Eckart

ON ST. ECKART

ABOUT THE YEAR 1170.

Preliminary Commentary. On the first notice and cult of this Blessed one.

Hechard priest Confessor, at Scheida on the borders of Westphalia (B.)

BY J. B. S.

Those who in our Acts are not strangers know well how often there were once praised in them John and Giles the German brothers Gelenius, as also our Fathers Grothusius and Gamansius, for the helping hand often afforded to our predecessors in the search for the sacred monuments of the lower Rhine district, This Blessed one before unknown, of Westphalia, and the surrounding regions, whence many distinguished things, studiously dug out by them, we have made public, which otherwise would still lie buried in perpetual darkness. Equal praise has merited likewise our Father Jacob Kritzraet, by whom I understand were sent nearly those things which, found about B. Hechard among our manuscripts, gave occasion of inserting this blessed man, either unknown or neglected by the Premonstratensian writers, into the Acts of the Saints on this day, yet so that I would not dare to assert that he was a religious of the same Order, although I have found it somewhere indicated. About the convent of Scheida, of which he is said to be the founder, Papebroch once mentioned in the annotations to the Acts of B. Bertold on June 20, page 60, and we about it more below. This we especially grieve, that the things which pertain to the origin and deeds of B. Hechard are most obscure, so that it is necessary to confess, either that no life of him was written, or, if it was written, that it has utterly perished.

[2] The defect of the Acts, as far as he could, the just-praised Giles Gelenius supplied, he was dug out by the Gelenii and the Westphalian writers. a certain history being woven, on whose margin Grothusius wrote with his own hand: From the Ms. monuments and diplomas, sought out by the work of John Gelenius Doctor and once Vicar general in spirituals of Cologne, collected by Giles Gelenius. Further, that from the papers of Gelenius and Grothusius it was transmitted with others to Bolland, two letters of the aforesaid Father Kritzraet, given on May 15 and June 15, 1662, testify. But the occasion of collecting and composing those monuments seems to have been given by the elevation or translation of the body of B. Hechard made by John Gelenius in the year 1628, on June 23, whose authentic instrument is subjoined below to the life itself. To the life, I say, if indeed it deserves to be called a life, which is rather to be called a compilation of commonplaces, and which could not inconveniently be fitted to any Saints, countrymen of Hechard, as it will soon be plainly clear to the erudite reader, considering the whole matter more attentively. But that history such as it was had to be used, since other documents at least which might explain the deeds of B. Hechard are hitherto plainly lacking.

[3] For the rest, that the monastery of Scheida was known long ago, The Annals of Cleves mention Scheida. witness is Wernher Teschenmacher in his Annals of Cleves, Jülich, etc., part 2, page 223, where he has thus: Of the convents of monks the chief is that of Scheida, of the Premonstratensian Order, so called from the distinction of the borders of the territory of Cologne and of Mark, inaugurated in the year 1170 by Philip of Heinsberg, Archbishop of Cologne; to which in the year 1173 Godfrey and Henry Lords of Hagen gave certain estates. To the same in the year 1215 the tithes in Berendorp were assigned, by Hermann Wennemer, Arnold and Erenwerth the brothers de Caminata, today Camen or Kemena, Lambert Dean of the Holy Apostles of Cologne being witness. The right of patronage also of the church of Mengede that Jonathan of Ardea attributed to it, Engelbert of Berg Archbishop of Cologne approving, in the presence of Adolph Count of Altena, Frederick of Isenburg, Bertold of Büren, and Frederick of Witten in the year 1216. Here many things are connected in few words, which need some examination; but since those things which are said about the later benefactors of the aforesaid monastery pertain more closely to B. Hermann, its first Provost, we remit them to be discussed, either on August 6 or on December 23, with other diplomas.

[4] Nor indeed is the epoch of the consecration of the church of Scheida, which is here built up, sufficiently certain, in which some things to be examined. since in the very life of B. Hermann, in manuscript with us, I read thus: Therefore in the year 1173, on the very day which is sacred to St. Servatius, namely the third of the Ides of May, on a Sunday [this concurrence under the Dominical letter G is had only in the immediately preceding year 1172] Philip the most magnificent Archbishop of the church of Cologne consecrated the same church with the Bishops. Nor can the year be more probably defined in which the aforesaid B. Hermann departed from the living, whom the last clause of the life establishes to have died on the 8th of the Ides of August, in that same year 1173. Add that Peter de Waghenare seems to have erred in the ciphers, when in the series of illustrious men page 151, from Chrysostom vander Sterre he handed down that B. Hermann was enrolled in the convent of Cappenberg in the white army of Jesus about the year 1122, unless we admit that he exceeded the fiftieth year of religion. Nothing is more certain than what the other life, either composed or revised by Grothusius, mentions, that it is unknown in what year B. Hermann ceased to be among men: and likewise, what he appends in a note; that of the Acts of the blessed Hechard the founder, and Hermann, the first Provost, almost nothing remains except the tradition itself of holiness. So candidly and sincerely Grothusius, Traces of true cult who had rightly perceived all things; nor have other monuments of an ancient and stable sacred cult among the people of Scheida come to us, except those which were suggested by the searchers of the Westphalian archives cited above. I have already said that B. Hechard is not reported by the historians of the white Order themselves, not even by Chrysostom vander Sterre or Peter de Waghenare, otherwise scrupulous collectors of the Saints, Blessed, and illustrious men of their institute, so that I deservedly doubt again whether that founder of the monastery of Scheida ever truly professed the religious life there, and was not rather a Canon or secular Priest, such as B. Menric, of whom and of B. Bertold the co-founder of Vrundeberg it is treated in volume 4 of June from page 58, where also the talk of the monastery of Scheida recurs more than once. For the proof of the cult of B. Hechard there remain the Westphalian Calendars, which from the older archives of those churches our Father John Velde doubtless wove, also well deserving in his time of the Acts of the Saints, writing thus on this day July 1: B. Ekard priest and author of the monastery of Scheida. To whom are subjoined, decorated only with the title of venerable; the Venerable Veland, Wiltrudis, and Jonathas de Ardeia, founders and benefactors of the same, taken perhaps from Gelenius, whom we said above to be the chief illustrator of our Saint.

[6] He in the work often praised by our predecessors, from the cited Gelenii On the sacred and civil greatness of Cologne, touched on not a few things which pertain especially hither. First in book 2, syntagma 1, page 129, he mentions the family of Ardeia; the foundress of the monastery of Scheida, which agree well enough with those things which will be given below about her illustrious lineage. Further in book 3, syntagma 130, §2, page 627, enumerating the sacred treasure which exists at St. Margaret's, he has thus at number 7: In the greatest monstrance, first, a great bone of blessed Eckhard of Scheida, of the Premonstratensian Order I know not whether this suffices for him to be safely claimed for that Order who was the author to Wiltrudis, widow of Woland de Ardeia, of destroying in the year 1173 the citadel, and of building in the county of Mark the monastery of Segor or Scheida, in which his memory is venerated on July 10, and on the venerable sepulchre is carved the epitaph; Not slow in signs, etc., as below. Among the feasts of the same church it is again set down: B. Heckard, July 1, of the Holy Trinity. The aforesaid things are nearly repeated in the sacred and pious Calendars, on the said day July 1 page 701. And these are the chief things which it has hitherto been permitted to see, handed down to memory concerning the holiness of our blessed Hechard.

[7] Let the reader observe with me, that in the cited text of Gelenius the year 1173 is adduced, who do not rightly note the epoch of the founded monastery. in which the citadel was first destroyed, on which thereupon the monastery of Segor, and so the church itself, began to be built up: by a lapse, I think, of memory; certainly the just order of chronology being by no means preserved; since in the life he had read, as we showed at number 4, that in that same year 1173 (nay according to Teschenmacher in the year 1170) Philip the most magnificent Archbishop of the church of Cologne consecrated the same church with the Bishops. To me indeed it is far more probable that the aforesaid citadel was destroyed some years before, that space might be granted in which all things could be built and conveniently completed; so that in the year 1172, in which we said there was a concurrence of the chronological notes, the consecration of the church was made, perhaps with both the founder B. Hechard, and B. Hermann the first Provost, dead. Certainly with Grothusius it must be confessed that of the deeds of both (understand also of the time of their deeds) almost nothing remains except the tradition itself of holiness. There is therefore nothing sufficiently firm in these things, where you may fix your foot; if any light can be supplied from elsewhere, it will be most welcome to us and we will not slothfully use it, when we come to the Acts of B. Hermann, which we have above noted are to be illustrated either on August 6, or on December 23, with other diplomas pertaining to him.

[8] Some history of the life collected by the same. It is plain also that the things handed down about the life of B. Hechard are not more secure. A brief compendium Father Kritzraet found among the papers of Grothusius, bearing this title: The History of B. Hechard, Canon priest, founder of the monastery of Scheida. Whether by Canon he wishes to indicate that he was of the Premonstratensian Order, I do not sufficiently perceive; thus he abridges the life: Woland de Ardeia, a man second to none in nobility of birth and riches, illustrious for virtues, in ancient Saxony, which we call Westphalia, held a citadel lying on the river Ruhr, in which while alive he raised a chapel dedicated to St. Severinus confessor. But he himself having died, Hechard, a priest most adorned with integrity of morals and piety, was the author to Wiltrudis, the widow of Woland, and to her children, that, the citadel being leveled to the ground, from its ruins they should build a convent, and devote themselves and their things to God. Soon Rathard the layman, son of Woland and Wiltrudis, obeyed, and proved himself and his things to God by his piety. There exist on that matter little verses indeed barbarous, yet not inelegant, but of the ancients, Wiltrudis the widow divinely illuminated destroyed the castle, founding a venerable cloister, she gave herself and her things with her children to the cult of the Deity.

[9] a compendium by our Grothusius; Then Grothusius asks who B. Hechard was. But whether, he says, B. Hechard was sown from Woland himself or his family, or from what lineage he came forth, is so hidden that the B. man seems to have passed by all fame and notice of men. Yet I conjecture that he is altogether to be placed among the children of Woland, because several children are written in the said little verses to have devoted themselves to the divine cult, who as the first authors gave the beginnings to the college of Scheida. But in the books which they call death-books, Rathard the layman and Echard the priest are named the founders and authors of the college of Scheida, with which title almost only the family of the Ardeiadae glories. Hechard himself departed with great esteem of blessedness and holiness, which alone remained of his life among posterity, his pious deeds being given over to oblivion, by whom in the green marble, which they call Werl marble, this monument was set up for him. Not slow in signs, our founder Hechard, the Priest, rests in flesh in this fair sepulchre, in spirit he himself possesses the choir of the holy ones.

[10] These things Grothusius probably enough, which are probable, would that they were more certain. although perhaps someone might desire clearer arguments, that he may altogether agree that B. Hechard drew his origin from the blood of the Ardeiadae. Indeed I would not be an unjust exactor; let our Blessed one have been most illustrious not only for holiness and signs, but also for lineage and blood, such as the life mentioned above and composed by Gelenius, which here follows, hands down him to have been. In it I find more words than matter, at least pertaining properly to B. Hechard: but in such a penury of older monuments, what is left, except that we use the diligence, such as it is, of the searchers already praised.

THE LIFE of B. Hechard Confessor.

Hechard priest Confessor, at Scheida on the borders of Westphalia (B.)

Ancient Saxony ^a, which is now called Westphalia, The region is described from the ancients, situated between the Rhine and the Weser, rises to a ridge in a great series of mountains, which the Romans are known to have called Mount Rhaeticon. Further, from it, as is wont to be, many rivers born, both toward the rising sun toward the Weser, and toward the setting of the sun, to be mingled with the Rhine, run down with continual spring: among these rivers, which toward the setting sun fall down from the aforesaid mountains, there are two rivers not unknown to those same Romans, since they were thereupon bridged by their army, the Lippe and the Erygrus, which now with a slenderer and truncated sound we hear pronounced Lippe and Ruhr. Between these two rivers a spacious field is interposed, which, where the aforesaid rivers are most distant, is reckoned to be 32, but where they differ least, 27 miles wide. It is so framed by nature, that near the Lippe it is mostly lower and with hills thereupon arising between, gradually, where it approaches the Ruhr, it rises into mountains of a magnitude conspicuous from afar, with which raised, it is fringed by the windings of the descending Ruhr, bristling with ancient forests and dense groves. This was the extremity of the Hercynian forest, most celebrated among the ancients, having a journey of nine days in breadth, the side turned toward the North, and now many traces of the old forest remain, together with the name: there Heerdeke, Arisbergh, Hertzbergh, Hard, Harhusen, and citadels and towns of similar old appellation, on the very boundary of the forest I have mentioned, persevere.

[2] But more openly preserves the old shadow of the name, of which I shall speak, in which the powerful family of the Ardeiadae; a domain most celebrated from ancient times, which was wont to be called Hardi or Ardeia ^b, otherwise Hardeia, because it comprised the extreme side of the Hercynia, of which I have spoken. There flourished in a long series the noble blood of Ardeia, both powerful in war by deeds done and arms brilliantly handled, and in peace by counsels and care of religion, until the possession of the land came with the blood to Waland or Woland. He not dissimilar to his ancestors, strove to surpass even his ancestors in virtue and piety, who, taking Wiltrudis, like to himself in lineage and virtue, into the partnership of conjugal life, was made by her the father of some children, whom, educating in the exercises of piety and of virtues befitting his lineage, he made the founders of a distinguished and great work before God. Among whose most religious works, this also was, that in his castle, situated not far from the Ruhr toward the North, he wished St. Severinus to dwell with him (in that manner in which it is permitted and befitting for the Saints with a man): for he saw to the building of an elegant sacristy at expense and art for the same holy Confessor ^c, in which, dedicated to the glory of the Holy Trinity with other Saints, both especially with St. Severinus, very often from the altar of his heart he himself kindled the incense of devotion to God for an odor of sweetness; and he procured the sacrifice of praise to be offered there to God by others, especially by the household of the faith. Whence also it came about that, the merits of St. Severinus suffraging and the sedulous piety and justice of Woland himself deserving, his sons, educated in the fear of the Lord, went from virtue to virtue, namely through the vision of peace, through a pure conscience, from an integral heart and unfeigned faith, working salvation, both their own and their neighbors'.

[3] But him, occupied with these studies, at length ripe for the other life, the line of things withdrew from the present world, which, as great a bitterness of grief it heaped upon Wiltrudis, his most dear wife and companion in piety, so much did she herself add to virtue, he left Wiltrudis a widow. for into all the evils of widowhood, not by the succession of times, but as if precipitated in one moment, she did what is proper to the elect, that this heap of evils too, however great it was, might serve her as a certain copious material for the increase of the spiritual edifice, and that there might be made for her by the grace of God, with the temptation, an issue. For she turned herself to cultivate piety, even more exactly than before, and confining the impetus of her lately divided love within the bounds of one channel, she thereafter derived it into the one God, thinking how, according to the precept of the Apostle, she might please God. In all these things she had as a strong and faithful and prudent helper B. Hechard her son ^d, This by the counsel of B. Hechard who, for the innocence of morals which was his and inflamed with desire of celestial things, was initiated into the priesthood, and served the Lord day and night in his paternal castle, walking in all the justifications of a faithful and devout priest, whether he offered God the sacrifice of his lips, or, dealing with his neighbors, showed the way of salvation, through continence and justice and faith.

[4] He therefore, seeing the valiant woman, and that the heart of him could rest in her, converts his citadel into a religious cloister, who, on account of his exceeding excellence, is the head of the man, Christ the Lord, and the spirit which Solomon praised in the valiant woman, still more excellent showed her the way, for the filial charity which he owed her. For some times having elapsed, he persuaded both her and the other son of the same, Rathard his brother, who had succeeded the father in the eminence of secular power, to undertake a work of most excellent piety, namely that they should change the citadel into a convent, and convert the castle of secular power into the cloister of religious perfection. Which was done, the divine clemency ordaining, which moved their hearts, that, mature and frequent deliberation being had on the most holy counsel, with a view to the tabernacles to be procured for themselves in the heavens, if they should deposit their transitory things into the hands of the servants of God, as of bankers or money-changers, who, having received the most copious gain, will repay, with great joy and consolation of their mind, they converted the house of the world into the court of the house of God ^e, and devoted themselves and theirs to be always the advocates and protectors of the service of that place.

[5] the angels rejoicing With how great joy think you the angels were then affected, who, solicitously seeking out our salvation, are wont to rejoice over one sinner doing penance; when they foresaw not now one, but troops of many converted to penance about to flow together to this new asylum of piety or city of refuge, or Segor, snatched from the snares of the world and the flesh and the demon, or, to say it more truly, escaped from the fires of Sodom and Gomorrah. That was a great and acceptable day in Israel, and as the day of the world; of the world certainly, when, so many illustrious families being dead, the family of Ardeia itself in religion surpassed not only other equal and greater families, but itself by living. But meanwhile what dost thou, O plunderer of the churches of God, dissipator of monasteries and religious houses, think, that it will be to thy glory to have dissipated the goods of thy Lord? The Lord will come to thee, and will come on a day or night on which thou didst not hope, and will command an account to be rendered: for he who did not spare the steward of iniquity, whom the Lord had set over his goods, on account of the infamy of dissipation in the things committed, will surely not dissemble with the plunderer of his goods, of whom a cry is heard to heaven on account of the oppression of orphans.

[6] Not so Wiltrudis nor her son Rathard, and her son Rathard the layman consenting. however laymen; not B. Hechard himself, the leader of the distinguished deed, who withdrew from their own uses what should fall to the utility of the servants of God: blessed be you of the Lord, because he poured such charity into your hearts, ever shall your honor and name and praises remain, which are carved much more firmly in memory than in plates of bronze, although that writing too shall never be lacking: for this also which follows is of such a carving. WILTRUDIS THE WIDOW DIVINELY ILLUMINATED, DESTROYED THE CASTLE, FOUNDING A VENERABLE CLOISTER, AND GAVE HER THINGS WITH HER CHILDREN, TO THE CULT OF THE DEITY. Further the monastery, Description of the monastery as to the surrounding place, which was then born up on the foundations of the secular citadel (as when from the ashes of the burned phoenix a phoenix is born, or the eagle, its feathers shaken out to the sun, renews its youth, new feathers springing up beneath) is situated not far from the river Ruhr, opposite the river Hönne, falling into the aforesaid river from the southern side, except that it is set a little toward the north from their confluence, in a place opportune for the sustenance of a religious congregation, on account of the fertility of the surrounding fields and the necessary fruit of pastures and forests. Which place indeed from ancient times suitably obtained the name Scheida ^f, the name and etymon; because the Lord himself from the beginning distinguished it from many others, that there he might separate the sons of Adam, and the sons against their father and their mother, but still also the man against himself, namely to mortify his members which are upon the earth, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord, when his angels going forth shall separate the wicked from the midst of the just, and shall set the kids on the left, but the lambs on the right; or shall bind the cockle into bundles, but the wheat shall gather into the barn of the Lord.

[7] We can also consider that congruence of the name or place, which is also allegorically explained. that the same place, set among the valleys, is the beginning of the river which gladdens the city of Luna the moon by flowing down, because humility and the affliction of discipline grows cheap to the sons of the world as to mountains, swollen and lifted up with prosperity and pride, in which cheapness nevertheless the Lord commanded the blessing, saying, that between the midst of the mountains the waters shall pass: waters at any rate, not those which are absorbed by sandy soil, but those which gladden the city of God, which, as long as in the present it is subject to vicissitudes, is not rarely compared to the moon, and because through the envy of the devil the house of God-fearing Job is wont in many ways to be shaken, therefore the pious and clement Lord also commanded his angels concerning the same place that they should guard it.

[8] Other benefactors after Wiltrudis Since after Wiltrudis and Rathard, and their corner-stone B. Hechard, its founders, the same family of Ardeia, through its generations ^g, the Lord cooperating, protected and augmented the place: among whom with great liberality and piety excelled Everhard the Count, who, faithful Advocate of the church of Scheida, on the 9th of the Kalends of December about the year of the Lord 1200 slept in the Lord, from whom, as we do not doubt, he received his reward, received into his eternal tabernacles in heaven, whose temporal dwelling he had brilliantly guarded in the world. To him then succeeded Jonathas, who, emulating not only his father, but also the leader who was the standard-bearer of his name, whose praise is in the sacred volume, the Maccabee I mean, glorified that house and declared himself its strong defender; on the 4th of the Ides of October, as we trust, called to the rewards of heaven. From whom after the year 1238 there was another Jonathas, who himself too in life emulated his ancestors for many years, and followed the same on the 4th of the Ides of May in death. After whom there was William the Count, who in the year 1283 adorned and defended the same place.

[9] and most pious advocates. These set themselves as a wall against the rage and snares of the devastators, and against him who sits at the side of the testament they kept watch for the place in which the blood of Ardeia had made its piety attested to God: for which also when dead they wished their bones and ashes to be brought into the same place, that to whom living they had warred, to the same they might be a protection in death. But meanwhile B. Hechard, made by the works of virtues riper for heaven, with the reputation of holiness and blessedness to be received in heaven for his remarkable faith and charity toward God, consummated his life in the same religion and piety in which he had lived, on the Kalends of July, and was honorably buried in the church, in a place distinct from the others laid there; who, that he may intercede for us, may the Lord grant, to whom in the midst of the Saints is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

THE TRANSLATION OF B. HECHARD.

Hechard priest Confessor, at Scheida on the borders of Westphalia (B.)

There was in the more southern parts of Westphalia a family illustrious in war and peace, of the Lords de Hardeia, powerful in towns, citadels, and lands and peoples, which was the foundress of the convent of Scheida and to the same place through many years of the following age bestowed faithful and pious help, for the love of God and the remedy of their souls. For Wiltrudis the widow of Woland the Count with her sons attributed that place with its appurtenances to the servants of God, and the whole family thereafter lay with prompt zeal upon adorning and defending the place, so that in the church of the aforesaid monastery they wished the place of their repose to be with their ashes, that if they did not live in the offspring of their blood, at least in the pious and faithful memory of the servants of God they might continually persevere. Nor did the most clement Lord, rich toward all, permit the pious protectors toward his family to be defrauded of their hope, because they were greatly honored in the glory of B. Hechard, who, on account of the sweet odor of his holiness, raised from his sarcophagus, enriched several churches with his venerable presence. But when, sins exacting it, the devastation of war pressing on laid waste sacred and profane far and wide, then those which of his sacred body remained in the church of Scheida, his bones, withdrawn from the barbarous fury, were laid up in the former marble sepulchre, under the earth, yet clothed in precious little cloths, in a coffin, from which time even to our age they remained laid up, and at length, salutary diligence being applied, found and again, namely in the year 1628 on June 23, with great sense of piety, from the dust and the subterranean place, into a more honorable place and reliquary, together with B. Hermann, the first provost of the convent of Scheida, were laid up, as the elogium of the following instrument teaches.

[11] We John Gelenius Doctor of Sacred Theology, respectively Dean and Canon of the Metropolitan church of Cologne and of the church of the Holy Apostles, Vicar in spirituals and Commissary General of the most Serene and most reverend Ferdinand Archbishop and Prince Elector of Cologne. Leonard Teveren, Abbot of Knechtsteden, and Father Abbot of the monastery of Scheida, and William Gruter first Abbot of the said monastery of Scheida of the Premonstratensian order of white Canons. We make known to all who shall see, read, or hear read the present letters; since we, moved by piety alone toward God, who is honored in his Saints, and by devout affection toward the founder of the monastery of Scheida of the Premonstratensian order, the Blessed man Hechard, had determined to open his sepulchre and seek out his sacred remains, that in the year 1628, on the 23rd day of the month of June about the eighth hour, the hours of Prime being sung, in the presence of the witnesses written below, we entered the choir of the said monastery and in it, behind the pulpit of the gradual, found a square stone of green color, such as are wont to be dug near Werl, six cubits, on whose circumference the following verses were carved in old majuscule letters, altogether legible after we had caused the stone to be raised. Not slow in signs, our founder Hechard, the Priest, rests in flesh in this fair sepulchre, in spirit he himself possesses the choir of the holy ones.

[12] This indeed premised, we removed the stone, under which, where the earth heaped over had been cast out to the breadth of a palm, was found a vault, consisting of three square Werl stones, each of which a little exceeded the length of a foot. Under these was found a sepulchre, consisting of square Werl stones, about two and a half feet long, one and a half feet wide, on either side it was joined by two stones, at each head was a solid whole stone. In this stone sepulchre was another wooden coffin of oak, consisting of six boards, one for the bottom, two for the heads, and two for the sides, and a lid, joined with iron and wooden nails, of such a size that it was exactly surrounded by the stone sepulchre, but for age it could not be raised. And so the lid being taken off, we saw that this coffin had, as it appeared, been clothed with linen cloths; in the coffin we found two great bones from the hip even to the knees, likewise two great ones from the knees even to the ankles, a great part of the hip, two vertebrae and the spine of the back, a shoulder-blade, but which, when it was touched by the hand of the Religious brother displaying it, was at once resolved into ashes; nearly the same happened with the other bones, except some little discs of various bones, which remained whole. The head we did not find, it seems in the first translation of these relics, made into this coffin, it was not placed in. In sum, from the linen particles adhering to these bones, which at a touch were resolved into ashes, it was to be seen to the eye that the individual bones and particles had been wrapped in fine cloths. After which finding we commanded the Religious Brothers to give thanks to God, by singing the Te Deum laudamus and ringing the bells, which was done. These things were done in the year of the Lord's Incarnation, month, day, hour, as above.

Note of Giles Gelenius.

What was said about Wiltrudis and the family of the Ardeiadae and its propense zeal toward the Abbey of Scheida and its burial there, both in the life and in the translation of B. Hechard, is also confirmed from the old verses carved in stone, which, lest they perish, I judged should be appended in this place; they are these. In the house of the Provost. Rejoicing to break down the lofty walls of the castle of Wiltrudis of Ardeia, she gave these pious roofs. But in the church itself these. The noble stock of Ardeia lies in that tomb * which conferred very many goods on this church of Christ.

Likewise. Here rest the bones of very great men, the nobility of their morals and of their parents adorned these too: Born of Ardeia, that Mount Aquileia Arnsberg proves, by its nobility, together with all Saxony too, taking tithes from the Upper Germans with great hosts. Ardea of Westphalia once gleamed everywhere, here lies prostrate in ashes either sex.

From these it is permitted to observe: 1, that the Ardeiadae were founders and benefactors. 2, that it was a glorious family. 3, that to the blood of the Counts of Arnsberg, whom we now call the people of Arensberg (for these that pointed little word of the author MONS AQUILEIA indicates), if it did not give the beginning, as someone writes, certainly it was connected to the same. 4, that it waged war happily against the Upper Germans and subjugated them. 5, that the family was extinct.

The insignia of the family were on a white shield. Grothusius adds, a figure as it were of a cherry cut in four, a reddening little skin, impressed on a white shield. And hence in another paper he shows that the family of Arnsberg is different from the Ardeian one.

* Should it not be these?