obbio, in the Apennines, where
his monastery, aided by the holiness of Queen Theodelind, was a mighty
influence in the conversion of Lombardy from Arianism. There, in 615,
he died, the prophet of his age, the stern preacher of righteousness,
the wise student, the faithful herdsman of souls. {57} Columban is a
great figure, of the chief facts of whose life there is no doubt. It
is not so with many others.

[Sidenote: S. Wandrille.]

S. Patrick belongs, we do not doubt, to true history; but there is no
doubt as to the richness of the legendary element in his life. Much
the same is true of S. Wandrille. Few Englishmen, we suspect, have
heard his name; but he was a great figure in an age which Mabillon
called golden in its religious aspect, the strange, wild time of the
Merwings, the seventh century after Christ. In 648 S. Wandrille
founded the abbey of Fontenelle, in the district of Caux. He lived
till a great age, his death being probably much later than 667, to
which year it has been assigned. His career affords a very vivid
picture of the monastic life of the time, standing out amid the
darkness of crime. He rightly emphasises the holiness and wisdom and
learning of the great bishops of the Merwing age. It was their work as
leaders, missionaries, statesmen in the highest Christian sense which
the monasteries were called upon to continue and perfect. The
monasteries were the refuge and the rallying-ground of those who fought
against the secularisation of the Church at the hands of the
Gallo-Roman aristocracy. S. Wandrille, born of the great Karling
house, was a leader among leaders, statesman among statesmen, monk
among monks. He was one who passed from a great though barbaric court,
where he had been a trusted official, into the strictness of monastic
training, and then into the solitude of secluded communion with God.
Such lives as his were the great attractive forces of the seventh
century; such retreats as the valley of Fontenelle were the centres of
Christian influence of the age.

{58}

Between these men and Gregory of Tours it might seem that there was
little in common. But there were others whose lives combined the
interests of the two, the interests of monk and statesman and bishop.

[Sidenote: S. Didier.]

Another great clerk of the seventh century who must not be forgotten is
S. Didier (Desiderius) of Cahors, at one time treasurer of Chlothochar
II, and of Dagobert I., the friend of saint