Martyrs of Ebstorf

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF EBSTORF, THEODERIC, BISHOP OF MINDEN, MARQUARD, BISHOP OF HILDESHEIM, BRUNO, DUKE OF SAXONY; WIGMANN, BARDO, A SECOND BARDO, A THIRD BARDO, THIOTHERIC, GERRIC, LIUTOLF, FOLCWART, AVANUS, THIOTRIC, LIUTHAR, COUNTS; ADERAM, ALFWIN, ADDASTA, AIDA, A SECOND AIDA, DUDO, BODO, WALO, HALILF, HUNILDIUN, ADALWIN, WERINHART, THIOTRICH, HILWART, ROYAL ATTENDANTS, AND OTHER COMPANIONS AND SERVANTS; AND LIKEWISE ERLULF, BISHOP OF VERDEN, AND GOSBERT, BISHOP OF OSNABRÜCK.

Year 880.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

S. Theodericus, Bishop of Minden, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Marquardus, Bishop of Hildesheim, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Bruno, Duke of Saxony, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Wigmannus, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Bardo, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Bardo the second, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Bardo the third, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Thiothericus, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Gerricus, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Liutolfus, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Folcwartus, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Auanus, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Thiotricus, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Liutharius, Count, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Aderamus, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Alfuinus, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Addasta, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Aida, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Aida the second, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Dudo, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Bodo, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Walus, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Halilfus, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Hunildiunus, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Adalwinus, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Werinhartus, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Thiotrichus, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Hilwartus, and very many others, Noble, Martyr, at Ebstorf in Lower Saxony. S. Erlulfus, Bishop of Verden, Martyr. S. Gosbertus, Bishop of Osnabrück, Martyr.

BHL Number: 8058

By G. H.

§ I The public veneration of these Saints. The kind, time and place of their martyrdom.

[1] Ebbekstorpium, or Ebbekestorpium, or Ebsdorpium, was a distinguished cenobium of Virgins of the order of S. Benedict, in that part of Lower Saxony which the Dukes of Lüneburg possess, and by which one goes from Lüneburg itself, the Metropolis of the region, toward the south and the tract of Brunswick, The monastery of Ebstorf. not far from Uelzen, a town situated almost at the very centre of the region. In this cenobium there was a most celebrated memory of many Martyrs who in the ninth century of Christ, before the monastery was founded there, were surrounded by the Danes, or Normans, and slaughtered out of hatred of the Christian faith. Their Acts, put together in the thirteenth century by an anonymous Author, partly from the obscure and confused report of the ancestors, partly from notes written without any judgment, perhaps by the nuns themselves, are extant in manuscripts. We obtained them from a codex of the college of the Society of Jesus at Paderborn, with this opening: The Acts of the Martyrs, confused in the manuscripts. Rejoicing more eagerly than usual to Christ, the great King of the nations, let holy Mother Church sing of the victorious triumph of the holy Martyrs, in whom, among the other gentle graces of human felicity, the sincerity of an unimpaired faith shone forth like the morning star. Whose glorious merits and the beauty of their exemplary life are deservedly preserved for eternal memory in the secret receptacles of parchments. Below, at section 24, the Author shows that he saw miracles in the year 1243. Albert Krantz rejects those Acts as akin to old wives' fables in book 2 of the Metropolis, from chapter 6 to 18; and indeed in chapter 16 he testifies that he has digested the history of the event for the sacred Virgins living at Ebbeckstorp, for the perpetual memory of the matter and to eliminate the aforesaid fable. This composition of Krantz, printed after the same Metropolis, and in Krantz: also seemed to us to be of such a kind that it could be approved by no learned man. We shall bring forward more certain things from older and certain contemporary Writers:

from the Paderborn codex as well, which miracles the author saw wrought through his grandfather, and thereby gained credibility: nor shall we neglect anything solid that Krantzius may provide.

[2] The contemporary author who extended the Fulda Annals of the Franks to the death of Louis the Younger, King of Germany, that is, to the year of Christ 882, describes the slaughter of these champions in these words: a summary of them from the Fulda Annals. In the year 880, the winter was harsh and longer than usual. For the Rhine and Main rivers, bound by glacial cold, made themselves passable on foot for a long time. King Louis celebrated the Lord's Nativity at Frankfurt: afterward, having set out for Gaul, he received the sons of Louis who came to him, and subjugated the whole kingdom of Lothar to his dominion. From there, to attack the Northmen, who for a long time in the Scheldt river had settled, he turned his army, and, battle being joined, laid low more than five thousand of them: in which battle Hugo, the King's son, fell. In Saxony the fighting with the Northmen went unhappily. For the Northmen, proving superior, killed two Bishops, whose names are these, Thiotrih and Marcuuart, and twelve Counts, called by these names: Duke Brun, the Queen's brother, Wigmannus, Bardo, a second Bardo, and a third Bardo, Thiotherius, Gerricus, Liutolfus, Fuleuuartus, Avan, Thiotricus, Liutharius, with all who followed them. Besides, they laid low eighteen royal attendants with their men, whose names are these: Aderam, Alfuuini, Addasta, Aida, Alcer, Aida, Dudo, Bodo, Wal, Adaluuini, Weirnhardt, Thiotrich, Ailuuart: not counting the innumerable people whom they led into captivity. The King, returning from Gaul into Francia, celebrated Easter at Frankfurt. The Slavs who are called Dalmatians, and the Bohemians, and the Sorbs, and the other neighbors round about, hearing of the slaughter of the Saxons made by the Northmen, massed together and strove to invade the Thuringians, and carried out plunder and burning among the Slavs about the river Saale who were faithful to the Thuringians. Count Poppo went to meet them and, relying on Divine help, laid them low. Carloman, brother of Louis and Charles, died on the 11th day before the Kalends of April.

[5] The day, month and manner in which the Northmen, having proved superior, slew these Bishops, Dukes, Counts and royal Attendants with their men out of hatred of the faith, is related by Dietmar, who died Bishop of Merseburg in Meissen in the year 1018. He says in book 2 of his Chronicle that Duke Bruno, 2 February, because he had been sent by King Louis on an expedition against the Danes, perished by the flooding of a river, with the two Bishops Thiedricus and Marquardus and the other soldiers, on the fourth day before the Nones of February. More clearly Widukind, monk of Corvey, older than Dietmar, sets out this flooding in his Annals to Queen Mathilda: Bruno, he says in book 1, when he was administering the Dukedom of all Saxony, surrounded by the Northmen, led an army against the Danes, and, encompassed by a sudden flood, having no place to fight, perished with his whole army; forced, that is, to give it up to the will of the Northmen, by whom, above in the Fulda Annals, innumerable people are said to have been led into captivity, Bishops and Dukes slain, the royal attendants laid low with their men and all who followed them. Aegidius Gelenius, in the sacred Fasti of Cologne, relates that, surrounded on the ice by the Northmen and idolatrous Danes, they were killed on account of their defence of the Christian faith. Master Adam, Canon of Bremen, somewhat younger than Dietmar, in book 1 of the Ecclesiastical history, chapter 34, agrees with the Fulda Annals: Then Saxony, he says, was laid waste by the Danes, or Northmen; Duke Brun was slain, with twelve other Counts; the Bishops Tiadericus and Marquardus were cut down. Albert of Stade copied the same words from Adam in his Chronicle at the year 876. Eric of Pomerania, King of Denmark, in the History of the Danish nation, says that King Erik Barn laid waste Saxony, killed Duke Brun and twelve Counts, that the Bishops were then cut down with their flock, slain out of hatred of the faith: that many cities with their citizens and churches with their faithful were burned; and that the Bishops Theodoricus and Narwardus were cut down. Sebastian Münster, and following him François de Belleforest, in book 3 of the Universal Cosmography, in the genealogy of S. Widukind, of whom we treated on the 7th of January, assert that Bruno, the Bishops and others of his army were slain by the Northmen, enemies of the Christian religion, for the faith and the name of Jesus Christ. That these Normans dwelt in Jutland under their own Kings we show on the 3rd of February.

[6] Krantz entitles their Acts, The true history of the holy Martyrs in the monastery of Ebbeckstorp; and in the Preface of the same Acts, to the Virgins devoted and consecrated to God in that monastery, serving under the rule of S. Benedict, he says that he has taken pains that, the vanity being rejected, the deeds concerning the Martyrs buried there might be known, the Martyrs held in Ecclesiastical cult, and thenceforward be proclaimed to the people as they were done: and he urges that, the truth being known, they cast away the fable and venerate with sincere devotion the Martyrs of Christ resting among them: who, as he adds in the Acts, encompassed in a ring of enemies, were cut down by an innumerable multitude, when it pleased God to increase the ranks of the heavenly Saints from those born of earth, and to enrich the poverty of Saxony with the blood of its own Martyrs. And then: This is that slaughter of the holy Martyrs at Ebbeckstorf. Thence come the Relics of the Saints which are venerated, not brought from elsewhere; but buried in the place of the slaughter and of the martyrdom accomplished for Christ. He has the same in book 2 of the Saxonia, chapter 31, and in book 2 of the Metropolis, chapter 3. In the Chronicle of the Bishops of Minden by an uncertain Author, edited by Johannes Pistorius among six ancient Writers of German Affairs, Theodericus, Bishop of Minden, and others, Bishops, Counts and faithful men, are said to have fallen near Ebekestorp, standing undaunted in battle-line for the defence of the faith and the fatherland, the Lord permitting, and to have sought the heavens crowned with the laurel of their blood, 2 February. on the day of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On which day too Gelenius reports them in the sacred Fasti of Cologne, and 1 August. and, from a German Calendar, Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of the Saints, and again, following Krantz, on the Kalends of August, and in both places he calls them holy Martyrs. They are also reported on the first of August in the manuscript Acts; on which day perhaps some elevation or translation of the bodies took place, so that it was believed to be the birthday and day of martyrdom.

§ II The lineage and deeds of S. Bruno.

[4] The year prefixed in the three editions of the Fulda Annals cited before is 880. From this the manuscript codex of S. Trond of the same Annals departs, In the disaster of the year 880, and from the year 870 to the end of the history refers the events of each year to the preceding one, and so reports this disaster of the Saxons in the year 879. But that all these things are more correctly contained in the printed copies is clear and evident from many places. This one, at the death of Louis the Stammerer, King of the Franks, will be enough. The Annals of Saint-Bertin, which are carried down to the year 882 by a contemporary Author, relate that this Louis died on the fourth day before the Ides of April, on the day of the Preparation, already in the evening, and was buried on the morrow, namely on the vigil of holy Easter, in the year 879, in which Easter fell on the 12th of April. The printed Fulda Annals agree with this; nor can his death be referred to the preceding year, in which Easter was celebrated on the 23rd of March. The same Annals of Saint-Bertin intimate that the slaughter of the Martyrs took place in the year 880, in which they report that Louis suffered great loss of his faithful men in Saxony through the Northmen. Of the seat of these Northmen, the family of their Dukes, and their various incursions, we shall treat on the 3rd of February at the Life of S. Anschar.

[3] Thus far the Fulda Annals of the Franks published by Duchesne in volume 2 of the Writers of the History of the Franks. Those published by Marquard Freher in volume 1 of the Writers of German Affairs agree with them; Various, written in different ways. as do those which, among other Histories and Annals of the Franks, were first published from the library of Pierre Pithou at Paris in 1588. In these Pithou ones the names of the royal Attendants are missing; and for Liutolfus and Liutharius the Counts Luuttolsus and Luuttharius are named. In Freher the Attendants are listed; but he who above is Weirnhardt is called Werinhard. In the manuscript codex of the cenobium of S. Trond, the Counts Theotherius and Gerricus are called Thotericus and Gerrichus; and with still greater divergence the Attendants are reported thus: Aderam, Alfuuini, Addasta, Aida, a second Aida, Dudo, Bodo, Wal, Halilf, Hunildium, Adaluuini, Werinhatt, Thiotrich, Ailuuart; where, with the two Halilf and Hunildium added, Alcer is omitted, and "a second Aida" is read, which is more acceptable: and in all there are expressed not 18 but 14, a number which perhaps should be restored in other copies. Aventinus, in book 4 of the Annals of the Bavarians, calls these Attendants Prefects, and reckons that there were eighteen, and, doubling several of the same name, enumerates them all thus: Aderamus, Assouinus, Addasta, two Aedos; Botho, Valo, two Adeluini, two Bernards, Theodericus, Aeluaritus, Ariovistus, Isenothus. These last two were added by Aventinus, and are unknown to the rest: omitted by him are Budo, Halilf and Hunildiun: doubled are Aderamus, Asouinus, Addasta, Adeluinus, Bernard; who in the others are single for each name, Aderam, Alfuuini, Addasta, Adaluuini, Weirnhardt. In Cyriacus Spangenberg's Chronicle of Mansfeld, chapter 108, these Attendants are called Prefects of the soldiery, and eighteen are listed in this order, with Aventinus' Latin names nearly turned into German: Botho, Walo, Dietherich, Heilward, Ernst, Isenot, two Asslein, two Aderam, two Adhasten, two Hetten, two Adelwin, two Bernarden. The Counts are Dukes in Aventinus, reported thus: Bruno, Prince of Saxony, paternal uncle of Henry the First, Emperor of Germany; Bardo, brother of Queen Luitgarda; Vichomanus; two Bardos; two Theoderics; Gericus; Luithulfus; Folmarus; Avanus; Lotharius. So far there. That Duke Bruno, not Bardo, was the brother of Queen Lutgardis we shall say below. Some Bardo, however, slain with Bruno, is held to be the paternal uncle of S. Conrad, Bishop of Constance, and, with him, born of the Counts of Altdorf. S. Conrad is venerated on the 26th of November. Counts Liutharius and Leutulfus were present in the year 860, as the Capitularies of Charles the Bald report, in the basilica of S. Castor at Koblenz, for establishing peace between the brothers Louis and Charles the Bald and their nephew Lothar: in the same way a certain Count Theodericus was also present at the pact of Aachen in the year 870 between the brothers Louis the Elder, King of Germany, and Charles the Bald, in the partition of Lothar's kingdom, volume 2 of the Writers of the history of the Franks. But whether the same men were afterwards slain by the Normans with the other Martyrs, arguments are lacking either way. Of the Bishops Theodericus and Marquardus, and of other Prelates who are believed to have been slain here and there at that time too, we shall treat separately: as in the next chapter of Duke Bruno.

[7] Bruno is called a Duke and brother of the Queen by the contemporary author of the Fulda Annals, that is, at the time when he was writing, Bruno, a Duke, brother of the wife of Louis II, King of Germany, in the year 880, when she was ruling in Germany with her husband Louis the Younger. In the Metz Annals, carried down to the year 883 by a likewise contemporary author, she is called Liutgardis. In them the following is read at the year 882: King Louis had Queen Liutgard joined to him in marriage, of whom he received one son, whom he named Louis after his own name. This little boy fell from a window, and with his neck broken, immediately expired. He had married her in the year 869, the twenty-ninth year of the reign of his father Louis. For when, having obtained a victory against the Eastern Slavs, he was returning to the parts of Saxony, he betrothed Liutgard, the daughter of Duke Liuthdolphus of Saxony, and in Eastern Francia at the castle of Aschaffenburg celebrated the nuptials; as Gobelinus Persona testifies in these words in the sixth age of the Cosmodromium, chapter 42, and Krantz in book 2 of the Metropolis, chapter 13, who adds that it appears from this that the Dukes of Saxony were already then in such esteem with Kings that their daughters were deemed worthy of nuptials and the marriage bed. Hence Widukind must be refuted, when he writes that this Liudgarda, sister of Bruno, was married to Louis, son of the Emperor Arnulf. not of Louis III, son of Arnulf: Widukind was followed by the Abbot of Ursperg, Albert of Stade, Johannes Cuspinianus, Aventinus, Peucer, Reusner, Albisius, the Sainte-Marthe brothers and others; against whom Heinrich Meibom, in his Notes to Widukind, sets a diploma of the former Louis given in the year 877, which he produces from the manuscript Chronicle of the cenobium of Gandersheim by Heinrich Bodo, in which Louis makes mention of Luitgarda and of his dearest offspring.

[10] It remains to inquire concerning Tanguardus, or Dangmarus, brother of Bruno, whether he should be numbered among these Martyrs. Another brother, Tanquardus, a companion, not of the martyrdom, Fabricius, in book 2 of Saxony Illustrated, writes thus: Dangmarus, like his brother Bruno, had no wife; he perished in the battle of Ebbecsdorf together with his brother and the rest of the army, as Krantz notes from the Annals of the people of Minden, Hildesheim and Hamburg. But in what book of Krantz he read this, he does not say. In the Acts of these Martyrs Krantz says that Tanquardus survived: nor is there doubt, he says, that the princes of that time, Tanquardus and Otto, full brothers of the slain Duke Bruno, intended a like piety toward their brother, desiring to draw him out of the heap of the slain and to bury him with princely rite: but there was nothing by which the noble could be distinguished from the commoner, God so disposing; so that those who fell in the one cause of Christ might be buried and venerated in one place, awaiting the last trumpet. But neither in the Saxonia nor in the Metropolis does he relate that Tanquardus was slain, or was present at the battle at all. The same writer, in book 2 of the Saxonia, chapter 31, writes that Brunswick was built by both, and chiefly by Bruno. but of the building of the town of Brunswick. Bruno, Tanquardus, Otto were the children of Ludolf: of whom Bruno left his distinguished name to the village which he first began, which from him was called Brunonis vicus, long since Brunswick, a distinguished town in the middle of Saxony, on the stream of the Oker, which flows into the Weser. The small first beginnings of this town received many additions over the course of time, so that, enlarged by stages, it has now grown to such strength and wealth that it easily gave a title to its Princes, who are thenceforth called Dukes of Brunswick. But this was long afterwards. The Saxons in their own tongue call the bay of a river running out, of a pool, or of the sea, wyck. Hence Bruno adorned one outrunning of the river with buildings, and Tanquardus the other, at no long interval. Hence Brunswyck and Tanquardeswyck were long distinguished by a varied name; but Bruno prevailed, so that he alone left his name to the town: while his brother fortified a castle in a neighboring place, which from his name was called Tanguerode: in which place a church consecrated to S. Blaise retained the name, so that it was so called in the city, the former walls being still extant, which are now enclosed by the walls of the city. So Krantz, who repeats the same in the Metropolis and in the Acts of these Martyrs. Fabricius, Münster and others of the more recent writers here and there have the same; and Georg Braun, in the first volume of the Cities of the World, from Hermann, the historian of the affairs of Brunswick, writes that this was done in the year 871 by Bruno and his brother, whom he wrongly calls Theodorus, or Theomarus. Bertius, in book 2, chapter 11, writes that it was built by Bruno the grandfather: but in book 3 he gives that praise back to this Bruno and Tanquardus. On the other hand, it is related that S. Swibert the Bishop, about the beginning of the eighth century, migrated with his Priests and Clerics to Saxony, and came to a great village called Brunswick, and there for some days preached Christ and converted many, in his Life published under the name of Marcellinus the Priest, his disciple, but greatly interpolated by later hands, as will be said on the Kalends of March.

§ III The Sees and deeds of the Bishops Theodericus and Marquardus.

[9] His brother Otto succeeds him in the Dukedom: Bruno left the Dukedom to his brother, younger in birth indeed, but far more powerful in every virtue, Otto the great Duke: as Widukind writes of him. He became famous under the Emperor Arnulf for a war in Italy waged with the greatest fidelity and courage. Then, being given as guardian to Louis, Arnulf's son, he executed the office with equal fidelity, and among other things repressed the Hungarians and compelled them to ask for a truce. After his ward's death, being called to the Empire, he excused himself by his old age, commending to the Princes Conrad, Duke of the East Franks: from him his nephew Henry the Fowler, King, to whom afterwards Otto's own son Henry the Fowler, and after him Emperors in a long series, succeeded. To this Henry the memory of his paternal uncle Bruno was so dear that, when he had renewed his parent's name in his son the Emperor Otto, and had called a second after his own name, Henry, he named a third Bruno after this uncle of his, as Dietmar observes. father of Otto I, Emperor, and of S. Bruno the Archbishop. And the fortune and virtue of each showed that this was no empty omen. For as the Emperor Otto the Great received his name from the Great Duke Otto, and from Henry, the other son, whom he made Duke of Bavaria, a grandson was given to the world, S. Henry the Emperor; so too from his holy paternal uncle Bruno that most holy and most valiant Archbishop of Cologne, Bruno, obtained his name. We shall give his Life on the 11th of October, from the beginning of which these words concerning that illustrious family are to be excerpted: The ancestors of his ancestors, as far as the memory of men reaches, were all most noble; no one in their stock is easily found unknown, no one degenerate. Whether S. Widukind, who was Duke of Saxony in the time of Charles the Great, is to be reckoned among these ancestors, or forebears, some arguments are available on either side, but no certain ones on either. All call the grandfather of Blessed Duke Bruno Bruno, whom Krantz makes the great-grandson of Widukind, Fabricius above, and Bertius in book 2 of German Affairs, chapter 2, and others, his brother: on the other hand Widukind of Corvey, in book 1, writes that Mathilda, wife of Henry the Fowler, was sprung from the stock of the great Duke Widukind: which he would by no means have passed over in silence concerning the Fowler himself, if he had believed that he too was descended from there.

[8] Eggehard, Abbot of Aura, in the Chronicle of the Bishops of Hildesheim, edited by our Christoph Brouwer after the Life of S. Godehard among the Stars of the Saints of Germany, writes thus of other sisters of Bruno: brother also Bishop Altfridus in the year of the Lord 852, with Ludolf, first Duke of Saxony, began a cenobium of Virgins at Brunetheshusen, and in the fourth year after this at Gandersheim, he who began to build the church there, and ordained Hathomuda, of the Abbesses Hathomuda, Gerberga and Christina: daughter of the same Duke Luidolphus, as first Abbess: who, in the eighteenth year after, Hathomuda having died, consecrated her sister Gerberga as second Abbess. And in the year 883, the fourth year of his ordination, Wigebertus built the church at Gandersheim, and, Gerberga the Abbess having died, instituted her sister Christina as Abbess there. So Eggehard. Of Altfrid we shall treat on the 4th of February at the Life of Blessed Rabanus Maurus. These sisters of Bruno are also mentioned by Georg Fabricius in book 2 of Saxony Illustrated, by Kaspar Bruschius in the Bishops of Hildesheim, and above all by Krantz in book 2 of the Saxonia, chapter 29. Of their father Widukind has this: Their father was Luidolfus, who, having gone to Rome, translated the relics of Blessed Pope Innocent: which Alberic, monk of Trois-Fontaines, in his manuscript Chronicle, in Chifflet's Vindiciae Hispanicae, chapter 2, relates was done in the year 859; and that Innocent is the first of the name, son of Ludolf I, Duke of Saxony, who is venerated on the 28th of July. Fabricius says of this Ludolf, father of Bruno, that on account of his integrity and gravity of character he was of the highest authority, and so crushed the forces of the Danes by his leadership and valor that while he lived they touched no province of Germany any further: and that for this reason he was created from a Margrave Great Duke of Saxony. Then, when he had died, Bruno was likewise substituted as Duke, hateful to the Northmen no less than his parent for his zeal in spreading the Christian religion, so that they seem to have desired nothing more than, having proved superior in this battle, to take him from among the living together with the principal Counts and Bishops. Ferrarius on the 1st of August records his memory thus: He is venerated as a Martyr. Near Hamburg in Saxony, of the holy Martyrs Bruno the Duke and three Bishops, with many other Nobles, slain by the Northmen for the faith of Christ.

[11] Two Bishops are mentioned above in the Fulda Annals as having been slain, Theotrich and Marcwart, who in Thietmar are Thiedricus and Marquardus, in Adam of Bremen Tiadericus and Marquardus, in Albert of Stade Tiadricus and Marquardus. Nor do they anywhere mention other Bishops. Theodericus, first of the name in the Chronicle of Minden found in Pistorius, the third Bishop of Minden, founded the monastery at Wunstorf, Theodericus, Bishop of Minden, in honor of the Martyrs Cosmas and Damian. In the Annals of the Bishops of Minden, Petrus Merssaeus Cratepolius adorns him with this eulogy: III. S. Theodericus, a sincere man, thence took the helm: this good Bishop fell upon those turbulent times when the Northmen were rampaging through the lands and inflicted much damage everywhere. This glorious Pontiff therefore fell, together with certain other men who were slain for the Church of God. Martyr. The body of this Martyr — that is, of this Bishop — on account of its wounds and disfigurement could not be recognized; the place of the slaying, however, is at Ebbeckstorp. Cratepolius repeats the same in the book on the Assertion of the Mass, and affirms that he fell with others for religion. Krantz has nearly the same in book 2 of the Metropolis, chapter 16. How long he sat we read nowhere. That he was created Bishop before the year 865 is established from the Life of S. Rembert, Archbishop of Hamburg, which we give on the 4th of February. he assisted at the consecration of S. Rembert in 865. For when the latter had been elected Archbishop by the Clergy and people on the very day of the deposition of S. Anschar, Thiadricus, Bishop of the Church of Minden, and Adalgarius, Abbot of the monastery of New Corvey, brought him to King Louis: and when he was consecrated by Luitbert, Archbishop of Mainz, Lindward, Bishop of Paderborn, and the aforesaid Thiadricus stood by in assistance of the consecration, as is said there at number 14. Hence the Minden Chronicle in Pistorius must be corrected, which places under his successor the beginning of the County of Flanders, and that (unless an error has crept into the numbers through the printer's carelessness) in the year 847. In the Chronicle of Hildesheim, in volume 3 of the writers of the history of the Franks: In the year 874, Indiction [ ], of the church of Hildesheim in 872. on the Kalends of November, the Church of S. Mary in Hildenesheim was dedicated by the venerable Bishops Alfridus, Bishop of the same Church, and Rimbertus, and Theodricus, and also Luithardus, with the participation of the religious Abbot Adalgarius, of monks and of Canons. As we explain again at the Life of S. Rembert, §5.

§ IV The Sees, deaths and cult of the Bishops Erlulphus and Gosbertus.

[14] There is great difficulty concerning other Bishops, who are asserted by many to be companions of the Martyrs. The Paderborn manuscript Acts, omitting Marquardus, Various Bishops believed to have suffered martyrdom: enumerate seven other Bishops: Theodiricus, or Thidericus, of Minden, Dudo of Paderborn, Drogo of Osnabrück, Dodo of Mimigardevord, Aufridus of Utrecht, Reynbertus of Hamburg and Erlorfus of Verden. The same, with Dodo of Mimigardevord passed over, are reported in the Minden Chronicle in Pistorius: Theodoricus of Minden, Dudo of Paderborn, Drago of Osnabrück, Anfredus of Utrecht, Albertus of Hanenberg, Erlulfus of Verden. These Ferrarius reported from a German Calendar on this 2nd of February into the general Catalogue of the Saints thus: At Ebekestorp in Vandalia, the holy Martyrs Theodoricus, Bishop of Minden, Albertus, Bishop of Hamburg, Aufridus, Bishop of Utrecht, Drogo, Bishop of Osnabrück, Dodo, Bishop of Paderborn, Erlulphus, Bishop of Werden, with three Dukes, 15 Counts and many others. Krantz, in the history of these Martyrs, substitutes for the Bishop of Hamburg the Bishop of Halberstadt, in these words: There were present in numbers round about, armed with all the forces they could, the Bishops: of Halberstadt, who then had his See at Salingstadium, of Hildesheim, of Verden, of Paderborn, of Minden, of Münster, which was then Mimegardevord, and of Osnabrück. He treats of each in the Metropolis: Cyriacus Spangenberg also enumerates most of them in the Chronicle of Mansfeld, chapter 108.

[15] The same Krantz, in book 2 of the Saxonia, chapter 31, and following him Ubbo Emmius in book 5 of Frisian Affairs, write that three Bishops were slain, Erlulfus of Verden, of Minden and of Hildesheim, of whom we have treated, and of Verden. This is Erlulfus, whom Ferrarius places both with the rest on this day, and separately on the 22nd of January: At Werden, of S. Erlulfus, Bishop: and again on the 1st of August he reports him among three Bishops from Krantz. He is reckoned by the same Krantz in book 1 of the Metropolis, chapter 31, and by Demochares and Bruschius in the Catalogues of Bishops, the tenth Bishop of that See, successor of Heligandus, successor of Heligandus: who in the year 831, with other Bishops, assisted Drogo of Metz consecrating S. Anschar as Archbishop of Hamburg, as is said in his Acts, chapter 5. But from the same Acts, chapter 9, it is established that, when about the year 847 the See of Bremen was united with that of Hamburg, Waldgarius presided over the See of Verden, who in the same year 847 was present at the council of Mainz under Rabanus, as will be said at the Life of the latter. To him there had then again passed the part formerly assigned to the See of Hamburg at its first institution; and when this some years later was again subjected to the said See of Hamburg, another portion was conferred on Walgarius. Erlulphus, therefore, must be placed between the years 31 and 47 of that century; whom nevertheless, by what error we do not know, the Annals of Verden, according to Krantz, assign to the college of the Saints slain for Christ by the infidel Danes; and Bruschius too acknowledges him as slaughtered at Ebbeckstorp and crowned with martyrdom: and Spangenberg and Demochares join him to the other Bishops, the latter's words being these: S. Erlulfus the Scot, Martyr in the place of Eppeckstorp in the year 876. Camerarius, in the Menology of the Scots on the 10th of February, reports him thus: S. Erlulfus, Martyr and Bishop of Verden. That he was by nation an Englishman or a Scot, and by dignity an Abbot, Krantz relates from the opinion of others in book 2 of the Metropolis, chapter 30. The Church of Verden, he says, held to be by nation an Englishman or a Scot, after Erlulfus, the Martyr slain for Christ at Ebbeckstorp with a band of Christians, had Walterus, a man most worthy of that place, the first, as they think, sprung from men of this nation. For almost all his predecessors were of Scottish or English stock, as the titles of the Abbeys from which they were transferred testify. But this Walterus is in the Acts of S. Anschar Waldgarius, a German by origin: who was followed by Wigbertus, of the blood of Duke S. Widukind, on whom Louis II, or the younger, King of Germany, is said to have conferred many goods for the Church of Verden, an illustrious confirmation of the Chronology we have established. Thomas Dempster, in book 5 of the Ecclesiastical history of the Scottish nation, chapter 485, maintains that S. Erlulfus went off into the northern island of Iceland and announced the faith of Christ to the barbarians there. Presently Colgan, thinking an occasion had been offered him of attributing glory to the Irish, celebrates on this 2nd of February two Erlulfs, both Irish: or else Irish. of whom one went off into Iceland, and the other was the Martyr Bishop of Verden, formerly Abbot of Amarbaricum, or Armagh, in Ireland. But let the whole credit rest with these Authors until they produce ancient monuments.

[13] Concerning the sacred remains of these two Bishops being sought out, Krantz in the Acts produces as witnesses the Annals of several Churches round about. Their bodies could not be recognized. For, he says, when the people of Minden had gone, on behalf of their Pontiff Theodericus, a man of outstanding holiness, to the slaughter of the slain bodies, in order to bury him honorably at his own Church, the heap of bodies was already indistinguishable; the wounds inflicted and the swelling that followed from them of the dead and already putrefying flesh left no means of distinction. The people of Hildesheim suffered the same, making diligent search for their Pontiff Marquardus, the fifth in order. So much concerning the two said Bishops, fairly certain and clear.

[12] Of S. Marquardus it is written thus in the same Chronicle of Hildesheim: Marquardus, Bishop of Hildesheim, In the year 875 King Louis died in the thirty-fifth year of his Reign. Bishop Alfridus died. After Alfridus, Ludolfus, a monk, Chorbishop, was elected, but was carried off by sudden death. After him Marcuuardus succeeded, who, slain by the Slavs, died in the fourth year. Eggehard in the Chronicle of the people of Hildesheim has nearly the same: Alfridus, he says, died on the day of the Assumption, and was buried at Asnede in the cenobium which he had founded, in the year of the Lord 875. After Alfridus a certain Ludolfus, a monk of Corvey, was requested, but, overtaken by sickness, was carried off. V. Marquardus. He negligently lost the Abbeys of Seligenstadt and Asnede: and in the fourth year of his ordination was slain by the Slavs. VI. Wigbertus was elected Bishop in the year of the Lord 880. So Eggehard. made Bishop in 876 or the following year. But since Louis closed his last day at Frankfurt in the year 876, on the 5th day before the Kalends of September, Alfridus and Ludolfus must be said to have died in the same year, and at length, about the end of the same year or the beginning of the following, Marquardus was elected, who in the fourth year of his ordination, the year of Christ 880, was slain by the Northmen, not the Slavs, on this 2nd of February; in which same year Wigbertus, his successor, was elected Bishop. Krantz contradicts himself very much in book 2 of the Metropolis, where in chapter 12 he says that Alfridus died in the year 877, at which time that memorable slaughter took place under Duke Bruno in the place of Ebbeckstorp: and that this Saint might have been among the band of the Saints, but, being already weary with monastic profession and old age, he was prevented from taking part in carnal arms. And in chapter 14: In the Church of Heldesem, he says, after Alfridus, Marquardus presided, a man worthy of God and of heaven, who was among the band of the Saints, slain for Christ at Ebbeckstorp in the year of Christ 876. Bruschius, in the catalogue of the Bishops of Hildesheim, correcting his errors, adds that Wigebertus was elected successor after Marquardus had been crowned with martyrdom in the year 880. Demochares, in book 2 on the sacrifice of the Mass, among the Bishops of Hildesheim: V. Marquardus, he says, presided for three years. He was slaughtered at Hamburg by the Slavs and the infidel Danes, and was buried honorably in the monastery of Epplestorp in the year 880. Cratepolius follows concerning the same Bishops in the Assertion of the Mass.

[16] The other of these Bishops is the Bishop of Osnabruck, by whatever name he may be called. The Osnabruck Bishop was not Drogo, He is called Drogo or Drago above in the manuscript Acts, the Chronicle of Minden, and the Catalogue of Saints of Ferrarius; Krantzius also, in book 2 of the Metropolis, chapter 16, counts him among the Martyrs under this name; but presently in the following chapter, forgetting himself, but Gosbertus, he reports that Gosbertus presided over the Church of Osnabruck at that time, and that he was among the company of Bishops who were slaughtered in one massacre by the infidel Danes at the place called Ebbekesdorf, and fell for Christ. And in chapter 26 he calls Egbertus the successor of Gosbertus, who is also reported to have perished among others in the notable slaughter wrought by the Northmen. And in book 3 of the same Metropolis, chapter 25, the eighth Pontiff of the Church of Osnabruck is called Drogo, ordained under Otto I, who closed his final day on the third day before the Ides of April in the year 969. The Catalogues of Bishops agree. They are the Catalogues of the Bishops of Osnabrück: that of Krantz at the end of the Metropolis, those of Demochares and of Cratepolius, and the one prefixed to the greater synod of Osnabrück printed in the year 1628 by mandate of Franz Wilhelm, Bishop of the same city. In this last the holiness of Gosbertus is proclaimed in these words: S. Gosbertus, by nation a Sueo, or Swede, a disciple of S. Anschar, the most excellent Apostle of Sweden, sat for eight years, from 866 to 874. Cratepolius adds more: S. Gosbertus, he says, from the school of S. Anschar, the most excellent Apostle of Sweden, was given to this Church as Bishop. He was indeed a vigorous preacher of the word of God; but, affairs in the Church being disturbed, he betook himself to his Master Ansgar, who at that time was Legate of the Apostolic See: and when he had presided for ten years, he fell as a Martyr in Denmark with other pious men. The same writer in the Assertion of the Mass both calls him a Saint and says that he fell as a Martyr in Denmark.

[19] These things have occurred to us concerning Gosbertus and Erlulfus: we shall embrace them if anyone brings forward more certain things. Perhaps some relics of theirs, carried to Ebbecstorp, gave posterity occasion to number them with the other Martyrs, as if slaughtered in the same massacre. S. Rembert survived these Martyrs. Certainly Rembert, Archbishop of Hamburg, who is reckoned with them, survived them by eight years and rested in peace, as is established from what will be said on the 4th of February: who nevertheless seems to be called Reymbertus in the Paderborn manuscript Acts, and Albertus of Hamburg, or of Hanenberg, by the Author of the Minden Chronicle, by Ferrarius and others. Krantz, in the Saxonia, the Metropolis and the history of these Martyrs, insists often and laboriously that S. Rembert was absent. His very great charity afterwards shone forth toward the captives carried off into Denmark in this disaster, who were to be freed from wretched servitude, all his goods and even the consecrated vessels of the Church being spent, as is said in chapter 7 of his Life. Whether any relics of his, as of the others, were kept at Ebbeckstorp, we have not found.

§ V The deaths of the other Bishops, and of Pope Benedict V.

[20] As for what is narrated of the other Bishops slain there, we fear (as Heinrich Meibom also felt in his annotations to book 1 of Widukind) that some unskilled man yawningly hallucinated about it, Some Martyrs believed Bishops by error: or at least wrongly attributed to Bishops the names of some soldiers slain there at that time. For those who are numbered above in the Fulda Annals among the royal Attendants, Dudo and Bodo, were, by an error easy on account of the likeness of names, held to be Bishops, Dudo of Paderborn, and Dodo, or Bodo, of Mimigardevord, or Münster: because Bishops of these names sat in both places, although almost a whole century later. of Paderborn, of Münster, For Dudo, having administered the Church of Paderborn for 25 years, died under Otto the Great in the year 955: whom Dodo of Münster, although he did not sit for long, is believed to have survived. Krantz, in the history of the Martyrs, lists a Bishop of each of those Churches, yet without expressing the name: but in the Metropolis he records no Martyr of Münster, as neither do Demochares or Cratepolius. Krantz, in book 2 of the Metropolis, chapter 15, describes Lutharius of Paderborn, assigning to his See 23 years, with no mention made of a slaughter. Bruschius says that he lived as Bishop 25 years, ordained in the year 852; and, with Demochares and Spangenberg, relates that he was slaughtered by the Northmen in the year 77 of that century. Krantz in chapter 16 thinks that this is Dudo, so that he was double-named, or Biso his successor. Perhaps they were driven into that error because a Count Liutharius, or Liuttarius, is read among the Martyrs. Baduradus, or Baturatus, his predecessor, was present at the Council of Mainz in the year 842 under Archbishop Rabanus, as is said at the latter's Life on the 4th of February. Luitharius himself assisted Luidbert, Archbishop of Mainz, when S. Rembert was consecrated by him Archbishop of Hamburg in the year 865, as is read in his Life on the 4th of February. Concerning Biso his successor, we do not see by what argument Krantz could have been impelled to reckon him among the Martyrs in place of Dudo, since in chapter 31 he writes that he reached the times of the Emperor Arnulf. Bruschius extends his life to the year 902.

[21] The anonymous Bishop of Halberstadt whom the same Krantz mentions in the history of the Martyrs he seems to have intimated to be Hildegrinus. In whose times, he says in the Metropolis, book 2, chapter 13, of Halberstadt, there was that frequent raiding of the Danes into the neighboring provinces, and that notable slaughter in which Bruno, Duke of Saxony, fell at the place of Ebbeckstorp. Bruschius refers his death to the year 887, and relates that he was buried in the cenobium of Werden among his kinsmen, his predecessors. Demochares agrees. Spangenberg reports him, like the Bishop of Münster, among the Martyrs, the name of neither being indicated.

[18] These things concerning the life and name of Gosbertus we think we have attained by a not improbable conjecture, Both suffered martyrdom on different occasions: but the manner of his death is more doubtful; since the authors mentioned above proclaim him a Martyr, and yet we do not dare to add him, any more than Erlulfus of Verden, to the band of the slain: we rather think that each was captured separately by the Normans and slain out of hatred of the Christian faith. Erlulphus may have succeeded Helingaudus after the year 831, and in the year 845 (at which time we prove at the Life of S. Anschar, §2, that Hamburg was devastated), or even earlier, may have met a glorious death for Christ inflicted by the Northmen, Waltharius succeeding him, who ordered the diocese with S. Anschar about the year 848, as said above: in which way the Acts of S. Anschar, written by S. Rembert his successor, are reconciled without any discrepancy with the series and order of the Bishops of Verden. Gautbertus, or Gosbertus, too, may have set out into Denmark and fallen as a Martyr with other pious men, as we said from Cratepolius. He may also have been slain out of hatred of religion in his own diocese, often devastated by the Northmen. Demochares writes that he was slain by the Normans in the year 74 of the ninth century. In the Fulda Annals it is said that Rudolphus, whom we showed at the Acts of S. Anschar, § IX, to have been the son of Herioldus, King of Denmark, after often devastating the kingdom of Charles the Bald with burnings and plunder, in the year 873 led a fleet into the kingdom of Louis, and, battle being joined with the East Frisians, fell with eight hundred men. There were very many other raids in which this Gosbertus, whom all proclaim a Martyr, may have obtained that palm. Finally, Johannes Vastovius in the Vitis Aquilonia, on the Saints of Sweden, reports the same man under the name of Heribertus too (whom they will have to have been the first sent into Sweden, and as it were divided into three men), and makes Gosbertus a Martyr. Relying on his authority, our Rader inscribed the same man in his manuscript alphabetical Catalogue of the Saints, which is in our possession. Lastly, in the book called the Christian Athenaeum, on account of the Caroline Academy restored at Osnabrück in the year 1630, hypotyposis 3, figure 3, S. Gosbertus, fourth Bishop of Osnabrück, Martyr, brings in the little ship of S. Peter, that is, the Church of Osnabrück dedicated to S. Peter, tossed by the waves, laughing at the adverse waves. Some venerate the same on the 27th of February.

[17] A wonderful confusion of everything. In the Acts of S. Anschar and other contemporary writers no mention of this Gosbertus occurs, or Gaudbertus, unless (as we altogether suspect) he is Gaudbertus, a kinsman of Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims, who, as helper of S. Anschar's legation, was named Simon, or Simeon, at his episcopal ordination about the year 837, and, sent as the first Bishop to the parts of the Swedes, honorably received by the King and people, began with the goodwill and unanimity of all to build a Church there and publicly to preach the Gospel of faith, as is said in the Acts of S. Anschar, chapter 6: and when he had already cultivated Sweden for some years with abundant fruit, by diabolical instigation he was seized by the infidels, bound, earlier sent into Sweden. treated with insult and reproaches, despoiled of everything, and cast out of the kingdom; he did not, however, as Johannes Magnus writes in the Metropolis of Uppsala, book 1, end his life by martyrdom. Nor could he thereafter be induced by S. Anschar to attempt that kingdom again; but, as is written more fully at number 43, he gave the Priest Erimbertus, his nephew, as companion to S. Anschar, and they, entering Sweden again about the year of Christ 850, greatly promoted the Catholic faith, permission being granted by the King and people that Churches should be built and Priests remain in the kingdom. When S. Anschar had returned, Erimbertus, nephew of Bishop Gautbertus, performed the Divine mysteries there; until about the year 856, or a little after, the Priest Ansfrid, a Dane, being sent in his place, he returned. This Gautbertus, therefore, we suspect to be the same as Gosbertus, Bishop of Osnabrück, who, as his kinsman Ebbo, from Archbishop of Reims, had been made Bishop of Hildesheim, and, very dear to S. Anschar and King Louis, survived until March of the year 853; so he too, from Bishop of Sweden, may have obtained the See of Osnabrück, being in favor with the same King Louis, whom he had approached with S. Anschar concerning the aforesaid last Legation, and, asked by him whether they were of one mind in this wish, he answered in these words: In the service of God we have always been and are of one mind; and we desire with unanimous consent that this be so done, as is said in chapter 11. There was at this time another Gosbertus, governor for Adalgarius, Bishop of Autun, of the castle called Sine-muro in the Duchy of Burgundy, healed by the help of S. John, Abbot of Réome, as is said in the third Translation of this Saint, number 6, on the 28th of January. From which it is clear that Gautbertus and Gosbertus were names used indiscriminately by the Franks, as Gauzelenus, at that time Bishop of Paris, was also called Goslenus.

[22] Finally, Aufridus, or Anfridus, Bishop of Utrecht, whom the manuscript Acts, the Chronicle of Minden, Ferrarius, the Bishop of Utrecht, Spangenberg, and others join to these Martyrs, succeeded Bishop Baldwin more than a full century after these times, and died after the year of Christ one thousand: as Joannes de Beka and Wilhelmus Heda relate in their history of Utrecht. Nor is there any Bishop named Albertus, whom Krantzius might claim for the See of Utrecht, having been wrongly attributed by others to the See of Hamburg. Another had earlier sat there, Albricus, called by some Alfricus, who is venerated on the fourteenth of November: but neither could he have been present at the slaughter of the company, having died about the year 845, the brother of his predecessor S. Frederick the Martyr. Another is Anfridus, a Danish Presbyter, who, among the first apostles to Sweden, after Erimbertus, the nephew of Gaudbertus, cultivated it for three years, but having returned, is said to have died as his illness grew worse, in the Acts of S. Anschar, chapter 14.

[23] One error in the manuscript Acts remains to be noted, as pointed out by Krantzius and others: that the Roman Pontiff Benedict is joined to the other Martyrs with the greatest ignorance. This is Benedict V, Pope Benedict V was not present, whom, having been deposed by the Emperor Otto the Great, as Adam of Bremen relates in book 2, chapter 6, Archbishop Adalgagus of Hamburg, returning from Rome to his homeland, brought along in his retinue, and detained in custody, though with great honor, until his death, because he was a holy and learned man and seemed worthy of the Apostolic See to the Roman people; except that he had been elected in a tumult, when the one whom the Emperor had ordered to be ordained was expelled. Therefore, living in holy manner with Adalgagus in the year 965 and teaching others to live holily, when already to the Romans demanding it he was to be restored by Caesar, he rested in peace at Hammaburg on the fourth day before the Nones of July, in the year 965. Baronius, in volume 10 at that year, number 2, rejecting this fable, judges that he must be called a Martyr for another reason, namely because he suffered such dreadful and such insulting things from Leo the Pseudo-pontiff, and died an exile, being himself the legitimate Pontiff of the Roman Church; as the holy Martyrs, who were likewise Pontiffs, Pontian and Martin, ended their lives in exile. died in exile at Hamburg. But because Benedict was venerated as a Martyr, lest on that account a stigma should be branded on the name of Otto, occasion was given for feigning another cause of martyrdom. He is found inscribed in Ferrarius' Martyrology on the 4th of July. Why should not some relics have remained in Saxony when his sacred body was carried back to Rome, a part of which the nuns of Ebbeckstorp obtained? That this perhaps happened with some of the Bishops reported before too, some curious investigator of Saxon antiquities will one day prove.

§ VI Miracles at the relics of these Martyrs, from the Paderborn manuscript.

[24] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and forty-three, oil flowed from the bones of the holy Martyrs Oil flows from the sacred bones, on the day of their passion; it began to flow from sunrise and stopped at about the fourth hour. We too were present, singing psalms, in much thanksgiving poured out in tears, and in that supercelestial dripping by which all were spiritually anointed. The Abbot of Villessen was present with his monks, himself also a faithful witness, who carried back to his Church a memorial of that sacred oil, which the King of Kings ministered to us, rich toward all, not sparingly but abundantly, to those present, both spiritual and lay, who had come together for the feast day, where the mercy of God defrauded no one's eye of the open sight of that sacred oil flowing. Some, however, as is the way of human slowness, not believing that the holy liquid was given by God, affirmed that it should rather be held to be dew: but the Lord, not suffering the gift of His goodness to be obscured by error, scraped away the doubt; namely on the day of their passion, at midday, in the very heat of the sun, He made oil rise from the holy bones, the people running together and looking on: at an hour, that is, at which it was not thinkable that dew should descend.

[25] At a certain time, on the day of Blessed Peter, there was violent rain: and the Lord in His accustomed way made His Saints wonderful by sacred oil flowing from their bones, again. all standing by and seeing this miracle. Among them was present a certain man of the Order of Friars Minor, named Echehardus, very devoted to God. And while all were hesitating on account of the flood of rain that was coming down, he dipped * the lychnus which he held in the liquid, and, drawing it back, put it on a candle, and it burned until all that had been dipped was consumed. The Provost Helricus, less ready to believe the same miracle, at a certain time took a censer and poured the sacred oil into it, and it burned like the liquid of the olive. And so the faithful Lord resolved every doubt concerning His works. Blessed be the glory of the Lord, who has made wonderful the holy Martyrs, whose glory we have not heard, but seen, and our hands have handled the grace that has been given to us. Let us too rejoice, among whom the holy Martyrs have mercifully chosen to cherish their venerable pledges in our bosom. Whose fellow citizens we have happily been made in the present, to be more happily taken up as partners in a more abundant joy in the future, as we hope, by the gift of Him who calls the things that are not as the things that are.

[26] In the time of the Lord Manegoldus, who was Provost of the Canons at Ebbeckestorp, the Church of Minden was burned. Rebuilt, it was afterwards consumed by fire seven times. The people of Minden ask for the relics of S. Theoderic against fire, The people of Minden therefore, sending envoys, addressed the heads of our Church, asking that, receiving a great reward, they would give back to them the body of their Pontiff, namely Blessed Theodericus, that he might be a protection to them in so great a danger. All protested, by no means assenting: because among so many thousands one could not be distinguished: and indeed, even if he were known by face and name, they would in no way let go a treasure which by Divine counsel had been laid up among them, and that to their very great gain. Those, then, who had been sent, returning with the business undone, gathered the people together in no small disturbance. Therefore, although their desire was made void, yet wishing to exalt their patron, absent though he was, with magnificent honor, they made a silver church, adorned with a fine moulding after the manner of a lizard. Placing a Priest before the altar, they honor him with silver statues: at the side a silver tower, and a sacristan standing and as it were ringing the bells, hoping that this gift would be a defence to them, so that his patronage might bring them comfort from it; and so, through the merits of the holy Martyr, the plague of fire ceased from them.

[27] The structure which was around the bodies of the Saints had collapsed from age, and was not rebuilt through the negligence of the townspeople. he complains here of neglected cult. Then the same aforesaid Pontiff appeared to a certain nun in a chasuble of violet color, mitred and wonderfully adorned, with a most serene countenance, commanding that she should have it announced to the people that the wrath of God would shortly come upon them, because the place in which they rested was held in great contempt, and swine rooted up the earth, no one at all forbidding it. And he added: To whomever you tell these things, you shall say in testimony that you have seen me with bodily eyes, and that we are daily mindful, before the most high God, of all who keep our memory. When he had said this, the venerable man disappeared.

[28] At a certain time, when a certain countryman was cutting grass there as fodder for his cattle, it happened that he and his wife were deprived of their senses, Another is punished, and his horse and all his cattle died. And in this it appeared that the Lord has exalted His Saints with worthy rewards in heaven and with miracles in the world: to whom be praise for ages of ages.

[29] At the same time there was a certain girl contracted in her whole body, who was brought there by her parents placed on a cart; and when the solemnities of Masses had been celebrated for her, she returned home on foot, a contracted girl is healed, all who were present being astonished and rejoicing. These things were done in the times of the Provost Gervasius, who, rejoicing in the Lord, made a sermon to the people, because God had given this sign in testimony of their virtues.

[30] A certain woman of good family, when she had labored in childbirth for eight days, had come to the last extremity, so that her burial was being discussed: and she, separated from her senses among the stings of pain, saw herself sitting at the doors of the church where the holy Martyrs are buried. a woman in childbirth is delivered: She saw, then, standing by her a man old in age in venerable dress, who said to her: I know that you are weighed down by a grievous affliction of body: if you do what I shall persuade you, you will recover health. If you vow that you will offer four pennies at any place where we rest, you will at once be safe. I leave it to your judgment what you wish to offer at the chapel. Awakening, then, made certain by the vision, she asked her mother and those standing by to vow to the Lord what had been shown to her, and at once she bore a son, and was cured as she had foreseen.

[31] A certain parish priest, when he labored with quartan fevers, bound himself to the Saints by a vow, fevers are driven off, and showed, by the health restored to him, that he had honored the friends of God with faith.

[32] A certain nun, when she had gone completely deaf, took grass which she had plucked from the tombs of the Saints, deafness, put it in her ears, and immediately heard.

[33] A certain matron was oppressed with a violent pain of the eyes: she sent silver eyes to the Saints, pain of the eyes, and the pain at once subsided.

[34] A certain townsman, having received the holy anointing, when he had come to the last extremity, called his wife, asking her to run to the shrine of the Martyrs and pray for his health. a dangerous illness. At the hour at which the woman seemed to have arrived there, the man was made whole, and on the third day went out to his farming.

[35] In these and many other things you have magnified, O Lord, your people, and for the showing of their true glory your miracles do not cease. The Author venerates the Saints. Let us therefore venerate these warriors of God, who testify to such great gifts of God by wonderful act, that we may merit to be made partakers by their glorious merits and intercessions in the kingdom of perpetual brightness. Amen.

* Perhaps linteum, a linen cloth.