Hathumar

ON ST. HATHUMAR, CONFESSOR, FIRST BISHOP OF THE MEN OF PADERBORN,

AT PADERBORN IN WESTPHALIA.

In the year 815 or 816.

HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.

Hathumar, Bishop and Confessor, at Paderborn in Westphalia (B.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. C.

§ I. The lawful cult of the Saint, and various eulogies of him.

Although this prelate Hathumar, whom some call Hadumarius or Harimarus, and by similar neighboring names, is not reckoned among the Saints by the ancient Martyrologists or Menologists, This Blessed one, whose immemorial cult yet our Nicholas Schaten supplies sufficient arguments for his lawful cult, when in the Annals of Paderborn, book 1, at the year of Christ 814, page 55, he thus writes of him: The body of the most holy Prelate, as Harius reports, was of old buried in the crypt of the basilica, with a tomb also raised somewhat above the ground, of which nevertheless no traces have been shown. Nor was there then any other custom than to shut up bishops in a lowly and narrow sepulchre; such as those of St. Ludger and of so many bishops are seen even today in the monastery of Werden. At length Imad, the twelfth bishop, gathered the bones of the first bishops in the year of Christ 1068 into one tomb and urn, and placed them together in a more honorable place in the crypt before the altar, once consecrated by Pope Leo, and enclosed the sepulchres with a wall, covered with a slab. The day of this translation, the VII of the Ides of September, has also been held famous for the honors of the Saints. The very place of the crypt has been venerated with altars erected, sacrifices established, offerings of the pious, and the votive prayers of suppliants, not without benefits obtained also from heaven.

[2] Ferdinand, prelate of Paderborn, Then, when, by reason of the heresy which had entered the city, and through the long wars of former times, the memory of Hathumar and of the other bishops had again lain almost buried, the slab of the tomb also being taken away, so that little was known of the common sepulchre, bishop Ferdinand at length restored the monument, and, the bones, among which five heads were still found entire, being wrapped in cleaner coverings, laid them up as honorably as possible. And that he might more surely provide for the memory and piety of posterity, he raised the tomb higher and more magnificently from the ground, from the flat surface of the stone laid upon it this elegant inscription of Ferdinand our bishop is read: The sepulchre of the first bishops of Paderborn, restored in the crypt of the cathedral church. Ferdinand, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Paderborn, prince of the Holy Roman Empire and count of Pyrmont, having restored the ancient monument, arranged and renewed the memory of the ancient veneration of the bodies of the first bishops of this church — found and gathered in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1068, in the VI Indiction, the XIII of the emperor Henry IV, and in the XVI year of the ordination of Immad bishop of Paderborn; and translated and buried on the VII of the Ides of September — lest, the sepulchre having been laid open in former times, they should lie longer neglected. In the year 1666.

[3] Not by slight arguments nor by pious credulity was the most reverend and most exalted prelate Ferdinand led to restore the public veneration of the first prelates of Paderborn, restored it from ancient monuments, which had nearly fallen through the injury of the times and of wars, as we gather from our praised Schaten, who in the same Annals of Paderborn at the year of Christ 1068, book 6, page 567 and the following, assigns a solid foundation for this restoration in these words: Then on the seventh of the Ides of September, Imad diligently investigated the bodies of the first bishops of Paderborn, which had already been either buried or scattered by a double burning of the church, with notable religion and cult of his predecessors, and, having found them in ancient sepulchres, gathered them, and most honorably laid them up in the crypt which is built beneath the choir of the basilica, before the altar of St. Stephen consecrated by Pope Leo, where they were held in great veneration by posterity, as Ferdinand our bishop produced this from an ancient Palatine manuscript codex of the Vatican library. Then Ferdinand himself our bishop, when, the stone being thrown down and the cult of ancient piety neglected, almost all memory lay buried, restored it to its former honor and cult, provoked by the example and piety of Imad. The inscription and monument of this translation we have given in our account of bishop Hathumar: all which would have remained unknown to this day, had not Ferdinand our bishop brought these things forth into the light from the Roman library. From these things it is plain that the immemorial cult of our Saint was interrupted only by fires and wars, and that its new restoration rests upon ancient monuments which are preserved in the Roman library. Doubtless these arguments also moved Castellanus to reckon this Prelate among the Blessed in his universal Martyrology at the V day of August.

[4] For the rest, in the title I have called B. Hathumar the first bishop of the men of Paderborn, was the first bishop at Paderborn, that thus in a few words I might reject the false opinion, or rather the gross error, of certain historians, who wrongly assigned St. Liborius as the first prelate to the church of Paderborn. In this matter Francis Irenicus in the Exegesis of Germany, book 3, chapter 40, and Albert Krantz in his Work on Saxony, have shamefully erred, where each expressly writes that St. Liborius was the first bishop of the men of Paderborn. But Krantz is not consistent with himself in his error: for whereas in book 2 of Saxony, chapter 16, he had asserted that Charlemagne, after the Saxons were subdued, in order to establish the Christian religion among them instituted various bishoprics, and set over Paderborn the holy man Liborius, afterwards, forgetting this assertion, in book 1 of the Metropolis, chapter 11, he reports the following concerning the first prelate of that see: To the town of Paderborn, held by king Charles among the foremost while he was staying in the province, although he had long had the church commended to the bishop of Würzburg, yet Charles gave no pontiff until he should leave the whole province at peace. It was the year after the seven hundredth from the birth of Christ the ninety-fifth, when Harimar (by this corrupt name our Hathumar is indicated), a Canon of the church of Würzburg, a Saxon by nation (whom his parents had given to the king in the previous war among other hostages as a pledge), a grave man, and one who under the mastership of St. Burchard, bishop of Würzburg, had advanced in all religion and sanctity, he raised to the see of Paderborn. Since something was lacking in this passage, I have been compelled to supply the words which I have here enclosed in brackets. The epoch of this bishopric and the other deeds of the blessed Prelate, which Krantz pursues in this place, will afterwards be discussed chronologically.

[5] as our Schaten shows against certain persons. Meanwhile our Schaten in the Annals of Paderborn at the year of Christ 795, book 1, page 29, thus rightly and evidently corrects Krantz (the same argument avails against Francis Irenicus and the other asserters of the same error): That Hathumar, whom some with Cratepolius have called Hadumar, others faultily with Krantz Harimarius, was the first settled and certain bishop of Paderborn, we have received on as undoubted a credit of the Ancients and of the calendars as that with which others exhibit to us their first Caroline bishops; which Krantz too acknowledges in the Metropolis, although, unmindful of himself, he writes in the book on Saxony that St. Liborius was appointed by Charlemagne as prelate at Paderborn; whom nevertheless it is established to have sat as bishop at Le Mans in Gaul so many years before, when Gratian and Theodosius were Augusti. The sacred body of Liborius we shall report to have been translated to Paderborn with great celebrity and cult of posterity, under Badurad II, bishop of Paderborn. No one ever acknowledges Liborius as bishop of this see. Concerning this solemn translation of the sacred relics consult the Acts of St. Liborius, bishop of Le Mans, which at the XXIII day of July, volume V of that month, from page 394, we illustrated.

[6] Various eulogies of the same Blessed one Now we shall bring forward some eulogies of this blessed Prelate, or various compendia of his Acts, both from Catholic and from heterodox writers, that thus also we may show that the immemorial fame of his sanctity passed even to those who elsewhere impiously assail the lawful cult of the Saints. Among Catholics, Ido, priest of Paderborn, who at the close of the ninth century or the beginning of the tenth wrote the translation of St. Liborius, there praises our Saint in these

words: There was at that time in the clergy of Würzburg a man of great humility and modesty, Hathumar by name, sprung from our nation, that is, the Saxon; who, while he was still a boy, having been given as a hostage to the emperor Charles in time of war, was ordered to be kept there (namely at Würzburg or Herbipolis); where afterwards, being tonsured and given over to the studies of letters, he advanced into a man perfect in manners and in learning. He, by the command of the prince, was ordained the first bishop of the church of Paderborn; after whose ordination, a few years having passed, the same most glorious prince departed from this light. From these chronological marks we shall afterwards dispute concerning the time of his bishopric and of his death.

[7] both from Catholic Peter Cratepolius, of the Order of Minors, who composed a little work on the Saints of Germany in alphabetical order, wove for that same Prelate, at page 73 in our copy, the following eulogy: Holy Hadumarius, born of the first nobility among the Saxons, one of the twelve hostages given to king Charlemagne, brought up by Burchard the first bishop of Würzburg, and liberally instructed both in letters and in piety, and likewise inserted as a Canon into the church of Würzburg, a grave man and endowed with extraordinary holiness of life, is appointed by Charlemagne the first founder, and by holy bishop Burchard, as the first gardener, inspector, and governor of the new plantation of Paderborn, in the year of the Lord 795. He presided by doctrine and by example for nine years, and was buried at Paderborn. John George Eckhart, in the Commentaries on the affairs of Eastern Francia and of the bishopric of Würzburg, which he lately published in two volumes, volume 1, book 24, number 132, judges that St. Hathumar was imbued with letters and piety by Megingaud, bishop of Würzburg, who succeeded St. Burchard in that see. Our Schaten in book 1 of the Annals of Paderborn, page 20 and following, inquires at large to which bishop of Würzburg that instruction of St. Hathumar is to be attributed. This dispute will be able to be decided from the Acts of St. Burchard, which at the XIV day of October will have to be more accurately discussed. Meanwhile we shall now allege two heterodox writers, witnesses by no means suspect in this matter, who briefly recount the deeds of B. Hathumar.

[8] Gaspar Bruschius, who often elsewhere in his writings betrays heresy, and from heterodox in the Epitome of the bishoprics of Germany, folio 217, adorns the first Prelate of Paderborn with the following eulogy: Holy Hadumarius, by others Harimarus, born of the first nobility among the Saxons, and the rest, as we reported in the preceding number from Cratepolius; to which Bruschius in the same place thus adds other deeds of his: He rebuilt the church of Paderborn, when that which had first been begun by Charlemagne had been destroyed by the again seditious Saxons. It was consecrated and dedicated by the Supreme Pontiff Leo III (who, cast out of Rome, was at Paderborn with Charlemagne) on the sixth of December, in the year of the Lord 799, in honor of St. Stephen the protomartyr. Charlemagne, in the presence of Leo III, bestowed on this Bishop the castle of Tryburg with all the adjacent territory. The prelate Hadumarius died in the year of Christian salvation eight hundred and four. He is buried in the church of Paderborn. This year of his death we shall examine in the following paragraph.

[9] Henry Pantaleon, a writer of the same bran, in the Prosopography of the heroes and illustrious men of all Germany, part 1, writers page 287 and the following, has put together a fuller synopsis of the Acts in honor of the same Prelate in these words: Harimarus was born among the Saxons of an illustrious family. And so, when Charles king of the Franks had conquered the Saxons in battle, and they thereafter renewed the war, he demanded that twelve hostages from the noblest families be given him, that in this way that rebellious nation might be kept to its duty. Among these was Harimarus also. And since he was endowed with the best disposition, Charles handed him over to holy Burchard, bishop of Würzburg, to be educated, where he so advanced in piety and in letters that he was shortly made a Canon of that church. But afterwards, when the Saxons had been subdued after twelve battles, and Widukind their duke had professed the Christian religion, Charles adorned that part of Germany with ten bishoprics, and endowed them with many riches and privileges, that in this way they might be able to restrain the resisters with penalties. Such were Osnabrück, Halberstadt, Bremen, Minden, Verden, Paderborn, Magdeburg, Hildesheim, Münster, and Hamburg.

[10] Nevertheless some bishoprics of this kind were at the beginning established in other places, we exhibit and at length translated thither. Thus the church of Halberstadt was at first at Osterwieck, that of Magdeburg at Wallersleben in the domain of Lüneburg, that of Hildesheim at Wardenwick, that of Paderborn at Henstelle, and Hamburg stood under the archbishopric of Bremen. In those places bishops were ordained from different families, that they might be the less able to conspire and to return to the cult of idols: for they had drunk in those superstitions under Drusus, and could scarcely be torn from them. Whence also they venerated their idol Hermensaul with great pertinacity. But Charles destroyed those idols, and secretly appointed some steadfast men as judges in Westphalia (which was called Westfeld), who should strangle with the noose those suspected of paganism. That they might also be mindful of the Passion of Christ, he ordered loaves to be baked in the form of a cross, and commanded crosses to be built at the crossways of the fields; and in this way at length he made the Saxons steadfast in true piety. And so, when he had established a bishopric in the place Paderborn, where frequent and most pure springs burst forth, he appointed this Harimarus the first prelate there in the year seven hundred and ninety-five, and gave him as a gift the castle of Triburg with many other surrounding places. And so Harimarus erected there a cathedral church and a famous temple. This Leo III the Pontiff, coming to Charles in that place, dedicated in the year 799. When Harimarus had presided over that church with great piety for nine years, and had arranged all things in order, he died in the year 804, and rests buried in his own church. It is not the place here to discuss the several circumstances of that narration, and the chronology and origin of the Saxon bishoprics.

[11] while ancient and continuous Acts of him are lacking to us. Nowhere have I been able to find a historical continuation of the Acts, or a continuous history of B. Hathumar, nor do I sufficiently clearly understand what the Chronicle of Höxter means, which Christian Francis Paullini published in the year 1698 in the Syntagma of German affairs and antiquities, and in which at the year of Christ 1152 these things are read: Burkhard Hödeker offered an elegant little book on St. Hathumar to the bishop of Paderborn, for which he received a vicarage. Whether this elegant little book contained a historical series of his life, or whether it was rhetorically composed to the praise of the same B. Hathumar, we do not know. Besides, we do not know where that little book now lies hid, and whether perhaps in so great a disturbance of Saxon affairs it has not perished. At least our Schaten, who diligently treated the history of Westphalia and of Paderborn, nowhere makes mention of that ancient monument. Since therefore we have no hope of uncovering this little book, we shall gather the chief deeds of the blessed Man from ancient and from recent writers, and shall place them as best we can in chronological order.

§ II. The chronological series of his chief deeds.

It is inquired when B. Hathumar Since Charlemagne often inflicted disaster upon the Saxons, and often received hostages from them, it cannot be said with certainty in what year B. Hathumar was handed over to him as a hostage. Most recent writers nevertheless refer this matter, not improbably, to the year of Christ 772, after Charles had destroyed the idol called Irmensul, and had inflicted a vast disaster upon the Saxons. Whence our Schaten at the same year in the History of Westphalia, book 7, page 435, thus cautiously writes: By this expedition a great part of Saxony, as we shall afterwards report, had been claimed for the Christian religion and by arms. The Saxons promised many things after the manner of their nation, and also solemnly swore many things, for the performance of which they gave twelve hostages to Charles, whom, going out of Saxony, he led with him into Eastern Francia; and among these two distinguished youths of the first nobility, Hathumar and Badurar, are recorded, certainly brought over on this or on some very near expedition, whom he handed over to St. Burchard, bishop of Würzburg, to be formed in the Christian religion, where, on account of their excellent disposition and progress in letters and in manners, they were taken into the clergy; from which both afterwards, being chosen the first bishops of the men of Paderborn, famous for doctrine and for holiness of life, brought back to their countrymen the true light of religion by that illustrious traffic of hostages.

[13] John George Eckhart in the Commentaries on the affairs of Eastern Francia and of the bishopric of Würzburg, volume 1, page 621, was given as a hostage to Charlemagne, or book 24, number 132, no less cautiously assigns the year of this transaction in these words: Irminsul being destroyed, Charles, by the consent of all the annals, came to the Weser, where the Saxons submitted themselves to him, and he himself, twelve hostages being received, returned into Francia. Among these hostages could now have been Hathumar, sprung of the Saxon nation, who, as Ido reports in the Translation of Liborius, while he was still a boy, being given as a hostage to the emperor Charles in time of war, was ordered to be kept at Würzburg, where afterwards, being tonsured and given over to the studies of letters, he advanced into a man perfect in manners and in learning; and hence at length was made the first bishop of Paderborn. The genuine text of Ido, or of the anonymous Saxon, we exhibited in the Acts of St. Liborius at the XXIII day of July, or volume V of that month, page 415. Then in the same place Eckhart attributes the instruction of B. Hathumar not to St. Burchard, prelate of Würzburg, as Schaten will have it, but to his successor Megingaud, as we briefly indicated above at number 7, thus: That he was handed over to Megingaud bishop of Würzburg on the present expedition I do not doubt to believe. Then also to that same bishop and his successors, who by the ordination of St. Burchard were inspectors of the Saxon churches, Charles committed the care of converting the men of Paderborn to the faith. Now it must be examined in what year B. Hathumar was raised to the bishopric of the city of Paderborn, which afterwards received its own prelate.

[14] The author of the Life of St. Meinwerk, Gobelinus Persona in the Cosmodromium, and ascended the see of Paderborn, and other more recent chronologers, commonly assert that B. Hathumar ascended the see of Paderborn in the year of Christ 795. But to this chronology the praised Ido, or the anonymous Saxon writer, seems to be opposed, who in the Translation of St. Liborius has the following concerning B. Hathumar: He, by the command of the prince (namely Charlemagne), was ordained the first bishop of the church of Paderborn: after whose ordination, a few years having passed, the same most glorious prince departed from this light. But Charles departed from among the living in the year of Christ 814, as the chronographers agree. How therefore can Charles rightly be said to have departed from this life a few years after the ordination of B. Hathumar, if the latter had already from the year of Christ 795 occupied the see of Paderborn? Since on that hypothesis about nineteen years would have run out, certainly so great an interval of time does not seem able to be expressed by "a few years." Add that the writer of the Life of St. Meinwerk, Cratepolius, and the others alleged above, assign only nine years to the bishopric of B. Hathumar.

[15] Schaten saw this difficulty, and therefore in the History of Westphalia, book 9, page 560, after the words of the ancient writer have been reported, raises the same objection against himself, concerning which matter Schaten disputes,

and thus attempts to dissolve it: But Charles died in the year of Christ 814; and, if Hathumar was ordained bishop a few years before that year of his death, hardly can the beginnings of his bishopric be referred to the year 795, of which we are treating. But this author here treats of the year of his ordination, in which he was consecrated bishop. For it was not unusual that the first bishops of Saxony were first laid under the charge of ruling and teaching, and afterwards consecrated bishops; as has been ascertained in the case of St. Willehad and St. Ludger. Nor can it seem likely to anyone that the church of Paderborn was left without its own bishop until the last years of Charles's life, since the other dioceses already had their own bishops, and Bernulf, who up to that time had administered the bishopric of Paderborn in a vicarious office, had in the previous year been advanced to the bishopric of Würzburg; so that even from that fact provision had to be made of its own bishop for the vacant see. Schaten, book 1 of the Annals of Paderborn, page 30, repeats similar things more at large.

[16] and concerning the beginning of whose bishopric But the aforesaid Eckhart does not acquiesce in these things, when in the Commentaries on Eastern Francia just praised, book 25, number 78, he thus confidently refutes that chronological arrangement: Gobelinus Persona, in the Sixth Age of the Cosmodromium, chapter 38, reports that in the year 795 the church of Paderborn was founded and Hathumar was set over it as bishop. But he is a later writer, and does not deserve credit: for Charles is not recorded to have come to Paderborn in this year, nor did the region, hitherto not yet sufficiently pacified, give room for establishing bishops. Then at number 110 of the same book 25 he thus assails, from a twofold text of Ido, the same year which some assign to the beginning of the bishopric of Paderborn: From these words of an author worthy of credit, and not very far removed from those times, a Saxon also and a priest of Paderborn, it is manifest that Charles indeed built the church at Paderborn, and decreed that there should be a see of a bishop there, and that the same was consecrated in this year 799 and endowed with the relics of St. Stephen by Pope Leo; but that it did not yet have its own bishop, and that therefore it was again commended to the protection of Bernwelf, bishop of Würzburg, who had hitherto taken care that the sacred rites should be administered there by his own men and that the conversion of the Saxons should be promoted. The author of the Life of St. Meinwerk therefore, and those who follow him, are deceived when they report that the bishopric of Paderborn was already established in the year 795, and that Hathumar was set over it: for Ido besides says that after the ordination of Hathumar, A FEW YEARS HAVING PASSED, Charles died. Whence it appears that Hathumar was at last made bishop a few years before the death of Charles, and that up to that time the church of Paderborn stood under the procuration of the prelates of Würzburg. Although the explanation of our Schaten is not to be despised, yet I judge the chronology of Eckhart more probable.

[17] the opinions of authors are diverse. Gaspar Bruschius, Henry Pantaleon, and other more recent writers assert that Pope Leo in the year 799 was honorably received at Paderborn by Hathumar, already bishop, and by the emperor Charles, and they fix other deeds of that Prelate to determined years. Although these things and the like are uncertain, both on account of the chronology of Eckhart already set forth, and on account of the silence of the ancient writers, yet we in no way doubt concerning the extraordinary virtues of B. Hathumar which he exercised in his bishopric, and which Schaten in the History of Westphalia, book 9, page 560, thus summarily reports: Hathumar, up to his twentieth year, so approved himself by the commendation of all the virtues that Charles, by the counsel and authority of the remaining bishops, set him before the rest over the church of Paderborn. Thereafter Hathumar bore his bishopric with an illustrious fame of sanctity: since indeed the ancient writer of the Translation of St. Liborius calls him A MAN PERFECT IN EVERY KIND OF VIRTUE, and one who first formed his diocese in the Christian religion, and led all the people from the superstition of the heathen to the faith of Christ, churches being built everywhere, parishes ordained, and priests set over them, who should administer the Sacraments to the people. Finally, as long as he lived, always dear to Charles, and surviving him even to the year 815, he toiled in cultivating this vineyard of his. Concerning these and similar illustrious deeds of B. Hathumar we do not doubt, although, for the reasons already brought forward, we do not dare to fix them to a certain time. Wherefore we pass on to discussing the time of his happy death, in the assigning of which several have strayed from the true chronology.

[18] The Anonymous of Abdinghof, who wrote the Life of St. Meinwerk, The erroneous opinion of certain persons has these words concerning the death of B. Hathumar in our work, volume 1 of June, page 511: But when blessed Hathumar, in the ninth year of his bishopric, in the eight hundred and fourth of the Lord's Incarnation, had been withdrawn from this light, and taken up, as we believe, to everlasting life, there succeeded him a distinguished man, by name Badurad. But that author is without doubt mistaken, and is manifestly convicted of error from the ancient little book on the construction of New or Saxon Corvey, which we in volume II of June reprinted, after Duchesne, Meibom, and Mabillon, from the Gladbach and Böddeken Mss., and in which, in the same place, page 1031, we reported the following: And it came to pass at the same time that the most serene emperor Louis held an assembly * in Saxony, in the place which is called Paderborn, in the second year of his reign, and of the Lord's Incarnation the eight hundred and fifteenth. Then the aforesaid abbot came to him, and spoke with him in counsel, urging that for the advancement of the Christian religion in that same province he should order a monastery of monks to be built: which, when the most pious prince had kindly received it, it pleased him to summon the bishop, by name Hathumar, to whose diocese belonged the place where the monastery was to be built, that it might be done by his command and will.

[19] Schaten, book 1 of the Annals of Paderborn, page 53, alleges the words of that same ancient little book, concerning the death of B. Hathumar is refuted, and at page 54 from these and other circumstances thus reasons concerning the time of the death of B. Hathumar: For the rest, bishop Hathumar did not long survive this assembly at Paderborn and this meeting with the emperor Louis: for that he lived to this year, those things which we have reported testify; and then, because in the Liborian Acts it is recorded that, Charlemagne being dead, bishop Hathumar also, no long time after, was taken up from this mortality to everlasting life, as we believe, whom Badurad succeeded. The day of his death is recorded in the Necrology of the monastery of Abdinghof with us in these words: On the V of the Ides of August died Hathumar the bishop; which day we determine to belong to this fifteenth year, and the second of the emperor Louis. And if from the year of Christ 795 the beginnings of the bishopric, as we have recorded, be reckoned to this year 815, the whole years which Hathumar passed in his bishopric will be twenty. Wherefore Gobelinus, Krantz, Bruschius, Cratepolius, and Kensenbroch are deceived, who write that he departed in the ninth year of his bishopric, being led into error by the author of the Life of bishop Meinwerk, by whom this same year was first wrongly recorded.

[20] Although Eckhart dissents from Schaten in certain things, and by various arguments as we have seen above, yet in volume 2 of the praised Work, page 120, citing the same little book on the construction of New Corvey, he agrees with Schaten concerning the time of the death of B. Hathumar, and at page 121 concludes from the words of this little book that B. Hathumar died in the year of Christ 815 or the following. Nay more, at page 19 of the same volume he had already before conjectured that certain Annals were continued by B. Hathumar from the year of Christ 803 to the death of Charlemagne, as he sets forth in the same place in these words: Hence it occurred to me that these Annals were composed by Egilbert or Egilward, Canon of Würzburg, and, after the promotion of Bernwelf to the bishopric, procurator of the church of Paderborn, and at length royal Notary, as we suspected above. It confirms us in this opinion that these Annals end at the assembly of Mainz of this year (namely of the Lord's Incarnation 803): for at that time Egilward undertook the government of the bishopric of Würzburg. Frisius in the Chronicle, from an ancient monument now lost, says: Egilbart on the XVI of the Kalends of July, in the year 803, UNDERTOOK THE EPISCOPAL OFFICE. The Baluzian Chronicle of Würzburg makes no mention at all of Egilward, which is to be lamented. Since therefore from the month of June of this year Egilward could not continue the Annals, another set his hand to them, who had the care of the church of Paderborn after him (for he goes on to report Saxon affairs carefully); and if I should say that this was Hathumar, afterwards the first bishop of Paderborn, perhaps I do not entirely err. He carried the work on from the year 803 to the death of Charlemagne, and, a solemn computation of the times being added, there concluded it.

[21] the more probable year of it is established. Whatever be the case concerning this conjecture of Eckhart and the determined year in which B. Hathumar passed to the world above, at least this first Prelate of Paderborn already from the year of Christ 822 had in his see Badurad as successor, as is clear from the ancient Chronicle of Corvey, which in Meibom, volume 1 of German Affairs, page 755, has it thus: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 822, in the XV Indiction, on the eighth of the Kalends of September, on the second day of the week, the monks who had before dwelt for seven years in the place which is called Hetha, going out thence with crosses and relics, came to this place; and by the bishop Badurad, who was then present, the name of Corvey was imposed on the place, and, a tent being raised, and the crosses and relics being brought in, they dedicated the place in the honor and name of St. Stephen the protomartyr, burying in the ground the cross of Christ, where now the altar is known to be. The same is confirmed from the Annals of Corvey, which Christian Francis Paullini first published in type in the Syntagma of German affairs and antiquities, and which Gottfried William Leibniz afterwards reprinted among the Writers of Brunswick affairs, where in volume 2, page 296, he reports these things from the same Annals: 815, on the Kalends of July, in the solemn court which Louis, son of Charles, held at Paderborn, the foundation of Saxon Corvey, on account of his father's vow and the praiseworthy piety of the king, was decreed and begun. Then the writer of the Annals in the same place, after other matters, at the year of Christ 822 notes these things, opportunely to our purpose: 822. The Brethren from the forest migrate out of Hechi, partly to the Weser, and, according to the intention of Charles our first founder, they began to build in the village of Höxter in honor of God and of B. Stephen the first martyr of the New Testament, the place having been consecrated beforehand by Badurad, bishop at Paderborn, on the VIII of the Kalends of September. Although from what has been said hitherto it follows that B. Hathumar departed from this life between the year of Christ 815 and 822, nevertheless we cannot from thence determine the certain year of his death. Since nevertheless the ancient writer in the Translation of St. Liborius, in our work, volume V of July, page 417, asserts that, Charles being dead, and bishop Hathumar also no long time after being taken up from this mortality to everlasting life, as we believe, Badurad succeeded in the place of this Prelate of Paderborn, we fix the death of B. Hathumar to the year of Christ 815, or defer it to the following year, as Eckhart judges may be done; and therefore above in the margin we have expressed both these years.

* that is, an assembly