Eberhard

ON BLESSED EBERHARD,

FROM COUNT OF NELLENBURG A MONK OF THE ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT,

OF SCHAFFHAUSEN IN SWABIA.

CENTURY XI.

Eberhard, from Count of Nellenburg a monk, founder of the monastery of All Saints in Switzerland (Saint)

D. P.

The dominion of the Counts of Nellenburg in Swabia, On the German bank of the Rhine bounded by the Danube toward the North, formerly ran eastward all the way to the bank of the Rhine; embracing also that place which receives the ships and boats coming from the Lakes Acronius and Venetus, to be unloaded there, since the greater waterfall of the Rhine forbids further passage, hurling itself down from three Germanic miles thence from the highest cliffs, from which most derive the name Schaffhausen, although the natives prefer to seek the etymology and coat of arms from sheep, called schaff in German. But whether houses built for the uses of boatmen or shepherds gave the first occasion for inhabiting the place, it is agreed among all that the celebrity is entirely from the monastery, which there began to be built in honor of the Holy Savior Jesus Christ and of all the Saints about the year 1000, and gradually gave its name to the growing city (as to many others), which, increased with wealth, and endowed with the privileges of an Imperial city, in a monastery built by himself gradually withdrew itself from the power of the Abbots; and at length entirely extinguished it, through the foul apostasy of the monks themselves from the Catholic religion. The same city for about two hundred years, an alliance having been entered with the Swiss cantons, is now counted to Thurgau, although situated on the German bank of the Rhine; and of whose position having greater regard than of recent alliances, we have preferred to ascribe it to Swabia. The ancient chronicle of the said monastery, he was venerated as Blessed. I know not where, was found by John Murer the Carthusian, and from it he chiefly transcribed the Life of Eberhard, who, having laid down his noble Countship and become a monk there, with the appellation of Blessed Founder was venerated, as is sufficiently proved by what is narrated in the same Life; and the title of a chapel, surviving many centuries, which afterwards passed to his appellation, and is called the chapel of Saint Eberhard. Nor do I doubt that the ancient martyrology of the same monastery would prove the same, if it were found; also the vows and prayers of those hastening to the tomb, if the ancestral religion had there persisted. No argument proves a more extended cult or commemoration of his name among the sacred offices: whence those who compiled the Benedictine fasti, Wion and Menard, never mentioned him; nor would Bucelinus have mentioned him on this day, unless he had found his Life in Murer's Helvetia Sacra. We would have preferred to give it here in the very words of that ancient Chronicle, and we will also give it later, if those are supplied to us from elsewhere: now, what we can, we render into Latin from the German published by Murer, and we desire that the ancestral faith to the city, discipline to the monastery, and veneration to the sacred bones, may someday be restored.

LIFE

From the ancient manuscript Chronicle of the place

as published in German by John Murer

FROM MURER'S GERMAN

[1] About the year of Christ 1004, in Swabia, a province of Upper Germany, flourished Eppo, Count of Nellenburg, rich in fields and wealth: who joined himself in matrimony to Hedwig ^a, daughter of the holy King of the Hungarians Stephen, Born of Eppo and Hedwig as parents, and niece of Saint Henry the Emperor through his sister Gisela; who, supported by such great relationships, meditated nothing else than the pomps of the world and the amplification of the fame of his family. Far different were Hedwig's desires and pursuits; and intent on God and divine things, she was free for prayers and multiplied alms: moreover, she had made it a habit to rise each night to recite the Psalter. When she had practiced this for several continuous years, Count Eppo once rose from the side of his wife, sleeping more deeply after such vigil and fatigue; and he brought the book from which she was accustomed to run through the Psalms to the kitchen and threw it into the fire, that he might chastise by that deed the piety he had been unable to restrain by words. The next day, the cook returning to his work, and these most pious ones found the book of his mistress placed upon the coals, but unburnt: which having been informed by him of the miracle, she ran up promptly, and took it, and not with difficulty understood by whose agency this had been done. Nor did Eppo dissimulate it, when he again saw the book safe; who pricked at heart, and acknowledging his fault before God and his wife, thereafter was no obstacle to her pious exercises; but rather he himself crossed over to similar things, and persevered in them to the end of his life.

[2] In the meantime a son Eberhard was born, and not long after Eppo the father died. Eberhard born, Hence no other care remained to Hedwig than to educate piously and religiously the offspring left to her from her husband, heir to so great wealth and possessions. Therefore, when he had attained the age suitable for learning letters and the liberal arts, she chose a certain foreign priest named Lupardus, and handed over the son to him to be instructed: afterwards she took a wife for him, Itta by name, from whom six sons were begotten, ^b Otto namely, afterwards Archbishop of Trier; Eggehard, a monk of Reichenau, and at last in the year 1071 Abbot of the same monastery ^c; Abbanus, who died in his first youth; then two others who, serving under Henry IV, fell in battle in the year 1075; after children received from his wife Itta, and finally Burchard, the future Count of Nellenburg. Hedwig, Eberhard's mother, seeing her family thus increased and established, bade farewell to her son and withdrew into the diocese of Mainz: and having built there a convent of nuns in honor of the Mother of God called Swabenheim ^d, she completed what remained of her life in holy conversation, free for herself and God alone.

[3] But Eberhard with his wife, although overflowing with earthly goods, yet not setting his heart on them, but striving to serve and please God; first made a pilgrimage to Rome to the thresholds of Saints Peter and Paul and to Compostela to honor Saint James: then inflamed more and more with divine love, when he saw that he had only one heir and successor left in the world ^e, Burchard, he determined out of the abundance of his possessions to convert, with the consent of his wife, a place for a monastery to be built some part to be built into a monastery of monks under the rule of Saint Benedict. And while doubtful about the choice of a place, by his own prayers and those of others he sought to know the divine will, he wished among others to have as a sharer in pious supplication a probably and simple man, a boatman by profession, who two German leagues below Lake Acronius ferried travelers from one bank to the other. This one, intent on nightly prayers for the business commended to him, taught by a heavenly vision, saw not far from himself and from the bank of the Rhine a great fire rising up, and in its midst a cross shining with golden splendor: at whose sight admonished that this was the place which the Lord had chosen, he did not delay to indicate the vision to Eberhard: who also finding the same most suitable for his purpose, first built there a chapel with three altars, in honor of the Lord's resurrection, which in the year 1052 on August 23 Leo IX ^f consecrated, the chapel afterwards being called Saint Eberhard's.

[4] and dedicating it in the year 1064 Then beginning to build the monastery, on the advice of the most pious priest Lupoldus, to whom he had committed the education of his son Burchard, in honor of the Holy Savior Jesus Christ and ^g of All Saints, when he had completed the work within twelve years, he established there twelve monks, according to the number of the holy Apostles of Christ ^h, and had it dedicated on the day of Saint Bartholomew in the year 1064 by Rumoldus ⁱ, Bishop of Constance; and endowed with revenues and possessions, committed it to be governed by Abbot Sigefrid, together with companions received from the ^k Hirsau monks. there under Abbot Sigefrid he established 12 monks. Finally, wishing to consult for the safety of the place thus founded, Eberhard again undertook a Roman journey with magnificent retinue, and committed the new monastery with its things and persons acquired and to be acquired to the protection of the Apostolic See, with Alexander II accepting it, and issuing the Bulls required therefor under the date of the year 1066.

[5] Moreover, on this Roman journey, Almighty God willed to prove the sanctity of his servant by a miracle of this kind. There was in parts of Italy a blind man, Setting out again for Rome

to approve, to whom in sleep had been revealed that from a certain German Count setting out for Rome he was about to receive his sight: accordingly he was assiduous by the road, and had a frequent question concerning those passing by, who they were. It happened therefore when the Count was passing by, with a crowd of those riding together, to the aforesaid blind man observing the passage of horses and asking who they were, it was answered that Germans were passing by, men ecclesiastical and secular, he illumines a blind man. attendants of a great and powerful Count from Teutonia, who was making a journey to Rome. Then the blind man with tearful voice began to implore the Count, that he would have mercy on him. But the Count, thinking he was asking for alms, ordered it to be given; but the blind man refused, asserting that he asked sight of the Count, not silver. Therefore following him to the inn, which had been prepared for the Count about to spend the night in that place; he prevailed on the servants, that they should save and give him the water with which he had washed his hands. And when he had washed his eyes with the same, his eyes were opened at once: who seeing and discerning all things clearly, praised God, and published the merit of his servant throughout the whole town.

[6] Returning, he heals his dying son. No less another event took place in Germany, in the person of his son Burchard. This one he had directed with some riders before him on some occasion, and he himself was following by the same road: but journeying thus, from the servants unexpectedly returning the father understood that he must hasten if he wished to see his son alive; for having been seized by a lethal disease midway on the journey, he could hardly be carried to the inn. Eberhard hurried up in haste, and bending his knees before the bed of the one lying there, The apostate Abbot Mangold first poured out prayers to God; then placing two pieces of wood in a basin, crossed in the shape of a cross, he ordered water to be poured over them, and from it he gave drink to his son, and at the same time restored his health, to the wonder of the sick man himself and all present. But these things were bestowed on bodies, above which must be valued the preserved salvation of the soul of Mangold, who, nobly born, and having for some time with praise lived in the family of Count Eberhard, had put on the monk's habit in the monastery of Saint George at ^l Stein on the Rhine, having at last become also Abbot of the place. But as though elevated to this alone that he might fall more heavily, after not many years, wearied of the regular life, at length he had returned to the world, habit and Order laid aside.

[7] He converts to penance To this one so miserably fallen, and shamelessly carrying himself around in secular habit, Count Eberhard once meeting said: "What, Mangold, will you answer to your judge on that day, when he will exact at once the account and the penalty of your perfidy and apostasy? Return, wretch, whence you turned aside: for you do not know when that hour shall seize you: this life is temporary and fleeting, but what follows is eternal." Pricked by these and similar words, he cast himself before the feet of the Count, humbly praying, that he might deserve to have him himself as intercessor, to recover the peace of the Church and of the Order; on this condition however, that with the good leave of the Abbot of Stein, on whose behalf, having piously died in the monastery it might be permitted him to remain in the Count's monastery of Schaffhausen, where he would prefer to live as the last of all than as the first in his own. Refreshed by these words, Eberhard, and embracing the man most affectionately, with great confidence of obtaining grace approached the aforenamed Abbot; and with him willingly assenting, Mangold resumed the habit and Order in the new monastery of All Saints, where exacting from himself severe penalties for the crime admitted, he lived in constant penance for several years, and at last happily rested in the Lord, being buried in the same place.

[8] After some time then, as Count Eberhard was spending the night in prayer, but enduring purgatorial penalties, and supplicating for the soul of the deceased Mangold, he appeared himself, and announced that he would have been damned to eternal punishment, had he not, brought back to the Order by the intervention of his prayers, begun to do penance; but for the gravity and multitude of the crimes committed in the world and in apostasy, he was gravely tormented in purgatorial flames; but now he prayed, that whom by his salutary admonitions he had freed from the fire of Gehenna, him he would now deign to redeem from that temporary fire by the suffrages of his prayers. Having said these things, he disappeared, and in the morning the Count narrated to his most pious wife Itta what he had seen and heard concerning Brother Mangold. Both therefore for his aid began to be more intently occupied with prayers, after various pious works he makes pilgrimage to Compostela. alms, fastings, and other religious works, also caring that many expiatory sacrifices be made for the dead man: nor content with this, they made pilgrimage to Compostela in addition for the same cause. But when they had returned to their homeland, Mangold appeared again to the Count as he was praying in a nocturnal vision, giving thanks that through his aid he was already enjoying eternal beatitude in heaven. Then Count Eberhard, exhilarated in spirit: "Come, Mangold," he said, "tell me one thing: whether my works please God." "They please," he answered, "and will please more, if you persistently add good to good, constantly progressing."

[9] He had now reached the fifty-fourth year of his age, then seized with desire for religious life, and having gradually drawn away his mind from the care of earthly things, he had transferred it to cultivating virtue; when, stimulated more vehemently by these words of Mangold, he determined altogether to send farewell to the world; and the dignity of Countship transferred to his son, to consecrate himself to God in the monastery of All Saints. Therefore to his most beloved wife he explained how Mangold, asserted to heaven, had appeared to him, and had affirmed that his works were pleasing to God, and that therefore it was his decision to offer the small remaining span of life to him, that he might deserve to please more; he asked therefore that with her good leave it might be permitted him, having abdicated all temporal things, to take on the yoke of obedience in the monastery which they had built. At this speech Itta was glad, with the good favor of his wife and answered that this was the very thing which with long desiring mind she had desired, that freed from marital servitude she might more expeditiously serve God: let him therefore do, by God's good help, what he had conceived in mind, about to have her as a wife also a sharer in the same purpose ^m. Said, done: Eberhard presented himself to Abbot Sigefrid, and submitted his neck to his obedience, he becomes a monk and dies in the 60th year of his age. and living six more years in it, with great assiduity in prayer, fasts, and good works, after sixty years of life completed, on the 7th day of April he was called to his reward, and joined to God, whom he had always loved, in heaven.

[10] Abbot Sigefrid with the convent, also his wife and son, with a great crowd of nobles of both Orders, he shines with miracles. buried him in the new monastery of Schaffhausen. But at his tomb God began to perform frequent miracles, showing to many sick and needy cure and aid: of which I shall presently attempt to explain three, just as before I expounded three miraculous works of the same man while still living in secular life. First however it must be said that, on account of the brightness of such divine works, his body was lifted from the crypt under which it had been buried, and placed before the altar of the holy Cross: afterwards it was translated to the new church built by Abbot Sigefrid and Count Burchard ⁿ, where over it in the middle was placed a great and beautiful stone, having elegantly carved the effigy of his body. He punishes the violator of his tomb. Upon which when a certain noble had once stood somewhat irreverently, and admonished would not depart, the falcon which he held in his hands died on the spot upon the Count's tomb; and such great terror invaded the man, that he could scarcely find the exit from the church, leaving the dead falcon in it.

[11] He frees one possessed, A certain possessed man the relatives had led around on pilgrimages to various places of the Saints celebrated for miracles, but with God deferring his cure for manifesting the merits of his servant, they nowhere found salvation for him: but when they had understood the marvelous virtue of his tomb, they brought him bound in many ways and in every way struggling; and they rejoiced soon to be heard, leading back with them their patient sound and free. Another, so deprived of the use of his arms, that he would take no food unless put into his mouth by another's hands; when he approached the tomb of the Blessed, seeking health, he felt his hands at once restored to him, and fit for any work. We read also of a certain man from Schaffhausen mute from birth, and he grants speech to the mute. who when he had conceived in mind that he must seek cure from the blessed man, and offer one coin upon the tomb; with full faith he placed the coin itself upon his mouth, and letting it slip from his mouth upon the tomb, in that very instant he felt the bond of his tongue loosed, and began to speak as perfectly as if he had never been impeded.

ANNOTATIONS.