ON THE HOLY ANONYMOUS MARTYRS OF BODOBRIGA OR BOPPARD IN GERMANY,
WHICH IS NOW COMMONLY CALLED BOPPARD, THERE FOUND,
A.D. CXLII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The anonymous Martyrs, at Bodobriga, or Boppard, in Germany (SS.)
BHL Number: 5672
BY J. P.
§ I. Notice of the place; the document of the finding compared with the history of the same, and elucidated by various observations.
Bodobriga, which is now commonly called Boppard, these Martyrs outside the walls of Boppard is described by Baudrand, an inspector of that place, in these words: Bodobriga, a city of Germany, from the book of the Notitia, Baudobriga in Antoninus, commonly Boppart, although the inhabitants pronounce it Bopprt, a small city of Germany on the river Rhine in the territory of Trier, and in the tract called the Ridge of the Huns; it was formerly imperial and free, but in the year MCCCXII it was pledged to Balduin, archbishop of Trier, by the emperor Henry VII his brother, and in the year MCDXCIV it was perpetually united to the Electorate of Trier under John of Baden its archbishop. It sits at the roots of a hill near the highlands of Podera, as I have several times seen, scarcely 2 German miles distant from St. Goar toward the north, as it is 5 from Bingen, and as many toward Coblenz, and 3 from Nassau toward the west, on the border of the lower County of Katzenelnbogen. This city is topographically represented in Crombach, in his work on the life and martyrdom of St. Ursula and her companions, in the map which belongs to book 4, chapter 8, of the second volume: concerning the etymology of which city something will be said below in the annotations to the history of the finding of our Saints. This place, then, very many holy anonymous Martyrs made illustrious, whose bodies had been buried there in peace for many centuries, and had lain hidden and unknown; until at length it pleased divine providence to manifest their glory to the generation to come by the wonderful finding of that sacred treasure, which happened in the thirteenth century. Before all things it is well here to set down beforehand a notice of the event from a document in our Hermann Crombach, in the Appendix to the martyrdom of St. Ursula, volume 2, book 11, chapter 1, a copy of which he testifies was transcribed from an authentic instrument and most courteously transmitted to him by the Rev. Fr. Lotz, provincial of the Stricter Observance, and which he brings forward from page 1093 in these words:
[2] To the honorable men, and lords beloved in Christ, the abbots, that they were found is proved from the instrument which is here given, priors, provosts, deans, archpriests, pastors or vice-plebans of cathedral or of conventual churches, of parish churches or of chapels, and to all other rectors of churches, to whom the present schedule shall come: Hartmann, provost, and the Convent of the church of the Mount of St. Mary at Boppard, Canons of the church of B. Severus. In the same place, the schultheiss, the knights, the aldermen, and the whole body of the citizens of the same place, greeting in Him who is the salvation of all. Whereas we have now for some while understood, from many men and women worthy of credit relating it to us, that when they had been at Wetzlar and at Marburg for the visiting of the relics of the Saints, and had come to Altenberg to visit the venerable virgin, consecrated to God, the daughter of blessed Elizabeth, they heard from her own mouth that near Boppard, outside the walls, there was situated a chapel dedicated in honor of blessed Martin, where many relics of the Saints reposed, and that it was not very needful to betake themselves to remote places for the visiting of the relics of the Saints. And so, in the meantime and now at present, since that chapel was consumed by excessive age and brought to ruin, and good men had begun to repair the said church honorably, becomingly, and with costly work, to the honor of God and of His most blessed Mother, and of St. Martin, behold, at the very beginning of that work, according as the aforesaid virgin, the daughter of blessed Elizabeth, had foretold, when they dug deep they happily found many bodies laid away and resting in Christ, and also a certain sword, in token of the martyrdom of the aforesaid bodies, in a certain sarcophagus — by which sword, namely, their heads being cut off, they undoubtedly passed over to the Lord by a happy martyrdom, from the year of the Lord's Incarnation CXLII, as was found in the same place in the carving of the stones beneath the earth. Given in the year one thousand two hundred and eighty, of Laurence the martyr. I, the undersigned, attest it.
[3] and is compared with the History of the finding which Brower published, Thus far the document of the finding; and since the truth of the matter rests upon its credit, we shall compare it with the history of the same finding which is found in our Christopher Brower in the Annals of Trier at the year of Christ 1200, that is, book 15, page 838 and following, drawn from a public rescript and diploma of the town of Boppard; but in that edition of those Annals which our Jacob Masen brought to light, from page 97. For although the praised document of the finding and its history have come forth from the same source, yet because this latter contains some things which do not cohere quite rightly with the former, as Crombach observes, we shall endeavor to weigh the present argument in the just balance of truth, and to elucidate it by observations, dividing it into the several heads of accusation with which Crombach charges Brower in the Appendix cited, page 1094. The first accusation, then, concerns the transcript, which, he says, I judge that a certain most learned man (he silently indicates Brower) had in a corrupted state, who believed that those Martyrs were found in the year MCC on the Octave of St. Laurence, and were discovered by St. Elizabeth of Schönau, who perhaps for the sake of piety or of duty was at Altenberg when the men of Boppard were making their pilgrimage thither, and whom these also, moved by the report of her sanctity, approached. And passing straightway from the transcript to the history composed from it, he adds these things: What displeases me in this narration generally is that, without reason, foundation, witness, or any other manuscript cited, it departs from those letters which I have recited, although it praises them alone. These things Crombach observes in general concerning that history; and presently descending to particulars, the same author continues thus: Then in particular three things are not approved: the time of the finding altered, the pilgrimage of the men of Boppard set too early, and a new revelation attributed to St. Elizabeth of Schönau.
[4] Let the second accusation therefore now be set down by us, concerning the time, which Crombach charges in Crombach's words: The time, I say, of the finding does not please me: because in the letters, in whole syllables, the year is noted in this manner: In the year one thousand, two hundred, eighty, of St. Laurence. But by this man, perhaps through the negligence of a transcriber, the word OCTUAGESIMO is changed into the Octave of St. Laurence. Whence, since he thinks the Martyrs were dug up in the year MCC, when not even the mother of St. Elizabeth herself had been born (whom Lipsius, in the place cited, thinks to have been brought forth only in the year MCCVII), he was obliged to take refuge in Elizabeth of Schönau, who had flourished fifty years before, although this manifestly conflicted with the letters that have been praised. Concerning the anticipation of the pilgrimage of the men of Boppard he notes those things which will be for us the matter of another accusation.
[5] Now that accusation, which we put in the third place, contains various reasons by which Crombach contends as being by no means sincere, that that pilgrimage is to be deferred to a later time. For who, he says, about the year of the Lord MCLII, in which St. Elizabeth of Schönau began to be famous for the prophetic spirit, makes mention of pilgrimages undertaken from Germany to Marburg out of the territory of Trier? To the relics of what Saints did pilgrims flock thither before the death of St. Elizabeth the widow? Let us nevertheless grant that pilgrimages of Christians to those same places were customary at that season, and that 40 or 50 years after the death of this St. Elizabeth, when the church of St. Martin was falling to pieces with age, men were not yet forgetful of that token of the holy Martyrs buried at Boppard; but how am I to believe that such things were divinely foreknown and announced at Altenberg by St. Elizabeth of Schönau? For first, what historian ever said that this nun — who from the twelfth year of her age, having professed the rule of St. Benedict at Schönau, always remained there (save when, bidden by an angelic warning, she went to visit St. Hildegard in the neighboring monastery of Bingen) — removed to Altenberg, whether for the sake of piety or of duty, to the ascetic house of the Premonstratensians of St. Norbert?
[6] Then, suppose she had removed thither: why did she herself — who so diligently took care to have noted down the notices given her by God, especially concerning the holy Martyrs, and as laboring under various defects. and each several revelation, with the very days added on which she had received them — why, I say, did she nowhere make any mention of this, nor her brother Egbert, nor the other writers of her life? And why, when she lived twenty years at Schönau, in a neighboring place (which is scarcely one day's journey distant from Boppard), did she not bring forth the divine oracle? What need was there that she should be met with at Altenberg, a place so far removed? These things being thus reported, Crombach subjoins these and concludes the matter: Let it therefore remain beyond doubt that credit is to be given to those witnesses who heard and saw, concerning that matter which they had lately heard foretold by the daughter of St. Elizabeth, and which in the year MCCLXXX (when she, still surviving, presided as mistress over that same convent of Altenberg) came to pass in the event, and was confirmed by the very disinterment of the holy Martyrs; which same men, together with the magistracy of the town, sacred and civil, by tablets set up in testimony, faithfully transmitted the order of the event to posterity. We have here two authors, in the historical narration of the holy Martyrs quite contrary to one another; which of the two has the better cause may then be seen, when Crombach's accusations against Brower shall have been examined by us.
[7] [We] The first accusation, which would have it that the transcript from which Brower composed the history of the finding was corrupted, and an Octave substituted for the year eightieth, is not a thing that need detain us here: for it must be proved or disproved from what follows, in which we descend to particulars. Yet in Crombach's copy the phrase of Laurence the martyr, which is set immediately after in the year one thousand two hundred and eightieth, displeases us. For the expression is imperfect, unless you would have day or feast, or something of the sort, understood. Let us now weigh the second accusation, which concerned the time of the finding, which happened in the year of Christ 1280 according to Crombach, but according to Brower in the year 1200; the latter maintaining that the matter was foretold by the daughter of St. Elizabeth of Schönau, but the former by the daughter of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia: in which difference turns the chief hinge of the present controversy. The daughter of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, by name Gertrude, consecrated herself to God in the monastery of Altenberg; she also presided over the same in the thirteenth century; and finally in the same, in the year of Christ 1297, she died in the odor of sanctity, having afterwards, namely, obtained the title of Blessed.
[8] to Crombach's Let us prove each point. Theodoric of Thuringia, contemporary with St. Elizabeth, in her Life, which is extant in Canisius, volume 5 of the Ancient Readings, book 2, chapter 5, pages 163 and 164, writes thus of her: She bore… a son named Hermann, who was his father's successor as landgrave of Thuringia. A daughter also, whom the Duke of Brabant took to wife. And likewise another daughter, who, remaining in virginity, served in the convent of Altenberg, being lady [\] and mistress of the nuns to this day. Her name was Gertrude, as Brower testifies at the year 1248: After, he says, speaking of St. Elizabeth, that so bitter mishap, namely of her husband snatched from life, Elizabeth laid down her burden, and the girl brought forth into the light bore in baptism the name Gertrude.* The other things which the same author has concerning Gertrude, brought by her mother to the convent of Altenberg and consecrated to the Premonstratensian religion; likewise concerning her life and headship there, and also concerning her death with the repute of sanctity in the year of the Lord 1297, I pass over, since this blessed Gertrude has been treated of among us in volume III of August, on the XIII day, from page 142.
[9] opinion To these let us add in passing something concerning the praised nunnery of Altenberg. Brower, at the year I mentioned, 1248, says, The hill which the nunnery occupies is not far from the town of Wetzlar. In Baudrand, volume 2, are noted the imperial and free cities… which acknowledged the Empire immediately, and in part still acknowledge it; and in their alphabetical catalogue, page 436, is placed Wetzlaria, Wetzlar, in Hesse, under the protection of the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt from the year MDCXIII. He who desires more notices concerning this place may consult Merian in the Topography of Hesse and the neighboring regions, from page 84. Jacques Basnage, a heterodox writer, shamefully confounded the Premonstratensian convent just designated with a convent of the same name of men, and of the Benedictine Order, in Flanders, which is situated in the territory of Bruges. For in his new edition of the Ancient Readings of Henry Canisius, volume 4, page 124, concerning the praised nunnery of Altenberg he notes this: A convent of the Benedictine Order, founded in the wood of Cosfurt in honor of St. Peter, in Flanders. As many words here, so nearly as many errors, as is manifest from what has been said above. Concerning this convent of Altenberg you will find more in volume III of August, on the XV day, page 221. Now let us return to the finding of our Champions.
[10] Indeed the arguments which Crombach urged against the history of the same, we assent. which is extant in Brower, convince us to assent to his system, and to say that the matter about which there is here controversy happened in the time of Bl. Gertrude, the daughter of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia. For the place, the time, and the other circumstances cohere so aptly and so neatly with the instrument of Boppard produced above, that no room seems left for doubting. For thus, among other things, it is understood, first, that suitably to the year 1280 marked in the same instrument, many of
those pilgrims were then still surviving, who had held converse concerning our Martyrs with the venerable virgin consecrated to God. Secondly, that she was the daughter of a holy mother, namely of Blessed Elizabeth: so that recourse does not seem possible to St. Elizabeth the virgin of Schönau in the diocese of Trier, whose mother would have had to be likewise named Elizabeth, and blessed, according to the oft-mentioned instrument. But neither of these do I find among us on the XVIII day of June, where the Acts of St. Elizabeth of Schönau were illustrated. From what has been said it is concluded that the pilgrimage of the men of Boppard to the nunnery of Altenberg was set eighty years too early by Brower, according to the testimony of the instrument which we recited at number 2, and according to Crombach's accusation which we set in the third place at number 5; so that nothing seems to need to be added to it.
AnnotationsPerhaps Lord*.
§ II. The time of the martyrdom, the number of the Saints, their burial, their public veneration.
The instrument of Boppard says, Their martyrdom happened in the year 142: they undoubtedly passed over to the Lord by a happy martyrdom, from the year of the Lord's Incarnation CXLII, as was found in the same place in the carving of the stones beneath the earth. But whether that year was there expressed in numeral letters, or was ascertained by other tokens, is not said; much less is it said that there was noted in that carving the formula of reckoning time from the year of the Lord's Incarnation, which formula was first begun among the Latins by Dionysius Exiguus in the sixth century, but admitted long afterwards (on which matter Mabillon may be consulted, De re diplomatica, book 2, chapter 23, number 13); and indeed, if that reckoning were said to have been written in that carving, it would be of too recent and uncertain an age to be able to gain credit. Even therefore though that Dionysian reckoning be employed in the instrument of the finding in the thirteenth century, since it is not proved that this very reckoning stood thus in the ancient writing, there is no reason why that writing should be thrust out from its ancient possession of sincerity in the noting of the year 142: to which year also Brower, in the history of the same finding which we shall produce below, and Crombach, already cited before, affix the palm of our Martyrs; and with these we refer their martyrdom to the reign of Antoninus Pius. More things pertaining to the present argument are heaped together in the same Crombach from page 1095, the examining of which one by one, and the setting forth of them at length, we forbear. In the meantime there may be consulted what Tillemont collected concerning the state of the Church under the emperor Antoninus, in volume 2 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, in St. Justin, article 13.
[12] [their number does not extend beyond sixteen: in what manner the Martyrs were buried.] Concerning the number and the names of the Martyrs Crombach writes thus: The number of the Martyrs does not seem to have been so very great, nor do the heads exceed the number sixteen. The names of those who were found have perished: for none were either found in the monuments, or made known by Bl. Gertrude. But in what manner their bodies had been buried he had set forth before, page 1093: They find, he says, the bodies of the holy Martyrs separated in individual coffins. And that, still mindful of Bl. Gertrude's warning, they might in no wise doubt of the sanctity of the ashes, they dig out another monument nearby, in which a naked sword was laid up, which, the head being cut off from the necks, they had sprinkled with their own gore — after that custom, as I have often noted, received among Christians even from the beginnings of the Church, that the instruments of martyrdom should be laid up with the sacred ashes, as a token to posterity by what kind of death they had sealed their testimony to the faith. Would that he had added one place or another out of the many in which he treated of that custom received among Christians even from the beginnings of the Church, so that the finding of that sword, which seems in some way strange, might be confirmed to us from elsewhere.
[13] From various It remains last that the public cultus of our Champions be established. Various testimonies concerning it Crombach brings forward from page 1096 in these words: God, he says, seems to have honored the Martyrs raised from the earth by prodigies, and men to have honored them at once with religious cultus. For in the northern part of the church, beneath the stone steps by which one ascends to the choir of the nuns, an altar is seen built, near which a most fragrant odor is perceived: for Fr. Pius Bodenheim, of the Stricter Observance, the arbiter of the virgins' consciences, both absent by letter and in person reported that he, being ignorant of the matter, moved by a hidden and pious impulse, approached the place, and that his mind seemed to him to be there refreshed with a singular sweetness of spirit, although he knew not the sanctity of the place. He adds that there was formerly set there a certain seat, upon which, when men leaned with bent knees during divine service, both the seat itself, which survives to this day, and the earth beneath seemed to be moved and lifted.
[14] testimonies, There flourished at that time at Boppard John Flamingius, a priest, in piety and learning, a specimen of whose genius I shall append at the end of the chapter. He with mature counsel raised an altar in that same place, and it rests, and the earth with it, even to this present day. So reports a surviving nun of eighty years, to whom the sisters who lived with Flamingius, eye-witnesses of the matter, reported it. But the bones of the holy Martyrs, and their heads, are for many centuries back placed in an altar, adorned, and honored by the concourse of the people of Boppard, who on festival days resort thither in great numbers, led by the trustworthy narration of their forefathers that all that space which is enclosed between the very great cross in the suburb and the sacred building of St. Martin, now the burial-place of those Martyrs, was of old wet with the blood of Martyrs.
[15] The church was restored, as I said before, about the year MCCLXXX; which he alleges thereafter certain women, bound by no fixed rules, there served God piously, until in the year MCCCCLXXXIX, on the eve of All Saints, the virgin Tertiaries of St. Francis of Coblenz from the hill of Besselich reformed the place, and renewed all things according to the prescript of the Seraphic Father. So testifies an ancient manuscript codex of the convent, written in the vernacular tongue to this effect: "In the year of the Lord MCCCCLXXXIX these statutes were made, to be inviolably observed in the convent of the Religious sisters of St. Martin, who of their own accord, with clear voice and in concord, offered themselves in the chapter house on the sixth feria, on the vigil of All Saints, at the morning hours, in the presence of two sisters of the hill of Besselich (who had come thither by the mandate of the most reverend archbishop of Trier, with the license of the Guardian of the Fathers of the Observance at Coblenz) for the advancing of this convent in the progress of the Religious life, right order and good reformation being kept according to the institute, the laws and the customs of the hill of Besselich and of other Religious convents, with the observance of their holy rule and profession." This reformation was urged by John II, archbishop of Trier, of the most illustrious family of the Margraves of Baden, who died in the year MDIII, after he had presided over the see of Trier for LVII years.
[16] These things having been often written to me, I afterwards wished to take them in with my own eyes in person, and to hear from the inhabitants what they had received by report and by the tradition of their forefathers: Crombach I saw the more sacred place, the altar set beneath the steps, I read the inscriptions of the church, I heard the narrations of the virgins and of the citizens, and I found all things agreeable to those things which I had already written before; having also piously venerated the sacred remains of the Martyrs, I beheld the sword by which the Champions of Christ were slain, now eaten away with rust, to which such an inscription was attached: This is the sword which was found with these martyrs. Among all the skulls one stands out, upon which a very great wound, dealt with a slashing stroke to the forehead near the right eye, is visible, with this epigraph: This is the head of the martyr found with the sword. There remain besides sixteen other skulls, of these Martyrs chiefly, as I suspect, yet inserted among the relics of other Saints, whose names for the most part are set beside them; all which, becomingly adorned, are set upon the altars, and have been so for many centuries back, together with the rusty sword, so that it cannot be doubted that from the time of the finding down to now a religious cultus has been attributed to them, although they have no anniversary day: yet one might rightly be assigned to them in the month of August after the octave of the Assumption of the Mother of God, because about that time they seem to have been found and raised.
[17] Let us add the poem which John Flamingius, a priest, concerning their immemorial cultus it is sufficiently established. sang to these Athletes of Christ, and which I found inscribed on a tablet of parchment and fixed to the wall of the church. He calls himself of Boniportus for this reason, that that town, as it was called Bodobriga by the Romans, so in later centuries was called Boniportus: this name it retains also in the most ancient registers of the archiepiscopal revenues of Trier.
Much blood, once poured out for the name of Christ, Is believed to have been shed of the Saints in this place. Many holy bodies of the Blessed were found Beneath the earth; which lay hidden many days. And an epigram was found, graven in Latin characters Upon a stone, which pious men had set there. A sword too had been laid beside them, by which are said to have been slain The bodies of the Saints, when they bore their death. Wherefore, whoever thou art that shalt enter this sacred house, Say, I pray, that Ivo may enjoy the ethereal light. Whom heavenly love and holy piety compelled Thus to repair this place unto the praise of Christ, Which would now be neglected with age, and would lie fallen, Had not the pious Ivo renewed it again. So therefore for long years is this place venerated, Whence be praises to God and perpetual honor.
These things I ascertained concerning the Martyrs of Boppard, which I wished first to publish for this reason also, that I might stir up the zeal of the inhabitants and of the dwellers round about to restore the cultus of those Martyrs and to propagate it more widely, and to search out more accurately the traces and the ancient traditions concerning them, that God might be more religiously honored in these Martyrs. It remains that there be exhibited
THE HISTORY OF THE FINDING
From the Annals of Trier of our Christopher Brower, at the year of Christ 1200, that is, book 15, page 838 and following.
The anonymous Martyrs, at Bodobriga, or Boppard, in Germany (SS.)
From Brower.
From the revelation of a certain holy Virgin In the year which dawned after the birth of Christ, the thousandth beyond the two hundredth a, the illustrious monuments of the Martyrs who at Bodabriga b, under the emperor Antoninus c, in Germania Secunda d, had met death for the religion of Christ, were dug out of the darkness into the light, and, hidden through the space of so many years thereafter in an obscure cave, were, by the gift of the immortal God, upon the finding of their tombs beneath the chapel of St. Martin, thus brought forth into the knowledge of men. At that time, when Bl. Elizabeth of Schönau e still dwelt among mortals, there was frequently made, according to the religion of that age, a pilgrimage of the inhabitants of Boppard to the churches of Wetzlar and Marburg beyond the Rhine, then not obscure in the territories of the Chatti f, for the venerating of the relics of the Saints there. Altenberg g is a convent, as we shall say in its place, of sacred virgins of the Premonstratensian discipline, where Elizabeth was then perhaps dwelling for the sake of duty or of piety. Hither the men of Boppard, moved by the report of her sanctity, having come to greet her, and various discourses having passed to and fro, as is wont, the virgin at last asked: Why did they weary themselves with so great a running about and so great trouble of journeys, in order to see and touch the ashes of the Blessed? At the same time she showed that they had at home what with great labor, and often with no fruit, they sought among strangers: for that there stood an ancient little building near Boppard beneath the walls, sacred to St. Martin; that therein were laid up relics of the Saints in good number, and that there was no need of great labors and expenses of journeys for the honoring of them. Nor did the divine virgin say more at that time.
[2] Some time yet intervened, when
the chapel, no longer bearing the injury of age, the bodies of these Martyrs were discovered. and by its very fall and ruin attesting its desolation, so wrought upon both the Clergy and the people of the town by pity for itself, that they raised a building worthy of that soil, with alms also collected by letters sent round about to the neighboring towns for that purpose, and dedicated it to the honor of the Martyrs under the ancient names of the Virgin Mary and of St. Martin. When therefore the workmen were sweating at the laying of the foundations in the ground, the earth being cast up from a deeper level, behold for you a burial-place h of sacred bodies, each disposed in its own coffins or sarcophagi; and going forward they find a monument in which a naked sword, or axe, was laid up: and that the Martyrs had stained this very weapon with their happy gore, and, the head being severed from the necks, had rendered to Christ the illustrious testimony of their faith about the one hundred and forty-second year of Christ, an ancient inscription i of a stone found in the same place declared; and that this so happened in this year, Hartmann, provost of the convent of the church of the Mount of St. Mary at Boppard, the canons of B. Severus, then lately established there, the mayor of the town, the knights, the aldermen, and finally the whole body of the citizens attest by letters, in which they begged supports for the restoring of the church, given on the octave k of St. Laurence.
Thereafter, without doubt, a greater and larger concourse came to the place, as did fitting honor. But as happy stocks also die when they have struggled with foreign and hostile soil, so ancient piety is choked by the tares of errors and of depraved doctrine. Hence so deep a forgetfulness of the Martyrs and of the sacred place crept over both the inhabitants themselves and the virgin guardians of the sacred threshold, not long-lived, that to me, when I once made trial of inspecting the matter there in person, they related everything else rather than anything concerning the tombs and the combats of the Martyrs: whereon my discourse also has carried me the longer in vindicating their honor.