Saint Maurilius of Rouen

The Church of Rou L'Église de Rouen Norman city where Simeon stayed and founded a monastery. en had long groaned under three consecutive archbishops who bore the title without fulfilling its duties. It needed a pastor who would console it and repair its losses, and it found in Maurille everything it could wish for. He combined in himself noble birth, holiness of manners, learning, and a love for ecclesiastical discipline. The episcopate changed nothing in his way of life, which he continued for the rest of his days, and served only to give new prominence to his fasts, his prayers, his alms, and to show that to so many eminent qualities, he knew how to add zeal, vigilance, and pastoral solicitude.

Maurille convened a provincial council in Rouen in the very first year of his pontificate. All his suffragans and Duke William attended this council. Fine regulations were made there on various points of discipline, which the negligence of his predecessors had allowed to be abolished, and whose infraction their example had authorized. The celibacy of priests was the most important of these articles and the one that suffered the greatest contradictions at that time, particularly in Normandy, where a large number of priests, following the example of the last archbishops of Rouen, were publicly married.

It does not appear that the regulations Maurille made to oblige his clergy to celibacy stopped the evil; but they served at least to prevent prescription.

This prelate, who also watched with great care over the preservation of the faith, wished, in this council, to preserve his flock from the new heresy of Berengar, archdeacon of Angers. This he Bérenger, archidiacre d'Angers Archdeacon of Angers, author of a heresy concerning the Eucharist. resy, known as that of the Sacramentarians, was causing sad ravages. To put an end to it and to ensure the faith of suspicious persons, he had a formula drawn up in terms capable of preventing all equivocations, the translation of which is as follows: "We believe with our heart and confess with our mouth that the bread offered on the altar is only bread before the consecration, but that by virtue of the consecration, the nature and substance of the bread are changed by the ineffable power of God into the nature and substance of the flesh, not of any other flesh, but of that flesh which was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, which was born of the Virgin Mary, which suffered for us and for our salvation the torment of the flagellation, was attached to a cross, was placed in the tomb, rose again on the third day, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. We likewise believe that the wine mixed with water, which is placed in the chalice to be sanctified, is changed truly and substantially into that same blood which flowed happily for the redemption of the world, from the wound that the soldier's lance made in the side of Our Lord, and we pronounce anathema against those who, through a spirit of pride and heretical obstinacy, follow sentiments contrary to this holy and apostolic belief, and have the audacity to attack it with impious and rash speeches."

This council formula was not the only remedy opposed, at that time, to the heresy of Berengar, who, after having solemnly acknowledged his error at the synod held at Tours in 1055, subsequently supported it with even more obstinacy and dogmatized again. The illustrious Lanfran c, a religious of t L'illustre Lanfranc Monk of Bec, future Archbishop of Canterbury, defender of orthodoxy. he Abbey of Bec a nd later Arch abbaye du Bec Norman monastery famous for its scholars. bishop of Canterbury, refuted the blasphemies of the Archdeacon of Angers in several councils and notably in his famous work entitled: *Treatise on the Body and Blood of Our Lord against Berengar*. The province of Rouen also provided in this century several learned religious of the Order of Saint Benedict, like Lanfranc, who devoted their doctrine, their eloquence, and their pen to supporting the orthodox faith, such as Guitmond, monk of Saint-Leufroi and later Archbishop of Aversa in Italy, as well as Durand, Abbot of Troarn.

Attentive to everything that occurred within the extent of his metropolis, Maurille went, the following year, to the abbey of Saint-Évroul, accompanied by Hugh of Lisieux, the diocesan bishop, by Ansfroi, abbot of Préaux, by Lanfranc, prior of Bec, and by several other figures of profound wisdom, in order to restore peace there between Abbot Thierri and the prior Robert de Grand-Mesnil, in which they succeeded for a few months at least.

The entire duration of his episcopate was an uninterrupted series of cares and attentions to ensure the observance of the rules of the Gospel and those of ecclesiastical discipline. In 1056 or 1057, he celebrated another council for this purpose; it is highly likely that he did the same each year. On December 9 of this latter year, 1057, he presided over the solemn dedication of the cathedral of Coutances. In 1059, Robert, Count of Eu, founded, upon his advice, the abbey of Saint-Michel du Tréport. The following year, Maurille subscribed to the foundation of the abbey of Saint-Sauveur d'Évreux by Richard, Count of that city.

In 1061, he presided over a provincial council in Caen, convened to put an end to the anarchy of private wars that were then devastating Normandy. T he Truce of God La trêve de Dieu Suspension of hostilities imposed by the Church. was imposed there under pain of excommunication upon all the lords of the province. The curfew law, proclaimed by the same council, also aimed at the repression of the disorders and crimes that bloodied that era.

The work on the cathedral was completed during the episcopate of Maurille. This pious prelate erected the stone pyramid that bore his name, and which lightning struck down in 1117. He dedicated the temple under the invocation of the Virgin on October 1, 1063, in the presence of Duke William, his suffragan bishops, several abbots of the province, and a great number of lords and people. Shortly before, he had transferred the bodies of Dukes Rollo and William into the chu rch, i Rollon First Duke of Normandy. nterring the former near the southern door and the latter beside the northern door, as Orderic Vital informs us. In 1066, Maurille attended the famous assembly of Lillebonne where William's expedition to England was decided, and, on June 18 of the same year, presided over the dedication of the Abbey of the Holy Trinity of Caen. He then subscribed to the letters of exemption granted to this monastery by Duke William and Duchess Matilda. On May 1, 1067, he consecrated the abbey church of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives; on the following July 1, that of Jumièges, and having reached the age of 68, he died full of merits and virtues on August 9 of the same year.

## CULT AND RELICS. — WRITINGS.

He was buried in the middle of the nave of his metropolitan church, and an ancient chronicler informs us that his tomb rose three feet above the ground. A copper plate bore his epitaph, which had been composed by a certain Richard, son of Herbain and canon of Rouen. The tomb of Maurille was held in great veneration in that city. "The deacon, on certain days, goes, after the offertory, to incense the tomb of this holy prelate," says Lebrun des Marettes, author of the Voyages liturgiques de France, who was writing in 1718.

The name of this pious archbishop has been inserted into the martyrology of France and that of the Benedictines. Several ancient and modern authors even give him, interchangeably, the titles of saint and blessed. However, neither his cathedral church nor the abbey of Fécamp, which were eyewitnesses to the holiness of his life, have bestowed any public cult upon his memory. William of Malmesbury and Alberic of Trois-Fontaines report two very extraordinary circumstances regarding him, one concerning the hour of his death, the other his already inanimate body; contemporary or near-contemporary authors, however, make no mention of them.

We owe to the erudition of the zealous Maurille: 1° Some fragments of the Decrees he made during the holding of the Councils of his province; we have cited the translation of his Formulary against Berengar. Dom Bessin also published thirteen of his penitential regulations for those who kill in war. 2° The Epitaphs of the dukes Rollo and William Longsword; the manner in which Orderic Vital expresses himself leaves no room to doubt that Maurille is their author. The first is composed of twenty Latin verses; the other of fourteen, all elegiac. The prelate expresses the character of these two warriors very well therein, and gives an exact notice of their most memorable actions. 3° A Letter to the bishop of Évreux, one of his suffragans, which also bears the name of John, abbot of Fécamp. It is short, but well written, and offers interest in establishing the right that regular superiors have to exercise correction over their subjects, independently of the bishops who, according to the terms of Maurille's Letter, must not interfere.

Excerpt from the France Pontificale by Fisquet.