much dost thou surpass others also by the work of piety. If a stranger arrive, thou receivest him with mind so kindly, As if by his services he had already pleased thy Grandsires. from her liberality toward the needy To the weary poor thy right hand sows food, That thou mayest reap crops with more fertile fruit. Whence thou nourishest the needy, ever satiated shalt thou remain; And what the needy takes, becomes that food of thine. Whatever thou bestowest on the needy reaches Christ: Even if no one sees, the things abide not to perish. When the final end comes to conclude the world, While all things perish, thou seekest better things: and toward the churches: The sacred Churches, by thy dispensing, are renewed: Thou foundest the house of Christ, and He thine. Thou buildest for Him on earth, He will give in the heavens: Thou exchangest better, thus to possess the poles. Thy talent stands without fraud, which thou sendest to the stars: The wealth thou well scatterest, this thou storest for thyself. Thou who livest for the Lord, losest not the highest honors: Thou holdest kingdoms on earth, by holding kingdoms in the heavens. May there now be long welfare, for the gift of the people, in the city: Happy thou, who by merits of perennial light shalt be.

[35] Now to the first point of the proposed doubt, whether in both those writings one is praised, The same [person is praised in both writings,] or two. If both thou comparest attentively between themselves, thou wilt find the same things especially praised in both, the Royal offspring, the solicitous care of adorning the churches, charity and liberality toward the needy and the people: whose reward the Poet in the Eulogy in some manner promises to the living woman, that she may give more; but in the Epitaph extols what was given. So that of one and the same person all things seem able and ought to be understood. Nor does it hinder, that the Epitaph is read in book IV, the Eulogy in the sixth. Thither they were referred, either by Fortunatus himself, or by the Collectors of his little works; not because the Epitaph and the whole fourth book was composed by him earlier than the Eulogy and the sixth book: but because the fourth is wholly of Epitaphs; and therefore also that was referred thither: but the sixth is wholly spent on the praises of living Kings and Queens: and most things can suit our [Saint, except the offspring] so that not of time, but of subject the speech and congruity in the partition of the books is to be regarded, and was before the eyes of those, who those poems, in themselves disparate, into a certain order and books had reduced. But to whom therefore do these things suit? Most things considered in themselves seem able to be applied to our Theodechildis, daughter of Clovis and Clothild, sister not uterine of Theodoric King of Austrasia; except in the part where his Theodechildis the Poet makes mighty in offspring. For that cannot suit ours; but neither can "offspring" here be understood (as one wishes) as if it were "progeny," and Theodechildis was mighty in progeny on the part of her ancestors. which she had not: For concerning her ancestors and her progeny from the royal stock of her great-grandsires, the Poet had already written, both in the first two distichs, and in the first verse of the third; beginning in the second to relate what to her more closely pertains:

But although the noble progeny of the parents shine; From your character the honor is multiplied. And then he proceeds the gifts and praises, proper to Theodechildis, to enumerate, her venerable mind, comeliness, skill, piety, charity, kindliness: and these, he says, have greater grace in her, who is mighty in offspring, on whom such gifts she bestows. Moreover in the second distich of the Eulogy, but she had several brothers, not one only. the whole race of Theodechildis and her glory seem restricted to her father and one brother: which to ours by no means squares, who had four brothers and those glorious: but it squares with her granddaughter by her brother Theodoric; to whom one only brother there was, and he glory in war, his father still living, the greatest having attained. Finally, if our Sens Theodechildis the Poet had taken to be praised, how in so prolix a Eulogy and Epitaph would he have kept silent her highest praise, virginity so constantly preserved?

[36] I judge therefore with Mabillon, that of the same person indeed the Eulogy and Epitaph were composed; They suit Theodechildis daughter of Theodoric but that easily twenty years earlier than this: but concerning what person? I think I have found her in Flodoard, History of Reims, book 2, chapter 4, treating of Mapinius, from the year 559 and earlier, to 572 Archbishop of Reims. In his, says he, times Suanegotta the Queen, to the Church of Reims is found to have assigned a third part of the village of Vireziacum, by a page of testament. Which part of the village the Prelate himself also to Theudechildis, daughter of the aforesaid Queen, by precaria, the right of the Church being saved, granted; only so, that after her death, without any prejudice, just as it had been improved by him, with addition to the Church of Reims it should revert. Which Theodechildis the Queen, afterward several, by the authority of her testament, in the time of Lord Ægidius, to the Church of Reims conferred estates, that is, about 580 well deserving of the Church of Reims, within the year 572 and 590, in which that Ægidius was deposed and abdicated. There is no need of other reckoning, says le Cointe, that thou distinguish Theodechildis daughter of Theodoric King of Austrasia, wont to dwell at Metz, from Theodechildis, sister of the same Theodoric, daughter of Clovis and Clothild. Likewise I think, that thou shouldst abjudge from this one, and adjudge to that one the Epitaph, and indeed also the Eulogy; not that there is need of other argument besides what is already said, to whom also this verse suits than that to the daughter of Theodoric, not to his sister, can suit this verse,

Brother, Father, Husband, Grandsire, and forebears, to all of whom alike, by a descending summit; that is, from succession to all, by a descending summit; that is, from hereditary succession, were of the Royal order.

[37] But her Spouse, a King, and the same a King's son, is sought: and is found in Procopius, book 4, chapter 20, of the Gothic History, and there were at least two husbands. where Theodechildis the younger, daughter of Theodoric King of Austrasia, sister of Theodebert, who from the year 534 to 548 reigned, to two Kings of the Varni, Hermegisclus and Radiger, successively married: from the first no offspring received; whether she received from the second, the History does not mention. With neither does she seem to have lived long, so that probably a third afterward in Gaul she may have entered marriage and borne offspring, of whom in the Eulogy, if from the second she had none. The Varni, says Procopius, a Transdanubian people, reach to the Ocean's northern parts and the river Rhine, which separates them from the Franks and other nations having seats neighboring to the Franks… Over them lately had ruled a certain Hermegisclus, who, to strengthen his kingdom, Metz being sent back to her brother the King about the year 540, had joined to himself in marriage the sister of Theodebert King of the Franks; having lost not long before the wife he had had, mother of one son, whom she dying had left to her husband, by name Radiger. To this son the father had betrothed a maiden of the Brittian race… but a little after, seeing himself about to die, having no children from his second wife, but his son to that very day inexperienced of marriage; considering moreover how much more advantageous it would be to the Varni with the Franks, than with the Brittians to contract affinity; he proclaims to his own, that whatever the Brittian maiden received under the name of betrothal, she should have for herself, as a solace for her spurned condition, by the right of nations: let Radiger henceforth dwell with his stepmother, as the ancestral custom bids. These things when he had said, on the foresignified fortieth day he fulfilled his fate. The repudiated Brittian thus crosses the strait of the sea with a great army of her own, and her brother as leader; she conquers the Varni in battle, takes Radiger, receives him as suppliant; who, loosed from bonds, dismisses the sister of Theodebert, and her formerly betrothed duly as wife takes.

[38] Nothing was readier, than that the Queen sought from Austrasia should return to Metz, where she was born, and whence to the neighboring church of Reims and to her own metropolis to do good was easy for her mother. born about the year 515 But let us make her to have been about thirty-five years old, when from the Varni she returned, born about the year 504, of her father in that kingdom in the 15th year; and deceased about 590, Fortunatus could to her, whom he had praised as more than sixty, deceased in the year of her age 75, write an Epitaph about the year 590, and so before the death of Gregory of Tours, to whom his Poems he himself inscribes. Thus best are reconciled, what concerning the benefactress of the Church of Reims, Theudechilda, Flodoard, and concerning the Queen of the Varni, twice betrothed, never a mother, narrates Procopius; in whose Gothic History many errors in vain seeks out Charles le Cointe, to prove that he erred, in calling Theudebert the King's ἀδελφήν sister, her who had been πατράδελφος, his aunt; and that, the foundress of S. Peter-the-Living's title of virginity being frustrated, he may make her be believed Queen of the Varni; and at the same time may overthrow the more ancient Monuments and Epitaphs of that monastery, making Theodechildis the daughter of Clovis a Senonensian: which same to the Life of S. Ebbo conversely also does Mabillon, following Hadrian Valesius, book 7 of Frankish affairs, while he confesses, that the Epitaph of Basolus there produced (and consequently also the Epitaph of Theodechildis) he esteems not in every part true; and Theodoric for Clovis to seem to be substituted: whereas in our opinion nothing distorted, nothing injurious to the people of Vif appears, but all things clear.

[39] But, thou wilt say, Clarius himself, and the rest after him, of their Foundress say, that she vowed to God virginity, and held [it] seventy-five years living: whose age of 75 years but this number of years make up thrice five lustra, in the Epitaph aforesent noted. I answer, that already from the 10th century, by common opinion it was received at Sens, that the Epitaph of Theodechildis of Sens was composed by Fortunatus; and since in his books no other was found, than the Epitaph of Theudechildis of Metz, her age Clarius transferred to Theudechildis the foundress of Sens with others, not knowing to distinguish them both. So when Archembaldus, rather a robber than an Archbishop to be called, it was wrongly attributed to the Sens [Theodechildis by those believing that her Epitaph Fortunatus wrote,] about the year 960 his dogs and hawks made to rest in the cloister of S. Peter… on a certain day a certain Canon of S. Stephen led him, Candacer by name, who was studious in all philosophy, to the sepulchre of the Lady Theodechildis the Queen, saying to him: Read this Epitaph, which S. Fortunatus the Bishop published. And Archembaldus began to read thus:

This place the Queen built for the Monks from the foundation, Techildis, to be ennobled by her possessions, etc.

Candacer said to him: Look and understand; Look and understand, since not for the use of dogs, but of the servants of Christ, this convent seems to have been built. But that it is truly of Fortunatus, hitherto no one has said, perhaps neither could it be; if Theodechildis of Sens died earlier, than into Gaul, or at least to Sens, Fortunatus came; which seems to me probable enough; but not, that the Epitaph for her by him long afterward was composed. For why would he not equally have placed it in the book of the remaining Epitaphs?

[40] No authority certainly, if only thou exclude the said one, can persuade, that the Saint survived her brother Clothair, although even so she reached or exceeded the sixtieth year of her age, though she died before he came into Gaul. as from the premises about her nativity is clear. Meanwhile, with him holding the monarchy, or even earlier, could have happened, what the man of Tours in the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 14, narrates, done by Nunnino the Tribune, in the time of Theudechilda the Queen, when he from Auvergne, of France, after the tributes rendered to the Queen, was returning. But the passage, by the transposition of words corrupted, thus I think ought to be restored; When from France, after the tributes rendered to the Queen from Auvergne, he was returning. Although moreover Auvergne, from the death of Clovis, to his son Theodoric and then to his grandson Theodebert was subject, Of this, not that, Gregory of Tours seems to make mention. until his death and the year 548 attributed to the kingdom of Austrasia; not on that account the less ought the Elder Theodechildis, sister of Theodoric and aunt of Theodebert, from those things which had been Basolus's in Auvergne, to have received tributes or her revenues. Although also to the Younger Theudechilda her father could in the same Auvergne have assigned an inheritance, yet while that is not proved, the presumption for her remains, of whose possessions there it is established; and who, when the man of Tours wrote, had already long since died, as from his phrase seems to be gathered; whereas on the contrary Theodechildis of Metz, not many years before Gregory could have died, yet having died before him: which I know not how impossible seemed to the already often cited Writer of the Annals.

§. VI. On the cult of Theodechildis of Sens, and the recent inspection of the body and translation.

[41] Although the abovementioned Roman Pontiffs, Paschal II and his five successors, in their Bulls concerning the monastery of Vif, Said of holy memory by the Roman Pontiffs, call its foundress Theodechildis of holy Memory; yet more express testimonies of ancient veneration Tossanus has collected for us, from the above several times cited Gaufredus a Collone, who in the year 1290 diligently collected and published a Tract on the Relics of S. Peter-the-Living, and in the Codex there Ms. on page 65 of holy Theodechildis the Virgin and the Foundation of the monastery thus has: But Clovis the most Christian had four sons … and a daughter Theodechildis by name, who, set within her childish years, to worship and to love God studied. But seeing her father so great a love of God in the maiden's mind growing, he began her the more to love, since she had offered herself a virgin to God from childhood; and to the honor of virginity to be observed by paternal exhortation diligently to exhort. Who obediently hearkening, voluntarily to the service of God, by making a vow of chastity, began to enlarge herself, and for the heap of her perfection, to insist on works of mercy, and on the mercies of the poor to toil. But her father, delighted by the good works of that maiden, gave her possessions, promising more, if in what she had begun perseverance she should show. In these good works persevering the aforesaid S. Theodechildis, by the will of her father began to build the monastery of S. Peter, in the village which is called Vivus: which she completed, God granting, and there instituted Monks, who to God should serve, living under the rule of an Abbot, etc. the convent of S. Peter being founded,

[42] Then on page 67, about to treat of the high altar and the consecration of the altars, thus he proceeds: In those days ruled the Apostolic See a man of venerable life, S. Felix the Pope, of this name the IV, namely from the year 526 to 530; who, how he is commonly held a Saint, elsewhere I have explained. But S. Theodechildis sent messengers, with the Legates of her brother Clothair, most illustrious King of the Franks, to the aforesaid S. Felix, for Relics of the Apostles and Martyrs to be obtained. she obtains for her Relics from Felix IV, Whose prayers receiving S. Felix, what that Virgin and the King had commanded, by messengers studied to fulfill. But the sacred Relics received the aforesaid Theodechildis ordered in the monastery of S. Peter most reverently to be preserved. To these Tossanus: Those Relics were extant lately still in the same shrine of brass made, in which they had been brought: of which a very great part, not yet by age altogether consumed, testify themselves to have seen D. Victor Cotronius in the Ms. Chronicle of S. Peter-the-Living, and D. Hugo Mathoud in his Dissertation committed to type, page 73, where of those very Relics they report the inscriptions, in uncial letters formed. preserved there to this day; S. Peter. S. John. etc. But there persists the cult of the same in other shrines, with the same inscriptions. These Inscriptions, although they do not exceed the age of Gaufredus, yet of those faithfully transcribed from the originals a witness is the same Gaufredus in the Prologue, page 1, saying, that the Prior of the place, seeing the writings of his predecessors, upon the relics of the male and female Saints, in the monastery of S. Peter-the-Living of Sens honorably preserved, published in long times now past, so worn out, that without difficulty they cannot be recognized… it pleased our religious man the Prior to renew.

[43] Finally on the death and burial of B. Theodechildis the Virgin, page 68, thus writes Gaufredus. B. Theodechildis who a Virgin and consecrated to God was from childhood, and holily concluding a holy life, leading a virginal life, in justice and holiness remaining, a worthy dwelling-place of her heart to the Holy Spirit she offered, persevering. She was bounteous in alms, to fasts, abstinences, disciplines and prayers devoted; and with a most mild heart she served the Lord. Who after the course of this life she laudably completed, departed from the world, living in Christ, and was buried in the monastery of S. Peter-the-Living… The anniversary day of her memory is observed on the Vigil of the Apostles Peter and Paul. on the 28th of June she was buried there, But afterward Lord Gaufredus the Abbot, who caused the new work of the monastery to be built, and of whom notice is had in the Sammarthani for the year 1240 and 69, translated in the 13th century. the sacred Body of the said holy Virgin translated into the place in which it is, together with the old Epitaph; as also the body of Basolus the Monk, causing that also in similar character, but in the style of his own age, an Epitaph to be set (as above I judged) and honorably the head of the Queen herself in silver, in the manner of a face fashioned, he caused to be preserved. So he, when at the beginning of his work on page 2 he had written these things, The Body of S. Theodechildis the Virgin, who founded our monastery, we have fittingly on the left of the high altar in the wall, under the stone of her Epitaph entombed; and the head of that Virgin in silver, to the form of her face fashioned. To these agrees the old Inventory of the year 1438, signed on the 6th day of September; and another written in French in the year 1552, where also is indicated the Arm of S. Techildis, enclosed in silver; and also a rib of S. Techildis, likewise covered.

[44] Furthermore for proving the ecclesiastical cult, given to anyone as to a male or female Saint, The cult is proved from ancient Rituals of 500 years, especially serve those books, whose use is among the divine Offices to be chanted, or for regulating them, namely Martyrologies, Rituals, Ceremonials, Processionals, etc. Of this kind, written before four hundred or five hundred years, and ascribing Theodechildis to the Saints, are had among the Monks of Vif very many. A Ceremonial, more ancient than S. Thomas Aquinas, where the feast of B. Peter shall come on a Lord's Day, assigns to the preceding day three Masses, the first of B. Theodechildis, the second of B. Mary, the third of the Fast; and on page 274, where is prescribed the manner of incensing the altar after the Offertory, the Deacon ought, after the Priest is incensed, to incense the matutinal altar and the chests; the place where is placed the body of Christ, and the head of blessed Thechildis, and the altar of B. Potentiana, etc. In the old Martyrology of that church, on the 4th of the Kalends of July after the Vigil of the Apostles, in the Martyrologies, and the other Saints of that day, is noted; On the same day the deposition of the Lady Theodechildis the Queen, who founded the convent of B. Peter the Apostle from the foundation, and in the book of the revenues of the Anniversaries written under the note of the year 1298 (where the individual festivities of the year through the months are distributed) likewise on the 4th of the Kalends of July, thus is read: and in the Litanies. Dies S. Theodechildis the Virgin, foundress of this church: and in the Ritual, of the same age and hand as the Martyrology, at the Litanies to be recited in the agony of the Religious, is said; S. Thecla, pray for him, S. Juliana, pray for him, S. Thechildis, pray for him. The same is done in the more prolix Litanies and the shorter, contained in the more recent Processional, in the year 1660 revised and published, and in the Calendar of the Breviary of Sens: and the same festivity celebrate the people of Mauriac, and of Rouen, as the often-praised Tossanus writes to us.

[45] The printing of the more recent Breviaries and Rituals had been preceded by a solemn translation of the body, of which there is extant a verbal Process (as they call it) written in French, which into Latin I thus render. In the year 1643, The Archbishop is asked to translate the Body in the year 1643, on the 16th day of October, to Us, Octavius de Bellegarde, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See Archbishop of Sens, Primate of the Gauls and Germanies, in our Archiepiscopal Palace, presented himself the Lord Severinus de Lanchy, Presbyter, a reformed Religious of the Order and Congregation of S. Benedict, and Superior of the Abbey of S. Peter-the-Living of Sens of the said Order; humbly supplicating, that We would deign to repair to the church of the said Abbey, to this end, that after a solemn blessing of four bells we might visit and inspect the Relics of S. Theodechildis, which are enclosed within the wall of the greater Choir of that church. Which to him gladly granting, about the hour second after noon thither we went, those accompanying us to be named below: and after the blessing of the said Bells completed, at the supplication of the aforenamed de Lanchy and the other reformed Religious of the aforesaid Congregation, we entered into the greater Choir of that church before those to be named below and several other notable persons, having taken with us Master Gabriel Garsement, Apostolic Notary and our Secretary.

[46] who, the old Epitaph being seen Coming furthermore to a certain oratory in the form of a chapel, after prayer made there, the said Lord Severinus de Lanchy showed a certain Epitaph within the wall of the greater Choir at the left side of that place, where once had stood the chief altar, carved on a square stone, of about two feet, as on the following page.

[47] after it finds a leaden chest, After this Epitaph was found a leaden chest, in which the aforesaid de Lanchy affirmed were contained the Relics of S. Theodechildis. But truly an opening of that leaden chest being made, we found [it] full of bones wrapped in silk of diverse color, together with a little tile thus carved, as below a larger stone is noted. That unsealing thus made, and in it the bones of holy Techildis the Queen, we ordered that the aforesaid de Lanchy by sworn faith should declare to us, whether those were the bones, of which he had spoken to us, and whether nothing was added or taken away. Who when by oath he had affirmed, that they were the same, nor anything added or taken away; forthwith as reverently as we could, singly we received all the bones, and transferred them into an arched chest, fortified with locks; which we deposited in the hands of the aforesaid de Lanchy, to be brought into the treasury of the monastery; until by us concerning that matter it should be otherwise determined.

[48] Concerning which we ordered a verbal Process to be written, which being taken away into the treasury, to serve in convenient place and time; before the Most Excellent and powerful Lord, the Lord Roger, Duke of Bellegarde, Peer of France, first Noble in the Chamber of the Lord Son of the King of France, the King's uncle and Duke of Orléans; the Lord John Antony de Gondrin, commendatory Prior of the Priory of S. Aurintius of the Cluniac Order; the venerable and learned man… du Rollet, our great Vicar and Cellarer of the metropolitan church of S. Stephen of Sens; the Process written on that act is authenticated: the Reverend Father in the Lord Fr. Claudius du Chats, Abbot of the Abbey of S. Paul of the Premonstratensian Order; the venerable and learned man Charles de Rys, Presbyter Canon of the metropolitan church of Sens; the Noble men, Master Baptista Driet, Advocate in the Parliament and Mayor of the city of Sens; and… Poncy, Royal Counsellor and Elect in the Elections of Sens, and others of great number and authority, nobles of both orders as well secular as ecclesiastical. and certain bones are separated. It was done also, that, the said de Lanchy requiring it, we separated one notable bone, at the instance of the aforesaid Lord of Bellegarde, to be consigned to the Queen; another likewise for the monastery of S. Columba, and another for the aforesaid Prior of S. Aurintius with some particles on the year and day foresignified. (Signed) O de Bellegarde, Archbishop of Sens.

[49] Below, a supplicatory libel, directed to the same Octavius the Archbishop by the Prior and Monks of S. Peter-the-Living, The same are permitted to be exposed to public cult, on the 26th day of October of the year 1648 [1643], to this end, that to them it might be lawful the Relics extracted from the leaden chest to expose to the public vows and cult of the peoples; and the day of death, and also of the translation soon to be made, with a new rite to celebrate; subscribed in French is found: We permit the supplicants to expose the said holy Relics, and the bones of the said S. Theodechildis in the very church of S. Peter-the-Living, that they may be honored and venerated by the Christian faithful. We permit also the same supplicants to make and celebrate the divine Office in honor of S. Theodechildis, both on her feast day which is the 28th of June, and on the day on which her aforesaid holy bones shall be translated by the same Supplicants. Given in the town of Chasson of our diocese on the 26th day of October 1643. (Signed) O de Bellegarde, A. S.

[50] After this indult, the Body of B. Theodechildis, in some one of the following years, was translated into a new shrine, adorned everywhere with golden lilies, within a new shrine: in which the original copies of the above-written libels, with the following attestation were reposed. We the undersigned, Fr. Severinus de Lanchy, humble Prior of the Abbey of S. Peter-the-Living of Sens, of the Order of S. Benedict and the Congregation of S. Maurus; assisting us Lord Maurus du Rhu, Sacristan, Presbyter professed of the same Order and Congregation; certify to all whom it shall concern, that today the 28th of June 1648, the Relics of S. Theodechildis, daughter of Clovis I, King of France most Christian, and foundress of this monastery, were by us placed and located within this chest, that in it perpetually they may be preserved … In faith of which things, etc. whence, the people of Mauriac asking for one, So while at Sens were being translated the aforesaid Relics; the Monks of Mauriac, together with the Clergy and people, by repeated prayers asked for one bone to be granted to them, cut from the holy Body. To whose vows assenting the Monks of Vif, and the cult of holy Theodechildis more widely to propagate desiring, of their petition, both from the Superior General of the Congregation of S. Maurus, and from the most illustrious Bishop of Sens asked confirmation, and obtained under the following tenor, to be so understood, that where it is said the Monastery of Mauriac she living endowed, it is understood she did it by means of the donation made to the monastery of Sens, to whose endowment she had attributed all things, which from the possessions of Duke Basolus had come to her, and in which the cell of Mauriac was founded in the time of Jeremias the Archbishop. The tenor is such.

[51] Louis-Henry de Gondrin, by divine compassion Archbishop of Sens, etc. to our beloved, the Monks, founded in her possession, Prior and Convent of the monastery of S. Peter of Mauriac, dependent on the monastery of S. Peter-the-Living near Sens, salutation in Him, through whom the Saints reign in glory. Although the Relics of the Saints, everywhere and by all Christians to be venerated, by the Catholic faith we profess; yet it is just, and consonant to all reason, that there with a certain special religion their sacred pledges be venerated, where, while either among the living they acted, the greatest virtues shone forth; or where, certain miracles being wrought to their commendation, God willed their sanctity to be attested and observed. Whereas therefore, as we have received, your monastery, by S. Theodechildis, daughter of Clovis the first King of the Franks, while still among mortals she lived, with wealth and piety endowed, to God afterward, under the invocation of the same most holy Virgin, was consecrated; your desire, as pious and religious, worthy of praise we have judged; by which most earnestly you have asked, the successor Archbishop permits a vertebra to be given, from the religious Prior and Convent of S. Peter-the-Living, near our city of Sens, where the sacred pledges of the same Virgin are believed by venerable tradition hitherto to be preserved, a certain notable part to you to be transmitted, which your devotion and that of all the region's inhabitants toward the said holy Virgin may foster or even augment. A supplicatory libel therefore being offered to us on the part of the said Prior and Convent of S. Peter-the-Living, we have granted, that one of the vertebrae, already long ago set apart by our predecessor of happy record, Octavius de Bellegarde, for you Monks of Mauriac on the 16th of October of the year 1643, when to the last translation of the same sacred Virgin he gave his labor, should be sent to you: in the year 1662. which, offered to us by the said Prior, an oath being interposed by him affirming it to be the very same, to the same Lord Prior we gave, to you with the greatest reverence that could be to be transmitted, with our present letters: which indeed to your Most Illustrious Ordinary together with the sacred Relics you shall exhibit, that not except with his approval and consent, to the Christian faithful to be venerated you may be able to expose. Given in our castle of Nolone, on the 30th day of the month of July. A.D. 1663. SS. de Gondrin, Archbishop of Sens. By Mandate, etc. d'Aignan.

* or "to apply"?