ON BLESSED HENRY ZDIK, BISHOP OF OLOMOUC IN MORAVIA,
OF THE PREMONSTRATENSIAN ORDER.
IN THE YEAR 1151.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
Henry Zdik, Bishop of Olomouc in Moravia, of the Premonstratensian Order (B.)
§. I. From the Commentaries of P. Bohuslaus Balbinus of the Society of Jesus.
G. H., FROM BOHUSLAUS BALBINUS.
Bohuslaus Balbinus of the Society of Jesus, in his erudite lucubration, which he entitled a Historical Epitome of Bohemian Affairs, printed at Prague in the year 1677, Commonly held Blessed, gave us occasion of bringing forth Blessed Henry Zdik, Bishop of Olomouc in Moravia, and ascribed to the Premonstratensian Order. For in book 3, chapter 13, while he describes Przemysl Ottokar, a warlike Prince, reigning in Bohemia, he adds: That age, namely the twelfth, was the age of Saints in Bohemia: and I omit, says he, Blessed Henry Zdik, Bishop of Olomouc, of the Royal blood of the Bohemians; but although he had already before brought forth his Acts, here yet he wished to name him before the others illustrious in sanctity in the first place. Moreover in chapter 10, page 221, when he had treated of the things done in the year 1128, he subjoins these things: A little before these times Sobieslaus, Duke of Bohemia, restored the temple of S. George on Mount Zrit, which had collapsed, Henry Zdik, Bishop of Olomouc, consecrating it. Concerning the genealogy of this Henry there is no small disagreement among the writers. Let the Notes, which I shall append to this chapter, be consulted. It is established among all that the Prelate was most holy, and therefore he is honored with the name of Blessed.
[2] But that which Augustinus Moravus, Provost of Olomouc, He is created Bishop in the year 1126; adds, that he had first professed the religious life in the convent of Strahov at Prague, how it can be maintained I do not see. For the convent of Strahov was founded in the year 1143 by King Wladislaus. But Henry already from the year 1126 held the Bishopric of Olomouc: Jaroslaus, who then lived among the Canons of Prague, afterward professing the religious life on Mount Sion, expressly writes: Zdik or Henry, Bishop of Olomouc, duly received our habit (the Premonstratensian), which he had seen at Jerusalem, made a Premonstratensian at Jerusalem upon the Sepulchre of the Lord, with much (as they relate) shower of tears; and having there renounced both the eating of flesh and the other blandishments of life, he brought back to Duke Sobieslaus and the Bohemians, as a new man, so also a new order. This ought to have been done in the year 1137, in the year 1137 or the following, in which he went to Jerusalem; or 1138, in which he returned from Jerusalem to his fatherland. Under this Prelate Henry, Wenceslaus, Prince of Olomouc, from his castle of Olomouc, founded and dedicated the Cathedral Church to Wenceslaus.
[3] These things there. Then he writes these things: In the year 1141 sic — MCXLI; text has MCXI Prince Sobieslaus, no less illustrious in piety than in arms, in the year 1141 he labors for the conversion of the Prussians. nor in these more than in justice, magnificence, and the other virtues of Kings, departed from life in the month of March … Wladislaus II took up the helm of Bohemia, to be managed by the will of his father Sobieslaus lately and of the Emperor, now also of the Nobles… By whose good grace in the year 1141 B. Henry Zdik, Bishop of Olomouc, the Cross, after the manner of those times, being assumed, and an army collected, led against the Prussians, worshipers of idols; and very many of them, partly by arms, partly by preaching
he led to Christ, as Hagek narrates: but the Paralipomena of Cosmas signify that Henry profited little among that nation …
[4] In the year 1143 Prince Wladislaus, B. Henry Zdik impelling him, who could do all things with the Duke, as Pulkava has it, In the year 1143 he aids in building the convent of Strahov, founds the convent of Strahov with great wealth for the Premonstratensian Order of Canons Regular. The Brothers were brought back from the convent of Steinfeld, and the first Abbot elected, Hezo by name: concerning whose calling from a Canon of Cologne to the White Order, wonderful things relates Jaroslaus Godescalcus of that age and order, who afterward was made Abbot at Siloa: he prepared meanwhile (I recite the words of Jaroslaus) wooden dwellings for the Convent of Prague. In the following year Gertrude, his wife, established Doxan for the holy Virgins of the same institute. The pious liberality of the Princes did not lack reward: for in the year 1145, on the altar of the Mother of God assumed into the heavens, in the church of Prague, the most blessed Virgin in Royal worship offered herself to be seen to Reda, the royal Priest, while he performed the sacred Mysteries. And when she had ordered the Princes to be saluted by her, at the same time she described the place of Gilovia in a certain mine, where a huge force of most pure gold had grown. There were found, by Reda's indication, twenty-four hundredweights of most approved gold, as they now call them. These things there, where also several like things are read, which perhaps also B. Henry impelling were accomplished.
[5] The same Balbinus on page 234 adds the elogium of Bishop Henry from the old Bohemian writer Pulkava in this manner: Henry, says he, He builds the Cathedral at Olomouc: Bishop of Olomouc, was of holy conversation, most prudent in giving counsels, as his works demonstrate. The church of S. Wenceslaus at Olomouc, which the Princes had begun to build, he gloriously finished; and with the faculty of the most holy Father Innocent, he separated the Cathedral Church from the Church of S. Peter, and constituted it at S. Wenceslaus, adorning it with gold and other most precious treasures. From Jerusalem also he brought with him a fairly great part of the most holy Cross, and gave it to that Church. When he was at Jerusalem, he received the Order of S. Augustine, which the holy Apostles instituted. The same Henry himself, with Wladislaus and his wife Gertrude, founded the convent of Strahov on Mount Strahow, and called it Mount Sion, on account of the likeness which it has to Mount Sion at Jerusalem.
[6] Likewise another convent of the same Order he founded, the founder of the convent of Litomyšl which he called Olivetan, on account of the likeness to Mount Olivet: from which convent afterward Charles IV, Emperor and King of Bohemia, erected a Bishopric through Clement VI: of which Church the first Bishop was Joannes, before a monk in the same convent; who, dead and buried there, rests in the Lord. Thus far the words of Pulkava. Dost thou see in this place that Pulkava himself also affirms that Bishop Henry was the founder of the convent of Litomyšl? The same thought all our writers, none, that I know, excepted, Cuthenus, Lupacius, Hagek, Dubravius, Veleslavinus, the History of Sedlec, Augustinus Moravus, and all who treated of Henry. But the letters of Wladislaus, lately adduced, stand in the way. But against this the authority of so many writers is not to be neglected. I should believe that both can be reconciled. For what forbids that several be called founders of the same convent, at different times? Indeed in very many memorials of convents thou wilt find a first, a second, nay also a third founder … at least the second, Henry the Bishop, therefore, could have so augmented the first foundation, or by another kind of benevolence have adorned the convent, e.g. by a temple or convent built, etc., that he deserved to be called another founder. Then it is most probable that by the same Henry the name was given to the convent, Mount Olivet: for the same Henry called Strahow Mount Sion. Since the greatest lover of the Holy Land, who had gone as a pilgrim to Jerusalem, and by these names delighted his memory. These things he who brings forth the cited letters of Wladislaus and the series of Bishops on page 233.
[7] But in chapter 13, toward the end, the same Balbinus writes these things: in the year 1141 he obtains an exemption for the monastery of S. George, B. Henry Zdik, whom I named before, although he favored his own Premonstratensians greatly, as was fitting; that he was nonetheless most studious of the sacred Parthenon convent of nuns of S. George, many things show. There exist in the archive of S. George the original letters, as they call them, of Eugenius III, Supreme Pontiff, given in the year 1145, by which at the instance of Henry, Bishop of Moravia, this Virgin convent, first adorned with wonderful praises, into the proper and immediate (I wished to retain the very words) protection of the Apostolic See he professes to receive. This so great benefit, therefore, the convent ought to set down to B. Henry's credit.
[8] Concerning his death Balbinus has these things in chapter 10, page 228, toward the end. he dies in the year 1151; A great lover and father of convents departed from the living in this year 1151, B. Henry Zdik, Bishop of Olomouc, a Prelate illustrious for the sanctity of his life, buried in the convent of Strahov at Prague. Others set the year 1157: we have followed the most ancient codices.
[9] In the Notes cited above on chapter 10 he observes these things: Concerning B. Henry Zdik, of King Wladislaus, Bishop of Olomouc, of Royal blood in Bohemia, which is established among all, there is no light controversy. Augustinus Moravus, Provost of the Cathedral Church of Olomouc, who composed a Catalogue of the Bishops of Olomouc, with a brief elogium of each: writes that Henry, Bishop of Olomouc, was the brother of Wladislaus, Duke of Bohemia and afterward King, and had first professed at the convent of Strahov, of the Order of the Premonstratensians; but that he died in the year 1157, on the first of July. Pessina too asserts that he was the brother of Wladislaus, King of Bohemia, and the founder of the Olivetan Premonstratensian convent, dead at Litomyšl in the year 1150. Veleslavinus, the most diligent Chronologer of Bohemia, in his historical Calendar; Henry Zdik, says he, brother of King Wladislaus, is ordained Bishop in the year 1126: and he cites the Paralipomena of Cosmas: and again in two other places; Henry Zdik, Bishop of Olomouc, was the son of Duke Wladislaus, and the brother of Wladislaus the first King, died 1150, the 25th of June. The same thought Lapacius, who set the year and day of his death as the 1st of July of the year 1151. But Veleslavinus afterward changed his opinion: or the son of Duke Otto, for in the Genealogical Tables of the Dukes and Kings of Bohemia, he set Henry, Bishop of Olomouc, as the son of Otto the first, Prince of Znojmo and Olomouc, who was the brother of Wratislaus the first King of Bohemia, and the father of Wladislaus the first Duke of Bohemia of Boleslav. Dubravius, Bishop of Olomouc, departs into all else. For he expressly says that Henry, Bishop of Olomouc, was the brother of Sobieslaus the first Duke of Bohemia, who namely from the year 1125 to 1140 reigned in Bohemia. But if this is true, he was not therefore the brother of Wladislaus the first King, but the son of Wratislaus the first King, and the brother of Wladislaus the first Duke of Bohemia (who was the father of Wladislaus the first King of Bohemia), and accordingly the paternal uncle of Wladislaus the first King, that is, his father's brother. I, in a matter so controverted, would dare to define nothing. To Veleslavinus meanwhile, the excellent and diligent Genealogist, I gladly accede, and suspect that Henry was the son of Otto the first.
[10] Thus far the words of Bohuslaus Balbinus, collected from various places of the historical Epitome. As regards the birthday of so great a man, his birthday the 25th of June, although some refer it to the Kalends of July, we prefer nevertheless to ascribe it to the seventh of the Kalends of July 25 June, both because the prior mark could easily have dropped out, and because Veleslaus, the most diligent Chronologer, to whom Balbinus adheres before the rest, wrote that he died on the 25th of June; and finally, because Joannes Chrysostomus Vander Sterre, in the Natales of the Saints of the Premonstratensian Order, from other documents submitted to him, referred him to the same day with this elogium: On the seventh of the Kalends of July, at Olomouc in Moravia, the birthday of B. Henry, Bishop of Olomouc, Canon and Founder of the Church of Strahov. Who, son of Wratislaus the first of Bohemia, from his tender years devoted to religion and piety, ruled the Church of Olomouc, a man of wonderful sanctity and innocence, and a singular refuge of the wretched, most laudably. At last, having discharged various labors for the glory of God, the celibacy of Priests, and the public peace, several pious places being built, the glorious Pontiff migrated to the heavens.
§. II. From Joannes Dubravius, Bishop of Olomouc, and others.
D. P., FROM DUBRAVIUS.
[11] When Henschenius wrote the preceding Paragraph, The title of Blessed which Crugerius and Balbinus there had not yet come to our hands the Sacred Memorials of the kingdom of Bohemia and of the appurtenances of Moravia and Silesia, digested by months and days by our Georgius Crugerius, of which June and consequently four months saw the light in the year 1669; the last two months would that someone might add! This Author, the title of Blessed, as far as I can hitherto know, first used in published books, and added to Henry. That he did this from the usage of immemorial time, known at Prague and Olomouc, I can scarcely doubt; since everywhere he professes that he wishes to insist on the decrees of Urban the eighth; and in calling Henry Blessed he had as a follower the above-praised Balbinus, who also more expressly protested the same in the first Decade of his Historical Miscellanies, at the foot of the third book. This protestation is to be extended also to the IVth book of the same Decade, seems to be given by them to Henry, as used from time immemorial. to which he gave the title of Holy Bohemia, containing the Saints and Blessed of Bohemia, Moravia, Lusatia; both those who by the public calendars, or by the very course of immemorial time, came into the reckoning of the Saints; and those who, although they lack this title, either by death bravely endured for the faith of Christ, or by innocence of life shone in antiquity, or are deservedly commended by suitable writers for their virtues and sanctity. Of the three orders here proposed, the first alone properly pertains to us, and alone seems to be contained in the first part of that IVth book; since the second part comprises a brief summary of the life of those who lived with a public and attested fame of sanctity, and piously and holily died, to none of whom the author adds the title of Blessed; so that accordingly Henry ought to be reckoned of the first order, on whose elogium is spent §. 30 of the aforesaid book.
[12] There, when he had briefly touched in a few words the occasion of the Roman journey undertaken by Henry: Concerning his Roman journey Dubravius writes, what for the cause of this and how grievous things, says he, he suffered, Dubravius and Hagecius fully commemorate. Wenceslaus Hagecius published his Annals, as I have already elsewhere indicated, in Bohemian in the year 1541; which when Dubravius had translated almost into Latin, it was first published at Prostannum in Moravia about the year 1551, and then reprinted at Basel after 23 years. It pleases, therefore, to transcribe from him the things which he has concerning Henry in book 12 of his Bohemian History. This book takes its beginning from Wladislaus, son-in-law of the Emperor Conrad, and through him the first King of Bohemia crowned in the year 1141; who, after he had dispelled, by the counsel of Bishop Henry and the help of the Emperor, a conspiracy stirred up against him, his kinsman, by Conrad, Duke of Moravia; had restored the temples destroyed by his adversary, had erected certain new monasteries, had consulted for public justice; he also intended the restoring of ecclesiastical discipline to its former vigor. The same as he, both the Prince and, says Dubravius, both Prelates labored, which being undertaken by him to restrain the concubinaries, Otto of Prague in Bohemia, and Henry of Olomouc in Moravia, to reduce to their state the laws dictated to the Priests, and neglected by them through the utmost license and lust of life. For in this manner they lived, that thou couldst hardly find anyone, especially among the rural Priests, who did not make himself infamous with a wolf and concubine and with incestuous children; most of the Lords, in whose villages were the hereditary Priesthoods, abetting such pandering rather than restraining it by it, since they held their own utility before public honesty.
[13] drawn into the ambush of Conrad of Moravia, Therefore, when no remedies appeared at home, which could take away or alleviate this plague; Henry of his own accord offers himself to go to Rome, to the Pastor and curator of the souls of the Priests. Hagecius says this counsel was undertaken in the year 1147, when Eugenius III numbered the 3rd year of his Pontificate, kindled against a pest of this kind with a zeal by no means common. Henry was in readiness to depart; when certain men sent by Conrad approach him, beseeching with many words, that he should not give himself to so long a pilgrimage, before he should join again by a treaty of former benevolence Wladislaus and Conrad himself, disjoined by the wickedness of men: for there was no man, they said, who could more conveniently effect and accomplish this, since no other availed with so great grace and authority with Wladislaus. Henry, thinking these things sincerely said, candidly also answers: Why, says he, should I not gratify Conrad in this which is asked, even if I should see that I must turn a little out of my way? As he proceeds into Bohemia to Wladislaus, Conrad himself overtakes him, not far from Litomyšl, at a village which was of the table and dominion of the Bishop. Henry calls his guest to supper, unaware that a wolf had come who would strip him, a lamb, of his golden fleece, which had been scraped together for a little viaticum: for in the morning at length the ambush was disclosed, which a certain traveler meeting him, the Bishop being recognized, indicated, saying that the nearest woodland was beset by horsemen, altogether lying in wait for someone: that he had seen about twelve of them, intent on attacking.
[14] Henry immediately orders his men to retreat. But Conrad, suddenly leaping out, presses from behind; hardly escaped, stripped, from death; and whomsoever he seizes, he lays low. The rest halt, and turn themselves to defend. There Henry, having got space to slip away, hides himself alone within the wood without a companion, having even thrust out his horse from himself: and he lay hidden in the same place, that whole day and the following night. The next day, found by a colonist, who had set out to gather wood, and placed on a rustic wagon, he was conveyed to Litomyšl, a few of his men found unharmed, but all his moneys and goods lost. It was over with his life, had the power of overtaking him been given to Conrad; so did he labor with a boorish hatred against the Prelate and his kinsman; for no other cause, except that he constantly took the part of his Prince Wladislaus
because he constantly fostered the part of his Prince Wladislaus. Swiftly the messenger of this so bitter matter was brought to Wladislaus; yet he resolutely retraced the journey itself, and he without any delay sends horsemen from his court, who should lead Henry to him at Prague, that he might take measures for avenging by common counsel this injury common to himself with him. But Henry, all vengeance for the present being remitted, again equips himself with new viaticum and new companions, and continues the journey begun to Rome, to Eugenius the Roman Pontiff. Who, the complaint of Henry being heard, decrees a legation by the opinion of the Fathers, a Legate, Guido, being immediately named, who together with Henry should go into Bohemia, to investigate and punish both the life of the wicked Priests, and the atrocious injury done to him.
[15] The Legate, coming to Prague, when for all the things which he had undertaken to do he took Wladislaus to himself as a helper; and brought the Apostolic Legate, easily by his aid he obtained that the Priests, cited in order, were compelled to appear before him, and to render an account of their life: then, according to the license of their wickedness, some were punished with exile, some with prison, to several the administration of the Sacred Mysteries was forbidden. But Conrad himself, for his contumacy and crime, was lacerated with the Pontifical curses: which when he held of no account, nay besides insulted the Legate, as if his excommunication had not only detracted nothing for him from the spoils of Henry, but besides had kindled an appetite for devouring also the fortunes of the Legate, if he had with him any worthy of plunder; to calm so rabid a hunger of robbing, Wladislaus, for the anathema of words, again thrusts upon him the force of arms, besieges the man at Znojmo, takes the city, but not Conrad, who slipped away by flight: who at last, betaking himself to the Emperor Conrad, then by vow founded the monastery of Mount Olivet. signed with the Cross offered himself to the sacred warfare, so about to expiate his former crimes. Henry meanwhile the Prelate proceeds to build the convent of Litomyšl, vowed by him in his peril, of such form as he remembered to have seen in the East; and calls it, from the likeness of the situation, Mount Olivet; Wladislaus not only approving his deed, but also of his own bountifully bestowing fields and villages, whence to the cenobites consecrated to God the necessaries of life might be largely supplied.
[16] Before Dubravius, a certain Augustinus, Doctor of Decrees, and Provost of the same and of the Churches of Brünn, and Secretary of the King, digested the series of the Bishops of Olomouc; which he dedicated to Stanislaus, by the grace of God Bishop of Olomouc, about the year 1520. He praises Henry, that, Another adds other pious foundations. striving to amplify the divine worship, and to raise up the Episcopal residence (which was contained in small straits) with glorious structures; he erected a temple under the honor and title of his Martyr and Patron Wenceslaus, in his citadel of Olomouc; and took care that the Episcopal see be transferred thither from the church of S. Peter, by the permission of the supreme Pontiff, Innocent VIII sic — should be II, twelve Canons being there instituted. He also obtained the body of S. Christinus, for his church recently built, and there religiously laid it up. He added to the same also the church of S. Mauritius, within the city of Olomouc, which before this pertained to the monastery of Hradisko. At length this glorious Pontiff dies in the year 1150, on the 7th of the Kalends of July 25 June, buried in the monastery of Strahov. Concerning S. Christinus and his companions, Martyrs of the Camaldolese Order, we shall have to treat on the 12th of November, when both elsewhere and in the church of Olomouc he is venerated with a double Office.