Alexandria throughout the
persecution of Valerian, one of the deacons, Eusebius by name, not
without danger to himself, prepared for burial the bodies of "the
perfect and blessed martyrs" (Eus., _H.E._ vii. 11. 24).

[207] _Tobiae._ The Greek of the Book of Tobit, followed by the
English versions, calls the father Tobit, and the son Tobias; the
Vulgate calls both Tobias. The text of chap. ii. is longer in the
Vulgate than in the Greek and English, and neither of the verses
(Vulg. 12, 23) from which St. Bernard here borrows words is
represented in the latter.

[208] Tobit ii. 12 (vg.).

[209] Cp. Gen. iii. 12 f.

[210] She is mentioned again in Sec. 11.

[211] Matt. viii. 22.

[212] Tobit ii. 23 (vg.).

[213] Prov. xxvi. 5.

[214] Ps. xii. 6.

[215] Cellach and Imar.

[216] Malachy completed his twenty-fifth year in 1120. See p. 130, n.
2. For the date of his ordination to the priesthood see p. 16, n. 2.

[217] For the canons of councils which regulated the minimum age of
deacons and priests reference may be made to the article "Orders,
Holy," by the late Dr. Edwin Hatch in the _Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities_, vol. ii. p. 1482 f. From a very early date they were
respectively twenty-five and thirty years, in accordance with the
statement of the text, though there were some exceptions in remote
places. The eighth-century Irish Canons, known as the _Hibernensis_,
prescribe the same minimum ages for the diaconate and presbyterate,
and add a clause, the gist of which seems to be that a bishop at the
time of his consecration must be thirty or forty years of age
(Wasserschleben, _Irische Kanonesammlung_, 1885, p. 8). As late as the
year 1089, at the Council of Melfi, presided over by Pope Urban II.,
it was decreed (can. 5, Mansi, xx. 723) that none should be admitted
deacon under twenty-four or twenty-five years of age, or priest under
thirty. But at the Council of Ravenna, 1315 (can. 2, _ibid._ xxv.
537), the ages were lowered to twenty and twenty-five respectively.

[218] Cellach would hardly have understood the need for this apology.
It is more than probable that he was ignorant of the canons referred
to. He himself was ordained, apparently to the priesthood, in 1105,
when he was under twenty-six, and consecrated bishop in 1106, when he
was under twenty-seven years of age. St. Bernard himself seems to have
been ordained priest when he was about twenty-five years old
(Vacandard, i. 67).

[219] In oth