ON BLESSED WOLPHELM,
ABBOT OF BRAUWEILER NEAR COLOGNE.
IN THE YEAR 1092
PrefaceWolphelmus, Abbot of Brauweiler near Cologne (Blessed)
G. H.
Brauweiler, or Brunovillare, a notable monastery of the Order of Saint Benedict, is about eight miles from Cologne to the west, on the slope of a forest and mountains, which are commonly called Filha; founded in honor of Saint Nicholas in the year 1024, Of the monastery of Brauweiler Abbot I Euo, by Ezzo or Erenfridus, Count Palatine, Standard-bearer or Primipilus of the Church of Cologne, and his wife Mathilda, daughter of the Emperor Otto II. To this Saint Poppo the Abbot appointed Euo as the first Abbot, as in his Life Everhelm reports on January 25, chapter IX. Richeza, daughter of the founders, Queen of Poland, living in exile at Cologne, augmented the said monastery with many riches, and the old building being destroyed, built a new one on stronger foundations: whose church Saint Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, consecrated in the year 1061 under Tegeno the second Abbot. II Tegeno. Tegeno was succeeded by Blessed Wolphelm, the third Abbot; whose Acts Lawrence Surius on this day published, written by Conrad, a monk of Brauweiler, his subject and for the most part an eyewitness, with the title of Saint, which Gelenius also uses in the Calendars of Agrippina in these words: "Also of Saint Wolphelm, Abbot of Brauweiler near Cologne, III Blessed Wolphelm. and once Canon of the same Metropolitan church." Of the same Canisius in the German Martyrology, The Life is given here. Molanus in the Auctarium of Usuard, Wion, Dorganius, Menardus, and Bucelinus in the monastic Martyrologies make mention. And because at Gladbach, a monastery in the territory of Jülich, he was Abbot before he was transferred to Brunovillare, Theodore Rhay in "Illustrious Souls of Jülich, Cleves, etc." published in 1663, wove for him an ample eulogy from the Life. Not content with these things, we inquired about his cult, letters having been sent to Cologne to Hermann Crumbach, a learned man of our Society, and skilled in the Ecclesiastical matters of Cologne: who replied on May 29 of the year 1671 that he had twice been
with the Abbot of the said monastery, and had learned that he is considered Blessed, but not however honored with proper Office or collects, nor are his Relics placed on an altar, because he is not yet inscribed in the Catalogue of the Saints. Hence we prefix only the title of Blessed.
LIFE
By the author Conrad, a Monk of Brauweiler, and for the most part an eyewitness.
From Lawrence Surius.
Wolphelmus, Abbot of Brauweiler near Cologne (Blessed)
BHL Number: 8987
By the author CONRAD contemporary.
PROLOGUE.
[1] To the most vigilant Pastors and Rectors of the Lord's flock, namely a Everhard of the monastery of Brauweiler, and b Herimann at Cologne of blessed c Pantaleon, Conrad the lowest of all under the regular purpose, wishes the crown laid up for the watchful by the Lord. The author writes at the Abbots' request. You exhort, most excellent Fathers, us to set forth in writing the life of Blessed Wolphelm the Abbot, according to the foreknowledge granted to you by God, providing from this for the faithful no small grace of edification. For you are eager that examples of his virtues, brought to the notice of readers by letters, may produce institutes of good living for pious minds. But why, most illustrious fathers, has it pleased you to enjoin this on us, when neither knowledge suffices, nor eloquence of speech supplies? Moreover, in commanding, your authority is so great, that although we fear what you demand; yet to deny you altogether we reckon to be wrong. But let it be permitted, under the example of a visible thing, to declare to you more fully by what delay we have so far been held in suspense. You know that without doubt the sight of the eyes, when reflected, succumbs to the splendor of the sun: how much more the spark of our knowledge, if it shall have presumed to attempt higher things? But lest by delaying too long the testimony of his sanctity we seem to withhold it, although we seem to succumb defeated by the mass, yet to your wishes according to the ability of our strength we determine to obey. Also the fact that each one read to have offered in the tabernacle of the Lord according to his own measure; one gold and silver, another purple or twice-dyed scarlet, another reddened ramskins, gives us daring or confidence to presume this. But it is well with us if we have offered the hair of goats. But all these things, since they are allegorical, as Catholic Doctors teach, distinguishing kinds of graces in the various offerings, in the hair of goats, in certain places they wished to express the words of praises. Whence, because through the gift of knowledge or the abundance of merits, we cannot attain that perfection, figured by gold and silver, purple or twice-dyed scarlet, and the other offerings; we desire at least to offer the hair of goats, which is, the calves of our lips: so that in the tabernacle of the Lord we may somehow happen to be found useful, lest we appear altogether empty in the sight of the Lord. The Utility of the Lives of the Saints. And so, the acts or triumphs of illustrious men being handed down in the monuments of letters, a threefold advantage of utility is found to be in them, while by the zeal of emulating piety very many are formed in so many ways by their examples. For they are instruments of good works, the way of those erring, the pardon of the penitent, the hope and crown of those persevering. By these three kinds of differences the kingdom of heaven truly suffers violence, while the errant strives to be corrected, the penitent to be justified, the persevering to be saved. Also the divine praises are raised up, while by the example of the faithful, the merits of the Saints are recalled to memory. But lest by repeating more things I cause the reader weariness, through all these things the discourse tends to this, that I may teach that the merits of the Saints always receive increase by the wishes of the faithful, as though reborn: while supernal grace provides fruitfulness to their minds, and supplies the grace of bearing fruit. Therefore, about to explain the series of the life of the holy and most blessed Abbot Wolphelm, we intend to follow nothing else at all than what happened to be heard from suitable witnesses, or what for several years divine grace has granted us to behold, as we ministered or stood by him. Of which, if the faith of anyone should hesitate, there stand with us as many suitable witnesses, as many Brothers from the company of that time as now remain alive.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
Birth, studies, monastic life, and presidency of monasteries.
[2] Therefore the glorious Confessor of the Lord, Wolphelm, born in a the Ribuarian district of an illustrious lineage, by the preventing grace of God who freely illumines every just man, Born of illustrious lineage, adorned the line of his generous progeny with the title of sanctity. Who rightly, according to the etymology or idiom of the language of that region, is known to be called b Wolphelm: because for the camp of the Lord against the most savage wolf, that is, the devil, fortified with the helmet of salvation, he was about to engage. How efficaciously, how strenuously for the thing, for the time, striving to make his name agree with his deeds, he was zealous to perform, the reader will be able more fully to find in its own place. But his father, by name c Frumold, as is clear from the expression of his name, flourished in all ways upright in action. He took a wife suited to him by lineage and manners, by name Euesa: whose marriage was, according to the Apostle, honorable, and the bed undefiled: because they did not contract marriage for the sake of fulfilling lust, but for the grace of begetting offspring. Heb. 13:4 Who, famous in lineage, and among their own distinguished by a certain privilege of innocence, were the most devoted worshipers of the Christian religion, powerful in the dowry of faith, fervent in love, lovers of piety, doing good, according to the Apostle, to all men. Gal. 6:10 But Lady Euesa, that I may explain the illustrious family and glory of the high blood, had descended from the stock of a certain most illustrious Count, by name Sicco, whom both the ample extents of estates and a numerous family of both sexes, but also the boldness of a military spirit, commended.
[3] This one, in what is higher than riches and nobility, pursued justice and equity, more illustrious by the sanctity of his life, than which nothing is found more acceptable to God; he labored with all efforts, that as the extent of the generation, so also by the works of piety he might make it illustrious. Whence without doubt it is implied, that this just man and of such famous merit was born from modest and pious parents: although we read many of the just to have been born of impious parents, just as roses are begotten from thorns. But concerning his genetrix, whom, by the example of Rachel, it is certain to have borne this one for her son of sorrow and of the right hand, in the blessing of the seed of Abraham, there is no doubt that she with Anna the mother of Samuel deserved as a return a loan by God: for by a like vow she is found to have offered her son to the Lord. Concerning whom it is also plainly to be thought, that she was no less pleasing in the tabernacle of the Lord because of the commerce of marriage, than if she had not at all been joined to the marriage bed. For hence rather the title of her praise seems to be propagated, that she brought forth to the state of the whole Church the fruit of such a well-smelling flower, rather than that she is known to have drawn from the antiquity of her ancestors a most illustrious branch of her lineage. Finally, the Almighty rather approves the mind than the condition of each one: while free and slave we are truly one in the Lord. But only that liberty is proved grateful to God, beyond all the glory of the world, and that nobility no antiquity shall take away, if we ourselves have done any good, any right thing, or if we have deserved to have successors zealous for such things.
[4] And so Blessed Wolphelm, ascending the first line of human growth, God being his guide, passed from infancy to a boyhood of good nature: in which age he both professed the discipline of the liberal arts, and by the urging of his family, at Cologne at d the shrine of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles, in boyhood he is made a Canon of the Cathedral church, was associated with the body of the congregation. At which point of time, after the younger Otto, e Henry the second happily administering the scepter of the Empire, a man most powerful in military affairs, but most skilful about Ecclesiastical disciplines; f Saint Heribert, now most known by fame of sanctity to the whole world, presided over the holy Church of Cologne as Bishop. Who, the most blessed Pontiff, now wearied by the old age of his last years, had blessed the servant of God Wolphelm, as yet a little boy in body and in malice, offered to him according to the custom of the Christian religion, as the Lord had blessed the Gospel little boy set in the midst, and through the anointing of sacred chrism and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, had transferred him to the lot of the sons of God. But lest that blessing of so great a man could be judged empty or void, or certainly by chance, in him, touched by the warmth of the Holy Spirit, he had begun with all the desire of his mind to aspire to the contemplative life: He is confirmed by Saint Heribert: and he would have satisfied his wishes, if the immaturity of his age had not prevented it. But the more, by the natural process, he was taking increase of strength, the more day by day did the desire of his holy fervor grow. But he was, as chaste in body, so sober in mind: possessing such grace of countenance, that somehow his look was thought angelic. Besides these indications of divine piety, in the learning of the Scriptures he earned such efficacy, that whatever he noticed once in reading he retained perpetually: which for the most part, as we believe, was done by the hidden judgment of God, lest in any way the fullness of knowledge should be lacking to the most blessed man. Therefore, beside the pages of the divine volumes, whatever the poet sang, the eloquent orator discoursed, the philosopher thought out, he penetrated with a certain pen of deeper sense.
[5] But although so great a knowledge had distinguished the young man, yet never from this was he puffed up by the vice of boasting, he excels in virtue and knowledge, mindful of the Apostle saying: "Be not seduced by the empty wisdom of this world." But such gravity, such maturity of manners was in him, that it was given to all to understand openly, that he was a vessel of election. But no reverence did he allow to be shown to him for his carnal nobility; judging it more useful for the love of Christ to show himself a humble person, than to have a degenerate mind. He also avoided silly fables and the wantonness of youths; he abhorred the venomous tongues of flatterers: he restrained idle speech, the levity of the eyes, and of every motion of the body, by the anchor of gravity. Considering therefore and weighing this advance of his in the disciplines of all virtues, the master of the schools rejoiced to have spent the zeal of doctrine on him whom he saw to have reached the summit of perfection. And so choosing him to be more closely joined to him, and more honorably preserved, he took him as companion and partaker of his labor, sharing with him the burden of the scholastic discipline to be ruled. Therefore there fervently burned in him magnificently the zeal of the continuous exercise of the Scriptures: and because the treasure of his knowledge was not kept hidden, he became, the fame spreading, most celebrated everywhere. Hence not less from afar than from nearby did a frequency of studious Clerics seek him out, desiring by present hearing to experience, how great the wisdom of the true Solomon flourished in him. But as they could not conclude him in any argumentation, so neither could they propose the proofs of any subtle proposition, which were not quickly dissolved with a fitting historical or allegorical exposition.
[6] And so, this producer of new and old things from the good treasure of his heart, noticing how great is the impossibility of serving two masters; that he might be able with a freer mind to cleave to the one God, whom to serve is to reign, he determines utterly to renounce the world. Book 2 of Dialogue According to that Gregorian saying therefore, withdrawing his foot, which as it were he had placed at the entrance of the world; he becomes a monk at Saint Maximin, the chains of earthly pleasures being broken, impatient of delays, he undertook flight, secretly departed, and sought Saint Maximin in the city of Trier, where under the rule of the venerable Father g Bernard more amply and perfectly at that time he knew that the monastic life was fervent. There
at length made a partaker of his long-preferred wish, he professed himself a monk; and, an old man clothed with the wings of the Seraphim, rejoices to contemplate God, resting on the lofty throne of glory, with the tranquil gaze of mind. Lest this seem improperly said, let the reader know that by Roman authority it is decreed, that by the habit of that Order the signification of six wings is expressed. Two wings with which the height of the whole body is veiled, two with which the breadth of the arms is covered, but two higher ones joined to each other by the covering of the head. Which because the holy authority of earlier times has defined, posterity has no argument to refute it, since the quality of the same kind of habit, when inspected, also seems through all to have the form of the cross. Which cross Blessed Wolphelm, as another Paul or Antony, not only assuming externally, but also binding indissolubly to the inner man, freed from the burden of the world, was following the footsteps of Christ, drawing all things to himself with hands extended on the wood of his exaltation.
[7] Meanwhile the people of Cologne, to whom it seemed no light thing to be without a man of such great sanctity, having been sought here and there, he is sought again by the people of Cologne at length hearing that at Trier he was zealous for an angelic way of life, conferred among themselves how they might seek him back. Hence they approach h Herimann, in those days driving the chariot of God at Cologne; they make known to him what they desire; and why, their city's distinction having been transferred elsewhere, he does not seek it back, they piously with severe indignation cry out against him. i It was then to be seen that the chief men of the toga'd city again lamented the departure of their Gregory: because no greater confusion of the Romans at his departure, than the question of the people of Cologne at his absence. Nor was it unjust. For as he, conforming to his name by good works, watched over his own and his neighbors' salvation; so this one too, by performing the works of faith, was most worthy of the love and veneration of all. But the Archbishop, according to that saying of the Wise One, "He who is feared by many, must necessarily fear many"; hastens to comply with the importunities of his subjects: but suspecting that the people of Trier would be slow to return so laudable a man of life, he judged that he should be sought with a summons made in the hearing of the whole Church. At that time there was eminent among the elders of the present kingdom of heaven, k Henry, Abbot of the monastery of Saint Pantaleon, who was the uncle of the mentioned and more often to be mentioned man. He, gladly receiving indeed the recall of his most beloved one, he is called back by Archbishop Harimann: but unable to bear it with equanimity, sought the Bishop's presence; set forth what he felt needed to be done. The Pontiff, fleeing to appear a neglecter of sound counsel, hastens to direct letters sealed with the impression of his seal to Trier, namely to Father Bernard, under whose rule he was living. He, considering that it made no difference whether he had snatched away a sheep belonging to another from the hand of its shepherd, or contended against his will to retain it; gave humble assent to so great a legation, although not without grave sorrow at losing so great an ornament of his flock.
[8] Such a young man, most desiring the monastic life, suffering the violence of the people of Cologne, is led into the presence of his Pontiff: by whom, as a son, he is received with the due affection of paternal love, and because of the assumed habit of angelic dignity, is commended to the providence of Henry his uncle. Who seeing him clinging to the accustomed zeal of solitude, holding in distaste the frequency of those coming together from everywhere to hear and see, led him out of the city, and set him over a certain Abbey of his rule, by name l Gladbach. Of whose benefits how strenuous a care of his sagacity he spent, He is put in charge of the monastery of Gladbach, no one of those who have gone before could, if credulous, doubt.
[9] Meanwhile the same man of God, whose mind was abroad from the appetite of earthly things, and without body was swift to tend to the society of the supernal citizens, undertook the long preconceived pilgrimage; and sought Rome, he goes on pilgrimage to Rome, for the sake of fulfilling the vows of prayers at the confession of the Apostles. But because, placed in his own things, he had been accustomed to immolate daily the unique victim of our salvation, he did not wish to cease from this even while traveling. Nor indeed did the delay of the journey seem heavy, which was done solely for the love of the heavenly country. But it happened that some companions of that pilgrimage, in human fashion sighing for the sweet fields of their native soil, leaving him with a few necessities, went away, as if from this they would have a more expeditious way and return. Rom. 9:16 But in vain they strove against the saying of the Apostle, who says, every advance is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that has mercy: for thus by the hidden will of God the holy man's delay profited, and thus their hastening was delayed, that the arrival of all was in one hour. For those expedited travelers had not yet entered the thresholds of the Apostles, when the man of God with a following step trod their tracks: not so much showing by words as by deeds, that his way was not in any man. Who, having admired the omnipotence of God experienced in this event, the business of the pilgrimage being finished, returned to their own; from that time onward holding the man of God in a place worthy of reverence.
[10] Now when Herimann, successor of Pilgrim, having stripped off both the infulae of the Pontificate and life, with the equal assent of the people of Cologne was substituted Archbishop m Anno of blessed memory: who, as a great Priest in his days, wishing to please God, burned with wonderful love of religion; he is put in charge of the monastery of Siegburg. spent no little in the construction of monasteries, gathering from various places emulators of the law of God for their habitation. The other monuments of his pious solicitude he adorned with the construction of the monastery of n Siegburg; and, after knowledge of his sanctity had been received, he took care to place the often-mentioned man over the place. But seeing the man zealous for divine contemplation entirely inexperienced in active life, most necessary for such beginnings, he led him out to a place more suitable to his solitude: for nearby was the Abbey of Brauweiler, afterwards of Brauweiler. which, since it was widowed of a Pastor, he commended the care of it to the providence of the holy man, which he could easily fulfill without detriment to his purpose.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The heresy of Berengar opposed.
[11] In those days France was being disturbed by Berengar of Tours, who was asserting that the Eucharist, which we take on the altar, is not truly the Body and Blood of Christ. Whence against him, and for him, much was disputed by many in words and writings. Against whom also there stands a letter of this most blessed man, He writes against the heresy of Berengar, published to a certain Meginhard, Abbot of Gladbach, firmly supported by the assertion of truth on all sides: who as a son to a father consulted the father in writing about the definition of this question. Which although it is long to append, yet looking to the benefit of readers, we have thought it not unbecoming to insert in the present little work: that, brought to the notice of posterity, hence, his sincerity of faith being known, the faithful may beware lest sometime they be entangled in errors of this kind. But this is the manner or text of the letter.
[12] "By the grace of God Wolphelm the Abbot to fellow-Abbot Meginhard, greeting. The milk of spiritual doctrine which you asked of me, you have more abundantly heaped for yourself from heaven by faith and humility: by faith, because what is not in me, you believe that almighty God can work in me; but by humility, because, with merits and wisdom lacking, you do not abhor to venerate in me the gray hairs and the dignity of order. O how fitting it is, that while that which inebriates harms, you should desire as a remedy what deinebriates. But there is harming a certain inebriation of the heresy of Berengar, whose peril of inebriation let us turn away, and let us approach to breasts better than wine. And soon, that with Christ helping we may be able to destroy that assertion, which strives to maintain that he did not come to the disciples after the resurrection with the doors closed; flowing from the breasts of mother Church, let the Gospel of John suckle us. 'When,' he says, 'it was late that day, the first of the Sabbaths, and the doors were shut where the disciples were gathered, Jesus stood in the midst.' John 20:19,26 And a little lower: 'After eight days his disciples were again within, and Thomas with them: and Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst.' Behold between Berengar, that the Lord did not enter with the doors closed, and between John, that he did enter, since there is a controversy; he prevails, to whom, saying, 'We know that his testimony is true,' the whole Church applauds. For if the Gentiles, when they close books, applaud those whom they judge to be received; much more truly does the Church bear testimony to this Gospel, for which, before it was written, she sent before prayers and fasting. Id. 21:24 Let Berengar therefore know that these things are sufficient for him; to which, since they are from God, man cannot contradict.
[13] "And so next I shall come also, with the Lord's help, to that in which he speaks blasphemy against the sacrament of the Eucharist. Prov. 26:5 But because Scripture teaches that one must answer a fool according to his folly; the very words of blasphemy being meanwhile suppressed, one must run ahead to its source, so that, if the Lord grants us to block it, the corruption of this blasphemy may cease from flowing down to us. But the vein of this spring is, that he does not think rightly of the sacrament of the Lord's Body
and Blood: and while to look at bread and wine in them he has the eyes of the body; to look at Flesh and Blood in the same, he does not apply the eyes of the mind. But we, to sharpen our vision, and by sharpening to make progress by which we look upon these things, that we may obtain the tradition of this truth once received, let us exhort ourselves in this way: If he who said, and they were made, and commanded, and they were all created; if he, I say, said of this bread, 'This is my body'; and of the wine, 'This is my blood'; it is necessary altogether to be so. For these mysteries alone are not separated from others; which, as God said, were made, or, as he commanded, were created. But there is one and the same God, first forming the world, then in this sacrament reforming his image. For thus one would make man, and another redeem him; in redeeming he would assume to himself more honor: and so God was going to redeem by himself, and man could only be redeemed by himself: because namely nothing would profit man to be redeemed by right, whatever other than by putting on man God should accomplish; so that from this it is clearly evident that one and the same, God and man, is the Redeemer of man. Therefore altogether it is necessary to be so, which, with God saying or commanding, cannot not be.
[14] "Behold, by the authority of the New and Old Testament we prove these things: to which Berengar adds a third, which, no less than 'the third Cato fell from heaven,' we reject. Come on then, after the two Testaments, this third; and for that reason third, because it is alienated from them, in the words of the author himself it speaks thus: 'If mice have eaten the consecrated Body of Christ, not for that reason does Christ in them, and they in Christ abide, nor shall they have eternal life.' O if now in the underworld the tormentor of Horace were sitting, mocking this enemy of the Church with these words:
'The mountains labor, a ridiculous mouse shall be born.' On the Art of Poetry
We thought that this man, exalted among mountains, was laboring to bring forth something great, when behold we see him summon mice from caverns for his help. Now breaking off this middle irony, against Berengar and for ourselves let us exhort ourselves, thus saying: If this body, about which we are treating, eaten by the Apostles and by all the elect, who alone so eat it, neither failing when eaten by the upright or the wicked; that Christ may abide in them and they in Christ; and not Judas and all the reprobate, into whom after the morsel of bread Satan enters, and there is made a far different conjoining of Satan entering and of the reprobate, than that which is of Christ and the elect (For nowhere has he laid hold on the angels, but he has laid hold on the seed of Abraham) If, I say, this Body thus eaten by the elect and conjoined to them, with them also being conjoined to the same, receives itself whole and unharmed, living and entire, to the Father; much more from Judas and all the reprobate, even more from mice and from other filths of the world, is it gathered back into its kingdom without diminution or contamination of itself. For even this invisible sun, which is created and not omnipotent, draws back to itself its rays sent into sewers and other filths of the world without any pollution. But this Body, But these do not partake of his grace. after communion has been fulfilled in the Catholic manner, receives itself whole and unharmed, living and entire, to the Father. For so the Church of Achaia testifies that blessed Andrew the Apostle said: 'After all the people of the believers have eaten the Flesh of the Lamb and drunk his blood, the Lamb, who was sacrificed, remains entire and alive: and although he has been truly sacrificed, and his flesh has truly been eaten by the people, and his blood has truly been drunk; yet, as I said, he both remains entire and immaculate and alive.' Therefore this Body, receiving itself living and entire and unharmed from those to whom as partakers he is partaker, much more from those who do not partake of his grace he gathers into his kingdom. This meanwhile I think suffices for your charity, until we see if it is necessary to add something to these. But yet both what I have said, and if anything I shall say, I commend to your prayers and to those of all who think piously of me: because although the detractors of Jerome are dead, I consider the author of such detraction to be living."
In such a way this veteran soldier, armed with the weapons of justice, namely with faith, hope, and charity, set in the battle line of the Lord, most unconquered in his place attacked the perfidy of Berengar. With how great devotion he did this, the prayers and tears which he poured forth testify: to the end that the seduced might come to themselves, the Catholic faith might stand unstained, and might not deviate from the right path, stained by any depravity.
CHAPTER III.
The allod of Cliteno recovered. The enmities of Archbishop Herimann patiently borne.
[15] These things thus being first tasted, let the pen turn to describe what labors, nay, if it is right to say it, persecutions, he bore for the good of his Church, namely by name Cloteno: The allod Cliteno how it was conferred on the church and taken away, is to be briefly indicated: because the reason is not fully noticed whose origin is unknown. The Lady Richeza, whose parents built the monastery of Brauweiler from the foundations, being an emulator of their faith and devotion, made the churches of God heirs of her earthly possessions, that she herself might deserve to become a partaker and heir of the heavenly kingdom. She therefore gave to blessed Peter at Cologne Comburg and Saalfeld, with all their appendices: but to Saint Nicholas at Brauweiler the villa called Cloteno, with all its revenues. Which donation, made under the testimony of many probable persons, the present Lord Bishop Anno corroborated and authorized by his authority, and, that through the ages it might stand unshaken, condemned violators and robbers with perpetual anathema. But when Lady Queen Richeza paid the debt of death, while she was being brought to be buried in the monastery of Brauweiler, as she herself while living had arranged (for she had also designated a place there for her burial), by the order of the aforesaid Archbishop Anno; her body is forcibly retained, and in b the church, which he himself had erected from the foundation in honor of the blessed Mother of God ever Virgin Mary, transferred to the church of Blessed Mary, she is buried. Which being done, he conferred the mentioned allod Cloteno on the same church, with those objecting to whom, by the ardor of justice, this violence was grievous to see. So much was the prudent and most diligent man at that time surrounded by the counsels of the wicked: nor could his mind suddenly be recalled from what he had begun; indeed by whose nod even then the affairs of the kingdom were disposed.
[16] These things being thus accomplished, with the hour of his death now at hand, he asks it back from Saint Anno when sick, he began to be troubled by the grave discomfort of infirmity. Then Blessed Wolphelm, coming to him for the sake of visiting, among the words of consolation inserting mention of this matter, admonished him with pious solicitude to expiate this guilt, to remove this injustice; adding that unless he changed his committed deed by amendment, a pernicious peril threatened his soul. To whom he, as he was a man of noble mind, having kindly received the admonition; knowing him to be a just and holy man, humbly commends himself to his prayer, promising that shortly he would either return the same good, or restore another by reciprocal exchange for the same. Gladdened by these promises, the servant of the Lord returns rejoicing to his own. But, alas, it happened otherwise than he had promised: for being prevented by c an untimely death, he died, and with his life in mid-course, left unfulfilled what he had promised. Therefore, what we have learned from our elders, namely the contemporaries or disciples of the most blessed man, we have faithfully set forth with a running pen: now let us relate those things which were done in our times and which we ourselves saw, in the order of his deeds.
[17] After the passing of the venerable Archbishop Anno, Lord Hildolph, not without injury to the people of Cologne, obtained the insignia of the Prelacy: and his successor Hildolph, who on this same matter was often approached by the venerable Father. He, warned by the congregation of the aforesaid place, replied that on no account would he take away from the holy Mother of God what a man of such merit had conferred through his devotion. Then the man of the Lord, seeing himself to profit nothing with the Archbishop, through his legates was eager to approach the Royal magnificence, and to proclaim the whole order of the matter done. Then the fourth d King Henry, afterwards Augustus of the Romans, who at that time was strenuously governing the monarchy of the kingdom, having learned of the proclamation of this matter, promises that he would be present with every aid: that indeed he bore the deed gravely, but never, while he lived, would he permit it to be stable. also by the authority of the Emperor Henry interposed Noting also that the reputation for goodness of Lord Archbishop Anno could be no little obscured by this transgression of laws or justice, mindful of the old friendship of the man (for he had been educated or nourished by him), he orders Lord Hildolph, his successor, that Cloteno be quickly restored to the monastery of Brauweiler. But when he answered nothing certain to these things, but rather from day to day redeemed time by delay, the legates, not counseled according to their vow, but frustrated in hope, returned. Then the man of the Lord, destitute of all human counsel, what to do, whither to turn, was doubtfully fluctuating: but he asks help or counsel from him who alone knows how to succor in perils and necessities.
[18] Then it came into his mind that nothing would be more excellent, nothing more advisable, than to appeal to the Pontiff of the Apostolic See on this matter. and of Saint Gregory VII the Pope, Made more calm by this inspiration, he quickly dispatches legates to the Apostolic man, then by chance staying in the regions of the Alps. Who, when before the Chief men of the Senate and the Judges of the Roman Church, they clearly in the words of the Pope set forth one by one what had been done by Archbishop Anno concerning the often-mentioned Cloteno; amazement with no small admiration seized the minds and hearts of all. Then the Lord Pope Hildebrand, who is also e Gregory, by the authority of blessed Peter the Apostle through his letters announces to Lord Hildolph, his successor, that under the appearance of piety, being a defender of impiety, Cloteno, violently taken from the church of Brauweiler, he should no longer suffer to be unrevoked. "God," he says, "O son, letters sent to Hildolph: does not need anything to be offered from injustice to himself: because, as we read, such victims from robbery are made to him, as if one were to slay a son in the presence of the father. We have indeed recognized our brother Archbishop Anno as a doer of many good things: but yet in this part he is least to be defended as not having erred, while what he took away from blessed Nicholas, he judged a pleasing holocaust to the holy Mother of God, with the Lord saying through the Prophet: 'Because I am the Lord loving judgment, and hating robbery in holocaust.' Ecclus. 34:24, Isa. 61:8 Nor is it right to be believed by the faithful that the mother differs from the will of the son: since it stands plainly that it is proper and common to both, to will the same things and not to will the same things. But you, lest by defending injustice you seem to offend God, take from the midst what
Bishop Anno, though good in other things, here badly counseled committed: lest it be both a detriment to his crown, and an occasion of fault to you."
[19] He incurs greater indignation: The paternal admonitions of this sort having been received from the authority of the Apostolic See, the mind of the aforesaid Pontiff Hildolph was more turned to fury, than provoked to justice or mercy. Finally he summons the chief men of the Church of Cologne, complaining that he had been defamed and accused before the Apostolic man through the man of God. Then the most gentle man, humbly opposing these objections: "Let there be brought forth," he said, "O lord, into the midst, if it please you, the testimony of the accusation: if I cannot excuse myself, from those things by which I am accused by you, let me then at last be worthily convicted of having deserved offense." The Bishop therefore, holding the letter of the Lord Apostolic in his hands, hands it over to be read in public, thinking that by its reading all would be armed against the servant of God in contradiction. Which being recited, many agreed that nothing worthy of offense had been done. But a certain Bezelinus, guardian of the house of blessed Peter the Apostle, with others, who had a mind rather to disturb the matter than to determine it fairly; when they could find nothing else to object, they assert that the Pope could not be consulted on this matter without their own counsel. While the servant of the Lord could with an easy answer refute this objection, from the hatred of the Bishop raging more than from just judgment, he is injured, calumniated; and treated with insults and contumelies, otherwise than had been worthy for so reverend a man to suffer, He bears injuries patiently: finally also with terrible oaths he threatens that he would take away the staff of pastoral care. Then the blessed man, most patient in injuries, strengthened by the power of constancy, bare of fear, replied undaunted to the attempts of his adversaries (for the mind of the just man did not know to fear, which was tortured by no consciousness of fault): "With divine clemency accompanying us, we do not fear here today to incur prejudice, bearing a pure conscience, entirely innocent of the whole charge. This saying seems fulfilled, where it is said, 'the just man shall be confident as a lion.'" Prov. 28:1
[20] While the man full of God was most efficaciously speaking these and similar things, all his rivals wondered at the grace of his mouth and the constancy of his mind, and as it were a certain night and darkness were poured into their minds. What they should do, whither they should turn, they doubtfully wavered; grieving that they had been consumed by vain labor, not finding in what part they might catch him in work or in speech. In these pressures of troubles and straits among the chief men there especially favored the blessed man Bertulphus, an upright man, Provost of the church of blessed Andrew the Apostle; and a certain Wigmann of Heversbach, a military and noble man, but also notable in eloquence. These two, having him in the midst, as once those sent from heaven to Maccabeus, for the defense of justice were not afraid to attack injustice; so much so that neither by threats nor terrors could they be shaken, nor could they be broken from their purpose by any gift. They therefore insisted manfully by the Apostolic authority, He receives Cloteno back: asking that judgment be made for the church of Brauweiler, according to the command and legation of the Apostolic man. By whose voices and insistence the Bishop not a little exasperated, with grave indignation says: "Have Cloteno for yourselves: it will be mine, both to avenge my injury, and to receive more useful things given for Cloteno." And so the word snatched from his mouth, the legates are dispatched with speed, to claim the same good.
[21] These things thus being done, the Bishop orders the man of the Lord to meet him at f the castle of Neuss, with all intent, He is summoned to Neuss, that with no helper or defender of his resisting, he might more easily depose him according to his wish. But there is no wisdom, no prudence, no counsel against the Lord. But as long as that adversity pressed, so long did the devotional love of the Brothers not cease to entreat the Lord without ceasing with the supplication of the seven psalms and the litany, that he would grant them to find joy out of sorrow, gladness out of tribulation. The servant of the Lord, therefore, knowing that a safe defense cannot stand by man, with the Psalmist saying, "It is good to hope in the Lord, rather than to hope in princes"; trusting in the help of the Lord, cheerful and rejoicing he begins the journey to which he had been commanded. Ps. 117:9 (sic) Arriving therefore at the place, with no small multitude of the poor gathered, by works of piety and mercy he began more attentively to commend himself to God. And when they had sat down in the upper room of a certain house, and the servant of the Lord, with his own men ministering necessities, was carefully going about; suddenly the upper room collapsed, and that whole multitude with the man of God by falling came into the underground cellar. Whom immediately no small part of the house following crushed: but by the providence of God, through the merits of his servant, inflicted injury on none. And so the citizens, aroused by the crash of such great noise, in the ruin of the house he is found unhurt with the others fly up from everywhere, and not without great wonder draw out safe those whom now they had believed to have perished. But a certain one beyond the others who had fallen and been crushed more dangerously, while he was already being wept over by all as if dead, being drawn out is found not injured in any part of his body. And also the cup-bearer of the man of God, by name Godecho, at the very hour holding in his hands two earthen vessels filled with wine, fell together with those falling: but, wondrous to say, he suffered no loss either of himself or of the vessels or of the wine. Which wonderful deed it therefore pleased the divine clemency to show, that it might be made clear to mortals, how great a merit that holy man was with him.
[22] But the Bishop, who had compelled him to come there, divinely, and he is permitted to return: as is believed, restrained, was in no way then able to be adverse to him. For the divine providence worked in this wondrous way about his servant, lest he be oppressed by the judgment of mortal man, whom he had disposed to magnify with so great a wonder. Hence not extinguished, but more sharply kindled, was the fire of the aforesaid Bishop's fury. For although he then allowed him to depart, yet again he orders him to return to him at Cologne on an appointed day. Meanwhile, as we mentioned above, with the Brothers solicitous for him in vigils and prayers, the servant of the Lord is present unexpectedly. Who, I ask, can unfold the floods of eloquence, what tongue the joy then made in common? For not without merit was the humility of the flock glorying in the presence of its Pastor, whom the Lord had glorified by the attestation of admirable power.
[23] At that time a certain g Hartmann, Abbot of h Deutz, while one night he had indulged in sleep, saw such a dream, certainly a presage of future things. He saw through a vision a certain man of excellent form, venerable in countenance, by Altmann the Abbot admonished through a vision decently adorned with Episcopal insignia, going forth from the church of Brauweiler, and directing his way to Cologne. Whom preceding, he sees blessed Abbot Wolphelm with a company of Brothers following in his footsteps, repeating the seven psalms with litanies more often modulated in voices. But when it was come to the doors of the bedchamber of the resting Bishop, the doors being bolted, at the impulse of the preceder's staff, they were opened quicker than said. These being thus entered, the preceding leader, approaching the couch of the reclining one, with grave animadversion inquires why he had dared to practice such rash things against him. The speech finished, with the staff which he was carrying in his hand, for the vengeance of the injury he struck him heavily on the head. And so the Abbot, roused from sleep by fear, considered the servant of the Lord certain from divine protection and the consolation of blessed Nicholas. Nor was the dream at all false or empty, while what the Brothers had been seen to have done in psalms and litanies, this the Lord deigned to reveal to him through the vision. The exhibition of the work also gave sure faith to the vision: for at one and the same moment, when this one saw him struck, the Bishop himself felt himself oppressed by disease. In such a manner therefore, divinely checked, his adverse intent was frustrated in its effort: for the disease growing stronger, he understands he will soon die Hildulph. after a few days he i died, and the chair of the Prelacy k Segninus, a pious man, obtained. Let it suffice to have remembered these things thus: now let the discourse turn to describing the following of his deeds.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
The church adorned. Reading of Scripture. Almsgiving, hospitality, and other virtues.
[25] This servant of the Lord therefore, forgetting what was behind, stretching himself with all his strength to what was before, by the example of the Prophet David, saying, "Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place where your glory dwells," set about adorning the house of God with every variety of beauty: which because he conceived with a most devoted mind, He adorns the Church: he brought to completion with wonderful effect. Ps. 25:8 Finally, to touch on all things briefly, by his insistence or in his time, the condition of the church of Brauweiler, within and without, was raised with various ornaments of painting or of building or also of mosaic work. He also expressed the text of each work with excellent verses, so that the full content of the whole material might be clearly evident to the inquirer. It is worth while, not to keep silent also about this, that every year the man of the Lord used to have the pages of the New and Old Testament entirely unrolled in reading: but the four books of the Gospels, since it was not fitting to complete them in that place or in that order as the rest, He takes care that the Bible be read every year, the Gospels four times: he established that at the four recurring times of the year, in the four regions of the cloister, each should be recited by each Deacon. With what regard for utility or affection of devotion he did this, is clear from the following verses composed by him on both Testaments. In which he adds, for each year in completing both, a cause of utility not to be despised, touching also on very many necessary things, now suddenly and decently changing persons, now announcing the salvation of the elect through scourges, now commending the sweet taste of the Scriptures, and finally declaring the twin nature in Christ as the medicine of the human race. These things we have therefore pre-tasted, so that when it comes to such passages, the reader may be able to run through them undaunted, because he will remember to have already learned it.
[25] Widely diffused thus the Ecclesiastical custom / exercises itself in both Testaments of the Almighty, / that it may read both these, and also complete them every year, / as in the week the ode of Psalms is closed. / But as hence the state of singing psalms, thence of reading stands, he composes a poem on the utility of such reading. / that the reading may profit, let the preface never be lacking, / by which with the lock opened, it is revealed to every volume: / Let it open up, so that what the abyss cries to the abyss may be admitted. / But his grace gave to the Clergy to be admitted,
Who prepares hence documents for the peoples through the minister himself: / But to all equally he does not reveal the inmost things. / Yet who in the meantime does not refuse the interior things? / Hence the Angel suspends the striking sword, / The blow of a lightning inflicted too high does not hurt, / Not the burning fire, nor the horrid face of a demon, / From captive senses the dire angers depart. / The vast plague of disease, which often comes upon the world, / Either does not come, and more quickly departs by praying. / That the chosen sons the father wishes to be prepared, / to be touched by blows, and afflicted by fleeting punishments, / By which they are to be deterred from the harmful covenant of the world; / But God does not withdraw the use of these gifts from them, / But rather through the blows shows himself to be father. / If this rite be legally established for them, / that so psalms be sung, as we have said, and be read, / the utility is evident outwardly, a higher one lies hidden within. / He who is led in here will taste the gifts of the fruit. / To whom the Lord gives a mind knowing how to taste / the fruit of greater flavor than the tongue can open. / But there will not be one who expresses this taste in writings: / The one tasting knows more, how sweet is the grace, / Which the cell of the sacred Scriptures preserves, / And which wishes to be diffused through the regions of the world: / By which the human race may be healed in this medicine. / Which the compact of two natures accomplishes: / While God there begets as father, here the unwedded mother bears; / Nothing thence is brighter in heaven, nothing hence is clearer on earth; / By which twin species this medicine is composed. / Christ begotten from the Father as God: but as man born of the Virgin. / Who is God with the Father, and also true with the kindly Spirit, / With sins forgiven to us, may he open his pious bowels, / While he justly judges ages through examination. Amen.
[26] These little verses of the blessed man I have therefore thought useful to insert into this work, that as the simpler delight in the pasture of plain running prose; so the more perfect, more carefully searching out spiritual things said, He commends alms, hospitality, may be refreshed with their spiritual taste and fruit. But more often in the assembly of the Brothers, disputing and persuading about the salvation of souls, among the manifold propositions of virtues, he would thus commend the grace of alms or hospitality: "It is fitting," he said, "as it is written, to have a good testimony from those who are outside: and not to forget hospitality, since we read that some pleased, Angels being received in hospitality. Whence I especially admonish you, Brothers, to spend care on the reception of the poor and of guests: because assuredly whatever is conferred on them with faithful devotion, is bestowed on Christ, who wishes to be received in the poor, to be gathered in the guest. Heb. 13:2 And therefore I have brought in especially necessary the grace of hospitality or alms; because I consider that neither the place nor its inhabitants can be propagated except by alms and constant prayers."
[27] "But, most beloved, while you see a spark of any good kindled in you, do not, I beg, wish to ascribe it to your merits: since, as it is written, 'It is neither of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.' and humility. For almighty God, by inspiring, prevents us to will good: and by aiding follows, that we may be able. Rom. 9:16 For otherwise vain would be our effort, unless the divine power cooperated. But thus with grace going before, and good will following, what is of the Creator's gift, becomes of our merit." With these and similar exhortations watering the hearts of the Brothers more frequently, he was provoking them to follow piety. But watching diligently to gain souls, he was eager to bring forth nothing in words, which he did not strengthen by examples, lest the cleanness of his life should differ from his tongue. In this order certainly he avoided the company of hypocrites, who have indeed the words of the Saints, but have not their life: and those whom they beget by speeches, they do not foster by examples: and those whom they edify by words, they destroy by manners and life. For the blessed man not only persuaded with his tongue, but also by examples, manners, and life showed to his subjects, whatever almighty God has commanded to be observed by his faithful.
[28] But his care for the poor had always been the greatest. Whence with provident dispensation he added to the hospital tithes and vineyards, that the necessities of food might be supplied to them without money. He himself shining before others by example He was continually in battle against vices: because the mind raised to virtues was not inclined to vices. He so abhorred covetousness or avarice, the root of all evils, that besides the common and simple food, he took nothing at all for himself that was special. He was eager rather to be loved by the effect of piety, than to be feared: whence boasting and pride he undoubtedly spurned. But wishing to detract from no one, to hate no one, the torches of wrath or envy being extinguished, he chose to love all with fraternal love; of various virtues. always cheerful, always glad, bearing in the cheerfulness of countenance how sincere and pure was his affection both toward God and men. But although he was suspended in continual contemplation, yet he was near to each one in compassion, not at all bending his mind from contemplation, while piety was fervent in work. So namely in likeness of the heavenly animals, with eyes before and behind, he had been bound by the love of both virtues: so that while he was seen intent on each, yet he did not lack the property of the other.
[29] Thus he bore himself, who possessing nothing dearer preferred God, loving God with all the affection of heart and mind, but every Christian as himself: He excels in the love of God and neighbor: preserving innocence in simplicity, concord in charity, modesty in humility, censure in the severity of discipline. Toward those acting well he did not wish to appear as Prelate, but as equal and companion: but against the vices of the delinquent, gentle in correction, he exercised the privilege of his promotion. But who can express in words with how great discretion he strove to temper all his judgments, with how great justice to moderate them? For when for any fault correction was to be applied to anyone, first descending into himself, according to that of the Apostle, "If a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted"; as if the fault of his own guilt he wept over that of another. Gal. 6:1 Thus indeed the mind of that breast devoted to God cultivated itself with every kind of piety, eager to rejoice with those rejoicing, to weep with those weeping, plainly a gentle and just man, thus made all things to all. He succors all: For whom grieving did he not grieve with? Who at his sight did not change sorrow into joy? Who inflamed with anger, by his speech was not mitigated? Who smitten by unjust thought, was not cured by him healing? Who asked to be consoled, and did not find consolation? Who can express the force of words, the efficacy of speeches? Who can unfold piety, who can narrate charity? In which he had been so rooted and founded, that although he was not without any virtue, yet he stood as a special cultivator of this. Not slothfully remembering in his mind, that as much as he was the Prelate to subjects, so much was he occupied with greater cares; he was zealous in every way to please God through contemplation, and to administer solemnly the cares of external things through suitable persons.
[30] Thus more freely free for the Lord according to his vow, provident on both sides, he looked out for the flock, within by his own vigilance, without by suitable providence. And because he was of wonderful gentleness and discretion, having used great discretion, knowing that strictness, if it exceeds measure, begets savagery; and excessive piety brings forth dissolution of discipline: between both he used such great discretion, that neither indiscreet strictness should become for his subjects the occasion for refusing labor; nor should excessive exhibition of piety be an immoderate relaxation of discipline. So indeed by the example of the holy Fathers he established the steps of his actions, that he in no way allowed his own action to flow out beyond the limit of justice. Hence indeed I would call such a man happy and rightly blessed, who strongly held the vigor of ecclesiastical discipline, and yet never deserted discretion, the mother of virtues.
[31] in every kind of virtues Whose manners or acts to touch on in summary: he was of a praiseworthy life, discreet and useful in word, provident in counsel, adorned in manners, mellifluous in affability, merciful and kind; prone to pardon, slow to anger: by the affection of piety, stooping to all the needs of the wretched, according to blessed Job, he was father of the poor, consoler of mourners, helper of orphans; he did not despise the needy, nor did he dismiss the poor without a covering; some he refreshed with the word of consolation, others he relieved with the help of piety. Job 29:12,16 and 31:19 From infancy he learned to fear God: for mercy had come out of the womb with him, and grew. The ark of his heart was always full of good will, his hand never was empty of gift. He here won for himself the patronage of the poor before God, making for himself friends of the mammon of iniquity, who would sometime receive him into the eternal tabernacles. But lest he should seem to love the world more than right, he used the world only for necessity, not for superfluous delight. For excluding harmful pleasures from his mind, he emulated the Apostolic traditions, namely to chastise his body and reduce it to servitude, that, made thin, it might become a vessel fit for heavenly disciplines of sanctification: for he knew that the mind cannot be enjoyed by legitimate command, unless the motions of the flesh are entirely subjugated. 1 Cor. 9:27 By this rite of sacrifice he showed himself in the inmost places of his heart a living victim, holy and pleasing to God; while every day, with the most sacred mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, through the grace of compunction, he slew himself as a holocaust.
CHAPTER V.
The virtues of his brother and sisters and of a certain Burchard, a familiar. The miracles of Blessed Wolphelm during his life.
[32] There was to this most blessed man a full brother, a Frumold by name, and two sisters who were nuns, of whom one by name Oswenda, Bertha his sister writes the Life of Blessed Adelheid, was a woman of wonderful simplicity and innocence: but the other, called Bertha, shone most of all in the knowledge of letters. She b wrote the Life of Blessed Adelheid, first Abbess of Vilich, with a very elegant style, and left much fruit of her religion or knowledge in the same place. Of whose aforesaid sister, namely Lady Oswenda, Oswenda another sister heals a despaired sick man: it is pleasant to report a miracle done in our times, most worthy of all praise, memory, and veneration. A certain Brother from the monastery of Brauweiler, by name Udo, was suffering from such a bad infirmity, that all were forced to despair of his safety: for his whole body pitifully swelling, with the health of all his members lost, he seemed similar to a trunk rather than to a human body. And, what is wont to be especially a sign of death, no remedy applied to him could profit; with the Lord, as we believe, wishing to show, that the graver the disease, the more powerful is the Almighty to be believed a physician. And when his only funeral was being handled, he is seized by a slow slumber, and he sees in his sleep Lady Oswenda, already possessed of the light of immortality, standing by him, and with the affection of one compassionating, with her hand smoothing his whole body, lightening the force of pain: then, having entered the oratory adjoining the lying one's bed, three times with bent knees she adored, and thus, impressing the sign of the holy Cross upon the sick man, disappeared. At once divine power followed: for after a few days he recovered, entire health being received. Whence there was no doubt, with him opening what he had seen, that by her suffrage of merits, he had been drawn out of
the borders of death. For his sickness had been so immense, that from the sole of the feet up to the top of his head there was no health in him: but with the whole skin of his body drawn away, as if stripped of the old man, he was newly clothed with a new skin together with health.
[33] But the aforesaid brother of Blessed Wolphelm, namely Lord Frumold, Brother Frumold goes on pilgrimage, stripped of the arms of earthly warfare, refused to be entangled with them any longer, that he might serve God more expeditiously. Seizing therefore the zeal of pilgrimage, lest he be an exile from the heavenly country, for all the rest of the time of his life far and wide, to earn the patronages of the Saints, he was zealous to exile himself, content with only one little servant as companion: to whom however in turn, as another Martin, he more often used to minister. Which manner of divine propitiation, he continually performing with bare feet, we so often saw him have bruised soles, that by no reason could he admit shoes. It was also his solemn custom, so long as he stood by the divine office in the church, in every way to avoid anyone's conversation: but standing, or prostrated on the ground praying, he obtained such abundance of tears, that he left the pavement wet, as if soaked with a shower. in great sanctity of life. Possessing this grace of compunction through divine clemency, he deputed it to be the guardian of the other virtues in himself: because no fault whatsoever knows how to dominate him, whose mind is carefully pricked to lamentation. Who could doubt this most faithful servant of the Lord, whose fulfillment of commandments provides such evident testimony to his merits? For although he completed his course in the peace of the present life, he yet fulfilled martyrdom, being eager to have the world crucified, while he crucified his flesh with its vices and concupiscences, and faithfully following the Lord, stood as a pilgrim to the world. This one, joined, as we trust, to the assemblies of the just, rests in the church of his own possession, buried. Let these few things brought forth suffice for the testimony of the sanctity of the most blessed Father Wolphelm and Frumold the brothers.
[34] At that time there was a certain man noble by birth, but more noble by manners, by name Burchard, of prefectoral dignity, but also most powerful in arms, who was the brother of the most illustrious man c Emehard, Bishop of Würzburg. Burchard a more noble man, This man, not a deaf hearer of the Gospel, "If you wish to be perfect, go; sell all that you have, and give to the poor; and come, follow me"; leaving all the things which temporally he seemed to possess, he caused Kanerberch, his fortified castle, to be consecrated to the Lord as a place of prayer. Matt. 19:21 In this way, although he could have been rich in the world, he chose to be poor with Christ: clothed in plebeian garb, he traveled through the places of the Saints, diligently seeking the conversations of the servants of God. Whence also brought to the acquaintance of the servant of God Wolphelm, he was held by him in the greatest veneration: and as once the soul of David was bound to the soul of Jonathan, so the love of God united both. he is instructed by Saint Wolphelm, From this mutual affection of charity therefore, being accustomed to visit him frequently, he rejoiced to receive the sweetest honeycombs of the divine word from his mouth. But he wondered beyond measure at such an abundance of the divine word granted him from heaven, that as from an overflowing river a stream, so from his honeyed throat the divine speech flowed. But what wonder, that a mind always fixed in heavenly things, was able to treat of divine things more subtly? That we may therefore pursue the order of the matter, the Lord willing to reveal to the pious disciple what great perfection was hidden in the master, such a vision in the nocturnal silence is divinely declared to him. He saw him therefore, whom Tartarus fears, the abyss worships, the hosts of heaven adore, and by him sees Christ being ministered to into whom the orders of angelic dignity desire to look: this one, I say, he saw placed in a bath, reverently cherished, washed, and wiped by the hands and office of the most blessed Wolphelm: where also the twelve Apostles standing around seemed to give assistance to the one ministering. That most illustrious man therefore hastened to transfer the vision shown him from heaven through a certain monk by name Meginhard, a brother quite familiar to him, to the notice of the man of God. Who with a shrewd mind considering the force of the dream, began diligently to investigate what this vision seemed to portend. He understood therefore openly, that he was being admonished, vigilantly to keep the tenor of his good purpose; that Christ should be ministered to in all his members, according to his voice saying: "What you have done to one of my least, you have done to me." Matt. 25:40 But the man loved by God rejoiced that he had pleased the supreme head of the elect by the works of piety: but desiring to carry out in acts the series of the vision, in the Lord's place a bath is prepared for a needy one, in whose service each of those things is performed which the order of the vision had demanded. When these had been duly completed, the man going out clean and whole in all his body, he was entirely adorned with new clothes. From which time he deserved to obtain such grace, that he also deserved to be a performer of wonderful works.
[35] By him a blind woman is given sight. For at that very time there was a certain woman in the territory of Brauweiler, by name Golda, who grieved that she had incurred the blindness of both her eyes. And when it pleased the illuminator of all to aid her through the merits of his servant, in the silence of the night she enjoys such a vision. It seemed to her while lightly sleeping, that she was standing by the man of God Wolphelm celebrating the solemnities of the Masses; and after the completion, she washed her eyes with the washing of his hands, and wiping them with the fringes of his garments, she received the long-desired light. Which vision being brought to us, to the servant of God, hurrying to the divine mysteries, we humbly suggested; and we begged that he would feel compassion for the poor woman. Who did not assent, saying that this was not of his merit, and that faith is not to be lightly given to dreams often deceiving: but "if," he said, "this vision is of itself, for the second and third time may the Lord deign to reveal it." And so with heart contrite and humbled, with him engaged in fasts and prayers, the same vision, which had appeared to the woman first, appeared a second and a third time. What more? At length the man of the Lord was conquered by our insistence, and she is admitted secretly, ordered to stand before the doors of the little church: because it had not been his custom easily, except for a certain cause, to admit the frequency of women. And so, the solemnities of the Masses duly performed, as the vision had taught, she washed, wiped, and soon clearly seeing returned. Then the holy man, not wishing to be raised up by human favors through the power of this deed, mindful of the Lord's precept, commanding his disciples, that before the time of the resurrection was completed, they should unfold the order of the vision to no one; he most strictly forbade us, in no way to reveal it while he was still alive, to disclose it for no necessity.
[36] The man of the Lord therefore, day by day abounding in the abundance of virtues, unceasingly sighed for the joys of heavenly life, He himself aspires to heaven: which his happy spirit now rejoices to have deserved in the presence of his Lord. For as long as he lived in the body, he inhabited the world in body, not in mind: preferring to have his mind fixed there more, where he knew joy was to remain without end. Whence also rightly he could say with the Apostle: "Our conversation is in heaven." Phil. 3:20, Heb. 13:14 And this: "We have not here a lasting city, but we seek one to come." Therefore with an unceasing burning love of the heavenly country, among other and other exercises of virtues, he had such insistence in prayer, that although he flourished in all virtues, he yet seemed to possess this more principally. From whose constancy this also grew in him as a devotion, that every year, while according to the custom of the holy and universal Church the Lenten fast was observed, he would visit not only the surrounding places, but also at Cologne everywhere by prayer the places of the Saints.
[37] But because the mention of this thing now occurs, it pleases to relate a great peril, rather a miracle, which happened to us returning to Cologne from Deutz. We had sought to pray at the sepulcher of the blessed and glorious confessor Heribert: about to return, we boarded the vessel; unmoored from the shore, we were sailing quite prosperously. The wave had already taken us farther in, when behold suddenly an intolerable tempest having arisen, the quiet of the Rhine, broken, is disturbed from its lowest beds: and the waves redounding on themselves, like prominent rocks, seemed to hang over the heads of those sitting in the boat. And so the boat slipped this way and that with the wandering waves, from the peril of drowning, and now hanging on the top of the wave, now the wave gaping opened the earth among the waves, and with the sailors troubled by fear of death, the sound stuck in the throat of the voice. With us so surrounded by such great peril, I approached the man of the Lord, sitting in the rear part of the ship, and after his custom meditating I know not what secret, and wholly ignorant of those things which had happened to us, and announced that death was imminent in every way. Who immediately flying to the known protections of prayers, most devoutly implores the suffrages of the Saints, the supplication of the litany being imposed. Then with frequent interposing of the holy Cross, he began to sing, "Savior of the world save us"; "who," he said, "by the cross and blood have redeemed us, help." He then exhorts the men, their strength resumed, to row steadfastly, to be struck by no fear of death, asserting that none of them would perish by the providence of God. Animated by this exhortation, and because the matter was for their life, while they strongly tend toward the shore, they manfully cut the waters. Meanwhile a pitiable cry of both sexes standing upon the shore, beholding our peril from afar, is raised to heaven. Why should I delay more? Placed between the confines of death and life, at length we glide to the place where a multitude of ships had occupied the wider bay of the Rhine. Touching which, and migrating from one into another, according to the word of the man of God, beyond hope we all escaped. But lest it should be doubted in any way, he is freed with his companions, that we were saved by his merit, the rage of the Rhine river quickly declared it by divine sign. Finally as the blessed man lifted his foot out of the ship, it was a prey to the waves, which a little before had been divinely suspended: and that which before, though loaded, could not sink, could not stand, widowed of so great a Patron; but immediately, as we beheld, sank and disappeared. Thus through the precipice of immense sorrow, by the merits of his servant, the Lord conferred on us the benefit of the greatest joy, while he both exalted the grace of his virtues, and turned away what we feared.
[38] At the same time on a certain day, when with those sharing his secrets, he knows in spirit that relics are lacking in the altar: he entered to pray the oratory, as at that time was falsely believed, of the parish of Brauweiler, in a villa by name Kyrchedoro: and behold, prostrated on the ground, he learned, with the Holy Spirit revealing, that the place was lacking the patronage of the Saints. Who rising from prayer, with those standing by, approached the altar; and the veil being drawn back, when with a diligent gaze he had examined all things, he found nothing at all, either under the seal or in the chinks of cracks, except the nestings of bats and the webs of spiders. Whence, being as was fitting confounded in mind, without any delay of moments he approached the Prelate of the Church of Cologne; and set forth to him in order what had been done. With whose sorrow of mind he sympathizing, having also given relics of the Saints, directed him to come to him with a certain Hezelin, d Bishop of the See of Scarnia, that in his place he might consecrate the aforesaid place, which was of the diocese of his own Bishopric, to God, and bind it to his services. Who with willing mind obeying his command, and he takes care that it be dedicated. with a multitude of the faithful gathered, they dedicated the same oratory to divine religion: establishing
there two altars, the upper indeed in honor of the Archangel Michael, but the lower to be held in veneration of blessed Martin the confessor of Christ. In this deed undoubtedly there was to him a similar proportion of virtue with blessed Martin, who, likewise divinely illumined in a similar manner, freed the people from the seduction of diabolical fraud, the altar of a robber being destroyed, who was worshiped in place of the Martyr. These things being thus duly celebrated, both returned to their own places, praising God with jubilation.
[39] I think that miracle of a thing done should also not be kept silent, which we saw done under the testimony of all the Brothers, a woman partly by Saint Nicholas being implored, and is, the fame spreading, best known everywhere. A certain woman, by name Adelheidis, oppressed by various languors of all her members, was brought to the thresholds of blessed Nicholas in the monastery of Brauweiler, for the sake of recovering health. Who, with the detriment of all members, was also shaken by hidden pains of her entrails and unbearable tortures, so that she so disdained bread of every kind of grain, that not only she avoided tasting, but even touching it. She indeed by the merits of blessed Nicholas received swift recovery in her members: but yet by the hidden judgment of God, in every way, as before, she abstained from the food of bread. But when after some years it had pleased the divine clemency to free her from this infirmity, in the silence of the deep night she enjoys such a sight. It seemed to her that the most blessed man Wolphelm had blessed bread, and that receiving it from his venerable hand she was greedily eating it. Who giving credence to the vision, knowing that through him greater things could be done than these, with tearful voices she implores that bread might be blessed for her by him. Who resisting with all his strength, proclaims himself an unworthy minister of this work. Then you would see the mind of the man of God anxiously disturbed: and partly by the bread blessed by Saint Wolphelm to wish indeed to have mercy, but publicly, because of boasting and favor, not to wish it to be done. Yet lest he should seem to prolong any longer what the divinity had arranged to fulfill through him, the bread being brought, he blessed it, held it out to the woman, and with us present she ate. Who, by the merits of the man of God being entirely restored to health, all the time she lived, there in the church, was so much more commodiously and devoutly zealous to serve uses, as before the others more variously and differently she had deserved to obtain the graces of healings. But the man of the Lord, she is healed. although he flourished with such illustrious and exceptional virtues, yet his mind never succumbed to the exaltation of this; not recalling that one should glory from the virtue of signs, but from the fellowship of the college of the elect. But who can singly relate the kinds of healings, in diverse languishings through him exhibited by divine compassion? For often, with him visiting, health was granted to the sick; which yet he in no way allowed to be imputed to him by anyone. Let these from among many suffice for the faithful, from those mentioned of his virtues. Now to relate what kind of passage from this life there was for him, let the article be directed.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VI.
Forewarning and preparation for death, pious passing, and miracles after it.
[40] After innumerable benefits of divine operation through him performed, the pious Lord, wishing to console the groans and sighs of his servant, by the vision of a heavenly dwelling often saying with the Prophet, "When shall I come, and appear before the face of my God? I shall be satisfied, when his glory shall appear"; it pleased him to reveal the time of his dissolution in this order. Ps. 41:3 On a certain day at midday, as was his custom, while he was sleeping not lying down, but sitting, a most beautiful young man stood by him in a vision, and admonished him to hasten to follow him as quickly as possible. Who accompanying as he went, by angelic guidance is led to most pleasant places, flourishing with every variety of beauty, shining with incomparable splendor of light, and fragrant with the odor of all sweetness. There, dwellings of various mansions being shown him, namely those promised to the faithful by the Lord, at last the Angel led him into a certain building of great beauty and height, whose adornment within and without he is ordered to contemplate diligently: prophesying that this was destined for him divinely as a place of mansion: which, he foresees his death, to come on the same day of the next year: he said, the more studiously and beautifully you adorn, the more pleasantly and happily you will enjoy it in perception. Thus admonished by the angelic address about the happiness of everlasting glory, waking, he privately declares the vision to certain Brothers, adding that without doubt he was to be dissolved as quickly as possible. Whence in a wonderful way dismayed in mind, as ones who had always experienced the benefits of his piety, they were tortured with unbearable affliction about his worthy loss. But wishing to gather from this more certainly, they mark the day, having it with the vision: which, a year having rolled around, on the same day he happened to be loosed from the prison of the flesh, on which the vision had been offered him from heaven. Whence it appeared that it was not a fantastical illusion, but a true vision, which so evidently designated both the dissolution of the man of God, and his heavenly mansion.
[41] Throughout the continuous space of that year therefore, not slothfully sleeping, but diligently watching in good works, He prepares for it by conversation about God, he was awaiting the coming of his Lord, and distributing to his fellow-servants the talent committed to him. But such a force of divine love had penetrated his heart, that even if he were unwilling to speak of God, he could not be silent. And when he was doing this more insistently and fervently than usual, some therefore began to be weary, and to hear less willingly. Which he observing, did not withdraw himself from his good intention: but wishing them to come to themselves, he was inculcating that saying of the Apostle with frequent repetition: "My little sons, whom I bear again in labor, until Christ be formed in you." Gal. 4:19 For he said this, because those whom he had already begotten by preaching, he was laboring to bear again by reforming with groaning, adding this: "To me indeed it is not troublesome, but to you necessary." Phil. 3:1 But when one day he saw himself to profit less by paternal admonition, conceiving the Holy Spirit with his whole mind, he burst forth into these words of the Prophet Amos; nay, as the subsequent event of things rather proved, touched himself by the spirit of prophecy: "There shall come days," he said, "says the Lord, and I will send hunger upon you: not a hunger of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of God." Amos 8:11 He undoubtedly knew that as a hunger of the flesh is the withdrawn support of the body; so a hunger of the mind is the silence or loss of divine conversation. Whence narrating future things to them as if already past, he was asserting, "Know, that undoubtedly in those things in which I am now burdensome to you or producing weariness, these things shall someday be to you with supreme he exhorts those nauseated. desire to come, yet not going to be had in effect. For I am now being poured out, and the time of my dissolution is at hand." These things I have therefore thought not to be passed over, lest these words of the man of God be believed brought forth in vain: while every word which he spoke, either was fulfilled, or, as we do not doubt, is to be fulfilled in the future.
[42] But although he was now in his last age, yet in no way did he suffer the rigor of his purpose to be weakened, by living more indulgently, with labor remitted. For he reputed the labor of the present time as little, in comparison to the recompense of the glory to come. Wherefore he made a pretext neither of the length of time, nor of the difficulty of labor: Sick he is anointed by the Abbot of Saint Pantaleon. but rather in every way adding labor to labor, he was zealous to carry out the angelic exhortation. But now, with his passing at hand, when he feels himself suddenly deserted by strength, weighed down by infirmity; having summoned the most reverend Abbot of the monastery of blessed Pantaleon the Martyr, by name Herimann, a man of all honor and religion, he had himself anointed with the liquid of sacred oil. A few days having elapsed, at the first dawn of light, on the 10th day before the Kalends of May, entering the way of all flesh, he died, and the happy one happily entered the joy of his Lord. He dies April 22 He flourished in the times of Henry II the Emperor, who obtained the monarchy of the kingdom after the death of Otto III, in the time of blessed Heribert, Archbishop of the holy Church of Cologne: and lived until the 33rd year of Henry IV the Emperor, in the year 1091, whose father was Henry III, and grandfather the Emperor Conrad. He passed, full of days and of all the profits of good works, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1091.
[43] a Herimann, at that time Archbishop of Cologne, having learned of whose death, most eager to spend the service of devotion on his obsequies, devoutly ran to bury him. He is buried by the Archbishop and Abbots, By whose example a throng of religious men also flowed together, among whom were reckoned as chief and more illustrious b the Abbots, namely Herimann of the aforementioned monastery of Saint Pantaleon, and Reginhard of good memory of Siegburg: who both always cherished the servant of the Lord with the highest zeal of piety. Therefore, the solemnities of the Masses having been completed by the Archbishop for his venerable memory; when the most sacred little body had to be placed in the tomb, approaching personally, the face suffused with a rosy color, he removed the cloth with which his sacred aspect was veiled: and behold, wondrous to say! although he had already been three days dead, he appeared not pale in the manner of the deceased, but suffused with a rosy color, full of grace, and as though sprinkled with dewy drops of sweat. At which illustrious miracle seen, very many wept for joy. But turning to those standing around, the Bishop said: "Behold, most beloved Fathers, how devout was this servant of the Lord, whom such and so great grace of countenance commends." He shines with miracles. These things being spoken by the Prelate, with due veneration beside the altar of blessed Peter the Apostle he is decently handed over to burial. There by the suffrage of his merits, the vows of the faithful are heard, benefits are bestowed on the sick, our Lord Jesus Christ providing, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be honor, power, and glory forever and ever. Amen.
[44] And so, having measured the sea of the present history as though a great sea, we now breathe, as if seeing the shore, while we see that certain things only are still to be reported about his miracles. We must therefore be eager to hold the port and finish the course: because, as clouds are wont to obscure the sun, so slothful and slow writers often withdraw the knowledge of useful things. Let us therefore undertake to report the miracles, which after his death were celebrated through him by divine power. In the territory of Brauweiler a certain woman, A paralytic woman is cured: by name Wazela, while one day she had sat down for her weaving work, began unexpectedly to be tormented by such a cruel vexation of both her hands, that by the cry of her dire voice she was compelled to summon the citizens. From whose immensity of pain, she was believed liable to the passion of paralysis: for suddenly she was rendered so useless as to her hands, that she could not apply them to any use. With the disease becoming more and more grave, from excessive crushing of pain, she fell asleep among the hands of those holding her, and gently hears the sound of such a voice: "Why are you weighed down with sleep? If you wish to be free from your present passion, rise more quickly,
and having approached the tomb of Lord Wolphelm with the offering of a candle: for by his merits you shall obtain the joy of health." Who, busy to obey the one commanding with alert faith and prompt devotion, with a burning candle visited the tomb, neither mistrusting the merits of the blessed Father, nor hesitating to believe the words of the one admonishing. Who, when she had fallen down in prayer, after a little arose healed; and giving thanks to God, departed safe and joyful.
[45] A certain Brother from the monastery of Brauweiler, by name Heribert, after the death of Blessed Wolphelm had been sent to the province of c Denmark, with some other Brothers for the sake of monastic religion. Where, when he had stayed some time, and his mind now persuaded him to return, with honorable and religious men accompanying him, he undertook the journey. with Saint Wolphelm appearing And when they had come to the sea, with pirates lying in wait, and occupying the bay of the sea day and night, for nearly nine days passage was denied. Whence all alike, afflicted by great contrition of heart, were praying with intimate bowels, that the Lord would deign to be propitious to those invoking him. Nor did the pious Lord delay the vows of his faithful, by quickly granting aid. the peril of pirates and tempest is avoided. For in the silence of the night Blessed Wolphelm is present to the aforesaid Brother through a vision, ordering him to hasten his passage on the morrow; announcing the sea pacified, the attack of the enemies restrained: but as a memorial of his deliverance, that worshipper of the holy Trinity ordered vows of jubilation to be paid to the Lord with three times three psalms. Thus, with the fear of enemies removed, they took no small joy from the divine revelation: and joyful they put themselves on the sea waves, with the pirates in no way able to harm. In this order, freed from the impending storms of evils through the merits of his servant, they give thanks for divine liberation. Which, as we learned from the Brother himself who experienced it, we have reported in a faithful narration. A wretchedly contracted man,
[46] At the same time a certain lame man, by name Willemann, from a villa adjoining the place of Brauweiler, namely called Polheim, by the intercession of Blessed Wolphelm, received the long denied services of his members. In the time of Lent approaching the place of the tomb, with what desire of health he burned, he showed by the groan of his heart; with what groan of health he was drawn, the affliction of his heart declared. Finally, turned with all intention to God, he prayed with tearful sighs, that by the merits of his servant he might deserve health in his members. Nor did hope deceive him, to whom faith had provided incentive: for sooner than said it became clear of what sanctity or merit the blessed man was. is restored to health, For suddenly the long-contracted sinews began to stretch, and the passages of the veins to be filled with the infusion of living blood, and the members before half-dead, to be restored to their former vigor. Why should I delay longer? The man, feeling divine power working in him, trying to rise with slow effort, although with still faltering step, stood on his feet, and faithfully narrated to those present what had been done about him. Who, sustained by their hands, and led here and there, as the matter became known to the Brothers, God is magnificently praised and glorified, who is wonderful and glorious in his Saints, doing wonders alone. But as a sign of such great miracle, the staves of his support hung over the tomb of the most blessed man for a long time.
[47] At another time something similar to this miracle happened, which when and how it was done, it pleases to relate. From the villa of Geroldeshoven a woman entirely contracted was brought by friends to the often-mentioned place. She, diligently lying there in prayers, frequented the thresholds of the temple more attentively. But as it was the most sacred solemnity of blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, to another contracted woman health is returned. she too with the rest of the common people happened to attend such great solemnities. Who, weeping abundantly, and drawing long sighs, prostrates herself before the tomb of the blessed man, complains that she is wretched and exceedingly unhappy, whose neither prayers deserved to be admitted, nor bodily discomforts loosed. But he who once wished to defer the prayers of the Canaanite woman, and of this one; so that the importunate desire of hers might be an experiment of her faith. But since she did not hesitate that she could be saved by the merits of the blessed man, but persevered in asking in faith, she deserved the effect: for being raised up divinely, she cried out, and broke the silence of all with shouts. For where the disjointed bones joined themselves to bones, and the contraction of sinews became the connection of joints, it is not to be wondered, that the weaker mind of the female sex was frightened. Rising therefore from the pavement, vigor received, in good health she was able to return to her own. By such effects of miracles this blessed man truly testifies that he lives with Christ to the world. Amen.