De injusta beati Wulstani depositione, et de justa ejusdem per beatum regem restitutione.
Mercy, Judgment, and a New Order
God’s mercy is praised, then King William, having subdued the realm, convenes a synod that deposes the unworthy Stigand and appoints Lanfranc to reform the English Church.
The Lord is well pleased with those who fear him, and with those who hope in his mercy. This was declared by the simple justice of the blessed prelate Wulstan and by the powerful magnificence of King Edward, holy in the following miracle. For once King William had subdued the whole island and either driven the rebels out of the island, or delivered them into chains or oppressed them with servitude, he also began to deal with ecclesiastical matters with his people. Therefore he had a synod gathered with the legates of the apostolic see present: Hermenfrid, bishop of Lausanne, and the cardinal priests John and Peter. By whom Stigand, who as we said above had trampled God's sanctuary with polluted feet, was stripped of all glory and honor, and condemned by the king to perpetual prison. There succeeded him in the see of Canterbury the abbot Lanfranc, a man most learned wherever he came from, and most skilled in all the liberal arts and in both divine and secular letters. Therefore this man, as if appointed by God to uproot and scatter and destroy, and to build and plant, attempts to recall the English church to a new form, supported by the authority of his legation. And soon he began to correct what needed correcting and to establish what needed establishing, and to prescribe a more honorable way of life for both clerics and monks.
The Unwilling Bishop Before the Synod
Wulstan is judged unfit by Lanfranc and the king, yet he calmly refuses to surrender his pastoral office to anyone but the one who gave it, King Edward.
In the eyes of this man of the Lord, Wulstan is charged with simplicity and inexperience, and like an unlettered, ignorant man he is decreed to be deposed, with the king's consent and even his own approval. Therefore, at the synod Lanfranc held at Westminster with the king present, among the other matters he addressed, he orders the venerable man to give up his staff and ring. But the man of the Lord changed neither face nor spirit; he rose, and holding the pastoral staff in his hand, he said: 'Truly, Lord Archbishop, I truly know that I am neither worthy of this honor nor fit for this burden nor equal to this labor. I knew it when the clergy was choosing me, when the bishops were pressing me, when my lord King Edward was urging me to this office.' He alone, by the authority of the apostolic see, laid it back on my shoulders, and through this staff he ordered me to be invested with episcopal rank. And now you demand back a pastoral staff you never handed over, and you take away an office you never conferred. And I, not unaware of my own insufficiency and yielding to the judgment of your holy synod, will indeed resign the staff — but not to you, but rather to him from whose authority I received it.' When he had said this, he went with his companions to the stone where the remains of the most glorious king were enclosed, and standing before the tomb, he said: 'You know, my Lord Edward, how unwillingly I undertook this burden, how often I shrank away, how often I kept myself absent when I was being sought.' I confess I have been made a fool, but you are the one who forced me.
Resigning the Staff to Saint Edward
At Edward’s tomb, Wulstan declares that only the saintly king made him bishop, so he now returns the staff into the stone, resigns his office, and resumes the monastic habit as a miracle begins to appear.
For even though the election of the brothers was not lacking, nor the petition of the people, nor the will of the bishops, nor the favor of the nobles, yet in spite of all these your authority carried more weight, and your will pressed harder. And now — a new king, a new law, a new pontiff: they establish new decrees and promulgate new rulings. They accuse you of error — you who gave the order; they accuse me of presumption — I who merely consented. At least back then you could be deceived, as a man can be; but now — now that you are united to God? Not to those, then, who demand back what they never gave — who, being but men, can deceive and be deceived — but to you, who gave it; you who have now been brought into the very truth and have escaped the darkness of error or ignorance: to you, I say, I return the staff; to you I release the care of those you entrusted to me; to you I safely commit them, for I know well whose merit they carry. When he had said this, he raised his hand a little and drove the staff into the stone that covered the holy body: "Receive it, my lord king," he said, "and give it to whomever you wish." And so, coming down from the altar, he took off his pontifical robes and, himself a simple monk once more, sat down among the monks. All were amazed to see the staff driven into the flint, how it seemed to struggle as if taking root, unable to bend one way or the other.
The Staff That Will Not Be Moved
Crowds marvel at the staff fixed in the stone; both Bishop Gumulf and Archbishop Lanfranc try and fail to remove it, until all recognize that Edward’s heavenly judgment favored Wulstan.
Some men try to tear her out, but she stood firm and unmoving. A murmuring and whispering arose in the crowd, and people ran together from every direction, and seeing God's great works they were amazed, clinging fast, now moving forward a little, now stopping in their tracks, now reaching out a hand, now pulling it back, now crouching down to examine how the iron might cling to the stone, now standing up and crowding together, each pressing in turn, so that they could see.1 The matter was brought before a synod. But Lanfranc, not giving credence to the words, had Gumulf, the venerable and devout bishop of Rochester, summoned to him, and ordered him to go to the tomb and bring out into the open the staff the saint had laid down.2 The lower-ranking prelate obeyed his superior, but the power found in the virgin body, though lifeless, proved stronger than the living bishop's hand.3 That man tried to tear out the staff, which, though she held it from a lower place, yet held it with power from on high, as if by some wondrous force from below, made it cling immovably to the flint.45 Then Bishop Lanfranc, stunned by the strangeness of the miracle and wanting the king to share in such great wonder, sent for him to be summoned to the synod. When he arrived with the nobles, Lanfranc rose, and as they hurried together to the king's tomb, he said a prayer, placed his hand there, and the bishop tried to dig out the staff, but because the holy king's power resisted him, his effort fell short of the result he desired.6 The king cried out, the bishop wept, and both gave glory to God and praise to Edward, whose judgment in promoting blessed Wulstan was now shown by clear signs not to have been mistaken.7
Justice Vindicated, Simplicity Restored
Lanfranc confesses God’s justice, rebukes their earlier error in judging Wulstan, and formally restores his bishopric, praising simple faith over worldly wisdom.
Then Lanfranc, going to the saint, said: "Truly, the Lord is just and has loved justice; his face has seen uprightness; truly he walks with the simple, and with the simple is his conversation.✦ Your just simplicity has been mocked among us, brother, but it brought forth your justice like light, and your judgment like noonday. Darkness worth lamentation, in which we wrapped ourselves, calling evil good and good evil.✦ Our judgment concerning you, brother, has gone astray, has gone astray, and God has stirred up his spirit in his king, which would annul our sentence and make your simplicity, pleasing to God, known to all. Therefore by the authority we wield — indeed, by the divine judgment by which we are convicted — the care through which we too hastily stripped you away we now entrust and lay upon you again, knowing from experience that better is a little with the justice of one, above the many riches of sinners.✦ Clearly better is a little learning with faith, which works in simplicity with love, than the riches of wisdom and worldly knowledge, which many abuse either for the vanity of human praise or for the greed of shameful gain. Come then, my brother, come to your Lord, indeed to ours as well: for we believe that his holy right hand, which denied us the staff, will with hand loosened readily give it back to you.'
Humility Struggles in Prayer and Tears
Wulstan obeys and returns to Edward’s tomb, where the staff easily comes free at his touch; king and archbishop prostrate themselves in penitence, and the bishops humbly vie in blessing one another amid tears.
When these words had been heard, the holy bishop, using his customary simplicity, obeyed the one who commanded him, and going up to the altar said: "Look, my lord Edward — look, I'm the one who placed myself under your judgment, who submitted myself to your decision, and to whom I gave back the staff you had granted me. What do you want now? What do you wish for? What do you decide?" You have certainly kept your dignity, you have cleared me of blame, but you have betrayed your own high standing." So if your former decision about me still stands, give back the staff; but if it has changed, tell me to whom it should be handed over."8 Saying this, he tried with a light touch of the rod to pull it free; but the rod, following his hand, sprang away and had stamped itself into the soft mud. The king and the archbishop rush forward together, prostrate themselves, ask for pardon, and entrust themselves to the holy man's prayers. But he — the one who had learned from the Lord Jesus Christ to be meek and humble in heart — prostrates himself just as they do, and prays to be blessed by so great a bishop.✦ What tears there were then among those holy bishops, what sighs, how humbly they struggled over who would give the blessing first — who could easily describe it?
Joy, Reconcilion, and the Adorned Tomb
Reconciled and rejoicing, they return to the synod proclaiming God’s wonders in His saints, and King Edward honors his predecessor’s tomb with a splendid silver and gold shrine.
At last, blessing one another and holding each other by the hand, they return to the synod with everyone rejoicing, yet many also weeping for joy, and all together proclaiming God as wondrous in his saints. The king, truly moved to love for his kinsman and predecessor, adorned his most holy tomb with a shrine crafted from silver and gold together, as can be seen to this day, with wondrous care.
Read the original Latin
Beneplacitum est Domino super timentes eum, et in eis qui sperant super misericordia ejus. Hoc et beati praesulis Wulstani simplex justitia, et sancti regis Edwardi potens magnificentia sequenti miraculo declararunt. Cum enim rex Willielmus totam insulam subdidisset, ac rebelles quosque vel expulisset ab insula, vel mancipasset vinculis, vel servitute oppressisset, coepit etiam cum suis de ecclesiasticis tractare negotiis. Fecit igitur synodum congregari praesentibus apostolicae sedis legatis Hermenfrido Sedunensi episcopo, et presbyteris cardinalibus Joanne et Petro. A quibus Stigandus, qui ut superius diximus pollutis pedibus sanctuarium Dei conculcaverat, omni gloria et honore spoliatus, et a rege perpetuo carcere condemnatus est. Successit huic in cathedra Cantuariensi abbas Lanfrancus vir undecunque doctissimus, omnium etiam liberalium artium divinarumque simul ac saecularium litterarum peritissimus. Hic igitur quasi constitutus a Deo ut evelleret et dissiparet et disperderet, et aedificaret et plantaret, ecclesiam Anglorum ad novam quamdam speciem revocare legationis suae fultus auctoritate conatur. Coepit autem mox corrigenda corrigere et statuenda statuere, clericis etiam et monachis honestiorem vivendi formam praescribere.
Apud hunc vir Domini Wulstanus simplicitatis et imperitiae accusatur, et quasi homo idiota et sine litteris deponendus, rege consentiente vel etiam hoc ipsum praescribente, decernitur. Igitur in synodo quam apud Westmonasterium rege praesente celebravit Lanfrancus, inter caetera quae tractavit negotia, jubet venerabilem virum baculum resignare cum annulo. At vir Domini nec vultu mutatus nec animo, erexit se, et virgam pastoralem manu tenens: «Vere, inquit, domine archiepiscope, vere scio quia nec hoc honore dignus sum nec huic idoneus oneri nec sufficiens labori: sciebam hoc cum me clerus eligeret, cum episcopi cogerent, cum me dominus rex meus Edwardus ad hoc officium invitaret. Ipse auctoritate sedis apostolicae in meos humeros hoc unus refudit, et per hunc baculum me episcopali gradu investiri praecepit. Et nunc pastoralem tu virgam exigis quam non tradidisti, officium adimis quod non contulisti. Et ego quidem insufficientiam non ignorans, et tuae sanctaeque synodi sententiae cedens resignabo baculum, sed non tibi, sed ei potius cujus eum auctoritate suscepi.» Haec cum dixisset, cum suis accessit ad lapidem quo gloriosissimi regis exuviae claudebantur, et stans ante sepulcrum: «Tu scis, inquit, domine mi Edwarde, quam invitus hoc onus susceperim, quoties subterfugerim, quoties me cum quaererer absentaverim. Fateor insipiens factus sum, sed tu me coegisti.
Nam, licet non deesset fratrum electio, plebis petitio, voluntas episcoporum, gratia procerum, his tamen omnibus tua praeponderavit auctoritas, tua magis urgebat voluntas. Et ecce novus rex, nova lex, novus pontifex, nova jura condunt, novas promulgant sententias. Te erroris arguunt qui jussisti, me praesumptionis qui consensi. Et tunc quidem falli potuisti ut homo, sed nunquid modo conjunctus Deo? Non igitur illis qui exigunt quod non dederunt, qui cum sunt homines fallere possunt et falli, sed tibi qui dedisti, qui jam inductus in ipsam veritatem erroris vel ignorantiae tenebras evasisti, tibi, inquam, resigno baculum, tibi curam eorum quos mihi commendasti dimitto, tibi secure eos committo cujus merita non ignoro.» Haec cum dixisset, elevata paululum manu, in lapidem quo sanctum corpus tegebatur infixit baculum: «Accipe, inquiens, domine mi rex, et cui libuerit trade illum.» Et sic descendens ab altari exutus pontificalibus inter monachos ipse monachus simplex resedit. Admirabantur omnes cernentes virgam immersam silici, et quasi radicibus niteretur, neque ad dextram neque ad sinistram declinare.
Tentant eam quidam evellere, sed illa stabat immobilis. Fit in turba murmur et mussitatio, accurrunt undique videntesque magnalia Dei stupent, haerent, nunc procedunt paululum, nunc gressu sistunt, nunc extendunt manum, nunc retrahunt, nunc quomodo ferrum inhaereat lapidi terrae decumbentes explorant, nunc erecti se invicem coarctantur ut videant. Res defertur in synodum. Sed Lanfrancus dictis fidem non adhibens, accersito ad se Gumulfo Roffensi episcopo viro venerabili et religioso, jubet ut accedens ad sepulcrum, baculum quem sanctus deposuerat proferat in medium. Paret superiori praesul inferior, sed inventa est fortior virginei licet exstincti corporis virtus, quam viventis episcopi manus. Ista baculum tentat evellere, quem illa licet inferior loco sed potestate superior, quasi a parte inferiori vi quadam mirabili teneretur, silici facit immobiliter inhaerere. Tunc praesul Lanfrancus novitate miraculi stupefactus, et regem volens tantae admirationis esse participem, mittit qui eum in synodum evocarent Advenienti cum proceribus assurgit Lanfrancus, simulque ad regis tumulum properantes, facta oratione manum apponit pontifex, baculum tentat eruere, sed obsistente sancti regis virtute conatus ejus desiderato caret effectu. Exclamat rex, plorat pontifex, uterque resonat gloriam Deo, laudes Edwardo, cujus in beati Wulstani promotione non errasse judicium certis indiciis declarabatur.
Tunc Lanfrancus ad sanctum accedens: «Vere, inquit, justus Dominus et justitias dilexit, aequitatem vidit vultus ejus, vere cum simplicibus graditur, et cum simplicibus sermocinatio ejus. Derisa est a nobis tua, frater, justa simplicitas, sed eduxit quasi lumen justitiam tuam et judicium tuum tanquam meridiem. Plangendae tenebrae quibus involuti dicimus malum bonum et bonum malum. Erravit, erravit in te, frater, judicium nostrum, et suscitavit Deus in rege suo spiritum suum, qui nostram evacuaret sententiam, et simplicitatem tuam Deo gratam omnibus propalaret. Auctoritate proinde qua fungimur, imo divino judicio quo convincimur, curam qua te inconsultius exuimus iterum tibi committimus et imponimus, scientes experti quoniam melius est modicum justo super divitias peccatorum multas. Melius plane modicum litteraturae cum fide quae in simplicitate cum dilectione operatur, super divitias sapientiae et scientiae saecularis, quibus multi vel ad vanitatem humanae laudis vel in avaritiam turpis quaestus abutuntur. Accede igitur, frater mi, accede ad dominum tuum, imo et nostrum: credimus enim quod sancta ejus dextera quae nobis baculum negavit, tibi laxata manu facile resignabit.»
His auditis, sanctus pontifex sua usus simplicitate paruit imperanti, et accedens ad altare: «Ecce, inquit, ego, domine mi Edwarde, ecce ego qui me tuo commisi judicio, qui me tuae sententiae subdidi, cui baculum quem concesseras resignavi. Quid nunc tibi placet, quid vis, quid discernis? servasti certe dignitatem tuam, meam purgasti innocentiam, tuam magnificentiam prodidisti. Si igitur adhuc de me tua stat antiqua sententia redde baculum, aut si mutata est, cui tradatur edissere.» Haec dicens, levi tactu virgam tentat evellere; quae manum ejus secuta, ac in molli luto fuisset impressa desiliit. Accurrunt rex simul et archiepiscopus prostrati veniam postulant, et se sancti viri orationibus commendant. At ille qui didicerat a Domino Jesu Christo mitis esse et humilis corde, ipsis aeque prosternitur, et a tanto se pontifice benedici precatur. Quae tunc inter sanctos episcopos lacrymae, quae suspiria, quam humilis de ipsa benedictione fuerit contentio, quis facile dixerit?
Tandem mutuo benedicentes et manibus se tenentes in synodum redeunt cunctis exsultantibus, multis autem et flentibus prae gaudio, omnibus autem in commune Deum in suis sanctis mirabilem praedicantibus. Rex vero in amorem cognati sui et praedecessoris accensus, sanctissimum ejus sepulcrum theca de argento simul et auro fabrefacta, sicut impraesentiarum cernitur, miro studio decoravit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.10.7 — His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are trouble and iniquity.
- ↩Isa.5.20 — Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
- ↩Prov.16.8 — Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without justice.
- ↩Matt.11.29 — Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Notes
- 1 ↩The repeated 'nunc' is rendered with varied natural English ('now... now...') to preserve the sense of shifting, restless movement without stiffness.
- 2 ↩The jussive subjunctive 'ut ... proferat' is rendered naturally as an indirect command ('ordered him to go ... and bring out').
- 3 ↩'virginei ... corporis' refers to Wulstan's consecrated, virginal body; rendered as 'the virgin body' to preserve the sense of his chastity and sacred state.
- 4 ↩The feminine pronouns 'illa' and 'ista' refer to the staff (baculum) personified, or possibly to the saint's power working through it; the rendering preserves the Latin's personification of the staff as the agent.
- 5 ↩'vi quadam mirabili' rendered as 'by some wondrous force' to capture the sense of a strange, divine power.
- 6 ↩The long periodic sentence is broken into two modern sentences for readability while preserving the sequence of events and the causal force of 'sed obsistente ... virtute'.
- 7 ↩'non errasse judicium' rendered as 'not to have been mistaken' to capture the accusative + infinitive indirect statement naturally in English.
- 8 ↩edissere is a rare verb; rendered as 'tell' / 'make clear' based on context, but the precise nuance is uncertain.
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