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SS. Martyrs, under the Emperor Alexander at Rome, circ. A.D. 219.

SS. Jovinus and Basileus, MM. at Rome, circ. A.D. 258.

SS. Ducius, B.M., Absalom, Largius, Herolus, Primitius, and Januarius, MM. at Cæsarea in Cappadocia.

SS. Paul, Heraclius, Secundola, Januaria, and Luciosa, MM. in the Port of Rome.

S. Simplicius, Pope of Rome, A.D. 483.

S. Joavan, P. at S. Paul de Leon, 6th. cent.

SS. Martyrs, under the Lombards, in Italy, circ. A.D. 579.

S. Ceadda, or Chad, B. of Lichfield, A.D. 672.

S. Willeich, P. at Keiser-werdt, on the Rhine, circ. A.D. 726.

B. Charles the Good, M., Count of Flanders, A.D. 1127.

SS. MARTYRS UNDER ALEXANDER

(CIRC. A.D. 219.)

Nearly all the Latin Martyrologies commemorate these martyrs, without giving their names. Baronius added to the Roman Martyrology, that they suffered under Ulpian the præfect; this was a conjecture of his, for Ulpian was bitterly hostile to the Christians, and it was under him that S. Martina (Jan. 1st) suffered. Alexander himself, only seventeen when he came to the throne, was of mild disposition, and the reins of government were in the hands of his mother Mamæa, who, with the approbation of the senate, chose sixteen of the wisest and most virtuous senators as a council of state, and at the head of this placed the learned Ulpian, a prudent governor, and severe disciplinarian, who could not brook that certain citizens should worship God in any way than that of the established religion, and looked on Christianity as a dangerous political element in the state, which demanded extirpation.

S. SIMPLICIUS, POPE

(A.D. 483.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authorities: – Evagrius, Hist. Eccl., and his own letters.]

S. Simplicius was born at Tivoli, and succeeded S. Hilary in the papal throne, in 468. He strongly resisted the Emperor Leo, who desired to elevate the patriarch of Constantinople to the second rank in the Church, above the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria. He was also engaged in controversy with Acacius of Constantinople concerning the appointment of Peter Mongus to the see of Alexandria. After having governed the Church in most difficult and stormy times, Simplicius died on March 2nd, in the year 483; and was buried in S. Peter's.

S. JOAVAN, P. C

(6TH CENT.)

[Venerated in Brittany. Authorities: – A Life by Albert Le Grand, and the lections of the Church of S. Paul de Léon. Albert Le Grand wrote his life in 1623, from old MSS. histories and legends preserved at Léon in his time.]

This saint was an Irishman by birth, and nephew of S. Paul de Léon. He studied with his uncle in Britain, and then returned to Ireland, but hearing that S. Paul had gone into Brittany, he departed for that country, and after having passed his noviciate in the monastery of Llanaterenecan, under S. Judulus, he departed to Léon, and received priest's orders from his uncle, who appointed him to the isle of Baz. He is patron of two parishes in the diocese of S. Paul de Léon.

SS. MARTYRS UNDER THE LOMBARDS

(CIRC. A.D. 579.)

[Roman Martyrology. Authority: – The Dialogues of S. Gregory the Great, lib. iii.]

The Lombards in their ravages of the North of Italy put to death forty husbandmen, who refused to eat meats they had offered to their idols, and about four hundred who refused to pay reverence to the head of a goat, which they regarded with a peculiar veneration.

S. CHAD, B. OF LICHFIELD

(A.D. 672.)

[Roman, Anglican, Scottish, and Irish Martyrologies. Authorities: – A life is given by Bede, lib. 3, cap. 23, 24, 28; Lib. 4, cap. 2, 3, also in a MS. printed in the Monasticon, and a Metrical Life attributed to Robert of Gloucester.]

S. Chad or Ceadda was, perhaps, the youngest of the four brothers, Cedd, Cynebil, and Celin, all of whom were eminent priests. Our saint has sometimes been confounded with his brother Cedd, bishop among the East Saxons, whose life was related on January 7th. We know neither the date nor the place of his birth. It is certain he was an Angle, and a native of Northumbria, and that he flourished in the 7th century, though Dempster wishes to claim him as a Scottish, and Colgan as an Irish, saint. The date 620 A.D. has been suggested as the probable time of Chad's birth.

Bede tells us that S. Chad was a pupil of Aidan. That bishop required the young men who studied with him to spend much time in reading Holy Writ, and to learn by heart large portions of the Psalter, which they would require in their devotions.

At the death of Aidan, in 651, he went to Ireland, which was then full of men of learning and piety. The ravages of the Teutonic hordes on the continent had driven thither many illustrious foreigners. Then Ireland was fulfilling the mission ascribed to the Celtic race, that of supplying the link between Latin and Teutonic civilization. S. Chad, while in Ireland, made the acquaintance of Egbert, who was afterwards abbot of Iona.

Cedd had, at the request of Ethelwald, King of Deira, established a monastery at Lastingham, in Yorkshire. It stood just on the edge of that wide expanse of moorland which extends thirty miles inland from the coast.

Bishop Cedd returned thither from his diocese of London many years after, at a time when a plague was raging. He caught it, and whilst lying on his death-bed, bequeathed the care of the monastery to his brother, Chad, who was still in Ireland.

S. Chad, on his return, ruled the monastery with great care and prudence, and received all who sought his hospitality with kindness and humility. One day a stranger arrived at the gate, praying to be received into the brotherhood. This was Owini, lately steward of Queen Ethelreda. Tradition relates that as he pursued his toilsome journey from the fens which surrounded the abbey of Ethelreda into Yorkshire, the pilgrim erected crosses by the roadside to guide any burdened souls who might hereafter seek the same haven of rest. While quietly keeping the strict rule of S. Columba at Lastingham, our saint was summoned to the episcopate by King Oswy, of Northumbria.

But we must go back a little in our history. When the decision of the council or parliament, held at Whitby, in 664, was adverse to the Keltic rite, Cedd renounced the customs of Lindisfarne, but Colman, bishop of Lindisfarne, obstinately holding to them, withdrew from Northumbria into Scotland with all those who were willing to follow him. Tuda succeeded him in the pontificate of Northumbria, but died soon after.

"In the meanwhile," says Bede, "King Alchfrid (of Deira) sent Wilfrid the priest to the king of the Gauls, to have him consecrated bishop for himself and his subjects. Now he sent him to be ordained to Agilbert, of whom we said above that he left Britain, and was made bishop of the city of Paris. Wilfrid was consecrated, A.D. 665, by him with great pomp; many bishops coming together for that purpose in a village belonging to the king (Clothair III. of Neustria) called Compiegne. While he was still making some stay abroad, after his ordination, king Oswy, following the example of his son, sent to Kent a holy man of modest character, sufficiently well read in the Scriptures, and diligently carrying out into practice what he had learnt from the Scriptures, to be ordained bishop of the Church at York. Now this was a priest named Ceadda (Chad), brother of the most reverend prelate Cedd, of whom we have made frequent mention, and abbot of the monastery called Lastingham. The king also sent with him his own priest, Eadhed by name, who was afterwards, in the reign of Egfrid, made bishop of the Church of Ripon. But when they arrived in Kent, they found that Archbishop Deusdedit had departed this life, and that no other prelate was as yet appointed in his place. Whereupon they turned aside to the province of the West Saxons, where Wini was bishop, and by him the above-mentioned person was consecrated bishop; two bishops of the British nation, who kept Easter Sunday according to canonical custom from the 14th to the 20th day of the moon, being associated with him; for at that time there was no other bishop in all Britain canonically ordained, except Wini.

"Chad then, being consecrated a bishop, began at once to devote himself to ecclesiastical truth and to chastity; to apply himself to the practice of humility, continence, and study; to travel about, not on horseback, but after the manner of the apostles, on foot, to preach the gospel in the towns, the open country, cottages, villages, and castles; for he was one of the disciples of Aidan, and endeavoured to instruct his hearers by the same actions and behaviour, according to his master's example and that of his own brother Cedd. Wilfrid also, who had already been made a bishop, coming into Britain, A.D. 666, in like manner by his doctrine brought into the English Church many rules of Catholic observance. Whence it came to pass that the Catholic institutions daily gained strength, and all the Scots that dwelt in England either conformed to these or returned into their own country."

This is Bede's account of the consecration of Wilfrid and Chad. At that time the diocese of York comprised the whole of Northumbria, including the south of Scotland. Under Oswald the see of Lindisfarne – the Iona of the Anglo-Saxons – was founded, containing within its jurisdiction the kingdom of Bernicia, until the establishment by Theodore of another see at Hexham. The writer of Wilfrid's life tells us that he objected to being consecrated by the English bishops, inasmuch as they were converts to the Scottish calculation regarding the celebration of Easter, or had received consecration from those who were of that opinion. Though Wini, who had been consecrated in Gaul, cannot be placed in either of these classes, yet Wilfrid knew he would summon to assist him two bishops who belonged to one of them; hence his preference for Gaul. Wilfrid's delay in Gaul, perhaps, excited the King's suspicions that he, like his friend Agilbert, was seeking a mitre there; or it may be that the king, influenced by the Scottish party (who could not forgive Wilfrid for the victory he gained over them at Whitby), consented to the election of Chad to the see.

Chad has been severely censured for accepting the bishopric under these circumstances. It may be, however, that he, stirred by sorrow at seeing the diocese left without a head, and doubting too, perhaps, whether Wilfrid would return, adopted this course, which may be condemned as uncanonical.

S. Chad is commemorated in some Breviaries as an archbishop. But he was only a bishop, for that dignity had fallen into abeyance from the time that Paulinus fled into Kent. But though no suffragans acknowledged Chad as their superior, he had ample scope for the most abundant energy. We have given above Bede's account of his untiring labours; let us now hear that of the metrical Life attributed to Robert of Gloucester.

Theodore, the new archbishop of Canterbury, arrived in England in A.D. 669. "Soon after," says Bede, "he visited the whole island, wherever the tribes of the Angles dwelt, for he was willingly entertained and heard by all persons; and everywhere he taught the right rule of life, and the canonical custom of celebrating Easter. He was the first archbishop whom all the English Church obeyed."

Visiting Northumbria, he charged Chad with not being duly consecrated. The saint replied with great humility, "If thou knowest that I have not duly received the episcopate, I willingly resign the office, for I never thought myself worthy of it; but, though unworthy, I consented to undertake it for obedience sake." Theodore hearing his humble answer, said that he should not resign the episcopate, but he himself completed his ordination again after the Roman manner. He probably advised Chad to resign his see to Wilfrid, for we next hear of our saint in retirement at Lastingham.

In 669, Jaruman, bishop of the Mercians, died. King Wulfhere asked Theodore to send them a bishop. The archbishop did not wish to consecrate a fresh one, so he begged King Oswy to let Chad, who was then at Lastingham, be their bishop. Theodore knowing that it was Chad's custom to go about the work of the gospel on foot, rather than on horseback, bade our saint ride whenever he had a long journey to perform, but, finding Chad unwilling to comply, the archbishop with his own hands lifted him on horseback, for he thought him a holy man, and obliged him to ride wherever he had need to go.

Though Chad was bishop of Lindisfarne for so short a time, he left his mark on the affections of the people, for we find that at least one chantry was dedicated in his name at York Minster. Soon after his election to the bishopric of the Mercians, he set out for Repton in Derbyshire, where Diuma, the first bishop of the Mercians, had established his see.

Whether our saint desired a more central position for the episcopal see, or was influenced by the wish to do honour to a spot enriched with the blood of martyrs, Bede does not tell us, but Chad established the Mercian see at Lichfield, then called Licetfield, or the Field of the Dead, where one thousand British Christians are said to have been put to death.

His new diocese was not much less in extent than that of Northumbria. It comprised seventeen counties, and stretched from the banks of the Severn to the shores of the German Ocean. Theodore, years afterwards, detached from it the sees of Worcester, Leicester, Lindesey (in Lincolnshire), and Hereford. Though it was far beyond the power of one man to administer it effectually, yet Bede witnesses that "Chad took care to administer the same with great rectitude of life, according to the example of the ancients. King Wulfhere also gave him land of fifty families to build a monastery at the place called Ad Barve, i. e., 'At the wood,' in the province of Lindesey, wherein monks of the regular life instituted by him continue to this day." "Ad Barve" is conjectured by Smith, of Durham, to be Barton-on-Humber, where there is still standing a very ancient church, admitted by Rickman to be partly Saxon, dedicated to S. Peter.

After fixing his see at Lichfield, Bede tells us "he built himself a habitation not far from the Church, wherein he was wont to pray and read with seven or eight of the brethren, as often as he had any spare time from the labour and ministry of the Word. When he had most gloriously governed the Church in that province two years and a half, in the dispensation of the Most High Judge, there came round the time of which Ecclesiastes speaks. "There is a time to cast stones, and a time to gather them together," for a deadly sickness sent from heaven came upon that place, to transfer, by the death of the flesh, the living stones of the Church from their earthly abodes to the heavenly building. And after many of the Church of that most reverend prelate had been taken out of the flesh, his hour also drew near wherein he was to pass out of this world to our Lord. It happened that one day, Owini, a monk of great merit, the same that left his worldly mistress to become a subject of the heavenly king, at Lastingham, was busy labouring alone near the oratory, where the bishop was praying, the other monks having gone to the Church, this monk, I say, heard the voice of persons singing most sweetly, and rejoicing, and appearing to descend from heaven. He heard the voice approaching from the south-east, till it came to the roof of the oratory, where the bishop was, and entering therein, filled the same and all about it. After a time he perceived the same song of joy ascend from the oratory, and return heavenwards the same way it came, with inexpressible sweetness. Presently the bishop opened the window of the oratory, and, making a noise with his hand, ordered him to ask the seven brethren who were in the church, to come to him at once. When they were come, he first admonished them to preserve the virtue of peace among themselves, and towards all the faithful, also to practise indefatigably the rules of regular discipline, which they had either been taught by him or seen him observe, or had noticed in the words or actions of the former fathers. Then he added that the day of his death was at hand: 'For,' said he, 'that amiable guest who was wont to visit our brethren, has vouchsafed to come to me also to-day, and to call me out of this world. Return, therefore, to the church, and speak to the brethren, that they in their prayers recommend my passage to the Lord, and that they be careful to provide for their own, the hour whereof is uncertain, by watching, prayer, and good works.' When they, receiving his blessing, had gone away in sorrow, Owini returned alone, and casting himself on the ground prayed the bishop to tell him what that song of joy was which he heard coming to the oratory. The bishop, bidding him conceal what he had heard till after his death, said, 'They were angelic spirits, who came to call me to my heavenly reward, which I have always longed after, and they promised they would return seven days' hence, and take me away with them.' His languishing sickness increasing daily, on the seventh day, when he had prepared for death by receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord, his soul being delivered from the prison of the body, the angels, as may justly be believed, attending him, he departed to the joys of heaven.

"It is no wonder that he joyfully beheld the day of his death, or rather the day of our Lord, which he had always anxiously looked for till it came; for notwithstanding his many merits of continence, humility, teaching, prayer, voluntary poverty, and other virtues, he was so full of the fear of God, so mindful of his last end in all his actions, that, as I was informed by one of the brothers, who instructed me in divinity, and who had been bred in his monastery, whose name was Trumhere, if it happened that there blew a strong gust of wind, when he was reading or doing anything else, he at once called upon God for mercy, and begged it might be extended to all mankind. If it blew stronger, he, prostrating himself, prayed more earnestly. But if it proved a violent storm of wind or rain, or of thunder and lightning, he would pray and repeat Psalms in the church till the weather became calm. Being asked by his followers why he did so, he answered, 'Have ye not read, – 'The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave forth His voice; yea, He sent out his arrows and scattered them, and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them.' For the Lord moves the air, raises the winds, darts lightning, and thunders from heaven to excite the inhabitants of the earth to fear Him; to put them in mind of the future judgment; to dispel their pride and vanquish their boldness, by bringing into their thoughts that dreadful time when, the heavens and the earth being in a flame, He will come in the clouds with great power and majesty, to judge the quick and the dead. Wherefore it behoves us to answer His heavenly admonition with due fear and love.'

"Chad died on the second of March, and was first buried by S. Mary's Church, but afterwards, when the Church of the most Holy Prince of the Apostles, Peter, was built, his bones were translated into it. In both which places as a testimony of his virtue, frequent miraculous cures are wont to be wrought. The place of the sepulchre is a wooden monument, made like a little house covered, having a hole in the wall, through which those that go thither for devotion usually put in their hand and take out some of the dust, which they put into water and give to sick cattle or men to drink, upon which they are presently eased of their infirmity and restored to health."

We have told the life of S. Chad in the reverent language of Bede, who, as he says, had some of the details direct from those who had studied under the saint. Though his episcopate was short, it was abundantly esteemed by the warm-hearted Mercians, for thirty-one churches are dedicated in his honour, all in the midland counties, and either in or near the ancient diocese of Lichfield. The first church ever built in Shrewsbury was named after him, and when the old building fell, in the year 1788, an ancient wooden figure of the patron escaped destruction, which is still preserved in the new church. The carver has represented him in his pontifical robes and a mitre, with a book in his right hand, and a pastoral staff in his left.

His well is shown at Lichfield. There was one in London called Chad's Well, the water of which was sold to valetudinarians at sixpence a glass. Doubtless, from the miracles alleged to have been wrought by mixing a little dust from his shrine with water, he got the character of patron saint of medicinal springs. At Chadshunt there was an oratory and well bearing his name. The priest received as much as £16 a-year from the offerings of pilgrims. Chadwell – one source of the New River – is, perhaps, a corruption for S. Chad's Well.

No writings of our saint have survived, but in Lichfield Cathedral library there is a MS. of the 7th century in Anglo-Saxon character, containing the Gospels of S. Matthew, S. Mark, and part of S. Luke, which is known by the name of Chad's Gospel.

Among the Bodleian MSS. there is an Anglo-Saxon homily for S. Chad's day, written in the Middle Anglian dialect, which stretched from Lichfield to Peterborough.

His relics were translated from the wooden shrine to the cathedral, when it was rebuilt by Bishop Roger, in honour of SS. Mary and Chad. In 1296, Walter Langton was raised to the see of Lichfield. He built the Lady Chapel, and there erected a beautiful shrine, at the enormous cost of £2,000, to receive the relics of S. Chad. This was spared by Henry VIII.

His emblem in the Clog Almanacks is a branch. Perhaps this was suggested by the Gospel, viz., S. John v., formerly read on the Feast of his Translation, which speaks of the fruitful branches of the vine. This translation was formerly celebrated with great pomp at Lichfield, on August 2nd.

As long as the virtues of chastity, humility, and a forsaking all for Christ's sake are esteemed among men, the name of the apostle of the Mercians ought not to be forgotten.

A beautiful legend formerly inscribed beneath the cloister windows of Peterborough, recorded the conversion of King Wulfhere's sons, Wulfade and Rufine, by S. Chad, and their murder by their father, for he had turned heathen again in spite of the entreaties of Queen Ermenild: —

The legend goes on to say that Rufine was baptized also by the saint. The king's steward, Werbode (who had been rebuked by the two princes for seeking the hand of their sister, Werburga), told Wulfere of their becoming Christians, and that they were then praying in S. Chad's oratory. The king took horse thither at once, and slew them both with his own hand. Stung with remorse, he fell ill, and was counselled by his queen to ask Chad to shrive him. As a penance the saint told him to build several abbeys, and amongst the number he completed Peterborough Minster, which his father had begun. This legend is told with very full and touching details in a Latin version printed in the Monasticon.3

The Latin version is this. King Wulfere, son of Penda the Strenuous, had been baptized many years before by B. Finan, and promised at the font, and again when he wedded Ermenilda, of the royal house of Kent, to destroy all the idols in his realm. He neglected to do so, and let his three sons, Wulfade, Rufine, and Kenred remain unbaptized. His beauteous daughter, Werburga, had been dedicated to Christ as a virgin by the Queen; yet, when Werbode, his chief councillor, and the chief supporter of idolatry in the realm, sought her hand in marriage, the king consented. The queen, Ermenilda, however, sharply rebuked him for his presumption. The brothers threatened him with their sore vengeance if he again preferred his low-born suit to their sister. Their disdainful words cost them dear.

While Chad was praying by a fountain near his cell, a hart, with quivering limbs and panting breath, leaped into the cooling stream. Pitying its distress, the saint covered him with boughs, then placing a rope round its neck, he let it graze in the forest. Wulfade came up, heated in the chase, and asked where the beast had gone. The saint replied, "Am I keeper of the hart? Yet, through the ministry of the hart I have become the guide of thy salvation. The hart bathing in the fountain foreshoweth to thee the laver of baptism, as the text says: As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."

Many other things did the saint set forth about the ministry of dumb animals to the faithful. The dove from the ark told that the waters were dried up.

The young prince replied, "The things you tell me would be more likely to work faith in me if the hart you have taught to wander in the forest with the rope round its neck were to appear in answer to your prayers." The saint prostrated himself in prayer, and lo! the hart burst from the thicket. The saint exclaimed, "All things are possible to him that believeth. Hear then, and believe the faith of Christ." The saint instructed him, and baptized him. The next day he received the Eucharist, and went home, and told his brother Rufine that he had become a Christian. The other said, "I have long wished for baptism; I will seek holy Chad." The brothers set out together. Rufine espying the hart with the cord round its neck, gave hot chase; the animal made for the saint's cell, and leaped into the fountain as before. Rufine saw a venerable man praying near. He said, "Art thou, my lord, father Chad, guide of my brother Wulfade to salvation?" He answered, "I am." The prince earnestly desiring baptism, Chad baptized him, Wulfade holding him at the font, after the manner taught by holy Church.

Then they departed, but returned daily to him. Werbode stealthily spied their ways and doings, and told their father that they had become Christians, and were then worshipping in Chad's oratory, adding that their conversion would alienate his subjects. The king set out in anger for the cell, the queen sending Werbode before to tell the princes of his approach, that they might hide. But Werbode only looked in at the window of the oratory, and saw them praying earnestly. He returned to the king, and told him that his sons were obstinate in their purpose of worshipping Christ. The king, pale with anger, rushed towards the oratory. He threatened them with his vengeance for breaking the laws of the land by becoming Christians, and bade them renounce Christ. Wulfade replied, "They did not want to break the laws, and that the king himself once professed the faith which now he renounced. They wished to retain his fatherly affection, but no tortures could turn them from Christ." The king rushed furiously upon him, and cut off his head. His brother, Rufine, fled, but his father pursued him, and gave him a mortal wound. Thus these two departed to celestial glory. Werbode was smitten with madness when they returned to the castle and told the murder in the ears of all. The queen buried her sons honourably in one stone tomb, and withdrew with her daughter, Werburga, to the monastery at Sheppey, and then to that of Ely.

The king, overcome with remorse, fell dangerously ill. The queen counselled him to seek out Chad, and confess to him. Wulfere took her advice, and starting one morning with his thanes, as if to follow the chase, his attendants got scattered from him, and he was left alone. Soon he espied the meek hart with the rope round its neck; he followed its track gladly, till he came to Chad's cell. The king, approaching the oratory, espied the saint saying mass; he dared not enter till he had been shriven. When the canon began, so great a light shone through the apertures in the wall, that priest and sacrifice were covered with such splendour that the king was nearly blinded by it, for it was brighter than that of the natural sun.

The saint knew what the king wanted, so when the office was ended he hastily put off his vestments, and, thinking to lay them upon the appointed place, unwittingly hung them upon a sunbeam, for the natural sun was now streaming through the window. He found the king prostrate before the door; raising him up he heard the penitent's confession, and enjoined him as a penance, to root out idolatry, and to found monasteries.4 He then motioned to the king that he should enter the oratory and pray. Wulfere, chancing to lift up his eyes, with wonder saw the vestments hanging on the sunbeam. He rose from his knees, and, drawing near, placed his own gloves and baldric upon the beam, but they immediately fell to the ground. The king understood by this that Chad was beloved by the Sun of Righteousness, since the natural sun paid him such homage.

B. CHARLES THE GOOD, M., COUNT OF FLANDERS

(A.D. 1127.)

[Hermann Greven and Molanus in their additions to Usuardus, Galesinius, Canisius, Saussaye, and the Belgian Martyrologies. Authorities: – A life by a contemporary, Walter, archdeacon of Thèrouanne, another life by Gualbert of Bruges, written about two years after the death of the count, and another by Suger, abbot of S. Denys, d. 1151.]

Charles the Good, Count of Flanders, the son of S. Canute, King of Denmark, and Adelheid,5 daughter of Robert the Frisian, was taken to Bruges after the martyrdom of his father, (see Jan. 19th), and received a careful education from Robert II., Count of Flanders, his uncle on his mother's side, who trained him to be a good knight, 'without fear and without reproach,' and at the same time to be a good Christian. Charles distinguished himself by his bravery in the Holy Land, and in the war carried on by his uncle against the English, and after the death of Baldwin VII., who succeeded his father, Robert II., in 1111, and died without issue, he was declared his successor by acclamation of the nobility and people, in accordance with the dying wish of his uncle. His elevation was not, however, acceptable to every party in the state, and his government, which began in the midst of plots, was brought to a close by one.

He was married to Margaret de Clermont, sister of the Bishop of Tournai, and of the royal blood of France.

On the sea-banks, in the midst of the sand-hills, living by piracy, and by fishing, were colonies of Flemings. Furnes is the centre of this district. It was held by Clémence of Burgundy, the widow of Count Robert II., as her dowry. She had married one of her nieces to King Louis VI., another to William de Loo, Viscount of Ypres, son of Philip, her brother-in-law. Consequently there were several ambitious and powerful parties ready to lay claim to the County of Flanders, and wrest it from the hands of Charles.

The Flemings of the sea-coast rose, at the instigation of Clémence, and were secretly favoured by the King of France; whilst, at the same time, William de Loo asserted his claim.

The feudal nobles desired to profit by these circumstances, to increase their own power. One of them, Godfrey of Louvain, married the dowager countess, Clémence. The Counts of Hainault, Boulogne, S. Pol, and Hesdin, took arms. Clémence took Audenarde, the Count of S. Pol invaded West Flanders, but Charles fell suddenly on them with an army, subjugated De Loo, deprived S. Pol of his castle, and the countess of her dowry, dispersed the armed men of Hainault, Boulogne, and Coucy, and as Walter of Thérouanne says, "The land held its tongue before him." The king of France was the first to strike an alliance with him.

These successes excited the mistrust of the king of England and the emperor Henry V. The latter, under pretext of a war against the duke of Saxony, assembled an army in August 1124, crossed the Rhine, and marched towards Metz, threatening to destroy Rheims, where pope Callixtus II. had lately excommunicated him. In this imminent peril, all the vassals of the king rallied around Louis VI. "The noble Count of Flanders," says the abbot Suger, "brought with him ten thousand brave soldiers, and if there had been time, he would have brought thrice as many." In face of these preparations to resist his invasion the emperor withdrew to Utrecht. On his death, all eyes turned to Charles, and the imperial crown was offered him. He refused it, as he did also the crown of Jerusalem, offered him by the Christians in the Holy Land. He now devoted himself to the administration of his country with great zeal. He enacted wise laws, and laboured to make justice prevail in all the courts of judicature. Nevertheless a vague uneasiness prevailed amongst his subjects. The sea had overleaped the sand-hills, fires had broken out and consumed certain monasteries, and an eclipse of the sun gave prognostication of further evils. The winter of 1125 was of unparalleled severity; ice and snow prevailed till the end of March, and no sooner had the fields and woods begun to resume their verdant tints, than furious gales and a deluge of rain dissipated the hopes of the farmers. A dreadful famine ensued. "Some," says Gualbert, "perished before they could reach the towns and castles, where food was obtainable; others died in extending their hands for alms. In all our land the natural colour of the face had become exchanged for the pallor of death. Despair was general, for those who were not themselves in want sickened with grief at the sight of such miseries."

In these calamities the Count of Flanders exhibited more greatness than if he had reigned at Aachen, or at Jerusalem. He exempted the farmers from their taxes and rents, and required them to house and feed so many poor. At Ypres he distributed 1800 loaves in one day. He forbade the consumption of barley for the manufacture of beer, that it might be used for bread, and he ordered the immediate sowing of such vegetables as are of rapid growth. The ensuing winter was also severe, but with the spring the distress gave signs of alleviation, for the crops were abundant, and in the autumn plenty reigned once more. During the stress of famine, Charles learnt that Lambert, brother of Bertulf, dean of S. Donatus, at Bruges, had bought up all the grain of the monasteries of S. Winoc, S. Bertin, S. Peter, and S. Bavo, together with all the foreign corn that had been brought into the ports from the Baltic, and was keeping it back so as to sell it at an enormous profit. Charles sent for Lambert and the dean, and bitterly reproached them. The Count sent one of his councillors, Tankmar van Straten, to examine the granaries of these two men, and they were found to be filled to overflowing with stored-up grain. Tankmar offered a reasonable price for the store, but it was indignantly refused by the avaricious men. He, therefore, by the Count's orders, insisted on their receiving it, and opening the granaries, distributed the corn to the starving poor. This aroused the wrath of the brothers, who had powerful friends among the people of Furnes, and to avenge themselves, a project was formed to assassinate the prince. One day, as he was hearing mass in a chapel of the Cathedral of S. Donatus, at Bruges, one of the conspirators cut off his arm with a hatchet, and another clave his skull. His body was buried in the Church of S. Christopher, but was afterwards translated to the Cathedral of S. Donatus, where they remained till the period of the French Revolution, when the cathedral was levelled with the ground. The relics of the holy martyr were, however, preserved with respect, and on March 2nd, 1827, seven hundred years after the death of Charles, were solemnly replaced above an altar in the Church of S. Sauveur, now used as the cathedral. The day of his festival attracts a great concourse of the faithful; those afflicted with fever especially come from all quarters to cure themselves by drinking out of the skull of the Blessed Charles the Good.