V. Miscellaneous. 1. Exposition of Psalm civ. 17.^1407 In the Vulgate the second clause of
the verse reads, "the nest of the stork is their chief." The treatise was written in answer to Louis
the German’s question as to the meaning of these words. He begins with a criticism of the text, in
which he quotes the Septuagint rendering, the exposition of Jerome, Augustin, Prosper and
Cassiodorus. The meaning he advocates is that the nest of the stork surpasses that of the little birds
of which it is the chief or leader. The treatise is particularly interesting for its manner of dealing
with one of the so-called Scripture difficulties,
- The vision of Bernold.^1408 This interesting little story dates from 877, the year of Charles
the Bald’s death. Bernold lived in Rheims, and was known to Hincmar. He had a vision after he
had been four days at the point of death, which he related to his confessor, and the confessor to
Hincmar, who for obvious reasons published it. Bernold regained his health, and was therefore a
living witness to the accuracy of his story. In his vision he went to "a certain place," i.e. purgatory,
in which he found forty-one bishops, ragged and dirty, exposed alternately to extreme cold and
scorching heat. Among them was Ebo, Hincmar’s predecessor, who immediately implored Bernold
to go to their parishioners and clergy and tell them to offer alms, prayers and the sacred oblation
for them. This he did, and on his return found the bishops radiant in countenance, as if just bathed
and shaved, dressed in alb, stole and sandals, but without chasubles. Leaving them, Bernold went
in his vision to a dark place, where he saw Charles the Bald sitting in a heap of putrefaction, gnawed
by worms and worn to a mere skeleton. Charles called him by name and implored him to help him.
Bernold asked how he could. Then Charles told him that he was suffering because he had not obeyed
Hincmar’s counsels, but if Bernold would secure Hincmar’s help he would be delivered. This
Bernold did, and on his return he found the king clad in royal robes, sound in flesh and amid
beautiful surroundings. Bernold went further and encountered two other characters—Jesse, an
archbishop, and a Count Othar, whom he helped by going to the earth and securing the prayers,
alms and oblations of their friends. He finally came across a man who told him that in fourteen
years he would leave the body and go back to the place he was then in for good, but that if he was
careful to give alms and to do other good works he would have a beautiful mansion. A rustic of
stern countenance expressed his lack of faith in Bernold’s ability to do this, but was silenced by
the first man. Whereupon Bernold asked for the Eucharist, and when it was given to him he drank
almost half a goblet of wine, and said, "I could eat some food, if I had it." He was fed, revived and
recovered. Hincmar, in relating this vision, calls attention to its similarity to those told in the
Dialogues of Gregory the Great, the Ecclesiastical History of Bede, in the writings of St. Boniface,
and to that of Wettin, which Walahfrid Strabo related.^1409 He ends by exhorting his readers to be
more fervent in their prayers, and especially to pray for king Charles and the other dead.
- The life of St. Remigius,^1410 the patron saint of Rheims. This is an expansion of Fortunatus’
brief biography by means of extracts from the Gesta Francorum, Gregory of Tours, and legendary
and traditional sources, and particularly by means of moralizing and allegorizing. The length of
the book is out of all proportion to its value or interest. To the life he adds an Encomium of St.
(^1407) De verbis Psalmi: Herodii domus dux est eorum, ibid. col. 957-962.
(^1408) De visione Bernoldi presbyteri, ibid. col. 1115-1120.
(^1409) See , 169, p. 732.
(^1410) Vita Sanctii Remigii, Migne. CXXV. col. 1129-1188.