Saint Bertrand

After the death of Saint Germain, Bertrand continued his duties under the episcopate of Ragnemod. It was in this position that the choice of God came to take him to raise him to a more eminent degree, and to continue through him the chain of holy bishops who had governed the Church of Le Mans.

It was Saint Guntram, King of Burgundy, who, then governing Maine as guardian of his neph ew Clotaire Clotaire II King of Neustria and later sole King of the Franks, protector of Columbanus after his exile. II, appointed Bertrand to the episcopal see of Le Mans. This bishop, whom the holy King of Burgundy protected, was also held in high regard at the court of Neustria. He tells us himself, in his testament, that he had been particularly favored by Queen Fredeg reine Frédégonde Queen of the Franks, enemy of Gregory. und, and that she had showered him with benefits. She had contributed liberally to his alms and to all the pious establishments he had founded for the poor and the religious. She had served him at court against his enemies, and against all those who opposed the good he wished to do in his diocese, for the glory of God and the utility of the Church. This princess, as decried as she was, had this singular trait in her conduct, that she honored some servants of God, while she persecuted others, according to the interests of her politics. Bertrand showed himself, until the end of his life, filled with benevolence for this princess and for her husband Chilperic. This partiality of our prelate finds its reason in the necessities of the political cause he had believed he must embrace.

He needed the support of royal authority to repair the evils that Badegisile had caused in the diocese. Upon his arrival in Le Mans, he found the goods that belonged to the house of the Church invaded by Magnatrude, wife of Badegisile. She claimed to appropriate everything that the piety of the faithful had offered to the Church during the episcopate of her husband, under the pretext that these goods were part of the military appanage of Badegisile. Despite her violence and her efforts, she had to make restitution. It is probably then that, humiliated by her defeat, she retired to her estate of Marsialensis (Marolles) with the daughter she had had from her marriage with Badegisile.

Our new bishop had soon won the affection of his people, by whom he was as much loved as his predecessor was hated. It is Saint Venantius Fortunatus who informs us of this. This famous poet, whom all the bishops and the great men of Gaul vied for, to enjoy the charms of his cultivated and ingenious mind, came to visit Bertrand in his episcopal city. Fortunatus was not yet at that time Bishop of Poitiers. Our prelate gave him a very distinguished welcome, and admitted him to his side in the chariot he used, following the example of the lords of the Frankish empire. Fortunatus considers this benevolence of the bishop as a distinction that honors him, and he sings of the love of this pastor for his people, a love that he compares to the tenderness of the swallow warming its young under its wings; he also speaks of the affection of the entire flock for its pastor.

From the second year of his episcopate, Bertrand received a signal distinction from the peaceful King of Burgundy. Judual and Guerech, Breton or Cymric princes, at the instigation of Fredegund, having entered the Nantes region in the year 587 with all their troops, caused much damage there and took a large number of prisoners. Gontran, warned of these disorders, assembled his army; but, yielding to his instincts for peace and conciliation, before marching his troops, he sent a deputy to the two leaders to summon them to repair all the harm they had done, otherwise he would have them perish by the sword. Judual and Guerech, intimidated by these threats, promised to restore everything they had pillaged and to release the prisoners. Gontran then resolved to send a more solemn embassy, capable, by the quality of the persons who composed it, of imposing his will upon these princes greedy for pillage and always turbulent. At the head of this deputation were Bertrand, Bishop of Le Mans, and Namatius or Namas, Bishop of Orleans; they were accompanied by counts and other distinguished personages. Having arrived in Nantes, they declared to the Breton princes the king's instructions regarding the damage that had been committed in the territories of Nantes and Rennes. Judual and Guerech then committed themselves to repairing the misfortunes they had caused and to paying a tribute to the King of Burgundy and Orleans; but, subsequently, feeling pushed by Fredegund, they did not keep their promise.

The Bishop of Orleans died during this embassy, and Bertrand had to bear the main burden alone; he then went to the court of Orleans in order to report on his negotiation, and returned promptly to his Church.

Around the same time that Saint Bertrand received the government of the Church of Le Mans, a scandal without precedent in monastic annals broke out within the monastery of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers.

This house, illustrated from its origin by the virtues of Saint Radegund, had seen a nun named Leubovère elected as abbess. The election of this abbess shocked the ambition of one of her companions, Chrodielde, daughter of Charibert, jealous to see that Leubovère, very inferior to her in birth, had been preferred to her. Through her promises and her slanders against the new abbess, she drew about forty nuns into her rebellion. Of this number was Basine, daughter of the unfortunate Audovera and Chilperic, the same whom we have seen confined with her mother in a monastery in the province of Le Mans. As these unhappy girls had entered the cloister against their inclination, they could not suffer its holy rigors and threw themselves into the most guilty and shameful excesses. They first forced their enclosures, paraded their ambition in Touraine and Burgundy, going to beg for the support of the bishops and especially of the princes their relatives. Gontran and Childebert ordered a synod to be held in Poitiers to put an end to this scandal. Gundegisilus, Archbishop of Bordeaux, and the bishops of his province, Saint Gregory of Tours, Ebregisilus of Cologne, and Saint Bertrand of Le Mans were present at this assembly. Gregory of Tours wisely represented to the Fathers of the council that, above all, it was necessary to disarm the soldiers whom the two rebellious nuns had called to the defense of their cause. Chrodielde defended herself to the utmost; finally, almost all her partisans were killed in the assault on the monastery. Peace being thus re-established, the bishops gathered again; Chrodielde and Basine presented themselves before them and accused their abbess on various counts, of which she justified herself. As for the two instigators of the revolt, their crimes were evident; they were cut off from the communion of the Church until they had done penance, and the bishops sent their sentence to the two kings, Gontran and Childebert. They did not submit yet; only later did Basine, who had shown movements of repentance several times, present herself before the Council of Metz, prostrate herself on the ground, and ask for pardon, promising to return to the cloister, to live there in peace with her abbess, and to keep the rule exactly. These marks of repentance, joined to the recommendation of the king, led the bishops to restore her to the communion of the Church, and she returned in peace to the abbey of Sainte-Croix, which she never left again. Chrodielde also received her pardon but did not return to her monastery. These events, in which Bertrand took an active part, took place in the years 589 and 590.

Amidst so many scandals, surrounded by wars and the unrest caused by plagues that attacked the religious and civil order, Bertrand thought only of procuring the happiness of his people and the glory of his Church. At no other time, as much as in the 6th and 8th centuries, did one see the faithful of the various Churches of Gaul more concerned with the care of increasing the influence of monks, through foundations and gifts made to monasteries. The secular clergy did not fail to possess within its ranks great virtues and real talents, but its action is much less marked in contemporary monuments. Indeed, the state of society never demanded as imperiously as in those times the action of an energetic and intelligent force, which led the peoples through teaching and moral ascendancy toward the work necessary for its preservation: the monks admirably fulfilled this need. It is not in the plan of a particular history like the one we are writing to paint a picture of the disorders and miseries that besieged almost every existence at that time; it suffices to recall that the damage caused by the Frankish conquest had been only imperfectly repaired. The newcomers were not accustomed to the work of the countryside; the invasion had been formed of a mass of young warriors, too proud by character to willingly give themselves to the labors of cultivation, especially when they could live by rapine, which the coarseness of the time confused almost with courage.

For their part, the ancient inhabitants of the Gallic soil, long fashioned by Roman ideas, regarded any manual occupation, and especially the work of the fields, as the lot of slaves. The Churches and monasteries had received large concessions of land; but these lands would have remained unproductive for a long time without the work of the voluntary slaves of monastic obedience. Cathedral churches also possessed an invaluable means of making these lands fruitful: families who remained free after the conquest, but were partially stripped of their possessions, and whose freedom without protection was at any moment threatened, whose very existence was exposed to all kinds of suffering, came in great numbers to place themselves in the hands of the bishops and archdeacons; they received, in exchange for work ennobled by the freedom that offered it and by the religious sentiment that inspired it, safety and an honorable existence. This custom of offering oneself as a gift to the Churches multiplied much more then than in the past, as a result of the very moral and civil state of society in Gaul. Saint Bertrand speaks, in his testament, of the numerous freed families who had taken refuge under the protection of the basilica of Saint-Peter and Saint-Paul, and he recommends them to the charity of the abbot of that monastery.

Cloisters did not have only this resource; the hand of the monks themselves cleared immense tracts of land. These peaceful conquests of free labor, destined in the views of Providence to heal the wounds of armed conquests, began above all to be realized around the time we have reached. Saint Bertrand, for his part, worked at it actively and on a vast scale. The goods that his family, which was powerfully rich, had transmitted to him, put him in a position to increase the revenues of his Church. Moreover, he received considerable gifts from Fredegund and the princes of Neustria; other persons gave him important land holdings to endow his Church of Le Mans, and one sees in the testament that he himself dictated that he was constantly occupied with the means of making all these riches productive. He frankly admits that he saw with pain that Saint Domnolus had given as an endowment to the basilica of the holy martyrs Vincent and Lawrence goods belonging to the cathedral church, although this had been done at the prayer of the clergy and the people of Le Mans.

Bertrand made immense acquisitions of land, not only in the diocese but also in other parts of Gaul. Everything leads one to believe that some of these acquisitions are prior to his episcopate, perhaps even to his entry into the clergy.

What is even more remarkable than the increase in his fortune is the care he took to have his domains cultivated in the most advantageous manner. In several places, he had clearings carried out, and through his care, previously desert lands became rich vineyards. Thus, in the place still known today by the name of Arènes, where the ancient amphitheater was located near the city walls, Bertrand had the soil cleared and vines planted. He established the same cultivation to the right of the road that led from Le Mans to Pontlieue, and later on a piece of land he had bought from the Venerable Abbot Eoladus, whose monastery is unknown to us. Saint Licinius, Bishop of Angers, gave Bertrand several vine plants located near Cariliacenses, a vineyard that the Bishop of Le Mans had formerly bought with the land of Sargite. Bertrand strengthened this cultivation, even extending it to new lands, more active in this than his predecessors, who, as he himself says, had left the various funds of the Church in a little productive state. His active genius was also exercised on other vineyards that were located as far as the Sabonarense, a country of the Sabonères, in the diocese of Toulouse; he built a house there and had these distant properties cultivated by a family of tenant farmers. Finally, he bought from his relative and spiritual son Ebroaldus a domain named Comanicum, which is probably today the hamlet of Communal, also in the diocese of Toulouse; he had buildings constructed there and vines planted. These agricultural cares occupied him until the end of his life. In many farms, where he found only a few slaves, he placed a greater number.

Moreover, the motive that engaged him in this complication of affairs was none other than the ardent charity he felt for God and for the poor. All the immense riches he acquired for his Church, as much by the gifts he received as by the purchases he made and by the increases in value resulting from more intelligent cultivation, all these goods flowed into foundations for the splendor of worship and for the relief of the indigent. It can be said that none of his predecessors equaled him in the number and wealth of charitable establishments.

Such liberality gave rise to a sort of emulation among wealthy people, and considerable domains were handed over to Bertrand to be used for the works he founded. Thus, the lord Bandhégisile and his wife Saucia gave him the farm of Fontanx (Fontaines), on the banks of the Sarthe, near Allonnes. Suadria, sister of the Bishop of Marseille, Saint Theodore, bequeathed by her testament to the cathedral church the two domains of Luciniacum and Monle (Lugny and Montmain); but subsequently, Bertrand was obliged to take great steps so that his Church could enjoy this last gift in peace.

Queen Ingoberga, wife of Charibert, King of Paris, was at the same time an outstanding benefactress of the Church of Le Mans. A short time before her death, she had the Bishop of Tours, Saint Gregory, brought to her, and wanted him to be a witness to her last wishes in favor of the Churches and the poor. She bequeathed all her goods to the Churches of Tours and Le Mans, and to the basilica of Saint-Martin, and shortly after, she died at the age of seventy, leaving freedom to a large number of slaves; this was in the year 589. Saint Bertrand, in his testament, recalls the liberality of this princess toward the Church of Le Mans; he designates as having been given to him by this queen, of happy memory, half of a domain named Culture (Couture).

Leodault gave him a place named Colonica for the foundation of the abbey of Saint-Peter and Saint-Paul de la Couture. The illustrious matron Egidia offered half of a domain, named Vatinolonnum, for the same foundation. Beatus, nephew of Babau, son of Theudalde, made a gift of the domain of Nociagiles (Nieul-les-Saintes), in Poitou, on the banks of the Loire, in favor of the same abbey. Gonthier gave land holdings in the vicinity of Jublains for the mother church of the diocese.

There were still a great number of other generous people who distinguished themselves by donations at that time, both in favor of the cathedral church and in favor of monasteries and hospitals; but none of these benefactors should be more justly remembered than the holy Bishop of Angers, Licinius, vulgarly named Saint Lézin. Bertrand informs us that a tender friendship united them both, and that Licinius earned the gratitude of the Church of Le Mans through the land holdings he offered it. He favored the servants of God with all his power and wished to associate himself with the Bishop of Le Mans in the foundation of the abbey of Saint-Peter and Saint-Paul de la Couture.

At that time, the palaces of the Merovingian kings were the scene of events that were to change the face of affairs, and bring to the Church of Le Mans years of trouble and mourning, after the days of prosperity it had enjoyed. King Saint Guntram having died in 593, his states were divided between Childebert II and Clotaire II. Childebert, who already reigned in Austrasia, henceforth united to his crown the kingdom of Orleans, that of Burgundy, and a part of that of Paris; Clotaire, king of Neustria, a child of seven, received only a portion of the latter. In this appanage were the city and the country of Le Mans. Bertrand, already attached by his ties of kinship to the family of Fredegund, believed he should make a promise of fidelity to the new king, which brought upon him and his Church the greatest misfortunes.

Bertrand, so as not to fall into the hands of the Austrasian army, was forced to flee from his episcopal city, and while he followed the wandering court of the king of Neustria, the Church of Le Mans was in the most deplorable situation. Greedy men, belonging to different classes of society, clerics and laymen, threw themselves upon the spoils of the fugitive prelate, and seized his goods and those of the Church.

However, these usurpations, as deplorable as they were, did not cause the Church any harm comparable to that brought to it by an ambitious and shameless cleric named Berthégisile. This man managed, t hrough the p Berthégisile Ambitious cleric who usurped the see of Le Mans during the exile of Bertrand. rotection of Childebert and Brunhilda, to be given episcopal unction, and to sit on the seat of Le Mans, in defiance of the canons and all the rules of discipline. He gave free rein to his covetousness, seizing not only the goods of the Church, but also the lands that Bertrand held from his patrimony.

Finally, peace was re-established between the Austrasians and the Neustrians; a treaty was concluded, Maine returned under the power of the young Clotaire, and Bertrand resumed the conduct of his desolate Church. Fredegund came to his aid to repair so many evils. The usurpers were forced to return the goods they had unjustly seized; but above all, Berthégisile was reduced to depositing the insignia of the episcopate and disavowing his usurpation, by signing a charter by which he restored several domains belonging to the cathedral, among others Champagné and Etival. However, such was his credit and his audacity that he never returned all the patrimonial goods he had usurped from Bertrand, and only partially repaired the damage he had caused.

Shortly after the restoration of Bertrand, the Burgundians and Austrasians, having again coalesced against the Neustrians, spread into Maine, renewing the same scenes of barbarity. Saint Bertrand tried, but in vain, to keep the city for Clotaire; the entire party of the young prince was in rout; the bishop himself, regarding himself as inviolably bound by the promise of fidelity he had made to him, was forced to flee and hide in a place then quite solitary, named Etival, in the heart of the immense forest of Charnie. Perhaps he was even, like Saint Betharius, taken prisoner and held in harsh captivity; for he reports, in his testament, that he endured exile and prison in succession. The holy bishop also lets us know that during his captivity, he asked for his deliverance from God, through the intercession of Saint Martin, and vowed to found, in honor of this holy confessor, a hospice served by monks, if he regained his freedom. It is to fulfill this promise that he later built the monastery of Saint-Martin de Pontlieue.

To top it all off, the usurpers returned to throw themselves upon the goods of the Church and the patrimony of Bertrand. Berthégisile began his sacrilegious devastations again; he found, in the archives of the cathedral, the charter he had been forced to sign when Bertrand had first been restored to his rights by the authority of Fredegund, and he threw it into the fire.

Peace having been made, Bertrand immediately returned to his episcopal city. He claimed his goods, and, by the authority of Brunhilda and Theuderic, he was able to recover them, at least in large part. He also worked actively to repair the losses his Church had suffered, and he healed, as much as he could, the evils it had experienced. These events took place in the space of four years, from 599 to 604.

In this last year, Clotaire wanted to retake the provinces he had been forced to cede by the last peace treaty. This new war, which lasted only part of the year 604, again forced Bertrand to leave his seat; but it was for the last time.

Clotaire, triumphant, showed himself grateful to Bertrand for the fidelity that this bishop had shown him; he listened favorably to his complaints, and had his patrimony and the goods of the cathedral returned to him. But such was the misfortune of the times that the usurpers of these possessions, who were Frankish or Gallo-Roman lords, for the two races vied with each other in their ardor for plunder, found the means not to make full restitution, as Saint Bertrand laments in more than one place in his testament. Regarding some of these invaders, royal authority seems to have yielded, by ordering restitution only after their death. However, if we judge the activity with which Bertrand pushed his action against these enemies of the Church, according to the terms he uses when speaking of them in his testament, one can believe that the prelate did not lack energy.

The holy Prelate had attached great importance to obtaining this diploma; for he desired to endow this monastery richly. It was indeed the finest foundation he made during his episcopate, and he applied all his efforts to adorning and enriching this sanctuary, following a warning he received from heaven. One evening, this holy Bishop had retired to one of the towers built on the outer walls of the city, which was located near the cathedral church: he had chosen it as a peaceful place to devote himself with more freedom to prayer; he spent the entire night there in supplication. At daybreak, the Archangel Saint Michael appeared to him, pointed out a nearby place then known as Vivereus, and told him that God wished to be served and honored there. This place was situated to the south of the city, at a short distance from its walls, and belonged, it is said, to the cathedral church. Bertrand hastened to obey the order from heaven. He immediately began the construction of a basilica, which was dedicated under the patronage of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and the buildings of a cloister, which, from its origin, appeared surrounded by a certain splendor. From then on, this monastery was an object of predilection for Bertrand; he regarded it, in his own words, as a rampart and a protection for his city.

Not content with assigning to this new solitude considerable revenues capable of ensuring its existence, Saint Bertrand also interested in its foundation the powerful friends he had in the Church and in the world. Among the benefactors of the monastery is named the pious and illustrious Égidie, who had already distinguished herself by her generosity toward the cathedral church. King Clotaire showed his benevolence toward the Abbey of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul by granting the diploma of which we have spoken. Saint Licinius of Angers, whom we have already introduced, signaled his love for the monastic life by the generous way in which he also contributed to the endowment of the new abbey; for this purpose, he gave it a plot of land and vineyards that Saint Bertrand recalls in his testament.

It was mainly from his own property that Bertrand endowed this monastery; but he also allocated to it goods that belonged to the cathedral church, and this, at the pressing request of the clergy.

Bertrand subjected the inhabitants of the new cloister to the Rule of Saint Benedict, which was from then on called the Rule of monastic life. He obliged them to provide hospitality to all the poor and to all the strangers who requested it; and he wanted this house to always contain a large number of monks. He ordered that a register be kept in this monastery for the relief of the indigent, who were so numerous at that time.

For the dedication of the basilica, Saint Bertrand summoned several bishops, in order to make this solemnity more august. He deposited in the sanctuary relics of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; finally, he drafted the foundation charter, which designated the revenues forming the endowment. All the bishops present confirmed this act and wished to add to the gifts made by the founder.

Although one cannot positively determine the year in which this event took place, it is certain that this foundation preceded the death of Saint Licinius, and thereby, that it is prior to the year 605, and to the last wars of which we have spoken, which had such a great influence on the life of Saint Bertrand.

More than ten years later, in 615, when Saint Bertrand made his testament, he added much to the domain of his monastery by attributing to it the lands of Crissé (Sarthe), Thionville (Seine-et-Oise), *Colonica Talete*, perhaps Talais, in the Bordeaux region, then other farms in the Bursay, in the Gâtinais, and houses that Waruchaire, mayor of the palace of Burgundy, had given him in exchange for the domain of Colombiers (Mayenne). Half of the revenues from these lands was to be used for the relief of the poor, and the other half devoted to maintaining the lighting of the basilica; but the monks were to take first what was necessary for their subsistence, and that of the poor registered on the matricula of their monastery. Bertrand also bequeathed to the abbey the domains of *Gaviacus*, *Colonica*, *Landolense*, *Ferrensis*; in the places named *Cellis* and *Samarciago*, near the city of Le Mans, everything that belonged to Portithorengus, whom the holy Bishop had had under his guardianship, everything that Ceta, Mancia, and Guntha had possessed; the farms of *Campus-Chunanus*, *Ludina*, and *Comariacum*; the villier of *Piciniacum*, *Hilliacum*, another farm also named *Colonica*, which Leodault had given to Saint Bertrand for the foundations he was making; the lands of *Methense* and of *Voligione*, that of Fontenay, near Bullion (Seine-et-Oise), a villier situated at the sources of the Vendée (Deux-Sèvres), vines that went from the ancient arenas of Le Mans to the new cloister; other vines, near and lands situated on the road to Pontlieue, and purchased from the abbot Eolade; the Breuil, purchased from the abbot Leusus, fields on the banks of the Sarthe, half of the coulonge of *Vatinolonnum*, the other half having been given by Egidie; the domains of *Campaniacum* and of Etival; the courtyard or farm and the houses held previously in the city of Le Mans by the priest Romolos, a house that this same priest had had built on the walls of the city, and other houses still in the same city; the domains of *Conadacum*, *Colicas*, vineyards in the *Sabonarense* and elsewhere, with the families of the coloni and their houses; rents on *Talete*, *Crisciagum*, and *Cameyrac* (Gironde), for the poor registered on the matricula of the basilica; the domain of *Vincentia*, near Plassac, in the Bordeaux country, that of Luir in the same country, the place of *Bræsetum*, also in the same country, with the pitch factories, and the families of slaves employed in their operation; a considerable sum of money, a third of the testator's movable property, half of the horses; the domain of *Comanicum* with its vineyards and its buildings, that of Les Fontaines on the banks of the Sarthe, at Alonnes, given to Bertrand by the lord Bandhégisile and Saucia, his wife, "whose name," says the testament, "must be inscribed in the Book of Life, and proclaimed in the basilica"; half of various farms situated in Berry, in the Albigeois, in the country of Cahors, and in that of Agen; the domain of *Nociogilus* to be shared with the cathedral, that of *Vocriamnum* in its entirety, that of Nueil, in Poitou, on the banks of the Loire, given by Beatus; the place named *Luciacus*; finally the domain of *Kuiracum*, including the buildings, the serfs, the vines, the meadows, the forests, and all the rights that depend on it.

Bertrand's generosity toward the new monastery of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul did not stop there; he also gave it several domains whose revenues were to be shared with the cathedral. Among these gifts common to the canons and the monks of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul, one notes a house in the territory of Bordeaux, in which they could lodge when they went to that country to buy fish; which supposes that these trips were quite frequent. Saint Bertrand also bequeaths, by his testament, to the abbot of this monastery, to whom he gives the title of lord, horses and some other objects, and he recommends that he take great care of the poor, and of the numerous families of slaves employed in the domains dependent on his basilica.

In return for so many benefits, Saint Bertrand claims the prayers of the abbot and the monks, and asks that his name be inscribed in the Book of Life, that is to say in the diptychs where, from the origin of the monasteries, the names of the founders and other benefactors were inscribed, in order to recite special prayers for their intention each day.

The monks showed themselves for a long time worthy of the paternal affection that the holy Bishop had shown them; they edified the people by their charity toward all the unfortunate, by their studious and busy life, and by the zeal with which they applied themselves to honoring God.

Bertrand's zeal for so many pious and useful foundations did not prevent him from applying himself to repairing the wounds that the misfortune of the times had inflicted upon discipline. His piety, his enlightenment, and the favor of Clotaire attracted a signal distinction to our holy Bishop. At that time, the Apostolic See often chose as vicar, in distant lands such as Gaul, a bishop of eminent merit. Several times this distinction was granted, not to metropolitans, but to simple bishops, because, as translations were extremely rare then, superior merit was not always found in the highest sees. Princes coveted this distinction for the prelates they esteemed the most. At the time when Bertrand governed the Church of Le Mans, we saw Queen Brunhild solicit Saint Gregory the Great to grant it to Syagrius, Bishop of Autun; she obtained the obje ct of her request, and saint Grégoire le Grand Pope contemporary to Saint Psalmodius. the great man upon whom this honor was conferred worthily fulfilled such high functions; but death, which took him away soon after, prevented him from enjoying this prerogative for long.

Several years later, Clotaire having become the sole master of Gaul, petitioned Saint Gregory, or his successor Sabinian, to obtain the same honor for Saint Bertrand. According to custom, our prelate also had to address a request to the same effect to the Pontiff, and send him a cleric from his Church, if he did not make the journey to Rome himself. The Pope listened favorably to these requests and sent Bertrand the insignia of this dignity, that is to say, the Pallium. This ornament, which the Holy See is accustomed to granting today to all metropolitans and to a small number of other bishops, was obtained with more difficulty in the 6th century.

When a bishop received the insignia of the Pallium and the functions of Vicar of the Holy See, he began to hold a higher rank than the other prelates; if his Church was not metropolitan, he became proto-throne in his province, and sometimes this title with its honors remained attached to the see itself. One may believe that the Church of Le Mans already enjoyed this uncontested right, since it appears first after the metropolis of the Third Lyonnaise in all the Notitiae of the Empire. But other purely personal prerogatives were attached to this Vicariate; they were more or less extensive according to the tenor of the pontifical letters that conferred them, but they always included an inspection of all the Churches of the kingdom, the duty of watching over the maintenance of discipline, and the right to convene and direct the councils of the ecclesiastical provinces.

History remains silent on what Bertrand did in his capacity as Vicar of the Apostolic See. During the years he exercised these functions, there were several councils in Gaul; but ancient monuments provide only imperfect notions of these assemblies, and we do not know what role our great bishop played in them; therefore, so as not to exceed the positive data of history, we will not enter into any detail in this regard.

Our prelate, warned by his advanced age that death might be approaching, resolved to make his will. To this end, according to the laws of the time, he requested signed letters from Clotaire which allowed him to dispose of all his property, whether from royal munificence, inherited from his family, or acquired in any other manner. The king authorized him to dispose of all his goods in perpetuity.

Bertrand then assembled seven other bishops or chorepiscopi, and, in their presence, he dictated to the notary Ebbon this famous will which begins in these terms: "In the name of the Lord Jesu testament célèbre Major historical document detailing the possessions and foundations of the bishop. s Christ and the Holy Spirit, on the sixth of the Kalends of April, in the thirty-second year of the reign of the most glorious lord King Clotaire, I, Bertrand, a sinner and unworthy bishop of the holy Church of Le Mans, being perfectly sound in body and mind, but fearing with reason the consequences of human frailty, have drawn up my will, and have prayed my son, the notary Ebbon, to write it under my dictation. If, for any reason, this my will should become invalid, whether by civil law, by praetorian law, or by the intervention of some new law, I wish it to have at least the value of a codicil ab intestato.

"Thus, therefore, when I have left the earth and paid my debt to nature, you shall be my heirs, you, most holy Church of Le Mans, jointly with the holy and venerable basilica of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, apostles, which I have raised by my own care, in view of the city, to protect it and to serve the public utility. I constitute and declare you my heirs..."

By these words, "the holy Church of Le Mans," Bertrand means the cathedral church, or rather the chapter that represented it. He constitutes it, as we see, his heir jointly with the basilica of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; all the lands or houses that he bequeaths to one and the other are then enumerated; he also makes some gifts to different churches or basilicas, and to several individuals.

It is noted, in several passages of his will, that the motive for all his largesse was, besides the endowment of the numerous clergy attached to the cathedral, the maintenance of a large number of matricularii, or those registered on the lists of the chapter to be assisted in all their needs. Another motive that can likewise be recognized, because it is expressed in several places, is the care of worship, and in particular of the lighting, not only in the cathedral church, but also in several basilicas. To this end, Bertrand assigns entire estates to each of these sanctuaries, so that the light may never be extinguished in the cathedral church, nor in the basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, of Saint Martin of Pontlieue, and of the Holy Cross.

The prelate lived for a long time after having drafted this act, and, although in a very advanced old age, he occupied himself tirelessly with the spiritual and temporal good of his Church. It was during this time that he founded or at least greatly increased the monastery of Etival.

At a short distance from the city of Le Mans, moving towards the west, one encountered, at the beginning of the 7th century, a very thick forest that extended to the banks of the Erve river and beyond. It was one of the most solitary and wild places in the whole province, and even in the empire of the Franks. Bertrand, forced to flee before the enemies of King Clotaire and his own, had retired, as we have said, for some time into this solitude; he found safety and rest there and built, it is said, an oratory. When tranquility had been restored to the whole empire of the Franks by the peaceful reign of Clotaire II, the holy bishop built a monastery in this wild place, so that its inhabitants could receive the instructions of the faith and the help of the Sacraments. The history of this monastery is otherwise unknown to us, like that of a great number of others from the same period.

All the labors of Saint Bertrand did not prevent him from still applying himself to the cultivation of letters; he maintained a correspondence with some of the most distinguished prelates of the time, such as Saint Licinius of Angers, Saint Arnulf, bishop of Metz and one of the most devoted partisans of Clotaire, and finally Saint Venantius Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers. He sometimes addressed to the latter, as to the man most capable of judging them, the poems he composed and which we have unfortunately lost.

Bertrand reached an extreme old age, and died in peace on the eve of the Kalends of July, around the year 623.

He was buried by the comprovincial bishops and by his disciples in his dear basilica of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. The memory of this great bishop remained precious to the populations, who continued, for long centuries, to visit his tomb, which was fruitful in miracles, until recent times.

We have borrowed this life from the History of the Church of Le Mans, by Dom Piolin.