Altmann

ON ST. ALTMANN, BISHOP OF PASSAU, AMONG THE MONKS OF GÖTTWEIG,

IN AUSTRIA.

In the year 1091.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Altmann, bishop of Passau (B.)

BY THE AUTHOR P. B.

§ I. The cult and relics of the Blessed one.

Blessed Altmann has illustrious heralds of his exceptional sanctity and of his virtues, both nearly contemporary Old eulogies of his sanctity; and also contemporary; and among these indeed there excel Lambert of Hersfeld and Berthold, presbyter of Constance: the former in Pistorius Nidanus, page 243, calls Altmann, bishop of Passau, a man of apostolic manner of life and of great virtues in Christ: the latter in the Appendix to the Chronicle of Hermann Contractus, under the year 1091, says, Altmann, of holy memory, bishop of Passau, most zealous in the cause of St. Peter and in ecclesiastical religion, after many perils, tribulations, and exiles which he endured for Christ, in a good old age departed to the Lord on the sixth of the Ides of August. He founded in his bishopric three monasteries of clerics living in common according to the rule of St. Augustine; and the third (namely that of Rottenbuch, according to our Hansiz, Sacred Germany, volume 1, page 282, and Meichelbeck, History of Freising, volume 1, part 1, page 266) he built in the bishopric of Freising, on the allodial land of Duke Welf, by his own clerics, and established it in regular disciplines. He was of such great sanctity, continence, and religion, that to the most reverend Pope Gregory (VII) and to the holy bishop of Lucca (Anselm, concerning whom we treated at the day XVIII of March from page 647), nay to all religious men, he was reverend and lovable; but to schismatics and wicked men odious and formidable. Whence at his death he left great mourning to the good; but to the evil great exultation. Among his contemporaries may also be reckoned he who immediately followed him in the see of Passau, Ulric, or Udalric, and who embraces all in few words, when in public instruments in Hund, set forth by Gewold in the Metropolis of Salzburg, volume 2, pages 552 and 556, he once and again calls him "his most holy Predecessor."

[2] But if these things are not sufficient to prove the public cult of the Blessed one, which we here chiefly regard, the beginnings of his public cult; those will supply clearer indications of it who made mention of the praises of this blessed Man somewhat later; especially he who in the very monastery of Göttweig, where Altmann had been buried, undertook before the middle of the twelfth century to commend to posterity his earlier Life: for he not only wove a most copious list of his heroic virtues, and calls him not only a Man of God, or a Prelate beloved of God, or Blessed, or Holy; but also in chapter 5, numbers 34 and 35, describing prodigies already then frequently beheld at his tomb, he clearly signifies that thither, as to a public sanctuary, in those times any wretched persons whatsoever from every quarter began to flee as suppliants and religiously; which is indeed a proof by no means doubtful of a cult then begun openly and at least tolerated. But it grew thereafter, miracles growing there in such number as the second Life indicates from number 54. And although the author of neither Life makes mention of an anniversary feast of the blessed Pontiff; yet it is credible that this too was instituted from about that age. This is certain, that the institution of this annual celebration preceded the finding and elevation of his sacred body: for this we are taught from a certain Göttweig transcript, whose inscription is this: Additions to the Life of Blessed Altmann, bishop of Passau, added after the Life of the same Saint, whose earlier prologue to Michael the abbot (from the year 1564) at Göttweig begins: Christ Jesus. It is found in the monastery of St. Mary at Göttweig in Austria, near Krems. But the text stands thus:

[3] the anniversary feast adorned with Roman indulgences in the year 1300 and 1496; In the year of the Lord 1300, in the month of March, in the sixth year of the Pontificate of Boniface VIII, Pope, there were given at Rome by 23 bishops certain indulgences for the feast of Blessed Altmann; and others by 20 Cardinals in the year 1496, on the XIV day of the month of January, in the fourth year of the Pontificate of Alexander VI, Pope. Of which indulgences indeed the original Bulls are to be found in the archive of the abbey of Göttweig. In the same year of the Lord 1300, on the day of St. Quirinus the martyr, in the time of Lord Ulric, abbot of Göttweig, the most serene prince Lord Rudolf, duke of Austria, came to Göttweig, seeking the body of lord Altmann, and, when it had been found, laid it, through lord Ulric, abbot of the aforesaid monastery, beneath the altar of the holy Cross; where to this day it rests in peace. Amen.

So has the painted tablet of Blessed Altmann in the abbatial church of Göttweig. But it is to be observed that here an error has crept in concerning the year of this translation, or elevation: for in the year 1300 the abbot was not Ulric, but Henry. Wherefore either Henry ought to have been written in place of Ulric; or the said translation must have happened about the year 1360, at which time abbot Ulric lived. Further, the sacred body was translated from the crypt into the nave (as they call it) of the church. The day of St. Quirinus is the XVI of the month of June, as is established from the old Calendars.

[4] the finding, translation, and elevation of the body about the year 1360; From these things gather, first, that although it were established that this translation or elevation happened in the year 1300, yet the anniversary feast of the Blessed one is older than this, and perhaps much older; since it was enriched with the already mentioned indulgences in the same year 1300, in the month of March; but that took place only in the month of June. Gather secondly, since in the tablet cited here there is certainly an error either in the number 1300 or in the name of abbot Ulric, under whom the body of the Blessed one was found and elevated, it is much more probable that the error crept into the number than into the name of the abbot of that church at the time; since in ancient monuments faults of numbers are commonly wont to occur far more frequently than of names. There is added also that the chief author of this finding and elevation is written to have been Rudolf, duke of Austria, by which name much more probably there seems to be understood Rudolf IV, duke of Austria (under whom Ulric held the prelacy of Göttweig for five years, namely from the year 1360, in which he was created abbot, until 1365, in which Rudolf departed from the living), than Rudolf III, who held the duchy of Austria in the year 1300, when Henry presided at Göttweig: for no one anywhere commends so exquisite a devotion of this Rudolf III toward the Saints or their relics: but that Rudolf IV was wholly given to it, the Austrian annals testify in Hieronymus Pez, volume 2, column 806, where there is read concerning him: A very great zeal also for the adornment of the house of God shows itself the more evidently in this, that from the whole world, but especially from all the places of the House of Austria, which he alone peacefully governed, he gathered relics of the Saints from every quarter; and, adorned with gold and silver, committed the same to the keeping of the aforesaid church of Vienna (of St. Stephen)... etc. I would therefore prefer to refer this finding and elevation to the year 1360 rather than to 1300.

[5] Gather thirdly the antiquity of the feast of the translation of Blessed Altmann instituted among the monks of Göttweig on the XVI day of June, [the anniversary feast of this translation; and an ancient image of the Blessed one;] on which day we made mention of it in the Passed Over: for from this finding, translation, and elevation it seems altogether to have taken its beginning; certainly no other appears. Gather lastly that the painted tablet of Blessed Altmann in the abbatial church of Göttweig, of which the already mentioned Additions make mention, appeared to their author sufficiently ancient indeed to give credit; but not painted and inscribed at the very time of the translation; inasmuch as it represents its epoch expressed with marks fighting among themselves; which is indeed an indication that it was painted not a little later. But I am mistaken, unless Father Maurus Helman, Prior of the same monastery of Göttweig, had regard to that very one, when on the XXXI day of August, in the year 1668, he thus wrote back to certain queries of our Father Johann Gamans: Blessed Altmann has been painted for two hundred years and more with a splendor about his head, as a holy bishop, clothed in pontifical vestments, with beard indeed shaven.

[6] Helman adds in the same place concerning the cult of our Prelate: He is venerated among us both publicly and privately as a Saint. A special commemoration is not held either for the day of his deposition or of his translation. But we celebrate the feast of his deposition today, on the Sunday nearest to the day of his death, which is the eighth of August, most solemnly, as of our Patron, from the Common of a confessor pontiff; and a sermon is made concerning him: which being finished, a rather large alms is blessed pontifically by our Most Reverend, and is distributed to the poor in honor and memory of the Founder. But how ancient the custom there is of discoursing in a sermon on the praises of Blessed Altmann, the Additions of which we treated at number 2 hint in these words: In the library of Göttweig, finally, there is a most ancient manuscript codex of the Sermons of Peter the abbot, in which there are two sermons on the same Blessed one (Altmann). There were two (only) abbots named Peter at Göttweig; one two hundred years ago (namely from the year 1403 until 1432, according to Bucelinus in Sacred Germany, part 2, page 201); but the other three hundred (for he presided, by the reckoning of the same Bucelinus, from the year 1309 until 1317). To which of the two that codex of Sermons belongs is not established. Further, that the solemnity of the blessed Prelate is there celebrated not on the very day of his birth into heaven, but on the Sunday nearest to it, even now (as Hieronymus Pez teaches from the Proper of the Saints of the church of Göttweig, printed at Krems in the year 1696, in the Writers of Austrian Affairs, volume 1, page 115), we suspect is done for this reason, that provision may be made for the benefit and convenience of the neighbors flocking to it; as is done everywhere else in churches, especially those placed outside populous cities.

[7] in which some proper parts are now recited. For the rest, that some proper parts have now been added to the Office of the Blessed one, formerly from the Common, the same Pez asserts in the same place, when among other things which have already been said concerning his cult at Göttweig, he writes thus: And the divine Office with the Mass is celebrated concerning him as from the Common (as they say) of one confessor and pontiff, with this peculiar Prayer: "Be propitious, we beseech, O Lord, to us Your servants through the glorious merits of Blessed Altmann Your confessor and pontiff, who rests in this church, that by his pious intercession we may be protected from all adversities. Through our Lord," etc. And in the Antiphon at the Benedictus (as the very reverend and religious Lord Father Mauritius Höppel, monk of Göttweig, has taught us) these things are sung in praise of Altmann: "His alms shall the whole church of the Saints declare." Also in the Antiphon at the Magnificat: "While he was pontiff and Apostolic Legate, he feared not earthly things; but for the Church stood like a marble column." And there is added this Versicle with its Responsory: "Arise, blessed Altmann; and protect your foster-children"... Finally at the end of Compline, besides other peculiar prayers customarily recited daily by the Benedictines of Göttweig, they also implore the help of their blessed founder Altmann with these pious verses:

"Altmann, by whom was founded This our monastery, And whose relics are here, Ever piously help us."

[8] His feast is noted among certain Martyrologists. What Pez premises to these things in the same place cannot be equally approved; namely these things, which he thus subjoins to the testimonies of the ancients concerning the sanctity of Blessed Altmann: All which things, although they seem not a little to support the sanctity of Altmann the bishop, yet he has not yet been placed on the roll of the Saints. (This we think true, if it be understood of a placing by solemn canonization.) Nor have we hitherto found his name inscribed in the more recent Martyrologies, or in the ancient Calendars. At this we wonder in a Man as erudite as he is laborious and sagacious: since the name of this Blessed one is found long since inscribed at this day, the VIII of August, in the Benedictine Calendar of Dorgan, in the general Catalogue of Saints of Philip Ferrari, in the Cologne Calendars in Gelenius, in the Benedictine Menology of Bucelinus, where he is reported twice: once on this day with a luminous eulogy, again on the XVI day of June on account of the feast of his translation; and finally in the universal Martyrology of Castellan. But also nowhere throughout Austria (so far indeed as we know) is a public cult paid to him, except in the monastery of Göttweig of our Order, founded by bishop Altmann himself. This he himself afterward candidly wished to be amended in volume 2, column 281, where he has thus:

[9] The cult, begun at Göttweig, is propagated to various churches Learned reader, you are to be advised that there was found by us in the notable library of Tegernsee (namely of the far most celebrated Benedictine monastery in upper Bavaria) a manuscript codex of the fifteenth century, containing the Acts of Blessed Altmann, pontiff of Passau, and an ecclesiastical Office concerning him; of which Office this is the beginning: "O mother church, happy and fruitful, joyfully bring forth the proclamations of Altmann," etc. But to what end these things, you will say? That we might show that Blessed Altmann, bishop of Passau, has long since been honored with a public cult not only by the men of Göttweig in this age (as we formerly thought), but perhaps also by several other churches. And indeed, as no one can deny that the beginnings of his public cult belong to the church of Göttweig (inasmuch as there his sepulcher, there his body, there the miracles first begun and continued openly invited a throng of suppliants), so it cannot be doubted that thence it was little by little propagated further, and especially to those churches to which some part of his sacred relics was thereafter translated from the Göttweig treasury. For how greatly the desire of acquiring something of his relics burned elsewhere, and what of them was carried away from Göttweig to another place, may be gathered from the manuscript Göttweig Additions to the Life of the Blessed one, whence we recite the following:

[10] In the year of the Lord 1581, on the VIII day of the month of November, Ernest, archduke of Austria, sent Melchior Klesl, by the sharing of relics; Provost of the cathedral church of St. Stephen at Vienna, afterward Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, to Göttweig to abbot Michael, that he might seek back from him the body of Blessed Altmann, and, when received, carry it to Vienna. Of which matter the original letter, sent by the archduke to the abbot through Klesl, is extant in the above-mentioned archive of the abbey of Göttweig. But the abbot by no means let the sacred body go from Göttweig, lest namely the monastery should be deprived of so great and such a treasure of its own. It is therefore even now there, and is venerated every year with a most solemn festivity (here perhaps there is hinted what Pez asserts, volume 1, column 135, that the remains of Altmann are at Göttweig exposed every year through the Octave of the same Blessed one's festival to the public devotion of the faithful). Certain parts of him were given to Anna Maria, the most pious august consort of the emperor Matthias; to the archduke Charles, brother of the emperor Ferdinand II; and to some Prelates; which are religiously preserved in various churches. The same affirms Father Maurus Helman in the letter mentioned above, in these words: One leg the most august Anna Maria, most pious wife of the emperor Matthias, carried away with her from here, in the time of abbot Georg Falb, to Vienna in Austria; where among the Most Reverend Capuchin Fathers within that same city, in the Imperial chapel, it is venerated among other relics, enclosed in a silver gilt casket. Other parts have been carried to various churches.

[11] Concerning the old state of his relics at Göttweig, Bruschius (heterodox though he be, the greater part of which remained at Göttweig. and elsewhere often a senseless calumniator of this blessed Prelate) has these things in his little work on Lorch and German Passau, book 2, page 150: He (Altmann) is buried in the crypt of the monastery of Göttweig, founded or at least renewed by him; where he is said to have been famous for miracles

there. There both his episcopal staff and the mitre which he used are shown: all of which show a wonderful simplicity; but no pomp at all. Concerning their more recent state there, the cited Helman speaks thus, more than a whole century later: As to what pertains to the place, situation, structure, etc., of the sepulcher of Blessed Altmann, at this time (in the year 1668) I can signify nothing; because namely the reconstruction of our greater church is already in fact sweating at it, nor will it see an end before a year and a half. What will then be done with the sepulcher of the Founder, is still hidden. As to the relics: these are for the greater part kept in our hill outside the sepulcher. Of the staff the upper part remains with us, simply worked from ivory; which our present lord abbot, the most reverend Gregory Heller, has enclosed for honor's sake in his new silver gilded crozier. Concerning the tiara, the vestments, and the other utensils, nothing more is to be found. Yet he hints in the same place that something also survives, when he subjoins: I could wish that a picture of our monastery, which our present most reverend Prelate has published in print, were at hand. There he would see to the life the seal which the blessed Founder used: which indeed has a round shape like an imperial one, and in the middle a half-length figure of Blessed Altmann, holding a staff in his right hand, presents itself to the eyes; but on the circumference these words are written in most ancient letters: Altmann, bishop of Passau. By these words, I say, he hints that the authentic seal, at least in his age, survived.

[12] The Blessed one's Epitaph. These are the things which it has been permitted us to discover concerning the cult of this Blessed one; unless perhaps you wish also to refer to it the epitaph with which his sepulcher was adorned in the last century, as is narrated in the Göttweig Additions, already praised more than once, in this manner exactly: "The Epitaph of Blessed Altmann. Venerate, traveler, the sacred bones of Blessed Altmann, bishop of Passau, founder of this monastery, which Rudolf, duke of Austria, translated hither in the year of salvation 1300. The blessed Man died in the year of Christ 1091. He founded the monastery in the year 1073. This stone, for the sake of memory and piety, Georg Talbius* the abbot placed." Note. The monastery of Göttweig began to be built about the year of the Lord 1070; but it was first completed, and the letters of foundation were given, in the year 1083, not 1073, as the Epitaph wrongly has it. Concerning the year of the translation we have already said enough at number 4. The annotation will be discussed in its place below. That abbot Georg, Bucelinus in Sacred Germany, part 2, page 202, adorns with this eulogy: Georg Falb, doctor of most sacred theology, a great restorer both of the Order and of the Catholic religion, exceedingly beloved by the highest princes, presided (at Göttweig) 19 years; he died in the year 1631, on the XXII of May. The reader will perhaps wonder, since the monastery of Göttweig recurs here so often, as the first and chief sanctuary of Blessed Altmann, that its description has been omitted here contrary to our custom; but when he has read both Acts, in which it is fully depicted, he will cease to wonder. But if anyone wishes for a picture of the same place expressed with accurately drawn lines, let him go to Merian's Topography of Austria, where before page 33 he will find it joined with the neighboring towns under the name of Ketwein. And we are bidden to hope for more from the Annals of Göttweig, at which, they say, men are now sweating.

* perhaps Falbius

§ II. His old Acts.

The Acts of the Blessed one are twofold: the age of the earlier, The ancient Acts of Blessed Altmann are twofold, both composed at a different time, in a different style, by a different author. The earlier a certain anonymous Benedictine arranged (or perhaps Rupert the abbot, of whom presently at number 18; certainly) a member of the monastery of Göttweig; as he himself both in his Prologue and elsewhere most manifestly betrays. The age in which he flourished and wrote these Acts he indicates partly at the very beginning, when he offers his little work to Lord Cholhoch, venerable and illustrious Father of the monastery of Göttweig; partly in chapter 5, number 36, where the same author (according to what is noted in the same place at letter f) records the death of Regimar, bishop of Passau: for it follows from both places that he wrote after the year of Christ 1138, in which our Marcus Hansiz shows in Sacred Germany, volume 1, page 302, that Regimar died; and before the end of the year 1141, in which the catalogues of the abbots of Göttweig in Bucelinus, Sacred Germany, part 2, page 203, and Hieronymus Pez in the Writers of Austrian Affairs, volume 2, page 281, place the death of Cholhoch, or Chalhoch, or Chadelhoh. He wrote therefore, or rather published, this his lucubration nearly fifty years after the glorious death of Altmann.

[14] I said, Or rather published; because he could have collected the material long before he was bidden by Cholhoch to work it up in a polished style and one savoring of the Latin idiom. its credit, Whence the publication of the work, somewhat more remote from the death of the Blessed one, ought not to lessen the author's credit in those things which properly pertain to his Acts (which I add lest I should straightway seem to approve the by-works on the origin of the Saxon race and other things of that kind): for how great authority he deserves in them, anyone may determine from these his words in the Prologue: From these therefore who saw him present, and who clung familiarly to his service, I shall investigate any of his deeds, and shall take care to make these known to posterity. Hence the writer of the later Life in chapter 4, number 49, thus pronounces concerning this our author of the earlier Life: Thus far we have narrated the deeds of St. Altmann from the writings of former men. What man would think that they transmitted to posterity anything uncertain, or (which would be sacrilegious) anything false; since they knew excellently that God has need of no man's lie? But he wished these things also to be said only of the Acts of Blessed Altmann, not of the by-works; since these he either omits or refutes; as may be seen in chapter 1, number 6.

[15] These earlier Acts have now come forth at least twice struck off from the press; a twofold impression and first indeed at Augsburg in the year 1619 by John, abbot of the Benedictine Order, from a manuscript codex of the monastery over which he presided, that of Lambach in Austria. Of this edition the most distinguished man Hieronymus Pez, volume 1, page 114, deservedly complains that not everything is expressed sufficiently on the faith of the old manuscripts; nay that not a few things are wanting; such as those which will be given below in our copy from number 22 until number 26, likewise from number 30 until 32, and again from number 34 until the end of the Life. It is indeed a wonder, since John judged it good to cut out all these, that he retained the author's Prologue; since from this the mutilation of the prototype could easily and solidly be detected: for there the author promises more things than John exhibits; although the rest also which he cut away is refuted plainly enough by the collation of several, nay of all, manuscript codices, as many as have hitherto been found. This edition therefore aroused a just desire of another fuller one; which some years ago the diligence of Hieronymus Pez, never sufficiently praised by us, abundantly satisfied, by which from various manuscript copies he brought this Life to light entire, observations being premised, and variations being added wherever he found the codices to differ even the least, in the Writers of Austrian Affairs, volume 1, from column 112. At the end of this, certain things have most certainly been added to the original copy which the Anonymous author offered to his abbot Cholhoch; namely things which followed the death of Cholhoch, down to the year 1155. But whether the Anonymous author himself added them, perhaps surviving Cholhoch until then, or someone else, is not clear enough.

[16] We would here reproduce this Pezian edition, with not a jot changed, before this our own. were there not at hand a transcript of the Göttweig manuscript, once obtained and discussed by our Gamans; then, that it might be collated again and as accurately as possible with the original, sent back to the men of Göttweig, and so at length sent hither by them. It is inscribed: Here begins the Life of the blessed and God-worthy man Altmann, bishop of Passau, who died in the year of the Lord one thousand ninety-one, on the eighth day of August, the magnificent founder of two notable monasteries, of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the mount of Göttweig on the Danube in Austria, and of the divine Nicholas the confessor on the Inn outside the walls of the city of Passau. That indeed is not the most ancient; but written later than the second Life: for from this the copyist, whoever he was, attached at the end of the ancient Anonymous author's history all the things which we here shall exhibit in the second Life, to which they without doubt belong, from number 54 to the end. Yet it has pleased us to use it, both because it comes forth from the same monastery where the original copy of this Life was once composed and preserved; and because it seems with singular diligence to have been corrected against genuine codices, as we gather from this its closing: Here ends the Life of Blessed Altmann, bishop of Passau, and prelate of Göttweig, worked out and written with the utmost care, and in very many places corrected from errors. It agrees for the most part with the edition of Pez not only in the matters, but also in the words; as we have found from the collation. But wherever a difference occurs worthy of observation, we shall advise the reader in the place: for why should we linger in heaping up piecemeal into the Annotations, without profit, things which contribute nothing to the matter and the sense?

[17] The later Acts also printed twice; The later Acts also have twice been published in print: once at Ingolstadt in the year 1612 by the most erudite Sebastian Tengnagel, doctor of both laws and Imperial librarian at Vienna, among the Old monuments against the schismatics, from page 32; but again at Leipzig in the year 1721 by the Reverend Lord Father Hieronymus Pez, professed of the monastery of Melk, of the Order of St. Benedict in lower Austria, among the Writers of Austrian Affairs, volume 1, from column 135. The former calls their original, as also of the other monuments which he published at the same time, in the dedicatory epistle prefixed to the whole collection, certain parchment little works, otherwise about to perish from neglect and squalor, which he says he shook out from the moths and bookworms and copied out; by which words he indicates the antiquity of those parchments, found, as they say, in the Imperial library. Pez not undeservedly lamented that this edition was not at hand for him when he was preparing his own: for it is quite genuine and worthy to be collated with copies of any age whatever, even with those which he himself used, namely the manuscript of Lilienfeld, which he judges was written in the thirteenth century, and the manuscript of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commonly "of the Scots," at Vienna in Austria, which he thinks is to be referred most nearly to the thirteenth century.

[18] their author of Göttweig; but of uncertain name The author's name and age seem to us uncertain: and the name indeed, because, although "Rupert the abbot" is read ascribed to the Prologue of these later Acts in the Passau manuscript, with which we received the edition of Tengnagel collated, and in the Lilienfeld manuscript in Pez "Rubert the abbot"; yet it is not found, on the same man's testimony, in the manuscript of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary "of the Scots": nor did Tengnagel find it in his own, as he asserts. Nay, Wolfgang Lazius saw "Robert the abbot" inscribed on the earlier Acts; as anyone can see in book 12 of the Commentaries on the Roman commonwealth, chapter 9; where the text of the Life

of Blessed Altmann is cited, and attributed to Robert the abbot as author, and is most certainly taken from the earlier Acts (with us number 32); but not from the later Acts, as will be plain from any inspection whatever of these (with us number 40). But who, amid so great a discrepancy of the old codices, would safely pronounce whether Rupert the abbot was the author of the earlier, or of the later, or of neither of the Acts of Blessed Altmann? For if anyone should say of the earlier, with Lazius, there will be opposed two codices of the later Acts, besides others both of the earlier and of the later, which are marked with the name neither of Rupert nor of any other: but if of the later, there will meet him, along with the anonymous ones, the codex of Lazius: if finally of neither, there will indeed favor him those codices of each Life which express no author by name; but others will stand in the way, bearing Rupert, Rubert, and Robert: there will also favor it this, that the authors both of the earlier Life and of the later signify in more than one place that they were monks of the monastery of Göttweig; and yet in the catalogues of the abbots of Göttweig no abbot of that name occurs: therefore that abbot Rupert, Rubert, or Robert was not a monk of Göttweig: therefore he was the author of neither Life: for as to the erudite Pez thinking that that Rubert was the same as Rudmar, abbot of Göttweig, I fear that anyone should approve that amid so great a diversity of names.

[19] Concerning his age likewise nothing seems ascertained. [and of his age; except that he was much younger than the author of the earlier Life,] But indeed, you say with Tengnagel, the writer himself manifests it at number 29 in these words: But the holy Prelate, with the pious prince margrave Leopold striving for it, the grandfather of this Leopold who today rules, etc. For it is established that Leopold, who is placed in the first position, was the father of St. Leopold, margrave of Austria, and the grandfather of Leopold surnamed the Liberal. It is established also from the Chronicles of Austria in Freher and Hieronymus Pez that Leopold the Liberal, or the fifth, succeeded to the principality of Austria, his holy parent being called to the heavens, in the year 1136; but that he died in the year 1141 or 1142. The Biographer therefore indicates that he wrote in the time lying between the two years. I answer, first: If the words just recited are all the writer's of the second Life, he plainly contradicts himself: for in this place he asserts that he wrote at exactly the same time in which we showed at number 13 that the first Life was composed; but elsewhere he denies this very thing, and no less plainly; as at number 3, where he calls the first Life "the more ancient writings"; at number 40, where he says: Thus far we have narrated the deeds of St. Altmann from the writings of former men, etc.; at number 54, where he begins the miracles which happened after the first Life until his own age, assuredly later. Whence I answer, secondly, that the words cited are not the author's of the second Life; but an inept and untimely gloss; which Pez also gathers and confirms from this, that in the Lilienfeld codex these words are not read: "the grandfather of this Leopold who today rules." I said an inept and untimely gloss; because I judge that it was truly written somewhere in the margin of the earlier Life, to whose age it fits most aptly, and indeed while Leopold the Liberal was surviving; and thence was thrust into the second Life by someone who rashly believed that both were written at the same time.

[20] The same most distinguished man Hieronymus Pez, in the observations prefixed to this Life, although he did not write after the year 1300. gathers this writer's age from another source; namely by determining, first, that he was Rubert the abbot; then, that this Rubert the abbot was no other than Rudmar, abbot of Göttweig from the year 1173 until 1199. But neither foundation can appear solid, not even to Pez himself: for as to the first, he who judged the words mentioned a little before ("the grandfather of this Leopold who today rules") spurious for this reason, that they are not found in the single Lilienfeld codex, although they are found in several others; by what means can he judge sincere and solid the inscription of the name of Rupert the abbot, which is absent from two codices at the least? Read again what was said at number 18. The second foundation is weaker than the first, as resting on the mere likeness (which is indeed exceedingly slight) of the names Rubert and Rudmar. There could, in our opinion at least, be dug out something more certain from the antiquity of the manuscript copies, if judgment could be borne concerning this from any other source than from the shape of the letters alone; for how uncertain an index this is, if there is dispute about only one century or another, those know who have been in any way conversant with old codices. We meanwhile, who have no such codices of this Life, dare to affirm this only, that its author put together this his work before the year of Christ 1360; since he makes no mention of the finding, translation, and elevation of the Blessed one's body recorded above at number 4; nay before the year 1300; since he was ignorant of the indulgences of which we treated at number 3: for if he had known anything of all these (as without doubt he would have known, if he had written later), assuredly he could by no means have wrapped it in silence, either in his Prologue at numbers 1 and 2, or in the Acts at numbers 46 and following; where he brings forward whatever he can for persuading certain unbelievers of his glory and sanctity.

[21] Wherefore we give these also; and whence. For the rest, we doubted at first whether it were expedient to subjoin this second Life whole to the earlier one, or only that fragment of it which extends from number 54 to the end. And certainly we readily confess that whatever precedes that number is not necessary; since in it there is contained nothing at all which properly pertains to the substance of the Life, but what is drawn from the earlier Life. Yet it seemed good at last not to depart from the example of the most famous Pez, nor to withdraw so great a monument from the reader's eagerness; both because it is sufficiently ancient, and because it is composed with a more polished judgment and pen than the preceding Life, whose history it both purges and at the same time confirms; and finally because it is far more suited to stirring up the minds of readers to piety; in which part there is scarcely a doubt that it will be most welcome to religious men, and especially to preachers. But it will be given here from the Tengnagelian edition, once collated with a certain manuscript of the regular Canons at St. Nicholas near Passau, from which it differs very little; and now with the Pezian edition, from which it disagrees somewhat more frequently, and from which now and then, where the latter shall appear more correct, it will be amended. But before we proceed to the Acts themselves, it will be useful to supply what has been omitted in them; to discuss what has been narrated more obscurely; to recall to a continuous series of times, so far indeed as it can be done, what has been arranged not distinctly enough; and that both by the example and chiefly by the help of our Reverend Father Hansiz, Sacred Germany, volume 1, from page 256.

§ III. The ordering and at the same time supplying of his Acts down to the year of Christ 1077.

At what time our Blessed one was brought forth into the light, neither of the Acts signifies; nor is there elsewhere any source from which we may define it altogether closely and narrowly; yet there is one from which we may do so more loosely: for in the earlier Life at number 7 he is said, together with Sts. Gebhard, Altmann was born about the beginning of the eleventh century, afterward bishop of Salzburg, and Adalbero, then prelate of Würzburg, to have given his labor to the studies of letters in the same school. He was therefore about the contemporary of both; as is more expressly affirmed in the Life of St. Gebhard in our work, volume VI of June, part 1, page 149; and accordingly he ought to seem born toward the beginnings of the eleventh century: for that the birth of Gebhard is to be referred to it, the author of the Apology for the emperor Henry IV sufficiently indicates, in Freher in the Writers of German Affairs, volume 1, page 215, when he writes thus: We saw there also Gebhard, once called archbishop of the church of Salzburg, who after many stipends of the church began now (namely in the year, as is clear from what precedes, 1086) to serve as a soldier in the camps of the Saxons, like a boy of a hundred years. And as certain as it is that Adalbero came to the helm of the church of Würzburg in the year 1045, so probable is it that he drew his first light about the beginning of the same century.

[23] Concerning his birthplace and lineage the first Life at number 2 has only this: of a noble family among the Westphalians: In... Westphalia Altmann was brought forth of famous parents. Bruschius adds, in Lorch, book 2, page 128, from a very ancient Chronicle, as he says, that he sprang from the famous and very ancient race of the dukes of Putin (who indeed lived in Austria; but served in the courts of the princes of Saxony and Westphalia). If this can be believed, it must be believed on the faith of the very ancient Chronicle, not of Bruschius; who certainly brings forward none, since he thus continues the former statement not from any Chronicle, but forsooth from his own feeling toward the defenders of the Roman See: Perhaps born illegitimately outside the bond of matrimony and honorable wedlock. Tell me, shameless mouth, you who dare not praise a Man in every way the greatest except from a very ancient Chronicle; on what faith, by what argument, on what witness do you slander him? Bring forward, if you can, something by which you may in some way confirm that slanderous "perhaps" of yours; or if you cannot, because nowhere does there occur any indication of so atrocious a suspicion, but very many which refute it, confess that you have lied splendidly. For the rest, neither do some now attribute so much to that very ancient but to this day unknown Chronicle, but that they prefer to fetch the lineage of Altmann from the Westphalian family of the Wetins rather than from the Austrian family of the Putins. See Hund in the Metropolis of Salzburg, volume 1, page 305, Hansiz in this place, page 259, number 3, and others: for since we cannot bring light to these shadows, we think we must acquiesce in the Acts.

[24] Now what the Blessed one did from his early years until his episcopate, what he did from boyhood until the year 1064; it is also very difficult to measure out within certain bounds. And without doubt he spent many years, younger, as a pupil in the schools; since in the first Life at number 2 he is said, before he was taken up to the public ministry of the Church, to have been exceedingly well instructed in divine and secular letters. But where was this done? Both of his Lives are silent; perhaps because he did not learn everything in one place, but in one after another. Yet that he went to the University of Paris with Sts. Gebhard and Adalbero mentioned above is narrated in the ancient Life of the same Adalbero in Hieronymus Pez, volume 2, page 7, number 4. There indeed the most illustrious colleagues must be judged to have foretold what is reported in our first Life at number 7. Thence further, not otherwise than is handed down concerning Blessed Adalbero, abundantly refreshed with the sweet fruits of theory, full of wisdom, having returned to his fatherland, at Paderborn, says our Biographer at number 2, he was a canon, in which place he governed the schools for many years. Then he was set over the canons at Aachen: at which time also in the palace

of Henry III he was distinguished as chaplain: and when he had died (in the year of Christ 1056) he clung with faithful service to queen Agnes; with whom he came to Passau in the year 1057; namely in which Marianus Scotus and others note that the duchy of Bavaria was ceded to Agnes. There are immediately subjoined his journey to Jerusalem, and, in the very return, his promotion to the see of Passau, concerning which presently. From this series meanwhile it is plain that no time can be assigned in which he was a Benedictine monk, as Trithemius believed, On the Illustrious Men of that Order, book 4, chapter 242, and after him Dorgan and Bucelinus; but not so the more cautious others, such as Wion, Menard, Mabillon, Pez. It is also plain from the same that the opinion of those is not very ancient who hand down that he was both canon and Provost of the church of Cologne, namely Bruschius in Lorch, page 129, Hund in the Metropolis of Salzburg, volume 1, page 305, Gewold, or rather certain others in him in the notes on Hund in the same place, page 368, and finally also Gelenius, On the greatness of Cologne, book 4, page 712.

[25] [in which he went to Palestine; in the following year he becomes bishop before the 20th of July:] The expedition which we just mentioned, and which is described in the first Life at numbers 3 and 4, those who then flourished assert was undertaken to Jerusalem in the year of Christ 1064 in autumn time, or in the month of November after the passing of St. Martin — Lambert of Hersfeld in the edition of Pistorius, page 171, and Marianus Scotus in the same place, page 452: but the return the same men, with their contemporary Berthold of Constance, refer to the following year, of Christ 1065, which Berthold moreover confirms by this mark: When also Easter was celebrated on the sixth of the Kalends of April. The same men, except Marianus, who is silent, place in the same year 1065 both the death of Egilbert, bishop of Passau, and the succession of Altmann; and Lambert indeed says that the latter was designated before his return; which the earlier Acts of the Blessed one also affirm at number 5; although they do not express the year, which from the praised chronologers must be held for certain. Concerning the day or month in which he began his episcopate nothing is ascertained; except that he seems to have done it both some time after the death of his predecessor (which fell in that year on the XXIII day of May, as Schritovinus and the Chronicle of Tegernsee note in Hansiz, page 254), and before the XIX day of July; which is dug out from the Blessed one's own letters in the same Hansiz, page 280; as being dated in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1088, on the XIV of the Kalends of August, in the XXIV year of our pontificate: for in the year 1088 the XIX day of July, or the XIV of the Kalends of August, cannot pertain to the XXIV year of his Pontificate, but only to the XXIII, if in the year 1065 the first year of his Pontificate took its beginning after the XIX day of July; as is plain of itself.

[26] In the year 1067 he enriches his church. How holy the beginnings of his pastoral office were is narrated in the Acts (I always mean the first, unless I add otherwise) at number 6. There was conspicuous especially his care for the splendor of the churches; and before others indeed, as was fair, of his own cathedral; to increase which with necessary possessions he left no stone unmoved until the year of Christ 1067, in whose month of March he hammered out a notable donation from the emperor Henry IV; and that not only by himself, but also through intercessors employed, who then were uniquely powerful at court — Epanes, prelate of Neuburg, Gebhard, archbishop of Salzburg, and even the augustae themselves Agnes and Bertha; of whom the latter was Henry's wife, the former his mother. Concerning which matter, although the Acts are silent, yet the public instrument does not permit doubt. It is extant and can be read in Bruschius in Lorch, book 2, page 133; in Gewold in the additions to Hund's Metropolis of Salzburg, volume 1, page 368, and in Hansiz here, page 257.

[27] In the year of Christ 1072 he repaid the favor to Gebhard, his archbishop; [in the year 1072 he assists the beginnings of other churches; and erects the monastery of St. Nicholas at Passau;] for when the latter, preferring the advantages of the Church to his own, was planning to erect a new bishopric in Carinthia at Gurk, he had Altmann especially as helper; as the Biographer of Gebhard cited above indicates, page 151, and much more expressly the catalogue of the bishops of Gurk, which we gave in volume V of June, page 520. Nor can he seem to have lent no labor to the same his metropolitan in the foundation of the monastery of Admont; since to its records, on the testimony of Hansiz in the same place, page 258, he subscribed at the same time as witness in the first place: for that those records were drawn up in the same year, Lazius also hands down; although most of the ancient Chronicles with the Life of Gebhard assign the foundation of the same monastery to the year of Christ 1074. In the same year of Christ 1072 he too is said to have begun to set about two monasteries of Regular Canons of St. Augustine; namely that of Göttweig, concerning which it will be spoken more often in the Acts below; and that of Passau, concerning which the same treat at number 8. And that the one at Passau was not built later is established, I think, certainly enough from the letters of Alexander II, Pope, given to Blessed Altmann upon this matter on the fifth of the Nones of March, in the eleventh Indiction, that is, in the year 1073, in which it is laid down that that monastery already existed. Go to Gewold's Additions to the Metropolis of Salzburg, volume 2, page 535; or if you desire the instrument of this Altmannian foundation with very many others pertaining to the same monastery, you will find them gathered together in the same place from page 530 until 585. In the record of the foundation, however, observe that it is wrongly read at the foot: These things were done in our cathedral church at Passau, in the year of the Lord one thousand seventy-four, in the ninth Indiction, on the XII of the Kalends of June: for neither can this year hold good, nor the Indiction. Not the year; because in the very text of the instrument there is cited the approbation and confirmation of the foundation granted by Gregory VII, Pope, in the month of March of the year 1075. Nor the Indiction either; because the ninth Indiction about these times does not agree with the year 1074, but with 1071 and 1086; with neither of which does the record square: for it cannot be imagined as drawn up in the year 1071, for the reason already stated; nor yet in the year 1086, because it was drawn up in the cathedral church at Passau; but Blessed Altmann, compelled to leave this in the year 1076, never afterward recovered it. The marks of time here are therefore to be corrected, and either the year of Christ 1075 after the Gregorian confirmation is to be restored, or 1076 before Altmann's exile. This latter Hansiz prefers and approves, page 259.

[28] But the beginnings of the monastery of Göttweig are still less placed beyond doubt: but that of Göttweig, when? for the author of the Göttweig Additions above at number 12 contends that it began to be built about the year of the Lord 1070; others, but equally and more recent, assign to this matter the year of Christ 1072, others 1073: others confound its beginnings with the foundation and consecration, and thus confused refer them to altogether different years; as the Chronicle which Hansiz cites in his Altmann, page 258, the manuscript of Neuburg, and in which he asserts that these things are read at the year 1072: Altmann the bishop consecrated on the mount of Kotobig the church of St. Erindrudis and the first altar of St. Mary; the same adds that this very thing is read in another very ancient manuscript Austrian Chronicle of the Imperial library: in the Epitaph of the Blessed one, which we gave above at number 12, it is read: He founded the monastery (of Göttweig) in the year 1073; in the Chronicle of Leoben in Hieronymus Pez, volume 1, column 773, it is said to have been consecrated in the year 1077; in that of Zwettl in the same place, column 974, and in the Austrian one in Freher, volume 1, page 318, the same consecration is bound to the year 1082; but in the Chronicle of Klosterneuburg in the same Pez, volume 1, column 440, it is fixed at the year 1083, in which also the author of the Göttweig Additions in the place just assigned affirms that the monastery was first completed, and the letters of foundation given.

[29] Before 1083, in which its church is said to have been completed and consecrated, As for us, as far as pertains to the letters of foundation (which that author, as well as Lazius, marking the same year, Commentaries on the Roman commonwealth, book 12, section 7, chapter 3, must be judged to have seen), or the consecration of the church of Göttweig when now finished, which we have nowhere found noted after the year 1083, we readily allow that year to be defended and retained. But if there is question of the begun building of the place, this those Acts by no means allow to be placed before the reform of discipline in the monasteries of St. Florian, St. Pölten, and St. Agapitus or Kremsmünster: for to the narration of this undertaking they expressly subjoin at number 10: After this destruction (that is, reformation) he began a better building: for on a high mountain which is called Göttweig he founded a fair dwelling of the holy Mother of God, etc. I know that in these Acts matters are not always narrated in the order in which they happened; but who would say that the order is neglected when it is indicated in express words, unless he should convict the historian of falsehood? But indeed, you say, those reformations, according to Bruschius in Lorch, page 149, Hund in the Metropolis of Salzburg, volume 1, page 307, Rettenpacher in the Annals of Kremsmünster, book 2, chapter 9, pertain to the year of Christ 1080; nay our Hansiz refers them to 1081, and indeed much more conveniently than they. But is it credible that a fabric of so great a mass, only then begun, in one year or a year and a half not only reached its summit, but was also sufficiently prepared for consecration and sacred use? This is hard, I confess. But is the authority of Bruschius and of those who follow so certain that it compels anyone to depart from our anonymous author? What if therefore we deny that those reformations were so long deferred?

[30] [but not before the year 1072, in which the Blessed one reformed three monasteries:] Bernard Noricus, a monk of the monastery of Kremsmünster in the fourteenth century, will certainly favor it, when in Hieronymus Pez, volume 2, column 58, in the Catalogue of the abbots of Kremsmünster, he writes thus: 1072. Ditric presided, who was a monk at Göttweig, and, being called by Altmann the bishop, is set over this place, etc. For since this is the same Ditric, or Theodoric, whom our Acts at number 10 assert was brought thither by Altmann and set over it at the very time of the reformation, it follows that this (and why not also the other two, set before it in the same place?) was done in the year 1072, not 1082, as is had in the same Pez, volume 1, column [—]. Eynwicus also will favor it, in the Life of the venerable Wilburg in the same author, volume 2, column 219, when he says that Altmann, at the intervention of the supreme Pontiff, namely lord Alexander, took that church (of St. Florian) into his protection, and with devoted mind gave his labor to its restoration. For Alexander II, Pope, died in the month of April in the year 1073. Finally the things which will be said below at number 35 will favor it. And thus it will be permitted both to cling to our Acts, and to place the beginnings of Göttweig either in that very year 1072, or certainly long before 1081: thus also it will be easily understood that that monastery already

then, from the month of May of the year 1082, in which very many Austrians after the disaster received from the Bohemians and Bavarians were reduced to extreme want, was so established that it could suffice for the Blessed one to feed many thousands of the poor there at that time; as he is handed down to have done in the Acts at number 25. Our second Life also not only plainly lays down at number 21 that Göttweig began to be built after the already mentioned reformations; but also at number 23, before the promulgation by the blessed Prelate of the decrees of St. Gregory VII, Pope, against incontinent clerics, or at least before that shameless kind of men had stirred up against these and against him the anger and arms of the emperor Henry IV, in the year, as will presently be seen, 1076.

[31] Scarcely in the year 1074 had Blessed Altmann received the mandates of the Roman Pontiff and of the council celebrated at Rome at the beginning of Lent; [in the year 1074 he acts against married clerics: in 1076, being expelled, he becomes Apostolic Legate, and is present at the assembly of Tribur.] nay, the snares of the obstinate being despised, and not without a most present peril of life, he executed them on the feast of St. Stephen toward the end of the turning year, as the Acts report at numbers 11 and 12; namely the day before he assisted at a certain pious grant, which is reported in the Metropolis of Salzburg, augmented by Gewold, volume 3, page 159, and of which he himself perhaps had been the author for Welf, duke of Bavaria: for it pertained to the monastery of Rottenbuch; which we have already noted above at number 1 owed its beginnings to him. Meanwhile the lust of the most abandoned priests, proscribed by the constancy of the unconquered Prelate at once from the church and from the sacred altars, raged, until by calumnies it drove Henry — himself already struck by the Roman thunderbolt and made savage — to compel at last the most valiant Man to go into exile; which we judge happened about the middle of the year 1076: since the Acts at number 14 assert that the emperor had already been separated from the communion of the Church when he received the complaints of the infamous calumniators; but he was not separated before the second week of Lent in the year 1076; as is established from the council then held at Rome, on the testimony of Lambert of Hersfeld at this year: then the same Acts at number 15 report that the ejected Prelate hastened first into Saxony, then to Rome; where he was appointed Pontifical Legate; with which power, having returned into Germany still in the same year 1076, on the XVII of the Kalends of November he was present at the assembly of Tribur, where the deposing of Henry was dealt with, as Lambert narrates more fully, and Berthold of Constance, cited here in Hansiz in manuscript, fuller than the published one; by whom also several bishops are numbered whom, brought over in the same assembly from Henry's side to the parts of the Pontiff and of the Church, Altmann absolved from the anathema; and the conditions which he prescribed to Henry, to be fulfilled within a defined time, if he wished to retain the empire.

§ IV. The continuation from the year 1077 until 1091, in which the Blessed one died.

[In the year 1077 at Forchheim and Goslar he proscribes the emperor Henry; and is despoiled by him:] The prelates and princes of Germany faithful to the Roman Vicar of Christ, when they knew that Henry, his promises being eluded, had returned to his own nature, being gathered at Forchheim, as they had agreed, on the III of the Ides of March in the year 1077, substituted for the emperor, who was reduced to order, Rudolf, duke of Swabia. But that Altmann among others was present at that assembly, Hansiz notes, page 265; nor does the matter seem doubtful; since the things which were here done cohere altogether with the things done in the colloquy of Tribur, at which he had been present among the chief men. That also was an indication, that Henry, returning somewhat later from Italy, and bursting into Bavaria through the passes of Carinthia, there divided among his own the means and wealth of those who opposed him, but especially of the Bishop of Passau; who most inhumanly ravaged the goods of the churches. These are the words of the manuscript Berthold produced in the place just assigned. In the same place also Hansiz proves that our Prelate came in the same year in the month of November to the meeting at Goslar, proclaimed for repeating the anathemas against Henry. Concerning the following year, that is, of Christ 1078, he finds nothing at all memorable among the writers; except what Gobelinus Persona hands down in the Cosmodromium, age 6, chapter 55, in these words: 1078, of Henry the 22nd, Poppo, bishop of Paderborn, and Altmann, bishop of Passau, dedicated the church of the monastery of Sts. Peter and Paul at Paderborn, after the burning of the city in the 21st year. Concerning which also Bucelinus in his Germany, part 2, page 132; where concerning this Benedictine monastery of Abdinghof.

[33] [he assists at three councils at Rome in 1079 and 1080, in which he returns to Germany:] Our Apostolic Legate spent the whole year 1079 from nearly the very beginning at Rome; as Father Hansiz here shows against Pagi, page 266, both from an epistle of St. Gregory VII, Pope, and from the report of the manuscript Berthold, who narrates that he then sat in two synods there; and at the former indeed on the XI of February; but at the latter within the week of Pentecost. What was the cause of this second Roman journey, Berthold in the same place indicates, writing of the first synod: To which, he says, although journeying by a stealthy and scarcely different route, the Roman Cardinal, and the bishops of Passau and of Metz, for the sake of proclaiming to the Apostolic See the causes of so many injuries of their own and of the churches, having passed safely by God's grace through very many points of ambushes and guard-posts, gladly arrived. Where, proclaiming themselves in the hearing of the whole synod, the bishops were gladly heard and received. Nay indeed, from the same epistle of St. Gregory, Pope, it is established that our Prelate stayed at Rome also for some part of the year 1080: for it was given in that same year, on the testimony of Bruno in the History of the Saxon war in Freher, volume 1, page 147, where it may be read; it was given, I say, to King Rudolf, to whom the holy Pontiff speaks thus: What has now been determined in the two meetings of our synod concerning king R. (Rudolf) and concerning H. (Henry)... you can most openly learn through our letters and through our legates (unless perhaps they have been captured); and if anything still remains, you have it as it were ready to hear through the bishops of Metz and of Passau..., who are delaying with us awaiting the end of the matter, when they shall come to you. He remained therefore without doubt at Rome at least until that decisive judgment against Henry and for Rudolf, which was there pronounced on the Nones of March, in the third Indiction; as it is subscribed in Labbe. And since this was the end of the matter which he was awaiting at Rome alone; it can indeed be believed that he did not long defer his return into Germany afterward; which is also dug out from the Chronicle of Augsburg in Freher, volume 1, page 351; where the schismatic author, though the text be mutilated, sufficiently hints that Altmann in the month of June of the same year 1080 both was with Welf, duke of Bavaria, and had very great influence.

[34] [where he reconciles Leopold, margrave of Austria, to himself and to the Church in 1081:] I do not know whether to the earlier return of the Blessed one from the City, or to this, this epistle of St. Gregory, Pope, ought to be referred: Since you departed from us, most dear Brother, etc. It is certainly clear from it how constantly he fulfilled the office of Apostolic Legate once imposed on him; as one who by no means dared, in times so unjust, to depart from the rigor of the canons, except by the authority of the Roman Pontiff: for our Acts at number 31 say that the whole epistle pertained to that. I am equally uncertain indeed whether to refer here, or elsewhere, another epistle of the same Pontiff, of which in our Biographer at number 30 this beginning is brought forward: Your Religiousness asked us concerning priests lapsed into fornication, and entangled in other crimes, what was to be judged concerning their grade. There is one who thinks that it perhaps pertains to this time, that is, to the year of Christ 1081; but since Gregory sufficiently set forth his opinion concerning the incontinence of priests in the Roman synod of the year 1074, and sent it down to be promulgated in the same year through the decrees submitted to Altmann and the other prelates of Germany, Altmann's doubt proposed, and therefore Gregory's answer, seems rather to have preceded that synod than to have followed it. This is more certain, which Hansiz narrates from the Chronicle of the Anonymous of Garsten at this year 1081; namely that Leopold, margrave of Austria, overcome either by the industry of Altmann, or by his virtues, or rather by both these together, the Henrician faction being abjured, and a treaty being openly struck, passed over to the Catholic side: the words of the Chronicle are: The prelate Altmann and the margrave Leopold and other princes were swearing together against king Henry. Refer here therefore what is read in our Acts at the beginning of number 26. To the same Hansiz thinks the reformation of the three monasteries can be referred. And indeed for that matter the reconciliation of Leopold could be very opportune. Yet those things seem to be considered which we said above at numbers 29 and 30; nay and this also, which happened in this same year:

[35] For when, king Rudolf having been slain by the Henricians on the Ides of October in the year 1080, in the same year he is honored with two letters of St. Gregory VII, Pope: the Catholic princes of Germany were thinking of electing a new king, and Altmann signified this by letter to St. Gregory, whose place he held in Germany, according to his office, he added certain things concerning the moderation of the canons passed against the wicked priests of those times. The Most Holy Pontiff answered in the year 1081, after the synod lately held at Rome in Lent, by a letter whose beginning our Biographer exhibits at number 30, but which may be read entire in Labbe's Councils, volume 10, column 278, and here in Father Hansiz, page 269: he answered, I say, these things among others: But as to what you asked concerning the priests, it pleases us that for the present, both on account of the disturbances of the peoples, and also on account of the want of good men,... you ought for the time to endure, tempering the canonical rigor: for concerning these things in a time of peace and tranquillity (which, the Lord having mercy, we believe will shortly be) they can more suitably be treated, and the canonical order more fully observed. And yet St. Altmann did nothing less, when he most severely purged the said monasteries; as is plain from the Acts at numbers 9 and 10. He does not therefore seem to have reformed them at this time, but at another preceding; since it cannot be doubted that he always most religiously observed in all things not only the mandates of the Roman Pontiffs, but also their counsels and nods. Further, to this same year belongs another epistle of St. Gregory to Altmann with this beginning: Since we have committed our place in the German parts to your Prudence, etc. This is not cited in our Acts; but it is extant among the Gregorian letters in Labbe above, column 284, and Hansiz, page 271: and it is hortatory, both for recalling bishops from the schism, and for kindly receiving those recalled, and among these indeed particularly the bishop of Osnabrück.

[36] In the year 1082 he returns to that part of his church situated in Austria Having in the same year executed, so far as he could, the things which had been commended in the above letters, Altmann, when he had procured for himself as thoroughly Catholic patrons Leopold, margrave of Austria, and Ottokar, margrave of Styria, in whose dominions the greatest part of his diocese extended from the river Enns to the East

of the diocese of Passau, returned at last to his own church, nay to that part of the church which I have mentioned, about the year of Christ 1082. But where he fixed his seat in it, authors dispute. Hansiz, page 272, asserts that he lived chiefly at Lorch or Anasburg, commonly Enns, at the mouth of the river of the same name, following without doubt Schritovinus or Schreitwein, who flourished in the fifteenth century, in the manuscript Vienna Catalogue of the archbishops and bishops of the churches of Lorch and Passau: for he cites these words of his on page 283: He (Altmann after his exile) placed his see at Lorch under the wings of margrave Leopold. On the contrary Bruschius, On Lorch, page 147, says, Afterward, having returned into Austria (Blessed Altmann from exile), he spent the rest of his life in the little Austrian town of Mautern, occupied only (this is false) with adorning his monastery of Göttweig. Hund follows him in the Metropolis of Salzburg, volume 1, page 807, and that in just so many words, except that he strikes out that lying "only." The latter opinion the Acts favor at number 25, when they report these things concerning Altmann and the mount or monastery of Göttweig: On which mount he often treated of spiritual matters with his beloved ones: after a custom, unless I am mistaken, formerly used by holy bishops, by which, running out again and again to the monastery nearest their see, they were wont to gather their mind, distracted by pastoral business, and to refresh it by sacred retirement and prayer and pious conversations. But for this, if he dwelt in the little town of Mautern, Göttweig was most convenient, as being (if we may trust the maps) scarcely one league distant from it; whereas it is distant from Lorch about eighteen hours' leagues from east to west.

[37] [where he then assists the foundation of Garsten; dedicated the church of Kremsmünster, and fed thousands of the poor:] However that may be, in this year 1082 the blessed Prelate was not only at Lorch; but there also helped the margrave of Styria in the foundation of the monastery of Garsten, by granting that church to him, the parish of Behamberg being received in exchange. Perhaps there survives even now among the men of Garsten the authentic instrument of this contract; certainly from their book of grants Ludewig recites its beginning and end in his diplomatic Work, volume 4, page 193, where the beginning is this: In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, Altmann, by the grace of God bishop of Passau, to the faithful of Christ forever, how the noble man Ottokar, margrave of Styria, etc. But the end is this: But these things were done at Lorch in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1082. More in Hansiz, page 273. In this same year Rettenpacher in the Annals of the monastery of Kremsmünster, page 147, says that the church of the same monastery was dedicated with solemn rite by Altmann, near the town of Mautern and Göttweig, yet on the opposite bank of the Danube; which he is also said in Hansiz, page 274, to have enriched with the tithes of others. He seems therefore already then to have stayed at Mautern; which that notable charity further confirms, which in this same year, as Hansiz proves on page 272, after the disaster of Mailberg and the devastations of the Bohemians from about the month of May, he displayed toward the husbandmen utterly ruined in their goods, both at Göttweig and in his own house, according to our Acts at number 25: for that that house, or his episcopal residence, was then in the town of Mautern, the very fact declares: for since the battle was fought toward the borders of Austria and Moravia, where the river Pulkau falls into the Thaya; and there is that land which the Acts narrate was wholly (namely as far as the Danube) reduced to a desert, assuredly it is more credible that those wretched people beyond the Danube fled to the nearest places on this side of the Danube, such as Mautern, Göttweig, and their neighbors, especially in so great a number, than to Lorch, very far removed thence.

[38] To the year 1083 we have already referred above at number 29 the foundation of the monastery of Göttweig and the consecration of its church, [in the year 1083 he founds Göttweig: in 1085 he subscribes the synod of Quedlinburg. Then Hermann invades his church:] concerning which the Acts likewise at number 29. To these Hansiz subjoins the things which our Biographer narrates concerning the Blessed one's severity against an unjust possessor at number 25, concerning his liberality, concerning the cult and reformation of the churches of his diocese at number 18, concerning the punishment of a perjured Count at number 24. Indeed, Leopold favoring his counsels in all things, he had obtained a most free exercise of his office, of his power, and of the virtues in which he excelled. In the year 1085, revisiting Saxony, in the Paschal week he was present at and subscribed the general synod of Quedlinburg against the Henrician and Wecilian heresy; concerning which see Labbe, volume 10, columns 404 and 1831. But in the third week after this synod, or, as the schismatic author of the Apology of the emperor Henry IV has it in Freher, volume 1, page 197, in the second week after Easter, in the conventicle of Mainz Altmann was by the Henrician bishops not only proscribed among the first defenders of the Catholic Church; but there was also thrust in upon him into the see of Passau that schismatic Hermann, whom the Acts at number 17 assert sat for two years, and whom Berthold of Constance in the Appendix to the Chronicle of Hermann Contractus narrates expired in the year of Christ 1087; as will be said in its place. But this man's tyranny did not pass beyond the river Enns; for whatever was thence toward the East the lawful Pastor administered peacefully and holily under the protection of Leopold and Ottokar until his happy death: and there in this year 1085 he is believed to have kept a suspect deacon from the Sacrifice; which the Acts record at number 17.

[39] The year of Christ 1086 was notable both for the reconciliation of the princes of the Bavarians with their duke Welf and with the Roman Church, [in the year 1086 he leads back St. Gebhard: in 1087, absent, he appears to Hermann dying:] and for victories; and the same was more fortunate for the churches of Salzburg and Würzburg (it is uncertain from what cause) than for that of Passau: for to those it restored their Catholic and holy pastors; but not so to this. Altmann nevertheless came into a share of the triumph, when he led back one of them, namely Gebhard, his metropolitan, from a nine-year exile to Salzburg; which we said in volume VI of June, part 1, page 154, happened in this year; although it is thrown into the following year in the Chronicle of Admont in Hieronymus Pez, volume 2, column 181. In the year 1087 we advised that the death of Hermann, pseudo-bishop of Passau, is recorded by the contemporary Berthold, concerning whom our Acts at number 17. And thus the praised chronographer of Constance: At the same time also a certain schismatic (Hermann), who invaded the bishopric of Passau, while the lawful Pastor was still alive, long since (for two years), departing from this life, left to the remaining schismatics a most certain example of his own damnation: for when he now lay at the last, and did not doubt that he was on the very point of going away to eternal damnation, there appeared to him the Bishop of that same church (Altmann, although absent), that he might know the more evidently the fault which he must expiate among the dead. Yet he asked him to pardon him the fault, and to loose him from the excommunication. He asked also those standing round that they should carry him out of the bishopric (or the episcopal palace), and should not bury him in the bishopric. But these words seemed to the bystanders like ravings. But he, protesting that he was of sound mind, likewise did not cease to ask again and again; but in vain: for he was prevented by death before ecclesiastical absolution. Some, however, who were present at that so perilous death of the same schismatic, were pricked in conscience; who also afterward, returning to the lawful Pastor, obtained pardon and absolution. So Berthold. For the rest, that to Hermann the schismatic there immediately succeeded in the same see the schismatic Tyemo, our Acts testify; and that this man outlived Altmann, Hansiz proves, page 284; who also on page 279 says that there are extant letters of our Blessed one, written in this year 1087, by which tithes at Furth were given to the monastery of Garsten.

[40] [in the year 1088 he recovers the estates of his church: in 1089 he dedicates the church of Lambach:] The same man in the same place exhibits other letters of his, given at Lorch in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1088, on the XIV of the Kalends of August; by which he left it attested to posterity how many estates and rights of the church of Passau, once alienated, Ottokar, margrave of Styria, brought by his diligent admonition, then resigned. Their beginning is: Altmann, by the grace of God bishop of Passau, and Legate of the Apostolic See, etc. Whence it is plain that he was adorned with this dignity not only under St. Gregory, but also under his successors; which will presently shine forth again: nor indeed undeservedly; since he most powerfully sustained, with those few, the Church in Germany shaken by so many disturbances, concerning whom Berthold at the year 1089 makes mention thus: In the German parts, four bishops (for Gebhard had died) persisted in Catholic communion; namely those of Würzburg, Passau, Worms, Constance, and also the bishop of Metz; by whose strengthening the remaining Catholics resisted the schismatics from the beginning. In the same year 1089, being invited by letter by St. Adalbero, bishop of Würzburg, to the solemn dedication of the church of Lambach, he first wrote back that letter which, on account of the notable marks of his charity, fortitude, and other virtues, I would altogether reproduce here, did I not know that it must be reported with the Acts of St. Adalbero, into which it is inserted, in this our Work at the day VI of October: then he ran out to Lambach; and when he had helped his most holy friend with the counsel in which he was powerful in completing the foundation of that most celebrated monastery, together with him he consecrated the church in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1089, on the XVII of the Kalends of October; as it is in the Acts mentioned, and to be set forth more fully in their own time.

[41] [in the year 1090 he ordains St. Thiemo archbishop of Salzburg. Then he dies in 1091.] Berthold of Constance thus begins the year 1090: In Bavaria the faithful of St. Peter (so he calls the Roman Catholics) now so far prevailed against the schismatics, that in the bishopric of Salzburg they ordained a Catholic archbishop; whom straightway the most religious Bishop of Passau and Legate of Pope Urban, with the bishops of Würzburg and Freising, solemnly consecrated. That archbishop of Salzburg was St. Thiemo, or Theodmar, of whom our Acts make mention at numbers 31 and 33; but we shall make it more copiously at the day consecrated by his martyrdom, the XXVIII of September. Finally the same Berthold at the year of Christ 1091 has thus: Altmann, of holy memory, bishop of Passau,... in a good old age departed to the Lord on the sixth of the Ides of August. The whole text we gave at the beginning of the Commentary at number 1. The Acts agree at number 32; likewise the Life of St. Adalbero, bishop of Würzburg, at the end, and several Chronicles of better quality; so that concerning the year, month, and day of his death there can be no controversy; whatever Bruschius in Lorch, page 150, may have looked to the following year. And let this be the end of the Commentary; since, besides what was said in §1 concerning his cult, nothing is at hand from which we may supply from elsewhere the rest which both Biographers narrate as done after his death.

THE EARLIER LIFE

By the author, a monk of Göttweig nearly contemporary.

From a manuscript of the monastery of Göttweig collated with the edition of the Reverend Lord Father Hieronymus Pez in the Writers of Austrian Affairs, volume 1, page 115.

Altmann, bishop of Passau (B.)

BHL Number: 0313

from the Göttweig manuscript.

PROLOGUE.

To Lord Cholhoch, venerable and illustrious father of the monastery of Göttweig, a devoted servant offers his service.

The author's age and credit. A praiseworthy work indeed, but nevertheless full

of sweat you bid me undertake, reverend father; and you impose a burden heavier than can be sustained by my shoulders: since indeed you desire that I should be willing to work up the Life of the holy prelate and bishop of Passau, Altmann, in a polished style savoring of the Latin idiom, and that I should bring forth a Man virtuous and admirable to all; and especially that I should set forth those things which were done about this place, of which he himself was the founder. I shall therefore obey your command; although my pen be coarse and unpolished in learning, I shall undergo that burden, and shall try the strength of my nature and the gifts of the Muses. May the Ruler of great Olympus favor these vast undertakings, and lead the vessel to good issues; and may the singular Man come forth into the light, to be seen by all ^a. From those, therefore, who saw him present, and who clung familiarly to his service, I shall investigate any of his deeds, and shall take care to make these known to posterity: namely, whence he sprang; in what place he lived; how he came to the episcopate; what and how great perverse things he endured in it; how he built our place, in which, the bond of body and soul being loosed, he rests buried: how the Canonical Religion was changed into the monastic profession: how the same place through the successions of fathers has grown up until our times in the praises of God. I wish you, most holy father, ever to fare well in the Lord. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* otherwise "adverse"

CHAPTER I.

The fatherland, birth, and ecclesiastical dignities of Blessed Altmann before his episcopate, his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, his promotion to the mitre.

Blessed Altmann among the Saxons About to write the Life and acts of the venerable prelate Altmann, I think it will not be unwelcome to readers first briefly to touch upon the origin of the Saxon race, from which the same Man of the Lord is known to have drawn his origin ^a. The Saxon race, therefore, is handed down as having sprung from the army of Alexander the Great: after whose death Ptolemy, Antiochus, and several others divided the kingdom among themselves, and by long wars oppressed the world far and wide. But a certain part of the army, of the common soldiers, which remained surviving, having gone to sea, practiced piracy. This fleet, furnished with arms, coming with a strong band to the river Elbe, landed, and invaded in hostile fashion the land of the Thuringians; which, the inhabitants being slain, they plundered of all their goods, and possessed all their places by perpetual right as far as the mountain which is called Rombsperg ^b, even to this day. These men used long knives instead of swords (as the Slavs do today), which in their language were called "sachs"; from which they are called Sachsones, not Saxones: who, being vigorous men, exceedingly warlike, renowned in strength and in wealth, very often made war upon the surrounding peoples, and extended their borders in every direction. Their boldness at length the valor of Julius Caesar subdued by arms, and made them tributary to the Romans ^c: after whose death, having returned to their former fierceness, engaging with the kings of the Franks, they came off victors, and long held their borders under a heavy domination; until the vigor of Charlemagne ^d subjugated them, conquered in many battles, and drove them to the profession of the Christian religion.

[2] born in Westphalia of famous parents, and increased with honors, Which Charles established several bishoprics in various places throughout all Saxony; among which he established Paderborn in Westphalia, which is the third part of Saxony: for as the whole world is divided into three parts, namely Asia, Africa, and Europe; so Saxony (rather Sachsonia) is divided into three; as is written in their Deeds. That part which looks to the southeast, and borders on Bohemia and Poland, is called eastern Saxony: but that which regards the north and touches Denmark is called northern Saxony: but that which stretches toward the Rhine and the west is named Westphalia. In this Westphalia, therefore, Altmann, brought forth of famous parents, exceedingly well instructed in divine and secular letters, was a canon at Paderborn, in which place he governed the schools for many years: then he was set over the canons at Aachen: at which time also he was distinguished as chaplain in the palace of Henry the third. Which Henry, surnamed the Pious, son of the emperor Conrad, built a palace at Goslar at the foot of the mountain Rombsperg, from which silver is taken ^e, and built there a basilica of the Apostles Simon and Jude. When he had died, Altmann clung with faithful service to queen Agnes; with whom he came to Passau, when at that time bishop Egilbert held the mitre of the bishopric.

[3] At that time ^f many nobles were going to Jerusalem to visit the Sepulcher of the Lord; deceived by a certain common opinion, he goes on pilgrimage into the Holy Land, as though the day of judgment were at hand, because Easter had fallen ^g in that year on the sixth of the Kalends of April, on which the Resurrection of Christ is written ^h. By which terror being stirred ⁱ, not only common people, but also the chief men of the peoples, notable in race and dignity, and even the bishops of various cities, supported by great glory and honor, left their fatherland, their kinsfolk, and their riches, and, bearing the cross through the narrow way, followed Christ. Of whom the first leader and instigator was Gunther, bishop of Bamberg, a man conspicuous as much for elegance of body as for wisdom of mind. In whose company were many named men, both clerics and laymen, as much from eastern Francia as from Bavaria; among whom two canons stood out as chief; namely Ezzo the Scholastic, a man endowed with all wisdom and eloquence, who on the same journey nobly composed a song concerning the miracles of Christ in his native tongue; and Conrad, adorned with all knowledge and eloquence, who afterward was set over and made provost of the canons in our place ^k. With these Altmann, from the side of the queen, with many renowned men honored from the palace, was made a companion of the journey and a partner of the labor.

[4] Therefore, having undertaken the difficult journey of pilgrimage, they suffered many ambushes on the way from the pagans, and having suffered many adversities on the journey, and lost many of their companions together with their goods ^l. O wickedness! The enemies of Christ, leaping upon the backs of the very priests of Christ, drove them about the field by riding, urging them on with spurs, like horses. On this journey there happened something memorable, which I insert for the sake of an example; that by it those may be terrified who with obstinate mind strive against the counsels of the wise. There was on the same journey a certain noble abbess, who, the care of the Sisters committed to her being set aside, against the counsel of all the wise, underwent the peril of so great a pilgrimage. She, being captured by the pagans, was in the sight of all so long violated by shameless men, that, to the reproach of all Christians, she breathed out her last breath. Being afflicted with these and many other reproaches for Christ by the enemies of Christ, and made in every place a spectacle both to angels and to men, because they had chosen to enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations, at length after many tribulations they came to Jerusalem. There, fulfilling their vows, and offering to God a sacrifice of praise, they return rejoicing to their fatherland. When they come into Pannonia, and are spending glad days at Wurzburg ^m, Gunther, the bishop beloved of God, departed from this world, and entered into the joy of his Lord, to be set over all his goods.

[5] At the same time also Egilbert ⁿ, bishop of Passau, dies, being absent, he is elected bishop of Passau, and is joined in heavenly glory to the Blessed for his worthy merits. After whose death queen Agnes and the chief men of the kingdom take counsel: all elect Altmann into the place of the deceased bishop: the clergy approve; the people acclaim, all saying with harmonious voice that Altmann was most worthy of episcopal honor, whom they knew to be most full of learning and piety. Presently men from among the honored are sent to meet him into Pannonia, to bring the pastoral staff and the spousal ring to the elect, and to lead him with befitting honor to the see prepared for him by God. At whose coming an infinite multitude of both sexes went to meet him, and receives the elected Pastor with great exultation: then he is consecrated by Gebhard, the venerable archbishop of Salzburg ^o, and, the blessing being received, having returned at last to Passau, being received with hymns and songs, he is enthroned on the episcopal chair.

[6] And that he had merited this honor from God, his praiseworthy life declared: for he was a teacher of truth, a lover of chastity, adorned with good morals; and therefore he was acceptable to God and to men. God then approving his merits by a miracle, He admonished the clergy to the love of purity; he taught the people the fear of God; he called back the dissenting to the concord of peace; with liberal alms he relieved the want of the poor; he chastised his body with fasts and vigils; he humbled his spirit with prayers and weepings; and what he taught to others, in this he offered himself as a pattern by living works. Shining with these and such virtues, he was made most dear to God: which He Himself deigned to declare to all by a miracle of this kind. There was in the same town of Passau a certain woman, whose only daughter was leprous: to whom, as she often prayed and urgently begged health for her daughter from the Lord, it was revealed in sleep that if she should receive the washing of the hands of Altmann the bishop after the sacraments of the Masses, and should anoint her daughter with it, she would receive health of body. Which when she had faithfully done, and had anointed her daughter with the water of the washing, she was so healed of the leprosy as if she had never been drenched with leprosy.

[7] whose future episcopate he had long before foretold. And because mention has been made above of bishop Gebhard, there is not to be passed over here in silence, concerning him and his companions, namely the bishops Altmann of Passau and Adalbero of Würzburg, a presage [p]. When they were still scholars, and on a certain day had sat down by the waters of a certain spring, about to eat bread by chance, but not to be filled, they concluded together, and declared that they would be bishops. Gebhard said that he would be bishop in the church of Salzburg; Adalbero, that he would obtain the bishopric of the church of Würzburg; Altmann, that he would possess the see of Passau: all of which the event so proved: for both Gebhard was mitred as pontiff in the church of Salzburg, and Adalbero raised as prelate in the see of Würzburg, and Altmann ordained as prelate in the see of Passau. But this also is to be noted, that each of them rests in the place which he himself built: for Gebhard built the monastery which is called Admont; in this he himself rests buried: the monastery of Lambach was built by Adalbero; in this he too is now entombed: but the monastic church on the mount of Göttweig is built by Altmann; in this he too is buried [q].

ANNOTATIONS.

among others Albert Krantz in his Saxony from the very beginning of the work, that is, page 1.

p. Concerning this presage see what was said in the Commentary at number 24. Concerning St. Adalbero, bishop of Würzburg, or Herbipolis, it will have to be treated on the 6th day of October. His Acts are extant in John, abbot of Lambach, and in Hieronymus Pez, volume 2 of the Writers of Austria, from the beginning.

q. In the Life of St. Gebhard they are said, at the time when each had foretold his own bishopric, to have vowed each that they would found each a monastery, where when dead they might one day rest. Further, concerning the monastery of Admont see the Acts of St. Gebhard; concerning that of Lambach, the Acts of St. Adalbero just assigned; concerning that of Göttweig more will follow here.

* otherwise "classe"

* otherwise "Albim"

* otherwise "conludebant"

CHAPTER II.

His zeal in purging and founding monasteries; his constancy against married priests; his expulsion by Henry IV; his elevation by St. Gregory VII, Pope.

He builds the monastery of St. Nicholas; But what things worthy of praise he did in his episcopate, what persecutions for justice' sake he endured from the members of the devil, the following discourse will explain. Because he knew that he had been set by God over the family of God for this, that he might destroy and scatter, and build and plant; in certain places he destroyed the service of the devil, in certain places he set up the service of Christ. For first of all in the suburb of Passau he founded a church in honor of holy Nicholas upon the bank of the river Inn ^a, which he endowed with many estates and vineyards: and over this place he set Hartmann as Provost, a man endowed with all wisdom and eloquence, who was distinguished as chaplain of king Rudolf ^b, and was most well known to Pope Urban and his successors. He took to himself religious men, both clerics and laymen, whom he taught to lead the common life under the rule of blessed Augustine. In this manner therefore Altmann built up the worship of God; but how he destroyed, we shall say.

[9] There is a place in Noricum Ripense ^c called at the House of holy Florian. he purges the monasteries of St. Florian, St. Pölten, and St. Agapitus; In this there were Clerics intent on marriages and secular gains, neglecting the service of God. These the providence of the Bishop turned out, and gathered religious persons to serve God there. Further, that place is reported to have been once inhabited by monks; but destroyed by the Hungarians; and, being restored again by bishop Egilbert ^d, was consigned to clerics. In another monastery, namely that of holy Hippolytus ^e, there were clerics entangled in drunkenness, gluttony, and lust, and in usuries; whom bishop Altmann expelled from the place by canonical censure, and put religious men in their stead; over whom he set Engelbert, a man endowed with all prudence and eloquence. Further, the expelled clerics, seized with furies, taking ill the reproach of their expulsion, taking up arms, boldly entered the monastery; and, all being put to flight, broke open the cellar of the Brothers, and poured the wine out on the ground. Which divine vengeance straightway followed; for all, turned to madness, sought the trackless places of the desert. Besides, the monastery of holy Agapitus, which is called Kremsmünster ^f, was at that time sprinkled with great enough infamy: for those monks, the yoke of the rule being cast off, and the monastic order left behind, living in a worldly manner far beyond worldly men, having property, were raging through all the crimes of the vices, detractors, murmurers, rebellious, insolent, given only to the belly and to luxury, and reprobate for every good work. Their prelates were lovers of pleasures, despisers of religion, gaping after gains, surpassing their subjects in shameful deeds. These pestilent men scattered the substance of the monastery by living luxuriously; at last they burned the sanctuary of God with fire.

[10] then he founds that of Göttweig. These the skill of the Bishop cast out of the place with great labor, and set there the venerable man Theodoric as abbot; who brought followers of the monastic path from Göttweig ^g, whom under the mastership of blessed Benedict he instructed by words and examples in the standard of the regular life. Whence he endured a great persecution from those rebellious against the rule; which he himself patiently bore, knowing it was written: All who wish to live godly in Christ Jesus suffer persecution from the wicked. But that place was afterward so changed by Adalram ^h, a noble man and an abbot to be praised, with so great religion and honesty, that it was set before the other abbeys round about in estates, buildings, books, paintings, and other ornaments; and moreover it shines notably adorned to this day with men learned in letters and excellently skilled in the arts. After this destruction he began a better building ⁱ: for on a high mountain which is called Göttweig he founded a fair dwelling of the holy Mother of God; in which he himself afterward being buried was received into the eternal dwelling of God; but how this was done we shall explain more fully in its place.

[11] When therefore the good Husbandman was faithfully tilling the vineyard of the highest Father of the household, He most valiantly assails by pruning away the barren shoots and propagating the cluster-bearing branches, the church of Passau, nay the whole German kingdom, was defiled by the life of the priests; because almost all were everywhere held infamous by public marriages, like the common people. Whence the Apostolic censure also, worthily indignant, directed decrees against the priests ^k through the churches, and withdrew men consigned to divine Offices from the fellowship of women. And when all the bishops obeyed it with ready mind, and forbade their canons, and the priests throughout the villages, by admonitions and threats, from wives, Altmann, a council of the Brothers being gathered from every quarter, in the very bosom of the church of Passau, ordered the letters sent by the Apostolic one to be recited before all; he set forth the canonical laws; he judged that consecrated men must abstain from wives. Who, grieving heavily that they must leave their accustomed ways and bow their necks to unaccustomed ones, answered that they neither wished nor were able to forsake this custom; which it was established they had had from ancient times from all their predecessor bishops.

[12] To whom he on the contrary answered, that he neither wished the marriages of priests; nor was able to consent to them in this shameful thing, from which both he himself would have peril, and they would undergo eternal punishment; especially since they knew it was written: Not only those who do them; but also those who consent to those who do them, are worthy of death. But when they by no reasoning gave him assent, but rather with depraved counsel plotted concerning his destruction, like a wise physician he kept silence for the time, and held a secret counsel with wise men upon this matter. But when the feast of holy Stephen came, and very many chief men and peoples came together, the valiant Warrior of Christ, kindled with the zeal of God, turned all the arms of justice against that very citadel of iniquity, and bravely set about to war down the assailants of chastity: for before the whole throng of clergy and people he ascended into the pulpit, and publicly recited the tenor of the Apostolic letter, forbidding to canons and presbyters marriages, by the grave authority of a threat, according to the canons and the Apostolic institutes. And all of them with one accord, being filled with fury, would then and there have furiously torn the Servant of God to pieces with their hands, had not divine help and the protection of the chief men present withstood their raging.

[13] At which time Henry the fourth, son of Henry the Pious, emperor, wherefore, being loaded by them with calumnies before the emperor Henry, having been elected to the kingdom when quite a boy, was delicately brought up at his pleasure without the bridles of discipline, a most keen assailant of all good men. Who, having scarcely passed the bounds of adolescence, was borne wholly headlong, like a horse and a mule; neglecting the care of the kingdom, serving gluttony and luxury, he changed royal gentleness into tyranny: he subjected to servitude, like a handmaid, the free mistress, namely the Church: while he sold all ecclesiastical rights after the manner of Gehazi ^l, and filled all places with luxury, and mixed the whole kingdom with blood, burning, and rapine. Venerable Prelates are cast out from their sees; abominable men are set over the churches of Christ; princes burn with hatreds and enmities; soldiers plunder from the husbandmen all their goods; there arises everywhere mourning and outcry; everywhere fear and grief reign. Terrified by which wailing, Pope Gregory, truly Apostolic in life and doctrine, summoned that same Henry, not ruling but ruining everything, to his hearing; and, when he refused to come, excommunicated him.

[14] he is expelled from Passau; Such a man as this, estranged from the church,

the clerics of Passau, nay now heretics, approach; they fasten horrible crimes upon their Bishop, and labor with all their strength to cast him out from the honor of the episcopate. Henry, swayed by their complaint, entering Passau in hostile fashion, polluted all places with adulteries; he restored those expelled by Altmann to their goods. When he withdrew, the Brothers of St. Nicholas cleansed the polluted places with brooms and holy water, and drove the incestuous from the place. Grieving at which deed, the supporters of Henry violently drag the servants of God out of the church of St. Nicholas, and, having beaten them publicly with rods, like the Pharisees the Apostles, cast them out from their borders; they set heretics and incestuous men over the sacred place. The Shepherds therefore being put to flight by thieves and robbers, straightway the Lord's flock is invaded by savage wolves; the sheepfold of Christ is scattered in various directions; the substance of the servants of God is divided by plunderers; but they received the plundering of their goods with joy, and prayed for their persecutors. Thus the episcopal see of Passau was made a seat of Satan, and the church of the faithful was made a church of the malignant; and the place where before was the dwelling of the servants of Christ was made a brothel of fornicators.

[15] and while at Rome he is confirmed in his bishopric, and made Apostolic legate, Altmann therefore, worthy of God, thus, iniquity prevailing, cast out from his see for justice' sake, returns into Saxony, namely his own fatherland; where, as in exile, he is afflicted with want and poverty, knowing that he has here no abiding city; and therefore he patiently sought the future one through much tribulation. After this he went to the thresholds of the Apostles, setting forth to Pope Gregory all the perils of his tribulation; to whom he also gave back the pontificate, because he had received it from a lay hand ^m. But the Apostolic one, grieving with him at his misfortunes, kept him with himself for some time. And when on a certain day, placed in the church, he was arranging with the Cardinals that Altmann should be restored, and he himself humbly refused the burden of the episcopate, suddenly a dove, flying through all the places of the oratory, as if wandering, came upon the head of Altmann. Which when all, wondering, believed to have been done by a divine nod, and proclaimed him worthy of the pontifical office, the Pope, delaying not at all, taking the mitre from his own head, placed it on the head of Altmann, and appointed him bishop and Legate of the Roman See; and, increased with a blessing, sent him back with joy to his own see ⁿ.

[16] Hermann invades the western part of his see. While these things are done at Rome ^o, meanwhile the supporters of Henry gather at Mainz a council of the malignant, in which they bring forth a judgment unheard-of in all ages past, they themselves cast off from the Church casting off Pope Gregory, in all things Catholic, and they themselves condemned condemning with anathema all his followers. Which being done, Gregory, the ever-watchful Shepherd of the Church, is violently put to flight from the City by arms; the sheepfold of Christ is scattered by savage wolves. Wickbert,* a heretic, a man full of all filth, invaded the Apostolic See; who profaned the Priesthood; and defiled the whole people and kingdom. O crime! Elected Shepherds of the Church are thrown down from their sees; ravening wolves are substituted. By whose faction the prelate Altmann also is deprived of his see [p]; Hermann, son of duke Luitold [q], is raised with the pontifical mitre; over which deed what joy the devil had in his own, it will be permitted to hear. At the expulsion of their Pastor the clergy sang exulting: The snare is broken and we are freed. At the succession of Hermann the invader it sang joyfully: You have come, O desired one, whom we await in darkness. What is here to be said or written? This assuredly, which Dionysius the Areopagite writes to John the Apostle, banished into exile at Patmos, saying: Why is Christ reckoned cruel by the impious, because at the judgment He will separate the evil from the good? Do they not greatly grieve in dwelling together with them, and exceedingly exult at their separation? They are grievous to them even to look upon, whom they fear will be a hindrance to their most evil ways. Justly therefore will the just Judge separate them from one another at the judgment; when He shall consign those to punishment, these to eternal joy.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. The blessed Prelate had indeed long since been deprived of his see by his ejection and exile; but nevertheless no one was thrust into it by the Henricians before the year 1085, in which this Hermann invaded it; as see in the Commentary at number 38.

q. "Son of duke Luytold." John the abbot agrees; but Pez has: "Brother of duke Liutold"; the second Life at number 28: "Brother of duke Luitold." But who was that duke Luytold? "Perhaps of the Franks," says Bruschius in Lorch, page 144: but Hansiz in the bishops of Passau, page 276, judges that he was duke of the Carantanians, or of Carinthia; but he who about this time held the duchy of Carinthia is not called Luitold by Megiser in the German Annals of Carinthia, page 741, but Luitolph and Leopold, nor does he make mention of his brother Hermann. Whence nothing here seems certain.

* "the worship of God" is omitted in others

* otherwise "cares"

* otherwise "namely"

* perhaps "in every direction toward"

* otherwise "roused" and "stirred up"

* or Guibert

* otherwise "reception"

CHAPTER III.

His solicitude in administering the part of his diocese subject to him; certain of his miracles; his severe constancy against the wicked, even the powerful.

Hermann being dead, Thiemo is thrust in, Altmann sitting below the Enns, But Hermann lived two years, and by the judgment of God lost his life together with the mitre: who nevertheless is said to have repented at the last, and to have sent his garments to bishop Altmann for absolution from the anathema ^a. When he had died, a certain canon of Würzburg, Theymo* by name, unworthy of the mitre, invaded the see of Altmann with money; and oppressed rather than governed the bishopric only as far as the river Enns ^b. But Altmann in the eastern province carefully governed the clergy and people: and pressed on with all effort with the work begun on the mount of Göttweig. In which place, when on a certain day the solemnities of Masses were being celebrated, and a certain visiting deacon ^c, of ill repute, about to read the Gospel, asked a blessing from him, the Bishop, gazing at him a long while, took the stole from his neck, and ordered another to read. Whence it is plain that something concerning him was revealed to the venerable Man which was hidden from others. He, driven by shame, fled from the mount to Henry, and laid a most wicked crime upon the Bishop and all the Brothers; but, being refuted by him, perished by a most evil death.

[18] Now it is worth the labor to unfold to what abundant fruit the prelate Altmann brought by the plowshare of sound doctrine the barren land and there the beauty of the Lord's house which he had received uncultivated and full of thorns. Before his coming nearly all the churches in that bishopric were of wood, adorned with no ornament; nay their very presbyters (so to speak) were of wood; because, given to marriages and earthly business, wholly ignorant in the divine Offices, "Have mercy on me, O God"

they read for the Canon, "Attend" for the Passion: but now by his industry nearly all the churches in the bishopric are of stone, adorned with books, paintings, and other ornaments, and, what is the greatest thing, well furnished with chaste and learned men. Besides, that whole country shines with frequent monasteries of monks and canons; in which day and night the divine Office is fervently kept with great diligence. For the fame of his reputation drew to him from every clime men of the highest religion, whom, placing them in various monasteries, he provided with the necessaries of life.

[19] For there was in the house of the Lord a marble column, wonderfully advancing, concerning which the Sibyl is said to have prophesied ^d, when she had distinguished the ages by various metals, writing that a great house must be raised, to be supported by seven kinds of columns; of which the first would be of gold, the second of silver, the third of bronze, the fourth of iron, the fifth of marble, the sixth of wood, the seventh, and last, of reed. This she indeed saw in spirit as to come; but we now behold it done: for the great house raised is the Church built of living stones, spread through the breadth of the whole world; of which the first golden columns were the Apostles: then the successors of the Apostles, shining like silver in chastity and eloquence: but the bronze columns were the blessed Doctors, sounding sweetly with doctrine, like bronze: further, the iron columns were the Martyrs, patient in tribulation, conquering all adversities like iron: but the marble columns were bishops upright in faith, firm in works; among whom Altmann, like variegated marble, supported the house of the Lord with diverse virtues, and adorned the times until the end of his life by word and example: but the wooden columns were, and are, carnal prelates, entangled only in earthly pursuits, who are easily corrupted by vices, as wood by worms, and lightly broken by adversities: finally the reed columns are the Simoniacs, who do not enter by the Door, that is, Christ; but climb up by money, as by a wall; they slaughter and destroy the sheep; they feed not the flock of Christ but themselves; they take the milk and the wool, and buy all spiritual things with Simon, and sell them with Gehazi; and therefore beneath the building of the house of God they stand like a reed.

[20] Bishop Altmann sustained the frame of the house of God with four cardinal virtues, also in himself. as with four props; by which he lifted up those committed to him, as in a four-horse chariot, from earthly things to heavenly: for prudence flourished in him, while he provided for himself for the future by living works; fortitude strengthened him, while he did not dread the threats of earthly rule; justice he put on, while he brought back the erring from error to the way of truth; to temperance he clung, while in each of these he did not exceed measure. O Man to be proclaimed with all praise! Who by the example of Christ changed the nature of water into the taste of wine, which is handed down to have been done in this manner:

[21] Water is turned into wine for him. On a certain day he ordered his cup-bearer to set before him at table secretly a cup of water; and, lest those sitting with him should perceive this, to pour foam of beer on top. And he did as had been commanded him, setting before the Bishop a cup of water. But when the Man of God had put it to his mouth, he found not the liquid of water, but the taste of the best wine: who, thinking that the cup-bearer had mocked him, and had served wine for water, sharply rebuked him as a transgressor of his command: but he affirmed with the greatest oaths that he had set water before him, as had been ordered him. But the Bishop, perceiving the help of divine grace, and desiring to conceal it, kept silence; but the heavenly gift could not be concealed: for the cup-bearer, having taken the cup from the table, found the best wine. Who afterward, having become a monk in our place, related the matter in order to all. Blessed be God, who alone does great wonders; who glorified His Servant in this deed; who from the beginning of the world has made all the just illustrious by signs and miracles ^e!

[22] Twice he casts out a demon from the same possessed man; At another time, while he was standing at the sacred altar about to celebrate Masses, it happened that a certain demoniac cried out horribly in the church. The Man of God asked what this might be. Those standing by answered him that a man was there being fiercely vexed by a demon, and could scarcely be held bound by many. Whom the Prelate beloved of God ordered to be led to the hospice of the poor, and food to be given him in the name of the Lord: from whom straightway the wicked spirit departed; and the man returned home sound. Wonders succeed to wonders, and show the Man to be wondered at to all future ages. A certain cleric full of a demon was brought to him; whom the Man of God, the demon being cast out by continued prayer, cured: he commanded him to renounce the sin for the sake of which the devil had been permitted, foretelling him that if he should repeat the sin, he would not escape the dominion of the devil; and he ordered that in the name of Christ he should lead the common life with the Brothers in the cloister. For whom the Brothers begged that he would promote him to the grade of the presbyterate: but the venerable Prelate foretold them that it was not expedient for him to be ordained. At length, overcome by the prayers of the Brothers, he ordained him presbyter, foretelling him the terrible judgment of God, if he should be unwilling to avoid the horrible sin. Who, celebrating Masses for some time, and meanwhile avoiding the forbidden crime, then, as if forgetting the Bishop's admonition, like a dog to its vomit, returned to his former habit; and at that same moment felt in himself, as before, the savage demon; from whom again the holy Man drove out the unclean spirit, and utterly removed him from the office of the altar; and again and again, admonishing him of the nefarious deed, forbade him.

[23] Who, from terror of the Bishop and fear of the recent punishment, for some time abstained from sins; likewise he frees another from a demon; and two others from disease. but because, alas, a long habit of carnal concupiscence turns into a law of nature, the Bishop being dead, he returned to his folly; which when he had often repeated, the devil, as it is written, taking seven other wicked spirits, enters into him; cruelly vexes him day and night; publishes through his mouth all the base and nefarious deeds done by him. What more? The impure man, who is not drawn back from sin by the kindly words of the Bishop, is bound with hard chains; he spurns the guardianship of the angels. At length on the feast of holy Mary, in the Lenten season, by the prayers of the Brothers he is snatched from the evil spirit, and after three days, anointed with Oil and fortified with the Body of Christ, he dies.

Another cleric was overrun by a most wicked demon; so that scarcely could anyone sound escape the hands of the madman: whom the Bishop, blessing him, compelled the demon to go out from him, and restored the man to health.

One of the Brothers was greatly given to prayer and to prostrations ^f; whence he also fell into a dangerous flux of blood; who, being sent to the Bishop, merited to be blessed by him; and presently was restored to health.

Likewise another Brother, intent with great zeal on prayers and prostrations, was wholly broken inwardly; who, cured in like manner by the Bishop's blessing, returns with exultation.

[24] The Prelate beloved of God prayed indeed by the example of Christ for his own enemies; Against the enemies of the Church but God laid low all his adversaries, like the enemies of David. A certain Count of Henry's party came to the Bishop, promising him obedience with an oath of fidelity; who, seeing by chance a flock of crows, imprecated upon himself, saying that as many crows as he beheld, so many demons should possess his soul, if he did not keep the faith promised to Altmann. But not long after, the covenant of peace being broken, he turns to Henry, and is made an enemy of the Church. Whom the Bishop's censure binds with the chains of anathema; and straightway divine vengeance follows: for, being unexpectedly surrounded by enemies, he is wounded with many wounds, and, his thigh being almost cut off, he limps, like Jacob, nay like Aeneas ^g, all his time. But with how great constancy bishop Altmann, beloved of God, repressed the powerful of the world, whom he perceived obstinately trampling upon ecclesiastical rights, when he had none of his own kinsmen with him, may be known from one example.

[25] There was there a certain very rich noble man, who wished to obtain, as it were by hereditary right, the benefice of his deceased brother, how severe and effective he was. which he had held from the bishopric; but the bishop, the law of that land forbidding it, was unwilling to grant it to him. Whence he often inflicted great injury on the Bishop; which the Servant of God long patiently bore; but, compelled by his own people at the demand of justice, he at last struck him with the sword of anathema. And when all religious men shunned his communion, and the chief men of the eastern province avoided his fellowship, shame compelling him, he went to the Bishop in the place of holy Hippolytus ^h: before whose feet he lay a long while with bare feet in the deepest snow. Who indeed did not merit to obtain a place of reconciliation until he had handed over the village which is called Rattalsdorf into the right of episcopal lordship; and so at last, the Prelate being scarcely prevailed upon by the entreaties of many nobles, he absolved him from the bond of excommunication. But the village received he presently assigned upon the altar of holy Mary in the monastery of Göttweig.

ANNOTATIONS.

* otherwise Tiemo and Tyemo

* otherwise "canonically"

* otherwise "with the roar of doctrine"

* otherwise Giezi

* otherwise "sink down"

* otherwise "permitted"

* that is, is not drawn away

* otherwise "which"

* that is, of Austria

CHAPTER IV.

His exceptional mercy toward the poor; the foundation of the monastery of Göttweig; letters of the Roman Pontiffs to him; his death and burial.

The Blessed one pours out everything on the poor. Meanwhile the margrave Leopold ^a, the chief men of his government being gathered together in the village which is called Tulln ^b, abjures by an oath the lordship of the tyrant Henry; proclaims the prelate Altmann with great praises; expels all the supporters of Henry from his power; defends with arms all who are obedient to the Apostolic See and its Legate. Whence Henry also, kindled with anger, handed over the march of Leopold to the duke of the Bohemians ^c, instigating him to hatred of Christ

of the warriors. But the duke, cruel in mind, the Slavs and Barbarians being gathered, enters in hostile fashion the borders of Altmann and Leopold; lays all waste with fire and sword. Whom Leopold with all his people met in the place which is called Mailberg ^d; and did not allow him to advance further. There, the battle-line being drawn up, with trumpets sounding on both sides, they first run together with darts and javelins; then they draw swords at close quarters: a huge contest is there waged with great strength; much people on both sides is wounded and laid low. At length by the hidden judgment of God the enemy gains the victory: our men, being conquered, take to flight; whom the adversaries pursuing lay low, cutting them down everywhere over the field; others they lead away captive with the booty; they reduce that whole land to a desert. This unhappy slaughter being wrought, a great famine followed, which consumed the remnants of the people who had scarcely escaped the hands of the enemy. Compelled by which necessity, all go to Altmann, and seek the help of nourishment; with whom the faithful Steward, compassionating from his inmost heart, sold all the furnishings of his episcopal residence, down to the very linen, and distributed everything to the needy. Whence he was called the Father of the poor. From the mount of Göttweig also he fed many thousands of the poor; on which mount he often treated of spiritual matters with his beloved ones.

[27] But whence the etymology of the name of this mount is drawn, The etymology of the mount of Göttweig, I shall in few words disclose to the reader, as I have received it from my elders ^e. The land which is now called eastern is reported to have been once inhabited by the Goths: which people worshipped Mars above the other gods; because it was itself more warlike than the other peoples, and used to relate that Mars himself drew his origin from their race. He had a sword far unlike others of our age, forged by an art untried, curved with an incredible hardness of steel, so that no material of iron withstood it, but that it cut it like brittle wood. This sword Vulcan, most skilled among the Greeks in the smith's art, is reported to have forged, and to have offered as a gift to Mars, leader of the Goths. Whence it is fabulously said that Mars loved Vulcan's wife, and that Vulcan bound Mars with brazen chains; because both Mars loved Vulcan's art, and he furnished arms to Mars. Each of the two was reckoned as a god by his people. This sword after many thousands of years is handed down to have been found by Attila, king of the Huns; by whose terror almost all Europe is subjected to his dominion. From this sword the leader of the Goths was first called Mors; afterward, the letter O being changed into A, he was called Mars: but Mars in their tongue is called Wick. Therefore from the Goths and Wick the mount is called Gottwick; not, as the common people say, Gottewig. On this mount a certain leader, by name Godfrey, is reported to have dwelt; and there to have worshipped Wick, that is Mars, as god: which the ditches and valleys still testify, and the ancient buildings or idols found there.

[28] This mount, separated from the other mountains by some space, and a description of the monastery set upon it; with a lofty summit almost joined to the clouds, oblong in position, round in shape, formerly wooded with forest, now planted with vines and fruit-bearing trees; formerly watered with pools, now with wells; formerly renowned for pastures, now for buildings, is adorned with seven churches, because it is exalted with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. For on one ridge touching the sky it bears a church built to the honor of holy George the martyr, to which an enclosure with its buildings is joined: another raised on a lofty rock in honor of holy Gertrude ^g the virgin, to which the lodging of guests is coupled: a third is raised on its level part in honor of holy Mary the perpetual Virgin; which is also seen to be the principal one, and is distinguished with eight altars, to which the cloister of the Brothers is attached: a fourth he raises in honor of holy Benedict, to which he subjoins the house of the sick: the fifth is an enclosure, built in honor of holy John, joined to the chapels of the Brothers: the sixth is again an enclosure, consecrated in honor of holy Nicholas, resting on a very lofty tower: the seventh at the foot of the mountain, dedicated in honor of holy Blaise, placed beside a brook flowing past: and it is the dwelling of the Sisters ^h, and the abode of the Brothers serving in the bakehouse. And because our congregation hastens to the eight beatitudes, it is now building an eighth in honor of holy Godehard.

[29] This mount, situated in Noricum Ripense, holds the primacy among the surrounding mountains for pleasantness, delight, fertility, and healthfulness. And ⁱ since we here often name Noricum, let us set forth its etymology, if you please. as also of Noricum Ripense, in which that mount is situated. The Bavarians are handed down as having sprung from Armenia; who, having gone out from their borders with a great multitude, entered this land, and, the Aborigines being expelled, dwelt there in their stead, and named the land Bavaria from the name of their leader Bavarus. This, after many days, Norix, son of Hercules, conquering, called Noricum from his own name; in which he also built the Tiburtine city, which is now called Regensburg. It is called Ripense for this reason, namely, that part which is now called eastern, because, the mountains being drawn back, the bank of the Danube is on every side made fruitful with vines and trees. But how this mount advanced to so great glory, I shall in few words set forth.

[30] How the Blessed one founded the monastery of Göttweig. When the Prelate often mentioned, and still more often to be mentioned, Altmann had on a certain day taken up his abode in the village called Mautern ^k, and had seen at a distance the pleasant mount; he inquired from the inhabitants of that place the quality of that mount. And when they related to him certain things almost incredible, he ordered his mule to be saddled, and, accompanied by a great throng, joyfully ascended the mount by a narrow and steep path, by a certain presage, as I think; because indeed by a narrow and strait way those were to ascend to heaven who were there to serve God. And so, the mount being surveyed, seeing a spacious place, fit for building a monastery, he straightway pitched a tent there; and, the forest being cut down which at that time had grown up thick there, he began to build an oratory. And when he was in doubt in whose honor among the Saints it ought to be entitled, some counselling that it be dedicated in honor of holy Michael the archangel, because he is the provost of paradise; others counselling on the contrary that the temple be entitled with the name of holy Peter, because he is the doorkeeper of heaven; suddenly and unexpectedly there came a certain messenger, sent by the dukes of the Bohemians, bringing to the Bishop a tablet excellently engraved and precious, on which an image of the holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, was fashioned in Greek work; which is still preserved out of reverence in the same church. This the Pontiff beloved of God, kissing it as though sent by a divine oracle, beginning "We praise You, O God," at once assigned the place to the title of holy Mary. But he hung the tablet on an oak which still stood before the altar, until he completed the whole work of the basilica. Which, being loftily completed, and solemnly dedicated by him, was endowed by him with many freeholds ^l, and enriched with many ornaments. These things being thus duly celebrated, and Religious Brothers being gathered from every quarter, he instituted the common life under the rule of holy Augustine; he committed the place to a certain prudent man, by name Otto; who vigorously fulfilled the office enjoined upon him. After him Conrad the Provost took up the government, of whom we have made mention, a man exceedingly honorable for gravity of manners, and praiseworthy for uprightness of all his ways: by his wisdom the place grew in buildings and riches, and advanced exceedingly in estates, benefices, and honorable men.

[31] Letters of the Roman Pontiffs to Blessed Altmann, There are extant several epistles sent by the Roman Pontiff to bishop Altmann; of which we insert some into this work, and pass over others to avoid tedium. The Saxons, favoring the party of Blessed Peter, made duke Rudolf king, through whom they repressed the madness of Henry. But Rudolf being slain, the princes were hastening to appoint another king in his stead, by whom they might repel the sword of Henry hanging over their necks. Whom the Pope admonishes that they should elect not improvidently but advisedly a fit king, who would obey him by due right, writing to bishop Altmann in this manner: "Gregory the Bishop, Servant of the servants of God, to his beloved Brother in Christ, fellow-bishop of Passau, Altmann, and to the venerable abbot of Hirsau, William, greeting and Apostolic blessing. We rejoice at your Prudence, that, as was fitting, you have taken pains to announce true things to us ^m." Likewise he sends another epistle to the same, in which he grants him this power, that priests lapsed into fornication, if they have truly repented, he may restore to their former grade; if negligent and useless, he may utterly cast them off ⁿ. Whose text is such: "Gregory the Bishop, Servant of the servants of God, to his beloved Brother in Christ Altmann, bishop of Passau, greeting and Apostolic blessing. Your Religiousness asked us concerning priests lapsed into fornication and entangled in other crimes, consulting what was to be judged concerning their grade."

[32] Likewise he sends him another epistle for defending the liberty of the Church, and their occasions. whose text is: "Gregory the Bishop, Servant of the servants of God, to his beloved Brother in Christ Altmann, bishop of Passau, greeting and Apostolic blessing. Since I believe that you with sincere heart love for God's sake the honor and liberty of the holy Church, I will and command that you take care with the utmost effort, with your clerics or laymen who seem apt for this, that the Spouse of Christ be no longer held as a handmaid." Likewise he sends him another epistle, in which he permits him to bend the rigor of the canons for the time, of which this is the text: "Gregory, Servant of the servants of God, to his beloved Brother in Christ Altmann, bishop of Passau, greeting and Apostolic blessing. Since you departed from us, most dear Brother, we remember that legates have several times come to us in your name." Likewise Pope Urban sends him an epistle, in which he sends him the Pallium, to be conveyed to Tyemo the archbishop, consecrated by his own hands ^o; of which this is the text: "Urban the Bishop, Servant of the servants of God, to his most dear Brother Altmann, bishop of Passau, greeting and Apostolic blessing. Hearing of your vigor in the things of God and in the labors of the Church, we rejoice in the Lord, and therefore we have heard your prayers in those matters which seem contrary to the custom of our Church [p]."

[33] Now what end of life bishop Altmann obtained, Blessed Altmann dies, we shall briefly explain, as we have received it. Twenty-six years being passed in the episcopate [q], tried as gold in the furnace of tribulation, in the village which is called Zeiselmauer [r], he is seized with a fever, is anointed by religious men with consecrated oil, and thus, fortified with the Lord's Sacraments, blessing all subject to him, he is joyfully loosed from the bonds of the flesh [in the year of the Lord one thousand ninety-one, on the sixth of the Ides of August. And thus died Altmann, venerable and blessed [s],] the world weeping, heaven rejoicing, and, received by the angels, he is led into the dwelling prepared for him by God. Presently the report flies about on every side, and the death of the beloved Pastor is announced to all the sheep. What tongue could explain how great a people flowed together to his funeral rites? Nearly the whole country runs to the dead Prelate: all places are filled with mourning and lamentation. Scarcely at length is the venerable body taken up by the sorrowing priests of Christ, and, with a great throng of nobles and commoners accompanying, with great glory onto the mount

of Göttweig it is carried; where a company of the Brothers, wailing, meets it, with great weeping giving forth moaning and lamentation; it receives the most dear Father with mournful chant; and abundantly refreshes a throng of the poor in his memory.

[34] The report presently flies through the people; it calls poor and rich to the obsequies of the Bishop: all, stricken with grief, and with the greatest concourse he is buried in the church of Göttweig. rush eagerly; the nobles with the common people come in haste: among whom the archbishop Theymo [t] of venerable memory, once [u] consecrated by Altmann himself (afterward, seeking Jerusalem, he was slain by the Pagans and crowned with martyrdom), breathless at the venerable body of his beloved Friend, poured out tears abundantly with all the clergy and people; and offered with devotion to God the Sacrifice of praise for his soul. But the body with due honor is committed to the earth in the church of the holy Mother of God, Mary ever Virgin: whose sepulcher the Lord deigned to make famous by miracles, through which He willed to declare his merits to the peoples [x].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Would that all these epistles, and several others, which our biographer once saw at Göttweig or elsewhere, and passed over "to avoid tedium," might at some time come forth, if perhaps they lie hidden somewhere: for it cannot be doubted that the supreme Pontiffs gave him far very many, whose legation for so many years he so vigorously discharged amid so great a vicissitude and tumult of German and ecclesiastical affairs. Of these we have assigned only one or two in the Commentary.

q. "Twenty-six years." There are just so many, and indeed complete, from about the month of July of the year 1065, when we said he took up the episcopate, until the month of August of the year 1091.

r. "Zeislmaur" John of Lambach also has; but Pez in the first Life, "Zeizinmure," in the second, "Zaizinmure," for which Stengel most corruptly "Zarzimor": Bruschius, "Zeysselmaur." To Baudrand it is a town formerly of Noricum, in Latin called Cetium and Cetia, now a village of lower Austria on the river Danube, where it receives the river Antzespach, scarcely two German miles from Neuburg, but four from Vienna, distant to the west; but from Göttweig toward the east about five.

s. What is enclosed in these brackets the Pezian edition does not have; but with our transcript John of Lambach agrees, and the second Life at number 44, nay also Berthold of Constance, contemporary with Altmann; etc. Besides, the same year must manifestly be gathered from the Pezian edition of the earlier Life from this, that it notes that the Blessed one died "twenty-six years being passed in the episcopate," if it be compared with what was said in the Commentary at number 25.

t. Concerning St. Theymo, Thiemo, or Theodmar, see the Commentary at number 41.

u. "Once" is not read in the other copies: and it seems wrongly thrust in here; since this ordination was performed in the year 1090.

x. Here the edition of John of Lambach ends.

* otherwise "Bawaris," and rightly.

* otherwise "polished"

* otherwise "of John the Baptist"

* otherwise "chapter"

* number 3

* in the year 1077

* in the year 1080

* otherwise "of Hirsau"

CHAPTER V.

Certain miracles and apparitions of Blessed Altmann when now buried.

Demoniacs, mutes, the lame, the blind, the mad, etc. I. For a certain cleric possessed by a demon, with many dragging him, was scarcely brought bound to his tomb: who, while he filled all places with shouting and a dire stench, and the Brothers earnestly prayed for him, suddenly the possessed man fell down; with all seeing it, he vomited up a black beetle, which straightway appeared nowhere; and, with all the Brothers praising God, he who had come bound and mad, departed loosed from the bonds of the body, and most sound in mind.

II. Likewise a certain girl invaded by an unclean spirit was brought by her parents to the tomb of the blessed Man; who, being without delay freed from the demon, departed loosed from the bonds of the body and most sound in mind.

III. Likewise a certain girl invaded by an unclean spirit was brought by her parents to the tomb of the blessed Man, who, being without delay freed from the demon, departed sound with the greatest joy ^a.

IV. Likewise a girl deprived of sight for several years was given light at the sepulcher of the Bishop.

V. A certain woman had a small son, mute and lame from birth; whom, carrying him thither, she placed beside the sepulcher of the Bishop: she herself went out of the church weeping: after a little the boy received speech and gait, and ran unharmed after his mother, calling out; and she praised God in the heavens, who is wonderful in His Saints.

[36] freed at the tomb of the Blessed one. VI. A certain soldier, mad for six years, came to his sepulcher unknowing; but, his mind being recovered, departed sound and knowing.

VII. Another man, bent, leaning on little stools, came thither creeping; but, being made whole, went away upright and rejoicing.

VIII. A certain man, feeble in his whole body, scarcely supported by a staff, went to the tomb of the Prelate, but, his infirmity being driven away through the blessed Man, laid aside his staff and went away sound.

IX. At a certain time a great and savage tempest of wind and whirlwind arising shook the mountains, and struck off the roofs of houses, churches, and towers. While it was thundering heavily and disturbing everything, a certain Brother, mad, climbed up into the oratory of holy Michael nearly twenty feet high, we ^b being unaware, but meanwhile singing the nocturnal praises; and, slipping from on high, fell onto the pavement; but he was taken up alive, though not to live long: for on the same day, after the anointing with sacred oil and the communion of the sacred Body of Christ, he ended his life. Who doubts that this is to be ascribed to the merits of the blessed Man, who placed under the falling man the intercessions of his hands; lest the pavement should be defiled by the blood of the fallen man, and so, necessity compelling, the church should be dedicated anew ^c?

[37] Blessed Altmann in a vision accuses Regimar, bishop of Passau; A vision ^d divinely revealed to a certain spiritual Brother concerning bishop Altmann, and Regimar, prelate of the same see, I shall not pass over in silence. Which Regimar, the third bishop after him, a man very skilled in secular matters, less learned in spiritual ones, gaping after earthly things, gathering money from every quarter, suddenly left his riches to strangers, and found nothing but miseries and darkness. But the vision was such. It seemed to him that he was at Rome in a council, and that Altmann had sat with his fellow-bishops, mitred with exceptional adornment: who, rising up, stood in the midst, asking a spokesman from the Apostolic one. To whom, when leave of speaking had been given, he brought forth before all the words of an unspeakable crime, saying that Altmann, bishop of Passau, had left the state of the monasteries and parishes well ordered; but that Regimar, the invader of his see, had destroyed all religion in it. But Regimar himself stood afar off, terrified with fear, sad and pale, clothed in ragged garments. And so the Apostolic one, asking ^e the bishops for justice in this matter, received from all a sentence of condemnation: who in that same year fell into an infirmity, in which he continued until death ^f.

[38] to another he appears glorious: Another vision concerning him I shall by no means keep silent, which I hope will profit many. A certain man, secular in habit, but spiritual in faith and action, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, was caught up to the places of hell; where he saw many intolerable judgments and punishments; among which he saw many princes and men of middle rank whom he had known here; from whom he heard many things, which afterward he reported to us: namely for what fault they were there, and for what fault they were in that condition. Then he was led into a field of flowers, most bright with fragrance and light, full of thousands of rejoicing ones. There was a marble mountain conspicuous with all pleasantness, on which he affirmed that he had seen the monastery of Göttweig gleaming with the greatest splendor: in which he saw Blessed Altmann with the Brothers whom he had known here, shining with the utmost dignity of countenance and habit, and spoke much with him. In the same fashion he saw Sigilbert ^g with bishop Anno ^h and their Brothers, from whom he received many charges, which afterward, having returned, he reported.

[39] It now seems time that I should discharge my promise to my suspended hearers, likewise, appearing to another, he bids the monastery of Göttweig be reformed; and unfold how the canonical life was changed into the monastic life ⁱ.

In the time of the venerable prelate Altmann there came to the mount of Göttweig a certain religious presbyter, a Scot by nation, a monk by profession, by name John; whom the Bishop greatly loved for the religiousness of his life, and made him an Anchorite beside the church of holy Mary ever Virgin: he profited the place much by word and example. The venerable Bishop being dead, the enemy man, who sowed tares upon the good wheat sown by Altmann, both put good repute to flight from the mount, and made it infamous. For shameless men, either expelled from their own places or fugitives, flowed together to Göttweig on account of want of means; who under the pretense of Religion, which they held forth in appearance, were received. By their unspeakable acts the place began to be defamed and to be darkened from the glory of its former state. And when day by day the infamy grew rife further and wider; and not only cloistered religion, but the very common people shrank from the mount, bishop Altmann appeared in sleep to that same John the Anchorite, mitred; and admonished him to purge the place of the mire, and to wipe the stench of dung from the mount.

[40] But he, understanding the vision, and disclosing the matter to the Provost of the Brothers, [likewise to another, who, the canons being changed into monks, was made abbot there;] ordered the base men to be cast out from the mount; but those deceived by them he ordered to be subjected to penance. Who, since they could not escape the mark of infamy, all thought of leaving the place. Which being discovered, John the Anchorite gave counsel that they should change their habit, and so escape the reproach of so infamous a deed. There is consent of all; the profession of monks is chosen. Presently Conrad the Provost is sent to Rome for this purpose, that he might obtain from the Apostolic one leave for this change. Which being obtained, he returns with joy; he announces to Dedalric of good memory, the bishop, Altmann's successor, the consent of the Roman Pontiff; he asks his counsel upon this matter in the year 1093 ^k: by whose counsel Hartmann, of whom we made mention above ^l, is elected abbot; whose fame of religion and eloquence was everywhere published; who at that time was discharging the office of prior in the monastery of St. Blaise ^m. To this Hartmann, as he himself afterward reported to the Brothers, bishop Altmann appeared in sleep in that same place of St. Blaise; he commends to him the pastoral staff, and the place of Göttweig.

[41] Therefore Hartmann, with all weeping, sets out from St. Blaise with Religious men to Göttweig; where he is received favorably by all; namely Hartmann, whose notable eulogy is here by bishop Udalric he is set over them as abbot: under whom all take up the monastic habit; they devoutly bow their necks to the rule of holy Benedict; there is great gladness in the people saying: Because this is the change of the right hand of the Most High. By Hartmann's exhortation many nobles, having left the world, are converted to God: many estates and benefices are conferred through him upon the monastery. He enlarged the honor of the place with buildings, books, paintings, palls, and Religious men; and adorned his own times with his honesty and uprightness: for he was given to the highest zeal for Religion, exceptionally endowed with prudence both secular and spiritual; eloquent with copious eloquence, abounding in elegance of manners. Whence he was most acceptable to the princes of the whole kingdom, and most familiar to king Henry V himself; who also arranged that he should be raised to the archbishopric of Salzburg; but the zeal of Udalric, bishop of Passau, prevented him, who grieved that he should be preferred to himself in dignity. The king nevertheless set him over the royal abbey of Kempten ⁿ; and the bishop of Augsburg preferred him to the abbey of St. Udalric ^o; and also the duke of Carinthia committed to him the abbey of St. Lambert. Therefore Pope Urban held him very familiarly, and appointed him as helper to Gebhard, venerable bishop of Constance, in the Apostolic legation; to whom he also sent this epistle: "Urban the Bishop, Servant of the servants of God," etc. Likewise Pope Paschal sends him letters, in which he forbids him and those subject to him the communion of the excommunicated; of which the text is this: "Paschal the Bishop, Servant of the servants of God, to his most dear Brothers Hartmann, abbot of Göttweig, and his congregation, greeting and Apostolic blessing. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but the words of God shall not pass away. For He Himself foretold what we behold, what we daily experience; that, because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold," etc.

[42] woven; as one to whom also the Blessed one appeared a second time: But each Pope gave him privileges for Göttweig; which are preserved to this day in the church; which also the emperor Henry confirmed with his own signature: who himself also, at Hartmann's petition, assigned a certain island to holy Mary. From his training many abbots have been appointed in various places, who all followed the footsteps of their master in the virtues. Among which disciples the son of king Henry was distinguished, who was elected to the bishopric of Speyer; but, prevented by death, by no means obtained the summit of government. There were under him also other men to be praised, endowed with talent and with arts, writers, painters, sculptors, founders, and distinguished in other arts. This abbot at a certain time suffered a grievous pain of the head; to whom bishop Altmann appeared in sleep; he inquired what he was suffering: who answered that his head pained him: but the Bishop touched his head with a gentle hand, and straightway drove away the pain. But the abbot, when he awoke, felt no pain. While dom Hartmann held the government of the monastery of Kempten, meanwhile a noble Brother, Erchinfrid by name, was governing the abbey at Göttweig by the consent of Hartmann and of bishop Udalric, and by the election of the Brothers. He, at first a layman living in arms, then leaving the world, studiously learned letters, and came even to the name of abbot, who also increased the goods of the monastery in many things [p].

[43] to him succeeded Nanzo, Chadehoch, [But Hartmann dying, a certain one of the Brothers, Nanzo by name, took up the government of the abbey, who before had held the Priorate for several years; a man very provident, grave in manners, skilled in secular and spiritual matters. He also honored the place with several books and buildings, and made illustrious by good examples the flock committed to him. After him the guardian of the church, Chadehoch [q] by name, born of a rather free stock, by the election of all the Brothers and the consecration of bishop Regimar (successor of Udalric), was ordained abbot. Who himself also nonetheless beautified the church with books and veils and other ornaments; and sufficiently exalted the place with estates, vineyards, and possessions.

[44] Gerhoh, and Werner. When he departed, Gerhoh succeeded, a man of exceeding gentleness and humility, famous by birth, endowed with knowledge, pleasing in manners. In his times there died on the expedition to Jerusalem lord Reginbert, bishop of Passau; whom Conrad, son of margrave Luitpold, succeeded in the bishopric. He in the second year of his ordination, at the suggestion of certain Brothers seeking the name and place of abbot, afflicted the same abbot with many troubles of injuries, and compelled him to lay down the government he had undertaken. For the abbot himself, seeing the bishop exceedingly hostile and unfriendly to him, because he was a man of great humility and gentleness, yielded to the greater, and resigned the name and the care of abbot to the bishop. But he died in the same year of his deposition, the Brothers by whose instigation he had been deposed being after his death afflicted with many griefs and hardships of tribulations and infirmities, the Lord repaying them in turn. But the bishop appointed as abbot Werner, from the ministerials of the church of Regensburg, young in age, famous in knowledge, adorned with honesty and uprightness of manners. He, slain by the diabolical counsels of certain malevolent men [r], because he was prevented by an untimely death, could do nothing worthy of memory; except that he reformed in some points the standard of the regular path which had lapsed, so far as he was able.]

ANNOTATIONS.

From these therefore who saw him present, And who clung familiarly to his service, I shall investigate any of his deeds, And shall take care to make these known to posterity.

So at number 3 he narrates that many nobles went to Jerusalem

To visit the sepulcher of the Lord, Deceived by a certain common opinion, As though the day of judgment were at hand.

Similar things occur everywhere in the following numbers 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, etc. And therefore from the Rhythmical style which is observed here and there in chapter 5, it seems rather to follow that he who composed that composed altogether also the preceding parts, than the contrary.

Provost he had been, and after the death of the emperor Rudolf, whose chaplain he had been, passed over to the institute of St. Benedict.

p. Here in our copy the narration of the first Life ends: for what is immediately subjoined in the same, "These things therefore being unfolded, I think we must return," etc., is not of this author; but of another who composed the second Life; in which they may be read in exactly the same words from number 54 to the end. In the Pezian edition of the first Life the same Life is drawn out through two numbers, which I here add enclosed in brackets; whether they be an addition of the same writer, or of a different one; concerning which matter it has been said in the Commentary at number 15.

q. Chadehoch, the same as Cholhoch, to whom the Life is dedicated at the beginning.

r. Namely in the year of Christ, according to the reckonings of the Pezian catalogue, 1155.

* otherwise "the hand of intercession"

* otherwise Udalric

* otherwise "besides"

* otherwise Paschalis

THE SECOND LIFE

By an uncertain author, but of Göttweig, from the edition of Tengnagel, collated with the Passau manuscript, and with the edition of Hieronymus Pez.

Altmann, bishop of Passau (B.)

BHL Number: 0314

FROM PRINTED SOURCES.

THE AUTHOR'S PROLOGUE.

The miracles of Altmann The Founder and governor of all things, concerning whom Scripture testifies that He commands the sun, and it does not rise; and shuts up the stars as it were under a seal; He Himself, to temper the darkness of this night, which in our times has bristled up more deeply, makes those lights which He set in the firmament to shine upon the earth sometimes to blaze forth more brightly; and those which long shone only inwardly to themselves, He kindly makes known with gladness to men also. Among which I would not undeservedly number Blessed Altmann, venerable prelate of the church of Passau; who, after the setting of this mortal life, being placed among the stars of heaven, so frequently gleams upon us from above with a new splendor; namely in virtues and signs which God, wonderful in His Saints, works through him: so that I would judge that Blessed Job not unfittingly said to him: When you have thought yourself consumed, you shall arise like the morning star. For to declare his merits demons flee, paralytics are cured, the blind are enlightened, the contracted are restored, and the harms of various discomforts are driven away. Will you then, O present age, be so blind that the brightness of so great a light, with which God illumines and glorifies His Saint, does not strike your ungrateful eyes? Does not terrify them? Does not make them attend to it? Let a depraved and provoking generation have said hitherto: We have not seen our signs; there is now no prophet. Behold, He who works with us a sign for good, and consoles us through the merits of His Servant, renews signs and changes wonders even to this day.

[2] Will you then doubt concerning this Man, O unbeliever, that he himself has not entered into the powers of the Lord, who so powerfully does not delay to be present to his suppliants? do not permit doubt of his sanctity. You do not indeed hear his voice, you do not see his shadow, you do not feel his hand, as of old in the Apostles the sick heard, saw, and felt: and yet you feel his benefits, and at his invocation you rejoice in your former soundness. Believe therefore that he lives with God, and can do very much with Him, whom your health proves to have been present to you even invisibly. Accordingly believe him a Saint, proclaim him approved, who now commends not himself, but whom God commends: who now does not bear witness of himself; but to whom there give witness the three who are in heaven, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so if the lepers who dwelt in the gate of Samaria convict themselves, if they should keep silent from the city the day of good news; much more shall we be to be convicted and to be marked with the sin of unbelief and ingratitude, if we grudge or hide from the Church of God so great praises of God, so great proclamations of this Saint, so great a treasure laid up with us.

[3] How and whence this Life was composed. I shall endeavor therefore, overcome and helped by your prayers, reverend lords and Brothers, to write something concerning the life and miracles of so great a Pontiff, not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, of which I have none, and which I know with the Apostle to be folly with God; but in simple and pious speech I shall set forth to the reader whatever from certain more ancient writings ^b, and from recent memory, you sons of truth shall have indicated and built up. But to write things which do not pertain to the matter, and for the sake of amplification to digress at length from the narration, neither do you ask nor do I promise. But I do promise that if you shall judge anything in these writings to be corrected, changed, or removed, it is fair that this should not disturb my mind: inasmuch as I do not deny that these things are to be plucked at even by friends, whose eyes are not those of doves, but of eagles; for which I seek no glory; but only to render the obedience due to you, and to obtain the intercession and mercy before God of him concerning whom we write.

ANNOTATIONS.

* otherwise "shone within"

CHAPTER I.

The birth and deeds of the Blessed one before his episcopate, long foretold, and at last conferred.

The Blessed one's fatherland, nobility, learning, humility; Blessed Altmann therefore sprang from the race of the Saxons; yet he had learned nothing wild or stony from that nation; but, like a most precious gem, which shines the more brightly from gold, so he, born of famous parents, shone forth the more famously in all goodness and honesty. Who, being given over to liberal studies, He inwardly inspiring and teaching who teaches man knowledge, was most elegantly instructed in both divine and philosophical disciplines. And although this knowledge puffs up some, yet it did not puff up this Man; but adorned him, but commended him. Far different was he from those who are wiser than it behooves to be wise; who by the pride of their knowledge despise the simple and trample on the humble. Otherwise, unless he had assented to the humble, and had by no means been high-minded, how would that Holy Spirit have entered into him, who is the Lord of the sacred sciences; since He rests only upon the humble and quiet and him who trembles at His words? Whence also according to the judgment of him who said that glory follows the humble in spirit, he was held worthy to be exalted, who so prudently had learned within himself to be humbled.

[5] In the church therefore which is called Paderborn, his dignities before the episcopate; he was not only a canon, but was also chosen for the government of the schools and bound to it for many years. But as the fame of so great a Man grew, his glory consequently grew also. Wherefore in that noble church of Aachen, which now by long antiquity is adorned with the seat of the German kingdom, he merited to be raised as Provost of the canons. At that time also in the palace of Henry the third, emperor, he was found faithful and prudent in the doing of affairs. I think that God then was trying in His Servant whether he would be worthy that what was greater should be entrusted to him, if He should prove him faithful in that which is least. And so when the emperor died, the fidelity proved in him did not die, which he untiringly kept for the empress Agnes amid the whirlwinds of various mischances, by which then the kingdom and the priesthood were miserably confounded.

[6] At that season some of the nobles, out of love and desire of the heavenly Jerusalem, the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which is above, and which is free, and is our mother, undertook to visit this earthly Jerusalem, in which the Redeemer of the human race mercifully consummated the work of our salvation which the Father gave Him to do, and, after the example of the holy women who once came with spices, themselves also with the perfumes of their vows and prayers to go and see the place in which the Lord had been laid. Who would dare to suppose that pontiffs of various cities, men notable in prudence and nobility, despised the highest honors, their fatherland, their kinsfolk, and their riches for a certain common opinion, as though the day of the last judgment were at hand, because Easter in that year was to be celebrated on the sixth of the Kalends of April, on which namely the Resurrection of Christ is recorded ^a? I should rather think that they undertook the labor of this pilgrimage moved by pious devotion, or troubled by evils growing rife on every side: and that, as befitted wise and religious men, they wished rather to spend evil days in rendering their vows to the Lord their God, than without any fruit to pass their time amid the peril of such times. There were among this multitude outstanding men: Siegfried, archbishop of Mainz, and Gunther, bishop of Bamberg, and with them men of name, both clerics and laymen. To these also St. Altmann with several honored men from the palace was joined as a companion.

[7] Therefore, having entered upon the journey proposed, they fell among robbers: tried with many evils; for the enemies of the Cross of Christ, their fellow-workers and companions, of whom David complains: In this way in which I walked, they hid

the proud a snare for me, surrounding them with ambushes, despoiled, wounded, and slew very many of them. We are certainly taught here that not only those going down from Jerusalem to Jericho suffer the perils of robbers; but that those ascending from Jericho, that is, from this world, to Jerusalem, endure no less the ambushes not only of invisible but also of visible enemies. Considering the ambushes and snares of both, the Saint confesses and says: My eyes are ever toward the Lord; for He shall pluck my feet out of the snare. And again he says of the Lord: He has freed me from the snare of the hunters, and from the harsh word. But the men of virtue, whose confidence of fortitude was in the fear of the Lord, being braver in adversities, through the losses and mockeries and blows with which savage barbarism cruelly and in manifold ways afflicted them, at length came to Jerusalem; where, rendering to God the vows which their lips had uttered, and having visited with due veneration the places in which our Lord and Savior was seen on earth and dwelt among men, and especially the place of His passion and resurrection and ascension into the heavens; because they had not there an abiding city, but sought one to come, they desired with common vows to see again the fatherland which they had left, and thence to pass over to the heavenly fatherland.

[8] the return, and elevation to the see of Passau, But coming into Pannonia, while they were tarrying in the castle which in our tongue is called Wizzeburch, Gunther, the venerable bishop, departed from this world to the Lord, about to hear, as we hope, that "Well done, good servant," who for the talent brought back and multiplied is called within into the joy of his Lord. At the same time there dies also Egelbert, bishop of Passau, mingled in the heavens with those with whose dignity he was adorned on earth. After whose departure, counsel being taken together, with the empress Agnes favoring, and no less the chief men of the kingdom, by the equal consent of all, blessed Altmann was named bishop in the place of the deceased in the see of Passau. The clergy applaud, the people rejoice together, and, with no one dissenting, they approve as most worthy of the pontifical mitre him whom the honor of his race, the sanctity of his life, the soundness of his doctrine, and the testimony of an inviolate reputation commended. Accordingly honored men are sent to meet him, to carry the pastoral staff and the pontifical ring to the elect into Pannonia, and by such insignia faithfully to attest what the heavenly disposition had ordained concerning him.

[9] which he continually adorned with prayer, fasting, almsgiving, etc., Being called therefore by God, like Aaron; not taking the honor to himself, nor, after the manner of many, pursuing it as it fled, or soothing it with services as it protested, being received by the sheep committed to him with the greatest exultation, and after a little consecrated with the due blessing by the reverend archbishop Gebhard, he received from the Spirit bearing witness to our spirit that we are sons of God, testimony that he was truly that son for whom the holy Father efficaciously prayed, saying: He who curses you, let him be cursed: and he who blesses you, let him be filled with blessings. The Spirit of the Lord was directed in him from that day and thenceforth. Now from that time he is wholly kindled into the love of God; and, refreshed with the vision of Him, for the rest he less regarded vanities and false madnesses; constant in fasts, persevering in vigils; frequent in prayers, he labored every night in his groaning, and watered his couch with tears: he hid his alms in the bosom of the poor, that it might pray for him when he himself could pray less. And these things indeed he did in secret, that his Father who sees in secret might repay him.

[10] which he indeed pressed down by humility, But since he had received from the Apostle that he ought to provide good things not only before God, but also before all men; because it had been decreed for him from his earliest age, he was adorned outwardly with the best morals, such as the same Apostle seems to teach, when he instructs either Timothy or Titus, saying: But a bishop must be blameless, sober, prudent, chaste, hospitable, kindly, modest, and embracing that faithful word which is according to sound doctrine. And yet in all these things, after the example of Blessed Job, he did not look upon the sun when it shone from above, nor the moon walking in brightness; because, to use the words of Blessed Gregory, Although his work gave the light of examples to others also, the holy Man did not attend to it for the glory of presumption; but, while he feared to be exalted for it, he turned away the eyes of his mind from beholding it: [for by the sun the brightness of a good work, and by the moon the reputation of good working, is understood.] For as the moon receives its illumination from the ray of the sun; so fame sprinkles from a good work strength and the grace of favor, as it were the brightness of light. The holy Man, therefore, whom neither manifest work nor praiseworthy fame exalted, neither saw the sun shining from above, nor the moon walking in brightness.

[11] Further, since no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but God made illustrious by a miracle. but upon a lampstand, that it may give light to all who are in the house, it pleased the invisible and only God, who dwells in light inaccessible, to make this Lamp, which the Father of lights Himself had lit, that it might shine before men, and that they might see his good works and glorify God, known and manifest by His own testimony, more than it had become known, to those who see only in the face and cannot look into the heart: and to manifest it thus: There was in the city of Passau a certain woman, whose only daughter was smitten with the plague of leprosy. To her, as she often prayed and suppliantly asked health for her daughter from the Lord, it was revealed in sleep that if she should anoint her daughter from the washing of the hands of Blessed Altmann after the Sacraments of the Masses, she would be restored to her former health. Which when she had faithfully done, her daughter was healed from that hour. What does this Saint seem to have less than that great prophet Elisha, who taught that the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian was to be cured in the Jordan? He ordered him to wash seven times to be healed; she, washed once, did not need to be washed a second time; because she at once felt the health which she desired.

[12] Nor by this miracle alone did the Lord declare of what merit with Him His beloved Servant was; He had once foretold this his episcopate; as had Gebhard and Adalbero theirs; nay, even by preceding prophecies He had long since foreshown what he would be after many years. For when he was in the years of adolescence, when he himself and Gebhard, of whom we made mention above, and Albero, afterward bishop of Würzburg, were together, it happened that they had sat down upon the margin of some spring to eat bread. Amid the mutual conversations with which they seasoned their poor table, they began to hope better things concerning themselves, and by a certain hidden and prophetic spirit to foretell them. And Gebhard said: I shall be bishop in the church of Salzburg. But Albero said: And I shall preside on the chair of Würzburg. But Altmann: And I shall govern the see of Passau as bishop. This prophecy the outcome of events proved: for each, being raised in the churches which they had chosen for themselves, lest they should be found unfruitful trees by Him who had planted them in His house, rendered fruit in their times: for they each established monasteries in their own bishoprics, and made them illustrious by their burial: for Gebhard rests in the Lord in the monastery of Admont; Albero in that of Lambach; Altmann in that of Göttweig.

[13] Their bodies indeed are buried there in peace; all in the monasteries founded by them but their names shall live forever. How should they not live, which are held written in the book of life: since they truly were of those to whom the Lord promises, saying, And I will not blot out their names from the book of life? There are those who call their names upon their lands, and yet are not known by name; because they have been blotted out of the book of the living, and are by no means written down with the just. Whence also the strict Judge will say to them at that dread separation of the good and the evil: Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire; for I do not know you. Of these, according to holy David, the memory perishes with a noise: or, if there is any, it is not in blessing, but in cursing. For was it a small thing for them to be troublesome to men, since they were troublesome also to God, as Isaiah testified concerning men like them? And therefore that is far from them which is said of one beloved by God and by men: Whose memory is in blessing.

[14] (for they preferred to found monasteries rather than, like others, castles) Consider, I pray, pontiffs of our age, what memory awaits you: not from the building of churches, but of castles, which you set up on high and steep mountains with the sweat of the poor and the mites of widows. But to what end? Unless that men, not demons, may be driven thence: that there the bound may groan in dungeons, may faint in punishments: that there sinners may not be converted, but punished: punished not for the pardon of their sins, but for the avenging of your injury. You holy ones of the Lord, ministers of our God, of whom our discourse is, with sounder counsel built monasteries out of the offerings of the faithful and the goods of the churches, whence demons are driven away, and where the poor are received, sinners are converted, and the religion of holy simplicity and blessed poverty is preserved: where day and night they shall not cease to praise the name of the Lord, whom from the rising and the setting of the sun, from the north and the sea, from all peoples and tongues, from every age and condition, sex and nation, He gathered to glorify Himself, who of all who serve Him makes one heart and one soul.

[15] buried; nay, perpetually protecting them, as patrons. And although you rest in your sleep, as you always desired; and rest from your labors; yet I would not believe that your spirits are absent from the places which while living you built and loved with so great devotion. I believe that you are present to all dwelling there; namely that you stand by those who pray, succor those who labor, raise up the fallen, and advance the vows of each in the sight of the divine majesty. I should think that you look down with the Lord from heaven, that you may see if there is one that understands or seeks God; and if you shall have found anyone acting more slothfully, and lying to God in his vows, and halting from the paths of the Lord, I think that you straightway with the angels of peace bitterly weep, and lay down from your inmost heart a complaint of groaning before the face of the Lord for him, or against him, who is of that kind. Wherefore it must be considered, Brothers and lords, with what discipline and reverence you must live, among whom, together with the holy angels, these Fathers and your patrons are present, go to and fro, and unceasingly watch over your salvation, lest anything irreligious, or unseemly, or uncorrected be found which may sadden them or drive them far away. But we must now return to the narration: for I do not bear among you the part of a teacher, but of a narrator, and only of those things which you have taught me by writings or by living voice.

ANNOTATIONS.

* otherwise "occurs"

* otherwise "of a good servant"

* otherwise "our"

* otherwise "our"

* otherwise "you shall teach"

CHAPTER II.

Two monasteries founded by him; three reformed; the incontinence of priests driven out, and the bishopric lost on that account.

And so the blessed Servant of God, daily with the Prophet adding to the praise of the Lord the works of God, attributed them not to his own merits but to the divine mercy, saying with the Psalmist: Altmann founds the monastery of St. Nicholas; Not to us, Lord, not to us; but to Your name give glory: and with the Apostle: By the grace of God I am what I am. But that there might not falsely follow, And His grace in me was not void; the holy Man built in the suburb of Passau in honor of St. Nicholas a church upon the shore of the river Inn, enriching it with several goods and possessions. But he set over it there Hartmann as Provost, a man commendable for wisdom and eloquence, who was most dear to king Rudolf, and also most well known to Pope Urban and his successors. He, religious as he himself was, so gathering religious clerics and laymen from every quarter, diligently instructed them by words and examples to lead the common life under the rule of St. Augustine.

[17] These things being thus accomplished, the untiring Minister of Christ put his hand to stronger things; thence the discipline elsewhere fallen truly stronger, because it brings far more of difficulty and labor to root out depravities rooted and grown old, than to plant good disciplines from the beginning. Therefore, since the very name of bishop admonished him to superintend the Church of God, he considered the field and vineyard which the Lord had let out to him; and behold, nettles had filled it wholly, and thorns had covered its surface, and the wall of stones was broken down. But what nettles and thorns do you suppose I mean? Assuredly, in the heart of the negligent, earthly desires itching, and the prickings of vices. And what wall? Certainly the discipline of the fathers, which lay fallen in the heart of the depraved. Whence all this? Because men slept, and the enemy man came and oversowed tares in the field which the best Householder had sown with the best seed. Take "men" to be the prelates of the churches, whose torpor and drowsiness gives to the enemy man, that is, to the devil, confidence and opportunity of sowing his own seed in the field of the Lord. But the universal field is the world. But our discourse is not of that. By field or vineyard I understand any monastery: by several fields or vineyards, several monasteries. In these, vices growing strong were then strangling the glad crop, I mean holy religion. In these, the true vine had been turned into bitterness. I am, says Christ, the true vine. Is not that sweet and upright Lord turned into bitterness for him who shudders at what is upright, what holy, what chaste, what of good report, what of virtue, what of strictness? Does he not judge Christ bitter, who refuses to taste and see how sweet He is?

[18] The field or vineyard of the Lord being in such a case, you will not believe and depraved morals that the Man of the Lord groaned from the bottom of his heart to the Lord and said: To what end does the husbandman labor? You have destroyed its wall, and all who pass by the way pluck its grapes. The boar out of the wood has laid it waste, and a strange wild beast has devoured it. God of hosts, turn again; look down from heaven, and come, and visit this vineyard. But Your Only-begotten says to me: Every planting which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. Behold how many things have grown up which You did not plant, O Father? Have You appointed me that I should pluck up, and destroy, and scatter, and ruin? I shall attack those thorns embracing one another: for one clings to another, so that no breath may pass through them. Or, because You say to us Your servants that we should let both grow until the harvest, shall I dissemble a matter so arduous and so difficult? Since indeed I am not ignorant, Ecclesiastes teaching it, that he who moves stones (namely the heavy and hard morals of the depraved) shall be hurt by them. And he who splits wood (that is, the hearts of the obstinate) shall be wounded by them. Therefore, if You permit, let both grow.

[19] not bearing, But what shall we do, who see the thorns growing, and the wheat choked? You are indeed solicitous lest perhaps, in gathering the tares, we root up the wheat also. But there is no labor in discerning whether it be wheat or tares: these scandals are manifest; they need no accuser; they stand even without a witness. Public fame — nay, infamy — cries out. Has not this outcry already long since ascended to You? I, Your vicar such as I am, have gone down to them, and see that they have accomplished everything in deed. I do not find there even the Decalogue of Your precepts, out of regard for which I ought to spare, I who would rather spare. Relying therefore on Your help, and on the counsel of Your Apostle, I shall take away the evil from Your houses, which holiness befits. And if anything sadder should come of this, I shall console myself with the words of Your Teacher, who says: If the unbeliever departs, let him depart.

[20] he reforms three monasteries, those of Sts. Florian, Hippolytus, and Agapitus: Therefore all who were pestilent and corrupt and had become abominable in their pursuits he drives out on every side from the holy places; providing in their stead religious men, both prelates and disciples. Thence religion at once began to flourish again; thence a sweetly fragrant reputation of sanctity to return; thence reverence to be shown to the servants of Christ. By this so happy daring of the solicitous Husbandman the new fields of the monasteries were renewed, and a more fruitful crop arose; since it would have been unfruitful to sow upon thorns. Hence now the house of holy Florian the martyr brought forth the sweetness of fragrance, and its flowers, the fruit of honor and honesty. So the Monastery of holy Hippolytus, notable until now for the pursuits of its schools: so the monastery of holy Agapitus the martyr at Kremsmünster: because the Lord gave kindness, and they too gave their fruit ^a.

[21] he founds the monastery of Göttweig But just as it is written of Abraham that he was going and further advancing toward the south: so also it was to be seen in this holy Man; because he too was a son of Abraham. It was not enough to have founded a new monastery, to have corrected those founded; he still advances to a lofty work: namely to build on a high mountain a magnificent basilica to the holy Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary. For when on a certain day he was staying in the village which is called Mautern, he noticed at a distance a mountain, not contiguous to the neighboring mountains, which the common people called Kotwich. That mountain seemed pleasant and sufficiently fit for dwelling. Whose quality when he had learned from the inhabitants, he suddenly orders his mule to be saddled, and, accompanied by a great throng, ascends the mountain by a certain narrow and steep path, teaching by his ascent that only through the steep and narrow paths of God's commandments does one go from the earth to the stars. And so, the whole mountain being surveyed, when he beheld a spacious place and most fit for building a monastery, a tent being straightway pitched, he ordered the wood which had grown up thick there to be cut down, and an oratory to be begun.

[22] and dedicates it in the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, And while he was still hanging in doubt to which of the Saints it should chiefly be entitled, various persons counselling various things according to their different wishes and affections, it happened that a messenger arrived, sent by the dukes of the Bohemians. He was bringing to the Bishop a certain tablet, which might worthily be offered as a gift to so great a Man; on which was seen an image of the blessed Virgin Mary wonderfully expressed in Greek work, deservedly preserved still in the same church, and to be preserved forever. This the Pontiff beloved of God, kissing it with pious veneration, as though admonished by a divine oracle, at once assigned the place to that same most glorious Mother of God, Mary. And when he had prosperously completed the work of the basilica, and solemnly dedicated it, he provided with liberal benevolence possessions for those who were to dwell there. He provided also ornaments suited to the divine ministries. Which being duly accomplished, religious men being gathered into one, and a prudent man, Otto, being set over them, he bade them lead the spiritual life under the Rule of Blessed Augustine.

[23] There now comes to mind what is sung in the Psalm: The sinner shall see, the demon raging with his own, and striving to overturn the work and shall be angry, he shall gnash with his teeth and pine away. What had this sinner seen, that he should be angry, gnash, and pine away? Without doubt, that of him who disperses his goods among the poor the justice remains forever and ever; and that his horn shall be exalted in glory. So indeed in this Servant of God the malignant enemy saw what he envied. He saw his merits being heaped up with God; he saw his occupied leisure profiting the salvation and manner of life of many. He therefore lays snares, and sets hindrances, entangled in which he must desist from those things which he grieves to profit the advancement of so many. And so he uses his accustomed instruments, and does not doubt that what he less hopes to accomplish by himself is to be accomplished through his own members. But in what order, it remains to be explained.

[24] There was at that time throughout nearly the whole German kingdom a grave scandal and a common complaint concerning the incontinence of priests: by occasion of the Pontifical decree against married presbyters: for it did not lie hidden in secret; but they had made a harlot's forehead for themselves, and they blushed to blush. The matter was brought to the ears of the Roman Pontiff; and it seemed good that he should by decretal letters rebuke and forbid so great an enormity. The bishops assent and rejoice; and to the best of their power cooperate with the salutary mandates. Wherefore Blessed Altmann, a council of the Brothers being gathered in the see of Passau, orders the letters directed to him upon this matter to be recited, beseeching and exhorting that chastity should not be judged burdensome, which is rewarded with a special crown before God: which, since it is a notable ornament of every faithful soul, ought nevertheless to adorn especially those who must offer for us all to the divine majesty the holy and undefiled sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ. What more? With many words the good Father and prudent Teacher urges the love of so great a virtue and of a purity so to be embraced; but he does not persuade. They defend themselves by the antiquity of the times and the authority of their predecessors: of whom, they say, they had found none severe and violent in matters of this kind. The Servant of Christ answers that he too wishes to leave off from these things, if the mandate of the lord Pope should allow it. But that now he fears for himself, fears for them; because it is written that not only those who do them, but also those who consent to those who do them, are worthy of death. Accomplishing nothing therefore, he dissolves the assembly.

[25] But communicating his plan to the wiser men and commending the secret to them, for Blessed Altmann most valiantly executing this, when the feast of holy Stephen the protomartyr came, whom that church venerates as patron, when very many of the magnates had come together for the solemn day, because the just man is confident as a lion, before the whole throng of clergy and people he ascends the pulpit, and undaunted relates what the Apostolic letters declare. Then he adds the threat of authority; that those who were unwilling to be bent by entreaties might be broken by strictness. At once outcry and fury resound on every side. And perhaps they would there and then have torn the Servant of God to pieces with furious hands, had not the divine power

and the uprightness of the chief men present withstood their raging. There reigned in those days Henry IV, son of the emperor Henry who was surnamed the Pious, quite a boy and brought up in pleasures without the bridles of discipline. There was fulfilled in him the saying of the Wise man, in which he prophesies, saying: Woe to the land whose king is a boy. What the Church suffered in his time, what the kingdom; how many shepherds were driven off from their sheep, how much human blood was shed, what luxuries, burnings, and rapines were committed, the world does not fail to know, and the writers of the times have not kept silent. To this enemy of religion, and assailant of chastity, excommunicated for his tyranny by Pope Gregory VII, there flee the wretched men to whom chastity was abhorrent. Before such a judge such accusers and such witnesses obtain a hearing: and upon the Man of God who detested crimes they fasten crimes, by which they believe they can strip him of pontifical honor.

[26] he is cast down from his see by Henry IV, protecting those shameless men. That Man could, if he had stood before them, have answered for himself in a shortened word what his master Christ also answered for Himself: The works which I do bear witness of me; but in his humility his judgment was taken away, his adversaries affirming, as the Jews once did of the Savior: If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him over to you. And if he had answered what Christ answered to those who stoned Him (Many good works have I shown you from my Father, for which of these works do you stone me?), he would have given a true and open answer indeed: but with such men it would not have sufficed. Henry therefore, being swayed, enters Passau in hostile fashion, and, in the place of Herod, confounding right and wrong, doing all things at his pleasure, restored to their goods and dignities all the criminal men driven out by the Bishop. When he withdrew, since the Brothers of St. Nicholas, who, established in the suburb of the city, were leading a Religious life, likewise detested the cruel deeds, they were violently dragged out of the monastery by the supporters of Henry, and, beaten publicly with rods, were cast out from those borders. Their substance falls to the plunderers, and the church of the good began to be a synagogue of Satan.

ANNOTATIONS.

* otherwise "monks"

* otherwise Uto and Otto

* otherwise "conversion"

* otherwise "fitting"

CHAPTER III.

The Blessed one's Roman journey; his dignity confirmed and increased; his return and the miracles which followed; his just severity; his mercy; his liberality toward churches and monasteries.

[At Rome, wishing to give up his dignity, he is prevented by a miracle, and is made Apostolic Legate;] Iniquity therefore prevailing, Blessed Altmann, cast out from his see for justice' sake, returns into Saxony, his own fatherland. After this he went to the thresholds of the Apostles, and sets forth in order to Pope Gregory the cause of his journey and the course of the injury. And because all holy men fear all their works, he resigned the bishopric to the Lord Pope, being troubled by this scruple, that he had received its investiture from a lay hand. And when he was resting for a while, weary, with the Pope; on a certain day, he being placed in the church and conferring with the Cardinals concerning the restoration of St. Altmann; but he humbly refusing the honor of so great a burden, a certain dove, wandering over all the places of the basilica, came at last to Altmann, poor and humble in spirit; and, as though it should say: This is my rest forever and ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it, and what follows: Blessing I will bless her widow, that is, the church of Passau widowed of its lawful spouse, and I will satisfy her poor with bread, it settled on the head of the Prelate. All seeing and understanding the sign, the Pope, delaying not at all, taking the mitre from his own head, placed it on his head, and, appointing him bishop and Legate of the Roman See, sent him back, increased with a blessing, to his own place; as if he should say to him as he departed: Behold, I send you as sheep among wolves; abide in my love.

[28] Meanwhile the supporters of Henry IV gather a council at Mainz; but, pseudo-bishops being thrust into his chair by a pseudo-pope, over which who presided, let them see to it. There the schismatics, and men cut off from the Church, deny that Pope Gregory, a Catholic man and universal Father, is Father, and, themselves condemned, condemn his followers. Amid these things the Shepherd of the Church deliberates about yielding the city and arms, remembering, I think, the Savior's permission, by which He said to His disciples: If they persecute you in one city, flee into another. Which being done, a certain Wichpert, whose praise is not in the catalogue of Pontiffs, is thrust into the Apostolic See. What do I say, thrust in? He invades it by his own ambition, pants after it, and snatches it. Thenceforth the true shepherds are everywhere on earth driven from their sees; but schismatics or Simoniacs are substituted. By their faction also Altmann is put to flight from his flock; and a certain Hermann, brother of duke Luitold, is substituted. In him the curse uttered against Judas, that is, Let another take his bishopric, was the sooner fulfilled. For scarcely for two years did he shear and milk another's sheep, and he ended together with his life the name of shepherd which he falsely bore. He is said, however, to have repented at the last, and to have given back all the episcopal things to bishop Altmann, and suppliantly to have sought absolution from the anathema from him. To him succeeds, money however obtaining it, Timo, a canon of Würzburg, and as a violent robber he oppressed the bishopric as far as the river Enns.

[29] But the holy Prelate, the pious prince margrave Leopold striving for it, [returning, he obtains only a part of his diocese, in which he completes the works begun at Göttweig.] the grandfather of this Leopold who today rules ^a, whose nobility, piety, and fidelity stand until now by a most rich inheritance, vigorously governed the clergy and people in the eastern province, and devotedly watched over the work begun on the mount of Göttweig, from which the fraud of the enemy had tried to hinder him by the above-mentioned impediments. In which place, when at some time he was celebrating the solemnities of Masses, and a certain visiting deacon, of ill repute, about to read the Gospel, asked a blessing; the Bishop, gazing a long while on the man to be blessed, took the stole from his neck, and ordered another to read. Whence it is plain that he had learned something about him by revelation, which the rest did not know. The wretch, confounded with the confusion which brings sin, not with the confusion which brings glory, trustingly fled to Henry, the refuge of the depraved; and, wishing to accuse the Bishop and the Brothers, since he was judged unworthy of a hearing, God avenging it, he was punished with the most evil death of sinners.

[30] And because perilous times were pressing, and a grave schism had grown, Water is turned into wine for him. which the chief heads of the empire had begotten and daily fostered to its increase; it pleased God, who does not cease to provide for all, to honor His Servant with a fitting sign for confirming the faith of the wavering, and to commend His Catholic minister to all the faithful. For he had ordered his cup-bearer, for the sake of a stricter and more secret abstinence, to set water before him at table and, that it might not be known, to cover it with foam of beer. He did what had been commanded him. Which when the holy Man had put to his mouth, he tasted wine, and that the best wine. But thinking that the cup-bearer had mocked him, he rebukes him as a transgressor, being greatly indignant. But he confirms with dreadful oaths that he had set before him what had been commanded him. The Bishop indeed desires to conceal the matter; but the cup-bearer, taking the cup from the table, explores more certainly by tasting what the Bishop was drinking. And he, afterward becoming a monk in the monastery of Göttweig, reports the matter in order; so that He may be blessed in all things who for the glory of His Saints and for the confirmation and consolation of the faint-hearted alone does great wonders.

[31] He frees a demoniac; Receive still, to the praise of God, something concerning the Servant of God, not disdaining it. For who would disdain signs so notable, which build up faith in things invisible, and prove that the power of God has not failed? Depart, O foolish one, who say in your heart: There is no God, and who with such perfidy insult, saying: Where is your God? Behold, the praise of Israel dwells in His holy one: in His Saint God works what you see. If He is not present, what will a man do? What will dust do, which knows it was said to it by the Lord: Without me you can do nothing? Know therefore that God is and is present, who works what a man cannot work. But if you think that a man works this, go, and do you likewise: command the demons, and try their obedience. But if they resist, venerate that man, and devoutly embrace him, in whom God, and through whom, works such things. Why are you worse than the Jews? They said of Christ: If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. But nevertheless hear, and be converted from your unbelief. At some time the venerable Bishop was standing at the holy altar, about to celebrate Masses: he hears behind him a demoniac shouting horribly in the church: he asks what this may be: those standing by declare that a man is there being vexed by a fierce demon, and, though bound, is scarcely held by many: the Prelate orders the man, truly a poor man, to be brought to the hospice of the poor, and food to be set before him in the name of the Lord. From whom the wicked spirit straightway departed: and the man returned home sound.

[32] likewise another once and again; I wish still, O unbeliever, to relate something which may convince you that neither the spirit of prophecy was lacking to the Servant of God, though it be unwelcome to you. A certain cleric full of a demon was brought to him. He, pressing more keenly with continued prayer, put the demon to flight, and forbade the sin on account of which he had been given over to this unclean spirit. He foretold that, if he should repeat the sin, the punishment of the sin would straightway be repeated upon him, commanding that in the cloister with the Brothers he should give himself to a better life. After these things the Brothers ask the Bishop to promote him to be a presbyter. The Prelate says that this is not expedient for him. Overcome nevertheless by the affection of the Brothers, he grants their requests, but under protestation that he would not escape the terrible judgment of God, if he did not beware of the sin forbidden him. For some years therefore he avoids the sin, and honorably fulfils the office received. At length, neglecting the Bishop's threat, the wretch returns to his vomit; and at that same moment suffers also a most fierce demon.

[33] concerning whom he also foretells the future; Again the holy Man, pitying the wretched one, attacks the enemy with his accustomed arms, and triumphs: and, having freed him, removes him from the office of the altar, again and again admonishing and forbidding the healed man concerning the nefarious deed. He, terrified by the recent scourge, abstains from the sin for some time. But, alas for the grief! being again overcome by long habit, after the death of the Bishop he slips back into the sin. Therefore, according to the word of the Lord, the malignant spirit, taking seven other spirits more wicked than himself, enters into the sinner; and, cruelly vexing him night and day, they compel the captive to confess with his own mouth all the base and nefarious deeds done by him. He is bound wailing with harder chains, cast into the custody of men, who had forfeited the custody of the angels. At length on the Annunciation of the Lord, being scarcely snatched from the malignant spirit by the prayers of the Brothers, and after three days anointed with sacred oil, and fortified with the Body of Christ, terribly scourged, he dies. We believe

that, being handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

[34] Another cleric also, handed over to a most wicked demon, likewise a third; he heals also a flux of blood and a rupture. so that scarcely could anyone sound escape the hands of the madman, being blessed by the Bishop, was both freed from the demon and restored to his former health.

One of the Brothers, urgently given to rather long prayers and very many genuflections, fell into a flux of blood even to the point of despair. He, being sent to the Bishop, merited his blessing, and with the blessing immediately his soundness.

Likewise another Brother, also intent beyond his strength on prayers and genuflections, fell into a rupture of his vitals. Who, being likewise cured by the Bishop's blessing, returned to his own with joy.

[35] How great a peril it is to lie to the Holy Spirit, the first Shepherd of the Church sufficiently declared, [One who violates faith pledged to him and to the Church is punished after excommunication;] when in Ananias and Sapphira he chastised this sin with sudden death. Because therefore this Saint had shown himself a true dwelling of the Holy Spirit, deservedly does the Lord take vengeance on those who lie to him, to whom also the Prophet says: You will destroy all who speak a lie. A certain Count of the party of king Henry came to the Bishop, promising with an oath fidelity and service. He beheld by chance a flock of crows, and prayed upon himself, saying that as many crows as he beheld, so many demons should possess his soul, if he did not keep the promised faith. But not long after, repenting of his promise, he returns to Henry, the enemy of the Church, himself an enemy. Whom the Bishop, branding him with anathema, marked with the reproach of his perfidy, leaves to divine vengeance. Nor was there delay; and it strikes the guilty man. For, being unexpectedly surrounded by enemies, and wounded with many wounds, and his thigh almost cut off, because he had halted from his promise, in sign of his transgression from that day and thenceforth he limped in his foot. Does anyone wonder whether that imprecation was fulfilled in him which that wretch imprecated upon himself? I plainly would not deny it; who am not ignorant that in very many men demons have long lain hidden and mute, and that many are worse vexed by demons within than if they were torn to pieces without.

[36] But with how great constancy the vigorous Shepherd repressed the wolves of this world from the plundering of ecclesiastical goods, another, stricken with anathema, is compelled to submit to him. when he was helped by the aid or counsel of no kinsmen, is known from the example subjoined: nor yet was he alone, to whom God was always present. Whence he also truly said: He who sent me is with me, and has not left me alone; because I always do the things which are pleasing to Him, and that in the Psalm: It is good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in Princes. There was a certain very rich and noble man, who usurped as it were by hereditary right the benefice of his deceased brother, which he had received from the bishopric. The Bishop opposes it by the law of the province. But he tries to take away by injury what he could not by justice. The Servant of God bears with the raging man for a time, giving and desiring for him a place of repentance. As he persevered in malice, he took vengeance with the dart of anathema. And when all religious men shunned his communion, and those who were the chief men of the eastern province, shame and the reproach of all compelling him, he went to the Bishop in the village of St. Hippolytus; and, prostrate before his feet in deep snow and suppliant for a very long time, made satisfaction. Nor yet did he merit reconciliation until he handed over the village which is called Ratoldesdorf into the right of the bishopric; and so at last, the prayers of many nobles scarcely intervening, he was absolved from the bond of excommunication. But the Bishop assigned the village received upon the altar of Blessed Mary in the monastery of Göttweig.

[37] After the disaster received from the schismatics in Austria, Amid these things margrave Leopold, his chief men being gathered in the village which is called Tulln, abhorring the tyranny of king Henry and the schism, of which he had been made the author, abjures his lordship by an oath, drives all his supporters from the province: but he cherishes and protects with all his strength those obedient to the Apostolic See and its Legate Altmann. Wherefore the king, kindled with anger, handed over the march of the same Leopold to the duke of the Bohemians. He delayed nothing; but, a very great army being gathered both from his own and from the neighboring provinces, he came to the borders of the margrave. Nor was the latter more sluggish, but with all his people met the enemy in the place which is called Mailberg. But, alas for the grief! being unexpectedly surrounded by the adversaries, when, the army being thrown into confusion, they could by no means gather themselves into line, much blood being first shed on both sides, the enemy prevailed. These are Your judgments, O Lord. Thus You, Lord, are silent, while the impious tramples on one juster than himself. Did the victorious cause please You? If it pleased, it pleased not for the salvation of the victors, but for their damnation: for thus You allow the perdition of the lost to be completed; thus You make them rush into Your most severe strictness. But the cause of the vanquished, without doubt, pleased You; because with a better devotion toward Your Church and the Roman Pontiff they did not fear to provoke so grievous an enemy; and because they thought that they were rendering service to You if they should repress Your enemies, they did not spare their own lives; but in Your camp, stronger in faith than the victors, they fell devoted.

[38] [famine raging, the Blessed one fed several thousands of the needy. He is admonished by the Pontiff to bear with certain evils for a time.] But there followed that slaughter a very great famine, that the Lord might try in works of mercy those whom He had sufficiently proved in fortitude of constancy. Father Altmann kept nothing for himself in this necessity; down to the very linen he sold all the furnishings of the bishopric, and distributed them to the needy. Whence also he was called the Father of the poor. Chiefly, however, on the mount of Göttweig he preserved very many thousands of the poor from the peril of famine. But how busy he was in the cause of the Church, which in his time was confounded by so great a whirlwind, the epistles so frequently directed to him by the lord Pope indicate: in which among other things the Pope seems also to counsel and signify this, that the things which in so very grave a disturbance of the holy Church could in some measure be dissembled and tolerated should rest, strictness being not wholly removed, but tempered: but when, God having mercy, victory and peace should be restored to the Church, he should solicitously consider and with all his strength labor for the restoration of justice, so far as with His help it should be possible. Hence that chapter concerning the incontinence of priests, dissembled but not approved by so unconquered a Champion of chastity, remained.

[39] His care for building and adorning monasteries and churches. Further, how much the church of Passau in the time of his prelacy advanced in the constructions and corrections of monasteries, and in the structures and ornaments of churches, and in the honesty of its ministers, I would say, if the state, nay the fall, of present affairs did not for the most part contradict it. And yet I, a little worm, judge no one in this part. For who am I, who should judge another's servant? To his own Lord he stands or falls. For the holy Bishop himself in the time of Reginar, who succeeded third after him, deigned to reveal to a certain religious Brother that the change from a better state was speedily to be avenged upon that same prelate. It seemed to him that he was at Rome in a council, and that Blessed Altmann was sitting there mitred with exceptional adornment among several bishops. Who, rising up and standing in the midst, asks from the lord Pope an advocate for his cause. Which being received, he sets forth a complaint concerning bishop Reginar, asserting that he had found the bishopric of Passau excellently ordered in its monasteries and parishes; but that by his negligence nearly all religion in it had perished. But Reginar was standing behind, afar off, terrified ^b. The Apostolic one asks the bishops for a sentence upon this matter; nor did he receive from all any other than one of condemnation. In that same year, therefore, the same Reginar fell into an infirmity, in which he continued even until death.

ANNOTATIONS.

* "sublato poculo" for "the cup being taken up"

* otherwise "the bishopric"

* otherwise Reginmar

CHAPTER IV.

His most holy death; the solemn funeral rites; certain miracles at his sepulcher.

The blessed Prelate, seized with a fever, Now therefore let us explain what end of life, or more truly, what beginning of life the blessed Man obtained: for as it is written: When a man has finished, then he begins. Twenty-six years therefore being passed in the episcopate, after many labors and fights against the beasts of Ephesus, when it now pleased the Lord to reward the sweats of the Soldier who had served his time, in the village which is called Zarzimuor he was seized with a fever. As it grew strong, he understood the messenger of death. At whom, although through human frailty he shuddered, yet because of a good conscience he rejoiced, knowing that by this gate he would enter into the joy of his Lord. And so, because he had not said to himself, peace and security; sudden destruction did not come upon him. He had always remembered his last things, and had continually desired them, saying daily in his heart: When shall I come and appear before the face of God?

[41] Wherefore, feeling that the dissolution of his body was at hand, prepares himself for death in which he had now long been a pilgrim from the Lord, he joyfully prayed, saying: Bring my soul out of prison, that I may confess to Your name. And because he knew, and had very often taught, that at the departure of any of the just whatsoever the adversary spirits gather, he fought also against these, saying: Save me from the mouth of the lion, and my lowliness from the horns of the unicorns. And when he anxiously turned his mind to that strict examination of the Judge above, adoring and beseeching with such groaning as he could and with inmost sighs, he said: Enter not into judgment with Your servant, O Lord; for in Your sight shall no living man be justified. Calling also upon each of the Saints whom he had loved, whom he had venerated, and before all that blessed and glorious Mother of God, Mary, for whom he had built so fair a dwelling, that she might piously lead him into the tabernacle prepared for him by God; and also that most holy confessor and pontiff of God, Nicholas, whose church also he had founded with the utmost devotion; to them he commends himself wholly: them he prepares as companions and guides of his way. With those ministering spirits also, whose strength and power keeps off contrary powers, he wholly walls himself about; so that the enemy demons are deservedly compelled to say: Behold, the little bed of this Prelate is surrounded by the strong of the strongest of Israel, all holding swords and most learned in wars. Why do we stand here? These surpass us in strength and in number. Is it not he who put us to flight from the bodies of others with so great power? Especially since there are more with him than with us.

[42] full of hope; Therefore not in camps, not in arms, not in the splendor of servants did the holy Prelate at that time have his hope laid up; but in the Lord his God and in a good conscience and unfeigned faith. Whence also he says: But it is good for me to cleave to God; to put my hope in the Lord God. By this our

age this same thing that noble and very rich man Otto of Lengenbach perceived and confessed. Who, when he was at the last, being caught up (but how, I do not know; God knows), and, returning to himself, narrating many things shown and understood, at whose relation very many then wondered and were pricked in conscience, at length, naming each of the castles which had been many for him, said: What help do my castles now bring? My very powerful lords? My most dear friends? From these, despairing of the help of all, he commended himself with great contrition to all religious men. For then he truly understood how hardly a rich man enters into the kingdom of heaven. Whence groaning he cried out: Alas, wretched me, that I ever possessed more of riches than simple food and clothing!

[43] as one who had always had it before his eyes; So then, while the venerable Prelate was at the last of this mortal life, there was no need that anyone should admonish him about providing for his departure: for he had provided for himself through the whole time of his life: and, because he had lived well, he was dying happily. Otherwise, if it had then first been necessary that he be admonished, he would rightly have answered what the venerable Chuono, bishop of the church of Regensburg, but before that abbot of Siegburg ^a, is reported to have answered to those standing by and only then advising him as he was about to die: for he said: You admonish me well indeed, O sons, that in this dread hour I should provide for my salvation. Did you propose this counsel of salvation when it pleased you that I should willingly receive gifts; that I should sell spiritual things simoniacally; that I should pervert judgments; that I should dissemble the sins of my subjects? I should now provide too late, if hitherto I had by no means provided. So the blessed Servant of God had betimes provided for himself, and therefore passed over the more expeditiously.

[44] [and, fortified with the last helps of the Church, he expires most holily on the 8th of August, 1091;] Therefore, being anointed by religious men with the sacred Oil, and refreshed with the Lord's Sacraments, blessing his sons, and earnestly commending them to the heavenly Father, he joyfully enters the way of all flesh in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1091, on the sixth of the Ides of August, with all weeping and with pitiable lamentation mourning that they were bereft of so great a Father, that they were destitute of so great a Pontiff. They did not indeed envy his glory; but grieved for their own great misery. They rejoiced that he was received by the Angels and led into the blessed mansions of the elect. For themselves they groaned that in this valley of tears they lived wretchedly without a Consoler, and were tossed about in this great sea without a Pilot. For where in these days are those who bear a father's affection toward their sons, and discharge a father's office? After the manner of ostriches they are hardened toward their sons, as though they were not their own; and after the custom of hirelings, for temporal gains they stand by in prosperity those from whom they themselves are the first to seek flight in adversity. Far from this was this holy Father, in whom there superabounded both a father's love and a shepherd's solicitude and vigilance in prosperity, and constancy in adversity.

[45] Meanwhile an innumerable people flows together from every quarter to the funeral rites of the Pontiff. [and with a wonderful concourse he is buried among the monks of Göttweig; where he shines with very many miracles;] The whole province mourns, the dignity of the high-placed, every age, both sexes. Scarcely at length is the venerable body taken up by the priests of Christ, and, with a great throng of nobles accompanying, with an infinite multitude of the people, with great glory indeed of God, but with heavy sorrow of the bearers, it is carried to the mount of Göttweig. Who could now narrate the moaning and wailing of the Brothers dwelling there, with which the whole mount resounded, all mourning the most dear Father, the most pious Father, the most holy Father? Daily a great people of rich and poor flies thither to commend him to God, and themselves to him as suppliants. Among whom Tiemo, archbishop of Salzburg of reverend memory, consecrated by bishop Altmann, as by his suffragan, who also afterward, seeking Jerusalem, was crowned by the pagans with an illustrious martyrdom, comes breathless; and when with most abundant tears he had bedewed the dead man, he offered for him the saving Sacrifice, and commends the venerable body with due honor to burial in the Church of the holy Mother of God: where, to prove the merits of so great a Man, signs of various powers are frequently wrought ^b, to the praise of God the Father almighty, who with His only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.

[46] A certain cleric, seized by a savage demon, [for there he frees the possessed, the blind, the lame, the mute, the mad, the feeble;] was scarcely brought to his tomb, with many binding and dragging him. He filled all places with horrible shouting and a dire stench. When the Brothers prayed for him more urgently, he suddenly fell down; and, with all seeing it, vomited up a most black beetle, which also straightway appeared nowhere. All praised God. And he who had come bound and mad departed sound and loosed from the bonds of mind and body.

Likewise a certain girl overrun by an unclean spirit was brought by her parents to the sepulcher of the Man of God, and without delay was freed and healed.

Likewise another girl, for several years deprived of sight, through the merits of the same Servant of God found the light which she had lost.

A certain woman, having a small son mute and lame from birth, laid him, pitiable, at the sepulcher of the Bishop; and she herself, pitiable, went out from the church with great weeping. After a little the boy, his speech and gait being restored, followed his mother, walking and speaking rightly.

A certain soldier, mad for six years, came to his sepulcher out of his mind; and, his mind being recovered, departed sound.

Another man, wholly contracted, and leaning on certain little stools, came creeping to the body of the holy Bishop; but, being made whole, he leapt up and walked and praised the Lord.

Likewise a certain man, feeble in his whole body, with a staff scarcely supporting him, went to the tomb of the Prelate; but, his infirmity being driven away through the blessed Man, he no longer needed the staff; because he perceived himself glad and sound.

[47] At a certain time, when a sudden and savage tempest was crushing the mountains, although by these and other miracles and was tearing down the roofs of houses and churches and towers, a certain Brother, mad, climbed up into the oratory of St. Michael, which is situated quite high, with all unaware, and meanwhile chanting the nocturnal praises. He, slipping from on high onto the pavement, was nevertheless taken up alive, though not to survive long. For on that same day, after the anointing with sacred Oil and the communion of the life-giving Body of Christ, he was loosed from the flesh. Let no one doubt that this is to be ascribed to the merits of the blessed Man, whose intercession caught the falling man, lest the basilica should be sprinkled with his blood; which he himself devoutly consecrated as a royal hall to God and to the blessed ever Virgin Mary. By these and very many other signs of miracles, which we do not believe have come to our knowledge, the Lord magnified His Priest; who in his days pleased God and was found just. Although even if he had wrought no sign, yet nothing would from this be taken from his sanctity, either with God or with men. For signs do not make sanctity, but show it. Since indeed concerning John the Baptist, than whom among those born of women no greater has arisen, the Gospel bears witness that he wrought no sign. Concerning the Lord Savior Himself also it is written that He did not do many signs, on account of the unbelief of certain persons. What wonder therefore, if this Saint, the unbelief of the present times standing in his way, had wrought no powers, no healings? But divine grace, which promises that it glorifies those who glorify it, made this its Beloved one, that he might be no less beloved by men, and that his memory might stand in blessing, also by the greatness of signs like to them in the glory of the Saints.

[48] he himself was more wonderful through the holiness of his life: To me, however, gazing more attentively on this Man, or on any other of that kind working such wonders, he himself who works seems far more wonderful than the things which he works. For if in insensible things the causal reason which effects has more of wonder for one considering it inwardly than that which is effected: much more worthily and more religiously is that sanctity to be admired which so pleases and is accepted in the sight of the divine majesty, that at its regard and intervention the troubles of men are driven away, and the desired soundness both of souls and of bodies is restored; much more, I say, is it itself to be admired within, than whatever wonders it works without. Let others therefore wonder to see the blind, the lame walking: let them wonder at the healing of paralytics, at the flight of demons: I shall rather admire the merits of so great a Prelate, which so powerfully work such things, than those things themselves. Do you therefore proclaim, to the praise of God, what the Saint of God works in others by his merits and by the faith of suppliants. I shall always admire the wonders which he wrought in his life: I shall admire his humility, chastity, piety, charity, devotion, solicitude in acting, prudence in disposing, discretion in imposing, longanimity in enduring, and fortitude in adversities. These wonders of his life I judge to be wondered at, especially because in our times we see these rarer than those signs, which nevertheless the Lord promises will follow all believers, saying: These signs shall follow those who have believed; in my name they shall cast out demons, etc.

[49] for miracles have sometimes been wrought even by men not holy. Or do you perhaps still not agree to admire the life of a holy Man more than signs; which, by the hidden permission of God, men not holy sometimes work? For you know that certain reprobates and rejected men will say to the Lord: Have we not prophesied in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and done many signs? But be it so: I leave you to your own judgment. To me, however, it will always stand as more wonderful to have driven avarice, pride, and lust from the heart, than blindness from the eyes of others, sickness from their limbs, a demon from the body. But because it is not always clear to us, who see in the face and not in the heart, what the inward state of the Saints is, what their virtue, what their freedom; according to His great mercy the Lord acts, that by outward miracles it may be known how greatly to be admired they are within, through whom He Himself works such wonders without. Let us weigh therefore, most dear Brothers, with what veneration this Servant of God must be embraced, whose merits the Lord deigned to prove and commend through so great miracles. Let it be an invincible argument against our distrust (if however there is any; but far be it that there should be any), that He is ready and able to cure the diseases and languors of our souls, who so frequently and so piously does not delay to relieve the infirmities of bodies. Nor indeed ought it to be doubted that He wishes to profit souls more than bodies; since indeed the salvation of the former is eternal; but that of the latter is, together with the bodies themselves, shortly to fail.

[50] Thus far we have narrated the deeds of St. Altmann from the writings of former men. [Whence the author received what has been narrated hitherto; and what their credit is.] What man would think that they transmitted to posterity anything uncertain, or (which would be sacrilegious) anything false? Since they knew excellently that God has need of no man's lie. But also

those wonders which are daily wrought under the eyes of those present bear witness to the earlier ones, confirm and increase the earlier ones. Before we come to describing which, we shall perhaps not uselessly explain for what cause and in what order the monastery of Göttweig, which we reported above that he founded and made illustrious with his sacred bones, was changed from its first institution, namely that of Regular Canons, into the monastic profession, as may at present be seen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* otherwise Zaizinmure

* otherwise "And thus"

* otherwise "is transferred"

* otherwise "was shaking"

* otherwise "cause or reason"

CHAPTER V.

The reformation of the monastery of Göttweig; the Blessed one's apparitions and more recent miracles.

the discipline of the Canons of Göttweig having foully collapsed, In the time of the venerable Prelate there came to the mount of Göttweig a certain presbyter, a Scot by nation, a monk by profession, religious in manner of life. The name which he had suited him: for he was called John, which sounds "the grace of God." The prelate Altmann loved this grace in him; and, that he might more freely dwell with him, he shut him up, according to his desire and petition, in a certain narrow dwelling beside the church of blessed Mary. Men saw his good works, and glorified their Father who is in heaven. His words also they gladly heard; since they too savored of grace and of edification. But after the death of blessed Altmann, in whose days the lambs of that monastery were pastured in their order, some, bearing wolfish hearts under the appearance of lambs, driven and fugitive from various places, flowed together thither. Who after a little, appearing as true wolves, and turned to madness, and with wolfish teeth pouring the poisons of their malice into the simplicity of others, did not fear to corrupt and infect the innocence and good repute which had there most holily flourished and had diffused its good odor far and wide. Whence it came about that that place became a thing of contempt, of horror, and of detestation.

[52] [the Blessed one after his death twice appearing and commanding, it is changed into a monastic one,] Blessed Altmann therefore, whose eyes we believe are upon that place day and night, appeared in a vision to the aforesaid John, admonishing him to purge that mount of mire, and to wipe away the stench of dung. The man of God understood the vision, and, reporting it to the Provost of the Brothers, counselled that all the base men should be cast out thence, and those seduced by them be cleansed by penance. Which, however, since it did not sufficiently repress the infamy whose stench had gone further abroad, being overcome by a more prolonged weariness, all determined to leave the place. Again therefore the aforesaid John, inspired by divine counsel, counsels that they should change alike their profession and their habit, asserting and promising that if they should change and increase their vow, they would then wholly put off the reproach of the former infamy. The counsel pleases: it also pleases that the Religion of monks be chosen. Accordingly it seems advisable that the matter itself be referred to the Lord Pope. This change of the right hand of the Most High pleases him too. Therefore Conrad the Provost, who had succeeded Otto as second, and had shown himself the pious promoter and author of this change, speedily makes known the consent of the Roman Pontiff to Udalric, bishop of Passau, who had succeeded blessed Altmann, and in so great a business asks the counsel also of his authority and discretion. And so, bishop Udalric counselling and striving for it, Hartmann, who was discharging the office of Prior in the monastery of St. Blaise, is elected abbot. And deservedly: for he was a religious man, excellently instructed in sacred letters, sweet in speech, and suitably disposed for forming or fostering the character of all men. To him, as he himself afterward narrated to the Brothers, St. Altmann appeared in sleep, while he was still established in the aforesaid monastery of St. Blaise, and handed him the pastoral staff, and committed to him the monastery of Göttweig to be governed.

[53] and straightway under abbot Hartmann it wonderfully flourishes: Religious men therefore being taken with him, the elected abbot sets out, with all weeping who before were gladdened by his company, and, coming to the sheep committed to him by God, is favorably received, and by the common wishes of all is confirmed by the bishop of Passau with the due blessing. Thenceforth those dwelling there, without delay and without resistance, change their former habit, change also their mind, change also their zeal. Over this the earth exulted, but more the heaven; where joy is celebrated over one sinner doing penance: how much more over the salvation and correction of so many? From then many nobles began to be converted from the world to God, and to give themselves to the discipline of so great a man, and to confer all their goods to the use of the monastery. Through him thenceforth the fame and reverence of the place grew: buildings arose, an abundance of books grew, and every adornment of the divine mysteries. But this would have been nothing, if namely the walls had advanced, and the morals had remained in ruin. The sagacious man rather watched over the building up of these, knowing that God dwells not in things made with hands, but in the rational temples of holy souls, which are raised by pious vows, advance by religion, and are completed by perseverance.

[54] And because glory, as a certain wise man says, follows even the unwilling, that man began to be held great by those with whom his name was great according to the name of the great who are on the earth; and therefore the mitres of dignities were everywhere offered him, as also under his successors. and the government of many monasteries. And it came about that king Henry V set him over the abbey of Kempten, and no less the bishop of the city of Augsburg set him over the monastery of St. Udalric; and the Duke of Carinthia committed the monastery of St. Lambert to him to govern. In his days, because he was pleasing and acceptable to the Roman Curia, privileges were obtained by which that place was fortified and strengthened. But when he was removed from this light, there succeeded him prudent men and lovers of Religion; by whose industry and vigilance the monastery so far advanced, that to all living it is undoubtedly clear that truly the Lord is in that place, nor is there anything else there but the house of God and the gate of heaven. Blessed in all things be He who does all things whatsoever He wills in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the deeps: to Him be honor, praise, and glory, and thanksgiving forever and ever. Amen.

[55] These things being thus unfolded, I think we must return to commending to the memory of men those miracles More recent miracles of Blessed Altmann: demoniacs freed, by which even to this present day, under our eyes, the Lord bears witness to the merits of His Servant, and rouses and invites the prelates of our days to imitate his manner of life. For if the deceitful glory of this world delights them, far more should they seek that glory which the Lord of glory would share with their eagerness, not to be ended with the shadow of this mortal life; but destined to remain, both here and in the kingdom of the blessedness to come, with a blessed and unshaken solidity without end. At a certain time, on the feast of the Dedication of the church, a certain girl, seized with a most savage demon, standing at the tomb of St. Altmann in the sight of the Brothers chanting the divine praises, was miserably tormented. And behold, suddenly crying out with horrible voices, she demanded to be helped. But what man would presume to approach so great a horror? Yet the blessed Prelate was present invisibly, and in the presence of all made that wretched woman safe from the torment and from the demon. She, returning to herself, asked that the sacred communion of the Lord's Body be given her, by which she did not doubt that she would thenceforth be protected from the malignant spirit.

[56] One of the servants of the monastery, deprived of the light of his eyes for a long time, blindness, and a swelling of the foot driven away, when he had traveled over the holy places where he hoped for the grace of health by the merits of the Saints, and had not found it, returned to the monastery, and remained sad in his darkness as before. It once came into his mind that he should implore his own patron especially with unwearied prayer for the restoring of his sight to him. And when he prayed rather often and more devoutly, on a certain day, when he had come to the doors of the basilica, about to go out, a boy guiding his steps, he suddenly said to the boy: Let me go, that I may walk by myself: for I see. And from that hour he went out to his work, seeing and rejoicing and praising God.

A certain boy, whose foot had swollen enormously, so that it could scarcely be discerned whether that limb was a foot, was brought to the sepulcher of the blessed Man; when his parents had faithfully prayed for him, he was carried home, and at once, the noxious humor breaking out, was restored to health.

[57] There was a certain one of the community of the Brothers of the same monastery long oppressed by a most grievous infirmity, likewise a most grievous and long-lasting disease, and was not a little saddened by despair of recovering his soundness. It is revealed to a certain Sister of the same place that he would be restored to his former health if offerings should be made for him at the memorial of blessed Altmann, and one Mass be celebrated there for the faithful departed, the sick man being present. He is carried in a litter, four bearing him, and two others supporting him, tottering, on this side and that. Amid the sacred mysteries, his strength gradually growing, he declared that he did not need another's support. But the Mass being completed, he returns to the house of the sick, now relying on his own feet, only one Brother helping him. But, entire health being recovered after a few days, he rose energetically to his duties, going out and returning at the command of his abbot.

[58] paralysis, and the peril of death, A certain girl from the neighboring village which is called Murlingen, daughter of a certain honorable and well-known soldier whose name was Wolfker, was seized with a sudden paralysis in half of her body. And she was called Bertha. The art of the physicians was at hand for her, but profited nothing. The physician himself counsels that rather the divine help be implored through the merits of St. Altmann. She is brought to the sepulcher of the Man of God. She prayed; her parents also prayed: and the prayer of those faithfully beseeching was heard, and the health restored became the sign of their being heard. Yet there remained, for rousing greater devotion in the healed woman and for a more evident manifestation of divine grace, some of the infirmity in the girl's hand. But she on the anniversary day of the holy Prelate's deposition ran back to the pious and proven Physician: and while praying received the desired remedy which she sought.

A certain woman from the village which is called Huntesheim, brought by a long and grievous sickness almost to death, and destitute of all strength, being brought with heavy labor of those carrying her to the tomb of the Servant of God, was restored to her former health.

[59] blindness, lameness, Likewise a little girl from the village whose name is Panse, long deprived of sight, was there given light.

A certain boy also from another village, called Marquartesdorf, feeble and lame in both feet, being carried thither in the evening, and seen by countless persons as to what evil he was suffering, when he had passed the night in vigil with those who had brought him, in the early morning, his soundness being restored to him, was cured.

From the same village a certain blind woman received her sight.

A certain noble and devout matron, coming from her castle which is called Hofstein,* and bringing with her a certain blind girl, when they prayed more urgently at the sepulcher of the holy Man, that girl rejoiced, the sight which she had long lacked being recovered. For the exultation and testimony of which sign the same matron took the aforesaid girl as though her own daughter, and kept her continually with her. But the girl's name was Truta.

At the same time another woman from the village which was called Beheimkirchen, when she had been blind, by the intervention of St. Altmann saw, and rejoiced. And she was called Alheid.

Likewise another woman from the village named Indernich,* having the name Heilka, when for nine weeks, as she confirmed by oath, she had not seen the light, was restored to sight at the tomb of the holy Man of God.

A certain man named Henry, himself a townsman of the market village which is called Heinvelde, a mature man and one who has the testimony of truth from all, when his eye, struck by a certain little branch, pained him incurably, and he wholly lacked its sight; when he prayed faithfully and as a suppliant at the sacred bones of this Prelate, the pain being driven away, he received health and sight.

[60] A certain poor little woman from the parts of Bavaria had come with a child lately born, and for the sake of necessaries had betaken herself into the service of a certain matron in the city of Krems. and most frequently blindness and pain of the eyes Having stayed in whose service for some time, a pain of the eyes coming on, she suffered a loss of sight. And alas, to how many mishaps is the wretched woman subject! With what grief now do you think she was not tortured, whom both blindness pressed and the heavy burden of poverty weighed down? For she could profit neither herself nor the child lately born, for whom she was the more anxious ^a. And when the loss of her sight compelled her to cease from the service of the aforesaid matron, the matron also ceased from the furnishing of victuals. She on a certain night, dissolved in tears for so great a loss of hers, implored from her inmost heart the grace of divine light through the merits of the blessed Prelate. And He who hears the desire of the poor both heard her prayers and saw her tears. For when she rose in the morning, she was fitted for the duties of all her members, sight guiding her. But I omit to describe one by one all the cases of those who at the memorial of the holy Prelate merited the benefits of sight, to avoid the reader's weariness. For, besides those who bore unhappy losses of sight, rare was he who suffered pain of the eyes and did not obtain a remedy.

[61] There was a certain woman having a demon of such importunity and such fury, the possession of a demon, that scarcely could anyone dwell with her. Shouting and fury, wherever she was: for all her members were agitated by a spirit of fury. Sometimes also the same demon, because he is interpreted "Knowing," moved the organ of the possessed person to bring forth learning; as though that same woman had obtained knowledge of letters and the manner of urbane pronunciation from studies themselves. And certainly, what seemed wonderful to some, she pronounced the Creed in all points, as the Catholic faith holds. Nor yet is this wonderful: since authority says that demons have faith, but not works. She, when with a solemn procession of the people of the baptismal parish ^b which is called Tuln she had been led to the memorial of the blessed Man, was freed, the merits of the holy Prelate driving away the most wicked invader. And the crowds, seeing the manifest signs of her deliverance, the more glorified God and the praises of His beloved Altmann, because they had brought her to the various thresholds of the Saints without the effect of any power.

[62] contraction of the limbs. But because to use alternation is delightful, receive another miracle solemnly celebrated by the testimony of the church standing by; that you may more fully recognize how great is the prerogative of the merits of this holy Prelate. A certain feeble man bore such a trouble of body, that, the vital blood of his veins being thinned, being contracted he could not walk upright; but, in place of the office of feet, dragged himself creeping with his hands. He, placed far away, in the village which is called Lo, when he had learned of the wonderful works of this grace, in hope of health chose, by a certain divine oracle, to seek the saving tomb of the blessed Man. Where when with vows and prayers, all the stronger, as it were, for his bodily defect and trouble, he pressed on from his inmost heart; behold, wonderful to tell! the sinews long contracted began with a crack to stretch themselves out, and the dry channels of the veins to be filled with vital blood. And so, strength being received, that contracted man stood upon his feet and blessed his Healer with a loud voice. Glory to You, O Christ, who through the merits of Your Saints work even until now, and so raise up the stricken; that You may make known to mortals the brightness of those who have pleased You.

ANNOTATIONS.

* otherwise Vilingen

* otherwise Hofstetin

* otherwise Maunich