Benno Bishop of Meissen in Saxony and Apostle of the Slavs

CONCERNING SAINT BENNO BISHOP OF MEISSEN IN SAXONY AND APOSTLE OF THE SLAVS

LAID TO REST AT MUNICH IN BAVARIA.

IN THE YEAR 1106

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Concerning the chronology of his life, the Author, the Miracles; & the cult following his Canonization.

Benno, Bishop of Meissen, laid to rest at Munich in Bavaria (S.)

G. H., D. P.

S. Benno flourished in the eleventh century of Christ

& the beginning of the following,

born in the year 1010 at Hildesheim

in lower Saxony, & soon

in the year 1015 handed over into the service

of S. Bernward, Bishop of

Hildesheim, The time of his birth, his kinsman; &

by him both while living, & while dying, commended

to Wiger Provost of the monastery of S.

Michael, that with worthy morals & humane

studies he might be instructed. These having been duly

accomplished over some years, in that same monastery

in the year 1028 he began the monastic life,

His monkhood, & so advanced, that in the year

1035 he was to be promoted to the Diaconate, & in the year 1040

to the Priesthood. He was also

created Abbot in the year 1042, but after

three months, by his own vow, from that office

he was freed. While meanwhile by the Emperor

the Church of Goslar was being built,

& by S. Leo IX Roman Pontiff being consecrated,

S. Benno to it as Master &

Canon was taken on in the year 1049, His canonry, that

he might be Leader to the new congregation & Prefect

of Ecclesiastical discipline. Which when he had done for seventeen

years, in the year 1066

he was elected & consecrated Bishop of Meissen.

His episcopate, In which dignity he persisted forty years,

to lay down his life for his sheep, having suffered exile

& many persecutions; while adhering

to S. Gregory VII Supreme Pontiff,

& fleeing to him at Rome, he detested

the rebellion of Henry the emperor. At last

having become also Apostle of the Slavs, of his death.

full of days & merits, he migrated to the heavenly

fatherland in the year 1106 on the 16th day of June,

renowned for miracles in life & after death.

they were supported by letters, seals, witnesses,

or a public notary, or the most ample

authority of Prelates, as is indicated

below in the Life no. 43, indeed

his sacred body too in the year 1270,

was translated by Witigo the Bishop, to the middle of the church.

It is indicated also at no.

53, that a most ancient little book of his life in

the monastery of Hildesheim was recently miraculously

found, which would that it might happen to be found again!

But at last, when at Rome

with Alexander VI & Julius

the Second his Canonization was being seriously treated,

Jerome Emser, Doctor of the Sacred

Canons, accurately described

the Life of that same S. Benno, The Life published, the author being Jerome Emser, & published it in print

in the year 1512, reprinted by Lawrence Surius,

which we also give in our manner divided

& illustrated with notations. There are extant

various lucubrations of the same Jerome Emser,

published before & afterward, such

as: Dialogue against the drunken, Assertion

of the Mass against Luther, On the Canon

of the Mass against Zwingli, on the same disputation

to the Dean of Prague, on the disputation

of Leipzig, & his other little books.

He also translated into the German language

the New Testament, & adorned it with learned annotations.

The rest of his doctrine

will appear from the reading of this Life.

[3] The Miracles of S. Benno were then

printed at Rome in the year 1521, the Miracles are added taken from

various informative Processes; & the folios

of the Processes themselves, then exhibited at Rome,

are cited in the margin with the number of witnesses;

just as we exhibit all those things, adding here

& there our Annotations. * To those Miracles

is prefixed the Life, by way of an epistle, for

persuading the Canonization, to Leo X

Supreme Pontiff, with this beginning: Our ancestors

were accustomed, Most Blessed Father, to decree

divine honors to those who were well

deserving of the Christian name: from which

manner of piety Christian men in this

our age by no means shrink. For you are

the best witness, with how great zeal & diligence

the French strove last year,

that Francis of Paola (in the print

"Minoritan" had crept in for "Minim") most holy

indeed that man, together with a double epitome of the Acts, one of the best & greatest of the Saints

might be judged by you. To whose will

you, just & honest indeed, by your singular

benignity toward all good men,

were unwilling to be wanting. Which since you did it rightly & honestly

& willingly, you showed us great

hope, that now at some time

it will come about, that you will enroll Benno,

endowed with excellent virtue & plainly divine, in

the number of the Saints. Which if so,

as we hope, will be done by you; you indeed

will seem to bestow upon a most holy

man the most ample fruit of virtue; which both

will be worthy of you, & to Christian men

grateful & salutary. And that

you may understand of what man we speak, the life

of Benno, offered to Leo X for Canonization. & those things which after his death

happened by divine power, I shall briefly relate…

This done he thus concludes: You have, most blessed

Father, the life of Benno, & those things which

after his death by no means obscure divine

signs appeared. It remains now, that

you enroll so great a man, by your greatest

authority, in the number of the Saints. From

which thing you indeed will obtain great fruit:

for at one & the same

time, you will both bring light to the divine Benno,

& concerning our Emperor Charles

V, the Duke of Saxony, John Frederick's

father, the father of him whom afterward Luther seduced;

& finally all Meissen, with the title of the Margraviate

belonging to the Saxon Electors,

you will well deserve.

[4] That epistle is followed, without any

title, by the deeds of the Life, as they are named at the end,

which are found noted in very many archives of notable

Churches.

They are indeed here & there interpolated for clearer

understanding with parentheses; The older of these is here prefixed to the Life, yet

where I find them I leave them within ( ) brackets together

with those Acts, as being short &

ancient, it pleases me to prefix them to the more prolix Life,

since for composing this they seem thus to have given light

to the Author, so that unless in one place or another

he had something not to be found in that Epitome,

it would be thought to be in it that little book which

he said was Miraculously found. These moreover being printed

& far & wide published at Rome, by

Adrian VI in the year 1523 was celebrated

on Trinity Sunday, which then was

the last day of May, the solemn Canonization,

both of S. Benno himself, to which is subjoined his posthumous Glory, & of S. Antoninus

Archbishop of Florence, already before decreed by Leo;

just as we shall give it described in his posthumous Glory,

from the Itinerary of that same Adrian

the Pope, which in vol. 3 of his Miscellanies

Stephen Baluze published for us,

through Blasius Ortiz, Canon of Toledo

& Vicar General, & companion of that journey,

accurately set down in letters.

The Bull made thereupon, which indeed pertains to S.

Benno (for concerning S. Antoninus it was not

published except by Adrian's successor Clement VII)

was immediately published, just as

it is had in vol. 3 of the Bullary, collected by Cherubinus

Laertius in the Appendix; from the Itinerary of Adrian VI, the Bull of Canonization, & for that same

it was also for the greater part printed by

Matthew Rader in vol. 3 of Holy Bavaria.

But from it, the epitome of the life & miracles inserted there in the same

being omitted,

the rest pertaining to the history of the Canonization

we shall give, under the same title of Posthumous glory;

& whatever besides we received at Munich,

concerning the body translated thither, under the year

1576 & after four years into the church

sacred to the Mother of God & the miracles there

following.

[5] These printed in German, together with

the Life & the history of the translation, partly at Munich

in the year 1602, partly at Freising in the year

1604, The Translation to Munich, & the miracles done there, we had found, going to Rome

in the year 1660, among the Collectanea of our John

Gamans, then remaining at Aschaffenburg.

But when Henschen remembered them,

weaving this Commentary which we interpolate,

two years before his death, that is in the year of Christ

1679, by letters given to R. P. Eusebius

Truchses, then Rector of the College of Munich,

he asked that same man, that he would take care

to have all these things rendered into Latin by some one of his men.

That man took it willingly upon himself: For

since at this time, he said, especially S.

Benno is venerated by the inhabitants of this city,

that he may keep the plague far from it; I

think him to be propitiated by no other kind of service

more, which in the year 1680 after his Jubilee was celebrated than that which is laid upon me

by Your Reverence. Soon therefore to P.

Francis Halden, then his preacher in the church of the Mother of God,

together with Henschen's letters

he gave the command, of executing those things. There was then

recurring opportunely the hundredth year from the translation

of the Body, to be most solemnly celebrated by the decree of the Princes

& City: but at the same time it kept the Father

Preacher occupied with the care of the panegyric,

to be continued in the coming June through a whole octave:

perhaps also, since on our

part nothing was urgent, the publication of June being then still

far off, he judged it better that he should wait,

until, the solemnity being completed, he could add

whatever it had brought worthy of that memory.

[6] Meanwhile paralysis seized Henschen,

& suspended almost all his studies; they are rendered from German into Latin. the letters

also which he had given to Munich were sought,

hidden among other papers as happens: wherefore at his

& Rector Truchses's admonition I wrote new

letters, about to recall to memory what we wished,

which Truchses's successor receiving—Truchses being

then translated to the Government of the Province—R. P.

Jacob Willi, himself also most zealous of our work,

of his own accord incited that same P. Francis, running

of his own accord, to the work; which when

he afterward sent to us in the year 1681,

on 22 October, Henschen had already departed to his

Saints as we trust; having almost died

upon those very studies, which with his evil somewhat

lightened he had resumed, on the 11th day of the preceding September.

What therefore he himself could not do

I supplied, & a good part of that version

I inserted into that same Posthumous glory of S. Benno,

begun to be composed by Henschen. Now

I return to his Commentary, which he left

to be thus finished.

[7] S. Benno was taken as Patron

of the city of Munich, Sacred cult at Munich, at Breslau, & with solemn cult his feast

is celebrated, even in the churches of the Religious.

We have the proper Offices of the Saints

of the diocese of Breslau in Silesia, by the authority

& command of Leopold William Archduke

of Austria & Bishop of Breslau in the year

1672 published, as also the proper Offices

of the Saints of the Sacred Order of the Crosier-bearers with

the red star: in which under a double rite

the feast is prescribed to be celebrated, & both the Prayers

& the Lessons are taken from the Bull

of Canonization. at Hildesheim; We have also the proper Offices

of the Church & diocese of Hildesheim printed in the year 1657;

in which is prescribed the Ecclesiastical

veneration of S. Benno. his memory in the calendars. His Relics have perhaps been

shared with several other churches: to our

Antwerp one certainly a certain particle fell,

& is kept with the other minor Relics of the Saintly

Confessors together in one chest. Besides,

his memory is inserted in the Sacred tables of the Roman

Martyrology, in the Benedictine calendars

of Wion, Dorganius, Menard, Bucelinus, &

in the Births of the Holy Canons of Constantine

Ghini, everywhere at this day 16 June.

Besides we said at the day 31 May that in

the same Benedictine Calendars & in Ferrari

the memory is made of the Canonization performed on the said

day. We finish with the wish of Rader: Divine

Benno, give a return also, to your blood

& fatherland & See. Cherish us:

them, like lambs straying from the sheep,

lead back to the folds of the just Pastor & the Church.

OLD EPITOME OF THE ACTS

From the Roman edition of the year 1621.

Benno, Bishop of Meissen, laid to rest at Munich in Bavaria (S.)

FROM THE OLD PRINT, BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

[1] Benno from the illustrious & most famous lineage of the Counts

of Saxony, Nobly & piously educated begotten of Frederick &

Bezela his parents; to Bernward,

then Bishop of Hildesheim, who to him

was joined by consanguinity (& who afterward,

on account of the merits of his life, among

the Saints was numbered) to be imbued with letters & good

morals he was handed over. And by the

care & diligence of the then Abbot of the Monastery

of holy Angel (which he himself had erected & endowed

at his own expense),

& of certain Monks singular in doctrine,

& notable for probity of life, he becomes Abbot of S. Angel, he was excellently

learned in letters; & so chastely &

religiously taught to live, that, Bishop Bernward

having died, he of his own accord took up the habit of Religion

in that same Monastery,

& so shone with sanctity of life, that, the Abbot

failing (as a most shining exemplar)

he was compelled to take up the rule, care, &

dignity of the Abbacy. But

ambition being despised (loving rather humbly

to be subject, than with the danger of arrogance

to preside) not long after to this

dignity he yielded it up.

[2] But God regarding his humility

(who puts down the mighty from their seat, & in the

exaltation of the humble delights) suffered not the light

to lie hidden in darkness, Provost of Goslar. nor the merits of his life

to pass without remuneration:

since the report of his praiseworthy fame

so filled the ears of Henry the Third Emperor,

that, he being drawn out of the Monastery by the license of Leo

the Ninth Roman Pontiff,

to the Provostship of the church of Goslar (called the Imperial

Chapel) (which

he was accustomed to confer only on men of most approved life)

he chose that same man, & compelled him to accept

it: there were of these Provosts

his predecessors very many raised

to Archiepiscopal & Episcopal dignities,

Bishop of Meissen. nor a few placed in the number of Bishops.

Further B. Benno (to whom perhaps the celebrated

life of those gave a spur) as one

who thought it base & shameful to degenerate

from their succession; so in the exercise

of the office of the Provostship bore himself, that to them neither

in dignity, nor in sanctity of life was he unequal.

Since (his merits thus requiring it)

in the fifty-sixth year of his age

promoted to the Bishopric of the Church of Meissen:

he ruled praiseworthily, increased its

rights & authority by his genius &

solicitude in such a way, & took such care of his flock,

that neither before nor

after him could any other Bishop of that Church

deservedly be equaled to him or even

preferred, just as the memorable deeds

of his life easily demonstrate.

[3] When Pope Gregory the Seventh

& Emperor Henry the Fourth pursued each other with mutual hatred,

adhering to Pope Gregory, & each strenuously aimed at the deposition

of the other, & for this kind

of cause through the Emperor (whose

authority then was great even in ecclesiastical matters)

through the Pope a Council in the City was gathered;

& all the prelates of Germany &

of the Gauls, terrified by fear of that Emperor,

convened in Germany; among

the few an obedient son of holy Mother Church

was found; who obeying the commands of the Pontiff,

Emperor Henry & the Margrave of Meissen being excommunicated, he is seized: publicly announced the Emperor & the Margrave

of Meissen adhering to him, with the other

confederates & accomplices their abettors,

in the church of Meissen as excommunicated;

& fearless he shut out the Margrave himself from the church;

& its doors being closed, that access to it

should be open to him no longer; when he directed his journey to

the Pontiff, he threw the keys into the river Elbe,

great & navigable. But

that he followed the side of the Pontiff, & had gone to his

Council, was the more troublesome to the Emperor,

who had raised him up,

the more he felt himself deserving of him.

As soon therefore as he could, he cast Benno into

prison, & exposed the goods of that

Church to plunder.

[4] then released he gathers the Clergy again, At length however with God as helper (who is accustomed to anoint with the oil of gladness those loving

justice & holding iniquity in hatred), being freed,

when he returned to his Church, in

the gills of a fish, brought to him from the river into which he had

thrown the keys of the church (wonder!),

he found them, & with joy unlocked it:

he gathered the dispersed Clergy into one, &

composed the dissolute: & a certain manner of singing being

given (which up to the present in that

church is observed), he caused the divine offices hitherto

neglected to be resumed. He preaches to the Slavs, The Vandals or

Slavs, & whatever other men committed to his care

he found to have fallen away from the faith, & whoever had

never received it, with equanimity

he converted to it, & in the same

made them firm. The jurisdictions also of villages &

places, the revenues & proceeds, & many

other goods, by his industry to the Church

were given & otherwise acquired. A collegiate church

in that place near the city of Meissen,

where he was accustomed to give himself to contemplation, he leaves traces to endure,

he erected & endowed. In two villages,

one of which, to flee the tyranny of the Margrave

of Meissen, the other to

convert the Vandals to the faith, at times

he dwelt. Of this blessed man

the footprints of his feet, which he then left by walking about,

are seen less injured by the growth of grasses,

or by other accident in so

long a time (which both

by sight & hearing is wonderful) than if

they were beheld made by a recent twinkling of the eye.

Further the house, which among

the Vandals he had in use, in which no row of stones

nor kind of cement by which

they seem to be glued together, &

is seen: as also the house preserved safe while the rest were consumed: &, if the village in which it is situated

was several times depopulated by enemies: & consumed

by fire, yet still in its

structures & buildings so unharmed & whole

is beheld, that those seeing it are compelled to marvel,

that God preserves the habitation & footprints

of the feet of His Saints unharmed.

[5] This blessed man, because he protected the goods & rights

of the Church, struck with a slap by the Margrave & resisted with all his might

those usurping them, the Margrave of Meissen then

pursued with keen hatred. And when

once he was admonished benignly &

with charity, that he should not interfere in them, & should restore what

he unduly detained; the Order & dignity

Episcopal being despised, with fervid wrath

he struck the venerable old man, who already through forty

years had administered the pastoral

Office with all praise, he foretells his punishment, on the jaw.

To whom when he himself (inspired by the divine spirit)

prophesied that he would receive the punishment of this guilt in the following

year, on the same day on which he committed it, & it now, the year being come round,

had arrived; the Margrave both ridiculously repeated

the prophecy of that man (now dead),

& opprobriously did not fear to despise it. But

while these things were being spoken, by a sudden & unexpected

death he died & did not escape the threatened

punishment. He crosses the Elbe with dry foot, This man, when in his journeys

the facility of crossing the aforesaid river Elbe

by the bridge was at some time intercepted,

crossed it with dry foot. And when,

as he was sometimes accustomed, he changes water into wine, he had approached the farmers

or workmen in the meadow,

& perceived them parched with thirst; by the sign

of the Cross of Christ (who did the same in Cana of Galilee)

he turned water into wine.

And when he knew the people in a certain valley while he preached there

also to labor with thirst; he draws forth a spring,

with the staff, which he used for his support,

(just as Moses from the rock)

the earth being struck he caused water & a spring, from which

still it flows abundantly, to gush forth:

& that spring is called holy up to today,

& the valley itself holy.

[6] He blessed a little bell in a place near Meissen:

he blesses a bell against storms, whose sound, as the inhabitants of that place

affirm, kept the whole territory & district too

immune & free from lightning & storm (even though

the nearer adjacent places are more often injured by them)

up to the present.

There is besides a field, through

which he himself was accustomed frequently to make his way;

which beyond the others round about, more fruitful

& fertile, exists always

free from all storm. In a Village

called Naumburg, he is present in two places at once, in which (that he might more freely

give himself to prayer & contemplation) he sometimes

withdrew, & celebrating the divine offices, at the very same

time in the church of Meissen distant from it by

twenty-four miles,

he was seen to be present miraculously. But why

do I delay? Of his blessed & angelic life from

the day of his death until now, there are so many most evident

signs & wonderful prodigies, that

of him always hitherto there has been & daily grows

so vehement & celebrated an opinion, dead he is renowned for the gift of healings, that

no one, held by any or incurable infirmity,

but firmly hoped to obtain health; or deprived of the light of his eyes,

but to recover his sight;

no one found in so great a danger,

but to escape it, his aid

& help being implored, & so often obtained it,

that all to him (who

restored to health the limbs of countless sick with

diverse & incurable diseases, & very

many from the dead to the vital airs)

as to a unique & singular protection

fled.

[7] he preserves his garments unharmed in the tomb, for 200 years, But of these miracles, how many

are clear by ancient & most open documents,

& famous & illustrious witnesses; but innumerable

by the famous popular opinion of all that & the surrounding

country, are most clearly

evident; there is no one in those parts who

does not know, that his priestly garments, with which

that blessed body was clothed, dug out of the sepulchre

(in which more than two hundred years they had

been hidden), remain incorrupt &

unharmed. And the Margrave of Meissen,

William by name, who burdened the church & Clergy

with intolerable burdens, he chastises the Margrave of Meissen &

usurped the goods of the Provostship, on three following

nights, by this Blessed one (who

as is believed by the assiduous prayers of the Provost

is entreated), appeared to him in sleep: & that

he should restore those things, & should no longer interfere concerning ecclesiastical persons

or things,

being warned (when he counted such dreams as phantasms

worthless, & no otherwise than

Pharaoh's heart his hardened, & was disposed to imposing

more insupportable things)

on the fourth night by the appearance of the touch of a glowing

torch, not without fruit. which he (who again appeared to him in sleep)

seemed to carry in his hand & to bring

against him, in his left eye without

any injury was blinded; & compunct

in heart he restored all things usurped to the Church,

made good the damages: enlarged the endowment & its

revenues, & erected four simple

Benefices (called Vicarages) in that

church, & from his own goods

abundantly endowed them; & in it also, out of reverence

for this Blessed one (whom he gloried to have seen in sleep)

chose his burial.

D. P.

[8] Epilogue of the Editor These deeds of his life, which in very many

ancient archives of notable churches

are found noted, are in

those parts more than famous & known.

But with how many & how great stupendous miracles

after his death he shone, & daily

shines more & more, since from the most diligent

inquisitions, processes, &

full proofs, so often had & made thereupon for the establishing of their

truth, they are so

clear, that they now pass into notoriety;

it seemed superfluous here to

transcribe them & to occupy parchments in vain.

These last words are the Editor's, &

probably of the Procurator staying at Rome to urge

the cause; just as I think also that all

the words are his, included in the context by Parentheses

( ). But to the context itself

I noted nothing, although here & there I could; for this reason that

the individual Notes, of which there would have been use here,

will be more fitly read at the fuller Life. The Dedicatory letter prefixed to the Life.

Receive then this consequently, the Dedicatory epistle being premised,

which Surius in his manner confesses was omitted by him,

just as it came to us transcribed at Munich.

For although it may seem not to pertain to the

history of the life; there is

yet always even in such things something which

may delight the studious of antiquity. Certainly by no means

idle is this Dedication, which explains the origin of the Princes of Meissen

& the remarkable monuments of piety:

with the effigy procured at Rome. & indicates itself to have been written on the author's

birthday, in the year 1512. Receive

also the effigy of the Saint such as before the little book printed at Rome

it is placed, with the fish bringing back the keys of the church,

& the figure of his seal & the family

badge of the Saxon Electors, which same also

the Maschasviozy in Meissen use, but with a Rue

garland drawn in the opposite direction: where the head of

S. John the Baptist placed on the seal seems to denote

the same Patron of the Church of Meissen.

This will be able to console the desire for the other, which

in Naumburg a town of Meissen pertaining to the County

of Waldeck, Emser num. 56 testifies a most ancient painted one

to be seen for its age,

& which thence to hope (if however it still survives)

we scarcely dare. But perhaps

this very one is that which we give, the

indications of Sanctity being omitted, thus sculpted at Rome, lest

it should seem to prejudge the judgment there to be instituted.

LIFE

By the Author Jerome Emser,

Collated with those things, which were sent to Leo X, & are contained in the Bull of Canonization.

Benno, Bishop of Meissen, laid to rest at Munich in Bavaria (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P., FROM JEROME EMSER, FROM THE OLD PRINT.

DEDICATION.

To the most famous & most powerful Prince, George Duke of Saxony: Governor

of Hesse, Landgrave of Thuringia, & Margrave of Meissen. To his most Clement

Lord, the most humble Orator Jerome Emser, Licentiate of the Sacred

Canons, felicity & victory.

Because the House of the Princes of Saxony The Life of Divine Benno, formerly

Bishop of Meissen, most famous & most powerful

Prince, if less elegantly,

yet diligently & faithfully this year

written by me, to your illustrious Glory humbly

I offer, & dedicate: both because by your

liberality & clemency I at length obtained that

leisure of writing; & because to no one

does the dedication of this book more fittingly belong,

than to him, under whose power Meissen,

once Saxony's daughter, but now its Lady,

is established. Indeed by God's providence

I judge it to have been done, that those most ancient

Princes of Saxony, Henry b

I think, & his son, & his Grandson Otto, she was well deserving of Meissen

in founding, raising, & illustrating

Meissen were so diligent & solicitous,

as if hither once their name,

hither their arms & insignia were c to migrate,

they had divinely foreknown. That

too is worthy of admiration, that

since with them those two virtues beyond the rest

were always most familiar, namely to do beautiful

& great things, & to extend Divine worship

as widely as possible; the renowned Princes of Meissen

made both these virtues so

peculiar & proper to themselves, that the truest

Offspring & progeny of the Ottos they can be believed

not undeservedly. For, to be silent of

their deeds, just as

almost no Church of Germany is found,

which did not once feel the munificence & liberality

of the Ottos; so from the renowned

house d of Meissen scarcely any one ever went forth,

who did not declare his piety toward the Heavenly Ones by some notable

either Monastery or Church building, & founder of several monasteries

munificently instituted at his own expense.

This testify not only so many monuments of the old Princes of Meissen

throughout Saxony,

Thuringia & Meissen, of monasteries

of both sexes lying here & there

& of sacred buildings; but

in this our age too the Churches of Ernest e of Magdeburg

the Archbishop, & of Frederick

exceeding almost human

genius, to which the best Princes suffered

nothing to be wanting, which either

to the highest adornment of the house of God, or

to the use of its ministers could

be desired. Nor can your Highness's

devout mind toward God, even from

the single Convent of the Friars Minor &

that Monastery, which at your own

expense for them in the city of Mount S.

Anne g recently built from the foundation, with greater

gifts & benefits day by day

you heap up, lie hidden. For who

would be silent of so praiseworthy & holy

would not proclaim, commend, & to heaven

extol so divine a virtue in them? Truly never were lacking

to the most noble House of Meissen from

the beginning (on account of this very emulation of divine

worship) things bravely done at home & abroad.

There was not lacking to it the glory of riches,

nor the affinities & connections of Kings & Emperors,

nor whatever finally in great & famous

Princes we are accustomed to admire. Only the negligence

or envy of writers was lacking, pregnant from those things which indeed was the chief

cause to me, that, the study of the Sacred

Canons & Theology being interrupted, to

writing I betook myself. Because in my

judgment indeed I could consult better for the common

fame & glory of the people of Meissen,

than by expressing with the pen &

bringing to light the Angelic life of this most holy

Father, his death precious in

the sight of the Lord, & the most evident

signs & prodigies of his sanctity;

to which here & there are mixed

very many things most worthy to be read, both of

the affairs of Meissen & of foreign things.

Receive therefore, this Life the Author dedicates in the year 1512. most Clement Prince,

with serene & cheerful countenance the firstfruits of your bard;

& before we come to the history,

read through the origin & felicity

of your race, & farewell, about to number

Nestorian years. From Dresden, on my Birth

day, namely the 26th of March, in the year of salvation

1512.

ANNOTATIONS OF D. P.

a Namely

the Electorate of Saxony, continued in the Anhalt line up to Albert

who died without children in 1422; by the favor of the Emperor Sigismund

it had passed to the Margrave of Meissen, Frederick the Warlike; by whose son

Frederick the Peaceful the line was divided in two, & to this day holds the dignity,

transferred from one branch to the other under Charles V.

d Of this

House see the expanded genealogical Tree, among the stemmata of Christian Princes,

collected by Antonio Albizzi of Florence; in whose

Annotations you will read of Thiemo, founder of the monastery of Niemeck in the 11th century; & Conrad aforesaid, finally made a Monk of Lauterberg, after no doubt many benefits had been conferred on that place. This man had sons Otto founder of the monasteries of Altzelle, Theodoric of Dobrilugk, Dodo of Zelle, Frederick of Bautzen. Let others enumerate the rest.

g This

Convent in the distribution of the Provinces, of the year 1540 in Wadding,

is numbered 21st in the Province of Saxony; but I read nothing there of its

foundation, or founder; whom hence the Historians of the Order will learn

gladly: for Gonzaga complains that of the convents of that Province,

he can give no notice as in the rest.

PROLOGUE.

[1] About to describe the life of the most blessed Father Benno of Bennopolis,

formerly the tenth Bishop of the renowned

Church of Meissen; In a populous region I deemed it worth the labor before

all things to commit to letters the situation, origin

of the city of Meissen itself, & the traces of the old Ecclesiastical discipline,

preserved up to these times:

both because this was attempted by no one before:

& because it is

unworthy, that that city should be unknown among foreigners,

which is the head & mother

of the people of Meissen, easily the chief of all

Germans (which however with the peace of others

I would say): not only by the richness of the soil & the abundance of all goods, & fertile

but also by urbanity & most refined

manners. For the same people

of Meissen is peculiarly pious toward the Heavenly Ones,

liberal toward guests, splendid at home,

composed abroad: but the field not only

with grain & wine, but also with gold &

silver luxuriates. Of gems it brings forth the diamond,

beryl, jasper, amethyst, topaz,

& pearls. With tin, iron &

almost every kind of metal it teems:

besides it produces marble, & most recently of all

discovered amber. It gathers

rivers, passable by rafts & ships a; the Elbe once the boundary

of Germany b, the Mulda c, the Tschoppen d,

the Elstra, & very many others: & torrents

& rivulets almost innumerable.

Nor are lacking to it coppice woods, & groves

the high lairs of wild beasts: nor pastures glad

with cattle, & flowery meadows. in which the chief cities are Meissen, Leipzig, Of air

too it enjoys so great a temperance, that

it nourishes even the crocus & some other foreign

shrubs not unwillingly.

Hither I deem are to be referred the gentle & placid manners of the people

of Meissen, & such handsome

bodies: since, Aristotle

also being witness, it matters not a little,

under this or that face of the sky men are procreated.

Houses here they build, either cut

of dressed stone, or compacted of baked brick.

[2] The individual cities too have something venerable

of their own, Dresden, & in which they surpass

the rest: of which Meissen the head is notable for its pontifical

See, & a citadel marvelously vaulted up to the very

summit. Leipzig famous for the study of wisdom,

is also far & wide celebrated by the thrice-yearly

assembly of merchants. Dresden the seat of the Princes,

has a stone bridge across the Elbe vaulted with twenty

four arches; a work

of no less value than any of the ancients'

either pyramids or colossi. Mount S. Anne. Besides there are

four mountain cities, of no

obscure name, founded from the silver mines alone,

or silver pits (as they call them), not so

long ago, & named from the individual

mountains. Of which the most ample of all,

that of S. Anne, scarcely

twelve years before we wrote these things,

was a wood. It is wonderful (to

be silent of the houses) that so great a circuit of walls,

so many towers & ramparts, in so brief

felicity & affluence of the land & people

of Meissen, Henry the Fowler thus far: but now

let us return to the city itself. Whose first

foundations Henry surnamed

the Fowler laid, himself the first among

the Germans (Blondus Flavius & Aeneas being authors)

Emperor Augustus: a man notable

for piety & modesty: to whom the name of Fowler

was given for this reason, that

those, who, by the choice of the Princes, summoned him to take up

the Empire, found him simply

setting snares for birds. Nor was there lacking to a deed so humble

the mystery of divine

providence: since

he a little later took the Queen of all birds,

the Roman Eagle I think: worthy of the Empire, & the very

Roman Empire, by his own great

virtue both his own & his son Otto the First's,

to the perpetual glory of the Germans

he claimed.

[3] But although certain Italian writers

do not reckon this excellent Fowler of ours

among the Emperors (for this reason

that he did not enter Italy, & did not take up

the crown to be placed by Pontifical hands

according to custom) yet if

one weighs with himself the causes, by which

he, moved, set aside both, it will easily

appear, that too unjustly for those reasons,

is deprived of the name of Emperor alone.

For that he did not set out into Italy,

the history of the Franks excuses him with these words,

saying; that to such a degree he preferred

the worship of God, the defense of the poor &

of widows, & the discipline of preserving peace,

to every secular dignity,

that he could give no

labor about driving the tyrants from

Italy (who like mercenaries

& hirelings, one succeeding another,

were tearing apart the Empire). yet he is not crowned,

But the crown, even offered unsought,

to place upon his head he abjured; deeming it

unworthy thence to hunt glory, whence

Christ his King had been mocked. But

if in the German the Italians condemn this: why not

likewise in their own Titus? whom when the neighboring

nations wished to crown for the Jewish

victory, of such honor (as Philostratus

writes) he answered himself to be unworthy.

For he himself had not been the author of such works:

but to God, demonstrating His wrath

against the Jews, he had lent his

hands. Whom that Apollonius

of Tyana vehemently thence commending,

testified him to be a man abounding in genius & modesty.

Just as therefore neither

did this example of his modesty hurt Titus,

so that he should be the less held an Emperor;

so neither will it be able to hinder our Henry,

but that into the Roll of Emperors he most worthily

ought to be admitted.

[4] In the tenth year therefore of his Empire,

of human salvation 930, He builds Meissen in the year 930, while along the bank

of the Elbe he wandered fortifying it against the assaults of the barbarians;

captivated by the glades &

the pleasantness of that mountain, which Meissen still

occupies, he began there to build a city under happy

auspices. To which from the rivulet Missin, which

flows at the foot of the mountain from the North,

giving the name, he had it thenceforth

that mountain on one side had the river Elbe

very great, on the other indeed by two

other mountains & as many valleys,

as by certain ditches, was by nature

fortified. But of the city of Meissen the situation

is almost the same, as that of the whole country.

For the river Elbe receives the East, Bohemia

claims the South, Saxony the North,

but the West looks toward the Thuringians.

This therefore is the origin of the city of Meissen, this

its situation. Its founder, in the third year thereafter

joining battle with the Hungarians, then Pagans, depopulating

Saxony, three years later victor over the Hungarians.

near Merseburg of the Thuringians, with memorable

slaughter routed them; & the tribute, which

to them up to this time was wont to be paid, on the poor

& pious uses of the Churches he bestowed.

A hundred thousand f Hungarians in that

war were lost, more led captive,

very many escaped by flight. The Emperor after

so notable a victory, had conceived in his mind,

in the city of Meissen, which

in the time of the Hungarian war he had opportunely used,

to establish a Pontifical See: but

after many proofs of virtue by an untimely

death g he was carried off, & left the business

to his son Otto, surnamed the Great,

to be completed.

[5] Otto I founds the Cathedral Church. This man, as he was a man conspicuous for all piety,

& most observant of divine worship,

fulfilling his father's commands not slothfully,

began to set the Cathedral, which still stands,

John the Apostle, h & to Donatus Bishop

& Martyr of Christ (to which

he set as boundaries i the spring of the river Oder:

& from it by a straight way up to k the head

of the Elbe, & thence to the Western region,

where is the confine of two regions,

namely of Bohemia & l of Niska;

& thence through the forest toward the West

up to m the mouth of the Mulda, & so downward

through both banks of the Mulda, until

it again discharges itself into the Elbe), & the men of these

places & their fortunes, subject to the Pontiff alone.

with all the emolument of land,

crops, cattle, & all the riches

& goods, both present & future,

by the authority & under the diploma n

of John XIII Supreme Pontiff he gave to the said Church

of Meissen & consecrated.

Moved by so great a liberality of the Emperor

that same Pontiff, Under Burckhard the first Bishop. that liberally he too

might act toward him, granted a most beautiful privilege to the new

Church of Meissen:

namely that, free from its very first origin,

it should in perpetuity be subject to no Metropolitan,

or to anyone endowed with any title or

honor, except to himself & his successors

the Roman Pontiffs.

[6] To the Church thus constituted the Emperor

Bishop, a venerable man

& notable for much religion,

confirmed by John aforesaid together with the Bishopric

itself, he instituted a College

of Canons & Priests of Christ: who

after the manner of their times, The Canons live together in common, at first to have all things

in common, & at the same time to eat at one

table, & to sleep together in one place, the Canonical

hours & all the divine offices alike &

with much dignity & reverence to celebrate;

neither in choir, nor outside

choir to do anything else, than either to pray,

or to be rapt with eyes & hands turned up to heaven,

no license being given in that same place (which

is the custom of many) of conversing:

which custom up to the present day

in the Church of Meissen is piously & holily preserved.

For where the Priests by no necessity to

choir are bound, into the most hidden

corners they betake themselves; & seeking the more secret

places of the temple, either

with bended knee, or prostrate with the whole body

prone they adore. clothed with a black mantle & a linen garment, The same Burckhard too,

vehemently desiring the Clergy of his Church,

just as by honesty of morals & life,

so by dress too to be distinguished from the rest,

first taught them to use a black mantle, with a linen garment

cast over: with which

vestment they walk even today, yet not

except at fixed times of the year, &

especially on the fasting weekdays of Lent.

With equal care & solicitude the Bishops following Burckhard,

but especially p

Heico, Gerundus, Bruno the second,

Witigo, & he from whom we began, Benno:

all indeed remarkable for sanctity of life,

planted there all ecclesiastical discipline

& honesty,

& transmitted it to posterity.

[7] But although in the interval of time,

the common life of the Clergy of Meissen, into a proper

& private one gradually passed away: There was added of the Emperors yet from

that pristine emulation of divine worship

& observance not only was nothing relaxed,

but even always more

& more grew in that place religion.

The argument of which is, that

just as captivated by the devotion of the old Clergy of Meissen &

the sanctity of life the Emperors once

Henry, the second, the third, & likewise

the fourth, to the Church of Meissen beyond the munificence

of the Ottos, gave castles q

Wutrze, Buche, Bock, Gedau, & the liberality of the Princes of Meissen;

Bresznitz, & others not a few;

so also the renowned Princes of Meissen, the ancient

custom of the Clergy not ceasing, did not

cease, themselves too, following the footsteps of the ancient Emperors,

the church of Meissen up to the present

day always more & more to adorn, with various structures,

altars, chapels, & their ministers,

& with offerings of gold & silver, gems

& other precious things & gifts.

For the temple, twice more august than it had once been,

by their labor & expense

was built; & joined at the end

burial: in which also old

spoils hang, & trophies snatched from the enemy.

[8] Nor is it to be omitted in this place, when

we treat of the increase of religion &

of divine worship of our Church of Meissen, & the Chapel of the Princes,

that, whereas once at certain & fixed only

hours the divine offices were read in it,

today no hour, no

time whether of day or of night,

nor any space of day or night is

free from singing & the hymns & praises of the Saints.

In which indeed the Church of Meissen has been magnificently preferred to all

not only of Germany, but even of the city

of Rome's basilicas & sacred buildings:

& alone of all earthly

shrines & temples emulates & represents that heavenly &

supramundane harmony of the Angels,

where likewise without intermission

to resound sweet sounds, our sacred

Theology testifying, we have learned. But lest

it seem wonderful to anyone, by what tenor it

can be done; we have deemed the whole order of so tenacious a worship

here opportunely to be subjoined,

provided those snub-nosed critics & weighers

of the Latin language & faultfinders go away: since

this matter is to be treated by us not with Ciceronian or Gellian

allurements of words, but with ecclesiastical

names, lest while in figures

& circumlocutions we labor, our intention meanwhile

become more obscure.

[9] At the beginning therefore, that we may begin the day after the manner

of the Athenians from noon, & day & night, perpetual singing: when now

the twelfth hour of the noontide day has sounded,

the lesser Scholastic boys precent

Vigils: for so today are called those prayers &

hymns, which for the departed spirits

we offer to God. These finished, immediately

there are present the eight Priests appointed for this,

whom they call Chaplains of the Princes: because in

their chapel first also Vigils, then

Vespers & Compline they sing of the

Mother of God. These up to almost the second hour

(for we here follow the reckoning of the lesser dial r)

being protracted, the Canons & the whole

Clergy, their own Vigils too without delay (where

the day demands), then their lawful task,

namely the Vespertine assembly & Compline

for the time finish. There succeeds

to these forthwith a certain other sect of psalm-singers,

(commonly they call them Grabatos, because beside

the bier or sepulchre of the Princes they sit)

who they too first Vigils, then

Vespers also & Compline on alternate

days, now of the passion of Christ, now

of the Compassion of the Virgin Mother, & on every third

day the history of the Transfiguration

sing. And these indeed protract their task

up to the second or third watch of the night.

These departing, there come on the Octavians, so

called, because beginning from the eighth hour of the night, the remaining

time up to deep night by psalm-singing

they continue. The labor of these the greater

choir likewise receiving, the matutinal office,

in the mid silence of the night, melodiously

performs. Meanwhile another order of the Grabatos

is prepared: who their hours, according as

it was begun in the evening, pursues. To these again

succeed the Chaplains of the Princes (to

use their words) Matins & the remaining

hours of the great Mother of God, then the first

Mass of her (this is the highest kind of Christian

sacrifice) & likewise another for

the dead in their order daily celebrating.

These finished, those scholastic boys in

the greater choir, just as in the evening Vigils, so

in the morning too help by chanting him performing

the sacred rites of the dead. When day has dawned,

Prime & the remaining Hours of the divine offices, as

the time demands, are also harmoniously performed.

And before the highest Sacrifice, for the most part

two or three Masses solemnly precede,

destined to the glorious Body of Christ, or to His victorious

Cross, or to the tutelary Saints

(whom they call Patrons). All the sacred rites

being offered, the remaining time up

to the twelfth hour again of the noontide day

is completed with the song of psalms without cessation.

At the same moment, the business

in the same series by assiduous turns is repeated, silence

being condemned in perpetuity.

[10] This so excellent work was of the Princes s Ernest

& t Albert, of Saxony

Dukes & Margraves of Meissen etc.

These two most famous brothers, by their own native devotion

& piety, having meditated so grateful

expense, founded perpetual stipends

for the ministers varying by the hour: worthy

on this account, that those who their own things so cheerfully

conferred on God, may receive from Him

the reward of eternal retribution. Since

in this, recalling the ancient zeal of the old German

Princes toward the Heavenly Ones,

as if now abolished,

to their sons too & grandsons

they left examples of divine worship always

more & more to be propagated. Ernest the Elector One of them

was Ernest namely, Elector of the Roman

Empire, to whom at Rome once by Sixtus the fourth

to the Church of Meissen as a gift,

where among the sacred Relics of the temple, which

there are held very many, & indeed

most precious, it is worthily kept. But the other

was Albert, restorer of that same Empire then almost collapsed

under Frederick III

& most faithful defender, & Albert who had nothing

dearer, than that same Roman Empire,

won for us by the virtue of the old Germans,

with all his might to protect, & from

every external injury to defend: for which

he spared neither his own goods, nor his proper

blood. He first subjugated the Frisians both to himself &

to the Roman Empire: to whom also

Innocent VIII, while he was then warring in the parts of lower

Germany, a Rose, who subjects the Frisians to the Roman Empire. of

solid gold cast, of his own accord transmitted

in testimony of his virtue & of things well

done: he sent also an epistle, in which

calling him the right hand of the Empire,

he extolled him with praises up to heaven. To narrate

here the virtue & glory of that Prince

both in peace & in war, is neither

of our ability, nor of the present design.

[11] To the Church of Meissen therefore

we must return: in whose middle

his body, of whom we treat, The body of S. Benno there shone with miracles, namely of the venerable

Father Benno, more precious than all gold &

gems, honorably deposited

more than four hundred years now, with frequent

virtues & miracles in Christ shines:

which the votive tablets hanging there & the

gifts abundantly show. Whose life,

& the labors drained for Christ, & the nation of the Slavs

converted by him in great part,

& the miracles for so many ages back continued up to

this day, to the honor

of the highest God about to write, let us happily set out.

ANNOTATIONS OF G. H.

on account of the Slavs, who chiefly dwelt beyond the Elbe; although

both these dwelt on this side, & Germans elsewhere beyond the Elbe. To this in

Meissen lie adjacent Dresden, Meissen & the Thurgau.

b The Mulda, another

than the Muldava, which washes Prague, & then falls into the Elbe in Bohemia:

but this Mulda washes Freiberg, Wurzen, & in the Anhalt

Principality discharges itself into the Elbe.

celebrated Martyr under Julian the apostate, who is venerated 7 August, also in

the old Saxon Breviaries, but the Meissen one is lacking to us. Below in

the miracles num. 1 he is said to be venerated there as a tutelary deity, & the skull is asserted to have been there in the History of the Translation.

its spring is in northern Bohemia not far from Silesia, so that the chief

part of this may be reckoned then included in his Bishopric.

o Burchard in the year

970 by Adalbert, then constituted Archbishop of Magdeburg,

was ordained Bishop of Meissen; as Boso the Monk, first of Merseburg;

& Hugo first of Zeitz. So our Ms. Chronicle of Saxony.

p Of these Heico is held the third Bishop, Gerundus or Gerung the 17th, Bruno the second the 20th, Witigo the 24th, & so these three sat long after S. Benno.

q Heico is said to have added the towns Wurzen, Bickam, Buckam, & Lubbentzam.

r By the lesser Dial I understand that by which the natural day is divided into twice twelve hours, drawn from midnight to midnight; in which manner,

approved therefore by the Astrologers, because from an invariable & always similarly

recurring point of time it takes its beginning, all Europe follows, only the

Italians excepted; who, since with Ecclesiastical hours from sunrise formerly

they used, in some century of the middle age (I know not by what first author)

instituted twenty-four hours to be numbered from the always variable

setting of the sun; & yet they have all their daily actions from sunrise

to begin, & need to name the hour of rising in the morning, again & again

another & another; & to accelerate or retard the course of the wheeled clocks,

according as the sun rises earlier or later; not to speak of sundials,

of whose making the method is even more perplexing to themselves. Cardinal

Bellarmine, who had long lived in Belgium, being once asked, whether

he preferred the Cisalpine or the Transalpine Clock; cleverly answered;

That it could not but seem good to him, on which two nations conspire, in almost all things

mutually contrary to each other, the Spaniards & the French.

s Ernest died in the year 1486 grandfather of John Frederick, deprived of the Electoral dignity by Charles V.

t Albert grandfather of Maurice, substituted as Elector by Charles V, & of Augustus the Elector, from whom the present Saxon Electors proceed.

OLD DIVISION.

The Index of Chapters prefixed to the Life Surius

omitted: for it was not burdensome to him to leave

to each one the titles, which he found singly

noted; but to us because that is not

convenient, about to make longer Chapters in the manner now

received. Receive them here jointly, with

the numbers in our division to correspond to each of them.

CHAPTER I.

The birth, education, studies of S. Benno.

CHAP. I.

[12] Born at Hildesheim Among the famous cities of Saxony that one,

which now commonly is called a Hildesheim,

was once called Bennopolis, from a certain Benno

(as they say) a Frisian founder:

hence to our divine Benno the name, hence

the surname Bennopolitan. For in that

city from his tender years educated, & with the sacred

garment clothed, he grew into that man,

such as, God favoring, we are about to write of.

His father was a Count b of Saxony, not

far from Goslar c dwelling: but his mother

Bezela, as it were "well zealing" or "good

they did the will of the Most High, & in the law

of their God faithfully persevered, two

sons the Lord gave them; his father a Count of Saxony, Christopher,

who afterward succeeded his father in the County,

& Benno this our man, who having renounced

(as we shall say) the world, preferred to be the Count

of Christ rather than of this world. Of these

two brothers mention

is made by the letters of Henry IV which are had

at Goslar on the mountain of S. Peter, confirmed

afterward by King Adolph in these

words. Henry by the favoring divine clemency

King: To all faithful of Christ & of ourselves,

both future & present,

we wish it to be known, how we, on account of

the intervention & petition of our beloved mother

Agnes the Empress Augusta,

of Christopher the Count, & of his brother Benno

our Chaplain, in the village of Partimiles,

in the district of Northdoringen, to the altar

of S. Peter, which is in the eastern region of the village

of Goslar, on the mountain which is called

Mount S. Peter, etc. into property

we have handed over, granted etc. Given on the third

day of March, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation

1062, but in the eighth year of our

ordination, the sixth of our reign, the twelfth

of our life. These things were faithfully excerpted there.

But that our Benno

in those same letters is called the king's Chaplain,

the cause is, that at that time he was a Canon

of the Church of Goslar: which both was itself a Chapel

then royal, & all its Canons

were held & named as royal Chaplains (to use

their words). Which below in its place we shall more plainly

narrate. These things therefore here I have deemed

to be foretasted, that I might leave no scruple to the reader,

especially in the very vestibule of the history;

noted in the letters of Henry IV in the year 1052. & at the same time so famous

on account of the antiquity of the times unknown,

at length bring to light.

But before I proceed further,

it will be not absurd to explain the reason of the name itself:

& how many men have been illustrious by that name,

at least in a few words to touch upon.

[13] Benno in the old Slavic language is said

to be the same, as in Latin e Benedict.

There flourished by this name men not

uncelebrated; one indeed Bishop f

of Osnabrück, on account of the merit of his life called Benno, enrolled in the number of the Saints;

another Bishop of Oldenburg

g, a man powerful in work & speech,

who driven from his See by the unfaithful Slavs,

to B. Bernward h then Bishop

of Bennopolis, an exile & fugitive

turned aside; by whom benignly received

& deemed worthy of hospitality, at length in

the consecration of the monastery of S. Michael, which

that same B. Bernward at his own expense in the northern

part of the city of Hildesheim

had built from the foundation, a name common to many famous men, the Duke of Saxony, suffocated by the pressure of the people,

in that same place was buried,

not without an opinion too of sanctity: his Bishopric

in the course of time to Lübeck

A third was Bishop of the Church of Utrecht k,

frequently employed in public assemblies of Princes

& graver business of the kingdom by Henry l

IV on account of his singular industry. A fourth was Duke

Prince indeed, & a strenuous

defender of the churches, especially against the Slavs

then everywhere attacking our faith:

that there were likewise other n Bennos

besides those whom we have mentioned, is sufficiently clear:

yet it is not of our undertaking here to put down the nomenclature

of each, for whom it abundantly suffices

that there have been so many notable.

III

[14] Because we have fallen into mention of the Slavs,

it is worthy to be known, afterward to be the Apostle of the Slavs that nation

(whether departed from Scythia once, as Sabellicus

seems to think, or from elsewhere)

not only Illyricum, Istria &

Dalmatia, but also toward the North,

almost all the nearer shore of the Northern Ocean,

from the river Elbe up to

the Baltic sea, claimed for itself by arms.

Of whom those who were called Nordalbingians o,

occupied once Dithmarschen, Stormarn, the Duchy

of Holstein, & Hamburg the maritime

city: the Runi,

who are also the Rugians, Lübeck, p Stralsund,

Wismar & the neighboring cities:

after whom the Pomeranians & q Obotrites, who

then of Mecklenburg r the Brizani & Stoderani,

now those of Havelberg & Brandenburg,

each placed their seats.

Who afterward beyond the Elbe the Nisici & Liutici,

(whom today we call Lusatians)

but on this side the Elbe up to the Saale the river of the Thuringians,

were called Sorabi:

for all those places the Slavs once

had usurped for themselves. But that even the Bohemians themselves &

the Poles, were of foreign & by origin

Slavs, Aeneas Sylvius, of no contemptible

credit among historians, is author.

These things therefore we have thought to be inserted into this our work,

since since in all

these to be converted to Christ not a few

once most holy men, Bishops, Priests

& Monks, some in some, others in other places

labored hard, until this icy cold of the North

was dissolved by the heat of the word of God;

but especially our Benno here for those, who

had settled around both banks of the Elbe

in his diocese, to be recalled from

their error, did diligent

labor; & very many of them by his frequent

sermons & signs converted to the faith,

just as in its place clearly

we shall prove. Nor does it escape me, that on

account of this very cause perhaps Divine Benno

by many up to now has been believed to have been a Slav:

but this false opinion of the common people

below also I shall refute. Now let us pursue the begun

history.

[15] Brought forth into this light our Benno

in the year of human salvation 1010, he is taught by S. Bernward the Bishop & Wiger his preceptor: when he was passing

the fifth year of his age, a little boy still,

he was handed over into the service of the aforesaid S. Bernward,

Bishop of Bennopolis: who also

himself begotten of the illustrious blood of Counts,

was a kinsman of our Benno

& a relation. Wherefore mindful of that,

which is written, The beginning of wisdom

is the fear of the Lord, the boy handed to him first

of all he made to fear God: & for the clearing away of

his literary study soon, he gave him as preceptor

Wiger, Provost of his own monastery of S.

Michael, a man excellently adorned with morals & letters.

Psalm 110. Under whose discipline in a short time

he so advanced, that, a boy of the best

disposition, he promised great hope of himself. For

as that age was learned, & cultivated humane

studies (which from several most eloquent

men of his time & their monuments

one may see) so our Wiger

did not suffer the boy committed to him

to shrink from the more polished studies: & first

in drawing & forming the ancient

letter-shapes, & those which today by

Venetian printers into use s have been recalled,

he luminously instructed him: just as

the letters written by his own hand,

& at his church of Meissen up to the present

day preserved, easily prove:

then with poems too he

exercised him, yet not except divine & lacking all

obscenity of words. Nor

with difficult Minerva had the boy already learned to play with verse

& to compose hymns. Wherefore

both to all, but especially to his Patron

S. Bernward he had greatly bound himself,

& he was as grateful to heaven, as

to men.

[16] But the holy Bishop Bernward,

now in the extreme old age of his life seized by fevers,

at five years old he aids the sick S. Bernward: began so persistently to be ill,

that he lay sick for a whole five years.

In which time his single solace

was the boy Benno, now by poetizing,

now by reading, now by disputing. But especially

most pleasing to him was the most diligent

service of the boy, who not

for a moment went away from the old man. But

when now the end of the most blessed Father

Bernward was at hand, the boy being called together with

Wiger his pedagogue, he used a speech to

him of this kind: You see, my

son, me worn out by assiduous fever, &

this sinister health of body, &

whatever of adversity there was, up to the end

constantly to have borne: for we cannot

return to God, except cooked in the furnace

of tribulations & adversity.

But if even those, who have lived rightly,

disturbances & pains surround;

how much more by the just judgment of God

do those, who without any fear of God

live like cattle, both here

unhappiness occupies, & in the future misery.

Wherefore if you are wise, or if by reason of age

you yourself cannot yet be wise, at least

acquiesce in our admonitions; & this

world, filled with toils & anxieties;

stuffed with guile, fraud, lies,

snares & traps;

polluted with blood, crime & iniquities,

like some contagious & virulent plague

flee, execrate, & despise,

& to God alone adhere. Which that you

may more easily attain, & your age,

still waxen, may not be bent to vice,

corrupted by no corruption of evil men; from

the side of this preceptor of yours henceforth nowhere

depart; & to him, if you love me,

in all things obey in your father's place. These

things said, having kissed the hand of the boy, to Wiger

the Provost he again & again

commended him. dying he is commended by him to Wiger: But he himself, all his affairs

being disposed, full of days, rich

in good works, & secure of the ethereal mansion prepared

for him, his eyes suddenly closed,

migrated to the Lord, buried

in his monastery of t S. Michael,

where also he shines with miracles.

[17] It can scarcely be said, with how great

mourning & grief the passing of this blessed

man afflicted the mind both of all his citizens, by whose action moderating he bears his death;

& of our Divine Benno, not because they envied

him the glory, to which invited he had departed;

but because, by reason of their excessive love of him,

they would prefer either that he should still live, or that with

him they should have died their last

day. But when Wiger (to whom the guardianship of the boy

had been committed) noticed him on account of his immoderate

grief of mind, which his frequent

groans & tears betrayed,

too much to waste away & pine; he began

with bland words now to console him,

now to chastise him, & the unbridled

impulses of his youthful mind with the bridle of senile gravity

to restrain; asserting, that this is a common

necessity of fate to all, which

neither Christ (when He alone could) wished

to avoid; nor was the death of his kinsman to be wept

in womanly fashion, which

he himself so constantly & with equal mind

bore; especially since renowned for so many virtues

& miracles in Christ, he left behind him an evident

sign of his beatitude.

The man, very eloquent, added

that death was nothing else than the end of the evils

of this world, & the beginning of a better

life: for the sake of which thing the people of Cadiz

once consecrated a temple to death & an altar,

& exhibited divine honors, as to

the common rest & port of all

miseries. By which words Benno being appeased,

both moderated his grief somewhat,

& from that time hating the vain

lot of mortals, with himself firmly

resolved, as soon as through his parents

it should be allowed him, to take up the sacred habit;

& in that same monastery, whatever

space of life the fates should grant,

by serving God to pass, by a most wholesome

institute of life indeed.

[18] An Epitaph too in the course of time

the same Benno composed for the blessed man Bernward,

as is had even today in that same

monastery, & he composes the Epitaph. & his Brethren attest,

of this tenor:

In this ditch of the tomb are shut the bones of the Bishop,

Bernward the wondrous & magnificent man.

Who the diadem of his country, radiant like a renowned gem,

Acceptable to the Lord, pleased the people.

For he was a Bishop worthy of the Church,

Whom God Emmanuel & Michael love.

At last on the twelfth, in the eleventh month, on the Kalends,

Happy, he changes this life for the Angelic.

From which little verses indeed it sufficiently appears,

that he was neither ignorant of the metric art,

nor yet an affecter of painted verse,

but content with a slender & simple style.

[29] But if to delicate ears & those having a rhinoceros's

nose, that little verse will perhaps seem

ridiculous: Whom God Emmanuel love & Michael (for the rest

are pretty enough), I would they should remember, that the blessed

man Bernward was singularly devoted to divine Michael,

& on this account dedicated the monastery,

built at his own expense, to his

name, & there wished to

rest. Which well weighed it is clear,

that the aforesaid little verse did not so rashly

fall from our Divine Benno, as at first perhaps

front it could seem. But these things

let us let go, since those who within are driven by the divine

spirit, count the outer husk of words

as nothing, & love a well-ordered

life more than a well-ordered speech. he grows up under the rigor of scholastic discipline.

But holy Bernward died

in the year of salvation 1022, at which time most rigid

was at Bennopolis the scholastic discipline of the boys,

for whom (as is read in their Annals) not only

to be absent from choir, table,

or dormitory, but even to be present too late,

was a sin. They were compelled also daily to present

their writing to the Dean, &

to recite the very Psalms: nor

more timidly in the cloister, than in the schools

did they seem to withdraw the hand from the ferule. By such

bridles therefore our Benno being restrained,

even the slipperiness of adolescence, by which

almost all of us slip, bravely trod down.

ANNOTATIONS OF G. H.

c Goslar a city

Imperial in the same Duchy of Brunswick, distant from Hildesia by five German leagues

toward the Southeast at the Hercynian forest, near Bültenburg.

mention in Krantz book 5 of the Metropolis, where he is said to have died 22 July,

& the same in the Catalogue of Bishops in Blaeu, in the description

of the Bishopric of Osnabrück he is called Blessed: but he does not

seem to have or to have had a cult: the name certainly is not found in the calendars

of that church printed before the Breviaries: but in these it is the custom to put only

the more celebrated.

the Epitaph uncovered in our memory, under which his body to the heretics'

stupefaction was found incorrupt & vested as a priest with a chalice; from

which many afterward piously drinking obtained health from fevers, &

certain other illustrious miracles are reported to have followed.

p Better known by the name of Stralsund.

q King of the Obotrites

was S. Canute the Martyr, whose various Acts we illustrated 7 January, where

we also treated of these Slavs: who in the prior Life & in some others

are called Wandals: because they succeeded into those lands, whence they themselves once departed.

r The Brizani, occupied the lands situated around Britzen, a town of the middle March, on the Oder & the Baltic sea.

s By Latin

or Roman letters he means, of which, as well as of Greek, the types, before

the year 500, first at Venice to be fabricated Aldus Manutius instituted; whereas

before only the German were

in use among the printers, such as the first inventors of the art at Mainz & Haarlem had taught to form.

t The Church

of S. Michael, Merian being witness, is one of those six, which the Catholics were compelled

to cede to the Professors of the Augsburg Confession.

CHAPTER II.

His Monkhood at Hildesia: his Canonry at Goslar, his Episcopate at Meissen.

VIII

[20] Adorned with illustrious gifts: The youth Benno of great hope, &

amiable both in gifts of body & of mind,

the admonitions of his preceptor, contrary

to the manner & custom of his age,

both gladly heard, & alacriously

embraced. And when now under his yoke

& discipline he had come to the pubescent

years, never noted with any levity,

nor using other than the common food of the Brethren,

nor fatigued by less abstinence

& labor than they, to all the warfare of Christ

he was diligently exercised by his master.

Nor was this wrestling-ground of virtue grievous to the youth: his father being dead, rather he rejoiced more,

when he understood himself to be an example of abstinence

& endurance even to the elders.

But neither by the bland words of friends dissuading him,

& with many & splendid conditions inviting him

to the world,

nor by any art of persuasion could his mind be changed.

He was now solidified upon

the sound doctrine of B. Bernward & his last

farewell. with the consent of his pious mother, But it happened that at the same time

his father, who for the sake of propagating the

stock had more vehemently invited him to the world,

departed from human affairs;

& he himself freed from his father's power easily

hoped that with his mother, whom

he knew devout & religious, he would obtain

leave to enter Religion. Nor

did his pious mother oppose his vows: rather

vehemently commending him for it, she promised,

that the still slender state of the monastery

with her own resources not illiberally

she would foster: for she was a woman of approved religion

& honesty, & (to put it in one

word) worthy of such a son.

[21] Cheered, Benno, by so benign

an assent of his pious mother, he becomes a monk, & embraces sacred studies: when now to the manly toga

he was nearest, taught by the Holy

Spirit to reprobate evil & to choose good,

in the eighteenth year of his age

took up the sacred habit & with it the increments of the holy

virtues: & soon professed in that,

which we said above,

monastery of Hildesheim, putting after him his childish studies

& poetic trifles, the most sacred

volumes of the Prophets & both

Testaments, & the commentaries of the Fathers thereon,

day & night he ruminated. To prayers,

vigils, & fasts much more intensely

than before he gave himself. The abstruse too

& recondite meanings of Theology, which

he had meditated & explored more deeply than the rest,

not unwillingly he unlocked. Who (as their annals

teach) by his most sacred eloquence,

in the sadness of any anxiety being consoled,

& freed from the snares of the ancient enemy, the ways of perpetual

life entered. Some report

also, created Doctor of sacred Theology: that before he entered Religion,

in France he gave labor to the study of Theology,

& in that faculty was decorated

with doctoral insignia,

which honor then was of all the most excellent.

To which opinion not a little

lends credit, both the title of Master, which

among the monuments of the Church of Goslar

(as we said before) even today he holds;

& that several noble men of the same century

betook themselves to the same kingdom of France, for the sake of sacred

letters: which by Charlemagne's labor & expense, into the gymnasium of Paris a once

were introduced is sufficiently clear. Wherefore

nothing prohibits that Divine Benno, even

after his profession, was sent thither by his Abbot

for the sake of study: yet lest

we should seem to assert uncertain things for certain, he is consecrated Deacon,

we have left those things in the middle.

[22] From the time of his religion taken up Benno

up to the twenty-fifth year of his age,

in which he received the sacred order of the Diaconate,

in the eyes of all

most holily & most innocently conversed:

& from that time up to the thirtieth

year of his life always more & more

in religion advancing, Priest: in humility &

patience shining before all, his Abbot Adelbert

willing & commanding, into the priesthood

at length he was initiated: which he with such

reverence & dignity approached, with such

cleanness & purity exercised, that to the brethren

too he was a wonder & admiration. With abstinence

so great he thence macerated himself,

that rarely did he take supper with them. At

the altar he was all aflame: nor ever with dry

eyes could he perform the divine office.

It happened therefore, that in the fourth year thereafter,

the aforesaid Adelbert having died, part of the Brethren

elected this our Benno, but part a certain Sigebert,

then he was Abbot for three months. & himself indeed

& more given to secular affairs.

And when Benno strove with more votes

than Sigebert himself,

nonetheless to him gladly & of his own accord he yielded:

beseeching his electors, that the contemplative

life of his they would not impede with exterior cares

& actions: yet for three

months he was compelled to stand in the office,

until with often weeping eyes he obtained release

of the duty. Hence it is that

in the catalogue of the Abbots of that same monastery

in his order & place it is thus written: Benno

our Brother & Father, is elected Abbot:

but for a short time he stood in the rule,

namely for three months: afterward made Bishop of Meissen,

he shines with miracles;

there buried, where also into Bishop

he was anointed. These things there.

[23] This Ecclesiastical prefecture being laid down,

our Benno had resolved to pass

the rest of his life in privacy, & either in prayer, or in divine reading

only: but the omnipotent & glorious

in His Saints God, who exalts the humble

of heart, [After the church at Goslar built by Henry the Emperor, & consecrated by Pope Leo,] & casts down the proud from the seat,

did not suffer this most shining candlestick

always to lie hidden under a bushel. Luke 1.

Whence shortly afterward it happened, that the most pious

Emperor Henry, King the III,

caused the Church of Goslar (whose foundations

already before b Conrad his predecessor had laid,

either his father or his father-in-law) finished with magnificent

& Royal worship to be dedicated

by the hands of the most blessed Pontiff Leo

Bishops, & Abbots, to the number

of 73. Which Church indeed

when that same most worthy Emperor, a special

henceforth (to use his words) Chapel

of the Empire & its Canons royal Chaplains

(as above we foretasted)

wished everywhere to be held & named; he becomes there Master & Canon. he gave exact

labor, that men worthy of so great an honor,

& approved both in letters & in the morals of holy

conversation, he might set over that same

Church: since there

he had also established the seat of the Kingdom. There were chosen

therefore from almost all Germany

men both most learned, & most observant of religion:

among whom also our venerable

Benno, by the greatest entreaties of the Emperor,

with the aforesaid supreme Pontiff assenting & commanding, at last with difficulty drawn out of his

monastery, & to the said Church of Goslar

(insofar as he might be leader of the new Congregation of spiritual

armor, & instruct it in the rudiments of Ecclesiastical

discipline)

into Master & Canon he was appointed.

But how praiseworthy & holy

led, an argument

can be, not only this,

that several of them were enrolled in the number

of the Saints, very many were deemed worthy of the appellation of Blessed

(while they still lived):

but also that thing most worthy of memory,

that since the designation of Bishops was still

in the power of the Emperors, few

from elsewhere than from that same royal (as

it was called) Chapel, both under the aforesaid

Henry III, & his son IV, &

his grandson V Kings of equivocal name, to

whatever Bishoprics ascended;

so that, that the matter may be done by example, whence 46 Bishops created & 2 designated are numbered. the names

of them, & also of the Sees, to which

each was raised, in the following chapter

come not unfittingly to be recounted by us.

XII

[24] Rumold I Provost, afterward

Bishop of Constance.

Engelhard II Provost, Archbishop

of Magdeburg.

Gunther III, Bishop of Bamberg.

Werner IV, Bishop of Merseburg.

Anno V, Archbishop of Cologne.

Bruno VII Provost, Bishop

of Würzburg.

Otto VIII, Bishop of Ravenna.

Suider IX, Bishop of Bamberg,

afterward Pope Clement II.

Hartwic X, Archbishop of Magdeburg.

William XI, Bishop of Verona.

Bertold XII, Bishop of Terni.

Arnold XIII, Bishop of Passau.

Bruno XIV, Bishop of Vercelli.

Gerold XV, Bishop of Ravenna.

Crafft XVI, Designated of Meissen.

Robert XVII Provost, Bishop

of Bamberg.

Matro XVIII, Bishop of Verden.

Herebert XIX, Bishop of Liège.

Eckhard XX, Bishop of Poland.

Gotfrid XXI, Bishop of Regensburg.

Eppo XXII, Bishop of Worms.

Udalric XXIII, Bishop of Strasbourg.

Cono XXIV, Bishop of Freising.

Conrad XXV, Bishop of Utrecht.

Landolf XXVI, Archbishop of Trier.

Ricolf XXVII, Archbishop of Mainz.

Erpho XXVIII, Bishop of Münster.

Henry XXIX, Bishop of Augsburg.

Hetzelin XXX, Bishop of Hildesheim.

Henry XXXI, Bishop of Paderborn.

Eylbert XXXII, Bishop of Numen.

Litmar Master, Archbishop of Hamburg.

Hildolf Master, Archbishop of Cologne.

Adelhog XXXIII Provost, Bishop of Hildesheim.

Eckhard XXXIV, Bishop of Speyer.

Conrad Canon, Bishop of Hildesheim.

Lutolf Canon, Bishop of Halberstadt.

John Master, Major Provost

of Halberstadt.

Rudolph Vidame, Bishop of Schwerin.

Conrad Canon, Archbishop of Magdeburg.

Valentine XXXV Provost, Bishop of Minden.

Gunther Canon, Designated of Magdeburg.

Sigfrid XXXVI, Bishop of Hildesheim.

Arnold XXXVII, Bishop of Bamberg.

John Canon, Bishop of Havelberg.

Henry Canon, Bishop of Havelberg.

These & other Provosts & Canons of the old Church

of Goslar, to so

diverse Sees of Italy, Germany, & the Gauls,

once by the nod of the Emperors destined

Bishops, whoever wishes to see more fully:

at that same church will find, together

with other monuments of antiquity most worthy.

To Benno our discourse hastens.

XIII

[25] Seventeen years our venerable

Benno conversed at Goslar, S. Benno liberal toward that church:

in which he showed himself remarkable in the genus of virtues,

& acted the part of a Canon &

Master complete in all respects,

with frequent vigils, frequent fasting, assiduous

prayers, & with large alms of his patrimony

of his own: for he gave from his

hereditary goods to the aforesaid church of Goslar

not a few estates, mills,

houses & perpetual rents too: which

all the Canons of that same church up to

the present day use, & whose

letters, monuments & diplomas thereupon

they have reposited with themselves. But although

the most blessed man Benno earned no

common favor of all those, who in his time had warred for God with him in the Church

of Goslar; he joins himself more closely to S. Anno the Provost. for this reason that he was

upright & whole, & a vehement lover of fraternal peace & domestic

concord; but especially

with him & B. Anno, then Provost

of Goslar, but afterward Archbishop

of Cologne, was a most close intimacy

& mutual love in Christ: since

one was to them to will & to refuse; to will

namely the good, & to recede from evil. Wherefore

it is wonderful to say, how much in a short time

together with God they advanced, & how

pleasant & firm a friendship like morals

& the same zeal for heaven begot in them. For

truly then in them was fulfilled that of

the Psalmist; Behold how good &

how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity. Psalm 132.

O lawful Priests of Christ! Would & would

that this knot & this bond,

namely the charity of Christ & the zeal of divine

things, joined our Priests too

& the Prelates of the Churches! For thus

their hidden rivalries & hatreds being removed

from the midst, through the bond of fraternal concord,

both to their own would they be more honorable, & to their adversaries

even more formidable: nor would the churches

thus be injured, their goods plundered,

& almost all ecclesiastical authority

perish. But whither have I wandered? To our Orestes

& Pylades, namely Anno &

Benno, the pen must be recalled.

Whose so great benevolence among themselves

nothing so fostered, as that, of which

I had just spoken, the fraternal charity of Christ,

which, as the Apostle says, is the bond

of perfection. Col. 3. With this therefore as leader from virtue

into virtue walking, how each by

God was exalted, & faithful in a little over

many was set, as briefly

as I shall be able, hence I shall append.

XIV

[26] In the year of salvation 1055 the most blessed Anno,

by Henry III aforesaid, then Archbishop of Cologne, with great

assent of all good men, obtained the See of the city of Cologne,

which in his time everywhere arose in the Empire, alone

either to bear with equanimity, or from his city

by singular prudence knew how to ward off. Bidding farewell

therefore to his dearest friend Benno,

Be of good courage, he said, Brother;

nor would I have you think, that I shall be unmindful of you,

but the intimacy begun between us,

where by presence we cannot, at least

by letters we shall foster: Anno therefore, wherever

he shall be, count to be yours. Nor did he

promise it so humbly, as by the event

afterward he explained it. For the aforesaid Emperor having died

Henry IV, anointed at Aachen not so

much before. Who when

he was still a boy, with his mother Agnes

the Empress for some time was educated:

& a short time after he came into the guardianship

of the aforesaid Anno Bishop of Cologne:

for which causes, writers vary, & by his procuring, nor

does it pertain here. Certain however it is, that until

the King should complete his boyish years, the sum

of affairs, by the consent of all, with

Anno resided: who, the Church of Meissen being vacant about that

time, by the death

of Crafft a little before Provost of Goslar,

easily effected, that the same Church of Meissen

to his old friend Benno, whose innocence & dignity of life

he had long held

explored, even though he thought of no such thing,

was committed.

[27] & raising up his spirit, Him reluctant (perhaps for love of the contemplative

life) by letters as faint-hearted he vehemently

rebuked, & to undertaking the bishopric

exhorted; asserting, that enough

now enough had his virtue been tested at Goslar:

nor had the most holy Apostles once

always grown old in one place; that now

hither, now thither, by sea, by

lands, the shoots of divine plantation they had carried about.

Let him beware therefore, lest the talent

handed to him, when at Meissen now on account

of the neighboring & unbelieving nation of the Slavs

he could double it, he should rather hide,

& seem to flee labors for Christ;

which would be more an indication of a slothful than a religious

mind: for thus contemplation

must be given to, that from action, he is elected Bishop of Meissen. in

which all the praise of virtue would consist, the mind

with the body should not shrink: & thus

the beauty of Rachel must be loved,

lest the fecundity of Leah meanwhile be held in contempt.

For just as the stars

differing from stars, most becomingly paint one face of the sky;

so to the Church of Christ

one & sole, both the active & the speculative life, not only for ornament

& adornment, but also as most necessary,

are. By which words not so much persuaded

as as it were compelled Benno, the offered

province at last undertook; not ignorant

however (the divine Spirit revealing) by what waves

he was to be tossed, & how great

tribulations & adversities in the Episcopate

he was to tolerate: to all which he offered himself a voluntary

victim to God.

[28] In the year therefore of human reparation 1066

our venerable Benno by f Werner

Archbishop of Magdeburg is clothed with the Pontifical

vestment, suffused with the liquor of holy oil, consecrated by the Archbishop of Magdeburg,

& Bishop of our renowned Church

of Meissen, the tenth from Burckhard

its first Pastor, is set over it. The blessing

therefore received in the usual manner, soon

to him hastening to Meissen the Clergy & people of the whole city

congratulating & venerating ran to meet him,

& led festively into the greater church,

in the Pontifical See they place him,

with great applause of all & immense

joy of the whole city. But he within himself

dwelling, & by the present honor in nothing elated,

always had that in his mouth, & silently under

his breast turned over: Not to us O Lord, not

to us, & joyfully received but to Thy name give glory. Psalm 113, Heb. 5. Mindful

besides of that which is written,

Every Pontiff, taken from among men,

is appointed for men, in

those things which are to God, that he may offer gifts

& sacrifices for sins; first of all,

in the sight of all the people the Sacred

rites in the solemn manner he celebrated, with such devotion

& such a fountain of tears, that with dry

eyes those, even who had stony hearts,

could not see him. The sacred rites being brought into the midst,

turned to the people, in the popular

tongue first, of the excellence & dignity of the Christian faith,

of worshiping the highest &

true God, & the joys of the blessed spirits,

& the torments of the wicked, graphically & with great

admiration of all he discoursed.

[29] amid the Sacred rites he harangues the people & Clergy. Then to the Canons & Clergy directing his discourse,

he addressed them with such a speech:

Since by God it has been done, men brethren

& lords, that neither to me thinking of it

nor seeking it this place (which to us may remain happy

on both sides & auspicious) was destined;

I henceforth to this most worthy Church of yours,

& to its advantages & honor this

soul, & whatever is in me, which

I know how exiguous it is, the whole I promise &

devote. Nor will any labor be grievous to me,

nor to love dangers, which to us however

dearest brethren (unless from on high God avert it)

both many & great threaten; provided that

your, & this Church committed to me,

salvation, honor & advantage,

so as becomes a good Pastor in all ways

& according to my strength I promote: for which neither

shall I fear the threats of the powerful, nor the loss

of things to be lost, or of this little body even

shall I make much account: but you

with your prayers & supplications will aid me.

For especially pleasing to me is your devotion,

& the well-instituted religion: which by

my predecessors, doubtless most holy

men, so becomingly ordained, I pray & beseech God

the Best & Greatest in my time too

into worse may not slip, but for the praise

& glory of Him always more & more may grow

in this place: that for the common at last

labor & a life well led, we may deserve

together to enter into the common joy, & of the desired

beatitude to obtain the little reward. So having spoken,

both to the bystanders he drew forth tears, & himself

too with weeping eyes to perform the Sacred rites

begun returned.

ANNOTATIONS OF G. H.

by a similar reasoning perhaps are to be corrected certain other names both of Bishops

& of Bishoprics corrupted by the fault of the copyists, e.g. below Eylbert Bishop of Numen: for Bishops of Numen there are none; those of Nîmes in Gaul that is of Nemausus know not Eylbert.

f Werner, brother

of S. Anno Archbishop of Cologne, admitted in the year 1064, administered the diocese

most worthily; while protecting the side of the Pontiff by the Imperialists

killed 7 August, in the year 1078.

CHAPTER III.

His Episcopal care, exile, Roman journey, the conversion of the Slavs confirmed by miracles.

[30] He goes before by example An old proverb it is, Office shows

the man. And truly how great

prudence the most blessed our Benno had,

how provident in counsel, how just

in judgment, did not appear before,

than when in so great a height he was established: for

neither departing to the right nor to the left,

all things, whatever by word he admonished, by deeds

himself he fulfilled. Not pompous, not

elated: but his works he adorned with much piety toward the poor;

deeming this alone to be his own,

that naked & destitute into this world

he had come. Especially of Ecclesiastical

things & of divine worship his care was solicitous.

Whence since after the manner of the ancients the chant was still irregular

in the church of Meissen (which

even in other places one may see from certain most ancient

Graduals & Antiphonaries

as they call them, in which a single, he hands down the regular use of singing;

or even sometimes no line, & with few

& undistinguished little notes antiquity was content)

our Benno with deliberate labor, the regular

& lawful use of singing, according to

the rite & custom of the Church of Hildesheim,

to Meissen first introduced: & he made

that harmoniously & elegantly up to the present

day be sung, whatever

he himself instituted. For those new & exotic

histories which today some sing, is an invention of the moderns,

lacking the law & measure

of the musical art.

[31] This analogy & agreement of the Hildesheim & Meissen

chant, whether in the festive,

such as was kept at Hildesia or in the simple manner the divine

offices are performed, first of all detected the venerable

& excellent man, Lord John

Hennig, Professor of sacred Theology & most worthy Dean

of the said Church of Meissen;

to whom recently surveying Saxony, for the sake of these things

I was destined a companion: where both by

the most worthy Saxon men we were most benignly received;

& almost all those things which

are here inserted, partly with our eyes we saw, partly

from the monuments of letters we drew. But

these & other things the most worthy Pastor Benno concerning

the divine worship, in his Church of Meissen,

prudently ordained & constituted: for he was

most learned of all ceremonies, & about

the divine office from infancy versed: nor

did anything lie hidden from him that pertained to Ecclesiastical

discipline.

XVII

[32] The divine offices being rightly disposed, soon

the most blessed Pontiff turned his mind to visiting

the individual villages & towns of his diocese, He visits all the churches of his diocese:

& all the Churches & their Rectors;

which also every year in his own

person village by village & door by door he diligently did.

Accordingly looking out on both sides for the salvation

of souls, now among the Priests, that both by word

they should teach, & by deed prove their doctrine;

lest perchance preaching to others, they themselves

becoming reprobate, should grow vile to their hearers; now

among the subjects, that obeying the word of their Priests,

the word of salvation &

whatever pertains to the faith, diligently from

them they should learn & observe. But if any

he found to comport themselves in that manner, vehemently

he praised: but if otherwise, gently correcting

into better he changed them. With such

grace was he endowed, & with such

equilibrium between poor & rich

he divided himself, that everywhere all

loved him; & obeying his admonitions,

peacefully among themselves lived, &

with fraternal love mutually loved each other. The word

of God too so luminously, so sweetly

he treated & preached; that for many

even miles, for the sake of hearing him,

they flocked together.

[33] But the man of God had, in the individual

regions of his diocese, & turns aside to his own castles, one castle,

in which in the time of his visitation he might turn aside:

namely in the East & in upper Lusatia,

the West, c Neoburg commonly Naumburg;

but to the North, not far

from the city of Meissen, Zscheylau, where today

also a Collegiate church is had. On account

of the frequent incursions of the barbarians & hostile

devastations, rare then were the cities

in that land: for both Stolpen, Wurzen,

& Mögeln towns much later

came into the power of the Church of Meissen.

But the aforesaid castles, Bresnitz,

Gedau, some of which obtained from S. Henry the Emperor. & not a few others, Henry

the Emperor the second, he who afterward was enrolled in the number

of the Saints, &

by the Italians is held the first, to the Church of Meissen

once had given as a gift, on account of the prayers of Eico

the third Bishop of Meissen. Who also

himself a Bishop of excellent merit indicated the sanctity

of his life by certain miracles, which

after his death were discovered & committed

to letters; whose glorious life d

Dietmar formerly Bishop of Merseburg,

as devoutly as elegantly wrote.

Wherefore there is no reason that we should longer delay here:

for Benno's affairs not Eico's are

being treated. But if there were leisure, I could mention

certainly very many Bishops of the Church of Meissen,

to have once been of such religion &

cleanness, that the appellation of Blessed

(while they still lived) they doubtless deserved.

But account must be had by us, lest

wandering farther afield, both the series of the begun work

we interrupt, & the reader at the same time with tedium

we wear out.

XVIII

[34] These things being settled, which pertain to the divine

worship & the salvation of souls, He cares for & augments the estates of the Church the most holy

Bishop Benno, noticing the Ecclesiastical

stipends, on account of the neighbors',

now the Slavs', now the Bohemians', wickedness

& habit of plundering,

to be not a little diminished; gave also diligent

care, lest to his Church, either

for the divine worship, or for feeding the poor,

anything should be lacking: whence from those,

to whom he himself sowed the heavenly things, the temporal

subsidies of the Church by a certain right of his

he confidently asked. Of whom a certain Bor,

not a few things gave him from his goods,

& to the Church of Meissen by perpetual right

appropriated. Likewise also Henry IV,

King of that name, while he was still under the yoke

of B. Anno Bishop of Cologne, to the Church

of Meissen, some estates & goods, by the liberality both of others & of his mother,

according to royal munificence liberally

granted. But also Bezela, mother of Divine

Benno, all her goods being sold off,

her son after he had obtained the Episcopate hither

too had followed: to whom he granted the castle e

Gedau to dwell in, & as often as

there he discharged the duty of his visitation,

to the aged & decrepit little woman he was a great

solace. Who even while still living, &

then after her death (for shortly afterward she died) to the Church of Meissen, whatever

from dowries, paraphernalia, or

any other goods whatsoever she should leave, by testament

bequeathed: from which her most pious

son a perpetual memory at the Church,

& that Sunday office,

which on Sunday too there they perform,

rents being procured for this, instituted.

[35] Thence there prevailed a rumor among posterity

(as we hinted above) that our Divine Benno

was born at Gedau: his mother having stayed with him at Gedau & died there. since

it was handed down by memory, & to the inhabitants

up to the present day it is even clear, that his

mother once dwelt at Gedau.

But this false opinion of the ignorant common people

easily explodes, both the name itself

Benno, given to him from his country Bennopolis,

& the most ancient monuments of the monasteries of Hildesheim & Goslar,

above by us exhibited. But not only by these

& other increments & goods, the most blessed

Pontiff Benno enriched & augmented his Church of Meissen;

but even also

those things which in his time from it by force & injury

were taken away, under anathema & dire imprecations of divine

vengeance to restore

& repair he began: of which also below

in its place individually we shall comment.

XIX

[36] Above it has been mentioned, that a vast

multitude of Slavs, wandering in gentile error

once in the diocese of Meissen, The Slavs to be led away from idolatry both

beyond & on this side the river Elbe, had settled:

whom although Henry the King III

most pious with the perpetual epithet Emperor, not

so long before Benno had undertaken

the Episcopate, had made tributaries to the Empire,

& to undertaking the faith of Christ in great

part had compelled; very many however of

them looking back, in the pagan rite, the honor

which they owed to Christ, replacing in idols,

the piety of the faith being abandoned, in their ancient

errors anew had involved themselves; of which

But among all the deities

the primacy held g Swanthewitz:

whom professing to be the God of gods, from

his oracles & responses they conducted all their affairs.

But Swanthe in the Slavic language

is the same as holy; but Witz

is interpreted light. And since the constant

opinion of the magi is, that all demons

are invited by blood; the Priest however of Swanthewitz

persuaded his men, that this one unless with Christian

gore could not be appeased: whence

what is abominable even to say, to him

every year a Christian man, whomever

the lot cast up, they were accustomed to sacrifice:

for the black demon, whose name was Zeernebock,

in whose power they believed evils to be,

they more devoutly honored, deprecating harmful things:

for Zeerne means black, but Bock

or Bohu means God among them.

To these individual Priests were dedicated,

& various libations of sacrifices, & a manifold

cult of religion: which as

superstitious & unworthy of relation deliberately

we pass over.

[37] Groaning therefore the most pious Father

Benno, fruitfully intent, that the wretched people by the illusions of demons

were thus snatched headlong; he deemed it of his office & pastoral

duty to show light to the blind, salvation

to the sick, & the way to the erring. To which indeed so holy a work

when he had devoted himself wholly, & wisely

indeed first applying gentle fomentations to the wounds,

reduced more daily by the affability of his speech

to Christ; the insidious devil, taking ill,

that the people unconsecrated to himself, were sprinkled

with the mystic wave, & from his camp became deserters

(the Lord permitting, by which the virtue

of the servant of God, agitated by the waves of human life,

might shine forth more) made for him another

business, & impelled him with such storms

& tempests, that the care of the Slavs being abandoned

he was compelled to commit his sails to the winds.

And because his greatest virtue & constancy

then especially was beheld (since

adversities test men) therefore

I think it will be not unpleasant, if the state of those same

times I explain. For it matters

not a little, as it is wont to be said, into what times

each one has fallen.

[38] First of all that famous

Saxon war made those times tempestuous,

h which with Henry

IV was waged with great obstinacy of mind on both sides.

From which although our Benno had innocent

hands, yet the flames of the neighboring

conflagration he could not escape; he is relegated by Henry IV with the other Nobles of Saxony:

either for this one thing, that he too was of

the primary blood of the Saxons, who to the King

was utterly hateful; or (which I should more

believe) because God so wished His vessel

to be cooked in the furnace of tribulations, & as it were

gold in the fire to prove. For He permitted

that by the aforesaid King the most innocent

Bishop, by no fault of his own, was seized,

& sent into exile: where also the other

princes were kept, namely Magnus i

& k Hermann Dukes of Saxony, l Wetzilo

(who is also Werner) Archbishop of Magdeburg

m, Burckhard of Halberstadt,

& Werner n Bishop of Merseburg o; Frederick Count Palatine

of Saxony & several other Chief men:

of all of whom, on account of the implacable

wrath of the King, there was no hope of safety,

nor other than the expectation either of speedy death or of perpetual

prison. But Benno neither

about his life, nor about his captivity

solicitous, only the fall of his own Church

inconsolably, & the causes of so great evils,

as truly as briefly

King even that very thing too, through a certain

Burckhard, a fierce & man of military audacity,

miserably devastated. For a little

before that time Dedo the Margrave had died,

leaving Henry his son still

& had educated in the royal court:

but the said Burckhard he constituted prefect of Meissen,

that the March meanwhile

in his fidelity he might contain, until the infant

should grow up.

[39] But of this devastation makes mention

Lampert p the monk of Hersfeld, a noble

writer of histories, because they seemed to have favored those. where of the expedition

he speaks of the aforesaid King: who feigning

through Bohemia & the March of Meissen

upon the unforeseeing Saxons, wishing

to oppress them while yawning (as it is wont to be said).

But these are Lampert's

words: The King therefore came as far as Meissen,

& Saxony; where by the citizens peacefully

into the city received, the Bishop

of that city he seized & all & whatever

was his he plundered; adjudging him guilty of treason

on this alone, that during the whole time

of the Saxon war he had destined no

messengers or letters to him as indices of the fidelity preserved

toward the Commonwealth. Pag. 225. But a man of Ecclesiastical

poverty, & having nothing or little

of military pomp, could perhaps not make vows

against the Commonwealth, q nor bear

arms: nor would he, friend

or enemy, have been of great moment to either

these or those parties. These things our Lampert

word for word. By which he bears ample

enough testimony to our Divine Benno,

that he was a man of ecclesiastical

poverty & had gaped neither after riches,

nor after glory; nor was a friend of war, but of peace.

[40] Another ruin of that time

was the calamitous sedition of the same Henry IV with r Gregory

VII: from which also to the holy

man Benno not a little labor & danger increased. Then he adheres to Gregory VII, For the highest

hinges of the world being at discord

among themselves, there was made a confusion

of the elements, that is, of the lower Prelates;

& the shepherd being struck,

the sheep of the flock were dispersed. For of all

the Bishops of Germany very few were found,

who to the Roman Pontiff then kept whole

faith: of whom were

Anno of Cologne, Wecilo of Magdeburg,

Bucco & Burckhard of Halberstadt,

Werner of Merseburg, &

our Benno of Meissen: the rest almost all

followed the royal side. Omitting therefore

for a little Benno, the causes of this so

pernicious dissension too I shall briefly set down.

Alexander II having died there was substituted

for him the aforesaid Gregory, whose name before

was Hildebrand: & because without consulting

the Emperor, namely only the Romans favoring,

he had ascended to the summit of the Apostolate,

hence first against him the head of accusation

was taken: persecuting the Simoniacs & concubinaries, for the custom

then was, that no one should be saluted as Roman Pontiff,

except whom the Imperial

authority had destined or approved. Secondly

it also begot the greatest envy against the Pontiff,

that, that for extirpating the two greatest vices of the Priests,

namely the simoniacal

depravity & lasciviousness, so constant

labor he gave, the concubinaries &

simoniacs all everywhere striking with anathema.

But the Emperor himself too for the same

causes, often vainly summoned to synodal responses,

at last when he would not purge himself,

from the Church first he cut off by Peter's

sword, then from the kingdom too he deposed him,

all royal administration being taken away,

& the subjects absolved from the oath of fidelity. Wherefore the confused Emperor,

agreeing with him, the Pontiff in turn

deposed: & there were given to him letters

full of revilings: whom Henry wished to cast down, by which that he himself

should of his own accord abdicate the Pontificate, which by force & fraud he had seized,

shamelessly was

commanded. To such madness had the Emperor been led

by the blind lust of the Priests (who then frequent

were with him). For they feared,

if with the Pontiff he should return into favor,

it was over with their concubines, whom

they valued more than either their own salvation,

or public honesty.

[41] But how unworthily they reviled Gregory,

which Platina &

Blondus Flavius the Apostolic writers noted

with these words: We the Cardinals of the Holy Roman

Church, although it was clear that he was lawfully elected. Clerics, Acolytes,

Subdeacons, Priests, in the presence

of the Bishops, Abbots, & many,

both of the ecclesiastical & the lay order,

elect today, the 10th of the Kalends of May, in

the basilica of S. Peter in Chains, in the year of salvation

1072, as the true Vicar of Christ Hildebrand

the Archdeacon, a man of much

doctrine, great piety, prudence,

justice, constancy, religion,

modest, sober, continent, his house

honestly governing, hospitable to the poor,

in the bosom of holy mother

Church freely from his tender years educated:

whom indeed with that power

we wish to preside over the Church of God, with which Peter

by the command of God once presided. These things

they. Which best esteem of himself

the pious Pontiff by no means disappointed,

but up to the end lawfully striving

carried through. Whence Platina adds, at

the close of the things done by him, that at last

at Salerno he dies, a man certainly to God

grateful, prudent, just, clement, Patron of the poor,

of the orphans & widows,

& the unique & most keen defender of the Roman

Church, against the wickedness of the heretics,

& the power of evil Princes,

trying to occupy ecclesiastical things by force.

ANNOTATIONS OF G.H.

e

John Baptist van Hollandt of our society on 27 October from the Imperial

camp wrote to us these things: On the seventeenth of this month Torstenson

deserted Zittau, & toward the Elbe with his whole army proceeded; we

on the twentieth pursuing him, by the same way by which he had preceded us we proceeded

toward Löbau, on the twenty-second, Bautzen being left to the side, we

pitched camp in the Village of Geda, where the mother of S. Benno was once buried. He

gave the name to the village: for when daily the church with bare

feet in the harshest winter he went to, & by his Chaplain was incited that he should put on shoes, lest by reason

of the cold his feet should be destroyed; he answered, that he felt no cold:

if he would not give credence, let him stand on the footprints made: & when often

he admonished his Chaplain in German words. Geet da that is Go thither, the Village retained the name & to this

hour is called Geda. The same

of S. Wenceslaus Duke of Bohemia is recorded on the day 28 Sept. But I fear lest that

which is added about the name of the village taken therefrom, be a fiction of the common people prone to fables,

twisting to it an appellation, taken from elsewhere, &

probably from the name of some rivulet called Geta, so that the true name is Get-au that is Pastures at the Geta, in which way everywhere in Germany low places near rivers, called au, form a name taken from the river.

is thought to be worshiped. That the whole stood in

the city of Rethra of gold Helmold indicates book 1 chap. 2 &

again treats of him chap. 52, where Bongert exhibits his effigy from the Saxon

Chronicle. With hairs scattered it clings to the wings of a bird: to its breast

fixed it holds in its right hand a black bull's head, with its left it brandishes a battle-axe:

but it has its name from Raden to counsel & Gast, which not only signifies a Guest, but also a famous man.

g Swanthowitz from

S. Vitus the Martyr took its origin, we said from Helmold & others at

the day 15 of this June; whom as Patron the Rugians had before had, when from

the Christian faith to idolatry they had fallen away, they began to have in place of

the Writers of German affairs, Bruno a Cleric or Monk

of Merseburg wrote: for he prefaces that he is of the family of the Bishop, to whom he dedicates the history itself.

i Magnus is reckoned

after his great-great-grandfather Bisingius the fifth Elector: he lived to the year 1106; for two years

he is said to have been imprisoned by Bruno, so that no one knew where he was, or whether

he lived.

in the civil sedition in the year 1088 by the cast of an arrow perished: where confirmed

see, what I said above, that longer names are truncated by the Saxons & other

Germans, the termination in o being assumed; & sometimes too with some alteration of that part which is retained.

p Lambert of Schafnaburg, or Aschaffenburg, monk of Hersfeld, wrote a Chronicle up to the year 1077, in which he lived, which is extant published by Pistorius.

q In Surius the particle "or" had been intruded, & disturbed the sense.

r S. Gregory VII is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology 25 May, on which day his various Acts we illustrated: & to those we refer the Reader.

CHAPTER IV.

The Roman journey, the return, the conversion of the Slavs, the solitary Life, miracles.

[42] Dismissed from prison, In these heats therefore of the times;

when the Pontiff all both Ecclesiastical,

& secular Princes, who

had any commerce with the King,

had bound with the direst bonds of the Church;

& on the contrary the Emperor interdicted from water & fire

those, who obeyed the word of the Pontiff;

so was the Church of God rent, & the kingdom

divided against itself, that with graver hatreds between

the Priesthood & the Empire at no

time ever was there labor: for each,

both Pontiff & Emperor, this for the earthly,

that for the kingdom of God his cause

most constantly pleading, settled the strife only by

death. But truly the Emperor, when

he understood the minds of the Princes under the pretext

of religion gradually to fall away from him; dissembling

for the present the hatred, which against the Saxons he nourished,

the captives of that nation (among whom

also was Benno) by surrender he released, & to their own

with impunity to return permitted: commanding nothing else, & restored to his church.

than that mindful of so great a benefit

henceforth they should keep whole faith to him,

& the cause of the common kingdom with him against

the Pontiff defend. They departing promised,

that, as long as he justly administered the Empire,

& ceased to persecute the Church of God,

they would nowhere be wanting to his

advantage & honor. But what kind of man

the same King thereafter, both toward the Sacrosanct Apostolic

See, & everywhere in the Empire

showed himself, in others one may see: for to

us it pertains in nothing, except so far as it concerns our Divine

Benno.

[43] he consoles the Canons, Returning therefore the most blessed Pastor Benno

to his Church of Meissen, desolate

& devastated he found it, which with so great

zeal & adornment before he had adorned. Which

calamity although it was more bitter to him,

than either the prison or the exile penalty

had been; yet feigning hope in his countenance,

& pressing the grief deep in his heart, his

Canon Brethren, made to meet him with weeping eyes,

& lamenting their fortunes,

benignly he embraced & consoled,

again & again that with his mouth repeating;

The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away:

as it pleased the Lord, so it is done:

blessed be the name of the Lord. Nor was there

delay, but at once with unbroken mind

to restoring the ruin of his church with all

his might he turned: & had not the wickedness

of Burckhard the Prefect of Meissen obstructed him,

(of whom above too we made mention) easily

all the things taken away he would have recovered. The same

Burckhard was of evil disposition, by Burckhard's death he is freed from his tyranny. & endowed with a depraved nature,

besides ready of tongue & hand.

And since more the Emperor's,

than his God's commands he observed, on the blessed

man Benno he inflicted many vexations,

& his pious endeavors, by what arts

he could, he frustrated. Not however with impunity:

for of his crimes soon he gave just

penalties, by his subjects on account of his cruelty

& savagery miserably slain. For his horse,

on which he hoped for flight, otherwise

most swift, then when he was assailed, the spurs

being somehow applied, could not move

wound breathed out his wretched soul.

And in this manner was freed

our Divine Benno from the tyranny

of Burckhard the Prefect.

XXIII

[44] In the year from the Christian birth 1076,

Pope Hildebrand, moved by frequent

complaints, Gregory to Rome, indicted a Council at Rome;

& summoned the King through his Legates lawfully to this,

that he should be present, & of the crimes

which to him for the sold Ecclesiastical dignities

(which then were the Emperors') were objected,

plead his cause; otherwise let him know that he

without any delay, on the same day

from the body of holy Mother Church, by the Apostolic

sword was to be cut off. Hearing which

the Bishops of Germany & Gaul, to whom

the severity of the Pontiff was known, & his vehement

zeal toward the house of God, fearing

lest perchance together with the King, they themselves should suffer

something harder for their deeds, by common

counsels approach the King; & disturbed

over these things, which had been announced by the Pontiff,

by soothing & consoling, they bid him

be of good courage; for that the Council would be void,

nor was he to be obeyed, who

without his command & beyond the custom of his elders,

had thrust himself of his own accord upon the Ecclesiastical

summit; deeming namely their single safety

& the stability of their honors to turn on this

hinge, if they could effect,

that he should not be Apostolic. Henry summoning all the Bishops to Worms, The King therefore

seduced by their suggestion, a little before

the appointed day of the Council, all who in

his kingdom were, Bishops, Abbots

& Prelates of the Churches at Worms (as above

said) ordered to convene, wishing to treat

with them about deposing the Pontiff,

if any way, if any means lay open.

When therefore the most blessed our Benno, both

by the Pontiff's, & by the Emperor's edict was urged

& by each under dire threats

was summoned, between the rock & the sacred place

(as is in the proverb) placed, into

that at last of Susanna he fell; Straits

are to me on every side, & what to choose I know not. Dan. 13:22.

For if the commands of the Apostolic See

I shall despise, I am anathema, & made outside

the Church; but if the Emperor's

commands I shall neglect, as guilty of high treason,

the prison & exile before known

I shall not escape.

[45] He himself sets out for Rome; At last all fear being shaken off with himself

he resolved, the synagogue of Satan being abandoned, the obedience of the Apostolic

See unto death

to confess; especially since he was not ignorant,

that the right of celebrating a Council, by the sanctions

of the sacred Canons, was granted to the Roman

Pontiff alone. So seizing his journey

toward Rome, to the indicted Council,

not without much labor & difficulty,

he arrived: since the Emperor everywhere

had set ambushes for those tending thither,

which he however relying on divine help unharmed

crossed. But coming to

the Pontiff, by him, because a one of

almost all the Bishops of Germany, he had dared

to obey God more than men,

vehemently praised, & into no common

friendship was received. [the keys of the church having been ordered to be thrown into the Elbe if the King should be excommunicated:] They report by the still constant

fame, that departing he committed the keys of the church

of Meissen to two of his Brethren

the Canons, that if the King being excommunicated,

those who were of his party

did not refrain from entering the church, the doors being shut,

they should throw them into the river Elbe:

which also was done. For in the said

Council the King, on account of his contumacy,

with all his accomplices, with a grave

anathema was struck; & it was synodally

decreed, that henceforth it should be lawful to no man

to sell or buy any

Ecclesiastical dignities: which disease

then had very much crept in, not so much from the King

himself, otherwise a magnanimous & with every

Imperial virtue endowed man, as from

the avarice of his courtiers, & the ambition of the

candidates. Which from the following

chapter is sufficiently & more than sufficiently shown.

XXIV

[46] The execrable heresy of Simoniacal depravity,

on account of which then not only

the King himself's, who having promoted Lambert the Monk by Simony, but also of many Bishops,

Abbots, & Prelates the fame

was endangered, which also was the chief

cause, on account of which the Pontiff the Ecclesiastical

sword against them to draw

was compelled; Lambert the noble

Monk of Hersfeld in his Chronicle

graphically censures, thus saying: At the same

time Meginward b Abbot of Reichenau

of his own accord abdicated his dignity: into his

place, not through the door of election,

but through the burrow of Simoniacal heresy,

forthwith burst Rupert Abbot of Bamberg

surnamed the Money-changer, a thousand pounds

of purest silver being counted into the treasury

of the King. Pag. 184 This man by most sordid

gains & usuries, which even while still a private man

in the monastery he had exercised,

had amassed for himself infinite money; &

therefore the deaths of Bishops & Abbots

with anxious expectation had long sighed for.

And when their longer living,

on account of the impulse of his unbridled ambition,

by which headlong he was snatched, to delay him grievously

& most impatiently he bore; to such madness

he came, that besides the secret gifts,

by which the favor of the ear-whisperers was to be bought,

to the King too a hundred pounds of gold

he promised, that, the Abbot c Widerad

of Fulda might be handed. And truly

what he nefariously coveted, he had introduced the custom of selling churches most disgracefully

he would have obtained, had not a few, to whom the Ecclesiastical

laws were dearer than money, in

the King's face, that he should not do it, opposed.

By this therefore inauspicious & new

kind of fowling this custom was introduced

into the Church, that public dignities

are prostituted for sale; & ecclesiastical

men are esteemed not by Innocence & integrity

of life, but by quantity of money; nor

is it asked in those to be promoted, Gregory striving against it, who more worthily

can preside, but who more dearly can buy.

These things he. Rightly therefore the best Pontiff

Gregory perhaps prepared an antidote for this disease.

For if this plague of those

too poisoned the minds, who to this world

dead, & to have renounced all the ornament of this

world seem; how much

rather those too, who place the highest felicity

& the ultimate end of beatitude in

honors & dignities, to internecine destruction

would have ulcerated, corrupted,

vitiated, had not the most wise

physician cauterized it with the cautery of excommunication,

scarcely at last out & outside the Church

eliminated? Wherefore not undeservedly our Divine

Benno to so holy a man obeyed, subscribed,

adhered.

XXV

[47] While our Divine Benno tarried with the Pontiff,

who in order to retain Benno longer, there came to Rome a certain

venerable Father, by name Theodoric,

one Suffragan of the Bishops, who defending the cause

of the King together with him had been

execrated. Wherefore the said Theodoric,

lest he should make himself a participant of so great a crime,

approached the Pontiff, & since he was poor,

asked from him a subsidy of life.

But he, that longer Divine Benno,

in whose intimacy he greatly delighted,

he might detain with him; that same Suffragan

substituted for our Divine Benno, &

destined to Meissen, that, the true Pastor being absent,

the ministry of the Pontifical office meanwhile

he might fulfill. To whom both by Apostolic

& by Divine Benno's letters the Canons admonished,

assigned one Prebend in the Church of Meissen:

among whom for some time

he lived praiseworthily, full of virtues & of honest

conversation's morals. he grants him a Suffragan. But on a certain

day when for the sake of the Episcopal duty

Colditz d, a town of that same diocese, together

with his Chaplain he sought, with much

old age burdened; suddenly on the way he began to faint:

& carried to the nearest mill,

to which Komlitz even today the name

is, with great devotion he closed his last day.

But he had committed to his Chaplain,

that, asses being placed to the bier, which the miller

had at hand, into whatever Ecclesiastical place

by chance he should be led, there

he should bury him. The asses therefore by a straight

way toward the Church in the village of Hart led,

gave the cause of his being buried there:

of whom indeed the villagers still mindful, with some miracles & signs

declare him illustrious.

And this indeed was Theodoric's

end.

[48] But meanwhile the Princes, touched by religion,

gradually their necks began from the Emperor's

yoke to withdraw; & now not

only in clandestine meetings, but in public

assemblies also, At last, Relics & Indulgences being received, of substituting

another King among themselves to treat. Wherefore

the Emperor's forces being broken, when nothing

more of fear there was, Divine Benno, who for much,

now time had adhered to the Pontiff's side,

with great prayers obtained. To him departing

the Pope, as a sign of true affection,

gave no common Relics of the Saints: which

he the whole time of his life religiously cultivated,

& as a certain heavenly treasure

venerated. There is extant from those same Relics

around his tomb, up to the present

day, a certain thing wonderful to say:

that namely, enclosed in silver, or

in a pax (as they call it), the little potions, to some

indeed kissing them appear, but to others

by no means. Nay even to those to whom to see

them happens, they do not always show themselves:

but now present they are, now

as if by some illusion the eyes of the beholders

they elude. Some report that our Divine Benno

at other times also &

under other Pontiffs too, namely Victor

& Urban Gregory's successors,

went to Rome: but to us, besides that

which we just now described, pilgrimage,

nothing certain is clear. Wherefore

to his return from that same expedition

the following discourse hastens.

XXVI

[49] The most blessed Father our Benno, the affairs of his Church being

expedited with the Pontiff, Benno returns to his Church,

Rome at last being left, through the sloping

ridges of the Apennine, through the pleasant fields of Flaminia,

through the narrow gorges of the Raetian Alps,

passing the Vindelici & Norici;

to his city of Meissen,

with the most precious Relics & indulgences

laden, happily arrived. But that

at his first arrival the city should not

be moved, nor that to him the Clergy with the wonted

pomp of platters should proceed to meet him,

under the appearance of a pilgrim to the public inn

unknown to all he turned aside. The inhabitants record

up to the present day, that the guest,

while a certain huge fish,

brought from the river Elbe at the same chance hour,

he began to disembowel; under the gills

or fins of it found the key of the Church,

which Divine Benno after his departure

had commanded to be thrown into that same river. & he receives its keys with the fish.

Of which thing the fame when soon the whole

city it had filled, the Canons the aforesaid inn

suddenly rush, & recognizing their Pastor,

with the greatest applause of the whole city,

to his Church conduct him. Who blessing the people

in the usual manner, from the crowd

up to the next day scarcely at last

could tear himself away.

[50] But in the morning, no weariness of so great a journey

obstructing, immediately he did the Pastoral office;

& while sacrificing, in a sermon

to the people the Apostolic benediction announced

& grace: & those who for avoiding

the King's indignation, even by the mere participation

of conversation were subject to Ecclesiastical censures,

all at once by the power granted to him he absolved

& reconciled to the Church. & those excommunicated being absolved Wherefore scarcely

can it be said, how great in a short time was made

who all with one mouth cried out; You have come

O desirable one, whom we awaited in darkness,

that you might lead out the bound from the dungeons.

For of them the much greatest part with the bond of excommunication

was ensnared, whom

the pious Father with hasty joy leading back

to his Church received: by Apostolic authority & as

once to the lost son the fatted calf, that

is the fat bread of Christ, penance being first enjoined

sacramentally exhibited; & so

the sons of perdition into vessels of election happily

he converted. But the Lord gave him grace

& a rest from evils, that henceforth

the remaining years of his life up to decrepit

old age passing in peace, to restoring his Church

& extirpating the tares, which

now for a long time in the Lord's field

had sprouted up, tranquil labor he could

expend: which also diligently he accomplished. And

because especially in his mind clung the ancient

care of the Slavs; then he has peace. therefore with what zeal,

with what doctrine, & with what signs of miracles

he at last recalled them from their ancient errors to the infallible

truth of Christ,

as briefly as I shall be able in the following

I shall comprehend.

XXVII

[51] It is fitting here to remember those things, which

above of the Slavs we discoursed: who namely both

banks of the Elbe settling around, Again preaching to the Slavs with a gentile

& superstitious rite, the honor, which to the Creator

they owed, to created things exhibited;

the wood which they hewed, & the stone which

they cut, irrational, adoring. Of

whose morals when Divine Benno had made Gregory

the Pontiff more certain,

him he received, with the power of preaching to them

the word of God, & of absolving from certain cases,

even reserved to the Apostolic See.

Wherefore there was made daily a greater

concourse to him of peoples, he leads them to penance & faith especially of the Slavs,

of whom some still mindful of the pristine

doctrine, which to them the pious father, before

he was sent into exile by the King,

had handed down, out of desire & love of his sacred

eloquence of their own accord offered themselves prostrate to him,

& of the crime they had committed with mourning

& grief asked pardon. But he, as

he was gentle of heart & prone to forgiving,

with welcoming hands them, & as if by the

right of return to Christ returning, received;

& Scriptures to them both of the old,

& of the new Testament proposing, how much

in heaven was joy over even one

sinner converted, not only to tears,

but also to whatever kind of satisfaction

easily induced them.

[52] But when the multitude of those flocking together

the city did not hold, a place

fit for a sermon he chose, namely one valley

pleasant with sunny glades, he persuades the converts to break their idols a thousand

paces from the city, between East & North

exposed. Hither therefore in troops

flying many thousands of men, his most sacred

sermons, of the highest &

true God, of the first origin of men

& their fall, of the Incarnation of the Word,

& the restoration of the human race, & the other

mysteries of that kind with erect

ears drank in. Very many too were so compunct in spirit, that the idols, which at home

they had, in the sight of the holy man

bringing forth, they broke in pieces, & so

by the leading & auspices of Divine Benno

made their souls safe. But on a certain

day, when the people laboring with the most fervent

heat of the sun, their thirsty mouths longer

could scarcely bear; the most blessed Father Benno,

his eyes lifted upward, & a prayer

made to Him, who turns the rock into

pools, & the cliff into fountains of waters,

with his Pastoral staff is said to have struck the earth:

from which soon a spring of leaping water gushing forth, & for the thirsty draws forth a spring:

the dry lips of men with heavenly liquor

washed & refreshed. Psalm 113. A testimony

of that thing is, that the same spring is sacred,

& the valley e itself holy up to the present

day is called by the inhabitants.

The man of God did likewise other miracles too in the same

place, by which the people of the Slavs rude from

the beginning, not only

by word, but also by deed he might teach,

how great was the virtue & power

of the Christian faith. But we in our manner only the more solid

things embrace.

XXVIII

[53] Although, as I said, many of Divine

Benno's miracles, which are celebrated in the discourses

of the common people, & by the tradition of the elders

have come to posterity, here to pass over

is my counsel, he turns water into wine, both himself & his boy. especially because in brevity

we all rejoice: yet that of

water made into wine, & the crossing of the Elbe,

since besides the corroboration of common fame

they were committed even to letters,

in that most ancient little book of his life,

which recently in the aforesaid monastery of Hildesheim

(where once he made his first

stipends of spiritual armor) was miraculously found,

I dare not be silent. For it is written

in that same book, that when Divine

Benno on a certain day to the workmen in the meadow

had gone out, they being fatigued with thirst & labor,

the sign of the Cross being made, the water into

wine he changed. Which when his boy

had observed, water being brought to him, Lo,

he said, I shall do as my Lord. Who

being asked what he had done; A Cross, he answered,

over it he made. And when the boy did

the same, by the merits of the blessed man & the simplicity

of the boy the water soon the taste of wine

put on. He crosses the Elbe with dry foot

[54] But when now the day was tending to its setting,

& Divine Benno by a straight way

through the bridge to the city could not come,

he turned his journey to the nearest streams of the Elbe,

& fortifying himself with the Cross, the river

with dry foot crossed. Which seeing

the water followed, & unharmed crossed over:

but Benno the audacity of the man

vehemently rebuking, forbade both that

he should do it any more, he enjoins silence on the frogs & that to anyone

what had been done while he lived he should disclose.

But the man of God was wont sometimes

by praying & meditating to circle the fields: there

when once beside a certain marsh

it should disturb him contemplating, he bids it

be a Seriphian, for there are in f Seriphus frogs

all indeed mute. A little thence

having passed, there came to his mind that of

Daniel: Bless ye whales & all that

are moved in the waters the Lord: bless

all beasts & cattle the Lord. Dan. 3.

Fearing therefore lest perchance more grateful to God

might be their song than his prayer, to them again

he commanded, that with their accustomed voice

they should praise God: which soon the fields &

the air with their chattering stridor fill.

ANNOTATIONS OF G. H.

B. Benno alone was not a hearer of the Emperor's decree: for he

thought it would be splendid, if the dignity of the Church, as far as could

be done, he should protect: & that he might give his proof of devotion toward the Church,

he excommunicated the Emperor & the Margrave

of Meissen judged enemies of religion. These things there, which almost before were had in the epistle to Leo X.

CHAPTER V.

Virtues, revelations, death, Translation, miracles. The cause of the deferred Canonization.

[55] Betrayed both by these & by other miracles Benno,

vehemently within himself blushed,

fearing, lest perchance whence more celebrated

might begin to become among men the fame of his name,

thence with God he himself might more grow vile,

the Apostle saying: If still men

I should please, wishing to be hidden & to be free for God he withdraws to a solitary place I should not be the servant of Christ. Gal. 1.

Lest therefore he should be held an affecter

of popular favor, with silent counsel he debated with himself,

by what especially manner the frequency of men

he might avoid, & in some solitary place

lying hid, God alone he might serve:

& therefore, his affairs at his church

carefully composed, he himself toward the West,

to the farthest bounds of his diocese,

namely the village of Naumburg, with very few

conscious of his way withdrew: & there a little shrine

in honor of the divine Virgin & of all

the Native-deities of heaven consecrating, with the most precious

Relics & Indulgences endowed it,

which recently from Rome he had carried with him. But near

the building, one humble cell,

for himself & the Priest whom he had with him,

he built there with this mind, that henceforth, except when the Episcopal

duty of care required, from it

he should nowhere depart. But the more

the humble servant of Christ wished to be hidden, the more

the propitious divinity deigned to magnify him, & thence there the crops ripen more quickly.

up to the present day testifying,

how grateful to heaven was the service of this beloved servant

of His. For in certain paths of the fields,

which he, there in his manner after

the task of the divine Office walking & meditating,

with his most holy feet trod,

the grain still today more quickly grows golden & ripens,

nay even a far more fertile harvest

in that same place, than through the neighboring fields round about

is born. Which I not

only from the writings of others, but also

with my eyes have found out: & I saw that

truly God is wonderful in His Saints. But the same

precocious fertility of a certain field

at Gedau, where likewise once contemplating

he walked, by the Parish-priest of that same

place, recently under oath, in

the examination of certain witnesses, was deposed. Psalm 67.

[56] What then? Shall I be silent or not, the notable things which of

the gift of agility to our Divine Benno almighty

God conferred? By no means

at all. For to the memory of men it has been handed

down by common voice & fame, that

when the most blessed Benno frequently after

the handling of the Sacraments from the eyes

of his Chaplain vanished, he is snatched by divine power to the church of Meissen. & by the gift of agility

in his church of Meissen suddenly

was set, & thence all the Sacred rites being finished

at the accustomed hour of dinner with

his Chaplain again in the said village present

was wont to be; the Chaplain once caught by vehement

admiration, observing most diligently his master departing

in the morning,

& soon following found nothing of indication besides a few footprints in the fresh

hoarfrost: but

immediately as if by a whirlwind snatched, in the said

church of Meissen, behind the back of his Lord

kneeling, on his feet he stood.

Whom when the divine Father felt in spirit to be present,

& he himself the Sacred rites being completed in his manner

soon again to his cell, but the Chaplain

scarcely on the second day returned:

(for the distance of the places is 24 thousand

paces a) gravely he rebuked him,

& under the bond of anathema forbade,

that while he lived to any man

what had been done he should disclose; so far was it

from the blessed man, that his own glory

he should seek. But we neither these things rashly

assert, nor shamelessly deny:

since many similar things of the Tutelary Saints of our native

soil, (Swabia I think) the Divine

Conrad namely b & Udalric, as well

as certain other holy Fathers, are written,

& are held for confessed.

Besides in memory of Divine Benno

even today every year is celebrated a great

concourse of people in the said village of Naumburg,

on the three days preceding &

following the feast of all Saints,

to whose name (as we said before) the pious

Pontiff once with his own hands the Church

dedicated. he is venerated in the Church dedicated by him in honor of all Saints. There are also there the ruins of his cell

& certain other monuments, & also

his image painted on the wall of the inner

church, with a diadem & pontifical mitre

& with a title written over it:

Saint Benno Bishop c: which

all to the spectators augment devotion &

grace.

[57] While B. Benno declined the tumult of the city,

delighting himself with the solitude of his cell,

& to the meditation of divine things

more freely than before giving himself, many

revelations he had, by which the sweetness of future rest,

at least cursorily &

as far as is permitted to a wayfarer, he is believed to have tasted. Taught by Revelations,

By the same revelations too illumined,

many future things before they happened,

he is reported to have foretold: of which two

at least by no means contemptible here to recite

let it suffice. Of which one in the old

Cella, a notable monastery of the diocese of Meissen, was fulfilled & committed to letters.

For when the man of God long once before

the Cella was founded, was making by chance a passage in that

place, & saw there a flock of doves

settling in a band, turned to

his companions: Lo, he said, this place

is, to which after a short time a certain new

Religion will fly together, [he foretells certain things about the Cistercian order & a monastery to be built] by whose prayers

Nor was the oracle vain. For the divine Order

of the Cistercians having afterward arisen, Otto

Margrave of Meissen d the monastery of Cella

to the said Order, as its first founder,

made sacred, & beyond what can be believed

wonderfully endowed.

[58] Another of Divine Benno's prophecies

was, which to the Margrave (whom they declare to be Henry

son of Dedo) striking him on the jaw,

he is reported to have foretold, that

on the same day, the year being come round, the slap given to him

he would avenge. & struck with a slap The same Margrave was

very devoted to King Henry,

for this reason that with him (as above we narrated)

from boyhood he had been educated. And when

the same King, now a coffin-ripe old man, new

disturbances again in the Empire stirring up, the horns

now long fallen again to heaven

was raising; by his own son consigned to prison,

his soul polluted with much blood,

contrary to the Poet's sentence e, with dry

death at last to the lower regions destined. But the Margrave

aforesaid, since the Apostolic See

& Ecclesiastical censures by despising

he wished to please the King more than was just,

nor even from the goods of the Church of Meissen

now long ago taken away by the King abstained, or

them to the said Church however admonished

intended to restore; & when on a certain occasion

by Divine Benno, for this more gravely

he was reproved, nor by reason objected could

dissolve it; with wrath at last roused, nothing to the gray

head, nothing to the sacred order deferring, the venerable

old man with a hard slap he struck. To whom

the pious Pontiff, destruction to the Margrave of Meissen, not indeed of his own injury

mindful, but by the spirit of a heavenly sentence

revealing taught, foretold that it would be,

that in the following year, on the same day, of the crime committed

he would give the penalties. Nor did to the saying

faith fail. For the year being come round when

the day said for the vengeance toward evening had now inclined;

the Margrave, who with a hard heart of so great a crime

had done not only no penance;

but even holding in mockery

the holy man's presage, to his Counselors

turned & as the Dictator

Caesar f once Spurina the soothsayer mocking;

Lo, he said, the day, which black

to us Benno had threatened would be,

without harm is present: terribly looking at him. not considering

that the day had indeed come, but not yet

passed. So while still speaking,

suddenly by the inevitable judgment of God not placid,

as before, but with grim & terrible

countenance attacking him, & demanding penalties,

he seemed to see him: for he was

that they should bring help to him, since Divine

Benno assailed him, in vain having besought,

falling on his knees, by sudden

death is said to have perished; not so much for the laid

violent hands on the Saint of the Lord,

as because, as some have handed down,

he did not enter to him for the cause

of the orphan & widow, but rather, an oppressor

he was of the poor, & a plunderer

of ecclesiastical things. There are extant in the same place

diverse signs g cut in the stone, in

memory & monument of that thing left to posterity.

XXXI

[59] After the most blessed Father Benno,

the laborious course of this life up to extreme

age vigorously & constantly traversed, that to his

wearied now after very many dangers

ship a safe port was present, & eternal

rest impended on him by the spirit revealing

knew; hasty for joy

his Canon Brethren convoked into one,

with such a speech addressed them:

The hour is come, most pleasant Brethren, which

I for many years back, before his death he harangues the Canons: I know not whether

with greater solicitude, or desire always

awaited. I desired indeed often,

that I should not see the evils, with which in my

days the little ship of S. Peter was tossed;

nor that after the sanctuaries of this Church committed to me

were profaned, & the spoils divided among

enemies, I should longer survive, to close my wretched

life. I feared on the other

part, lest perchance even by this very thing,

that the darts of divine temptation little constantly

or too softly I should seem to bear,

the just indignation of almighty God I should incur.

At last God's grace being implored,

the zeal of the ancient Fathers imitating,

King Henry's prison & exile,

Burckhard's grave & notable contumelies,

the Margrave's last himself

threats & blows, & whatever with sacrilegious

hands on me it pleased to perpetrate,

with brave mind I bore, until, the malice

of the perfidious men being fulfilled, the secret judgments

of divine providence should follow. But no

cause in me did they find,

except that the obedience of the sacrosanct Apostolic See

I confessed, of the most holy man

Gregory the seventh & his successors

the cause intrepidly protected, & the things of my Church

wickedly taken away, by whatever

ecclesiastical censures & penalties I could,

I strove to vindicate. This was the accuser's

against me sum. But,

whether by right I did it or by wrong, the eternal

Judge's tribunal I appeal to, to which the present

this hour calls me. But there will come quickly

after me King Henry & the other temerators of Ecclesiastical

power: whom

between & me God will judge.

[60] But since you on account of my departure

I see to be made sadder; this

meanwhile from me consolation receive. he foretells that his successor would be a man fearing God, A Successor

in my place you will have a man

good & fearing God, who your Ecclesiastical

estate in great part will augment.

And that the more, that after

my death to those, who the divine office hitherto

were wont to impede, more will be cast

of terror & dread. For I if, what

I hope, grace with God I shall find, the patronage of this Church once

undertaken through all

age & ages I shall protect:

& the cause of it & of my successors assuming,

to accuse I shall not cease those, who by rash daring,

either against this Church, or against

its ministers & goods presume to commit anything,

that they bear it not with impunity. he undertakes the perpetual patronage of his Church But

if a little in accusing I shall seem more negligent,

so let my successors persuade themselves,

that it is approved partly by God their

patience, partly the penance of the injurers is awaited:

Who if hardened from their undertaking to desist

are unwilling, they shall feel that not far

off from them is perdition. But on the contrary

to the benefactors of my Church all happy

& prosperous things with God I shall obtain by prayer.

But you dearest Brethren, if far from all

rivalry & hatred embracing mutual charity

among yourselves, not with the topmost

lips only, but with good heart mutually saluting,

if the divine worship not slothfully emulating,

if the Ecclesiastical commonwealth at last rather

than your own advantages & private

causes among yourselves you shall protect; the more

in all these things faithful & sincerer

God shall find you, the more easily me for

you interceding He will hear. As

therefore here on earth I was, so also

with God ready you will have me, according as

the merits or demerits of each shall demand,

countenance & senile gravity having spoken,

& the hands of each in the usual manner kissed,

them to hymns & psalms he bade to apply themselves:

but he himself a devout prayer to God having made, he dies in the year 1106 on 16 June.

the Ecclesiastical viaticum first received, the burden

at last of his wearied body laid down. They report

that immediately the place was breathed upon with a sweet odor, something heavenly

into the nostrils of all inspired, until him,

according to the dignity of the Pontifical office,

in his church of Meissen honorably

they buried. But he died on the sixteenth

of the Kalends of July, in the year of salvation 1106, of his age

96, Henry IV dies as Benno had foretold. but of his Episcopate 40.

[61] Benno being deceased, his See

received the venerable Herwic, founder of the Collegiate

Church of Wurzen, whom Henry

the pious Father had foretold, shortly after his death,

namely on the 7th of the Ides of August, in the same

year the aforesaid Henry King IV,

as if of extortion accused by him, miserably

died. Whose corpse for five years (as

they say) lacked ecclesiastical burial. There died

also the Margrave, the striker of Divine Benno,

in that manner which above we said. By whose fall

admonished his successors, to the Church of Meissen

not only the things taken away restored, but

from their own goods too always more & more

added: on account of which up to this

day always more & more too

by God they have been exalted & prospered. But the most blessed

after his death with no less

merits & miracles with God shone,

than once in life, to those fleeing

to his sepulchre very many benefits obtaining: but here he shines with miracles: of whom some cured of various sicknesses,

very many from grave dangers

& anxieties freed, some

even from death raised. Of all of which

the credibility i at the Church of Meissen

by letters, seals, witnesses, & either by public notary,

or by the most ample authority of Prelates

is supported.

[62] But his Translation from the humble place,

where once he had ordered himself to be buried, to

the middle of the Church, where now his tomb

honorably constructed is seen, was made about

the year of the Lord 1270: at which time

the venerable Bishop k Witigo, of this

name the II, a vehement lover & preacher of Divine Benno,

certain Indulgences too to that same translation conferred,

that fuller might be the devout people's

joy. The same Bishop Witigo too

with that wine, with which Divine Benno's bones were washed,

& from the earthly dust commended, as with

very many healed. Of all of whom

the names & kinds of diseases with his own hand

he noted, he is translated in the year 1270. & at the Church of Meissen

likewise in perpetual memory of the thing deposited.

But the chasuble with which had been clothed

the divine Father Benno, & the pastoral Staff,

as if recently laid down, with him in

the sepulchre were found, without any decay,

which also drew no small virtue from the most holy

body. For,

to be silent of old things; a certain matron of the diocese

of Meissen, from the village of Prentzindorff,

near Freiberg, in this our time by a demon

seized, to the sepulchre of Divine Benno

led, when by no exorcisms the demon

from her could be put to flight, The chasuble being incorrupt the demon is expelled she was clothed

at last in Divine Benno's Chasuble, & given

into her hand the pastoral Staff; which being done

the demon cried out: Now is the time that

I go out: yet I shall leave to my hostess

And soon, the other leg of the woman being opened, terribly

he was dashed out. But the hole which

he had made, by no art of physicians curable,

the woman even today bears, & (as

is to be feared) until she lives it will not be abolished.

[63] Besides, as he was pious toward suppliants,

so severe against the obstinate the divine Father, according to

his promises, often was found.

For the Margrave William, he who

died at Grimma, appearing in vain to the Margrave injurious to the church when the once Provost

of Meissen Brutenus by name often had exhorted

him, that from the exactions & servitudes,

with which the colonists & subjects of the Church

of Meissen beyond right & custom

he heavily burdened, he should desist, nor could

him from his undertaking turn aside; to the help at last

of Divine Benno he fled: who entreated

at last by the assiduous prayers of the Provost,

to the Margrave in sleep l appeared, arguing

& warning to remit the unjust

burdens. And when he by the persuasion of his Counselors,

saying that the deliriums of dreams

were not to be cared for, in nothing amended himself; at last he tears out his eye.

another time during sleep, again

Benno seemed to him to rush in, & with the torch which

he carried in his hand again to burn his little eye. Who

rising in the morning & feeling himself one-eyed,

at last compunct in heart, to the Church of Meissen

not only the given damages repaired;

but moreover many gifts conferred, by which,

as is to be hoped, blessing for

cursing from God he merited. It is read

however that both this one, & Divine Benno's

striker, by God frustrated of hope of offspring,

died without a lawful heir, in penalty

of the injured ecclesiastical liberty.

[64] He foretells the deaths of the Canons: Lastly although the most blessed Benno

his Church of Meissen & its Canons

from various dangers & the snares of enemies

mercifully always by his merits delivered;

nonetheless yet to those very ones too,

when they did anything foolish, he did not spare: but

indeed punishment, their faults to expiate

was wont: their deaths too,

& vehement certain blow to foretell

he is reported: m warning indeed them,

that the coming wrath by the swift remedy of penance

they should avoid. There are besides these other

things too many in number excellent deeds, most worthy

of writing, & pleasant to read, which

of our most blessed Father Benno are related,

the great works & miracles of God; but to sound

the retreat for us at some time & to leave

even to posterity a place for writing it is:

for not all things can all attain;

nor shall I myself seem to have begotten little of glory & ornament for the people of Meissen,

I who first their riches & this heavenly pearl,

so many ages back hidden, into

light have brought: & it will be enough for us

to have demonstrated, Epilogue. that our Divine Benno

from the cradle, up to the last breath of life,

by virtues & sanctity of life

was renowned: nor was prophecy lacking to him,

& the revelation of heavenly secrets;

nor the grace of healings, & the vengeance of impious

men; nor at last the raising

of the dead: by all which

the Lord magnified him, in the sight

of Kings & Princes, & in the midst

of His people, & to him a crown of perpetual

glory He gave.

XXXIII

[65] Because some are wont to wonder, why

for so long a time the Canonization of Divine Benno,

though diligently sought, has not had its

success; therefore lest that wonder a scruple at last,

as is wont to happen, beget in anyone;

The Canonization deferred by God's providence, in this last chapter at last openly

I have deemed it to be treated; for what causes

this work, as grateful to heaven, as

to men profitable & salutary, hitherto

day by day has been put off. At the beginning

therefore the constant assent of all the wise of the whole

world & in confession it is,

that all things of mortals depend on & are governed by the Divine

providence, which both wills & can each in its own

time & place, just as more opportune

it knows, to men to apply & minister.

But if so it is, who will not believe

that this work, so pious & holy, by a certain hidden

providence too of God, both

for the greater glory of Him, & for the ampler

profit of men, hitherto

has been delayed & is reserved for better times?

And indeed in farmers one may see this:

who if for three or eight days the sky

to their wishes does not pour down, immediately their mind

they despair, & lay down hope; they suspect

ill, fear worse, complain

that it is over with the year's crops, as

if God had forgotten the wonted care of mortals.

But when soon against the hope of all it has cleared,

& Phoebus the clouds dispersed with vital

heat has warmed the lands again; then at last

the works of Divine providence they praise, &

conscious of their error are compelled to confess, that the best

moderator both of times & of all things

is God; & that the sun was present far more

timely, than if they themselves like Phaethon

had driven its quadrigae with their own

hands. No otherwise indeed at the best

time God reserves to Divine Benno his apotheosis

by silent counsel with Himself. Let it cease therefore

the solicitude of mortals: since as it is written,

The works of God are perfect. But

this reason perhaps to pious minds may satisfy:

but to the pertinacious & humanly wise,

other besides causes of this delay

we shall give.

[66] For Benno being soon deceased,

while still recent was his with men

conversation, there was no one, who then

to this thing to aspire dared. For

it is not wont to be sought or even granted, the benefit of Canonization,

except by long time,

& with grave maturity by miracles approved

& sanctity of life; on account of the misery of the time, nor likewise except by immense

profusion & expense of moneys. But

because in the following courses of years, the Church

of Meissen many times, on account of the incursions

of the barbarians & neighboring wars devastated

& impoverished, therefore for making

so great expenses no faculty then

was present. But most recently when to n Alexander

VI the first report of this thing was made,

the same Pontiff destined Commissaries,

certain Cardinals of the holy Roman Church,

who should examine the cause: but

before the business was concluded,

the Pontiff closed his last day, then

also the Commissaries (to whom the thing was now known)

died. So to Divine Julius, the present

Bishop of the city of Rome, again

supplication was made, who also himself for this work

gave Commissaries the once most Reverend

Cardinals, Raymund of Gurk, Melchior

of Brixen, & the Lord of Alexandria:

by all of whose authority & benevolence;

since two especially of them

the sepulchre of Benno, & certain miracles

with their own eyes had seen, the wished-for end

now we would have without doubt, had not by their untimely

death o God to us manifestly

wished to show, & the death of Alexander 6 & the Commissaries that there had not yet come

the time destined to this work by His providence.

Which also is the cause, that the Lord

Canons & those whom it concerns, although

their labor not slothfully they apply, beyond

measure however the Pontiff not too much

urge; both on account of the arduous of his Holiness's

both domestic & public occupations,

& the crises of these times;

& because of the sanctity of their divine Pastor,

whom with them daily to shine with new signs

& miracles they behold with their eyes, in nothing

hesitating, the time foreordained by God

with calmer mind they await. For these therefore

causes up to this day has been delayed

the Apotheosis or Canonization, as

they call it, of Divine Benno, while he himself in private

nonetheless, as a pious Confessor of Christ,

by very many is venerated & invoked. Since

for proving the sanctity of Confessors,

not the effusion of blood is sought, or

any kind of punishment, but the credibility & magnitude

of miracles only: by which he

to many now thousands has been beheld, the most high

Lord our God bestowing: to whom

be praise, honor, brightness, & thanksgiving,

through the infinite ages of ages.

ANNOTATIONS OF G. H.

Although the village of Neumberg is very far distant from Meissen, yet sometimes by divine power

it happened, that at one & the same time both for them Benno performed the sacred rite,

& at Meissen seemed to be present at the divine offices.

on the river Mulda, erected in the time of Frederick Barbarossa. Consult

the Margraves of Meissen, published in elegiac verse by Fabricius. But of

the beginning of the Cistercian Order in the year 1098 see what we said at the Life of the founder Robert, 29 April num. 13.

i Hence

I have no doubt, that from those, if indeed they are still kept, a far

ampler & with its circumstances more adorned series of miracles can be woven

than is the collection soon to be given, touching on each summarily.

is, & below in the Miracles num. 1 he is called Bitigo at the year 1281;

& num. 11 at the year 1277 & 1279. To him succeeded Bernard,

Albert II & then Witigo II extinguished in the year 1347.

in the year 1509, & likewise John Antony de S. Georgio, Bishop

of Alexandria, after whose death this Life was written, & in the year 1512

printed. The Poem that follows bears indeed a title On the Apotheosis of Divine Benno; but in truth it can be called

A SYNOPSIS OF THE LIFE,

By the same Author expressed in elegiacs.

Benno, Bishop of Meissen, laid to rest at Munich in Bavaria (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR EMSER

There lies an ancient city, neighbor to the vast Bohemians,

noble for its cluster-bearing mountain, & for its soil:

noble for silver, gems, & for the riches of every mine the free city of Meissen

: Meissen the German tongue calls it.

At its foot the gnashing Northern Elbe,

proud with its bridge suspended on beams, departs.

But on the topmost summit is joined, of the beautiful

church a palace more beautiful, worthy of Jove,

could have set the Dardanian citadels behind it.

For this with cut stone, & wondrous vaulting,

surpasses all the houses we have seen before.

But yet of the joined Church not the least is the praise:

that free it is subject to none, but to you O Pope.

That it was founded once by the great Ottos, & that

with a Meissen prince it was always safe.

And that its Clergy, in the whole city most refined,

full of honesty, religion, faith.

By whom the Saints are praised with assiduous song: divine worship flourishes:

Here they sing hymns, by night & day sacred.

Here for dukes, or Governors a common sepulchre:

Here are the bodies of many holy Fathers.

Here lies Albert by fame known above the sky,

lately the great glory of the Saxon house.

Here hang the trophies offered by the fierce Frisians,

whom the Duke here taught to bear the Saxon bridle.

Here, here, especially, the medley of our little book,

Benno lies buried in the midst of the sacred building.

Benno, who here once most worthy by high merits S. Benno Bishop

was the tenth Bishop, a good Pastor everywhere.

For whether you regard his life, or his miracles,

his every deed shows a holy man.

They show either rivers passable with dry soles,

or the scaly throng hidden in the rivers.

His unharmed garments, his unconsumed bones confess it,

buried more than sixty lustra in the ground.

And the long road which he traversed in one hour,

the earth pressed by his sacred foot more fertile.

The relics portend by hidden fugitive leap, liberal toward the poor,

which only chaste eyes can perceive.

The old colonists add hence wondrous & memorable things,

with whom the Father here lived not without praise.

For he lived for widows, for orphans, lived for the needy;

to these too he distributed, he did not heap up his wealth.

Nor did he suffer his body to grow torpid on soft down,

or to luxuriate in a purple robe.

Nay tireless zealot of the just & fair,

for his flock he devoted both estate & soul.

For his flock the outstretched palm, cruel blows,

he endured, & fists & exile, for his.

Hence while he lived & fed them no tyrant having suffered much,

dared then to harm Benno's sheep.

Or if anyone attempted it, not even dead did them

he leave unpunished, but was a grave avenger.

Part with foot inflamed, part with swollen throat felt,

what the injured deity of the holy man can do.

There are some who, caught in their eyes, who, expiated by death,

atoned for & washed away the sacrilegious crime.

Yet many & the greater part conscious of their guilt,

while they wept the wicked deeds of their undertaking,

And when grieving they drew sighs from a deep heart,

merited pardon, & restored double:

There is no punishment so vehement or grave wrath of the Gods,

but where one repents, a man can bend it.

Who sought pardon not heard by them?

Who groaned in vain? what prayers did they refuse?

Especially Benno, to no mortals ever

difficult, to none denying just petitions:

at whose tomb the hanging votive offerings gather,

as many a sick man brought, his aid received.

Here one is seen with breast transfixed by torn iron:

Here another with broken leg fears to perish.

Here one fell once supine from the topmost citadel:

That one was overwhelmed amid the rushing waters.

Here one placed amid the flames draws sighs:

Here one beset by a strong enemy takes to flight. He shines with Miracles at his tomb

Here one complains of fevers, another of fierce gripings of the belly;

Here one wishes the sinews would be absent from his wretched foot.

That one deplores elephantiasis, this one hernias:

or hemorrhoids, or grieves of the stone.

Finally whoever is present returns thence with placid health.

Nor does Benno suffer prayers to have been void.

The Prince felt his aid: his royal consort too felt it,

who before had wept continually for her sick husband:

Now beautiful she smiles joined to her husband,

& hangs waxen votives to the divine Father.

Hence frequent from other nations too thither

Hither come the Thurii, the Prussians, the Sarmatian, the Slav; The Author complaining of the delay of the Canonization?

hither the neighboring Bohemian often makes his way.

Often too warned in dreams at midnight,

hither the Cimbrian brought his foot from the northern pole.

Though a thousand come, a thousand too bring back health:

this proves of course that the man is holy.

For although none does this without sacred divine power:

no evil man does such & so great signs.

And yet (unworthy!) for four ages now & beyond,

while he prevails by these merits more & more,

No one of the Pontiffs has deemed him worthy of due honor,

no one has enrolled him among the Saints, before the Sacred rite.

This while I lately with myself bitterly fumed,

now these now others accusing as guilty:

I groaned that so great a virtue had lain hidden in darkness for so long

For of course I thought it could have come about by envy:

which (unless it be powerless) suppresses every good.

I accused all, to whom he had once done good:

but more the Canons & the men of Meissen. he introduces the Saint appearing to him

Nor was it much lacking but that then both men & Gods

I should have called ungrateful & unmindful of good.

Until in a sleep poured upon me, by I know not what divine power,

Benno seemed to me to speak such words:

You falsely accuse the holy Fathers, Jerome,

in vain you are indignant with my Brethren thence.

It is not the Pontiffs', not the carelessness of the Brethren,

that to me they have not yet established sacred altars.

Nor the less do I feed on ambrosia, or drink nectar:

this popular honor does nothing for the Saints. warning that meanwhile he should venerate him.

Nor so much do the libations of cold stone to the heavenly ones,

as modesty & probity & a holy life please.

Who has lived life innocently, let him be blessed here;

even if the beasts gnaw his left limbs.

But you since kindled with pious love of me

so you seek to burn incense at our hearths:

Do not doubt that things appointed will come at their own time by fate,

which God now covers by hidden reason.

Meanwhile let our manes, I pray, rest:

& whom with incense you cannot, see that you venerate with piety.

These said, Benno vanished on sudden wings:

These said, from sleep was I loosed.

Here followed of Bartholomew of Steneberg,

Philosopher & Orator, a lyric

Poem to Divine Benno, woven of five

strophes; but of such slight elegance,

that compared with Jerome's verses

that poem must seem altogether insipid

to those not wholly devoid of the Muses. So it being omitted,

I finish with the Epigram, with which Jerome

began the edition, placing it before the Dedicatory

at the front of the little book, after relating from

the Saint, for the labor expended, the grace of health

otherwise despaired of.

Divine father Benno for life accept a life,

For with this requital nothing will be greater to you.

You seemed to me to prolong my mortal life by prayers,

When I was destitute of medical help.

An immortal name & life I render back to you,

For your powers are thence better known by my writings.

THE MIRACLES OF S. BENNO

Benno, Bishop of Meissen, laid to rest at Munich in Bavaria (S.)

D. P., FROM THE OLD PRINT, FROM THE GERMAN PRINT, G. H.

Part I.

Performed before the Canonization.

From the Print at Rome in the year 1521.

PRELIMINARY LITTLE WARNING.

These miracles plainly declare the sanctity of B. Benno;

but many for the sake of brevity

we have passed over, which in former

times were brought into the open.

But these were published at Rome, under the

Pontificate of the most holy Father in Christ

our Lord, D. Leo Pope X, in the ninth

year of the same, after Christ born 1521,

on the 12th day of March. So it is read at the end

of the little book, which thence to the beginning I preferred to draw back,

to give credibility to the things to be related below: of which

some since they are had more fully in the German

editions; it appears that they are noted in the very Processes more

distinctly, with all circumstances; & it

can be, that from those (if indeed they still are extant,

as it seems they are) sometime a grand treatise be made,

such as of S. Francis of Paola,

Yves the Priest, & the like we have collected.

Now what is at hand we give: But

not in the same form in which it is printed. For the curator of the Roman

edition this purpose had,

that the Cardinals & others judges of the cause

might have a Summary of the miracles, which with

their proofs & circumstances they could read in

the Process: therefore especially he took care to note the

folio, where each might be found, &

the number of witnesses affirming each thing,

which he did in this manner.

In the context of Chapter III. (which chapter, because

it is more prolix than the rest, I divide into three little Chapters) after

each miracle he added, in what number they were in the order

of the examined, the Witness or Witnesses in the margin

signed by number alone. All which to us, not having the Processes

themselves, cannot serve;

except the number of Witnesses, which from the margin

to the text I shall transfer, noting after each

miracle how many were of each miracle Witnesses

II, III, V, VIII etc., not in what order they

gave testimony: But the Titles prefixed

to each Paragraph, e.g. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

VIII, by which written in Capital

letters the context is interpolated, into the Margins I shall cast;

& thus I think it will be, that of that ancient edition

nothing will the Reader miss, which seems to make to

the purpose.

CHAPTER I.

The Miracles of B. Benno, confirmed by certain Witnesses, produced by compulsion.

[1] Raised from the dead XI Cunigundis, daughter of Henry Preusser

when in one bed with her parents she slept,

by I know not what accident smothered she died.

Who then to the sepulchre of Divine Benno

carried: a vow being made revived in the year 1277

in the river Cana drowned, a vow

being made revived in the Year 1279 b. Witnesses II.

Thomas a certain youth in the village of Koczsperg

overwhelmed by a great weight of earth, then

indeed dug out of the earth plainly lifeless:

when no hope of life from elsewhere appeared;

the faith of Divine Benno being implored, he was raised in the year 1279 c. Witness I. Gutta, handmaid

of Hermann de Schirmenicz a gilded Knight,

by a grave fall having died, after a vow

revived in the year 1267. Witness I. A boy

worn out, was held for dead: after

A certain woman at Meissen bore a lifeless

infant, who after a vow began to breathe:

& was plainly brought back to life, in the year 1292.

Witnesses IV. A certain youth, water

from a spring when he wished to draw; into the spring

fell, & by that accident died.

And when from earliest morning up to evening

for dead he was held, at last

V. When once Bitigo d Bishop

of Meissen on the feast of Divine Donatus (whom the church

of Meissen venerates as a tutelary deity)

the Christian people publicly was teaching,

it happened: that a two-year-old boy, who in a well

had died, to the sepulchre of Divine

Benno was carried, & at that very time

suddenly revived in the year 1281. Witnesses

II. Likewise to a certain Rustico a two-year-old boy in

the waters had perished, who to the sepulchre of Divine

Benno carried revived. Witness I. Likewise

Knight from a bridge into a ditch had fallen & thence

plainly extracted dead, after a vow

revived. Witnesses IV. A certain girl, by name

Catherine, from a higher part of the house

fallen, for a whole hour for dead

was held: a vow being made she revived.

Witness I.

[2] A certain shoemaker, by name Theodoric,

by a most grave disease worn out, Those imperiled by various diseases saved VI. & indeed in such a way

that the physicians utterly despaired of his life;

by a draught of that wine with which had been washed

the bones of Divine Benno, he recovered in the year e

1267. Witnesses VI. Bitigo Bishop

of Meissen turning aside once to the moderator

of the parish of Dresden, found there

wholly by putrefaction. She a vow being made

immediately recovered, in the year 1277. Witnesses

VIII. The wife of the prefect of the citadel of Grocz her son

ill-affected to the sepulchre of Divine Benno

led: who after a vow recovered,

in the year 1243. Witness I. Bitigo Bishop

of Meissen in the town of f Eisenach passing the night,

who by a long ailment had wasted away: &

indeed in such a way that her health was altogether despaired of.

But at last she to the sepulchre

of Divine Benno led recovered.

Witness I. A boy nine years old by so great a

disease affected, that for twenty days no

food he took; a vow being made, he came out unharmed

in the year g 1339. Witness I. Nicholas

from the urine of dormice:

he after a vow recovered health,

in the year 1394. h Witness I.

[3] Frenzied freed II. A girl called Elisabeth, frenzied, with hands

& feet bound, could not be held:

Witness I. A certain Clara was raving,

& she for twelve years with fetters &

chains bound, at last by a vow is healed,

in the year 1394. Witness I.

[4] a certain possessed woman freed. The woman Gutta for four years possessed,

often to such a degree of madness came: that she herself

to lay hands on herself wished. But when she returned to herself,

paying, of demons she was freed,

in the year 1394. Witnesses III.

[5] from mutes speaking II. A boy passing his fifteenth year became mute

plainly & the use of speech utterly

lost. And when for five weeks &

as many days he was mute; to the sepulchre

of Benno led a vow being made he began to speak

in the year 1210. Witnesses VIII. Likewise the Woman

Gertrude when for five years she had been mute;

at last to the sepulchre of Benno led,

recovered the faculty of speaking, in the year 1280

i. Witnesses VIII.

[6] To the blind & II who were ill-affected in their eyes VIII. An infant of six months deprived of his eyes for some time,

at last a vow being made received the use of them

in the year 1278. Witnesses III. Likewise

another certain boy deprived of one eye,

the deity of Divine Benno being invoked, the power

of seeing recovered, in the year 1391. Witness

I. The daughter of Nicholas the carpenter, blinded

utterly, a vow being made all blindness

dispelled, most rightly saw, in the year 1311.

Witness I. Agnes a woman of Prague when by a long

blindness she was vexed; a vow

to Divine Benno she made: who suddenly the eyes

of her opened. But she unmindful of so great

it came about; that she again with great pain of the eyes

was afflicted. Wherefore

converted to penance (since she was conscious

of her ingratitude) to Divine Benno

utterly she recovered. Which she herself by oath

before a Notary & witnesses most sacredly

affirmed in the year 1394 k. Likewise a certain

woman dwelling at Meissen for a decade

blind, after a vow was healed in the year

1394. Witnesses III. A certain citizen of Meissen

by a most grave pain of the eyes affected,

at last using the counsel of his wife, a vow

to Divine Benno made: & immediately

recovered, in the year 1394 l. Witness I. Elisabeth,

wife of a certain gilded Knight, for eleven

weeks caught in her eyes m, a vow

being made began to be better: then

indeed to the sepulchre of Divine Benno led,

utterly was healed, in the year 1394. Witness

I. A certain woman one eye utterly

had lost, but with the other not rightly enough

saw. And when that one with a certain sharp

wood she had so injured, that of all sight

she feared it was over; a vow being made with both

eyes she began to see, in the year 1394. Witness I.

[7] A certain woman from the town of n Dobeln

deaf to the sepulchre of Divine Benno fled

& a vow to him made: the deaf healed III & suddenly to hear

she began in the year 1277. Witness I.

Likewise another certain woman, by a long interval of time

deaf: a vow being made heard:

& this before a Notary & witnesses

confessed in the year 1394. Witness I. A man

for six years deaf, a vow being made heard,

in the year 1394. Witness I.

[8] Begutta a certain woman into paralysis

when she had fallen, six months lay sick: The paralytic cured XI

at last with a vow to the sepulchre of Divine Benno

carried, recovered, in the year, Witness I. 1267.

Ludwig a certain for six months entangled by paralysis,

when by no remedy he could be cured;

in the year 1270 o. Witness I. Cunigundis a certain

woman paralytic after a vow recovered

in the year 1270. Witness I. Likewise a Girl of Pravehagen,

for three months paralytic, after

Likewise a certain Agnes, for a decade paralytic,

after a vow recovered, in the year 1394. Witnesses

4. John a certain rustic, for six years

paralytic, after a vow to his former health

was restored, in the year 1394. Witnesses IV. A woman

of the Diocese of Mainz, a most grave

pain of the feet had contracted. Which disease

now "Persian," now paralysis the physicians

call: she, I say, a woman to Divine

Benno a vow when she had made, utterly recovered,

in the year 1394. Witnesses III. Thomas Hayem,

for twelve years by paralysis so worn out, that

his hands he could not move; a vow being made,

he was healed, in the year 1394. Witness

sworn I. A girl for twelve years both

paralytic & lunatic, by a vow is healed

in the year, 1394. Witness sworn I. Likewise

by a vow is healed in the year, 1394. Witness

sworn I. Likewise another certain woman, by name

Elisabeth, for seven years paralytic,

to pay the vow to Meissen she betook herself,

on the very journey to the former another vow

she added: & immediately to her former health

was restored, in the year 1394. Witness

sworn I. q

[9] The lame cured IV. A certain man, by name Conrad,

for four years had been lame, & indeed in such a way

that wherever he wished to go on a staff

he leaned: at last to the sepulchre of Divine Benno

fleeing, to right health was restored:

so that leaving there the staff he, home

unharmed, & rightly walking, took himself,

in the year 1394. Witnesses 6. A certain woman

in her feet for a whole year ailing, & indeed in such a way

ailing that to go she could by no means: a vow being made was healed, in the year 1394. Witness

I. Another certain in the soles of her feet a very great

pain had contracted. And when the soles putrefied

were being consumed utterly, a vow being made

rightly to be well she began, in the year 1395. r Witness I.

Likewise another by oath affirmed, that she from

her early age up to the twentieth year of her

age in one of her feet had labored, &

at last a vow being made, was healed, in the year

1294.

[10] From inflation or swelling of the body freed VI. The wife of the noble man Ulmar Camez,

in body so inflated, that no one doubted

but that she would die, her husband however, who

made much of the deity of Divine Benno,

for her a vow made, & her to the sepulchre

of Benno led. By which it came about, that she

immediately recovered, in the year 1392. Witnesses 4.

Another likewise inflated, to Divine Benno by the prayers

of her husband when she had been commended,

recovered, in the year 1392. Witnesses 2. Likewise of a certain youth, fourteen years old,

the feet were in very great swelling. Who by

his mother to Divine Benno commended rightly

to be well began in the year 1394. s Witnesses 4.

[11] The contracted restored IV. In the presence of Bitigo Bishop of Meissen

time contracted, to the sepulchre of Divine

Benno came, who a vow making,

in the sight of all recovered, in the year 1273

t. Witnesses 6. Likewise another in like manner for fifteen

years contracted, a vow being made was healed,

in the year 1279. Witness I. Bitigo was once

Bishop at Dresden: at that time

& indeed so contracted, that

to a man he was not similar. He a few

days after to the sepulchre of Divine Benno with

condition obtained, in the year 1277.

Witnesses 10. The daughter of a certain Knight with soles

twisted across born, after a vow the right form of her feet

began to have in the year 1390. Witnesses 2.

[12] There was born to a certain citizen of Meissen a daughter,

in the breast equally & in the back humpbacked: The humpbacked freed from deformity IV. &

indeed in such a way that herself to raise in no way

she could. To this disadvantage another was added,

that she had her feet inverted: she

I say, when she was passing her sixth year, by

her parents to the sepulchre of Divine Benno

led, a vow being made a good form of body

received, in the year 1277. Witnesses 2. A boy so

humpbacked that to go he could not, to the sepulchre

of Benno carried, a vow being made, from all

deformity of body, was freed in the year

1279. Witnesses 4. A boy of six months a hump

had, which to such magnitude had grown, that to the head

similar it seemed. He, I say, a boy to

the sepulchre of Divine Benno carried, & to it

placed, immediately that deformity cast off

in the year 1278. x Witnesses 5. Likewise a boy

two years old for six months humpbacked, after a vow

from deformity was freed. Witnesses 5.

[13] A woman for a whole year y by a flux

of blood laboring, from a flux of blood cured V. to the sepulchre of Divine Benno

led, recovered, in the year 1277.

Witnesses 3. Likewise another by a menstrual flux so

debilitated, that all hope of life she lost:

Witnesses 2. A boy of ten years, for ten

weeks entangled in dysentery, when by

the physicians he could not be cured; & to such a degree

was debilitated, that he doubtless had to die;

in the year 1392. Witnesses 4. Into dysentery fell

eight weeks when by remedy she could not be healed,

after a vow rightly to be well began,

in the year 1392. Witnesses 2. Likewise a certain woman

for five years vexed by a flux of blood,

when the physicians could not cure her, a vow

by her husband being made (who then at Meissen was)

recovered in the year 1394.

[14] Petriza a woman a boy ten years

old had, who labored with the falling sickness. From epilepsy healed V.

He immediately after a vow recovered,

in the year 1274. Another certain boy by the same

disease laboring, after a vow was healed.

A certain townsman of Lejic, for seven weeks

epileptic, after a vow recovered,

in the year 1394. Witnesses 4. Likewise a certain boy,

for a whole year epileptic, a vow

being made his former soundness recovered,

in the year 1394. Witnesses 2. Another certain boy

by the falling sickness seized, a vow being made recovered,

in the year 1394. Witness I.

[15] From plague & abscesses freed IV A certain citizen of Freiberg by quinsy

laboring, & by that disease so debilitated,

that his life was despaired of by all,

One witness. Otto Erckenbirch had a son,

in whose neck a huge abscess

was growing. The boy therefore when food he

could not take, the help of Divine

Benno was implored. Whose deity to the boy brought

to the extreme crisis came to aid, in the year

1297. Witness I. A certain woman infected

with plague, a vow being made was saved in the year

1392. One witness. The daughter of a certain citizen

z of Hain fell into the plague: & when

by the disease she was so worn out, that for four hours

lifeless she lay, to herself at last suddenly

she returned, & her father admonished, to Divine

Benno a vow that he should make; who to her then

when outside her own power she had been placed,

appeared she affirmed. The father therefore a vow making,

his daughter saved, in the year 1390. Witnesses 3. A fever-sufferer cured 1.

[16] A certain rustic into a most grave fever

fell, & when of his safety all

despaired, a vow being made recovered, in the year

1394. Witness I.

[17] Lepers healed II. A certain woman, by name Elisabeth, for four

years leprous, after a vow to her former health

was restored, in the year 1394. Witness I. Another certain

dwelling at Meissen leprous, a vow being made forthwith

was healed in the year 1394. Witness I. α.

[18] Christian, Marshal of the Bishop of Meissen,

when with his Lord abroad setting out,

by a most grave pain of the kidneys to be tortured

he began. from the stone freed I. And when himself to Divine Benno he commended,

the stone (which of so great magnitude

was, that without danger of life it could not be expelled)

dissolved of its own accord through the male

member flowed out in the year 1394. Witnesses II.

[19] From apoplexy freed II. Ramnold a Canon of Meissen to sleep

when he had gone, by apoplexy was seized:

& when with the greatest pain he was affected, the help

of Divine Benno he implored: but indeed the pain

in nothing remitted. He fell asleep, but

during his rest to himself he seemed this voice

to hear: God does not hear sinners. The next

day therefore his sins with the greatest

penance he confessed, & the vow paid,

& the same good health recovered,

in the year 1394. Witness I. John

Coltener, a Canon regular of Leipzig by apoplexy

was touched, & indeed so touched,

that for three days neither could he eat nor speak.

On the fourth day at last, when in his name

someone the sepulchre of Divine Benno visited,

& a vow for him made, he recovered,

in the year 1394. Witnesses VI.

[20] The maimed healed II. A boy a year and a half old in his right hand

maimed was, to it was added a very great pain of the shoulder:

he left by the physicians, who altogether despaired,

to Divine Benno was commended, & immediately

recovered in the year 1270. Witnesses III. Likewise another

passing the 14th year of his age, in both hands

was maimed. And when for a whole year

now every third, now every fourth

day by a most grave disease he was afflicted: sometimes

so debilitated he was: that to the ground he fell:

& for 30 hours for dead was held.

When therefore a vow for him was made,

both he himself revived, & maimed in his hands to be

ceased, in the year 1278. Witnesses V.

[21] Nicholas β Bishop of Meissen once

when he was a captive; Captives freed II. the help of Divine

Benno being implored was freed. Which he himself

in the Chapter of Meissen publicly testified, in the year

1391. Witnesses VI. Brother John de Groneberg,

who presided over the sacred things at the Sepulchre

of the Lord, together with the Duke of Burgundy

& the Bishop of Constance, to Jerusalem

setting out, by the King of Aragon

captured; when many other vows he made,

then the help of Divine Benno he implored.

Who to him during his rest appeared with venerable gray hair

& with Episcopal habit endowed,

& bade him be of good courage. For tomorrow

you will be freed, he said. Which thus happened.

For the King of Cyprus on the next day to them came to aid

in the year 1394. Witnesses XV γ.

[22] from certain sicknesses healed II. A boy three years old by worms

so was tortured, that from his nostrils equally &

ears much blood he poured out. What

more? the physicians despaired: to Divine Benno

was made a vow: the boy recovered, in the year 1270.

Witnesses IV. A certain woman of Leipzig the disease

of a fistula & indeed that most grave in

one foot had contracted. And when in it

for four years she had labored, at last B. Benno

wishing to visit, & to him a vow making,

on the very journey was healed in the year 1394.

Witness I.

ANNOTATIONS OF D. P.

translated the body of S. Benno.

p Northusia a free & Imperial city of Thuringia on the river Zorge, almost midway between Erfurt & Halberstadt.

q In the German it is ascribed to the year 1300, & the cured man is said to have been of Glowiz, & to have with difficulty crept to Meissen on foot: & witnesses are added, who were present at the miracle, Nicholas Esserwerthensis, Bernard Eibbenwerthensis, Nicholas Schumans, Stephen Mayr Notary & others 8 August narrating what they knew.

r More fully this see below num. 93.

s It seems to be that of whom num. 90; but he is said to have so labored for 14 years.

t And here was wrongly printed 1394;

more correctly & fully German num. 79.

u There it is said that the boy was brought when now three weeks he had been baptized, & this the parents testified on the 3rd day of Pentecost the celebration of the dedication being finished & the divine service performed.

x It seems altogether the same of whom below num. 81.

y Rather, a year & a quarter, but he came on the eighth day after the feast of the Apostles, & was from the village of Brogtizio, as the German has.

z Of Jacob Doleber; but the witnesses were John Radeburg Vicar & Jacob Leitner in the month of May.

α She is named, & the matter more fully is had num. 91.

β Nicholas, the 32nd Bishop, is noted in the catalogues to have died in the year 1385, but perhaps it should be read in the year 1395.

γ These things about the Jerusalem journey seem obscure, the Duke of Burgundy in the year 1394 was Philip the Bold founder of the Burgundian House among the Belgians, died at Halle in Hainaut in the year 1404; the Bishop of Constance on the Rhine was Burchard, the 70th of that See; the Bishop of Coutances in Normandy was William Crevecurius, the 65th of that See. The 20th King of Aragon was John, & the King of Cyprus James Lusignan.

CHAPTER II.

Miracles from the testimonies of certain

men in the general inquisition.

[23] Raised from the dead & freed from dangers of life VIII. A certain carpenter, on a certain house

part (which a height of thirty cubits

had) fell, & by that accident

two ribs of his body broke, & the other

arm gravely injured. Who when for

dead was held, a vow by the bystanders

to Divine Benno made began to breathe, in the year 1496.

Witness I. A boy of three years a from Freiberg

from a window (which a height of fifteen

cubits had) fell, & for some time

held for dead, after a vow revived,

in the year 1499. Witness I. A certain citizen b.

of Bautzen so gravely ailed, that the physicians,

his safety despaired, the man left.

But to a single keeper him

they committed; who when he saw once

the sick man of all breath destitute & lifeless

utterly: his eyes (as to the dead we are wont

to do) he closed, & his hands composed,

& to his wife the death of her husband announced.

She indeed vehemently disturbed, when

no hope anywhere she perceived to Divine Benno

fled & from him with pious prayers for her husband

life obtained, in the year 1495. Witness I. There is

men, eating I know not what poisonous thing,

immediately all in a miserable manner

lifeless fell. Which when

moved; for them to Divine Benno

into life suddenly were brought back, in the year 1495.

Witnesses XXVI. A certain woman from childbirth so

debilitated was, that by her mother & other women,

who to her were present, dead she was judged. But

she a vow being made began to breathe, in the year 1498.

Witnesses XXVI. A boy by a recent birth brought forth,

lifeless when he was, dead was believed;

for him therefore a vow was made, & immediately

revived, in the year 1498. Witnesses LXII.

Likewise another certain boy, by a most grave disease lying sick,

to die seemed: who after a vow made

revived, in the year 1498. Witness I.

[24] At a certain time there was a great inundation

of the river Elbe. And when three men

in a skiff to cross wished, it happened, Those imperiled in the waters saved II.

that the force of the river overturned the skiff. Two

therefore of them perished; the third somehow

clinging, to the skiff the help of Divine Benno implored

& to him a vow made. Wherefore immediately

from danger he was freed, in the year 1449. Witnesses

VII. A certain man from the bridge of Meissen into the Elbe

fell: who into so great danger brought,

Divine Benno implored; therefore

into a certain island carried he escaped. And he said

that an old man, of honest form especially

& venerable, was present to him, in the year 1471.

Witnesses VII.

[25] The frenzied freed from frenzy III. A certain Priestly Nun, from a great

& long ailment into frenzy turned,

after a vow by the Abbess & the other

nuns made to herself returned, in the year 1499.

Witness III. Udalric de Vulfferstorff Dean

of Meissen, a man both of noble birth

& with great dignity endowed: he, I say,

by a long ailment worn out, at last into

frenzy fell. And when the physicians of his

life had despaired, the help of Divine Benno

was implored: he therefore immediately

recovered, in the year 1493. Witnesses III. A certain woman

unexpectedly to such a degree of madness came,

that of life to her nothing of hope was remaining

: who a vow being made health recovered,

in the year 1499. Witness I.

[26] Fever-sufferers cured IV. The moderator of the parish of Dresden by fevers

seized, after a vow recovered, in the year

1497. Zedena, the mother of our most Illustrious Prince,

into a most grave fever

when she had fallen, a vow being made recovered, in the year

1469. Witness I. The prefect of the citadel of Meissen

John Helbick, by fever seized,

Benno fled, & forthwith was healed

in the year 1499. Witness I. Likewise

two women, entangled by fevers, after

in the folio of the process, 651, of the other in

fol. 724 you will find.

[27] from the stone freed I. Zedena the mother of our most Illustrious Prince,

by the stone for twenty years had labored.

But at last to Divine Benno a vow making,

from the stone was freed, in the year 1495. Witness. I

[28] from a flux of blood cured I. A certain woman of Dresden a flux

of blood had nor by any remedy

could be cured; but at last to Divine

Benno fleeing, forthwith recovered,

in the year 1495. Witness I.

[29] Freed from pain of the head III. A woman by very great pain of the head tortured

after a vow recovered, in the year 1499.

Witness I. Nicholas de Caricz a gilded Knight,

so great a pain of the head had contracted,

that by the physicians by no remedy could be cured:

after a vow recovered in the year 1497.

Witness I. Likewise another certain man,

by the same disease plainly lifeless, after a vow

recovered. Witness I.

[30] A paralytic healed I. A certain paralytic woman a vow being made

immediately after two days health recovered,

in the year 1499. Witness I.

[31] A mother & daughter c of Görlitz, in their eyes

ill-affected when they were, after a vow recovered, Freed from pain of the eyes IV.

in the year 1498. Witness VII. A certain Priest

eye had contracted: after a vow was healed,

in the year 1497. Witnesses II. Likewise to a certain woman

each eye gravely ached; a vow being made

she recovered, in the year 1498. Witness

I. Likewise another, on account of very great pain,

in one eye almost blinded, after a vow

recovered, in the year 1498. Witness I.

[32] Andrew a certain townsman d of Bischofswerda

in one foot for 15 years ailing, Freed from pain of the feet VIII.

in the year 1498. Witness I. The moderator of the parish

of a certain village by very great pains of the feet

tortured, after a vow rightly to be well

began, in the year 1498. Witness I. A woman

after a vow was healed, in the year 1498. Witness

I. Likewise another in her legs by very great pain affected,

I. Likewise another certain by name Elisabeth,

of Freiberg in her feet ailing to the sepulchre

of Divine Benno coming, a vow made by which

it came about, that unharmed herself home she took,

in the year 1498. Witness I. The Provost of the Canons

regular of S. Aphra in the city

of Meissen at a certain time one foot

gravely had struck: & when for ten

weeks in that foot he had labored, at last

A certain rustic, in his feet ailing, when many

remedies he had applied, & could not be healed;

to Divine Benno fled &

immediately recovered.

[33] from swelling of the body freed IV. A woman, eating I know not what poisonous thing,

After a vow forthwith was healed in the year 1479.

Witnesses II. The Prioress of the monastery of nuns

nearest to the city of Meissen a great

swelling in one foot with the Persian disease

recovered, in the year 1479. A townsman

kind of animal among us is poisonous)

infected, after a vow unharmed escaped, in the year 1499.

Witnesses IV. To a certain boy the neck

had greatly swelled, & thence very great

pain he had felt: & indeed so that for

six weeks to rest nothing he could give:

1499. Witness I.

[34] A certain citizen of Freiberg, in his right

foot contracted, The contracted healed II. after a vow recovered,

in the year 1499. Witness I. A woman

by no remedies she could be cured: a vow being made

was healed in the year 1499. Witness I.

[35] From plague freed III. A certain woman of Meissen into plague

fell, who a vow being made was saved in the year 1496.

Witness I. Nicholas a certain Citizen of Meissen

by plague together with his wife & daughter infected

was, after a vow recovered all,

in the year 1496. Witnesses IV. Nicholas

de Schonberg, a noble boy, by an abscess

infected, & on that account for 7 weeks

lying sick, by a vow recovered

in the year 1499. Witnesses III.

[36] A certain girl by the French disease seized

after a vow recovered, from the French disease freed VII. in the year 1499. Witnesses

II. A certain woman, by the French disease gravely

worn out, after a vow was healed, in the year 1499.

Witnesses V. Likewise to a certain Dorothea,

by the same disease laboring, in her last breath

the deity of Divine Benno came to aid, in the year

1499. Witnesses II. A certain citizen f of Torgau

by the French disease infected, after a vow recovered,

in the year 1499. Witness III. Two Sisters

of whom one four g years, but the other

fourteen old was, by the French disease

laboring, after a vow recovered, in the year

1499. Witnesses IV. A certain citizen of Meissen

& his wife into the French disease had fallen,

after a vow however recovered

both, in the year 1499. Witnesses II. Likewise another

certain woman by the French disease infected to be healed

could not: who after a vow recovered

in the year 1499. Witnesses II.

[37] John Bose h Bishop of Merseburg

once his City to blaze with fire

he saw, & indeed so to blaze, that the fire

by no human counsel could be extinguished;

the help of Divine Benno (whom he always greatly

had cultivated) he implored. By which it came about,

that that fire immediately was extinguished,

in the year 1495. Witness I. A certain girl into

to Divine Benno a vow made. But before

to the water she fell,

she felt herself lifted up, & was saved, in the year

1499. Witness I. A certain boy in a well

had died; & when there for three days submerged

he had lain, at last he was extracted, &

I. Dresden (as it is the head of our land) an ample

& great city, by fire once

was blazing: but there were consumed by the fire

eighteen buildings, to which contiguous

was the house of a certain honest woman.

And when that house from the heat of the neighboring

buildings was kindled, the Lady the help of Divine

Benno implored; & admonished

the bystanders, the same they should do: a vow

therefore being made, the fire was extinguished, in the year

1487. Witness I. When Meissen by fire

was blazing, a certain woman all her furniture

into a certain vault

bringing, her house, which soon to perish

she thought, deserted. And when to her

came to mind those things, which under the deity

of Divine Benno daily were being done, a vow

she made. Which being done the fire was extinguished, in the year

1451. Witness I. George Huifener of Görlitz,

by I know not what driven, death

to himself to bring was thinking, which when he noticed

Thomas Nasonpis his relation,

the man to Divine Benno with pious prayers

& a vow commended. George

therefore from frenzy freed, with himself to be began,

in the year 1498. Witnesses II. A certain woman in

childbirth greatly labored, & indeed so,

that her safety despaired, the help of Divine

Benno was implored. By which it came about,

that immediately a twin birth she brought forth, in the year

1494. Witness I. Likewise another certain woman,

in the same way imperiled, a vow being made happily

was delivered, in the year 1495. Witness I.

Likewise many other women, in childbirth laboring,

after a vow were delivered. Of whom

everywhere in the process Fol. 393, 624,

644, 724, 727, & 731. From various diseases freed XXIII.

[38] The Dean of Freiberg to Meissen once

came, & there into a most grave

disease fell, of whose life the physician

despaired. Then Zedena i, of our most Illustrious

Prince the mother, a vow for him

to Divine Benno making, the man saved,

in the year 1494. Witnesses IV. A certain Priest

of Görlitz, by a most grave disease seized, lay sick:

persuaded he by the moderator of the parish

recovered, in the year 1494. Witness I. There came

at a certain time to Meissen a certain Citizen

of Bautzen, not that Divine Benno he might cultivate,

but that business I know not what he might finish.

But by his host he was led to

the sepulchre of Divine Benno. And when of the sanctity

of Divine Benno the miracles & honor,

which to him the Christian people had,

he was being taught; answered he, that it did not

become him who was not Canonized so

to cultivate. As if those who to Benno divine

honors gave were superstitious. What

happened? when that man of Bautzen home returned

into a disease far most grave he fell.

Conscious of those words, by which

Divine Benno he had despised, by penance

led, a vow with sacrifice

to him made: immediately therefore recovered. Afterward

indeed of that benefit unmindful the vow

to pay for a long time deferred. It happened

moreover that by a certain accident his arm

he broke, then admonished of his ingratitude

that he the vow which he had made would pay

with another vow he confirmed: wherefore

again he was healed. But by the same vice of ingratitude

as before given, Benno

he neglected. What then? Into the cellar

of wine from a higher place with very great

danger he fell: & that arm, which

before he had broken, gravely he struck. Then

to true penance turned, a third

vow, to the former he added: & them at the same time

all he paid, thinking these all to him

for the cause of ingratitude to have happened, in the year 1493.

Witnesses III. A certain rustic, for eight weeks

by dysentery laboring, after a vow

recovered in the year 1498. Witness I. A woman

she after a vow recovered, in the year

1499. Witness I. A certain woman by a disease

sudden afflicted, a vow being made was healed, in the year

1499. Witness I. A girl of eight years,

down very high steps fallen, her back had broken:

she after a vow recovered, in the year 1499.

Witness I. A woman into a cough when she had fallen

& by that disease for seven weeks

she labored, a vow being made was healed, in the year

1499. Witness I. The most Illustrious Prince

John, of our most Illustrious k Duke George

son, gravely ailing by the common prayer of the Nuns

of Freiberg to Divine Benno

commended forthwith recovered. Which the most Illustrious

mother of his testified, in the year

1499. Witness I. The servant of Zedena the most Illustrious

woman, by a grave & long disease worn out,

by the most Illustrious matron to Divine Benno

commended, his former health recovered

in the year 1495. Witness I. The Abbess of the monastery

of Meissen by pleurisy laboring, a vow being made from the disease

was freed, in the year 1499. Witness I. A mother &

son by a most grave disease laboring after a vow

recovered, in the year 1499. Witnesses III. There had assailed

disease, & indeed so, that altogether she lay sick:

Witness I. Likewise another certain, for a whole

year by a most bitter disease debilitated, after

Likewise another for six weeks gravely affected, after

A certain youth by a most grave disease entangled,

& indeed so entangled that the physicians of his

safety despaired. He a vow being made recovered, in the year

1498. Witnesses VI. A certain Clerk of Meissen

on account of a grave ailment out of his mind,

Witness I. A boy two years old, &

beyond, gravely ailing after a vow

recovered. But when the parents the vow did not

satisfy, the boy more gravely, than before he had been affected,

to ail began. By which it came about,

that the parents by conscience of their ingratitude

stirred a double vow to Divine Benno

paid: the boy therefore was healed. A certain citizen

of Meissen a most grave disease

had contracted, but after a vow recovered,

in the year 1495. Witnesses II. A certain woman

by very great pain in one arm was tortured:

she after a vow was healed, in the year 1495.

Witness I. A boy by adverse health gravely affected

was, & indeed so affected, that

he altogether had to die. But there was present

to him a certain Woman, by name Agnes,

who by commiseration moved, a vow for

him made. Which being done the boy immediately recovered

in the year 1499. Witness I. Likewise another boy

in the same way ailing, a vow by his father being made

recovered, in the year 1489. Witness I. A woman

by the physicians left utterly, after a vow to her former

health was restored, in the year 1492. Witness I.

A certain boy by a certain disease vehemently debilitated,

to the sepulchre of Divine Benno led,

recovered, in the year 1492. Witness I.

ANNOTATIONS OF G. H.

of George Podiebrad King of Bohemia, married to Albert Duke Elector of Saxony,

died in the year 1500, the mother of the said George, died in the year 1510.

CHAPTER III.

The Miracles of Divine Benno Bishop of Meissen, written down in the second & special inquisition in the regions.

[39] Raised from the dead 8. Near Meissen there is a village, which the inhabitants

call Niderfere. Here the wife

of a certain Peter Pesches, an infant dead

bore. And so when for two hours

the boy dead had remained; a vow to D. Benno

made, to life was recalled, & to

the boy the name Martin was given.

Witnesses 3, in the order of the examined, 204.

Which last notice, to us by no means useful,

not being able to exhibit the Process, henceforth

will be omitted, & only from the margin will be noted,

how many to each miracle ascribed are the witnesses. Not

far from the same place & under the diocese of Meissen

in a village, Ubige by name at the town a

Hayn, in a similar way an infant lifeless

brought forth, after half an hour a vow to D. Benno

made, revived. Witnesses 5. In b Wallachia

near Moldum (which town of the diocese

of Molcofia is) the little son of a certain skinner,

at night during nursing by his Mother

smothered, & lifeless six hours held,

D. Benno's name being invoked, & a vow

through a certain Brother Stephen Minorite

made, to life was restored. Witnesses

2. At Freiberg in Meissen plays, after the example

of the Lord's passion every seventh year

most magnificently are celebrated. Here when

in a crowd of about two hundred men,

the steps by excessive weight pressed down with

the very spectators had collapsed; a youth

passing his thirteenth year, who himself

under that building had placed, by the fall at the same time

was crushed, & indeed so that at the beginning nothing

of human form appeared. But afterward

from the ruins dug out, when three whole hours

without any sign of life he had lain, a vow

by the bystanders to B. Benno made, a short

time after to life returned, & without

any defect of body was healed. Witnesses most worthy of faith

two from certain knowledge.

[40] From unclean spirits freed 2. A certain Rector of the Parish church

of Ciczko, for a whole two years by a demon vexed

& inhabited, a conjuration being made

by a certain John Schilda in D. Benno's

name, from the demon was freed:

Witnesses 3. A woman too, Anna by name,

of the village of Preczendorff of the diocese of Meissen,

whose body since a domicile of unclean spirits

had been made, to

Divine Benno's tomb produced & his

name being invoked was freed, & the demons

put to flight. Witnesses 3.

[41] From blindness & pains of the eyes freed 16. But now in the other diseases & defects

both of bodies, & of minds so often

was observed Divine Benno's aid,

that it cannot even be comprehended

in number all. Yet a few

out of many, & those which only

by the gravest & most honest witnesses confirmed

are, it will not irk for the sake of testimony

to bring into the midst. A skinner of the municipality c

of Kemnitz, Michael Reichel by name, for forty

continuous years the gravest pains of the eyes

suffered. After various remedies

applied at last blinded, when

he had remained, a vow at last being made, by the help

of Benno divine, that whole & well

sound he received, which by human medicaments

depraved he had lost. Witness I. Another

girl of four months, called Utilia, of a certain

Ambrose Sorge the daughter, up to her fifteenth

year of age by the gravest pains of the eyes

vexed, & at last in both

eyes caught, a vow being made, her sight received;

& also from an abscess which in one

eye in a deformed manner had grown,

was freed. One witness. The wife of a certain

Valentine Cleringk, an inhabitant of the little town

by name, when a whole year by pains of the eyes

gravely she was tortured,

& also in one eye for the space of five months

deprived, a vow being made forthwith was cured.

Witnesses two. Another woman fifty

eight years old Juliana Ranaferdine by name,

of the diocese of Meissen after a continuous five years'

pains blinded, a sixth year

wholly blind remained, until a vow

she made: by which from blindness she was freed forthwith.

Witnesses two. Henry de Schlejinicz Baron,

& of the most Illustrious duke of Saxony e

George the Marshal, than which one blind man

no one in that province was more known: of fifty

years he himself by perpetual pains of the eyes

& great perturbations of mind

affected, while by long medicaments he profits nothing,

help recovered. One witness. Walpurgis

widow of Thomas the miller of the diocese of Meissen

for two years blind remaining,

& only by long pains blinded

by a vow is illumined. Witnesses in four.

Sigismund Ihan a townsman of Meissen

had a son of nine years, Dominic

called: that boy's eye

the point of a spindle had penetrated & when by remedies

none the dangerous wound could be cured,

the wife of Christopher Augustine, of

the municipality of Bautzen, for four years pains of the eyes

suffered, & in a fifth whole year

blinded, a vow being made light received.

Witnesses two. Agatha, wife of a carpenter

for eight years by the same pains of the eyes

vexed, & in the left eye caught,

Witnesses two. A girl of two months Catherine

called, daughter of Christian Leonard,

of the municipality of Torgau from that time

up to her second year of age, to see

nothing was seen: & to her after that time a vow

being made, the eyes opened immediately were. Witness

one f. A boy of three years son of John Niderau,

of the little town of Dipesnalde, the use of his eyes

for a whole year from pain lacked;

of eighteen years Margaret

by name, by a year's pain blinded, a vow

being made is cured. The father of the girl Wolfgang

Leupolth a cultivator of the village of Sichenbergk. Witnesses

2. Another girl of four years, to whom Anna

the name, of the municipality of Freiberg, her father

Valentine Unaner, for eight months pain of the eyes

suffered, & in a ninth blinded, in the fourth after

month a vow being made, is restored. Witness I.

Margaret wife of John Peseler, of the municipality

vexed, & for some time blind; when by no remedies

human she could be cured, by a vow, by Divine

Benno's help was cured. Witnesses 2. Francis

Olsthleger of the municipality of Görlitz,

& he from pain in both eyes for twenty

days' space caught, on the twenty-first day

[42] The tongue of a mute man loosed. A townsman of Kemnitz a certain, Gabriel

Stolcze, a daughter from his wife had received

both mute & epileptic; & when

her so affected then up to her eleventh year

of age he had raised; to the man came to mind

to make a vow to Benno for his daughter. Which being done

to the girl at one & the same time both voice was restored

& health: of all which things

them to each interrogation answered. Witnesses

4.

[43] The herdsman of the cattle of the nuns of the Monastery

who was called Simon, From frenzy freed 24. by a deadly wound in

the head struck, & from it frenzied

made, a vow being made was preserved. Witnesses

four. The woman Anna by name wife of Lawrence

Puchs, of the village of Hermisdorff, of the diocese of Meissen

by frenzy seized, Benno's

name being called, was appeased, & from the disease

freed. One witness. A boy of four years,

Wolfgang by name, his father Oswald a Statuary

of Freiberg by a long ailment

into frenzy fallen, a vow being made is freed.

One witness. Magdalene, wife of a certain

Valentine Altsthmer, from childbirth frenzy

had assailed; & she for two days when she had endured,

Another Margaret, wife of Valentine Heckel,

of Kemnitz, when a whole year by that

very disease she had labored, at the tomb of Benno

placed was cured. Witnesses two. Paul

Hase of the diocese of Meissen, when from a long

& acute fever frenzy he suffered

for fifteen days' space, by a vow is freed.

One witness. The same too in Cordula happened,

wife of Peter Cricz, of the little town i Rochlitz

an inhabitant, who also from a long fever

frenzied, by a vow was freed. Witnesses

three. The same too in the municipal Councilor of the little town

of Pirna, Jerome Promnicz by name,

who from an ailment for three days by frenzy

seized, a vow being made both in mind & body

recovered. Witnesses two. This same of

whom I spoke a little after, & in his daughter

of three years, to whom Walpurgis the name he had given,

she herself by that frenzy laboring, Divine Benno's

help again felt, & the infant is

Witnesses two. Memorable indeed what to Antony

Czottel of the diocese of Meissen happened. He

when a whole year by frenzy distracted

was, as often as to the tomb of Benno

he was produced, so often to reason

he returned: & as long as there he was detained, so

long master of his mind he remained. But when

again he departed, by the disease he was assailed: so that

easily you may understand, that not only in those heavenly minds of the divine

men, but in that part too,

which on earth is left, divinity plainly

is present. He indeed a vow afterward being made,

from that disease entirely was freed.

Witness I. The wife of Paul Braven, a townsman

of Meissen, Ursula by name, by a continued

flux of the menses, & pains of the head

growing worse, into frenzy turned,

by a double vow on each occasion made is cured.

Witnesses two. A boy Balthasar by name, son

of Nicholas Schindeler municipal Councilor

of Meissen, passing his fourth year;

by the bite of a rabid dog injured, & a little after

himself too into rabies turned, a vow being made

comes to his senses, & was healed. Witness I. A boy

apprentice of John Langi a shoemaker of Leipzig,

from an ailment for twelve days by frenzy

distracted, a vow being made immediately to himself returned,

Witness I. Sebastian Groneualt had children

Sebastian & Clara, both of whom

at almost the same time frenzy had assailed;

& when by remedies in vain he labored,

to Divine Benno a vow being made is fled:

& by the disease each was freed. Witness I.

Agnes, wife of John Rubelants, of the municipality

of Pirna after a disease of the body by frenzy

seized, & for three months vexed,

at last by a vow is saved. Witnesses 2. A soldier

Falcke by name, through pleurisy into frenzy

fallen, Divine Benno being invoked &

Witnesses II. Matthew Fabri of the municipality of Freiberg

four had children, who all

from the touch of a rabid dog, themselves too

into rabies turned, by divine mercy

I. A townsman of Lauban, of the diocese of Meissen,

whose name was Lawrence Riederer, by

was. Witnesses 2. John Barth of Gosswig,

which village not far from Meissen is distant,

by great perturbations of mind into frenzy

cast; & when so affected for two

days he had remained, immediately by a vow being made freed

was. Witnesses 2. The same frenzy Cristina,

of Matthew a certain tailor of Kamenz

the wife, had assailed. And when besides

the woman by unclean spirits to be vexed seemed,

by Benno's name alone into her ears several times

shouted, from all Disease & heaviness

was freed. Witness I. Matthew Richman,

to whom of the Priesthood of the parish Church

of the little town k of Luckau provision had been made, by

had fallen, & by it for three days vexed, a vow

being made both in mind & body is restored. Witnesses

2. A girl passing her nineteenth year,

of Bartholomew Thomas a townsman

of Görlitz the daughter, Anna called, eleven

continuous months by frenzy labored. And when

by no human art a remedy could be found,

by Divine Benno's help;

Elisabeth of Michael Meders deceased, by

an ailment for three days frenzied, a vow

being made, is saved. Witness I. Another girl of sixteen

years, her father Martin Marcz, of the village

of the Three taverns, from a disease preceding

into frenzy turned, a vow being made

from frenzy is freed. Witness I.

[44] A deaf man restored. From a ringing of one ear, the use of both

deprived, & for three months deaf,

Oswald Scheyn, of the most Illustrious Duke of Saxony

George the personal cook, a man

fifty years old, a vow for his ears

to divine Benno being made, on the spot is healed.

Witness I.

[45] A lame man rectified. A great indeed, what follows, & memorable

proclamation of faith & good hope:

Peter Colpe, of the municipality of Ostbach, a man,

his sixty-seventh year now passed,

at the last for almost six months in his feet

contracted, while thus as he was lame,

the temple he enters, & to the priest praying in a sermon about

the miracles & sanctity of Benno

faith piously he has, & hope

conceives; sound & upright he departed. Witness

I.

[46] The paralytic or contracted healed 14. In feet & hands contracted two

brothers, Donatus & Lucas, sons of Paul Rubenczal

of the village of Baubenicz, vows being made,

are rectified. Witnesses two. Peter Richter,

of the little town of Hayn an inhabitant, almost three

months in hands & feet contracted,

one. When for an infant indeed of three

years, son of John Clarman of the municipality

of Pirna, for eight months' space contracted

various vows were made; at the last

only that, which to Benno had been made,

profited: & the boy on the spot was healed.

Witnesses three. A girl of twelve years

Otilia by name, daughter of a certain

George Bartisth of the town l of Witgenau, from

excessive contraction of her limbs her soul

was giving up: but a vow being made was preserved &

healed. Witnesses three. The little daughter of George

Duke of Saxony of two years, to whom Magdalene m

the name they had made, in both feet contracted

when all the art of the physicians in vain

labored, by a vow was healed. Witnesses three.

A farmer of the village, which Colonia is called, John

Schuman by name, by excessive & long

labor, in almost his fortieth year of age

contracted; a vow being made, is restored. Witnesses

three. Henry Crautner, municipal

Councilor of Meissen, by colic suffering often

was infested, so that sometimes in his strength

he failed, at the tomb of Divine Benno placed

& with pious affection his help invoking,

from the most troublesome disease entirely freed

was. Witness I. another Councilor of the same

municipality, Lucas Pincker by name, from

one foot suddenly contracted, a vow being made,

suddenly recovers. Witness I. Margaret,

wife of a certain Thomas the Bohemian of the diocese of Meissen,

for six months in her feet contracted,

by a vow is restored. Witness I. A rustic

Ranfft called, of forty years, in

one foot contracted, a vow being made, healed

was. But when in the payment of the vow more negligent

he was, nor the promises fulfilled;

behold suddenly in both feet he is contracted; & himself

to have failed understanding, another vow

he makes & again in one foot immediately

freed was. But in the other not before

than to the tomb of Divine Benno he himself approached.

By this document more openly what can be sought?

Witnesses I. A woman of forty years,

Barbara called, wife of John

Uniurde a townsman of Leipzig, which town

of the diocese of Merseburg is, almost five

months contracted, when by no

remedies of physicians she could be healed, to Divine

Benno with pious affection when she had fled,

was. Witnesses 2. John Molitoris, Rector

of the Parish Church of the little town of Dippoldiswalde,

of 62 years, through all his limbs

almost contracted, in three days by a vow

suddenly is healed. Witness I. Another Rector

of the parish Church of the village of Bobericz, Caspar

Schwenczer by name, in his sixtieth year

of age in one foot to the fifth week

contracted, & daily more & more

with the evil growing strong, a vow being made, forthwith

recovered. Witness I. Of noble birth born

John de Lokericz, of lower Lusatia,

passing his sixty-second year,

from contraction of the feet four months

had lain sick, when a vow being made, forthwith is healed.

Witness I.

[47] The inflated reduced to good condition 8. A little woman pregnant, wife of Wenceslaus

Lipezigk, Elisabeth by name, in

the groin inflated, a vow being made, is cured.

Witness I. Caspar Tile, municipal

magistrate of the little town of Kemnitz, by a swelling along

with pain of the testicles vexed for three days,

by a vow is freed. Witness I. A farmer

of the village of Obern, Bartholomew Lemam,

his spine had injured, whence the whole back

vehemently had swelled: a vow being made,

is freed. Witness I. Another girl of three

years, her father John Schuman of the village

of Coln, suddenly inflated & now then more & more

with the evil growing worse; a vow being made immediately

freed was. The girl's name Margaret

was. Witnesses III. Simon, a little infant of six months,

son of Simon Brethstneyder, whose

member by a certain disease infected, enormously

had swelled a vow being made continuously is healed.

Witnesses 2. Stupendous what follows.

A little infant, scarcely yet a year old, his father

Stephen Vulpe of the municipality of Leipzig, by

the suggestion of a most faithless servant-girl eight needles

had swallowed, whence its intestines being wounded continuously

the whole body to be inflated began. And when

by every human remedy it was despaired of,

Divine Benno's faith by a pious vow implored,

the needles through the rear it discharged all,

& the boy was preserved. Witnesses 2. Another

boy at Meissen, son of Caspar Gerlach, in a similar

way a needle had swallowed, whence continuously

swelling & growing black, dying

he fell: the help of Divine Benno being implored,

in life he is preserved, & the needle through

the gum discharges. Witness I. A woman Hedwig

by name, wife of a rustic a certain

Blasius Naumans of the village of Dalnicz, by a flux of the menses

for a whole three years stopped up

enormously had swelled: by a vow immediately

is loosed. Witness I.

ANNOTATIONS OF G. H.

d Oschatz a town

between the Elbe & the Mulda, from Meissen toward the North five horary leagues

distant; it had a Franciscan monastery, & temples dedicated to S. Giles &

S. George.

died in the month of January of the year 1539, to whom Henry his brother succeeding & from

the orthodox faith deflecting, soon permitted at the feast of Pentecost Luther

to hold his first sermon at Leipzig.

CHAPTER IV.

Another part of the same Miracles.

[48] A gout-sufferer cured. That gout is incurable is received in the opinions

of many: by it labored

the Parson Priest (as now we say)

of the parish Church of the little town a of Sonnewalde,

old, by which very reason every remedy

was despaired of. He however the other

medicines being neglected, to Divine Benno

after he had fled, a vow being made,

was cured. Witness 1.

[49] from the falling sickness or epilepsy freed XXIX. Nor indeed do they think epilepsy easier to cure:

from this however these who follow

all, only a vow being made,

by Divine Benno's help freed & preserved

it is clear. A little infant, son of Martin

Lavenhayn of Geriswalde. Witnesses 3.

Another infant of six months, Antony

by name, of the little town of Rusben, who by the fault of his father

George Schockolth into the disease had fallen.

Witness 1. The girl Anna, her father

Wolfgang Sricleman of Kemnitz who

from the hour of her miscarriage up to her third year of age

by the same disease had labored. Witness 1.

Another Apollonia, daughter of Gabriel Stulcs

of the diocese of Meissen, in her eleventh year of age

vexed. Witnesses 2. The son of Balthasar Schiferdecker

of two years, Wolfgang called,

who for three months almost without remission

by the same evil was aggravated. Witness 1.

Another John, son of Erhard the tailor,

in his cradle by this disease continuously vexed.

Witness 1. Antony Sculteti a townsman

of Oschatz, whom twice this evil had assailed,

both in his twenty-sixth year of age

& in his thirtieth. Witnesses 2. Wolfgang, son

of Valentine Richter, of two years

an infant, eight days continuously by epilepsy

prostrated. Witnesses 2. Another Wolfgang,

he was infested, a vow being made b to Divine Valentine,

to whom our countrymen the proper care

of this disease have dedicated: nay even to the disease itself

the name of Valentine they have given, it is sufficiently clear

that nothing was accomplished. Whom afterward by Divine

Benno's help through a second vow invoked,

continuously healed it is clear. Witnesses

2. In this way too a little girl

of three years, Ursula by name, daughter

of Andrew Maurer of the little town of Oschatz, when she

too by this evil infected through various vows around

the diverse temples of the Saints was carried about,

nor yet anything was accomplished; at the last

Witness 1. In his twenty-third year of age Wenceslaus

Podam, a townsman of Oschatz,

by this disease first seized, & from

that time up to his ninth year vexed,

the faith of Divine Benno at last through a vow being implored,

was healed. Witness 1. A year-old

girl, daughter of George the Bohemian of the little town

of Colditz, by a vow from epilepsy was freed.

But when the parents in fulfilling more slowly

acted, into the disease the infant again

fell; nor before is freed than a second

vow being made & the former paid. Witnesses

2. Walpurgis a girl of eleven years,

her father Lawrence Cappe of Pirna, from a defect

of the stomach for three weeks no

food could either retain or digest.

Whence a little after into epilepsy fallen,

& from it for three days mute, a vow

being made from all evil condition is freed.

Witnesses 2. Another of the same name,

daughter of Jerome Promnicz in her second year of age

by epilepsy also infested, by a vow

was cured. Witnesses 2.

[50] And although in this part with examples

especially we abound, not to be passed over

however it is, what in the municipality of Kamenz

happened. Here when the Canons & Clergy

intensely gave labor, that the name of Divine

Benno at some time in the Roll of the Saints

through the Roman Pontiff might be written; & this

design when a certain one of the townsmen

Wenceslaus Eckelbergk called,

too petulantly interpreted; suddenly by a punishment

present he is struck, the boy, whom in the cradle

he had, by epilepsy immediately seized. And of that

thing, when afterward he had come to his senses, himself

only of aiding, but also of avenging the power

with the Saints of God is shared.

Witness 1. A girl a year and a half old,

Anna by name, her father a Rustic of the village of Ditmansdorff,

Paul Mildenbergk, in the space of one

day & night from the same disease twelve times

had fallen. And when no not only

of liberation, but not even of life hope

was remaining; a vow being made, both was saved & cured

was. From the same village Ursula,

daughter of Simon, six years old, when

by a vow was saved. Witness 1. The little daughter of two years

of John Spindeler, of the municipality

of Meissen, from epilepsy & paralysis by one & the same

vow was freed. Witnesses 2. John,

son of Nicholas Wittich, a townsman of Meissen

of three years, a vow being made is freed.

Witness 1. Lucas son of Thomas the Bohemian,

from the hour of his birth up to his second

year of age, by this disease often keenly

vexed, a vow being made, is cured. Witnesses 3.

Anna, two-year-old daughter of Caspar Hawolt a townsman

of Meissen, by the same disease often

lying sick, by a vow is freed. Witnesses

4. Andrew, son of John Schubarth,

of the village of Oberbobericz, his fifth year old,

by the same disease oppressed a vow being made is freed.

Witness 1. A girl passing her third year,

by the same epilepsy infested, immediately

by a vow freed: the girl's name Anna her father

Ambrose a baker of the little town c of Mithwede.

Witness 1. Donatus a youth of fourteen

years, son of Simon Mobis, from the same

disease by a vow alone is freed. Witness 1.

Valentine a boy of four years, his father

Nicholas Hayn of the municipality of Freiberg

again by epilepsy prostrated, a vow being made

is saved. Witness 1. Catherine wife of John

Munczers of Freiberg, a very rich man,

by epilepsy again seized, immediately

by a vow was cured. Witness 1. An infant

of two years, Andrew son of Nicholas

Rechel, of the municipality of Görlitz, twice

by epilepsy seized, immediately a vow being made

was purged. Witness 1. A woman of forty

years Catherine by name, wife

of Bernard Rose, by the same evil often vexed,

at some time a vow being made was freed.

Witnesses 2. A youth born of a most splendid place,

of the order of Princes or the Illustrious as

they call them, twenty-two years old,

himself too by epilepsy laboring, a vow to Divine

Benno being made, was healed; the Bishop

of Brandenburg this for testimony asserting.

Witnesses 3.

[51] Wolfgang Meyler of the municipality

of Oschatz, from plague freed & in life preserved V. from plague giving up his soul, a vow

being made is cured. Witnesses 2. A townsman of Meissen

of thirty-eight years, Nicholas Fabri

called, noticing himself infected with plague,

Witness 1. Of the same surname Vincent,

in a similar way infected, by a vow is freed. Witness

1. In the village of Herolt a certain Wolfgang Lofer

in subterranean tunnels digging out metal

incumbent, by flying mercury deadly

infected, a vow to Divine Benno being made is freed.

Witness 1. A youth of twenty-four

years, John Friso by name, of the little town

of Bischofswerda, when a pestilent in his body

abscess for three months he had borne, nor a remedy

was found: nay the evil daily

more & more grew strong, & he himself wasted away;

was. Witnesses 2.

[52] Fallen from a height & in life preserved X. Francis Brose, a man in the municipality

of Freiberg of no obscure name,

fallen into a mineral cavern three

ladders, that is, twelve fathoms deep,

beyond all human comprehension, by a vow

unharmed was preserved. Witness 1. A rustic

of the village of Martbach, falling from a tall oak,

his limbs in a cruel manner by the touch

of the branches & the earth torn apart, a vow

being made, survived. The man's name Nicholas

Cluge. Witnesses 2. A youth passing his eighteenth

year, Valentine of Valentine by name,

Cricz of Kemnitz, from a higher part of the house onto

the ground fallen, his head injured & other limbs,

in life, a vow being made, was preserved & healed

was. Witnesses 2. From the Tower forty

cubits high of the town of Meissen a watchman falling,

when during his fall Divine Benno's

help he had shouted out, unharmed to

the ground was brought, & by that fall in that

place nothing was more celebrated. Witnesses 7. Sittich

de Berlewicz, a man of an ancient & noble

family born, when the horse on which he sat

into a leap he excited, in the very leap

together with the horse dying he fell, &

because he deserved to see Divine Benno in

spirit, as if from the lower regions recalled to life

returned. Witnesses 2. Bernard Freydiger

of Meissen, into a well no less deep

than narrow fallen, a vow being made, all

astonished safe escaped. Witness 1. Into

another well a youth nineteen years

old, Sebald Birckenaver by name,

of the little town d of Wurzen had fallen, & when in

the very fall of Divine Benno mindful he was,

unharmed came out. Witnesses 2. George Moller

of the village of Hermsdorff, from a higher part of the house

fallen, his head & other limbs bruised,

A girl of four years Catherine, daughter of Nicholas

Dobet, of the little town e of Volckenstein, from a high

dwelling falling, almost all her limbs

had broken, & when from that fall an hour

whole without breath she had lain, a vow

being made to life is recalled. Witness 1. A Clerk

of Mainz Andrew Stum, from

fallen, & all his limbs

bruised, for some time lifeless was held.

And when a vow being made to himself he had returned, no

otherwise than one who in spirit Divine Benno's help

had felt, first of all his name without

the instinct of anyone he saluted. Witness

1.

[53] John Offenstein, an inhabitant of the little town

& for three years dropsical a vow being made is freed.

Witness 1. A woman passing her forty-seventh

year, Euphemia by name

wife of Jacob Hascke, of the little town of Reichenbach,

from a certain prior disease into dropsy

fallen, & thus for two years vexed,

when meanwhile through physicians nothing was accomplished,

help was cured. Witnesses 2. Another

Anna, wife of Michael Rapfuf of Görlitz,

& also a daughter from her born, & by the same

name called, both from a disease preceding

into dropsy fallen, vows one after

another being made, are freed. Witness 1.

[54] From dizziness of the head freed 2. A man passing his seventieth year; Philip

Hentzel of the little town g of Rusben, for four

years by continual dizziness of the head vexed,

of forty years Matthew Reicman

of Luckau, by a double disease vexed,

dizziness of the head & also another certain

ailment, by a vow suddenly is freed.

Witnesses 2.

[55] [Drowned in the waters recalled to life & also from dangers of the waters freed & rescued 14.] A boy of two years, of Henry de Arusvalde,

extracted, when two hours without breath

he had remained, by a vow being made immediately revived. Witness 1.

A girl of six years Gertrude, daughter of Valentine

Ruswig of the village of Causnitz, by accident in a spring

submerged, when she was extracted, for

half an hour for dead was held,

until a vow being made to life is recalled. Witnesses

3. Thirteen men in a skiff a river

were navigating, & when by accident the skiff was

overturned, three who in the very danger vows

had made (among whom a certain George

Vader a citizen of Meissen) to the other bank

unharmed escaped; all the rest

submerged. Witnesses 3. The pastor of the municipality of Meissen,

when in a river, into which he had fallen,

1. John Maurer of Sonnewalde a fifty-year-old,

imperiled by a boat in a river,

in a similar way by a vow escaped. Witness 1.

The son of a baker of Meissen, his tenth year

old, when two hours under the waters

he had lain, & from that time lifeless

extracted, a vow being made is recalled to life.

Witnesses 2. An infant a year old, of Urban Ruchemneister

of Pretyvensis, which of Saxony

swallowing it in the windpipe of his throat had adhered,

suffocated; a vow being made continuously is loosed,

& the boy revives. Witnesses 2. Near

Rusben the little town, the son of a certain miller

from the river dead extracted,

Nicholas Wittich a citizen of Meissen, by sudden

inundations of the waters seized,

& into the midst of the waves precipitated when

no hope of life remaining he sees, Divine

Benno's help being implored unharmed escaped.

Witness 1. A boy of five years,

Matthew son of Burchard, a townsman of Meissen

from the middle of a river rescued, while lifeless

in his mother's bosom for some time bewailed,

dead extracted, a vow being made is recalled

to life, the Boy Erasmus by name,

his father Matthew Tachter. Witnesses 2. John

Neter of the municipality of Leipzig, of twenty-four

years, when in a river he was bathing,

swimming by the waves is seized, & submerged

was: a vow through his brother being made the danger escapes.

Witness 1. Jerome a boy of three years,

of Martin the tailor of the little town of Doblen son,

in a vessel full of water suffocated, by a vow

to life is recalled. Witness 1. Ferrymen

at the Elbe river when at the time, in which the ice

is loosed, & through the waves the crusts by force

great & impetus are borne, with a great

weight the river were crossing. And in the middle

of the river by such force of storms & ice

they were oppressed, that it was over with their safety

they thought. And when in so great peril they were involved,

that themselves by no human help

to be freed they saw; to Divine Benno's

mercy fleeing, & a vow

to him being made, they were preserved: & to the other

bank unharmed brought. Witness 1.

[56] from pleurisy cured 5, Juliana wife of Wolfgang Seydenhans

of Kemnitz, by pleurisy tortured for three days

& nights continuous, a vow being made, is freed.

Witness 1. Thomas Woyth of Hayn,

in his forty-third year of age by pleurisy

up to the fifth month vexed, a vow

being made is freed. Witnesses 2. Antony Bottel,

passing his thirtieth year, for three days &

nights by continuous pleurisy laboring,

Falce, of the diocese of Bamberg, his thirtieth

seventh year old, & he by a grave &

long pleurisy & also a tertian fever

vexed, by one vow being made, is healed. Witnesses

2. Antony Abbot of Buche, which is a Monastery

of the Cistercian observance of the diocese

of Meissen, a man of fifty-five years,

eight days by pleurisy infested, when

by the physicians' remedies he could not be cured, a vow

being made, by Divine Benno's help cured

was. Witness 1.

[57] Simon, a year-old son of Nicholas Lebemans,

an inhabitant of the village of Marthbach, Cured of consumption 3. from

consumption, from which a whole year, that

is his whole life he had labored, a vow being made,

cured was. Witness 1. A girl of five

years old, Margaret of John Bothners

of Pirna, four months by the same consumption

seized, a vow being made, is freed. Witness 1.

A man of seventy, of a noble family born,

Mincquitz by name, of the citadel of Sonnewalde,

five years by the same disease infested

& consumed, a vow being made is cured. Witnesses

2.

[58] A noble man of the family of Wedelstorf of the diocese of Halberstadt,

The mutilated restored 21. to whom a horse by a kick of its heel

had broken his foot, a vow being made, without

physicians in his foot was cured. Witness 1. This

same man at some time a grave wound in his head having received,

when so great hope in Benno

he placed, that for it the physicians' help

he scorned; by a vow again is healed. Susanna,

wife of Michael Kuchemeister of Freiberg,

from a certain higher little bridge

falling, her leg had broken, & the help of Divine Benno being implored, without defect was healed.

Witness 1. Philip Henkel of Rusben,

by the wheel of a passing cart along his face

cruelly crushed, & indeed so that it was over

with his life it seemed; a vow being made in life

was preserved. Witness 1. In a similar way

the girl Sophia, daughter of a fisherman of Marthbach,

whose head by the weight of a wheel turning round

had been diminished; a vow being made, in

life was preserved. Witnesses 3. Thomas Musigen

of Kemnitz, by a deadly wound in his head

struck, his skull & even the very brain

broken, given up by the physicians, a vow being made,

in life was preserved. Witness 1. Barbara,

wife of John Soldiner, so great a wound in

her arm had received, that it by the extreme part of the skin

only adhered: & when the physicians

advised it should be cut off, the woman to Divine

Benno's mercy fleeing, a vow being made,

the arm adhered & was healed. Witness

1. In this very way a certain Balthasar

Eryk of Kemnitz in his finger struck;

which when by the tiniest, only by skin

hung, a vow being made, adhered & was cured

was. A Rustic boy of seven years,

son of Peter Groll of the village of Schrebitz, by a club along

his temples so gravely was struck,

that dying he fell down: & when his parents

another remedy did not see, Divine

Benno's help they implored; & a vow

after they made, the boy much blood

to vomit began, & was preserved.

Witness 1. But the wife of a certain Lawrence Reyters

in her leg, was injured which so gravely was

broken, that it only by skin was held;

to Divine Benno a vow being made, without other

human medicine, in three days was cured. Witnesses

3. In the same way a man of forty years,

Valentine Clering, fallen from a height,

when a rib he had broken, without other

medicaments by a vow alone was healed.

Witnesses 2. Likewise also the Woman Elisabeth,

wife of John Jeuczeler of Pirna, in her arm,

which also was broken, by a vow alone

without remedies, & that in a very short time,

was cured. Witnesses 2. A certain Clerk

of the Church of Meissen, by a lead mass in

his head so gravely was struck that dying

he fell down. And when for slain he had been taken up,

Witnesses 2. Paul Gravert, with the horse on which

he sat collapsing, his leg had broken, & when

by the physicians for six months' space he could not be cured,

& the force of the pains & putrefaction daily

grew strong; to Divine Benno a vow being made,

immediately is healed. Witness 1. A carpenter

when for some time from life to have migrated he seemed;

it all reason & sense taken away, when now

to his death nothing seemed nearer,

by a vow immediately to himself returned, & was healed.

Witness 1. Michael, of John Meuger of Leipzig

along the navel by a knife up to the hilt

driven in, through his intestines wounded;

when by the physicians to be able to live in no way it seemed,

3. A girl in her eleventh year old,

Anna by name, daughter of a certain Peter Meth

of Dobeln, by the weight of a passing wheel crushed

& extinguished, a vow being made, to life

is recalled. Witnesses 2. A boy of three years

Wolfgang, of the noble family of the Dragenses

born, in his left side through his ribs along

his precordia by a spindle penetrated, a vow

to Divine Benno being made, from all danger

was preserved. Witnesses 2. The same man of

whom we said, in age now adult, in his forehead

by a lance struck, a most deep wound

when he had received; a vow being made, Divine Benno's

help again felt, & was preserved

& healed. Henry h Duke of Saxony, when

with his horse falling his leg had broken: & when

by the physicians long & in vain it had been labored,

& the wound itself more & more grew worse,

to Divine Benno a vow being made, in a brief

time afterward was healed. Witness 1. Burning with St. Anthony's fire 7.

[59] Margaret, two-year-old daughter of Burchard

Losze, of the village of Hermesdorf, by St. Anthony's fire in her feet

inflamed, when one hope in incision

remained, joined with great peril;

or any human help, from her body of

themselves fell off. Witnesses 5. A boy passing his sixth year

old, Valentine by name, son of Martin

Brosse of Rusben, in his arm by the same evil blazed:

1. The woman Gertrude, wife of Thomas

Cleyn of the diocese of Merseburg, a wound

in one foot having received, when it

by negligence by St. Anthony's fire was kindled,

In a similar way in one foot inflamed a girl,

eight years old, Margaret daughter of Caspar

by the industry of three physicians long nothing was accomplished,

3. Andrew Glaser of Pirna, from a wound

which in his left hand he had received by the physician's

carelessness by St. Anthony's fire is breathed upon, a vow being made,

is freed forthwith. Witness 1. Peter, a Fisherman

of the village of Oberboberik, in his foot ill-affected

from excessive motion by St. Anthony's fire inflamed,

when a vow he had made, was freed. Witness

1. Strachota the Bohemian, of a noble family

born, a courtier of Duke George the Saxon,

when in his arm by the same evil seized

he was; a vow being made, was freed,

the Duke George himself attesting this. Witnesses

4.

ANNOTATIONS OF G. H.

& Roman Martyr, & other Saints of the same name are venerated 14

February, & celebrated is his memory in the old Breviaries of the Saxon

territories.

the river Mulda, from Leipzig toward the East five leagues distant, below

it is called an Episcopal town, where also the body of S. Benno was hidden.

CHAPTER V.

The third part of similar Miracles.

[60] A girl of thirteen years Margaret,

daughter of John a bathkeeper of Rusben,

by the French disease a so gravely labored, from the French disease & also other abscesses cured 46

that one eye utterly she lost;

by a vow was freed. Witnesses 2. Of the same

little town John, son of Michael

Steyn by the French disease a whole year vexed,

by a vow is freed. Witnesses 2. Andrew

son of John Schultecz, 16 years old, by the French

disease through his whole face, in a cruel

manner gnawed, a vow being made, is healed.

Witness 1. Anna, of George Cunheit of Nossen

of fourteen years, for a whole year in one foot

the French disease suffered, a vow being made,

forthwith recovers. Witness 1. A year-old

girl, Margaret by name, of Valentine a carpenter

of Kemnitz, with twenty ulcers for one

month and a half infected; a vow being made in the space of ten

days is cleansed. Witness 1. Three little infants

of Andrew the Scribe of Kemnitz by the French disease

by one contagion together infected, & for some time

cruelly tortured; a vow being made, immediately

& at the same moment all were freed.

Witness 1. A youth Simon, his father Simon

Siphen, from his twentieth year of age

through a whole four years by the French disease

exhausted & corroded, a vow being made,

recovers. Witnesses 2. In a similar way another

John Rasphe of Kemnitz of thirty years,

when for five years by this very

disease most cruelly he was vexed, a vow being made

is freed. Witness 1. Wolfgang of Balthasar Schifferdecker,

from a long French disease so

contracted, that from a paralytic he did not much differ,

& thus when some years he had been,

his forty-fifth year old, Paul

Leo, of the village of Roffau, three months from the French

disease laboring; a vow being made in three days'

space is freed. Witnesses 3. Anna, daughter of Valentine

Steinsetzer of Lommitz, from the French

disease in her thirtieth year of age paralytic &

frenzied, a vow being made, from all at once,

namely three most grave diseases, forthwith

was healed. Witnesses 2. Dorothea, of Adam

Keylbau, of the village of Wachnitz, from her seventh year of age

into the eighth month through

very many limbs of her body so cruelly

corroded, that the bones bare without flesh stood out,

& restored. Witness 1.

[61] Nicholas Clinger of the village of Pruber at

the little town of Lommitz in his fifty-second

year of age, in his face with many ulcers

infected; when a vow to Benno he had made

on the third day after he had contracted the evil,

was freed. Witness 1. A tailor of Pirna

John Tencler, in his twentieth year of age

when with the French disease he was infected,

& by it for two months he had labored, nor could

meanwhile by any remedies be cured; a vow

being made, forthwith recovered. Witness 1. The same man,

of whom we spoke, in his ninth following year

in his tongue an abscess having contracted; when from

it three months he had ailed, a vow being made,

again was cured. Witnesses 2. A certain Urban

Domsich a Chaplain of Görlitz, when

as a youth from the French disease by which he labored

by a vow he had been freed, & afterward

in fulfilling more negligent he was; by the same

disease again is seized, nor before

is freed, than a new vow promised &

the old paid. Witness 1. A rustic of the village

of Niderau, Urban Gosman, a man of forty

eight years by an abscess in his throat

so beyond measure swelling, that

little was lacking but that he was strangled, a vow

being made, freed was. Witnesses 2. A man passing his sixty-fifth

year old, Matthew

Hangk of Meissen & he by the French disease

laboring, a vow being made, was cured immediately.

Witness 1. Of a noble family born Urban

Rhote, of lower Lusatia sprung,

Witnesses 5. Matthew Fabri, a Clerk of the town

of Golsen, from an incurable abscess by a vow

suddenly is freed. Witness 1. In a similar way

of the village of Grobern, forty years old,

by a dangerous abscess, & he too, &

which admitted no remedy, immediately

A girl of four years, Catherine of Michael

Wincklers of Belgern the daughter; from that time

by the French disease seized, & up into her thirteenth year

of age vexed

& consumed, at last a vow being made, in a short

time recovers. Witnesses 2. The daughter of John

Bavelbergk of three years, with an abscess to the size

of a goose egg on her face arising,

when by no remedies she could be cured; a vow

being made immediately was healed. Witness 1. Nicholas

Fabri a sexagenarian, by the French disease infected,

Benno's help through a vow being implored,

on the eighth day after, in which the disease

he had contracted, was freed. Witness 1. The disease

of a fistula nine years suffered Anna,

wife of Philip Asmansdagi Glocke, immediately

by a vow being made was healed. Witnesses 3.

Alexius Worffpeil of the municipality of Zeitz, to whom when

under his chin an abscess so great erupted, that

corroded, a vow being made was freed. Witnesses

2. Peter, son of Paul Clemens of Merseburg,

of twenty-eight years, by the French

disease infected, after long tortures & he

too by a vow is freed. Witness 1. A man of a noble

family born, John de Crokau in his fiftieth

year of age, the French disease in

his nostrils having contracted, when sixteen months

whole by remedies in vain he tried,

at last himself to Divine Benno's help turning,

Euphemia wife of Matthew Elderich of the village

of Lupan, from her twenty-seventh year of age,

was healed. Witness 1. Three little boys of Donatus

Globis of Dresden by a certain new & foul scabies;

which was unknown to all the physicians, by one

contagion infected, a vow being made, at one & the same

moment all are freed: the boys'

names, Balthasar, George, Bonaventure.

Witnesses 2.

[191] Another follows by which we are warned of

the Saints of God to think piously nor petulantly

to speak. The woman Anna thirty-five

years old, wife of John Scoppels

of Oschatz, by the French disease for some time

affected, to Divine Benno fleeing,

was. And when the upright woman what she had promised

now to fulfill desired, there comes her husband,

leading the woman from her purpose by words,

& meanwhile the helps of the Saints & the woman's

superstition mocking. But what happened?

Scarcely had the woman to her husband's admonitions obeyed:

behold for you by a punishment each is struck

present, & not now as before the woman, but

he who from both was born & to each equally

dear was, the son, by the same French

disease suddenly being seized. Which when

the husband noticed, & of his error repented,

Divine Benno's mercy imploring,

& freed immediately was. Witnesses 2. A man

by reason of a great abscess in his throat

contracted, so that little was lacking but that

he was suffocated, a vow being made, without other remedy

was loosed. Witness 1. Ursula, wife

of Bartholomew Reyn, of the village of Lavenheim, six

whole years the French disease in her privy parts

suffered, when by that putrefaction the flesh

almost all up to the bones was consumed;

was healed. Witness 1. Catherine wife

of Peter Wulke of Hayn a whole decade

by the same disease laboring, & a son

meanwhile bearing infected by that very evil: a vow

being made, in a short time at one & the same time is healed.

Witnesses 2. Christopher Meidnig

of Brunberg, by the French disease eight years

vexed, a vow through his wife being made, is healed.

And when the woman in fulfilling more negligent

was by two great adversities

was affected; & when this of the neglected vow

the cause to be she judged; another vow being made,

freed was. Witness 1. Nicholas Molitoris,

& he a Clerk of Konsberg, by the French

disease infected, & in his face cruelly

gnawed, & indeed so that men his

meeting fled & turned away, for which

cause the man by great perturbations

affected, Divine Benno's mercy

through a vow being implored, freed was. Witness

1. Bonaventure Ruchler of Görlitz

for five years by the French disease infested,

Schwarcze a youth in his twentieth year of age,

by the French disease so through all his veins infected,

that the physicians the man could not

be cured said; a vow being made, is healed. Witness

1. A man a fifty-year-old Matthew Sebe of Görlitz,

when a whole decade in one foot,

by the French disease he was infected, &

eight years the labor of physicians in vain he had tried;

is healed. Witnesses 2. John Alberti, Rector

of the parish church of the town of Ploczke,

the disease of a fistula suffered for twenty-one

years, when by medicines he could not be cured;

Benis of Konsberg, by the French disease a long

time vexed, a vow being made, without any

medicaments is healed. Witness 1. Elisabeth,

of an ancient & noble family of the Luttichii

born, by the kind of disease of figs (piles) infected, when

from elsewhere no hope of liberation appeared;

Bishop b of Brandenburg,

by the French disease seized; through a vow forthwith

is healed. Witness 1. A gilded Knight of the family

of Bugenhagen, Marshal of the Duke of Pomerania,

by the French disease so infected, that by

the physicians he could not be cured; a vow being made, beyond

the opinion of all is freed. Witness 1. Charles

disease & he infected, a vow to Divine

Benno being made, at that very moment is freed.

Witnesses 6.

[63] In the town of Romnits Dorothea, wife

of Michael Seidel, when giving birth she had so labored;

that the midwife & the other women who were present,

Women in labor freed from Dangers 13. the fetus necessarily extinguished

to be said, & on that account the woman

to lay hands on herself tried; a vow being made

Cordula, daughter of Peter Creytz of Rochlitz,

hour in her womb containing, & not yet able to be delivered;

Witnesses 3. Ursula wife of Simon Sthants,

four times single lifeless fetuses she bore,

at which the woman gravely grieving, a vow

being made a fifth alive she brought forth. Witness 1. The same too

in the village of Geyl happened to a certain Brigid, wife

of John Neuheyer, who also four

lifeless fetuses after she had brought forth, a vow

being made a fifth prosperously she bore, & a living

boy brought forth. Witnesses 3. Elisabeth, wife

of Clement Cuntzel of Hayn, in her forty-second

year of age pregnant, at the time

when childbirth was at hand, both sick & so inflated,

that no hope of safety remained;

A girl twenty years old Margaret,

wife of George Bergers, up into the fifteenth

day gravely in labor laboring;

when by no industry she could be freed, a vow being made,

immediately bore. Witnesses 3. Another girl

Ursula by name, wife of Matthew Burchardi

of the village of Bonsch, then first pregnant, &

to the pains of those giving birth unaccustomed, the pains

rushing on to lay hands on herself

tried: vows being made by those who in

childbirth were present women, the woman gradually

is appeased, & prosperously bore. Witnesses 3.

Elisabeth, wife of Matthew Gabisch, by a sudden

certain fear terrified, when a womb

she bore, to make a miscarriage was driven:

& when in the very danger a vow she had made,

an immature indeed fetus, alive

yet she bore. Witness 1. Margaret wife

of John Stormer, three days in labor laboring;

when from it the skilled women the fetus

to live could not say, & of the mother there was peril,

& a fine boy was brought forth. Witnesses 2. Catherine,

wife of Peter Sorgenfrei, to whom when before childbirth

the very fetus in her womb was extinguished, & the woman

in the greatest peril was; a vow being made,

was loosed; & the infant the mother unharmed extracted.

Witnesses 2. Margarita, wife of Michael

Reichel of Dippoldiswalde in childbirth &

with the greatest pains & greatest peril subjected

because the fetus not directed toward the head,

as the rest, but transverse the exit had entered,

bore. Witnesses 2. Barbara, wife

of Martin Ulman of Görlitz, when her fourteenth

she had borne, & continually fetuses

dead she had brought forth; a vow being made, at last

of Paul the tailor, her passages obstructed giving birth

when in the gravest peril she was placed,

who also a little after by a similar vow being made rectified

was. Witness 1.

[64] A year-old girl, Margarita of Valentine

the carpenter of Kemnitz, from fevers freed 16. in her thirteenth

month by fever vexed, a vow

being made at that moment is freed. Witness 1. Erasmus

son of Valentine Fritzko in his 17th year of age by a fever

continuous up into the twelfth day laboring,

Balthasar Erik of Zwickau his sixty-sixth

year old, a whole two years

by fever vexed: a vow being made is strengthened. Witness

1. George Albertus of Ruffen, in his twenty-fifth

year of age, a month and a half by fever

so gravely assaulted, that all use

of his senses he lost: & because in that

alienation of mind Divine Benno to see

to himself he seemed; to his former health, at the same time

made master of his reason, forthwith is restored.

Witnesses 2. Wolfgang Leyptzik of Oschatz,

from these miracles of Divine Benno

one suppressing, by a fever continuously is seized.

And when this the cause of the disease he himself

thought, he resolved with himself the miracle no longer

to be silent of & forthwith recovered. Witness 1.

John Tentzeler of Pirna twenty-nine

years old, more or less three months by fever

vexed, & also in his tongue from another

certain disease laboring, by one & the same

vow, from a double evil freed was. Witnesses

2. A man in his seventy-sixth year of age

Nicholas Specht, a Clerk of Kamenz, by a long

fever so exhausted, that he could not

live to the physicians it seemed, a vow being made is strengthened.

Witnesses 2. Gallus Franck, Rector

of the Parish church of Culmnitz a sexagenarian,

while to Rome for the sake of piety

he set out, by so vehement a fever in the City

was seized, that to the physicians not to be able

to escape it seemed. But behold while in his last extremity

he struggles, to see he seemed Divine

Benno in spirit, & unexpectedly

recovered. Witnesses 2. A girl of five years

old, Agnes daughter of John Cluge, into

the fifteenth day by a fever continuous

vexed, while at the last to fail she seemed,

was. Witnesses 2. A man a seventy-year-old Judocus

Schmit, by a most acute fever & that continuous

up into the tenth day vexed,

Keul, a rustic of the village of Lupe from his fortieth

year of age up into the third

month by a fever laboring, & vehemently

exhausted, a vow being made is strengthened. Witness

1. Margarita, wife of Peter Hase of Gleisenberg,

laboring, a vow being made, is strengthened. Witness

1. Another example, by which impious incredulity about the Saints

is punished. A certain Nicholas

Stoell had a son, Matthew by name,

passing then his twenty-second year of age,

he when with a fever he labored,

his mother a vow to Divine Benno for

her son to make wished: which when her husband

noticed, a man of a harder neck,

his wife from the pious purpose he frightens away, nay

forbids, her folly & superstition

mocking. Wherefore not so long after,

he himself together with his wife, by a similar fever

is seized. Which when easily it admonished

the man of his error, he repented, & when

Divine Benno's help with pious affection he had invoked,

were. Witnesses 2. Barbara, wife of John

Ecbler of Görlitz, in her twenty-seventh year of age,

into the fourteenth day

by a fever continuous exhausted, when to the last

it had come, a vow being made freed

was & preserved. Witness 1. Another

of the same name, but greater in age, wife

of Nicholas Reiche, after a tertian fever three months

she had labored, a vow being made, was strengthened. Witness

1. Walpurgis a three-year-old daughter of John Cathe

by a fever lurking under the skin infected, her soul

to be giving up she seemed; a vow being made in life

is preserved & freed. Witness 1.

[65] from a flux of blood & also excess of the menses freed 7. Simon Tischer of Hayn, his thirtieth

year old, from a long through his nostrils

flux of blood failing, a vow being made, is strengthened.

Witnesses 3. Ursula, wife of Jacob

Tochen, of the village of Wildenheym, in her twentieth

fifth year of age, up into the third

month a flux of the menses suffered, a vow

being made, is strengthened. Witnesses 2. Gutta,

wife of Christopher de Maltitz a gilded Knight,

in her thirty-fourth year of age, by a long

& continuous flux of the menses exhausted,

wife of Stephen Wulpis of the diocese of Merseburg,

in her thirtieth year of age

by a perpetual flux of blood vexed, when by

the physicians it was despaired, a vow being made, forthwith

is cured. Witnesses 2. Anna, wife of Andrew

Caterin a citizen of Torgau, of thirty years,

up into the second month a flux of blood

suffered, a vow being made is healed. Witnesses 2.

Another of the same name, wife of George

Geys of Dresden, in her twenty-seventh year of age,

her flux of the menses beyond a second

month impeded, & thence ill-affected,

year of age, with a flux of blood through

his nostrils so growing strong, that by no help of physicians

it could be checked; a vow being made, is cured.

Witness 1.

[66] Jacob Perkicht of Kemnitz, of thirty

years, by pains of the stone long vexed; from the tortures of the stone freed 5.

when the physicians' help long in vain he had

tried, a vow to Divine Benno being made, is freed.

Witness 1. Erhard, a three-year-old boy

of George Coler of Lommitz, by a long pain of the stone

vexed, a vow being made, a little stone,

not smaller than a plum-stone, through the passages of urine

he ejected. Witnesses 2. Frederick de

Witzleben, a man of an ancient & noble family

born, & also a gilded Knight, by the most vehement

pains of stones tortured,

& the physicians' help in vain having tried

wife of John Muntzer of Freiberg,

pains of the stone for some time suffered, when

by the physicians she could not be cured, a vow being made,

is freed. Witness 1. Margaret, wife

of Bartholomew Biher of the village of Gosser, her fifty-third

year old, for eighteen

years by pains of the stone vexed, a vow

being made is freed. Witness 1.

[67] freed from apoplexy 5. George Henschel, of the village of Weyschen,

while from the ground something with a heavier

effort to lift he strives, by apoplexy in his hand

is seized: which when up into a second

month dead it had remained, a vow

being made, revives. Witnesses III. Jacoba, wife

of Frederick, of the family of Witzleben a gilded Knight,

of the diocese of Halberstadt, in the nocturnal

time by apoplexy seized, a vow by her husband

being made, is freed. Witnesses 2. Christina,

Prioress (as they call her) of the Convent of holy Mary

Magdalene of penance in the town

of Lauban, of the diocese of Meissen, by apoplexy seized,

at the same time is freed. Witnesses 2. R. P. John

Bishop of Naumburg d in his sixtieth year

of age by apoplexy seized, &

for some time alienated from his mind, a vow being made

to himself returned. Witnesses 2. R. P. Martin,

Abbot of Altzelle, of the diocese of Meissen,

by apoplexy seized, by the help of Divine Benno

is believed preserved. Witness 1.

[68] A boy of two years of George Bottiger, of the village

of Dithmandorf, From burning or scalding freed 2. of the diocese of Meissen, with water

boiling by imprudence drenched, when the boy

half-cooked on one side seemed, & all

of his safety despaired, a vow being made

is preserved. Witnesses 3. The house of Martin the smith

whole by fire perished, & all

the neighboring buildings with fire blazed; a vow being made,

in the midst of the flames untouched preserved

was. Witness 1.

[69] At Freiberg a boy brought forth, along his knees

entangled in fetters, who by a vow by his father

being made continuously is freed: the father's name

George Heidenreich. Monstrous births corrected 4. Witnesses 2. Marta,

daughter of Martin Weber, of the village of Raicczemtz,

of three months, with an abscess in one leg contracted,

& from it lame made; by the touch

of the Relics of Divine Benno is healed.

Witnesses 3. A boy, of the noble family of the Dragenses,

to whom Wolfgang afterward the name

was made, brought forth with two in his mouth

tongues, a vow being made is amended, & the other

tongue vanished. Witnesses 2. Lawrence,

son of Donatus Keilenberg of Strelen, when

in his nose, in which he was hurt, the help of a physician

he uses; the use of his nostrils all the passage being closed

both lost: & thus a year

whole when he had remained: a vow being made

is restored, a lost boy is found & the nostrils are opened. Witness

1. A boy of three years John of Matthew Wueys

of the Oder in a forest neighboring the town by

accident had escaped, & in it up into the third

night had wandered, all meanwhile being ignorant

whither in the world the boy had been snatched

away; a vow being made, is recovered. Witness 1.

[70] R. P. Jerome Bishop of Brandenburg

then when in minor orders he was by

little robbers in hope of plunder captured, a vow being made,

with all his things safe escaped. Witness 1. John

Trischo of Briznicz in his eightieth year of age

by enemies under hope of a ransom

captured, a vow being made is freed. Witness 1. from prison, bonds & siege freed 3.

Henry Duke of Saxony, by a grave siege

in Frisia through treachery pressed, a most foul

besides danger of death set before him;

when no hope remained, but that into

the hands of the enemy he would come; a vow being made the siege

is loosed, & the band of enemies is dispersed.

Witness 1.

[71] But now to be passed over that is not,

which in the church of Meissen is wont to happen. Certain other things clearly testifying Benno's help.

There as often as from the number of the Canons

some one is about to die, so often

on that night which precedes the hour of death, so great

is heard, that those who for the nocturnal chants

in that same temple are destined,

often have testified, that they by so great horror struck,

that the chant for fear to interrupt

for some time they were compelled. Which indication

since also in certain other Saints

of God has been proved, nor in this ever

to have failed has been found; I know not whether

it is not reckoned a most firm argument of divinity.

Witnesses 2. But of the Margraves

two in the Life of Benno it was said: of whom

one, when the most holy man through

contumely he had struck, the year after at that very

hour, in which that had been done, now

then Benno being dead, who this future

had foretold, when the wicked Prince

on a certain bridge walked, amid the hands of his own men

by a certain apparition, which from the clouds

had appeared, of life was deprived, & of his

slaughter on that bridge today is seen

injuriously he treated, & its goods against

all right & divine law usurped, in sleep several times

by Divine Benno in vain warned;

when thence he was not moved, one eye

lost he gave the penalty & came to his senses. Witnesses 3.

There is extant besides that bell too in the village of

Schonberg, which because by Divine Benno blessed

it is, by its very sound all force of the sky

from the neighboring fields & cottages it averts. Witnesses 5.

Not far from the same place, in the village of

Naumberg, a path there is up to this

day whole, made by the walks of Divine Benno:

in whose circuit no

injury of storms or tempests hitherto

has been observed. Witnesses 4. But that cottage,

in which the most holy man

to have dwelt it is clear in the village of Gedau,

however humble, still unharmed yet

stands: & what is more wonderful,

since this with thatch is covered, & thrice

meanwhile the neighboring buildings all by fire have blazed,

not without divine will untouched

perpetually has been preserved. Witnesses 90.

[72] Thus far as briefly as could be done,

of those things which by Divine Benno divinely

& miraculously were done, Conclusion, Not because

not very many here have been omitted, or

as though those which here have been said sufficiently

copiously & with dignity seem to be

narrated; but because to him whose purpose was to write only an index

of those things,

of nothing so much as of brevity account

had to be taken.

ANNOTATIONS OF G. H.

& in the preceding I think the French is called, scrofula & scrofulous swellings,

of curing which the special privilege granted to the King of France is commonly

known: for far be it that in sick people of such tender age, & so many openly

to have confessed the disease, from the usage or rather abuse of some, here is understood the venereal

pestilence breathed even from innocent contagion.

APPENDIX

From the German printed editions rendered into Latin.

[7] Thus far the things produced proceed, only the names of the cured being indicated

& the kind of evil dispelled: which manner of writing,

since it seemed to do little for the taste of the pious people;

he who arranged the Acts to be read in German preferred,

the order of times being kept,

to collect certain principal things, with several

circumstances: of which some already in the notes

we have touched, certain in the aforesaid sufficiently

explained we omit, others in this order to be read

we propose.

[74] In the year 1270 the head of a girl eaten by worms is cured In the year after the birth of Christ 1270,

(in which namely the body had been translated & elevated)

to Divine Benno grateful at Meissen presented himself

Hermann de Schilove, for

the recovered health of his three-year-old daughter by that Saint's patronage,

whose head a certain kind of worms

ate, the evil thus daily

growing worse, that the art of the healers in expelling it

succumbed. In so great peril of his offspring the pious mother,

to D. Benno for her

safety a vow made, which soon she paid.

Which being done, the infant on the tomb of the Divine one being placed,

forthwith recovered. The mother, for this notable

benefit grateful, by a vow bound herself,

the girl as long as by reason of her age

she could not walk, the mother neglecting the vow is punished. every year with

But when to pay the vow she had neglected,

her husband from a tree not very

tall falling, immediately by apoplexy,

& her daughter by the former disease again lay sick.

The mother, mindful of her vow, the girl &

her husband to the Divine one's tomb at Meissen led;

& for each the former & stable health

recovered. All which things he himself

Hermann, & his wife Agnes, & also

Hedwig their neighbor sworn said.

[75] About the same nearly time Ludwig

de Gifridsbach when from the feast of S. Thomas up

to Easter lame gravely he had lain sick, an enfeebled arm is cured

by Divine Benno's help recovered: who,

all now of his safety despairing,

warned in sleep, that to D. Benno

he obeyed, sick to be ceased. A little after Peter

together with his wife Petrisia, with

Paulina the neighbor witnessing, sworn affirmed,

that his son a year and a half old so suddenly in

his right arm useless had been made, that

of restoring it the physicians despaired,

until at last a vow being made to Divine Benno the infant

he commended: who to the holy man's

tomb carried, a moment sooner to pain

in his arm ceased.

[76] a woman contracted wholly. In the year 1273, when in the collegiate

Church of Meissen of the lower choir the altar

in honor of the Great Virgin was being consecrated,

there was present among the crowded people a woman,

so caught in all her limbs, that into a ball

contracted her knees touched her breast,

many years now of the use of her feet deprived,

to roll herself, & now with supports now with hands

creeping to push herself from one place to another

was accustomed. She at the evening time thus moving

herself, to Divine Benno's tomb

through the midst of the people's multitude rolled,

up to night in prayers persevered:

& when now were to be closed

the doors of the temple she cried out: O holy Benno,

be present to wretched me, asking your help,

that to this afflicted little body Jesus

Christ may deign to impart health; forthwith

to her limbs vigor returned. Wherefore

she, leaving at the Divine one's tomb her supports, many

who at this prodigy were present, being present,

being questioned, how long thus

wretched she had been; whence by home; with whom

she had dwelt; whom she could give as witness of those things,

which she said; two noble virgins

she named in the village of Heynizio dwelling,

to them forthwith the truth of the matter to explore

were sent, Theodore at S.

Afra Provost of the Order of S. Augustine,

& Conrad Custodian of the Church of Meissen.

To whom those virgins with their whole household

by oath asserted, that the aforesaid woman,

beyond half a year in all

her limbs caught, by their alms with them

in the same house had dwelt; & during the whole time,

in which with them she had lived, sleep

never could take; & by reason of the bitterness of her pain the whole night wailing, lest

the rest of others she should disturb, apart into another

room necessarily had to be sent away.

[77] In the year 1277, when on the third day

of Pentecost a at Meissen in the hospital the Dedication

of the temple was being celebrated, in 1277 a woman struck with apoplexy, the use of her ears

recovered. Meida N. of Dobeln, whom

apoplexy six months had fixed to her bed, the help of D. Benno being invoked at his tomb

recovered.

[78] Henry de Owa, with his wife

Jutha, asserted, a humpbacked woman, that his daughter also

Jutha called, with a hump had been born

which on her at last gradually into such a mass

had grown, that the wretched girl upright

herself to lift could not: moreover with inverted

feet, so that their soles went backward,

she walked. After therefore she reached her sixth year,

the girl to D. Benno's tomb with a vow they led: there from her hump

& the inversion of her feet freed, safe

home with her parents she returned.

[79] & two ulcerous people. A certain butcher of Freiberg, Nicholas

by name, by a great & deadly ulcer ailed:

to whom when medicaments were applied,

Nicholas D. Benno's help shouted out,

which being done, by a violent cough the ulcer burst,

which soon the swelling being removed subsided.

Of Otto Erckenbert, a townsman of Meissen, the son,

with so great an ulcer around his throat had swelled,

that the infant neither his mother's

breasts to draw, nor any other food enjoy

could: a vow by his parents to D. Benno

being made, from the evil was freed.

[80] On the third day of Easter, in the year 1278

thanks b gave to D. Benno,

for their infant's health, in 1277, a humpbacked person, Nicholas N.

of Grimma, & his wife Christina;

affirming, that their six-month-old infant within

four months with a hump of a human head

magnitude had swelled, but the infant being commended

to D. Benno, the harmful swelling

had receded. Witnesses sworn were three neighbors,

Walter, Joanna, Irmingard,

several Canons hearing, & a great

frequency of the people.

[81] & maimed in his hands, In the same year related Peter of Burchardorf

not far from Grimma,

together with his wife, that his son Martin,

14 years old, a whole year in both

hands lame had been, & every

four days falling to the ground the greatest

pains had endured: but when on the Saturday

before the feast of D. Michael the country he had sought,

at the plow collapsed had expired, & for half

Until at last the mother to D. Benno

for him by a vow bound herself: which

being done to the youth life together with health

returned. The matter by oath they confirmed,

Matthew, Henry, & Bertha,

their neighbors.

[82] Of a certain farmer of Kozbrobe, &

of Bertha his wife the ten-year-old son Albert, in 1279 a suddenly dead boy revives,

When then spring-water for dinner

to bring he wished, on his return collapsed,

he died. The neighbors the sad case

to his parents as quickly as possible reported: who

the youth up to night thus dead

bewailed. At last a vow to D. Benno

being made, again to live he began. Sworn

said the parents, with several neighbors,

John Bauri, his wife Christina,

Peter, Andrew, Martin, Henry,

who all of the deed done were present,

in the year 1279. In the same year to a woman

of Freiberg Petrisa by name, a contracted person is raised, her ten-year-old

son Albert, by the falling disease laboring,

by his mother through a vow to D. Benno commended,

from the evil forever freed was.

In the same year a certain woman Berchtrada

by name, her son Nicholas to D. Benno's

tomb led, to whom within half a year

thus were contracted his legs that upright

himself to raise, & to walk any more he could not:

but when the mother on the Divine one's tomb him

had placed, & a candle had lit, the boy

well to be, & to walk to be able, said;

the matter itself gave faith to the saying. Affirmed

sworn Berchtold the blacksmith,

& his wife Kunigunda, with whom

the aforesaid Berchtrada two nights in lodging

was. In the same year on the Birthday c of S.

Donatus, a certain widow Elisabeth of Hardeck,

to Meissen came, the use of her left foot & hand is recovered, who for fifteen years

in her left hand & foot lame, from her place

to move herself except by contrivances could not. The parish-priest

of that place that she to D. Benno should commend herself

advised: whom when she had obeyed, both of her foot &

left hand the use recovered, having brought back in memory of the matter to the Divine one's tomb the supports,

which to make her journey she had used. In her foot

& hand to have been caught by oath

they affirmed, Henry Zan a citizen of Meissen,

Mechtild his wife, & Gertrude,

with her for two nights with her

lodging used. But recovering they saw

several Canons, the Dean & Provost

of Bautzen, the Custodian of Meissen,

the Provost of Wurzen & others.

[83] In the same year, on the feast of the Divine Virgin

assumed into heaven, a drowned person is resuscitated, to D. Benno grateful

presented herself a woman at S. Gotthard,

an inhabitant of the Chana river, Christina by name;

whose little son Conrad a year and a half old,

his parents in celebrating the arrival of new

guests unobservant, into the river

fallen, & submerged, for the interval of an hour

under the waves lay. Which noticing the servant-girl

by her cry John Baur, an inhabitant of that

place, roused. Who entering the water,

the infant on the bottom found dead

extracted: whom D. Benno, a vow being made

commended to him, soon to life restored.

The matter so to be, not only the parents

by oath affirmed, but also the neighbors,

Peter, Bozlaus, & Benedict,

eyewitnesses said. On the feast of S. Gallus

D. Benno's tomb with his ten-year-old son

Thimo came. He entering a quarry,

the ground collapsing from above, so was crushed,

that the mass of earth, which had covered him, & overwhelmed by a collapse,

scarcely by ten wagons could be carried away,

he lay buried under this mound for so long

The father, the sorrowful news being heard,

running up with others after he removed

the earth the dead boy extracted,

to whom the parent immediately on his knees fallen

life from D. Benno recovered.

In the aforesaid year, on the day e of S. Ursula, speech is restored to a mute

tomb with her led her son

Jacob 15 years old, testifying with hearing

the very Bishop of Meissen Witigo

the second, the Provost, Dean, & other

very many Canons, & of both

orders men, this son

of hers once with her at Meissen had been, on the return

indeed fallen so suddenly had become mute,

that for almost six weeks

the use of his tongue he lacked: at last by

his neighbors warned that him to D. Benno's

tomb she would lead she vowed, which now

being done, to the youth speech had returned.

[84] In the year 1235 on the Saturday before

the feast f of S. Vitus, Gertrude of John de Ziegowe

wife, for five years mute from

the day of Pentecost, & in 1280 mute women. up to the said day

of Saturday to D. Benno at his tomb for

the use of her tongue a suppliant was, at the evening time

at last heard, speech received.

There came with her to Meissen Nicholas a

citizen of Gubin, son of Gerhard de Stadt,

& Euphemia of Nicholas Lerer, who

this in the presence of Peter Guardian, &

F. Helinbert of the Order of S. Francis of the Church

of Meissen the Custodians, Hartmann, & John

Vicars sworn said.

[85] In the year 1300 together with her sister

to Meissen came Margaretula Fravenstein, in the year 1300 an ulcerated shin is cured,

of the use of her feet deprived, & the most bitter

tortures endured had been, when one shin

gaping with nine holes continually with foul

corruption flowed: at last to D. Benno

she would visit, if through the health of her feet

it should be allowed. Which being done, the harmful pus

continuously dried up; & she together with her sister

her vow paid. To her affirming this

were present Lawrence de Lockau, John

de Esster-Werth a Priest, John

Koch, & Stephen Mayr, a Notary

public. & a woman touched by paralysis; In the same year on 22 July

related Romfoldius a Canon of Meissen,

with hearing Henry de Elsterberg,

& Nicholas de Elsterberg, of the Church

of Meissen Vicars, Stephen

Mayr a public Notary, that he recently sound

& strong to bed had gone,

but at night so great tortures suddenly in

one shin had felt, that by the contagion of the pain

gradually even his precordia were corrupted,

by apoplexy himself to be touched he had believed, especially

since his right foot to move from its place

he could not. In so great calamity to have fled

he himself to the known to B. Benno saving

help, & to him a wax offering to have vowed:

then when a little he had fallen asleep,

into his ears this voice to have slipped; but not except after his sins confessed.

God does not hear the prayers of sinners. Which

heard himself on the next light as soon as possible

by confession his soul to have purified, & pouring himself out at

the Divine one's tomb in prayers, sound & vigorous

home to have returned, God in His Saint

so wonderful without end with praises

extolling.

[86] one fallen from a height is resuscitated: On the day after the Kalends of August, Catherine

Myllerin of Korsebog, her infant

son in her arms to D. Benno's tomb

had brought, who from the upper story of the house

headlong fallen for the space of an hour as

dead had been bewailed; but as soon

as to Divine Benno a vow being uttered offered

he was, he revived. To his mother reporting this

were present Nicholas, & John, of Elsterwerth

brothers both priests, &

Stephen Mayr a public Notary. On the same

day also John Benemeister of Dresden,

his safety to D. Benno owed, one lame for six years is healed, who for six years with a lame

& ill-afflicted body lay sick, the Princes of the Apostles at Rome in vain

for recovering his health solicited. Home

from Rome returned, much everywhere narrated

of D. Benno's clemency toward the sick

he heard: wherefore he too by a vow

binding himself his help shouted out.

Which accomplished, at that very still moment of time

sound he came out. He said sworn in the presence

of Nicholas of Elsterwerth a Vicar,

John of Camenz the Margrave William's courtier,

Stephen Mayr a Notary. On the fifth

of August Osterholta of Northusen, for five years flowing with blood, who

for a whole five years by a flux of blood

labored, given up by the Physicians, to D.

Benno health owed: her husband,

when to Meissen he had come, to D. Benno commended:

which one home returned Osterholta

to health was restored. Narrated this

openly with hearing John Lobenizio, Conrad

of Eckersperg a Vicar, Nicholas

of Elsterwerth a priest, Stephen Mayr

a Notary.

[87] Nicholas Techwiz of Eziz two

almost months by the falling Disease labored, so

gradually destitute of strength, from the falling disease laid out, that within four

weeks neither drink nor anything else

he tasted, & a whole eight days not even a word

with his mouth could utter: wherefore

his life being despaired his kinsmen now about

the inheritance disputing candles for paying him

the last rites had procured. His wife the given-up-for-dead

by all husband by D. Benno's

promised offering, commended, which

being done, he on the next light better to be began, his face foully eaten away,

food & drink took, gradually

entirely recovered. He these all things

with his wife by the said oath affirmed,

to D. Benno most abundantly for so great a benefit

giving thanks, with hearing Conrad

Lobdano, Nicholas of Elsterwerth

of August. Nicholas Hofman of Freiberg dormice

his face with their pestilent urine had besprinkled,

from which they infected his face with venomous

ulcers; which putrefying

the flesh in a foul manner from his cheeks flowed down.

He by the unexpected evil struck, to D.

Benno's tomb the refuge of the wretched fled,

& a vow being uttered to his face his former

health recovered. an arthritic person, Heard these things

him testifying of himself John of Wurzen a priest,

Andrew of Hamberg a Notary,

John Gottfridt, Stephen Mayr likewise

Notaries, on the 17th of August. Thomas of Hayn

for 12 years by the joint disease labored

so, that his feet their office to perform,

except with supports applied could not: his hand

too without the help of others drink to his mouth

to bring he could not, after D. Benno's

help with a vow uttered to him invoked,

to walk on his feet without any support

could. To see the prodigy Berthold

of Gebese, Nicholas of Elsterwerth,

Stephen Mayr a Notary. On the 18th

of August.

[88] Adelheid Heringin of Meissen, for X

years by incredible pain of the eyes tortured

was, laboring in eyes & feet, & moreover for a whole month in her feet

labored: an offering for averting

the double evil at D. Benno's tomb

hung up, forthwith of her vow she became master

was, & to God & her Savior Benno

most abundantly gave thanks. There were present

at the deed Nicholas of Elsterwerth,

John Schreiber of Halberstadt, Stephen

Mayr a Notary, on the 24th of August.

Kunne, & a certain woman with several diseases, wife of Henry Stainmez of Northusen,

for XI years unheard-of in one foot

pains sustained, besides apoplexy,

& St. Anthony's fire not rarely at intervals

the wretched woman seized. An offering to D. Benno

uttered, outside the city of Meissen at S. Nicholas

she was present at a sermon. There it seemed to her,

that all her diseases like water through the bottoms of her feet

slipped away: which noticed on her feet

raised (which before she could not at all)

safe home she returned. There testified Nicholas

of Elsterwerth, John Lobenizio

Mayr a Notary, on the 24th of August. Clara

of Schweidnitz a girl, arthritic & apoplectic, for XII years by the joint disease,

& apoplexy labored: every

month too destitute of reason

so insanely she raved, that with bonds applied

by force she had to be restrained. As soon as

to D. Benno for her safety she by a vow

bound herself, from each disease freed

was. There were present at the miracle John of Wurzen,

George Leitner of Schilov, Stephen

Mayr a Notary, & Margaret

of Gommerfeld, who these all things by oath

confirmed, on the 24th of August.

[89] John, of Nicholas of Eckersperg

the son, an epileptic, a whole year by the falling disease

labored, after his parents for their son's

safety to D. Benno a vow uttered,

to be assailed by that evil thereafter ceased. So

testify Nicholas of Elsterwerth a priest,

Francis Suseliz a Shoemaker of Meissen,

& Stephen Mayr on the 30th of August.

Elisabeth de Borne for XX years by the joint

disease lay sick, arthritic. so that from her place to move herself

she could not. In so persistent a calamity

to D. Benno's tomb a vow being made

she fled, & soon the use of her limbs recovered

recovered. To her testifying of herself

were present John of Wurzen, Nicholas

of Elsterwerth priests, Nicholas of Cometava

from the Diocese of Prague, Stephen

Mayr a Notary, on the day before the Kalends of September.

On the same day Henry Altendorff

of Windenborg, for the following benefit

to D. Benno at Meissen gave thanks.

On Wednesday g, which the feast of the B. V. assumed

into heaven followed, herds are preserved from robbers. a band of six hundred

horsemen into that tract of the region,

in which he himself dwelt, to plunder had run out,

driving off cattle of every kind met:

which noticed, Henry, for

his own & his neighbors' herds, which under

the custody of boys in the nearest field were grazing,

solicitous, God & D. Benno

shouted out, promising within XV days

himself the Divine one's tomb to visit, if his cattle

the enemy untouched should leave. Ratified too

the vows were: for although one century of the horsemen

not far from those pastures

wandered, peaceful yet thence it went away.

Said this sworn, with hearing Bernard

of Gebese, John Lobeniz Vicars

of Meissen, & Stephen Mayr

a Notary.

[90] Nicholas Voyt, a citizen of Meissen,

long so in his eyes with the greatest pain labored,

that little from blindness he was distant.

His wife admonished him, that D. Benno's help

he should invoke. The counsel being approved a candle to the Divine one

as an offering he vowed: which being done, pus, of a chickpea

magnitude, in 1394 one almost blind is healed, from his eyes to slip down to him seemed

was, & at that moment to see as

ever at other times he began. With Ramfoldio

Albert Cappelndorff a citizen of Meissen,

Jacob Leitner, Stephen Mayr

Keseler for two years & a half by the falling

disease labored, an epileptic & six times a day

not rarely by that evil seized was; whence

into so vehement a disease he fell,

that of sound reason him destitute all

believed: to these all things him a fever

for XVII days with most keen cold burned.

As soon as D. Benno's help being invoked,

disease freed was. Said these things himself

sworn, with hearing Nicholas of Elsterwerth,

Matthias de Calou Vicars, Stephen

Mayr a Notary, on 14 June. A certain

Peter, from the village of Ahorn sprung,

for XIV years in his feet so labored,

that to walk he could not: poisonous pustules,

& swellings that evil had summoned.

But when recently together with his mother

to Meissen for the sake of pilgrimage

he had come, laboring in his feet for 14 years, & much of S. Benno's toward

the sick benefits he had heard, his mother him

with a wax offering to the Divine one commended, & for him

health recovered. This testifying

heard Andrew Graff Cantor & Canon,

Nicholas of Elsterwerth a priest,

Sigismund of Fensterwald, Nicholas

Pruchner of Luben, Stephen

Mayr a Notary, on 14 June.

[91] one-eyed & dim-sighted, A woman of Meissen, Ottilia by name,

for five years was one-eyed, in the other

eye too so useless, that with it rarely indeed

she could see; moreover with her blinded

eye onto a very sharp stake she had run,

& her pupil almost from its seat had knocked out

which to her most monstrous pains created.

After then her misery a vow being made

to D. Benno she had bewailed, a leprous woman,

to each eye light returned. Noted this

her testimony Nicholas of Elsterwerth,

Jacob of Herzenberg, Stephen

Mayr a Notary, on 16 June. A matron

of Meissen, surnamed Isenhutin

long with leprosy so vehemently was infected,

that her whole household her company shuddered at,

& at last from her had to be separated:

in this calamity to D. Benno's

tomb with prayers & vows she fled,

& in a short time from leprosy was purged. Said

this she herself sworn, in the presence of Nicholas Palano,

Nicholas of Elsterwerth, Stephen

Mayr a Notary, on 16 June.

[92] two sick women a mother & daughter, On the same day to D. Benno for restored

health gave thanks a mother & daughter,

she Adelheid, this Kele by name. The mother

long by the greatest pain around her precordia tortured,

but the daughter so in her feet ailing

was, that a whole year neither to stand,

nor to walk she could. Each, D. Benno's help being invoked,

her disease deserted.

This of themselves asserting were present,

John Hersteinius a Canon, Henry

Sleinizius, John Lobenizius, Vicars;

Nicholas of Elsterwerth a priest,

Stephen Mayr a Notary. The very Reverend

Father John Koltener, a Canon

Regular of S. Augustine of Leipzig,

in his right arm & tongue suddenly apoplectic,

neither voice to utter nor food

to take for three days could. But the patronage

of D. Benno being implored, both

the use of his tongue & arm freed from the disease

he received. This testify John of Wurzen,

John Stainbach a Canon, Nicholas

of Elsterwerth a priest, Stephen

Mayr a Notary. On the Kalends of September.

[93] in 1395 one with her soles eaten away. In the year 1395, a certain matron,

surnamed Willenlow of Aldendorf,

which place is distant ten miles from Erfurt,

for many years the most bitter pains

in the soles of her feet sustained, which soon

swollen to putrefy began, the flesh

falling away bit by bit. She turned herself in this

torture to D. Benno's tomb, & his

help with tears & prayers shouted out,

the series of this miracle to Meissen, together

with silver soles as an offering by

heard John Radeburg, &

an honest woman a citizen of Meissen, Tannmanin

surnamed, on 15 June. Elisabeth

Redelichin, of Langenbut not far

from Rochlitz, in her whole body by paralysis & the joint

disease ailing, lay sick for VII years'

space, neither to walk nor to move

herself able. Vowed she herself to D. Benno's

tomb she would visit, if by his patronage

she should recover. Immediately so much better

to be she began, pain of the head, 1483. that step by step,

with difficulty however, to walk she could. Wherefore

to the road toward Meissen she girded

herself, & while she made her journey, D. Benno with repeated

prayers she invoked. Which being done not far

from Rochlitz entirely she recovered. By oath

these things affirming there were present Andrew

Graff a Canon, Paul of Freiberg,

John Radeburg a Vicar, Nicholas

Homud a Canon of Wurzen, on 19 June.

A certain Canon of Meissen, by a difficult

disease, & especially by long pains of the head

afflicted, to D. Benno, by whose

help health he received, a candle as an offering

hung up, in the year 1483.

ANNOTATIONS OF D. P.

g In the year

1300 (as far as the beginning of number 85 noted all things consequently seem to have been done,

the months following in order, so that nowhere does it appear to pass to

another year) with the Dominical letter B, the feast of the Assumption fell on Monday.

INSERTION OF D. P.

On the Canonization of S. Benno, & the translation of his body to Munich.

§ I. The order of the prior act, from the Itinerary of Pope Adrian VI.

[1] The order of things demands, that the Miracles being related

which preceded the Canonization,

we should not pass to those, which in the twentieth

year after the Translation followed

(for hence a new beginning the German

texts take for us, From the Acts of Adrian 6, rendered into Latin) of each

Act let us say what we can. As far as the first

is concerned besides the Bull of Canonization,

of which in the following §. we have the Itinerary

of Adrian VI, from Spain to Rome

up, & the events of his Pontificate,

by Blasius Ortiz, in Decrees a Doctor & Canon of Toledo &

General Vicar, with the greatest fidelity collected;

& inscribed to the most Illustrious & most Reverend

Lord D. John Martin Silicaeus,

Archbishop of Toledo, & of the Spains

Primate etc.; but brought to light, from

an old Ms. Codex of the College of Navarre at Paris,

in book 3 of the Miscellanies of Stephen Baluze

1680; where Chapter XXX is inscribed,

on the Canonization of the Blessed Antoninus

& Benno: for at the same time both were celebrated

at Florence, in the year 1523 on the 31st

of May; but not at the same time published of each

Canonization the Bull. For Benno's was published

while Adrian still lived; but Antoninus's,

he being dead, by his successor Clement

VII: yet so that each nowhere mentions

the other at the same time canonized: just as

is to be seen at the day 2 of our May,

in the posthumous Glory of S. Antoninus §. 2. That Chapter

XXX thus has it.

[2] it is had that at the same time was canonized S. Because among other deeds by the Pontiff

to be remembered, the chief was the Canonization

of the Blessed, Antoninus Archbishop of Florence,

& also Benno of Saxony, which

Antoninus he celebrated on the Kalends of May (rather on the day Before

the kalends of June) of the aforesaid year: therefore to this

little work, as a most worthy thing, in such

first it must be asked, what is Canonization.

According to John Andreae chap.

I on the relics & veneration of the Saints,

To canonize, is to enroll someone by the supreme

Pontiff in the Catalogue of the Saints;

since to no one is it permitted to venerate someone, even if miracles

he has done, as a Saint, & that from the accustomed form, because

often through evil men certain quasi-miracles

are done. With great moreover instance must be sought

the Canonization: nor does the Pope easily

be moved to the inquisition of the sanctity of one to be canonized,

nay he ought to defer the commission

of investigating that one's life, that it may be seen

meanwhile whether the fame & miracles continue.

But if it be so then he commits the inquisition

upon the life & miracles of the man

to be canonized, as more fully these are handed down in

the said first chapter.

[3] the cause being maturely examined & reported: And first indeed the cause of the aforesaid

was committed by the Pontiff to Judges,

in the places of Florence, & Saxony,

that diligently through Witnesses of the life, morals,

& miracles of the aforesaid Antoninus

& Benno they might be informed, as the laws

decree, especially the text of the Chapter,

"Venerabili," on Witnesses, whose letter is such.

To our Venerable Brother the Bishop &

Chapter of Corosopitum & to all the Abbots,

at Cîteaux in general Chapter

gathered. And below: To your

discretion we command, that the Witnesses,

whom the Abbot & Monks of S. Martin of the Cistercian

Order, upon the Life & miracles

of pious memory M (Maurice) Abbot

of the aforesaid monastery shall have thought fit to produce,

you take care to examine one by one, with

that diligence, which is wont & ought in

the reception of witnesses to be applied. The information therefore of the aforesaid Antoninus & Benno, which when even the Theologians had weighed,

by the Judges according to the Apostolic mandate

had, under faithful custody is sent to the Pope:

& it he himself to one of the Auditors

of the sacred Palace to be examined handed; that

through him it might be discussed, whether it was rightly done,

& whether sufficient proof for the canonization

there had been he might weigh. Who indeed

that he had found it suitable & juridical

to the Pontiff reported. Which again the most holy Father

to the Theologians committed, that they might judge,

whether the morals, life, & miracles

of the Saints were worthy or not for them

to be canonized: & according to their votes (since

all things rightly had been found) with the most Holy Lord our Pope present,

with the most Reverend Brethren Prelates,

many other men in letters & nobility

famous, the Canonization in public Consistory

was proposed in this manner.

[4] Two indeed consistorial Advocates

declamatorily, [& consistorially it had been judged that to the Canonization one should proceed;] one indeed of one, the other

of the other the life, miracles, & other

things of this kind, that manifest they might become to all,

to the root expounded; beseeching the most Blessed

Pope, that those men, who by sanctity

& example in the way of their pilgrimage

eminent, into the Catalogue of the Saints to aggregate

he would. Then the Pontiff, after their

narration, thanks to God gave, who

never up to the end of the ages Saints

& Just men to bestow ceases: & that more holily

all things might proceed, a three-day fast

& prayers to God to be poured out to the Prelates

all enjoined, that He himself by His goodness into

their hearts, if true were the miracles,

their approbation from heaven might infuse;

but if false; to avert might deign. And

the fast being performed, after a three-day fast & repeated voting, the Cardinals & other Prelates,

with our most Blessed Father, in

the palace convened: & in a public assembly

of their life & sanctity, whether

of approbation or of improbation worthy they were,

just as to each from above was given, they conferred.

And although many of the Prelates,

that act adorning, solemnly the matter

had discoursed; yet the chief was,

Bishop of Cuenca, with prudence

& letters most full. And after a long

altercation among all it was agreed,

that the holy men be canonized.

[5] The Pontiff in the Vatican Basilica, So after two or three days, the most Holy one

with Clergy & People to the Basilica

of the Apostles, into a place boarded

higher ascending, amid the solemnities

of the Mass, with a high & intelligible voice

their praises treating, & all to

well-doing exhorting, with these words harangued

was: Glorious is God in His Saints

& in majesty wonderful; whose ineffable

height of prudence, by no limits enclosed,

by no bounds comprehended,

by the censure of right judgment the heavenly equally & earthly things

disposes; & though all His ministers

He magnifies, with high honors adorns,

& possessors of heavenly beatitude makes;

those however, that to the worthy worthy things He may repay,

with more powerful insignia of dignities He raises, &

with more abundant retribution of rewards He pursues, the people in a sermon having addressed,

whom more worthy He recognizes & commends

by the greater excellence of their merits.

So also kind Mother Church, His holy

footsteps following, & by the praiseworthy example led;

although all set in the heavenly kingdoms,

to extol with solicitous zeal,

& with sonorous proclamations to extol does not cease;

Antoninus however & Benno, the chosen

athletes of God, with special honors disposes

to be venerated. And therefore the circumspect prudence

of the holy See, which intent on salutary acts

& to works of piety exposed,

gladly executes what are God's; the foregoing

solicitously & worthily considering, &

with due meditation surveying, to the honor & glory of the divine

name, the exaltation of the catholic faith, & the safety of the faithful,

deservedly judged & duly provided, that the servants of God

through the holy & catholic Church are to be

venerated.

[6] We therefore, by pious counsels led, & by worthy

zeal excited, both Saints to be held & venerated he pronounces, some of our predecessors

the Roman Pontiffs of special devotion following

with affection,

to imitate solicitously intending, who certain

Saints have canonized; with the consent of our Brethren

equally & assent, the Blessed Antoninus

Archbishop of Florence, &

Benno of Saxony, into the Catalogue of the Saints

we enroll, & their Feasts, Masses,

& Offices, in their commemoration,

through all the churches of the world,

every year in perpetual future times,

to be celebrated we grant & ordain. he allows nothing of expenses to be made, The bystanders

indeed with concordant jubilation praised together

the Lord, saying, Te Deum we praise

etc. And although a sum of moneys

not small in a similar act, both in the Pontifical

household to be clothed, & in other expenses

is wont to be consumed; the most circumspect

however Pope such expenses, as alien

from sanctity & from the purity of the Canonization

to be made forbade. Which rarely (since money

at a great price is held) seen among men

I reckon: but not without complaint of the households

& others, their reward

expecting, it was done.

[7] This passage of Ortiz when I Daniel Papebroch

to Pope Adrian's praise in the Chronico-historical Attempt simply had transcribed, no

word added by which that the best Pontiff's

sense should seem mine to make, in all

that latitude with which perhaps it could be taken; nor

yet any restriction to it I had applied, in himself & his household

thinking that no one would be so foolish, as to suppose

that the Pontiff absolutely had condemned by word

or deed, what he knew by so many of his most holy

predecessors too to have been practiced; it pleased my adversaries

before the Apostolic See. Indeed I think

abundantly to have dispelled the calumny in Part I of my Responses

to the Exhibition of errors

imputed to me Art. 2 §. 18. Here however

of it I wished to make mention, because now first from

the most Erudite Magliabechi I receive the aforesaid Canonization's

Acts, & in the rest so far favored, as far as S. Antoninus

they regard, most accurately & most securely described

by the Dominican Procurator of the whole cause; & from

them various things I understand, by Ortiz not sufficiently explained.

And first that the Pontiff did not forbid

that any expenses should be made, as if they were absolutely

alien from the sanctity & purity of such

an act, but that they should not be made for his own person

& his household to be clothed etc.: but for the other

uses he had wished some moderation, namely

that to the supplicants only should be remitted, so that they were restricted to 1800 ducats on the part of S. Antoninus,

as much as honestly could be done, the reward of labor

to each being saved, & the majesty of an action so

magnificent. So to the Datary it was commanded I read,

that those expenses he himself as graciously as possible should tax,

but he taxed them at two thousand ducats

of the Chamber, of which sum a thousand eight hundred

ducats, from the Florentines' alms collected

were represented by the Procurator himself,

before to the public Consistory it proceeded,

the Pontiff himself much contributing

that with such a sum the cause could be expedited. Probable

it is on the part of the Emperor, for Benno

supplicating, a no less or even larger

sum was expended; why not also, on the part of S. Benno? & therefore all those

Acts here could have been published: but because in them

scarcely once or twice both Benno himself &

the Imperial Legate is named, more fitting I judged

the most worthy relation to be read, to defer to

the supplement of May, when S. Antoninus's

Acts will be brought to the anvil again.

§. II. The same act & others preceding, from the Bull of Canonization more distinctly is explained.

[8] In the bull after the exquisite Life & miracles, The Bull is extant in vol. 3 of the Bullary, by Cherubinus

Laertius compiled, in the Appendix,

& begins: The exalted Lord the militant

Church of precious living stones,

to that highest cornerstone

Christ Jesus united with most adorned variety

decorated, with a wondrous structure to found

disposed: & it is explained, a descent

being made from the Patriarchs & Prophets, through the other

orders of the Saints, up to the Virgins

& widows. §. 2 it is declared, how God

in that same Church raised up the glorious Confessor

Blessed Benno, to the supernal company

deservedly to be associated, nay more truly associated;

who among the other athletes, by his

merits & examples, the holy Church itself,

with divine grace cooperating, manifoldly

decorated; & of the present time the

darkness, by the splendor of his lamp, wonderfully

illustrated. Which is shown §. 3 &

4, where are indicated the virtues & some miracles

by which in life & after death he was renowned

& which we have set forth. Then in the said Bull

the same Pontiff these things adds:

[9] There could here very many other miracles

be brought: he narrates that asked by Charles V & other Princes, for many by divine Benno's

merits from the dead raised it is clear:

many of various diseases cured; finally that he who

made a vow, no one of his benefit

did not feel. On account of which our most dear in

Christ son, Charles King of the Romans

& of the Spains the Catholic, into

Emperor elected; & our beloved sons,

Albert Presbyter of S. Peter in Chains,

& Matthew Deacon of S. Angelo,

Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church; &

our venerable Brothers, Richard of Trier,

& Hermann of Cologne Archbishops,

by their patent letters;

as well as the beloved sons, the noble men, Ferdinand

Archduke of Austria, & George

& Henry brothers german, Dukes

of Saxony, Landgraves of Thuringia, &

Margraves of Meissen, through our venerable Brother

John Bishop of Meissen,

Nuncio & Orator to Us

by them destined, & the beloved son

William de Enkenvort, Bishop-elect of Tortosa,

Datary & our domestic Prelate,

their with us & the See

Apostolic also Orator & business

Agent, humbly caused supplication to be made;

that the foregoing diligently being inquired

& explored, to the Blessed man's Canonization

to proceed we would deign. Whose

indeed prayers gladly to assent we would wish,

& especially we would rejoice, that such

by a certain divine ministry happened; & moved by the miracles, &

to us just it seemed, that this same B. Benno,

whom now God in the heavenly glory

of the choir of the Saints worthy to have made, by very many

& manifest indications & miracles had shown,

on earth too of the Saints' due honor

should not be defrauded; not immediately

but, according to the old & praiseworthy

custom, cautiously & maturely

to be considered we deemed.

[10] the triple Process being examined being proved After a triple inquisition therefore,

from of recallable memory Alexander the sixth

first, & then Julius the second, & successively

Leo the tenth, our predecessors

too commissions upon this

duly made; at last the same Leo the tenth,

to three too of the Roman Church

Cardinals, from the three of their orders,

namely our venerable brothers,

Bernardino of Ostia of the holy Cross

in Jerusalem, & Antony of Albano

Bishops, then with the title of S. Vitalis Presbyter,

& John of SS. Cosmas & Damian

Deacon, of the Cardinals of his Brethren,

(of whose number, although absent,

then we were) with counsel & assent

committed, that they, the Processes seen & examined,

published upon that same blessed

man's life, morals, fame & miracles,

before & after his death by his

intercessions by God done, & all other things

to the Canonization of the Saints of this kind

necessary, themselves upon all &

each diligently should inform; & through

them found out, in their secret Consistory,

as the custom was, faithfully should report.

And when the Cardinals themselves, the diverse

Processes seen & examined, in the parts

of Germany by the aforesaid See's commission

had, & to our Curia transmitted;

& of witnesses worthy of faith the depositions,

for the dignity of so great a thing, & the votes of the Cardinals, duly

weighed; of the aforesaid miracles

& sanctity of life & other things by law required,

too secret Consistories had made;

& We their & all the Cardinals'

votes, for celebrating the said Canonization,

convenient & conformable had found;

& for more celebrated execution the beloved

son John Baptist of Siena,

Doctor of both Laws, & of our hall

Consistorial Advocate, in public Consistory

all things of that same Blessed man's life,

morals, fame & miracles copiously had recounted;

& to us humbly had supplicated,

that to that same Blessed man's Canonization,

mature deliberation being premised, to proceed

we would deign.

[11] We, for the things related before Us first of all

the greatest thanks to almighty God

giving, the appointed prayers & fasts being commanded asked all in that same public

Consistory then standing by, that with their

prayers & fasts the Church of God they would aid;

& that it the Most High in no way

in such Canonization's office

to err would permit, instantly they should pray. At last

after some days, convoked anew

in our hall Consistorial, in the palace

Apostolic, all & singular, who

then were present in the Roman Curia, Ecclesiastical

Prelates, namely Patriarchs, Archbishops,

Bishops, in the presence of those same

our Brethren, of the said Roman

Church the Cardinals, those same Processes

upon that same Blessed man's life, morals,

fame, & miracles published, through

that same John Baptist briefly & summarily

to be repeated we caused. Which when from

the series, by the Cardinals & others to whom

that duty by Us had been enjoined,

narrated & expounded had been; & all

the bystanders the Prelates, what to them upon such

Canonization's business seemed,

being asked, with unanimous consent, nothing at all

disagreeing, had answered, that to them it seemed,

that the same Blessed man among the saints

deservedly be enrolled & numbered;

We again humble to that same almighty

God, on the 31st of May the 1st Sunday after Pent. that to His Blessed servant

with due honors to be pursued,

our hearts to illuminate He had deigned,

thanks giving; to his Canonization,

the first Sunday after

Pentecost, which then occurred on the last

day of the month of May, in the year of the Lord

one thousand five hundred and twenty-three,

we deputed: & in the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles

of the City, an ample wooden platform

according to custom to be prepared & adorned we ordered.

Upon which indeed today, with all the Clergy

& people standing by, of the life,

miracles, & fame of that same B. Benno,

with humble & devotion full, as is the custom,

the hymn, Veni creator Spiritus, throughout

devoutly being sung, as also by the Procurators

of the cause of that Canonization,

& by that same Charles into Emperor

elected at the aforesaid See constituted

Orator, from Us with great instance

asked to be pronounced, to be enrolled among the saints

the same B. Benno (since now all things

were consummated, & all the Church's

accustomed ceremonies upon that matter duly we had observed)

God before our eyes having,

to the Canonization of the same Blessed one under these words

to proceed we deemed & proceeded.

[12] To the praise & honor of the holy &

undivided Trinity, & the exaltation of the Catholic

Faith, B. Benno into the Catalogue of the Saints he inscribed, & of the Christian religion

the augmentation, by the authority of our Lord

Jesus Christ & of the Blessed Peter & Paul

the Apostles & Ours, with our Brethren's

counsel, we decree & define;

that of good memory Benno, formerly

Bishop of Meissen, is a Saint, &

in the Catalogue of the Saints to be enrolled, & him

in that same Catalogue of the Saintly Confessors

we describe: ordaining, that by

the universal Church every year his feast

& office, just as for one Confessor

Pontiff, on the sixteenth day of the month

of June, that is on the day of his deposition,

devoutly & solemnly be celebrated. And moreover

by the same authority to all truly penitent

& confessed, who every single year

to the sepulchre of that same S. Benno on the same

day shall come, seven years &

as many quarantines of the penances enjoined upon them

mercifully we relax.

[13] These duly performed, & begun

by Us, & he invoked by the proper prayers in the Mass being sung: & sung up to

the end by our cantors, the hymn, Te

Deum laudamus; in its end too

the Cardinal Deacon in chant saying, Pray

for us B. Benno, & by the choir answered,

That we may be made worthy of the promises

of Christ; We forthwith the proper Prayer

of the same Saint with a high voice sang,

saying: God, who us by B. Benno

the Pontiff's glorious confession surroundest

& protectest; grant us both by his

imitation to profit, & by his intercession to rejoice.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ

Thy son, who with Thee lives &

reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit God,

through all the ages of ages. Then indeed

by the said choir was answered. Amen. A solemn

Mass there We ourselves celebrated,

of the said then occurring Sunday

first after Pentecost. The Collects each

under one conclusion terminating,

the aforesaid too & the other special ones being added

of the same S. Benno the Collects immediately

following: for the secret namely:

Thy Saint, we beseech O Lord, Benno

Confessor & Pontiff may everywhere gladden us,

that while we recall his merits

glorious, with thee always patronage we may feel:

with its conclusion, namely Through Christ

etc. Then indeed the Postcommunion we subjoined,

saying: We beseech O Lord, with salutary

mysteries filled, that of Thy Saint

Benno the Confessor & Pontiff, whose

solemnities we celebrate, also by the intercession

we may be aided; he grants Indulgences, with a similar conclusion. And

so the Mass itself up to the end, with

the usual ceremonies, according to the Apostolic Ordinary,

there duly we terminated; & an Indulgence

plenary to all at this Office

then standing by, devoutly we bestowed.

The present letters in testimony of the foregoing

granting, to the praise &

glory of almighty God, who in His saints

is wonderful, & glorious lives &

reigns, blessed in the ages of ages.

[14] But because difficult it would be these

present letters to the notice of all

to bring, & he concludes the Bull, we will & decree, that

to their transcripts, by the hand of a Notary

public subscribed, & with the seal of some Prelate

Ecclesiastical fortified, faith be given

undoubted, in all & through all;

& by them everywhere it be stood, as if the original letters

of this kind were exhibited or shown.

To no one therefore at all of men let it be permitted this page

of our decree, definition, description,

statute, relaxation, concession,

& will to infringe, & to it by rash

daring to go contrary. But if anyone this

shall presume to attempt, the indignation of almighty

God & of the Blessed Peter & Paul

His Apostles let him know himself to be about to incur.

Given at Rome at S. Peter's,

in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand

five hundred and twenty-three, on the day before

the Kalends of June, in the year of our Pontificate

the first.

To Castello

Seen W. de Enkenvort

T. Hezius

Registered with me T. Hezius:

on the back it is signed of the Apostolic Bulls.

The same all you have in Matthew Rader,

vol. 3 of Holy Bavaria pag. 186

& following, & indeed from the original more faithfully

transcribed, from the original Ms. more sincerely published by Rader than printed in the Bullary: where

the Bull is read given, in the year of the Pontificate

the sixth; & that not in cipher, by which in

the margin rightly is noted Dat. P. an. 1; but

with the number at length expressed. Which more than

given to the typesetters (men for the most part

most ignorant) of at length extending

the numeral notes of the copies brought to the press,

with danger of most frequent & most grave

errors. But that Rader from the original

transcribed the Bull gives, prove also

the marginalia of the Ministers subscribing, usually in

the Bullary omitted, & here solicitously to the numbered,

if not to anything else, at least in argument

of a faithful transcription.

[15] That Canonization most ill affected Luther,

whom Rader says in the Life of S. Benno, Luther gnashing in vain

grieved vehemently, that his impious

dogmas at the same time by the great miracles of D. Benno

were refuted. So an impious

mouth against the holy man he thrust out, & a book

in his native tongue put forth, to which this Inscription

he made. Against the new idol & ancient

devil, at Meissen to be exalted.

These impious & Patroclian papers of Luther,

Adam Tanner, of our Society

famous, with three orations refuted, at Ingolstadt,

in the year 1608, on the 14th of the Kalends

of July published: whom Tanner refuted: in which these three questions

he treats. Whether Luther was a Prophet of Germany,

especially indeed of that glory,

with which now S. Benno in Bavaria shines?

Then: Whether Luther of the past

illustrious deeds of S. Benno

is a fair estimator? Thirdly, Rightly

did Luther once both to the Canonization &

exaltation of S. Benno oppose himself? Where

Tanner shows that Luther a false Prophet

was, & a true poet, although

no verse he could make. Most iniquitous

then a Judge & censor of the deeds

of S. Benno: impiously finally that he opposed himself to the Canonization.

D. P.

[16] But as much as the impious heresiarch grieved,

the glory of S. Benno being amplified, so much

rejoiced the of the ancestral religion in Germany

tenacious Catholics: George however Duke of Saxony wondrously rejoicing, & especially that one in

the Pontifical letters named & by Rader

praised, that renowned hero of Saxony, of Meissen

the Princeling George, who in that cause

most vehemently had labored; & when, what his

Ancestors & he himself especially had wished

he had obtained, letters about this matter gave to

the Dukes of the Bavarians, William & Louis,

by which he asked, that the Pontiff's authority,

by which D. Benno among the Blessed

to dwell, & with public cult to be venerated had announced,

in his Bavarian provinces &

chief cities, at Munich, Ingolstadt,

Landshut, Landsberg, in a sermon

should be proclaimed, & before the doors

of the temples the tablets themselves should be set up.

There are kept those of Prince George & John

Bishop of Meissen letters in the archive

of the chief church of Munich, which I myself

in the native tongue written with pleasure

read. So Rader; who since in the brevity proposed

to himself (which however here not moderately

he exceeds) by no means was permitted those letters

in Latin to be read to exhibit; also exhorting the Bavarians to promulgate the bull. a thing by no means to be neglected

I judged, nor so notable

from the posterity of Princes, by that same S. Benno's

prayers with God happily to it

beginning to be brought back. But to no other end profited

that attempt of mine, than that John's

other letters originally on parchment written,

& with a great waxen seal fortified were found

word for word such, as already Henschen

from that same Rader transcribed had left,

as below are read num. 19. But those aforementioned,

if still they be found, will be able

to serve a supplement to be made hereafter. One thing

here I would note that I believe the Translation followed

by many miracles, of which however the notice

consigned to no writing perished up to the year

1539.

§. III. The translation of the body from Meissen to Munich, followed by a miracle.

G. H.

[17] In the Pontifical Bull set forth in the preceding §.,

are praised George & Henry, brothers

german, Dukes of Saxony, Landgraves

of Thuringia, & Margraves of Meissen; who

through John Bishop of Meissen, George the Catholic Duke being deceased, Nuncio

& Orator to the Roman Pontiff

by them destined, humbly caused supplication to be made,

that to S. Benno's Canonization

to proceed he would deign. Would that thus

with equal step had proceeded both! not so dissimilar

of each would have been the end. Henry the Younger,

by Luther driven mad, into heresy

fallen all with him posterity drew; the elder

Prince George (the words are of Lawrence

Surius in the Commentary of the deeds of his

time) with a generous & plainly German fortitude of mind,

in the ancestral religion of his Ancestors

most constant, & to Charles

V Emperor far the best always most devoted,

worthy truly on many counts,

whom all posterity with praises should bear, whom

Luther egregiously with revilings & contumelies,

& indeed with impunity, often had reviled,

in the year 1539 closed his last day

of life the most Famous & most upright Prince

of Saxony George: by whose death the greatest

harm received the Christian religion.

For no children he left. & his brother Henry the Lutheran succeeding, So

by testament he wrote heir his brother

Henry, & his sons Maurice &

Augustus, on this condition that nothing

in religion they should change. There were sent to

Henry, who this to him should propose: but

meanwhile died the pious Prince, &

immediately Henry the whole dominion occupied,

& into all the places of Meissen, Thuringia

& Saxony, which Prince George

had obeyed, Luther's dogmas introduced;

These things Surius: which in Bzovius &

other Historians too are related. But to S.

Benno let us return.

[18] amid the Sacrileges of the heretics, Rader, this same deploring, thus

proceeds: George being deceased, with whom

at the same time Catholic piety in Saxony & Meissen

was buried, there followed most wretched &

hostile to heaven & earth times: in which not

enough was it for the impious, sacrilegious hands to the sacred

seats & buildings of the Saints to bring, to spoil

the temples, to pollute the sacred altars, of the Heavenly Ones

the statues to break, all from the sanctuaries

ornaments to strip away, gold & silver,

precious garments & furniture to carry off,

sacred with profane, profane with sacred to mix,

all to profane; unless into the bowels

of the earth they went, the sacred ashes & manes of the Saints

to defile. Whose however fury

Benno, through the care of his successors,

escaped, for a while in the secret

chambers of the Bishops kept, The body of S. Benno preserved: until

Albert V, the renowned Duke of the Bavarians, &

through letters of that most holy Bishop

the sacred pledge earnestly sought, &

in the year 1576 happily obtained: as

the public testimonies of the Meissen Pontiff & College

of Priests, which I subjoin, testify.

[19] by John Maltiz the Bishop We John, by the grace of God Bishop

of Meissen to all about to see these our

patent letters, salvation in the Lord we pray,

we attest & make known.

When the Church of Meissen, the Cathedral &

native church of our Bishopric, persecution

suffered from the Lutherans, under Henry Duke

of Saxony; the most Reverend John,

by family Maltiz, at that time Bishop,

fearing lest in that perturbation

& irruption of the temples & breaking of the images,

the Relics of the Saints there for the longest

time, with great veneration

kept & preserved, should be plundered

& profaned; wishing to provide for such

dangers, opened the tomb or sepulchre

magnificently built; in which D.

Benno the Bishop's body solemnly hidden

was, & there for the longest time

with many miracles was renowned, most holily

visited & honored had been. & those

holy Relics of the whole body of D.

Benno, together with the hairshirt, mitre, carried to the citadel of Stolpen; &

pastoral staff of that same Divine one, & other

Relics, namely the skull of D. Donatus Martyr,

which however by age into pieces

had fallen, the finger of S. Paul the Apostle &

certain other unknown Relics,

because their labels by age perished,

in a tin box hidden he removed: &

into the chapel of the citadel of Stolpen, his Episcopal

Seat, distant six miles from

the Church of Meissen, of the same Bishopric

transported. In which place they remained,

while lived the aforesaid Bishop, & his Successor

Nicholas Kerlewisius. In whose

place when we indeed unworthily into Bishop

elected succeeded, it happened that

immediately at the beginning of our Pastorate into exile

driven, harsh things we suffered.

[20] Meanwhile the Reverend Nicholas Gruner,

was the sacristy of that chapel committed & entrusted,

by divine grace willing, memory

had of the hidden Relics in

the citadel of Stolpen, which just now we named,

& with great affection of piety, to that place

hastening, from the aforesaid chapel removed,

& within the bed of his chamber enclosed most holily

for a while kept, until

we from exile restored; the growing age of the aforesaid Priest to our hands,

those holy Relics faithfully handed over.

After our return from exile, it was transacted,

with our Chapter consenting, & in the sepulchre of one Bishop in the town of Wurzen deposited. that

the citadel of Stolpen to the most Illustrious Duke Elector of Saxony

by exchange should be handed over; therefore

the aforesaid Relics we placed with our hands

in the sepulchre of John Bishop of Meissen

by family Salhausen, our predecessor,

which sepulchre even today wholly

stands in the Collegiate Church of B. Mary

the Virgin of the town of our Bishopric Wurzen,

with this our intention, that these holy Relics

up to the last day there safely

ought to remain.

[21] But indeed when the most Illustrious Duke of Bavaria

Albert, by the intercession of our Dean

Jerome de Komerstat, of pious memory,

the Relics sought; we thought

the aforesaid hidden ones into a safer place to send back.

We drew out therefore with our hands

the aforementioned box, afterward to Albert Duke of Bavaria given, & the holy Relics

we found & recognized: & to his

Highness, as to a Catholic Prince,

with a willing & devout mind for preventing

profanation submissively we offered,

transmitted & handed over. We attest

again & again that the aforementioned Relics

in truth by our predecessors

the Bishops, Clergy & people, up to

our times piously cultivated & most holily

were preserved, & by many were renowned miracles:

of which the index together with the description

of the Life of S. Benno & certain other things,

to the most Illustrious Highness of the Duke of Bavaria we handed over.

Of this matter for greater faith, for

confirming the very truth, this

our diploma by the impression of our great seal

we have confirmed. Done in the residence of our Bishopric

of our town of Wurzen,

on Laetare Sunday, in the year of restored

salvation one thousand five hundred and seventy-six. John,

by the grace of God & of the Apostolic See

elected & confirmed Bishop of Meissen,

as well as Provost of Naumburg,

for greater & firmer testimony with his own hand

subscribed. Thus far the diploma,

in which the cited John de Salhausen flourished

as the 40th Bishop of Meissen up to about the year

1518, when there was elected John de

Schleiniz, who sent as Orator to Rome was present

at the Canonization of S. Benno, & to him substituted

John Maltiz here above mentioned,

& having died in the year 1549 had

as successor Nicholas Kerlewisius, to whom he

testifies himself to have succeeded, John Haubitzius,

the author of this diploma & as if with the body

of S. Benno, even divine protection had departed,

the Bishopric thenceforth devolved

to the Lutheran Princes, Augustus & Christian

Dukes of Saxony, & Christian the Elector,

& others.

[22] Munich, says Rader, in the year

1576, which now at Munich in its own chapel is honored, Divine Benno entered, & in the palace

of the Prince for four years as a guest

cultivated, At last in the year 1580 with great ceremony

& festivity, into the greatest church of the Blessed

Virgin carried, there a foot & seat

eternal he fixed … There was built for him before

the choir of the chief church, in the very temple,

where in the altar, to his name inscribed &

dedicated, his sacred Relics are placed.

With so great moreover a frequency of flocking

people he began to be cultivated, that in one some

year, which was the thousand six hundred and third,

eighty parishes, with

banners & public supplications, before

D. Benno appeared. with the greatest concourse & miracles. To the Bavarians so dear

he is, & deservedly, that for no riches

& abundance him to exchange they would wish or suffer.

These things Rader, who adds that he as a youth

in the year 1580 in the more polished then letters

versed, of the most holy triumph, when the sacred

Relics to the church of the Mother of God the Virgin were transferred,

was.

D. P.

[23] Thus far Henschen: who when in that same

Rader he had seen, Their books full sought that there are read

whole volumes, of which one after

another was published, in which S. Benno's

prodigies copiously are described, which by all hands

are handled; them indeed

diligently he sought, but sooner from the living departed

than they were brought. But there was brought one

from the German exemplar of the year 1608

also somewhat of the aforenoted translation a little

more distinct narration in this sense. Brought

to Munich the Relics for some years'

space remained in a certain private

place of the court, a more distinct relation of the Translation brought, until in the year 1578 Lord

Kommerstat of pious mem. of the Ducal Chamber

Counselor, to a certain man, who of the ecclesiastical

counsels of his Serene Highness was, the matter a second

time disclosed. He, as being a spiritual man,

to these continuously intent, to the address

of his Serene Highness to be admitted sought, & him

in the presence of the most Serene Consort

about this matter advised, with submissive observance

insinuating, how indecent it is,

so great Relics in a place as it were private,

without honor & reverence, to lie: pious

& advisable it would be, if to the most serene Ancestors,

the tomb of the Emperors & Dukes,

into the Collegiate of the Divine Virgin

they were transferred, that with annual there cult

Divine Benno might be honored: it would be perhaps,

that the Best Deity, on account of his intercession

more miracles would do. Some weeks

being spent on deliberation, done in the year 1580 to the church of the D. V. called

again to himself the aforesaid Ecclesiastical

Counselor, the Sacred Relics to him he granted;

whose however translation various impediments

into the year one thousand five hundred (and eighty)

put off: when first, although

not without difficulty, in the retinue of some of the most Serene

Heads, to the aforesaid

Church besides other Relics

carried, & in the high altar deposited

they were.

[24] And this Divine Benefactor various

soon hung-up offerings demonstrated; miracles soon following

as also various papers, which were of this tenor

(God & Divine Benno, by his intercession,

me from this & that evil freed)

The Bishop himself too from Aw, now

to his extremity brought, & of the use of reason

destitute, to S. Benno's patronage commended,

to his mind & health returned.

To another too Bishop a drink, in which

this Divine one's Relics had been placed, the evil, These in the year 1601 beginning to be published,

by which dangerously unexpectedly seized

he had been, all wiped away. Miracles

these on account of the feared heretics' & perfidious

calumnies long suppressed; another

at last manifest miracle, which in the year

1601 with a woman who was afflicted in her foot,

in that very church happened, into light

& veneration drew. The miracle

this was such, that all conscious of this

to the press it to be committed urged, which both

of foreign kingdoms the devout cultivators might rouse,

& the suppliant hands of those same to

curing a silver image of the Divine one might open

with the greatest liberality, by which aided then

by others' too piety, that, which

now to see it is, a silver image to the Divine one

he set up. So daily of pilgrims

increased the number, a silver statue is made. that to the Ecclesiastical

functions in the choir scarcely place it permitted;

wherefore the H. Relics thence anew

removed into some vacant altar were placed

again, until the most Serene Duke of Bavaria

William with those contributing too

of every state other devout ones,

in honor of this Saint a chapel, scarcely

to any in Germany second, to be built took care.

Of the miracles there is no end; so that

rightly to say it is permitted; The hand of the Lord is not

shortened, & a new chapel. that it cannot Save; nor

is heavy His ear, that it does not

hear. Isaiah LIX & that; Wonderful

is God in His saints. Further since the wonderful

cases, into which Divine Benno's,

as has been said, Relics came, of sinister

talk here & there the cause had given;

few knowing the series of the matter;

it pleased this true relation into light

to publish: whose testifying letters & seal,

as also other documents, the Collegiate of Munich

has. Whence to see it is permitted, how

wonderfully these Relics, not only against

heretics & other enemies of the Church

were preserved & defended; but also how

celebrated by the Best Deity were rendered

they were.

[25] After these from other German prints,

those (I believe) of which I said Rader made mention;

was brought a great abundance of Miracles from the year

1601 up to the 22nd of the same century at Munich

performed, The other Miracles how here they are given. & into Latin rendered by

P. Francis Halder, which will constitute for us the second

Part of this argument, but without

any Annotations: for it did not seem worth the labor

each cured person's homeland more accurately to scrutinize,

since nothing else almost occurred,

about which our diligence could be occupied.

One thing I would warn, that the days & years are noted,

not in which the miracle was done; but

in which it was testified duly & into the books referred

it was. License too to me to be made I ask, for

the favor of foreigners, of several consonants

in the Bavarian names hardly to bear, of smoothing

it by the interposition of a second vowel

in those places, where the gentler dialect admits it,

writing e.g. for Horl num. 7 Horel, for

Stadler num. 13 Stadeler, for Sedlmayr

num. 19 Sedelmayr, for Hinstrmuller

num. 22 Hinstermuller, & others similar.

Although I am not ignorant, that that of the second

vowel before liquids elision, & of two

into one syllable contraction, a wondrous grace

procures to the German, as now refined

is held, tongue. But lest anyone be terrified

by Schm, Schn, Schw at the beginning of syllables

placed, let him know that that Sch almost not

more is worth than the sounds S & that Schmid

or Schweick scarcely otherwise sounds than Smid,

Sweik & that the ch placed after S only

the hiss of the S itself strengthens, that sharper

it comes out. Finally know that these all things received

are to be referred to the care of R. P. Frederick Milholtzer,

in the year 1690 Rector in our Munich

college who to his there preacher P. Francis

Halder this of the work committed.

PART II.

Miracles performed at Munich in the 17th century.

From the German prints.

By the Interpreter P. Francis Halder S. J.

IN THE YEAR 1601.

[1] Agatha Obermairin of Wessobrunn,

40 years old, on the recent feast of Pentecost

suddenly so bitter pains in her left

shin felt, In the year 1601. A woman for her dead foot, using a wooden one, that day & night to rest

never could. By the patronage then of distinguished

men into the electoral Hospital

promoted, for 14 weeks there lay sick,

by the support of a crutch with great difficulty

walking, until at last altogether with a wooden

foot, which with thongs to her body she bound,

with the greatest however difficulty she used.

And although the physicians in applying every kind

of medicaments their parts strenuously

did, their labor however all they lost,

so gradually the shin growing,

that to be cut, to be burned, to be pricked, without any of the sick woman's

sensation it could. She would have permitted herself her foot

beneath the knee altogether to be cut off, had not the physicians

her from this purpose dissuading, a warm

bath in the coming summer prescribed.

By chance about the day to D. D. Simon

& Jude sacred, outside the hospital

to a banquet admitted, having heard S. Benno's miracles moved, much of S.

Benno's toward the sick prodigies to be read from

his history she heard: whence she of her misery

admonished, with tears to heaven

her hands lifted; promising, that, as

soon as it should be allowed, a Mass in D. Benno's

honor to be done she would take care at the altar of the holy

Cross, where on the solemn days that Divine one's

sacred remains to the people to be seen to be exhibited

are wont; hoping herself altogether by D. Benno's patronage

from so great a calamity to be able to be freed. Deferred

she this purpose into the third

week, although continuously that it

she should execute in dreams she was admonished. Wherefore

on 19 November in the year 1601 the Priest

D. Leonard Haner, who to her on the next

light a Mass should read, she appointed. In the morning

having confessed to P. Charles Leopold of the Society

of Jesus Preacher & Theologian, in the temple

of the B. Virgin born sacred, with other distinguished

matrons, whom she had wished to be present, she was present;

& twice with the same to the offering with her wooden

foot the altar she approached. while on 19 Nov. she attends a votive Mass at the Relics When the offering being performed

to her place she was returning, suddenly as if

where she was, what she was doing, almost not knowing.

When at last lifted, & to her chair brought

she had been, returning to herself, a heat

moment of time its toes

to move she could. For joy then scarcely

mistress of herself, a knife she sought; & the bonds

of the wooden foot broken & it cast away on her own

steps now the altar approaching, from the Priest's hands

the sacred Communion she took, in body

& soul, if ever otherwise, most holy.

These all things so to have been done sworn said herself

Agatha Obermayrin: her restored to life she rejoices. the same testify

all the Physicians by their own handwriting, in

whose power she had been; & Anna Gasnerin,

Anna Kheprunnerin, Sybilla Gandnerin

& others. For perpetual memory of the matter

also the wooden crutch at D. Benno's altar

is kept.

[2] Of Udalric Kracker a citizen of Munich

the wife Maria, is cured an infant's dead arm in a dangerous indeed childbirth

with difficulty a fetus brought forth. The infant

scarcely with the sacred font washed had been,

when his left little arm swelling,

help, the care of physicians being applied,

nothing was omitted; all things however in vain

were; for the infant's arm gradually

so dried up, that touch it no longer felt.

Under these things the new mother visited Jacob

Zweng then Councilor's wife, & her

consoled, related an unwonted miracle,

which S. Benno recently in a lame woman

performed; persuading, that she too of her infant's

health by a vow should commend. Obeyed

forthwith the mother: the following night the infant

now better was: the next light the swelling subsiding

altogether recovered. To see

the prodigy eyewitnesses Sigismund Pochen

& his master, Surgeons, Apollonia

Nadlerin, Maria Segerin widows. On the Kalends

of December.

[3] Of Christopher Mayr, citizen & letter-carrier

of Munich, & of another two holes in the mouth. the little son Christopher,

had, which to him the greatest pains

created: & although the solicitous mother, using

the counsels of the healers, & medicine long these wounds

to cure had tried; her labor

however she wasted, since the two holes daily

larger became, with the greatest danger

lest the mouth altogether should rot. The mother D.

Benno mindful, & of his prodigies

even by a dream admonished, a Mass in his

honor to be said, with a wax offering

vowed: which performed when the infant

home from the temple they had brought back, forthwith without

any further medicine these double

wounds of the mouth it lost. Witnesses sworn were

John Pfanzelte, Anna Baumstauberin,

& others. On 15 December.

In the year 1602.

[4] in 1602 a useless shin is healed, Anna Mittermayrin of Anteling near

Duntenhusium, for 12 years from pains of the shin

lay sick, the origin of the evil unknown.

Long under the power of the healers she was;

who her at last altogether gave up.

Wherefore a wooden crutch using, on which about to walk

with her whole body she had to lean,

of recovering health long she had despaired.

At last Jacob Zweng Councilor

of Munich's wife, by commiseration toward

the afflicted woman touched, whom well long since

now she had known; sent to her, who to her

of D. Benno's miracles should report, & persuade

that to be done in his honor a Mass

she should take care, & by a vow she should bind herself. To which counsel

when she had obeyed, in a moment restored

her foot without any support home

she returned: testify these all things Jacob

Zweng Councilor, his Wife, with the whole

household. On 7 February. a man twenty years with hernia,

[5] Andrew Schmid, a citizen of Munich

was, with the greatest on that account tortured pains

sixteen times a day not rarely to lie sick

compelled he was: but when much of

D. Benno's prodigies he had heard, & had read,

for receiving health in his

honor a Mass to be said he took care, & with a wax

offering bound himself. The sacrifice being performed

receded so long an evil, & to him

the best health succeeded. Of the matter witnesses

were Alexander Eurel a Priest,

Andrew himself's wife with the whole household.

On 26 March. A heretic by a gun incurably wounded,

[6] Daniel Molitor a soldier, from Bamberg

old sprung, years five above

thirty old, when in Hungary he soldiered,

ten before St. Martin's days,

with some musketeer infantry to besiege

Canischa had been sent. There by a Turk

with a leaden ball around his precordia pierced,

in vain in curing the wound healers'

industry, drained out. When at last

to Munich he had come, sick &

most ill faring, of S. Benno, much

to be narrated he heard, & by a vow healed he becomes Catholic. who to him too on 20 March

in a dream, in a Bishop's appearance, to have appeared

he seemed: to whom (although a heretic)

he vowed, at which he himself together with his wife,

& many others in the temple of the B. V.

was present. Which finished, when gradually

with the pain remitting the wound closed; there came

to him to mind, that God to him a heretic man

conferring this singular of health

benefit, perhaps that he might avoid the perverse

religion, & to the Orthodox

might pass over had admonished. Wherefore Father Marquard

Leo, of the Order of S. Francis

Lector, he approached; & there taught the Roman

faith's articles, a Catholic professed

was; certain, the Orthodox faith up to his last

breath to defend. The matter,

as it was narrated, many of the highest & lowest

of Munich testified. On 8 April.

[7] George Horel, a Citizen of Munich

in his left eye light through a surgeon recovered:

thence so bitter a pain

the other eye invaded, that by its vehemence

into madness to be brought all

believed. Two months held the persistent

torture, until at last D. Benno's

help by a promised wax offering he invoked,

which duly performed, & the vow

paid, all pain in a point of time departed.

In thanksgiving for a whole

year daily a rosary in honor of D.

Benno he would recite he promised. Witnesses he cited

his wife, & the whole household, & all

the neighborhood. On 26 May.

[8] The noble & distinguished Lady Anna Nothafftin

etc., years old two above 30, is healed a pain of the arm,

long from a most keen pain of the arm lay sick,

& danger there was, lest, since

she was pregnant, to the fetus something happen: to bear

even her arm she could not without another's

support. When her sister now of

this health a message had received, a wax

offering for her to Divine Benno

under Mass vowed. Forthwith her the pain,

& the torture of the arm left. Indicated

this, by the command of his Lady,

sent to Munich Ernest Caesar; & her vow

in her place diligently paid,

on 21 July.

[9] On the 26th day of July there was brought into the temple

of the B. Virgin a writing, apoplexy, of a certain man

of an illustrious princes' family sprung, who suddenly

by apoplexy touched neither to speak, nor

to move one side could. When

indeed his wife, for averting this

calamity, by a vow of Mass & an offering,

with D. Benno had interceded, within half

an hour the use of speech received he recovered.

[10] Of John Leckner the wife Helena, a forty-year-old,

for four days so acute

in her left arm pains sustained, that

day & night continuously by reason of the too keen

sensation of them she wailed. a pain of the arm, The men's remedies being despaired,

her husband to D. Benno

fleeing, in his honor a Mass

to be done took care: which finished immediately

Helena better to be began, &

the next night entirely recovered. Testified

Leonard Harrer, a Priest, who

the Mass did, Simon Franck, Andrew

Engelsperger with the whole neighborhood, on 24

July.

[11] John Muller, of Ottenhof,

for 20 years by a grave disease entangled was, a grave 20-year disease,

which every week him so

exercised for a whole three days, that of himself

not master & frenzied he seemed. Wherefore

to D. Benno a vow he made, thence

by that disease no longer infested, on 3

October.

[12] George Kriminer years four

above 50 old, of Obermerbach, for two years

so great tortures in his left shin endured,

that on two crutches leaning to walk

he had. After these, the evil to

the other shin too passing, still

two years lay sick the wretched man. At last

when much of S. Benno he heard,

& not rarely too a dream about

this Divine one he had; through his help,

by a promised wax offering with a Mass,

forthwith recovered. Witnesses were John