60. saint Remi's Protection of People and PropertySaints such as who is sometimes called Remigius after his Latin name, werenot thought to cure diseases only, but also to defend people and property againstviolent men. Hincmar of Rheims finished wñting his lengthy account of Remi's lifeand miracles in 878, but he had spent most of his archiePiscoPate enshrining thecult of Remi at Rheims and in Francia. He conceived of the saint as an activepunisher of all those who would tamper with the ProPerty of his church, for in theninth century most church ProPerty was thought to have been the gift of, or a giftto, the saints. Thus the real owners of the ProPerty were long-dead saints, who werequick to anger when thieves and noble bullies infringed upon their lands.

Source: trans. D. Herlihy, The History of Feudalism (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), pp.122-124;reprinted with permission.

In our age a peasant of the village of the episcopate of Rheims which iscalled Plumbea-fontana lived next to the royal estate which is named Rozoy-[sur-SerreJ, but he was not able to use his land peacefully either for harvestor for grazing because of the harassment of the residents on the royal estates.He frequently sought justice from the royal officials, but he was not able toobtain it. Then he took for himself some beneficial counsel. He cookedloaves and meat and he placed beer into jars, as much as he was able. All

these things he placed into a container which is called in the vernacular a

benna, and he placed it upon a cart. Hitching up his oxen, he hurried with

a candle in his hand to the basilica of Saint Remi. When he arrived, he

pleasantly surprised the poor with the bread, meat, and beer; he placed a

candle at the sepulcher of the saint and beseeched him for help against the

men of the royal estate who were harassing him. He also gathered the dust

from the floor of the church, as much as he was able, tied it in a cloth, and

Placed it in the same container. He placed a shroud above it, as is usually

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THE TIME OF THE THREE KINGS AND THEIR SON s

put upon the corpse of a dead person. With his cart he returned home.Persons he met on the way inquired what he was bringing in the cart, andhe responded that he was bringing Saint Remi. They all wondered at hiswords and deed, and thought that he had lost his mind. However, arrivingwith the cart in his field, he found there herdsmen from the estate of Rozoyfeeding animals of different kinds. He called on Saint Remi to help himagainst his oppressors. The bulls and cows began with the loudest bellowsto attack one another with their horns, and the he-goats to attack the she-goatswith their horns, the pigs to fight with the pigs, the rams with the ewes, andthe herdsmen dealt each other blows with sticks and arms. As the riot grewgreater, both the screaming herdsmen and the animals according to theirtype began to flee toward Rozoy with the loudest noise and racket, as if ahuge multitude of pursuers were beating them with sticks. The men of theroyal estate, when they saw and heard these things, were struck with a greatterror and believed that they had no more than an hour to live. Thus rep-rehended for their arrogance, they abandoned the harassment of this poorman of Saint-Remi, and thereafter the poor man held his belongings in peaceand without disturbance. And since he lived near the Serre River in a muddyplace, he put up with a great bother in his dwelling from snakes. Taking thedust, which he had brought with him from the floor of the church of SaintRemi, he sprinkled it throughout his house, and thereafter a snake did notappear in those places, where the dust had been scattered. By the evidenceof the miracles, we can accept as certainly proved that if, firm in the faith,we ask from the heart for the help of Saint Remi, we shall be freed fromthe attacks of the angels of Satan, who as a serpent deceived the mother ofthe human race in addressing her; and by the merit and intercession of SaintRemi we shall be freed from the wicked deeds of bad men.

Truly [Saint Remi], this holy follower of the Lord, did not punish allthings, so that his patience might be revealed, nor did he forgive all things,so that his providence might be shown. Although he does not in our timestake vengeance so frequently against wicked men, nevertheless he has notdesisted completely from the punishment of the presumptuous. Recently, acertain man named Blitgarius purchased from Bernardus, the custodian [ofthe church], a certain farm from the endowment of the church in the villageof Thenailles. From it he drove out with blows the servants of Saint Remi,and they called upon Saint Remi to help them. This same Blitgarius answeredthem in derision, "Now let us see how Saint Remi shall help you. You seehow he comes to your assistance." And in the midst of these words hegroaned with the loudest groan and swelled up to unbelievable proportions.Thus, all of a sudden, he gasped and was dead.

Having heard these things, with the fear of divine retribution in us, weshould carefully avoid blasphemy against God and his saints, taking care, lestwe treat cruelly the servant of the church.... Although in our times miraclesworked through His servant may not be so many or so venerable, still wemay be certain that the continuing help of his intercessions will not be with-drawn from his city or from us his citizens, as we read of Jeremiah, "This isa lover of his brethren and Of the people of Israel: this is he that prayethmuch for the people and for all the holy city of Jerusalem."