Victor and Ursus

ON SS. VICTOR AND URSUS, MARTYRS OF THE THEBAN LEGION AT SOLOTHURN, AT SOLOTHURN IN SWITZERLAND.

More probably in the year 303 or 304.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Victor, martyr of the Theban Legion, at Solothurn in Switzerland. (S.)

Ursus, martyr of the Theban Legion, at Solothurn in Switzerland. (S.)

The companion martyrs of the Theban Legion, at Solothurn in Switzerland.

BY J. C.

§ I. The arena of the holy Martyrs and their ancient cult in the Church: the Acts suspect: the time of the martyrdom.

We published in our Work, at the XXII day of this month, the Passion of the most celebrated Theban Martyrs who, with St. Maurice their commander, were crowned in the Valais at Agaunum. The saints praised by St. Eucherius suffered at Solothurn, In the Passion there praised, St. Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, its author, makes mention of these saints of ours, and writes: From this same Legion (the Theban) are said to have been also those martyrs Ursus and Victor, whom report confirms to have suffered at Salodorum. Now Salodorum is a stronghold above the river Aar, and placed not far from the Rhine. From these words, at the very threshold, I infer this: that the fame of our Saints was celebrated, but that special Acts of their martyrdom in all likelihood did not exist in the mature fifth century, in which St. Eucherius wrote, since he alleges as witness not any Passion, but fame alone. The arena, which the holy bishop here describes in brief, Josias Simler in his Republic of the Helvetians, book 1, at page 69 in my copy, pursues at greater length. Salodorum, he says, is one of the most ancient cities of all Helvetia, and is called the sister of Trier, whose city ancient annals relate to have been founded in the age of Ninus. The antiquity of the city is indicated by old Roman Inscriptions, some of which are still extant at Salodorum. Those inscriptions are set out in the Deliciæ Helveticæ, and I note that, where the name of the city is expressed, it is written Solodorum, not Salodorum, which some suppose to have come from the Salentini, and it is also found in certain documents that are not recent, so that it is permissible to write it either way without scruple. The natives call their city Solothurn, the French Soleure.

[2] It is spacious, and most richly adorned with vast buildings, both sacred and profane. which city is described. First inscribed in the sacred Fasti by Ado Among the Cantons of Helvetia it holds the eleventh place by rank. It preserves its ancestral religion unimpaired, being subject in spiritual matters to the jurisdiction of the bishop of Lausanne. On a somewhat elevated site is built the noble cathedral church, which takes its name from St. Ursus. Bertha, wife of Rudolph II, king of the Burgundians, erected there a most celebrated college of Canons and endowed it with vast resources. The origin of the city and of the chapter is taught by an inscription which is read above the door of the church, engraved in several verses: from which one may gather that the chapter owes its origin and its progress, and the city itself its splendour, chiefly to our holy Martyrs. The river Aar washes Solothurn, and it has on the opposite bank a suburb, joined to its walls by a wooden bridge. Not far from there the holy Martyrs are said to have been beheaded, and thence cast down into the river below; and before we examine these matters and others, let us assign their memory in the sacred Fasti. Sollerius maintains that they were first entered in the Martyrology by Ado, and not, so far as appears, without reason; for in the more ancient Kalendars and Fasti, and in Bede's Martyrology, they are not mentioned. In the Hieronymian ones indeed there is commemorated today At Milan, the translation of St. Victor the martyr, but of another Victor, probably the Moor, of whom we treated on the VIII day of May.

[3] Ado therefore celebrates the Saints thus. In the Gauls, at the stronghold of Solodorum, they appear to have been inscribed. which is above the river Aar, the passion of the holy martyrs Victor and Ursus of the glorious Legion of the Thebans: who, when they had withdrawn thither avoiding the fury of the tyrant Maximian, were seized by his command by Hirtacus the executioner, and first tormented with dreadful punishments; but, when a heavenly light flashed above them and the attendants fell headlong to the ground, they were rescued, and then cast into the fire. But when presently a violent rain came on and the pyre was quenched, they were in no way at all injured, and at last were finished off with the sword. Of these St. Victor, translated to the city of the Genevans, is celebrated with the glory of miracles and the veneration of the Faithful. That Ado composed his elogium from certain Acts is sufficiently plain. Usuard, omitting the translation, transferred it into his own Martyrology somewhat abridged. Rabanus did not find the memory of SS. Victor and Ursus in Bede and likewise omitted it; Notker borrowed it from Ado and, after his manner, abridged it. The Reichenau Martyrology, printed in volume VI of June, closes today's announcement with these words: And of SS. Victor and Ursus: but from this you would wrongly infer that the memory of the Saints in the Fasti is much older than Ado; for Sollerius observed in his Preface that, although it deserves no ignoble place among the Hieronymian transcripts, it is nevertheless augmented and interpolated with a more recent mention of certain German Saints.

[4] The neighbourhood of Reichenau of Helvetia supplied the names of our Saints to the monk The Acts which we have in Ms. differ from those published by Surius, who wrote out the aforesaid Martyrology at the beginning of the twelfth century for the use of the monastery of Reichenau. Baronius mingled the elogia of Usuard and Ado and inscribed it today in the Roman Martyrology. I pass over Molanus, Canisius, and other more recent martyrologists, in order to proceed to the examination of the Acts. I have found none but two, of which the one, brought to him from Gaul, Surius published at September XXX; the other we received in Ms. from the codex of Signy. Ado could have had either of the two before his eyes in weaving the elogium of SS. Victor and Ursus; for in both are read the chief matters which in him are abridged. It would be difficult to decide which excel in antiquity and are to be preferred; yet I think much weight is to be granted to neither. Those which we have from the Signy Ms. were either composed, or at least augmented, after the beginning of the seventh century, since in them mention is made of the finding of the relics of St. Victor in the basilica of Geneva, which took place in the year 602, as we shall observe below from Fredegarius. The Passion of the Saints in Surius does not have the same epoch, nor does it make particular mention of St. Victor's remains; but neither does anything occur from elsewhere by which its greater antiquity may be commended.

[5] they treat almost of St. Victor alone, Although it does not seem worth the labour to inquire into this at greater length, since both sets of Acts are on other grounds suspect on the same counts, as I shall now declare: this meanwhile seems certain, that the Surian Acts, which have nothing special concerning St. Victor and the matters pertaining to him, were either composed or interpolated elsewhere; and the Signy Acts, which treat almost of St. Victor alone, at Geneva or in its neighbourhood. Further, this Signy Passion looks so nearly to St. Victor alone that, unless the interpolator was stung to the point of shame by the strangeness of the thing, he must have struck out the longer history of the passion which pertained to all the holy Martyrs, in order to report a few things brokenly about St. Victor, and then to hasten to his translations and miracles. Convince yourself with your own eyes, reader: I give back the Passion entire from our Ms., since it is not long. It runs thus. At that time, when Maximian the emperor had sent the holy Maurice with six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men into the city of the Genevans, that they might fulfil his command, namely that they should persecute the Christians: then they, taking up their station in the place of Agaunum, said to Maximian the emperor: We are Christians, we cannot persecute Christians. Then he, filled with anger, ordered every one of them to be put to death. Seeing these things which were done, the holy men of God Victor and Ursus went out secretly; and when they had come to the stronghold of Salodorum, which is above the river Aar, and this had been heard by the emperor, he, filled with fury, ordered his attendants to pursue those Saints. And when they had come to the place where those Saints were praying, the emperor's attendants, seeing them, said to them: Who are you? And they answering said: We are the servants of God, Victor and Ursus. And the attendants said to them: Maximian the emperor has sent us, that wherever we can find you we may straightway put you to death. The servants of God Victor and Ursus answered: It is better for us to die than to sacrifice any longer to demons. Then the attendants, seizing them, led them away to be tortured. But they as they walked sang psalms, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, suffer us not to go with these who deny that thou art the true God. And when they were tortured they cried out: Lord Jesus Christ, give strength to thy servants, because for thy sake we gladly suffer these things; and send thy angel to snatch us from the hands of our enemies. Then there appeared above them as it were a ray of the sun, and those who were torturing them fell, and became as dead men, and the Saints of God were loosed from the bond with which they were held.

[6] and they are mutilated. They can be supplied from the Surian Acts And the crowds of the heathen who were waiting, seeing what had been done, glorified the God of Israel. Then one of those attendants, Hyrtacus by name, who was notorious for persecuting Christians, said to his servants: This which you have seen is a phantasm; but I say to you, go at a swift run and seize again those evildoers, who have despised the command of Maximian the emperor, and lead the people astray to the law of the Christians, and say that they worship Christ the Son of God… But the multitude standing round, seeing what had been done to the Servants of God — the heathen indeed, persisting in the worship of demons, rejoiced; the Christians lamented. And all of them saw, for the space of two hours, holy Victor bending his knees as though he were still alive: and when they marvelled at this, suddenly his body came to rest, and shone like the Sun; and straightway the Christians buried their bodies. Thus far our Signy transcript, after which follow the translations to be recorded more fully below. Now it can be doubtful to no one that after they worship Christ the Son of God, at the place where I have set the punctuation, very many things have been passed over, inasmuch as a leap is made from the command of Hyrtacus concerning the seizing of the holy Martyrs all the way to their last struggle and consummated martyrdom. Moreover, the things omitted in that gap are assuredly so strange that a man even lightly prudent and not unacquainted with criticism must at least have paused over them and been struck by them. That we may proceed further in our judgment concerning the Acts, it will be useful to excerpt from the Surian Passion and transfer hither those things which can supply the gap just indicated. I wish, however, that the reader be warned that of the first seizure of the Saints, made by attendants other than those who served Hyrtacus, governor of the city of Solothurn, there is no mention at all in that place; although nearly the same answers given by the Saints to Hyrtacus are reported, and the torments are likewise doubled, together with the prodigies, by which at length the prefect Hyrtacus, wearied … upon the bridge of the aforesaid river (the Aar) ordered the holy Martyrs to be presented to him, that in that same place, when they had been beheaded, he might straightway cast them down into the bed of the river.

[7] The blessed Martyrs therefore are beheaded and cast into the river, by the narrative of a prodigy, nor yet did they float far from the said bridge. For the divine mercy, with which all things are possible, showed the power of its own gentleness in them. For not far from the said bridge they came out of the river carrying their heads in their hands, and came to the place where now a basilica has been built in their honour. These are marvels, and marvels more marvellous than marvels follow: for the holy Martyrs, bending their knees to the ground, for about the space of a single hour, before they laid down their bodies upon the ground, prayed in the sight of all: and when the prayer was ended, they let down their bodies to the ground, as if they said, This is our rest for ever and ever. I willingly assent indeed to the writer of the Passion that these things are more marvellous than marvels, nay so marvellous that, with himself alone asserting them and no more excellent surety, they will find no credit among prudent critics. Certainly, since he has made mention of a basilica built in that place where the Saints came up out of the Aar onto the bank, carrying their heads in their hands, it is very likely that the anonymous author wrote not only long after the martyrdom of the Saints, but perhaps even later than the tenth century, or else disfigured the Acts with those fables (if the word be pardoned). Certainly Ado, who in his elogium abridged the remaining matters nearly in the order in which the deeds are narrated in Surius, does not even hint a suspicion of so strange a prodigy; nor do I believe that other monuments, whose beginning reaches to the age of Ado, are to be found which might spread a shadow over the fiction.

[8] I know that the same prodigy is constantly and unanimously celebrated in all the Proper Offices of the venerable church of Solothurn and in innumerable monuments, which will find no credit among critics, and that that history is there held as canonized, inasmuch as it is read inserted entire into the Bull of Sixtus IV to be mentioned below: but with all these things standing in the way, I cannot but confess that that same story, in that part which exhibits the Martyrs emerging from the river and holding their heads in their hands and praying for a whole hour on bended knees, is held by me as a fabulous ornament, sustained by popular credulity. And in this I do not fear the critics' rod, nor the reproach of excessive rigour — not even from the illustrious Chapter of Solothurn itself, which most generously bestowed its help upon me in inquiring into the truth. For indeed, from the monuments drawn up at my request by the order of that venerable Chapter, of which fuller use will be made below, it becomes plainly probable to me that that little narrative is not only younger than the age of Ado, but is so novel that it scarcely surpasses the thirteenth century in age. This is urged by the scarcity of ancient testimonies, which is so great that I do not believe anything older than the Sixtine Bull of the year 1473 will be brought forward. Moreover, he will not adduce that same Bull as a great defence who knows how great is the authority of instruments of that kind in a matter purely historical, such as this is.

[9] asserted by an unknown author. Indeed there is also narrated in that same place the journey of the Theban Legion under St. Maurice its commander to Jerusalem and its baptism there, and its instruction in the faith at Rome under Pope Marcellus — which have been equally convicted as fables and are manifestly false. The same, moreover, is to be judged of the Proper Offices, into which — alas, too easily! — popular little traditions received in barbarous ages have been admitted, as we experience very frequently, and even very recent and wholly novel ones. Indeed, if I may candidly set forth my suspicion, I scarcely doubt that that little story was born from a painting or some similar monument, in which the holy Martyrs, their heads or skulls having been laid at the navel when they were found in their tombs, were represented as carrying and bending with the same in their hands, with God crowning them from above. That manner of painting, by which the kind of martyrdom is expressed, is indeed very common and customary; and thence, if the holy Athletes were depicted kneeling at the bank, so that the arena, or the place where the sacred bodies were drawn out of the waters, might be indicated, the aforesaid little tradition could easily have arisen and been nourished and celebrated by popular credulity, as has happened six hundred times elsewhere from similar causes. Grant, therefore, that a painting of this kind existed in the basilica built by Queen Bertha: I shall suspect that some credulous fellow — nay, for the barbarism of those ages a smatterer of learning — so interpreted it, and that from him it flowed out into a populace always greedy for prodigies. And this indeed is my opinion, which I shall willingly lay aside when I have been convinced by more ancient monuments. Now hear why I suspect that the little tradition was born between the tenth and the fourteenth century. Its author says that the Saints, carrying their heads in their hands, having come out of the river reached the place where now a basilica has been built in their honour: treating without doubt of that church which Queen Bertha erected in the tenth century, since in her time there was none, as we shall see below. But I should not wish to believe that the little fable was altogether new when the men of Solothurn offered it to Sixtus IV to be inserted in his Bull; wherefore I grant more than a full century to its growth, and pass on to other matters.

[10] The remaining part of the Passion is more probable. The number of the Martyrs; The case is different with the other parts of the Passion, which, although they do not lack heaped-up prodigies, are nevertheless not so strange; and those parts have Ado, whose authority, even if it does not suffice to fortify the narrative against every suspicion of falsehood, nevertheless brings to it some degree of antiquity. These therefore I hold as doubtful and, if you will, even as probable. Concerning the number of the holy Martyrs some things are already to be noted here beforehand. The Surian Passion, almost at its very beginning, assigns to SS. Ursus and Victor 66 companion martyrs, so that with their chiefs or commanders they were 68. Ado in his Martyrology plainly omitted the Companions, writing of SS. Ursus and Victor alone; and in the same place, at the XXII day of September, he assigned to St. Maurice only 6600 Theban fellow-soldiers; yet in his Chronicle, at the year of Christ 288, he added 66, whom in all likelihood he reckoned to the preceding, taken from the Passion of SS. Ursus and Victor with those two themselves passed over; and Walafrid Strabo expressed the same number in his Hymn on the glorious Theban Legion, which I gave in the Appendix to the Acts of St. Maurice and his Companions, §1. It is more uncertain whether he saw a special Passion of SS. Ursus, Victor and their Companions, such as Ado had, since in his time perhaps the 66 others had already been inserted into the Martyrdom of SS. Maurice and Companions, beside the round number of the Legion, 6600, which St. Eucherius expressed. Certainly in that same place I have observed more than once that in different codices the number of the holy Martyrs of the Theban Legion varies, and that where it is not round by the common reckoning of Roman Legions it approaches that number to which the Fellow-soldiers of today's holy Martyrs have been added — which it is enough to have observed here: for below, when we treat of the sacred pledges that were found, the discussion of these will recur. Concerning the epoch of the martyrdom let us here touch briefly upon a few things; a few, I say, for the monuments which I have seen all indicate clearly enough that the martyrdom of SS. Victor and Ursus took place only a few days after the slaughter of the whole Legion at Agaunum, so that its epoch necessarily depends upon the time at which that is fixed.

[11] There is no point in reviewing here again the various opinions of the chronographers on that matter; the time of the martyrdom undergone. the reader will find them in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Maurice and his Companions, §§6 and 12, where I also discussed at greater length the epoch of their martyrdom, and indicated that I strongly incline to that opinion which holds that it is to be bound to the great tenth persecution. That opinion continues to seem to me by far the most probable, and from it I have assigned the years 303 or 304 to the martyrdom of SS. Ursus and Victor at the beginning of this Commentary. Concerning the day there seems to be no question, since the constant memory of the Saints in the sacred Fasti at the XXX of September sufficiently indicates that they were crowned on that day, to which the Acts also agree; for thus on the eighth day after their Agaunensian Companions — from whom they may have departed some days before, nay even weeks, if you will, namely when the cruel command of Maximian was first made known to them — they obtained the laurel of martyrdom. It is true indeed that to the Theban Saints is ascribed the conversion of those parts to the true faith, and that like things are handed down, as though they had preached to the peoples there and disseminated the faith; for the accomplishing of which an interval of eight days and of some weeks would seem not to suffice; but these things must be referred to the saints who are held to be Companions of Maurice — Felix and Regula, Victor and Verena, and others — and finally that assertion is not established by any more ancient testimonies, and therefore, together with similar little traditions, is safely neglected without great effort. Meanwhile let it be said here that we shall publish both Passions as suspect and illustrate them after our manner.

§ II. The monuments drawn up by the order and care of the venerable Chapter of Solothurn and kindly transmitted hither. There is a discussion of the primary finding of the sacred bodies in the time of Queen Bertha, and of the beginning of their celebrated cult.

Documents at Solothurn Not a few monuments pertaining to the posthumous glory of SS. Ursus, Victor and their Fellow-soldiers were transmitted to us some years ago. The venerable Chapter of Solothurn had most kindly granted them, fortified with due authority, to the requests of Father Maurice Chardon, who both often bestowed most useful labour upon us elsewhere, and laboured indefatigably above all in collecting whatever might conduce to the glory of his holy patron Maurice and of the martyrs of the Theban Legion, his companions, as I have often testified with grateful remembrance while illustrating the Acts of those Saints. As I was intent upon examining the documents which pertain to our holy Martyrs of today, several doubts occurred to me which seemed scarcely able to be discussed elsewhere, but conveniently by the men of Solothurn. Hope of a happy outcome was raised by the venerable Chapter's inclination and benevolence toward our Work, gathered from the monuments sent by Chardon, and by their supreme veneration toward their holy Patrons. Having therefore sent a letter to the rector of our college at Solothurn, I set forth my doubts. Not long after, Father Peter Froidevaux wrote back a letter, in which he both most courteously answered certain of my questions, and promised both his own and the venerable Chapter's further assistance and investigation. I am pleased to transfer that part of the letter hither, so that the men of Solothurn's diligent zeal for increasing the glory of their Patrons and their most ready goodwill toward us may receive from us at least the testimony of a mindful heart.

[13] brought, of which here Thus therefore writes the aforesaid Father Froidevaux from Solothurn, on the XV of January 1757. The letter sent to me from Antwerp on the XII of the month of December last past, on the occasion of the doubts which arise in the discussion of the Acts of SS. Ursus and Victor, I communicated as soon as possible to the most reverend Provost of the collegiate church of this place, the lord Francis Sury, vicar general of the bishop of Lausanne. Both he and the other very reverend lord Canons were suffused with the greatest delight, because they understood from them that whatever can contribute to promoting the cult and glory of SS. Ursus and Victor, their patrons, is being sought out by you with the utmost solicitude. They will omit nothing, that all things which they shall be able to furnish to your pious undertaking may be zealously sought out and communicated to you as speedily as may be. To that end they have already chosen someone to search through the archive of the venerable Chapter afresh, and to collect for himself whatever pertains to it — namely the very reverend lord Francis James Hermann, chaplain and succentor of the church of the holy Martyrs, a diligent man and exceedingly suited to that office … who hopes it will come about that he may be able to communicate not a few things which concern the time, the place, the number, and the occasion on which the sacred bodies and bones were found, and other matters about which you desire to be informed. Nearly two years passed before the promised monuments reached me, the roads in Germany being obstructed by the tumults of armies; and these I found indeed sought out with great diligence, selected with prudent judgment, and skilfully arranged.

[14] Fortune willed that, beyond expectation, volume 7 of this month did not comprehend the last two days, frequent use, and first which fill this Eighth volume, and thus time arose for remaking the Commentary long since prepared, now that the documents had at last been received: which accordingly I do, meaning to use the helps so kindly granted. Let us now investigate the beginnings, or the growth, of the church of Solothurn, which certainly proceeded from the findings and the cult of the sacred relics. I do not so far touch upon what pertains to the finding of the body of St. Victor, or the state in which the veneration of St. Ursus and his Companions then stood at Solothurn — of which particularly afterwards; here I inquire only into that finding from which writers chiefly derive the celebrity of the cult, nay even its beginnings and those of the church of Solothurn, although in other respects they do not sufficiently agree. Let us begin from the Solothurn monuments: as their arranger, the reverend lord Hermann praised above, professes without circumlocution and without disguise that he has nothing at hand for establishing the authority of the martyrdom, treated in the preceding §, except the tradition and the history related in the approved Proper of the collegiate church of Solothurn, so here likewise, for the elucidation of the finding of the sacred pledges, he refers us to the same Special Office or Proper. Two copies of it are at hand, both printed at Fribourg, the one in the year 1641, the other in 1704, both transmitted by the kindness of the venerable Chapter. The first has annexed to it an Epilogue, as a supplement to the history of SS. Ursus, Victor and their companion Martyrs. To this, which differs from the other in very few points, I am referred throughout, and accordingly I use it.

[15] Thus the venerable clergy of Solothurn keep, with double rite, on the V day of March, the feast of the Revelation of the divine Ursus, for investigating Victor, and their companion Theban Martyrs. The whole office is proper. From it take what here bears upon the matter. The Hymn at Vespers is as follows.

Sing, happy Solothurn, the praises of the Martyrs, and the blessed contests of the Theban soldiers, whose bones thou worthily keepest, cherishing them with glory. When they steadfastly spurned the impious deities of Cæsar, the wrath of Hirtacus does not suffer them to live, but on the bridge pours out the sacred streams of their blood, and the river's water grows red. In the river-bed the blessed ones bear, Victor, Ursus, and their Peers, their severed necks crowned with laurel, until the earth should entomb the suppliant Martyrs, now slain by the law of fate. To Bertha a splendour of flashing light is sent down from heaven, and the scent of a fragrant rose is thence given forth, where the throng of the Thebans lies gloriously buried.

[16] She brings forth seventeen Martyrs, who for six most celebrated cult of the holy Martyrs ages lay hidden: relying on Christ, she seeks them with prayers so earnest: soon she hands over such great secrets to the clergy, Hence she sells her blessed realms with burning zeal, in honour of Ursus she establishes welcome temples with endowments, her whole mind made ready, touched by holy impulses. A great throng draws near, a great power is discerned; sight is restored to the blind, walking to the lame, speech to the dumb, and he who has endured the violence of a demon, and the deaf, is set free. Hence thou revealest, O Christ, many, five ages after these, whom, thirty-seven Martyrs upheld both by faith and by miracles, buried together, thou openest from the tombs of the earth. Be present, O Ursus, pleasing to Christ, with thy Consorts, and commend us to the King, that he may cleanse us from the filth of the world, whereby we may be joined to the blessed assemblies of heaven. Amen.

[17] and the beginning of the church of Solothurn itself. What is further to be observed on these matters I shall presently set out; but first let us subjoin a part of the Lessons of the 2nd Nocturn, which contributes very much to the same matter. A little after the beginning of Lesson 5 the abridged narrative of the martyrdom is brought to a close with words taken thence, As if they said: This is our rest for ever and ever. After which it is thus read: In that place, as the same history relates, the holy Martyrs lay hidden for six hundred years. But at length the illustrious queen Bertha, wife of Rudolph, king of Burgundy and of the Romans (from whom was born St. Adelaide, wife of the first Otto the emperor and mother of the second Otto and grandmother of the third Otto), admonished by the prompting of the Holy Spirit and most fervently desiring to find that precious treasure of relics, and therefore most devoutly pouring out to the Most High most fervent prayers together with fastings, was at last heard by the supreme knower of hearts, namely Christ, and received a revelation from heaven, that she might know where so great a treasure was to be dug up and sought. When therefore, very often visiting most devoutly the place where the holy Martyrs lay buried, she eagerly looked about, she recognized the true place of their burial by the sign of a shining light which she had noticed more than once, and of a most sweet odour, as of roses giving forth their scent. Here Lesson 5 ends, and the 6th follows. That most precious treasure therefore having been found, she at once rejoicing sold her goods and bought that place, and gathered the bodies and relics of the Saints with worthy honour, and erected for them a church with an adjoining college, which also she magnificently adorned with endowments, properties, privileges, and other liberties and ornaments.

[18] It is investigated; at what time To which came the blind, the deaf, the lame, the feeble, the paralytic and the possessed, or those held by any other infirmity, and touching the bodies of the Saints they received health; and even now, if the faith of those who ask does not waver, they are cured by the grace of God. Moreover all who invoke with a pure heart the glorious name of the martyrs St. Ursus and his Companions, and religiously cherish their memory, are preserved from storm in the air. The Lesson then closes with a brief exhortation that the Saints be religiously honoured and that their patronage be invoked with confidence. Bertha, to whom the relics of the holy Martyrs are handed down to have been revealed, and to whom the beginnings of the church are ascribed, was the wife of Rudolph II, king of Transjuran Burgundy, from whom I have shown, in §5 of the Appendix to the Posthumous Glory of the Mauritian legion, volume VI of September, page 905, that Otto I received the body of St. Innocent the Theban martyr, from this same Otto's own diplomas and from other monuments. Rudolph died in the year of Christ 937, and had obtained the kingdom in the year 912; but he had taken to wife Bertha, daughter of Burchard, duke of the Alemanni, in the year 922; and she, after her husband's death, married Hugh, king of Italy, as Liudprand writes, book 4, chapter 6.

[19] Bertha soon became hateful to Hugh, who was plunged in lustful filthiness, the finding took place so that he openly cursed her. I have not been able to discover whether Bertha remained with him until the death of Hugh, which happened in the year 947. Certainly she afterwards returned into Helvetia, and was still alive in the year 962, in which she founded the monastery of Payerne in the diocese of Lausanne, nearly midway on the road between Fribourg and Yverdon. The original charter of that foundation, as Mabillon testifies in his Annals at the year 962, num. 67, is extant in the Sebusian library, and Mabillon there gives a summary of it together with the epoch, Given on the day of Mars, on the Kalends of April, in the XXIV year of the reign of King Conrad. And enacted in the city of Lausanne. In what year queen Bertha died, I hold to be undiscovered: she was buried in the monastery of Payerne, as the author of the Life of St. Adelaide the empress relates among the Writers of Brunswick affairs, who is believed to be Odilo of Cluny, book 1, num. 9. Let us now plant our foot and inquire in about what year Bertha is believed to have found the precious treasure. The reverend lord Hermann, in his manuscript observations on my second doubt, asserts that the year of Christ 930 is commonly held for the year of the first finding, and he so fixes it that from it he derives his other calculations for the chronology. Of these below: meanwhile, although I have nothing by which to overturn that epoch absolutely, the Solothurn documents themselves nevertheless make it less probable, since they hint not obscurely that Bertha was her own mistress when the recorded revelation took place. I appeal above all to the beginning of Lesson 5, reported at num. 17.

[20] The same seems to be asserted more clearly in the inscription engraved on the copper covering of another inscription, of seventeen sacred bodies which is seen at the doors of the church of St. Ursus at Solothurn, and which I here reproduce from the monuments so often mentioned:

The origin of Solothurn and of the collegiate church of the divine Ursus.

A fertile land, sheltered through many years, Salodoria (so our fathers taught) about the golden times of Ninus was a chosen seat of huts, once a famous village without walls; then, with the strength of a famous tower joined to it, our forefathers made of the village a stronghold. At length, better fortified with four-square walls, the city was worthy that Rudolph's Bertha should often honour it, widowed of her royal couch, while with tears and pious prayers she seeks and seeks again the Theban sepulchres; moved by which she enlarges Solothurn and endows it with consecrated priests; she founds the temples in which the sacred bones of the great Patron rest, and adorns them with illustrious endowments: where the sacred throng, with harmonious vows, keeps watch to beat upon the heavens with alternating choir, and to guard and love the mighty Relics, through which wondrous gifts come frequently to the pious in this city of mortals; which, changed in various ways and ruled by marvellous turns already, rests at last associated with the remaining cities of Helvetia, and harmonious keeps its treaties, a lover of peace and of the Powers above and of ancestral Religion.

[21] by divine revelation This inscription, moreover, even though it cannot bring authority from antiquity, having in all likelihood arisen only in the declining fifteenth century, as the penultimate verse suggests, nevertheless shows that the tradition there was conformable to what has been reported from the Office. But from this, since Bertha is said to have been a widow, it becomes manifest that the foundation of the church of Solothurn is to be deferred beyond the year 937, inasmuch as only in that year did Rudolph die and leave Bertha a widow. But considering the circumstances of the foundation, which do not admit of a short time, it seems not even then to be placed, since scarcely, or scarcely even, in two years does Bertha seem to have been a widow, before she married Hugh, king of Italy. This is clear from the monuments brought forward by Muratori in his Annals of Italy at the year 938, from which he concludes that in that same year, nay perhaps in the preceding one, St. Adelaide was joined in marriage to Lothair, and her mother Bertha to Lothair's father Hugh. And therefore, these things standing, it can seem more probable that the foundation, and the revelation of the sacred relics on occasion of which it took place, are to be drawn back after the death of Hugh and after the year 947. Certainly Bertha seems then to have lived in Helvetia longer and more quietly, and her weariness of worldly affairs and pleasures, whose emptiness she had been able to experience, shows her a woman then more fitted to holy emulation and holy restlessness than when she was wrapped up in the delights of the age. And this indeed is my opinion, which the order of the narrative and the circumstances drawn from the Solothurn monuments themselves produce.

[22] made to Bertha, who was not empress Further, since the time seems unable to be drawn out more closely even by conjecture, let us set down that the recorded finding of the sacred bodies and the foundation of the church of Solothurn took place about the middle of the tenth century, or the year 950, and let us inquire whether and what may be opposed to that opinion. Hermann, so often praised, in his manuscripts laboriously discusses the reckonings drawn from elsewhere and to be combined with the epoch just mentioned. In those things which I excerpted from the Lessons of the Solothurn Proper at num. 17, it is said: In that place, as the same history relates, the holy Martyrs lay hidden for six hundred years. At length queen Bertha … having been heard from heaven received a revelation, that she might know where so great a treasure was to be dug up and sought. Those six hundred years, namely, are to be found from the revelation made to Bertha back to the time at which the sacred pledges lay hidden and concealed; and if these be subtracted from the year 950, we shall fall to about the year 350. But neither are the six hundred years so certain that they do not admit of opposition from other documents, on account of which they are to be corrected, by the same judge. The Bull of Sixtus IV, which begins Alma mater and is to be given entire below, asserts that the Saints lay hidden unknown among thorns and briars for five hundred years, namely until the revelation made to Bertha, of which we are treating. Two monuments, not of the lowest merit among the manuscripts, support the Bull, and may have their place here. They are two German inscriptions existing at the doors of the churches of St. Ursus.

[23] To the first the collector Hermann prefixes this note. An inscription at the doors of the collegiate church of St. Ursus, in leaden letters poured into a squared stone, which also in the year MCCCCLXXIV, because of the injury of the air, was covered with a copper covering (upon which the verses reported a little before were afterwards inscribed). Bertrada, mother of Charlemagne, Take it entire, rendered into Latin. When there was reckoned after the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ the two hundred and eighty-eighth year, two emperors were reigning: the one was called Diocletian, the other Maximian. Then the heavenly athlete St. Ursus, who was a commander in the legion of St. Maurice, with sixty-six others, under the emperor Maximian and the governor Hyrtacus, after many torments was beheaded and cast down into the Aar. Each of them lifted up his own head and laid himself in the tomb in that place where now stands the chapel of St. Peter, and they lay there five hundred years; and seventeen of them were found by queen Bertha, who translated those found thence into this sacred building, consecrated also by the Pontiff. (The German word is ambiguous, so that it can be referred to found, in which sense it will more fitly be rendered canonized.) Afterwards, in the year one thousand four hundred and seventy- three, thirty-six of those same Saints were found and canonized at the same time by the Pontiff Sixtus IV; and these also were raised thence by many prelates and placed in the altar of St. Ursus by the vicar of Lausanne, who also laid three of those Saints in the chapel of St. Peter in the altar of the Holy Cross. May Almighty God, his most worthy Mother, and the Saints always protect this city.

[24] Thus far that inscription: another manuscript document bears this note. but of Rudolph II, king of Burgundy A second inscription at the door of the lesser church of St. Ursus, called in Traibis Kreutz, about which the chorography of Old Solothurn may be seen at letter b. It runs thus in German. In the year after the birth of Christ CCLXXXVIII, under Diocletian and Maximian the emperors, Hyrtacus being judge, at Solothurn SS. Ursus and his Companions, near this church upon the bridge which at that time stood in this place, were beheaded and cast into the Aar. Each lifted up his own head and went forth to St. Peter's; and after D years they were found by queen Bertha. These two inscriptions agree clearly with the Bull of Sixtus IV, and hold five hundred years instead of six hundred, during which the sacred remains lay hidden until Bertha's finding. If the documents alleged brought greater credit and authority, it would be worth the labour to dispute about the reckonings; but it is clearer than the noonday light that there is none older than the year 1473, that is, than the Sixtine Bull, and therefore that the testimonies are at the least five centuries later than the revelation of the relics of which we treat. Let us meanwhile work out the reckoning, so that if anything should chance to emerge concerning the translation of St. Victor, of which I shall treat particularly, I may refer hither. Six hundred years, as I have already noted above, if they be subtracted from the year 950, about which I suspect the sacred relics were revealed to Bertha, will leave the year 350, that is, the middle of the fourth century, at the beginning of which, in my opinion, the holy Theban Martyrs were crowned. If this be regarded, the residual years which are over and above the six hundred, asserted as a round number, can be safely neglected.

[25] But if from other documents we subtract five hundred years from the epoch of the revelation, she being left a widow. A monument of the confirmation we shall be brought into the fifth century; in which whether the sepulchres of the holy Patrons of Solothurn were so known and celebrated that they can be reckoned to have lain hidden for five centuries only from that time, I so far do not know. About that time the body of St. Victor was translated from Solothurn to Geneva, as we shall see: at the same time Hermann fixes a complete devastation of Solothurn by the Huns, to which, if indeed it truly happened, reference is perhaps here made. Moreover, that no one may wonder that the men of Solothurn are to this day so destitute of ancient monuments, I subjoin a document of the thirteenth century, than which they have scarcely anything older, and from which it becomes manifest that already from that time they were in so great a scarcity of the like that the venerable Chapter did not have even written testimonies of its own possessions, but had to have recourse to verbal ones, as they say, and to the traditions of their elders. Whether this happened through the injury of wars and hostile incursions, or by some other occasion and cause, I do not know; but the document which I set forth from the often-mentioned manuscripts makes the fact itself indubitable. Henry, humble abbot of Frienisberg, executor delegated by the Apostolic See, of the Cistercian Order, of the diocese of Constance, to all who behold the present Writing, notice of what is subscribed.

[26] of the possessions and Things which are done in time, lest they slip away with time, are wont to be corroborated by the letters of princes and by the testimonies of honourable men. Let therefore the present age and future posterity know that we have received the Letters of the lord Pope under this form. “Innocent, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved son the abbot of Frienisberg, of the Cistercian Order, of the diocese of Constance, greeting and the apostolic benediction. On the part of our beloved sons the Provost and Chapter of the church of Solothurn, of the diocese of Lausanne, humble supplication was made to us that, since they hold possessions, revenues, men, and certain other goods pertaining to that church in divers places, of which they have no public documents, and since it is feared that in process of time a question may therefore be moved concerning these, we should therefore take care to provide for them with fatherly solicitude. Lest therefore hereafter, by fortuitous chances, they be deprived of proof for want of it, we command thy discretion by apostolic writings that thou take care prudently to receive and diligently to examine fit witnesses whom the lords Provost and Chapter shall have thought fit to produce concerning the aforesaid, and cause their sayings to be reduced into public muniments, giving notice to those whom the business perchance touches, that they may, if they will, be present at the receivings [] of the testimony, and cause a public instrument to be drawn up concerning the notice so given. But the witnesses who shall have been named, if they withdraw themselves through favour, hatred, or fear, thou shalt compel by ecclesiastical censure, appeal notwithstanding, to bear testimony to the truth. Given at Lyons on the XIII Kalends of September, in the fifth year of our Pontificate*”.

[27] of the prerogatives But we, obeying the apostolic command as sons of obedience, went personally to the stronghold of Solothurn, and received according to the form of law the witnesses, namely clerics and laymen, produced before us on the part of the aforesaid Provost and Chapter — namely the more mature and more honourable among the burghers — and diligently examined them according to the form delivered to us; through whose sayings we found that the church of Solothurn was in every right constructed, at its first foundation, after the model of the church of Zurich, and established by a certain queen named Bertha, who built that same church and stronghold; namely, that to the Provost and Chapter belong all the jurisdictions of that stronghold, that is to say the office of the schultheiss, the mint, the toll, with all other rights which are commonly called Bauretzwing, except the jurisdiction of blood, which is reserved to the advocate alone, namely to the king of Arles, or to the officials appointed by him for the time being, in whose kingdom it lies; and in this all the witnesses whom we received, whose names we shall subscribe, unanimously agreed and do agree, that they had so learned it for truth from their elders, and that they themselves so know it for certain to be. The names of the witnesses are these. Henry, provost of Solothurn; Master Nicholas; Master Henry, custos. Albo, parish priest of Luslingen. Conrad of Bubarsche, and Master Peter, Canons of Solothurn. Henry the schultheiss, Tietrus in the city, knights. Werner of Messon, and Ulric Rutti, parish priests. Chomo Multa. Henry at the Bridge, Coradus Hagno, and Choradus his son. Henry Hevelin, Berthold Isen, Burhard Præpositi. Ulric Suri, Ulric Schaphne, Ulric Luthard, minister of the church, Burghers of Solothurn, and all the others who openly acknowledged the same.

[28] Whence we, by apostolic mandate and authority, confirm what was done before us and before the venerable fathers and Lords, of the church of Solothurn. namely John, Bishop of Lausanne, Aymo, Abbot of Erlach, Ulric, abbot of St. Urban, Ulric, provost of St. Marius of Lausanne, Rudolph, count of Falkenstein; and concerning these aforesaid matters we have given to the Provost and Chapter our letters patent, confirmed with the seal of the venerable bishop of Lausanne, with our own, and with the seals of those above named. Enacted at Solothurn in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and fifty- one, on the seventeenth of the Kalends of May. This document has been copied from the original, fortified with its seals and preserved in the archive of the venerable Chapter. Moreover, the Bull given by the Pontiff to the abbot of Frienisberg, which is here inserted, is that of Innocent IV, whose fifth year was running in the month of August together with the year of Christ 1247, in which Innocent was residing at Lyons.

perhaps receptioni*

§ III. There is an inquiry into the state in which queen Bertha found the tombs of SS. Ursus and his Companions. There seems to have been there no church or public monument in her time consecrated to the Saints. Among the seventeen bodies found by her were the relics of St. Ursus, concerning which there is a discussion.

Murer's errors concerning the beginnings of the church of Solothurn Not a few writers and more recent historians relate that the church of Solothurn was indeed enlarged, adorned and endowed by the often-mentioned queen Bertha, widow of Rudolph II and of Hugh, but they deny that it was then first founded and begun. Among these Murer, in his Helvetia Sancta, treating of SS. Ursus, Victor and their Companions, writes in chapter 8 that Bertrada, wife of King Pepin and mother of Charlemagne, being stirred from heaven about the year 800, since she willingly resided at Solothurn and kept her court there, renewed the old stronghold of Solothurn and built a monastery in honour of St. Ursus and his Fellow-soldiers, as also a church, which afterwards was consecrated by Boso, bishop of Lausanne, only in the year 892. He adds that, after the sacred relics were found by queen Bertha, wife of Rudolph II, king of the Burgundians, the church was only enlarged, and a monastery of Benedictines founded there. Whence Murer drew these things I so far do not know; but of them some are certainly false, some little probable. That Bertrada, mother of Charlemagne, fixed her court at Solothurn is so unheard of that to one who searches through her deeds it seems she could have resided there only a very short time. Besides, that most pious empress died in the year 783, and therefore it was not about the year 800, unless that about be stretched to 20 years and more, that she founded the church at Solothurn. And whence, I ask, does Murer summon Boso, bishop of Lausanne, to consecrate the church 110 years and more after it was built? I have a little book, of which there will be further use elsewhere, bearing the title: The State or epoch of the church of Avenches, now of Lausanne, from its first beginnings to our own times (the year 1724), most humbly represented to Pope Benedict XIII by the present bishop of Lausanne (Claude Antony) …. There, at page 18, I find that Boso was raised to the mitre of Lausanne in the year 882 and sat about 35 years, namely until the year 917.

[30] anachronisms and slips. Concerning the consecration of Boso it is read in the same place: When the emperor had declared war upon Rudolph I of Strättligen, who in the time of Jerome (who had preceded Boso) had caused himself to be proclaimed and crowned king of Burgundy, whence he could not then obtain a peaceful residence at Lausanne, he was inaugurated bishop at Solothurn by the office of consecration. The Sainte-Marthes have nearly the same thing more briefly in their Catalogue; and if these rest upon good monuments, they could have led Murer into error, so that out of the consecration of the bishop he forged a consecration of the church made by the same man. Of the same bran I suspect are the things which he records about the monastery of Benedictines founded by Bertha, wife of Rudolph II. Indeed, what is said in the document produced above at num. 27, that the church of Solothurn was in every right constructed at its first foundation after the model of the church of Zurich, and established by a certain queen named Bertha, by no means suits monks, but a Chapter and canons, as Hermann observed in his manuscripts. But it would be ridiculous, from the word monastery, at once to set up a monastery of monks, since it is very well known that monasteries of canons living together were in the highest degree in use at that time, praised and inculcated even by the canons of councils. But of these more than enough: let us dismiss Murer, erring perhaps only in the circumstances, and let us see whether Bertrada truly founded the church at Solothurn — which is the assertion of nearly all who have written more recently on Solothurn affairs, and of the often-praised Hermann himself, who wavers somewhat on this point. Further, I judge it to be observed at the very threshold that Bertrada, mother of Charlemagne, was more frequently called Bertha; and that thence, as happens, an error could even innocently arise from the sameness of name, especially if popular affection, as is its wont, strove to stretch back the antiquity of its own monuments.

[31] A church existed at Solothurn in the tenth century Further, although it is certain that in none of the documents hitherto brought forward, which are the most ancient that the men of Solothurn can produce, is Bertrada or Bertha, mother of Charlemagne, expressly designated as foundress of the church of Solothurn, while Bertha, wife of Rudolph II, is so designated in almost all of them most distinctly, nevertheless it is also beyond doubt that before the times of this queen there was a church at Solothurn. For, to pass over the presumption which is all but equivalent to certainty, drawn from the celebrity of the place and from the Catholic religion long cultivated there, the consecration of Boso, bishop of Lausanne, which more probably was performed not in an open field but in a church, proves this very thing so that I hold it for indubitable. But let us not, from the existence of a basilica, argue the existence of the basilica of St. Ursus: for I believe that this was founded and begun only by queen Bertha. In the chorography of Old Solothurn set forth above there occurs a place marked with four crosses and the letter l, concerning which Hermann notes thus. A place within the stronghold, where afterwards the first parish church, called that of St. Stephen, was founded. At what time, is unknown. The adjoining space is to this day called Freythoff, that is, cemetery. The parish was afterwards transferred to the collegiate church, and here a chaplaincy and a daily Mass were founded. I scarcely doubt that these things are said of an older church, which Bertrada may either have founded or adorned; but the foundation of the Ursian basilica is owed to Bertha, as also to her are to be ascribed the beginnings of the most celebrated cult, adorned at least with some exterior and public monument. Indeed, in Bertha's time so far did no church of St. Ursus exist, nor crypt, nor chapel of St. Peter — about which alone there could in any way be doubt — that the tombs of the holy Martyrs were plainly unknown. And this is indubitable from the monuments and tradition of the men of Solothurn.

[32] Let us gather again some things from the Proper Office: But when the prayer was ended (so Lesson 5) they (the holy Martyrs) let down their bodies to the ground, as if they said: but none over the tombs of our Saints, This is our rest for ever and ever. In that place, as the same history relates, the holy Martyrs lay hidden for six hundred years. But at length the illustrious queen Bertha … having been heard from heaven received a revelation, that she might know where so great a treasure was to be dug up and sought … That most precious treasure therefore having been found, she at once rejoicing sells her goods and buys that place, and gathered the bodies and relics of the Saints with worthy honour, and erected for them a church with an adjoining college. Behold the bodies of the Saints found in a place which was marked by no monument; behold the place bought; behold a basilica erected for the placing of the Saints, which took its name from St. Ursus. The Sixtine Bull Alma mater agrees, from which I excerpt what pertains hither: Who nevertheless (the Saints, their necks cut through, cast down into the river), floating not far from that same bridge and each carrying his own head in his own hands, and thus coming out upon the land, lay hidden there among thorns and briars for five hundred years, unknown. But at length their bones, namely of seventeen bodies only, were dug up and raised by the work of queen Bertha of illustrious memory, to whom this was divinely shown, and were honourably laid up in the basilica built by that queen Bertha herself — which is now also a collegiate church — by the bishop of Geneva, then the ordinary of the place. In clearer words, unless I am mistaken, it cannot be said that the sacred remains were found in a place which was without any indication, either sacred or profane, nay was wooded and neglected, and that the Ursian church was then first begun on occasion of the revelation. Here the learned Hermann wavered somewhat, as I hinted above, who, while everywhere he acknowledges and proclaims Bertha the first and only foundress of the Ursian church, nevertheless on the point of the Cult with respect to temples, altars, etc., observes thus.

[33] What temple there was at Solothurn before the eighth century is unknown, who at that time were unknown except that some think that the church of St. Stephen already then existed, which is situated in the place marked with crosses according to Table I (the chorography of Old Solothurn), and, as is handed down, was the first parish church. Meanwhile the first building of the temple of Solothurn is attributed to Wertrada, wife of Pepin, both of whom very often dwelt in the neighbourhood of Solothurn, especially in the stronghold of Pipp, so named from him; and that at the beginning of the eighth century. So Guillimann, book 3, page 379, and others. These writers are too recent to establish, without ancient testimonies being sought out, a matter transacted so many centuries ago. Although, be all these things probable, nay true, it matters little. More adverse to me are the things which the praised Hermann thus pursues. But the church which she (Wertrada or Bertrada, wife of Pepin and mother of Charlemagne) is believed to have built or begun is that lower one (see the delineation, n. 3) … Hence in our church there is this inscription: From the first foundations of this church, in the year DCCXVIII. Of what age is this inscription — erring in its reckoning by many years even in the opinion of the man himself who contends for Bertrada — Hermann does not declare, nor do I know from elsewhere. I suspect that it is not older than the documents in which a deep silence is kept concerning the foundation of the Ursian church by Wertrada, since it appears here so slightly and as it were only in passing. I certainly judge that the very same things militate altogether against the lower church or crypt which I have hitherto brought forward against the rest of the foundation and building of the Ursian church before the times of Bertha. And indeed the negative argument, that is the silence of the ancients, ought assuredly here to obtain so much the greater force, because that lower church or crypt is not wholly underground, as is clear from the delineation, where through all that space by which it stands out from the letter a to the letter f it is higher than the pavement of the church and than the level ground, and therefore could the less have lain hidden. There is added that the construction of half-underground crypts for the placing of sacred bodies was very common not only in the tenth century but in many later centuries also, as is manifest from various basilicas which still stand: and therefore the conjectures which might arise from diversity of architecture and like circumstances are exceedingly slight and null. I heap up no more to prove a matter which to me is utterly indubitable and clearer than the noonday light. Nor, whatever darkness some spread abroad, do I hesitate more about the chapel of St. Peter, which I believe to have been built by Bertha in that same place (see in the chorography of Old Solothurn the letter a, in that of the New, num. 2) whence she drew out the seventeen sacred bodies, and which she judged consecrated and worthy of veneration both by these and by the sacred remains of the others not yet found. Here again I rest upon the traditions and monuments which the men of Solothurn have, the most ancient of them. In the Proper or Office nothing indeed occurs to our purpose, since there is no mention there of the later findings of the sacred bodies.

[34] and in a wooded place, On occasion of these, and especially of that which happened in the year 1473, it is read thus above all in the German Inscription of which at num. 23. Each lifted up his own head and laid himself in the tomb in that place where now stands the chapel of St. Peter, and they lay there five hundred years, and seventeen of them were found by queen Bertha, who translated those found thence into this sacred building. Let there be added the testimony from the Epilogue, or Supplement to the History of SS. Ursus, Victor and their Companions, which is printed at the end of the Solothurn Proper. Thus is it there read: Besides therefore those seventeen bodies of the holy Patrons found by a heavenly and miraculous revelation by queen Bertha about the ninth century after the redemption of the world, other bones and heads of thirty-seven bodies are recorded to have been dug up in the year MCCCCLXXIII, in the month of April, on occasion of the renewing and enlarging to a greater space of the chapel (of St. Peter) which had been built in the very place in which the aforesaid queen had found the first seventeen bodies. Most clearly the same is had from the words of the often-mentioned Sixtine Bull, which I transfer hither. But from that time (from the revelation made to Bertha the queen and the Ursian basilica built by her), a sufficiently long tract of time having flowed by, the Christian religion growing strong, while the sufficiently ample chapel built by that queen in the place where the (sacred) bones themselves were found was being renewed etc. Of the chapel of St. Peter this is undoubtedly spoken. Therefore that also was built only by queen Bertha in that place which she marks in the old chorography with the letter a, and in the New with num. 2, where among thorns and thickets those sacred remains revealed to her had been buried; nor accordingly is this older than the church of St. Ursus by many years at least.

[34] The most learned Hermann, collector of the manuscript documents, agrees in all these things, which Bertha consecrated by erecting a chapel there who, discoursing upon these words of the Solothurn Proper for the XXX of September, Lesson 6, For not far from the said bridge, carrying their heads in their hands, they came out of the river and reached the place where now a basilica has been built in their honour, notes thus: By this basilica he credibly understands the collegiate church, called that of SS. Ursus and Victor. It stands apart from the very place of burial, and is situated on a hill which rises from the burial-place. But in the very place of burial is the church called that of St. Peter. It makes little indeed, or rather nothing, to the present matter whether the author of the history — from whom these things passed into the Offices and Papal Bulls — speaks more correctly of the basilica of St. Ursus, which stands so little a space away from it, or of the chapel or church of St. Peter; meanwhile I observe that the learned men of Solothurn are of this opinion, that they have no monuments bearing on this matter which are older than queen Bertha, that is, than the tenth century. The Martyrdom to be published from Surius has also these same words: For not far from the said bridge, carrying their heads in their hands, they came out of the river, and reached the place where now a basilica has been built in their honour. Therefore, resting so much the more safely upon these supports, I assert that the Passion arose after the tenth century, and I hold the narrative drawn thence, about matters at least six centuries past, as suspect and fabricated, and I proceed to other things. There is also another church near Solothurn which bears the name of St. Ursus, which the inhabitants call in Treibis kreutz, the French Petit S. Urs, and which was erected as a monument of the memorable martyrdom. See, if you please, the chorography of Old Solothurn at letter b, and thence you will easily find the place in that of the New or present city. At the aforesaid letter b the often-praised Hermann observes that there stood the bridge over the Aar, upon which the holy Martyrs were beheaded and cast into the river.

[36] Its ruins or foundations still stand and appear, he consecrated. The sacred remains of St. Ursus when the river is low in the summer heats. In the year MDI, he says, on the other bank, where the ✠ is marked, there was erected the church called that of St. Ursus in TREIBIS KREUTZ, with the foundation of a benefice. Neither therefore did this church, a monument of the arena, exist before the times of queen Bertha. Let us now examine some circumstances of the often-mentioned finding, and above all whether among the sacred treasures found was the body of St. Ursus, who with St. Victor is held chief among the holy Martyrs, and their leader and standard-bearer. The reader doubtless notices that in the monuments which we have hitherto alleged this is nowhere expressly declared; the bodies of seventeen Martyrs, namely, are constantly and unanimously recorded as found, but the body of no named person is asserted to have been discovered at that time, which neither have I met with, in any more ancient monuments, in the places where the aforesaid finding is described. Recourse must therefore be had elsewhere, that we may fetch a light for discerning. The Epilogue annexed to the Proper Offices printed in the year 1641 has this to our purpose. Moreover there were found the heads and bones of two bodies under the high altar of our collegiate church, when in that same altar, in the year MDXIX, a certain change was made for its beauty and adornment; of which bodies the one had been placed toward the East, the other toward the West. But that that was the true body of St. Ursus could then be known altogether without ambiguity from the silver plate laid beside it, which is preserved even to this day. Of the other we shall discourse at greater length in the following §; meanwhile, reader, see after num. 38 the delineation of the tomb then found, of the enclosed inscription, and of the lower church of St. Ursus, or crypt, where the sacred treasure was then discovered, faithfully rendered by our engraver from the original kindly sent to us by the venerable Chapter.

[37] were at that time found Let us add to these the observation of Hermann, citing authors whom I do not have at hand. Thus he says in the often-mentioned manuscript collection: In the year MDXIX, on the third weekday after Lætare, when the high altar was being pulled down to be moved to a fitter place, there was found under that altar a stone chest sunk in the pavement, with a covering wrought in the shape of a roof, and most firmly closed with iron bands and with lead poured over it on every side, in which were found two bodies, each of which was arranged in the manner of a heap and wrapped in a linen cloth. The one was toward the East, the other toward the West. In the skull of the former lay enclosed a silver plate in the shape of a leaf, with this inscription:

In this tomb is buried holy Ursus of the Thebaid.

In the skull of the other were certain leaves (others speak of one only), but rotten with age, which at the first touch dissolved into ashes. On the very front of the tomb these words were cut: D. M. Flaviæ Severianæ, and to the right of this inscription a small but oblong cross. Of this treat Hafner, part 2, page 206, but falsely at the year MDXVIII; Gothard, page 71; Munster; Lang, book 2, page 988; Antony Wagner of Solothurn in manuscript. At this unlooked-for event all the people exulted, and thanks were given to God with a public and most solemn festivity, messengers being sent for that reason to Bern and to the other neighbouring confederate cities: for it was known that the relics of St. Ursus were laid up in the church, yet the true place of burial was not known. Thus the often-praised Hermann; whence we have it that in all likelihood among the sacred bodies found by queen Bertha and translated into the collegiate basilica was the body of St. Ursus, and that it was laid in that place which in the delineation is marked with the letter c. What was done with the sacred bones of the other fifteen or sixteen holy Martyrs I do not find: I suspect that they still lie hidden in the crypt itself, placed there by Bertha. Let us return to the relics of St. Ursus, concerning which it may be asked whether they were found by queen Bertha in the same tomb with the same inscription; or whether rather the inscription was added only by her, who also ordered the relics then first to be enclosed in the said tomb.

[38] distinguished from the others by some sign And in this case indeed it would be profitable to know — what would assuredly be hard to attain — whether she found the sacred remains of St. Ursus distinguished from the others by some indication, or whether she understood that from the revelation. Whether Bertha found the sacred relics of St. Ursus in that same stone tomb, of which more in the following §, is so far uncertain to me; but I conjecture that she recognized the body of St. Ursus either from the revelation or finally from some other sign; for I do not believe that the inscription stamped on the silver plate is much older. This is sufficiently drawn out from the cadence of rhyme in the hexameter verse, studiously sought after in those times and unknown to much more ancient ages. There is added, as the learned Hermann observes, the sign of abbreviation Ω, then in use, which the ancients expressed by a line, as is obvious in inscriptions. Indeed, since at least five hundred years had flowed by in which the sacred bodies had been hidden, it must have been stamped in the fifth century, which what has hitherto been said does not leave probable. Yet Hermann opposes these things. But that this plate was not added by Bertha, he says, appears from this, that Latin characters were rarely used about the year DCCCCXXX, but Gothic and German ones freely. Moreover, if Bertha had added this plate, why did she not add another to the second body (found at the same time in the same tomb), which she certainly held for true relics? Was it the bishop of Geneva who omitted to do it? To these demands an answer can be given from what is to be said in the following § about the second body; meanwhile let the praised Hermann bear with me if I assert that Latin or Roman characters were not so rare in the tenth century as he here seems to hint. Besides, what rarely happens could have happened here, though we know not the cause; nor can a conjecture drawn from this enfeeble the contrary probability set forth before. For the rest, let us pursue what further pertains particularly to St. Ursus, besides those things which will recur below in what is to be said of his present-day cult.

[39] At the beginning of the eleventh century the veneration of St. Ursus was celebrated, and there was then an attempt to translate his relics, the relics of St. Ursus in the eleventh century, unless Berno, abbot of the monastery of Reichenau, was deceived by a false rumour, two of whose letters for obtaining them Bernard Pez sets forth in volume 6 of his Anecdota, column 213. Berno, in the enlarged Gallia Christiana, is set down as promoted to the prelacy in the year 1008, and as having died in the fortieth year after. His first letter is inscribed: To the lord H., the flower of prelates and the ornament of all manner of virtues, the servant of the Blessed Mother of God and Virgin, and the whole college of the monastery of Reichenau, the highest and unfailing good. In the course of it he calls St. Ursus the Patron of the prelate to whom he writes; hence, as also from the very aim of the petition, it is more probable that it was written to the bishop of Lausanne. In the little book which was published in the year 1724 and has the title The State or epoch of the church of Avenches, now of Lausanne, from its first beginnings to our times, etc., from the beginning of the eleventh century to Berno's year of death there occur three bishops of Lausanne: Hugh, son of Rudolph III, king of Burgundy; Henry, second of that name, bishop of the same see; and Lambert. That the letter was inscribed to one of the two first is sufficiently hinted by the letter H at the beginning; but to which of them seems uncertain, since both lived and occupied the see of Lausanne in the time when Berno presided over the monks of Reichenau. Now he, after discoursing at the outset of some matters to show that the prayers which the living pour forth for one another are efficacious, continues thus: If a salvation of this sort can be obtained through these, whose body is still corrupted and weighs down the soul, much more, God being its author, is it to be hoped that we are saved by those whose souls already exult with Christ in heavenly glory, where in the dwellings of the Just resounds the voice of exultation and of salvation. For this cause we believe we should direct these letters to thee, most reverend of fathers, through which we may undoubtingly hope to be able to obtain the gifts of charity. For there has sprinkled upon us the sweet odour of a report, by which we have learned that you wish to translate the body of the holy and thrice and four times blessed martyr, namely Ursus your patron; which you may know will be altogether a joy to us.

[40] Wherefore, first venerating thee, who by the merit of thy faith and by the privilege of thy episcopal see art worthily the chief minister of so illustrious an office, Berno, abbot of Reichenau, requested. and then saluting with the most humble affection of the heart all who by zeal of pious religion come together for that same purpose, we devoutly ask and beseech that for the gift of a blessing we may deserve to be endowed by you with the relics of so great a Patron. And if, God being our sponsor, we obtain this wish, we desire also in every way that the day of the passion, or if any Deeds of that same Martyr are held among you, be transmitted to us, so that now at the memorial of the Blessed Martyr we may together, as in the Lord's field, cast the seeds of our prayers with weeping, that through his intercession at the end we may deserve, rejoicing, to carry back the sheaves of good works to the heavenly threshing-floor. Farewell. I observe here in passing: as celebrated as was the cult of St. Ursus in Berno's time, so unknown were his Deeds and Passion, since he asks for them so doubtfully and timidly. It is more probable that Berno did not obtain the relics sought by these letters, if they were written earlier. Certainly a letter for obtaining them was directed to another, which, whether it be earlier or later than the above, I cannot make out. It is inscribed thus: To a man of virtues, and therefore worthy of the name of Cuono, the bondman of the Blessed holy Mary ever Virgin, together with the congregation entrusted to him, the offices of brotherly charity. Who that Cuono or Conon may be, I entirely do not know: at the outset there is a rather clumsy allusion to the name Conon, and thus the request is set forth. There is for us close at hand a place to be fitted for divine worship, which desiring to endow with some rare adornment of sacred relics, we have sent thee this little letter by our brother P., humbly entreating that from the kind gift of thy charity it may be allowed us to obtain some portion of the most sacred body of the Blessed Ursus, martyr of Christ and your Patron, that we may have at the same time whereby we may always rejoice together in the Lord. But we for such a recompense promise thee meanwhile the inviolable pledge of an undivided faith, until thou receive the Lord himself as thy reward, if now for his love thou wilt take care to satisfy our desire. That Cuonon, or Conon, presided over some place where the body of St. Ursus the Patron was kept — so far at least as appears — but where, I know not. Portions of that same sacred body were at other times distributed, though sparingly and rarely, on which matter at the end of this Commentary: now let us pass on to St. Victor.

§ IV. The body of St. Victor, found at Geneva at the beginning of the seventh century, is handed down to have been translated thither toward the end of the fifth. The arguments of the men of Solothurn for the possession of St. Victor are discussed, and seem less solid.

Weighty authors relate that the body of St. Victor Of the two standard-bearers of the band of Solothurn Martyrs, St. Victor generally comes in the first place among other writers, but among the writers of Solothurn everywhere only in the second; of whose cult and relics — for what pertains to his passion he has in common with St. Ursus and their other Companions — we treat particularly in this §. This discussion is not without its difficulty, since, as we shall presently see, doubtful persons occur, so that about nearly every one of them there must be dispute. Geneva, formerly called Genova, Januba, and by other inflexions of the name also, a celebrated city, believed already before the seventh century that it was enriched with the sacred body of St. Victor, martyr of Solothurn and Companion of St. Ursus. Fredegarius, or whoever else it was who about the middle of the seventh century abridged and continued the History of the Franks of Gregory of Tours, at the 7th year of king Theodoric, which concurs with 602 of the common era, writes: In that year the body of St. Victor, who had suffered at Salodorum with St. Ursus (some copies have Ursio), is found by the Blessed Æconius, bishop of Maurienne. On a certain night in his own city it was revealed to him through a dream that, rising forthwith, he should go to the church which queen Sedeleuba had built in the suburb of Geneva, a place being marked out in the middle of the church where the holy body was. And when he had hastened swiftly to Geneva, together with the blessed bishops Rusticius and Patricius, while they were keeping a three days' fast, a light appeared through the night where that glorious and splendid body was: which these three pontiffs, in silence, with tears and prayers, the stone being lifted, found buried in a silver chest, whose face they discovered ruddy as of one living. And there prince Theuderic was present, and bestowing many things upon this church, confirmed there the greatest part of Warnacharius's goods. At that holy sepulchre wondrous miracles, from the very day on which it was discovered, by the Lord's bounty, are shown with unbroken constancy.

[42] was found at Geneva at the beginning of the 7th century. The bishops. These same things, somewhat polished, Aimoin inserted into his Deeds of the Franks. Ado, as we saw above, closes his elogium of SS. Ursus and Victor for today with these words: Of these St. Victor, translated to the city of the Genevans, is celebrated with the glory of miracles and the veneration of the faithful. More probably of the same finding speaks Sigebert of Gembloux in his Chronicle, when at the year of Christ 608 he writes: Theodoric and Theudebert, brothers and kings, subdue the Gascons to themselves. The body of St. Victor the Theban, who suffered at Solodorum with St. Ursus, is found. The other writers alleged rest more probably upon the testimony of Fredegarius, who more probably lived in that time and wrote not much after: this therefore let us discuss, deferring the nearly similar account of the anonymous author of the Signy Passion, of uncertain age, to that place where we shall dispute of the first translation from Solothurn to Geneva. In the words of Fredegarius certain things occur which beget difficulty: first Rusticius and Patricius, bishops in all likelihood of cities neighbouring to the see of Maurienne or of Geneva, who are either such exiles from the catalogues of those churches that it is unknown whose they were, or so thrust into the registers of other churches that they are set further from the epoch of this finding. Among the bishops of Geneva, where from the presumption urged by the very place of the finding it seems we should presently look, neither of them appears. The place in the catalogue is vacant from the year 585, in which Cariatho was present at the second synod of Mâcon, until the year 627, in which another council was gathered at Mâcon by order of king Chlothar, that the detractions of Agrestius against the Rule of St. Columban might be discussed. In that same synod, as Jonas testifies, the biographer of St. Eustasius, abbot of Luxeuil, Appellinus, bishop of the city of Geneva, acted as patron to his kinsman Agrestius. Therefore, for placing either Rusticius or Patricius, space is left in abundance, if only it could be drawn out from elsewhere than from conjecture that either occupied the see of Geneva.

[43] Although, since we detect the catalogue of the Sainte-Marthes infected with very palpable errors, what forbids — who are recorded to have been present, in faulty catalogues upon the testimony of Fredegarius, a nearly contemporary writer, ambiguous indeed in some degree as to the see, yet carrying no light suspicion from the circumstances of the case — that we insert Rusticius, or Rusticus, or Patricius, between the years 585 and 627 into the register of the bishops of Geneva, so that he could have been present at our finding? No injury certainly will be done to the Sainte-Marthes, since of those two, wrongly thrust in elsewhere, we transfer only one hither. Certainly I do not at all doubt that from the narrative of this finding, either faulty or ill understood, Rusticus the 15th, and after him Patricius the 16th, appear in the Catalogue. Through a hallucination indeed both of them have been inserted there, since only one seems to have occupied that see; and they occupy a place in the series of the bishops of Geneva in the Sainte-Marthes nearly half a century before Æconius, namely between the years 549 and 573. Further, if the one be given to the see of Geneva, by reason of neighbourhood the other would have to be sought among the bishops of Aosta, of Octodurum or of Sion: but there he is not found. He is not found, I say, in his own order and time; for the Rusticus who is inserted in the catalogue of the bishops of Sion between St. Florentius and Theodore II, in the time of Godegisil, prince of the Burgundians, and in the translation of St. Victor the Theban, is either fabricated, or again by hallucination has been wrongly carried thither from the words of Fredegarius, the finding having been wrongly confused with the translation of the body of St. Victor. This assertion of mine will become more manifest from what is to be said below concerning the first translation; meanwhile it will be useful to have observed here that Domitian, bishop of Geneva, alone is recorded to have been present at that translation from Solothurn to Geneva, which took place in the time of king Gundegisil and of Sedeleuba toward the end of the fifth century, between the years 473 and 500: but that Rusticus is set down by the Sainte-Marthes as contemporary with him, who nevertheless, by the testimony of Fredegarius and of our anonymous author of Signy, must have lived at the beginning of the seventh century, so as to be present, not at the first translation with Domitian of Geneva, but at the finding with Æconius, bishop of Maurienne.

[44] Indeed, if a certain Rusticius had been present at the first translation with Domitian, I should by no means doubt that he was that bishop of Lyons whom St. Epiphanius of Pavia met, as he was going to the kings Gundobad and Gundegisil, as is related by Ennodius in his Life, given by us in volume 2 of January, page 374, num. 50. [are not found. The anonymous author's narrative of the finding, from an older source] For the rest, in the often-mentioned catalogue of the bishops of Sion, nothing otherwise forbids Rusticus or Patricius to be inserted between Heliodorus and Leudmundus, of whom the one sat at Octodurum in the declining sixth century, the other in the growing seventh. Among the bishops of Aosta also there remains space in abundance in the Series for inserting either of them, as also among those of Lausanne, since Marius and others near in time are there sufficiently uncertain. For the rest, if Rusticus of Cahors, who after the beginning of the 7th century occupied that see, had by chance been present at the finding with Patricius of Geneva, it would be no unheard-of matter nor greatly to be wondered at. Better known is Æconius, Ecconius or Hiconius, who in the synods of Mâcon subscribes himself bishop of Maurienne. I now subjoin the narrative from the Signy manuscript, that from it I may proceed to the examining of the first translation from Solothurn to Geneva. Thus, after the anonymous author has narrated this, he continues to the finding, of which we have treated, as follows: But as many years succeeded, through many spaces of years and of seasons, the fame of that Martyr had become known to no man at that time, in what manner in that dwelling his body had been buried: yet his sepulchre was openly shown to all, and was famous with all. But when the time had come that the Lord should declare the merits of his Martyr, the glorious man Theodoric, king of the Franks, came to visit the city of the Genevans, and what he had believed with pious faith, by divine inspiration Hyconius, bishop of the church of Maurienne, was present; who, having joined to himself the apostolic men Rusticius and Patricius, bishops, secretly in the night-time approached the sepulchre of the blessed Man; and the marble having been removed which covered the interior of the sepulchre, they found him on the outside indeed enclosed with a comely marble, but within, a coffin made of imperishable wood; and inwardly an adornment composed of silver metal with shining beauty, and there they found the blessed body laid.

[45] [was in all likelihood drawn from a document, as was also that of the earlier translation] Seeing which, with all the people they glorified God, being now made certain of so great a Patron and secure of so great a treasure. And staying there longer through the night and praying, afterwards, arranging all most diligently just as they had found it, they laid it back, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and the honour of the most blessed martyr Victor, and to the salvation of the Faithful peoples devoutly flocking thither and faithfully seeking the patronage of so great a Martyr, by the bounty of the Lord, who lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen. I observe upon these things that the anonymous author's narrative is sufficiently conformable to the account which I excerpted above from Fredegarius, so that it seems either to be drawn from this very one, or both to have proceeded from one and the same older narrative. Nay, the latter is rather urged by the Miracles which the anonymous author next annexes in particular, which he could not have read in Fredegarius, since he speaks of them only in general terms. But neither do they seem, if our anonymous author is to be believed, to be either later, or finally other, than those very ones of which Fredegarius, compressing his narrative according to his purpose, says: At that holy sepulchre wondrous miracles, from the very day on which it was discovered, by the Lord's bounty are shown with unbroken constancy. This is urged both by the conformity of the rest of the narrative, and by the fact that, proceeding to the Miracles, the anonymous author thus begins: But it happened then that a certain woman, etc. Where that the word then is to be referred to the time of the finding, of which he had just treated, is hinted by what follows, which, if you please, see, reader, at the end of the Passion of St. Victor to be published in the second place. In the same more ancient monument, in all likelihood, our anonymous author found the account of the translation of the body of St. Victor from Solothurn to Geneva, which I find in him alone. Certainly the four writers alleged above, who treat of the finding made at the beginning of the seventh century, hint by no word how or when the body of St. Victor had formerly come from Solothurn to Geneva.

[46] But I suspect that we owe that narrative not to the finding, but to an older writer, an account from which we have it that this took place under Gundegisil because, although it presently appears wrapped in some obscurities, yet when these have been dispelled it is found on every side sufficiently probable, and clothed assuredly with such circumstances as a writer of the middle ages, helped by no more ancient monuments, must seem unable to have hallucinated. Let us examine the particulars a little more laboriously. He thus begins the narrative of the translation: But in the times of Gundegisil the king, who presided over the kingdom of the Burgundians, queen Theodesinda built a basilica in honour of the martyr Vincent and in honour of St. Victor in the territory of the Genevans, below the town of that city, adorned with wondrous workmanship … which now shines before our eyes. And she asked Domitian, at that time bishop of the Genevans, that it might be lawful for her to translate the body of St. Victor the martyr thither from the stronghold of Solothurn: which obtaining, etc. Of the three persons here named, Gundegisil alone (who elsewhere is called Godegisel and Gothesil, and who toward the end of the fifth century reigned in a part of Burgundy, having the seat of his kingdom at Geneva) is not wrapped in any obscurities. To our purpose Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, book 2, chapter 28, writes: There was also Gundeuch, king of the Burgundians, of the race of Athanaric the persecuting king, of whom we made mention above. He had four sons: Gundobad, Godegisel, Chilperic and Godomar. The war stirred up by Gundegisil against his brother Gundobad, and Gundegisil's unhappy end, the same writer narrates in chapter 32 and following. His death is bound in Marius's Chronicle to the year 500. How long he reigned surviving his father Gundeuch seems uncertain. If Gundobad already held a part of the kingdom, his father Gundeuch being dead, when, as the Cuspinian Chronographer testifies, he was made Patrician by the emperor Olybrius, it is likely that his brother Gundegisil also reigned from the year 473.

[47] But that Gundegisil had the seat of his kingdom at Geneva we hold for certain from the Life of St. Epiphanius of Pavia, written by Ennodius his disciple and published by Bolland at the XXI day of January; king of Burgundy, and his niece Sedeleuba, called by various names where, at chapter 12, num. 55, after it has been related how St. Epiphanius redeemed the captive Ligurians at Lyons in the presence of Gundobad, it is thus written: Nor did the supreme man confine himself to one place in that region, lest perchance the ferocity of the lords should hinder those dwelling far off. He was at Geneva, where Godigisclus, brother of the king, had set his hearth. St. Epiphanius died in the year of Christ 496. Therefore these things agree well enough with the anonymous author's assertions. Queen Theodesinda, foundress of the church built in the suburb of Geneva and author of the translation, I find nowhere else. Fredegarius in his Chronicle at the year 602 calls the foundress of the said church Sedeleuba. Rising forthwith, he says, he should go to the church which Sedeleuba the queen had built in the suburb of Geneva. Are Sedeleuba and Theodesinda then the same? So indeed the narrative with its circumstances urges, if indeed she was truly called Theodesinda, and if our anonymous author has not erred. And who at last is that Sedeleuba the queen? As Ruinart rightly observes on the passage of Fredegarius, she is the sister of St. Clotilda, wife of Clovis I, daughter of Chilperic, brother of king Gundegisil, and therefore his niece. To the words brought forward at the end of the preceding number Gregory annexes: Therefore Gundobad killed his brother Chilperic with the sword, and drowned his wife in the waters with a stone tied to her neck. His two daughters he condemned to exile: of whom the elder, having changed her dress, was called Chrona, the younger Chrotechildis. Chrona, who in very many manuscripts and printed editions is called Mucuruna, and elsewhere, and not rarely, Corona, is in all likelihood the same as Fredegarius's Sedeleuba, and the same as our anonymous author's Theodesinda. That Chrona, the sister of St. Clotilda, was also called Sedeleuba, and lived at Geneva in the time of king Gundegisil, is nearly beyond doubt. Let us hear the Epitomator of Gregory of Tours, who, whether he be Fredegarius or anyone else, is assuredly not later than the seventh century. He then, in chapter 17, sets out thus what Gregory had written in chapter 28.

[48] called so by the authors, and residing at Geneva, There was therefore Gundiochus, king of the Burgundians, of the race of Athanaric the persecuting king. He had four sons: Gundobad, Godegisel, Chilperic and Godemar. Gundobad killed his brother Chilperic with the sword; his wife he drowned in the waters with a stone tied to her neck; their two sons he slaughtered with the sword; their two daughters he condemned to exile, of whom the elder, Sædeleuba, having changed her dress, devoted herself to God; the younger was called Chrotechildis. Behold manifestly the same woman named Sædeleuba whom Gregory had called Chrona or Mucuruna. Let us go on to describe our proposed Epitomator. He thus continues in the following chapter. Now Clovis, sending an embassy into Burgundy very often, sought Chrotechildis. And since it was not permitted to see her, Clovis directed a certain Aurelian (a Patrician from Gregory, book 1 On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 77) of the Romans, by what device he could, to look upon Chrotechildis beforehand. But he, going alone after the manner of a beggar, bearing a wallet on his back in a mean garment, went into those parts, carrying with him the ring of Clovis, that he might the more be believed. And when he had come to the city of Janua, where Chrotechildis was staying with her sister Sædeleuba, and had been received into hospitality by the pious women as a poor stranger, he secretly disclosed to Chrotechildis the love of Clovis, which she, not resisting, presently accepted, and she was joined in marriage to Clovis in the year 493. I know indeed that the Epitomator's narrative concerning the amatory stratagem is held by most as fabulous, even though Aimoin, the biographer of St. Clotilda, and some others hand it down; but the sojourn of the sisters in the city of Geneva can bring neither splendour nor charm to the account, and therefore there is no reason why on that head it should be doubted. Therefore we have Sedeleuba residing at Geneva in the time of king Gundegisil, her uncle, and more probably called queen because she was born of the royal blood of the Burgundians: we have a woman devoted to God and suited to collecting and zealously adorning the relics of the Saints, and to making their cult illustrious by the founding of basilicas.

[49] to Domitian, bishop of Geneva, or Donatian, wrongly Let us proceed to clearing the ground concerning Domitian, bishop of Geneva, who translated the body of St. Victor. The Sainte-Marthes in their Catalogue of the bishops of Geneva number Donatian ninth in order, of whom they have this: Donatian, in the time of Godisil, king of the Burgundians, who translated the body of St. Victor, the Theban martyr, from Solothurn to Geneva, where he dedicates a church built in his honour. There Isaac next follows him, about the year CCCCXL, (who) is mentioned by Eucherius of Lyons in the Life of St. Maurice, primicerius of the Legion. There runs at once into the reader's eyes this manifest anachronism, while Donatian, perhaps the same as Domitian, is placed in the see of Geneva half a century before Gundegisil and at the same time during his reign. I say a manifest anachronism: for Andrew Du Chesne, weaving a genealogy of the Burgundian kings out of I know not what inept conjectures, ought not to delay us here; since he alleges no witnesses, and plainly doubles persons, not, I think, from other documents than those which the Sainte-Marthes used, and which he himself worse understood or interpreted, so as to draw the series from Gundeuch to Athanaric. Therefore from what has been disputed above concerning Sedeleuba and Gundegisil it is manifest either that Donatian, if he is the same as Domitian, is wrongly fixed before Isaac, or that to Donatian, if he is different from Domitian, the translation of St. Victor is wrongly ascribed, which took place about half a century later, in the reign of Gundegisil and at the request of Sedeleuba. The Sainte-Marthes at the head of their Catalogue profess that they received it from Guichenon, who first collected it both from ancient membranes of the church of Geneva and from various manuscript codices and approved authors. I suspect that Guichenon wrongly applied to Donatian the translation of the body of St. Victor from Fredegarius, or that he wrongly transferred Donatian himself thither in place of Domitian, along with the translation of the relics which took place in the time of Gundegisil.

[50] Whatever it be, whether one prefers to strike out Donatian or to transfer him after Isaac, inserted elsewhere in the catalogues, Domitian is to be inserted there in the catalogue. But since Isaac had more probably already died about the middle of the fifth century, when St. Eucherius was writing the Passion of SS. Maurice and his Companions, and since no one is found there in the middle between him and Maximus — who under king Sigismund is read as subscribed to the foundation of the monastery of Agaunum in the year 515 — this our Domitian will conveniently fill that see for some years about 480. Josias Simler in his Description of the Valais asserts that there existed at the door of the temple of St. Victor at Geneva an inscription in which was read: These things were done in the episcopate of Domitian, bishop of Geneva, at which time also the stronghold of Solothurn was subject to the bishopric of Geneva; which, if they are sufficiently ancient, in all likelihood agree with our Domitian. Thus at last will the account of our anonymous author flow without stumbling; which, before we pass on to other matters, I am pleased to insert here. But in the times of Gundegisil the king, who presided over the kingdom of the Burgundians, queen Theodesinda built a basilica in honour of the martyr Vincent, and in honour of St. Victor, in the territory of the Genevans below the town (Perhaps we should read the suburb) of that city, adorned with wondrous workmanship, enriched with many ornaments and with great possessions and with royal liberality, which now shines before our eyes. And she asked Domitian, at that time bishop of the Genevans, that it might be lawful for her to translate the body of St. Victor the martyr thither from the stronghold of Salodorum. Which obtaining, having taken with her the Christian people, with hymns, psalms and priests they came to that very place where he was buried. And beseeching for three days with fastings and vigils, they were scarcely at last able to approach his sepulchre. And when they had come thither, and the sepulchre had been opened where the body of the Martyr rested, the whole was shaken. But seeing these marvels of God, all feared. Again awaiting that vigil of the night, fasting together and praying, they took his body and laid it in a bier. Then a great sound was made, and that chest shone, where they had laid him, like snow.

[51] And raising him up and bearing him with hymns, psalms, tapers and lamps as far as Geneva, they laid him down in the church, where also they buried him, with loud voices blessing God and greeting the holy Martyr with the cry: Welcome, permitting and assisting. servant of God, St. Victor; for in thy coming we believe that we are made safe, and that before God we are always relieved in every tribulation by thy prayers. Besides those things which we have observed above from these, it is perhaps worth noting that the church of Geneva was built in honour of St. Vincent and St. Victor, which, unless I am mistaken, is not found elsewhere, where it is read as dedicated to St. Victor alone; and what the anonymous author says of the basilica erected by Sedeleuba, which now shines before our eyes, and by which, if he has not erred, he seems to hint at some antiquity of his own. The aforesaid church was celebrated in the tenth century, as is clear from the Life of St. Adelaide written by Odilo, abbot of Cluny, and published by Leibniz in volume 1 of the Writers of Brunswick Affairs, page 262, chapter 13, where it is read of St. Adelaide that, after she had at Agaunum, at the tombs of St. Maurice and his Companions, indulged more abundantly in pious prayers, she thence went to the city of the Genevans, desiring to see the hall of the most victorious martyr Victor. The aforesaid church, together with the priory of the abbey and Order of Cluny, continued until the year 1530, in which the Genevans, fearing for themselves from Charles, duke of Savoy — not a few of whom by then, through their league with the Bernese, had been breathed upon by heresy — girded the city and part of the suburbs with walls, scattering and pulling down the buildings which either could not be enclosed within them, or had to furnish material for building other outer fortifications. And this was the lot of the basilica and monastery of St. Victor. The sacred treasures of our Martyr could indeed have been translated elsewhere, since there was not yet at least open rage against Catholics and sacred things — nay, the monks were still permitted for a year or two afterward to enjoy their revenues and possessions — but whether anyone took care of it, and whither they were translated, is undiscovered by me.

[52] The body, which at Solothurn in the same tomb, Let us therefore come down to other matters. What is as it were proper to the relics of the most celebrated Saints, that different churches should litigate about the possession of them, could scarcely, or scarcely even, fail to happen here also. The city of Solothurn, namely, to this day claims for itself and vindicates the body of St. Victor, who suffered in its own neighbourhood. To this day, I say, for in the more ancient documents which we have hitherto brought forward there is no mention, expressly at least, of the relics of St. Victor, as will become plain to one who gathers them up. That opinion seems to have arisen only at the beginning of the sixteenth century, as we have already shown in following Hermann so far. That learned collector of the Solothurn manuscript monuments, in part 2 of his observations, after producing the testimonies which we alleged of Fredegarius, Ado and Aimoin concerning the translation made to Geneva, says: Which reasons being examined, I would not dare with Gothard to call in doubt what so many illustrious monuments assert. Rightly indeed so far, and as becomes a sober and prudent critic. Meanwhile, however (Hermann resumes), our church and the people of Solothurn not only think but hold for certain that they possess St. Victor — and indeed the chief one of this Legion and of this name — and that from the time in which St. Ursus was found with a certain other body under the altar. He then narrates how this came about. That I may not do what is done, return, reader, to the preceding §, where at numbers 36 and 37 you have the narrative of this finding, which happened in the year MDXIX on the second weekday after Lætare, set out entire from the Solothurn Proper and Hermann's observations. Hither belong only these words which are there read: In the skull of the other were certain leaves (others speak of one only), but rotten with age, which at the first touch dissolved into ashes.

[53] The Solothurn Proper, after the words excerpted at num. 36, thus continues: was found with the body of St. Ursus, But since this ((the body which had been found in the same tomb with the relics of St. Ursus, distinguished by a silver plate) is conjectured from very many and very weighty arguments to be unable to be any other than the body of St. Victor, it plainly stands sufficiently evident that the opinion of those is empty who have persuaded men that the body of that same St. Victor was once translated from Solothurn to Geneva. What those very weighty arguments were, from which the evidence arose, the author of the Epilogue has kept silent; but I vehemently suspect that an inordinate love of country added to them an imaginary weight, and that thence, in men blinded, was begotten a phantasm of evidence which so decisively charged with emptiness authors both ancient and weighty. But before we sift both these and the other things which there follow, let us lay it down — with all sensible critics assenting, unless I am mistaken, who do not labour under prejudices — that the testimonies of those ancient writers, and the old traditions of the Genevans, constantly propagated certainly from the seventh century, cannot be overturned by conjectures, since other arguments are wanting: cannot, I say, be overturned by conjectures, unless these reach to nearly evidence itself. But now those which I so far see forged and deduced by the men of Solothurn are assuredly such that in my judgment they can scarcely, or scarcely even, be received among the probable. The whole foundation of them is the finding of the treasures in the same tomb with the body of St. Ursus, which was separated from them and distinguished by a silver plate as an index; and how weak this is, no clear-sighted man can fail to see. The leaves added were rotten and dissolved into ashes; nothing therefore is had from them: but the other circumstances of the finding altogether urged that the head and bones were rather of another than of St. Victor. First of all the inscription of the tomb, D. M. FLAVIÆ SEVERIANÆ (see table 2, num. 1), must at once have suggested the opinion that they were the treasures of a certain Severiana, whose sepulchre it manifestly designates.

[54] That opinion presently found some followers also, if Murer is to be believed when he writes: it is more probable that it is not the body Thus certain learned men formed such a judgment upon these matters: That Severiana, a noble matron, converted to the faith by St. Ursus, had secretly buried St. Ursus after his martyrdom in the tomb which she had caused to be built for herself while living, and had ordered that she be laid in the same after her death. They are conjectures, I do not deny, but such as have probability from the inscription and are not so easily refuted. Let us gather what we find opposed to them in Hermann's observations. That the remains were, he says, of some Roman matron, as the inscription seems to insinuate, can by no reasoning be comprehended. I. Because the Romans burned their corpses and placed only the ashes in urns. 2. Because, even not supposing the burning of Severiana, neither would a pagan have enclosed the body of St. Ursus, as being a worshipper of Christ, nor would any Christian have enclosed Severiana together with St. Ursus in the same tomb. 3. Even if queen Bertha had found both together with the tomb in the year DCCCCXXX, yet she would not have placed both under the altar, especially with the bishop of Geneva present; for the silver leaf was either added by her or already found with St. Ursus. From which it is to be gathered that she knew the relics of St. Ursus very well, and it follows that this second body was held by Domitian for true relics, and declared as such by the Pontiff. 4. These bones have always been held and declared by physicians to be the bones of a man, and to denote a strong and tall man, as can plainly be seen. If physicians and surgeons can with sufficient certainty distinguish male bones from female bones at all, even when they have been buried for many centuries, and not a few perhaps separated from them (about which I have heard physicians themselves, not inexperienced, doubting), this one is a stronger argument than all the rest, to which an answer could without difficulty be given.

[55] of St. Victor, as the men of Solothurn believe to this day, And to the first indeed: Be that universally true of the heathen; a man would ineptly carry over that custom to Christians, since we have a thousand examples everywhere to the contrary. But the cross formed at the right side of the inscription certainly shows a Christian burial. It could be replied by an opponent that the Cross was added when the relics of SS. Ursus and Victor were laid up in the tomb: but from one who asserts so freely, proof would cautiously be demanded. As to what pertains to the 2nd, I do not see why this should be so incredible, nay a thing without example, that the sacred bones of Saints should have been entombed with another body. Although there is no need of an example, since this at least is not incredible: that the sacred treasures of St. Ursus, having to be hidden for fear of barbarian inroads, were enclosed in the tomb with the inscription, the other remains of the body found in the same chest being left there but separated — especially because it was clear that it was of a Christian woman, nay perhaps at that time was believed by a less learned man to be of some female Saint. Nor does the 3rd prove more. For let us suppose that queen Bertha found in the same tomb the treasures of both bodies: the relics indeed of St. Ursus distinguished by a silver plate or by some other indication; the bones of the other body altogether anonymous without any sign whatever: that she wished her own ignorance or doubt concerning these bones to be attested to posterity by the leaves added, and placed the tomb, as she had found it, entire under the altar. What sin, I ask, would there have been in that? For indeed it would by no means follow that this body also was held for true relics by Domitian, some bishop of Geneva or other, and declared as such by the Pontiff. Although, that we may not cling to these things longer — since the tomb within scarcely opens to 4 feet in length, but only to one foot and a few fingers' breadth in width — I rather believe that it was from the beginning destined for the placing of ashes rather than of whole bodies; and accordingly that not Severiana's, but some other anonymous one's of the Theban Martyrs, the Companions of St. Ursus, were the sacred bones laid up there with the relics of St. Ursus; and that these were added in the added leaves by Bertha, and that this anonymous Martyr at length came to be Victor, the celebrated one among them, with the men of Solothurn.

[56] but of another, perhaps anonymous This opinion was begotten in me, and is kept constant, by the testimony of weighty authors concerning the translation of the body of St. Victor, and by the tradition produced through so many centuries in favour of the Genevans. The conjecture about the remains of an anonymous Martyr seems to me on other grounds preferable to certain others, and such that nothing can seem to be opposed to it which would render it less probable, as we shall presently prove. The often-praised Hermann, who above at num. 52 manifestly seems to feel with me against Gothard and others, is not so consistent with himself elsewhere; for he twists himself, unless I am mistaken, in order to defend the Solothurn traditions and other men's prejudices rather than his own. Let us hear what he opposes. I infer likewise, he says, that it was not the body of some common soldier of the Company, but of one of greater rank, because queen Bertha laid it up with St. Ursus himself in a tomb and in a place so distinguished. I do not sufficiently see the sequel of the inference. It is uncertain, as Hermann himself more than once confesses, by whom, on what occasion, at what time the sacred treasures were enclosed in the stone tomb. Let us grant that at that time the relics of one anonymous Martyr only were found and laid up together with the body of St. Ursus. What, I ask, would have been the sin in that? Ought reverence to have deterred them, lest a common Soldier, received into heaven where there is no distinction of persons but of works, should be laid in the same tomb on earth, to be venerated with his commander? So much politeness and reverence of title the Saints do not care for, I think; nor do I see it either prescribed or persuaded by any reasonings, so that such things ought not to tear me from this opinion. To the aid of his case Hermann summons a tradition, which the Speciale in the Epilogue, Gothard at page 73, and Wagner in manuscript treat of.

[57] Have it, reader, from the often-mentioned Solothurn Speciale or Proper, of the Company of SS. Ursus and Victor and marvel in silence whither prejudices and love of enriching one's country with relics lead men. Thus is it there read, immediately after those things which we excerpted at num. 53. And if ever any body from among the relics of these Saints was translated thither (to Geneva), that tradition is most probable (it plainly stands sufficiently evident which had preceded) by which the reverend lord Canons, our predecessors, are said, in place of the body of St. Victor (when it was sought by a certain queen and by the lord ordinary of Geneva to be translated to Geneva), to have handed over another body of this Company by a pious art and dissimulation; and to have hidden this venerable body of St. Victor, together with the body of St. Ursus, under the high altar of this collegiate church with such caution that for several centuries of years and of seasons the very place in which they had lain hidden was concealed even from their own successors. Little traditions indeed! Canons both powerful and crafty, forsooth, who could dupe a bishop and a queen; a collegiate church at Solothurn in the fifth century are thrust upon us. And it plainly stands sufficiently evident, if it please the Powers above, that these things are most probable. But for my part it stands, and for Hermann himself, unless I am mistaken, plainly sufficiently evident, that neither canons nor a collegiate church existed in the fifth century in the stronghold of Solothurn, a place then in all likelihood still humble enough; and that the whole little fable which they call a tradition was devised after the year 1519 to foster certain men's improbable conjecture about the body found with the relics of St. Ursus: so that the tradition of the Epilogist in the year 1541, in which the Proper was printed, still smelt of the cradle and of childhood.

[58] The learned Hermann had foreseen, I think, that for the confirming of my conjecture it could further be argued that the senate and the Chapter, of a Theban martyr. when in the year 1473 they wrote to the Pontiff nearly every particular in detail that pertained to the holy Martyrs their Patrons, and to the revelation of the sacred relics, their findings and translations, as they are recounted in the Bull Alma mater to be given in the following §, made no mention of the relics of St. Victor; and he wished to seem to give another reason for the silence. But to a judge free on every side no other will occur than that the treasures had not then yet been found with the body of St. Ursus, and accordingly that the conjecture about it had not yet arisen, nor the tradition ill conceived for establishing it. The men of Solothurn believed at that time, as in all likelihood they had believed for several past centuries — since nowhere among the Solothurn monuments is any mention made of St. Victor, and since queen Bertha herself dedicated the church not to St. Victor, certainly the Martyr of the first place, but to St. Ursus — they believed, I say, following their forefathers, that St. Victor belonged rather to the Genevans than to themselves, and therefore here too they could fail to make particular mention of him. I add no more, nor do I sift certain minutiæ — for example, whether the leaves which were found beside the sacred body were first added by queen Bertha, or were added long before and found by her; whether they were of parchment, or rather of papyrus, that they so quickly rotted and were dissolved into dust: for they make nothing to the matter, provided that, as is to me most probable, there were inscribed upon them testimonies about the body of an anonymous Theban Martyr, there either laid in the tomb or found. For the rest, even though, deferring to the ancient writers and to the constant tradition of many centuries, I have acted as patron to the Genevans, I should not wish to assert that they so obtained the body of St. Victor that the men of Solothurn retained no parts, perhaps even notable ones. If the head, or a part of the head enclosed in the precious reliquary with the head of St. Ursus, was not taken from the body so often mentioned and found in the tomb with the mute leaves, it could, with perhaps some other bones also, be of the true St. Victor.

[59] It is doubtful whether the men of Solothurn have the head of St. Victor. Assuredly we know that writers of their own country are liberal in calling more notable relics bodies; we know that whole bodies were more rarely granted to other churches in such a way that no part was left to the grieving place from which they were translated. Finally we shall more prudently, unless I am mistaken, suppose in the keepers of the sacred treasure of Solothurn a care to ask from the bishop of Geneva and from queen Sedeleuba a part of the sacred body they were to translate, than the craft and bad faith of substituting another in its place. Let us close this § with Hermann's notice. But the tomb of which we have spoken is still kept under the high altar in a monument afterwards very beautifully wrought of marble, in which likewise the bones of St. Ursus and St. Victor, and at the same time the chest which contains the heads of both Saints (thou hast the delineation, reader, set out in table 1) together with the aforesaid silver plate, rest enclosed. But the covering of the tomb, or roof, is still seen fixed to the wall outside the doors of the church, with a brazen inscription of the deed and of the time. He had premised: Meanwhile the aforesaid relics, preserved with St. Ursus in the same chest and tomb, are held by the inhabitants for the true body of St. Victor, are most devoutly honoured, and shine with the same miracles. Both the greatness and the frequency of miracles is wont to designate, not the names of Saints, but a powerful patronage with God — which nothing forbids to be that of an anonymous holy Martyr, by whatever name he be invoked and honoured. Finally, the things of which we are here warned suggest a great suspicion that both sacred heads enclosed in the precious reliquary were taken from that same tomb.

§ V. The finding in the year 1473 of thirty-seven sacred bodies, which are believed to be those of the Martyrs, Companions of SS. Ursus and Victor. Their exaltation, permitted by the Pontiff Sixtus IV and celebrated with illustrious pomp.

The sacred treasures found in the year 1473 Of the chapel called that of St. Peter, which we have said was founded by queen Bertha in that place whence she had drawn out the seventeen sacred bodies revealed to her, there has been frequent discussion hitherto. You have the place designated in the Chorography of Old Solothurn by the letter a, in the delineation of the New at num. 2. It is damp, being surrounded by five gushing springs, which you have marked in the same place. A chapel had been built there about the middle of the tenth century, as we showed in §2, which, falling into decay in the declining fifteenth century, was repaired; and on that occasion the sacred treasures were found. These things being noted beforehand, let us take from the Epilogue of the Solothurn Proper the narrative, and then illustrate it with other documents. Thus has the Proper. Besides therefore those seventeen bodies of the holy Patrons found by a heavenly and miraculous revelation by queen Bertha about the ninth century (nay, the middle of the tenth) after the redemption of the world, other bones and heads of thirty-seven bodies are recorded to have been dug up in the year one thousand four hundred and seventy-three, in the month of April, on occasion of the renewing and enlarging to a greater space of that chapel which had been built in the very place in which the aforesaid queen had found the first seventeen bodies. For when the foundation was being dug there, on six successive days of Holy Week there were found and dug up those aforesaid thirty-seven bodies, of which some (to use the words of the Bull sent by Pope Sixtus the fourth to Solothurn) had their heads about the breast, some about the navel, and several on the right arm and about the shoulder-blades, lying one beside another in pairs, sometimes six together, sometimes three together, or one above another; yet all in a straight order and position, having their feet toward the rising of the sun, after the manner of Christians. But those bones were for the greater part entire, not rotten, nor foul-smelling, nor turned to ashes, but were found fragrant, and several heads still retaining their teeth, although they had lain hidden nearly a thousand and two hundred years in that sufficiently damp and muddy earth.

[61] Which relics being thus collected (these things are read in a certain old codex written at that time, in the month of April, as appears from the words) and decently arranged in small coffers, thereafter through their mediation miracles and prodigies exceedingly great shone forth. For very many persons of either sex, devoting themselves to those relics, recovered from divers sicknesses and diseased infirmities. Which miracles indeed even in these days do not cease to grow famous. Since upon these matters the most holy lord supreme and Apostolic Pontiff, namely the lord Pope Sixtus the fourth, the present pope, had been consulted and appealed to, and upon the already recited miracles, by his Apostolic authority, sufficient testification having been received, he at length by his Apostolic Bulls commanded that these relics of thirty-seven bodies, last found as is aforesaid, be raised and honourably translated to the aforesaid collegiate church of Solothurn, and laid up beside the other earlier and like ancient relics. Which was done with great honour, namely on the day of Quasimodo Sunday, in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seventy- four. By the power of which relics unspeakable miracles and prodigies came forth, which are seen to persevere [ ] etc. Then below: It is to be noted, moreover, that at this translation there were present five mitred prelates and other prelates and ecclesiastical men, knights, nobles and also ambassadors of cities, and other men, of either sex, to the number of nearly fifteen or twenty thousand persons: for this translation was also made very solemnly by two lord prelates, commissaries, by the most holy lord Pope Sixtus the fourth, etc. Thus far that codex, and from it the Epilogue of the Proper. Let us now review the particulars more distinctly from the monuments which are here alleged, and from others which are at hand, communicated by the venerable Chapter.

[62] In the year of Christ 1473, on Monday the XII of April, on which Holy Week began, which were believed to be those of 37 Companions of SS. Victor and Ursus. Easter falling on the XVIII day of the same month, was the beginning of the happy finding of the sacred treasure, whose progress is had both from the narrative already alleged and will be described more fully below in the Sixtine Bull. Further, there it is said that on six successive days the bones and heads of thirty-seven bodies were found; and again below, that thirty-seven bodies were dug up. The inscription at the doors of the church, which we gave at num. 23 as made a little after this finding, numbers only thirty-six Saints discovered at that time, and Hafner in his manuscripts records only so many, as Hermann testifies, who concludes from the Sixtine Bull Alma mater that there were at least thirty-seven heads and other bones, though not so entire that nothing was lacking to whole bodies. This, as being drawn up from the informations sent to Rome immediately after the finding itself by the Chapter and senate of Solothurn, ought accordingly to prevail by authority in a matter which had happened before their own eyes. Before we publish that Bull, certain things are to be noted beforehand and cleared up concerning the bishop of Lausanne, to whom it is directed; since Sixtus IV does not distinctly name that prelate, and I have noticed a confusion concerning him in the Catalogues of the bishops of Lausanne. In the Sainte-Marthes, William de Varax, who died in the year 1467, is followed by Rudolph, legate of Paul II, (who) makes peace between the Germans and the Poles. To him is subjoined John IV, Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vincula, in the year MCDLXXIV. In the State of the church of Avenches, or of Lausanne, which was written by the bishop of that city, offered to Benedict XIII, and printed in the year 1724, quite another catalogue is woven here. Namely, in the year 1472 there is set down John de Michaëlis … great counsellor of the duke of Savoy, Sixtus IV being Pontiff. Two years later there follows Julian, bishop of Lausanne … afterwards Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vincula, under the same Pontiff and emperor. Whence these things came, I do not know: but in Ciaconius or Oldoinus I find that among very many mitres of other churches Julian held that of Lausanne also, although Stella, Platina, Panvinius, and all whom I have found cited in Oldoinus for Julian's deeds, are silent about them.

[63] The examination instituted upon these matters Now this Julian is Julian della Rovere, nephew of Sixtus IV by his brother Raphael, who also after Paul II, taking the name of Julius II, ascended the Roman see. He had been promoted to the hat by his uncle Sixtus in the first creation, in the year 1471, on the XV day of December; afterwards he exchanged various titles with churches. Whether he held at the outset, and for how many years, that of St. Peter ad Vincula, is not equally beyond doubt. I do not however find among the Cardinals another who held this between the years 1472 and 1475, so that, Wadding also asserting it with some others, it is permissible to believe that at that time Julian was distinguished with it, and accordingly that he is the man spoken of in the monuments presently to be produced. But that one and the same man in the years 1473 and the following was Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vincula and bishop of Lausanne becomes manifest from the testimony of John a Staal, chief secretary of Solothurn, who was personally present at the things then done concerning the sacred relics, and is cited by Hafner, part 2, page 179. His words are: Therefore the most holy father Pope Sixtus and the Cardinal ad Vincula Petri, bishop of Lausanne, permitted the newly found sacred treasure to be worthily exalted. Thus John a Staal; from which I deduce that Julian is exhibited perhaps one or two years too late in the newest catalogue of the State of the bishops of Lausanne: for from the letters of the bishop of Lausanne to the city of Solothurn, given on the Kalends of February of the year 1474, I seem to gather that he had long before, at the time when the cause of the discovered sacred bodies was being handled at Rome, presided over the church of Lausanne. Before I now subjoin the often-mentioned Sixtine Bull, some things are still to be noted beforehand, gathered from what has already been disputed, or occurring from elsewhere, especially concerning the chronology, which in that Bull is somewhat dislocated. The Bull was given at Tivoli in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand four hundred and seventy- three, on the thirteenth of the Kalends of August, in the second year of our Pontificate (of Sixtus IV). Sixtus had ascended the chair of St. Peter on the IX day of August in the year 1471: therefore the chronological notes agree rightly. A little after the beginning the holy Martyrs are said to have suffered nearly a thousand two hundred years ago. Their martyrdom, namely, was everywhere bound to the year 288, which error I sifted in elucidating the Passion of SS. Maurice and his Companions at the XXII day of this month. Thence, moreover, to the year of the Bull's date there flowed 1183 years, which come near to the round number: they recede further in my own view, according to which the Martyrdom is to be bound to the year 303 or 304. Then follows, They lay hidden unknown for five hundred years — namely until the revelation of the seventeen bodies made to queen Bertha about the year 950, as we laid down above at num. 21 and following.

[64] But this reckoning labours; for if to the year 288 you add 500, at Rome and happily concluded. there will arise only the year 788, from which nearly two centuries still remain until the said revelation. In other Solothurn monuments, as I observed above, instead of five hundred is read six hundred, which is in some fashion saved by adding superfluous years to the round number. Return, if you desire more on these matters, to §2, num. 24 and following. There occurs then in the Bull another reckoning, at the beginning of num. 67. Although sixty-six of the said Saints were beheaded at Solothurn, nevertheless only seventeen bodies with St. Ursus — it is nearly eight hundred years — were dug up the first time. Let us subtract from the year 1473 the 800 years: we shall be brought back to the year 673, about which I find no epoch to take as the beginning of this reckoning. If we must proceed by conjecture, I suspect that the men of Solothurn, in the monuments which they submitted to the Pontiff, anticipated the age of queen Bertha by two centuries, and drew forward the first revelation to the middle of the eighth century, which ought to have been fixed at the middle of the tenth. Certainly, this error being supposed, the last two chronological notes will in some fashion approach one another, as will become plain to one who considers: nor indeed is it pleasing to discourse longer upon a matter in which documents of that kind are of no greater authority than in asserting historical facts long past, such as here are the baptism of the Theban Legion at Jerusalem, its instruction in the faith by Pope Marcellus at Rome, the prodigy of our holy Martyrs carrying their severed heads in their hands out of the river. The first two of these indeed, in sifting the Acts of St. Maurice, I manifestly convicted of fable, and the last I hold as very suspect of fiction, as I insinuated above in §1, num. 7 and following. Let us now print the Bull itself. Sixtus, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his venerable brother the bishop of Lausanne, greeting and the Apostolic benediction. The kindly mother the Roman Church, after the likeness of the church triumphant, exalts all the athletes of God, and especially those who for the solid foundation of the Christian faith willingly submitted their necks to the executioner for the palm of martyrdom, with the outlay of a greater honour in proportion as they illustrated her more excellently beyond the rest.

[65] Since therefore, as the petition lately exhibited to us on the part of our beloved sons the Provost and Chapter of the church of St. Ursus, of the most ancient town of Solothurn, of the diocese of Lausanne, and of the schultheiss, the consuls and the townsmen of the said town, contained, The Bull of the Pontiff Sixtus IV, that long ago — it is nearly twelve hundred years — when Maximian, emperor of the Romans, having joined Diocletian to himself, busying himself to cross the Alps and to set out into Gaul against the Christians, had commanded the sacred Theban Legion — namely the holy Maurice, Candidus, Exuperius, Victor and Ursus with their Companions — to be summoned as warlike men; who, moved by his command, girding themselves for the journey and making their passage through Jerusalem, were there first baptized, and thereafter at Rome by Pope Marcellus were confirmed in the Catholic faith, and at last, crossing the Alps with the emperor himself, came to Octodurum: where, being required to sacrifice to idols after the manner of the pagans and to fight against the Christians, and refusing this, on this account first and a second time decimated, they were finally all put to the edge of the sword for the name of Christ there, except SS. Ursus and Victor and their Fellows, sixty-six in number, who withdrawing thence came to Solothurn, where by command of the aforesaid emperor they were sought out and found, and being questioned whether they would sacrifice to the idols as before, refusing, after dire and various torments were at last on the bridge of Solothurn beheaded together for the name of Christ and for the profession of the Catholic faith, and cast down into the bed of the river; who nevertheless, floating not far from that same bridge, and each carrying his own head in his own hands, and thus coming out upon the land, lay hidden there among thorns and briars for five hundred years, unknown. But at length their bones, namely of seventeen bodies only, were dug up and raised by the work of queen Bertha of illustrious memory, to whom this was divinely shown, and were honourably laid up in the basilica built by that queen Bertha herself, which is now also a collegiate church, by the bishop of Geneva, then the ordinary of the place; and from that time canonically and in Catholic fashion they have been deservedly venerated as sacred relics, with manifold miracles coming forth, as they are venerated still to this day; and by whose protection, since many sick with divers languors obtain health, and others afflicted with many discomforts obtain saving remedies, as concerning these it plainly stands from the Legends and ancient writings.

[66] by which it is commanded But from that time, a sufficiently long tract of time having flowed by, the Christian religion growing strong, while the sufficiently ample chapel built by that queen in the place where those bones were found was being renewed and enlarged, and in these latest days there was digging there for the foundation of a pavement to be made, by chance in this month of April of this seventy- third year, on six successive days of Holy Week there were found and dug up the bones and heads of thirty-seven bodies, of the length and proportion of the other seventeen holy Thebans previously, as has been premised, discovered; of which some had their heads about the breast, some about the navel, and several on the right arm and about the shoulder-blades, lying one beside another in pairs, sometimes six together, sometimes three together, or one above another, yet all in a straight order and position, having their feet toward the rising of the sun after the manner of Christians. But those bones were for the greater part entire, not rotten, nor foul-smelling, nor turned to ashes, but were found fragrant, and several heads still retain their teeth, although they lay hidden nearly a thousand and two hundred years in that sufficiently damp and muddy earth: and witnesses of this matter are the priests and laymen worthy of credit, who dug and saw the digging, and raised those bones, which are now shut up in decent coffers; and this for the reason that from many, and from most true signs and indications, it is presumed that they are the relics of the other holy Thebans who, beheaded at Solothurn with St. Ursus and Victor, flocked together to the same place.

[67] First, because, although sixty-six of the said Saints were beheaded at Solothurn, an examination to be instituted on the spot nevertheless only seventeen bodies with saint Ursus — it is nearly eight hundred years — were dug up the first time. Secondly: those bones and heads now discovered are long and proportioned after the likeness of the other Thebans. Thirdly, because no bones of children, of women, or of feeble persons have now been seen there. Fourthly, because it has not been heard from all time that in the same place where the former and the present bones were discovered there were ever seen the sepulchres of men, or that anyone was buried there; nor was there there, either from that time or afterwards, through the course of many hundreds of years, any house or habitation, from which it might be suspected that anyone at any time had been buried there; nor — what is the greatest thing — has it been heard by report or rumour or by any divulgations whatever that the bodies of those Saints floated to another place or were discovered there; and it is not likely that God should be unwilling that those so well deserving, who washed their robes in their own blood for the name of Christ, should shine here with prodigies, so that the rest, drawn by their example, may imitate their footsteps with a more courageous breast. All which heaped together make a presumption not merely probable, but violent and notorious, that the bodies now found are of the fellowship of the other Saints previously discovered. And although it is judged to be piously believed without doubt, nay scarcely not to be held for certain, that just as the former bones, namely seventeen bodies, discovered for those times — it is nearly eight hundred years — have from then until now been held and venerated as sacred and true relics, their miracles requiring it, as today they are devoutly venerated, by parity of reason these bones also, last dug up, since in martyrdom for the faith of Christ they are of the same condition, and whose miracles are now everywhere seen to come forth into the light, would be no less to be venerated as true and sacred relics.

[68] Wherefore, on the part of the said Provost and Chapter, to the bishop of Lausanne. and also of the schultheiss, the consuls and the townsmen, that this matter may be prosecuted in due order, and that from this the devotion of the people may be increased, and those Saints be venerated the more sincerely and with the greater affection in proportion as their fervent passion, granting them more merit, shall have been approved with a more excellent authorization — since that holy Legion has been canonized and approved, and since those bodies are undoubtedly judged to be of their and blessed Ursus's Company — humble supplication has been made to us that we would deign of our Apostolic benignity fittingly to provide for them concerning the premises; We therefore, who with intense desires aim at the devotion of the faithful and the exaltation of the bodies of the saints and the increase of divine worship, not having certain knowledge of the premises, command thy fraternity, in which in these and other matters we hold an undoubted confidence, that concerning all and singular the premises and all their circumstances, by thyself or by another or by others, whose consciences and thine own we charge therewith, thou diligently inform thyself summarily, simply, and plainly, without the noise and form of judgment, but the truth of the fact alone being regarded, by our authority; and if by such information thou shalt find the premises to be supported by truth, thou shalt by the same authority declare that the bones, bodies and heads last discovered, as is premised, were and are of the number and Company of that same St. Ursus, and that they are to be placed as Saints and as holily to be venerated in the said basilica where the former relics are; and thou shalt do the other things necessary in and about the premises, and in any way fitting, which thou shalt see to be done and executed. Notwithstanding the premises, and the Apostolic constitutions and ordinances and all other things to the contrary whatsoever. Given at Tivoli in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand four hundred and seventy-three, on the thirteenth of the Kalends of August, in the second year of our Pontificate.

D. Gerrano. L. S.

[69] The ardour of the men of Solothurn for the end of the cause The bishop of Lausanne, to whom Sixtus committed the examination, was then residing at Rome, and by him the cause was commended to others, as will become clear from the following documents. Therefore, as he had received in his mandate from the Pontiff, the bishop of Lausanne committed the examination to two commissaries, who were Burchard, apostolic prothonotary and vicar general, as the bishop speaks in the said letters, of the diocese of Lausanne. John a Staal calls the same man Burchard Stör, Provost of the church of Ansoltingen. In the second place there was deputed to the examination Francis, abbot of St. John of Erlach. The examination being instituted and the documents duly drawn up, Burchard set out for Rome, to press the cause more effectually in person before the bishop and the Pontiff. Meanwhile it was, for the weight of the matter, handled longer than the ardent wishes of the men of Solothurn could bear: hence they expostulated with the bishop, as is plain from the letters subjoined, in which the bishop strives to temper their over-hastening ardour, writing thus: Magnificent men, our most beloved sons in Christ, greeting in the Lord. The very reverend lord Burchard, apostolic prothonotary and our vicar general, has prosecuted the cause of those relics of yours with the utmost diligence, both with us and wherever there has been need. And certainly his solicitude has been very great; but the gravity of the matter itself is such that it cannot and ought not to pass without great discussion. Whence to all those to whom that matter belongs (Here, unless I am mistaken, something has dropped out which would complete the sense: suppose, it seemed equitable, it was expedient, or something similar) that the matter should be subjected to the disputation of certain theologians and most learned canonists, who by arguments and authorities, the process and the miracles having first been seen, should discuss this business; which thing did not please the aforesaid prothonotary, your procurator, lest the cause, which is looked to be elucidated by divine testimony, should be put in compromise.

[70] which happily followed in the year 1474, as is clear from He preferred therefore (Something mutilated again occurs, for it is thus read, Ptus sua, which what they mean I do not know. Let it be the aforesaid prothonotary) to bring back a bull through which those pious bones might piously be laid up, rather than to subject them to disputations and solecisms. With great reason was this done by him: for the things which are wrought by the Spirit of God ought not to be subjected to cavilling disputations. Accordingly we hope that Almighty God, who is wonderful in his Saints, will not suffer those who for their faith underwent a voluntary death to be defrauded any longer of their due honour, and will teach that the cause of his Servants is to be determined not by arguments but by deeds. But we will never fail in this matter, but will assist courageously, as befits your pastor and spiritual father. Be therefore of good courage, most beloved sons, for the spirits of those whose bones you desire with so great ardour to venerate will obtain from the most high God a patronage by which they will defend their own cause much better and more evidently than human tongue or wit could defend it; and we, as we have said, as the miracles increase, will boldly set it forth. Farewell in the Lord, and the rest you will understand more fully from the aforesaid prothonotary, to whom you will give full credit in all things which he will report in our name. Rome, the Kalends of February MCCCCLXXIIII. The bishop stood by his words, and so urged and furnished the proof of the miracles that in the same month Sixtus gave the following Bull to the men of Solothurn, by which he gives them power to exalt the discovered sacred treasures as sacred relics. I set it forth entire.

[71] Sixtus, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved sons the abbot of the monastery of Saint John of Erlach and the Provost of the church of Ansoltingen of the diocese of Lausanne, greeting and the Apostolic benediction. another Bull of Sixtus IV. Your letters and the processes had by you by our mandate concerning the laying up in a sacred place of the bodies newly discovered, of those who, as is reported, were of the number of the Legion of the Thebans and were long ago slaughtered by a wicked emperor for the confession of the true faith, having been seen and diligently examined — although according to the canonical sanctions bodies or bones newly found cannot publicly be venerated, especially of those about whom there is doubt, and who or of what sort they were, since on account of the long lapse of time and the shortness of men's life sufficient certainty is not had: nevertheless the devout instance of our beloved sons the Provost and Chapter, and of the schultheiss and community of Solothurn, and their humble and repeated petition, have inclined the affection of our mind, so that to their pious and meritorious wishes, which are known to be helped by the mercy of God and by very many miracles since the said bodies were found, we should assent so far as is permitted us from on high. To your discretion therefore, in which we bear a special confidence in the Lord, by the tenor of these presents we grant permission that you cause the aforesaid bodies or bones to be decently laid up in the church of Solothurn; yet so that in laying them up the due honour be paid. Take care therefore, as you are bound, that this office of piety be done with such moderation that you cannot justly be reproved, and that the prone credulity of the faithful before the time, which would not be without fault, cannot justly be blamed, until, being made more certain, we may more fully provide concerning their veneration, as the devotion of the Faithful demands. Given at Rome at St. Peter's, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand four hundred and seventy-three, on the sixth of the Ides of February, in the third year of our Pontificate.

F. Jo. de Tartarinis L. S.

[72] Let not the reader be offended when he here sees the month of February of the year 1473 connected with the third year of the Pontificate of Sixtus IV, The exaltation of those relics, having above noticed that in the Bull Alma mater, which is certainly earlier than this, the month of July of the same year 1473 runs together with the second year of the same Pontiff's see: for our Papebroch both often elsewhere, and also in Julius II, where Stella's history ends, has shown that it was in fairly constant use in the Roman chancery that the beginning of the years should be taken not from the Kalends of January but from the XXV of March; which custom I have attested in the Solothurn manuscript monuments even most recently by the Most Eminent Cardinal Colonna, deacon of SS. Cosmas and Damian, Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church; and by the most illustrious men Marzio Ciapusetto, solicitor and writer of the Apostolic letters; Dominic Mary Laurenti, expeditor of the Apostolic letters and Apostolic writer; Felix Antony Pauleto, secretary and chancellor of the reverend Apostolic chamber, who, being asked the same by the men of Solothurn on the XXVII of April 1757, authentically testified it. Therefore according to these things the year 1473, begun on the XXV day of March of our common year 1473, ran until the XXV of March of our common 1474, in which, in the month of February, this our Bull was given. The men of Solothurn, having received the licence, proceeded to carry out the translation and exaltation of the holy bodies with illustrious pomp. It took place in the same year on Quasimodo Sunday, as is had from the often-mentioned Epilogue and other monuments In that year Easter fell on the X day of April, and accordingly Quasimodo Sunday, which is the first after Easter, on the XVII of the same month: on which day the solemnity was held. How great this was, one may conjecture from John a Staal, who was present at the pomp, and whose words, rendered into Latin from the Solothurn manuscripts, I transfer hither. Therefore, he says in German, our most holy father Pope Sixtus and the Cardinal ad Vincula Petri, bishop of Lausanne, permitted the newly discovered sacred treasure to be worthily exalted, to be placed beside the other sacred relics, and to be venerated. And these were the commissaries who had received from the Pontiff a mandate for performing this.

[73] which were translated and in the church of St. Ursus The lord Burchard Stör, vicar of the assembly of Lausanne, provost of Ansoltingen.

The lord Francis, abbot of Erlach.

The vicar sang Mass at a movable altar before the chapel of St. Peter; but the abbot of Erlach in the temple of St. Ursus at the altar of that same Saint.

The lord Michael Forchner, senior priest and canon, preached the sermon in the cemetery before the church: and there were present seven thousand men, both ecclesiastics and seculars.

These are the lord prelates who were present.

The abbot of Frienisberg. John, abbot in Bellile. Rudolf, abbot of Trub. Hermann, abbot of Muri. John, abbot of Gottstatt. The abbot at St. Andrew's. John, abbot of Beinwil.

All these went in the suppliant procession, distinguished with mitre and crozier, as being mitred.

The lord Nicholas, abbot in St. Urban's, was also present; and many other ecclesiastical men were present, to the number of nearly five hundred.

There were present also Doctor Peter Brunnestein of Lucerne, Caspar of Hertenstein, schultheiss emeritus of Lucerne, and very many of the first and second senate:

The lord Christian … of Zug:

The lord Rudolph … of Münster and canon of Aargau, with Nicholas Ritzi, prætor of the same place:

Master John Wildberg, Doctor … of Sempach:

The lord John Barchtambul … of Pfeffingen in Aargau:

Of Sursee, Conrad Kiel, schultheiss emeritus of the same place:

The ladies of Engelberg, of Entlebuch and of Rothenburg.

To these aforesaid there were granted portions of the sacred relics, who chose to come hither on Wednesday night after St. George's day and on Thursday to carry off hence the sacred treasures.

[74] were exposed to veneration. Thus far John a Staal in manuscript, upon which certain things are to be observed. He who is put in the second place, the abbot John, is said to have presided over the abbey in Bellile, in which, unless I am mistaken, there is an error, and it is so written for Bellelay, which in the Annals of the Premonstratensians I find called Bellelaia, and in several Diplomas Bellelagia; and it is a celebrated monastery of the canonical Order in the diocese of Basel, which at that time especially flourished, as one may gather from the various diplomas and documents which are reported in the Annals of the Premonstratensians. Of the abbeys called by a German name which follow, some in all likelihood come in Latin under other names, but I chose to adhere more closely to the text. As to the names of the others, where points are inserted, the word omitted is Kilcher, which is in all likelihood the name of a dignity or office: but since both to me and to others consulted, not unacquainted with the German tongue, it seemed doubtful and not much in use, I preferred to warn the reader rather than to corrupt the text with an inept interpretation. For the rest, it may be observed that more abbots are here recounted than five, as is said in the account of the Solothurn Proper. Eight mitred ones, namely, are reckoned, to whom is added a ninth, the abbot of St. Urban, perhaps not yet adorned with that honour. Now there were, as is clear from the same Epilogue, sacred treasures placed in the church of St. Ursus, besides the bodies of three holy Martyrs which were laid in the altar in the chapel of St. Peter by the bishop, as the often-mentioned German Inscription testifies. To these Hermann subjoins the following in German, from Hafner, part 2, page 180, which I render into Latin. In memory of the aforesaid exaltation, every year on the first Sunday after Easter, here at Solothurn, to all, both men and women and children, who, the divine Office being ended, come to the basilica of St. Ursus, a bean is distributed, for which something is read; and from that that Sunday is commonly called the Sunday of the Beans. A hundred and fifty years ago they wished to abolish that custom, but, a plague coming on, it was commanded that the beans should again be distributed, as is done to this day also.

§ VI. Later findings and exaltations of the sacred relics. The cult of the Saints at Solothurn and elsewhere. Relics granted to other churches. Miracles and benefits ascribed to the patronage of the Saints, both at Solothurn and elsewhere.

The sacred relics of the Martyrs Six years after the sacred treasures had been discovered of which we treated in the preceding §, there were found in the same place certain other bones, which also were recognized as relics of the Saints, and, the Apostolic See permitting, were exalted. How indeed the cause was then pleaded at Rome, I do not find set out more distinctly: but it is credible that the process went by the same way as before, by which the matter had so succeeded to their wish, and that the relics were approved and the Saints, the case being excepted, canonized by the proof of miracles. Of this finding the most often mentioned Epilogue of the Solothurn Proper has this: There were dug up in the year MCDLXXIX certain other bodies or bones, in the same place, of that same holy Company: of whose number, although nothing certain is established, it is nevertheless plain that they were translated to the collegiate church and joined to the others previously found. Of the number of the sacred bones discovered neither is anything established for me from the old monuments; but that they were found and in all likelihood exalted is proved by the Bull of Sixtus IV, which I subjoin. Pope Sixtus IV. Beloved Sons, greeting and the Apostolic benediction. We have understood that in that place where at another time there were found certain bodies or relics of some of the Company of St. Ursus, Companion of St. Maurice, there have also newly been discovered other bodies or relics of the other Companions of that same St. Ursus. But since the said St. Ursus, together with his Companions, fifty-five in number, was long ago canonized, as you assert to be established, and since therefore the bodies first discovered were by our commission and authority, on account of very many signs and miracles, placed in a decent and befitting place, in which we have learned that these last discovered also have been placed; We, considering that the relics of blessed bodies are to be held in veneration and in due honour, to the praise of God and to the corroboration and propagation of our true faith, moved also by your most devout prayers in this part, by the tenor of these presents, by Apostolic authority grant that, if it be so, those bodies last discovered, as has been said, ought to be venerated by all and held in veneration, just as those former ones.

[76] were afterwards found and exposed to veneration. Given at Rome at St. Peter's under the ring of the Fisherman on the XVI day of February MCDLXXIX, in the eighth year of our Pontificate — and accordingly in the common year begun from the Kalends of January, 1480, while the year of the Roman chancery 1479 was running until the XXV of March, as I observed above. Further, an error, either of the pen or of the reckoning, has crept into the aforesaid Bull: namely where the sacred remains previously discovered and the Saints canonized are treated of, and these are said to have been fifty-five. For we have seen that first by queen Bertha seventeen sacred bodies, and afterwards thirty-seven — or, as one document has it, thirty-six — were discovered; which reckonings if they be combined, there will arise the number 54 or 53, not 55 as asserted in the Bull. It is not worth the labour to discuss this matter more laboriously, since in the archive of Solothurn not the original Bull but only a copy is found, into which an error could the more easily creep, as Hermann warns. In his judgment it might be said, to purge the error, that St. Victor, translated to Geneva, was reckoned among them, or finally that the sacred bodies of SS. Ursus and Victor were not comprehended in the seventeen discovered by Bertha, but are to be added over and above. Finally in the year one thousand (the words are those of the often-mentioned Epilogue of the Solothurn Proper) six hundred and thirty-four (six years before the printing of the Proper itself), in which the relics of this holy Company were translated from the altar which had been placed in the nave of the church into a loftier and fitter place in the choir, that they might more easily be seen, more becomingly adorned and more conveniently honoured, there were found bones and fragments, or parts of bones, not a few, under the aforesaid altar in three little tombs constructed and covered with stone slabs in the pavement itself; which, since they seem not to have been able conveniently to be placed in the same altar among other entire bones, are known by an undoubted conjecture to have been placed in those subterranean little tombs by queen Bertha (Did then that altar exist already from her time, and were other sacred bones exposed in it before the bodies found in 1473? I scarcely believe it, because of the ignorance concerning the bodies discovered by queen Bertha, besides the relics of St. Ursus and of the other in the same tomb, insinuated by the men of Solothurn in more than one place. I suspect therefore that from the relics discovered in 1473 there were exposed to veneration in that altar, as follows) or by our forefathers.

[77] Let us subjoin the words with which the Epilogue closes, that we may pass on to illustrating more fully the cult of the Saints and their miracles. The findings celebrated festively every year. From the relics distributed Of all these Findings therefore, but especially of the Revelation, a solemn feast is celebrated at Solothurn on the fifth of March; but on the sixth of April, on which the bodies of the chief Patrons SS. Ursus and Victor were, under the high altar, as has been said above, to the immense joy of this church, like a most precious drachma, found anew after they had lain hidden for so many years, a solemn office of the Mass is wont to be celebrated every year. Nor do I doubt that the day sacred to their martyrdom, the XXX of September, is kept there with the greatest solemnity. Certainly, besides the common Indulgences granted by various bishops, there are plenary ones on the feasts of SS. Ursus and his Companions on the XXX of September, and on the feast of the Revelation on the V of March. Anciently, as Caspar Lang testifies in part 1, page 593, the feast of St. Ursus was solemn in many places throughout Helvetia, and especially in the city of Zurich. Nay, it is celebrated even to this day in very many neighbouring monasteries, where the feast of St. Jerome is on that account transferred. This arose chiefly from the cult of the sacred relics, which were granted by the men of Solothurn to various churches. We have seen them given above to the illustrious ladies who had assembled at Solothurn for the feast of the translation in the year 1474. Besides, in the same year, Hermann testifying, they were sent to the city of Isny. Sigismund, duke of Austria, asked for some of the sacred bones, which his domestic chaplain solemnly translated to Innsbruck in the year 1476. The senate of Zurich obtained some of the same in the year 1492. James of Liebenfels, Elector and archbishop of Mainz, as also Hugh of Landenberg, bishop of Constance, obtained relics, which also were solemnly transported to Mainz and Constance in the year 1507. Others besides were granted by the Chapter and senate of Solothurn to the monastery at Wettingen. The men of Lucerne obtained an entire body; notable portions the monastery of Muri in the year 1629, as also that of Beinwil, of Bellelay, of Rheinau, and the church in Hergiswald of the territory of Lucerne in the year 1630. Of their translation it is established, Hermann testifying, in all likelihood from the register of the Chapter of Solothurn.

[78] From the letters of Father Xavier Fegeli to Father Chardon, given at Fribourg in the 45th year of this century, I have it the cult of the Saints increased elsewhere. that in the church of the college of our Society, which is sacred to St. Michael, there are kept with the utmost veneration two bones of St. Ursus, of which one was given by William, duke of Bavaria, in the year 1596, the other by the venerable Chapter and senate of Solothurn in the year 1597, in favour, as the most illustrious senate of Solothurn says in its letters patent preserved in our college, and in honour of the reverend father Canisius, for the sacred History of our Patron St. Ursus and of the other holy Theban Martyrs written by him in decrepit old age, for the sake of due gratitude. For this cause St. Ursus is there honoured every year with a semi-double Office. Among the monuments submitted by the often-praised Father Maurice Chardon I find an anonymous letter written, unless I am mistaken, at Lucerne, since it contains nothing except what pertains to that city or its neighbourhood. There, further, I find that in the treasury of that church there are kept Two entire bodies of the holy martyrs, Companions of SS. Ursus and Victor. Among these in all likelihood are the same sacred relics of which a little above from the Solothurn monuments. From the same I have it that in many places besides parts of the sacred bodies are kept: namely at Glarus, at Appenzell, at Arth, in the monasteries of Engelberg and Masmünster. Besides those relics, Hermann writes, very many were sent at the request of princes and cities by the venerable Chapter into Alsace, Burgundy and the neighbouring regions, and various ones transported elsewhere. But lest by importunate requests they should be too much diminished, already from the year 1519, in which the body of St. Ursus was found, it was decreed by the renowned senate that those relics should no longer be separated. Wherefore, as I observed above, they are kept laid up under the same tomb and chest, so that neither can the senate without the Chapter, nor the Chapter without the senate, open the tomb. Yet some parts are kept outside the chest, both for exorcizing storms (the words are Hermann's) and that the priest who presides over the soldiers may carry them with him in the camp in time of war — which throughout the sixteenth century has always been observed.

[79] Doubtful are the relics, perhaps of a namesake, of Burano, For the rest, our Bolland, writing at the 1st day of February about St. Ursus the priest, who is then honoured at Aosta, at numbers 5 and 6, and disentangling various confusions, insinuated a doubt concerning the body or a notable part of the body of St. Ursus, whom, with SS. Alban and Dominic, the islanders of Burano near Venice honour as their Patron: namely whether perhaps the body of the Martyr of Solothurn, or a notable portion of it, had been translated thither. But from those things which have been said above about the relics of St. Ursus, this seems in no way likely. Certainly among those who are there honoured, the martyr Ursus is said to have been crowned at Aosta, and on other grounds the whole history is wrapped in enormous anachronisms, as our Papebroch proves more fully in the historical Commentary on St. Alban, martyr of Mainz, at the XXI day of June, §2; and there besides, in §4, he shows how inept are the things which popular tradition reports about the translation of the aforesaid sacred pledges, and at the same time notices that in monuments of that church, of whatever sort, no mention of St. Ursus is made, but that his memory was perhaps most recently excerpted from the Legend of St. Alban, martyr of Mainz, and that thence arose the recent little tradition about relics of St. Ursus preserved in that place. Indeed the most illustrious man Flaminio Corner, Venetian senator, in volume 2 of the Church of Torcello, at the very beginning, where he treats of the church of Burano, brings forward nothing further about those relics; but he hints not obscurely that he holds all as exceedingly suspect — nay rather, a little after he declares that he subscribes to the censure of the cited Papebroch. There is therefore no reason why we should labour much in distinguishing that Saint and his relics; if anything perhaps can be desired, there will recur on the XX or XXII of November, on which the Acts of St. Theonestus, patron of Vercelli, whose companion he is asserted to have been, will be examined, both place and opportunity for discoursing at greater length. Let us return to Solothurn and read over what Hermann has collected for illustrating the cult of the holy Patrons and its celebrity, both ancient and recent. To the ancient belong what Hafner writes, part 1, page 227: that Charlemagne about the year 784 most devoutly visited Solothurn, that is, the place where the Saints had poured out their precious blood: which, although I do not find it proved by ancient monuments, I should nevertheless not wish to deny, provided these things are not connected with the error about the Ursian basilica founded by Wertrada his mother. In the battle of Laupen (says Hermann), which took place in the year MCCCXXXIX, the men of Bern bound themselves by a vow to send every year a taper to Solothurn in honour of St. Ursus, if he should obtain the victory for them; which also came to pass. To this promise the men of Bern always stood faithful, until their defection from the faith. The manuscript from which I took this was afterwards, in the year MDVII, put to the press at Frankfurt, and this vow is most true, although Stetler, after the manner of heretics, wholly passes it over at the aforesaid battle.

[80] Among the ancient monuments collected by the same Hermann The things which are reported about the military Order are doubtful, is a fragment about the battle of Laupen, excerpted, as he states, from the description of that battle which Peter Etterlin of Lucerne left, who lived in the fifteenth century. But the phrasing is so entangled that one can scarcely gather the writer's sense. And it is so truly a fragment on other grounds that it does not deserve a place here, since it has neither beginning nor end. This only can be concluded from it: that the men of Bern truly bound themselves by a vow to St. Ursus, and that to his patronage the happy and unexpected success of that most celebrated battle was ascribed. A mark of veneration toward the holy Martyrs is the ancient banner, which is kept at Solothurn even to this day, sent long ago by the Pontiff Julius II in the year 1512. This Pope, namely, is Julian della Rovere, who once as bishop of Lausanne promoted at Rome the cause of the discovered sacred bodies, as we have abundantly seen above. He, then, when he was Pope and wished to attest his love to the peoples of Helvetia, after the manner of those times sent banners as a gift to the several cities of Helvetia. But on that which the men of Solothurn obtained, SS. Ursus and Victor are elegantly depicted. A military order and various confraternities have besides made a celebrated veneration for Hermann: but the things which pertain to the military order are to me not a little doubtful, as they have also seemed to not a few other writers. Let us hear Philip Bonanni speaking under this title, The Knight of the Bear in Helvetia. When Otto, duke of Saxony, attempted to invade the kingdom of Naples … he was stripped of the rights of ruling. For which cause the princes of Germany chose Frederick, king of Sicily, as emperor. Since the peoples of Helvetia had excellently spent their labour upon this election — among whom at that time very many flourished, conspicuous no less for nobility than for the glory of arms — the new emperor determined to show them signs of a grateful mind.

[81] Wherefore in the year MCCXIV he raised up an Order of knights at Aachen, which are related about the military Order. The benefits whose badge was a medal with the image of a Bear hung upon a golden collar, adorned with oak-leaves … This Order was dedicated to St. Gall, once the apostle in Helvetia. But that the image of a Bear was chosen, Elias Ashmole and Favyn say was on account of the veneration toward St. Ursus, martyr of the Theban Legion. Justiniani opposes them, holding for certain that it was on account of the memory of the service which such an animal rendered to St. Gall … The administration of the same Order the emperor committed to the abbots of St. Gall. It flourished happily until the peoples of Helvetia chose the laws of a republic. Therefore on both sides they are conjectures, but Justiniani's opinion appears to me in some fashion even more probable, because the title it bore was not that of St. Ursus but of the Bear merely; because in the badge nothing was adopted from the shield or badge of the Thebans; and because, finally, of any service rendered by the knights to St. Ursus nothing is anywhere read, and the Order was entrusted to the abbots of St. Gall. What Hermann has collected about the confraternities is more certain, but he does not enumerate them all in particular. I pass over, he says, the Confraternities of St. Ursus, instituted both here and elsewhere, as also that a new one was very lately, about the year MDCCLII, erected in Fehbagh, a village of the diocese of Constance on the borders of Franconia, on occasion of relics granted thither, and indeed with a solemn translation held there. For the rest, the men of Solothurn set down very many benefits to the account of St. Ursus and his Companions, their patrons. To this belongs what Hermann says: It is to be noted that Solothurn after each of the said findings (of the sacred bodies) enjoyed a singular benefit. For after the first, of the year DCCCCXXX (nay, better 950), the stronghold with its village was rebuilt by Bertha and the collegiate church founded. After that of the year MCDLXXIII Solothurn was admitted into the Helvetic league, namely in the year MCDLXXXI. But after the third, of the year MDXIX, it was happily freed from the heretical plague, namely in the year MDXXXII.

[82] [ascribed by the men of Solothurn to their holy Patrons. The city is pressed by a close siege] Most celebrated among the men of Solothurn is the memory of the city delivered from siege, when in the year 1318 Leopold, duke of Austria, pressed it with a huge army. The men of Solothurn ascribe the deliverance, from a prodigious apparition, to their holy Patrons. The narrative of the deed, excerpted from the manuscript chronicle of Antony Wagner, centurion and patrician of Solothurn, and sent to me, I here report, turned from German into Latin. A title is prefixed: Solothurn is closely besieged by the duke of Austria. In the year after the birth of Christ Jesus, our Saviour, one thousand three hundred and eighteen, the duke of Austria for ten weeks girded Solothurn with a close siege. The cause of the besieging was that the men of Solothurn adhered to Louis against Frederick of Austria, who was seeking the kingdom with every effort. The men of Bern had sent four hundred men for help and garrison. The count of Kyburg served in the duke's army, wherefore the men of Bern wasted his territory with fire. The duke had joined the Aar with a bridge above the city: and when from a storm the waters had swollen, the duke, workmen being employed, strove to guard, strengthen and preserve the bridge. But when the bridge was broken by the rising waters, very many were snatched away by the river. The men of Solothurn helped those whom they could reach, and sent them away unharmed to the duke and his camp. There was with the duke a learned and God-fearing man, whom he admitted as secretary to his more private council, and in whom he trusted most of all. He often, after the second watch, went forward alone as far as the ditches of the city, to observe how the besieged kept watch. But on each occasion he saw everywhere at the walls a huge band of mail-clad soldiers clad in arms flashing with more than natural brightness. And he observed among them one always more robust than the rest and tall of body. He bore upon his breast a huge white cross beautifully gleaming, and shining like the sun. And the same visions he saw on several following nights. On a certain day therefore he went to the prince and addressed him thus: Duke and my most clement lord, even if with all the forces of the Roman empire thou shouldst press this city for a hundred years, thou wouldst not yet be able to storm it: for on many nights I have watched and gone forward as far as the city's ditches, to observe how they keep their watches on the walls and I have found watches so well ordered and diligent that it cannot be told. But it has occurred to me to think that those are not living men.

[83] pressed by Leopold, duke of Austria, is delivered by a miraculous apparition When afterwards he had narrated to the duke each thing which he had seen, as it has been related above, the duke, struck by the strangeness of the matter, suspected ill of his secretary and so blazed with anger that he ordered him to be carried away bound and to be held in chains; for he feared lest the secretary might have dealings with the besieged and be guilty of treason. But the secretary, who dealt sincerely and candidly with the prince, seeing the present danger, thus addressed him: Most clement duke, since thy clemency orders me, who deserve it not, to be carried away bound, I wish my innocence at least to be attested before God and his Mother Mary and all the Saints. I have reported true things to thee, most clement duke; and that this may be beyond doubt to thee, let thy clemency, girt with trusty guards, come with me this night to the ditches of the city, and thou wilt find and see all things as I have narrated. If not, let me be punished at thy pleasure. Moved by these words the duke, in the dead of night, with certain most faithful men and with the secretary bound about with chains, secretly approached the city. But when they had come to the ditches, the duke with all his retinue found all things true, and saw with his own eyes whatsoever the faithful and pious secretary had before reported to him; which struck both the duke and his guards with astonishment and terror. The duke therefore straightway ordered the secretary to be loosed from his chains and returned to his camp. Scarcely had day dawned when the duke called together his noble knights and counsellors, and narrated all the things which had happened to him and which he had seen with his own eyes. Then, the council being dismissed, he sent a herald into the city of Solothurn, who, being honourably received, in the name of his duke laboured about entering into a treaty with the men of Solothurn, which was granted to the duke. Afterwards the duke wished that thirty men be admitted into the city. But the men of Solothurn, opposing themselves to this, were unwilling to admit him with his men into the city, or to treat further of peace, unless the duke should first hand over his chief banner as a pledge. The duke at first resisted, then, overcome by the counsel of his nobles, accepted the condition, and entering the city with thirty knights proceeded to the nave of the basilica of St. Ursus, and having poured out a prayer there, offered his banner to the heavenly athlete St. Ursus; after which, returning to his camp and raising the siege, he went back with all his army into his own dominion. Peace was afterwards ratified at Bern.

[84] Now it was Good Friday of the aforesaid year when the duke offered his banner to St. Ursus, a monument of which matter still exists. and in perpetual memory of a thing so memorable, every year on the same day of Good Friday, with pious chant, it is carried by two priests, fixed to a Crucifix, through the nave of the church of St. Ursus. The banner is of red colour and of white, interwoven with the best silver. Thus far Wagner. The same things about the siege of Solothurn raised by a prodigious apparition are written by Gothard, page 86; Hafner, part 2, page 129; Lang; and other monuments of the archive of the venerable Chapter, which he cites, part 1, page 986. But upon these things Hermann observes that this history was at first held by the followers of Calvin and other non-Catholics as doubtful, then in lapse of time began to be held as fabricated, and today finally is wholly passed over in the chronicles. He adds that the banner of which there is mention in the aforesaid description is even in these times exposed in the choir on the V of March and the XXX of September, to continue the memory, and is daily shown to pilgrims. That St. Maurice and his Fellow-soldiers of the Theban Legion were often present to their clients in like perils of war is clear from more than one apparition in their Posthumous Glory; nor is there reason why any prudent and soberly critical man should deny these apparitions: yet I confess that Wagner's narrative is not such as to pluck out every doubt from the somewhat more rigid, or to fortify the matter against all cavils, which heretics stir up the more greedily the more, as haters of the Saints, they execrate whatever is adverse to their novel opinions. But these ought not to detain us: let us pass on to other miracles. Among those which Gothard, canon and penitentiary of the church of St. Ursus, published in German, there are still some which pertain to the whole city of Solothurn. But it will be better not to overturn his order, but to publish them in Latin as they lie, to be easily referred by the reader whither he will. But that we may at last say something about Gothard: he wrote about the year 1640. Certainly the censure of James Schuler, vicar general and official of the bishop of Lausanne, is signed at Fribourg of the Helvetians on the IV of April in the year 1643. There the aforesaid vicar testifies that the book of John Gothard clearly confirms the dogmas of the faith, especially, he says, those which concern the cult of the Saints and the veneration of their sacred relics, as we have clearly seen in the attestation exhibited to us by weighty men and witnesses beyond all exception, concerning the Miracles which have been faithfully extracted from ancient monuments removed from all suspicion of falsehood; as also as regards the attestation of the more recent Miracles, which has weight partly from eye-witnesses, partly from pious persons still surviving who were once variously afflicted.

[85] The Miracles which happened after the second finding, But the Miracles which Gothard there describes are to be divided into three classes. The first three are the very same, abridged, which are subjoined to the Passion to be published in the second place, and to the findings and translations of St. Victor, and there are said to have happened not at Solothurn but at Geneva. Thence perhaps Gothard received them. What he narrates in the fourth place he pursues thus. A few years ago an iron suit of armour was hung up in the basilica of St. Ursus, which by old tradition is said to have been a knight's. When he, in the battle which was fought by duke Charles the Burgundian with the confederates in the year MCDLXXVI, together with other Burgundian soldiers — of whom nearly XX thousand were slain and nearly ten thousand swallowed by the lake — could not in this calamity provide for himself, he vowed with great confidence to make a pilgrimage to Solothurn to St. Ursus and his holy Company; and so with his whole suit of armour he swam across the lake of Murten (whether he was carried on horseback or was on foot is unknown). And when he had come thence to Solothurn, he fulfilled his vow and in testimony of a grateful mind offered and left the said armour to St. Ursus. Hermann asserts that that same armour is now kept in the armoury of Solothurn with an inscription affixed. Now Murta — which others call Murten, others Morat in the vernacular — is a town with a district of the same name, distant nearly ten miles toward the West from Bern, and only five from Fribourg toward the North. It lies beside a lake which the natives call Murter Zee. This has a breadth nearly equal to about one mile, and extends in length about five miles. Of this, moreover, there is mention above; and thus a man fully mail-clad made his way by swimming across a deep lake, which assuredly could not have happened without a singular benefit, whether he were horseman or footman. Now Charles, who fought there so unhappily on the XX of June 1476, was Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy and Brabant. Those who have travelled through Helvetia write that even today there stands a chapel, and in it are still kept the bones of the Burgundians then slain, and that above the door this inscription is read: To God the best and greatest. The army of Charles, renowned and most valiant duke of Burgundy, besieging Murten, being slain by the Helvetians, left this monument of itself in the year MCCCCLXXVI. Let us return to the miracles.

[86] described by Gothard Whence the other Miracles which Gothard then enumerates proceeded, Hermann teaches after him in his collections. There hangs, he says, in our church at the southern steps of the choir a public tablet, already often renewed, which contains various miracles bearing on this matter. Gothard adduces them from number V to XXI inclusive, among which very many are notable for instantaneous healings. That all happened about the years MCDLXXIV and MDXIX is probable for this reason, that the aforesaid tablet was already, years before Gothard's time, copied from an older one, as he has it in the place cited. Be it so; for although nothing absolutely forbids that some happened a little later, yet on other grounds also it is most likely that some at least among them are those very ones which were offered to Sixtus IV for urging the cause of the elevation of the sacred relics, and were so proved that by their evidence they chiefly moved the Pontiff to grant the faculty, as may be seen in the Bulls produced above. It is indeed to be lamented that we must now stand upon the antiquity of the tablet alone and upon conjectures, since there are wanting things which could add greater authority, and since that ancient book, of which the Proper so often speaks, has either perished, or those very miracles with their proofs were not duly recorded there. Let us therefore leave the credit to Gothard, and turn the rest into the Latin tongue, his numbers also being retained — the Miracles which he himself published in the vernacular. V. A woman who from disease had lost the use of her senses and was possessed by a malignant spirit turned away from holy water and could be calmed by no one; as soon as she made a vow to the relics of St. Ursus, she was calmed and healed.

VI. A woman from Biel was so weakened in all her limbs that she could not walk: a vow being made to St. Ursus of Solothurn, to whom she bade herself be carried in a carriage, and the pilgrimage being undertaken, she returned home healthy and on foot.

VII. A certain man had hurt his finger with a thorn, from which he suffered much for nine days. He vows to go to St. Ursus, and so without other medicines applied was healed.

VIII. A man lay dangerously ill of a disease: his wife makes a vow to St. Ursus; after which he presently as it were recovers. Afterwards he experiences great anxiety of the breast and heart: the wife a second time makes a vow to St. Ursus. As soon as the pilgrimage was completed, the pain withdrew from the sick man's heart to his side, and presently full health followed.

IX. A woman utterly bereft of her mind, a like vow being made, was healed in the same way.

[87] X. An infant laboured under a grave internal malady: it could neither digest anything nor grow. from an older tablet As soon as, a pilgrimage being undertaken, it was brought to the body of St. Ursus, it was suddenly healed.

XI. A woman was in labour with great fear of death. When a vow had been made for her to St. Ursus, she presently brought forth her child.

XII. A boy of three years and a half could not go on his feet. A vow being made to St. Ursus, he began to walk after the manner of that age.

XIII. A woman brought forth a boy who gave no sign of life: wherefore another woman who was present vowed to visit St. Ursus for the boy and to pray for three hours with arms outstretched. When on the third time she was returning home, the boy began to give signs of life.

XIV. A boy of six years from Bettlach could not, not without great pain, pass water for three whole days. His mother, the father urging her, promises to bring him to St. Ursus. On the next day the boy brought forth a stone.

XV. A boy from Subingen, twenty-two weeks old, was made so blind that for eight days he saw nothing at all: being carried to St. Ursus and laid upon the altar, he presently recovered his sight.

XVI. A man from Meinisberg was drowned in the Aar. But when he could not be found, they promised to carry him to St. Ursus, that he might be buried at Solothurn if he were found: and presently he was seen floating on the waters near the church of St. Peter at Solothurn, to which place the holy Martyrs, beheaded, had gone forward. There he turned himself over upon the waters and was drawn out, pouring forth fresh blood, even though he had been drowned three days. Of the marvellous there is very little; of the prodigious this narrative seems scarcely to have anything. Let us go on.

[88] were published. The second, which XVII. A boy from Erizweil brought here to St. Ursus, besides his offering, a fleshy lump of the size of a small nut, asserting that three years before a tooth had been pulled out from him, some part of which had still clung to the jaw; and that, although for two years he had felt no pain, meanwhile a fleshy matter had grown upon it, and that this afterwards caused him so much pain that he feared he might go out of his mind: and that when the surgeons' work had been employed in vain, he had vowed to make a pilgrimage to St. Ursus and to bring an offering: after which all the pain was presently allayed. And he seemed (as he himself reported) to see the holy relics upon the altar in the same manner in which he afterwards found them on his pilgrimage, although he had never seen them before. But the fleshy matter ascended under the skin to the nose, and fell out of the left nostril of the size of a nut.

XVIII. A little boy suffering from a rupture was devoted by his parents to St. Ursus and was presently healed.

XIX A respectable woman had been delivered of a child, yet so that life did not appear in the infant. A vow being made to St. Ursus and fulfilled, the infant began to move and the mother was better.

XX A woman suffering from a pestilential malady vowed to make a pilgrimage to St. Ursus, and was presently healed.

XXI. A woman in great pain from childbirth invoked the patronage of St. Ursus, and was presently freed from pain and healed.

Thus far the Miracles which Gothard copied from the tablet mentioned above; who, proceeding to the twenty-third, thus prefaces. That the marvels which have been left us by the ancients may be the less called in doubt, it is pleasing to add another which happened a few years ago. He then narrates it thus.

XXII. At this time, when I had proposed to myself to publish this book, it came into my mind that some years ago, before I was keeper of the sacristy of this basilica, I had heard from persons worthy of credit that at that time a certain paralytic pilgrim, leaning upon two staves, had come hither on pilgrimage to the temple and to the relics of St. Ursus, who was immediately healed of his disease in the said temple on the same day on which he had come, and went away without the help of his staves. But before this miracle was communicated by him, I questioned two persons whom I remembered, who beyond the rest had heard it, and this indeed for the sake of investigating the truth.

[89] happened in the time of Gothard who narrates it Among these persons the first is a religious man worthy of credit, and known here; who answered me that, although he had not himself seen the said paralytic with his own eyes, yet he remembered that the said miracle, some years ago, when it was done, had so become known and had been in the mouth of all that here at Solothurn neither he nor anyone else called it in doubt. But the second person is a citizen, not of the least of the city of Solothurn, who answered me when I asked; that it was most true and altogether certain: that he himself had seen the aforesaid pilgrim with great difficulty mounting the steps of this cathedral, supported by two staves. But when afterwards, about the second hour before Vespers, he had betaken himself for certain business to the said basilica, he found this pilgrim beside the altar of the divine Ursus, in which the relics of his holy Company were kept, praying on bended knees. But in order to see to his own business, he went away, not thinking of the pilgrim. A little after, he said, the said pilgrim, having left the altar of St. Ursus, came to meet him, carrying with him both staves in his hands, and asked whether he could meet with a confessor, so that, that nothing might be lacking to his pilgrimage, he might confess his sins; and he narrated to him whatever had happened. Namely, that he was a German and a noble: but that before he had spent much money and his goods, yet in vain, to recover his health; and that so indeed he had been reduced to poverty. But afterwards, he said, he had set out to Einsiedeln, leaning on his staves and relying on the hope that there, as had happened to many others, he might be restored to health: and this not being granted, he had asked further where else there were places of grace and mercy in which he might hope that he would recover his health: and that he had been told of the relics of St. Ursus at Solothurn and of other places. When therefore he had set out from Einsiedeln to Wertenstein and had there, but in vain, implored the divine clemency, he had undertaken the difficult journey hither, had poured out his prayers with confidence before these holy Martyrs, and had so felt himself free from the palsy while praying that without the help of his staves he could go on foot whither he pleased. Wherefore he freely professed that he owed everlasting thanks to God and to his holy Martyrs. In memory of this he gave him one of his staves, to be offered to the Chapter in his name; but the other the pilgrim himself carried away with him in memory; yet he first made his confession.

[90] But although the said citizen, being asked, said these things to me alone, happened. Prodigies copied from an ancient monument he afterwards confirmed and attested the same before two excellent persons worthy of credit; of whom one also affirms that he saw the pilgrim with his own eyes, and that this miracle was at that time so well known that he wondered that anyone could doubt of it. Thus far there Gothard, a prudent and learned man and a contemporary author, which accordingly do not seem able to be called in doubt by men of sober judgment. Hence the praised writer proceeds to certain miracles which happened not at Solothurn but at Isny, which city of Swabia is situated not far from Lake Constance. Of these Gothard thus prefaces, after he had said that many others, like the one just narrated, were prodigies which happened to pilgrims, from which he believes it came about that testimonies of them do not survive at Solothurn, although perhaps they exist elsewhere: Such is, he says, the ancient monument which in the year of the Lord MCCCCLXXVI, on the feast of St. Francis, was exhibited to the lord consul and senate of Isny concerning the miracles which, by the intercession of SS. Ursus and his Companions, were wrought upon pious persons of Isny and were there entered into the Acts; at which relation there were present Conrad Brenberg, called lord Zutegen; likewise William Rudolph, formerly consul; Jos. Schantz of the senate; and John Swertfeur, public notary, who were delegated by the senate. Now those miracles are the following, which we shall presently subjoin from him, after we have observed with Hermann that in the year 1474, which is that of the exaltation of the relics found in the preceding year, certain of them were sent from Solothurn to Isny; and that thence the series of miracles presently to be published was sent thither on the IV of October; and accordingly that these happened within two years. Thus therefore Gothard reports them from the monument.

XXIII. The lord Der Tegen confessed that he had suffered from a disease and for the space of some days had rejected all food: but after he had invoked St. Ursus, had taken care that his relics be brought to him, and had kissed them, the disease was immediately overcome, he no longer rejected food, and he was made well.

[91] XXIV. The little daughter of a certain respectable man had thrust a pin into her nose, whose broken point stuck in her so that for twelve whole years she suffered no small pain, which at Isny and no one could relieve the pain. It came into her mind to see the relics of St. Ursus and there to offer a quarter of wax. After this vow the point immediately so projected from the nose that she could easily seize and draw it out. In memory of this the said point, as the Acts have it, was kept beside the image of St. Ursus.

XXV. A certain respectable woman was suddenly so invaded by disease that she was altogether despaired of: but immediately when she had bound herself by a vow to St. Ursus, the disease was allayed and she was healed.

XXVI. A certain respectable man had a boy of four years who could not walk or go about. He had vowed a pilgrimage to divers places, relying on the hope that the boy might be healed, but in vain: at length he fled to St. Ursus, and after he had brought the boy thither in the morning, at the touch of the relics the boy could go before dinner whither he pleased.

XXVII. Certain women in labour, who could not bring forth their child, took care that the relics of St. Ursus be brought to them and their body be touched, and presently they gave birth.

XXVIII. A certain youth, who had suffered for some years and had not been able to walk, after he had been touched with the relics of St. Ursus, to which his parents resolved to make a pilgrimage for him, was able to direct his step.

XXIX. A certain respectable man bore an open wound in his body, whence food and drink flowed out, so that all who saw him despaired of his life; but he, a vow being made to St. Ursus, was immediately healed.

XXX. A certain woman was in labour so dangerously that she feared both for herself and for her child; but invoking St. Ursus in this crisis she commends her childbirth to him and promises that, if the infant were male, she would give him the name of Ursus. Upon this the woman gives birth, but to an infant in whom no sign of life appeared. But the relics of St. Ursus being brought in, and the infant touched with them, it began to breathe, and was afterwards baptized.

XXXI. A certain maiden rejected the food which she took for some years; but after she had resolved to make a pilgrimage to St. Ursus and to offer him a gift, she no longer rejected food.

[92] at the relics of the Saints XXXII. A certain man from Uttenburen, who suffered from the falling sickness, promises that he will make a pilgrimage to St. Ursus and will bring wax and money; after this vow he never suffered from it again.

XXXIII. A young man from Uttenburen, while sleeping, began in his sleep so to suffer that his hand was contracted, so indeed that he could not open it; but when he had resolved to make a pilgrimage to St. Ursus, he could presently open his hand and was healed.

XXXIV. A respectable man of Isny for ten weeks suffered so grievously in his arm that he could take no sleep by day or by night, and medicines availed nothing upon him. He resolved to make a pilgrimage to St. Ursus, to offer wax, and to pray there; whereupon he was presently healed and so recovered that he seemed never to have suffered.

XXXV. A certain man had a daughter of ten years, who for two whole years was always wont to cry out with a loud voice by night, which cry struck her parents with horror with great horror; but when for her they had resolved to make a pilgrimage to St. Ursus, this never afterwards happened to the daughter.

XXXVI. There was a certain boy from whose groin a swelling beyond belief protruded; and when he was touched with the relics of St. Ursus, the swelling immediately subsided, and the boy was healed. XXXVII. A woman suffered great pain from a bone which had stuck in her throat for fully twenty days; and although she applied many remedies, no relief was brought to her: at last she fled to St. Ursus, and on his feast day caused herself to be touched with the Saint's relics; whereupon she is immediately healed, returns home, and feels the pain no longer.

XXXVIII. A certain young man was vexed for fourteen whole years by a swelling, so that he could not hold his water; and when a vow was made for him to saint Ursus, he was healed.

XXXIX. A certain woman suffered greatly in her eyes: she resolved to make a pilgrimage to St. Ursus with a gift; after she had been touched with this Saint's relics, all the pain immediately ceased.

XL. A young man lay in bed for nearly eight weeks and moved his limbs with the greatest difficulty, thinking that he would be altogether deprived of the use of them: his parents resolve with him to make a pilgrimage to St. Ursus and take care that he be touched with the Saint's relics, whereupon he began to be better.

[93] XLI. A certain dropsical man was so swollen that he could bend no limb: and at their invocation. he, being carried to St. Ursus, when he was touched with the Saint's relics, knew the divine clemency upon himself, and returned home. But the swelling went down to the navel and burst without pain to the sick man, and much foul matter flowed out of it; and thus without men's help, by invoking St. Ursus, he was healed.

XLII. A certain woman, with child and near her delivery, fell to the ground from the first storey of the house, so that she was believed dead. Her husband, coming up, resolved to make a pilgrimage with her to the relics of St. Ursus, and immediately the wife looked about and began to move; and altogether feeble and sick she came to St. Ursus. But after she had been touched with the relics, she returned home and was healed, and bore an infant sound in all its limbs.

XLIII. To a certain woman who had been deaf for three years the relics of St. Ursus were brought. As soon as she was touched with them, In God, she said, and in St. Ursus I place all my hope: I am better: and afterwards she was no longer deaf.

XLIV. A certain young man had fallen between two houses from the second storey to the level ground, and lay deprived of the use of his senses: nevertheless there came into his mind a thought of St. Ursus and of his holy Company; upon this he proposes to visit the relics of St. Ursus, and rises sound in all his limbs.

XLV. A certain woman with child, and near her delivery, was hurt by a tile falling from the roof, so that she despaired of herself: but a priest brought her the relics of St. Ursus and touched her with them; at which touch the woman began to move herself and to speak so sensibly that she was refreshed with the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. She afterwards gave birth, and felt no more pain from the tile; wherefore she came to St. Ursus and offered waxen figures which represented a woman holding an infant on her arm. Thus far Gothard from the monument mentioned above: the following again concerns Solothurn and happened in his own time, as is clear from his words, which I render into Latin.

[94] XLVI. Some days ago, when I had already committed this book to the press, Another of Solothurn. there were delivered to me letters of a certain respectable, learned and religious man, who has the best repute among all who have known him. In these letters the above-said man confesses that in the year MDCXXXV, on the twentieth of June, he had come to Solothurn, after he had been so wretchedly handled by Swedish soldiers that he had fallen into a dangerous disease, so indeed that in the judgment of the physicians no hope of life remained, and he himself could not escape the danger. But when in this crisis of life he had vowed a Mass at the altar of St. Ursus at Solothurn, and had resolved henceforth to take these holy Martyrs for his Patrons, and to spread abroad their Life, martyrdom, miracles and images with great praise before everyone, he saw, at the beginning of the month of August, when he was in the utmost pain and peril of life, being half asleep, in a vision St. Ursus and St. Victor hastening to him as he lay for the second time (for he had reckoned this vision to have been a dream the first time), and they seemed to him to wish to refresh him, sick as he was, with outstretched arms; and as soon as he had experienced this grace, he not only felt himself freed from the trouble of the disease, but his mind also was filled with consolation through this vision. This happened at Solothurn in the house of a certain nobleman who, moved by Christian piety, had received the said religious man sick into his hospitality. After these things Gothard interposes that he will now, after the miracles which happened to private persons, narrate two which befell for the good of the whole commonwealth of Solothurn. The first of these, but in his order the 47th, is the raising of the siege ascribed to the prodigious apparition of the holy Patrons, which I have given more fully above at num. 82, taken from the manuscript of Wagner, an older author. The second Gothard pursues thus.

[95] A sweat flows prodigiously from the relics. XLVIII. When in the year MDXXX certain citizens of Solothurn had been corrupted by the poison of the Zwinglian sect, and the good and old Roman Catholic citizens were on this account much vexed, one of Zwingli's followers grievously threatened a Roman Catholic citizen with these words: Tomorrow little Ursus will sweat exceedingly: by which he wished to indicate that he and his companions had resolved to rush into the temple of St. Ursus, to attack the altars, to remove the images, to profane the relics of St. Ursus and his Companions — nay rather to turn them into ashes. Although this most wicked purpose and counsel those impious men did not, by the divine goodness and providence, carry out — doubtless through the intercession of the above-said Saints — that citizen, follower of Zwingli (although he himself knew not what he prophesied), was made a prophetic Caiaphas and seer. For on the same day on which the impious had resolved to attack the temple of St. Ursus, the relics of the said Saint began to sweat; of which sweat not only citizens worthy of credit, but also men delegated by the senate of the city (after it had been made more certain of it), were eye-witnesses and most certain; as also the monuments of that time and their transcript, from which I have culled these things, testify (not to say that this miracle became known of itself to all). But this sweat was not only an indication of the impious purpose which the Zwinglians had conceived against the church of St. Ursus, but also of the dissension of the whole city; for it was little short of this, that on the said day the Roman Catholic citizens and the Zwinglians should drive one another out of the city, not without great shedding of blood. But because this storm that had arisen among the citizens could not be quickly allayed, nor the ardour of the Zwinglian sect so soon extinguished, and because meanwhile the Catholic faith and the temple of St. Ursus were in great peril, that sad sweat of the said relics was twice afterwards seen, and the last time on the feast of St. Leodegar, which feast falls on the third day after the feast of St. Ursus. Hermann in his observations sets forth that the aforesaid sweat flowed from the head of St. Ursus, which is enclosed, namely, in the precious reliquary; and that, the sedition being at last allayed, with a solemn Mass and the Ambrosian hymn Te Deum Laudamus chanted, the senate being present, and the attestation of the miracle having been drawn up by their delegates, thanks were rendered to God and to the holy Patrons.

[96] Gothard subjoins yet three miracles, which I likewise subjoin from him. others which were done in Gothard's time and in this.

XLIX. John Francis Kerchenmeyer, master of arts in Waldkirch of the Breisgau, by a double testimony, German and Latin, gives most certain assurance that he had suffered so grievously in the bowels that the physicians themselves said that he could not live longer; wherefore, when he saw that human help availed him nothing, with great confidence he invoked the holy martyrs Ursus and Victor of Solothurn, and promised that, if he were restored to health, he would make a pilgrimage to Solothurn to the sepulchre of the holy Martyrs. After this vow he began to be better day by day, so that on the XXI of September MDCLI he himself fulfilled his vow at Solothurn before the Patrons of this city.

L. A certain boy eight years old could not stand upon his feet because of their weakness; his parents promised to make a pilgrimage with him to Treibis-Kreutz, in which place the holy martyrs Ursus and Victor with their Companions were beheaded, and brought the boy thither and poured out prayers; which being poured out, he was immediately healed, in the presence of religious and secular men, and began to walk through the temple, to the great joy of his parents, who therefore rendered many thanks to God, in that through the intercession of the holy martyrs Ursus and Victor he had bestowed this grace upon their boy.

LI. When in the year MDCXCIII a certain citizen here suffered from the falling sickness, and after many medicines applied could not be healed, he resolved to go to St. Ursus in the collegiate church; and after he had there visited the Saint's relics several times, he was freed from his disease, nor did he suffer from it afterwards. Thus far Gothard, who then adds that innumerable miracles besides happened both before and in his own time, which were not committed to writing. I subjoin a most recent one in Hermann's words, who writes thus. A few years ago a certain Solothurn matron of a most noble family experienced it (the patronage of the holy Patrons), who after a hard childbirth came to such a pass that, already deprived for several days of strength, of flesh, of voice, and of the power of taking food and drink, she had nothing left but bones and skin, most like one already dead, so indeed that all the physicians declared that without an evident miracle she could not be healed. But when a promise had been made and begun of nine Masses to be celebrated on as many successive days above the tomb of SS. Ursus and Victor at the high altar, unexpectedly and beyond the hope of all she returned as it were to life, being afterwards fruitful in yet another child, and lives even today, to the utmost admiration of the whole city: namely in the year MDCCLVIII, in which Hermann collected and wrote these things.

[97] Let us close this § finally with another account of the same man. The Saints are especially invoked against headaches and thunder. In particular, he says, our Saints are the common patrons of women in labour, as is plain from Gothard in the places cited, and as daily experience still proves. They are also the refuge of those who are more vehemently pressed by pain of the head, inasmuch as upon their heads is laid the sacred chest, as it is called among us, which contains the two heads of SS. Ursus and Victor. It is incredible what a concourse there is as often as the aforesaid chest is taken out of the tomb to be carried round in processions. For with so great zeal does the people desire this chest to be laid upon them, and with so great devotion do they strive for this grace, that it draws tears from the beholders. To such a pitch, namely, has the people's confidence in the patronage of the holy Patrons grown. They are finally special Patrons against lightnings and storms: for it has not been heard for an age that anyone within the circuit of the city has fallen struck by lightning. And although very often already the lightning has passed over our tower and church by the attraction of the bells, it has nevertheless never brought even the least harm either to the building or to the altars or to men. I myself, who write these things, am a witness of St. Ursus's excellent patronage in this matter: for when in the year MDCCLII, on the X day of July, about the tenth hour of the evening, while as under-sacristan (which office I then discharged) I was giving my labour to the exorcizing of a storm, a horrible thunderbolt, penetrating through the walls of the tower, fell in the midst between eight persons who were ringing the bells, upon certain beams which are there in place of a ceiling for raising or lowering the bells. I was standing lower down, near the baptistery at the doors of the church, with the relics of St. Ursus, and should have perished if the thunderbolt, making straight for me, had passed through the said beams. Yet it, as though in awe of the sacred bones set before it, and wandering for some moments in the midst between the said eight persons, at last burst, with no one hurt. There was none of us who did not ascribe this safety of his, after God, to St. Ursus and his Companions.

§ VII. Saints wrongly reckoned among the Companions of SS. Victor and Ursus. A notice concerning the surreptitious Documents sent to us about the bodies found in the village of Schöz, of which we treated in the Posthumous Glory of St. Maurice and his Companions.

[SS. Cosmas and Damian wrongly ascribed to the Theban Martyrs, as also those found] Before I set an end to this Commentary, I judge that the reader must be warned of two errors, the one Simler's, the other my own, into which I was once led by documents in all likelihood untrustworthy, or at least erroneous — yet in such wise that I never failed to doubt of the truth of the matter. As to what concerns Simler, he writes in book 2 of the Valais, page 42: In Helvetia at Solothurn, Ursus with Cosmas, Damian and Victor suffered the same (martyrdom). From these words, unless I am mistaken, Baldesano in his History of the Theban Legion reckons them, though with some hesitation, among the Companions of St. Maurice: whence also, opportunity being given me of writing to Solothurn, there arose in me the mind to inquire. And the often-praised Hermann answered nearly in these words. What Simler asserts in book 2 of the Valais concerning SS. Cosmas and Damian, namely that they are honoured at Solothurn as Theban martyrs, is among us a novelty; for these are not reckoned among our Saints, nor do they enjoy any other special cult, except that they are held as patrons of the medical faculty, and that their feast is celebrated by the aforesaid faculty with a solemn Mass among the Conventual fathers. Therefore Simler hallucinated, who took no care to examine what pertained to the Saints. The error I committed, being deceived by documents submitted to us. Namely, at the XXII day of this month, while discussing the Martyrdom of the holy Theban Legion and illustrating the cult of St. Maurice and his Companions, among very many monuments collected and transmitted to us by Father Maurice Chardon, priest of our Society and most often praised helper of our Work, I found an anonymous letter with a not small list, rendered into Latin by Chardon himself, of miracles which had happened in Schöz, a village of the county of Willisau in Helvetia. That matter I treated in §5 of the Posthumous Glory, page 358. It is pleasing to excerpt from the said letter the things which are there alleged for the occasion of the particular cult of St. Maurice. Finally, says the author of the letter, in Schöz, a village of the county of Willisau, there is a filial church sacred to St. Maurice and his Companions, belonging to the parish of Ettiswil. Three chapels were successively erected in the same village, at no great distances from one another. To one of these already in the year of the Lord MCCCLVI Innocent VI granted great indulgences, to which in the year MCCCLXVI Henry, bishop of Constance, added new ones.

[99] About two hundred bodies in the year MCCCCLXXXIX in that place in the village of Schöz, about which we have where the first chapel was built, either near the chapel or in the adjoining houses, were wonderfully found; and there a greater chapel was built in honour of St. Maurice and his Companions, enriched by the holy See with great indulgences for the chief feasts of the Lord and of the blessed Virgin and of the other Saints through the year. Thus far the account of the anonymous writer, of whose sincerity who would doubt? There follows an observation of the same man, which caused me to think again of examining the matter. How it came about, he continues, that the bodies of so many holy Martyrs were buried in this place, is not established. That they were of the Companions of SS. Ursus and Victor, who near Solothurn underwent a glorious martyrdom for the faith, can be gathered from this, that, as the Solothurn Legend records, some of the holy Martyrs carried their heads pressed to the body, others laid upon the breast, and others laid them at their feet. And in this posture the bodies of the holy Martyrs buried in the said place of Schöz were found, each turning its face toward the church, or the rising of the sun. These things, I say, because I saw them with some hesitation ascribed to the Companions of SS. Victor and Ursus, whose bodies were believed to be found there, made me refer the examination hither again and treat it here briefly. The reader could there notice that I already then doubted not a little of the account of the finding, and that these words also of the anonymous writer suggested a suspicion of his credibility: Whither so many bodies of Saints found there went, is not added. It is credible that they were distributed thence to various churches. Namely, among the very many churches both of Helvetia and of other regions which I have reviewed as enriched with relics of the holy Thebans, very many indeed, I have met with none which reports having received them thence — which would assuredly be almost incredible if so many sacred bones found there had been distributed. There is added that I have found no author writing of that finding except Murer alone, and that in words sufficiently ambiguous and of perplexed sense. Therefore, opportunity being given of writing to Solothurn, from which the village of Schöz is scarcely eight miles distant, I inquired more carefully whether I could find anything for clearing up that matter. Upon this, as upon very many other things, the often-praised Hermann spent his labour; and behold what he answered to my inquiry.

[100] To another doubt concerning certain bodies found in the village of Schötz, A spurious Document. of the territory of Lucerne, in the year MCCCCLXXXIX, and held to be of the Theban Legion. Meanwhile no knowledge of this matter is had at Solothurn, nor ever was; nay, not even in the very neighbourhood of the place, so far as I have been able to ascertain from letters sent thither and from frequent questions put by word of mouth. What to this, reader? Those bodies had to be found in so great a number in the neighbourhood of Solothurn, in the year MCDLXXXIX — at that very time, namely, when the cult of the holy Thebans was most celebrated at Solothurn from the discovery a few years before of so many of their sacred remains, whose Companions were believed to be found in Schöz: and was there no knowledge of this matter at Solothurn, nor had there ever been? But would it also be so extinguished that no trace of it should remain to this day in the place itself and its neighbourhood? Unless these are manifest signs of error or of fiction, scarcely any now remain. Therefore whatever I there brought forward about the said finding from the anonymous writer's letter, I hold as false and supposititious. That anonymous writer could have been deceived by a false account from a man either malevolent or ignorant and credulous, to whom such things had been suggested; and I doubt whether the Miracles themselves, which I there published from him, are even safely enough referred to that place. Of these, however, since a book is cited and in it certain witnesses, there is a somewhat greater confidence than about the finding of the relics, whence or from whom it proceeded I entirely do not know. Now I publish the Passion itself, having first set out, for the explanation of the table to be inserted here, the notices taken from Hermann. I begin from the chorography of Old Solothurn.

[101] Observations on the table. A The place enclosed by five living springs, where the holy Martyrs were buried at the beginning, and where afterwards their sacred bones were found among thorns and briars, and a chapel was built, called that of St. Peter.

B The space where in the year 1501 was erected the church called that of St. Ursus in Treibis-Kreutz, for the memory of the martyrdom endured by the Saints on the bridge which ended there.

C The place where today stands the collegiate church of St. Ursus.

D The space within the stronghold where the first parish church of St. Stephen was, and which even today is called Freithoff, that is, cemetery.

E The circuit of the old stronghold girded with walls. F The village where the Romans wintered and had their stations, marked by various ruins and by ancient coins and medals dug up there. G A most ancient tower, which they believe to have been built by the founder himself.

H The hill of Hermes, to this day called Hermes-Bühel, on which was a temple of Mars and Mercury. Thither the Saints are believed to have been dragged before their passion, that they might sacrifice to the idols; in memory of which matter a Cross is erected there to this day, and that part of the history is seen painted in a little chapel.

I The place where formerly the bridge over the Aar, upon which the Saints were beheaded, joined the two banks.

K The citadel or seat of the governor, to this day called die Burg.

L The royal road from Italy to the Rauraci.

M The chapel of St. Lawrence, built afterwards in that space where the pyre raised for burning the Saints is believed, the fire being quenched from heaven, to have been destroyed.

N A cave turned into a church, in which are read these verses:

While she serves Christ with her heart, and the needy with her comb, in this hollow the divine Verena once lay hidden.

Concerning the table of present-day Solothurn only two places are to be designated, namely the chapel of St. Peter, which is marked with the number 1, and the collegiate basilica of St. Ursus, which is marked with the number 2. Have now, reader, the Acts themselves: in the first place those which we borrow from Surius and which are complete, and which treat also of the Companions of SS. Ursus and Victor, which perhaps does not commend their antiquity; in the second the other, imperfect, where mention is made only of SS. Ursus and Victor, and chiefly of the latter.

THE MARTYRDOM

of SS. Ursus, Victor and their Companions By an anonymous author. From the edition of Surius.

Victor, martyr of the Theban Legion, at Solothurn in Switzerland. (S.)

Ursus, martyr of the Theban Legion, at Solothurn in Switzerland. (S.)

The companion martyrs of the Theban Legion, at Solothurn in Switzerland.

BHL Number: 8588

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

The Saints, who had withdrawn from the Legion to Solothurn, When in the time of the emperor Maximian (who with his colleague Diocletian held the empire) a grave persecution of Christians had arisen, there were in the legion of saint Maurice, Ursus and Victor with sixty-six companions, men vigorous in warlike affairs, whose birthday we honour today. These, troubled by the passion of blessed Maurice and by the terror of the sword, not without divine prompting secretly leaving the tumults of the camp, came to Solothurn, a most ancient stronghold which is above the river Aar, that through them there the blindness of many unbelievers might receive the light of faith ^b.

[2] Meanwhile the emperor Maximian, hearing that saint Ursus and his Companions had taken flight from Agaunum [*], there by Maximian's order they are tortured by Hyrtacus was exceedingly inflamed with fury. Summoning therefore Hyrtacus, governor of the aforesaid town of Solothurn, he ordered and enjoined that he should diligently search them out by diligent investigation, and wherever he should find them, either compel them to the sacrifices of the gods or end their life with various torments. When therefore blessed Ursus and his Companions had been presented to the governor Hyrtacus, he addresses them with such words, saying: O men, what madness has persuaded you to oppose the decrees of the princes? We admonish your vigour, and by the imperial command we enjoin that, every excuse being removed, you be willing to bend yourselves to sacrificing to the almighty gods Jupiter and Mercury. Otherwise I will make you end your life with various torments. But they, strengthened from heaven, said: We are Christians, nor do we wish, by sacrificing to deaf and dumb idols, to defile the rite of the Christian religion. Hyrtacus, seeing the constancy of the Saints, and that they could neither be bent by blandishments nor softened by terrors, ordered their hands and feet to be bound with chains and fetters, and them to be atrociously tormented with various torments. And when the executioners were zealously performing this, the divine clemency (which does not desert those who hope in it) shone upon them with so great a splendour of brightness that the torturers, terrified by the flash, were laid low upon the ground half alive, and the holy Martyrs, their chains being broken and their bonds loosed, stood undaunted, glorifying and praising the Lord God of Israel.

[3] But the pagans, together with the governor, being led into confusion, and after various torments beheaded were tormented with grief and anguish, seeing that many were converted to Christ through the aforesaid miracles. The governor therefore addresses the holy Martyrs, saying: Choose one of two things: either sacrifice to the immortal gods, or I will make you end your life with various torments. The Saints answering said: Christ suffered for us; we also, for Christ's sake, are ready to endure whatsoever torments thy malice shall have decreed to inflict. The governor therefore, filled with fury, commands a great pile of wood to be laid together and a very great fire to be prepared, that the bodies of the Saints might be burned. And when the holy Martyrs had been brought forward with many present, Hyrtacus says to them: Unless you come to your senses from your error, I will burn up your bodies in these flames. The Saints, comforted by the Holy Spirit, answered: No threats, nor fear of torments, will recall us from our holy and just purpose; and we are prepared to endure all things for the Saviour's name. When therefore the Saints were drawing near to the fire, that they might be cast into it, behold, a most violent wind coming from heaven struck the pile of wood, kindled on every side, with so great a force that, being scattered and divided into various parts, it was utterly extinguished ^c. Which many seeing, were converted to the faith.

[4] they are cast down into the Aar. But the impious governor, seeing the holy Martyrs glorified by a double splendour of miracles, ordered very many to be beheaded. Meanwhile the holy martyrs Ursus with his Companions strengthened in the faith men of both sexes by their teaching and examples. But the governor Hyrtacus, a man of Belial full of fury, ordered the holy Martyrs to be presented to him upon the bridge of the aforesaid river, that in that same place, when they had been beheaded, he might straightway cast them down into the bed of the river. The blessed Martyrs therefore are beheaded and cast down into the river, nor yet did they float far from the said bridge. For the divine Mercy (with which all things are possible) showed the power of its own gentleness in them. For not far from the said bridge, carrying their heads in their hands, they came out of the river, and reached the place where now a basilica has been built in their honour. These are marvels, and marvels more marvellous than marvels follow. For the holy Martyrs, bending their knees to the ground, for about the space of a single hour, before they laid down their bodies upon the ground, in the sight of all ^d, prayed. And when the prayer was ended, they let down their bodies to the ground, as if they said: This is our rest for ever and ever. And the deaf came, and the blind, the lame, the feeble and the paralytic, or those held by any infirmity whatever, and touched the bodies of the Saints, and received sudden health. And those possessed and beset by demons were healed at the touch of the holy Martyrs, and to this present day, if the faith of those who ask does not waver, they are healed by the grace of God. Now Ursus and Victor with their Companions suffered at Solothurn on the day before the Kalends of October, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

perhaps se in*

THE PASSION

of St. Victor and his Companions, from the Signy manuscript, by an anonymous author.

Victor, martyr of the Theban Legion, at Solothurn in Switzerland. (S.)

Ursus, martyr of the Theban Legion, at Solothurn in Switzerland. (S.)

The companion martyrs of the Theban Legion, at Solothurn in Switzerland.

BHL Number: 8584, 8585

The Passion of St. Victor and his Companions, At that time, when the emperor Maximian had sent saint Maurice with six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men into the city of the Genevans, that they might fulfil his command, namely that they should persecute the Christians: then they, taking up their station in the place of Agaunum, said to Maximian the emperor: We are Christians, we cannot persecute Christians ^b. Then he, filled with anger, ordered every one of them to be put to death. Seeing these things which were done, the holy men of God Victor and Ursus went out secretly; and when they had come to the stronghold of Salodorum, which is above the river Aar, and this had been heard by the emperor, he, filled with fury, ordered his attendants to pursue those Saints. And when they had come to the place where those Saints were praying, the emperor's attendants, seeing them, said to them: Who are you? And they answering said: We are the servants of God, Victor and Ursus. And the attendants said to them: Maximian the emperor has sent us, that wherever we can find you we may straightway put you to death. The servants of God Victor and Ursus answered: It is better for us to die than to sacrifice any longer to demons. Then the attendants, seizing them, led them away to be tortured. But they as they walked sang psalms, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, suffer us not to go with these who deny that thou art the true God. And when they were tortured they cried out: Lord Jesus Christ, give strength to thy servants, because for thy sake we gladly suffer these things; and send thy angel to snatch us from the hands of our enemies. Then there appeared above them as it were a ray of the sun, and those who were torturing them fell, and became as dead men, and the Saints of God were loosed from the bond with which they were held. And the crowds of the heathen who were waiting, seeing what had been done, glorified the God of Israel.

[2] Then one of those attendants, Hyrtacus by name, who was notorious for persecuting Christians, and his first translation said to his servants: This which you have seen is a phantasm; but I say to you, go at a swift run and seize again those evildoers, who have despised the command of Maximian the emperor and lead the people astray to the law of the Christians, and say that they worship Christ the Son of God [c]. But the multitude standing round, seeing what had been done to the Servants of God — the heathen indeed, persisting in the worship of demons, rejoiced; the Christians lamented. And all of them saw, for the space of two hours, holy Victor bending his knees as though he were still alive: and when they marvelled at this, suddenly his body came to rest, and shone like the sun; and straightway the Christians buried their bodies. But in the times of Gundegisil the king, who presided over the kingdom of the Burgundians ^d, queen Theodesinda built a basilica in honour of the martyr Vincent, and in honour of saint Victor, in the territory of the Genevans, below the town of that city, adorned with wondrous workmanship, enriched with many ornaments and with great possessions, and with royal liberality, which now shines before our eyes. And she asked Domitian ^e, at that time bishop of the Genevans, that it might be lawful for her to translate the body of saint Victor the martyr thither from the stronghold of Solothurn: which obtaining, having taken with her the Christian people, with hymns, psalms and priests, they came to that very place where he was buried; and beseeching for three days with fastings and vigils, they were scarcely at last able to approach his sepulchre. And when they had come thither, and the sepulchre had been opened where the body of the Martyr rested, the whole was shaken. And seeing these marvels of God, all feared. Again awaiting that vigil of the night, fasting together and praying, they took his body and laid it in a bier. Then a great sound was made, and that chest shone, where they had laid him, like snow.

[3] to Geneva, where it is prodigiously found at the beginning of the 7th century. And raising him up, and with hymns, psalms, tapers and lamps bearing him as far as Geneva, they laid him down in the church, where also they buried him, with loud voices blessing God and greeting the holy Martyr with the cry: Welcome, servant of God, holy Victor; for in thy coming we believe that we are made safe, and that before God we are always relieved in all our tribulation by thy prayers. Thus therefore concerning the passion of the holy Martyr and the translation of his body these things stand so: but as many years succeeded, through many spaces of years and of seasons, the fame of that Martyr had become known to none of men at that time, in what manner in that dwelling his body had been buried; yet his sepulchre was openly shown to all ^f, and was famous with all. But when the time had come that the Lord should declare the merits of his Martyr, the glorious man Theodoric, king of the Franks, came to visit the city of the Genevans; and what he had believed with pious faith, by divine inspiration Hyconius, bishop of the church of Maurienne, was present; who, having joined to himself the apostolic men Rusticius and Patricius ^g, bishops, secretly in the night-time approached the sepulchre of the blessed Man; and the marble having been removed which covered the interior of the sepulchre, they found him on the outside indeed enclosed with a comely marble, but within, a coffin made of imperishable wood; and inwardly an adornment composed of silver metal with shining beauty, and there they found the blessed body laid: which seeing, with all the people they glorified God, being now made certain of so great a Patron and secure of so great a treasure. And staying there longer through the night and praying, afterwards, arranging all most diligently just as they had found it, they laid it back, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the honour of the most blessed martyr Victor, and to the salvation of the faithful peoples devoutly flocking thither and faithfully seeking the patronage of so great a Martyr, by the bounty of the Lord, who lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.

[4] Miracles which seem to have happened at that time. And it happened then ^h that a certain woman came to the sepulchre of the blessed Martyr for the sake of prayer; who, seized by a frail and worldly covetousness, presumed by a device of fraud to carry off a taper which had lately burned at his sepulchre: and when she had carried it away to the lodging of her dwelling, that taper so stuck fast in her hand that neither by herself nor by the neighbours who ran together could it by any means be torn away. And she, thinking within herself and acknowledging the crime of her offence, returned in haste to the sepulchre of the blessed Martyr, with the people standing by. Then the priests who in that place performed the sacred office, being asked by all, having straightway poured forth a prayer, impressed the sign of the Cross upon the woman's hand; and immediately, by the favour of the holy Martyr's kindness, her hand was restored to its former soundness. Behold, there arose again among merchants a controversy about a loan: and when one of them demanded his own property back, and the other more obstinately affirmed that he did not owe it, they decreed that the cause should be so ended that the one who denied it should swear above the tomb of the Martyr. He came forward: and thus the truth was made plain. For when he wished, having sworn, to enlarge his lie, as soon as he stretched out his hand, he at once fell backward upon the ground, nor could he bring to accomplishment the evil which he had conceived in his purpose: the holy Martyr showing by this very thing how great a fall they make in the eyes of almighty God who do not fear to bind their sins still more heavily by perjury, as ⁱ … and thence afterwards fall with the reprobate into the pit of perdition, which they do not foresee. But a certain girl also was there healed of a demon by the Martyr's power. The malignant spirit which lay hidden in her, taking the form of a lizard, was cast out and went out through her ear, worthy of such a form, for whom the dignity of an angel could not suffice; and showing that he has a place in those who, like unto reptiles, given over to a reprobate sense, by living carnally always drag the belly of their heart along the ground, never stretching their head toward heaven, but rather tending with the hands of their works toward the earth. It would be long to recount the healings and cures of men and of women, since daily our God, to the glory of the Martyr, bestows innumerable miracles there, so that let it be doubtful to no one that whosoever have there sought benefits with faith have, on returning, obtained the grace. Now the holy martyrs Victor and Ursus suffered under Maximian the emperor, on the day before the Kalends of October, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.