The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876.: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and ScienceVarious
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876.: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
Here the author again draws on Sulpicius Severus for a signal
miracle—nothing short of a raising from the dead. St. Martin commands
the dead Hermanric to arise and live; the youth starts up and clings
to the saint’s mantle, while the bystanders are dumb with fear and
awe. He comes forth, and, mounting one of his horses, seats his
deliverer on another and rides away with him, bidding his sister
believe in the almighty and only God of the Christians, and telling
his slaves that as they were to have followed him into Walhalla, so he
expects them the next day at the saint’s abode, to follow him in the
new way of life he has at last discovered. The end is easy to see:
Bissula becomes a Christian, renounces her hatred against the Billing,
and receives baptism with hundreds of her relations and slaves, to all
the latter of whom she and her brother give their freedom and certain
necessary possessions—in fact, almost portioning out their estate
between them. Bissula then marries Withimer, and they spend their
lives in trying to spread the light of the Gospel among their
fellow-countrymen, while Hermanric follows St. Martin and becomes a
monk in one of the first Frankish monasteries.
Among the most natural characters in the book are Eustace and Buffalo,
who delight the reader with their various shrewd sayings and their
dog-like fidelity to St. Martin. One or two curious facts have an
incidental place in the story; for instance, the derivation of the
modern German word for grandson—_Enkel_—vouched for by Simrock, and
which is a survival of the old custom of reckoning the two nearest
degrees of relationship by the two joints of the leg; the knee
signifying the _son_, and the ankle the _grandson_.
A very good point is also made in Withimer’s spiritual probation, his
penance in the cave with St. Martin, and his meekly submitting, after
a terrible struggle with his own pride and passions, to receive a
scourging from the saint, and to cut off his golden, flowing hair, the
outward badge of his sovereignty. His victory over himself and his
true humility are very beautiful. In the baptism scene it is
interesting to be reminded of the old formula of the questions
addressed to the catechumens, of which the following are specimens:
“_Forsachis [renouncest] tu diabolæ? … End ec [and I] for sacho allum
diaboles workum [works] en wordum [words] Thunaer ende woten ende
[and] allein them unholdum [unclean] the ira genotes [companions]
sint.… Gelobis tu [believest thou] in got alamehtigan [Almighty]
Fadaer [Father]?_”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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