Clemens

ON SAINT CLEMENS,

POET AND CONFESSOR AMONG THE GREEKS.

Clemens, Confessor and Poet among the Greeks (Saint)

D. P.

The Greeks, in the printed Menaea and in Maximus Bishop of Cythera, today recall the memory of our Holy Father Clemens the Poet, To be numbered among the authors of Canons; who in the Ms. Synaxarium of Chifflet, "Ποιητὴς τῶν..."

κανόνων" is called. But in the Claromontan MS. on May 27 is given to the same the title "Confessor and Poet." The same on each day is referred to in the MSS. Menaea of July of Cardinal Mazarin. We judge that he is called Confessor because he suffered many things for the faith, perhaps under the Iconoclasts. We have found nothing else about him except a distich of this kind:

Τέρψας ὁ Κλήμης γηγενεῖς ᾠδαῖς κάτω, Ἀπῆλθε τέρψων, ὥσπερ οἶμαι, καὶ νόας.

Having charmed the earth-born with his odes here below, This Clemens has departed, I think, to charm also the Angels.

[2] Before the Greek Triodion, printed by the effort and care of the aforementioned Maximus, a frontispiece is seen, embracing the title of the book, copied from the front of a Ms. Triodion, although not expressed on the front of the Triodion, presenting the age of two or three centuries. In this with the ministry of three smaller figures and two greater Angels, occupying on either side the place of a column, round the title is led as if a chain of twenty-nine rings, mutually embracing each other, hanging from one more ornate relief at the top, representing Christ the Lord, with this little verse running down through the outermost shoulders of the side Angels:

Οἱ τὰ μέλη πλέξαντες ὑμνῶν ἐνθέων,

These have composed the modulations of sacred hymns.

[3] The half-icon of each of them, distinguished by the proper schema of habit and order, is seen within the aforesaid rings; and lest wandering conjecture should err, names are added around the head, as is wont in coins: and so they descend from the right side: Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, who is venerated on May 12, where to the orthodox Philotheus the Patriarch is wrongly added: for the cause of faith expelled from his See under Leo the Armenian; Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, whose labors in restoring the Menaea with Saint John of Damascus we treated on March 11; Philotheus Patriarch of Constantinople, from the year 1362 to 1375 of the same century: but although the Emperor Cantacuzenus, under whom he flourished, heaps great praises upon him; yet as schismatic and heretic our Wagnereck rightly condemns him in the Prolegomena to the Mariana of Greek piety no. 28; and Leo Allatius proves that against George Palamas, the Pseudo-monk and the chief asserter of the Taboric light, he heaped up all the chapters of praise which are given separately to other Fathers. Philotheus therefore should be removed from this chain of sacred Poets, nor do I believe he would ever have been numbered with them, unless the same Nicephorus Callistus, a most pertinacious schismatic and heretic, had been the author and inventor of that chain, who ordered the Triodion itself and augmented it with Lessons teaching and confirming schism and heresy, which the said Leo Allatius rightly marvels that they remain hitherto without censure, and are permitted to the churches of the Catholic Greeks, with grave scandal of the simpler. But let us leave these things to be discussed by a greater tribunal, and let us weave the chain of the Hymnographers.

[4] To Philotheus succeeds Andreas Archbishop of Crete, of whom, as the author of the great penitential Canon, we said some things on April 2, treating of Saint Mary of Egypt. He is venerated on July 4 or June. Fifth in this order of the right side is John Metropolitan of Euchaita; and others of unknown age and faith; to whom, hitherto a writer unknown to us as to faith and age, Allatius in his Diatribe On the Writings of the Simeons attributes various encomia of the Saints, wrongly ascribed to Metaphrastes; of which we especially would wish to obtain two, in which are contained the Lives of a certain Saint Dorotheus the Younger and of Saint Eusebia at Euchaita, that if they are proved, we may give them their place in our work. Follows George Archbishop of Nicomedia. To him also the same Allatius restores various panegyrics, ignorantly transferred to Metaphrastes, treating many things about him in the Diatribe On the Georges: but at what time he lived, we have not yet found. Nearest to George and last among the Bishops are noted Methodius, Cyprianus, Anatolius: all unknown to us; for who would believe that the one set in the last place is Saint Anatolius, Leo Allatius wrote about all these, Patriarch of Constantinople under Theodosius the Younger? We might first more probably believe that he is the one who, under Saint Theodora, restored orthodoxy; but then he should have been placed before Philotheus and the other intermediate ones. Moreover, this series is closed by five writers from the secular order: Leo Despotes, Leo Magister, Basilius Pegoriotes, Justin, Sergius: about whom I can teach nothing.

[5] The aforementioned chain is filled on the left side from the monastic order by fourteen writers. Among these, known to us are John of Damascus, and with him equally brought up Cosmas, afterwards Bishop of Maiuma, of whom we shall treat on October 14; Joseph, commonly called Hymnographer, whose life we gave on April 3; Theophanes, surnamed Graptus, because of his forehead inscribed with insulting verses by the iconoclast Theophilus, who is commemorated on October 11 alone and again with his brother Theodore on December 27. The others are unknown to us: Byzantius, Stephanus Hagiopolites, and among others he mentions Clemens. Georgius Siceliotes, Simeon, Philotheus, Arsenius, Babylas, Ephrem of Caria, Andreas Pyrrhus or Rufus, and Studites. But who is here called by antonomasia? The great Theodorus? But he deserved to be placed among the first. Beneath all and as it were the binding of the twin series is placed Casia, you may doubt whether veiled in the manner of a matron or an Abbess: and named by no one else that I know, not even by Leo Allatius in Dissertation 1 On the Ecclesiastical books of the Greeks page 82, where he enumerates seventy-one Hymnographers, about whom he prefaces that he has treated too fully in the treatise On the Melodists of the Greeks. Among them is also he for whose sake we have treated these things, Clemens, named immediately after the noble Confessors Andreas Cretensis, Joseph and Theodore the Studites, Stephen Sabaita, Theodore Siceota, referred to before others, even before Simeon Magister and Logotheta, whom we otherwise call Metaphrastes, and who died at least in the 10th century. We have diligently sought whence that treatise of Allatius could be had: but neither at Rome nor at Paris, where more than elsewhere the works of this most erudite man are known, have they anything about it, who think they know most of his works: many even deny that anything was published by him with such a title. But he himself too clearly asserts it, that it can be denied, in the Diatribe On the Georges at the name of Georgius Siculus, where he excuses some things passed over by him, "since," he says, "in my treatise On the Melodists of the Greeks I have treated this more fully, lest I seem too often to sing the same song." If anyone therefore knows it, let him, I beg, suggest what concerns Clemens.

ON BLESSED HILDEGARD THE QUEEN,

AT KEMPTEN IN SWABIA.

YEAR 783.

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.

Hildegardis, wife of Charlemagne the Emperor (Blessed)

By D. P.

§1. The sanctity of her life, her finding and that of her son Louis the Pious, the cult of each.

The contemporary Thegan, Chorepiscopus of Trier, who wrote a booklet about the deeds of the Emperor Louis the Pious, her son, calls the Queen Hiltegarda not only Blessed, but Most Blessed. The bodies of both were together dug up about the year 963 and exposed to public veneration: and God approved their sanctity by the multitude of miracles, Acts collected in the 15th century, of whose principal ones and in truth more effective ones a certain monk of Kempten in Swabia (for there the sacred pledges are kept), received an opusculum of very great antiquity to rewrite and renew in the year 1472, to which he added a beginning, in the manner of a life, concerning the mother Hildegard and her son Louis, from the already-mentioned Thegan, and into the same wove the foundation of his Kempten monastery, referring its origin to the aforementioned Queen. What he took from that ancient opusculum is indeed grave and most worthy of all faith; as having been written by one in whose age both the bodies were found and the miracles worked. In those things which regard the 8th century, they are given from a Ms. in which not yet the usage of marking events by years of Christ had prevailed among writers, it is no wonder if he sometimes erred, a better writer than chronologist. The errors our Notes will correct, with which we shall illustrate the aforesaid Acts; but we give these as copied by our Joannes Gamansius from the Codex of the Blaubeuren monastery in Swabia, established about the year 1100 at the sources of the Blau, in the diocese of Constance.

[2] She died on the Vigil of the Ascension, at the Moselle; That she died in the 15th year of King Charles's reign, the year of Christ 783, on the Vigil of the Lord's Ascension, the day before the Kalends of May, all the older chronicles affirm with common consent. With these agrees the reckoning of the Paschal cycle, and of the Dominical letter, which, since it was E, but Easter was celebrated on March 23, it appears that the last day of April coincided with the said Vigil. She died at Thionville on the Moselle, where King Charles, preparing to go into Saxony with his army, had celebrated the feasts of the Lord's Nativity and of Easter, and was then staying with all the Court. The body being carried upstream to Metz, the nearest city, buried at Metz with her daughters rested in the oratory of Blessed Arnulf, with Paul Warnefrid, the Friulian Deacon, testifying in the Deeds of the Bishops of Metz, compiled by him within the nearest years from her death. For because "Kings Pepin and Charles derived their origin from the aforesaid Arnulf, they placed the dead bodies of their dear ones there. For there were buried two daughters of King Pepin, of whom one was called Rothaid, the other Adelaid. There also were buried two daughters of the Younger King Charles, namely Adelaid and Hildigard: which Hildigard, named with her mother's name, soon followed her dying mother." The epitaphs of all these, says the same Paul, "composed by us at the command of the glorious King, that they might clearly be known to the reader, I have taken care to note down below." Now the epitaph of Queen Hildegard (which Baronius would not have judged should be ascribed to Alcuin, if he had been able to read it in its own source) is as follows.

The golden letters which gleam here in yellow figures, Teach how illustrious the limbs buried here have been. Here lies the Queen, preeminent to the powerful King Hildegard, who was well married to Charles. Who so transcended the children of an illustrious stock, As the Indian gem surpasses the soil whence it was born. commending her beauty, To her was such a bright grace of blooming form, Than whom none would be more beautiful from east to west: Whose tender beauty cannot be equaled By sardonyx with Parian marble, or lilies mixed with roses. Yet the lights of her heart surpassed this outward form, And the simplicity of her soul and inner beauty. You were mild, wise, skillful, pleasant, her virtue, Generous, and adorned with all goods. But why should I bring forth more, since no praise is greater For you, than to have pleased such a man? And when her omnipotent husband had joined to the ancestral scepters The linen-bearing Po, and the Romulean Tiber, You alone were found, who were worthy to hold her marriage, With your hand the golden scepter of the manifold kingdom. The second year from the eleventh again took you away, Alas, mother of Kings! Alas, glory and sorrow! The Frank, the Swabian, the German, and the very Briton, And with the hard Getae the Iberian cohort laments you. The dweller on the Loire weeps for you, the Italian land also, and her death mourned by all. And Rome herself groans anxious at your death. You moved to tears even the stout hearts of men; Behold, tears fall amid shields and arms.

Alas! With how great flames, wise and always firm in strength, You have burned the master's heart of your husband. This hope consoles all the grieving, but certain, That for your worthy deeds you hold the holy kingdoms. She first began to be venerated at Kempten

[4] In this brief epitaph you have many things about the life and virtues of Hildegard, which would have offered ample matter for writing a life, if immediately after her death she had shone with miracles, numbered among the Saints. But God was reserving the certainty of her divinely attested sanctity for the monks of Kempten, who would not have easily obtained from the people of Metz either the body of the mother or of her son Louis (for he also was buried at Metz by his brother Drogo, Bishop of Metz, as is clear from the contemporary author of his Life), if they had then had them among their Patrons. But when did these obtain them? They themselves would have it that from the moment of death they were buried with them, according to their last will. translated there with her son after the year 854, But this was easy to be persuaded after eight centuries to the monks, having been devastated by multiple ruin and fire through the Huns before the year 1000, and having no ancient records by which they might be better taught. I consider that the translation was made under the fifth Abbot of the monastery, Conrad, elected about the year 854, of whom Bruschius says that "digging a well in the Hilermont fortress, he found there an iron chest full of pagan coins, gold and silver, and other ornaments, with which he elegantly and zealously adorned the temples he had built": for one who converted the treasures happily found to such pious uses, is credibly believed to have been no less zealous in seeking more precious treasures. I believe also that it was a concern to Louis, firstborn of the Emperor Lothar, possessing with the title of Caesar Italy and Germany and Swabia between these, to receive into his rule the illustrious deposits of his grandfather and great-grandmother; especially if Hildegard had truly chosen her place of burial at Kempten, or at least was said to have chosen it by those whose monastery she herself had founded.

[5] dug up again in the 10th century: Whether from that time any ecclesiastical cult began to be paid to them, I have nothing on which to assert. It seems safer to take its beginning from the finding done under Abbot Alexander, in the 10th century, and to attribute the same time to the miracles that followed it: at which I also think the verses, to be inscribed on the lead plate and placed within the reliquary, were composed, which Bruschius recites as agreeing with the barbarism of that age:

After eight hundred and eighty-three years had passed, In this tomb the tomb-maker entombed the blessed Hildegard: Who shines with various signs by the power of God in many things. May whose soul rest in holy peace. Amen.

Bruschius indeed recites them thus, as if found in her tomb together with the body, when it was first discovered after the ruins; nay, as though inscribed at the very burial of the body: but this, the barbarity of the style unworthy of Charles, so zealous for more polished literature, rejects: the other, the writer of the Kempten Acts expressly denies, asserting that "on the cut stone which was placed under the head, this brief but sufficient epitaph alone was read: 'Hyltegardis Queen.'"

[6] To her in the same case are joined the bones of her son, By what indication the body of Louis the Pious was known, he does not indicate, except that "on his glorious head was found a crown of precious orphrey." These things being narrated, "The blessed relics of the Pious King are gathered, and to the maternal bones are placed in one sarcophagus, separately however, to be venerated with equal veneration with those": as is indicated to have been venerated by the vows of the wretched, described subsequently; and the miracles exhibited to those invoking mother with son. Thegan, writing while he was still alive, praises him because, "although he was the youngest in age, he was yet the best of the sons of Charles, who from his infancy had learned to fear God and love Him, and whatever he had upon himself he always distributed to the poor for the name of the Lord." Meanwhile Rader in Bavaria Pia page 15 asserts that in the 30th year from his death he appeared to his son Louis, King of Germany, and asked for help by which he might be taken out from the flames of purgatory. What credit this merits, let others see. Walafrid Strabo, who after the year 840, in which Louis died, survived for only nine years, dividing and rewriting Thegan's opusculum into chapters, says he does this because he "more often desired to hear or bring forth the deeds and praises of Louis the Emperor of holy memory." praised for his singular piety, The contemporary author of his Life offers examples of his greatest virtues and of his highest meekness, and describes especially his holy passing, in which, "turning his eye to the left part, somehow indignantly, with as much strength as he could he said twice, 'Hutz, Hutz,' which means, 'Out, out.' Whence it appears," he says, "that he saw the malignant Spirit, whose company neither alive nor dying he wished to have. But with eyes raised to heaven he beheld the bands of Angels coming to him; and how much more threateningly he looked there, so much more joyfully he gazed here; so that he seemed to differ in nothing from one laughing. In such things having obtained the end of this present life, to rest happily, as we believe, he migrated." All posterity called him no other than the Pious, which also the Synods of Paris and Meaux celebrated after his death follow: Bruschius at length treating of the 36th Abbot Neric, says that a forest was given to him by Henry VI about the year 1260 with this law, that to the tower which already existed and pleased him greatly, he should add another in memory of each Patron, of which one is still today called the tower of Saint Hildegard, the other of Saint Louis. Yet outside the Kempten crowd no one calls him a Saint, we do not dare to enroll him with a title not used by writers: and to those who wish to read the Life, we send to the volumes of Du Chesne On the Francks. Yet because no one has called him a Saint, we also do not presume to say so.

[7] That the prefix and title of "Saint" is added to the mother also in the Chronicle of Minden and Andechs, cult also among the people of Saint Gall. Rader in Bavaria Sancta testifies. Crusius in his Swabian Annals part 1 book 12 chapter 6, citing an old Ms. German, asserts that "on the day before the Kalends of May feast days were wont to be celebrated to her by the people of Saint Gall, because she was believed to have done miracles there, and to be protectress against pestilence." The same says, "Certain miracles also of Saint Hildegard are commemorated, attributed to her, not as to God (as the heretic man calumniously says) but as to one invoked on account of God by His intercession to do such things; and the miracles, of which two, received from certain proper and very accurate records, as far as we discern, we shall give at the end of the Acts, with a title beginning and ending with 'Most Blessed.'"

§ II. The marriage of Saints Charles and Hildegard: her maternal line from the Swabians: her paternal line, whether from the Franks?

[8] As to what concerns the marriage of Saints Charles and Hildegard, that Saint Adelard, Charles's cousin, was not a little scandalized by it, we saw in his Life on January 2; where the contemporary author and successor in the rule of the Abbey of Corbie, Saint Adelard is indignant that the sworn faith of the Lombard is not kept, Paschasius Radbertus, thus speaks in no. 7: "When Charles repudiated Desiderata, daughter of Desiderius King of the Lombards, whom he had sought long before in marriage with the oaths of certain Franks, the Blessed one, while he was still a novice of the palace, by no labor could be persuaded to give in any service of servitude to her whom the King had received during her lifetime: but blamed such a union in every way, and groaned, a boy of blessed disposition, that some of the Franks were perjured to God, and the King was using an illicit bed, his own wife being cast off without any crime: who, kindled with exceeding zeal, chose rather to leave the world while still a boy, than to be mingled with such matters." Thus he. But this was a scandal of boyish ignorance, not knowing or not believing the dissolution of a marriage not yet consummated to be lawful: not distinguishing between ratified and consummated marriage: which, as now commonly all learned in canon law teach (provided ecclesiastical dispensation intervene, the power for which in this time is restricted to the Roman Pontiffs alone and has been more often brought into act), so anciently also holy and great men opined, as can be taught from other examples, and especially from that notable one of Saint Etheldreda, who both in her own Acts to be given June 23, and in the Life of Saint Wilfrid illustrated April 24 no. 30, is praised for having constantly resisted her husband King Egfrid's lust for 12 years, and at last to have brought her vowed virginity to God into a monastery, with her husband left free for other nuptials. But as now many of the scholastic Theologians deny that such marriages can be dissolved even by the supreme Pontiff: so perhaps also then very many denied the same.

[9] [to which even before the Lombard nuptials the Kings were obliged, the Pope indicates.] Among these very many seems to have been Pope Stephen himself: for in the letter which in a similar cause, before the daughter of Desiderius was taken to wife, he had written to Charles and Carloman, Kings of the Franks, he speaks thus: "It has been brought to our notice, that Desiderius, King of the Lombards, is known to be attempting to persuade your Excellency, that his daughter be joined in marriage to one of your fraternity: which certainly if it is so, this properly is a diabolical suggestion, and not so much a conjunction of marriage, but a partnership of most wicked contrivance seems to be." He adds the cause: "For by the will of God, by legitimate marriage, by the command of your father, you have been joined, receiving from this same homeland of yours, namely from the most noble race of the Franks, most beautiful wives, and you ought to be attached to their love. … Wherefore Blessed Peter … firmly adjures your Excellency through our unhappiness … that in no way should any of your fraternity presume to take the daughter of the said King of the Lombards in marriage, … nor should you in any way dare to dismiss your wives. At last," he says, "if anyone shall presume to act against the series of this kind of adjuration, let him know himself bound with the bond of anathema." Who does not see that even before the daughter of Desiderius was taken, which however were contracted Charles was bound by the faith of a contracted but not yet consummated marriage, which however neither he himself nor the Princes of the kingdom believed indissoluble, when the Lombard nuptials were being treated? Yet because those first nuptials with the Frankish wives, perhaps contracted between those absent by the authority of their parents and not yet solemnized by actual bringing of the brides, came less to the notice and mouths of the common people, therefore their dissolution was less liable to generate scandal to the little ones: nay, it could happen, that Adelard, even then a boy, was altogether ignorant of them: but those Lombard ones, conciliated with so great a noise of embassies and in some manner completed by the very bringing of the bride, he could by no reason be ignorant of. Yet what pertains to the bond, the latter were not more strictly bound than the former; the less so that, with a great cause of public utility intervening, they should be dissolved. And Carloman first, first Gerberga was taken by Carloman, with the Pontiff either dissimulating or openly lifting the interposed anathema, took Gerberga daughter of Desiderius as wife, in the first year of his reign, and from her soon became the father of twin offspring. Then the Franks began seriously to labor, that they might reconcile the Lombards with the Romans;

so that they might be readier to subdue the Saxons, who were again and again using the occasion of the Italian wars to shake off the yoke. Therefore Bertrada, mother of the Kings, whom others call more contractedly Bertha, wishing also in this to gratify her son, favoring the Lombards on account of his wife, having spoken with Carloman (as Eginhard writes in the Annals) at Selzen, sets out into Italy for the sake of peace; and with the Pope placated to the Lombards "and her business which she had come there for being done, the thresholds of the holy Apostles also having been adored, she returns to her sons in Gaul." But how did she conduct her business? Hear the fragment of the most ancient Annals, which is now with the Queen of Sweden, subjoined to the Chronicle of Nibelung, and not carried beyond the year 856: "In the year 770 Queen Bertha was in Lombardy at the Parlement against King Desiderius: and very many cities were restored to the side of Saint Peter." You see peace established between the Lombards and the Romans, and therefore nothing hindered, the less that with the good favor of the Pontiff, Charles also should take a wife from the Lombards. For otherwise how would the Queen have wished to go to Rome, if she was to do this on her return, as Baronius thinks she did, judging that the aforecited letter of Pope Stephen was written only then? also Desiderata taken by Charles, Better therefore do we establish that it was written two years before; but now, with the Pontiff also consenting, it was done, which according to the aforesaid fragment, "Bertha brought Desiderius's daughter into France," to be betrothed to Charles the firstborn, as the agreements of the treaty confirmed by oath promised to Desiderius, induced to the restitution of so many cities in view of this affinity and of the security hoped for through it.

[11] That Charles did not soon annul these things so done, the regard of Italian peace did, and the reverence for his mother, of whom he was most observant. He therefore suffered the Lombard wife to be joined to him in matrimony: but he who had not hastened in binding himself with the previously contracted bond with a Frankish woman by conjugal union, in this second was even slower; either because of himself he shrank from the foreign woman; or because the aforesaid warnings of the Pontiff had descended more deeply into his soul; by him she is soon sent back or for some other cause (for Eginhard does not write that it was commonly known, and confesses that in this one thing Charles displeased his mother) and at length, the year completed, he sent the daughter back untouched to her father. Many call her Bertha, but, as I judge, deceived by certain wrongly written Chronicles, such as is the one published by Pithou, where it is so read: "770: Bertha the Queen brought from Italy Bertha, daughter of King Desiderius of the Lombards, to be joined in marriage to her son Carloman." See the disturbed syntax of the words and so correct: "Queen Bertha brought from Italy the daughter of Desiderius King of the Lombards, to be joined in marriage to her son Charles": to which correction the Annals published by Du Chesne vol. 2 On the Franks agree. The first have thus: "770 Bertha led Desiderius's daughter, King of the Lombards, into France." In the second it is said: "This year Lady Bertha was in Italy, on account of the daughter of King Desiderius, and very many cities were restored to Saint Peter." It appears from the words soon following that in those Pithoan ones Carloman was written faultily for Charles: "King Carloman died on the 2nd of the Nones of December … his wife and children go into Italy." Behold Carloman now had a wife and sons, to him therefore Bertha was not then bringing a new wife, but to Charles. But by what name was she called? That Life of Saint Adelard seems to offer this, hitherto blotted out elsewhere, and to call her from her father's name "Desiderata," which formerly escaped us, when we published that Life, and as the rest we believed that word was taken adjectively. Bruschius indeed suggests the name Hermengard, in the Genealogy of Charlemagne, which he professes from the most approved authors: but since it does not reject any fables, it merits no more faith in this name, than in that "Galiena the Spanish," the daughter of Galastria King of Toledo: who was to have been betrothed to Charles before the Lombard.

[12] He took Hildegard from the Swabians, We have now dissolved, as far as I judge, the knot which seemed indissoluble to Baronius treating these things, and have shown that the Life of Saint Adelard and the Letter of Pope Stephen, each obscure if only the bare sound of the words is regarded, mutually support each other, if they are understood, as they ought, of a non-consummated marriage; and therefore do not contradict each other, nor oppose the marriage of Hildegard, so that, with the former dissolved, it was lawful; and that the zeal of Saint Adelard is rightly called excessive by Paschasius Radbertus. Yet that this very Hildegard was she to whom Stephen wrote that Charles had been betrothed by his father, I would not dare to assert. He says she was received "from the very most noble race of the Franks": but Eginhard says Hildegard was "of the Swabian race, a woman of special nobility"; Thegan calls her "a girl of the most noble race of the Swabians, who was of the kindred of Duke Godfrey of the Alemanni." But this nobility, as will be clear below, was wholly from the mother's side; perhaps his first bride; who was leaving her daughter heir of the most ample possessions in Swabia. The father, whom no one names, why may we not be allowed to believe was a Frank, and so to take the words of Pope Stephen in their proper sense, and to suppose that Charles had returned to his first vows? Thus this marriage would have been in every way most holy and most just, and Queen Bertha would have borne it undeservedly ill, that her son did not follow her manner in retaining the Lombard wife whom she had brought. For as to what concerns the religion of the oath, by which the Princes of the Franks, who had accompanied the mother Queen in Italy, were bound to King Desiderius, who by such a pact had obtained the restitution due to the Church; by this either Charles was not bound, without whose express consent they should not have gone so far; or the Roman Pontiff had absolved it, on account of the great damages imminent from such a conjunction; or at length Charles himself judged it void, since Desiderius was not keeping the peace faithfully enough with the Romans; or also believed it was swept away by the prior and therefore stronger right of Hildegard, if he had taken her as wife while her father was alive. Now this most happy marriage was celebrated already full-grown in the year 771, and thus Hildegard died in the 12th year of her married life, as this line of the Epitaph indicates: "The second year from the eleventh again took you away."

[13] born, not in the year 733. The same epitaph, while it praises in her both "the grace of blooming form" and "tender beauty," confirms the words of Thegan, calling her "girl" rather than woman; but of grave error the Genealogy of Hildegard is convicted, woven by Bruschius, where she is said to have been born in the Andechs fortress, on the very day of Saint Sabina, that is August 29, in the year 732. For how insipid is it, to join to a most flourishing King, and through his brother's death monarch of the whole Frankish kingdom, and what is more, not yet thirty years old, a woman of forty? But why do I strive to prove by reason what the thing itself proves? For, to be silent about Gertrude, Bellixandra, and Imma, the fabulous carrier and then spouse of Eginhard, whom Bruschius numbers with the other children of Hildegard; it is established that the most blessed Queen, within those twelve years which we said, bore Charles altogether nine children; and sometimes twins in one birth; four males, five females, but about 853; of whom it will be treated below in the Life. Let us say therefore that she was born about the year 753, a girl of first youth, and who would make a hope of copious progeny, was beloved by that King who, unless he should beget successors to his kingdoms from himself, the newly established rule of his new stock, introduced through the deposition of the Merovingian Kings, was failing; and was leaving the Kingdom subject to the greatest disturbances and tumults. Indeed the author of the Epitaph praises such a form, I do not say of a bride, but of one dying, that would easily persuade that Hildegard was scarcely thirty years old when she died.

[14] neither from the Bavarian mother Regarda Moreover, as in those fabulous records which Munster and Bruschius used, now convicted of deceit concerning the year of birth, we believe nothing concerning place or day of birth; so much less do we trust them concerning the genealogy of Hildegard, by which Hildebrand, Duke of Swabia, is said to have begotten her from his Bavarian wife Lady Regarda. Thegan's credit with us is greater, narrating a matter most well-known in his age, and thus he says: "Duke Gothifred begot Houching, Houching begot Nebi, but Nebi begot Imma, but from Imma the Swabian. and Imma bore Hildegard the most blessed Queen"; and probably from a Frankish husband, but on account of the wife's vast estates among the Swabians dwelling there, so that on this account Hildegard should be said to be taken rather from the Swabians than from the Franks: but by no reason does it appear, by what right Rader ascribed a Bavarian mother to her, against so express authority of so ancient and contemporary a writer. The German writers indeed, whom he cites, all recent, are not only not most certain witnesses for us in this matter, but are not even to be heard: but the letters of Albert IV, Prince of the Bavarians, in which he testifies that he receives, at the request of the Abbot himself and his whole community, the tutelage of the Kempten monastery; in which also not only is Hildegard written to have been born of Bavarian blood, but also the monastery itself founded in favor of the Princes of Bavaria, and the Princes of Bavaria themselves to be the hereditary curators and administrators of the monastery: these letters, I say, written in the year 1482, are too recent, to support so ancient a right without other proof.

[15] It was perhaps an invention of the monks, after the extinguished posterity of the Dukes of Swabia, their Patrons (for the whole right of Patronage belonged to them, about Bavarian origin seems invented around 1482 at least from the year 963), seeking the tutelage of the Dukes of Bavaria. But what these suggested, because it seemed glorious to them, without further proof was easily persuaded to the Bavarian and his ministers, that they might refer such ancient and specious titles of new tutelage into the diploma to be confected upon it. That this invention was then newly conceived, is proved not only by the author of the Acts, in the year 1472, that is ten years before, who describing the history of the Kempten foundation, which in the year 1472 was still unknown: as it was then narrated, prolixly refers it without any mention of the Princes of Bavaria; but much more clearly is the same proved by that diploma, which in Munster page 561 and from him in Rader part 2 page 111 can be read entire: confected indeed, but yet confected in the 9th or 10th century, for establishing the title of the Imperial monastery, under the name of Charles the Emperor himself, establishing it to be under the mundiburdium or defense of himself and his successors, and commanding that "no public Judge, nor Duke, nor Count," &c. Munster did not wish to describe more, and much more around the year 900. hastening to the final clause of the diploma: yet he gave enough for us to understand, first that the Kempten monks wished to be believed exempt from every subjection of any other, from the very beginning of their institution; then that the same recognized the mother of Hildegard as none other than a Swabian at the time, when she is said to have handed over to that monastery "whatever in the districts Ilergowe, Augusgowe, and Albogowe by maternal inheritance lawfully

she had obtained." For all these were in Swabia.

§ III. Foundation and restoration of the Kempten Monastery.

[16] On the boundary of Bavaria, running out toward Rhaetia, and Swabia, on the river Iller is seen Kempten, an Imperial town and monastery, commonly called Kampten; whose Abbots afterwards obtained the title of Princes, and are numbered among the four Abbots of the Empire. The Carolingian diploma is spurious, Concerning the frequent plundering and destruction of this monastery through the Huns we have touched on some things above, nor do we doubt but that in these or other calamities all the ancient documents perished. Those who afterwards tried to supply the defect of these, according to the custom of the 9th and 10th centuries, composed the diploma of which mention has already been made, with this beginning: "In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Charles, by the favoring Clemency of God, Emperor Augustus," by which diploma he is brought to declare how, "by the intervention of the most holy Father Pope Hadrian, and by the humble prayer of his beloved wife Hildegard, and also on account of the noble and faithful service of John, the reverend Abbot of Reichenau and Saint Gall, and of the same Bishop of Constance, and the merit of Rudangus Bishop of Metz, and Sturmius Abbot of Fulda, and of the other innumerable Princes, he took up a certain Andegarius, a man of great religion, as the first instructor to regular discipline of the Kempten monastery; and in the same Kempten place (which was established by the same in honor of the holy Mother of God Mary, situated in the Ilergow district) he confirmed him as Abbot, and, consecrated by Pope Hadrian on holy Easter day, endowed with the most precious bodies of the holy Martyrs Gordian and Epimachus, he honorably transmitted him to his own Abbey," &c. At the end is added the customary monogram of the Carolingian name, and "the sign of Lord Charles the most serene Emperor Augustus, which Amelbertus the Chancellor for the office of Lupertus the Archchancellor acknowledged, given from the Incarnation of the Lord 773, Indiction 11, but in the year of the Reign of the most pious Charles 6, of the Empire 1. Done at Rome on holy Easter day, in the church of Saint Peter, before Pope Hadrian and many other Princes, in the name of God. Amen."

[17] In this instrument (whose original letters, and none older in his life seen and read, Munster congratulates himself on having), I do not wish to note the defects [common to others similarly supposed, which age of Saint Chrodegang Bishop of Metz proves] common to others similarly forged, which from the preliminary Treatise to the second Volume are known and obvious to everyone already: only I wish to indicate the proper ones, and these not all, but the chief ones. We have explained the whole history of Saint Chrodegang Bishop of Metz (who is here ineptly written Rudangus) on March 6, when he is venerated, and have proved from Paul Warnefrid that he died in the year 766, certainly five years before Charles took Hildegard. But whom shall the first year of the Empire and the title of Emperor Augustus not offend, as if these things had taken place before the coronation, which was made only in the year 800 by Pope Leo? At last Charles is imagined to have celebrated Easter of the year 773 at Rome, who only at the end of autumn crossed into Italy; and with the siege continued through the whole winter, while the storming of the most fortified and royal city proceeded more slowly, led his wife with him to Rome in the year 774, and the Easter celebrations having been performed, returned to Pavia, where the Queen was relieved of her childbed, but the King, when at last the city was taken, and the King himself with the Queen and children, and the rest of Lombardy reduced to his power, could first reckon the year of his reign in Italy, yet did not reckon it, beginning to do this first after obtaining the name of Emperor.

[18] and the title of Emperor, and the very year 773. These things had to be explained, that it might be understood whence the author of the Acts drew the errors which we said at the beginning were worthy of pardon; because in the unhappy 15th century there was no one who could judge such things or have them suspected of fiction. But he had to be corrected by us, lest at the very threshold the reader should stumble, and the titles of King and Queen to be placed, where he named him Emperor and her Empress; and the mention of the coronation made by Leo to be expunged, as if it had preceded the marriage of Hildegard, who had died all seventeen years earlier. The other less enormous things we dissemble; we would rather, however, have had a copy of the ancient booklet alone, in which the finding and miracles were noted, than a history most worthy of faith disgraced by such additions at the beginning and end, such as are added about the Kempten foundation. It will be the prudent reader's task, after such a warning, to separate the precious from the vile, for which our Notes will also serve.

[19] Another title of the said foundation, Further, twelve years after the composition of the Acts, that is in the year 1484, as Bruschius testifies, an inscription of this kind was engraved on a certain column: "Hildegard in 773 founded it. Charles in 774 confirmed it. Hadrian in 777 dedicated it. Andegarius in 778 began it." The tenor of this title can be more probably sustained: for Hermann Contractus writes that "in the year 774 the bodies of Saints Gordian and Epimachus were brought from Rome into Germany": namely, for enriching the Kempten monastery, whose foundation the Queen could have begun in the preceding year; but the King to have confirmed in the following year before the Pope, and before him whom, being to be Abbot in the new monastery, he had caused to be consecrated by Hadrian, Andegarius: within the fourth year the building of the monastery and church could have been completed, and for its dedication not indeed the Pope himself to have come (which without more ancient testimony does not merit to be heard), but to have sent his Legate from his side who consecrated the place: at length, with all the workshops necessary for the observance of the monastic order prepared, what credit it merits. in the second year from the dedication Andegarius could have introduced monks there: but Charles could not have in the year 773 drawn up an instrument about things so done, as is above pretended. We, already accustomed to suppositions of this kind, because we understand them to have been done with no bad intention, to avert most unjust damages threatening the possessions destitute of the protection of a royal rescript; not only easily forgive the authors, but also owe them some gratitude, inasmuch as they are witnesses to us of traditions received and so far continued, with which although much dross is mixed, yet there lies beneath most often something of purer metal, which does not merit to be wholly cast aside. And such is that Queen Hildegard, with King Charles approving, from the hereditary goods of her maternal succession, founded or at least endowed the Kempten monastery, the first Abbot being established there, whom we have said, Andegarius.

[20] Latest fables concerning the same. What after that were excogitated as fables about the year 1500 and later, and inserted in the Kempten chronicle, and are praised by Bruschius as the most certain beginnings of the Kempten and Aachen basilicas, in his Chronology of the Monasteries of Germany, can obtain no other pardon than that common to the whole most unhappy age, in which, through the general corruption of morals even among the monks, the way was being paved to that Lutheran heresy which would subvert all things, and would involve the noxious with the innocent in a like ruin. For who otherwise could contain his bile, when he reads that Talandus, truly bastard, nay fictitious brother of Charles, and, with him occupied in the Saxon wars, guard of the Queen, while seeking the illicit embraces of his Lady, was craftily enclosed and held in prison: who freed at the return of Charles, preempted the accusation, and brought about that she was unheard condemned to the waters, from which wondrously preserved and escaping and again recognized by Talandus, she was reported to Charles, and again condemned to death, to be borne after her eyes had been plucked out: which would have been done, unless for her visitation there had supervened in the wood a certain golden knight, a noble man of Freyenberg, sent by Adelind the Queen's sister, and he persuaded that the eyes of a puppy, dug out, should be shown to Charles, and that the Queen should be dismissed: who going to Rome, with Rosina de Bodmen, her faithful companion of hardships, so long there practiced as a pharmacist, famous for cures, until Talandus, coming thither in Charles's company, almost deprived of the use of his eyes, offered her the occasion after restored sight to the blind man, of revealing herself before the King and the Pope; whom the King having expelled his concubines, received, are exploded. and when she had vowed to build a Kempten church, he himself conceived a similar vow of building the Aachen temple of the Blessed Virgin. In exploding these and other like things Crusius would have exercised himself more prudently, than in cudgeling the orthodox cult of the Saints: but in both more blind than Tiresias, he imagines darkness where there is none; he recognizes no darkness where there is mere chaos, ἄδηλα καὶ ἄλογα τὰ πάντα. I marvel at Rader, that while he holds all these things for fables, he so eagerly embraces the Bavarian mother of Hildegard, and the Hildebrandine genealogy, unknown to the ancients, nor taken except from the same interpreters of dreams.

[21] The Restoration is referred to the year 946. A greater appearance of truth have the things which Bruschius narrates about the restoration of the oft-mentioned monastery, after he had set forth how in the year 941 it was miserably plundered, burned, overthrown by the Huns, and the very Hilermont fortress, to which the Abbot forsaken by the monks had betaken himself, with many diplomas and privileges burned. "In the fifth year," he says, "after this devastation, it happened that Ernest, Duke of Swabia, about to make a journey into Bavaria, came to Stettwang, which was also an allodium of the Kempten monastery. There, entering the sacred house, he still found two Kempten monks, Amandus Breytklee and Felix Briemius, long well known to him; Amandus indeed by chance then preaching. He, having obtained Duke Ernest as a hearer in his sermon, vigorously proceeds, and at last, his speech bending to his own concern, as if with a digression made, bewails with plaintive and tearful voice the so great monastery collapsed and destroyed, which was formerly erected by the pious and praiseworthy Duchess of the Swabians so splendidly, so liberally, with such piety and dignity; in which hitherto so many pious men, so many excellent in virtue and doctrine, most useful to the whole province by counsel and aid, had lived; from which the multitude of the whole neighborhood, oppressed by poverty and need, had been fed; from which so many Bishops and Counselors of the Emperors had come forth. To the restoration of such a house all pious men ought rightly to contribute again something, but especially the princely men, and ascribed to Duke Ernest of Swabia. who were by blood nearness joined to Saint Hildegard the first foundress. By this speech Duke Ernest was so moved, that he at once summoned Amandus to himself, and asked him whether anything of the privileges still remained from so great a devastation. But when Amandus showed him the book of privileges and diplomas safe, Ernest soon began to restore the monastery, as if anew, to gather the monks, and with the help and counsel of Saint Udalricus to set over them a certain Abbot, and began to ask and obtain a new confirmation of all the privileges from the Emperor Otto I. This Ernest therefore, as their second founder and establisher, the Kempten church and city rightly recognize, and rightly ought to praise and celebrate with perpetual gratitude."

ACTS

Collected by a Kempten monk in the 15th century

From a Ms. of the Blaubeuren monastery.

Hildegardis, wife of Charlemagne the Emperor (Blessed)

BHL Number: 3934, 3935

FROM MS.

PROLOGUE.

Be it known to all, both present and future, that from the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1472, [The Life of Blessed Hildegard from an ancient Ms. is given to be copied in the year 1472.] the venerable Father in Christ and Lord, Lord John called de Werdenau, by the grace of God Abbot of the monastery of the Most Holy ever Virgin Mary and of the holy Martyrs Gordian and Epimachus

and Castulus at Kempten, diligently considering in this the future defect of his monastery, namely the life of Blessed Hildegard, foundress of the aforesaid monastery, as he found it from his predecessors in a certain very ancient opusculum, handed it over for rewriting and renewing; because it ought to be found not only in one place, but in all places by the faithful of Christ; and when the miracles, which with the Lord cooperating he showed in many men, are read, they are then more and more stirred to the love of God and to thanksgiving. Let the prudent reader therefore beware lest he bitterly mix poison into the handmaid of God and her works, and that word of the Prophet be said to him: "Your mouth is full of bitterness and deceit." Ps. 10:7 For such should be the readers of sacred Scripture, who in the love of God are continually fervent, whose doctrine and form of conversation is transfused by the same grace into others, lest they trample down with the feet of sordid life the heavenly pearls of spiritual words.

CHAPTER I.

Marriage of Blessed Hildegard, foundation of the Kempten monastery, pious death: Louis succeeds his father Charles.

[1] With Hadrian as Supreme Pontiff ^a presiding over the holy See of the Roman Church, Charles [son of Pepin King of the Franks, by God's favor, undertook the helm of the kingdom], a man Catholic in faith, illustrious in knowledge, devout in religion, who ^b afterwards joined to himself in marriage the most noble virgin of the Swabian race, Queen Hildegard, Married to King Charles and begot from her three sons, Charles, Pepin, Louis the Pious ^c. And while divine goodness cherished the aforesaid King with manifold grace, yet he could seem most happy from this, that it was granted him by God to lead an inseparable companionship of life with the best wife. For her exceptional sanctity the old histories, not falsely proclaiming, as often as they recall her name, call her Most Blessed. For indeed while as Lady of the Kingdom she abounded greatly in all the wealth of this world, gold, silver, gems, and garments, and possessed many kingdoms and estates by hereditary right; yet holding her conversation in heaven, seeking the things that are above, she excels in various virtues, not the things on earth; and panting for riches which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, with the love of God she extinguished the love of the world; with holy liberality she trod down avarice, with humility she trod down pride, praying with the Prophet and saying: "Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of the sinner move me." Ps. 35:12 Knowing therefore that it is written: "The redemption of a man's soul is his own riches," Prov. 13:18 she manfully determined to constitute Christ heir of all her possessions; that she might deserve to become a partaker of the eternal inheritance, heir indeed of God, but coheir of Christ. Truly a wise and imitation-worthy disposition, to purchase eternal for temporal, heavenly for earthly, things that shall abide forever for things that are fleeting. She ascends therefore from virtue to virtue, desiring to see the God of gods in Sion, by the quaternary of virtue: that through prudence she might choose what should be done; through justice execute what was chosen; conquer in adversities, through fortitude; not yield to enticements, through temperance. But it seemed to her by sounder counsel, that she should not sell her estates, and distribute their price to the poor in a moment; but she chose to found monasteries on those very estates, that from their fruits and revenues to the end of the age the poor might be sufficiently sustained.

[2] intent on founding monasteries, The holier executrix of her holy purpose therefore, in many places, the rich and very powerful Queen, began to construct new monasteries, and to adorn new colleges of God's servants; she also enlarged many already constructed with conferred possessions. To others she largely distributed gold, silver, and ornaments fit for the beauty of God's house. especially the Kempten one, Among those monasteries of which that most blessed woman was foundress, she more especially loved the Kempten house, which she both heaped up with riches and exalted with honors, so that the exhibition of the work might be the proof of her love. to which Andegarius as first Abbot Whence also Andegarius, the first elected of the same monastery, a man of great religion, she led with her to Rome, and on holy Easter day, in the church of Blessed Peter, in the year of the Incarnation ^d 783, with Charles and many Princes present, and Pope Hadrian, she asked and obtained that he should be consecrated Abbot. Then the Queen, endowed with the precious bodies of the holy Martyrs Gordian and Epimachus ^e, returned with joy and glory; and she obtains the bodies of Saints Gordian and Epimachus. so much the more glorious indeed and joyful by her devotion, because she brought back so glorious a burden, and because at her prayers Pope Hadrian deigned to come ^f to Kempten, and dedicated the monastery newly built by her, in honor indeed of the Holy Mother of God Mary and of the holy Martyrs Gordian and Epimachus, whose bodies rest there until this day, and are honored with divine offices. Now the Most Blessed Hildegard ordained that she would have her place of burial in the same monastery: whence, enriching it with various gifts, whatever in the district Hyllergouwe, ^g Albegouwe, Desegouwe she had lawfully obtained by maternal inheritance, with the powerful hand of Charles the Emperor and by Imperial bounty she handed over there, and there chooses her burial. and transferred into the proper right of the monastery, and granted it to be possessed perpetually. She persevered moreover in God-pleasing conversation unto the end, persisting in prayers and alms. ^h In the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 783, on the 2nd of the Kalends of May, the Lord's devoted Hyltegardis died, full of happy merits, and rested in the place which she had chosen for herself, buried in peace. ⁱ

[3] Charles the Emperor, however, with his wife having died, Louis the Pious is created King by Charles, living happily with the sons whom he had begotten from her, instructed them in liberal disciplines, and also in worldly and divine laws. But the younger in birth, Pious Louis, fearing and loving God from his infancy, whatever he could have, for the name of the Lord distributed to the poor. For he was the best of his brothers, as from the beginning of the world the younger brother frequently surpassed the elder in merits. Hence it is that the Lord had regard to Abel and to his gifts, but despised Cain with his sheaves: so Isaac is chosen, Ishmael rejected; Jacob is loved, Esau held in hatred; David, the youngest of brothers, a shepherd of sheep, is destined by God for the helm of the kingdom. But the aforesaid Louis, after he had come to adult age, betrothed the daughter of the most noble Duke Ingeram ^k, from whom he begot three sons, Lothair, Pepin, Louis. Now Charles, understanding the day of his death to approach (for he had already grown very old), with his sons Charles ^l and Pepin having died, with only Pious Louis surviving, held a general council in the palace of Aachen ^m with the Princes of the kingdom, Bishops, Abbots, Dukes, Counts, asking all if it would be pleasing to them, that he should impose the name of King on his son. Which when all unanimously approved, on one Sunday adorned with royal apparel, bearing a golden crown on his glorious head, he entered the church which he himself had built from the foundation; and approaching the high altar, he placed the crown which he wore on his head upon the altar. A prayer being made, the father admonished the son, first of all to love and fear God, obey His precepts, defend the churches, show unfailing mercy to kinsmen and relatives, honor Priests as fathers, love the people as sons, having received the salutary admonitions, to be the consoler of monasteries and the father of the poor; to appoint faithful ministers fearing God, who would despise unjust gifts; to cast no one from his honor or possession without reasonable cause, and to show himself irreprehensible to God and to men. After these and like admonitions of his father, which the son promised to observe in all, the golden crown taken from the altar, by Charles's command, Pious Louis placed on his own head.

[4] After a few days, honored with many and great gifts by his father, he returned to Aquitaine, where before also he had held the government of the Kingdom. But the Lord Emperor Charles remained at Aachen. Still rejoicing in the Imperial name and dignity, devoting himself only to prayers and the giving of alms, and greatly attending to the correction of books. In the following year in the month of January, ⁿ after a bath he is seized with fever, and with the sickness growing worse he is refreshed only with a little water: on the seventh day of his sickness, with Bishop Hildebald ^o summoned, by the sacraments of the Lord's body and blood he fortified his departure. On the morrow, knowing that the day and hour of his passing was at hand, with right hand extended, with what power he could, imprinting the sign of the Cross on his forehead, he was signing his whole body: at last gathering his feet, and again then chanting: "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," to his dead parent in a good old age full of days he departed in peace, in the seventy-second year of his age. His body was buried at Aachen in the church which he himself had built in honor of God.

[5] After the death of the most glorious Emperor Charles, his son Louis, from the parts of Aquitaine, succeeds to the empire: came to the palace of Aachen, and without any contradiction took up the rule of all the kingdoms which God had given to his father. Sitting therefore in the palace, he ordered the treasures of his father in gold and silver, and in precious gems, in all manner of furnishings, to be presented to him, and distributed all according to his father's disposition and the contents of his charter [p] faithfully and devoutly; reserving nothing for himself, except a silver table, which he kept for the love of his father, whose price however he distributed to the poor for the redemption of his father's soul. Meanwhile legates from all the kingdoms which were subject to his father came announcing peace, and offering spontaneous obedience with all fidelity. About the same time the Pious Prince, always intent on pious works, sent faithful legates through all his kingdoms, and commanded all who in his father's days had been unjustly oppressed through the cruelty of wicked ministers, either by the taking away of patrimony or by the compulsion of undue servitude, to be restored, and confirmed the same restitution by signing with his own hand.

[6] In those days Pope Leo the Roman died, [q] and Stephen succeeded him, who having taken up the Pontificate ordered all the Roman people to promise fidelity to King Louis by oath, he is consecrated by Pope Stephen and directing his legates announced to him, that in the place which he should choose, he would willingly speak with him and see him. Which the Prince hearing, and rejoicing greatly at the message heard, ordered his messengers to go to meet the holy Pontiff with greetings, and with due reverence to prepare generous services. But the King, having followed his messengers, glorious, met the aforesaid Pontiff with a great retinue, desiring to receive the grace of consecration from him. They met in a great field of the Remi; and each having descended from his horse, the Pious Louis prostrated himself to the ground with his whole body three times before the feet of the Apostolic, the third time rising, he greeted his Lord and Father with these words: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, God the Lord, and has shone upon us"; and the Pontiff answered: "Blessed is the Lord our God, who has granted us to see according to King David." Then after embraces and kisses entering the church they prayed. Then the Pontiff honored the King and Queen Irmingarda and all his nobles with many and great gifts.

On the first Sunday [r] before the solemnities of Masses in the church, in the presence of the Clergy and people, the Pontiff anointed the King and consecrated him as Emperor, and placed on his glorious head a golden crown of wondrous beauty, adorned with precious gems, which he had brought with him; consecrating Queen Irmingarda also and calling her Augusta, he also crowned her with a golden diadem. Staying several days, they had conversation daily about the utility of the Church. But the most bountiful Emperor honored the Lord Pope with innumerable gifts, three times greater than those he had received from him; for being full of piety, he was always wont to give more than to receive. These things so done, the Apostolic returned to Rome, the Emperor to Aachen to his own See: he progressed daily from virtue to virtue, he shines with virtues. having deep understanding of sacred Scripture; but poetical songs, which he had learned in youth, he neither wished to read nor to hear. He was also sober in food and drink, moderate in garments, never shining in golden ones except on the highest festivities; never did he raise his voice in anger, nay even the people kept discipline before him: daily before his meal he showed generous alms to the poor; adorned with the best morals, he disposed all things prudently, except that he gave in to his counselors more than was fitting: the occasion of this surreption was the constancy of reading and the frequency of psalmody.

NOTES.

CHAPTER II.

Finding of the holy bodies, after various miracles at their invocation.

[7] When therefore the day of the reconsecration of the Kempten monastery for certain causes ^a was awaited with longing, and those things which they were providing for the execution of the office were being prepared with diligent care and decent apparatus, it seemed good to the Abbot ^b and to the Convent of the Brothers, that the monuments, which in the monastery being rather high up impeded the smoothness and evenness of the pavement, with the Bishop consulting and advising, The Kempten monks restore their temple should be destroyed; and the bodies of the faithful buried there, in a more convenient place, with the celebration of Masses and due service, be interred; so that the Pontiff about to consecrate, in writing the Alphabet from corner to corner, might have an easy passage: and it was so done. Now there was in the same monastery an ancient sepulchre, not indeed eminent, but distinguished with timbers placed in a square on the pavement and from the pavement: in this the Queen Hildegarda the founder of the place to rest, was the constant assertion of many; but yet the congregation of God's servants, least certain of the truth, for the common opinion indeed showed to the same sepulchre some reverence, but by no means that which was due for the uncertainty; and was greatly and often acting anxiously, wishing, and they doubt about the place of Hildegard's sepulchre, praying, that God would deign on any occasion to show the truth of the doubtful matter. It was certainly expressed in the writing of the truth in the privilege of the great Emperor Charles, that Queen Hildegarda his wife had chosen for herself the place of burial in the Kempten monastery; but that by choice of purpose she rested there in blessed memory, was neither found in writings, nor effectively supported by reasons causing faith in the doubtful matter.

[8] But the cause of this harmful doubt, which God has now wiped away, seems to have been, nay undoubtedly was, the scattering of the books and privileges of the monastery, the general dispersion of the monks, the enormous and lamentable change of the place, the old writings being lost through the ruins of the place. which is reported to have so deformed the state and order of the house of God, that scarcely with the ministry of one Cleric was the celebration of divine things performed there. For with the possessions alienated and violently plundered, "the city sat alone, before full of God's people; became as a widow; Lady of the nations, princess of provinces is made under tribute"; without Abbot, without monks, without head, without members. But after many years and very many labors, when recovery of the possessions was made by Duke Hernest, kinsman of Queen Hildegardis; and when in the renewed house a new congregation of monks had been gathered, it is no wonder nor unfitting, if men newly entering the world, newly entering an other's house, had deep ignorance of the treasures from of old hidden in it, whom neither writing taught about the deposition of the precious pearl, nor the faithful report of the Fathers instructed. Under this grave burden of ignorance the sons of the church sad were pressed, filled with bitterness; nor was there one to console them in their sadness: yet on account of the common opinion, as was said, ignorance was turned into doubt. But this not-to-be-disapproved opinion of the common people, from whatever source it took its beginning, from what is to be said has great increase.

[9] Meanwhile an energumen is freed Deacon Wernerus, possessed by a malignant spirit, wretchedly agitated by furies, so that he might wrest life from himself, hastens to a precipice; but by God's mercy he is seized by friends and acquaintances, held, bound: then, after the suffrages of many Saints had been implored, and yet not the desired grace of liberation obtained, he was led to the said and oft to be said Kempten monastery. Where standing, with all who were there supplicating for him, in a voice of indignation, in the person of the demon, in a spirit of fury, he cried out and said: "What is to me and to you, Hildegardis? why do you persecute me? why do you expel me?" O wondrous grace of God! What the wicked one feared, rushed upon him: the saying was followed and done: the demon is cast out, the man is freed, and all the people, as they saw, gave praise to God. This beginning of signs Jesus made, when he began to manifest the glory of his handmaid.

[10] and a possessed woman About the same time Adelaidis, servant of Ulric de Chnibor, by God's permission (whose judgments are sometimes hidden, sometimes manifest, but always just) is seized by a demon; from whose furious mouth the evil spirit of the Lord raged with horrid words of uncleanness, and imitating that Gospel demoniac, cutting himself with stones, gathering thorns and thistles with nettles and placing them in her bosom, as if insensible to pain, did not shrink from burning and tearing her own flesh, forgetful of or spurning that of the Apostle, "no one ever held his own flesh in hatred." The parents weep and wail, imploring divine aid, which is the only remedy in tribulation. Eph. 5:29 By the concern of the religious monk Hartmann the woman is taken, and is led bound of hand to that tomb, still supposed to be that of Hildegardis: where wondrous and wretched, various and confused cries she gave, and the name of the Queen, famous among the Angels, not devotedly but disturbedly she often repeated. Hearing which, those who stood by, compunct, demanded the suffrages of that thrice and four times Holy one, that by her merits God might loose her whom Satan had bound. The Lord heard and was merciful, and the woman was healed from that hour, and they glorified God saying: "Wondrous is God in His Saints, the God of Israel will Himself give virtue and strength to His handmaid; blessed be God."

[11] ^c To the aforesaid things is to be added a third miracle, that "in the mouth of two or three witnesses this

word may stand." A certain youth Henry, a certain one near death, son of Conrad the bloodletter, afflicted with long illness, his flesh eaten by the fever of sickness, his blood exhausted, having the sentence of death upon him and signs threatening death, lay despairing and despaired of, destitute of all office of feet and other limbs, unable without the ministry of a carrier to rise from his bed. He, reflecting that he was of the family of Blessed Nicholas, and attending to him as a pious and swift helper in necessity, with weeping and groaning, as he could, with hope of health poured forth prayers to God, and this he did more by the affection of desire than by vocal prayer. O wondrous piety! The Confessor of Christ is near to all who invoke Him, He did not forsake him who hoped in Him, He heard the desire of the poor. To him sleeping in a dream the Saint of God appeared, inspired him to visit the sepulchre of the Queen, certain of recovering his health. Awakened the youth, and "I have been glad," he said, "in those things which have been said to me": he prepares himself to obey, at Saint Nicholas's admonition coming to the supposed sepulchre, he is healed: seizes a staff, wishing, but not able to present himself to the tomb by its support. On the back therefore of his neighbor moved by piety he is lifted, and set down at the desired place and one to be desired by all. Certain therefore of the truth of the promise, he asked of the Lord the health promised to him by the Queen's merits to be given. What more? During his prayers he fell asleep, and waking, without a staff, sprang up healthy. Blessed therefore the Lord God of Israel, who visited and wrought the redemption of his people. From then on therefore that place of the Sanctuary began to be more frequented, that hidden manna more devoutly venerated; for very much of probability from these things which had happened was added to the popular assertion, nor did anyone easily presume to defend the contrary.

Yet the Brothers of the monastery were not yet persuaded firmly to believe that their Lady, the foundress of the place, rested there: for it does not befit the wise and religious in such matters to give the assent of heart lightly or rashly, on account of the manifold deceits of demons, and the illusory vanities of dreams; although not always are dreams empty, and demons sometimes announce true things, either compelled, or with the intention of deceiving; and indeed extorted truth does not have merit, nor yet is it not truth. The Brothers therefore silently considering the matter, and comparing deeds with words, daily labored to find the hidden truth. They therefore proposed, by the counsel and exhortation of the Pontiff, to open the monument; so that if they should find the holy body with the testimony of writing, they might joyfully manifest the treasure found; but if not, they might rest in mind from the anxiety of seeking.

[12] But it is not to be passed over in silence, that a certain woman full of days, in the habit of a pilgrim and convert, invited by the fame of the coming dedication, a few days before the opening of the sepulchre turned aside to the Kempten monastery for the sake of prayer. The true place of burial is indicated by a pilgrim woman, Who, having learned that it was proposed to seek for the bones of Hildegardis of revered memory, publicly before many religious Brothers also, uttered an oracle supported by truth: "Not," she said, "in the place marked with the circumposed timbers will the holy body be found: but on the side of it, distant from it about three feet, near the south wall is a monument, not having the form of a monument, with the smooth surface of the pavement: there long desired shall be found the Foundress of this place and its Lady, and at her feet rests her son"; and where, or when, or how this secret had been revealed to her, we do not know. But that truth was in her words, the outcome of the matter demonstrating, we have learned. Opportunity having been taken, the night chosen for this work, with the doors of the temple closed, with incense and taper, the Brothers reverently approaching the place of the sepulchre, and opening it and finding nothing, were disturbed, were moved, terror seized them; there pains as of one in childbirth. But their sadness was soon turned into joy; for finding the monument on the side of it, and the earth being thrown off, looking in, they rejoiced with a very great joy. and in it her body with the epitaph is found, For they were contemplating with great delight the bones of that noble and remarkable by birth and much-desired one: and the head being raised, which lay in a cut stone, and being inspected in that part which touched the earth, this brief but sufficient epitaph, "Hildegardis Queen" ^d, was read: which read and heard, the cry of all is raised, singing, weeping, praising God, who from fear to security, from hope to reality, led his servants. Who could conceive that incalculable and unexpected joy, except one experienced or similar? nay not even experienced. For always things experienced are more joyfully felt, than conceived in the thought of the mind, they flatter more affectionately, they soothe more sweetly. The spirit of all who were there fed upon jubilation, which for the greatness of its joy could neither be silenced nor fully expressed. The whole convent of Brothers suffused with joys exulted more abundantly; their soul was melted over the chosen and beloved one. What then? That night was illumined as a day in delights to be sought. O blessed night! which purged the darkness of ignorance by the manifestation of the column! This is the night which the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it.

[13] Meanwhile, the bones of the holy body being collected and placed honorably in a cloak, also shoes are found, wondrous to say, the leather loose but uncorrupted, only the thread rotted. Then the monument of Louis the Pious ^e Emperor is opened; but next the body of Louis the Pious, his body is found whole, and a crown on his glorious head of precious orphrey. Joy is therefore doubled, gladness is doubled, with the cause abounding the effect abounds. The blessed relics of the Pious King are gathered, and to the maternal bones are placed in one sarcophagus; separately however, to be venerated with equal veneration with those. With these things so done, the finding of the desirable treasure quickly becomes known far and wide by God's will. For every good, the more it is brought into common, the more it shines: for what use is there in a hidden treasure? Frequent fame therefore, announcing things worthy of praise, with grace going before more swiftly than usual flies around, and to new delights by the effusion of good odor invites the small and great. They run therefore sprinkled with the fragrance of holy opinion in troops, as to fairs, innumerable peoples, to the intercessions of the mother and her offspring; bringing with them gifts of devotion in hope of pardon; afflicted with various distresses taking various causes for coming, but all commonly desiring to rejoice in the things obtained, are not frauded of their desire, the Lord brought them their desire. To the blind is restored sight, to the deaf hearing, to the mute speech, to the lame a walk; the bent is made erect, the paralytic is restored; blasphemous madness flees, demonic vexation ceases, life returns to the dead. Why detail each? With almost every kind of miracles the Lord glorified on earth the bones of those happily reigning with Him in heaven. That vows may be made, divine inspiration suggests; liberal mercy anticipates the fulfillment of the vows; for the will is reckoned for the deed. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. But of the many and great things which He, who alone does wonders, as alone He is good, wondrously worked for the glory of the glorious Queen with God and of her son, we have noted few: because lest we should offer to the envious and unbelieving and to those disparaging the divine goodness in such matters an occasion of mocking, sneering, or nauseating; we have judged it useful to relate only those things which both by fitting testimony came to our knowledge, and can be enough and more than enough to declare the sanctity of His elect.

NOTES.

CHAPTER III.

The blind, deaf, mute, paralytic healed by the merits of Blessed Hildegard.

[14] A paralytic is healed, When therefore a very great crowd was gathered, and from villages and farms, castles and cities hastened to Kempten for the grace of finding health, with the same hope and desire there came from Richoltzried ^a a tearful woman, carrying on her neck a son of about seven years, utterly destitute of the use and faculty of walking; for a daily and strong illness had fed on the tender flesh of the boy, who, worn out with extreme emaciation, seemed moribund, hastening to death: his right arm also, withered by palsy, assiduously hung from his side, nor in any way could he move his hand to his mouth to take food. Pressed by this burden the miserable and pitiable mother, wearied in body, but more afflicted in mind, in the bitterness of her soul, bringing with her the sacrifices of a contrite spirit, entered the temple, and deposited the tearful load in the middle of the temple, with hope of receiving your mercy, O God, where those venerable bodies then placed were being kept; begging the Father of mercies and God of all consolation with unutterable groans, that by the intervening merits of His Saints He would deign to have mercy on the suffering boy. Then lifted from the ground and taken by both hands, the anxious parent was leading him round, but he was being dragged rather than following. Without delay, released from his mother, with God's help alone he attempted to walk step by step; and with his legs strengthened, scarcely surpassing the thickness of his fingers, he joyfully went around those effective intercessors of his. The hand too, formerly withered, feeling it restored to him, he moved to his mouth without difficulty; and doing this frequently and smiling, he showed that he congratulated himself on the gift of God which he was experiencing. Two miracles here are known to have been wrought, both that the faculty of walking is restored, and the dried-up hand is renewed in vigor. These things were done in the sight of many then present and praising God, who heals the contrite of heart and binds up their contritions.

[15] They recover sight, a boy, The consoling God also consoled another mother, in a little one sucking her breasts: for a spot swelling with a tumor, exhibiting the color of glass, covering the pupil, had occupied one of the boy's eyes; and had deprived him, with darkness brought upon him, of the faculty and act of seeing; which produced deformity of face, detriment of sight in the boy, bitterness of pain in the maternal heart. The mother therefore standing at that propitiatory of great efficacy, and more earnestly supplicating for the removal of the film obscuring the eye; that veil impeding sight, cut, dissipated, disappeared; the obstacle removed, the pupil free, sight received, was refreshed by the delight of seeing.

[16] an old woman, With the doubled gift of His piety the Father of lights

visited a little old woman, destitute of the light of both eyes: who although she labored both from the defect of old age, and from another hidden cause with the darkness of blindness; yet believing that all things are possible to one who believes, and knowing that with God there is no necessary impediment by which privation must remain after the habit, with confidence, the author of light, rather by desire than by voice, she was beseeching, that by the merits of the holy Queen and her son she might merit to receive the light. Her prayer was heard, and at the same hour in the midst of the church, with old age not impeding nor any other cause resisting, being gladdened by the recovery of sight, she gladdened the present crowd; and to the praise and glory of God, wondrous in His Saints and holy in His works, she stirred them up.

[17] and a girl: Nonetheless worthy of praise was the following miracle, and most instructing in the virtue of perseverance. A certain girl from Chemanshausen, with her eyes bleary, labored with the darkness of blindness, nor without a guide on the way could she guide herself without error. Excited by the flashing of the miracles, hesitating nothing about finding mercy, a maiden in age indeed, but white-haired in mind and devout in faith, with others coming she came to those aids of great power before God, thinking that the darkness of her eyes would be removed, and her face would be clothed with the desired light. But God, wishing to prove her perseverance and reward the proved, deferred the effect of her desire, and by deferring kindled it. So, staying for some days in the same place, and assiduously frequenting the thresholds of the temple, and continually moving her intercessors with weeping and groaning, and by moving them stirring them to piety, she learned daily improvement by experience; and thus progressing little by little, and from love of progress not failing in hope, by asking, seeking, knocking unceasingly, she obtained sufficient recovery of sight, and showing in herself to us the fruit of pious devotion, incited others to the like.

[18] likewise a soldier. Not in a dissimilar order, but more accelerated, was the restoration of sight made to a certain Convert of Zaitenbuch. He, when he was still perversely serving the deceiving world, ^b in a conflict with an adversary, from a wound inflicted on himself, suffered the loss of one eye: but a short time after his conversion, pain added to pain, deprived of the light of the other eye, he lay wrapped in the foul darkness of blindness. Therefore, with a spirit contrite by double contrition, with God sending, it came into his mind to humbly experience the grace of the venerable relics. And so with a guide going before, taking up an auspicious journey, he began to become the executor of his happy purpose. O grace to be proclaimed! Scarcely had he begun to undergo the labor of the way, when he felt the medicine of grace in the reception of light, though slightly. For first he began to discern mountains, then trees, then also men. He went therefore rejoicing and leaping, proclaiming to his guide the grace already experienced; and consoled somewhat by the experience of the matter, he was raised in hope to greater things, nor frustrated. For scarcely half of the begun way had been passed, when he who before sad had been following, joyful went before, making his way and not requiring a guide. But reaching the desired place and entering the temple, with bent knees before the sarcophagus, he adored the venerable bones for a long time, and the prayer being finished, for seeing any subtle things better, the power in him was advanced.

[19] Agnes of Durnach ^c, by divine judgment deprived of the light of her eyes, seeking the help of many, a woman, but not profiting, at length humbly devoted herself to the most blessed Queen and her son (by whose merits she heard that frequent miracles were being done), and before the fulfillment of her vow she received her sight. Afterwards, to fulfill her vow, she came to Kempten; she proclaimed the grace which she had received, with many honest persons attending; and for rendering thanks to God and His Saints, she provoked all who were there. Eberhard of Trent, and a certain Trentine: struck with blindness of the eyes, after the attempts of many remedies, went to Verona, seeking a medicine to remove the darkness, but not finding it. Where he spent much, though in vain, on doctors; sprinkled by the sweet fame of the miracles which were being done through the beloved of God at Kempten, he took up the purpose of going there in hope of illumination, and fulfilled it in deed, in great contrition of spirit and affliction of body. Coming therefore to the desired place with a guide going before, about to ask health and grace, entering the monastery, he entered the sepulchre in which the blessed bones had rested; and prostrate with his whole body, he asked from the sons of eternal light that corporeal light be restored to him. After some space of time he summoned his guide on the way, but did not find him, for he had withdrawn, overcome by tedium and labor. Which having learned, that wretched and pitiable one, troubled by the lack of light and the withdrawal of his guide, continued in prayer more ardently. But God heard him crying to Him, and by the merits of His elect, restored sight to him, in the same place and at the same hour. His mourning was therefore turned into joy, his tribulation into gladness, so that he could truly sing: "The Lord is my illumination and my salvation." Going out therefore from the sepulchre, for the restoration of light he gave thanks to his illuminator, and by his thanksgiving stirred up the present crowd.

[20] A deaf woman recovers her hearing, A certain woman from Erichsried, aged and turning to decrepit age, by the judgment of God's justice lost the sense of hearing, whom the penalty of tedious deafness continually and more afflicted. And when her ears being closed were open to no external sounding audible; yet in the inner hollow of the head, as with a continuous whispering and as with the sound of many bells, she complained to be vexed. For a manifold and disordered ringing within the head, disturbing the brain, blocked the instruments of hearing, so that she could not receive a sound formed outside by hearing. She having entered the monastery, during the evening synaxis, while she was imploring the manifold grace of the simple God, and the suffrages of those at whose sepulchres she was staying; wondrous to say, sooner than said the impediment of hearing, the cause of deafness, she felt with effect going out sensibly through her ears; with so great impetus and concussion, that among the hands of those holding her she fell half-dead; and from the church into the porch, that she might take refreshment from the breeze, she was carried. Who, after a little returning to herself, and returning to the place from which she had been carried out, heard clearly, and when asked about various things even with low voice, answered fittingly: and all praised God saying: "He has done all things well, and has made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

[21] a mute woman speech. For on the evening of the same day a certain girl from Erringen was there, Lutgart by name, beautiful of face but more beautiful in faith: she on one night, sound and eager, sought her bed, and refreshed her limbs with the quiet of sleep: waking and feeling herself much changed, she cried out, called her father, asked for a light to be kindled. He breaking off delay, came with the light, inquiring the cause of the cry, but not receiving an answer; for the girl, deprived of the power of speech, was suddenly mute, and for three weeks remained mute. The anxious father sought counsel, nor found it; asked for help, nor received it; knocked at the physician, nor was a remedy opened to him: for did the physician free her? No: but the restoration of the taken speech was reserved for the glory and grace of blessed Hildegard. What more? despairing of human solace, he fled to the divine; he vows that he will present his daughter to those relics full of grace, he prepares a candle expressing the figure of a tongue. Having become master of his vow, he came to Kempten, gave the candle to be held to the girl standing by the sacred bones. O ineffable grace! Scarcely had the candle begun to burn, when the speech of the mute is restored, and she cried out with a great voice: "Lady and truly Blessed Hildegarda!" exulting indeed and jubilant from the miraculous working which she was experiencing in herself, she used an elliptic ^d speech. The men also who were there cried out, glorifying God and saying: "Truly the Lord is in this place." Behold, considering the order of the deed, it will be able to seem to one attending not undeservedly, that neither had this one sinned, nor her parents, that she should be made mute; but that the works of God and the merits of the Queen might be manifested in her.

[22] A lame man is cured, Invited therefore by the glory of the miracles, a certain miller from Gonreburch, weak and lame from long illness, kindled with hope of health and desire, sought the place to be sought, supported by the aid of a staff: who, with the merits of the Saints interceding, having obtained the effect of his desire, the staff cast aside, returned sound, without the support of a staff; moreover the sufficient strength for carrying burdens was conferred on him, so that he could truly say: "My strength and my praise is the Lord, and He has become my salvation."

[23] and a paralytic, In the village of Gertrichsried, a man named Bertholdus, wholly dissolved in the weakness of palsy, and destitute of the office of almost all his limbs, lay on his bed continually for many weeks, despairing of the recovery of health, and expecting miserably the end of pain and misery with the end of his wretched life. But hearing that through the glorious merits of the Queen and the King, to pious suppliants the desired benefits were being granted; raised with hope resumed, he proposed out of the vow of his heart to visit the venerable bodies, and expressed his vow with his voice. O incalculable piety of Christ! Truly the grace of the Holy Spirit knows no slow efforts. Scarcely had the sick man expressed his vow, when with his limbs solidified, the joints of his limbs healed, feeling himself endowed with strength, with alacrity he arose; and taking up a staff, more from the custom of walking than from the necessity of support, not slow in executing his vow, he hastened to Kempten: where, rejoicing and giving thanks, he was recounting in order the work of divine piety done upon him. The sudden change of the right hand of the Most High shown concerning him also stirred his neighbors of both sexes, noble, who had known him sick, and had then by God's nod gathered for the sake of prayer, to admiration, and those who were there to thanksgiving, so that they could truly sing: "Great is the Lord and great is His power." Nor is it wonderful: three others, the power of Almighty God by the merits of His elect raised to health a woman of Wangirir, contracted for many years; the bent arm of another He mercifully extended to the use of the due office. Strengthening and solidifying the loosened knees and weak legs of Conrad, a certain knight in Füssen ^e, who for a long time laboring from a hidden sickness with difficulty of walking, after the vow expressed, began the laborious journey, with his wife as companion, completed it easily. And having become master of his vow, reaching the destined place, and spending the night there, he felt nothing of former pain; and gave thanks to God saying: "The Lord heard my prayers and set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps."

[24] The little son of Robert of Pfullendorf ^f, a military man, not yet seven, likewise a boy. was vehemently vexed by the passion of palsy; and the vexation grew and the infirmity strengthened, so much that sometimes within the space of one night his torment was repeated forty times. The father therefore sad, not uninterruptedly but with continuous pain afflicted, hearing that the grace of healings abounded in the Kempten monastery by the merits of mother and son, made a vow for the boy, with pious heart and paternal affection, proposing and disposing to lead the little one to that refuge of heavenly medicine. O generous goodness of divine mercy! From that time the Lord looked from heaven, and the shaking ceased, and the father was consoled in the son, and the son in himself. Therefore the little one given to health

the father led to Kempten, according to the purpose of his vow; and rejoicing and playing, he presented him in the temple, offering a sacrifice for him being freed; moreover he obligated himself and his wife and sons to an annual payment, to be paid every year to the Saints resting there.

NOTES.

CHAPTER IV.

Demoniacs freed by the merits of Blessed Hildegard, dropsical and contracted ones healed, dead raised.

[25] One demoniac woman is freed, The God of highest goodness not only cured diseases by the merits of His own, but also put demons to flight. In the village of Ermengers, in the time of dark night, a certain woman seized by the prince of darkness, was most cruelly vexed; with horrible cries not only exciting her husband and her family, but the neighbors, with him raging the more bitterly in her, the more quickly he was to be driven out from her. The neighbors coming together, therefore, and seeing the wretched woman pitiably afflicted, moved by compassion of piety, unanimously all imploring the help of the venerable Hildegard and Pious Louis, cried out to the Lord, and He heard them. For that dragon, whom God formed to mock Him, hearing the Saints named; not bearing their power, fled from their face; going out from the woman, whom he expressly was possessing, and gave place to the Holy Spirit, to revive her soul, the more vehemently, the more shortly she had been afflicted, that that might be fulfilled: "Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind." Cant. 4:16 But her friends led her, freed from the unclean spirit, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, to Kempten, narrating what had been done about her, and to praise God in His Saints entering the church of God.

[26] and another, Another woman, more wretched than wretched, for many years demoniac, by the laborious ministry of friends was led to the sacred Relics; where greatly vexed indeed, and raving with horror-inspiring voices, as if the evil enemy were foreseeing or fearing that his casting out was imminent. Which, with the merits of God's elect aiding, having been put to flight, that long captive daughter of Zion is freed; whom the wicked spirit going out, shaking her without mercy, left half-dead. Who quickly having recovered her spirit, feeling her freedom, gave thanks to her Liberator God. This was done with many standing by and exulting to God our Helper, and crying out, "These are those whom God has chosen in love not feigned, through whom He does such wonders."

[27] A man contracted in his hands is healed, On Good Friday, at the hour of the divine office, with all running to the holy communion of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, according to the ecclesiastical custom of that province; Conrad, a master blacksmith, not obeying the precept or satisfying his greed, was eagerly attending to his smithy work. And behold, by God's just judgment, with the hammer falling from his right and the tongs from his left, both hands were bent and contracted. But the youth crying out, and struck and terrified by the sudden stroke of God's wrath, hastened to the monastery, approached the sarcophagus, asked for help. All who were there cried with him and for him to the Lord; nor then did He hear them, for the time of having mercy on him had not yet come. The Divine Office being completed, with all going out, he also withdrew sad. A brief delay having passed, weeping and wailing, not despairing on account of the first repulse, he returned, ascended, placed his hands on the sarcophagus; and soon they were raised and stretched, and restored to their former health: and all Kempten rejoiced in the glory of so evident a miracle.

[28] No less glorious, nay more glorious can seem, a dropsical woman that which is to be subjoined to this. The belly, nay the whole body of a certain woman in Burgau ^a, from a distemper of humors had swelled up, and from the swelling the torment, growing by moments, had grown so strong, that by all she was judged to labor desperately from the disease of dropsy, nor was any care applied to cure her as if desperate. But lest the hope of recovering health should be utterly extinguished in her, the mighty deeds of God, which she heard daily to be done through God's elect at Kempten, were acting. With God therefore inspiring, it pleased her to vow herself most devoutly to their piety. This being done, within three days she wholly became unswollen, and reformed to her former mediocrity, she joyfully visited her physicians; announcing the grace and glory, and inviting those hearing to glorify God.

[29] From a similar danger, by not dissimilar remedy, Conrad of Thüringen ^b was healed. For when he was tormented by immoderate swelling of the belly, and receiving no fruit from several experiments, and a dropsical man; the end of his torment was only the remedy of death he expected, by sounder counsel of some, he proposed and promised to visit the venerable bones of the pious, if divine mercy should grant him strength for executing it. Present grace attended his devotion of promise: for "the preparation of the contrite heart Your ear heard, O God." In a short time with the swelling of his belly decreasing, the aforesaid Conrad, restored to his accustomed slenderness, according to his vow came to Kempten, accompanied by his simple mother, asserting the manner and order of his restoration, and producing in the hearts of those hearing an increase of pious devotion. To his assertion, those coming for the sake of praying after three days gave the most constant testimony: and "we have been glad in the things which have been said to us."

[30] two contracted women. In the village of Burgau a girl, weak with the contraction of both hands and useless for working, led by the same hope and spirit as the aforementioned dropsical woman, made a similar vow, and obtained a similar effect. For in the expression of her vow, she was gladdened by the restoration of her hands. With similar grace the Lord visited a woman of Gervigishosen. This one, for almost two years destitute of natural walk, leaning on knees and hands on the ground, exercised the office of walking or creeping in a monstrous manner. Who, kindled with holy desire, when she devoted herself to the pious mother and son, performing the natural office of her feet, came rejoicing with friends and acquaintances testifying to the deed, to Kempten, to venerate those by whose merits she gloried to have received the power of coming.

[31] A paralytic woman In the village of Marvisieren, for a certain woman long a paralytic, desiring to visit the Relics for her strength to be reformed, friends were preparing a cart, that they might lead her to the desired place by conveying her. Who, shrinking from ascending the cart, chose to fulfill her purpose by creeping, that by the greatness of her labor she might merit to find health. But God seeing the fervor in the woman, and knowing that she could not execute the concept of her mind, solidified the limbs of the wretched one, repaired her strength, restored her walk. Exulting therefore and giving thanks, not trembling but walking briskly, she brought her desire into effect; to whose glorious cure, with many others, her Priest also gave testimony.

[32] and a paralytic. Bertholdus, son of Hultrudis, from Loppenhusen ^c, in the back and thigh and left leg, for many days was tortured with such pain, that to go he could not be raised, even with the support of a staff. Drawn therefore by the fame of the miracles, which he heard to be frequently done through God's elect, a cart having been hired, by desire of recovering health he approached the desired place of Kempten: where deposited at the doors of the temple, he is lifted by two men; and placed before the sarcophagus containing that precious treasure. He made his vow briefly, but devoutly; prayed hesitating nothing, but much confident of obtaining health. But his prayer was heard, which had to be brief, on account of the importunity of those who had brought him; nor could they or would they stay there, with the necessity of a peculiar matter recalling them. Therefore having taken him from the temple, they placed him on the cart, brought him home, cheerful indeed about obtaining health and certain, although not in reality, yet hope did not confound him: for who has hoped in the Lord and been forsaken? After a few days therefore, the pain being driven away, the use of walking restored, he returned on foot to Kempten; rendering thanks to God and His beloved, by whose merits He heals the contrite of heart and binds up their contritions.

[33] In the village of Imminriet, Wernhardus, son of Walther and Adelheid, a little boy, about three years old, went out of his parents' house without a guardian. And when he incautiously wandered, nor by reason discerned what was to be avoided (for the tenderness of his age impeding, a drowned boy is restored to life, he had not yet the use of reason), he fell into a ditch from which clay had been taken, full of water; and all, except the top of his knees, covered with the waters, with face upward clung to the muddy bottom. A little space of time having passed, his mother looking around, and not seeing her son, sent the serving girl to seek the boy: who seeking him round about, and not finding him when sought, at last came to the pit; and found the boy dead, and drawn out by a youth, a kinsman of the same boy, who had come by chance. The boy is taken up, carried home, with a mournful cry flying before, announcing the drowning of the boy. The parents weep and wail, neighbors run up grieving, they turn him over, nor do they profit, nor do they grasp any vital spirit in him. What more? after despair of the boy's life, comes to memory, never from memory to be wiped, Blessed Hildegard with her offspring: whom while with tearful prayers they invite to help, while they vow vows for the boy; among the voices of those praying and the vows of those vowing, the boy revives, and quickly is restored to the integrity of health. Whom after a few days the parents, fulfilling their vows, presented to their physicians at Kempten; and with the testimony of many asserted their sadness turned into joy, stirring all who were there to pay praises to God and His elect, because their son had been dead and lived again, had perished and was found.

[34] Likewise a girl fallen into a well Not less gloriously and worthily of God, from a similar kind of death, was raised the daughter of Manigald, a military man, through the invocation and merits of the Queen and King. She, when she hastened to draw water with the lightness of children, by a sudden and less careful bending, with head turned downward, fell into the well. This being learned, the father and mother with the family, weeping and wailing, run up; at whose wretched cry friends and all the neighbors came together to that lamentable spectacle. Without delay, the father descends into the well, another following and holding him, lest from love of rescuing his daughter the father be drowned; who himself also was held by one standing above the well for the same caution; for the water of the well was of such depth, that it exceeded in height the length of a tall man, nor could anyone touch the bottom of the well with his feet, unless his head were covered with the waves; on which account the one first descending into the water had to be held, lest if he were not held he should be subject to peril. Seeking therefore his daughter with wretched labor and finding her feet,

raised upwards with his own feet he pressed together, and so drew her; until, that tearful burden having been grasped by his hands, he could lift it to the one standing above, and he could offer it to those standing over the well. Then she was borne to her father's house, with almost all who were in the village following and lamenting: for the girl was noble, of kindly meekness, now about seven years old. The friends and the household therefore approach, and certainly dead. applying every diligence, every experiment which is wont to be attempted with the drowned: now applying her to the fire, meanwhile turning her over; now with feet upward, head downward turning her. These variations frequenting often and much, they received no consolation; for in that body suffocated in the waters no vital motion could be detected, since life had departed from it. Human industry therefore being spent without fruit, and the distress of sorrow not spent but growing, it was necessary to hasten to divine helps, and it was hastened. They began therefore, first the parents, then all present, to invoke that always to be invoked Hildegarda and her son, vowing vows for the liberation of the girl from the heart. But the Lord heard the tearful sighs of the contrite, and propitious granted to their devoted piety the desired fruit. For from that hour health was made to that house, the girl was freed from death; for all who were there saw and swore that she was truly dead and truly restored to life. All therefore were inexpressibly consoled, and the house was filled with the cry: "Te Deum laudamus"; for whom she lives who had been dead. After a short space of time passed, opportunity being taken, the father and mother, with their daughter accompanying, with many from the neighborhood, came to Kempten, to pay their vows for the virgin Maria ^d.

[35] And these only about the principal miracles, and in truth more effective ones: for so many and so great were done there from the first foundation of the Kempten monastery, begun in the year 773 up to the year 1493, by the power of God working through the most happy Hildegard and her son, Pius Louis the Emperor by name, that it would be prolix and too long to write; and now "The long are wont to be spurned, the moderns rejoice in brevity." Wherefore let the aforesaid signs briefly suffice for the good and faithful of Christ. In this Imperial Kempten monastery, dedicated by Pope Hadrian, who personally with a great assembly of people, of Cardinals and Bishops, of each of the states of the world of clerics and laymen, namely of Charlemagne and Hildegard with their children, namely Pepin, Louis, Charles, and Lothair their sons; and Rotrude, Gisla, ^f Hildegard and Bertha their daughters, dedicated in the year 777 on the day of Christ's Ascension or about it: for at that time were brought from Rome, at the request of Charles and Hildegard, the whole bodies of the holy Martyrs Gordian and Epimachus, with burdens of other Relics of greatest number and multitude, and ^g with the greatest Indulgences. Also then Charles exalted the said monastery with the highest privileges above other places and human dwellings. For all the villages, castles, towns, woods, ponds, fisheries, hunts, tolls, and all things looking to higher conditions, spiritual and secular in the "Gojae" Hylergowe, Angusgowe, Segowe, Risgowe ^h, and others, he gave to the Kempten monastery, with each of its capital justices; in such a way, that in perpetual times only the Abbot of Kempten should rule and be lord of such matters, and establish each spiritual ⁱ and secular office for providing, and this with fit persons. For then no city was in all Swabia, except the cities of Augsburg and Pfullendorf; because the others were only towns, villages, or farms. Now the countrysides given to the monastery were the hereditary goods of Queen Hildegard herself; which she with the help of Charles, for the salvation of their souls and of each of their kin, ordained to the said monastery, in honor of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, the Holy Martyr Patrons, namely Gordian and Epimachus, and also of all Saints, to whom be praise and honor for endless ages of ages. Amen.

NOTES.

APPENDIX.

From the Swabian Annals of Martin Crusius.

Hildegardis, wife of Charlemagne the Emperor (Blessed)

[36] There was a long time after the foundation of this monastery a certain golden knight, Manigold Fridraner, dwelling in the Freudenberg fortress: he had a little daughter whose name was Felicitas; who, going to fetch water from a well without anyone knowing, fell into it, and could not be found before five hours. When at last she was found, with her feet turned upwards and head downwards, and no sign of life appearing in her, her father, lifeless with pain, vowed that he would offer 100 pounds of wax and other things at the tomb of Saint Hildegard. The girl was placed on the altar, until a sepulchre should be made, in which she might be buried. This being done, when she was being lifted from the altar, she laughed: a great joy having arisen, she was led home by her father's hand. The next day he, the Abbot Salamo-villanus, and the girl, came to Kempten; thanks were given to God, the vow was paid to Saint Hildegard.

[37] Once a certain scholar, falling into the river Iller, lay there eleven hours. He, drawn out and held for dead, was placed by his mother at the sepulchre of Hildegard. The Father Hildebrand Ramer, the chief innkeeper of Kempten, gathered all the Priests from the church of Saint Magnus and the schoolmaster with the scholars, to pray at the tomb of Hildegard for the life of the dead boy. With these praying and the people together, the boy placing his right hand on his breast revived. Then public joy was signified with all the bells, and thanks were given to God and to Hildegard. What to this does the heretic man, lest convicted by his own testimony he be forced to blush? "To God alone," he says, "is praise due, who does not give his glory to another"; certainly as to the first fountain of every good, otherwise He Himself, who glorifies those who glorify Him, desires the same to be glorified also by men, and therefore by their duly invoked intuition works miracles. But what to the first? "The Gentiles too," he says, "made and paid vows to their gods." Did they also receive from them benefits such as no one can do except God, or unless God be with him? But in reality, orthodox Christians make and pay vows not to Saints, but to God; yet they are said also to make and pay to Saints, when they make and pay them in view of benefits hoped for or obtained from God through the Saints' intercession. Thus temples and altars are raised to God, to whom alone in them sacrifices are offered; yet when, as most often happens, they are made in memory and veneration of some Saint, and take their name from him, and the Mass is said to be of him: so that under that diversity of names there may be a distinct meaning of diverse things in the same species, necessary to every commerce of human speech, which would not be had by the name of the one supreme God common to all sacrifices, altars, and temples.