Baring-Gould’s sources: Belgian, Gallican, and Benedictine Martyrologies. Authority: — A life, late, composed probably by a monk of Liesse; but at what date is uncertain, except that it is late.] S. Etto was an Irishman, a disciple of S. Fursey at Lagny on the Marne, where that Saint had settled, and erected a monastery, in or about, the year 644. That monastery was a nursery of several saints, who spread over Gaul and Belgium, a S. Emilian, S. Eloquius, S. Adalgis, and S. Bertwin. Of these, however, some were certainly not of Irish blood.

Etto settled on a little stream at Thi&ache, near the town of Avesnes, where he cleared away the brambles and built himself a cell. He was wont to visit the abbey of Hautmont, where he met S. Amandus, S. Wasno, and S. Humbert He is said to have cured a dumb cow-herd by striking him with his staff. He is thought to have received episcopal unction; but the fact wants corroboration. He died in the monastery of Fiscan, in the village of Dompierre. His relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] were translated to Mons, and afterwards to the abbey of Liesse.

An arm-bone is preserved at Buinvilliers, near Arras. He is represented with oxen at his feet, as he is invoked by cow-herds and cattle drivers. He is called in French S. ZL & AMALBERGA, V.

[Belgian Martyrologies, Roman and Benedictine [monks following the Rule of St. Benedict] Martyrologies. Authorities: — A Sermon on the Saint by Radbod, bishop of Utrecht, cL 9x8; and a Life, of no great historical value, by Theodoric, abbot of S. S. Amalberga, of the family of Pepin l’Herstal, was born at Ardennes, and was brought up by S. Landrada, abbess at Munsterbilsen. From early childhood she was distinguished for her innocence, piety, and exceeding beauty, the rumours of which having reached the court of King Pepin, he came to the abbey with a numerous retinue, to demand her hand for his son Charles. But she had made up her mind to devote herself to the Lord, and she refused the tempting offer. According to the legend, Charles himself came to urge his suit in person, and proceeded to lavish sundry endearments on her, which she received with considerable repugnance. His attention was fortunately distracted by a bear which had eaten a woman’s honey and upset her hive. He forgot Amalberga, to pursue and kill the bear. But when the bear was dead, and, hot and exhausted, Charles returned to prosecute his amorous advances, to his indignation he found that the damsel had run away.

Pepin, finding the virgin so resolute, married his son to Hildegarde, daughter of Desiderius, king of the Lombards [a Germanic people who ruled much of Italy from 568 to 774]. 1 Amalberga had taken refuge at Andenne, on the Meuse, below Namur, with the abbess S. Begga. But on the death of her parents, the right of taking charge of her 1 This is Theodor ic’s story. In reality Charlemagne [king of the Franks, crowned emperor in 800] did not marry Hermingarde (her name was not Hildegarde) till after the death of his father, and to do so he divorced his wife, an obscure person, whose name has not been preserved* Pepin died in 768. Charlemagne married Hermingarde in 771, and divorced her in 77a; and then married Hildegarde, a Swabian lady. July sow Inly io.] Amalberga.

devolved on Hunrod, a noble in high favour with Charles. As soon as the king beard that the young girl was in the house of his favourite, he resolved to make her his wife, and exalt her to share the throne with him. The careless indifference of Charlemagne to his nuptial vows, the readiness with which he divorced a wife and contracted a new marriage, showed Amalberga that the * existence of a lawful wife could not protect her from the rude and reckless passion of the great king. She fled with her brother Rodin, first to Villevorde, and then to Meteren. Some time after, Charlemagne heard where she was, and went to Meteren. She fled into the church, and with a pair of scizzors, shore off her hair, and then veiled her head. Charles the Great rushed in, and finding her veiled, asked what priest had dared veil his bride elect He caught her by the arm, tore off the veil, and when he saw how she had disfigured her head, burst into a paroxysm of rage. In attempting to drag her out of the church, he broke her arm.

According to a popular legend, from Meteren she betook herself to Temsche, on the Scheld, a place that belonged to her. But on reaching the banks of the river found no boat A huge sturgeon, however, presented his back; she mounted it, and he bore her across the river. This story is not told by Theodoric. In memory of this miracle, a sturgeon is annually offered on this day by the fishermen of the Scheld to the chapel of S. Amalberga at Temsche.

The Saint erected a church at Temsche in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and died there at the age of thirty-one, in the year 772.

A procession is made every year, on the third day in Whitsun week, at Temsche, in honour of S. Amalberga. A fountain is shown there, of which the following story is told: — A spring bubbled up in a field, and as it was the only one in the neighbourhood, everyone sent to it for drinking water, and the crops in the, field were injured. Thereupon the owner forbade access to it Amalberga thereupon went to the spring, filled a sieve with water, and bore it to an adjacent field, to which all could have access. She emptied the sieve there, and the spring rose where she had spilt the water. The relics of S. Amalberga were translated in 870 to S. Peter's at Ghent; but were dispersed by the Calvinists in 1578.

In Art, S. Amalberga is represented with a sieve in her hand, a sturgeon at her side, trampling on Charlemagne. Geese are sometimes represented with her, as she is said to have banished a flock from Meteren, where they were devouring the newly-sown grain.

S. Amalberga, widow, venerated the same day at Lobbes, was the mother of S. Gudula. & CANUTE, K.M. [Roskilde and Sleswig, and other Danish Breviaries; and Modem Roman Martyrology. Canonized in 1 100 by Paschal II. Authorities: — Life and Passion of S. Canute, by an anonymous writer after the body had been elevated and translated in 10Q5. Also, another Life by Aelnotb, monk of Canterbury, written at Odensee in Denmark, about the year X120. Also, a Life in Saxo Grammaticus, d. 1204. Also, the valuable account in the Knytlinga Saga (Fornmanna Sbgur, xi. pp. 214—281.) This is infinitely superior to all the other accounts. The former are by ecclesiastics who omit everything but what tells in favour of the Saint The Saga writer gives the actual history, without exaggerating his virtues or vices.

1 I hare followed the Saga In preference to the Latin accounts, as being far more reliable and as being more minute in its details. Joljr 10.] S’. Canute.

Sweyn Ulfsson, king of Denmark, was married to Gunnhilda, daughter of earl Sweyn, and had by her a son named after him. But by concubines Sweyn had thirteen sons who lived, and daughters not a few. 1 His eldest illegitimate son was Knut or Canute, who died in the life-time of his father on a pilgrimage to Rome. The second was Harald Hein, and the third Knut, or S. Canute. The fourth was Olaf, and then came his only son born in wedlock, Sweyn.

When king Sweyn had reigned twenty-nine years, he summoned a Thing, or parliament, in Jutland, with permission to choose a successor, lest after his death strife should break out among his sons, and the land be distracted with war. The consent of the nobles and bonders having been given, king Sweyn said, “ Harald is my eldest son, as you know, but Knut is the sturdiest built and most lusty man of all my sons, and is a proved soldier, therefore 1 think it best that he should succeed me.” And when the council had agreed, it separated. The king died almost immediately after, in the year 1076.

After the death of Sweyn, what he had dreaded threatened to take place. Each son gathered his friends about him, and prepared to assert his claims. Asbjom the Earl had married his daughter to Harald, and he maintained the rights of Harald, as the eldest, to the throne, and he was joined by several of the most powerful nobles of Denmark. A Thing was summoned to meet in Jutland, and Harald was elected. Knut retired, “ red as blood," to his ships, and danger of civil war threatened, but was averted by Harald offering Knut the earldom of Zealand, and by a promise made by all the chieftains of Denmark 1 Aelnoth, after praising Sweyn for his piety, mentions casually that be had several illegitimate children; but then, he adds, all sins are forgiven men except the sin against the Holy Ghost.

[July xo. that Knut should succeed Harald in the event of his surviving him. Harald was a quiet king, not a firm ruler, and things went much their own way during the four years that he reigned; and the Danes [Viking raiders from Scandinavia] called him in derision Harald the Tame. On his death, in 1080, Knut was unanimously elected king by the Danes, in a council at Viborg. As soon as he was chosen, he stood up and said, “ You Danes repaid my brother Harald his goodwill and gentleness by calling him Harald Hein, or ‘ the Tame/ and that was done in ridicule of him; and now I shall repay it you. You shall have ill at my hands, and I shall ride roughshod over you.”

Then king Knut rode to Halland and held a council, and ordered the bonders to pay him at once a procuration tax. One of the farmers stood up and said, “ We will have no illegal extortion from the king; we will have law, and naught else.” And he sat down amidst general applause. “ You have well said, we will have law,” answered the king haughtily. “ Now, hark ye, Bonders of Halland. By law I can forbid your pigs and other cattle from entering my forests. I forbid them to enter them for beach-masts and acorns.” This dismayed the farmers, for the greater part of Halland was covered with forest, which was claimed as a preserve by the king; and their swine had fed in the woods. Then they came round to the king's terms, but he did not leave till he had put to death the farmer who had so boldly appealed to law against him. Thence Knut went to Skaney, and summoned a council. “ Ye men of Skaney,” said Knut; “ ye have heard how the men of Halland have been brought to pay me what I exacted of them. Now I ask the same of you. And think not to escape, because ye have no forests here. Does not all the waste land, and all that is uncultivated, belong 51 Canute.

to the Crown ?” They admitted that such was the case. “The sea then is mine,” said Knut; “pay me the tax I demand, or I forbid your fishing in the sea, for that is unenclosed and uncultivated, and therefore Crown property.” Before Knut became king, he had cruised in the Baltic, fighting and plundering, and it was said that he had conquered ten petty kings on the shores of that sea. During the reign of Harald, piracy and robbery had not been put down with a high hand, but directly Knut held the sceptre, there was a change. He expelled every heathen out of Denmark, sank the boats of pirates who plundered the coasts, and put to death, without compunction, everyone convicted of theft, or murder, or piracy, hewing off their hands and feet, and taking all their goods to himself. He married Adela, daughter of Baldwin, Count of Flanders. To his brother Eric he gave the earldom of Zealand, and kept his brother Benedict about his person. Olaf was the same age as himself, probably by another mother. • Knut was a man of dissolute morals. He once violated the wife of a priest, who had hospitably received him, and fed him and his retinue, and offered him on the morrow a gold ring in reparation of the wrong he had done him. 1 An instance of his stem justice is recorded. There was a man named Egill, who was steward of the Crown farms in Borgholm. On a harrying expedition against the Wends [Slavic peoples living east of the Elbe in Germany], he drank three long draughts of human blood, when thirsty and faint with fighting, and was, therefore, called Blood-Egill. He gathered so many servants about him, and had so many fighting-ships, that Knut began to fear his pride and power. The king of Norway sent to Denmark to make enquiries about the fate of a trading vessel which had left his coast in the spring, and had not been heard of since. Knut suspected Egill, and secretly 1 Aelnoth says that his morals were ail that coaid be desired after his marriage. collecting an armed and trusty band, entered Borgholm, unknown to Egill, his steward. He found on the beach traces of a great fire, burnt brands and reddened shingle. At night, when Egill and his vikings were making merry in carouse, the king's followers surrounded the house, and Blood-Egill was summoned to come forth. He admitted that when the trader lay at anchor under a neighbouring islet, he and his men had boarded her, drawn her up on the beach, ransacked her, and then ruthlessly burnt the vessel with her shrieking crew. The king at once put Egill to death, and cut off the hands and feet of nearly all his followers; the rest he outlawed.

Olat king of Norway, was invited by Knut of Denmark to join him in an invasion of England, or at least a harrying of the English coast, and the Norwegian king sent a fleet to meet the Danes in Limafjord. Knut had given notice to his subjects to assemble there, and immense bodies of armed men, and war ships, arrived at the appointed time, but not the king. In fact, as he was starting, the news reached him that the Wends, resenting the attacks of Blood-Egill, meditated a descent on the Danish coast, and the king deemed it unadvisable to leave his country till he had made peace with the Wends. He therefore despatched ambassadors, explaining that Egill had acted against his orders, had been punished by him, and offering an indemnity. The Wends accepted these terms, and then Knut started for Limafjord. But in the meantime, the large assembly of nobles and bonders, unconstrained by the presence of the king, had discussed their causes of complaint Never had there been such heavy taxation, never such cruel interference with their cherished liberties of committing piratical depredations on their neighbours, and they resolved on demanding redress of their grievances before sailing ft it on the expedition against England They commissioned Olaf, the king's brother, to bear their complaints to Knut When Knut saw the deputation arrive, he refused to listen to them, but threw his brother into chains, and sent him to Baldwin of Flanders, to be kept a prisoner at the king’s pleasure.

When the news reached the assembly in Limafjord, it dispersed in high anger and alarm; so that on the arrival of Knut at the appointed place of meeting, he found only the Norsemen. He was obliged to dismiss them, as he was unable to support them, and then went round his country to chastise his independent subjects. He suddenly descended on Fyen, and convoked the bonders before him. They assembled trembling, and the king imposed on them a crushing tax. in punishment for their desertion of him in his meditated expedition. Then he visited Jutland, and by his threatening countenance and angry denunciation of their conduct, the Jutlanders saw that they had the worst to fear. Thereupon Thord Skori, and Tolar Verpill, two of the chief men in Jutland, summonded a Thing, or assembly, to meet and consult at Randers, what measures should be taken in self-preservation. Thord rose and addressed the meeting thus: “You have heard what the king has done elsewhere, how he is travelling over the country with rapine and violence, which he carries on by means of his Wendish mercenaries. He has irritated the hearts of all the people, and there is not a man of worth about his person; aye, and it is well-known that none will attend him who have any humanity in them, for he is a man as treacherous as he is rapacious, acting towards his subjects not as a king, but as a pirate, butchering many, and outlawing others, and pillaging all. He has wrested their lands from some without plausible excuse, and has brought the whole country into misery. It is ft it well to consider that we must not look for any diminution of these outrages and injustice, so long as he is king, and we are disposed to endure his tyrannies. If you will take my advice, we will oppose his entrance into the district of Randers, and meet him at the river Guden Aa.” His advice was taken, and a powerful conspiracy was formed to oppose the king.

In the meantime, Knut was feasting at Sea-end, at the head of Limafiord, unconscious of the hostility his exactions had elicited, and the danger that threatened him. He sent two of his men to Randers, to announce his intention of holding a Thing there; but his messengers returned with shields pierced with arrows, and wounded, as they attempted to cross the river to the insurgents. Knut was very angry; but did not feel strong enough to suppress the insurrection, and therefore sent another messenger, named Toli, with sixty men, to order the insurgents to disperse, and continued his course to Fyen. But scarcely had he left the place where he had been feasting, than the bonders came upon it, pillaged and burnt his palace, and marched in pursuit of him. On all sides the nobles and bonders rose, and Knut was obliged to escape, first to Viborg, and then, with a few followers, into Fyen. He took refuge at Oden see; but sent his wife and son by ship to Flanders, with entreaty that Count Baldwin would send him speedy assistance.

The army of the bonders, commanded by Earl Asbjora, crossed the Sound to Middlefart, and marched rapidly upon Odensee. On the morning of July 10th, the king heard a sung mass. Before mass, a message was brought him that the bonders were on the opposite side of the river, and he heard when mass was over, that they had crossed. All his I presence of mind seemed to have deserted him, and he joiyio.).S'. Canute. 271 began to ask, when too late, of his brother Benedict and others around him, what was best to be done. “Take my advice,” said Earl Eric, “mount a horse and fly.”

“No,” said the king. “Then I should leave you a prey in the hands of these rebels. Better hand me over to them, and so secure your lives.”

“What 1 and have all the girls of Denmark point at us as traitors, afraid to die for our king 1” exclaimed Benedict His speech met with applause; and the brave men made a ring round the wooden church, 1 determined to sell their lives and that of the king dearly. The king remained inside the church and prostrated himself before the altar, and wept over his sins. Then, tearing off his scarlet kirtle, he went to the priest who had sung the mass, and gave him the kirtle, saying, “Take this, and in return offer prayers for my men who shall die to-day, and also for those of the bonders who fall by their swords.” Then he knelt, and made his confession, and forgave all his enemies. And his shrift ended, he sat down before the altar, and threw over his silk dress a scarlet mantle, and calling to him Sweyn Thorgunnsson, gave him his belt and knife. “ I thank you,” said the sturdy Dane, “ and trust to defend my life with this knife to-day.” “ Take care and protect your life as well as you can,” said the king. “ And indeed, I fancy you will survive this day.” Then he took a psalter, and began to sing. By this time the bonders were before the church, shouting for the king to come forth and show himself like a man, and not slink away like a coward. Benedict, the king's brother, stood in the church door. He was a tall, stout man, and wore that day a gilded wooden church, with many great glass windows.** [July xo.

helmet, a red kirtle under his breast-plate, silk sleeves, a red shield, with a gilt horseman painted on it “ Come into the church over my body, if you want to see the king,” said Benedict Then the bonders came on, shouting, “ Now, king ! we will repay you the robberies you have committed !” and with each blow one cried out, “ Here's my return for the ox you carried offT or another, “Here's for the cow you stole !” and another, 4< Thus I repay the horse you despoiled me of"

After many of the bonders had fallen, and no advance had been made, Earl Asbjorn bade them throw stones through the church windows. The glass was broken, and great stones crashed in, wounding and killing the gallant defenders of the king. Finding that they could not hold out where they were, Benedict called his companions to retreat to the choir. This they did, and the bonders burst into the church after them. The struggle became doubly furious at the chancel gates, and the sacred floor was strewn with dead. Arrows and stones whirled in through the windows on the gallant band, who were gradually thinned by the overpowering numbers of their assailants. The blood was ankle deep in the church. A stone struck Knut on the brow, and made a gash. He at once brought the lavabo dish, set it on his knee, and let the blood drip into it, “ so as not to spoil his dress," 1 says the historian and continued chanting his psalter as composedly as before, whilst his gallant men fell before him. There came at length a pause in the onslaught, and the king's men were glad to rest Benedict stood in the midst of the choir, leaning on his shield. He was not wounded; but was tired out with fighting.

Then came in one of the conspirators, named Eyvind > “At eigi blaeddi a klcdin.** S. Canute. the Beaver, with a cloak on; but no weapon in his hands, and asked Benedict to allow him to speak with the king. Each side had suffered severely, and some arrangement might be come to which would prevent further bloodshed. “You shall not come near the king,” said Benedict, 44 for as every one knows, you are the most treacherous of men; and now, I am disposed to fall on you.” The king interrupted his monotonous chant to mingle in the conversation. 44 Let him in, Benedict,” said Knut, 44 1 have often done him a good turn, and he may be disposed to return it now, by making peace.”

Benedict reluctantly allowed Eyvind to pass. When the man came before ‘Knut, he saluted the king; but Knut looked at him, and did not return his greeting. Then, suddenly, Eyvind slipped his cloak from his shoulder, drew out a sword he had concealed, and ran the king through the body.

Before the king's men had recovered from their dismay, Eyvind leaped on the altar, and began to scramble out of the east window, through the broken glass; but Palma, the brother-in-law of Knut, rushed after him, and struck him across the shoulders with his sword. The blow slipped to his waist, the head and shoulders fell through the window, and the legs dropped bleeding upon the altar.

Erick and Benedict, the king's brothers, now advised that each should strive to cut his way through the enemy, and escape as best he might Benedict threw his shield over his back, and seizing his sword with both hands, sprang out of the choir, and hewed his way to the church door, followed by his men. But their adversaries were too numerous, and Benedict fell, covered with wounds. Then the bonders offered peace, and the rest of the king's men were allowed to depart unharmed. Sweyn was among the vol. vtt. 18 survivors. The king's knife had stood him in good stead in the combat Asbjom the Earl, after the battle, went to Eyrarsund and slept in a barn. During the night he was attacked by rats. He leaped out of the loft, and was followed by the rats. He jumped into the sea to swim to his ship, and the black swarm pursued him, caught him up, and tore his face, and gnawed his nose off, so that he died. Knut and Benedict were buried at Odensee. Olaf, the fourth son of Sweyn Ulfssohn, succeeded to the throne of Denmark.

Next year he was at a feast in Fyen, when a priest, who had sung mass before him, came to tell him that a marvellous light had been seen over the tomb of his brother Knut, and that various wonders had been wrought there. Olaf said, laughing, “I knew too much of my brother Knut to believe that he is a Saint So heark'y. If I hear any more of this, I shall visit it with death." The priest was so frightened with the threat that he said no more about it and no one spoke of Knut being a saint during his reign. But on the accession of Erick, in 1095, the body of Knut was taken up. Denmark had been afflicted with famine in the reign of Olaf, and it was supposed that this was sent in judgment for the murder of Knut and to stir up the people to veneration of the martyr. A deputation was sent to Rome, to request that he might be formally canonized; information was taken on the miracles reported to have been worked on the grave; but the pope must have been grossly misinformed as to the character of Canute. In 1100, a Papal Bull was issued, enrolling S. Canute in the list of Saints and Martyrs to be invoked and venerated by the faithful.

The bodies of Knut and Benedict repose in carved oak chests at Odensee, at the present day. July io.] Our Lady of Hal. 275 OUR LADY OF HAL.

[Authority:— Lipsius: Diva Virgo Hallensis; Antw., 1604.] At Hal, in Belgium, on this day, is commemorated the deliverance of that town, attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of whom a miraculous image is preserved in the parish church. The image is about two feet high, and is black. It belonged to S. Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II., king of Hungary, and his queen, Gertrude, daughter of the duke of Meran, Carinthia, and Istria.

S. Elizabeth was betrothed to Louis, son of the Landgrave of Thuringia and Hesse, at the age of three, and was married to him when fourteen. The next year she became a mother. Her daughter Sophia, having married Henry, duke of Brabant, brought the image given her by her i mother into Brabant, and gave it to Mathilda, wife of Florence IV., Count of Holland and Zealand, who presented it to the church of Hal.

In 1489, Philip, duke of Cleves, invaded Brabant and Hainault, and resolved on the reduction of Hal, which was important, on account of its proximity to Brussels. Having contrived a plot with some of the citizens, that during the night they should throw open the gates and admit him, he approached their town secretly with six thousand men. But the conspiracy having got wind, the garrison prepared to give him a warmer reception than he had anticipated. He was allowed to cross the fosse and | approach the gates, without the least resistance being offered; but then a heavy fire was poured into his troops, and the duke fell back discomfited, with great loss. In the following year, the Duke of Cleves made an attempt on Hal. He invested and bombarded the place (July » with an overwhelming force. The inhabitants hastened to the church, to implore the protection of God and the Blessed Virgin, and then rushed to the defence of their walls, and resisted with so much energy the assault of the duke's soldiers, that they withdrew with loss, and next day, hearing of the approach of the Prince of Chimhay to the relief, they decamped.

In 1580, moreover, Oliver van der Tempel, at the head of a body of Gueux, or Calvinist insurgents, unsuccessfully assaulted HaL Amongst the “ beggars" was John Zwyck, a violent anti-Catholic, who vowed, if God would let him enter the gates, “that he would, with his own hands, cut off the nose of the motherkin of HaL"

One of the first shots fired by the besieged carried off the nose of Zwyck. Another of the same party swore that he would remove the image to Brussels, and that he would bum it in public; but the fulfilment of his oath was prevented by a cannon-ball, which tore away his cheek and mouth, and he died shortly after.

Metz must abandon her title to La Pucelle; but Hal may claim it, for the sacred town has held out against all besiegers, and the cannon-balls in the church testify to the assaults she has endured, and to the harmlessness of the weapons forged against her. They are some of those which fell in the streets during the above-recorded sieges. An annual procession, on this day, commemorates the last deliverance from the hands of the Calvinists. July ix.] S. Sidronius.