Baring-Gould’s sources: All Latin Martyrologies. Roman. Usuardns, Ado, &c. Sarum, York, Hereford, and Durham Kalendars. Anglican Reformed Kalendar. The Translation and Ordination of S. Martin on July 4. Authorities: — (1) A Life by Sulpicius Severus, an admirer of S. Martin. He died in 410.* He was the Boswell of the saint. His Life is a panegyric. A credulous, superstitious man, he has given us, however, a very valuable biography. (2) Three Letters of Sulpicius Severus about S. Martin. (3) The second and third books of his “ Dialogues.” (4) A metrical Life by S. Paulinus of Nola (d. 431). (5) The “ Hist. Eccl. Francorum ” of Gregory of Tours (d. 594). (6) A Life in hexameters by Fortunatus of Poitiers (d. 600), founded entirely on the work of Sulpicius Severus. (7) A Life by Alcuin (d.804). (8) “Antiphonae septem de S. Martino, ” by Odo of Clugny (d. 942). Among modem biographers, Dupuis, “Histoirede S. Martin,” Paris, 1858.] This illustrious saint was bom at Sabaria, in Pannonia, the present town of Steinamanger 2 His father and mother were heathens, but Martin felt an early attraction towards Christianity, and even towards the monastic life. His father, seeing this, enrolled him in the army at the age of fifteen. A better school for the training of the soldier of Christ could hardly have been found. In the Roman camps the old-fashioned virtues of faithfulness, straightforwardness, and hardihood were cultivated, and in them were to be found the best types of the old Roman character, which, as moralists complained, were to be found elsewhere no more. If the funds of a country town had fallen into disorder, or uprightness was needed 1 This Life was written in 39a or 393, after a visit to Tours of some duration, and before S. Martin was dead. Sulpicius Severus dedicated the book to a priest, Desiderius of Cominges. He sent the book at once to S. Paulinus of Nola, who greatly admired it. According to a passage in the “ Dialogues/' it had an enormous and rapid sale in Rome, Carthage, and elsewhere. the district of Gyor in Hungary, where a large monastery was built by S. Stephen ot Hungary. But it is plain from Sulpicius that he was born at Sabaria. VOL XIII. t6 [Nov. ix.
…for a special post, the curator chosen by the Government was generally an old soldier, who had long been tried and trusted; and early Christian history throws, incidentally, a favourable light upon the moral qualities of the Roman officers. These qualities were mainly formed by thoroughness of work and discipline.
Martin spent three years in the army before he was baptized; he spent them with one servant as his companion in the tent, sharing with him work and privations. His corps was in Gaul [roughly modern France and Belgium], at Ambianum, the modern Amiens. One bitter winter’s day, as he was passing the gate of the city, he saw a poor beggar nearly naked, so utterly ragged were his clothes. Martin, filled with pity, cut his mantle in two, and gave half to the beggar. The bystanders jeered, but Martin heeded them not. Next night, as he slept, he saw Christ Jesus seated on his throne, surrounded by the hosts of heaven, wearing the half mantle of Martin over his shoulders. “See !” he heard the Saviour say, “ this is the mantle which Martin, yet a catechumen [a person preparing for baptism], gave me.”
Popular imagination fixed on a certain spot at Amiens as the scene of the charity of Martin; a chapel was built there before the time of Gregory of Tours [bishop and historian of the Franks (d. 594)]. It grew to be an abbey, S. Martin [St. Martin of Tours (d. 397), soldier turned bishop] aux Jumeaux, so called from the twin towers of the neighbouring church of S. Nicolas. King Louis XI., in 1472, gave an endowment to the church of S. Martin at Tours, for the perpetual support of a poor bedesman, who should wear as his livery a mantle of two colours, part red, the other white, in commemoration of the severed mantle of Martin. Martin was baptized after this dream at Amiens, when aged eighteen. He remained in the army two years longer, till 358. In 355 and 356 the Franks [the Germanic people who ruled Gaul and gave France its name] and Allemanni had broken through the frontiers of Gaul and devastated a portion of the province. Cologne, Worms, Trfeves, Spires, Strassburg, Tongem, and other cities, forty-five in all, togethei 8. MARTIN DIVIDING HIS CLOAK WITH THE BEGGAR. After a Picture by Rubens in the possession of the Queen. Nov. iz.
Nov. xij 5*. Martin. with many villages, had been sacked and burnt by the barbarians. The legions in Gaul, destitute of pay, provisions, and arms, and reduced in numbers, could make no head against the invaders. In 356 Julian was sent into Gaul, with a feeble retinue of 360 soldiers. At Vienne, where he passed the winter, he heard that Autun had been attacked, but saved from falling by the resolute conduct of some veterans who resumed their arms for the defence of their country. Next spring Julian marched north to Rheims, and was there probably joined by the legion in which Martin was tribune. At the head of an army recruited from Gaul, but still small, the resolute Julian marched in search of the enemy. The Allemanni, familiar with the country, secretly collected their scattered forces, and seizing the opportunity of a dark and rainy day, poured with unexpected fury on the rear-guard of the Romans, destroying two legions. Julian hastened to revenge this disaster by assailing the barbarians, who, unable to withstand the disciplined ardour of the Romans, dispersed among the hills and forests, leaving them a fruitless victory. Julian advanced to the Rhine, surveyed the ruins of Cologne, and then, warned of the approach of winter, and aware of the difficulties of the campaign, retired dispirited to Sens; his retreat harassed by the audacious Germans, who followed him under the walls of the city, and surrounded it. But finding themselves unable to break through its ring of walls, after a siege of thirty days, they retired.
Next year the campaign was earned on with greater vigour. An army of thirty thousand men crossed the Alps, bridged the Rhine at Basle, and threatened the Germans in the south, whilst Julian marched against them from Gaul. But the southern army under Barbatis retired without effecting anything of consequence, and Julian was left alone to contest the ground with the barbarian hordes. Julian, at the head of thirteen thousand men, was camped near Strassburg. The [Not. iz.
Allemanni attacked him, and after a furious and bloody battle, were routed. He then marched north, and defeated the Franks on the Meuse. His manoeuvres in 359 met with brilliant successes, and in 360 he was proclaimed Emperor by the Gallic legions at Paris. Apparently in 358, in the midst of the war against the Franks and Allemanni, when Julian was at Worms, Martin, the young tribune, made the untimely claim to be released from military duty. Julian was indignant. A battle was imminent, and he scornfully refused the petition, saying that Martin was a coward and feared the battle. The young tribune answered, “ Put me in the forefront of the army, without weapons or armour; but I will not draw sword again. I am become the soldier of Christ” Julian ordered him into irons. The Allemanni asked for terms of peace, and then Martin was allowed to depart It is hardly possible to exonerate Martin from a culpable preference for his own interests and welfare over those of his country, in thus deserting the army at a time of great peril But the battle of Strassbuig may have led him to conclude, prematurely, that the barbarians were effectually humbled, and their invasions permanently checked. On leaving the army, Martin went to Poitiers, and placed himself under the teaching of S. Hilary. The bishop desired to confer on him diaconal orders, but the modesty of Martin was alarmed, and he was with difficulty induced to receive the inferior office of exorcist, an office which, according to the statement of a modem biographer of S. Martin, u exposes the bearer to insult from the devil, who attacks him with outrageous abuse, and even beats him.” Not long after, Martin felt himself impelled by affection for his parents to revisit them in Pannonia [a Roman province roughly covering western Hungary and parts of Austria and Croatia]. As he crossed the Alps he was attacked by robbers, and one threatened him with his sword. He was plundered of his money and other valuables, and then dismissed, but not before he had spoken such words of Baptism of S. Martin b y 3. Hilary. The Devil appearing to 3. Martin in human form. F&OM A WINDOW DATED 1$2$, IN THE CHURCH Of 3. FfcORENTlN (YONNE). Nov. xi.] S. Martin.
grace to the robber who had charge of him, that he converted him. The robber left his lawless trade, and became a peaceable citizen; he related the circumstances to Sulpicius Severus, who has inserted them in his Life of the saint On reaching Sabaria, Martin succeeded in converting his mother to Christ, but his father persisted in his paganism. Arianism [followers of Arius, who taught that the Son is a created being, not fully God] was at that time prevalent in Illyrium and Pannonia. Martin protested loudly against the heresy of the bishops, and was publicly whipped and driven out of Sabaria. He returned to Italy, and hearing that S. Hilary had been expelled his see by the Arians, settled at Milan in a solitary place, where he led an eremitical life. His vehement, defiant orthodoxy brought him again into trouble, and Auxentius, the Arian bishop, drove him from his retirement. He then took refuge in the isle of Gallinaria, now called Isoletta d'Albenga, opposite Albenga on the Comiche Road. It was a lovely spot, a tiny white islet set in the deep blue of the tranquil sea, with the Maritime Alps cutting off the north winds, fringing the northern horizon with their ragged, barren peaks.
In this islet Martin nourished himself on roots; and nearly poisoned himself by accidentally eating the hellebore, attractive by its dark green leaves and pale green flowers, growing in profusion over the limestone slopes. Providentially the spasms caused by the poison came on so rapidly as to check him from eating enough to kill him; but he suffered great pain, and lay at death's door.
After a while, having learned that S. Hilary was on his way back to Poitiers, Martin left his sunny isle and followed him. Hilary was rejoiced to see him again, and gave him a retreat near Poitiers, where he founded the monastery since called Ligugd Sulpicius Severus tells the following story of what took fNov. xx.
place in his monastery. " A catechumen joined him, desiring to form himself in the school of this holy man, and a few days after he was laid up with languor and a bad fever. By accident Martin was absent at the time. On the third day, on his return, he found the man lifeless. Death had supervened so suddenly that there had not been time for his baptism.1 His brethren, overwhelmed with grief, surrounded the corpse, and rendered it their sorrowful duties, weeping and lamenting, as Martin came up. But then the Holy Spirit inspired him. He made all go forth, and shut in alone with the body, he laid himself upon it After having been in prayer some time, informed by the Spirit of the Lord of the approach of the miracle, he raised himself a little, and fixing his eyes on the face of the dead, awaited with confidence the effect of his prayer and of the mercy of the Lord. Two hours had not elapsed when Martin saw the dead man recover by degrees the use of his members, and reopen his eyes. Then Martin uttered a great cry to the Lord, and gave him thanks. The cry of the blessed man rang through the cell, and those who were waiting outside the door, on hearing it, burst in. Wonderful sight I they saw him alive whom they had left dead.” Sulpicius Severus saw and conversed with this man.
About the year 371 the Church of Tours was deprived of its pastor, S. Lidorius, and the people resolved on getting Martin for their bishop. But as it was suspected that Martin would refuse and escape, should he hear what was proposed, they had recourse to a stratagem. Ruridus, dtizen of Tours, went to the monastery of Ligugd, and casting himself at the feet of Martin implored him to come and see his wife, who was ill. Martin unsuspiciously followed him. On the road, as he approached Tours, an ambuscade of the people rushed forth; some blocked the way, ' Apparently a fainting fit. caused by exhaustion following the fever. Not. it.] S. Martin.
lest he should attempt to return, and others, encircling him, conducted him in triumph to Tours. The bishops present to consecrate a successor to S. Lidorius objected. Martin, they said, was not a suitable person to be a bishop; he was dirty, badly clothed, and with his hair rumpled and uncombed. But the people were bent on having him as their pastor, and the bishops were obliged to yield. Amongst those who objected most strenuously to his consecration was Defensor, bishop (it is believed) of Angers. During the ceremony, so great was the crowd, that the lector could not work his way through the throng to his place to read the lesson. There was a pause; the clergy waited, and then one took up a psalter, and opening it at random to read any passage in place of the lesson, lit on the words of the psalm: “ Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained praise, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the Defender.” 1 At these words the people gave a shout, and the unfortunate bishop Defensor was covered with confusion.
Martin remained a monk, after having been made a bishop. He lived for some time in a cell near the church. But being wearied with the number of visitors who came to him, he removed to the place where afterwards stood the abbey of Marmoutier, in a lonely spot on the banks of the Loire, shut in by sandstone cliffs and forest, and only to be reached by a narrow path. Martin lodged in a cabin made of branches; several of his monks bored out caves in the sandstone, and made themselves by this means commodious dwellings. Martin had eighty disciples. They dressed in skins, ate only once a day, drank no wine, and had all things in common.
Not far from Tours, near the monastery, was a tomb of a 1 The old Gallic version of the Psalms before the Vulgate was introduced, which has “ultorem,” not “defensorem.”
[Not. it reputed saint, at which one of the preceding bishops of Tours, S. Lidorius or S. Gatianus, or perhaps some other bishop whose name has not come down to us, had raised an altar. The people held the relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of this saint in high honour, and flocked to it to obtain the intercession of the martyr, and the miraculous cure of their infirmities. S. Martin had his suspicions that this martyr whom the people and his predecessors honoured was not of such a character as deserved commemoration. He instituted close inquiries, and found that instead of being a martyr, the man had been a highway robber, executed on the spot for his crimes. Sulpicius says that Martin saw the ghost of the robber, who informed him that he was in hell, and not in heaven as the people supposed.1 Martin found that the country people were greatly addicted to their old religion, and honoured a huge pine. He insisted on cutting it down; and when he found that it would cause a disturbance, and perhaps bloodshed, he offered to be bound and sit where the tree would probably fall, if the heathens would themselves cut down the tree. They consented, hoping to see the enemy of their religion crushed. But the tree, instead of falling where Martin sat, crashed down in an opposite direction. His escape from the death that threatened him was the occasion of the conversion of a number of peasants. Martin pulled down their temple, and built a church on the site. Wherever he went, he destroyed with crowbar and firebrand the ancient temples in which 1 Guibert of Nogent, “ De pignoribus Sanctorum,1* ed. d’Achdry, Paris, 1651, f. 337 sq-» *ay», that in the beginning of the lath century all sorts of bones were reverenced as those of confessors and martyrs; and that a drunken man who had tumbled into a well was exalted into a martyr. In a village near Beauvais a youth of no particular merit was regarded as a saint solely because he had died on Good Friday, and the monks and abbot of the monastery church where he was buried encouraged this devotion because it brought them in great gain. In everyplace, says Guibert, old women canonize new saints by inventing all sorts of gossiping stories about them. A priest exhibited a piece of bread with a bite taken*ut of it as having been done by the teeth of Christ, and was furious with Guibert because he would not accept it as real.
PROM A TAPE8TRT AT MONTPEZAT, XVI. CENTURY. Googl S. Martin. the people were wont to worship, and built churches on their ruins. At Levroux he attempted the destruction of a very rich and stately temple, but met with so much opposition that he was obliged to retire and call to his aid some of the Roman military, and surrounded by their shields and pikes, he re-entered Levroux and put the torch to the temple. He tore up the foundations, and pounded to dust the idols and altars before the eyes of an indignant people, who regretted at once the fall of a chief ornament of their city, and a temple in which they and their forefathers had been wont to worship. In the neighbourhood of Autun, the heathen peasants fell on him in their rage, brandishing their weapons. Martin cast aside his cloak, knelt down, and extended his neck for the sword. But the peasants did not dare to proceed to extremities, knowing that the 'Roman emperor would exact a terrible retribution should they kill a bishop. The pagans had recourse to equally ineffectual means of frightening Martin. They disguised themselves as Jupiter, Minerva, and Mercury, and some damsel with more enthusiasm for her religion than delicacy, presented herself before the startled modesty of the bishop in his cell without disguise of any sort, as Venus rising from the foam of the sea. Some dressed as wood Duses, very much like the devils of popular fancy, to terrify him. Mercury was a sharp, shrewd wag, and bothered the saint greatly, as he admitted to Sulpicius, but Jupiter was a “ stupid sot.” Once a man disguised in a black ox-skin rushed howling into the monastery of Martin with a bloody cow-horn in his hand; and Martin was quite persuaded that he had seen the devil We can understand how the mid-winter and spring festivities of the old Gauls, when the young people disguised themselves in all kinds of fantastic costumes, led Martin to believe that he was surrounded by devils and heathen deities. These practical jokes played on him by his unruly flock so shook his nerves that he was constantly fancying he saw hobgoblins. Once, when visiting the mansion of a man of position in Trfeves, as he entered the door he declared that he saw a hideous devil lurking about in the shadows of the pillars. This statement caused such alarm in the house that one of the slaves was attacked with violent colic. Martin at once pronounced that the devil had rushed for refuge from him down the man’s throat into his bowels. The slave was carried forth, to allow the devil to escape from him outside the house. Sulpicius Severus gives us a curious insight into the superstition which then prevailed, and we must not be at all surprised if the pagan efforts to frighten or seduce Martin should have been regarded by him as the work of demons. He neither examined too curiously the disguised Mercury nor the undisguised Venus. His fears were appealed to, and he combated them with faith, not with inquisitive scepticism. In one of the monasteries of Martin governed by the priest Clams, a young man named Anatolius also had visitations, but these were wholly angelic. He announced to the brethren that he was in direct communication with angels, and obtained very general credence. Clams remained incredulous; Anatolius threatened him with divine chastisement for his unbelief. He announced that the Lord would that night furnish him from heaven with a white robe. Great was the excitement in the monastery. The cell of Anatolius was suddenly illumined at midnight. Steps and voices as of several persons were heard, and then Anatolius came forth with a long white shirt in his hand. Clams and the monks examined the vestment with awe and attention. It was very white and very fine, but it had all the appearance of being the product of earthly looms. At the instigation of the superior, the monks had recourse to prayer for the rest of the night When morning came, Clams said he S. Martin.
would carry the shirt to Martin, to be examined and adjudicated upon by him. Anatolius objected, and snatched at the garment. Clams grasped it at the other end; some of the monks took the part of Anatolius, and pulled at the vestment to get it out of the hands of the abbot Others, concurring with their superior, tried to drag it from Anatolius; others adopting a middle course, attempted to withdraw it from both. A scuffle ensued, in which the shirt was tom to rags.
About the same time a young man in Spain gave himself out to be Elias, come to predict the approaching consummation of all things. He went further; he said he was Christ A bishop named Rufus adored him; and was deposed from his see for doing so. At the same time Martin was predicting the reappearance of Nero, who was not dead, but hiding among the Parthians. He would subjugate ten kings and reign in the West, whilst Antichrist would establish his throne at Jerusalem. Finally Antichrist would kill Nero and reign supreme over East and West Antichrist, Martin declared, was already bom. Eight years had passed since he made that announcement, when it was published by Sulpicius in his “ Dialogues." Sulpicius adds, “ Judge then how near at hand is that event which we dread I" One night the devil appeared to S. Martin crowned with gold and gems, and in a magnificent vestment sparkling with jewels. " I am come in judgment,” he said. “ Adore me.” “Where,” asked Martin, “are the marks of the nails? Where the piercing of the spear? Where the crown of thorns ? When I see the marks of the Passion I shall adore my Lord.”
The devil disappeared. Some of those constantly about Martin saw in his visions only the dreams of a man prostrated by much fasting, and liable by the exhaustion produced by excessive austerities to [Nor. ix.
become a prey to hallucinations.1 Even his miracles were called in question by the educated laity, and when Sulpicius Severus had them discussed in his house, he would only admit the clergy, as the laity were inveterate in their scepticism.3 A soldier had embraced the monastic state in a fit of enthusiasm, and had laid his baldric at the foot of the altar, and established himself in a cell by himself. Martin shut up his wife in a convent But the sudden fervour of the man cooled down, and he went to Martin to ask for his wife. Martin refused to restore her. “ It is not seemly for a man who has renounced the world to take a woman to live with him. On renouncing the world he has ceased to have a wife. To live with her now would be sinful.” The soldier persisted in demanding his wife. “Only give her back to me,” he entreated; “ I will live as before, but I do desire to have her to talk to. Let us fight together under Christ's banner, mutually encouraging one another in the battle.”
Martin answered, “ Do women fight in the Roman armies ? No. It is for men to fight, not women. In what battle hast thou seen a man fighting with his wife at his side?” And he sent the abashed and disappointed soldier back to his desolate cell.
Martin admired greatly the conduct of a certain viigin who had closely shut herself in, and refused even to look at men. So resolved was she on this point that she refused to receive and show hospitality to the old bishop when he passed through her property. Martin, we are told, was filled with transports of joy at her scrupulosity. “ At Chartres, the father of a family presented his young daughter, aged twelve, to Martin, and asked him to loosen, by his merits, her tongue, for she was bom dumb. Martin, naan; FF.NF.TR e FT; NSliA^SUlTDl [A^tFybEi ljES'hvtm: m>t['LE £;ij«FRETLWqN!
THE TOU RAN OEOIS CARRYING OFF THE BODY OP 8. MARTIN. Design for a Window by M. Claudius Lavergne. Nov. ii. Nov. ii.] 5*. Martin.
by deference to the bishops Valentinus1 and Victricius, who were then with him, replied that such a cure surpassed his powers, but not those of the holy bishops at his side. Valentinus and Victricius joined their affectionate intercession to the supplications of the father, and prayed Martin to heal the girl. Then Martin, at once humble and merciful, made the crowd withdraw, and in the presence of the bishops and of the girl's father alone he prostrated himself, according to custom, and began to pray. Then he blessed a little oil, reciting over it an exorcism, and poured it into the mouth of the girl, whose tongue he held between his fingers; and the miracle was wrought. The saint asked the girl the name of her father; she replied immediately. The father uttered a cry of joy, shedding tears, and embracing the knees of Martin. In the midst of the general satisfaction he declared that this was the first word he had heard his daughter utter." Count Avitianus was noted for his barbarity. He came to Tours with a long chain of miserable captives, and orders were issued for their torture and execution. Then the great saint rose to his true level, from fantastic dreams and doubtful miracle-working to action for the eternal principles of justice and mercy. The morrow was fixed for torture and butchery. On hearing it in his retreat at Marraoutier he hasted to Tours. It was night when he reached the town. The count was in bed and asleep; the palace was closed, and all was hushed within. Martin threw himself on the doorstep, and besieged the house with his cries. Avitianus, tossing in bed, heard him, and called to his slaves that Martin was without The servants waking, having heard nothing, and believing that their master had been dreaming, “ after the way of servants,” says Sulpicius, sarcastically, pretended to go to the door, and assured Avitianus that there was no one* without. Again, however, the cries of Martin reached the ears of the count, and impatient at the delay and denials of the slaves, he sprang from bed, and ran down to the entrance, opened the door, and found the old bishop with his white hair lying on his doorstep, his hands stretched forth in supplication. The count was moved, he raised the aged prelate. " Do not even speak,” he said, “ I know thy request. Every prisoner shall be spared. I grant them their lives and liberty at thy unspoken petition.”
He rises to even a grander height in his conduct to Ithacius at Trfeves. Martin went thither, where was the Emperor Maximus, and a crowd of bishops assembled to ordain a successor to Britto, bishop of Trfeves, and to consult about the matter of the Priscillianists (384). After the council of Saragossa in 380, in which Priscillian had been condemned, the two Prisdllianist bishops, Salvian and Justantius, had made Priscillian bishop of Avila. Priscillian, a well-born and eloquent Spaniard, had adopted a strange compound of various errors originally brought into Spain from Egypt. Its chief elements were: — Pantheism, the essential divinity of the human soul; Sabellianism, the Son only a power; Docetism, hence a fast was kept on Sunday; Fatalism; Astrology; Pre-existence of souls, — their previous sins punished by their detention in bodies; man's body the devil's work; marriage condemned; the resurrection of the body denied. Idacius, and another prelate named Ithacius, who is described by Sulpicius as having “ nothing of holiness" about him, procured the exile of the heretics. The Emperor Gratian suffered them to return. Ithacius denounced them to Maximus, who referred the case to a council at Bordeaux. Priscillian was there permitted to appeal to Maximus. At the Court of Trfeves, where Maximus was an object of abject adulation to a crowd of bishops, “ Martin alone among them all," says his biographer, “preserved the dignity of an apostle.” He protested against the intervention of secular power in ecclesiastical causes, and against the punishment of the heretic Priscillian and his associates. The Emperor Maximus had yielded to the importunities of the Spanish bishops, who, themselves scarcely escaped from the sword of pagan executioners, already clamoured for the blood of heretics. Martin pursued the accusers with his reproaches, and the emperor with his supplications. He insisted that excommunication, pronounced against the heretics by episcopal sentence, was sufficient, and more than sufficient, to punish them.1 He believed that he had succeeded, and left Trfeves only on receiving the imperial promise that mercy should be extended to the culprits.
But, after his departure, the unworthy bishops returned to the charge, and wrested from Maximus the order to execute Priscillian and his principal disciples, and to send orders into Spain that a general search for, and massacre of the Priscillianists should be executed. Torture wrung from Priscillian a confession, probably false, of impure practices; and on this ground he, with six others, was beheaded. It was the first infliction of death for heresy which had stained with blood the annals of the Church.2 Informed of what had taken place, Martin returned from Tours to Trfeves (385), to procure the safety, at least, of the rest of the sect. He and S. Ambrose [bishop of Milan (d. 397)], who was also at Treves [Trier in Germany], solemnly rejected the communion of persecuting bishops. A bishop named Theognotus publicly pronounced their excommunication.
Martin was at the same time anxious to obtain the pardon ’ Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacr. lib. ii. in fin. “ Satis superque sufficere, ut episcopal! sen ten da haeretici judicad ecclesiis pellerentur.” 1 Priscillian and his two priests, Felicissimus and Armenius, a lady, Euchrocia, and others were executed; Justandus and others were banished, some to the isle of Qinia, on the coast of Brittany, and the rest to various places in Gaul. [Nov. ix.
of some of the followers of the late Emperor Gratian, threatened with death by Maximus. The emperor flattered Martin, and endeavoured to persuade him to communicate with Ithadus and the other bishops who had united in obtaining the execution of the Priscillianists. When flattery failed, the emperor issued orders for the execution on the morrow of the servants of Gratian. It was night when Martin heard of this barbarous sentence. He flew to the palace, but could only obtain their lives on condition of communicating next day with the Ithacians, when the new bishop, Felix, one of their party, would be consecrated to the see of Trfeves [a bishop’s “see” is his diocese, named from his seat (Latin sedes)]. Martin only gave way when the emperor also solemnly promised to recall the tribunes sent into Spain to hunt out the Priscillianists, confiscate their goods, and put them to the sword.
Next day accordingly, reluctantly, and with great doubts whether he was acting rightly, Martin communicated in the great church of Trfeves, formed out of the palace of Helena, mother of Constantine, with Felix, Ithacius, and the whole persecuting body. But ever after he reproached himself for the concession; and he declared with tears that he felt his virtue lessened by it. During the sixteen remaining years of his life he kept back from all the assemblies of bishops, fearful of meeting men whom he regarded as guilty of a crime of unheard-of novelty in the annals of the Church. He thus kept the noble promise which his master, S. Hilary, had made, when denouncing to the Emperor Constantius the atrocious cruelties of the Arians against the Catholics: “ If such violence were employed to sustain the true faith, the wisdom of the bishops should oppose it; they would say, God will not have a forced homage. What need has He of a profession of faith produced by violence? We must not attempt to deceive Him; He must be sought with simplicity, served by charity, honoured and gained by the CHURCH OP 8. MARTIN AT T0UR8, RE8T0RED. Nov. ix. Not. xx.
S. Martin. honest exercise of our free will.”1 And the glorious confessor [in old usage, a saint who was not martyred, or who suffered for the faith without being killed] added, “Woe to the times when the divine faith stands in need of earthly power; when the name of Christ, despoiled of its virtue, is reduced to serve as a pretext and reproach to ambition; when the Church threatens her adversaries with exile and prison, by means of which she would force them to believe, she who has been upheld by exiles and prisoners; when she leans upon the greatness of her protectors, she who has been consecrated by the cruelty of her persecutors.”* Martin, on returning to his diocese, had also to undergo the envy and enmity of many bishops, and of those priests of Gaul who had been so soon tainted by Roman luxury, and who already made themselves remarked by the pomp of their equipages, their costumes, and their dwellings.3 He had even to rebuke Brice, his disciple, trained by him in his monastery, for buying numbers, not only of male slaves, but of young and beautiful girls; and keeping a stable of handsome horses.
Arrived at the end of his career, eighty years old, and eager to receive his celestial reward, he yielded to the tears of his disciples, and consented to ask from God the prolongation of his days. “ Lord,” said he, “ if I am still necessary to Thy people, I would not draw back from the work.” Non recuso laborem / Noble words, which ought to be the motto of every Christian.
But God decided that he was ripe for heaven: he died; and when his body was carried to the tomb which was to become the most venerated sanctuary in Gaul, two thousand 1 S. Hilarii, Ad Constant lib. L c. 6. * Ibid. Cont. Auxent lib. ii. c. 4.... Inter episcopos saevientes cum fere quotidianis scandalis bine atque inde premeretur.... non illi ego quemquam audebo monachorum, certe nec episcoporum quempiam comparare.... Nec tamen huic crimini miscebo populates soli ilium derid, soli nesdunt sacerdotes.’* — Sulp. Sever. Dialog. 14, 17, x8. VOL. XIIL 17 monks formed the funeral train. Sulpicius Severus, his enthusiastic disciple, had written his life before the old man died. He completed the record in his letters and dialogues, and his narrative, which attained an enormous popularity in the West, diffused everywhere the glory of the saint S. Martin died on November 9th, 401, not at Tours, but at a little town named Candes, situated at the junction of the rivers Loire and Vienne. The Poitevins and the Tourangeois each conceived they had a claim to the body of the saintly bishop. The Tourangeois were successful, and brought the corpse to their own town. Tradition says that the vessel on which it was embarked floated up stream without sails or oars; that the trees on either side burst into blossom, the sick recovered their health, and heavenly music was heard to accompany the boat till it arrived at Tours. The body was first deposited on the banks of the Loire, guarded by the clergy and people, and was interred on November nth, in a cemetery just outside the existing town. Eleven years afterwards, S. Brice, his successor, built a chapel on the tomb, dedicated to S. Stephen; because at that time churches were dedicated to martyrs only. Seventy- two years after the death of S. Martin, S. Perpetuus, at that time bishop, built a more spacious church, of which S. Gregory of Toms gives the description as the richest and most remarkable edifice then existing; and on the 4th of July, a.d. 473, the body was transferred to the new tomb. This is the tomb of which the masonry appears to be preserved to this day. The bones of S. Martin, wrapped in white samite, were placed in an alabaster vessel, which was enclosed in a shrine of costly metal, and laid in the tomb. A marble stone lay on the top, which could be raised, and the shrine lifted out to be borne about in processions. The basilica built by S. Perpetuus was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt by Clothair, and became increasingly sacred in the eyes of the Christian world. Kings Nov. it.
Not. zz.] S. Martin. came thither to ask for health or victory; queens, that they might prepare for death. Under the direction of Alcuin a school was here established which became the cradle of all the universities of France. The chapter held directly from the Pope, under the protection of the king. It was rich; it possessed the privilege of coining money \ and could send armed men to battle in defence of its patrimony. The church suffered from fire again and again, but the tomb remained uninjured till 1562, when the Calvinists pillaged the sacred edifice, and scattered the bones of the saint. An arm-bone and part of the skull were saved, and placed in the cathedral of Tours.
At the French Revolution the magnificent church, one of the finest in France, was wantonly ruined, and the apse pulled down. It remained thus till 1802, when the noble and vast nave was also destroyed, and only the towers now attest the glory of the ancient church and the Vandalism of its destroyers. The name of the prefect who carried out this act of destruction must be handed down branded with infamy to the last generation. It was Pomereuil. The final act of demolition was consequent on a geometrical plan or map executed by the Commune in 1801, which laid down streets and measured out houses over the whole site of the basilica. It was executed without the slightest opposition, and a crowd of mean-looking houses, strangely contrasting with the older piles of wood and stone in the vicinity, now encumber the consecrated ground. The Rue S. Martin runs nearly parallel with the ancient nave, and the Rue Descartes follows the line of the transept Under these circumstances anybody would have thought that the pilgrimage to the tomb of S. Martin, dear to all the country-side, was for the future a hopeless desire; but the piety of Tours refused to admit the idea. Under the Restoration M. Jacquet-Delahay organized a subscription for the [Not. iz.
rebuilding of the basilica, but his project was abandoned on account of what seemed at the time an insuperable objection. He himself stated that the site of the tomb was traversed by the public way. Nevertheless the popular devotion to S. Martin began to recover life and vigour. Researches were made for such plans as might enable the exact proportions of the old church to be ascertained, and by means of the one made in 1802, which was discovered in the archives of the prefecture, the exact position of the tomb itself was fixed upon; and it was proved that, contrary to the general opinion, the spot was not under the public way, but covered by one or more small houses. In 1857 Cardinal Morlot, then archbishop of Tours, succeeded in purchasing these houses, but did not enter on actual possession until three years later. On the 2nd of October, i860, a commission began their excavations in the cellar, and found, as they expected, part of the old foundations of the choir. The house covered the site of the high altar, and of a large part of the chapter in the rear, which had been called “ Le Repos de Saint Martin.” But the tomb itself could not be found. It was evidently beyond the limits of the cellar-wall, in that of the adjoining house; and the works were suspended until possession could be obtained of that also. A small chapel having been arranged in one of the upper rooms of the first-mentioned dwelling, on November 12 th, the archbishop of Tours celebrated mass once more, after a lapse of seventy years from the destruction of the ancient altar. For the succeeding seven days masses were celebrated almost without cessation, and the small chapel and the cellar were constantly full of people. A large red cross was traced on the wall of the latter, opposite to where the tomb was supposed to be; and a little lamp, hung from the ceiling, was kept burning day and night. A month later the commission were enabled to Nov. xx.] S. Martin.
excavate under the adjoining house, and before evening the continuation of the foundations of the choir were laid bare, and, crossed and somewhat injured by a thick wall of modem date, appeared a small oblong enclosure of stone, something between a coffin and a box. It showed signs of having once been arched over, and there was every probability that it was the sepulchre where the bones of S. Martin had once reposed. It was now eleven o’clock at night; hour after horn: had passed in slow and careful search amidst the confused masses of ancient and modem foundations, and more than thirty persons were waiting in the outer cellar, communicating with others by only a hole in the wall. When those within called out that the ancient sepulchre had been found, a spontaneous burst of voices gave out the “ Magnificat,” which was echoed from cellar to cellar, and forth into the starlit street A modem church, in execrable taste, has been erected on the site.
At Montmorency is an arm-bone of the saint. Some fragments at Ligug£; others at S. Martin’s at Ltege; others at Cologne. A body at Salzburg. Some oil, brought from heaven to mb the skin of the saint when sore, was used for the anointing of King Henry IV. in place of the oil of S. Remigius [bishop of Reims who baptized Clovis, king of the Franks] at Rheims.
In art S. Martin is usually represented as a young tribune on horseback, dividing his cloak to give half to a beggar. [Nor. xx.
